Lovelies in my Life : This and That

We've spent much time outside today. It's a long weekend round herre (was listening to a little Nelly yesterday - haha) and we're making a fairly desperate attempt to keep busy and happy through it all. I've no desire to take them out and about, so we're thanking God for a beautiful day and spending much of it in the mass of leaves now littering our garden.

As I walked the garden path I came across a woodsy gnome

Donned in corduroy and knits, even the cutest of elbow patches

What a handsome fellow

I stopped to talk and heard a tall tale, one that tickled my cheeks

It sadly told of a very runny nose that caused his face to pull in all directions

Causing odd grimaces and smirks

We wondered through the overgrown forest, inspecting this and that

Pine cones filled with sticky sap and even dangerously spike-y traps!

And then the wonkiest thing happened to that silly gnome

He discovered at the edge of the forest, my cozy human home

With toys and cars, crayons and balls, and even warm chocolatey drinks

And so this tiny fellow gave up his life of gnomery to live with my delighted family

~ The End ~

I made something so seriously delicious last night that I've been completely chuffed about ever since. It's a weekly special for sure. Let me just say, again, how absolutely amazing Pinterest is. I follow a few of my Tulsa friends and they all seem to have a great love for food, though while mine tends to keep to the eating of food, theirs also encompasses the preparation. Needless to say, I've been so inspired by their food boards that my grocery shopping this week was done entirely by following my favorite meals pinned by friends at Pinterest. You see, when you pin something, clicking on that picture will take you directly to the site from which it originated and hence, the recipe! Here's what I made -

Crispy Cheddar Chicken from Jamie Cooks It Up (recipe here). So easy, so outstanding. Basically, chicken breast dipped in milk, grated cheddar, and then crushed Ritz crackers. Baked in oven and with a yummy, yummy sauce.

And after dinner, the huz snapped a few pics of us messing around.

(boys are in desperate need of hair cuts, I know)

He said he was taking a picture of me blogging. Now every time I'm at the computer the boys say I'm "blogging". Not really though, sometimes I'm reading other blogs. So there. And sometimes I'm window shopping. So really, there's about a million things I could be doing in front of the computer dudes. Hah ... as if blogging totally consumed my life.

Sometimes we follow a meal with oatmeal. Better than dessert, I suppose, so I'm not going to fight that one.

And in Green Bay, in the winter, we do outside things on the inside. Like ... hide a "jumping castle" in the basement (bounce house), even a trampoline. Or allow the kids to ride tricycles and scooters down the length of the house (pretty good length so that can get up to quite a decent speed). I'm really not thrilled with the whole things but I'm willing to allow it because of the humongous amount of time it allows me to get things done. They love it! And my floors all seem to be in good shape despite and well, this is a family home and as I've said before, I just have to let go of some aesthetics here and let kids be kids. With that being said, I'm a clean freak and I'm tidying, washing, painting all the time. So I keep on top of the worser-for-the-wear spots as much as I can. When these boys are a bit older (age undecided), I will rip out carpet, put in gorgeous flooring, repaint walls, and chuck my couches. Until then, no sense in it.