{taken from this post, which is also lovely}

Dinner and a Movie

Anyone else remember that show? Ha! Actually, it's probably still on, I just wouldn't know since we don't have cable anymore.  :)

Just wanted to share 2 quick things from my week so far:

First, last time we were at Wade's parents' house, I snagged a recipe that was originally from Ms. Sarah Monroe, as I'm a sucker for anything with tomato sauce and mozzerella cheeze. I made it Sunday night and it was de-lish! So, thanks Sarah! :)

Don't Cook the Pasta Manicotti

1 (8 oz) pkg uncooked manicotti shells

1 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 cups tomato juice, divided

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
4 cups shredded mozzerella cheese, divided
1 (15 oz) carton ricotta cheese
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese


In a large skillet, brown meat w/ garlic, pour off fat. Stir in 2 cups tomato juice, tomato paste, oregano, sugar, salt & pepper. Simmer while preparing filling. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups mozz cheese, ricotta, thawed & drained spinach, eggs & parm; mix well. Preheat oven to 350°. Stuff uncooked shells (I used my hands), arrange in 9x13 pan. Spoon mean sauce evenly over shells, pour remaining tomato juice evenly on top. Cover w/ aluminum foil; bake 1 hour. Remove from oven and remove foil; immediately top w/ remaining mozz cheese. Serves 6-8. (Perfect for leftovers!)

And second, you've got to watch this little clip. They were on Ellen today and could not get any cuter if they tried!



Have a great Wednesday!!!

{Manicotti picture found here}

New Year, New Blog. I love playing around with this thing! ;)

These are the words I would say

Little Guy,
I know you're only two years old right now and just learning your ABCs, but you won't always be so small. For some reason, every time I hear this song I think of you.

Be strong in the Lord and,

Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why you're here,

Take your time and pray,

Thank God for each day,

His love will find a way,
These are the words I would say

~The Words I Would Say by Sidewalk Prophets

I love you, Beckett Leo!

What we've been up to...

Lately, we've been busy...

 1) ...eating sushi with this cute little family. Ed's a rockstar who makes his own sushi and it was pretty darn good.

2) ...at the OB getting a little peak at our littlest one. Yes, we found out the gender and no, we're not telling. Wade really wanted to find out, but I kinda didn't. So I made a deal with him and told him we could find out, but had to keep it a surprise for the rest of you! I know it's kind of a bratty thing to do, but I'm 99.999% sure it'll slip by Reese or one of us, so you'll probably find out sooner rather than later!

 3) ...eating Snow Ice Cream! Mix together 5-6 cups of fresh, light, fluffy snow, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, and 1 tsp vanilla. Not too bad! We made another batch to show Daddy, but I put in only half the amount of sugar (1/2 a cup seemed like a lot and it was reeeally sweet) and mixed in some almond milk too.

4) ...playing with our new Christmas toys. Favorites include this marble tower, a Barbie, a basketball hoop, a train set and some sparkly dress up high heals. :)

5) ... relentlessly cleaning our house from top to bottom for an open house and various showings by appointment. We have another one tonight from 6:15-6:45. Wade's gone at a church thing, so do I take the kids and grab fast food somewhere or stick to our normal dinner plans and eat later? I think I already know what I'll end up doing. I'm so lazy.

6) ...helping out this mama and celebrating the birth of these two sweet girls' little baby brother, Zion Edward.

Congratulations again, Simmer family! :)



Grateful.

Today, I am grateful for:

1) The library. Seriously, sometimes I can't believe there's a place where they let me pick out and take home books, movies, music, magazines, books on CD for myself or the kids for FREE!  (In theory, because I'm pretty sure I keep our public library up and running with all the fines I manage to rack up. Currently, Dora's Kite Fiesta was due last week and is MIA. Not cool.)

2) My sister's boyfriend, Mark & my brother's girlfriend, Nicole. Who knows how long they'll be around, but I'm not too worried about that. Right now, they are making my brother and sister happy and I LOVE that.

3) Little elbow jabs. The small kicks in my belly are still small yet compared to what they will be, but it never ceases to amaze me that there is a tiny PERSON inside of my body!

4) Coffee. I'm about to go make some right now. :)

5) Our troops. Whether here at home or across seas (like my cute little brother, Mitchell) these men and women are sacrificing their time and lives for our awesome country. For that, I could never express enough gratitude.

I hope you have a FANTASTIC day. :)

2010 in Review

2010 has gone by so fast, and what a year it has been!

I started this post last week and wanted to get it published when it was...uhh... still 2010. I forgot that I told a friend we'd come over and play this morning, and I still have half of the dough for our annual Christmas cinnamon rolls sitting in my fridge, waiting to be made. The house is a disaster, we have no groceries, and I have yet to put away the Christmas decorations. It's only the beginning of 2011 and I feel like I'm already behind!

At any rate, here's a little recap of our awesome year. I loved 2010 and am sad to see it go. I can only hope that this next year can live up to the high standards that 2010 set! Thank you to all the people who have stuck by us. You mean more than you'll ever know. Anyway, just pretend you read this last week, okay? ;)

2010 Highlights

January: Repainted bedrooms (3 of them) and finishing the basement. Reese continued gymnastics at the Y and dance at Allison's Dance Center.

February: Costa Rica w/ Roger & Mary! AMAZING!!!!

March: Marriage Retreat for a weekend in Story City, took the kids to The Children's Museum for the day. I continue to watch 2 little girls and Wade is super busy with planting season at work. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary.

April: I begin training for my big race, we had a small Easter egg hunt part at our house.

May: Beckett began potty training

June: I ran the Dam to Dam 20K, Reese attended her first VBS, took our first family trip to the zoo.

July: Lots of popsicles & pool parties at our house, purchased a van, Reese turned 4!

August: We celebrated Wade's 27th birthday with a surprise party, held a garage sale, went to the Iowa State Fair, Reese started preschool, my sister moved in with us, my little brother was shipped out to start training before he leaves for Afghanistan.

September: Beckett turned 2! Roadtripped to Pennsylvania for my friend Cathy's wedding, visited friends in New Jersey and spent the day in New York City.

October: Found out we were pregnant with #3, Wade went with Reese on a school field trip to the fire station.

November: Travelled to Kansas City for the Erickson family Thanksgiving, attended my sweet friend Jessie's wedding in Des Moines.

December: Put our house on the market, attended my brother's graduation from Iowa State.

 Valentine's Day, our family's homemade 'gormet' meal

 

Costa Rica, Wade's first time scuba diving

Summer fun

Our family's favorite place in the summer.

Reese had her first dance recital.

Me, participating in the French Silk Pie competition at the fair



Halloween

Camping in PA & New York City

Let's go, 2011. We're ready for ya.

On Santa Claus

We don't do Santa.

There. I said it. So controversial, right? ;) Yeah, we're rebels.

We've got nothing against the jolly old fella, but we just kind of omit him in our Christmas festivities. We know he's not the devil or even believe he's anti-Christian. We like Santa and the kids watch movies like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, even read books like The Night Before Christmas. We just don't try to convince our children that he's real. Because he's not. They know him as a character, just like Mickey Mouse or Cinderella.

Wade and I made this decision last year when Reese was 3. We both feel that there are so many lies out there that are told to our children (You need to be a certain weight to be pretty. More things will make you happier. It's not cool to wear clothes that don't have brand names. etc....) and our job as parents was to make sure she knew what was TRUE. It just felt weird lying to her about who put that present under the tree for her to open. Why give the credit to someone else when we spent our hard-earned money on something special for our child?

Or how about telling my kids to be good and then they'll get lots of presents? Uh, how about my kids are well behaved because that's what I expect of them all year long. And Santa's always "watching"? Creepy.

I want my kids to know that I will always be honest with them. If they find out one day that I had made up this whole Santa story, I don't want them to wonder what else isn't true (perhaps the birth of Jesus and the nativity scene?). A few weeks ago, Reese really reinforced the decision we had made. One night after reading a book about the first Christmas, she told Wade, "But Jesus is just pretend, right Daddy?" They talked about it, but it was quite eye opening.

So basically, we don't judge people who do carry on the tradition of Santa Claus because really, it's cute. But this just works best for our family.

So if we don't do Santa, what do we do? Just about everything else. My kids will definitely feel the magic of Christmas. They know that, first and foremost, we are celebrating Jesus' birthday! But we also make cookies & other goodies, drink hot chocolate & look at Christmas lights, get presents under the Christmas tree, buy gifts for our Adopt-A-Family, particiate in a Jesse Tree, make snowmen, attend Christmas services at church, decorate the house, and the list goes on and on.

I will admit it has been a little hard. It seems it's an easy ice breaker for every. single. adult to ask R&B if they've seen Santa yet and what they asked him for Christmas. Reese is slightly confused. Why do relatives and strangers keep talking about Santa like he's real? Don't they know? Then there's the challenge of making sure she doesn't spoil it for other kids... We've discussed this with her too.

I'm still not 100% sure if we've made the right decision, but I guess we'll find out. Hopefully my kids won't resent me down the road for stealing their childhood fantasies about Santa. And if you happen to see my kids after Christmas, please don't ask them what Santa brought them, Reese is still not sure what to say. :)

A bit of news...

This comes as no suprise to most of you, but it's about time I shared that we will adding another member to our family in May 2011.

I am 17 weeks along and feeling fabulous!

In other news, Reese has been fighting a ear infection for about a month. It hasn't caused her any pain, so besides her not hearing as well as normal, we had no idea. She was referred to the doctor since she didn't pass her hearing test at school and as of yesterday is on anibiotics 3x a day.

Beckett is fighting his own little cold that seems to finally be getting better. Lots of fevers and waking up in the middle of the night last week meant the Little Guy slept in our bed quite a bit. (Which equals less sleep for me, since the kid moves around a ton. Wade hardly notices.)

And right now, Reese is off from school and is watching Narnia, Beckett is sleeping, and I am munching on M&Ms. In a bit, we'll make these before we get ready for the second showing of our house today. (More on that later ;) )



Invisible Mothers

My mother-in-law sent me this today, and it was just what I needed. Lately, I feel like I've been losing myself. Not really many friends to cling to, stuck in the day to day routines, not nearly enough time with my husband. If you ask me, the years from 0-2 were cake compared to now. (There's a big difference in taking care of babies and actually raising children.) How did my mom do this???

So today, this short story made me feel a little better, but I'll continue to sip my caramel mocha from McDonald's and wallow in my self pity. Just one of those days....

The Invisible Mother

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'

Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

Some days I'm a crystal ball; 'Where's my other sock?, Where's my phone?, What's for dinner?'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was Almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.

No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, 'You're gonna love it there...'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

Baby, it's cold outside!

The snow is coming down, but my family is all home and we've got no where to go, so it's perfectly alright with me.

Reese is sooo excited to go sledding, for some reason, and is heartbroken that there's just not enough snow yet. A little bit ago, Wade was going to go outside and take care of a few things in the garage when, of course, his mini-me Beckett, wanted to go with him. So he told him to go potty first, go find his boots in the closet, and helped him get everything on. Then, as I predicted silently in my head, Reese wanted to come too, so on went her snow gear. Then Wade had the nerve to say, "Gosh, I just needed to go outside for a minute but this is turning into a half an hour ordeal!"  Umm.... YEAH. I told him, "Welcome to my world, honey. Add a one year old to the mix and maybe you'll know how I feel every day."

Pics from today and this week:

Man, she looks old.

It's Grandpa! Last Christmas, R&B got "The Night Before Christmas", one of those Hallmark recordable books. Roger recorded it for them, and now Grandpa is in our living room everyday. All day long. The kids love it.

After making snickerdoodles, which is starting to be my favorite cookie. 

Mr. Squirrel eating our bagel birdfeeder (instructions here). Reese was freaking out, worried he was going to break it/eat it all.

Tears.

Man, I just can't seem to get back into my habit of blogging on a regular basis! Bear with me, until I find my groove again. Today I made my second cup of coffee in about 4 months, which makes me feel like myself again, hence the blog post.

Anyway, I've got much to blog about, but for today I'll just share some links that popped up on my Google Reader. (Sitting down to check my GR is one of the best parts of my day. If you don't have it yet, ask me and I'll tell you how to set it up!!!)

I don't know what is with me today, but just about everything has made me want to cry. Like, that stupid "mom cry" over a silly Folger's commercial.

* These two photographers are fantastic and their pictures from their post today made my heart melt and my eyes water.

* I can't put this book down. It's soooo good and today, it, too, made me get a little teary-eyed. I'm not quite done yet, but I highly recommend it!

* I just adore this family. They have been such a spiritual blessing in our life. There is just something about a dad and his little girl that is so special. Don't ask why this one made me get all sappy, but I cried reading this one, too.

* And lastly, I loved this post. I feel sooo stongly about this same thing, and I say something similar to Reese every day before she goes to preschool. I so desperately want this for my own kids.

And there you have it. Just 4 reasons I cried (so far) today. I'm sure it won't be the last. And speaking of crying, there is a sweet 2 year old little boy, in his bed crying since he just woke up, that I must go attend to. :)