Leisurely Morning

Every once in a while L and I have the chance to seize the day (okay, morning) and linger. Today was one of those mornings. After a somewhat busy weekend it was nice to capture this time with him. I wanted to exercise at the gym. He didn't. We compromised on a walk outside. The weather is gorgeous, so it didn't take much convincing for me to change my mind. We've gotta enjoy this weather because, whether we believe it not, these extended summer temperatures will end (hopefully not abruptly, hopefully gradually) and winter will be knocking at our door. So, today L and I went on a walk. We walked and we played at the "Blue and White Park" as my kids call it. We got deep into pretend land pretty quickly at the playground. After a nice long while on the swings, L ran to the play equipment and declared it his "castle boat." He gave me the tour, we (pretended to) fired up the engines, steered the ship and set sail. We squirted away the big sharks, dodged an iceberg and climbed the rock walls. We eventually parked our boat at the imaginary dock and walked to the library. After picking out our standard ten books and four DVDS (no VHS tapes please) we walked home. L picked up a few leaves and pine cones along the way to add to his "nature box" in the garage. We spotted bugs and watched the silly squirrels. We counted the skid steers and listened to the birds. We took it all in. We got home and my nature loving boy requested hummus and carrots for lunch and we ate. These days are so sweet and dear to me. I soak them in. I know someday both my boys will be off at school and I will be back at work and I will reminisce about my time at home. Not every morning as a stay at home Mama is blissful, but every once in a while they are and I savor it.

Not a single complaint

Everybody in my family liked the meal I made for dinner tonight and nobody made a single complaint about anything. That's blog worthy, People.

Freezer Cooking

I've always thought freezer cooking is such a smart thing to do, but I hadn't done it until now. This weekend was boy scout appreciation weekend at Costco, so I planned my freezer cooking weekend around that. Man, Costco is like no other place on earth! I'm so glad I had a list to keep me focused. Anyway, I made mostly meats and meat sauces rather than entire meals. I figure this is my first go at this so I'd start kinda simple and work my way up to full meals in the future. Here are the recipes I did. I froze some in dinner portions and some in lunch portions. I got eight dinner portions and twelve half to one cup lunch servings. Earlier this week I also made an entire bag of pancakes that I'd guess produced three dozen GFDF blueberry pancakes (not pictured).

Sloppy Joe's
BBQ Crock Pot Chicken
Chicken for PF Chang Lettuce Wraps
Bolognese Sauce
Debbie's Chicken in Marinade (From Freezer Cooking Manual 30 Day Gourmet)

To The Moon and Back

Several months ago I started saying, " I love you to the moon and back" to the boys every night before bed. One night L surprised me and added something to the end. He said, "I love you to the moon and back covered in chocolate!" Oh boy does he know his Mama!! Now every single day at nap time and every single night at bed time he says something different. Here are some of the things he's said.

I love you to the moon and back covered in apples.
I love you to the moon and back covered in chips.
I love you to the moon and back covered in bananas and pickles.
I love you to the moon and back covered in ketchup.
I love you to the moon and back covered in flashlights.
I love you to the moon and back covered in whoppers.
I love you to the moon and back covered in spadeady (spaghetti).
I love you to the moon and back covered in Branson.
I love you to the moon and back covered in Super Heros.
I love you to the moon and back covered in bicycles.
I love you to the moon and back covered in vacation.
I love you to the moon and back covered in spiders.

The list goes on and on and on. Sometimes he's super silly and makes up words. One day at nap time he was making up words and happened to say, "I love you to the moon and back covered in hooters." To which I slowly closed the door, walked down the hall and busted out laughing. I think I may have texted that one to Daddy.