We have had a wonderful week. Fisher has played with so many friends: our neighbors, Titus, Max, Jack and Allie, Silas, am I forgetting someone? Each day, another friend. Also, Fisher went to BounzaPalooza, a place full of bounce house things. It cost's 5 bucks for a half hour. It was worth it. He needed to get some energy out. We also stopped by and visited our old neighbor, Bev. I don't know if Fisher remembered her, but he sure remembered the toy she used to always let him play with.

Fisher helping me skim the fat off the chicken broth.

I boiled the chicken broth down so it's very concentrated. I read about that somewhere and thought I'd try it. I tasted this broth because it just smelled so good. It tasted amazing. I think because it was so concentrated! This is great because it takes up less room in my very crowded freezer. I don't know what I'm going to do with all the pizza and ham n cheese pockets I made tonight.

Our magnolia tree out front is blooming for the 2nd time this summer. It's so pretty.

This is my front porch right now. I know, the red crate just adds so much. I don't know how that ended up there actually. I think Adam was sitting on it one night and there it stayed. This chair Rachel gave me a long time ago. The arm needs to be fixed and I want to refinish it but that is just one more "to do".

Finley is pulling himself up now. I do not remember Fisher doing this at 8 months. I don't think Fisher crawled until 9 months. Well, Finley has got me on the run now. Poor kid has hit his head numerous times. It's lumpy enough without all those blows to add to it.

Here's Fisher going down the giant slide at Bounza palooza.

Try as he might, Fisher could not climb up this.

He loved this dinosaur ride. For a quarter this dino went for quite a while.

Guess What?

Guess what?........Chicken butt!!! Haaahaaa
(It's really just the tail, but still...gross)

I've been working on having a heart of praise even when I'm tired at the end of the day still doing laundry. I want to do my daily tasks with a good attitude but it can get hard to keep your chin up with seemingly unending cleaning and picking up and seemingly nothing to show for it. I have to come to grips with the fact that my house isn't a house on Better Homes magazine cover. I've tried. First of all I just can't seem to buy the right things. I'm returning about 99 % of what I bought to redecorate. Second, I'm too busy running after my kids to get any of this redecorating done. I've done zero since my blog about picture frames! I had a great surprise today. My neighbor two houses down came over to have a play date. I had gone to her house to introduce myself because her son had stopped me on my way out to ask about my kids. I guess he hasn't stopped talking about the people in the green house (us). So we had a good time. It was just fun to have something unexpected brighten the day. As far as my home ec. duties I got some stuff done today...I'm still deciding if this pre-plan cook till you drop week is going to be worth it. I guess I'll know at the end of the month.

Finley is trying to get in the "boat" as Fisher calls it.

Fisher is enjoying his apricot breakfast bar. They were a little crumbly but quite tasty for a whole wheat, no sugar breakfast.

My homemade bread gets dry and crumbly after it's short shelf life so I ground it in the processor. Tomorrow, when I make lasagna, I'll throw this in the oven for a few minutes to make bread crumbs. Now I don't have to buy them!

This is what is left of my chicken I cooked today. I separated it and got a bunch of shredded chicken. I also cooked my pinto and black beans that I soaked last night. My house got pretty steamy. I had to open all the windows and doors.

I wish you could smell my chicken stock. I think this is the best I have made yet. I think it was all those delicious vegetables I threw in. First I used a colander to strain out the big chunks. Then, I put a clean cloth down in the colander to fine strain it. It's in the fridge tonight so the fat will rise for me to skim it. I read somewhere that you can cook your stock longer to get all the water out to make a more condensed stock. Less space in the freezer may be a good thing. I may try it.

Today was also my laundry day. Although I didn't get all of it done, I did make a dent! Fisher's car seat cover is now in the wash. He had a few accidents in it, but I couldn't wash it cuz I needed to use it! Sick, I know. But sadly true.

All in a days work

Surprise, surprise I had nachos for lunch today. Have I mentioned that I LOVE nachos. I just made a little mini plate for myself. I really needed a break. I am so very tired tonight. It's after 10 and I just sat down to do my blog before I hit the pillow. I'm finding that I really like blogging about my day. When I look at the house and think "what did I do today?" I've got it documented. It somehow makes me feel more accomplished. So, here is what I did today:

First of all, those carrots I cooked and blended filled up the door of my freezer. I put all the icecube carrots in freezer bags.

Remember all those bell peppers I got on sale, well I spent all day chopping them. Some are chopped little, some are chopped big for things like shishkabobs. I don't know if I spelled that right. Some are just sliced and I placed them in freezer bags with sliced onions. These I will use for a couple quick fajita nights. I froze them on cookie sheets first before I portioned them into freezer bags. And some I didn't freeze because I chopped them even finer in the processor with onion and put them in a couple of meatloaves which come a little later.

Here are some MORE carrots from my 10 lb bag that i shredded and froze for whatever my heart desires.

Here is the mix of peppers, carrots and onion for my meatloaves.

My handy mixer mixing my meatloaves.

One of my meatloaves. It's now in a freezer bag.

the kids playing in the sun room while I chop my life away.

I had to take a break and play too.

Fisher's feet finally BARELY reach the pedals. He's got it figured out but has yet to master it.

I made some homemade ranch mix.

My beans are soaking overnight. These are black and pinto.

Here is my freezer as of today. It's getting full. I still have 2 meals I plan to fit in there!

This is all my ends and stuff from the produce I chopped today. This is all going into my chicken pot.

These baked potatoes were part of dinner that I forgot to take a finished product photo. I made cheesy baked potatoes with broccoli. It was good.

I even made breakfast for tomorrow. Apricot bars. I had to try one.

I browned some of the hamburger for a couple freezer meals I plan to make...

This is what's left of my 10 lbs of hamburger. It awaits lasagna on Wednesday.

Some of that hamburger went into cheddar ranch burgers that are frozen now. I plan to make homemade hamburger buns when we eat them. We'll see how it works out.

After I put the kids to bed I got to work on the 2 chickens I had in the fridge. I cut the breasts off (I'm getting pretty good at this)

and freeze them

The rest of the chicken goes into the stock pot to become shredded chicken, then chicken stock. But that will come tomorrow. I have to go to bed. The chicken can wait in the fridge another night.

Today, after church at 9:00, Adam took me around to all my stores. I had to hit Costco, Winco, and the Natural Food Store. It is so nice to have someone with the kids while i do all that running around. I made the comment to Adam, "Man, this goes so much faster with someone else with me." He says, "What do you mean!? We've been doing this for 3 hours!" Little does he know how long it would have taken with two kids in tow. :) I did my major shopping for at least (I hope) two months. Maybe a month and a half. This is some of what I accomplished today, the rest will have to come later because I am BEAT!
(Seriously, can anyone tell me why my print gets into hyperlink mode even when I don't use that mode? It's driving me crazy!)
.Green and red peppers were on sale today! Here's my stash washed with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, ready to chop and slice and freeze

Here is 10 lbs of 80% lean ground beef, grass fed.

I cooked up some taco meat for our nachos tonight, then saved some for taco salad on tuesday and froze some for later. The rest of the hamburger I'll deal with tomorrow.

Somehow, Finley got this scrape on his chin. I hate to blame Fisher but...

Finley spit up so much today we had to give him a second bath! He loves this new fun time. He usually just showers with Dad.

I bought a 10 lb bag of carrots. Adam chopped 1/2 of them up for me in the food processor (such a good husband) and I steamed them for baby food.

I used my blender to mush all the carrots, then froze it in saved baby jars, and ice cube trays.

Fisher watched "Finding Nemo with Dad while I finished up after our dinner. I think he looks hilarious.

Last but not least, I cleaned my counters with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. You can't be too careful after all that raw meat!

chasing sun

I couldn't take the fog any longer so we chased down the sun. We found it following my good friend Rachel and her kids to a river south of us...i can't even remember where. I'm terrible at finding or remembering places...that's why i followed her! It was a nice relaxing day at the river...well, maybe not relaxing in the same sense as BEFORE kids! But relaxing as it could be WITH young kids. Fisher had such an amazing time with his friends. I love watching him interact with other kids. He's getting a nice tan too. Finley really likes water. Most kids do. But he will just kick away with a goofy grin on his face.

One of the girls we were with found this slide hiding somewhere. So of course, we set it up! The kids loved it.

Came home and had more fun in the water! Bath time!

a lovely day

Maybe the sun hasn't been shining but we are shining in spite of the fog! I didn't get anything but 5 loads of laundry done today. I still need to paint a kajillion things, hang curtains that i've had for probably 2 weeks, and clean the kitchen yet again. Somehow things just take a LONG time to get accomplished around here. I recently discovered some grand blogs on how to organize my life as a mom. But in my mind, organizing is just one more thing to do! I know it will be worth the effort though. So, in the coming week I plan to plan :)

Fisher built a "fridge" today, otherwise known as a bridge.

They really are mini pops! They were not joking. This is the whole Popsicle seriously, before getting sucked on.
Finley's first tooth has officially broke through the gum. He is sooooo grouchy today. Poor fellow.

And a great day would not be so great without nachos. My all time favorite meal. I also made fruit smoothies but forgot to take a picture. They were delicious.