Slow Cooker Thursday

It's been awhile since I have participated in Sandra's slow Cooking Thursday Meme. I made this one yesterday. Hubby liked it a lot, but it was a bit spicy. I did not have a can of tomatoes and chili's, so I chooped up a tbsp of pickled Jalopenos. I am having it for my lunch today. It is another delightful Taste of Home recipe.

Cabbage Patch Stew

INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
2 celery ribs, chopped
11 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (about 2 pounds)
2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes with green chilies
1/2 cup ketchup
1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream, optional

DIRECTIONS
In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and celery over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender; drain. Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker. Stir in the cabbage, stewed tomatoes, beans, diced tomatoes, ketchup, chili powder, oregano, pepper and salt. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until cabbage is tender. Serve with cheese and sour cream if desired. Yield: 8 servings.

Because I'm Geekly like that

I rolled over 100,000 miles on my car. My camera is in need of batteries. Yes, I was seriously going to take a picture. I put the camera in my car just for the occasion. I’m geeky like that. It was at mile marker 29 on I-75 in Ohio.

(Note: the engine only has 43486 miles on it. I had to get a new one at 56514 miles. Ugly story.)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Turkey cutlets stuffed with Dressing and covered with Gravy

Tuesday - Cabbage Patch stew

Wednesday - Cheese and Sausage stuffed shells

Thursday - Top round int he crockpot

Friday - Salmon

For more recipes, visit Laura's blog

H-E-Double Toothpick Bells

Mom, I need my bells.”
“You need your bells? I thought you were done with them”
“Mrs. F gave us a piece of music where we all need our bells”
When do you need them?”
“Next week”
“Dad, B needs his bells”
“What does that mean to me?”
“The bells are in one of the first boxes we packed and put in the storage unit”
“Oh”

Edited to add: It Turns out that the Bells were easy to find. The box was on top and was well labeled: B's Bells and awards... Darn I'm good! LOL

Morning Routine with an ADHD-er

This is a new routine for us. Dad started his new job this week and needs to be at work by 7:00 AM and he has to drive 30 miles. That used to be my territory. So My alarm still goes off at 4:45 and I have been going to the gym. Dad gets up at 5:30 showers and eats breakfast. At 6 Am he wakes the boys and ensures that the ADHD pre-teen gets his patch on. Then he’s out the door. I get out of the shower. The 7YO is often dressed and bugging his brother who may or may not be in a state of undress. So I remind him to get dressed.

 

Both boys make it out to the kitchen form breakfast.

Mom: “Who wants an egg?”

11 YO:” Me want cereal” Mom cringes. Why cereal? I believe he does so much better with more protein. I’m going to not buy cereal next week.

 

7 YO: “I want a bacon egg and cheese on a bagel, but only half a slice of cheese today.” (Tomorrow, I am going to have him cook the eggs. Train ‘em young!)

 

11 YO: “AAAAAAAAAA, EEEEEEEE, XXXXXXXX”

7 YO “Stop it”

11 YO: “YYYYYYY, ZZZZZZZ”

Mom: “B, please stop”

11 YO: “SSSSSSS, PPPPPPP”

Mom: “B- Please Stop”

11 YO “JJJJJJJJ, LLLLLLLLL”

Mom: “I said Please stop”

11 YO “XXXXXXXX, YYYYYYYYY”

Mom: (screaming) Would you stop that?

 

 

Mom: B, what are you doing? Come out here and clean up from your breakfast.

Mom: A, go brush your teeth

Pause

Mom:"B, come out here”

And so on…

 

6:55 rolls around. The 7 YO goes out to wait for the bus. Where is the 11 YO? Still in his room.  This week he has safety patrol so I am driving him.

 

Mom: “B, lets go!”

He comes out putting on his belt, no shoes, still has to get his drum kit (band today). Mom is in tears. With now leaving an hour and a half later, the traffic is awful. I need to figure out how to deal with this. Maybe I’m doing too much in the morning trying to get dinner partially fixed, fixing my lunch, getting on the computer…  

Organizational Challenge

Laura over at I'm an Organization Junkie is conducting a Spring 30 Day Organizational Challenge. I particpiated in her Fall challenge and felt like I fell flat on my face. I was unable to accomplish my goal. My before pictures are posted here. (Ed: I fixed the link) But I finally accomplished my goal which was to clean up my craft area. I developed an accute case of TMS (Too Much stuff). I knew I should get rid of some stuff that I no longer have a great need for, yet when my 11 Yo had to build a model of a virus, I dug enough materials to create one. (Glass Christmas ornament, Pipe cleaners, raffia...) I like to be able to grab a couple of googlie eyes and doll hair.

However, I don't scrapbook with 12x12 paper anymore. But that can be cut down as necessary. So what to get rid of. Well I had duplicates of craft paints. I don't do much painting anymore. So why keep paints that don't fit into my nifty paint holders. So out went the extra paint bottles. Out went scraps of paper. I am using large scraps of my fabric stash to protect breakables in moving boxes. But here are my after pictures. Wouldn't you love to have this great craft area. It is right next to my laundry area.

Menu Plan Monday

It was a very productive weekend for us. Friday we toured 2 Parochial elementarty schools. We dicded on one of them. There are 4 school districts that will provide busses to the school. Then we spent the weekend working on the house. Our basement is presentable. We have taken enough books to the second hand book store to generate $91, and got our 10x10 storage unit 2/3rds full.

Our menu for the week:

Mon - Leftover Cheeseburger sloppy joes

Tues - Turkey cutlets and rice

Wed - Meatloaf

Thurs - Pork chops

Fri - Stuffed shells

This is going to be difficult. I will not be home until after they rest of the family goes to their evening activities (all week).

For more Menus - check out Laura's blog

Another list of tasks:

Today is Hubby's last day at his employers. His new job starts Monday.

[Rant mode on] This new job of Hubby's has office hours 7 -4:30 M-Th and 4 hours on Friday. The boys catch the school bus at 7:05. So Mom is going to have to shift her schedule. Yuck! Can I say that I am a tru-blue morning person? I like being one of the first ones in the office. I'll be lucky if I I make it to the office by 8:45. Then I tend to run out of steam about 3:30. Since I won't be levaing the office until 5:30 or so, I will most likely miss most of my boy's baseball games. But better me than coach Dad!

On the upside, I will be able to reinstate a workout routine. If I keep getting up at my current 4:45. I can be at the gym at 5:00 am. I'll reach home just a Hubby is close to walking out the door. I'll be able to grab a quick shower and then roll the boys out of bed. My waist line sure could use the exercise. I stopped exercising about November when I started carpooling and fortunately I did not gain weight as I feared. [Rant mode off]

Tomorrow I am taking a vacation day. I have a call in to make a visit to one school and when they call me back with a time, I will schedule a second candidate school. I suppose we'll do some more driving around looking at neighborhoods.

Menu Plan Monday

Hey Everyone, This was one of those weeneds where I'm glad it's Monday and I can sit at my desk most of the day. I ran a concession stand in a high school cafeteria for 13 hours Saturday and did some mroe purginf/packing/cleaning. Hey Laura, I hope by next weekend to post pictures of my clean craft area that I started on during your 30-day Organizational Challenge.

Monday - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes. I'v got my Salisbury steak recipe below..

Tuesday - Chicken breasts

Wednesday - Spaghetti

Thursday - Stroganoff

Friday - Salmon

Salisbury Steak

1 lb ground beef

chopped onion

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 slightly beaten egg

1/4 c Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup.

Combine the above and genlty form into 5 or 6 patties.

Bake 350 deg for 30 minutes

Drain off the excess grease. Mix the remaining soup with 1/3 c water. Pour over patties and bake another 5 minutes.

Check Out Laura's Blog for more menus

My Worries

So I am going to park my list here so that at work I can slow down, read my emails and understand what they are saying before I start to answer them.

• gotta get the house decluttered, cleaned and painted for selling
• I need to get it looking better in case my cousing and her Finacee come to look at it
• If they decide not to buy it, will re have to replace the cement driveway?
• Can we get our money's worth out of it?
• Should we relace the kitchen floor?
• What about the carpet?
• What kind of Child care arrangements should I make for the summer for the 7 YO? Should I find a place close to Hubby's new workplace? That way I could drop him off on my way to work and Dad could pick him up. He will be playing baseball near the current home this summer.
• Should I sign the 11 YO up for the mid summer wrestling camp? It is 9 a - 2p. Then there is the sticky issue of transportation.
• Can I find a golf camp? He'd really like to do that.
• Can we afford the kind of house we'd really like?
• Will I be able to get the boys in a Catholic school? Which one? Should I put them on a waiting list?

Faith in Action

Now I have written before about how we are Catholic, send our kids to Catholic school, attend Mass Sundays and most Holy Days, and say grace before meals; but we tend to be rather private about our Faith. Of course this week I saw where Catholics were admonished to Confess sins of Omission about when we failed to proclaim the Word. Kind of Funny. Reading about other Chritian women living, acting and bloggin about their Faith is a lot of what has attracted me to the blogsphere.

But lately there has been a glimpse of Faith in action. This past weekend my parents visitied with the couple who they were very close to in the Early years of their marriage. Ucle B's Alcolholism along with moves following jobs, and chasing after grow children forced them apart. I am Happy to say Uncle B is clean and sober. He brough up several topice related to the Church and Catholicism and discussions ensued. At one point he looks at my Mom and says "J, you are usually jumping in here with something to say." Mom replies "I'm just very happy my kids are willing to discuss this and they have good points and are in line with the Church."

Another occurance this week is that our Parish has a traveling crucifix program where a family prayer for voacations for the week. Hubby signed us up for this week since it is between Wrestling season and baseball season. So while we say grace before meals at home, we do not generally take the time to pray as a family. Sunday night when Hubby announced it was time to pray, both boys came running with their Rosaries in hand. The each had a change to pick out a prayer to say. While we did not say the rosary, we said some of the prayers from it.

The way my family lives is the way both Hubby and I were raised. I guess we are doing something right. But we could always do more. I want to make it a point to find time to say the rosary with the boys on occasion. Since I started to say it myself when I am driving home from work, I know I can say it in less than 20 minutes. Maybe our next long car trip I'll do it. Oh yeah, the 11 Yo wants a new, nicer Rosary. I want a second one. I leave the one that decorated my First Communion cake in my car.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's My menu for the week:

Mon- Ground Beef night - Salisbury Steak, Mashed potatoes and corn

Tues - Wrestling club meeting - Chicken in the crockpot

Wed - Hubby and the 11 YO will practice wrestling - Leftovers" I froze last week's leftovers - so there are a couple of serviings of Cheesburger sloppy joes, Chicken breasts and Pork roast

Thurs - Pork Chops

Friday - Tuna casserole

For more Menus check out Laura's blog

Ultimate Blog Party

Janice and Susan over a 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting a blog party. So at the last minute, I decided to attend.

I am Maggie. I have a great husband and two sons, 11 and 7. Both boys play sports all year long. (They are both high energy and need an outlet otherwise I might duct tape them to the wall.) Hubby loves to coach them an is an excellent coach even though he did not play much sports growing up.

I aslo work outside the home as a manager of email for a large University. Right now we live 50 miles from my office. However we are no in a transition phase. This week Hubby accepted a new job offer closer to my job. We are preparing our house for selling and hope to move over the summer.

My blog is my journal. I have not told many people that I know in real life about my blog. But I enjoy the virtual world here. I am much more comfortable typing my thoughts than picking up a phone. But I love to talk in person.

So welcome. And Check out 5 Mintes for Mom for links to more new blogs.