Yes

I've been trying to wait until I was 12 weeks along before I share the news with everyone.......I'm basically there, so..........I'm PREGNANT!

It's taken me a while to feel ready to have another baby, but we are super excited for our family to grow some more. I'm due Oct. 21.

I feel like I'm ginormous, and I have to eat at least every 2 hours in order to not feel nauseous, but other than that, all is good. I think I'm nearing the end of the nausea stage though. It's definitely not as bad as it was with the 2 previous pregnancies.

Anyway.......there, now you all know.

Today

 What's on my mind today

1. I'm making donuts. Just waiting for them to rise........I hope they're good! I'm using this recipe from The Pioneer Woman

2. John's boss bought him 22 pounds of chocolates. He knows someone who owns a bulk food store or something and got it for $15 because they were overstocked. I'm just glad the kids haven't found them.

3. Brian cut his hair today....again. I guess he can open the craft closet now......and the door to outside......yikes

4. I've been wanting to do a post about the fabulous vacation that I went on with my sisters and mom, but I've been kind of lazy lately......so, I'm going to steal from my sister. Go visit her blog if you're interested. She's blogged 3 days of our 10 day trip so far. Catalina Gold, and LA

5. John is in the Raymond Play "Cinderella". He volunteered to fill in because 5 guys quit. He is having fun with it, and I'm glad he is in it, but I will be happy when it is over so that he can be home for more than 1 waking hour each day!........ Hadley thinks it's funny that he has to wear makeup. Me too.

6. I'm sick of feeling nauseous.........

Knock-off Wood

I found this blog Knock-off Wood a couple months ago, and one day will make some stuff from it.....once we have a garage or a space to make it. She designs plans for furniture and gets her inspiration from Pottery Barn and other name brand stuff. And she shares her plans for FREE! So nice. Anyway....

She is doing a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Home Depot or Lowe's. If you write in your comment to enter that I referred you (including my email address: johannesmegan@gmail.com), we could both win if you get picked.....so come on.....show me some love.

Enter here

I think this is what I would make first.....maybe.....

or this

or this

 

with this

 

and I might as well make this too

 

or maybe just this

Oh to dream.....

30 meal plan

I'm a little obsessed about this today. I haven't really done much else other than feed kids and work on the computer.....needless to say, the house is a bit of a disaster and my kids are still in their jammies. Oh well.

Anyway. I saw this idea on nannygoat and am really excited about doing it for our family. I don't mind cooking, but hate thinking of something to make. I usually make a weekly menu and grocery list, but I think this will help me a lot to streamline it a bit. I really like the idea of having a master list of all the recipes with all the ingredients I need for all of them. That way, when I go shopping, if something is on sale, I can plan my meals accordingly.

So, this morning I started writing out all the meals that we normally have. We eat pretty basic meals, so they aren't really "recipes", but whatev. I came up with 16 and then added 2 that my sister sent me. I'll add to it as I think of more or get recipes from people that I think will work for us.

On nannygoat, they used these free downloadable recipe cards, but I wasn't in love with them and I couldn't really get them to work right, so I decided to make my own. First I found these free scrapbooking packets. I used the happy go lucky packet. Then with Picasa, I made them.

Here are the two that I've made so far. The recipes are definitely not fancy.....I don't really even need recipes for these meals, but they just looked so cute, I couldn't help myself.....they are cute.....right??......

 

Can you find the typo?

And here's a blank one in case you feel like using it.

 

I just printed them out as 4x6 on cardstock. Then I printed the red paper from the same scrapbook packet on the back just cause I wanted to....and it looks cute.....

Now I just need to find some more recipes...anyone have some gooders? I don't need anything fancy....as you might have noticed.....

The gift of an ordinary day

I saw this posted on Cloverlane, and thought I would share.



After it was over, Hadley asked me what it was about.

Me: It was about how kids grow up. They grow up and move away and then get married.
Hadley: It was a girl and boy?
Me: No, it was about two boys, they'll find other girls to marry.
Hadley: Oh. Ok.
Me (seeing that Hadley wasn't quite understanding): You're 4 years old now, right?
Hadley: Yup
Me: When you are 18 years old, you will move away and not live with Mom and Dad anymore.
Hadley (getting super sad and crying): But I don't want to live without you. I will be sad!
Me (feeling very bad that I brought this tender subject up): It's ok, you can live with us then still....it's up to you. It's not going to be for a really long time.
Hadley: I know. I just want to live with you.
Me: Ok. You can live with us for as long as you want.

Sad.

stuff megan likes

In my bookmarks, I have a folder named "stuff megan likes". I was browsing through there today and thought I'd share some of the things I like. These are mostly things I want to make and I keep the folder so I can find them....I still haven't made anything off the list though....

from Blog n Tell 

 

from Mod Podge Rocks  

 

 love the cork board wainscoting inserts - featured on Tutus and Turtles

 

diy shimmer candles from Remodeling this life  

 

from all things thrifty  

 

from MADE 

Now I just need to get started on some of these projects.......soon......

Yummy food

When I was first married, I would always use recipes to cook supper. Often there would be something that I didn't like with the food.....too salty...not salty enough.....too spicy....etc. John never uses a recipe....to an extent. For baking, he uses recipes as a guideline, but often tweaks things a little. He taught me how to cook without a recipe. Some things don't turn out quite how I want, but usually it turns out great. Here are a couple "no recipe" things we've made recently that were de-lic-ious.

Apple Crisp

some flour

some quick oats

some brown sugar

some apples
some margarine (melted - he didn't make it with melted margarine, but it would be better that way)
some cinnamon

1. peel and slice apples and put in a pan

2. mix flour, oats, and sugar together and sprinkle on top of apples

3. bake @ 350 for about an hour

4. eat with vanilla ice cream (of course)

 

It looks a little gross here.....I didn't think to take a picture until it was half-eaten...

Chicken Wings

We don't normally buy wings, but I got them for free when I spent a certain amount at Superstore...bonus!

1. prepare 3 separate "dipping" bowls 

         1st: 2 c. flour and sprinkle some garlic powder and salt or whatever spices you like in. mix

         2nd: eggs. beat. add some salt and pepper (or whatever seasonings you want)

         3rd: 1.5 c. flour, seasonings (I used garlic powder and some "garlic plus" spice mix, and of course salt....I love salt), 1 c. cornflakes (crushed), 1 c. saltines (crushed). mix.

2. get oil ready. We inherited a deep fryer, but you could fry them in a pot of oil, or just bake them (probably healthier, but not as crispy).

3. dip thawed chicken wings in the 3 bowls of stuff (1st, then 2nd, then 3rd), then place in hot oil. I did 10 at a time.

4. make sauce. I don't remember exactly how much of everything I put in, so you can just taste it or smell it to fit your liking. It's a sweet and sour type sauce.

about 1/2 c. ketchup

2 T lemon juice

2 T vinegar

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. soy sauce

These measurements are all guesstimates. I just dumped stuff in straight from the bottles.....so they are probably a bit off. Just add as much or as little of each as you like. 

5. put cooked wings into a baking pan and cover them with the sauce. I put them in the oven for a little bit, just cause, but you don't need to. It just helped warm up the sauce a bit I guess.....I was improvising here. I only put them in for about 5 minutes at 350. 

6. Dig in. I made 20 wings. 

These were seriously delicious. John said they were the best wings he's ever had. I loved them too. The kids even loved them. Needless to say, they were gone in a few minutes. 

We watched "Julie & Julia" on Saturday night. I recommend it to any who have not seen it. It was really inspiring for both me and John to do what we love. John really wants to try some recipes out of Julia Child's cookbook now.....maybe recipes are useful sometimes......

Dance Class and Potty-training

Clever title, eh?

A couple things to share:

First, Brian has decided that the potty is cool, and goes pee on it whenever I tell him, and has even started telling me on his own when he needs to go. He even poos on the potty! This is very exciting for me because I thought the boys would be harder to train than Hadley. Elijah still has little interest so I'm just going to wait until he is more ready. I think I tried too early with Hadley, which resulted in a lot of frustration and it took a long time for her to be trained.

Second, we got to watch Hadley in her dance class this week. She was really fun to watch and definitely loves to dance.

Christmas Celebrations

I finally downloaded our Christmas pics, so here are a few highlights:

1. Skating/Hockey with the Turcatos (my Aunt Anne's family) in Taber on Christmas Eve
- Elijah was not a fan of the cold or wearing his gloves. Not a good combo
- Brian loved it
- Hadley skated (sort of) for the first time

Hadley playing hockey with uncle Mike and Gramma Freeze

Brian's sporting Hadley's 2007 snowpants......he doesn't seem to mind

The Brians

We were about to leave and Hadley was sad that she didn't get to go on the sled (pulled by a quad), so John asked my uncle for a ride. He's so nice. Hadley and Brian loved it. Elijah was not a fan so he didn't join the fun.

2. A visit from Santa (aka Grampa Santa) at John's parent's house.

3. Nativity and Star Birthday cake at my parent's house
- Elijah was not a fan of dressing up like a shepherd so he is MIA once again

They were so reverent. Brian almost sat there the whole time. I was impressed.

4. Christmas morning at our house

 

John (aka Santa's helper) made this cute little giraffe for Hadley. He carved it and the plan was to have Grampa Santa give it to Hadley on Christmas Eve, but I forgot about it and left it safely hidden at home, so Grampa Santa just told Hadley to look for it in her stocking...whoops.....

Cute Nativity for Kids

I found this linked on a blog yesterday and because we don't have a nativity, I figured we could whip it up. Hadley had fun colouring it for the first little while, but it took FOREVER to colour everything. She coloured baby Jesus (notice the brown face). I tried hard to just let her colour it how she wanted......after all, it's for the kids, right?

The instructions call for 13 toilet paper rolls, but I tend to throw those away.....so I didn't have 13 just lying around, so I just printed it out on cardstock and then cut it out and stapled it together instead of using glue. I did use a paper towel roll for the nativity though, because it doesn't work really without something to staple it to.

Anyway, here it is. We may have to make it again next year.....the angel is already missing a wing.....why do kids like to rip paper so much? Or is it just my kids? They rip everything! Books....especially with the lift-a-flaps....and most recently, my piano music that I'm supposed to play in church tomorrow......oh well...luckily someone invented tape.