Attempting to be a Super Mom

The weather::: Currently the temperature is 58 degrees with a high today of 62. It's supposed to be in the 50s-70s for the next 9 days or so. If it can hold out through the next weekend, most of my stress would go away. On my reading pile::: Finishing up Kings Cage. I'll probably finish it today or tomorrow. It's super good. Movies or Shows I watched this weekend::: I didn't really watch a whole lot this weekend as we were super busy but we did take the kids out to see Lego Batman.  It was super cute!   On my TV::: I have two shows that I watch every week as of late. This Is Us and Grey's Anatomy. Anything else is a bonus. I have Planet Earth 2 recording and I'm really looking forward to Africa's Great Civilizations on PBS that starts tonight. Shawn and I also need to finish up Westworld and I need to finish the Santa Clarita Diet. On the menu for this week::: I actually have no meal plan at the moment but am w...

I'm a little late getting this post out, but sometimes, with a busy life, that's just how it goes. Anyway, lets get to it. Five years ago sweet little Rylie made her grand entrance into the world. In honor of my little Ry turning 5, I'm going to tell you a few things about her and then post pictures from the last 5 years of her life including several from the last year. Her full name is Rylie Jane Tiemann. Rylie was a name Shawn and I liked. Jane is my middle name, and my grandmother's middle name, and her initials are RJT which is Shawn's grandpa's initials as well. She's a Valentine's baby.  She loves playing Minecraft and has even got me playing.   She's a great teacher too. She takes her time and is very patient. She's a free spirit that does whatever she wants to do, which drives us nutty sometimes, but we love how she isn't usually caught into peer pressure. She is one of the funniest people I've eve...

I swear my husband is more into this 52 new recipes than I am.  He spends his days browsing the internet for new recipes to use, and links them to me in texts. Here is a Shawn find. It was really delicious, although the kids didn't care for it much. This is recipe 5 out of 52 new recipes in 2017. Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Potato Bake 2 tsp olive oil 2 pounds Italian sausage links, cut into 2 inch pieces 1/4 cup olive oil 4 lg potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced 2 lg green bell peppers, seeded and cut into wedges 2 lg red bell peppers, seeded and cut into wedges 3 lg onions cut into wedges 1/2 cup white wine 1/2 cup chicken stock 1 tsp Italian seasoning salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a large skillet over med. heat, and cook and stir the sausage until browned. Transfer the cooked sausage to a large baking dish. Pour 1/4 cup olive oil into the skillet, and cook the potatoes, stirring occasionally, until browned, ...

I love homemade pizza, but if I'm being honest, I cheat when we make it.  I either make the dough in my bread machine or buy pre-made pizza crusts at the store. We were having everyone over for dinner one night, making homemade pizzas, and Shawn decided we use some of our store bought crusts and try this recipe he found. The pizza crusts I made, blew the store bought crust completely out of the water. The crazy thing is, it wasn't even a lot of work! Here's recipe 4 of our 52 New Recipes in 2017. Quick and Easy Pizza Crust 1 (.25) package active dry yeast 1 tsp white sugar 1 cup warm water 2 1/2 cups flour 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp salt Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, and oil. Mix until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes. Spread out and add desired pizza toppings. Bake for 15-20 minutes and let cool for 5 minutes before serving. This will make one p...

As promised, I would try to enjoy the trip, and get as much of it in pictures, stories, and videos as I could. I think I achieved just that. It was a wonderful trip. Here's the video I put together of our fun girls trip.

Thursday, January 12th Another day, that we were up very early. I don't think the bugle call woke us Thursday though. I think we were so exhausted that we slept right through it.  Thankfully our alarms on our phones woke us up. We got around slowly, and I probably drank twice the coffee that morning. We did make it down to breakfast and then out to Hilton Field still quite early. It looked so packed and we had to park much further away than we did the day before, but when we got up to the lines, they were much shorter, and in fact we jumped to a line on the other side and didn't end up waiting at all. Inside, the bleachers were a little fuller, making us move further up the bleachers than the day before, but we still had a great view, so I can't complain at all. We sat in the bleachers chit chatting and taking in every minute. We could see the soldiers on the far end of the field in a clearing through the trees.  They were hard to see but you could see them sp...