Who needs a GPS? I have Aaron!

My hours for the last week or so have been kind of crazy as I've tried to finish up my big project at work. I've had to drive so that I wouldn't have to depend on the bus schedule when my own schedule was so uncertain. Then this morning, I overslept and missed the bus, so I drove yet again. It's not a terrible drive... I avoid I-25 and all the traffic tangles there, so the route is a little inconvenient, but at least I avoid most of the bad traffic.

But the other day, Aaron asked about the route I was taking to and from work. I told him and he informed me there was a better way. He told me about it, but it involved all these little back roads and sounded confusing. I couldn't remember it exactly and it was a bit intimidating (I don't like to risk getting lost). So I kept going my usual way for a couple more days. But there are a couple of traffic snarls that catch me up on that route, so last night and this morning I finally decided to try Aaron's back roads route.

I should have known, I should always just listen to Aaron on these things! His route was much better! He's like my own personal MapQuest. No matter where I am or where I need to get to, he can always map out a route. A lot of times, he can just do it off the top of his head without even looking at a map. He just has all these maps stored in his head. It's an impressive talent!

I remember once I had gone out shopping and I managed to get into an area of Denver I didn't know very well. I was all turned around and couldn't figure out where I need to go to head home. So I called Aaron for help. He asked me what city I was in and what intersection I was near. It wasn't an area we'd spent time in, so I don't know how he knew this, but without missing a beat he informed me that I needed to turn right, go past two intersections and turn right again and then I should see the freeway entrance. Sure enough, it worked exactly like that and I got home without further trouble.

So no need for my family to get one of the fancy GPS units for the car. At least as long as I keep my cell phone charged for emergency calls to Aaron!

Peas Please!

We go through a lot of peas at our house. There aren't a lot of vegetables that all the kids agree are okay... Haley loves broccoli, but Preston hates it. Preston likes cooked carrots but Haley doesn't want to touch them. Brekken can't eat many vegetables that aren't pureed or chopped to tiny bits. But they'll all eat peas - he loves to feed himself peas; and throw them around when he's done eating.

They're so easy to add to almost anything. So easy that I realized last night that I had fed the kids peas every night this week! As a side dish, in mac and cheese, in a casserole, in chicken alfredo. I even made rollup sandwiches for dinner one night, and I threw peas into that too!

Hmmm... I think I need to start to vary my veggies before we're all "pead" out!

It's going to be a long week...

Since I started working at Nurse-Family Partnership, I have been working on a huge project. It's a bunch of handouts to provide to first-time pregnant moms to teach them about what to do/not to do, what to expect, all that sort of thing. It's been a very interesting project - and very big. I've basically written a book... almost 1,000 pages of materials that I've put together over the last 6 months.

The first phase of the project is almost finished now. In about 3 more weeks it's going to be such a huge relief!!! (Until the next project starts in about 3 and 1/2 weeks.)

Also, in about 3 more weeks, I'm going to feel the stress of this project going out across the nation and having everyone see it and judge it. Approximately 10,000 people are going to be getting these materials in the first year. That's a lot of people who might decide they hate it all. I'm actually already feeling that stress. I'm worrying in advance what everyone's going to say about it.

... And heaven forbid I start thinking about how many people can potentially get the materials. If President Obama's budget is passed, there's a lot of $$ in there for programs like ours, which could bump up the numbers to more like 500,000+ people. That's a pretty wide circulation!

So I'm spending this week in frantic proofreading and finalizing everything. It goes to the printer on Monday and everytime I think about it my heart starts to pound and I feel a little panicky. Yikes! It's going to be a long week...

What an idea...

I need to pick up one of these outfits for Brekken! Finally the floors will be clean! =D

Dinner Time Revisited

If you caught the post a week or so ago about the stuffed shells I made for the kids' dinner (http://5shields.blogspot.com/2009/03/dinner-time.html), you saw that it was not a hit with them. But Aaron and I thought it was pretty good.

So I took the recipe and tweked it a little bit to turn it into a more grown-up recipe.

It was really good! And fairly easy.

Boil some jumbo shells until they are slightly less than al dente. (You'll finish the dish in the oven, so that's when the shells cook the rest of the way. It's also easier to stuff them without tearing them if they're a little firm.)

Make your filling. I did a simple turkey salad... just shred the turkey, add a touch of mayonaisse and I threw in some peas for color and to get some vegetables. You could easily do it with chicken salad, egg salad, or a ground beef mixture. Whatever sounds good to you!

Put a spoonful of filling into each shell and arrange the shells in a baking pan. I made a quick white sauce (you can find a recipe for that by doing a quick Google search). You could also buy a store-bought white sauce or an alfredo sauce. I poured the sauce over the shells then sprinkled them with parmesan cheese and some black pepper.

Put the dish in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes... just to let the cheese melt and all the flavors meld.

It was REALLY good! The kids still didn't like it, but Aaron and I did.

Another Camera Catch-Up

As we wait to see what today's snowstorm will be like, I'm getting around to posting the pictures from our big snowstorm last week...





The kids enjoyed playing in the snow once it was warm enough to go outside.
There goes Haley with another America's Next Top Model pose!
Preston was busy building a snowman... not recognizable as such by anyone but him, but he had fun.

Poor Brekken is just waiting for the day that he can go out and play with the other kids.

Works for Me Wednesday

It's been a while since I posted a Works for Me Wednesday, but I had a tip that seemed worth sharing this week!

I like to use ground beef in a lot of recipes, but I hate frying the ground beef. I don't know why I have such an aversion to frying ground beef, but I really just hate to do it. I will end up not cooking a recipe I planned on making because I just don't want to fry the beef. But I've found a way around it... and it's a money-saver, too!

When you go grocery shopping, you can get a much better deal on ground beef if you buy the big family pack of ground beef instead of just a pound at a time. But it's a pain to divide it out into smaller containers - ick, handling raw meat. But I recently learned that you can buy the big family pack of ground beef and then take it home and dump the whole thing in the crock pot. I seasoned it with a little salt, pepper, and onion powder and left it mostly alone for 4 hours. I stirred it a few times to break up the meat, but mostly ignored it.

When it was done, I just scooped out the beef with a slotted spoon and divided it into smaller batches to store in the freezer. Soaked up the remaining grease with a couple of paper towels and popped the crockpot liner in the dishwasher. Since then, dinner featuring ground beef has been a breeze! I just keep one container of ground beef in the fridge and when I need it I can just dump it into the recipe, then pull another container from the freezer to thaw and be ready for next time.

So that's what works for me. Head over to We Are That Family for more WFMW ideas!