Patience is a Virtue

Of which I'm lacking.

Sorely lacking.

But I hope you have more than I do!

My boys are all home for summer break. I love my boys. They are my sunshine! But they test my patience daily. Some days I lose it. I totally lose it and I have to give myself a timeout. I give them timeouts, too. But I think it's safe to say that I'm the one that needs it the most, because as I remind Mikey often, I'm older and I should know better.

Right now, my living room is cluttered. Not just a few toys, books and papers randomly scattered. No, it's a mountain of clutter that I moved from my bedroom to the livingroom, knowing that it can't stay that way and I will be forced to deal with it. While it was ensconced in the bedroom, I could ignore it. At least until I went to bed each night. Then I tossed and turned wishing I had the energy to do something about it.

I'm glad to say my bedroom has not looked this good in 8 years. It's peaceful and relaxing. I think I'll spend my weekend in there.

Or not.

I have to get this pile taken care of.

Anyway, I said all that because I know I haven't been posting regularly and I feel bad for my readers. I'm sorry. I may not have much of anything important to impart to you folks on a daily basis, but I know that when I do post, it gives you an excuse to put off the dreaded housework, homework, errands, etc. a few minutes more. I understand this.

But it will be worth your while to keep following. I'm working up to my 100th post and in celebration of that I will be posting about 10 of my favorite things for posts 90-100. And I would like to have a giveaway for each post. So stay tuned. Hopefully, we'll reach that 100 post together before snow flies. *fingers crossed*

Remember:

Patience is a virtue

Virtue is a grace

Grace is a little girl

Who wouldn't wash her face!

For the Family

I decided that we needed a getaway. Well, actually, I really, really, REALLY need a getaway. But I'm getting one. In two weeks. But that's then. This is now!

We, the whole family, is going to Minnesota Friday and Saturday. Just because. Just because we can. Just because Samuel thought of it. And it's his birthday Saturday. And I like Samuel. Because.

So. We are going to take in an IMAX film. About the Great Lakes. Because I like water. And one about the Grand Canyon. Because I like water and great heights. And I've been to both places. Yup. Small parts of them but still.

We are going to eat out. Yum. No more eggs for me this week. Guess what? When you don't feel like cooking....eggs are an easy meal. But they get old. And if you have an aversion to them because you are pregnant with your 3rd or 4th child it just might not be the best meal.

And we just might go to a "REAL" mall. You know, the kind that has more than 3 open store fronts.

But. We gotta get there first. And that is going to be the telling. Are we still in the honeymoon phase of childrearing? Hohohohahahee. No. I coulda told ya that. But the boys will have to get along. Sitting REALLY close together for 4 hours. Mike and I might just let them run the halls and we'll lock ourselves into our room and have a honeymoon. Woo hoo.

Ok. It's late and I'm gonna go back over to PW to read more of her real-time answers. Hope she answers my burning questions. See ya there!

Valentine's Day Breakfast for all the boys I LOVE

As of Friday night, I still had not decided exactly what to do for my guys for Valentine's Day. Two years ago, I got a babysitter for the boys and I made a very romantic dinner for Mike. He had no idea I had anything planned. I whisked the kids over to a friend's house just to get home a few minutes ahead of Mike and get the finishing touches on our candle light dinner of beef tenderloin and shrimp all set out on a table decked with a red tablecloth covered with a white crocheted tablecloth. It was very pretty. We finished dinner off with my homemade Chocolate Ganache Cheesecake. To. Die. For. Yum.

Then, while the kiddos where away, I wanted to play and Mike decided we'd go to Walmart! Ugh.

Last year was Mike's turn to surprise me.

He invited me out to a seafood lunch at a little diner called Joey's (not to be confused with Joey's Crab Shack--but just as good!) in downtown Houghton. That wasn't the surprise. The surprise was that he got me flowers and chocolates and had them all waiting for me at the table, ensconsed in one of the storefront windows. It was very nice!

So. Earlier this past week, I bought some candy and a small stuffed animal for each of the boys (stuffed animals at V-day and Easter seems to be a tradition).

But Saturday was still a mystery to me. The boys and I were going to a Church Dedication service in Hancock later that afternoon so it wasn't like I could do anything special for Mike. It had to be a family affair.

What do you do at 8am? Cook breakfast.

I had almost decided on oatmeal or bagels the night before. But as I rolled out of bed Saturday morning I decided a special breakfast was in store.

My husband loves crepes. Mikey loves crepes and can even cook them! So crepes it was!!

This is the recipe we use:

4 eggs

1 1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

In medium bowl, slightly beat eggs then add all other ingredients. Beat until smooth.

Heat crepe pan over med-high heat. Spray with cooking spray.

Pour 1/2 cup batter into hot pan, immediately tilting pan until batter covers bottom of pan. Cook until edges start to dry and center is set. Turn to brown other side.

We have our crepes!

Now we fill them:

3 tbsp small curd cottage cheese

3 tbsp sliced strawberries in syrup

(I thickened my syrup by heating it in microwave until boiling, then adding a tbsp cornstarch and heating again til thick)

Roll crepes, sprinkle with powdered sugar, red decorating sugar and draw a heart with chocolate syrup

Ta da!

They were an absolute hit!

PS. You can make smaller crepes by using 1/4 cup batter and putting less filling in each one. My boys are big eaters!

1/2 Dozen

Wow. It is SO quiet here in my home right now. Not that anything is different from the ordinary this morning. But it was a few short hours ago.
I was a brave, very brave woman this weekend.
After a hectic two weeks trying to get my kitchen painted and the house ready for Thanksgiving with my family, we had 14 people jammed into it all day Thursday--the majority of them children all under 15. My 4 nieces stayed the night Thursday and left Friday afternoon. I enjoyed their stay immensely and hope they all come again REALLY soon. So we had Friday evening to ourselves. My husband and I celebrated our 13th anniversary without the boys. =D
Now comes the brave part.....
Saturday morning I was scheduled to babysit for a family in Houghton. When I got there, I was informed that the dad had got the day off so I wasn't needed. I didn't see any reason to waste the 1/2 hour trip so called over to the Griffins to see if they wanted company for the morning. Turned out that they were a bit busy (that is a supreme understatement) so I instead offered to take their 8yo son, Malachi, off their hands for the weekend. Eli has been wanting him to stay over for some time now but it has not worked out for either of us. But Kelly was more than willing to have him out of her hair for a little while. When I got to the house, her 12 yo son, TJ, asked if he could come along. I figured it would be nice for Michael to have company too so I said sure if it was ok with his mom. She was fine with it and sent him to pack. "I'm already packed," he said. "I started packing as soon as you told Malachi he was going." Woo-eee! Now there is some faith in action! LOL That is how I ended up with a 1/2 dozen boys in my home this weekend. But that's not all. Oh, no....that's not all! Michael's friend, Steven, also called and invited him over but since TJ was here it wasn't going to work so I let Michael invite Steven over for the day instead.
So here we had 7 boys...ranging in age from 4 to 12. Wow.
I think Mike is crabby right now. He was really short with me and the boys all weekend. Luckily it was his weekend on call, he didn't have to put up with it too long.
Well, I'm still sane. I think. And guess what? I want to do it again. Except Mike has put his foot down that it can't be on school nights anymore. Oh well. We'll do Friday to Sunday afternoon next time! hahahahahohoheehee