What To Title This?

Hum. How bout a verse from the book of Faith....

"A quick blog post to cover a multitude of topics should have a catchy title, else thou shalt be in danger of....." oh never mind.

This post beginning is not working out well. I should go back and erase this whole thing and start over.

No, really. I should. But since I occasionally don't do what I should, perhaps I'll just leave that there so you can have a lovely glimpse into the typical start of an average post in which I really don't know what I want to talk about, but feel the urge to say something.

So in the spirit of keeping it real, hang on a second while I regroup and start over (without erasing the beginning...heh).

Anykachoo, I think the best idea would be to do one of them thar (unofficial) Thursday Thirteen things and just make a list. Cuz, that is really what I like to do. Make lists. I particularly like lists in which the things are already done, and not ones in which I have many things to do....cuz those lists are....well....a lot of WORK. And we all know -- no wait, I don't want to go there either. Back to the list of things that happened today.

1. Early start this morning -- Munchkin was crying about 3am. Not really sure what the deal was, but I stumbled in there and talked to her for a minute. I'm not sure what all the conversation consisted of, but I seem to recall me singing a Veggie Tales song about God being bigger than the boogey man, and then praying with her. I think that was after she said she had a bad dream or was scared or something. I'm not really coherent at 3am, so I'm not positive about any of those events.

2. Got up at 7 (that's AM) and started supper. LOL. That sounds so weird. Anyhow, I have gotten into the crockpot dinners recently and I totally did a double whammy this morning. I am so proud of me. LOL. I made crockpot lasagna using a combination of this recipe and this recipe and not only that, but I used the leftover meatballs from Monday night's meatball sub dinner for the meat. Get that. I USED LEFTOVERS! (Did you see that, Mom? Leftover hater me!!! Bet you thought you'd never see the day, huh?) So I got up this morning and chopped the meatballs up and added more sauce to them and used that for the meat sauce in the recipe instead of using ground beef. I also used the ricotta/egg/milk version from the first recipe and the extra liquid on top/6-7 hours on low cook time from the second recipe. It turned out great except that it was done a little too early so I had to keep it on warm a little longer than I would have liked, and the very bottom got a little too done. Next time, I'll definitely shorten the cook time. The kids are loving the crockpot meals. They have asked for seconds or ate every bite of the dishes I've tried so far (and that's huge for mister picky K-man). Oh the other thing that makes me so happy with myself? I'm actually cooking with ingredients and it's turning out yummy (as opposed to cooking with pre-cooked freezer foods and it turning out yummy....LOL).

3. After I finished fixing supper, it was time to get the kids up and ready for school...Munchkin got up and was crying first thing....said her stomach hurt. (Maybe from my cooking? LOL....hope not...haha) But she seemed better after that and she wasn't running a temp or anything so I went ahead and took her to school.

4. Speaking of sick, it's going around at their school, so it's highly possible and perhaps even probable that the kids are going to (or already have) it, so I'm bracing myself.

5. After I dropped the kids off at school, I took the cats to the vet to be shaved....oh my. We've never had Jango shaved, but he was getting to be shedding more than Snowball and the hair problem was getting out of control, so we decided to see if it would help. Boy, they were NOT happy about it either. Both of them had to be sedated (ouch on the pocketbook) in order for the groomers to shave them.

6. Next stop was Burger King for a 3 piece french toast sticks (and they gave me like six...on purpose...cuz they were all, "there's more than three, have a nice day" about it) so my stomach wouldn't be growling in court.

7. Court started at 9. I was exceedingly happy that K-man's case was heard early, since generally I've found that the termination hearings tend to be put off to the end of the day so they can get the quicker cases out of the way and clear the courtroom early. Thankfully, it appeared to be a light day as far as cases go.

8. Was a little confused as to why they made his next date three months away instead of the (what I thought was) typical 30 days after termination hearing. I'm kinda guessing it's because they think she will appeal, in which case a 30 day hearing would be a waste of time since adoption can't go forward until any appeals (if they're filed) are completed. I personally think that any mom who can't even show up to the court date in which she would have a chance to testify for herself as to what was being done (or not done) toward her case plan should not have the right to appeal. I have other thoughts on the whole thing, but I won't share them here.

9. Got out of court and called Kel so we could meet up and work on Morgie's math, decided to meet at the library during G's storytime, so I hit a thrift store to kill about 15 minutes before meeting them...that was interesting. I went to the one in town that is part of a ministry or something that runs a soup kitchen, and apparently I got there about the time that all the "down on their luck" folks were showing up for lunch. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking being in hard times. But for the grace of God, I could be in their shoes. So with that said, I do have a problem with walking through a small group of folks that can't afford to feed themselves, yet magically have the money to loiter on the sidewalk puffing on their cigarettes, and the whole time, feeling a need to button up my jacket (which wasn't revealing anything anyways) and hold my purse a little tighter. That's the last time I go there by myself when the soup kitchen next door to the thrift shop is open.

10. Met Kel & Morgan at the library and got the tutoring out of the way (until Monday or Tuesday anyways)...we keep getting farther behind. It seemed like we were making much better progress over the summer, but then during the summer she was only doing math, not the other subjects. Oh well...we'll get there. Today's session seemed to go much better. Only a moment or two where I felt like we were on totally different wavelengths. LOL. (LOVE YA MORGAN)

11. Went to Subway for lunch (they have a new $5 footlong -- the Chicken Pizziola or something like that...it's yummy)

12. Came home and took a nap (I had one of those sinus headaches, you know the ones that make your eyes hurt...it felt much better to close them. LOL) I slept away the afternoon (bummer) and had this really weird dream in the process. I think I've dreamed it before, b/c it seemed really familiar...nutzoid. At least it wasn't the nightmare that K-man's mom got him back though. I don't like those dreams. This one was a happy sort of dream, but don't ask me about it, b/c what I remember is very vague.

13. Got woke up, then hauled off the trash, paid a bill, picked up the kitties and paid that whoppin bill (oh the price of less hair), picked up the kids, came home, and set the lasagna on the table and had supper. Now THAT was sweet! I could totally get used to that. LOL!

So there it is. My day in thirteen tiny (or not so tiny) pieces. *goofy grin*

And for Kelly's benefit, the potato crockpot dish that I fixed Tuesday night. This was in the Fix it and Forget it cookbook (I think).

They called it Scalloped Taters but I don't really think of them as scalloped since it uses frozen hashbrown potatoes. Anywho, for what it's worth, they were good, no matter the name. And i have two other variations to try, along with the fact that I need to attempt to spice it up a little more since KC thought they were a little on the bland side. (I didn't think so, but he likes his food to kick him on the way down, so I guess I'll play a little with spices on the next go around).

Nuff said, I have to post this before the length of this post goes into overdrive (if it's not already there).

(Makes 6-8 servings)

1/2 cup melted margarine (I used butter cuz I didn't have any margarine)
1/4 cup dried onions
16 oz pkg frozen hashbrown potatoes (I used the southern style chunks versus the shredded style, not sure if it makes a difference or not)
10.75 oz cream of chicken soup
1.5 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (next time I'm using more...I didn't think this was enough)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 cup crushed cornflakes - divided (I used a little more than this...I like more crunchy stuff)

Stir together all ingredients except 1/2 cup of the cornflakes and pour into greased slow cooker (I forgot to grease it...cleanup was a little tough) and then top with the rest of the cornflakes.

Cover. Cook on high for 3-4 hours.

I heated the leftovers in a glass dish in the oven the next night and it tasted as good as the first night. (OOH, MOM....didja see that? the LEFTOVER stuff AGAIN!!! Heh! *grin*)

Okay. For those of you who stuck it out this far....Wow. I'm impressed and I love you, too! *grin*

till next time...