Very Busy March

So I was sitting here and thinking about how busy I am and just to prove it I am going to show you my March calendar.

1-Visit friend with new baby
2-Dr. suess playdate
3-visit my mom
4-mall playdate
5-Tastefully simple party
6-girls night out
7-mom's lunch and shopping
8-beer night
-Gibson's party
-Montana and Mira's party
9-playdate at Annie's
-playdate at Healthworks kids museum
10-organizer's meeting
11-group get to know you at Chocolate Cafe
-Johnny Appleseed Day playdate
12-playdate at chocolate cafe
-Dominik's birthday playdate
13-
14-Women's Health Expo
-Winter Days at the zoo
-Get together with the Baker family
15-high school girlfriends get together
16-playdate at Katrina's
17-St. Pat's kids party
18-visit mom
19-mall playdate
-book club
20-Garden party
21-dinner with friends
22-Family dinner at Steak and Shake
-Stephanie's baby shower
23-playdate at Diane's
24-visit mom
25-
26-playdate at Chik-Fil-A
27-Bubble playdate
28-Compost seminar
-Art night
29-Beth's wedding shower
-Ben's birthday
30-Incredible kid playdate
31-


Wow that's tons of stuff.

My mom's group is getting together tonight to put together the April calendar. I'll post that too when I get home!

Veggie Brown Rice Casserole

If you are on WIC like me, then you too probably have tons of dried beans and not sure what to do with them. I can only cook so much with beans. I have never been a fan of them myself, and my kids seem to be following in my footsteps. Well, this is one that seems to go over well. It is vegetarian if you either leave the cheese off or get a substitute. I love to make this because I typically have everything in the house already and it's super easy to put together. I call it my hippie dinner, but I think that you could really impress anyone with it.

INGREDIENTS:
2 quarts water
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown
rice
1 cup dry split peas
1 cup chopped fresh
mushrooms (you could probably use canned)
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced
tomatoes, undrained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup shredded Cheddar
cheese
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large saucepan, bring water, rice and peas to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. In a skillet, saute the mushrooms, celery, carrots, onion and garlic in oil until vegetables are tender. Combine the vegetables, rice mixture, tomatoes and seasonings.
3. Transfer to a greased 2-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted.

The carrots, celery, mushrooms, and garlic being sauted.

I add the seasonings and tomatoes to the veggie mix to make it easier.

The rice and peas before being mixed. Yes, you do see some white rice. I ran out of brown and still needed a 1/2 cup.

All mixed in the casserole dish and ready for the oven.

The finished product. Look at that cheesy goodness!

Please let me know if you try it and like it! Thanks!

A picture update

Wow, I'm on a role today! 3 posts and I'm planning one more about a yummy recipe. We have been super busy these last few weeks. We went to a Beer Night party with the mom's group, had a mom's shopping and lunch day, I got to go out with my friends for dinner and a drink, we had a Dr. Suess birthday party, and a whole bunch more.

The kids at the beer party. They all got on a computer chair and watched Baby Einstein.

D wearing mommy's heels

The moms on our shopping trip.

My biking kids. Can you tell we are ready for spring?

And now my firefighters in no pants. Cause that's how we put out fires, what about you?

A question for all you moms of more than 1 child?

Alright I have a question. When you mommies of more than 1 child go shopping and need to put the kids and bags in the car. How do you do it? I typically have both children belted into the stroller or the shopping cart. When I get to the car I put one kid in while the other is still belted in, with the stroller or cart pushed close to the back of the car, out of the way of traffic. Once the first kid is in, then I put the other kid in. After both kids are in I finally put the bags in and either put the stroller back in the trunk or put the cart back in it's place.

Now I ask because I swear that everytime I'm out with the kids woman walk by and give me dirty looks. Not once has that person asked if I need help! If it offends you that much, then help me! How else am I suppose to get to kids and all the bags in?

Any suggestions?

FREE TEA!

There is this new tea company out there and they are trying
to get the word out about their yummy teas so if you register
with them they will send out a free tea sample every 2 weeks.
I just signed up because I can't turn down free stuff and
I can't turn down tea either!  Plus a neat bonus is
every order to Tropical Tea Co. helps give a person in
Africa 1 year worth of clean drinking water.
Want more info, well here is their blog and the website.  

A D side note.

I had a Tastefully simple party on Thursday night and some of our friends from out of town were able to make it. The husband's name is Gregg. Well he headed upstairs to hang out with Adam and the kids. D is still very shy around him at first but usually warms up to him pretty quickly. Adam told me later that because she couldn't say Gregg she started to call him "cake"! I think that's pretty clever. And I guess he got a kick out of it too. D is just too cute!

What???

Okay, I know I have been a bad blogger this last week. So much to do, so little time for much else. Plus I keep coming up with these brilliant ideas to blog about and I'm an never near a computer in time to put them down. But, last Sunday the kids and I were heading back to Valparaiso to see my best friend Stacey and her new baby. I was traveling on 80/94 going west bound and a little snow started to come down. As I was getting further into Michigan City it was getting worse. Cars were slipping off the road everywhere, the accidents were getting crazy! It was a messy. I noticed that a car had slid off the road and down the embankment and was hidden in the very tall grass along the way. So I grabbed my phone and called 411 to get a hold of the state police. I felt I needed to because the car was very hard to see and I just had a vision of that person being stuck down there for days (like all the news stories that we hear). The operator comes on and asks for the city and state. I tell her that I need the Indiana state police to report an accident. She tells me that I need to be more specific because there are many Indiana state police numbers. Fine, I tell her that I just passed the Michigan City exit, heading to the Valparaiso exit, and that the car was under Brown rd. She mumbles something and then sends me the number. I stay connected and it goes ahead and calls for me. The person on the other line picks up and I give them tons of details. And the person on the other line asks me if I'm trying to contact the police. I say of course, and she then tells me that I called the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Now come on! How did the stupid operator confuse the police with the DNR! That is just retarded, I'm sorry! The nice person on the phone through the DNR asks me if she could call the police for me, so I give her all the details and she calls them. By the time I was done with all that it actually made me question if I should have even tried! But in the long run, I'm glad that I did. Who knows what could have happened to that person down in that ditch if I hadn't. They may have been fine, they may not have.