iMistake

Last Saturday I had my first sewing lesson. I went to my aunt's house & she helped me make a skirt. It was lots of fun & a really nice mommy break, in fact I was gone for 6 hours!! My longest mommy break ever!

While I was away AW was having father/son time and during that time decided to take Anderson outside to play.

Anderson loves to play outside so this was a seemingly-great idea. Except it's still a little chilly outside which resulted in a very bad cough. Worthy of an ER trip & everything.

Thanks to a shot in the thigh he seemed to be recovering nicely but for the rest of the week we were cooped up indoors. Boo!

This past Saturday rolled around & we were officially stir crazy! Hubby had some studying to do and I took it as an opportunity to get out of the house to give him some peace & quiet (or just get out!).

I googled indoor play places and discovered one that looked great, the only thing was it was all the way down 280 & we had less than a 2hr time frame for our outing; not worth the drive.

I found another play place, called & explained I had a 13-month old & asked if he would enjoy it.

I was assured he would with their toddler play area & other toddler-friendly activities.

HA!

First, it was a Saturday afternoon at 4:00. Do you know what that means? BIRTHDAY PARTY CENTRAL!

There were a bajillion kids running amuck all over the place while the parents hid behind their iPhones. Some were attempting to capture a picture of their little sweetie "having a super fun Saturday afternoon at Little Billy's bday party! #LoveBeingAMommy". While others were taking it as an opportunity to completely zone out.

But there were 2 moms who weren't hiding behind their sanity devices. I'll get to them in a minute.

So, I sign the waiver (1st clue this wasn't toddler-friendly), pay & go in. I find the Toddler Play Area & discover this is basically a day care room that requires parental supervision with no adult-sized chairs around!

I removed our coats sat in a tiny chair and tossed balls in the ball pit to entertain Anderson. It was a losing battle.

There was a giant window so he could look out & see all of the children running around & "having a super fun Saturday afternoon at Little Billy's bday party!".

I decided it was only torture to let him watch the other children run around while all he got were some grimy plastic balls. I girded my loins & entered jungle.

He loved it. He was running all around, chasing kids too big to notice him & continuously falling only to have his hands barely not stepped on by herds of grade-schoolers.

I followed ever so closely all the while lugging our coats & my oversized diaper bag that clearly says, "I'm a first time mom!!!".

At one point there was a group of 6 year olds gathered in a circle planning their next move. Anderson was watching on with intensity. In fact, he was so enthralled he lost his balance & fell down. One of the girls thought it was her fault, turned around, proclaimed, "I'm soooooorrrry!" & attempted to pick him back up by sliding Anderson's armpits all the way up her arms & hoisting him upright. I laughed.

Surprisingly, her technique worked and Anderson appreciated some finally achieved attention. It was sweet.

Remember those two mommies who weren't hiding behind their iPhones? They watched the whole thing with severe disapproval. Nay, horror.

How could I let my tiny son run around amongst these oaf-like children & then be man-handled by a first grader?!

Well lady, when you've been cooped up all week and pretty much all month you'll do anything to get out & let your child run free. Ok, maybe YOU won't. That's fine. But I have to.

In the end we were there a total of about 45 minutes. He expelled some energy, it was a change of scenery & a lesson well learned.

NEVER GO ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON!

Supposedly it's "toddler city" during weekdays, perhaps we'll try again then. Or perhaps I'm crazy. Either way, IS IT SPRING YET???

New Recipe

My brother called me last week to tell me about this burger he had for dinner. He said they ate at a local Irish pub & the Shepherd's Pie Burger was sooo good! I thought it sounded sooo good too so of course I had to recreate it! 

Ingredients:
 Hamburger buns
Beef
Pea/Carrot veggie mix
Mashed potatoes
Brown gravy
Beef broth
Minced garlic
Seasonings of choice

I cooked the peas & carrots. AW then formed the hamburger patties with the peas & carrots in there. We cooked them on the stove in beef broth, 1/2t. of minced garlic, some salt & pepper. We placed the cooked patties on warm buns & topped them off with a generous scoop of mashed potatoes and then added some brown gravy on the potatoes. Topped of with the warm bun it was the ultimate comfort food for a snowy, Alabama day!

I thought it sounded weird to have mashed potatoes & gravy topped with a bun. As much as I LOVE carbs it sounded strange but it wasn't at all. It was pretty much just delicious! 

Here's a pic...remember I am NOT a photographer:

No Sew Quiet Book

I've decided to "Blanket Train' Anderson. Some of you may already know what this is. I first read about blanket training from the Duggar's first book. It sounded like a really interesting concept so I took it on.

I have to admit I haven't been as consistent as I've wanted to be, but even so he is doing great with it! The idea is to have a certain blanket that they sit on & play quietly on. No getting up, no running around. It teaches self-control, discipline and contentedness as they get 1 quiet toy to play with. 

I love all of these quiet books I've seen floating around Pinterest but I don't have sewing skills (yet!) BUT I do have lots of random, leftover craft supplies so I decided I would just make my own quiet book for him with the supplies and skills that I do have!

He has enjoyed playing with it & I had fun making it! I had some felt sheets leftover from a Christmas craft that I ended up not even using. I cut the felt into "pages" & added to them from there.

I used 2 different colors of felt for the first "page". I added these beads on a piece of yarn & triple-knotted it then hot-glued it on. This is one of his favorite ones to play with!

 For this page I just hot-glued some different ribbon tags on. I also cut the corners off the felt to add some interest. Too. Easy.

On the blue page I hot glued these wooden tools (leftover from one of his nursery projects). They're so cute!

On the next page I cut some fringe to add some interest. I then painted these craft sticks & hot glued these colored stars on. Seriously, a monkey could have made this thing and he really likes it!

The last page is another piece of red felt with some paint pen polka dots all over it. I didn't think you'd need a visual for that ;-)

To finish it all off, I used a single-hole punch in the corner of every page and tied them all together with scrap ribbon.

DONE.

From My iPhone

This is my first time blogging from my iPhone. We'll see how this turns out...

We don't have Internet or even a computer at our home; shocker, I know. But I do have a smart phone so I'm not completely out of it ;-)

I love reading other people's resolutions for the new year! Some are laughable, some are typical & some are smart! I'll share mine and you can decide which they are although I'm pretty excited about them!

MY 2013 GOALS:

1. Learn to sew -- I have a machine & I'm ready to learn! If you're interested in giving me lessons let me know!

2. Do a book club -- I'm excited because this goal is already underway! If you want to join in, let me know!

3. Coupon -- I used to be really good at this but then I had a baby. I haven't done it for a year so I'm super excited to get back in it!

OUR FAMILY GOALS:

1. Have dinner at our table 4 nights a week! It can be any 4 nights as long as we do it!

2. Memorize 1 verse a month!

3. "No More After 9" -- turning off our tv & smart phone at 9:00 which will either send us to bed early (always a win!), create an environment for more communication, or get some reading done! This applies for Sunday-Thursday nights.

Of course we have other goals as well but these are some fun ones that I wanted to share! I'd love to know what your goals are for the year!

Christmas Burnt, I mean Brunch

Was your Christmas wonderful? Was it picture perfect, like something from a Rockwell painting? Did your breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner come off flawlessly and taste absolutely perfect? Was your home decorated beautifully with seasonal candles burning away?

If so, congrats! If not, welcome to my club! The Christmas Burnt Brunch Club.

While, overall, our Christmas day was filled with family, good food & some cute pics, it wasn't perfect.

Anderson actually slept until 8:15 which was a Christmas miracle! We got him up, changed his diaper & jammies (so much for Christmas morning pics in his actual Christmas jammies...thanks leaky sposie!) and showed him his gifts. He was so sweet & was having so much fun! It was so fun to watch him play with his new toys and babble on about how great of parents we are who knows what!

In the midst of our Christmas morning Hubby caught a case of The Grinch. Yes, we began to "tiff". In fact, we were still "tiffing" when my in-laws arrived. Isn't that what everyone dreams about???

Thankfully we talked it out & Hubby apologized to everyone for being The Grinch. We moved on & not a minute too soon because team work was right around the corner.

You see, in years past we have alwasy spent the night with my parents on Christmas Eve & woken up to a delicious breakfast of Monkey Bread on Christmas morning. Well, actually, that didn't happen last year. I don't really remember what exactly happened last year as our Baby was 3 days old. Moving on...

So, since we were spending Christmas morning as just the 3 of us I decided I must make Monkey Bread. I lovingly prepped it the night before after getting home from my aunt's house. It was probably close to midnight before we went to bed due to breakfast prep & setting out the gifts.

I popped the monkey bread in the oven Christmas morning & hopped in the shower. My in-laws arrived and we were all talking when the oven timer went off. I opened the oven, excited & nervous to see the final product when smoke billowed out from my oven & a burning sound sizzled & popped on my oven floor.

I waved the smoke away & looked inside...The 2-piece tube pan had leaked the brown sugar/butter mixture all onto the bottom of the oven where it was solidifying into a carbon crust!!!

We determined the monkey bread was finished & set it aside to cool. Hubby shut the oven door to stop the smoke & opened the back door. We could have just kept the door closed & turned the oven off & ignored it for a bit except that I had two quiches I had made that had to go in because they would take 30 minutes to bake.

So, we turned the oven off, let it cool for a few minutes & then my dear hubby got to scraping away that carbon crust!

Yeah, Yuck.

At this point we were laughing. I mean, what else are you supposed to do?

After a good scrubbing we turned the oven back on proceeded to finish baking Christmas brunch!

The monkey bread wasn't perfect but it was pretty close & tasted yummy!

Thankfully the quiche came out great & Christmas brunch ended up being delicious! So, there we sat in our sweats with a pile of laundry on the couch, eating our barely-survived brunch watching our sweet boy walk around with his favorite Christmas gift: a $2 toothbrush.

Although the morning didn't go just as I had planned I thought about what Christmas was about & reminded myself that imperfections are the reasons there is Christmas. Christ came to die for us messy sinners who argue with our spouses, burn breakfast & leave unfolded piles of laundry lying about. Christ came to save us from all of our sins. No matter how great or small. And He is coming again. 

Oh, how I can't wait for that day!

When all is restored and set right. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanual!