Emerging

The last few months for me have been a doozy. My mom came over the other day and laughed because I still have my fall wreath up on my door and my christmas mat at the foot of my door. It is now March. I defended myself by saying, yep, you can pretty much tell when I lost the will to do anything but survive! I thought of a couple cute ways to say this but just don't have it in me other than to say we are expecting our 4th baby in August!! We are really excited for this addition to our family, but man alive, I just feel so crummy when I am pregnant! Mark has been wonderful and has had to pick up a lot of slack the last couple of months. It is just no fun to come home from work everyday to your wife in the fetal position on the couch either looking like a dead mommy or crying because she feels so terrible. Every time I am at this point in my pregnancies I think to myself "I don't think I can do this again". But, I feel like I am having a few more good days, and my bad days aren't as bad as they were a week or so ago, so I am crossing my fingers that maybe I am pulling out of this. So, hello world, I am slowly coming back to you, and to the realization of what a house will look like after 4 months of neglect and 3 children who took advantage of a not- so -coherent mother!! Let the games begin!

Tonight I was listening to a podcast on some ideas about disciplining children and mothering in general, when my mom stopped by to drop something off. I was out in the kitchen and she ran back to my room to use the computer where madi and tyce were listening to the podcast with me and coloring.

my mom: what are you guys listening to?

madi: mom is just trying to learn how to control us.

That about sums it up. I couldn't have put it better myself.

this killed me!

Soup

I love the change of the seasons. I love all the seasons for different reasons, most of which have to do with food (are you surprised? Really?). I love watermelon and barbecues in the summer and soup in the fall and winter. I could eat soup year round, but I love that it is socially acceptable in colder weather. Not that that stops me from making soup at other times of the year, I just won't blog about it then. My mom just made this soup and dropped it of for me to try. Ohh, it was nice, let me tell you. So if your soup recipe section is growing thin, here is a great one to try. Enjoy!

Italian Potato-Sausage Soup

20 oz. Jimmy Dean Sausage

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp. paprika

1 large onion diced

5 cloves of garlic minced

8 cups chicken broth

8 small red potatoes diced

1 tsp. italian seasoning

2 cups low fat or fat free milk

3 oz. light cream cheese

3 Tb. flour

2 Tb. butter

1.2 tsp. salt

3 cups baby spinach, chopped

Cook sausage in a large soup pot. Ad red pepper flakes, paprika, onion and garlic.

Saute until the sausage is fully cooked and drain if necessary. Add the chicken

broth and Italian seasoning, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Add diced

potatoes, cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook potatoes until tender.

While the potatoes are cooking, place the milk, cream cheese, flour and salt in a blender.

Blend until smooth. Heat the butter over medium heat in a sausepan, then add the milk

mixture and cook over medium heat until thick. When the potatoes are done, add the

thickened milk mixture and chopped spinach. Season with Parmesan cheese before

serving.

Super Mom in disguise

Today I was feeling ambitious and wanted to clean out and reorganize my closet. Among the pile of clothes I spotted tyce's missing shorts.

Me : Tyce look! I found your shorts

Tyce: ohhhh!! Awesome! Mom do you have magical powers?

why yes........yes I do. Thank you for noticing.

In case you think I really am super mom, I must admit this conversation I had with mark this very evening

Mark: any chance you did any whites? he asked with raised eye brows and skepticism in his voice

Me: ummmm, I got them in the wash?!

Mark: that IS an important step. Any chance they made it into the dryer??

Me: (with some hesitation) nooooo, not exactly, but I put them in the wash this morning so maybe by now some are dry??? (hopeful)

Mark: I doubt it

You can't win them all, it's nice to know that at least one person in this family has seen past the "mediocre mom" facade I try so desperately to pull off in order to keep my "super mom" true self under wraps. It's a tough job, and takes all of my time and concentration.

And I quote

Just a few funny quotes from the kids this week

we were sitting at the dinner table this week and out of the blue madi says: "when I grow up, I want to be a waitress!"

I think I can officially say that I have failed her.

Earlier this week I was hounding madi and tyce to pick up their room, (can you tell this is a reoccurring theme in our family?). By the fifth time I had herded them back into their room to finish the job as I was breathing threats I don't even remember at the moment (thankfully), I remember being fully committed to following through with said threats.

About 5 minutes later madi says : Well, I picked up my stuff, and i recommended tyce pick up his stuff.

Apparently someone took me seriously. I wish all I had to do was recommend something and it would happen.....wouldn't that be nice!

Tyce and I had this conversation the other day

ME: tyce you need to wash your hands and go put your toys away ( you may read this nicely,...but it was not said in my nice voice. I have a tried and true "mom voice" that gets me results...I do not use it sparingly I'm afraid!)

Tyce: shrugging his shoulders....that doesn't make any sense!

So true, in fact I can't think of a single thing I have done raising kids that makes any sense at all. For instance, why do I allow madi stickers in the car, they end up plastered eternally on the inside window every time! Why are we in such a rush to teach our kids to write their names? Now various pieces of furniture are tagged "madi" all over the house! I let tyce color with markers.. I know it was a moment of thoughtlessness, he colored all over hali's face, and then she ate a green marker! I actually captured that one on my phone, it was pretty amazing! You are right tyce, it doesn't make any sense, not even a little.

A few to remember

I just wanted to post a few pictures of us lately, or at least of the kids. Tyce has become quite the little talker these days and he has learned a few good one-liners from madi that are pretty funny. For instance, the other day I was getting on him about picking up his toys in his room
Me: Tyce, you need to put all your clothes back in your drawers if they are clean, and in the dirty clothes hamper if they are not
Tyce: That doesn't make any sense!

Funny, I thought I was being pretty clear.

Hali and madi are BFF"s. I am so glad they have each other's back since tyce gor 2 swords and a bow and arrow for his birthday. Hali got a shield. I had to give her a little protection at least.
I overheard this conversation between Mark and Madi when we were over at my mom's house
Madi: wow grandma, who painted this chair of yours
Mark: it's not painted madi, not everyone paints every piece of furniture in their house, just your mom

I would like to think he was paying me a compliment, but I am not entirely sure.

I just did this wedding cake for my brother-in-law's wedding last weekend. When I got to the reception I put flowers on top and around it as well but I don't have a picture of that yet. I am just relieved the darn thing turned out and stayed in one piece!!! I think I am retiring my wedding cake skills after this

Halloween

Hallowen snuck up on me this year. Infact, everything is sneaking up on me this year it feels like. It was a fun year for dressing up though. A few weeks ago I was at the mall and saw this adorable little cupcake costume for Hali and it was on sale......the stars aligned!! And right next to it was a little hamburger costume that I thought tyce would get a kick out of (which he did). So I brought them home and the kids were so excited! Except for madi, I wasn't sure what she wanted to be so I didn't pick up anything for her and she was very disapointed. She decided to be a hot dog to go along with our entre and dessert ( she wanted me to be a milk shake and mark to be french fries). I gave it a few weeks and, wait for it...wait for it.....she changed her mind and decided she wanted to be rapunzel. Fine. On her birthday, grandma and grandpa christensen got her a rapunzel wigg, without knowing that was her current halloween obsession, which only spurred the fire. So, rapunzel and her "meal" were all happy with their costumes and mom was happy she hadn't bought the hot dog costume!

What a cute little cupcake!

I know, I know, the worst camera know to mankind is in my possesion, but, come black friday you will all be amazed at my photography!