Making dinners...on the kitchen floor

So here I am again making a dinner early in the afternoon, since my early evening hours are spent at the gym on Monday nights. I do this because Steve is so nice to take all the girls every Tuesday and Thursday to the gym and keep them there for 3 HOURS while I am in class. Hannah has 2 ours of practice three nights a week now and the little girls go the last hour on their two nights. Steve is this awesome super dad who entertains the kids while Hannah is at practice and then turns around to do homework and reading with Hannah while the little girls are at practice.

Getting back to the point of making a dinner on Monday night. I just get these wild ideas for what I am making for dinner. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't, but I have found that if I get the little girls to help me make dinner they are more likely to eat it in a few more hours. I am trying to do good and make dinners at home more often. Not that I stopped but you know what I mean. Using what I have at home makes for some interesting things some nights.

Dinner....Alicia....You are telling them about making dinner. Get to the point. Sorry for the diversions and digressions. I found myself thinking today as I am sitting on my kitchen floor with the little girls today, "Wow! We are sitting on the floor making dinner." My floor isn't so clean right now, but here we sit making a creation. All three of us together not aruging, but just sitting there talking. I am teaching the girls how to cook and I am finding out about their day. They loved the fact that I didn't want to go get some shredded mozzerella cheese today, so what did we do?? We took 6 string cheeses (that will be missed from lunches this week) and shredded them up. Who cares about the size right? We just needed it in the cheese mix for stuffed shells. They had a blast! I had a blast! and we all were working together.

Now that I sit back and think about it, we have made many dinners there on my not so clean kitchen floor. I guess it is one of those moments that I realize that I am not going to have little preschoolers sitting on the floor with me making dinners for not much longer. They are both looking so big and how did my babies get to almost being 8, 5 and FOUR?!?!? Today was one of those ah-ha moments for me that I wanna remember. I would have never thought in a million years that we would be sitting around doing dinner on the floor no less.

We even got a lesson on making extra today too. We had some extra cheese and shells left, so we made an extra 13 stuffed shells. Katy and Ruby loved to patiently wait to get one made shell in their bowl. After we had made all that we could, then we got out the freezer bag and had our meal ready to go. We got dinner and a spare today. 13 shells is enough with some homemade sauce to feed us all. We will for sure have to add the bread and veggies and maybe even a salad for the two salad lovers in the family, but it is one less meal to be made on a busy night.

The little things and enjoying the moment! That's what it is all about :-)

I Hope I See The Other Side of This Week

I sure hope that I make it through the week. I love having a blog so that I can let go of my stress. I have known that this week was going to be trying, but I didn't know how full and busy that it is going to be until I am here staring it in the face. I have already had a paper due today with going to class. I had to take Hannah because we had to head to the gym when we left class 30 minutes early. I talked to my teacher and it was all good. I presented my paper for some extra credit which I will take any day! Hannah and I left to get the little girls from school and guess what?!?!? Ruby was had a headache and wasn't feeling well. Oh I knew this is how the week was going to go.

We make it to the gym after we got a drink from Sonic. Hannah did better in class today and all the while Ruby was heading down hill fast. She started burning up and finally fell asleep with Hannah having about 15 minutes left of her class and then we still had to stay for Katy's class which lasts an hour. The poor thing is getting way sick and even asked to go to the doctor. Guess where I will be tomorrow morning :-)

We finally got home from the gym and with my great mothering skills I made a quick unhealthy dinner from McDonald's. Ruby didn't want to eat or take any medicine, so she went right to bed still burning up!! Hannah spilled a drink all over the floor while I was getting Ruby to bed. Yes it was one of those nights for me. The kids did eat. Ruby is fast asleep, Katy went to bed soon after, and Hannah was even getting a shower.

Tomorrow I have to get Ruby to the doctor after I get the other girls to school. I sure hope that it doesn't take long since I have class tomorrow. Thank goodness to a good friend Clarissa who is going to come over and watch my sick baby while I go sit through an hour of American Literature. I am using a sick day for water aerobics and calling it good.

In the afternoon I have to have another sitter come over and watch the girls while I go take an anatomy midterm that I haven't even studied for yet. It's gonna be a fun day I tell you.

Right now I don't think that I am brave enough to even attempt gymnastics on thursday yet. I guess I have to see how tomorrow goes. I sure hope that I get through the week and make it through to the other side. Pray for me!

Nutmeg Smith

Nutmeg Smith
15 March 2002 - 16 February 2011
The Best Fur Baby in the Whole World

Today we said good-bye to our oldest baby in our family. Nutmeg came into our family when it was just Steve and I. I brought her home and she fit in my hand. Only 15 ounces worth of love on the first Mother's Day that I should have had my baby Ben. Through all of our moves across the country a few times and adding three more kids to the family, Nutmeg was there.

A few months ago Nutmeg did something that she ended up breaking her tail. I didn't like it and she was in a lot of pain. Eventually we made the choice to help her out to take her tail off, but her bladder was not going to be the same. After a few months of bladder infections and medicines not working, Steve and I came to the understanding that we had to let our fur baby go.

Today we said good-bye to our Nutters. The kids were not too happy but they know that she is in a better place. A conversation with Katy this afternoon went like this.
Mom: Katy are you sad?
Katy: Nope. I am happy.
Mom: Do you miss Nutmeg?
Katy: Yes. Mom, Where is Nutmeg? Heaven.
Mom: Heaven you say huh?
Katy: Yep, she is with baby Ben now Mom. I am happy.

Oh how I wish that we all could have the simpleness of a child. The simple plan of happiness is so easy for them. I am trying to be happy because my children are happy. Trust me there were lots of tears today when we buried our Nutmeg right beside baby Ben. The girls each got a turn to say good-bye to the cat who welcomed each of them home over the years.

Tonight I will miss my bed buddy. This will be the first night in almost NINE years that I have not had her sleep at my feet. My cat who got me through the loss of my son. Welcomed me home every time I stepped in the door. Who loved me no matter what I did. Nutmeg was always there to curl up right beside me if I needed some love or was feeling sad. I know there is a special place in heaven for this loved cat of ours. I sure hope that tonight she is having fun in heaven getting to know my son and having fun with having her tail back.

I will forever miss you Nutmeg. I don't think that there will ever be another cat like you. Until we meet again. I love you Nutters.

Here are a few pictures of Nutmeg when she was a baby!

Steve would get so annoyed because if he ever went to the bathroom Nutmeg would instantly go lay down and not let him get up. It was always a good laugh :-)

One last picture with my baby Nutmeg.

We will all miss you Nutmeg.

Mail Day

As you can see today was mail day! I met a wonderful, amazing, extremely talented quilter when we lived in Philly. Shellie is an amazing friend too! She really took me under her wing when we were in Philly and I learned a love for quilting too from her. Now I don't think that I will ever be as talented as my friend who gets her quilts published in Quilting magazines, but I am better from learning from her. Like how to make my square corners meet, how to iron my 1/4" seams, and what stitch in a ditch means.
When we were up in DC for Thanksgiving, we had the chance to meet up with Shellie and her awesome husband. YES we did meet at the fabric store. That is why her hubby is so awesome. Here we all drive for a long time only to meet at a man's most favorite place in the world....a fabric store and on the BYU/Utah football game day no less. I think we made it up by getting 5 Guys Burgers for lunch.
Shellie was so amazing to make a quilt for each of the girls and patiently taking time with each of my girls to pick out the fabric that they wanted. I really can't believe how much their personalities show through the styles of fabric that they each picked out.
Today was mail day! The girls had no idea what was in the boxes. They were trying to guess and we went from food to toys to valentine gifts and back. Ruby got into her box first and was so excited! Now all she has been saying is "Look what I got in the mail today." Katy is so excited she just had to go sit on the couch with her blanket! Hannah can't say enough about Sister Blake and how she is the "most wonderful lady in the whole world!"
Thank you so much Shellie for being such a great friend over all these years. I love being blessed by your talents and being able to have a few of Sister Blake's quilts in my home. Thank you for being a woman that I look up too and who knows maybe one day I can just come over and quilt all day long and chat!

Here are the girls with all their quilts :-)

Ruby with her purples and pinks :-)

Hannah with her browns, pinks, and cats of course!

Katy with her bright colors! Yellow, pink, and blues :-)

Today Would Be Steve's Most Favorite Day of the Year

Yep that is correct! It would be Groundhog Day. One year I will get my husband there to celebrate in person. We can live in person the whole hype around Groundhog Day at a bed and breakfast too!!

Here is what Phil told us this morning: Punxsutawney Phil has spoken and says we will have an early spring this year.

Actually, Phil’s prediction was spoken by his handlers just before 7:30 a.m. on the East Coast.

YES we will be having a party on Saturday this year. Pizza and another watching of Bill Murry at his best in Punxsutawney, PA!!! I hope that everyone is looking forward to an early spring :-)