do you know who your children are playing with?

i wish i could start this off by saying times ain't like they used to be but people i think things are the same, we just hear about a lot more because of the internet and tv and blah blah blah. 

doesn't a lot of responsibility fall upon us, the parents? we have to step up and accept that the buck stops at our door. blake is 10 and goes outside to play without me every day. the rule is he checks in every 30 minutes. he has to play with the 'friends' i know. we have a triangle of homes where us parents know each other. we've spent considerable time with the parents and have been to their homes numerous times. we call these the 'safe houses'. the only houses the kids can go inside. the only peeps he is allowed to talk to. 

i encourage you, mommy, to get to know who your kids are playing with. not just the kiddo, but the mom & dad. where do they work? how do they discipline? do they enforce a bedtime? get to know their parenting style. i  hope that my son's friends have to follow a similar set of rules ya know? i am very blessed to have neighbors i trust. they are registered nurses, paramedics, i just so lucked out! 

it would be easy to send the kids out and not think twice but let's do a little homework first okay? and put those parent's numbers in your cell phone, say hello to them, know who  your kids are with when they enter someone's house.

and to throw this in, while totally off topic, i'm not a professional writer nor do i claim to be. i know i drive you crazy not punctuating and never have quotes in the proper place. the reason? i'm lazy. there. i said it. my mom writes novels and wow reading her books are a beautiful flow of absolute perfect grammar. me, not so much. so i hope you get my message and ignore my awful writing style :) 

i do love all my readers and i love your messages. those of you who write about my awful grammar, i'm not gonna change, at least i don't think i will.  but i love you too :) 

sunday dinner

today was our second family sunday dinner. love love love! the kids are starting to memorize the blessing and our theme was italian. maymay, yaya and papa came over :) oh how i love sunday dinner :) we had italian:  lasagna, spinach ravioli, pasta salad, garlic bread, ceasar salad, and chocolate pie for dessert :) we also did the dinner topics and blake picked them all today :)

sunday dinner has already brought me closer to my sons, it's a nice time to talk about so many things. we end up lingering and just chatting. tonight i served dinner at 6:30 and the last person got up at 8:15. that i love!!

a few pics :)

i served our drinks in goblets again which i think is the funnest ever lol. everyone had a real plate, no kiddie stuff and real silverware and our manners were MUCH more improved than last week :))

my second back epidural-----ouch

so i have to blog about this. a little background first. i was in a car accident in december of 10. that day i started having a pulse through the roof that was painful. i felt like my heart hurt all the time and the pain would go straight into my back and wrap around my back. then started a long journey of many doctors trying to find out what the heck was wrong with me.  l.o.n.g. i almost went to the mayo clinic. this time period was a nightmare.

fast forward to now and after an mri in july my problem was found. i have a herniated disc that rubs against my spinal cord and i also have a fractured vertebrae. painful much? omg yes. 

so the point of this blog post today? yesterday i had my second epidural injection. those are done in a set of 3 at 2 weeks apart. it's a first non invasive attempt to avoid surgery. the first one i bounced out of recovery and went to dinner that night. well the second one i had yesterday was seriously awful. the pain i went through was unbearable and 24 hours later here i am in just as much pain. i cant even lift my arms up and my back not only hurts from the inside out, it hurts to simply touch it on the outside. i have one more epidural to go and i'm praying it's more like the first because this second has be terrible! vent over

i love fall and spring. for real. if it would stay like this all year round i would be a happy girl. those two seasons put me in the mood for things. when spring hits i love to decorate my patio, plant flowers and grill outside. i love sitting outside in the evening and buy the kids all kinds of outside toys. it's time to fill up the sandbox and think about an herb garden. you get it.

in the fall i start baking homemade breads, making flavored coffees and cooking things like pot roast, chili and taco soup. i love decorating with fall colors and pumpkins and scarecrows. all this is great but when summer and winter arrive i totally lose most of the desire to do all this. with summer it's because it gets SO hot i can't bear to sit outside and then watering everything i planted becomes a chore. i start asking the kids if they want to do it lol. now i will say in the winter i continue to cook the same, those chilis and such are awesome on a cold night. the baking slows way down though and when it's time to toss the pumpkins i gear into planning for christmas. so yeah, lots of posts about my fall stuff will be coming lol.

today i baked banana bread with pecans that my nanny sent from georgia. they are so good!!! here's how i make it:

3 cups of self rising flour, sifted
in a separate bowl mix together 1/2 cup of butter (the real sticks not a spread hehe) and 3/4 cup of brown sugar. then stir in 2 eggs and about 3 or 4 ripe bananas. a fork works best for me for mashing the bananas. if you want throw in some nuts or raisins or whatever you feel like. i add applesauce here, not a lot, about a quarter cup. don't over mix. pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for an hour. let cool well before slicing. people love this bread as a gift. i try to bake two at once to give to a neighbor etc. 

i thought i'd start posting some of my recipes

taco soup 

2 lbs. of ground beef plus 1 chopped yellow onion, cooked together and drain off grease. i use a crock-pot but you can cook however you want, it just needs to simmer to blend the seasonings. put meat in soup pot or crock-pot and add to that:

1 large can of tomato juice
1 block of velveeta, chopped (the new white velveeta is super good)
2 cans of pinto beans, drained

2 cans of black beans, drained
1 can of corn, drained
1 can of rotel
2 envelopes of taco seasoning
1 envelope of ranch dressing mix

when i serve it i have fresh cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese, tortilla chips or fritos, green onions--whatever taco fixings you like. also everything can be varied and it always comes out amazing so if you like more or less beans etc. :)

beer bread

3 cups of self rising flour sifted sifted and sifted again

mix with 1/4 cup of sugar & 1 can of beer, let set about 15 minutes, pour in a bread pan and bake at 350 for one hour. at the end of cooking time put 1 stick of butter on the top. let set a few before cutting. great with chili & beef stew

today i started something i'm VERY proud of, i created a sunday family dinner. from now on this will be our sunday evenings and i'm putting the word out now, anyone is welcome. call ahead to find out what i'm making and bring a dish :) i hope that sunday dinner will be a wonderful tradition that my kids remember and create with their own families one day :) so i made pot roast with veggies, biscuits & apple dumplings. yaya stopped by to get an apple dumpling and she brought pumpkin cupcakes which was a perfect ending to yummy food.

some things i incorporated into day:  

*  even the lil ones had a real plate instead of their cute target kid's plates & real silverware

*  we said the blessing before eating

*  we practiced manners such as keeping our elbows off the table

*  we sat up straight 

you see, all of our meals are very laid back and i don't push manners so much. i mean, my kids don't act crazy or anything but elbows on the table do not bother me.  i want my kids to be able to attend a dinner where they do have good manners and know how to act so surely one meal a week will help this :)

before dinner i went to tvland's website and wrote down their suggestions for topics to talk about during dinner. that was awesome!!

instead of putting the biscuits in the bread basket i put the topics in there. we passed the basket around, everyone pulled out a topic, read it out loud and answered it. it was so much fun. liam & sawyer can't read so blake read their questions for them. this is something we will definitely do every sunday and blake asked if he could help come up with new questions for next week :)

here are a few pics from today-

i have finally arrived. 

good hair is me.

so in the past when i would color my hair, the conditioner that was included in the box was awesome. i would use it and think to myself why don't they sell just the conditioner as a treatment? i thought it was the greatest. for about 3 days my hair would be soft and beautiful and quickly go back to the dry mess it was.

and i mean a mess. i have seriously natural curly hair and my whole life it has been like straw. breaking, falling out, clumps in the tub and on my brush. i have NEVER gone for a haircut in all of my adult life where the stylist didn't recommend i pay for a deep conditioning treatment and/or buy some serious product for my sad hair.

i will never never never stop using wen!! it is worth EVERY penny. for the first time ever i'm a normal girl with soft, shiny beautiful hair! my kids use it now, even my 2 yo. and i use it on my golden retriever. man i love this stuff.

here's the funny thing....i colored my hair the other day and my thoughts? the conditioner in that box tore my hair up lol! what use to be a magic treatment is now something that totally dries my hair out. in the shower that night it was a flashback to old hair. it was falling down my back, it broke off when i straightened it, just ugh. and i used to think it was the best thing ever!!!! 

last night i got to use my wen again. ahhhhhhh my soft hair is back again. everyone should use this stuff i don't care who you are!!