My Four Corners

Life is like a puzzle. The most important parts to my Life Puzzle are the corners. Take a look at my corners that keep me together.


My Hubby! Meet Jason... he is a few (years older than me) but his childish behavior still has me question if Im really not older than him. He works full time as a laser something something. Seeing as how his job is in the medical field you cant often plan on the procedures he performs. Therefore, his schedule is impossible to plan around and always keeps us guessing and on our toes. He is a sports fanatic, extremely smart, and big hearted guy.

Sport - Is 12years old and in 6th grade Middle School. He is our Baseball All Star! He plays for a travel competitive baseball team that plays 10 out of the 12 months in a year. Jason is one of the coaches. Sport is the BEST big brother anyone could ask for!!! He has a HUGE heart and will help anyone. He tends to be shy and saying he is easily distracted from daily chores and housework is putting it mildly. He is very smart and often times I compare him to rainman when he brings up certain facts. I look forward to my daily discussions and everything he teaches me.

Stinker - He is our little angel and will be 5 in September. After struggles getting pregnant (due to my PCOS) we feel blessed to have him with us. He is smaller than most in his grade, but his BIG personality makes him a leader. Unfortunately he got my clutsy gene and so bumps, bruises and cuts are a daily occurrence for him. His immune system stinks so we are often facing some sort of cold, sinus, or other little bug that tries to take him down but never succeeds. He is such a strong little fighter! Our little Man loves to help out in the kitchen and is very creative, energetic, and always good for a laugh.

Rosie Grace - My Little Girl! She is such a cuddle bug and sweetheart. She is very protective of all of her family but truly can't hurt a fly. I mean that literally... she hates going outside (LOL).  I would love to dress her up everyday but the boys done allow it. Have no fear I sneak in the cute pink and "diamonds" where I can.

So there you have it those are my main corners to my life puzzle. Throughout my blogging journey you will notice many other important pieces to my life puzzle. Enjoy the ride with me as I continue to build it each day.

School's Out for Summer

Suprises JUST BECAUSE are the best! Recapping on some of my favorite childhood moments, which Christmas and Easter morning are pretty high on the list, which of course resulted in new toys, games etc. As a Mom, I feel that those days still rank high up there, but not for the gifts for myself but to watch the faces of my kids.

Well, I decided to do something a little different than in the past which I had a color coded planned out calendar for all my summer help (sitter, grandparents, etc). Guess maybe Im the only one who LIVES off calendars and gets excited about them. This year my plan of involvement even way far away while sitting at my desk.... I kicked off the summer with a surprise for the boys. I created a "School's Out for Summer" themed basket. It included sunny and rainy day activies.

Included in this basket are the following:

* Squirt Guns

* Water Balloons

* Kool Aid Packets

* Books for quiet/reading time

* Brownie and Cake Mix

* Scoop Ball

* Popcorn (good snack for picnics or rainy movie day)

The ideas and options to fill this basket are endless and could also add up quickly, but I didn't want to overload them where they don't appreciate or use the items if they have too many choices. My plan is to make another basket in the middle of summer with completely different items.

If you have any suggestions let me hear it so I can start to research for sales now.

Over the Rainbow

Working full time I defintely get in a rut sometimes when I miss these simple but fun special days such as Valentines Day, Groundhog's Day... I am so excited when they fall on a weekend day. So funny that years ago I would have a countdown to this day because it's a big drinking day. Me now... I had a countdown because I was so excited to try out these cute pancakes and this visual picture of "pots of gold" scrambled egss I had in my mind. #IlovebeingaMumma!

 

Happy Saint Patricks Day 2013!!! 

 

My colorful pancake batter

 

The boys eating up their pots of gold and rainbows.

 

Well the thought was there but it didn't turn out exactly how I hoped. Better luck next year.

 

Hubbys breakfast hash with 2 over medium eggs in clovers (green bell pepper). With a side of coffee and irsh cream of course! 

Ethnic Night 4 - Czesc' Poland

Thats right! The Reseigh's hoped in our car and traveled ALL the way to Poland today. And I mean all the way as in less than 5minutes from my house to my parents house (Nonna and Papa).

Yet again, allowing time to slip by us we haven't had an ethnic night is so long I felt it was time. With Lent season just starting it was perfect timing to "travel" to Poland and make some pirogis to have on hand for the Lent season. Nonna and I are allergic to fish so it makes meatless Friday meals tricky. This should help out a bunch!

We began the day bright and early preparing the pirorgi filling (Potato and cheese) at about 10:30AM.

Nonna began to cook up the Kapusta (sauerkraut) which is best brewing all day anyways. Set it and forget it is the best way! We took this time to discuss with Sport the different kinds of Kapusta (sweet vs sour) it really does depend on your preference. It was so much fun to reminance with my Mom the battle of Kapusta that her parents (my Nanny and Papa) would put all of us family through. Nanny would make her version and Papa would make his. We know they are both watching over us today still arguing over whose was the best and NO I am not going to ever admit the winner in my book.

Once the filling was completed the dough was made. We ended up going through 4 double batches of dough which made a total of 165 pierogis!!! We ended up running out of filling and played "hide" the filling in our last dozen. We ended up with some Kapusta filled with Swiss cheese and salami and American cheese, cheese only.... believe it or not they were all GREAT!!!!

Close to 8lbs of potatoes peeled, cut, and washed. Sport did so well peeling it took a while but great to learn. We also have the little potato washer in the background. He took that job VERY serious.  

Everyone hard at work.

Dish washing time.... his favorite!!!

First attempt at rolling the dough and YES my little stinker had to be the first to crank the wheel. Once he learned it wasn't as easy as it looked he stopped. 





Assembly line. It was fantastic to all work together.
 

Thumbs up from the little tasters.

 

Mark it up as another very successful trip around the world. This was our most tiring of them all which totaled over 7straight hours of standing and cooking. Great job team!!! Best part is passing on the family recipes and traditions. I love "traveling" with my family! Pack your bags I think the next trip is Bulgaria!

Groundhogs Day 2013

"What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today." - Quote from the Groundhog;s Day Movie.

If you haven't learned by now, I am a big advocate of food fun and art. You will notice from working a Monday-Friday job, I tend to leave my food fun for the weekends. How perfect Groundhogs Day is on a Saturday! Check out the meals I made and their reactions. It was good fun and even better it tasted good!


Snack:
Groundhog Pudding

Dinner:
Groundhog meatloaves with the cave of mashed potatoes. Made with Pennsylvania Baked Beans

Look at that face. It looks like alot of work but he insisted on even stirring up the meat.



These beans were VERY sweet but tasty. Pennsylvania Baked Beans have meat in them which caught us off guard but all thumbs up and I would make again for sure.

Cooking up the meat for the beans (hmmm never had meat in my beans before) but remember we are doing this Pennsylvania style.

Finished product! I used a water chestnut for the back of the face, capers for the eyes, croutons for the ears, ketchup for the nose and two small dabs of sour cream for the teeth.  

Look he even does dishes (kinda) he adds more dishes than what were actually dirty and if you notice we stick to plastic when he helps. *** Caution Flor May Be Slippery if JJ is helping! *** 

.

Snowman Day Without Going Outside!

So the past 2 months I have continued my Dads tradition of Soup Sunday (I will get into more details with that later this Fall/early Winter). I love the concept of on Sundays in the Winter cold months you have something nice and hot brewing all day. Soups are good for left overs too (total plus when you are working and tired during the week)! Well, this Sunday I did something I have wanted to do since October (yes I plan that far out sometimes). Snowman Day!!!!!!!! Perfect timing we had a light dusting of snow on the ground when I began to make dinner.  See the menu and pics below.




Time to stay warm while dinner is cooking. This is homemade Hot Cocoa.
Just recently I started making my cocoa from scratch
with cocoa powder, sugar, milk, a little vanilla and cinanmon.
We all LOVE it!!!!

My assistant....



This adorable snowman has 3 completely different tastes.
The head is a baslamic oil drizzle and oregano and shredded parm.
The body is a homemade garlic butter and mozzerela cheese.
The bottom portion is a shredded chicken alfredo pizza.
 

Proud little Stinker cannot wait to share his Pizza Snowman with the family!

                                     And for dessert......... simple and quick thats what I like!


 I was determined to make each face different colors. I got the sprinkles to stay on with corn syrup, the eyes are chocolate chips, the nose is a peanut and of course the body is a mini powdered donut.


BEST part of snowman day was my secret recipes worked. ALL schools in the area the next morning got a snowday! Hooray!!!! No eating the leftovers the next day did not get a second snow day. :-)

Merry Christmas 2012

Simple and quick Christmas Eve breakfast we brought to the In-Laws. Heads up grapes in the Winter are not cheap but it was so worth it and turned out really cute.

 

Me and Sport trying to make a frame to freeze time.

I wanted to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas! Cherish every second of the holiday chaos hustle and bustle. I'll be signing off and cherishing my family time. See you in 2013 for lot's of new and fun family adventures.