Look Away

I don't watch the news. I don't follow politics extremely closely. I turn the channel when they talk about tragedy on tv. I turn the tv off all together most days.

Not because I don't care. Not because I don't want to be informed.

But because my Mommy heart can't handle it.

Tragedy. Chaos. Dishonesty run a muck. Death. War.

I just can't dwell on those things.

Those things make me feel like I'm drowning. Like bringing children into this unsafe evil world full of tragedy was the dumbest thing I have ever done.

So I look away. I say a prayer for those involved, I do what I can to support those who've been through tragedy.

And I look away.

Is that wrong? Probably.

But I need to breathe. I need to keep my head above the water. And I need to recognize my heart's limits.

For my kids' sake. For my poor husband's sake. (The man can only wipe my irrational tears so many times.)

How does a Mom, a Mommy, ride the line between being involved and aware and not getting scared out of her mind?

If you have that one figured out I'd love to hear the answer. Just don't announce it over the 10:00 news. I won't be watching.

Meal Idea: Chili Fritos

 
Chili Fritos is one of my family's favorite meals. I hear some people call it Frito Pie. Whatever you call it, it's delicious!

As you know, I love all things The Pioneer Woman does (have you watched her show on Food Network? Saturday mornings at 11:30. I make my family rush home from soccer so I can see it! Sorry, sidetracked.) I saw a super and fun way to serve Chili Frito Pie Deliciousness on her site and I wanted to share it with you.

I pinned it over here on Pinterest too. It's so fun to do that. Go pin something.

Anyway, I had this on my list of meal-ideas-that-are-not-necessarily-recipes ideas to share with you so I thought I would go ahead and share her ideas too!

Have fun with your food!

Recipe: Easy Crock-Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs

 This is a very quick and easy recipe to throw in the crockpot. The end result is a sweet and slightly tangy flavored meatball that you can eat alone as an appetizer or as a meal.


Easy Crock-Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 package (38 oz) prepared frozen meatballs - or go ahead and be ambitious and make your own!
16 oz jar of chili sauce
1 jar (2 lbs) grape jelly

Put all ingredients together in a crock-pot and cook on low for about 6 hours.

I told you it was easy! I did stir the pot a few times since I wasn't in a hurry for them to cook. I found it helped keep the meatballs soaked in the sauce and blend the chunky jelly with the chili sauce for a smooth nicely mixed sauce.

This made a nice big batch of meatballs. We had them during football Sunday as an appetizer and then used the leftovers on Monday as a meal.

I simply chopped green peppers, onions and pineapple and sauteed them together in a pan. Then I added in the meatballs and sauce and served over rice.

Enjoy!

This post linked to:
Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

WINNER UPDATE! Love and Logic Speed-E Solutions..and a Giveaway!

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UPDATE: Winner Announced!
The winner is...Sandy! Sandy, email me and let me know which Speed-E Solution you want!
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First of all, this is not a sponsored post. I I just want to share the love! And it will make me feel better if a bunch of you say you need parenting help too.

If you have read my blog at all, you know what a fan I am of Love and Logic Parenting. I have found so many ideas and strategies from reading the books to listening to the cds. Now I have found a new way to soak up all of their parenting advice.

Love and Logic has started selling Speed-E Solutions online. You can download them in mp3 format and listen to them on your computer, ipod or phone. I just bought When Your Kids Get Defiant the other day and listened to it while at the gym.

Not because I have a defiant child. Nope. My kids are perfect little angels. I did it for blog research.

Anyway.

I love how easy the downloadable lessons make it to get parenting advice. It's a nice little reminder to turn on when things are getting, um, rough at home.

I wanted to share my excitement by purchasing a Speed-E Solutions for one of you! You pick which one you want and I'll buy it for you. Just tell me which one you want in the comments and why and you are entered to win!

Pick your Speed-E Solution here!

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm. Because I'm old and that's my bedtime.

One comment per family please!

Oh, and if you want to get a copy of my favorite book, order it below! *affiliate link*

Recipe: Upside Down Caramel Apple Cake

Apple season is here and there is nothing better than warm baked apples. Except when they are covered in a gooey caramel sauce over cake. And ice cream.

Upside Down Caramel Apple Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup brown sugar
3 large cooking apples (about one pound) - peeled, cored, and sliced (I used Fiji) Tip: do not cut and peel the apples until the moment you are ready to put them in the dish. That way they won't turn brown.
1 box yellow cake mix (you read that right, I used a boxed mix)
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/4 tsp apple pie spice (more if you like that strong spiced flavor)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, cook butter, whipping cream and brown sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally, just until butter is melted. 

 Pour into 13x9-inch pan. Top with sliced apples. Press the apples into the sauce just a little bit.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs and apple pie spice with an electric mixer. Carefully spread batter over apples.

 Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. 

Loosen sides of cake from pan. Place a serving platter upside down on pan; carefully flip platter and pan over. Let pan remain over cake so the caramel can drizzle over the top. Remove the pan. 

Serve warm with ice cream if desired. Making lip smacking noises is optional but very likely to happen.

Enjoy!

Post linked to:
Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

Honey Cream Filled Crescents

These are quick and easy to pull together for last minute guests or a tasty Sunday brunch!

Honey Cream Filled Crescents

Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tbs honey, divided
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 package refrigerated crescent rolls
Sprinkle of ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cream cheese and 2 tbs of the honey.

Unroll crescent roll dough. Separate into triangles. Spread about 1 tbs of the cream cheese mixture onto each triangle. Roll up loosely into crescent shape. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped almonds.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Serve rolls warm. Drizzle with remaining honey.

Enjoy!

Raising Good Citizens...Getting Involved In Your Community!

Thanks to Walgreens for sponsoring my writing. Help Walgreens help others! Visit their Facebook page here to learn about their charitable partners and decide which cause Walgreens will donate to with a quick vote.

Getting involved in the community is a big priority for us. We are bound and determined to teach our kids to be good citizens! Sometimes it can feel like an overwhelming thing to teach a child. But teaching volunteerism is done best just like every other teaching moment...by example!

Here are some of the ways we get involved with giving back to the community. I'd love to hear yours too! 

The obvious places to check for help are your local food shelf and your church. There are always needs waiting to be met there. I have found some great opportunities in my local newspaper. Check yours out to see if they list volunteer needs. And if they do not? Request it!

One organization always asking for help in our paper is the Ronald McDonald House. If you live anywhere near a hospital, there is probably a McD house nearby. They house families with seriously ill children in the hospital and are always in need of food for their guests. We went with a group from our Church and prepared a meal. It was fun to cook together, especially knowing what a blessing it would be to those staying there. When you are tired and weary and emotionally drained with a child in the hospital, a free warm meal is a wonderfully practical blessing. This is a great project to do with older kids who can help prepare food and cook.

Habitat for Humanity is another great organization to get involved in. It's not really something you can do with kids until they are older. But while my husband helps out it is a great chance to explain to my boys that giving up their Daddy for a few hours on a Saturday so some kids can have a house is really a pretty small sacrifice.

 Since hurricane Irene came roaring through the East Coast causing wide spread flooding in Vermont, we have had a very large need for volunteers in our communities to the south. Thanks to one of my lovely local twitter friends, Sarah, a website was started to connect people who needed help with people who wanted to give help. It has been amazing to watch Vermonters come together and help one another on such a large scale. Much more help is needed and will be for some time! vtresponse.com is the perfect example of jumping in and doing what you can with what you have. Everyone can be involved in some way and on some level! If you see a need and you know how to fill it? DO IT!


Find more ways to help Vermont by following them on twitter @vtresponse and the hashtag #vtresponse.

During the past week I was able to help at the Vermont 211 call center. When there is a natural disaster or other local emergency, your state's 211 call center is going to get very busy and very likely will need some extra help. You can find out how to help out with that and many other ways to get involved in your community in non-emergency times by connecting with The United Way.

My son's school is running penny wars to raise money for families affected by the floods. It is a really easy way to get a large group of kids involved in donating money. Kids can scrounge up pennies pretty easily. And pennies can add up to a lot of dollars! They sabotage the other classes by donating dollars and other change. It was so fun!

Another great way to get your kids involved is to donate toys and clothes. This works out great because you get to clean out your closets and your kids get to learn how to give to others! Just be sure to only donate items that are in good condition and toys that are like-new and have all their pieces. While reading through some of the needs on vtresponse.com, I saw one woman asking for shoes for her kids. All their shoes were ruined in the water and muck from the flooding and they can't just run down to the store to get some new ones. This is the perfect example of how a child can help. I guarantee if you explain that situation to your child, they will be more than happy to give up a pair of shoes to help out! Find simple opportunities like this for your child to help with. Make it personal. Paint a picture for them and help them understand just how blessed they are. 

Kids are tenderhearted. They will act. We could learn a lot from their examples too! 

Giving back is a healthy way to show gratitude for what you've been blessed with. Get out there and get involved. Your community needs you!

Don't forget to help Walgreens help others! Visit their Facebook page here to learn about their charitable partners and decide which cause Walgreens will donate to with a quick vote. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

*Although this is a sponsored post, all opinions are honestly and truly mine. All mine.

Pinterest!

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's a really neat spot where you can store all your favorite things that you find online. I normally have very OCD bookmarks in my browser for saving things but I love the idea of having them all in one place all nice and neat and organized for everyone to see!

Check it out and follow me if you dare! I love seeing creative decorating, food and gift ideas so if you post those on Pinterest, let me know so I can follow you!

Find my Pinterest page here!

*Warning, clicking on the links will lead to to pretty pictures that you will browse for ever and ever amen. I can not be held responsible for the time you are about to lose.*

My Kids Annoy Me Sometimes...And Why It's OK That I Said That Out Loud

 Have you ever been really annoyed by your kids?

Have you ever wanted to tell them to just please STOP TALKING?

Have you ever looked like this?

 Having kids can be a wonderful beautiful thing. They can be so precious.

They can also be really obnoxious.

But do you know what else is obnoxious? Moms who pretend that it's always rainbows and sunshine when they are with their kids. It aggravates me when Moms aren't honest about how hard motherhood is.

Love is work. Parenting is hard. Motherhood is exhausting.

Let's just allow ourselves to be real about that.

Sometimes it's hard to admit that our children don't bring us every ounce of joy and pride that we expect they should.

Sure, at the end of the day, when they are quietly sleeping and looking all angelic, we swoon over our sweet babies. But while in the middle of a game of 20 million questions, you really just want to roll your eyes and walk away.

We don't. We listen and nod and say, "Oh, wow! That's neat! Uh-huh. Uh-huh." And we answer why and how. Over and over and over.

Sometimes we just need to tell someone that our kids annoy us.

And that's ok. It does NOT make you a bad Mom to feel annoyed or aggravated at your kids once in awhile.

Or once a day. Whatever.

So here is your chance. Admit what annoys you about your child. Get it off your chest. Don't worry, we won't tell.

I'll go first:

I hate it when my kids whine Mooooommmmmyyyy. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

I get so annoyed when my kids hang on me when I'm trying to do something. I am not a jungle gym people!

When my youngest kisses me, he slobbers all over my face. I don't want to act like I don't like his kisses, but the slobber grosses me out!

Sometimes when my oldest is telling a story that never ends, I tune out and just nod and in my head I'm thinking, "Oh for the love of all things good and holy will you please just get to the end!"

There. Phew! Now. Your turn!

Recipe: Asparagus and Parmesan Cream Pastry

 I found this recipe from a Philadelphia Cream Cheese cookbook. I thought it looked like a delicious appetizer and I was right...it was!

Asparagus and Parmesan Cream Pastry

Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough
1 lb. fresh asparagus spears (about 16)
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 fresh basil leaves, chopped (I've also made it without this, still great!)
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 pinch sea salt
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs shaved Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove pastry dough from freezer and let thaw for 10 minutes. While dough is thawing, wash and trim asparagus so it is 1 1/2 inches shorter than the width of the pastry sheet. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, chopped basil leaves and lemon juice. Set aside.

Unfold dough onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Cut into 4 equal rectangles. Separate slightly. Spread cream cheese mixture onto each of the pastry rectangles, not quite to edges. Press 4 asparagus spears onto each rectangle, alternating directions. Sprinkle pastries with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until pastries are golden brown. Remove from oven, cute each pastry in half. Sprinkle with shaved Parmesan cheese.

These are pretty quick to assemble but they look so fancy!