When it rains, it pours!

Good thing I like rainstorms!

I seriously feel like I have weeks at a time that are completely free, and I'm wishing to fill them up with more, and then there are weeks that come, like this one, where I feel like I can't possibly fit another thing in.

Not only do I have my regular Nursery lesson to plan out for Sunday, but I am in charge of the Sharing Time lesson as well, which I have never done before, nor even sat in and watched (since I've been in this calling), so I really have no idea what I am doing. My visiting teaching is set up for tomorrow. I have a meeting at work tomorrow evening too. We are also having a Primary presidency meeting Saturday.

I know it's not really that many things, but each one of these things need to be given a lot of thought, planning and creativity, and when I don't get much time for myself during the day, it leaves me feeling stressed and overwhelmed come nighttime.

The good news is that my hubby finishes up his last OChem test (ever!) tomorrow, and will be home to give me some time to work on some things.

(And don't tell me I had an extra long time to prepare since this past weekend was General Conference... I know that. I should have been planning a week ago, but somehow I just didn't get to these things before now!)

Breakfast Burrito Breakdown

I made burritos again today, and this time I paid more attention to see if I could get an idea of how much they cost per burrito.

So, this is what I used today -

25 eggs
24 flour tortillas
1 pkg. BIG sausage links (it's about 2 1/4 lbs)
Hash browns (probably about 2 bags worth?) - I just have a huge bag from Sam's Club.

First, I made the hash browns. I set them aside in a dish to cool.
Next, I cooked the sausage and let those cool. I then use the food processor to do a rough chop (saves a lot of time!)
Then, I cook the eggs. My hubby likes things pretty plain, so I don't add anything extra like onions or peppers, but you definitely could, and they're great that way too.

Lastly, I combine it all together in a huge bowl, add to the tortillas (about 1/2 cup per burrito) and roll them up so that both ends are rolled in and nothing can fall out.

After I know they're nice and cool, I wrap each burrito individually in wax paper (so they're easy to take out the door), then add them to the freezer bag and let cool even longer in the fridge. After I know they are nice and cold, I put them in the freezer.

To eat, we just warm up in the microwave for about 2 minutes.
Quick and easy breakfasts!

I think today it came out to about .83 cents/burrito. Though, I know they can be cheaper (probably by about .20 cents or more) because the sausage is actually .80 cents cheaper at a different store than where I bought it (realized afterward), and I'm sure if I used another dozen eggs the mixture would have stretched much further, but I didn't have that many tortillas today.

Is there something you make ahead to make your mornings easier?

Today's list

- Make lots of breakfast burritos to freeze ahead (a new semester starts in two weeks!)
- Make two cakes and frosting for tomorrow (more on this tomorrow.)
- Fold laundry that has piled up (again!) on my side of the bed.
- Sort J's clothes and empty drawers of things he's outgrown.
- Do leaf rubbings with A; she found a couple dried ones yesterday.

Conference Recap

Listening to conference with two kids jumping around just doesn't give you the same effect as before. I even was able to keep myself awake for all but 10 minutes from all four sessions, but I am still very much looking forward to listening and reading these all over again in the coming months. It has become one of my favorite things to do via Mormon Channel for the iPhone. I felt like a lot of these talks were focused on parents and family life and the temple.

I need to get a picture of the temple hung up in the kids' room.
I need to attend the temple more regularly. My goal is to go once a week this next semester. I was going to take a Zumba class, but it was full by the time I went to register. So now I can do something even better with that time!

I am so grateful for the chance we have to hear from the leaders of our church on a regular basis and each receive our own inspired messages through the Spirit. We live in a great time, despite the problems going on all around, and if we are faithful, we have nothing to fear!

I'm baaaack!

I know, I'm so wishy-washy with this blog, but I do miss having a place to write my thoughts that isn't so family-related all the time, even if it still is most of the time.

Hopefully I won't bore you with my thoughts and will have some interesting posts here coming up soon.

Thanks for sticking around!

When there's no Starbucks around...

This comes pretty close to the real thing.
Caramel apple cider from Starbucks is probably my favorite cold-day drink, and when I lived in WA it wasn't hard to find one when I wanted to splurge.
Here, however, there are no Starbucks (except for one in the mall 25 miles away) so I've had to improvise, and I can't say I'm disappointed or that I don't love the cheaper price.
So go try it.
It might just become your favorite too.

Stuck inside?

Here's what we've been up to lately:

• Simon Says
• Red Light, Green Light
• Catch
• Roll the ball
• Hide'n'Seek
• Chase the baby
• Chase the toddler
• Chase mommy
• Building forts
• Dancing like crazy to Christmas music on Pandora (Santa Clause is Coming to Town Radio) - great kids' music!
• Baking
  
• Chores (when we make it a game, it's a lot of fun for everyone!)

What have you been up to? I'd love any and all ideas!

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday - Don't have to cook! (Church Christmas Party)

Tuesday - Tacos

Wednesday - Leftovers (Work Christmas Party)

Thursday - Chicken Pot Pie

Friday - Pizza/Smoothies

Saturday - Lean Pockets - light and easy (Another Christmas Party)

Sunday - Enchiladas

Sick day.

After a week and a half of everyone else in our family being sick, the bug finally hit me. It is hard to take care of your family when you feel crummy too. This picture pretty much sums it up. I feel like my daughter has been non-stop talking since the moment she woke up yesterday. I am not sure if this is how she always is and I usually have more patience, or if she really has just stepped it up a notch since I've been ill. Either way, she's wearing me out!

Home from church

When home from church nursing your family back to health, I highly recommend a little Photo Booth, strawberry smoothies and homemade chicken noddle soup.