My house is a mess...

My living room is cluttered with toys, socks, shoes and a bib. My kitchen is cluttered with toys, dishes, crumbs and whatever we happen to throw on the table as we are passing through the room. My hallway is cluttered with toys and dust (Its been quite a while since I have cleaned baseboards around here). The play room is cluttered with toys and my bedroom is cluttered with bath towels, a couple of Z's toys, shoes and a mountain of my clothes on the floor.

If you know me at all you will know that this look is very normal for my house. But guess what? We have friends coming over for dinner tonight. So I kinda need to get moving on the housework. I have T- 3 hours until they walk in the door and I am sitting here on the computer.

So, I guess I am off to clean. Wish me luck, for I am bound to find some excuse to get back onto this computer. I kinda hate cleaning. Could you tell?

And I will now leave you with a picture of my ADORABLE two year old eating lunch. With his cast propped up at the table.

And no, I have no clue why his fingers are in his mouth. He saw me with the camera and started doing all sorts of weird things involving food, his fingers and his mouth. This happened to be the least repulsive of them all. Your welcome.

Have a great weekend everyone!

My Week So Far

So... wow. It has been one heck of a crazy weekend/week. I usually don't like to let two whole days go by without a new post, so the fact that it has almost been a week since I last blogged has just about killed me.

Why has it taken me so long to get up a new post? I am glad you asked.

My computer has a virus and it is not letting me use the Internet right now, so I have to wait till my hubby gets home so I can use his.

I have taken zero pictures of recipes recently, so I have no recipe posts ready to blog.

I have read zero more chapters in my vaccine book, so I have no new info to blog.

I have taken some pictures I want to show you, but they are on my computer and I am not allowed to use that until my hubby fixes it.

Oh, and Zachariah broke his arm.

Yeah. You heard me. My two year old broke his arm this weekend.

Here is the short version of what happened. Thursday evening Zachariah was running around the house and when he tripped (I mean, who didn't see that coming?) he landed on his left arm. He cried pretty hard but after hugs and a band aid he dried his tears and went on with life like normal. He did not complain about his arm or make mention of it hurting. A day or two later we noticed that he was not using his left arm and he would cry every time pressure was being put on his arm/wrist. Thinking he might have sprained his wrist we got an x ray which showed he has a broken forearm.

Unfortunately the x rays aren't very clear and the doctor is not 100% sure how bad the break is. (It can take up to 10 days for a serious break to show up for a toddler) So the doc put Z in a cast and in two weeks we are going back for more x rays.

Just in case you were wondering, this whole process was a nightmare. Z HATES doctors and the x ray machines at the hospital scared him to death. If anyone at the doctors office even so much as looked at his arm he would scream. And I don't mean cry. I mean scream. I have never seen this side of my child before and it made me very sad.

It took four of us to hold him down so that someone could put his cast on. During that process he was screaming, kicking, hitting, crying, yelling, kicking, screaming... you get the picture. It was bad. But the cast is on and we get it off in two weeks.

This is a picture I took with my cell phone. It was taken right as we were leaving the doctors office. He kept telling me, "I don't yike my big band-aid!" My pitiful baby. :(

Anyway! I will have some more pictures and details on how he is doing coming in a day or so, but I just wanted to check in and let everyone know what was going on. This has been quite an emotional couple days for us. But the worst is behind us (that is until we have to take the cast off).

Hope everyone is have a great week. Talk to you soon!

Breakfast Muffin... Or Something.

Over here in the Titus household we LOVE breakfast foods, and when I found this recipe for a ham and cheese egg cup I knew I had to make brinner. Immediately.

So that is what I did. Last night we had breakfast, and it was wonderful. And because I am a nice person, I will share this treasure that I found (thanks again to Tasty Kitchen!).

Here is what you will need.

One dozen eggs,

Twelve pieces of deli sliced ham,

And two cups of cheese (give or take).

Once you have all of your ingredients ready, go ahead and grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

Now put one slice of ham in each muffin cup. All I had on hand was extra thin deli ham, so I used two slices. Which is really cramping Daniel's style when it comes to having meat on his sandwiches. But if you have normal deli sliced ham you will be good to go with just one!

Put some cheese inside of each piece of ham.

And just for your info... the original recipe called for frozen spinach to go on top of the cheese. Seeing as how my husband will NOT eat spinach, I passed on this ingredient. But I think it would be a great way to get some veggies into the kids (or hubby's)!

Now crack an egg on top of the cheese!

I did this two ways. The original recipe just said to crack the egg and then pop it into the oven. But Zachariah is not a fan of seeing a whole yolk. He gets a little weirded out then refused to eat the egg. Needless to say, he prefers scrambled eggs. So I beat an egg and then poured it into the ham and cheese cup. I did that six times... that way I could have half scrambled and then half the "normal" way.

See, the scrambled works well too!

Salt and pepper to taste and then pop these bad boys into an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees and cook for about 20 minutes.

I could have probably gotten away with only cooking these for 15 minutes, so I think you will just have to keep an eye on them. Oven temperatures vary. Regardless, they were DELISH.

Here are the two different kinds. I enjoyed both of them, but I must say that I think the scrambled muffin cup wins by a tiny bit. It just turned out to be the most perfect comfort food. In fact, I ate one just a little bit ago for a mid afternoon snack! So, so good.

Since the muffin pan is pretty well coated with cooking spray these suckers come out pretty easily. Just run a knife around the sides and you will have no problem at all!

Here is the recipe... enjoy!

Ham and Cheese Egg Cup

Ingredients:

12 eggs

12 slices deli ham

2 cups cheddar cheese

1 box frozen spinach (optional)

Directions:

Spray a twelve cup muffin pan with cooking spray and put a piece of ham in each cup. Sprinkle cheddar cheese in each piece of ham. Put (thawed) spinach on top of cheese and then crack an egg on top. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until done.

Stream of Consciousness

I have been going through potty training mood swings here recently. One day I will think that I am ready to take on the daunting task of potty training a toddler, and then the next day I will wake up and realize that I have no desire to potty train a kid. Ever. Lately I have been feeling like I "need" to potty train Zachariah right now. I think I mainly feel that way because I told myself that when he turned two and a half we would start potty training. I had that in my head and he is now two and a half and I haven't started. So that has the potential to stress me out, but I am trying to make it a point to not let it. You know why? Because the average age for potty training is three years old. I need to wait until he is completely ready or else it is going to be ridiculously hard on me. Now, don't get me wrong... he is so incredibly close to being ready. But I still think he has a few more steps to go. And I am ok with waiting.

I am in desperate need of improving my parenting skills. Don't get me wrong, there are certain areas where I believe I am a kick butt parent (yes, humility is one of my strong points), but recently I have been shown some areas where I really need to improve. I will let you know how it goes. :)

As much as I hate to admit this, I am 99.9% sure that I am going to be a homeschooling mother. I know I have a few years before I even have to think about Zachariah's schooling, and don't even ask me how I am going to muster up patience for it, but for the past six months or so I have been tossing the idea around. After hearing so many friends with kids in public AND private schools and after reading blogs/talking with friends about their homeschooling experiences, I am almost certain this is what I want to do. Explaining the reasoning behind all of this is going to take an entirely separate post, but I just wanted to let you know what was going on in my crazy little head.

A while back I was changing Zachariah's sheets and I got distracted and forgot to put the rail back on his bed. He came in the room and freaked out. All I heard for the next 60 seconds was, "Oh no!!! Where my big boy bed?!?!?!?". Let me just say that it is NOT a good sign that his big boy bed is defined by the rail that keeps him from rolling off. But Friday while I was changing his sheets I "hid" the rail in my closet. You know, just to see if he would notice. And you know what? He has been sleeping on the bed without a rail for the past three days and has not said a word about it. Score! That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Now if only potty training could be that easy...

I know I have been very slack on my vaccine posts and recipe posts. And for that, I apologize. But if it makes you feel any better I will tell you that I have two or three new recipes I am trying out this week (coincidentally enough they all happen to be breakfast foods). Now the kicker is trying to remember to take pictures while I am cooking! I need an assistant.

And since I hate to post without a picture, here ya go...

Hope everyone has a happy Tuesday! :)

How to Eat a Lollipop

Coincidentally, this is also how to eat a sucker.


You're welcome.

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

I am not a huge lemonade fan. The bitterness is just too much for me. Now I can down some Chick-Fil-A lemonade in half a millisecond, but that is usually the only lemonade I can handle.

Until last night.

Dun dun dun!

Out of the blue I decided I wanted to make some Lemonade. It may have had something to do with the fact that I had an adorable three year old over at my house the other day and she asked for some lemonade to drink. Usually the mention of lemonade has no affect on me ever wanting to drink any... but I just could not get it out of my head. So yesterday afternoon we headed to the grocery store to get a bag-o-lemons so I could try my hand at making some fresh lemonade.

I'm not gonna lie. I don't even know why I am doing a "recipe post" on something this simple. I guess I am kind of desperate for things to blog about these days. Ah well. Here is the simple yet yummy lemonade recipe I found online yesterday!




You are going to need 6-7 lemons, depending on how large they are. (I used seven, just so ya know.)





Roll the lemon around between the counter and your hand in order to get the juices flowing in there. It makes juicing a lemon SO much easier when you do this first.





After you get done rolling the lemons around on your counter, slice them in half.





Such a pretty yellow! I need to figure out how practical it would be to grow my own lemons. I mean, can I just plant a lemon tree or something? I am sure those are a bit pricey. But boy would it be convenient to just run out to the backyard when I wanted to make some lemonade!





Quick tip: If you hold the lemons like this while squeezing them you will be less likely to have those pesky seeds floating around in your lemon juice.






Rachel ray taught me this a couple years ago. I have been forever grateful.





See! The little seeds just pop up to the top of the lemon for you to grab and throw away. Convenient!





After about seven lemons are squeezed you should end up with one cup of juice. IF you happen to be a lemon short I would not look down on you for using store bought lemon juice to top it off. But only if you have too! The fresh squeezed stuff is the best.





Now you are going to need 6-7 cups of water (I used somewhere between 6.5 and 7. I am a wimp when it comes to tangy drinks)...





And one cup of sugar. (I am eventually going to try and work us down to 1/2 a cup)






Now mix the lemon juice, water and sugar together in a pitcher (add more water if need be). The recipe said to use a one gallon pitcher, but all I had was a half gallon and it held everything perfectly. So don't sweat the one gallon thing.





Stir everything together and wala, you have some fresh lemonade!





I HAD a full glass right before this picture was taken but I couldn't contain myself. I just had to take a gulp. It was sooooo good. You know whats even better? It has zero preservatives or artificial sweeteners. Score! I will seriously never buy lemonade from the store again. This is just too easy not to make.

Try it, I think you will like it!!




Fresh Lemonade

Ingredients:
6-7 lemons (1 cup of lemon juice)
6 cups water
1 cup sugar

Juice lemons and mix the lemon juice, water and sugar into a one gallon pitcher. Serve with fresh lemon slices. Enjoy!

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I saw a commercial the other day that just made my jaw drop to the floor. I don't watch much tv so everyone else has probably already seen these, but just in case I put two of the commercials down below. They are very short so it wont take you long to watch.











I don't get offended easily, especially by things I see on tv, but this actually offended me. I cant even express how angry I was/am that these commercials are on the air. The average person will believe ANYTHING they hear, and so now people are thinking that high fructose corn syrup is perfectly fine. News flash: ITS NOT. Whats next? A commercial that is trying to convince us that smoking actually increases your life span!! Grrrr.

Ok. I am going to take a time out and calm down a bit. While I am doing that, please watch these other two commercials I found. They are "spoofs" of the two ridiculous ones at the top of the post. They are obviously not "professionally done" but I liked them anyway. :)












High fructose corn syrup is not good for you, MSG is not good for you, food dyes are not good for you... the list could go on. Sure these things are not HORRIBLE in moderation, but they happen to be in everything we eat. So we cannot possibly eat them in moderation. I hate that most people think its ok to eat all this junk.

Alright. I think that is enough video footage and ranting for today. Just... PLEASE don't believe everything you see on TV. Do your own research.

New Favorite

I don't know a good way to transition into this random topic so I am just going to come out and say it.

We have recently discovered Zachariah's new favorite animal.

(And by "favorite animal" I mean his favorite animal that can be found in our yard. Giraffes, zebras, monkeys and rhino's will always be on the top of his list of favorite wild animals. In this post we are talking about the less exciting animals that live on this earth.)


Want to know what it is?



The good ol' rollie pollie! I loved these things as a kid (I mean, what kid didn't?). And we had TONS of them in our yard growing up and I thought they were pretty cool, and now Zachariah is becoming quite fascinated with the little creatures.





And why shouldn't he be excited about these little guys? They don't bite, sting or transmit diseases, they are small, they roll up into a cute little ball and there always seem to be one outside whenever Z is on the hunt. Sounds like the perfect bug to me!





Not a day goes by where Z doesn't stop in the carport or on the sidewalk to see if he can find a rollie pollie and help it to the grass. And he is SO careful about watching his step. He is very concerned that he will accidentally step on one if he doesn't tiptoe.

Talk about adorable.





Even though he loves these little guys he will sort of freak out if I try to get him to hold one. And he is actually very uncomfortable with me holding them as well. If he sees one crawling on my hand he will nervously say, "Uh, no mama. Put on ground."

Sweet little guy. Hey, maybe he has a future with PETA!

(Boy I crack myself up)






So for now he will just watch them from the sidelines and continue to do his part by not stepping on them. We will save these rollie pollies one literal step at a time. :)


(And just for the record, the little tear you see in his eye is not from joy. He fell moments before this picture was taken and scraped his knee. But he did not want to go inside and fix it until he was able to tell the rollie pollie goodbye.)

Jonita & Sons

Ok, so before I get yelled at for not being a good blogger this week, let me go ahead and say that my computer has been giving me HECK. Well, its not so much my computer as it is FireFox. Apparently the latest version doesn't like me. Anyway, I have been trying to get this blog post up all week, but due to said problems, I haven't been able to blog from my computer. Thankfully my hubby is letting me use his computer so I can finally get this post up and going. :)

Now its time for the pictures!

I met Jonita and her two boys downtown last week for some picture taking fun! I loved that they allowed me to use them for some much needed practice. :) I always enjoy taking pictures and the learning that comes along with it, but what I really enjoyed this time was getting to know Jonita and her her boys a little bit better! I hope you enjoy your pictures, Jonita! I had fun hanging out with your sweet family!!









Did I mention that Jonita is one of the nursery workers at our church? Well, she is. And my son LOVES her. He even includes her in his list of friends that he plays with at church! My son is very picky about his friends, and the fact that Jonita is on that list speaks very highly of her. :)

This is Jonita's oldest son Joseph. I was a bit nervous about photographing a teenager during his spring break, but he was SUCH a good sport. He even convinced me that he was enjoying the whole process, and for that I am grateful!

And this is Jonita's youngest son Fredrick. He is the most polite and well behaved ten year old that I have met in a while. (Talk about a breath of fresh air!) It is hard not to crack a smile when you are around this kid!

Oh, and he kind of likes basketball. (And by "kind of" I mean he REALLY likes basketball!) So we made sure to get a few pictures that demonstrate his mad skills. :)

We also had to make sure to get a picture of mom with each of her boys!

And last but not least, a final picture of the fam. :)

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a great weekend!!

Three random things on this Wednesday afternoon

1)

This is what Zachariah got for Easter from his Mimi and Poppie. Every time he goes over to their house he watches one of two shows. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Handy Manny. We don't have cable and we don't own either of those shows on DVD, so that is literally the only place he watches them. And he LOVES those TV shows. So it did not surprise me in the least when he fell in love with this toy.

It really is quite cute! Manny talks and asks questions about what tool we should use for what job. The tools all come out of the tool box and you can put them in Manny's hands or on his belt. Z knows the tools by name and loves to play with them. Everyone in this house gives the Handy Manny toy two thumbs way up! Thanks Mimi and Poppie! :)

2)

For the past couple weeks I have been mentioning to Zachariah that we are going to start potty training soon. For some strange reason I keep procrastinating starting the whole process, but he has decided to start without me. He has officially started potty training his duck! And its hilarious.

(Seriously. I am hoping to start soon. Ish.)

3)

The other day I walked into Zachariah's room to wake him up from his nap and I found him on the floor. I ran to the other side of the house to get my camera before he woke up. It was just too adorable not to take a picture of!

And yes, he is still in his PJ's at 3:30 in the afternoon. You can pretty much bet that if we aren't going out and about, we are both going to be in our PJ's all day.

Don't judge me.

Happy Wednesday everyone! :)