Pajamas

My four year old son loves to pick out my shoes & pajamas.

Last night he found my lingerie drawer. He brought me my pajamas and said, "OH MOM!!! These are so cute! I've never seen these before have I?"

No you haven't son. No you haven't.

Chicken Strips-Four Stars!

2 Thumbs Up! We loved these.

12 oz Chicken, cut into strips (yeah, I have NO IDEA how much that is, so, however much your family eats is good)

1 egg

1 TBS Honey

1 TBS Prepared Mustard

2 cups crushed Corn Flakes (I used 4 because I like crust) (today a friend told me you can use Cool Ranch Doritos, HELLO, that sounds even better!)

Pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 450. In one bowl mix egg, honey and mustard. In another bowl put the crushed corn flakes and pepper.

Dip chicken in egg then cornflakes and place on a ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 min or until no longer pink. (I left mine in for 17 minutes just to be extra sure it was done.)

Side Dish: We used fresh veggies and dip and pretended it was french fries or chips. Polls are saying mid-February we'll be in the green to eat fries & stuff again.

My Red-Headed Superman Boy

Oh that boy is so cute I could eat him up.

This morning we were getting ready to go to Bible Study and he said, "What I'm gonna learn today at Bible Study Mama?"

Last night we were all tucked into bed. About 8 minutes into the quietness, I feel something at the foot of my bed.

Pooperman. They actually can say Superman now, but Pooperman is so much more fun.

So, he crawled up on the foot of the bed and laid there real quit, still, and incognito like for a few minutes.

Then in true superhero fashion inched up just a bit, really playing those cards right because he didn't know if we were asleep yet.

Seeing this might take all night (ha!), I decided to throw in a little fake snore action to speed it up a bit because it was obvious he was trying to be super still and quiet as he made his way into our bed.

We got so tickled when he finally jumped under the covers. And he had on his Superman Underoos from LAST Christmas that now look more like hot pants and a tube top. Purty. Those are one thing I just absolutly cannot Flylady.

Sorry to post a story that only my women kinfolk reader's will love, but I just couldn't resist.

I love that baby!

New Year's Resolution Update

I cannot walk thanks to Bob. Don't let his cute little face and motivational finger pointing fool you. He is mean.

It hit me like a ton of bricks around 2 this afternoon. Am I coming down with the flu I thought? My entire body was hurting. No. Not the flu. Bob.

Since I got up so early today I dang near fell asleep at dinner which was ready by 4:58pm.

Every stinkin' time I have to pee I want to cry because that means I have to use my legs and my thighs and butt muscles again.

And I'm going to the bathroom every 5 minutes thanks to all the frickin' water and/or fruit and veggies I've been pumpin' into my system.

I know why skinny folks stay skinny. Because they make stuff like this for dinner: EASY SALMON PASTA. It was real easy for me to put my fork down between bites and converse. And you can be for dang sure I didn't overeat or ask for seconds.

You can imagine what kind of mood I'm in. Between getting up to spend time with Jesus and Bob, eating grass for meals and frickin' nut mix for snacks, and switchin' over to Dark Chocolate instead of Milk (for my heart you know) things are just peachy around here. Just Peachy I tell ya.

Can someone remind me when it's socially acceptable to go back to my old ways?

Schedule Update #1

I am going to fall over and die if I do not lay down and take a nap.

I'm off to take an unscheduled nap.

Dear Lord, please be gracious and let the kids keep sleeping as they are scheduled to wake up in 28 minutes. And thank you for not laughing at me in my attempt to be scheduled. Amen.

Icy Leaves

There are icy raindrops on the leaves outside. And tiny icicles hanging from my roof.

Today is the start of a "scheduling experiment" at our house.

We are very relaxed in our daily schedule. I like freedom in the dailyness of life. We are pretty routined, but I put the pen to the paper and mapped out some specific times for us to do things. I'm giving it 2 weeks. We'll reevaluate then.

I've noticed people are usually very much in the scheduled camp or on the other end where anything goes.

In the dailyness of life I lean strongly toward the anything goes camp. I know I know, the kids will start school one day and need the structure, but today I like to enjoy and be flex. Again, because I can.

I'm wanting to begin some pre-school homeschooling with the boys, hence the more structured schedule experiment. God has given me lots of freedoms over the last couple of years in my parenting style. We are very flex all around. Laid back. Due to Shane and I's jobs we keep a different schedule than most 8-5er's.

Anyhoo, just an experiment and today is going OK with it. Jib's is crying in his crib. He needs a solid three days to adjust though.

I'll update because I know you will probably be dying to know how it turns out. Please try to rest until I update again. Ha.

(P.S. Spell check went crazy on me. Apparently I like to make up lot's of words that aren't really words. And I am all about an inappropriatly placed comma, I use those things like crazy. Comma good. Comma Friend.)

This Week's Menu

We got a fabulous new cookbook for Christmas. Here are some recipes we are trying over the next week or so. I will post the best recipes. All of them are 30 minutes or less, 7 ingredients or less.

• Chicken Nuggets (oven potatoes, fresh veggies & dip)
• Oven Fried Fish (steamed green beans, baked potatoes)
• Orange Chicken & Fried Rice (broccoli spears)
• Easy Salmon Pasta (Salad)
• Chicken & Snow Pea Pods (Rice)
• Minestrone Soup (Bread)

Our house has been eating healthier. We've been limiting chips, cokes, cookies, deserts. Water with meals vs. tea or juice.

REFRIGERATOR LIST: This is something I have been doing for some time. Keeping our favorite meal ideas on the fridge for easy ideas (just hand-written on 2 post-it notes). I have recently added Veggies We Like & Fruits We Like. This has been important to me to jog my memory for quick, healthy ideas for snacks or side dish items.

VEGGIES WE LIKE:

• Broccoli
• Green Beans
• Carrots
• Corn
• Salad
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Celery
• Tomato (trying to learn)
• Onion (trying to learn)
• Bell Pepper (trying to learn)

FRUITS WE LIKE:

• Mandarin Oranges (canned)
• Oranges
• Apples
• Grapes
• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Blackberries (frozen in winter)
• Peaches
• Raspberries (frozen in winter)
• Watermelon
• Pears