Philadelphia Cooking Cream

Have you heard of these yet,?  Have you tried them?  If you haven't - go to the store and pick one up this weekend.  I had a coupon (yes I use coupons and that is a topic for another blog) so I bought two different ones, original and santa fe.  I made the recipe on the back of the santa fe container the other night and it was delicious - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas!  Justin even liked them, said he would eat them again - and he did last night as left overs.

Each container comes with a recipe on the back as well as a little recipe booklet that has a couple additional ones in it.  I am going to try Chicken Bruschetta Pasta next week.  I will let you know know how it turns out.

I found this to be a very easy weeknight meal that didn't take a lot of prep or cooking time and turned out really good.  I made Spanish rice and refried beans to have along with the enchiladas - yummo!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend - I am off to change a stinky diaper :-)!!!

Is 21 months to young for a toddler bed?

Cloe has always gone to bed with no problem. We can lay her down and with minimal fussing she just lays there and goes to sleep. Well something has changed .... the last two nights when i put her to bed, she just screams and she has figured out how to climb out of her crib. I am afraid she is going to get hurt but i think she's too young for a toddler bed. I don't remember when I transitioned Elijah into a toddler bed - he didn't sleep in it anyway. He hated his room being upstairs by himself .... but that's a totally different story! BTW, he's 13 today - can you believe it?? Any thoughts?

Fabric softener

who uses it - HOW and when do you use it .... what kind do you use?

I have never used fabric softener but I have recently thought that might help some of the laundry issues I am having. With that said, I alway thought it was something that you had to add after the washer ran for a while .... which would NEVER work for me. I put the laundry in and forget about it till later.

thoughts ... recommendations???

Organizing Bills

OK so .... I can't stand having all this paper around - so I am looking for suggestions on how to organizing and store bills.

How do you track, record payment / confirmation numbers so you can reference payments and do you keep the paper documents? I have files of paper bills that i want to get rid of and keep electronically somehow.

I started using Mint.com for my budget - although I haven't had time to really dig into it yet, but I don't think I can log confirmation numbers on payments that come out of my checking account. I can categorize things so i can run reports on utilities, groceries, etc ....

Any thoughts / recommendations??

New Schedule

I have decided that in order to maximize my time and minimize my stress I am going to set a different schedule for myself. Lately when Justin leaves for work - at 4:30 a.m. - i have been going back to bed until about 6:15 a.m. when it's time to get Elijah up for school. I am not really a morning person - OK I am not a morning person at all :-) - so by the time I wake back up the babies are up and things around here get CRAZY. So I have decided that when Justin leaves for work, MY time begins. I am going to take 4:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. for ME - as you can see today I am blogging .... i have been searching for other blogs to become a part of: for moms, weight loss, other things that interest me - any recommendations would be appreciated.

I have not returned many many e-mails to my friends so i might use this time for that - I will also use this time for housework because after all the loading and unloading the dishwasher, endless piles of laundry and baby toys everywhere is what typically puts me in a bad mood when I am working at home during the day.

Now, I am not saying I will never go back to bed after Justin leave :-) but if I do it's OK, because this is now MY TIME!!

The babies have also got a little off schedule so I need to get them back on track. Cloe only naps once a day now - which works out ok because she goes down right after lunch. Blake still takes two naps but it seems like his morning nap has gotten later in the day so his afternoon nap gets pushed back. They use to nap at the same time - right after lunch - which was really nice because then i could get a lot of stuff done or catch up with Justin when he gets home from work. So I am going to start making sure the babies are up by 7:00 a.m. and have breakfast before 8:00 a.m. so Blake will take his morning nap then get up, eat lunch and go back to bed when Cloe is ready to nap.

I am also saying all this when Monday starts a two week travel week for me. The next two weeks are going to be so crazy - I have to leave on Monday for Boston when I will be till Thursday for our national sales meeting. The best part of next week is I will get to spend some time with some of my friends - Lauren I can't wait to spend some time together and catch up, I miss you girl :-) then I leave again Sunday evening for Orlando till Wednesday for HIMSS which is a big hospital IT conference. Typically I would think February in Orlando would be great - I think it's going to be cold there, and I will be inside most of the time. I am looking forward to getting away from the snow - i am REALLY tired of the snow!!

hope everyone has a nice weekend.

stay safe and keep warm!

Valentines Day gift ideas

I don't know why but I find buying gifts for men on Valentines Day very difficult. The first thing that comes to mind is cologne - well that would be easy except my husband has about 50 bottles of cologne so that's not an option.

I am really drawing a blank on this one, anyone have any good ideas?

I figured it out ....

I think I figured out what my problem is. I have been in this funk lately - hence my last posting of winter blues - and I think I have figured out what is wrong. I'M BORED!! Yes, I realize that is a crazy statement considering my schedule is absolutely crazy, but when I look at the different between being busy and having fun, I realize that all it is - my days are full of things that keep my busy but with nothing fun.

My day consists of working (which I am very unmotivated towards right now), changing diapers, feeding and taking care of the babies, picking up toys, making lunch and dinner, laundry, Elijah's activities (which i am going to miss both basketball games this week because of work) .... get my point - busy but not fun!!

I feel like my mind is total mush - when i do get a few minutes to sit down and read the mountain of magazines that have stacked up, I usually either fall asleep reading or my mind is in 1000 places and I can't concentrate on reading an article.

I'm not really looking for advise here - unless you have some - I just needed to vent and get out that I think I have figured out my problem. Now, what do I do about it? How do I turn my busy boring life around so I am enjoying things again?