while matt's away...

more often than not, when matt goes away, i get these crazy ideas to re-do some part of our house. i usually take on way more than i can handle and end up exhausting myself instead of doing what i really want to do, which is read, catch up on movies, relax. but the end result makes it all worth it.

this time, matt took a 10 day road trip to new york with his dad. the minute he pulled out of the driveway, the kids and i disassembled my bedroom and went to home depot and starbucks (this project would require some immediate energy!) i had to get started before the inspiration and motivation went away. because this was a total surprise to matt, i was doing this without a budget. so using the bigger things that we already have, i went to work.

i wish i had a before picture, but who would want a picture of that? so i didn't take one. to give you an idea, our room had been painted green with white stripes (what was i thinking??) and the style was very "whimsical" which translates to "nothing matches"!!

i gave the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint, dragging a drop cloth throughout the room...because who buys one big enough to cover the entire room? yeah, uh not me. i became speckled in the process, but once that was done, the worst of the messy part was over. next came patching the holes, sanding it down should have followed, but i was busy getting it done and forgot to do that. oh well. finally, i painted two coats of parisian taupe, that's the fancy word for a creme color. when i paint, i move the furniture about 18 inches away from the walls. you can imagine how my painting technique differs from that of my husband, who does everything the right way. his motto is "smarter not harder" and that went through my head many, many times as i was squeezing in between a piece of furniture and the wall. :)

now on to the decorating, my friends have very immaculate taste (which i lack) and gave me tips on which bedding to order, how to arrange a photo collage above my bed with matching frames, which window treatments to buy and hang, and how to add the personal touches like a clock, flowers, candles, a basket, etc. following their advice, i shopped and i decorated. we have solid wood furniture that had belonged to his parents and i love the look that it brings to the room. we moved one piece of furniture to another wall and shifted everything else about a foot over and it looks completely different. matt's mom had a mirror in her house that went with our bedroom set so i went over to her house at about 10:30 one night and picked that up to complete the look. and finally, the clutter is gone!!

we love the way that our room turned out and better yet, i came in under budget, which is really easy to do when you aren't starting with one at all.

here are a couple of "after" shots. :)

mountain bike legs

towards the end of the ride, the sun was setting!

we have recently started mountain biking as a family. it's the first activity that we can do together that we all LOVE! we've done other things that one person is really into and the others tolerate. but this is something that we are all so excited to do. one of those things that you just can't wait to do again.

the workout for one, is pretty good, it justifies the chipotle or cherry on top that we like to have afterwards. there's also a sense of accomplishment when you have made it the top of a high hill, or perhaps through a technical point of the trail. for the kids, it's the GU that they look forward to consuming about midway through the ride. GU resembles snot in consistency so we call it a "sugar booger"...yum right!?

matt and the kids made it to the top!

for me, i like to push it and ride a little harder, a little faster and maybe take a little more technical route. yet it seems no matter how careful i try to be, i fall. this is partly due to my lack of coordination and partly due to the fact that my feet are clipped into the pedals.

this week, i fell (suprise!) and came home to discover six new bruises on both legs and a scraped up knee. we've been told that you can only use wounds in one of two ways, either as a sympathy card or badge of honor. this week, i'm going with the badge of honor. my legs aren't pretty, but they are mountain bike legs!

i can't wait to get out there with the kids again!

favorite things

these are a few of my favorite things...watching the sunrise

hovering over my coffee early in the morning with matt

watching levi laugh until he can't breath

talking with taylor

laughing with a sweet friend

the sound of the vacuum

the smell of pinesol

watching a movie that makes me cry

curling up with a good book

chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven

surprises

letters from the mailman

new adventures

road trips

what are your favorite things?

turkey carcass soup...

each year, matt and i snag the turkey carcass from my mother in law on thanksgiving and we make some yummy soup with it.

this year at our house, we have much to be thankful for and decided to celebrate with an early feast last friday. i could go on and on about what we are thankful for, but i'll save that for another post.

with thanksgiving just around the corner, i thought i'd share this fall recipe of ours, its not only a tradition for us, but a favorite. normal people would call it turkey and vegetable soup, not us, but we never claimed to be normal. enjoy this turkey carcass soup!

turkey carcass soup

once the turkey meat has been cut off of the bones for dinner, put the turkey carcass in a large pot and fill it with enough water to cover. bring it to a boil, then simmer it for an hour or so. pour the liquid and carcass through a strainer into a container (save the liquid). pick the meat off of the bones and put that back into the large pot. pour the liquid back into the pot. add all of the following and let it simmer for an hour or two.

3 carrots - chopped

3 celery stocks - chopped

1 onion - chopped

2 zucchini - cut in small pieces

1 large potato - peeled and chopped

1 cup barley

1 t. salt

1 t. white pepper

a lesson from my mother in law...

this photo was taken at the last family dinner, we celebrated shirl's 81st birthday.

a lesson from my mother in law...

she recently passed away and now her four children have the very difficult task of going through her belongings. watching matt do this is harder than i ever imagined, this is the only house any of them have ever known their mom to live in. it has been hers for 51 years. the kids have to decide who will take what, what to donate and what just get rid of. although this all doesn't have to take place now, there are certain things that do need to be taken care of right away...like the food that remains in the house.

yesterday they began that job. matt brought home a very full box of food, 4 cases of water, 2 cases of diet coke and a fancy glass bottle of water. as i looked at these items, i was reminded of what a sweet and thoughtful woman my mother in law was. its amazing how something like a box of cookies or bag of chips can take you to a different place, a distant memory.

she had a combined total of 25 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. she knew what each person liked to snack on, what they liked to drink. she made sure she had plenty on hand, just in case any of us happened to stop by. she knew i preferred diet coke over diet pepsi. she knew levi and matt loved green tea and taylor was a water drinker. she was always stocked up on all of these things, just in case we came over for a visit.

as matt and i put our goods away in our kitchen, i thought about how she always had something for us to drink or to snack on when we just stopped by. i thought about my friends and family. do i know what they like to drink? do i have those things on hand? do i stop what i'm doing to make that friend or family member feel welcome when they stop by?

i really hope that as we sort through the things in her life, we not only see deeper layers of who she was, but that we also grow in ways that make us just like her.

who doesn't like an easy pasta dinner?

i love recipes that are easy. i found an old campbells soup recipe booklet and made this dish. i substituted the plain pasta for the tri colored and it not only looked pretty, but had spinach and tomato in it. the kids didn't know the difference. here is the recipe straight from campbellskitchen.com

campbells country skillet

Prep: 5 minutes

Cook: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef

1 medium onion

chopped 1/8 tsp. garlic powder OR 1 garlic minced

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup

1 can Campbell's® Condensed Beef Broth

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed

1 can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomato

1 small zucchini, sliced1

1/2 cups uncooked corkscrew-shaped pasta

Directions:
Cook beef, onion and garlic in skillet until browned. Pour off fat.
Add soup, broth, thyme, tomatoes and zucchini. Heat to a boil. Stir in pasta. Cook over low heat 15 min. or until done.

i have to say, it was good!

meals made easy

for anyone who knows me, you know that i love to feed my family fairly healthy while saving as much money and time as possible. it's also quite a challenge to find something that we all enjoy eating. i know i'm not the only mom who faces this, so when i come across a meal worthy of sharing, i'll be sure to post it.

last night's dinner and today's lunch were super easy, quick and inexpensive, and we all loved it! (an added rare bonus!) this one took 15 minutes at the most and cost under $8 for our family of 4.

french dip sandwiches made easy
6 french rolls (they come already cut!)
1 package of deli sliced roast beef lunch meat
2 cans beef consomme
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon of garlic
2 tablespoons flour

in a saucepan, melt the butter and add the garlic, saute for about a minute, add the flour and stir. add beef consomme and heat to almost a boil. (while that is cooking, toast the open french rolls in the broiler.) add the lunch meat to the saucepan to get the meat warm. if you are anything like me ~ throw away rolls because they are burned and toast more rolls. add the meat to the rolls, cut sandwich in half at an angle. serve with a cup of the au jus sauce for dipping.
enjoy with fruit and chips.


lunch today would have made a perfect summer dinner, served with chips and fruit. we all loved it! this one too, was prepared quickly and was very inexpensive.


chicken ceasar wraps
4 very large tortillas
half cup of cut up cooked chicken
bag of ceasar salad mix

make the salad, add the chicken, wrap in a tortilla and it's done!

i found a bag of chicken already cooked in the freezer section of the grocery store, but i could have bought it on sale, cooked it ahead of time and stored it in my freezer for times like this.

do you have any quick and easy recipes that your family enjoys?