A blessing and a curse

Today I LOVE a Bug trait that other days would drive me screaming from the room and into a closet counting to 100 in order to avoid the hostility that ensues if I remain in the presence of my little Bug.

I LOVE that I have a kid who is easily distractable in the presence of heaps o' candy.
Today was the Valentine's party at preschool. Said party involved pizza, juice boxes, frosted & sprinkled cookies among other treats. Needless to say, amidst the excitement, Bug didn't manage a nap at school today so I picked a very crabby man at 2pm. He was crabby because he realized that a nap was awaiting him at home.

After he woke from his abridged nap, I promised him that we would look at all the prizes he got in his Valentine mailbox from school. Evidently, I am a slack mom as I merely sent Valentine cards for the students in his class. The other parents sent Valentine's which included bags of candy, sweets, granola bars, fruit gummies, etc. We looked at all the cards and admired the stockpile of candy that he had amassed. I offered Bug a granola bar from the pile and a package of raisins. While he ate, I packed up the rest of the sugar-laden snacks and took off. He didn't notice or seem to care that the sweet heap had disappeared.

God bless him for that distractability or lack of concern around candy...whichever it was that kept him so calm in the face of candy leaving the room with no mention of ever returning.

Another day, I will surely be blogging about that same distractability and how it is the bane of my existence. Feel free to remind me when that day comes that it goes both ways.

Songs and Prayers

A quickie today...

I LOVE singing kids songs with Bug at bedtime, bathtime or anytime. It is just fun and he digs singing along so it's a win-win. We also have been starting to pray in the last week as they are beginning to learn about prayers at school...tonight he wanted to bless several friends during the bedtime prayer and there's no way to cut a kid off when he wants to bless people in prayers. Needless to say, it was a LONG bedtime routine after our story tonight. But it was sweet!!!

A tale of two breakfasts

I LOVE multi-tasking meals...And I don't mean a meal where I am doing anything besides enjoying the food and company but rather a meal that meets more than one food craving at a time.

Today I met an old high school girlfriend for brunch. We reconnected almost a year ago through Facebook and have gotten together a handful of times since we discovered we both live in Austin. She is a great girl and happens to be pregnant, too...which I just found out today. She is about 19 weeks and we had a good old time hashing out our most "delightful" joys of pregnancy. We agreed that at a certain point, you just begin to age in dog years when it comes to pregnancy in your 30s.

Now, back to brunch food items...and the LOVE of my day.

I always struggle with breakfast/brunch menus. I can never quite decide if I am in a decadent egg mood or a sweet, french toast/cinnamon roll-ish mood. Today I met my match...a menu that had an item for the "me people" in the world. The indecisive sweet-or-savory-dilemma crowd.

I opted for the migas (mexican eggs w/ tortillas and veggies served w/ fresh tortillas and chipotle sauce) AND french toast. It was called the Paris Texas breakfast and it suited me perfectly. I don't know that I've ever found a breakfast menu item that met both sides of my food personality more precisely.

Yum...that was some filling love today! Held me from brunch until dinner and that's saying something.

Easy (and coincidentally pretty healthy) Chicken & Dumplings

I found this recipe in last month's Southern Living magazine and it was beside the original, full fat and loads of prep recipe. I always opt for the simple. Let that be known.

My first time making chicken & dumplings went smoothly. I must have eaten it at some point but don't have a clear memory of having it. Big, on the other hand, was giddy when he knew I was going to give this recipe a whirl. He is a fan of this tasty dish. It turned out wonderfully and the 3 of us sat in deafening silence as we each inhaled our bowls. Bug and I capped off our dinner with a dessert of Rio Star ruby red grapefruit and I LOVED that too. I swear, you haven't had a deliciously sweet, juicy red grapefruit until you have eaten a  Rio Star. Oddly, I learned of that too in a Southern Living issue recently. We are lucky enough to have easy access to the Rio Star as they are grown in the "Valley" here in Texas. And it can't be beat that they were 10 for $1 at our grocery store last week when I loaded up on them.



Easy Chicken & Dumplings- 4-6 servings


1 (32 oz) container low-sodium chicken broth
3 c shredded, cooked chicken
1 (10 ¾ oz) can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
¼ t poultry seasoning
1 (10.2 oz)can refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits
2 carrots, diced
3 celery ribs, diced


-Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cover reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and return to a low boil.
-Place biscuits on a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat each biscuit to ¼” thickness and cut into ½”-wide strips.
-Drop strips, one at a time, into boiling broth mixture. Add carrots and celery. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking.

Try this recipe and give yourself and your family something to love this Valentine's season!

Why do I feel special?

This morning at church was my LOVE moment for the day. I am not the most sensitive or emotional person (even when I'm pregnant) and this brought tears to my eyes and a gi-normous lump in my throat.

First, let me say that I really like our church. I was raised Lutheran as was Big and we lucked into a local Lutheran church about 10 minutes from our house that fits us to a T. Before we moved here and had Bug, we didn't attend church. But once I knew we would raise Bug with a basis in the church it was critical that we find our church home. Prior to his baptism, we began to attend new member classes and were welcomed to the church family a couple weeks before Bug's baptism.

We go most every Sunday during the year but take a hiatus in the summer when the band takes their vacation break...July and August. Bug loves the music so we go to the contemporary family service and he plays along with the tiny percussion instruments on the kids carpet during the songs at the beginning and end of the service with all the other little ones.

Wow...a lot of background for this little moment.

Today after communion, Bug was looking especially happy. Since he turned 3, we have let him walk up for his blessing without holding hands and he takes this as a very serious sign of his "big boy-ness". Since he looked so happy, I asked him if he was feeling special and he said, "Yes! God loves me!" It just caught me so off guard and it really got to me. Even just typing it, I get a little weepy. I am glad he is getting anything at all out of church at such a young age and that he seems so touched by it inspires me to get more involved in church. He likes how he feels there and he deserves more of that. It was quite a moment and I LOVE it!

Family dinners

It is super simple and makes a happy bunch of us...family dinner! We do them every night...minus Big when he travels but Bug & I enjoy our dinners when he's away. There is nothing quite so nice as sitting down with the family and enjoying a meal together. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I have been trying out new recipes and that has brought family dinners to a new happy place.

Of course, we didn't try anything new tonight but it all came together quickly and easily and tasted wonderful! The three of us sat down with our plates of fish, pintos & rice and buttery brussel sprouts...yum! We each gobbled our dinners and then Bug enjoyed a yogurt for dessert while I cleaned up our mess.

Nothing over the top...just a special way to head into the end of a day!

And I will appreciate it extra tonight since tomorrow we'll be eating over at some friends' for a kid's birthday/Super Bowl celebration...and although that will be fun, it won't just be our little family unit together. We'll feast and have a ball without a doubt though...are you ready for some football?

Strawberry milk takes me back

A few days ago I bought a small bottle of strawberry milk at the grocery store. I figured it would be a nice treat with a Bug snack on a good behavior day. Today was that day! He was a very good helper on our morning errands and he did great listening to his teacher at swim class. These things need not go unnoticed so I surprised him with strawberry milk at lunchtime. Needless to say, he is a fan and finished every last drop of milk today with lunch. Yum...a family tradition continues...I LOVED strawberry milk as a kid and probably haven't had any since I was one.

I thought I had earned a little sip, too. After all, I had been a nice mommy at swim class and I behaved well on our morning errands. Really, if I am going to start earning treats it will have to be in reward for all the errands and day-to-day mom stuff that I do.

Holy cow...one tiny sip threw me right back into childhood. And I mean the good stuff of childhood...not the unfairness of being too young to do everything I wanted and the ultimate betrayal of my spirit in having an early bedtime. It was sweet and strawberry-delicious! Heck, I may even have to go out and pick up a package of Nesquik Strawberry mix...that rabbit has the key to powdered-strawberry-nectar-of- happiness in a plastic container. Although the packaging of my youth was a tin one, I recall that rabbit and the sweetness his milk offers. Today I LOVE strawberry milk!