Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Shutting off the electronics

Today I was introduced to a new blog.  http://www.handsfreemama.com/ I fell in love with it after reading the most recent post she wrote.  And then I wanted to shut down my computer and race to school to pick my kids up and play with them.  I so easily forget how important those small little things that happen each day, those little things that they do, how much they really matter.  I put my cell phone down tonight.  I only glanced at it once when I was working on our taxes.  It felt good to not have it in my hand all night looking at pinterest and facebook.  I wasn't texting all night, I had 5 of them once I finally picked it up.  Looking at her blog, I read some older posts she had written.  One of them was about "finding the heartbeat".  I did that on Cody tonight.  I asked him if I could listen to his heart beating and then he asked if he could hear mine.  We talked about what makes it go faster and what slows it down.  Then we found each other's pulse, both in the wrist and neck.  He thought that was so cool to feel my pulse on my wrist.

Sunday was the day I decided to take the Xbox away for the week.  Brady has become such a zombie playing that.  I know it's fun, I get it.  He can log on and all of his friends have head sets.  They play for hours and giggle constantly.  I want him to have fun with his friends and I understand this time of year in Minnesota when it's so cold out, there isn't a lot to do.  The kids in our cul-de-sac are more Cody's age and a lot of times Brady doesn't want to play with them.  He was mad that I took the Xbox away but by doing that, I have seen the most of him in these last two days that I have in the last two weeks.  He goes right downstairs and logs into that game.  He comes up to eat dinner and do his homework and then back down he goes.  It's my fault.  It's Dane's fault.  We are so busy with our tv, phones, and internet that we don't even think about it.  It's become a habit that so many of us fall into.

Tonight I was filling out Brady's form so he could get a yearbook this year.  It's his last year of Elementary school and I told him years ago that he could get one in 5th grade, 8th, and his senior year.  Those are the years that will be most important to him, the years that he is oldest and "rules the school".  As we were talking about it I told him I still had my yearbooks from junior high and high school.  I don't think they made them when I was in Elementary.  He wanted to see them.  We headed downstairs and pulled out the keepsake tote and found them.  In that tote, I showed both of them the outfits they came home from the hospital in, their first picture outfits, socks, blankets, hospital bracelets, even the clips their little belly buttons were attached to.  In no time all four of us were sitting down in the craft room looking at the year books and talking about little baby hats and how small they were.  Tonight was one of the funnest nights I have had in a long time with those boys.  No tv, no radio or cell phones, no video games.  Just chatting and remembering.  Check the blog out some time.  It's really neat and I've saved it in my favorites.  It will be a good one to look at when I am having a bad day, or when my time is all used up on things that aren't as important as my kids.  Thank you Jessie for posting about it today.

I made breakfast burritos this last weekend.  They were so easy to make and so quick.  You can put anything in your burritos you want.  I did mine kind of plain, kid friendly of course.  I ended up with 12 good sized burritos.  I suppose it would depend how much filling you put in or the size of your burrito shell.  I used the 10 inch size burritos.


I started with browning 1lb sausage.  I used the mild sausage but you could go spicier if you wanted to.  I added a little cayenne pepper to my sausage to give it a little kick.  It wasn't enough to make a huge difference though.


Once the sausage was cooked, I drained the grease and added in 1 1/2 cups of frozen hash brown potatoes.  I cooked those until they were nice and soft.

  
In a separate pan I scrambled some eggs.  I used 10 eggs and 3/4 cup of milk.  Once the eggs were just about done I added them to the sausage/potato mixture.  I cooked them for a couple of minutes longer and they were done.


Lay out your burrito.  I took 12 burritos and layered them on a big cookie sheet, covered them with foil and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes first.  This warmed and softened them up to make them easier to roll.


Put the amount of egg mixture you want on the burrito.


Sprinkle a little cheese of your choice on the mixture.  I chose taco cheese.


Roll up that cute little burrito!


Cut that baby in half so it's easier to handle, plop a little sour cream and salsa on the plate next to it, grab a napkin and smile!  What a yummy breakfast on a Saturday morning before all the running began.

We ate a few and the rest I wrapped individually in saran wrap and threw them all into a zip lock bag in the freezer.  They were so good the next day heated up, again what a yummy breakfast on a Sunday morning before all the running began.  Anyone that likes breakfast food would enjoy these.  You could add tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, more cheese, bacon, whatever you want...I will for sure make these again, maybe even double my batch next time because I know how well they freeze.

I got a lot of cooking done this weekend.  A lot of cooking comes with a lot of clean up.  What I wouldn't give for a Mary-Poppins-fingers-snapping-magic on those days.


Thank goodness for dish washers...I guess I could name that Mary Poppins!?

Nite Pin It

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