Searching the Toy Box

Every once in a while, Emmett misplaces a toy. When that happens he will search through the toy basket, under the beds, everywhere until he finds his favorite squeaky mouse. 

 "Mouse, are you there?"

 Suspicious stare, directed towards the camera. 

 "Gotta find my mouse, at any cost."

 His entire head disappeared into the basket.

 "I am not pleased that my mouse cannot be found."

 Looking under his leg to make sure he didn't miss the mouse while emptying out the basket.

 "Nope, it wasn't on the floor."

 Entire front half of his body, in the basket. Digging through like a champ!

Taking the last couple of toys out, in case the mouse is there!

Corn Potato & Fennel Roast

For the millionth time, I am raving about all the fresh, flavorful goodness you can find at market about this time of year. I love to make up things as I go through the store and see what looks and smells delish. I was watching Bobby Flay's Grill It a couple of days ago, and he made a grilled fennel and orange salad. It looked really yummy but...I knew that Rich would not go for something like that...fennel and orange? He'd think I had lost my mind! :) However, when I want Rich to try something new (such as fennel) I know how to "sugarcoat it" as I figure out a way to incorporate bacon, potatoes, cheese, corn, etc. "Man food" usually does the trick when I want him try things. :) So, with fennel on my mind, I found a great piece of it. Baby honeygold potatoes were next, then I found some fresh basil and white corn on the cob. Fresh garlic, then applewood smoked bacon was next. And of course, what is man food without a little garlic and herb Irish butter (I don't use real butter very often.) I had a great time making up as I went...and dinner turned out amazing! I also made a sun-dried tomato & pepperoncini salad. Yum.

Basil, potatoes, corn, fennel, garlic and Irish garlic & herb butter

Applewood smoked, thick cut bacon

 First, start prepping all the fresh stuff--slice the fennel, peel and crush the garlic. I used my mortar and pestle to do this. 

The garlic, just before chopping and crushing

This is when I love my Dutch oven. I put the bacon in with 1/8 c of the butter on medium and let it gently start cooking.

While the bacon was cooking I cut the fresh corn off the cob. Also I cut the potatoes in half. Then, I removed the bacon from the dutch oven so that it wouldn't overcook. It cooked about 3-5 minutes total.

In my pan: garlic, corn, potatoes, and fennel, to cook in the bacon drippings and butter. I let the rest of the stick of butter melt into it. I let everything cook on medium for about 8 minutes. The oven was ready on 400 degrees. I stirred in the bacon, then covered my dutch oven and put it into the oven.

The dish roasted for 20 minutes. And it was successful: Rich tried, and liked, fennel. :)

Whirlwind Weekend

Just about a month ago we moved in across the street from our friends, the Odoms. For those of you who don't know them, you can "meet them" HERE. :) The kids have been really excited about the possibility of coming over. This past Thursday, I picked up the kids in the evening for a sleepover. Let the adventure begin!! Let me lead by saying, these kids are VERY GOOD!! If I hadn't already known that, I wouldn't have been nearly brave enough to keep all three for two days! Rich took David to a hobby store to get a chemistry kit. If you don't know the two of them, I don't know how to explain how significant this was for them. :) I took the girls to the market to pick up some items for their dinner of choice--pizza, salad, and ice cream. Tori made her own salad (very cute!) and we had dinner. By that time the boys were home and watched Megamind. As cute as it was, it wasn't nearly as cute as all the kids' comments!! The girls were out about 11:30, but David stayed up chatting till about 2am!! The next morning I made pancakes for breakfast. After a little time cleaning up the house, we spent the day at the pool!! All in all I kept the house fairly clean, but I definitely fell behind on laundry! Saturday night they came over again for a few hours. Love those little munchkins!!

Sunday we had Family Fun Night at FBC. Somehow I found time to go shopping AND make a giant dutch oven full of pizza casserole for the potluck. We had a great time!! There were 130 people there which is a lot for us! I got to take my first real hayride (very exciting) and just as we were getting to the end of the ride, some wire got stuck round the tire. Then it started pouring!!! I kept weighing the options: wade through possible cow poo, or get rained on. Since my hair was curly anyway, initially I decided just to be soaked. But it can REALLY rain in Florida! So, Tiffany, Natalie, Jenny and I ended up making a run for it!! A hilarious end to our hayride. :)

Today I caught up on laundry. This afternoon Rich and I took the computer to the Apple Store at Galleria Mall to get a new charging cord. On the way home I convinced him to stop at Pizza Fusion for dinner. The look on his face was comical. "Earth friendly, organic, fresh pizza" is the probably the last thing that Rich would want to eat. He's really a meat and potatoes kinda guy. When we got out of the car we smelled an AMAZING bbq smell!! It was coming from Texas Hold 'Em BBQ. Amazing!! We had baby back ribs, chicken, hush puppies, collard greens, and baked beans. It was by far the most down-home, finger-licking BBQ we've had in a looooong time! 

Finally I'm just catching up with all my social media after my computer has been dead 5 days. 

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to those who serve in our military!! 

The Tickle Trunk

This website has some great stuff..... I subscribe to an email newsletter called "Daily Candy" that sends me lists of the latest clothing trends, recipes, and many different products--tons of cool stuff every day. It also includes a "where to buy" link so you don't have to search for the stuff. This week they included a set of stainless steel popsicle molds. I think I am going to buy these sooner or later. I really like them!!

You can buy them HERE
Don't they look nice? :)

I'm Moving to France

I recently switched jobs. Mostly, to avoid a 2-hour daily commute and 6-day workweek that just never seemed to end. Now that I'm working just 40 hours, I must admit our quality of life has improved drastically. :) Tonight we were watching some TV show that was talking about how many hours Americans work as compared to other countries. I discovered that in France, the work week is just 35 hours. Paid overtime is not allowed. You are guaranteed a minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation each year. When I annouced on Facebook that I will be selling all of our belongings and moving to France, different comments also informed me that maternity leave in France is 4-6 months, paid, and that you may retire at 60. If you have seen anything in my house that you'd like to have, make me an offer...I'm relocating!!

In all seriousness, it is crazy how much priority we place on the job. When Rich and I first moved here, he was working around 100 hours a week to get his station under control. Then I started working to fill time, and my job morphed into six 10-12 hour days a week. He was literally coming home just to sleep a few hours and going right back to work. Between his schedule and mine we didn't see much of each other for awhile! Now that he has the station under control he has been able to back off on his work schedule. He still works about 50-60 hours a week but that is the norm in the US...in fact many people are working 60-80 hours a week nowadays. One of the reasons I decided to switch jobs was simply to place a higher priority on our home life. It is great to actually have time to do simple things....straighten up the house on a daily basis, get dinner on the table each night, take the dog for a walk, go grocery shopping weekly and fold clean laundry!! Sometimes we get to a point where work consumes our lives so much, that we don't have any time or energy to enjoy what should be most important. When we don't have time to enjoy the things we are supposedly working for, it's time to reconsider our priorities.

I thought I'd miss the pay for those extra 20 hours+ a week, but actually it hasn't made a noticeable difference and the sanity we have BOTH gained has been worth every penny. Little challenge for my readers today...keep your priorities straight!! In today's work culture you probably won't have the same job in 20 years--but the goal is to have your family, and a life full of good success! It is easy to convince ourselves that we are working a lot for the right reasons, but in reality most of us could afford to spend more time at home if we are honest with ourselves!

The Benefits of Social Media

Facebook is great for keeping up with people. And frankly, sometimes it's nice to know that I'm not the only person who gets crazy when the house is a mess, or feels grumpy on Monday mornings. There's a lot of wisdom to be gotten, if you will pay attention.

This past week I got 2 little snippets of advice that I really appreciated...

1) Get rid of anything that is not useful, joyful, or beautiful. 

Since I'm already The Queen of Throwing Things Away, I'm now eyeing everything in the house. :) 

2) Don't fret over things that have solutions.

Loved that thought!!! Last night I went into hyperdrive and had an hour cleaning spree. Nothing is as relaxing as a clean house! However, I can get stressed when things aren't just the way I want. 

With my two new mantras, I'm prepared for battle. :)

More Ways to Use Summer Produce

I love, love, LOVE the fresh produce that is available in the spring and summer!! I like to find ways to stick fresh fruits & veggies into everything possible. Last weekend when I bought produce, the honey mangos, pineapple, and gala apples were definitely the highlights. At no other time of year is produce so full-flavored. Today Rich & I bummed around all day. I definitely didn't feel like "cooking" so we had PB & J. I sliced a gala apple into thin rounds and layered a few slices in the sandwiches. Yum. This doesn't work unless the apples are extremely thin!! You can cut the seed portion from the center if you wish, I usually don't. Last night we had chicken caesar salads. Rich only likes the following ingredients: lettuce, croutons, bacon bits, asiago and salad dressing. That just doesn't quite work for me so he enjoyed his boring salad and I added carrots, avocado and grape tomatoes to mine.

His salad looks like this:

And mine always looks like this:

On Friday I had honey mangoes & pineapple for a late breakfast.

Happy Summer!