Food Friday (on Monday)

Here's a great dessert recipe that I used on Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!


Dirt Cake

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix

3 cups milk 1 (12 ounce) Cool Whip 1 pkg Oreos

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Chop cookies very fine in food processor. The white cream will disappear.
2.	Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl.
3.	In a large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.
4.	Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.
5.	Layer in pan, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.
6.	Chill until ready to serve.

My Favorite Guy in the whole wide world!!!

Today is a very important day!  It is the day that my favorite person was born, 36 Now 38!) years ago.  :-)  This post is dedicated to him!  I love you, baby!

I think I will just give a few reasons why he's my favorite person, but if you know him, you already know!  Enjoy the pictures!

1.  He loves me more than I could ever have hoped to be loved!  Just for who I am.

2.  He has a heart for God.

3.  He's a wonderful father to our children.

4.  He's my best friend.

5.  He's the funniest person, EVER!

6.  He never gives up.  Even on me, when I have.

7.  He's a ROCKIN' guitarist!

8.  He can admit when he's wrong...usually.  :-)

9.  He builds gorgeous guitars!  Agape Guitars  (Had to get his blog in here somewhere!)

10.  He inspires me to be a better me!


This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Rich.  I've been with him for 16 (18!) years and I am still learning new things about him.  He's a fantastic guy and I can't imagine what my world would be like if not for him.  He has taught me a lot, and I'm not even close to being done with him!  So, make sure you tell him Happy Birthday!

Thanksgiving (A day late)

Those of you who know me, know that I am late for almost everything.  I was even late for my own wedding!  It's not a fun affliction to be stuck with, but I do what I have to do.  Also, I usually use Fridays for Food Fridays...that will come out on Monday.  Make sure you check it out!  With that out of the way, let me get down to business.

This is what I am thankful for this year:

My husband, Rich, is the best thing that has ever happened to me!  Honestly, I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had not happened upon him 16 years ago.  He's my best friend and I am incredibly thankful to be married to the wonderful man!  He works outrageously hard so I can be a stay-at-home mom to our children...which brings me to number two.

My kids.  I think I have the funniest children around!  They make me laugh on a daily basis.  At 10 and almost 5 they are still really cuddly, so I get so many cuddles that I can hardly stand it!  I am thankful that God trusted me to raise them.  

Sharon Holbert and Bethany Powroznik.  I am so truly thankful for these ladies.  They love my son.  They love him enough to be tough on him.  They believe in his potential.  If it weren't for these two ladies, Wesley wouldn't be where he is today.  Because of them, I have the option to either start him in kindergarten next year or go ahead and hold him back another year.  I have that option because I think that he could make it in kindergarten.  Their hard work has given that to us.  Bethany is Wesley's pre-k teacher.  Sharon is his Developmental Specialist.  I will be forever thankful for them.  They are helping Wesley be able to function in this crazy world.

Thanks for reading this.  It's a great feeling to be thankful for something!

Weekend and new blog...nothing creative here.

I have a new (revived) blog for my soap! http://foggymorningsundries.blogspot.com/  Come follow me over there!


I hope you all had a great weekend.  Mine was a little up and down.  Friday ended up pretty great because a problem that I was having with Wesley's SSI got resolved and I had a fantastic time with the MOPS ladies at Mom's Night Out!  We had an absolute blast!  We played "I've never..." and I revealed a little more about myself than I wanted to, but that's the beauty of these ladies...no one was judging me.  We were all laughing and had a good time.  I knocked Lisa out of the chair, but was nice and helped her up and let her have it.  :-)

Saturday was a pretty good day too.  Nick got to go hunting for the very first time...I will have to recount some stories later this week.  The we got together with his 4H group and went to see Megamind.  That was a really good movie!  Loved the soundtrack!  Songs like "Back in Black", "Bad to the Bone", "Bad."  Great stuff!  Then we went to eat at McDonald's.  We had a good time!

Yesterday is where the down came to play.  Got the kids all dressed and ready to go to church.  I was excited to go, Rich was playing at CRC this weekend.  We got in the car, with the exception of Nick, he was still in the house...went to put the car into park to go see what was taking him so long and the gear shift fell off in my hand.  Ok, either this thing just broke or I suddenly have super human strength!  Wow!  Let's see what else I can do!  Nope, it just broke.  Of course, I was sitting in front of the house in the middle of the road, in reverse.  Nick couldn't get out of the door, so...not thinking here...I shut the car down.  Great, now I can't get it started again because it's in gear!  ARGH!!  Luckily, there isn't much traffic on my road at 8:30 on a Sunday morning.

"Dad, can you come rescue me?  I'm stuck!"  Dad played the knight in shining armor. He took my steering column apart so I can shift gears manually.  Ugh.  Checked it out online, apparently, this is a common problem with these vehicles.  And something like $2000 to replace the steering column!!  Are you kidding me?!?  It's almost Christmas, I don't have that kind of money!! (I wouldn't have that kind of money even if it WASN'T almost Christmas, but that's beside the point!)

And this morning, my kids decided that 4:30 was a FINE time to be awake!  (ZZZzzzzz.....)

Anyway, that was my weekend.  How was yours?

Food Friday

Today I am posting a pretty simple dish for pasta.  I tried making homemade pasta this week, but I think I will wait until I have a pasta machine before I make it again.  I don't think I cooked it long enough either, but oh well.  Got a nice arm workout from it!  Here you go!

Oh, before I post it, I would love to hear from you all.  I am on the lookout for some great holiday recipes.  Have one?  Care to share?  I would love to try them!

Creamy Spinach and Tomato Pasta

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb thin spaghetti 2 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes 10 oz baby spinach leaves

1 cup sour cream 2 tablespoon prepared basil pesto

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender. Drain.
2.	While you wait for the pasta, combine the tomatoes and spinach in a saucepan over medium heat. When the spinach begins to wilt, stir in the sour cream and pesto. Toss sauce with drained pasta and serve immediately.

I've done it.

I finally went and did it.  I opened an Etsy shop.  It's called Foggy Morning Sundries.  I joined the site about 18 months ago, but never got up the nerve to start selling.  After the craft show that I did last weekend, I did it.  I love making soap!  I love trying to be creative and coming up with new things.  Here's to trying to make a go of it!  Wish me luck and come check it out!

Meaning-full Monday

Coming up on Thanksgiving, I am seeing lots of people post what they are thankful for.  I love seeing these posts on FB.  I love that people are taking the time to reflect on even the small things in life to be thankful for.  Sometimes it's only small things that you have.  Then, it's the small things that get you through those huge awful things.  I have several big things, but right now, (knock on wood) we are doing quite well with them.  Today, my big awful thing staring me in the face is HOUSEWORK.

My weekend was super busy!  I had a Pampered Chef party, a craft show, and a birthday party all this weekend.  That being said...my house is a WRECK!  I am going to chose to be grateful for it though.  I am choosing to be thankful that I have a house.  That I have things that need cleaning up.  That I have the children that so enjoy wrecking my house.  I wouldn't trade any of that for the world!  So, there you have it.  I am turning my big awful thing around and being thankful!  I am choosing to walk through this day with a happy heart, not grieving all the work that needs to be done.  If I look hard enough, I can always find something to be thankful and grateful for.

As I am typing this, I am delighted to look out my window at a family of deer passing by on the hillside. See, it's the small things that can almost always make me smile.

Small Things Saturday

I love the mornings when they want to crawl in bed with me.  I love the feel of the little ones snuggling up.  I'm going to miss that soon.

Food Friday

This is a recipe that we have played around with to get just right.  It is FABULOUS!!!

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds yellow onions, halved, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (8 cups)
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cups white wine, divided
• 8 cups beef stock
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan
• Homemade croutons (recipe below)

Directions

In a large stockpot on medium-high heat, saute the onions with the butter and bay leaf for 20 minutes, until the onions turn a rich golden brown color. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar and 1/2 cup wine and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the white wine and simmer uncovered for 15 more minutes.

Add the beef stock plus salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, taste for salt and pepper.  Serve hot with croutons and grated Parmesan.  We prefer to broil the bowls to melt and slightly brown the cheese.

Croutons

Sour dough bread

butter, melted

garlic powder

kosher salt

Cut up enough sour dough to fill your bowls.  Toss with melted butter, season with salt and garlic powder.  Toast in 350 degree oven until lightly browned.

Funny Wesley!

Today's topic is "Share a funny memory of your child."

This is more about the way Wesley is rather than a specific time.  Wesley is 4 and in preschool.  Their class is comprised of half autistic children and half neuro-typical children.  Wesley is quite the ladies man.  He picks a little girl to be friendly with and will pursue her for most of the day...the last time they told me about it, he actually moved in for the kiss!

Definition of Self

I was absolutely supposed to write this post.  So, here it is.

I wrote a guest post over at Big Mama's Blog on depression a week or so ago.  This was a hard post to write and share with everyone.  I don't talk about this stuff...I don't even think about it most of the time.  So, baring my soul for countless people to see...yeah, it was a little hard.  But I really love what Alise is doing there.  She's reaching out to people that feel otherwise very alone.  Love it!

I was talking to a MOPS mom about my post and I was telling her how hard it was.  I said, "While this stuff is part of who I am, it doesn't define me."  Wow, who know I could spout something like that!  Especially while cleaning up my registration table!  :-)  Anyway, she later sent me a message on FB continuing our conversation.  She said that it's what we do with the bad stuff that defines us.  "How we make our experiences meaningful through the choices that we make.  It's our choices that define us."  Exactly! She also sent me a couple of quotes which I absolutely adored!  Let me share them with you!  "I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares.  I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams."~~Dr. Jonas Salk (developer of the polio vaccine)   The other one is more widely known, said by a lovely blue fish. "Just keep swimming."

Then the other night, my jaw dropped to the floor and I KNEW that I had to write this post.  I was watching CSI...it was about this man who shot and thought he killed his partner and took his name...anyway, at the end of the show, Jorja Fox's character was talking to a co-worker and said, (and I'm paraphrasing here) "All the bad stuff that happens to us does not define us.  It's what we do with it that does."  (Rich thought I had went completely around the bend with my jaw dropped.)

This message is so important to learn.  There are so many bad things that can happen to a person.  They would build nothing but psych hospitals if we let it all get to us.  We have to use this stuff as building blocks and become stronger, not let it be used as cannon balls to tear us down.  Christ made to ultimate sacrifice and used it for good.  I want to be more like Him.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is Nicholas's 10th birthday!  My big guy hits double digits today!  Wow!  I can't believe that he's actually 10!  In honor of this, I am going to give you the pregnancy and birth story!  Don't worry, nothing too bad here!  :-)

I found out that I was pregnant shortly before the 1 year anniversary losing our first son, Christian.  I wanted everything to be completely different with this pregnancy, so we openly prayed for a girl.  We decided to find out what we were having even though we didn't with Christian.  The tech placed the wand against my stomach and it was immediately quite obvious that we were having another boy.  Ok, so, not quite so different. That's ok too.

I was due on November 22nd.  My birthday is the 8th and Rich's is on the 27th.  I joked my whole pregnancy that I didn't care when he was born, just as long as it wasn't on MY birthday.  That was MY day, he wasn't allowed to have it!  I was scheduled for a c-section on Nov 15th.  That was just fine!

Around 4-5 months along, my blood pressure started creeping up.  I had preeclampsia with Christian, so I knew what this was all about.  The doctor put me on shorter days at work and I was to take it easy.   In October, I started having protein in my urine so I was sent home with a big jug to do a 24 hour urine protein test.

On Tuesday Nov. 7th, 2000, I had a doctor's appointment.  My blood pressure was lower than it had been, but we got the results back from the protein test.  It was higher than my doctor was comfortable with.  He told me that I was going to have this baby by the end of the week.  I was ok with that.  That was long enough to get family there (we lived 5-8 hours away at the time) and it would be after my birthday.  He told me that he was going to contact a high risk doctor for a consult and would do whatever she said.

By the time I made it home, my phone was ringing.  The nurse on the other end let me know that I was going to have a baby the very next day.  ARGH!!!!  That's my birthday!  Because of the late timing, the c-section was scheduled for 7pm.  That means a whole day of NOT EATING!!  Do you know what happens to a pregnant lady when she can't eat??  It's not pretty!

My parents traveled all night to get there in the morning.  We went to breakfast at Denny's where I drank Sprite (clear liquid) while they ate, ON MY BIRTHDAY!  Anyway, we were all really nervous.  Everything had been fine with Christian until I went into labor with him.  So, we were all going to be on pins and needles even more so until we heard that tiny cry.

The day before had been election day...the famous election day that we still didn't know the results from. Lots of talk about that and then, of course, there was an emergency that pushed back my surgery.  When it was finally time, I walked into the OR and climbed on the table.  Got my spinal block and laid back for the beginning of the ride of my life!  With Rich by my head, there was some gentle pressure and tugging.  Then, all of the sudden, the tiniest little sneeze I have ever heard!  It was the most beautiful sound ever!  "Was that him?" Followed by a rather angry cry!  He was cold and it was way too bright out here and he was letting us know of his displeasure!

I got to see him and then they took him to the nursery to get him cleaned up and weighed, so daddy went with him.  While lying there with the biggest grin on my face, the doctors were talking about the election and the fact that they stayed up until 1am watching the news coverage.  It was after 10 pm by this time!  Hope he slept in!  Anyway, I started feeling something against my leg.  I asked the anesthesiologist, "Should I be able to feel them against my leg?"  He looked up at the team, "You might want to hurry."  NOT GOOD!  I am certain that my blood pressure went WAY up at this point!  Everything went fine though, they got me closed up and on my way.

I didn't stay too long in the recovery room, I was already starting to regain feeling and my little guy was starving!  :-)  (That hasn't changed much either!)  On the way up to my room, I felt like I was going to get sick.  Now THAT is not a good feeling...lying on your back, just having had major abdominal surgery and about to get sick.  I did get sick and for some time afterwards, I continued to get sick.  So sick that they decided that I was having a reaction to the pain medication that they put into my spinal block.  They gave me some Narcan to counteract the medication.  I thought I was in some pain before that...WOW!!!!  There is NOTHING like that!  They gave me some other medication to help with the pain, but I had finally stopped throwing up.  Nicholas had eaten and was passed out!  Getting born is hard work!

The past 10 years have been so full of joy that I can't even begin to describe it.  He is such a smart, funny, sensitive, caring child.  I am such a blessed mommy!  Thanks for sharing your life with me, Nicholas!  I love you!

Food Friday

Today's recipe wasn't something that I was planning on putting here...don't get me wrong, it's very good!  It just wasn't something that I thought, "I have to share this with everyone!"  I made it last night.  I had 2 sweet potatoes...not enough for everyone.  I was going to have to use russet potatoes too and the recipe that I was going to use just didn't sound good with russets.  So, I went looking for a different one.  I happened upon this one.  As I said, it was good!  I really liked it!

This morning when I went to Allrecipes.com to look for a recipe to use for this blog, I went to my recipe box.  Now, I have 100 recipes in my box at this moment and I haven't actually made them all!  So, I thought I would start looking through the oldest recipes and maybe find a gem that I had forgotten about.  Then I thought something had went wrong because I was sure I hadn't saved that potato recipe last night, but there it was.  Checked the date and I had saved it way back in 2002!!  There's my recipe, I have to share it now!  (Along with the story!)  So, there you have it.  And here's the recipe!


Roasted Potato Medley

INGREDIENTS:

2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon dried dill 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup chicken broth

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	In a mixing bowl, combine the russet potato, red potato, sweet potato, olive oil, vinegar, thyme, garlic and chicken broth. Toss well to coat.
3.	Place into casserole dish and roast uncovered for about 40 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  You may have to add more chicken broth and vinegar to avoid drying out the potatoes.

New "Family" Page

This is my family...I know, the picture is a couple of years old.  I will update it soon with the one we just had taken.  Speaking of that...that would make a great post!  Anyway, to the subject at hand...

This is Nicholas.  He's my birthday baby.  He was born on my 25th birthday, much to my dismay.  That day was mine, fair and square!  But a nice side affect is that I am forever 25 now, since he took my birthday!  :-)  Nicholas has always been a really curious boy.  He's always asking the hardest questions!  He loves to read and is currently reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  Nicholas was diagnosed with ADHD last year...finally.  I have known there was a problem for some time, but you have to go through the hoops to get a diagnosis.  He's now on medication and it has helped a TON!  He is super smart, but lacks focus.  We are currently working through that.  

Nicholas loves video games and has a very vivid imagination that he uses to make up stories on a daily basis, much to our delight!  Nicholas is a blast to be around.  He's caring and sensitive.  He would do just about anything to help someone out.  He's a super big brother as well.

This is Wesley.  Wesley is my "long tried for" baby.  We had all but given up when he decided to grace us with his presence.  Wesley has always been our problem child.  He was in the hospital at 4 weeks old with RSV.  We dealt with asthma and ear infections during the first year of his life and then speech issues during the second year.  He was diagnosed with Autism Disorder just after his second birthday.  He's been in some sort of therapy since he was 16 months old.  He's almost 5 now.  He has really come a long way.  He's in a special needs preschool class with a fantastic teacher.  He also goes to outside therapy three times a week.  Here is a post that goes through lots of background with Wesley...click here.  

All that being said...Wesley is an awesome boy!  He's a funny guy!  Loves to make you laugh, and his giggle is absolutely contagious!  Wesley loves to jump on his trampoline and play video games.  He's not quite got the hang of that whole sharing thing though!

And last, but most certainly NOT least, is my absolutely fabulous husband, Rich.  I am so very lucky to be married to my best friend.  We have been married for about 12 years now.  Seems like forever and no time at all.  Rich and I have been through a lot.  But we have leaned on God together and have been brought even closer through everything.  

Rich is everything to do with guitars.  He's a professional musician, he's a teacher, and he's a luthier.  He blows my socks off with the knowledge he has about guitars in his head!  He plays with some great people in the band UnderShelter.  They RAWK!!  He's also on staff at Chestnut Ridge Church and is the Worship Director at Kingwood Christian Fellowship.  He has a little shop by our house that he's building his guitars in.  His business, Agape Guitars,  is growing!  He makes some beautiful stuff!  Check it out!  He does all this for 2 reasons.  First, because he loves it.  But second, so I can stay home.  Wesley's therapy appointments are hard to work around, so he works a ton so I can stay home and take care of all that.  Rich loves me more than I can imagine.  He makes sure I know that every single day.  What more could I ask for?

So, this is my family.  Stick around and you will find out more about our life!