Lunch & Love

This morning we had Ashton's MyGym class at in The District. After class we had some fun walking around the grassy area and over to Whole Foods so mommy could get lunch and buy some fish to make for dinner! Yum! 

They are doing some construction across the street too so naturally we had to watch the bulldozers for 10 straight minutes.

I have a weakness for weird, fancy beverages.... It's a problem. This rose lemonade was divine and went well with my smoked mozzarella pasta salad.

Ashton wasn't interested in my fancy food. {so weird} But he did really enjoy his water! haha. Replenish your fluids little one.

Some Favorites + An Egg Hunt

It's Thursday. And these are a few of my favorites:

*Coke Zero and Chocolate Cereal with Coconut Milk*

And then there's taking care of Ashton's breakfast needs. Easier said than done.

I know, I know. I'm mother of the year....My kid only eats snack foods. But I do feel like I deserve at least a little credit that the snacks are semi-nutritious...right? Really though, the closest thing to a meal I get him to choke down is a PB&J or Grilled Cheese. Oh well...

Yesterday we went to the Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt! Pretty fun watching the kiddos run a muck trying to secure as many eggs as they could. Luckily there was a 12-egg limit haha.

Nature {Ride} Walk

Lately, I've been helping Ashton get geared up for bedtime by telling him all the fun things we get to do the next day when he wakes up. Last night I told him all about how we could go to the park and find all kinds of treasures to put in his backpack and bring home! He was pretty excited!

This morning he was up and ready to get going on his adventure! He had the great idea to bring his "motor-cle" {motorcycle} Lol so he could ride it around the park. Clever boy.

We had a marvelous time. :) Collecting flowers, rocks, sticks and leaves. He even found a "big daddy pine corn" {large pinecone} and a "little baby pine corn" {small pinecone}

 Just a boy and his pine corn :)

Treasure Inspection

Pre-K at Home

I've been looking into ideas for how to help Ashton academically (as academic as a 2 year old can be...) There are quite a few cute ideas to be found, but to be honest, and this may sound bad, I really don't mean to be judgmental, but the uber-gung-ho christian force behind a lot of homeschooling blogs and resources kind of turns me off. I'm as religious as the next person and appreciate parents choosing to integrate that into their homeschool experience, but I'm not into that.

For instance, through my search I was brought to a page where it seemed like the mom was transforming her family to follow all of the same values and principles as the Duggar Family from TLC's 19 Kids and Counting. Actually it didn't even seem that way, she plainly stated, that's what she was doing. Using their book as reference.

That's great for them, if that is where their beliefs lie. That's really not what I'm interested in. Haha.

Many of the other resources I've found from other sights are just, how do I put this delicately... Not very cute. In essence, I guess, I've just had a hard time finding a completely secular cirriculum with all the fun and cuteness of some of the more religious based programs. Where's my happy medium?!

Luckily, I'm a DIY addict. I'm always looking at cute ideas and thinking of how I can recreate or do something similar to cater to my family. And since all I'm really wanting to do is a little preschool/kindergarden prep with my 2 1/2 year old, it really should not be that complicated.

Here are a few ideas I wanted to start out with:

ABC cards- For these, I have decided to do upper case on one side and lower case on the other. I know that Ashton can already identify all the upper case letters, so I know that I specifically want to focus on pairing the lower case with the upper case and the sounds of each letter.

Number Cards- Ashton is not really familiar with numbers yet, he can count to 3 but recognition and counting are still things that we need to start at the beginning. To have a little fun with counting, I thought we could use some of his small toys, trains or cars and work up to counting 10 of them. I've seen some people recommend to have one bucket full of the toys to be counted and an empty bucket to place the ones that have been counted. Not only to help keep count, but to help them recognize amounts.

Science- I wanted to make sure to do something outdoors. Ashton loves to be outside and explore, really, what toddler doesn't? So I came up with a few ideas of things we could do: a nature walk, collecting small, interesting things like leaves, sticks, pine cones, rocks. Then bring our spoils home and inspect them! It would be fun to have a small magnifying glass and talk about the properties of each item.

Chicken Pot Pie: An Evolution

My cooking skills have evolved considerably in the 6 years that I've been cooking for Kellen and I. I've always enjoyed it and I was lucky to have two parents with above average cooking skills. So my foundation was strong, but since I got married at the ripe old age of (barely) 20, I hadn't really refined my skills! Kellen has kindly eaten many a crisply burned, over salted, or slightly soggy meal. He's a champ. But I think his kindness has paid off! 

A favorite of ours in our newly wedded years was Chicken and Dumplings. It was a recipe I found, I don't even remember where. It was just chopped up chicken, frozen mixed veggies all mixed in cream of chicken soup, baked with Bisquik biscuits on top. It was super good and easy to make! 

Since those days, I've taken more of an interest in from-scratch cooking. A lot of times it ends up saving money, and lets be honest, it just tastes way better! If you're not someone who loves standing over a hot stove cooking for hours (like I do haha), this is still a good scratch recipe to start out with. It's not terribly time consuming but it has all of the yummy-tummy goodness of the rich comfort food that it is! 

So here's my evolved chicken pot pie recipe. Since I'm only cooking for Kellen and I,  I've learned to cater my recipes to only yielding 2 1/2 to 3 servings. This recipe can be easily changed to feed more people. Or doubled to make two pies.

Rustic Chicken Pot Pie

For the filling:

1 chicken breast

1/4 yellow onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 carrots, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

3-4 baby bella mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup frozen corn

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup milk (any % you prefer)

Heat up a large pan with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper the chicken breast to taste. Cook the chicken breast over medium heat for about five minutes while you chop and prepare the other ingredients. Add the onion, carrots and celery with just a pinch more salt. Flip the chicken breast and allow the veggies to sauté for a few minutes until they start looking softened. Add the minced garlic and mushrooms. At this point assess the amount of oil in the pan, if the veggies look dry, add another tablespoon or so. 

The chicken breast should be almost cooked through by now, although you can continue even if it's not, it will continue cooking in the pan and then later in the oven so don't sweat it. I just use my wooden spoon to chop and shred the breast so that the chicken is well distributed in the filling. If you prefer to remove it and chop it properly, by all means, do so. I'm just lazy. :) And prefer keeping my uncooked chicken away from other surfaces. 

Next add the remaining veggies (peas and corn) and any seasoning you would like to add. Feel free to experiment here and find out what spices and herbs your family loves! Here's how I season mine:

1 tsp ground sage

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp paprika

Once you've given those a toss, add the butter and flour, mixing until incorporated. Raise the heat a bit. Then add the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer. Add the milk. Bring back to a simmer and turn down the heat to low. Let it simmer uncovered until the sauce has thickened, should only take a few minutes. 

For the Crust:

I usually make the crust in advance so that I can have it chilling in the refrigerator before I need to roll it out. 

Pie crust can be intimidating. It took me years to get it right, and it's been only recently that I've felt good about it. Honestly, having tools, like my Kitchen Aid mixer, has helped. It's harder to mess things up when all you have to do is toss everything in and mix until it's done! 

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

1 cup shortening

2 Tbs butter

2 tsp salt

Cold water

Add the flours, salt, shortening and butter to the bowl of your mixer. Mix with the paddle attachment until the shortening and butter are well incorporated and it looks kind of crumbly. Pour the cold water in slowly while the mixer is on, add just a tablespoon at a time and stop as soon as the dough comes together. Careful not to over mix or over moisten. (those are the trickiest parts)

Wrap in plastic wrap and toss in the fridge until you're ready to build your pie!

This recipe makes a little more than I need for my medium sized, oval shaped dish that I prefer using. I cut the dough in half and roll out one half to use for the bottom of the pan. Make sure you use some Pam or butter first so it's easier to serve. Then just transfer your rolled out dough and press it into place. It will likely lay over the edges, and I don't mind that, in fact we prefer it! We like the crust to filling ratio to be high! 

Once you have the bottom layer in place, pour the filling in. Next roll out the other half of the dough. Like I said, there's usually a little more dough than you need so use however much you prefer. Just lay the top over and gently press around the edges. Be sure to make some cuts in the top of the crust so your filling doesn't go spilling out the sides.

Next for a little added luxury! I like to brush it with egg wash (an egg with a little water, beaten) and sprinkle it with some Fleur de Sel. Just be careful not to over do it with the salt sprinkling or you'll be sorry. (I speak from sad experience...)

Bake for 30-45 minutes at 375 degrees. Just until golden and crisp.  Make sure to place it on a baking sheet, just in case you have a little filling spillage-- it won't go making a mess in your oven. 

 Check out that gorgeous specimen! That shiny, golden crust makes my mouth water!

Getting Crafty for Primary

It's been about a month now since I was called to my new calling in Primary. Like I mentioned, I've been really enjoying it. It was a bit hectic at first, all of us were shuffling around trying to figure things out. Now that we've kind of gotten into the swing of things, it's really getting fun.
As Secretary my jobs are fairly simple. I'm in charge of the roles for the classes, and I decided I would just go ahead and take charge on those each week by taking role during Opening Exercises rather than passing them out to each teacher. This way I can get to know the kids, and be more immediately aware of who is missing. I also make the assignments for Opening Exercises, who will be offering prayers, giving a talk, and helping with the Article of Faith and Scripture of the week. This has been the most hectic one so far, just because I'm not familiar with all the kids yet, knowing who is there before hand to make the assignments easier. But I'll get on top of it.
Other than those two busy jobs, I mostly just help out with whatever else Whitney or the counselors need me to do and do the newsletter. It's been fun!
I'm also semi in charge of birthdays, so we decided we would have a bulletin board to display the birthdays of the month. And we also wanted to have cute little chair covers displaying each class name and the helpers for the day. I ended up being the crafty one of the group so these jobs were given to me and I'm having a lot of fun with them. I got to pick out cute fabrics and design them myself.

I just need to make the candles that we will use to write the children's names on and put on the cupcake every month. 

And just for kicks and giggles... a few adorable pictures from yesterday. Someone from Kellen's office at work gave us a bunch of great stuff for Ashton, and this bean bag was a big hit! It's his new favorite perch for watching shows and having snacks. 

A few scenes from our Conference weekend at Papa and Avo's house. I asked Ashton to smile... He was pretty serious about it. Haha. Fierce. 

I Blog

Current events update: I was recently called to serve as the Primary Secretary in our ward. OHMYGOSH. Can I get an Amen? I've never had a calling like this before, but after a few weeks in, I'm feeling really great about it. I think I've found that it suits me. I've mainly been a teacher, in my other callings, which was fun and all. But I'm really enjoying the worker-bee-behind-the-scenes type of job that this calling is. Making assignments, keeping roles, and planning events; it's pretty much what I wish I could do for a real job.
It helps tremendously that I really enjoy the other three women I serve with. I'm already grateful for the blessings this calling has given me. Everyone enjoys feeling needed, and like they are doing something important. And I've already begun to feel that way.
In other news, my child is such a big boy! He's so smart. Makes me nervous though, being smart begets smarty-pants. And we are already getting a taste of that! Ha!


I enjoy following blogs. I like reading about the things people do, specifically I enjoy reading blogs involving some sort of skill or job that can be learned. Such as, a cooking blog, a sewing blog or how to budget. I've always just used this blog as a journal of sorts and to keep in touch with a few of my friends who also keep blogs. I've always kind of wished that I could be one of those career bloggers who writes about important, interesting topics, which other people would want to follow along with. I have written a few posts on topics that interest me, offering my two cents. But I find that, I would never want to presume that I am both important enough or interesting enough for a flock to start following what I have to say.
But this is for me, right? I'm an idea person. My personality is one that thrives on inventive and creative ideas. I'm always halfway done with at least three or four projects at a time, half of which I will probably never finish. I find I have the best follow through with my ideas when there is a sense of commitment involved. When I feel like someone is depending on me. Because I am also a people-pleaser. I rarely do things for a pure sense of self-satisfaction, I consider what others will want from me.
There are a few things I have really tried hard to commit to doing, just for myself. But I have tried and failed. One is budgeting. Also, meal planning. And lastly, BLOGGING. Imagine that.