An Irish Alternative to Corned Beef

I went to the grocery store to pick up my corned beef brisket for tomorrow and they were out. I could go get one at a different store, but the price is $.40/lb higher. At $.99/lb it is a good once a year meal, but not for $1.39/lb. Apparently I have my limits.

I am on to Plan B: Irish Boxty. I serve it with pesto mayo and sauteed peppers and onions. Pictures from the last time I made it are here.

I am slightly amused by the fact that I now have two posts about boxty....!

It'll Grow Back, Right?!?!

My husband is a high school band director. He made a bet with his students: if they received all I/Superiors at their concert band festival (a feat not accomplished in many years at this school), they could shave his head.

Congratulations, CHS Band!

Big Guy and Little Guy

Miles is the first grandson on both sides of our families. He met my dad for the first time this past week. To say they hit it off is an understatement! Miles was super fussy yesterday and I'm pretty sure it was because he didn't have his Dzia Dzia around to play with!

Taming the Milk Monster

Like many kids her age, Ella loves her milk! For the past two years I have struggled to keep her milk consumption in check. I limit her intake to 24 oz or 3 sippy cups per day, at least on most days. I rarely offered other dairy food items (cheese, yogurt, etc) so that we weren't way over the serving limit. I tried really hard to only offer milk at meals, but pregnancy got in the way of that plan. I knew that she was asking for milk when she was hungry and I would offer food instead, but she usually refused and ended up filling up on milk. In the end, I failed pretty much every single day.

Last week I started giving Ella milk in a "big girl" cup and only at the table. She can have it when she wants it, but only under those stipulations. An amazing thing has occurred: her milk consumption has almost cut in half and her consumption of food has at least doubled. I can't believe it! She has caught on to my little trick and yesterday had a fit because she wanted milk in the sippy cup. I do give her one glass in the morning in the sippy, but that is to stay off hunger until I can get breakfast together. At bedtime if she has not had her full 24 ounces of dairy, then I offer her another sippy cup of milk. For the most part, though, the big girl cup has slowed her down and got her eating!

One small triumph for Mommy....

Five

One vow,
Two people,
Five years,
One cross country road trip,
Three states,
Three kids,
Four cars,
Four apartments,
and
Four cats
Later
We are still going strong!

Just Hanging Around

My 2 year old daughter, Ella, headed outside with her bag of pretzels the other afternoon. I peeked out the door to check on her and found her sitting on the ground, eating her pretzels, watching the big kids play football. It was just too cute!

A Quick and Easy Way To Say Thanks

My husband needed three "thank you" gifts last week for colleagues who did him a favor at work. He was going to buy them granola bars, but I talked him in to letting me come up with something cute.

I had three gift bags in my stash that didn't have baby booties or Dora on them; a gigantic stash of Johnson's Buddies Soap; and a few bags of candy from after Valentine's Day sales.






I put one bar of soap and a handful of chocolate in each bag. Much better than granola bars, if you ask me!