October 28, 2011

Foodie Friday

I miss blogging so much! I realize it even more so when I sit down and actually start typing. I just haven't been able to fit it in, I'll get there though!

I definitely wanted to share a new recipe we tried this week though! I could go into a thousand fun adjectives to explain how delish it was, but let's just say when hubby took his first bite, all I heard was a big heart, "Ohhh my God!!". Yup. It was that good. And I found it on Pinterest, so see, all of that time wasted can't be a bad thing!

It's called Honey Sauced Chicken and I found it here!
But I also had fun with it so I could show you my attempt :)

Honey Sauced Chicken

Here's what you'll need:

 
A few chicken breasts (we used two, but there was plenty sauce left over if you need to use more)
1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup chopped onion (or 1/16 cup onion flakes)
1/8 cup ketchup
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and throw those in the crock pot.

Mix together honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes.

And pour it over the chicken.


Afterwards, cut your chicken up into bite-sized pieces and return to crock pot to mix with your sauce. (or if you're like me and only use 2 chickens, just spoon some of the sauce on top of the bites because that will be too much sauce.)


You can serve it however you'd like. I got a box of Rice a Roni's Fried Rice and put the chicken on top of that. I think next time it would be great to add in some veggies to the rice!
My end product looked like this..

In the original recipe, her sauce looked all thick and coated on the chicken and I'm not sure how she accomplished that. Unless she added in some flour?? or something and didn't say? But basically, if yours doesn't come out like that don't freak.. it's still scrumptious.

Try this! Your family will thank you. If you have any other ideas on how to serve it, please share :) Happy eating!



October 21, 2011

Put one foot in front of the other...

... I'm nowhere near ready for him to be walking out the door, but Drewsky took his first solo steps over the weekend (Saturday, Oct 15th)!! It's so exciting. We've been waiting for this for quite a while, as we've been quickly tiring of walking around with him as he holds our fingers.

The best part of it all was that Trey's parents were here for the weekend to see it happen, and my parents were able to see.. maybe not the first steps, but the ones shortly thereafter, over Skype. I'm also pretty sure it was in the middle of the Alabama game, which is only appropriate.

He's gotten more and more confident with it over the past few days. He'll go from sitting, to standing and starts walking now and is up to about 5 or 6 steps at a time. It's really the cutest thing ever to see his little hynie sashaying from side to side.

Good timing, Andrew! You're really getting so heavy to carry around. Also, trick-or-treating will be much easier in your cute little lamb costume.

Crappy phone pic.. but it's still cute.

October 11, 2011

Randoms

I just need like and hour and 1/2 added to the day. Couldn't we all use that?

I have a few spare minutes to blog, but my mind isn't capable of putting together full, concise paragraphs at the moment, so it's another fun random post. Yay!

First, and most importantly, Fort Bliss lost a Marine, SSGT Christopher Diaz, recently. The other day was the funeral and burial. The night before, it was posted all over FB that the westboro crazies were coming to protest the funeral. I won't get into how sick this makes me as 1) I'm sure you all know and 2) we'd be here all day. What I will do is boast about how incredible the Ft. Bliss community is. A very large amount of people showed up to support this family and westboro did not! I'm so glad for that family! Some of the pictures that I've seen so far are just breathtaking..


All photos were taken courtesy of Jessica Brooks








All scrap booking stuff is on sale at The Hob Lob for 40% off until the 15th. I couldn't be any more excited. But, don't you wish money grew on trees? That's wonderful that it's on sale and all... but if you have very little extra money, it doesn't matter too much. That all being said, I'm going tomorrow to pick up juussttt a few things.
~ Ahem ~
All of that above was written yesterday. I'm just sitting down to finish quickly, and have to admit that I went a little crazy at the Hob today. But I am in scrap booking heaven! I can't wait to start on Andrew's 1st year book. I may or may not be just waiting on the 335 pictures I ordered from Snapfish the other day to come in. Woopsies! But as my good friend Nancy pointed out... that's less than a picture a day. I think I did pretty good narrowing down a year's worth of pictures.

My in-laws are flying in on Thursday. I'm so excited to have some visitors. It's just a short visit, but we're going to make the most of it. It should be a fun few days :) I'm hoping Andrew will take his first real steps while they are here. He's so so so very close. As in has taken one or two wobbly can-barely-count-as-steps-steps. We're so close and I can't wait. No matter how many people tell me, "I'm in trouble now". That really grinds my gears (said in my best Peter Griffin voice).

I've finally joined Pinterest. Got sick of fighting it and it's the best thing that's come into my life. A little obsessed? Possibly.

That's all for now. I can't promise that I'll come up with any note-worthy posts anytime soon. Unless you can find me that extra hour and 1/2 in a day!

October 5, 2011

Overwhelmed

I may have set a new record for myself. Longest days straight without blogging? Possibly! It feels like it.

I was doing so well there for a while. I have a section in my super awesome organization binder just for blogging. So I always have a place to jot down ideas when they come to me. (Because after three years of blogging.. almost going on 4 I think(!!)... that's how my brain works. Blog worthy or non-blog worthy events). I have a schedule set up and I usually have so many ideas in my head that, on Sundays I can map out my week of posts. And I mean.. it does get planned out. But you see where that's gotten me.

I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. A lot of it is perceived as worse than it really is, I think, because Andrew has decided that 5am is the ideal time to wake up for the day. Not cool, kid, not cool at all. I've gotten to the point over the past two mornings that I'm just turning the monitor off and let him cry.. not because I'm cruel.. but he's GOT to remember that's it's much more fun to sleep until 6:30. I don't fall back asleep anyways, because I can tell that he's not going to go back to sleep. And we're all out of bed by 5:30 and starting our day. Sounds miserable, doesn't it? It is.

Then, I mean... he's 13 months old. I guess that's the magic number with kids... you know.. the one where they start to get extremely determined to have their way. I know it's normal and I know it comes with the territory. If we were sleeping until a decent hour of the morning, I think I could handle it better. But an exhaustion that coffee can't even kick makes tantrums harder to deal with. It makes it hard to get excited about going outside for the 10th time in one day. Please don't get me wrong.. I love how much he can interact with me now. I love that part of this stage. He's almost walking. He's doing better and better about showing me what he wants. He's so incredibly lovey. Sometimes I feel like we're having real conversations. He laughs so much. But I have to get better at planning actual activities with him. Which I've always been excited to do. Doesn't he realize that if he'd just let me sleep for an extra hour and 1/2, we'd have so much more fun?!
My rope is very thin these days. Gone are the days where I could take him anywhere I pleased and he sits and smiles and let's me do my thing. Ha! Gone are the simple days at the Grocery store. Gone are the days where he'd basically do anything I wanted him to do. The nerve of him to have an opinion of his own!
So.. we fight battles daily. I win some, I lose some. Plenty of tears are shed... mostly from him ;) He kicks and screams and yells all of his frustration out multiple times a day. By 4:00 I think I'm going to lose my ever loving mind if I hear one more shriek/cry/scream. Trey comes home and I fight the urge to run out the door while he has it open (kidding, kidding.. kind of). And then it's all forgotten the second he says, "mama" in that sweet little voice. Or cuddles up to me to read. Or hugs his dog or glow worm. Or even better.. me.

I know this is just a season. Can you tell that I have to tell myself that a lot? I have less and less time for myself, but I know that's only going to diminish even more so. I'll be okay with that eventually. I'm just having a hard time balancing all my roles. Wife. Mother. Friend. Daughter. Between wife and mother... I'm really, really slacking at being a good friend. Any free time I get that's not used on Andrew goes to trying to keep my house in some sort of an order. My poor friends! I can't tell you how many emails have sat there.. unanswered. I do good to answer a text message the day after I get it. I've been a huge flake all around and even screwed up with a play date. I feel terrible.

I know I will sort everything out. I'll adjust. I'll be able to balance everything better. I know I need to MAKE time for myself. To get to PWOC (I didn't make it this morning and it crushed me), to blog (I NEED to blog), to.. ya know.. have a conversation with a friend (If I have any left ;)  )

So bear with me. If anyone has figured toddlers and time management out, feel free to leave me your magic tips!