Fall Break Faves

We're back to reality of work and school today after a week long fall break.  

The break came at the perfect time.  We all needed some days to rest, recover and enjoy a trip to Wisconsin.  I'm so thankful to be on pretty much the same schedule as my kids so we can all be off together.  It made me so happy to not have to set alarms, get to do what we wanted during the days and enjoy all the extra time together.

I was so excited to:

1. See beautiful fall leaves in Wisconsin.

2. Organize/declutter/clean out our garage.

3. Drop off consignment items to my favorite store that only accepts items during school hours.  It was great to be home during the day to take care of stuff like this.

4. Switch all the kid's closets to Fall/Winter.  Now I need to do mine.

5. Ordered new winter coats for all the kids.

6. Haircuts for several of us and a claw trim for Mr. Mittens.

7. We were home on harvest day for the farm behind our house.  The boys were so excited.

8. We made some fun plans with friends and family.

9. My house got dusted and decorated for Halloween.  The kids love to help decorate.  We dusted together and decorated together.

10. All of my house plants had a spa day where I watered, pruned and gave them some extra love.

11. I prepped a Fall gift for the kid's teachers.  I'll do a blog post about it later this week.  I try to send in something small once a month for the teachers with a note of appreciation.

12. I took care a ton of the to dos I had been putting off like getting an oil change, cleaning out freezers, reorganizing pantries, and taking care of school things for the kids - spirit wear, projects and calendar things.

13. Halloween costumes are finalized, everything has arrived and has been tried on.  We are ready for trick-or-treating.  I even bought our candy and hid it so it lasts until the 31st.

14.Returns are all caught up on, bathrooms are all cleaned and laundry is done.  Whew it feels good to be all caught up at home.

Bring on all the Fall festivities from now through Thanksgiving!

Kindergarten Chronicles

I have been teaching kindergarten now for one whole quarter of the year and I've learned so much.  I have had two kindergarteners of my own and Leo is just a little younger than kindergarten, but this is my first time teaching kindergarten.

I'm going to share some funny stories regularly and call them Kindergarten Chronicles.

- One little boy brought me a rose and said - Don't worry!  I had my mom take off all of the thorns for you!"

- I was talking to a student and asked him the name of his teacher last year.  He thought for a moment and said, I think her name was Mrs. Hamburger or something like that.

- We were talking about birthdays and ages and one kid said I bet you're getting close to 100.  Not quite.

- The school counselor was doing an activity with us where the kids had to practice giving compliments to their classmates.  They went around the circle and we were getting to the end.  One of the last little boys to go said that he had a compliment for his teacher.  He said "Mrs Jordan you are my favorite and I wish I could take you home with me!"

- A little girl came up to me and asked if my cheeks got sunburnt over the weekend.  I looked at her confused and then I realized she thought my blush was a sunburn.

- One student had a new baby brother.  She was going to visit him after school and said, How about you just come hop in my car and head to the hospital to meet him with me?

- I got to bond with one of my students when I realized that we both have the middle name of Layne.

-Mrs. Jordan, you're so fun.  Can you come to my birthday party?

After teaching kindergarten for one whole quarter of the year, I can absolutely say that kindergarteners are the sweetest, funniest, neediest little people.  I'm thankful to just have 22 kids with a full time assistant.  They keep two adults on their toes all day long.

Perfect Pumpkin Muffins

I have a really yummy pumpkin recipe to share with you today.  My family loves all things pumpkin and they agree that these are some of the best pumpkin muffins I have ever made.  They were really easy and I bet you have almost all of the ingredients on hand if you love to bake Fall treats.

I started with this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction - My Best Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

and made a few changes.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice 

1/4 t ground ginger

A sprinkle of salt

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 c Buttermilk*

1 small can of pumpkin (or 1 1/2 c pumpkin puree)

toppings - cinnamon & sugar and chocolate chips*

 * these were my changes to the original recipe

Directions:

Sally has very specific directions, but I just dumped everything into a bowl and mixed it really well.  It turned out great!  I sprinkled some with cinnamon sugar, left some plain and added chocolate chips to the rest.  Spoiler alert: Every muffin variety was delicious.

Scoop into a mini muffin pan.  This recipe made 30+ mini muffins so I had to use two pans.  I did use the original baking directions of starting at 425 for 3 minutes and finishing baking for about 12 minutes at 350.  I almost always make mini muffins because they bake so much faster and this was the perfect bake time for mini muffins.

I made these twice last week and we devoured them!

I bet your crew might enjoy them, too!

Friday Faves

Happy almost Fall Break!  I'm ready for a week of fun with my family.

The best parts of my week were:

Mr Mittens is getting fuzzier!  Look at this cute face.  He might be a flight risk and love to knock over bathroom trash cans, but we sure do love him.

I had a day off this week and it was glorious!  I squeezed in some appointments, shopped at all of my favorite spots and crossed a million things off my to do list.

I'm obsessed with cute black Halloween cat decor this year.  Mr. Mittens inspired naturally.

Leo and I had dentist appointments this week.  We both got glowing reviews and he loved this pirate skeleton in the lobby.  He won over all the office ladies with his funny stories and the fact that he was so excited to be at the dentist!

Look who I caught becoming friends.  Yay!

Big sister stepped in to do some studying with Fletcher.  She runs a tight homework ship.

My cute class went to a farm in Kentucky on Monday for a field trip and the weather was perfect.  The farm was darling and we had the best time.  Fall is my favorite.  Always and forever.

Pumpkin muffins are my favorite.  I made them twice this week.  Check back next week for the recipe.

Leo loves to line up cars for his own traffic jam.  He always loves to stay in his pjs as long as possible.

Olive hit the jackpot with cute clothes lately at Walmart.  If you have a tween/teen, be sure to give the junior section at Walmart a chance.

Leo loves to draw these cute characters.

Tween shopping haul at Marshalls.  It's quickly become a favorite spot to find cute clothes for both Olive and myself.  We stopped in after school one day and came home with a ton of cute tops for Fall.

Dr. Jordan just finished up a really fun health unit at school.

Anotehr day, another traffic jam.  He always asks me to take a picture of his lines of cars.  I'll be sad when he stops doing this.

Bouquets of wildflowers are my favorite.  Look at that, roots still attached.  What a sweet guy!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

See you back here next week :)

Easy Dinner Ideas from Sams

Sams is one of our favorite spots to pick up easy dinner options.  Their meats and sides make dinner prep really easy for a busy mom.  I'm excited to show you some of our favorite dinner items that make eating dinner at home so fast and so easy for me.  I'll show you my favorites and tell you how I prepare a meal with each item.  I hope you find a few new things to try on your next trip to Sams.

Member's Mark Southern Style Chicken Bites

This bag is about $12 and feeds us two dinners.  The chicken bites are so good.  They taste very similar to Chick-Fil-A for a fraction of the cost.  My kids love them.  It's an easy dinner that I know everyone will enjoy.  I cook them about twice as long as the package says to get them really crispy.

Member's Mark Southern Style Waffle Fries

These are a great combo with the nuggets above.  The kids love at home Chick-Fil-A night.

Member's Mark Pork Carnitas

We love this meat!  It's so good on tacos, nachos or by itself with vegetable sides.  I always keep one of these in our freezer for easy meals.  You warm it up in the oven, shred it by hand and remove any fat and it is so good.  It feeds our family with leftovers for lunch.

Tyson Crispy Chicken Strips

These are yummy!  Great quality chicken.  This bag feels us for 2-3 meals.  We eat them on salads or with sides.  They are always good.

Ajinomoto Vegetable Chow Mein.
My kids lvoe this stuff.  They often eat it for lunches on the weekends.  They remove the veggies they don't like and add soy sauce.  I like to add chicken to this mix for a big stir fry dinner.

Asparagus.  We love this roasted as a side with any meat for dinner.  I just chop off the bottom 2 inches, drizzle olive oil and seasoning and roast at 400 for about 30 minutes.  It's so good and so easy.

Member's Mark Jumbo Hoagie Rolls.

These are so good!  We make toasted sub sandwiches for dinner out of these and I love to slice them up to use for garlic bread.  They are so cheap.  6 rolls for $7.  They also freeze really well.  I usually use a few rolls and then freeze the rest of the bag.  Let them thaw, slice, add butter and garlic salt and it makes the yummiest, chewiest garlic toast.

Member's Mark Uncured Black Forest Ham.

This ham is so affordable and so good on paninis, omelets, Hawaiian Roll sandwiches and regular cold cut sandwiches.  The price is great for sliced ham.  I don't like slimey lunch meat and this passes the high quality test for me.

The Little Potato Co. Little Duds

Such an easy side dish!  I like to roast these and they'd make the cutest potato bite appetizers.

Member's Mark Five Cheese Tortellini.

We first tried these at a sample stand and fell in love.  They are so good.  Fletcher and I could eat them every day.  He loves them coated in pesto and I love them any way you serve them.  This two pack makes it easy to enjoy some now and later.  One container serves a whole family so this is a great deal.

Member's Mark Chicken Breast Bites.

These are so good on a salad or in stir fry or in a casserole.  They are fully cooked and so easy to warm up in the oven.  The meat is great quality requiring no trimming.

Member's Mark Pesto.

So yummy!  This container is huge so we usually use half and freeze half to make sure none goes to waste.  We love it on pasta, homemade pizza, chicken salad and anything with crusty bread.

Don Miguel Chicken Mini Tacos.

They are our new favorite food for game days.  They are so good!  The whole family enjoys them.  I love to add all the dips when I serve them - sour cream, salsa, guac and pico.  The kids just love to dip them in taco sauce.  They would be perfect for any game day party.

I hope you found a new thing or two to try at Sams.  These are all easy, crowd pleasing dinner options for my family.  They aren't as cheap as homemade things, but they are SO SO SO much cheaper than going out to eat with your family.

Goodbye, Topher

Last week was a really sad week at our house, our sweet Topher passed away on Thursday.

I mentioned that he wasn't doing well last month and he took a drastic turn for the worse last week.  Kevin took him to the vet last Monday and the vet said that Topher was old and all his systems were starting to fail him.  We didn't want to put him through tons of tests and procedures.  We brought him home and talked about our options all the while watching him decline very quickly.

We loved on him so much, tried to give him all his favorite things, said our goodbyes throughout the week and he passed away while we were all at school/work on Thursday.  Kevin took such good care of him in his final moments.  I knew it was coming but it didn't make it any easier to say our final goodbye to our sweet Topher.  I thought I was ready to type out this post a few days later, but here I am crying again.  It really is hard to say goodbye to an old friend.  We held a kitty funeral in our backyard with the kids and buried him in a special spot.

Topher was 15 and he lived a life full of adventure.

He had a front row seat to watch our family grow and move all over the country.

Topher came to us in a Target parking lot in Utah.  He was the easiest cat who loved to share a pillow with you at night.  A friend told me that orange cats are the loviest, sweetest cats and we found this to be true.  Topher quickly adapted to living in 6 different homes in 4 different states.  He always found the sunniest spots in the house and I was always his favorite person.  He loved to go for car rides as long as he was free to roam about the vehicle.  He would find the coziest spot and settle in for a nap.

He was my late night buddy.  He was always right by my side doing all my night owl things.  I think as he got older his favorite time of day was spending quiet nights with me all to himself.  He loved a fresh water bowl or a drink from any faucet.  We keep finding ourselves looking for him in his favorite spots around the house.

Topher grew friendlier with age and seemed to warm up to the kids more and more as they got older.  He welcomed 3 kids and enjoyed all the cats that we have added to the family over the years.  He'd always greet guests when they arrived at our house and once he even snuggled up in a friend's purse during book club.

Topher, unlike my own children, has been in the family long enough to have an old school scrapbook of printed pictures of his life.  I started it when he was a baby and had fun adding to it for several years.  He was so loved.

I enjoyed searching through my blog archives for the last 15 years to find some of my favorite Topher pictures.  He was always such a handsome guy who would surprise everyone he'd meet with his age.  No one ever guessed he was as old as he was.  Thankfully, he lived a long healthy life and didn't suffer.

Here are some of my favorite Topher pictures from kitten to old man.  He really did have the sweetest face and personality.  I'm thankful for all of the years we got to love him!

Kitten Topher meeting Oliver.

We were in the car a lot traveling with baby Olive and Topher was always happy to be along for the ride.

He tested out and approved every piece of baby gear that ever came into our house.

Hours and hours of feeding babies and Topher was always nearby.

He put up with me dressing him up for the holidays.

Topher appreciated my love of a pretty chair filled with pillows and blankets.

And he quickly found favorite spots in our current house.

As he got older, he claimed our primary bathroom/bedroom as his favorite spot.  He would always enjoy being up high on our counters far away from busy Leo.  We started our days together every morning with him snuggling up to my make up bag.  And politely meowing for a drink from the sink.

Every time I walk into our bathroom I expect to see this cutie in his favorite spot in between our sinks.  I miss him terribly, but I'm so thankful for all our happy years together.

We buried him in a special spot on our property and talk about him often.  I think I'll make a Christmas ornament with one of my favorite pictures of Topher and maybe add a cute orange tabby cat ornament to our Christmas tree this year in his memory.  The kids are handling the loss well.  They are all sad, but they know that Topher lived a great, long kitty life with our family.  Our other cats are kind of in a funk after losing their buddy.  Time will help heal all of our hearts.

Saying goodbye to an old friend is HARD.

You Can't Do It All

You can't do it all.

I'm trying to remind myself of this every single day.

Some days I feel like I am balancing it all well.  And other days everything seems to need more attention than I have.  I'm working 45+ hours a week at school and doing some work at home and there just aren't enough hours in the day.

The kids are doing more around the house and managing their school responsibilities.

Kevin is doing more around the house, ordering Door Dash dinners, managing appointments and running kids here and there in addition to being very busy at work trying to get his program and clinic up and running at full speed.

I'm asking for help more - with laundry and dishes and house stuff.

I'm grocery shopping on the weekends to keep week nights simple.

I am having to say NO to more.  

I'm not reading any books for fun.  I'm behind on blog stuff.  I'm not exercising beyond my nonstop days in kindergarten and I'm not filling my calendar with tons of fun plans.  I'm not seeing friends as much as I'd like, not making phone calls that I wish I had time to make, not baking cookies or fun desserts as much as I'd like and I am planting zero fall plants because I don't have the energy to keep up with watering them.

I'm doing my best.

That means I'm going to be earlier than ever.  Waking up earlier than ever.  And keeping up with a million to do lists for everyone in the family.  I have 4 calendars to try to keep track of all the things and am regularly saying no to things.

And some nights I just have to laugh and point out all the good things I am doing.  Like in the picture above.  The kitchen looked like a bomb went off, but Kevin was at a work event and I was in charge of everything for the evening.  We did homework, played outside, baked a bundt cake for dessert, made a delicious dinner, got everyone ready for bed, packed 4 lunches and did some laundry.  The kitchen was a disaster, but everything else was a mom win.

This is what I'm calling balance right now.  Lots of wins and having to let some things go.  Most nights I go to bed with a clean kitchen and a clean house, but some days it's too much to do it all.