“Mama, I sleep with you?” (meaning can I move from my pillow to yours?)

 - “Sure”

“Mama, I snuggle you?”

 - “Yes, Brother”

“I love you, Mama.  You look great.”

Not to be outdone, Will chimes in.

“I love you, baby.  You look great.”

Now that’s what a woman wants to hear in the morning.

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“In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:8  (from the back of the notepad I hastily grabbed to start a “to do” list)

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“Oh, I lost my train.” (Grandma, having been interrupted before she could complete her thought.”)

“You have a train?!” (uttered incredulously by Sister)

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“Growl, growl - I’m a kitty.”  (Sister during her regular “pretend I’m something else” time.)

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“Mama, help me my game.  Thomas lost.”  (Brother with terrible sadness and fake sniffling).

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“Did you know George Washington Carver invented THREE HUNDRED uses for peanuts!” (information delivered by Sister courtesy of BrainPop jr.)

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“24? - yeesh!”  (Sister’s response to when Aunt R revealed her age.)

“I can’t believe I just got a ‘yeesh’ about my age.  I am soo old.”  (Aunt R.)

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“Sooo, let’s get cookin’.”  (Sister to me when I was blogging instead of helping her make muffins.)

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(overheard)

“That’s a pretty nifty drum set.” (Sister)

“Yeah, dat’s petty nif dum set.” (Brother) 

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- “Sister I’m going shopping, I’ll be back soon, Aunt R is in charge.” (Me)

“Okay, but you realize that means we may watch TV.” (Sister)

- “Brother I’m going shopping, I’ll be back soon.” (Me)

“No, no, no, I come too.” (Brother)

****************

“Oh, Mama I wuv it… peeeese.” (Brother seeing a Diego scooter at Wal-mart.)

“I’na go home.” (Brother not long after being told he couldn’t have the Diego scooter at Wal-mart.)

****************

“I sad. I [have] no socks. (Brother after waking up from a nap alone.)

****************

(at dinner)

“Did you know George Washington Carver was known as the Plant Doctor?” (Sister)

- Oh? Why is that? (Will)

“I have no idea.” (Sister)

****************

(everybody after dinner)

Boop

- beep

beep

– boop

beep

-boop

boop

– beep, beep

boop

(and on and on and on….)

****************

“Look Mom.  Look a us. We’re dancing!” (from Brother.  Unfortunately, there is no way a quote can capture the cuteness of your family dancing to Malaguena.)

“the lil lord Jesus lay down he lays!” (Brother’s version of Away in a Manger sung to Flamenco.)

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“E.J. IS HERE!!” (the Yahoo popup announcing an incoming email and the birth of a second cousin)

****************

“I not Brother, I Joe” (Brother)

- “Well get your pajamas on Joe.” (me)

“Okay” (Brother)

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“Not Naughty Diesel again!  I think I’ll go to bed early.” (Sister on Brother’s choice of bedtime stories.)

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“To bed to bed to bed we go

To bed to bed to bed we know

It’s time to go and rest our heads

On our pillows in our beds

It’s time to close our eyes and sleep

And pray the Lord our souls to keep.” (everybody)

****************

Good Night.

This morning I cooked a whole package of bacon.  One of the mega size packages.  Now I realize that for some of you with large families this is not any great thing but around here the kids and I consume 3 to 5 pieces max.  I cooked the rest of the package because tomorrow I may not feel like cooking breakfast or this afternoon the kids may want a quick snack and it will be much easier for them to pull out a piece of bacon to munch on than for me to make a pb&j sandwich.  I do this with sausage too.  One day, one mess - works for me.

Another great time/mess saver are breakfast casseroles.  They can be made in a casserole dish if you are expecting a crowd or in individual ramikins for use throughout the month.  Make ahead, freeze and enjoy at your leisure.  Here are two delightful recipies from the kitchen of Aunt T. in Wichita.

GREEN CHILI BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

1 lb. Sausage, browned and drained
6 eggs
2 cups milk
2 slices cubed bread
1 can diced green chiles
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Beat eggs; add milk, chiles, salt pepper and mustard.
Add bread cubes and stir well. Add cheese and sausage. Place in sprayed 9×13 inch pan.
Refrigerate overnight. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Add a bit more grated cheese to top and bake just until melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Can serve with salsa.

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE
1 loaf French bread cut into 1″ cubes (10 cups)
8 eggs
3 cups milk
4 tsps. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt, optional
TOPPING:
2 Tblsp butter or margerine, cubed
3 Tblsp. Sugar
2 tsps. ground cinnamon
Place bread cubes in a greased 13 X 9″ pan. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk and sugar, vanilla and salt. Pour over bread in pan. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Dot with butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top. Cover and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with syrup or powdered sugar if desired.

Do you get junk mail?  Okay silly question - who doesn’t?  But do you get a slew of those “you have been pre-approved” offers every week?  We do and it makes me want to scream, “Save a tree already, will you!?!”  Unfortunately the credit card companies and mortgage companies (we don’t even own a house any more!) either aren’t aware of or don’t care about the massive deforestation their mailings cause.  Usually I just rip and toss but today the phrase “opt-out” caught my eye.  Hmm, what’s that?  Only the best two words I’ve read all day for it led me to this website.  Bye, bye “pre-approved.”

Or you can call the Pre-screen & Opt-out phone line (1-888-567-8688)

I’ll be doing some category cleanup around here for the next few days and since I’m not sure how that affects feeds and such I thought I give you all fair warning.  Hopefully, the archives will be easier to browse when I’m finished. (and if not, at least I’ll feel better for having tried.)

Have you seen those cars that have been taken over by bumper stickers.  If you look fast it’s almost like some eclectic, custom paint job … with wit.  I do not have one of those cars.  I will never have one of those cars but I am not opposed to one or two tastefully displayed stickers.  For the longest time I had one with the scripture reference Psalm 91 printed in such a way that the words looked like the American flag.  It was patriotic.  It expressed my faith.  And it was carefully placed on my rear window** perfectly perpendicular to the window frame.  Tasteful.  It remained there until a couple of months ago when I made a purchase from Life Is Good.  Upon checkout they asked if I would like to add a LIG sticker to my order.  Thinking of the now faded and worn Psalm 91, I clicked yes.  On the day my order arrived, it was off with the old and on with the new.  Now I don’t want ya’ll to think that I have thrown out Psalm 91 as a belief.  I still expect angels to watch over me. In fact, given the number of random bruises I acquire, I desperately need them too.  But “life is good” expresses my current state of being.  I lined it up next to the only other sticker on my car (”Our Ancestors Were Born At Home”) and an amazing thing happened.

I felt free.  It was as if a great cloud of responsibility had been lifted.  You see, in the back of my mind, I’ve worried about what people would think if I were in an accident.  You know would they see my Psalm 91 sticker and think, “Wow, her angels were off duty today.”  I’ve been concerned about the kind of Christian witness I portray when I inadvertently run a red light squeak through just as the light turns yellow.  I’m not a bad driver but everybody make the occasional mistake and I guess I’ve felt like I was under a microscope.  I didn’t want my actions to reflect badly on Christians in general.  Now I have two hippie kind of stickers on my car and I don’t worry about what people think  because they are probably thinking it about those tree hugging, hippie people and I’m definitely not one of those…… uhm, yeah.

Do you have bumper stickers on your car?  If so, what do they say?  If not, what’s the best one (or two) you’ve seen?

** Despite their name I refuse to put bumper stickers on my bumper which is basically the same as putting a sign on your derrier except that it’s your car’s derrier.  Okay, maybe its not the same but it’s weird to me and I don’t do it.

I know, I know.  It’s not a very exciting picture.  Kind of lame really as far as pictures go but it is ’soft’.  I promise.  In case you hadn’t figured it out yet this is a bed.  More specifically it is my our bed.  And by ‘our’ bed I mean that each night it is occupied by Sister, Brother, Me & Will in that order from left to right.  It’s actually two queen size beds pushed together in what I call a mega-king configuration.  You see despite the fact that my children are 5 and 2 they still sleep with us and we are nothing if not practical.  Sleep is my one great indulgence - besides chocolate and internet shopping and …. okay, I have many great indulgences but sleep is one of them.  To that end on our bed frame sits a very expensive mattress with a very thick pillowtop covered by 1200 thread count sheets and two of the best snuggle up in a cocoon blankets EVER.  I have limited myself to two pillows but only because Will insisted that since he paid for the aforementioned very expensive bed the least I could do was make a little room for him in it.  Picky, picky.  Anyway, when you go to all this trouble to make such a nest you don’t really want to share it.  Especially not with munchkins who will kick their covers off before you can say, “sleep tight”, don’t use pillows at all, and occasionally sport the very attractive leaky diaper.  Still, one wants to be a good parent.  Some people say letting our kids sleep with us means that we are “soft” but I prefer to think we are instilling in them a sense of security - a knowledge that we care about them and that we want them near. They’ll grow up soon enough and want their own spaces.  For now I’ll keep them close AND have my sleep.

Did you play?

As I was making lunch, this occurred to me.  Being a mother is a lot like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  A bit of sticky, a dab of sweet and -if you don’t want the finished product to have holes- a lot of patience and finesse.

Will:  How was your day?

What I thought about saying:  Well, I didn’t do a single thing on my list.  The coyote returned IN BROAD DAYLIGHT to take Three More Chickens!  I have a sunburn on top of which, I am apparently allergic to spring because my head feels like the Animaniacs dropped an anvil on it and the cartoon birdies flying around are making me so dizzy I almost fainted in Sutherland’s.

What I actually said:  Good.  How was yours?

Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it.  ~Mark Twain

At the very least I try to reserve it until after Will has had dinner.

Strolling through the Works for Me Wednesday list I came across this great tip over at The Wooden Porch.  Losing a child in a crowd is easily one of the scariest things that can happen to a parent.  With my little ones I write a cutesy little note  “Hi, my name is ___.  I would very much like to find my mother.  Her name is ___.  Her cell phone number is ___.  Please call her for me.”  Then I fold it in half and write “In Case of Emergency” REALLY big on the outside. Then I tape it to their backs. This accomplishes two things. First they don’t have to be able to recite their name and contact information in a potentially stressful situation and second, lots of people notice a child walking around with a big sign on his back. I once lost my son for about 30 seconds at a carnival. It was only 30 seconds because 4 different people said, “oh, the ‘emergency’ kid? He’s over there.”

I love books!  Fiction or non it doesn’t matter.  I don’t like libraries.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  More accurately stated I prefer the casual atmosphere of a well-laid out bookstore to the stuffy, hush hush rows of the library.  (and you can’t get good coffee in most libraries)  Despite this preference my pocketbook doesn’t allow me to “check out” every book in the bookstore nor would my home have room for them if I could.  So lately, I have gotten in the habit of “buying” them online.  I browse the bookstores.  Find what I like.  Then go home and look them up on our local library system.  With just a few clicks of the mouse I can have any book sent to the library close to my house.  We live in a relatively large city so the library collection is extensive but even if they don’t have it locally there’s always interlibrary loan.  I’ve never not found the book I was looking for.  Another benefit of this method is that every library has a hold shelf for these reserved books.  At our library the hold shelf is directly across from the children’s section.  My kids can browse for their weekly books while I pick up mine.  All in all a trip to the library takes about 20 minutes and with two little ones that works for me.

Check out more Wednesday tips over at Rocks In My Dryer