Scrumptious Bat Eyeballs

Yesterday I decided to try something new, again. I got out the black-eyed peas and created a new dish for my family that I had when I was little. When I was getting ready to cook them I told Nathan to come and look at what I was going to make. He said, "WHAT ARE THOSE? ! I told him, "They are eyeballs. We are having eyeballs for dinner. Do you want eyeballs for dinner?" "Yeah!"

We sat and watched the eyeballs boil and he and Alex got a real kick out of the beans boiling to the surface and "looking" at she and Nathan.

When Athena and Samantha came home from school, I passed the word along that we were having eyeballs for dinner. When I showed them the eyeballs, Athena was too smart for me. She told me that eyeballs aren't that small and they had to be beans. I said, nope! Eyeballs CAN be that small. These are bat's eyeballs. She still didn't believe me, but had to see for herself. She got a fork, pulled out a bean, and took it to the table to dissect it. After the dissection I couldn't really tell if she was doubting or if she had satisfied her curiosity.

When it came time to finally eat dinner I served up the black-eyed peas (bat eyeballs) over rice and guess who had the hardest time eating it . . . . Athena!


OK, it looked better than this when I first served it up. This is Athena's plate after she pushed it around and around during dinner time.
Here is Samantha working on her eyeballs.

Alexandra was the first one done with her dinner. She really liked it!

After awhile I was really trying to get the kids to eat because they were just sitting there wasting a whole lot of time messing around at the table. I told Athena to just EAT HER FOOD! She said, "Well then quit calling them eyeballs. I can't eat eyeballs. Tell me they are beans. I can eat beans." LOL! So I said, "Fine, then eat your "beans", even though they are eyeballs." Poor Athena. She did finally finish, by the way.

I also made my first batch of cornbread to go with the dinner and it was so good! When I pulled out my cornmeal to make the bread I realized I was about 1/4 cup short of what I needed . . . so it was a perfect chance to try making my own cornmeal! I got out my grinder and made cornmeal for the first time and it turned out to be so much better than the storebought corn meal. The bread turned out really moist - not the dry, falling-apart cornbread that I remember. Now I'll have to make it again. :) The picture doesn't quite do justice to how tasty it was.

Last of all, here is Nathan. He finished his dinner without much complaining, too. I think this is a dinner we will have to try again. Maybe next time I'll call them beans.

New Year's Resolutions

I've never really been one for New Year's resolutions, but this year we decided to set some as a family. We sat down together and talked about what we could do to strengthen our family, voted on our favorites, and agreed on them together. I really like that the kids helped us come up with them and that we worked together. I figure the more places I put them, the more I'll remember what I need to do, so I'm posting them to my blog! :)

Our church goals are:

• Have a morning devotional as a family. We get up at 7am and read a scripture, sing a song, and have prayer as a family. That's been going well. :)
• No playing on Sunday morning and only church videos

Our family goals are:

• 1 hour of deep cleaning together on Saturdays
• Do a family activity two times a month

My personal goal:

• I will take better care of my home FOR my family.

Seeing as this is really one of the first times I've made goals at the beginning of the year, I'm hoping to really stick to them. I don't have a record either way with resolutions, but I'm looking forward to the improvements within my family with these goals.

Dangerous Toffee

Teresa, your toffee was SO GOOD! The good thing about it is that it was sooooo good!!! The bad thing about it is that I ate almost all of it today ALL BY MYSELF! I'm hoping that it all counts towards only today's calorie count and I don't have to punish myself for it tomorrow.

Christmas Carnage

We had a wonderful Christmas. Everything went much more smoothly than in years past. Maybe it's because the kids are getting older.

I got an iFlip and just had to share this great new video I took after everything was opened! :) I think I'll have a lot of fun with it. Feel free to scroll down on my blog and pause my music to better hear the video.

Up and Moving

We finally got our Windows 7 CD in the mail, but unfortunately I was too sick to do anything about it. I am just getting over being sick for 2 weeks. I came down with the flu. Then it turned into bronchitis and by the time I went to the doctor he told me it was settling into pneumonia. 11 stinking days with a fever and just being able to lay on the couch! At least I've been able to still eat through the whole ordeal, although I haven't had much of an appetite. Also, thank goodness for facebook. At least I didn't feel completely isolated!

I looked at my posts for November and it's shameful. I MUST get on top of this blog thing! I really do like to blog . . . so once I get this Windows 7 installed, I will also go ahead and install my photoshop, microsoft office, and my homesite. Then I will truly be up and running with nothing hanging over my head. :)

I've had to take a little leave from my exercising which I love so much and I hope to be able to return on Monday. Last night my visiting teachers were so kind and they brought in dinner - which was quite tasty! Also, there was so much food that we get to eat leftovers tonight and I don't have to get up and cook. It really was a relief to have one thing less to do when right now I get out of breath just standing.

I'm hoping that by the time I post again I'll be going full swing and will be able to post some nice, colorful, happy, long-awaited, already-behind-the-times pictures of my family and of our trip.

I'm All Backed Up

I just don't feel like I can get on top of anything!!! Here I sit in my very messy house with luggage still to be unpacked, an empty fridge, coupons needing to be clipped, piles of dirty laundry in various areas of the house, and Halloween costumes still where we left them when we took them off. Not to mention the phone list of people to call for primary and the shopping list for the dinner we are hosting. Oh and I also need to find some time put together a project for Athena on Rich County and prepare a spiritual message for my presentation on Friday.

I have over 750 pictures waiting to be posted and talked about, but I haven't yet downloaded Photoshop onto the new computer because I am waiting to receive my Windows 7 in the mail.

Yet . . . here I sit on facebook, IM, and blogspot. Hmph.

How is it the Christmas season already? Where did the past few months go? Does life ever really slow down or does it just continue to get busier and busier until we all just pop?

On a good note, Jeremy and I just returned home from a wonderful vacation in Mexico. We got to experience our first tropical storm turned hurricane, but still had a good time. The kids are all so happy to be back in their own environment and I am working on finding my routine again. Thankfully the Lord has blessed us all to be back together again safely and in good health. :)

I think I'll go make some lunch.

More Laundry Now :)

This little sweetheart is adding to my laundry load by being POTTY TRAINED!!!! :) I started potty training Alexandra last Monday and she is doing awesome. :) So now I get to throw a few little tiny pairs of panties into the laundry instead of having a garbage can full of dirty diapers. I'll take that for sure.

She has actually been ready to potty train for a couple of months now, but I kept putting it off. I finally found a week where we would be home for most of the time and decided to go for it. She was so excited!!! I set the timer for 45 minutes and every 45 minutes we would go into the bathroom and have her sit on her potty. For this week she has only had about 5 accidents and is even starting to go on her own. She even told me yesterday that she needed to go!

Usually I'm so ornery when I potty train a kid because it's so stressful for me. She has really been wonderful and I'm glad to see diapers coming to an end. :) Now we only have to buy them for night time.

Hooray!!