My Heavy Heart

I can’t quit thinking about this.  It has really consumed my thoughts since I got the news, so I thought I’d write about what is on my mind. Maybe that will help.

Yesterday I woke up to a text message letting me know a student I just had in class this last semester had been in an ATV accident on Memorial Day and had died.  He was 13 years old. 13. So young. Too young. He had so many friends; I know he will be missed.  I can’t even imagine what his family is going through right now.   I just keep picturing his mischievous smile and that ornery look in his eye.  He was so full of life. 

I just keep hugging my boys and telling them I love them. 

Adventures in Motherhood

Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve quit teaching to be a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) for a few years. Isn’t it funny how one thing in life leads to another? And sometimes it’s the decisions other people make that effect your life.  In this case what started out as a terrible morning for me, ended up being the best “bad news” I’d ever gotten.

It all started on Friday morning a couple of weeks ago. I dropped the boys off at the sitter’s (whom my boys and I LOVE) like normal, but, when I told her my parents would be picking them up in the afternoon, she broke the news to me through tears—she wouldn’t be able to watch my boys next year.  She and her husband were going to try to get pregnant this summer, and she wanted a light work load in the fall.  My boys were the last kids she took on (not to mention part-time), so they were the first to go. I didn’t mean for that sentence to sound as flippant as it did, but that’s the gist of it. 

As I was on my way to school after the tearful convo with her, I called my husband to let him know hat was going on.  I had to pull over when the water works started again.  Being a man he immediately started looking for solutions to the problem; one of them being me staying home.  Now, mind you, we’d had this conversation before with it all circling back to not being able to afford for me not to work. I told him that he knew that wasn’t a possibility, but he said he’d “run the numbers”. When we hung up, I was trying not to hold my breath as I realized that staying home with my boys was exactly what I wanted.

Fast forward to that same afternoon.  My phone rang while I was on the bus with 130 eighth grade boys on my way to a sex ed field trip.  Yes, that was loads of fun. But I digress.  So, my phone rang.  It was hubs. He told me he figured it out. The finances.  He figured out how to make it work so I could be at home with my boys.  I never in a million years would have believed we could figure out how to afford for me to stay home, but, thanks to my wonderful, number-savvy husband, we did! 

Gotta be honest here.  As much as I knew this was what I wanted, I had mixed emotions about it.  I was super excited about getting some of these treasured years home with the boys, but I was also nervous.  Nervous about money and nervous about the lack of adult interaction in my coming days as a SAHM.  I was also sad about leaving my fellow teachers whom I love.  But, I have to say, as soon as this decision to stay at home was final, and I saw the smiles on my boys faces as I played with them that night, I knew hubby and I had made the right one. 

And besides, I always have Twitter and Facebook for my adult interaction, right?

Feeding Frenzy 2

Here we go. My family’s dinner menu for this month.  (I’m a little late in posting it, sorry.) I lived and learned with last month’s. And now I will pass my new-found knowledge on to you.  (I’m a giver; what can I say?)

1.   It’s okay not to stick to the menu EXACTLY. I found even when I digressed from the menu, it was still helpful because I knew exactly what was in my freezer.

2.  Having a menu REALLY did the trick on helping us not eat out.  Dinner no longer felt nearly as overwhelming every night now that I had a plan.

3.  I have re-discovered my crock pot.  And, oh how I have missed it!  I have a friend who was gracious enough to share some of her recipes with me.  I’ll let you know how they turn out.

4.  I found in making the menu out for a month that if I went from what I had in the freezer and pantry already and then filled in the rest, my grocery shopping list wasn’t nearly as large and expensive.

Have you ever meal planned?  What tips do you have? Recipes?  I’m always up for new recipes.

Super Simple Brunch Ideas

This is actually the menu I served for a family brunch we had one Christmas morning. I needed something E.A.S.Y. since it was such a busy time (And did I mention this was my son's first Christmas?), but I also wanted something that was nice since it was Christmas. So, I made this menu and broke out the china. I think it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

All of these recipes are ones that can be made ahead of time which makes it nice the morning of the brunch because you won’t be rushing around trying to get everything prepared and cooked. (I even set the table the night before.) I promise they are just as tasty as they are simple.

Almond Bread

(I got this recipe from Claudine—see Haunted Texas. She made this for us before our San Antonio Trip.)

Do the prep work (as simple as it is) on this gooey bread the night before you want to eat it. Then in the morning pop it in the oven.

24-28ish frozen Rhoades dinner rolls
1 stick butter or margarine
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. Almond extract
1 small box dry vanilla pudding
¼-1/2 cup sliced almonds

Liberally (And I do mean liberally) coat a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place the frozen dinner rolls around the pan. Melt the butter and brown sugar in the microwave. Add Almond extract. Pour mixture over rolls in pan. Sprinkle dry vanilla pudding over rolls. Sprinkle sliced almonds over rolls. Spray a piece of plastic wrap with non-stick cooking spray and place treated side down and cover pan. Let rolls rise over night. In the morning, remove plastic wrap and bake at 350 for approx. 30 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes and turn out onto platter.

Sausage Balls

My dad has been making these for years, and they are a family favorite. I’ve seen a lot of variations out there, but these are the easiest to made and, trust me, they are just as good if not better. These little treats only have three ingredients and are simple to make. Make two or three batches and freeze them. Then you can pop them into the microwave to defrost and reheat as needed.

1 lb sausage
2 1/4 cups Bisquick
12 oz. shredded cheese (I like cheddar and pepper jack the best.)

Preheat oven to 375. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and combine using your hands. Roll into balls and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Fruit Salad

Ok, so I know fruit salad isn’t the hardest thing to make anyway,but this truly is the EASIEST fruit salad ever. It’d be something you could really just throw together at a moments notice. It’s the canned fruit cocktail that is the base. You can basically add whatever other fruits you like. Here’s how my mom always does it.

2 cans fruit cocktail, drained
3 bananas, sliced (If you aren’t serving this right away, dip the slices in lemon or lime juice to keep them from turning so fast.)
1 apple, chopped
3/4 cup miniature marshmallows

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, chill, and serve. Walla! Fruit Salad!

Try them and let me know what you think. :)

Haunted in Texas

Thelma & I went to Austin, TX to visit a fellow Phi Omega Sigma pledge sister a few years ago. (We’ll call her Claudine.) When we got there, she had a big, wonderful, exciting surprise for us--an overnight road trip to San Antonio! Woohoo! Let’s repack our bags and get moving! Nothing like a road trip with the girls.

We titled the theme of this Austin trip “Are We There Yet?”. It all started with plane delays because of weather in Dallas. (I refer you back to a previous post: Stuck on a Plane.) Our theme continued as we traveled south by land to San Antonio. The traffic along the stretch from Austin to San Marcos was bumper-to-bumper.

When we finally made it to San Antonio, we found out Claudine had booked a room for us at the historic Menger Hotel. It is adjacent to the Alamo and next to the Riverwalk. Could she have picked a better place??? It wasn’t until we were checking in that Claudine informed us the hotel was said to be haunted. Yes, you read that right HAUNTED. Here, see for yourself here. There were problems with our first room, so Claudine (who is a read head so picture the fiery temper) promptly called the front desk and told them the room was unacceptable, and we were upgraded to a suite. Yay!

Once we switched rooms, we got ready for a night out on the Riverwalk. Before we left for the evening, we turned on a few lamps, so the living room in the suite wouldn’t be dark when we returned. (And, of course to ward off any ghosts that might be lurking about.) Before dinner, we went shopping for a girls’ best friend—SHOES! The previous year we had a girlfriend reunion and all of us bought toe rings. This year it was shoes. And, yes, by the end of our evening walking around the Riverwalk, our feet were killing us. But weren’t our feet cute?!

Upon returning to our suite in the supposed haunted hotel, we found the lamps we had left on had been turned off and the lamps we had left turned off were on. Hmmmm, me thinks we had visitors while we were away. Caaaa-rrrrreeeeepy. Luckily, before we left Claudine’s house that morning we grabbed some of those little sample-sized bottles of wine she had in her refrigerator. We did what any group of FREAKED out girlfriends would do--took that opportunity to crack those bad boys open. While we were sitting there getting tipsy and more paranoid talking, the lights started to flicker. Now, we realize that lights flicker all the time, especially in old buildings. The weird thing about this particular light flickering was that the flickering only happened when our conversation got steered back to the possible ghost in the room. Seriously. It was like the ghost was letting us know he was there in the room with us. As we carried on our conversation, the phone rang (again when we were referencing the possible paranormal activity). When we answered it, no one was on the other end (Claudine said she could hear breathing). At this point, we had convinced ourselves a ghost was among us. (And the wine might have been making was even more sure of that.) If one of us had to go to the bathroom, we all went. We didn’t want to be alone. In fact we had this huge suite to stay in, and we all three slept in the same bed that night. Yes, picture it. Three grown women in one bed. I have to laugh when I think back on it.

So, is the Menger Hotel really haunted? We really don’t know. We might have been creating it all in our heads; you know how girlfriends are when they get together. And I don’t really even know if I believe ghosts exist. But even I have to admit there is the possibility that we had visitors that night. Ahhhh, never a dull moment with Thelma around. Love her!

“Wawk”

If I think about this too hard, I get a little watery-eyed. My three-year-old is PRECIOUS and in the midst of this trying age where he is testing boundaries night and day (and I sometimes feel like I am losing my mind), I sometimes forget just how precious he really is. And sometimes I get a much needed reminder. Last night was one of those times.

Last night he slept for the first time in big boy underwear (and no changing sheets this morning either!) He woke up at 2:30 hollering “Momma” because he needed to go pee pee. Annoyed because he doesn’t get that he could do this on his own just yet, I got out of my cozy, warm bed and stumbled down the hall to his room to get him. All I wanted to do was get him to the bathroom and then get back in bed. As he washed his hands, he kept telling me he wanted to “wawk”. I kept guessing what we meant. Walk? Work? Water? I couldn’t figure it out. I was frustrated at this point because I was clueless as to what he was telling me, and I also realized going straight back to bed was probably going to be a struggle.

Now, I need to back up here and say that when he tells me something that I don’t understand, I always tell him to show me. So, when I couldn’t figure out what “wawk” was, and I was just trying to shuttle him back to bed, he said, “Let me show you.” and proceeded to run into the living room. You moms out there can relate to my mood at this point; you know how grumpy I was that he was fighting me on going back to bed. All I could think about was the fact that I had to be up in three hours.

But then he did something that is making me tear up as I type this. My non-snuggly boy who I have always had to BEGGGG to let me hold him (even as a baby he wasn’t big on being held) ran to the recliner, patted it, looked at me, and said, “Wawk”. My heart melted. M.E.L.T.E.D. The annoyance was gone. My attitude immediately changed. He wanted me to rock him. And of course I obliged. Gladly. I didn’t care that it was 2:30 in the morning anymore. My baby wanted me to hold him. Rock him. Scratch his back. I could have held him all night.

Yes, sometimes I need those little moments that make me realize life goes too fast, and kids grow up too fast. If I get a little less sleep very little sleep in this phase of life, it will be okay. If my house isn’t perfectly clean (okay a mess), my kids won’t care. If we eat out every now and then, it isn’t the end of the world. There is a country song by Trace Adkins that my husband reminds me of every now and again, especially when it seems like life is getting too chaotic. The chorus goes like this:

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These Are Some Good Times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

And, yes, I am going to miss this. I am going to miss my precious son being three. I already miss him being a baby. Savor the moments, Jami. Stop when everything around you is a whirlwind and savor the moments.

My Bucket List

My husband and I were talking the other night about the things we’d like to do before we die, so I have mentally been forming a list.  Today I decided to put it down “on paper” and share my list with you.  (I’m sure this list will grow as I think more about it.) And, I admit these are all about me, me, me. We will have to take out a small gigantic loan for all of this to be possible, but a girl can dream can’t she?!

Take our Alaska trip
Travel Europe
Dive the Great Barrier Reef
Go on a picture safari in Kenya
See the Pyramids of Giza
Drive through the NE in the fall
Eat lobster in Maine.
Camp at the Grand Canyon
Swim with dolphins
Play Blackjack in Vegas
Write (& maybe publish) a book
Throw a fancy party
Ride in a hot air balloon
Stay in a bungalow over the ocean
Skinny dip in a hot tub while it snows
Be comfortable in a bathing suit
Run in a 5k race
Surf

So, what’s on your bucket list? Do share. I might steal some of your ideas. :)