Lasso The Moon

We're Gonna Make It

These two.

What can I say about toddlers?  They are HARD.  It's no joke.  They have no common sense.  They have no grip on their emotions.  They have no volume control.

You'll notice my two-year-old is locked onto that pacifier.  No judgement please.  He is a high-maintenance fourth child.  THIS IS SURVIVAL.

And then I wander into the living room, because they have been TOO QUIET for a few minutes, and I find them like this.  Esther is pointing out every detail on every page, in that non-stop, chirpy four-year-old chatter.  And Eli is drinking in every word.

I have never seen him sit so still. 

It's the moments like these that make you stop and remember that it is worth 3000 diapers, marker on the wall, and the brand new box of cereal dumped on the floor because "I DO IT!".   Something that I am doing or saying, or maybe it's just the mere passage of time, is getting through to them.  And there is a chance we might actually make it through!

Happy Monday, y'all.  We're gonna make it.

 

P.S. They're reading this book! We've had it since forever! It's such a classic!

 

Home Team - Kelsey's House

One of the things I wanted when I first got the idea for our Home Team is to reach out to women outside of our immediate group.  We meet on Fridays and take turns working our tails off, but some women who might need some help around the house may not be able to take Fridays off of work.

So this week we painted at Kelsey's house.  Kelsey and her husband recently bought a fixer-upper which they have basically gutted, and until it becomes liveable, they are living with family.  Kelsey, you had us at "living with family".  Maybe we can help you get home a little sooner!

There really is not much to show from this day.  It was SO HOT, and the AC in the house was not functioning at its best.  By the end of the day we were a little silly from the fumes, and I may or may not have rolled a full paint roller down Sarah's face.  And she may or may not have returned the gesture.

But, for the sheer purpose of having some "before" shots of the house, here's what we got:

Today we got two rooms - ceilings and walls painted.  I think that's a pretty good day's work!  I'm sure it feels good to show a little progress, too.

I love the idea of women working together to help build their homes. 

As always, the kids were in the background, and sometimes the foreground.  They spent their time outside blowing bubbles, and inside drawing with sidewalk chalk on the bare floors.  They loved it!

 

Pork Chops and Rice : a one-dish meal my kids love

 

I am no chef, so when I cook, I like to make food that my family will actually eat, with as little effort, time, and money as possible.

This recipe fits the bill.

I learned how to make this delicious dish when I had a job as a caregiver in my early 20s.  I worked for a lady named Bonnie, and I cooked for her, drove her to appointments, helped her remember her medications, and slept in her guest room a couple nights a week.  It was an awesome job.  I got to know her so well, heard a bunch of her stories, and made a friend 60 years older than I was. 

She also taught me a few things in the kitchen...because I only really knew how to make pie.  And cookies.

This is a version of one of those!

Pork Chops and Rice:

Ingredients:

6 pork chops, bone-in or boneless.

long grain rice

beef stock

salt and pepper to taste

grated fresh onion, onion powder, or dried onion flakes

red or green bell pepper

Directions:

Measure out 2 cups of rice.  Pour it into a 9x12 dish.  Measure out 3 cups of beef stock and pour it over the rice, stirring a little to make sure it all gets wet.  Grate a little bit of onion over the top of the rice for more flavor, or sprinkle dried onion or onion powder.  (About 1-2 Tbsp) This isn't science---just dinner!

In a skillet, brown each chop in a little oil, letting each side caramelize a little bit.  Let the meat just start to get opaque. If your chops are cut thin, this will only take a minute or less.  If they are thick, let the meat cook about 1/4 of the way through.  Salt and pepper both sides.

Arrange the browned chops in the dish, overlapping them if they need room.  Push them down into the rice and stock so all the flavors mix together.

Place a slice of bell pepper on each pork chop.  It looks pretty and flavors the meat, but I tell the kids they can push it to the side of the plate if they look at me funny.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes.  Check the rice to make sure it's cooked through and soft.  If not, wait another 5-10 minutes.  If it is, but there is still lots of liquid in the dish, remove the foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more.

Let the meat sit for 5 minutes before serving. 

Tonight I served this with some fresh corn, even though we already had a nice starchy carb with the rice.  Because it was sweet corn season.

YUM.

We also ate a small salad, which at our house, is just fresh baby spinach tossed with balsamic vinaigrette.  Because that's what my kids love, and it's EASY.

So there you have it.  An easy meal that kids will eat.  And it mostly cooks itself while you sit down and watch PBS kids or something with the family.  Or is that just me?

Do you have a simple meal you love?  Tell me about it!

And be sure to pin this one for later.  Who doesn't need another easy meal option?

edit: have y'all tried AmazonFresh? I haven't yet as of this edit, but I'm about to!  Check out this 30-day free trial and get all the ingredients for this recipe delivered to your door! (yes, I love technology...!)

 

Home Team - Emily's House

What's Home Team? It's a group of friends, taking turns GETTING STUFF DONE at each other's houses.  We paint, build, clean, organize, renovate, and generally help each other out where we need it most.  Find more of these HOME TEAM posts here.  And be inspired!

Today we were at Emily's house.  They've been working on their adorable picket fence, and we were going to make it even more adorable. 

Our job: to finish sanding the pickets and paint the fence white.

After months of rainy Home Team days, we finally had sun...but now it's June!  And the sun was sweltering.  Wide brimmed hats were a must, and we tried to remind each other to drink LOTS of water. 

I put down the sander to take a few progress pics.

Somehow Sarah always looks adorable, even in her grubbies!  (That's D'Ana in the hat.)

The kids stayed busy in the yard with a mini slide and blow-up pool.  We were so hot, we kept sneaking over and stepping into it ourselves.   (Or lying in it, if I'm being honest.)

When we couldn't take the sun any longer, we headed inside to add a coat of poly to Emily's salvaged piano.

And then did a few basic chores. We try to meet and work from 10am and 4pm.  With 3 or four women, we can get a lot done in that amount of time.  About an hour before we leave, we start picking up tools, washing paintbrushes, and putting the house back together.  Because it wouldn't really be all that helpful if we left it a giant mess.

Check out that cute shelf behind Sarah.  That's the one we made the last time we were here!

And I just want to show you this cute project Emily did for her hallway.

The fruit of the Spirit on pallet boards!

Here's Emily's "Honey Do" list at the end of the day.  We made a pretty good dent!

Until next time, friends!

XOXO, Anna

Some of our favorite DIY supplies:

              

 

 

 

Finally Carrots!

We are finally finding some success in our little vegetable garden. 

For the first year or so, we could not get anything to really grow.  We planted in March, and by the time things really got going, it was too hot, and we forgot to water.  This year, I got smart.

We started getting warmer weather in January (we're in north Texas) and I put in seeds and lettuce right away.  Everything we put in could withstand a bit of frost if it needed to.  Sugar snap peas, broccoli, radishes, carrots, lettuce, and swiss chard.

And then we kinda forgot about it.  We didn't need to water, because Texas gets a decent amount that time of year.  And now, all these months later...we have CARROTS!

I went outside to peek on them, and there were those little orange stumps, piking up from the dirt.  You should have SEEN Elijah's face when we pulled out the first carrot.  It was magical.  We were supposed to be somewhere, but we were late because we couldn't stop playing in the garden!

Eat your veggies, y'all!

Have more fun gardening with these products we LOVE: