Arns in the Far

 Last night as I sat back watching the boys shoot fireworks....midnight approached.  I sat watching them giggle and run like maniacs away from the lit fuse.

 I was happy to sit in the shadow of the porch light and enjoy watching them be kids.  At some point during the 'fireworks show', I started reflecting on the past year and wondering what the next year has in store.

I was thinking about what kind of New Year's Resolution I should set for myself this year.  I tend to get all 'gung-ho, about accomplishing something, and then push it aside for some other goal I have set.  I started wondering if I should set the goal again to run another half-marathon....which has been set as a goal multiple times since my last half-marathon 2 years ago.  I thought that maybe I should go back to the goal of budgeting and couponing.  We were certainly better off finacially when I set that as a priority.  I thought maybe I should go back to my menu planning and get back strict with chores and house cleaning.  My life is so much less chaotic and seems so much more peaceful when the house is orderly.  I contemplated setting a resolution about blogging.  When I started blogging a couple of months ago, I never missed a single day of blogging for 2 months....but then I missed a few days here and there....and then my blogging became much less predicatable.

I was toying with all these ideas for new goals to set and old goals to pick back up for the new year. But then, I heard my Granny......well, I didn't actually hear her.....I am certain that she was sound asleep in her bed....but I heard her wisdom in my head.

She used to say that you shouldn't get too many irons in the fire. 

Except, when Granny said it...she said it with authority and just the right amount of attitude.  And it came out more like this....

"You ort not git too many arns in the far!"

Having "too many irons in the fire" means that you are trying to do too many things at once. This means juggling too many projects at once and something's bound to fail.  Years ago, when a smith had too many irons in his fire, he couldn't effectively keep track of all of them.

I have decided that I consistently have too many irons in the fire.  I try to shuffle the boys to practices, keep the laundry folded and put away, cook healthy meals, teach 18 kindergartners and stay in contact with their parents, squeeze in some running, pay bills and budget, clip coupons, assign and oversee chores while teaching responsibilty and money management, wash dishes, get haircuts, attend church services, nurture a marriage, read, write blogs....and do them all effectively.

I have too many arns in the far. 

The problem is.... I am not really willing to take any of them out.  Each 'arn' is important to me. 

So, my New Year's resolution is not to take some of the irons out of the fire, but to make sure I at least keep them all hot.  This year, instead of totally abandoning one of my goals to focus on another, I want to try to maintain a better balance. 

The irons I want to keep hot this year are.....

1. Improve my Money Management .......including clipping and using coupons when I can fit it in and living within our family budget.

2. Improve the overall health of my family......including more jogging for me and limiting the number of unhealthy meals served.

3. Maintain Order .......... as much as possible.  Our lives tend to get chaotic during the height of sport seasons.  My goal is to keep a calendar of upcoming events and set aside time during the day for chores and payday for the boys.

These are three pretty big irons to keep hot.

Christmas Report

I've been on a bit of a blogging sabbatical.  It is partly due to the fact that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are completely jam packed with family gatherings and I didn't have time to write.  And it's partly due to the fact that after Christmas day was over, I was enjoying spending time with my guys and wasn't inspired to write. 

But it's mostly because of this.....

My new toy.

I don't remember spending so much time with a new Christmas gift like this one since I was a kid.  I love, love, love my new Kindle Fire.

I gave so many hints that I wanted one, that I actually got two.  I got a Kindle from my Mom for Christmas and a Kindle Fire from my sweet hubby. 

I also scored some new shoes....since my pinky toes were sticking out of my old ones....and a super awesome North Face backpack, made for hiking.  I got several other goodies, too.

I am loved.

But enough about me.

Here is the our Christmas report 2011 via way of photos.....

Christmas at my Granny's came first.  My granny gave birth to 2 kids....my Mom and my Uncle Randy.

My Mom had 3 kids....my older brother (Jeffrey), me, and my younger sister (Jamie).  My Uncle Randy had 2 sons....Rodney and Ryan.

Between the five of us grandkids....so far, we have had 11 great-grand kids.

There is nowhere that my Granny would rather be, than to be surrounded by her greatgrands.

On Sunday night before Christmas, the kids had their Christmas program at church.  There is nothing more precious than toddlers and preschoolers portraying the manger scene.

My boys have outgrown the manger scene and are instead assigned speaking parts, but it's precious all the same.

My mother-in-law's Christmas came next.  Christmas at her house is always so casual with easy conversation.  Here the kids are wild, but it is somehow acceptable at Meme's house.

Christmas with our friends was next.  We have a long history with the Adams.  They are our oldest friends.  We have been celebrating Christmas with them since each of our first children were born.

It's hard to believe that these two.....

Now look like this.....

These friends deserve their own blog story.  I think I'll write one soon.

But for now....back to Christmas.....

The boys look forward to Christmas at Bradley's grandparents because of this......

The football tradition.

They call it "The Amos Bowl".

I reminded the boys before we arrived that we didn't swap gifts at Bradley's grandparents house.  Their reply was...

"Who cares about the gifts?  We get to play FOOTBALL!"

On Christmas eve, we spent the evening at my Mom and Dad's house.  It's my favorite part of Christmas.....except the part at my own house....with my own kids.

I love Christmas at my Moms.

The boys were pumped that they got new hiking boots from their Nana and Pop.  They are all set for our big trip out west next year.

On Christmas Eve, the boys were giddy with excitement.  They begged to open some of their gifts early.  But, I am hardcore.  I made them wait until Christmas morning.

Their pile from Santa looked small this year, because little things cost big money.  All the boys were thrilled to find Ipod touches under the tree, along with cases and chargers for them, some movies, flashlights, K'nex, and a football.

The Ipods have been hours of fun since Christmas morning.  They are a mega hit.

Everything else was wrapped under the tree.

It took all of 5 seconds for them to tear through all of their packages. 

This year, they had 7 packages each to unwrap.  Believe me....they kept an accurate count.

The Ipods definitely ranked as their favorite gift.  But each one of the boys have spent time with other gifts, too over the past couple of days.

Carter has enjoyed his real artist sketch pad.

Sawyer and Carter have both enjoyed the K'Nex sets.  They even connected the 2 sets and created one giant coaster.....with their Dad's help.  It's actually very impressive.

Tucker has spent most of his time on his Ipod, but he has also taken some time to read through this snake book.  He even altered his snake tank after reading about what would make the habitat better.

After waking at 5:30am and spending a couple of hours at home with the boys enjoying our gifts, we got dressed and attended our Christmas Day church service.

(It wasn't actually snowing this year on Christmas.  This photo was taken last year on Christmas Day.)

Our Christmas Day service at our church is always especially meaningful.

The church was packed.  The music was sweet.  The message about the gift of Jesus was beautiful. And the communion portion of the service is always moving.

Christmas for me this year was perfect.  Everything about it.

I am certainly a summer time type girl. 

Winter is blah.  Everything is cold and dreary.

The daylight hours are short.

The school days are long.

Winter is my least favorite time of year.

But Christmas is the bright spot of the winter.

It's my favorite day of the year.

And this was one of my favorite Christmas' ever.

Stuffed French Bread...Bake It....It's Yum!

  A couple of nights ago, I asked Bradley if he had any ideas for dinner.  He replied by saying, "Hmmm....What is something good that we haven't had in a while?"  I immediately remembered a yummy recipe that I hadn't made in years.  Sausage Stuffed French Bread. 

While I was in my own little world of thought, Bradley said,

"How about sausage stuffed french bread?  We haven't had that in forever!"

Ok, that was weird. Too weird.

Did that really just happen?

I figured that if we both thought of the exact same most random meal in the world, then it must be fate. I had to cook it. And if I was going to cook something yummy, then I might as well share the recipe with you guys. 

Please remember, I am not a real chef. And I do not know the proper techniques for taking food photos. I am a plain old Mom who is tying to get the point across.

 Fair warning.

This is a recipe that my Mom cooked for us as a child.  I remember it being one of my favorite meals.  I especially loved it when we had it served with "Pepsi Free" to drink.  We were't soda drinkers, so that was a rockin' night when we had both.

Mom's recipe in her handwriting...

(My Dad's handwriting is the substitution note at the bottom of the recipe.  I can't figure out why he ever would've written that.  He certainly never cooked this meal.  But, it's true, nonetheless.  You can substitute if you wish.)

First, you need to brown a pound of sausage.  I used hot sausage, but next time, I will go with mild. My younger sons tender taste buds didn't approve of the spice.

While the sausage is browning, chop up a small onion and some celery.

When the sausage is brown, add the veggies to the pan.  Cook them until the veggies are nice and mushy.

While the veggies are getting mushy, go ahead and work on the bread.  As a child, Mom used one big loaf of French Bread.  My itty bitty local grocery store didn't have that in stock.  So, I used a pack of hoagie rolls.  This made an individual loaf for each person. I like this version better anyway.

Slice the top off each loaf of bread.  Make it a thin slice.  Pull out all the innards of the bread and put it aside in a separate bowl. This leaves a nice little cozy shell for the yummy goodness that will soon fill it.

You gotta get another little bowl dirty for this next step. Grrr. 

Put two eggs and 1/4 cup milk in a bowl and mix it up.  Add the sage and the pepper.

Drain the sausage and veggies.  Add the sausage mixture and the egg mixture to the bowl with the bread in it.

There is probably a proper mixing utensil that you could use to get all this stuff mixed together perfectly, but I think clean hands works just fine.  And it looks especially nice if you have a burn scar on the top of your hand from a different unfortunate cooking adventure.

 Take handfuls of this mixture and put it inside the little bread shells.  Fill up each one.

Top each little sandwich with cheese. Don't be shy about it.

Put the lid on it.  The recipe calls for brushing the top with melted butter, but I didn't want to dirty up another bowl, so I just sprayed mine with Olive Oil spray and it worked just fine. 

Wrap up each little nugget of happiness with aluminum foil.  Slide them in the oven on 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Laugh hysterically when your husband takes your photo while you are doing this because....well....taking photos like this is funny.  It doesn't feel natural.  Moving on.

Serve it up to your ravenous crowd.  Enjoy!

This is how the ratings on this meal went at my house.

Bradley and I both loved it.  We gave it two thumbs up each.  I love it probably more for nostalgic reasons than anything else.  Bradley is a big fan of meat.  This is basically a meaty sandwich, so he loves it.

Two thumbs up from Tucker.

One thumb up from Sawyer.  He said that it was too spicy, so he could only give it one thumb up.

Carter initially gave it two thumbs up, but later changed his vote to two thumbs down.  He also said that it was too spicy.  My 'littles' have tender taste buds, I tell ya.  This was really NOT hot at all, but I will go with Mild sausage next time.

This recipe will not win any healthy food awards, but having a little sandwich for each person is kind of fun and it's really tasty!

Good Morning, World.

On this Columbus Day holiday, we got to sleep in as late as we wanted.  The boys wanted to be awake before 7 am.  Apparently, we don't believe in sleeping in.  So as I stumble around the house, in that still groggy state, I see my little world coming alive.

Good morning, sun. 

Good morning, bed that was so warm and cozy just a few minutes ago.

Good morning, Tucker, with your bed head still in bed.

Good morning, Littles, quietly playing a video game in the toy room.

Good morning, bacon. Your smell filling up the house.

Good morning, Davy.  I see you are at your post this morning guarding our little world. 

Good morning, world.  We are ready to start the day.

This Week in Retrospect

Looking back over the past week reminded me that life is full of ups and downs.  There are high points that bring smiles and excitement and there are low moments that bring sadness and heartbreak.  This week was filled with both.

Nanny was visited in the hospital.  She whispered she loved me for the last time.

 Nanny is gone.  The family mourned our loss, yet celebrated her life.

Junior High Tigers Pep Rally

 Pumped for the game.

Tucker's team earns a victory.

Carter celebrates a first grade fiesta. 

The boys play trampoline football.  Again and again.

Tank cleaned. New fish bought.

Close game. Auburn wins.

Sliders. A new favorite recipe.  (Thanks, Amanda)

Family reunited.

 

Toys played with.

Chores completed.

We remember.

 And will never forget.