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Did you know that autumn is officially here? Not that we are having real fall weather here (we will hit 90° today) but still the calendar says we are official as of September 23rd. And since we are official it's on to everything pumpkin and Halloween.  I try really hard to wait till after the official day of fall before I pull out all my pumpkin recipes that I have been saving for a year and try not to make them all in one day. But it's really hard to choose which ones to make because I have at least 50 saved in my bookmarks not to mention they are popping up everywhere on pinterest . As a random side note, I completely and totally love pinterest.  I could spend hours on there and I find the most amazing things (not that those things get accomplished--especially the crafty projects).  But the recipes are to die for.   That's where I found this lovely lady.  Isn't she beautiful? So pumpkiny and so fall.  And so delicious.  The kids devoured almost the w...

We are a pack your lunch at home kind of family.  Mostly because our lunch is like $2 a kid per day--seriously I can feed you way cheaper from home for that! But that means sandwiches, wraps, leftovers, or whatever we can think of that is not the usual packed lunch fare. I always try to stick in a kind of fruit (fresh or canned, fruit leather), a veggie (cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, pickles--does that count? or whatever is in the fridge), chips, a main item (sandwich, wraps, rice--my kids love this, leftover pizza , spaghetti, stroganoff , hawaiin haystacks , etc.), and a fun thing (granola bar, pudding, cookie, etc.). By son gets so sick of sandwiches that I am always looking for something new for the main item.  I came across this lovely little creation and they were fantastic.  They are super fast for dinner and then we used the leftovers in the kids lunch. They loved eating them the next day and I love adding something to our lunch repertoire.   Pizza Pancakes (...

 Ahh...what a great weekend we had.   My husband had a conference in Boise and I got to go with him.  I love times that we get to get away and spend some time without the kiddos. He was in meetings all days for two days so I got do whatever the heck I wanted: read a book with no interruptions (heaven!!), watch some cooking shows (with no "this is boring, why can't we change the channel"), take a nap, or soak in the tub (with no knocking and asking for help with something). Amazing! I think being a mom makes you appreciate being able to do nothing at all.  No one to get a drink for, no one to fix a snack for, no one to help wipe, no one that needed me for two straight days. Now don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love going to back to them, but it's this kind of stuff that makes me a better mom and wife.  It makes me miss them and want to see them.   And it makes me excited to get back to them and fix them some yummy food.  I love muffins and it's ...

I know corn on the cob season is almost over but as we were sitting at dinner the other night reflecting on how delicious the corn was that we were eating, my husband and I started talking about how people cook it so differently. Growing up my dad was in charge of cooking the corn.  It always came out perfect and I assumed that everyone knew the best way to have this amazing little veggie. As we were talking I realized that we had had some disgusting pieces of corn.  Mostly because the cooker didn't know how to cook it.  Corn is simple and doesn't need to be cooked very long.  This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. This is what we do.  Barring that you don't have old corn, it will turn out amazing. 1.  First get the freshest corn you can find.  I prefer a bi-color (yellow and white) because they tend to be sweeter.   2.  Schuck the corn and remove as much of the "hair" as possible.  Rinse each ear. 3.  In a large pot, brin...

 I love when school starts.  My kids are usually quite excited to go back and I am excited to be back into a schedule and a routine.  It also means that fall is coming, my favorite season.   But there are certainly some disadvantages.  One of the things I dread is the dropping off and picking up. The past couple of years I have been carpooling with another mom but now that doesn't work so I feel like we are at the school constantly just waiting and waiting and waiting. It doesn't help that I have to drop the older three off at 8 and then my youngest at preschool at 12:30 then it's pick up the older three at 2:45 and then the youngest at 3:45.  Arghhh...lines! I would feel a lot better if people had line etiquette.  I have such a hard time not yelling at those certain individuals that think that their time is more important than yours and zoom ahead of you in the lane that the school has told us repeatedly not to use for dropping off or picking up. ...

Ahhh peaches!  I love this time of year and this is a major reason. I love peach season.  Juice dripping down your chin, the smell of peaches ripening, the sweet taste of a fresh peach.  Heaven! The best part is that there are so many ways to have these ladies and we have been very blessed this year to have a lot of them.  We have been eating them everyday.  As soon as they are ripe, we eat them.  My mouth is watering just thinking about them. They are pure yumminess.   Our favorite way to have them is fresh peaches with a little bit of sugar and cream.  But we have been also having them in our oatmeal, with our cheerios, making peach pie and regular peach crisp, and then this raspberry peach crisp.  Perfect for a cool fall day and topped with vanilla ice cream because a good crisp will be nothing without it's best friend. So go enjoy some peaches while I can 6 boxes of them--wish me luck! Raspberry Peach Crisp ( click here for printable vers...

I have been pondering a question for several days now.  It's a really important one. Okay it's not THAT important but somedays if I had the answer then everyone in the world would be much happier I'm sure. Here's my question:  what happens to children (especially girls) at school that makes them think when they get home from school they can be so dramatic, emotional, and completely overwrought. I know in my head that it's because school is tiring and overwhelming for their tired little bodies....BUT do you seriously need to act like the world is over because I asked you to do your homework? Most days we work through it and by dinnertime they are transformed back into their happy selves but other days it's a little too much. When they ask WHY?!!? (in a very whiny, high pitched voice) for the 7th time do they have to put away their stuff they dropped in the middle of floor or WHY?!!? they can't watch 3 movies because they are so tired or WHY?!!? do they have t...