from my kitchen...and a little rambling...

Yesterday I put a little more effort into my kitchen tasks.
I made my one of our favorite soups...a favorite because...

a.  I don't make many soups - a new goal for fall to make more!
b.  the kids eat it, most of the time
c.  it is easy

But I kicked it up a notch by making homemade soup bread bowls too!  The boys were pretty pumped.
They were small but they turned out!  I will make them again.

For the bread bowls I just used my french bread recipe and just made small balls instead of the large loaf.


Corn and Ham Chowder

1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of diced ham ( I usually use a little more)
16 oz. corn (I use the corn off the cob typically frozen in my freezer or like last night I cut it off)
1 can of cream of celery soup
green onions on top  (I don't usually have these on hand so I skip)

Put it all in a pan and heat it up to boil and then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes!  Reheats and freezes really good too.

I usually make a double batch.

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So the reality in our household is....

Sydney is at the typical 19 month old crazy stage.  She is continuously trying to conquer new daring tasks.  She is scaling couches, finding ways to be on top of the kitchen table (I swear 5 times in a 20 minute making breakfast period).  If the gate to the stairs is left open she is upstairs and on Henry's lower bunk in her glory.  She knows where the snacks are and tries to climb the shelves to reach them. She really isn't happy with what I offer and wants what the rest of us are eating...daddy gave her tortilla chips at Chili's this past weekend and cashews.  Nice. haha. :)

All of this means that I can't really let her out of my sight.  It means that it is pretty near impossible to get anything done or finished.  It means that her hour and half nap, yes, that is all she is giving me these days, is soooooo precious.  It means that even the boys are going a little nuts because she gets into their way or stuff too.  It means that when I got home from a night away this weekend I could tell daddy was not too sad to hand her over and go mow the lawn.

She is just a tad different from the boys.  Or maybe my to do lists are longer these days so it just seems she is more busy.

  I no longer can get lost in my Word's with Friend's game, Facebook checking in, or emailing someone back quick.  I leave my phone on the counter and am realizing, it isn't a bad thing.  BUT, it does mean that I feel less productive during the day.  And it means I feel more out of touch with friends and family.  And have had less time for blogging, taking pictures, and everything else.

But it is a stage.  It is precious.  It slows me down...because walking out to throw away our compost becomes a 15 minute adventure where we stop and pick cherry tomatoes in the garden...which she devours immediately (sadly, daddy doesn't know we have cherry tomatoes growing back there by the handful). It means that if the neighbors across the street are out she high tails it across the street saying "Dottie", I swear she can say their dog's name clearly!

But amazingly, all of this is kind of making me more efficient.  So I am embracing this chaos.

We are in the final chapters of summer.  We are trying to fit more and more in.  More friends, more travel, more pool time, more boring moments at home that inspire plain old creative fun.  We are trying to do all the reading and writing and learning that I had planned to do with the boys all summer...in these last two weeks.  We are battling through mama's sneezes because having the windows open and hearing the kids playing outside is what being a mama of three in the summer is about.   We are in it.  Both feet!

What's new with you?  Are you still out there?