Monday, August 15, 2011

Kitchen Appliances...

Since we rent that means I don't get to buy any new kitchen appliances. Most of you will probably think who cares about stuff like that, but it is a big deal if you spend most of your day in the kitchen! Some people dream of being rich and famous, or climbing the corporate ladder, I dream of having a huge sunny kitchen, I already have many cute mouths to feed! LOL!

So now I keep a folder full of my "dream kitchen". It includes links to websites, cut out pictures from magazines, or even just names of cool appliances and wants that come across my mind! Here is one of my favorite places to look and dream about stoves!

I would LOVE to have the LG Double Oven Electric Range, a double oven, AHHHHHH, only in my dreams :-)



Vicky

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Back to School...

Yesterday has got to go down as one of the hardest moments of my life as a Mother. Having to leave my crying 5 year old in the arms of another person while he was saying he wanted his Mommy! It was the first day of school and it was very, very hard! Yes I've been through this now for the 3rd time, but it didn't make it any easier. This was by far the hardest 1st day out of any of the kids. The other big kids didn't cry and yell for me, but little Evan did, it was heart breaking! Walking down the hall I was blabbering like some fool, but I couldn't help it! My child was hurting and it broke my heart! We stayed at the school and my friend that works there went to check on him a couple of times. When I found out he was fine, we left, reluctantly.

I came home and was so upset, even Justin (my 2 yr old) was very upset, but he was just thankful that he didn't get left behind too! He was sad the whole day and when my dh came home from lunch and asked him if he wanted to go to school he just burst out in tears! My husband didn't even get to add on to get the big kids, he just heard the word school and started crying!

But thankfully Evan ended up really liking his first day of Kindergarten! PTL! I'm SOOO relieved! I'm still convinced that it must've been because we were blessed for him to have an amazing teacher this year! In fact, we've been blessed for the third time now since she was also my other two sons K teacher! I just love her to pieces and now I'm even more in awe of her after the way she treated Evan yesterday! I left him in her lap, yes lap, she was holding him just like she would her very own grandson. She even called me yesterday to let me know that after about 15 minutes he was fine and really enjoyed the whole day. So once again, the Lord has blessed us!!

I can't write this without mentioning the older kids, they each went to a new school this year. My oldest started middle school, it's still hard to believe. He really enjoyed it and thought the lunchroom (cafeteria) was just so cool! They play music and have barstools, and that was enough coolness for him, LOL! My other son started 3rd grade and he was lucky enough to have his best friend in his class!

We picked them up and was so relieved and thankful that they each had a great day! We came home and after a snack, we all played outside. I came in and fixed dinner, then talked to Evan some more about his day and then went back outside and I pulled the little kids in their wagon. After baths, I read the little kids 2 books and Evan was out, LOL! He was so tired, he had such a big day!

The big kids finally went to sleep at 9 and somewhere between 9 and 9:30 I fell asleep on the couch watching tv and dh was on the love seat asleep too, LOL! You can tell we're getting old :-) We went to bed and I only got up once to check on the baby and laid back down and slept till 6.

What started out as such a very horrible, upsetting day, ended very good and I'm so thankful for that! I just keep hoping and praying that each day is great for my 3 big kids in school!! Oh and btw, Evan was all smiles this morning! I met his principal in the hallway and she asked how he was and I told her, and she said Mom is all smiles too, and she was so right!!

Vicky

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Healthy eating...

I know you're heard it all, eat this, don't eat that, blah, blah, blah.... You didn't sign up for a blog titled Love From the Oven to get healthy stuff, right?? Stay with me here! I'm going to be trying out and posting new recipes that are not only healthy, but super tasty too!
Not only do I have unwanted pounds to lose, I also have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) that is caused by what I'm eating. Yeah, I bet the Dr. never told you that! But it's very, very true! Almost anything can be traced back to bad eating habits, IBS, allergies, skin disorders, auto-immune diseases, ADD, the list goes on and on! If you don't believe me, just do some research for yourself and you will be amazed!

I was never big on processed stuff before, so gradually going to whole foods really isn't that big of a leap for me, just more time consuming, but my family is certainly worth it!

So who wants to join the band wagon with me? Any takers??

Vicky

Daily things...

Yesterday I was so tired, as I usually am on many occasions and I kept thinking why am I so tired? I'm trying to get healthier, eating better and exercising daily, I guess I'm just pure L-A-Z-Y! I don't really feel lazy and don't get to do anything for myself, so I wrote down everything I did from the time I got up, to the time I passed out that night, LOL! What I read was shocking! I only sat down 4 times the entire day and 3 of those times were to eat! It was crazy and it was a very typical day for me, only difference was I didn't have a baking project to do and I'm usually doing that several times a week! So now I can proudly say, no I'm not lazy, just very busy even though it looks like I don't get a lot done around here, LOL!

When you stay at home and have many small kids around doing housework is like shoveling during a snowstorm, you can never catch up, LOL!

Vicky

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Whole Wheat Honey Oatmeal Bread





I found this yummy bread from one of my most favorite websites, hallee the homemaker, here is the link to it, complete with full color pictures! She always has such nice tutorials on all her stuff :)

http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/2009/08/whole-wheat-honey-oatmeal-bread/

This is almost identical to my new favorite sandwich bread that I posted about a few weeks ago, the main difference is the addition of the eggs in this recipe. I found it to be great tasting and definitely a keeper! If you love bread, you should give this a try for yourself!

To be honest, I had this recipe written down and didn't even know it was from hallee's blog until I went to make her's and I thought, boy does that look familiar and I flipped the paper over and it was from her blog,LOL! What can I say, I write great recipes down in my recipe keeper book and write the original source on the back just in case there's a problem with it so I can go back and look! One of these days I will get completely organized :-)