It's an "I don't want to make dinner night", so now what?

The other night Mark asked for Senfeier, a German dish which is basically boiled eggs with a mustard sauce over potatoes. We had them over egg noodles last time. It is actually quite delicious but I was totally surprised when Mark not only liked them the first time I made them for him, but has repeatedly asked for them. It is a great quick and filling meal, especially when served with speedy mashed potatoes.

Our other quick and easy is SPAM sandwiches. I know, but we love them. As my mom so rightly said to niece Liffy's wrinkled nose, "honey, the green things are the least of your worries".

I wonder what YOU all eat (besides mac n cheese or fried ramen) when it is that kind of night. At our house we often end up with stupid dinners when I feel like that and we all end up going to bed still hungry.

So here is the request: inexpensive, quick, kid-friendly, and put-in-lunchable. With or without recipe link.

This post is for me so that I can wish for these days again..

Happy Easter baby!

He already has the dreamy look. What a hunk.

The two cutest boys in the world! Happy Easter!

For the sweetest boys in the world! I love you kids!

This post is for me so I can remember that it is OK for my kids to grow older and out of this...

I was looking at a friend's blog and this girl blogs every day even though she has two kids, and she sews and gardens and economizes and has church callings. She is busy girl. How does one get so much done? Upon reading Nichole's last blog, I think I am beginning to understand how she manages to do it...well if one starts by blogging at 6:00 in the morning and sewing until 1:30 at night... there is WAAAAY more time in the day! Nichole, you're great, and I love the skirt you just made. So if I were to operate my day by beginning activity at 6:00 am and at times not stopping until after midnight... my dear, it looks like I am missing 9 hours of my day by not doing it that way!

But alas, at my house it is sooo bedtime for me at 10:30 or I get a little bit nutso. I think my late nights and die-till-dawn days are over. Typically I don't leave the bedroom cabin until all the boys wake up, often not till 8:00, even though Odin is getting really good at not becoming distressed when he wakes up and I am not there. Because sometimes the bathroom or a bowl of cereal calls way too loudly to ignore. But if you have never been a fly on the wall at our place, maybe your life is not yet complete . And maybe you might see why I stay quietly in bed as long as I can in the morning.

These boys can be a COMPLETE (is disaster too big a word?) when they are hungry and freshly awake and just had to be moved from a warm bedroom cabin to a cold kitchen cabin when they didn't really want to move in the first place and I just literally forced them to "MOVE"! because remember that bathroom and bowl of cereal? Right.

So now I am really tempted to describe a fly on the wall scenario but since you are all aware of the fact that we have a nearly four year old, a nearly two year old, an infant, a tired and frazzled mom, live in separated housing, have frequent snow storms in winter-which don't seem to want to quit, despite the fact that it is spring!- that it may not be neccessary to describe it at all. I think imagination does the trick just fine.

As much fun as this cabin life is, it is time to be done. Consider just the time lost in tromping back and forth from cabin to cabin with at least two kids in tow every stinkin time! That is like already an hour or more of my day! Now add in not having to reconcile the kids to each other and the new room every single time. That is just the beginning. Not an hour goes by where I don't dream of blissful single unit housing.

So this is really an I-can't-wait-until-our-little-house-is-done post. Way to go Mark for working so hard on our house. We are getting really close to putting on the siding and roofing material. For those keeping track of our progress, he has put in the beams for our bedroom's vaulted ceiling. Hooray!

Archer's blessing

We are so grateful for all of Mark's family who made it out to be here for Archer's blessing. I am so proud of our little boy and Mark spoke such a beautiful blessing. The Bishop's wife was so thoughtful to record it for us using shorthand notes. I really appreciate that gift.

Ray, Russ, Odin, Ron, Mark and Ronan just about to join for the next photo.

We just couldn't quite pull the kids together though, both Odin and Ronan refused to go to their respective classes. I think it might have something to do with the consistently delayed bedtimes since time change. I mean, 10:00, come ON boys, go to sleep already!

And this concludes the pictures we actually have of Archer's blessing day at church. Anybody seen the baby? Where is Archer? Shouldn't we take a big family picture? Didn't happen.

But we got tons of pictures of Flat Stanley.

we have walls and a roof!

Thanks to Everyone who have helped us so far!

Some might debate how much help we got from uncle Matt Hackwell.

Odin, Allyson and Ronan keeping busy

Ron, Russell and Ray Pike and cousin in law Justin too.

Not to forget the little Pike boys,
they did their share too!

On-site entertainment from Ronan

Russ and Ray making us only a little nervous on the saws...

We only heard a "few" complaints from the old men....is it break time yet?

Mark!

Work complete for these weekend warriors!

Looking from the Master bedroom through the living room down to the boys' room.

Let it snow!!!

Last week we had a little bit of snow. Three trees snapped off half way up and fell down around our cabins. One fell just below our road over a power line and it did not get cleared for 2 days. That means no power and no travel. So we had to find things to do like build snow forts and stay inside. We survived.

of pillows and rolls. moOOom, ronan's doing it again!

"mom, ronan needs a drink" is the announcement that got my attention to this silly scene.

of course, i wondered how odin could know ronan needed a drink or even how ronan could accomplish that while laying face down under a couch cushion, his little legs kicking away. he was sucking on an old dinner roll from the night before which has thus far been the constitution of his breakfast. he didn't do anything else with his kix but dump them. his apple juice got poured from one cup to another, and i am pretty sure he begged for some chocolate, but odin got it.

so, this is the kind of activity that will actually keep the boys busy while i mess around on the computer. not the hilarious muppet movie playing on the big TV.

can you see a roll on the couch, crumbs on the pillows, toys and wet wipes strewn about, a monitor dangling from a hook, stacks of DVDs, a sweeper vacuum anticipating another much needed use. this is what our house normally looks like. i don't always remember to clean up 'behind the scene' sigh. young kids, tired mom.