Homemade Spaghetti O's

I just made some delicious homemade Spaghetti O's for my kids. Thanks to the awesome ladies over Once a Month Mom for this great recipe. Not only did I feed the kids (and me) lunch, I was able to freeze 5 servings to send in Thing 1's lunch.

A couple of changes I made, I used ground beef instead of ground chicken (hard to find around here). I also omitted the butter. I love the pesto in the meatballs, the kids don't notice it, but it adds some "grown up" flavors. I also LOVE that it's a one pot meal since the pasta and meatballs cook in the sauce.

Coming down from the Pass weekend

This past weekend I got to go visit my husband who is currently at Camp Shelby, MS with the Iowa National Guard before he deploys to Afghanistan.  He had a 4 day pass and needless to say both of us had been looking forward to it.

We went to New Orleans for a day and then spent the rest of the time relaxing in Gulfport/Biloxi.  Unfortunately now the un-fun part, coming home and  getting back to reality.

I've been using the analogy of the post-Christmas hangover feeling.  While I'm happy I got to see him and lord knows I needed a break from the kids and everyday grind, it has been really, really hard to get over saying good-bye again.

Anybody have any tips on how to get back into the swing of life without feeling down that I'm still by myself for another 9 months or so?

My husband is the best!

My husband is currently deployed with the Iowa National Guard 2nd Brigade Combat Team/34th Infantry Division "Red Bulls".  They recently went into the training "box" at Ft Irwin, CA which means that they are out of communications for a couple of weeks.   Our anniversary is today and the last time we had talked (Sat night I think) he said "Happy Anniversary" and I figured that would be it until I saw him in October.

Well boy was I surprised when I got to my office Monday morning.  Waiting for me on my desk were beautiful flowers.  Talk about being blown away and improving what had otherwise been a hectic Monday morning.

The only problem is now he's set up an expectation of this.  Just kidding, honey.  I love you and you made my day, heck probably my week as I will get to enjoy them every day.

Classic Mom Moment

There are some times that are just classic "mom moments". We show up at work with one black shoe and one blue shoe on because we were too tired from being up half the night with a crying baby. Or we don't even realize we have baby food in our hair... Well I had a "mom moment" this morning.

My 19 month old son's feet have grown exponentially this summer. He has gone from a toddler size 5 to a size 7 and his feet and now the same size as his 3 yr old brother. Consquentially every pair of shoes that I have bought over the summer for the fall are now to small. This morning I decided the boys should wear socks and shoes instead of their sandals they've worn all summer. In a hurry to get out the door and to aid in wrangling the kids I grabbed shoes to put on in the car later. When we got to school I tried one pair that I had grabbed, too small. Okay well I had grabbed a second pair as well. I put on the first shoes and no problem. Then I struggled to get the second shoe on. No luck. Well I need to get the kids dropped off. I'll just carry him and take the other shoe with me.

As we're walking in the building I wonder, did I grab two different sizes? I had bought the same shoe in two sizes for each of the kids. Could I have grabbed one bigger and one smaller? Sure enough that's what I had done. The two mis-matched shoes were sitting on the same shelf next each other, so I grabbed them without checking that they were the same size. I guess I'm lucky I didn't grab two of the same foot. Oh well, such is life.

Anybody have a "mom moment" they would like to share?

[Creative Commons-licensed photo from flickr by Mary MacKinnon]

Back, maybe?

I started this blog with the best of intentions but as all bloggers know, blogging is a habit. And I have not been diligent in maintaining this habit. As my husband prepares to leave for a year-long deployment with the Iowa National Guard to Afghanistan, I'm hoping to use this blog to document our everyday lives for him and our family.

I still don't make any promises that updates will be more frequent than they have been in the past, but I can try right?