Breakfast Burritos

My dear husband leaves for work at 5:30 in the morning. He needs a pretty solid breakfast to start off a long day of cabinet building, moving and installing, but it's not easy to eat a big breakfast at 5:30 a.m.  So I've been buying frozen breakfast burritos at Trader Joe's and he pops one in the microwave when he gets to work. Now, those Trader Joe's burritos are pretty healthy, and pretty friendly to the pocket book, and unfortunately pretty dry.  So I've been meaning to make some from scratch and freeze a batch so he'd have something a little more yummy and a little more homey to start the day.  I tested out the success of freezing homemade breakfast burritos as follows: the last time the little ones did not finish theirs, I wrapped them in plastic wrap and popped them in the freezer in a ziplock bag.  A week or two later, wrapped in a paper towel and about a minute in the microwave, I was happy to find that they were still very tasty.  However, it took me another couple of months to finally set aside the time to make a big batch.

I fried up some potatoes in a little sunflower seed oil.

Added finely chopped garlic.

Salt and pepper.

Sausages (I did everything in one pan for ease of clean-up, and also because it's my favorite pan).

When these were all done, I took them out of the pan and scrambled some eggs with a little cheese, in a generous amount of melted butter.  Oh, how I love butter.

I made sure to only lightly cook them since they'll get microwaved later and hopefully won't toughen up in the process.

I toast the flour tortillas on the open flame (if that makes you uncomfortable, do it in a dry hot pan).

And assembled!

You can of course put in as little or as much as you like of each ingredient.  I wanted them to be pretty hardy.  Also, I cut them in half so if an entire burrito is too much to eat at once, the other half can stay frozen.

Aaron stole my phone and got a picture of the actual action.  They're all off in the freezer ready for a quick meal.  I think they are pretty yummy with a little salsa.  We usually use this one from Trader Joe's, unless my mom or sister stops by Lola's Market and picks up the really good stuff.  That never lasts long enough to make it to the fridge though.  

Now I'm hungry.  Off to scrounge something up before bed.

Today, just go read this.  So wonderful.

September Daybook

Outside my window... It is warm and oddly muggy.  Late afternoon sun hits our backyard patio and makes me feel very lethargic if I sit there.      

I am wearing... A red knit shirt, a light brown skirt with green and peach flower pattern.  Bare feet.

I am thankful for... Confession.

I am thinking about... How hungry I am and how I am unmotivated to cook - related to the mugginess, I think.

Learning all the time... Bluejay is ready for some of the Thornton W. Burgess books.  I am so excited to start reading them to him.  We've just started with Bedtime Stories, but I need to get more Burgess books.  My mom has a quite large collection of first editions, but they're in line be given to my brother Gabe, as they were some of his absolute favorites, so I'll need to acquire my own.  If anyone ever visits Sandwich, Massachusetts, I highly recommend the Burgess museum there.  We visited it when I was nine years old, and if it's anything like it was almost 30 years ago, well, I can't recommend it enough.

From the kitchen... As previously mentioned... unmotivated today. So I'm heating up Coq au Vin from Trader Joe's and making mashed potatoes as a side dish.  I did make a delicious chicken tortilla soup earlier this week.

I am creating... I finished crocheting the blanket for Chickadee!  I'm using the leftover yarn to make a small matching blanket for her dolls.  I think she will love that. I just need to finish the edging but it's not easy to find time to work on it these days. I purposefully did not finish weaving in all the loose ends in Chickadee's blanket because I didn't want to be tempted to give it to her before I finished the doll blanket (or I would NEVER finish that one).

I am working on... having less stuff.  It is a big goal of my husband and I to decrease the things that we have, so that our life can be simpler.  I am not jumping on any minimalist bandwagon.  But, there are a lot of things in our house that are neither useful, beautiful or meaningful.  The children have too many toys to clutter up their space and minds.  Yesterday, I asked them to pick up the balls in the back yard.  They picked up two balls.  Therefore, I think two balls is all they need.  This is being largely driven by Aaron, but I am finally really on board.   

I am going... to preschool co-op three times a week with Bluejay.  To a feast-day party for our little goddaughter's first name day.  Hopefully nowhere else.  Trying to simplify our life too. There are too many things to do these days. And they're only babies!  I sometimes question preschool. But he does love it so much.  

I am hoping... to see as much of my family as possible and that all our visits are smooth, as they have been lately.

I am reading... The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.  Really enjoying it too.  I still need to pick up Everyday Saints and Other Stories.

I am praying for... My big boy going to preschool.  Some relatives.  My husband.

I am hearing... Pete Seeger singing the Tree in the Ground. Chickadee narrating her life to me.  Man can that girl talk.  She's gone through a phase of fake baby talk for the past month or so, which I find very annoying.  I try to ignore, I try.  But these last few days she's gone more and more back to her real voice, and that voice? is adorable.  Her speech is quite sophisticated too, as spoken through her raspy little two year old voice.  Everything has a "shh" sound in it.  Today we were looking at an animal book and there was a picture of a macaw. She has most of the animals memorized but when I asked her that one, rather than saying "I don't know" she said "It'sh boo (blue).  It hassh a back (black) beat (beak). And yewwow awound it'sh eyesh."

One (ok two) of my favorite things... Reading my favorite books to the kids and seeing them learn to love them too.  Seeing how delighted Sparrow is when he sees me.  He has a killer grin.

A few plans for the rest of the week... One of my brothers is coming over today to play with the kids.  Working from home tomorrow.  Bluejay's second day of preschool.

A few picture thoughts I am sharing with you... 

   

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Important Children's Books

I've seen many lists lately of good books for children.  Most of them have some of the books my siblings and I grew up loving, and that were very important for the foundations of a love of literature, but most miss some of what I consider the essentials.  So, I'm starting my own list.  Thus far it is VERY roughly categorized by "age" or rather readiness.  I am not including a lot of books that I think are decent, or even quite good, but rather the ones that I think are the most important, in terms of a good literary foundation, and perhaps a few that are nostalgically important to me.  I plan to continue to add to this, and when I have time, even put in links to the books.  

For Little Ones:

Little Golden Books

• The Friendly Book
• Scuffy the Tugboat
• Busy Timmy
• The Tawny Scrawny Lion
• The Saggy Baggy Elephant
• Pretty much anything illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

The Maggie B

The Little Moon Theater

Make Way for Ducklings

One Morning in Maine

Blueberries for Sal

The Frances books

Molly Brett books

Good Night Moon

The Runaway Bunny

Mother Goose

A Children's Garden of Versus by Robert Louis Stevenson

Frog and Toad series

The Seamstress of Salsburg

Winnie the Pooh and other A.A. Milne

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Ready for a little bit more:

The Brambly Hedge series

Thornton W. Burgess

• Old Mother West Wind and many many others

The Chronicles of Narnia

Mary Poppins series

The Little House of the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder (except for The First Four Years)

The Wind in the Willows

Bambi

Pippi Longstocking

Peter Pan

Getting bigger:

George McDonald

Frances Hodgeson Burnett

• The Secret Garden
• 
  

Anne of Green Gables series

Louisa May Alcott

• Little Women and others

The King of Ireland's Son

The Sword in the Stone

The REAL Grimms Fairy Tales

Heidi (and sequels)

Caddie Woodlawn

Corrie Ten Boom

The Black Stallion

Black Beauty

The Incredible Journey

National Velvet

Linnets and Valerians

Tolkien- The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Jungle Book (Kipling)

Things I want to do

• Learn to play the guitar (at least some simple chords for folksongs)
• Improve my handwriting
• Read more poetry

Right Now

Taking a cue from my favorite new mom of twins(!) blogger, Sarah, I am capturing a glimpse of my favorite people, right now.

HE:

• Is such a delightful person.
• Still loves "playing trains" as much as ever, and can build some impressive tracks, all on his own.
• Is enamored of his new baby brother.  In fact, little Sparrow lights up when he sees his big brother come into the room.
• Has very strict rules for how things are supposed to go.
• Has a fondness for puzzles and is remarkably good at putting them together.
• Is particularly interested in arithmetic.  He has invented a game that he plays in the car where he asks us "what does two and three make?"  If he says "what does just three and just five make?" it means he's seen a road sign displaying a 35 mile an hour speed limit, and he's trying to figure out what number 35 is.
• Is generally very kind to his little sister, but does find her perturbing at times.
• Is extremely helpful to his mama and sister, and loves his daddy more than anything in the world.

SHE:

• Has such a zest for life. Everything is either delightful or terrible!
• Loves her baby brother, but has a tendency to want to squeeze/poke/prod him a little too hard.
• Has adorable little speech patterns: "Do you don't mind if I borrow this?" is one of my favorites.
• Talks A LOT.
• Thinks band-aids are a fashion accessory.
• Remembers everything.  You've got to watch what you say around this girl.
• Gets quite a few kicks out of bugging her big brother.  Ok, let's be honest, she gets her kicks out of bugging all of us.  But we love her.
• Has an eye like a hawk.  She's always the first to spot a hummingbird at the feeder or some other little thing (often animal related) that the rest of us would miss.
• Has finally taken to naming her dolls: Boingy, Cheetie and Big Baby.  

HE:

• Is beyond adorable.  I know everyone says it, but it is amazing how much you can fall in love with each new little person God sends your way.
• Is huge.  At least, he seems huge to me.  He looks like a little football player, shoulders up to his ears, no neck, chubby arms that can't quite hang down at his sides.
• Has the greatest grin.  I especially love the ones he seems to save just for me, after we have a nice quiet nurse together and he's sitting there looking at me.
• Is a bit of a mama's boy. And I'm ok with that.  I love how happy he is when he sees me or knows I'm near.
• Feels like he has always been a part of this family.

PHFR - What it REALLY Looks Like

I've been really pleased that despite being in the adjustment period of adding a newborn to two toddlers age 3 and under, the house has been relatively tidy at the end of every day.  HOWEVER, I felt it behooved me to document a little more of the reality of the situation - partly just to make Aaron laugh when he gets home.  This is a quick post to show what our house REALLY looks like, at least before the baby naps every day.  And he doesn't usually take a solid nap until after 11:00 so this is most of our day.  

{Pretty} and {Happy} and maybe even a little {Funny}

This sweet babe.  I put Chickadee's hat on him while he was in the baby carrier so I could run out and take the diapers off the line.  It used to be my hat when I was a little girl.  I think he's manly enough to pull it off.

{REAL} and {Funny}

The children's bathroom.  I need to find a child lock for the medicine cabinet.  I already don't keep anything too toxic in there, but this morning while ostensibly going to put on pants Chickadee climbed in the sink and got into the cabinet.

The office.  Not bad, not bad.  Just some trains, books, a baseball hat and a jelly fish stuffed animal on my work desk.

The living room.  Also not bad - I got all the laundry (that was currently done) folded and put away yesterday, so just toys are out.

Oh yes, and the top of my desk.

Dining room and kitchen.  I HAVE to get the kitchen tidy to think straight.  It's almost always the first thing I clean up.  Because whatever else happens, these people need to eat.  And I do too.  Sparrow has gained 2 1/2 lbs since birth.  That's in less than 4 weeks.  I have never been this hungry, and so far, I'm still LOSING weight.  This mama has to eat!

And last but not least, the garage-turned-play-room.  Note the children NOT fully naked.  This is also a victory.  Why is it so hard to get toddlers to keep their clothes on?  This is something I generally give up on at some point during the day.  Daddy usually gets home to children in various states of undress.

What's funny and real in your world these days?