Home By the Creekside

Sorry no pics for this. It was YUMMY. The kids loved it and so did the husband. I have enough for lunch for the next couple days. 1 pound hamburger 1/2 onion chopped 1 24 oz can tomato juice  1 can pinto beans, drained 1 can garbanzo beans,  drained 1 can kidney beans, drained 1 can corn, drained 1 can green chilies 1 package taco seasoning 1 8 oz can tomato sauce Brown the meat and some onion together. Mix all together and heat through. (You can put in crock pot low for several hours). Serve with cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream

All day back and forth back and forth! They only crashed and burned a couple of times. Her turn to carry someone! They still dont want to go outside. Can you blame them?

Last week, I made some saltine crackers with peanut butter. Sounds appetizing, right? Someone did not think so. He got his own bread out, miracle whip, and lunchmeat. He made a sandwich! He is becoming soo independent and it scares me. I even taught him to make his own glass of Tang. Yes, I have Tang. It was an impulse buy and the kids love it.

I am a busy wife, mother, and teacher during the school year. I decided to put what I do out for you. Some of you might be thankful to be a stay at home , or think I am crazy to work and raise a family.  Me, I love all my jobs. I would go nuts staying home all day as I do in the summer. I swear that I have ADD and can't sit still. Plus  I get to see my son at work (I can peek into his class) and next year I will have my daughter there. I get to see who his friends are and meet them. I see which teachers my children would benefit from and my mind learns new things each day. I enjoy trying to put creative touches on things that I do in the classroom. So here is my usual day. A.M: 5:45: My day has begun (shower and all that stuff) 6:30-7:00 Fix lunches and breakfast for us all 7:00-7:15 Kids get dressed 7:15 Leave for school (must drop daughter off first at daycare) 7:45 Arrive at school 7:45-8:10 Get things ready for the day. Emergency photocopying, mental prepareness, help

Last week during my cloud of sickness, I saw on the news about a mom of four in TX that planned her meals for the entire year. I thought to myself, "I want to do that!" How hard could it really be!  Here is the link on ABC news about her .  She also included her 2009 menu .  So now I am thinking about doing this. It would save me alot of time and I can plan ahead for anything that goes on sale. Last week, I planned for two weeks. I need to make it look pretty before I post it. I don't think I could do a whole year but I can start out small. I In Arizona, I had a whole month of food prepared. Grant it that I went to My Girlfiend's Kitchen and paid for an entire month of food and had it stored in my freezer. That WAS when I had money. Now 2 years later and major paycut to live here in country, I need to simplify and cook my own meals. I am going to start doing some freezer meals and long term menu planning. Hope to share soon (not the food just my brain)!

Well..I have not been myself lately because our household has been under the weather including me. We have had an alien invasion (the sickness) in our home over last weekend and the visitors have finally left. Here is an update of our lives from the past week. Husband: Sunday: pink eye and stayed home on Monday. He went back to work on Tuesday and then started throwing up Tuesday night and then stayed home on Wednesday. Then on the way to get the newspaper (our mail/newspaper is across the street), he slipped and fell on the black ice. He was fine and was really hoping that none of the neighbors saw his mishap. I swear I would not have laughed if I saw it...well maybe just a little. He is just fine. Me: Sunday: Sanitized everything in the house and felt that I had pink eye because of husband so I started taking his drops. Had to work on Monday and MLK day. Bummer! Then went to work Tuesday and felt like I was going to lose my lunch all day. Never did because I will do anything to n

This is from Marjorie Pay Hinckley. I saw this on the internet. I have her Glimpses book but I have not had a chance to really read it. " I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." Any thoughts?

So we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond today to spend my gift card. I am not a fan of gift cards because I hate making the choice of what to get. I want someone to do that instead. So we bought a sandwich maker. We are going to have grilled cheese sandwiches after church tomorrow to try them out.  Then the kids saw they had snuggies there so whatever was left on my gift card went to those. They are like a blanket with arms. I also found out that I could drag Brayden across the floor wearing that contraption.  Check them out below!

Alrighty....I have been thinking about my resolutions last year. I can't remember them. I am sure I wrote them down but I don't feel like looking for them.I know that I did gain some spirituality as that was one of main goals. This week at school, I even had my students write some school goals and home goals. So I started writing mine out as I was making breakfast for the fam. I thought I would categorize my resolutions.  By the way, they are not in order of importance.                         Home                                 1. Strive to keep my main counter clean. (I went to my neighbor's house down the street and her counters are always clean...it inspires me...) 2. Keep the house picked up.                        Church 1. Do my darnedest to attend all meetings. Although I ditched sunday school today and brought the boys home from sacrament because son was feeling ill. 2. Service --give alittle more..I signed up to clean the church this weekend and I alr

(cute pic, huh?) The stuffed animal on the right is the newest edition to our Webkinz family. The new animal came as a present from one of my students. I use it as a "class pet". The students have an opportunity to take it to their  home and then they write a creative journal entry in its journal and read to it. It is a very clean animal and so easy to take care in the classroom. So the caterpillar spent the holidays with us. My own kids fought over it all over Christmas break so we started playing a game....hide n seek. I hid the stuffed animals and the kids had to look for them. They had so much fun looking for them and it was a great way to spend the cold day inside. After I put son to bed....he comes to me after the 2nd time and says, "Hey Mom, I put my jammies on my dog!" Too cute! Then he fell into a deep sleep and I am not just talking about the dog. :)

I created this on Picasa 3 that I have had on my laptop forever. Hopefully it looks good to ya Tyler. Just click it and the pictures will get bigger.  It snowed about 7 inches or so in the last couple of day (maybe more). The kids had alot of fun while I was outside shoveling the driveway yesterday  and neighbor came by with his four wheeler and finished it. Thank you..Then today husband shoveled most of it this morning until he came to end where the snow plow plowed us in and was giving up. Then a neighbor drove by our house in his tractor and finished the rest. Awesome neighbors here! We are definitely going to get a snow blower by next year or else. But atleast we get exercise shoveling. I dont mind but someone else here in the house does.