My Baby is 11 !

Happy Birthday Jared! We love you!

Longing....

As many of you know, we were rear-ended over the Christmas holidays. Our van did not suffer serious damage and none of us were hurt. But it did need some repair and while it was in the shop, I got to drive around a brand new 2008 loaded Toyota Sequoia. (sigh) It was heavenly. Today while driving home from school Luke saw a silver SUV and said: "Mama, that's our truck!" Which the boys did for the first week after we had to surrender our $60,000 object of affection. It even smelled heavenly. You know that "new car smell"? Our van used to have that smell. That being said, our van used to have payments every month that loomed over our heads too. So even though I may cringe every time I think about the fact that I drive a mini-van and it is not so heavenly and that "new car smell" has been replaced by some odor that is not quite yet identifiable; I remind myself that it is ours. All ours......fragrance included.
image via: toyota.com

Listen Up Kids!

So, my computer crashed a little over a week ago. When it crashed, I lost all of our photos from Sept.28th of this past year until Dec. 24th. (sigh) Of course there were files and various other things that are now gone but the photos are the greatest lost to me. Do not be dumb like me. Do not learn this the hard way. Back up all of your photos all of the time!!! Nuff said.

Snacks and Recipes

I forgot to add two snacks that we have been eating the last week or so. The first are these "healthy"blueberry banana muffins from Everyday Food. They are great snacks and good supplements to cold cereal in the morning. The second snack is almond butter with honey on a tortilla. My boys have also had these in their lunchboxes as the "sandwich" item. To those that are interested in recipes I will add these in each post. Just click on the item and it should take you to the recipe. If it does not have a link that means that it is of my own concoction and you can just send me an email at goldilocksandthe3bears@live.com and I will explain how to throw it together. Happy snacking!
image via: everyday food

Au Naturale

What's Cookin' this Week:
Pasta with Winter Pesto
Chicken Stir-Fry W/ Noodles
Roasted Chicken W/ Roasted Veggies
Black Bean Tostadas
Gingerbread Waffles
I was talking to someone recently and I asked them what they thought of my menu on the sidebar. They replied:"What menu?" So I thought I would try and do a post every week or so listing what I plan on cooking for the week. I love reading what others are cooking and trying out new recipes. Sometimes I get caught in a rut and can't figure out what to make that is easy, cheap and somewhat healthy. Then I'll talk to someone and have an instant idea that can be as simple as chili; which I might not have made in a while. For the most part I have our "go to"meals. We eat a lot of pasta and Mexican"ish" food.
This year I am recommitted to a natural food diet for the whole family. We have done this before and here I am again. We are trying not to eat anything with high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils, sticking to natural sweeteners and colorings. This can be hard. Virtually all processed food/snacks contain some or all of these things. But it is a good way to force yourself to eat whole foods or food that is food. What are you cooking these days?
photo via Whole Foods Market

Flying Into the New Year...

Whew, it has been a long time! Christmas Break for the kids went by way too fast and of course I didn't get anything done on that "to do" list that I had scribbled down at the beginning of Dec. You know the list that says we will clean out this and organize that over the break? Instead we spent the time baking, eating, hanging out with family and all of the usual Christmas time things we do. My Christmas wish came true and we had a white Christmas. And it still keeps coming! We had a lot of fun sledding on New Year's "weekend". I love this shot I got of my nephew and bro-in-law. We had visitors from CO over New Year's and it was fun to hang out/go out/and belt out the tunes on the new Karaoke machine that the Christmas elf gave to the Briscoe clan. (video forthcoming)
I have been reading a lot of New Year's resolutions this past week. "One word" challenges to define what you want for 2009. 2008 was a great year for us. Not because it was an easy year, not because it was hard. We experienced many ups and downs, new chapters in our family life, and closed a few chapters. (sigh of relief as I think about Jed being done with school!) It was a great year for us because it was ours. We had it to experience together and I am grateful for that. Thanks for all the cards and emails over the holidays. It was so fun to hear from everyone and see how big the kids are getting.
What do I want for this next year? So many things, that I am still trying to narrow it down and make it doable. One goal that I had during December was SIMPLIFY. It worked wonderfully. I plan on carrying that over into 2009. I figure that's a good start!