Cuddling his teddy bear

Of course today it has been neglected and thrown in the lego pile.

Cheesy Italian Chicken Pasta

Sorry no pictures...this gets eaten too fast.

 If you are rushed for time this is a great, quick and easy recipe. All you need is:


3 or 4 chicken breasts, cut up
 half an onion, diced
 1 can diced tomatoes
 1 jar Ragu Double Cheddar sauce
 spices like salt, pepper, garlic, oregano
1/2 lb rotini noodles

 Season the chicken and saute it with the onions until thoroughly cooked. Add in the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes until some of the liquid cooks off. Stir in the cheddar sauce and the cooked rotini. Throw some garlic bread in the oven and dinner is ready in about 20 minutes.

New Kitchen Gadget!

Pasta N' More microwave cooker. So far I have only made rotini and chicken in it but I love it. It comes with steamer baskets, a straining lid, and a recipe booklet.

 To make 2 cups of rotini I just put the noodles in the pot and fill to the 4 servings water line. You can't see it in this picture.

 Then put it in the microwave for 23 minutes. I stir it halfway through and...

...perfectly cooked pasta! I used this batch of noodles to make Cheesy Italian Chicken Pasta so I could get everything else ready and not have to worry about a pot of water boiling on the stove. I think this will be great in the summertime. I also cooked 3 large chicken breasts in it to use for tacos. It only took 12 minutes.

I feel like...

the days just melt into each other. I haven't been posting as often as I would like but it never seems like it has been a whole week and then I look at my last post and well...its a week. The weather has gone back to cold so we haven't got out much. I haven't made any interesting recipes lately either. Tonight I have Zumba so the boys get to have Stouffer's Chicken Lasagna which is delicious and so mush easier than making one myself.

My new obsession is Zumba. I have started going to 2 classes a week and I do it in the living room on the other days. I would go more but babysitters and the class cost money that I don't have. I am hoping to take and instructor course in the next couple months so that I can start teaching Zumba. I have some great ideas for it and John has some grand ideas that may need to wait. The goal right now is to work out a lot, practice my Zumba moves, and get into good shape for the training course.

Mud Puddles!

Day at the Park

Its one of those days

We all needed some coffee.

Fun at the Park.

Please Don't Start A Daddy Phase.

Michael has learned to say hat, so he thinks he needs to wear his dad's hats all the time. It is so cute but the daddy phase would not work in this house. He gets upset when John leaves for work and excited when he comes home. I am so glad he acknowledges John's existence now lol.

Of course I am biased, but I think Michael is one smart little guy. Every day he learns something new. Now we have to buy him a ball because he has been asking for one ever since Dora played with one.

Great Article About Attachment Parenting.

Dr. Seuss Has the Best 'Attachment Parenting' Quote

Posted by Christie Haskell

on March 2, 2011 at 2:48 PM The Stir on cafemom.com

There's a lot of confusion as to exactly what Attachment Parenting is. Is it natural parenting? Some hippie movement? Helicopter parenting? Parenting influenced by Dr. Seuss?
Perhaps those who are AP spent some time in Seussville along with their reading of Dr. Sears. Yes, the birthday guy, Dr. Seuss, has one single quote which I think sums up the idea of AP easily:
"A person's a person, no matter how small."
That quote, from Horton Hears a Who! could sum up attachment parenting as a whole. The real, true focus is that of respecting children -- even newborns -- as people with valid and complex emotions, who need respect, understanding, and love.
The reason something like "cry-it-out" is not an AP tenet is because we believe that a child who is crying is using their voice -- the only thing a baby has -- to ask for something. I'd be crushed if I asked my husband to cuddle me and he told me I needed to learn to not want him as much. Attachment parents believe that the idea of "warm, dry, and fed" doesn't give enough credit to babies. Besides, it's generally disrespectful to tell a person to be quiet because their basic needs are taken care of. Why do people do it to babies?
This also holds true for feeding. If you are capable of breastfeeding, you will, because it gives the child you've brought into the world the best and because the method of feeding also promotes the necessary closeness that babies deserve and require. But even if you can't breastfeed, babies should still be cuddled, loved, and paid attention to for the duration of the feeding. You should bottle-feed like you're breastfeeding -- in other words, no bottle propping, and cuddle, cuddle, cuddle!
This quote also applies to discipline. The path to teaching children to be loving, empathetic, and respectful adults is to treat them that way, whether they're asking to be cuddled when you want to do dishes, or trying to figure out the source of their behavior so you can help them work through it rather than just punishing the outlet they chose.
While many things like breastfeeding, babywearing, and cosleeping can end up not being ideal for many AP families, the most important thing about it is what Dr. Seuss says: A person is a person, no matter how small.
And every single person deserves respect, love, and caring, even when it's not convenient or scheduled, and things you wouldn't do to the oldest of people shouldn't be done to the youngest either.
What do you think of the Dr. Seuss quote? Does it suit your parenting style?

Slow Cooker Potato Corn Chowder

Dice 1 small onion, 3 medium carrots, 2 stalks of celery, and 6 medium potatoes.

Stir in 2 cups of frozen corn

 and 4 cups of chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic.

Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

To thicken it add 1 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons of flour during the last hour of cooking. Put the flour and milk in a container with a tight lid and shake to mix it. This is how I thicken most things, like stew or gravy. Just remember not to use hot liquid because it will make steam which will cause the lid to burst when you shake it.

The finished product. About 130 calories in 1/2 cup.

I should stop going to Walmart...

because of all the child abuse/neglect I see. Every time I am there a mother is screaming at her child for no reason, or smacking them, or telling them they don't need a drink and to shut up, or just completely ignoring them.

Last night at Walmart a mother left her little girl who probably wasn't 18 months old yet alone in the cart with her sister who was 7 or 8 to go five aisles up to get something. I still haven't figured out the logic behind leaving her cart. Of course I walked past, saw the little one stand up and said to myself  "She's going to fall", turned to grab her, and she fell on her face. The sister didn't know what to do and was freaked out and the baby was screaming. So I scooped her up, asked where there mother was, and took both girls to her. I was too frazzled to really say anything to the mom other than it wasn't a good idea to leave them alone. As I was walking back to her I thought maybe she would be one of those crazy people who would flip out because I touched her child so I didn't want to start anything. She of course yelled at the older sister for letting it happen.

She is lucky that nothing worse happened. It was a good thing I was walking by because most people probably wouldn't have stopped. This baby was screaming and most people didn't even flinch. Her mom wasn't so far away that she couldn't hear it and she wasn't concerned that it might be her child either. She is also lucky that someone didn't take the baby. Just because its Latrobe and you feel safe doesn't mean there aren't bad people out there. I don't step to the other side of the aisle without keeping one eye on Michael.

 I would like to add, Why does this kind of thing always happen when I'm around? 

 This is the worst thing I let happen at Walmart.