Recently in food Category

One of my family's favorite bread is Banana Blueberry Bread. I found the recipe in a much loved cookbook Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from America's Most-Trusted Kitchen that I received when I got married. I especially like this one because it is lower in fat. Here is the original recipe and my modified version.

Original Recipe

-- 1 cup sugar
-- 1/2 cup oil
-- 3 mashed ripe bananas
-- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
-- 1 teaspoon vanilla
-- 2 eggs
-- 2 cups all-purpose flour
-- 1 teaspoon baking soda
-- 1/2 teaspoon salt
-- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)

Modified Recipe

-- 3/4 cup sugar
-- 1/2 cup oil
-- 3 very ripe bananas
-- 1/2 cup apple sauce or vanilla yogurt
-- 1 teaspoon vanilla
-- 2 eggs
-- 1 cup all-purpose flour
-- 1 cup whole wheat flour
-- 1 teaspoon baking soda
-- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
-- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
-- 1/2 teaspoon salt
-- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)

Directions:

1. Heat oven 350. Grease and flour bottoms only of pans. (I use nonstick spray and skip this step.) In large bowl, combine sugar and oil; beat well. Add bananas, yogurt, vanilla and sugars. Blend well.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; add to wet ingredients. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently stir in blueberries. Pour into pans.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes (for mini-loaves) and 60-70 minutes (for a regular 9x5 loaf pan) or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans. Cool 30 minutes or until completely cooled. (Make sure to cool on a wire rack to avoid bread getting soggy.) Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. (I just realized it said store in the fridge. I never have. It's gone before it gets a chance to spoil.)

I made this bread the other day but we were out of blueberries so Brian asked me to use chocolate chips instead. Chocolate?? You don't have to ask me twice! It was even yummier. :-)

Here are my "helpers" in the kitchen. ;-) And the finished product.

Are you ready for some cooking drama?? Good because tonight starts The Next Iron Chef 4. This is the first year that I actually know (almost) all the chefs.

Also, a bit of trivia that I just learned from a friend, last year's Iron Chef winner Marc Forgione is the great-great-great nephew of Francesco Forgione, otherwise known as Padre Pio. Very cool.

Happy watching! And let me know who you're rooting for!

It's been hard working on my organizing project since things have been so busy lately! This time of year will only get busier so if I don't post on this topic that often, you'll know why. However, I have been able to work a little bit on my pantry. My kitchen is on the small side, and technically, there is no pantry. I have the usual cupboards for dishes, plastics and pots and pans. Anything left over, I can use for food storage.

The one cupboard that gives me the most trouble is a tall and narrow cabinet on the side of the fridge and behind the swinging door that leads into the family room. The shelving is weird - the top has short shelves and there is a huge empty section on the bottom. I could try to redo the shelving but time is short and I needed a quick fix that I can live with right now.

The cabinet is mostly used for snack foods, lunch box items and taller bottles (oils, vinegars, cooking wine, etc) that don't fit in the other cupboards.

I went to Target and purchase six stacking containers and one mini-drawer container. (Unfortunately the two stores I went to had only four white stacking boxes left but I found two black ones on clearance for 75 cents. I can live with two tones.)

I put all the lunch box items in the containers and labeled them.

The smaller items like boxes of raisins and fruit chew and the items the kids don't eat (protein bars) are put in the mini-drawer container.

On the door of the cabinet I keep my pantry inventory list for food in my fridge and freezer.

For my labels, I printed on Avery Labels #8163 and stuck it to a colored index cards and trimmed the edges. For this door label, instead of an index card, I used a blank stationary card with a pretty pattern and cut it down to size. (I picked up a box of the cards at Target in the $1 section.)

I ordered the personalized pantry lists from Jen at iheartorganizing.blogspot.com. They are available through her etsy shop.

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Then I placed them in sheet protectors and attached them to the door with blue painters tape. That way I can easily remove and update a list.

The last problem I had with this cabinet is that there was no way to keep the door locked so John-Paul wouldn't dump out all the containers and snacks on the floor (after he sampled a few.) I finally figured out a solution. I purchased a package of Command Mini-Hooks.

I placed one next to the cabinet handle then I took a large rubber band and looped it through the handle and hung it on the hook. Now JP can't get his little fingers into the cabinet and open it up. Problem solved!

Well, that's all I have time for today. In the next weeks I'll be finishing organizing the food cabinets in the kitchen and organizing the garage pantry. In the meantime, feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas! Enjoy your day. :-)

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

First I want to start with an exciting take. I am going to be an aunt again. Yay! My little sis EML is expecting baby # 4 in April. Wow, she'll have four children under the age of four. That scares the beejeebies out of me! But if anyone can do it, (and with with amazing results) my sister can!

Okay, and to put a smile on your face, here is a photo of my little niece Greta announcing the upcoming arrival of her sibling. How cute is she? I love the expression on her face. LOL!

My own little guy turned five months old this week. We've nicknamed him Mr. Smiley because he lights up whenever you talk to him. He's a happy kid!

For the last five months I've been working to lose weight and get healthier. The good news is that I've lost all the baby weight and weight the same as when I got pregnant. Yay! The bad news is that I way the same as when I got pregnant. Boo. Now on Phase 2, I want to continue losing and get to a healthy weight. It's a lot more than a few pounds. I hear other moms in a size 12 or 14 saying how fat they are blah, blah, blah. Save it, honey. Size 14 is my goal weight! Just saying.... ;-)

I've been doing Weight Watchers and have been averaging a pound a week with just the food changes. I do better when I add in exercise but I'm still slacking on getting into an exercise routine. But I'm working on it.

You know, if I was to blow my diet I think this would be my weapon of choice - these chocolate and peanut butter brownies. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard...

Okay, got a busy day ahead of me so I better get to work. Have a great weekend!

Speaking of books, I recently came across the blog Family Menu Planning Book.com by Catholic convert Elizabeth Hawbaker and saw her e-book Family Menu Planning: A Practical Guide to Mealtime Management. I just downloaded it and I'm loving it so far. Some of the shopping tips I already mentioned here but there is a lot of great info that will help me with my meal planning. The e-book is only $3.99 for the Amazon Kindle version. It is worth it.

Note: You don't have to actually have a Kindle to read the book. You can download kindle onto your PC or smart phone. I have mine on my iphone and I'm using Amazon Cloud (until Apple gets their cloud!) so I can read it on any computer.

Over the last week I was hoping to work on organizing my pantry and making master shopping lists. However, all four kids have been sick with colds and sore throats, which has made the baby extra cranky, so I didn't get very far. I did, however, realize how much I not only needed to organize and replenish the pantry but I needed to throw out old expired items. Yesterday I wanted to make quick BBQ chicken in the slow cooker. I saw this recipe on Pinterest. It looked super easy and I had all the ingredients.

Well, I had the ingredients but they weren't exactly fresh. My vinegar was expired not just by a couple months but by a few years - as in, I bought it about three pregnancies ago! (Yeah, you can see how often I used to cook homemade.) But that was fine. I had another kind of vinegar that I could use instead. Wait, that was expired too but not by so many years. However, it had a lot of gross gunk in it and I wasn't going to use it.

Okay, forget that recipe. There was this easy recipe that I found that didn't require vinegar. It sounded a bit weird to mix Italian dressing with BBQ sauce but all the reviewers raved about it. I ran to the garage pantry to grab a bottle of dressing. Brian likes it so I keep an extra bottle for him. What?? I ran out? Oh. Em. Gee. What kind of pathetic kitchen is this?!?

By this time my 20 minute window of opportunity was up and the baby was crying and JP spilled his milk. Ugh! Finally I just threw in the frozen chicken in the crock pot and poured a bottle of BBQ sauce on top (it was a miracle I had that) and flipped it on for 3 ½ hours. Soooo, my pantry needs more work that I thought. It'll be at least another week before I post about them.

I did, however, finish my shopping lists. I used to keep four post it notes on the fridge. One for each store I shopped at - Target, Costco, Trader Joe and the local market, although I usually only go to the market for quick last minute things. This made a quick run to the store easy because you grabbed the post it you needed and left the ones you didn't.

However, once I put up my menu board, it took up too much space, so now I use a narrow magnetic notepad sectioned off into four. Since I no longer make sporadic shopping runs, I don't need separate post its. I organize my shopping lists, check over the week's menu and do my shopping once a week.

Since I usually always buy the same items at Costco and Trader Joe, I use my iphone Shopper app. (The ads can be annoying so I paid the $1.99 to be ad free.) I made a template shopping list for each store. When it is time to shop I take down my fridge list and mark off what needs to be purchased to create an e-list for that week. I've used the e-list on my phone while I shop but I usually have one of the kids with me and they like to play with my iphone so instead I email the list to myself and print it out. It makes things so much easier!

For my Target shopping, a master list didn't work because it varied so much from week to week - from new shoes for the baby to a school notebook for Bella. A blank list worked best. However, my Target was recently redesigned and it is taking me some time to get used the new location of favorite items. I decided to make a shopping list with categories according to the layout of the store. That way I can start at one end and work my way around to the other side. I've used it a few time and it is so much easier to get things done.

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Well, that pretty much wraps it up. This is the system that works best for me. What works for you?

Over the next week I'll continue working on the pantry - oh, and don't even get me started on the bug infested wheat flour I had to throw away! Oh, well. On the plus side, the chicken with only BBQ sauce was a hit! Brian took leftovers for lunch and he said his coworker wanted to know where he got that delicious smelling BBQ chicken. If he only knew. ;-) Happy organizing.

UPDATE: For shopping list tips check out the blog Family Menu Planning Book.com by Catholic convert Elizabeth Hawbaker and her e-book Family Menu Planning: A Practical Guide to Mealtime Management. I just downloaded it and there is a lot of great info that will help me with my meal planning and shopping.

It is week two of Operation Clean and Organize and this week I've been working on a menu board. Some moms prefer to make a monthly menu but that doesn't work for me. Planning one week ahead is all I can handle right now!

I looked at various styles of menu boards to see what appealed to me. I previously had a dry erase board but over time the erase ability of the board deteriorated. I thought of using a magnetic board because I really liked this one but it was too big and I wanted it to be weekly not monthly.

I decided to make my own smaller magnetic weekly menu. I spent a total of about $20 for a magnetic board the right size to fit on my fridge, a pack of Avery Printable Magnetic Sheets, and "Days of the Week" magnets that I found at Target in the Back to School seasonal section.

Next I sat down and made a master list of all the meals, side dishes and veggies I normally cook. In a Word document I made four columns of labels and typed up the list of foods. I wanted to keep track of days when I had appointments so I would know to plan easy or slow-cooker meals on those days. I also wanted to mark days when I had to pack the kids' lunches for school.

I color coded the labels: main dish - blue, sides - orange, veggies - green, appointments - purple, and school lunches - red. I made sure to have a number of blank labels to fill in later as I tried new recipes. Next, I printed and cut out the labels. Lastly, I arranged the meals on my board along with a shrunken down copy of Bella's school lunch menu.

Here's what it looks like.

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The first week using it has been great. We'll see how it stands the test of time. :-)

That's it for this week. Next week I'll be working on organizing my pantry and making master shopping lists. Share your own ideas in the comments and happy organizing!

POSTSCRIPT:

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that this organizing business is getting fun. Who knew? But you must make sure that your motherly duties are attended to first. Otherwise you will have to find out that your earlier statement of "he should be able to eat his yogurt alone without making too much mess while I make a quick post" was not only false but stupid thinking. So be forewarned. Wait until the kids are asleep. (And this was after I cleaned off his hair and face.)

UPDATE: For meal planning tips check out the blog Family Menu Planning Book.com by Catholic convert Elizabeth Hawbaker and her e-book Family Menu Planning: A Practical Guide to Mealtime Management. I downloaded it and there is a lot of great info that will help me with my meal planning.

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

I was going to skip the quick takes today because I had a lot to get done but Matthew is being a super crank and wants to be held. So here I am again rocking him with one arm and typing with the other. It's not really his fault since it's hard for him to sleep with all the banging going on outside with the guy fixing the deck.

I need to get the house straightened because I'm having company coming over this weekend. My brother Rob (the one who was really sick last month), my sister-in-law and my new nephew Max are making a weekend trip to Carmel. I'm so excited to see them. And it'll be the first times the cousins get to meet! :-)

Which reminds me, I should snap some photos of how messy the entryway/front room looks right now as Leila has suggested. (See her post How Do Others See Your Home?) Yikes. That will be an act of humility since (for various reasons) I haven't been able to get anything done these last few days and stuff is piled everywhere. Sigh.

I'm trying to figure out what to eat this weekend - something healthy but tasty. I joined weight watchers a few weeks ago and it is going well but it is hard changing your eating habits and the way you look at food. Someone once asked me if I was an emotional eater. I wasn't sure what they meant. They asked, well do you eat when you are happy. Yes. Do you eat when you are sad? Yes. Do you eat when you are lonely? Yes. Do you...okay, let's cut to the chase. I eat! Everyday is a fiesta! (That is why I am built kinda like a piñata. Short and round.) About the only time I don't eat is when I am mad. I mean really mad. At those moments I am too upset to do something that would bring me pleasure. But by the looks of me, I don't hit that level of anger very often. Kidding aside, it is hard to readjust the way I look at food but I need to do my best to stick around for a long time to take care of my babies. (Not to mention that I could actually buy one of those cute dresses I like instead of just pinning them to pinterest!)

Speaking of food, have you been watching the Next Food Network Star? I've watched every season and love the show. I barely saw my recorded episode of the final four yesterday. Although I figured Mary Beth was going home, I didn't want her departure to give Penny any satisfaction. That girl just seems nasty. I hope it was more editing that made her seem so mean and that she's not really that bad. Brian and I are rooting for Jeff to win. (Not to mention that Brian is a huge sandwich fan. He could eat them every night!) But I like Suzy (such a sweetheart, although they already have Marcela) and Vic (he was a fave since the beginning, although I never thought he'd make it this far) so even if one of them won, I wouldn't mind.

Today when I was browsing pinterest I came across the artist Flor Larios (thanks to mamabear) and I love her work. It has a Spanish folk art feel. I ordered a couple things to hang in my kitchen.

Okay, and as my last post, my little guy has finally fallen asleep. I'll put him down in Bella's room since you can hear the hammering the least in there. Poor little guy. It's hard to believe that he is 4 months old today! He is usually such a happy baby - as long as he gets his sleep! (Kinda like his mama. ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

I'm writing this Quick Posts while listening to Mat Kearny's new album Young Love. "Hey, mama. Hey, hey, mama..." (Funny, that's the same thing Bella said to me when she saw me dancing around the kitchen. Only she said it with that "omg, what is mom doing?" tone. LOL!)

Speaking of the kitchen, the freezer section of my fridge has always been jam packed with stuff so I have been thinking about getting a stand alone freezer for the garage. I asked Brian if I could get one for my birthday and he laughed. (It was like Ethel asking for a toaster for her birthday, for you Lucy fans.) But since I had the money saved, he agreed. I debated over a chest unit or an upright and went with the upright since it seemed easier to organize and more importantly, it was the perfect size for the space we had in the garage. The freezer finally arrived this week and I've been doing a happy dance ever since! It is so nice to buy bulk items and make double dinners and be able to freeze them. Yay!

Speaking of organizing, since I had to rearrange the garage to make room for the freezer, I've be organizing the pantry out there as well. We have wire shelves that we bought at Costco and since the shelves have rollers they are easy to move around. I was going to make a master pantry list when I saw these freezer and pantry inventory lists through a link at iheartorganizing.blogspot.com. Although I could create them myself, I wanted to support a mom by purchasing these from Jennifer's etsy shop. (Plus it saves me the time!) They were just what I needed.

Speaking of the pantry, I have been trying to use up some of the items that have been sitting there for awhile. I had two cans of this canned chicken meat that my father-in-law bought when he went to Costco. It seems a little weird to have chicken in a can (even though I eat tuna from a can) and frankly, I had been saving it for emergency food in case the "Big One" comes during my lifetime. (For you non Cali-residents, the Big One is the major earthquake that will supposedly cause part of CA to fall into the Pacific Ocean. But now that I think about it, I live near the ocean so I may not survive in the first place. But never mind that, I digress.) Anyway, the chicken needed to be eaten so I made chicken salad with it and it actually wasn't bad. I added a little light mayo, some chopped red onion, some chopped sweet red pepper (I love red peppers!) and a few dashes of Spice Hunter's Fajita Seasoning. Brian actually loved it so thanks, Dad.

Speaking of spices....last week my mother-in-law and I were talking about how we couldn't find the Spice Hunter salt-free seasonings as easily as we used to be able to. I could sometimes find them at Trader Joe's or World Market but they stopped carrying my favorite Fajita Seasoning and her favorite Fish Seasoning. I went online and luckily found them available through the company. I stocked up on what I needed plus I got free shipping and a free Grill Shakers as a sample. Cool!

Speaking of my mother-in-law, I have to get off of the computer and get the house cleaned since my in-laws are coming over for dinner this weekend. And the house has to be not just guest-passable but mother-in-law passable. ;-) So off I go.

Oh, wait. I need one more post....um....okay...speaking of cleaning, I also purchased the cleaning list from iheartorganizing to help me stay on top of keeping everything orderly. I tell ya, I am getting so on the ball I hardly recognize myself! LOL!

Have a great weekend!

When I was younger I loved cork boards and bulletin boards. I would fill them with various photos, pictures, quotes, comics...whatever took my fancy. Even after Brian and I were married I had boards up in many of our rooms. (Heck, even my blog has too many photos on it!) However, after we did the remodel, I took all the boards down but one. Sure, the walls looked neater and more "grown up" but I missed them. But not anymore since I now have my online boards at Pinterest!

I had seen the word "Pinterest" at various blogs I follow but I had no idea what they were talking about. A couple weeks ago I finally checked it out and I am hooked! Instead of bookmarking things I want to remember, I pin it to my online boards. I not only have a quick reference but a pretty visual. And with their iphone app, I have it at my fingertips for those moments when I have to kill a few minutes while I'm waiting for something.

I must also admit that Pinterest has helped awaken my creative side. Instead of immediately dismissing a project or recipe as too hard or requiring too much time, I suddenly have the desire to give it a try! And even if the project is a dismal fail, at least I'll have something funny to post about later. ;-) So here are a few samples of pins on some of my boards - Styles I Like, Things that Make Me Smile, Recipes to Try, Organizing the Home, Decorating Ideas, Favorite Icons and Beautiful Places near My Backyard.

Disclaimer - Pinterest is fun but highly addictive. You must use self-control. (Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary. (Congrats to Jen on the birth of her daughter!! Read about it here.)

My youngest sister J.D. is visiting us for almost two weeks. We hired her to help me with the kids while I got my spring cleaning and some other projects done. It has been so nice having her around! Not just because the kids adore her and she's so good with them but i love spending time with her. I miss my sisters!

Speaking of missing sisters, My sis EL mentioned in her Quick Takes that she plans to travel from VA to CA to visit the family. Unfortunately that weekend we have another obligation at Andrew's school so we can't make the 400 mile trip to So Calif while they are here. I'm so bummed! Although in the back of my mind I'm trying to figure out if I could still make it happen...if I could get out of the obligation, have Bella and Andrew play hooky, get Brian to take a couple days off work and drive...hmmm, I don't know. We'll see what I can figure out.

This week I have been working on cleaning, organizing and purging all the unused items out of our house. During one of my breaks I was browsing Colleen's Green Grass Blog blog. Her post about a messy house was just what I needed to hear. She also mentioned a book that I was thinking of getting - Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy Moms by Tami Kiser. I have to make an Amazon order tonight so I think I'll get a copy and check it out. I'll let you know what I think.

In our kitchen there are always big bowls of fresh fruit ready to be eaten. Unfortunately we had way too many bananas and they were getting pretty ripe. (I mean like "I'm starting to see gnats" ripe) so I made a batch of chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies for the kids. (Yes, the kids. And no, that is not chocolate you see on my face.) I still had more bananas to finish so my sister tried a recipe we just saw on Mexican Made Easy for Mexican chocolate banana muffins. The recipe was super easy and instead of using chocolate chips you used crushed Mexican chocolate. They were so good and would taste great with a cup of Mexican chocolate. (if you haven't had Mex choc, it's like regular hot chocolate but with a cinnamony flavor.)

It's probably a little futile talking about hot chocolate when people are sweating in the heat of summer. I forget about that since Carmel has reverted to it's foggy, cold summer days. My poor sister (who lives in the high dessert) is used to the heat and she's shivering at our house. We crack up that we are in shorts and she's in a long sleeve tee and vest jacket. :-)

On Wednesday it was gorgeous and sunny outside at 10 AM so we decided to hit the beach. An hour later we had our picnic lunch packed and the kids were standing by the door in their shorts and sunglasses. Before leaving I looked out the kitchen window and saw the dreaded fog rolling in over the ocean. Oh no! We ran out the door, jumped in the van and I felt like John Cusack on that mediocre 2012 movie trying to race against impending doom. Well you can't beat Mother Nature and by the time we set up camp there wasn't a spot of blue sky, just thick gray. Oh well, we still had fun and truth be told, I'd prefer the fog over blistering heat.

Lastly, Brian and I got a special treat since he won a complimentary lunch at Pebble Beach. The last time we were there John Paul was a baby and we took him with us. This time Matthew is the baby but Jacinta offered to watch all four kids so we could eat alone. (I love that girl!) So we enjoyed our lunch child free - although we were happy when we received texta with pics of the kids having fun with their aunt. We could eat without worry. Here's a pic I took of us that day. Brian doesn't like it because he's squinting but I still think he looks great.

That's it for today. Have a wonderful weekend!!

It's been busy, busy, busy here with the last phase of the house remodel finally coming to a close, everyday family life, being preggers, and getting ready for a family trip. There has been no extra time! One good thing, however, is that it has forced me to take out my slow cooker and try out some new recipes. The other day I made Slow Cooker Carnitas from the A Year of Slow-Cooking Blog. It was sooo tasty and the family loved it! I'll definitely be making this again!

I saw this lemon pasta dish at Faith & Family this afternoon and made it for lunch. I added some roasted chicken breast I had leftover and together it was perfect. Everyone loved it. Yum!

Disclaimer: The following post pertains to TV entertainment. If you do not feel that is a suitable subject for a Catholic blog, please skip this post. Thank you.

Okay, so last night Brian and I finally got to watch the season premiere of The Next Food Network Star. We enjoy calling out our favorite chefs after only watching the first five minutes of contestant introductions. Then we watch as the weeks go by to see if our favorites rise to the occasion or make a sad exit.

After the intro my three fave guys were Brad (cute kid with hat), Herb (former chubby guy with muscles) and Das (Dr. Smoooooth.) My fave girls were Aria (teary eyed mom with 3 yr old) and Aarti (perky flower-haired girl. Brian's fave guys were Tom (big guy with hair like Andrew when it's not cut), Brad and Das. His fave girls were Aria and Dzintra (off-the-wall blonde - that pick caught me by surprise since she annoyed me right off).

By the end of the show I was loving Aria and hoping sweet boy Brad gets a bit more confidence. Herb and Das can still do well if they channel their energy and let their cooking do all the big talking. By the end of the show Brian still liked Tom (who reminds him of his fave last year, Adam Gertler) and he was bummed that Dzintra's "quirkiness" was getting a little bizarre. (I told you, honey!) Looks like an interesting season! :-) So who were your faves??

It seems that I hardly ever post anymore. Family life consumes all my time, which is good I guess. I just don't know how those super Catholic moms do it all - raise 10 kids, homeschool, write books, run the household...I get stressed just thinking about it! LOL! Right now if I can get through the day and care for the kids and get dinner on the table and maybe even get some laundry done and still keep a relative smile on my face, then I call that a heck of a day!

My sister EL (who sometimes contributes to RoL) is expecting Baby #2. She's in VA and we were worried that the baby would arrive during the blizzard but it's past her due date and still no bambino. Say a prayer that all goes well!

As I type I am listening to the new album from Fair - Disappearing World. Perfect mellow music. Love it. (Now I'm just waiting for the new Lifehouse. Hurry!)

Tonight Bella and I will attend her Little Flowers Catholic Girls' club. We haven't been in a couple months because there was so much going at home with the new baby and the holidays etc. Things are still busy but JP is much easier to care for and Bella misses her friends. I have to admit I am just as excited to go because I miss talking with the other Catholic moms. It's easy for a busy mom to fall into a duties-only rut and forget the importance of some female companionship!

And for the LF Valentine's party we needed to make a home-made item to share. I saw these Double Chocolate Cookies on Barefoot Contessa this week so Bella and I tried out the recipe. They are sooo yum! Make a quick batch before lent starts!

Okay, what other random thing can I talk about? Oh wait. Big news. We're adding on! No not to the family (give the body some time to heal!) but to the house. We're going to convert the garage into another bedroom. (Right now we only have two.) It took months to get through all the red tape and now we were given the go sign. The contractor told me that as soon as we clear out all the STUFF from our garage and the storage cabinets, they can start building. So guess what I'll be doing this weekend?? I think I better sign up for Danielle's 40 bags in 40 days for Lent!!

Lastly, here's a recent pic of John-Paul, now 5 ½ months.