(And All My) Work Be Praise

I am in the beginning stages of creatinv systems to help my kids be more independently responsible. With so many little people underfoot, I'm finding it very difficult to check up on kids in a timely fashion to make sure they've completed assigned jobs. I don't have an answer for that yet (except, perhaps, just give everyone another year to get older before I stress out over it), but I do have one  system in place for Levi that seems to be working. Several years ago, I followed a blog called Life as Mom . (I don't regularly read blogs anymore, except for this one .) I vaguely remembered her posting about their " morning high five " -- five chores to be completed before their homeschooling day began.Without even referring to the original blog to see what hers contained, I made Levi his own "morning high five" chart with the five responsibilities he needs to take care of before coming downstairs in the morning. Nothing fancy: just the two minute...

Do you all make baking powder biscuits? They were a staple in my house growing up, and I love them. They're SO easy, and this is the recipe I turn to any time I'm making a pot of soup or something that needs a little bread on the side: Sift together: 2 cups flour (I use freshly ground white whole wheat) 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Cut in  1/3 cup butter. ( Actually, I don't "cut in" butter anymore. I pulse the dry ingredients in my food processor, then pulse in chunks of butter until pebbly.  Transfer to bowl, if you used the food processor. )  Add 3/4 cup milk and stir to moisten. Roll out dough on floured surface, knead 2-3 times, and use juice glass or biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Or, plop it all on a baking sheet, pat into a rectangle, and use a flat spatula to cut into squares/rectangles/triangles/whatever shape you end up with. (Because really, who cares about having round biscuits?) Bake  for 12 minutes at 450 degrees. ...

Okay, this is going to be more of a monthly recap than weekly, because I haven't done one for a while. So don't think I did nothing but cook and read this week. ;) What I'm Cooking Oven "fried" pork chops . Isaac doesn't love pork, so I don't make it often, but periodically I get tired of chicken and beef and want something different. I actually ended up making this three times this month, because once I've bought a family pack of pork chops and a box of cornflakes, I might as well use them up! Skillet lasagna . I make a few changes to this, to keep it simple with pantry items I usually have. I use ground beef seasoned with sausage seasoning , skip the fresh parsely altogether, swap cottage cheese in for the ricotta (it's cheaper, and my kids will eat the leftovers), and stir the cottage cheese right into the skillet instead of dolloping on top. This is one of Owen's favorite meals. Creamy green chili beef . I make this any time I have l...

See past years here: 2015 , 2013 , 2012 I can't even begin to describe the ripple of excitement that went through me when I got the text message from my college BFF Jenny saying that they might be willing to make the trip up here to do our mostly-annual New Year's Eve celebration. She has a carseat-hating two-year-old, so I really thought it was out of the question, and we were in no position to travel there with a three-month-old. But when you've been best friends for almost half your lives (we'll hit that milestone in 2019), what's a few hours of screaming toddler?! This year boasted eight kids under eight years old: two sevens, one six, two fours, two twos (though Toby was just days away from his third birthday), and baby Calvin. We let Caleb (their seven-year-old) have Toby's bed so that he and Levi could share a room, and that alone was worth the trip. It was a "first sleepover" for both of them, and we couldn't hardly stand hearing th...

We have a three-year-old in the house again! (Yes, that's an exclamation point, but it's terror as much as excitement. Three is so much fun and so much pain all at the same time.) Our family tradition: the birthday boy goes to pick out donuts with Daddy. We started the day the way we do all birthdays: donuts and presents. Randomly, it also included a discussion of Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates via speakerphone between Levi and my mom, and live footage of two astronauts doing extravehicular activity on the international space station. Now there's  a little peek into life in our house.  Blowing out his candle, tucked into a banana cream donut covered in powdered sugar with a dollop of strawberry jam. I should have taken an "after" picture of the mess. Donut remains, scattered birthday cards, NASA on the laptop . . .  While we have plenty of toys here, we discovered about a month ago that we don't have any little people or animals. N...