cooking · joshua · sisters

A Monday Menu

Disclaimer:  Do not read this post if you are in any way opposed to dishes with lots of cheese, calories, and incredible deliciousness.

Here in the Brackett house, we like to cook.  And I do mean we.  After all, Joshua wasn’t sad when we downgraded our tv package.  The “family plan” allows you to keep Food Network.

I’ve been struggling a good bit lately with how to keep us on budget and keep everybody happy.  So, this week I inventoried my freezer and fridge and planned a menu for the week that accomodates our family and our two little guests.  Well, Audrey’s not little but she eats like a six year old, so the plan works.  The other part of my plan is a desire to try some new recipes, spice up the old repertoire and pass these along to other folks who might enjoy some variety among their standard.

Disclaimer #2: The Pioneer Woman is my kitchen hero.

This weekend we thanked Joshua’s dad for all the work he did in our office (pictures, soon, I promise!) by grilling the country style ribs I found on sale at Publix.  Which was one of God’s little blessings to make up for me not realizing the ad I had prepared for started the next day and I had already driven the 40 minutes it takes to get to the nearest Publix.  But it all worked out, because Saturday night we had this for dinner….

mmmm…..barbecue sauce….

and here’s the grill master himself putting on his secret recipe….all I do to prepare this meal is buy the meat and wash the dishes.  Well, sometimes I consent to bake a potato or two.

On Sunday, I decided to give this much heralded yumminess a try. 
I think it turned out pretty good myself, although I could have made it faster if I’d actually read the directions before I neatly sliced all my olives. 
Rough chop.  That’s all.  No need for perfection because it all comes out gooey in the end. Then maybe both slices would have been in the picture instead of having been devoured by the starving children before I could get my hands on the camera.  Yes, my kids eat olives.  By the fingerful.  And who wouldn’t eat this?
Seriously, look at the cheese.
You don’t even want to know what all is in this.  Let’s just say, I don’t eat olives and I ate this while standing in the kitchen putting on pizza toppings for the rest of dinner and negotiating relations between three quarrelsome little girls.  Make this immediately.  Olive Cheesebread by the Pioneer Woman.  Eat it with a salad if you feel too guilty.
Here’s the pizza we also had. Obviously carbs are not a concern right now.  And here’s my cooking tip of the week. 
Don’t back pizza on an airbake pan.  It won’t cook in the middle but the edges will be nice and crisp. 

As you can see, we’ve got several different pizza tastes going on here.

So what follows dinners like these?

Ridiculously happy baby.

And a few rounds of bananagrams with Aunt Audrey.  Look at this, she spelled everything right!

So what’s on tap for the rest of the week?  A couple of casseroles, a meatless quiche, and a dinner for a sweet family who just got bigger.  
  
Home · summer

Here It Comes

There are library books strewn across my kitchen table and bottles of nail polish in the living room.

Babies have been put to bed all over the house and the kiddie pool has just been emptied of it’s suntan lotion scented water–all over the deck.

We drank all the sweet tea yesterday, but there’s some adults-only lemonade left.

I think it’s summer.

Today is our first official day with no camps,  no post-planning, no daycare, no grandparents.  Just me and the girls. 

And the Tinsley boys because we went to Jazzercise and then graced Wendy’s in our workout clothes because Mary Lynn and I are cool like that.  Well, sweaty, really, but who cares?

It’s summer.

Madelynne at Jazzercise Camp

Time for the babies to sleep.

While we’ve been anticipating it’s arrival, we’ve also been planning for how we’re going to incorporate me back into a stay-at-home position that I haven’t occupied since Madelynne was smaller than Amelia.  So here’s a look at what we’ve been up to….

This is all the junk we took out of the office so we could take down our existing furniture and replace it with some sleekly modern IKEA finds.  This picture scares me even though all this isn’t still in the living room.

This is Madelynne and Mimi sorting all her kindergarten papers for her portfolio.

This is the old desk….I forgot what it looked like under all the clutter.  Do you want it?  It’s for sale. 

And this is the other desk that was “mine”.  Not really.  Really it was another place to gather clutter.  We’re working on that.

And this is Joshua putting the baby to sleep after a long day of furniture removal and assembly.  I think it’s sweet.

No, there’s no picture of the new furniture.  You’ll just have to be surprised.  Or wait until tomorrow because it’s current state is fantastic for Imperfectly Perfect Wednesday posts.

school · thankful Thursday

180 on Thankful Thursday

Today is my 180th post.  It would be symbolic but thanks to furloughs and snow, we only went to school about 172 days this year.  It was long enough though to make me thankful I made this year my last.  Not because I’m so ready to go, but because I always think it’s better to end on a high note.  And despite the past week’s craziness, I did have a great year…thanks mostly to these wonderful folks:

So here’s to a simple Thankful Thursday post (a day late as I was experiencing technical difficulties related to relinquishing my school laptop and really loud thunderstorms)…..

monday

Miscellany Monday

One.
One of those days.  Nothing accomplished.  Nothing going as planned.  Nothing else I can do.  But Belle’s feeling better.  She’s painting rainbows and hanging them all over our living room and we haven’t even given her the first dose of her antibiotic.  Apparently having Mommy home to herself is cure enough for strep throat.  
Two.
My kids are weird.  Amelia has this crazy rash that we thought was a reaction to her antibiotic but is in fact some sort of viral something…..like probably strep.  On top of her ear and sinus infection.  Did no one tell my kids that summer vacation started today?
Three.
I threw away the very first lessons plans I wrote today.  There was no reason to keep them.  They were boring, written for a class I no longer teach, and were aligned to QCC’s.  Does anyone even remember those now?
Four.
Joshua and Madelynne got me flowers today.  For no reason.  Now that’s a good Monday.
Five.
I think I might be addicted to the strawberry lemonade at McDonald’s.  This could be a problem.  First. $1.58 adds up quickly.  Second, I’m pretty sure they’re not sweetening that golden red deliciousness with no-calorie sweetener.
Six.  
I’m thinking of starting a new blog.  Just feels like it’s time for a change.  What do you think?  I’d still be writing about the same basic randomness….maybe.  I’d probably keep this one to be purely pictoral updates for those people in our life who don’t facebook.  
Seven.
Is it too late for me to plant a garden?  A small one?  Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce?  I have no green thumb.  In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s a petrified brown, but so far we have managed to keep the Easter basket plants alive.  Think I can handle vegetables?
See?  There’s some daisies growing in that little yellow pot.
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school · thankful Thursday

This Teacher’s Thankful Thursday

I started to write this.  I started to cry.

I know all of my colleagues are rolling their eyes right now because what’s to be sad about?  I got to make the amazing choice to stay home next year.  And it’s a choice I wanted and desired and prayed over and made long before we knew about the bank closing or losing insurance or gas going to a zillion dollars a gallon.

And I’m so thankful.

And sad.  And scared to death.

People ask me if this is just a sabbatical.  If I’ll return to teaching someday.

I don’t know.  I honestly just don’t know.  I firmly believe that whatever you do you should do it with all your heart…and my heart hurts right now.  It’s been hard.  I (and anyone who braves everyday in a classroom) have been so beat down and stifled and discouraged that I don’t know if I’ll ever come back.

And praise God for those who do.

But I’ve been reading One Thousand Gifts and long ago I took to heart the verse that promises “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall be poured onto your lap.” Luke 6:38

I’ve had my measure.  It has been good and it has overflowed.

The boy who found a copy of Where the Red Fern Grows in our book drive donations and asked to take it home.


The time we read Oranges and my student talked about how the oranges symbolize the boy’s nervousness and anxiety around this girl.


The fact that middle schoolers will do anything for a piece of candy.  Or a sticker.


The bad (and some great) poetry that haphazardly covers my walls.


The times they have remained seated to hear the end of the story even though classes were changing.


When they love the book more than the movie.


When one says, “Oh, Mrs. Brackett, you have to read this!”


Exhausted after Friday library days from finding the “just one book” for each one.


A door covered in sticky notes.


Watching them mature in 8th grade.


100% pass.


How quiet they are the first day….how they never stop talking on the last.


“Are you coming to our game? Please?”


Bobcat black and gold and pink in memory.


Preposition poems that make me laugh.  And think that I’ll never be a writer, but this kid will.


A director’s chair with my name on it from kids who know all the words to “Green Eggs and Ham.”


No name, but I know the handwriting as if it were my own.


Stacks of lit books and pages of plot analysis and all they remember is how funny A Christmas Carol is when your classmates act it out.


Groups that work.


M&Ms and Diet Coke can fix almost anything.  


How much they love the book fair…especially the gigantic pencils.


How respectful they are on Veteran’s Day.


When I go to Ingles and my bag boy remembers my class….and tries extra careful to get things just right.


…For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.