So, I have heard so many people tell me over the last two years that there is no difference between girls and boys other than what you teach them.

I am hear to tell you that in my opinion that is totally wrong!!!!

Now that I have one of each I can tell you that they are so different. Even when you count in the fact that Lizzie is a little bit of a tomboy. Alex is constant source of motion and energy. I am telling you the boy never sits still for even a second. He has always liked your typical boy things. Trucks, balls, running, vidoe games, sports, I could go on and on. The first spring we lived in our current house Alex was just over two. We hadn’t replaced the gutters yet and they leaked over the side and made some nice muddy patches in our back yard. Getting home from the grocery store one day, Alex wanted to play in the back yard, since it was a nice day and I had groceries and an infant to carry into the house I let him play in the backyard until I got everything in the house. Took me no more than 5 minutes to get the van unloaded. I go in the backyard to get him for lunch, you guessed it covered head to toe in mud. Lizzie is that age now and it would never occur to her to play in the mud. She fell down on the ice today and wanted to get new stockings on since they had a tiny wet spot on them. I never taught Alex to play in the mud, and I never taught Lizzie not to. That is just who they are. I have never seen it more clearly than one afternoon about two weeks ago.

Lizzie’s baby doll stroller broke so I bought a new one. I decided to get two, one she could keep in the house and one to keep in the car for our Thursday mall walking. Both had to be assembled so I did that during rest time that day. When both kids got up from rest they both wanted to play with the strollers. Lizzie being the little mommy that she is, found her favorite baby, a bag with some pretend bottles in it and was camly pushing the stroller around our living room, dining room, and kitchen. Alex on the other hand had no baby in his stroller, no he wasn’t pushing a stroller he was pushing a race car at high speed through our entire house. Esentially the same toy played with in two different ways.

When we go to a friends house who has all boys, Lizzie finds the closest thing to a doll and carries that around, and looks for peoples purses and shoes. She ignores the light sabers, swords, etc.. If Alex plays with friends who are girls, he finds toy brushes and makes them into guns or swords. Play carrots become a Wii Remote. That is just the way they are. Jason and I certainly don’t encourage them to play with only boy toys or girl toys. We let them play with whatever they want, however they want.

So I am sitting here listening to Alex play his new Wii game, looking out at our beautiful back yard filled with snow and feeling guilty because I really should be doing the many things that need to get done today, number one being laundry. I realized this morning that it has been a while since I posted anything other than my weekly menu plan. So I thought it was time for an update. For the one person besides my lovely husband who reads this, keep any eye out, I have many things running around in my head that I am planning to post about in the next few days.

So here we are at the end of January already. I can’t believe how fast the month has gone by. It seems like just yesterday that the kids were racing out of their rooms on Christmas morning to see what was waiting for them. Both the kids are getting so big. I am now officially the mother of a preschooler and a toddler. No more babies in this house. Jason is probably doing a cheer as he reads that statement. It is hard to believe but in less than a week Alex will be 4 years old. How did I get a 4 year old? He is turning into such a big boy. He is now in school two days a week and loving every minute of it. He attends a sports class once a week and thinks he is such hot stuff when he shows us what he learned during class. As I type this he is playing a new game that he got for his birthday and it amazes me how well he can play the Wii. Not all games, he still has some trouble with some of the harder games like Mario and Star Wars, but over all he has picked it up pretty fast. I am still deciding on whether or not to home school, I change my mind every day. Fortunately I have a whole year before I have to really make a decision. For now he is enjoying school and we plan on sending him again next year. The last “Toddler” milestone we have to get past with Alex is the potty training. He is 95% there. On the days that he is home with me he is in underwear all day except during rest time and bedtime. Now I just need to get him to the point where he is dry and clean at school as well. We are a long way from where we were 6 months ago. If you had asked me 6 months ago if we would be at this point, I would probably have laughed. So who knows where we will be 6 months from now, maybe I won’t be changing any diapers. Hey one can dream right.

Lizzie, how do I describe Lizzie. Lizzie is unique. It is fun and frustrating to watch her grow and change every day. In a little over a month she will be 2. Again how did that happen, my baby is 2!!! While the past two years have gone by amazingly fast, they were also the longest days that I can remember. Lizzie was not an easy baby, and I doubt that toddler-hood is going to be any easier. When James Dobson wrote about Strong Willed children I often wonder what he would do with Lizzie. Jason calls her Iron willed. She knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She is rough and tumble and loves to dig in the dirt, but at the same time is a beautiful princess. She loves shoes. Any shoe, any size, any shape. She can’t stand it when she doesn’t have something on her feet. She has princess slippers that she wears when she is in PJ’s and will only wait just long enough to have pants or stockings on before she will be reaching for the shoes she wants to wear that day. Once they are on they only come off for nap time and bath time. When we have lunch at Chick-Fil-A once a week, I often find her in the playroom trying to put everybody’s shoes on. Lizzie has two goals in life right now, go to school like her big brother and annoy her brother as much as humanly possible. She will be going to the schools Mom’s morning out program next year, and she can’t wait. I have to drag her out of there every day when we drop Alex off. For now she and I spend quality time running errands on Tuesdays and walking the mall on Thursdays.She is such a joy to watch as she grows and learns every day. She has started really talking and you can almost have a whole conversation with her. Yesterday we were at Target and she felt the need to let the whole store know that “MY DADDY WORK” over and over again. A few months ago she barley said anything, let alone a whole sentence.

As for me, this is a busy time of year for me. I am involved in two bible studies this year, not sure what I was thinking, but I am really looking forward to it. It is giving me a chance to not only grow and learn in God’s word, but I am also getting an opportunity to get to know the women in our new church better. The other study I am taking is through our old church FAC. A good friend of mine is teaching. I am really looking forward to both studies. I am about to start my last semester of Mom’s Time out. In fact it was supposed to start today, but we were snowed out. That is a little bitter sweet. I have really felt like my season for MTO is over. There were many times in the last few years where I depended on that ministry to keep me sane. But it seems that it is no longer necessary and I have felt more and more that I needed to give up my spot to someone who needed it more than I do. I truly believe that I would not have made it through Lizzie’s first year without the support of many people, MTO being a big one. But seasons change and I am moving on to a new and exciting one in my life.

That is where we are at. Busy but loving every minute of it.

God Bless

Heather

Week 9

So last week we had Freezer Frenzy week here at our house. I had quite a collection of leftovers in my big freezer, so I just pulled things out all week and reheated them for dinner. I didn’t even make a dent, or at least it seems like that. I thought about doing the same thing this week, but decided against it. I still want to have stuff in the freezer in case we need it for some reason. So we are on to week 9. I am almost through my 12 week rotation. Once we get through the 12 weeks I will have another freezer frenzy week, and then I start the whole cycle over again.

Here is this weeks menu:

Meal 1: Honey Baked Chicken, Brown Rice, Corn
Meal 2: Pizza Sandwiches, Salad
Meal 3: Chicken Noodle Soup, Crackers
Meal 4: French toast, Sausage, Fresh Berry Salad
Meal 5: Hamburger and Potato Dish, Peas

Here are some of the recipes for this week:

Honey Baked Chicken
4 Chicken Breasts
1/3-cup ghee
1/3-cup honey
2 Tbsp. mustard
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. curry powder

Season and place chicken in a prepared 9”x13” pan. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the chicken. Bake at 350 for one hour, basting occasionally.

You can also cook this in a crock-pot on low for 4 about hours.

Pizza Sandwiches
8 slices of bread
Softened ghee
1 3.5 oz. package sliced pepperoni
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced
Mozzarella rice cheese
1 Jar pizza sauce

On each of 4 slices of bread, arrange one layer of sliced pepperoni, and one layer of cheese. Top each with a buttered slice of bread, butter side up. Turn these upside down on a hot griddle and quickly butter the topside of the bread. Flip when crispy and cook the other side until crispy. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

Hamburger and Potato Dish
1-½ lbs. ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 15 oz. can dark kidney beans, drained
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice
4 cups frozen hash browns, partially thawed.

Brown ground beef and onion and drain. Stir in the salt, beans, and tomatoes. Place hash browns in a sprayed slow cooker. Top with ground beef mixture. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours or until potatoes are tender.

Have a great week

Heather

Week 8: Meal Plan
Meal 1: BBQ Ribs Sandwich, Baked Potatoes, Corn
Meal 2: Southwest Crock Pot Chicken, Brown Rice
Meal 3: Matzah Ball Soup
Meal 4: Meatball Soup, Honey Bread
Meal 5: Italian Sausage with Spaghetti, Garlic Bread

Meal 2 this week is from a friend, she suggested it because it can be made without any milk, so I am excited to try something new this week. Plus who doesn’t love putting something in the crock pot in the morning and coming back to it that evening and dinner is all ready. I am going to try the timer setting on my rice cooker for the meal to, so I am going to save that meal for Sunday, which is always our busiest day of the week.  As usual if you want a recipe for something, just ask and I will be sure to get it to you.

Have a great week.

Heather

I am back. I took the last two weeks off from Menu planning due to the holidays. We were out so much and had so many leftovers that I didn’t really need to plan too much. I was a little worried about how the kids would do, since we ate away from home so much, but for the most part they did great.  We had a few days were I wished we had been more strict about their diet. Overall though they did great. We did discover however that red dye really affects Alex’s behavior, so no more Hi-C or red candy for him.

Now that the holidays are over and we are starting to get back into our usual routine it is time for me to plan this weeks menu. In my 12 week rotating schedule we are on week 7.

Week 7: Meal Plan
Day 1: Grilled Chicken Breasts, Rice, Green Beans
Day 2: French Dip Sandwiches, Chips, Salad
Day 3: Hamburger Steaks over Noodles, Mixed Vegetables
Day 4: Nachos, Re-fried Beans, Mexican Corn.
Day 5: Creamed Chicken over Biscuits

I didn’t add all the recipes this week, since most of them are pretty straight forward, but if you want one of the recipes, leave me a comment and I will get it to you.

Have a great week.

Heather