Breakfast For Dinner.....

I call this recipe "Mama Root's Super DOOPER Breakfast Casserole :

1 lb cooked crumbled sausage (I use Owen's HOT)
4 eggs
2 cups shredded cheese
2 cups milk
1 cup bisquick

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cooked sausage in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Mix all other ingredients together and pour over the sausage. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (roughly....can take a little longer!)

I LOVE cooking breakfast for dinner....and I enjoy this recipe (THANKS DEBORAH!!) but I sometimes "trick it up" so to speak. Some variations I've tried (and some I haven't yet but can't WAIT to try) :

* Instead of using sausage, I use bacon sometimes for a change of pace
* Sometimes I finely chop 5 or 6 regular russet potatoes (skin off) into what I call "Communion wafer size potatoes" and substitute that for the meat...I saute them in melted butter and Lowry's seasoned salt before placing them in the dish
* Instead of using boring cheddar, mix it up with a smoked provolone, or gouda or maybe some swiss emmenthal....
* Add finely chopped red bell peppers for a "brunch-y" feel minus the pretention
* Finely cubed cooked ham is a nice meat here as well
* Add multiple meats AND potatoes AND red peppers, AND mix up the cheese for a casserole WONDERLAND!!! :)

Regardless of how you do it, this recipe is quick and easy. And my children (and everyone else who's tried it) LOVE it!!

*****I still need some help on the ankylosaurus.....now I'm thinking of scrapping it all and going for the T-Rex at least I KNOW I can make that costume.....********

I Need More Help.....So, I'm Running A Contest....

I'm running a contest through Wednesday (October 1) for those who comment on this post here, leaving a suggestion as to how to make an Ankylosaurus Costume for Daniel....The problem I've encountered in my brain is how to make the TAIL with a club and do it without incurring great difficulty or great debt.....So, for the next few days I'll be watching for comments and adding names to a hat....Whoever's idea I end up using will win....(unless of course nobody comments!) and you'll win a grab bag from everyone's favorite store....Target! Seriously, I need help so let anyone you know who is crafty know that I need assistance!! Any ideas are welcome!! THANK YOU!!

All Of Our Hats.....

I have thought often about all the roles we as women are asked to play. So, I thought I'd do a pictorial post of them, so you can have a "yep" moment and maybe a laugh too!!

In the kitchen : In the "expertise" department :

In the bedroom :

In our community :

For our family :

For ourselves so we can impress our friends and family with our "craftiness" :

For our children :

How do we achieve all of this????

Any Suggestions??

I'm planning on starting to cook healthy meals on Sundays....and put them either in the freezer or the fridge.....but I need quick to reheat, I need healthy....I need kid friendly....

ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME.....................

Look Who Made The Weekly Bulletin!!

Daniel's Prayer....

Tonight, as he was getting into "sleep mode" :

"Dear God I thank you for the food I eat and for today. Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and me and Zoe and Memaw and Mimi and Bobo (*giggle*) and Giggy and Bebe and even Mommy. Please help me to feel better. And thank you for Jesus...no wait I'm talking to Jesus! (I insert here : "it's OK to thank Jesus for all He's done for us, go ahead and thank Him!") OK Mommy, so thank you Jesus for being you. In your name, Amen."

A Few Things I Wonder About Jesus....

1. Since He was perfect, did He ever cry? Did He go through the "Terrible Twos?" Could He possibly have never thrown a temper tantrum? Did He ever pout? Did His earthly parents ever lose their cool with him?

2. Since childbirth was "supposed" to be a "punishment" for woman and her original sin, but Jesus was the Son of God, was his birth painless for Mary? It doesn't seem right to me that it would have hurt her giving birth to the Saviour of the world....

3. Did Jesus play sports? And if He did, was He better than everyone else? Or did He choose instead NOT to play sports because He knew it would be unfair?

4. Did He always obey his earthly parents? Or did He have moments of rebellion?

Any thoughts?? Anyone have questions they've wondered about??

You Know You Are......

Show of hands....how many of us that grew up watching "Beverly Hills 90210" are watching this new series?? Kelly's there, now Brenda's there too, and Nate is still running The Peach Pit. Kelly's drunken crazy mom, and baby Erin is now all grown up and calls herself "Silver" and she goes to West Beverly Hills High. The Drama department is doing "Spring Awakening," and the really spoiled little rich girl just found out her daddy's been having an affair for years. Nostalgia is what made me watch the 2 hour premiere, curiosity is what will keep me watching...but I can't help but long for the plotlines and stories of the original. Maybe it was just me, but I was captivated by that show....I somehow thought that High School was going to really be like that. Boy was I surprised when it wasn't! ;)



So, come on....admit it.....who's watching?

Things I Could Write Long Blogs About, But Decided Not To...

So, I could write long blogs about each of the following things, but decided not to....they're various things I've noticed, things I'm hacked off about, etc lately....

1. The health care system in this country. Let's face it, folks, it sucks. It's a really sad state of affairs when middle-class children are UNINSURED because their parents jobs offer unaffordable insurance or even no insurance at all....and when those same children are turned down for the program designed to "help" them : CHIPS because they "make too much money." Seriously??

2. The man at Albertson's who could evidently afford an entire bottle of cologne to dump on himself (enough so that with his windows rolled down in this early-September Texas heat it made me nauseous), but this same man apparently cannot afford carseats (there were NO carseats in the car, and the children weren't even restrained with shoulder belts) with which to restrain his obviously toddler-age children so that they may live to see adulthood. You're a scumbag.

3. The big truck afficionados in Texas who believe that due to the oversize nature of their driving machines they are entitled to as many parking spaces as they care to partake of....IN THE FRONT ROW OF TARGET'S PARKING LOT. I can understand parking your doolie at the back of the parking lot and taking up 6 spaces by parking catty corner across both lanes of spaces so that you are taking 3 on each side, but doing in in the front row of Target? How did you even find that many open spaces in the first place??? You're a jerk.

4. The drop-off system at my son's school. Actually, the drop-off and pick-up system is really efficient. Kudos to you. HOWEVER a big, fat JEERS to all you entitled parents who think that waiting patiently in the traffic ready to turn right or left into the school's ONE WAY ENTRANCE is an inconvenience to you so you zip around all those that ARE waiting patiently, and then cut off the person who has probably been waiting patiently to turn left for a long five minutes, and whose time is JUST AS VALUABLE AS YOURS. Way to model Christ for your kiddos. You know who you are. You're the one we all point out to our kids and say "don't be like that guy/gal."

5. Zoe's got 2 new friends at school. Claire and Elizabeth. She also has a little boy friend named Joey. Great. Joey's a cute kid, Claire's adorable, and I've actually never met Elizabeth but I'm sure she's a peach. However, SOMEONE at my darling daughter's school has taught her a new thing I shall entitle the "Diva Screech." This is a hideously high-pitched noise that is a cross between a fire engine siren and a cat stuck in a blender. Seriously y'all it's horrendous. Probably a great work out for her lungs, but it's going to make her Mommy deaf. And it does not awaken that warm, loving, "mommy feeling...." instead, it awakens that cold, sinister feeling of anger. And it drives anyone who hears it insane. It is NOT an endearing sound.

6. Daniel's a tape recorder. He listens. He repeats. Constantly. Gone are the days when I could spell the "taboo words" that I didn't want him repeating....now he just asks his Memaw, "Hey Memaw, what does s-h-i-t spell?" Yep. So now I gotta find new words to say/spell that he can repeat and nobody will think twice about it. Oh Pickles.

7. The cost of pet ownership. Why do they think we're all gullible folks who transfer our maternal/paternal instincts to our animals? I mean, I LOVE my pets (well....MOST of them that is....) but in order for them to get the care they "deserve" we've got to shell completely out of pocket for their care. Traditional vets charge more than say, Banfield Pet Hospital.....in fact, for our 6 year old dog Lucy to get checked out last week when we noticed that she was not doing so well, our old faithful vet wanted to charge me over $200.....yeah right. So I called Banfield inside PetSmart.....they've got this great Wellness Plan thing that the Dr wanted me to get for her. It covers your pet for a whole year and has various levels to it, all of which are incrementally more expensive monthly. HOWEVER, if you've got a pet....I highly recommend it. It costs roughly $300 a year paid out monthly, and covers your pet's vaccinations, vet visits, and 2 comprehensive physicals including urinalysis and blood work (there's even a level that included an EKG....) which they recommend each dog have in a year. So, rather than over $200 just for the vet visit #1, I got out of there over a 1 week time frame for right at $200 which paid for all her vaccines, deworming (she was negative but they still did it as a precaution), heartworm testing and preventive, antibiotics, 1 tooth pulled + dental care, the anesthesia, and all of her care for the next year....and a bath, and grooming. Awesome job, Banfield.

8. My kids start dance class this week! WHOOPEE!!!! I'm so excited for them both! (Zoe wants to be a "ball-ween-a" and Daniel wants to be a "tap dancer.") And we're going to work on getting a t-ball league with all the interested kids at Daniel's school too!

School....

So, Zoe is amazingly better....though I'm so upset because the Doctors have both checked Zoe's fee tickets with "Asthma" and I've got visions of pre-existing conditions and insurance denials floating through my head. She hasn't had to have a breathing treatment in over 24 hours! Thank God!!

Both kiddos are going to school 5 days a week, and they both go full days. Daniel is madly in love with school, and he never wants to "stay home" even when he tells me he didn't get enough sleep." He has friends named "Molly," "Brian," "Liam," "Garrett," "Hayden," "Blake," and others. And he LOVES his teacher. He is doing so well, and he's becoming better and better at writing his name!

Zoe is loving her school too! Her teacher is great, her classmates are awesome, and her new buddy is "Claire." She's also quite fond of "Joey," and I think she might have her first crush on Daniel's friend Garrett. It's adorable.

They're learning songs, and letters, and it's amazing. I asked Daniel last night what his favorite part of school is and he said "learning about God." That's amazing!