Breakfast Burritos

My friend, Krista, has the most fabulous cookbook around.  It's always my go-to when I'm bringing someone a meal because her recipes are tried, true, and family-friendly.  She's from a small town in Georgia and I just think everything must taste better there :)

This breakfast burrito recipe (obviously... I've written all over it!) has been a favorite in our family for YEARS.  I've made them for several breakfast birthday parties.  I've also made a bunch at a time and frozen them for just our family.  I'm making some this morning for a friend who just brought a little bundle of sweetness home from Ethiopia.  She has three other hungry kids who are not babies and I thought maybe she would enjoy a couple mornings off from cooking breakfast.

You begin by browning sausage, and then adding frozen hash browns.  When it's done, it looks like this.

Then, you crack lots of eggs.  Keep in mind I'm making a quadruple batch here.  You don't have to make a million breakfast burritos if you don't want to.  You can just make a few :)

Scramble the eggs, and add some salt and pepper.  

Do you have these from Trader Joes.  Just $1.99 each and I keep them by my stove... love them.

Then add the eggs to the sausage-potato mix.  Here is the progression of how it will look.  Stir often so your eggs don't get all crusty.  Who likes crusty eggs, raise your hand... I would guess no one.

About half way done.

This is done.

I've grated some cheese.  I prefer to grate my own cheese.  It just tastes so much better than the pre-grated kind.

If you're going to go to all the trouble of making your own breakfast burritos, PLEASE buy good tortillas.  These are from Central Market, but other places sell good tortillas too.  Rosas and Taco Cabana are two of my favorite places to get them because you don't have to get out of your car.  Sometimes that's really important to me.  Plus, as an added bonus, you can ask for a side of salsa to go with your breakfast burritos for FREE.  And I love free.

Then comes the assembly.  I love assembly because I love to do monotonous things.

Roll them up.  Make them pretty if you want to.  I didn't have any purple washi tape for sweet baby Violet, so orange and yellow had to do.

I put the salsa on the side, again, just to keep it family friendly.  Not all of my kids like salsa.

Have you ever had this salsa from TJ's?  It's amazing.  The only salsa from a jar I like.

All ready for delivery!

You can eat them fresh or put them in the freezer to pull out later.  I take them out the night before I'm going to eat them and stick them in the fridge.  They microwave a little better that way.

The recipe is on the first photo.  I think you can read it pretty well there.  You could also make a healthy version and use veggies instead of sausage.  Enjoy!

Thoughts on Flowers

For everything there is a season.

  We had a lovely, rainy, mild spring here in Texas.

Which makes for gorgeous flowers.  I walked around our yard with my camera one evening to take pictures of the color.  The result of a mild spring with lots of rain.

I've been reading Streams in the Desert lately.  It's been tucked away for quite some time, but I dug it out, needing to hear that "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."  Genesis 41:52.

I have to be careful, because I can let my heart be so very ungrateful.  And even a little bitter.  And a lot jealous.  These have always been my struggles, but especially when there's something out there I want that I can't have.

I want the outcome of my difficulties to look like these pictures, not dried up branches with nothing left to give. 

These flowers are tangible evidence that rain can bring flowers.

I'm thankful that God has me.  And those things that I want... He would give them to me if it were for my good.  

Maybe His answer is wait.  Maybe it's no.  I'm not sure at this point.

But for everything there is a season.

And I want more than anything for the result of this season in my life to be fruit... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

I'll end this with words from one of my favorite hymns.  We sang an arrangement of this in the choir when I was in college.  The words meant something different to me then than they do now.  I think it will always be one of my favorites.

1. O Love that wilt not let me go,
   I rest my weary soul in thee;
   I give thee back the life I owe,
   That in thine ocean depths its flow
   May richer, fuller be.
2. O light that foll’west all my way,
   I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
   My heart restores its borrowed ray,
   That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
   May brighter, fairer be.
3. O Joy that seekest me through pain,
   I cannot close my heart to thee;
   I trace the rainbow through the rain,
   And feel the promise is not vain,
   That morn shall tearless be.
4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
   I dare not ask to fly from thee;
   I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
   And from the ground there blossoms red
   Life that shall endless be.

Photo Organization

 I've always had a thing for pictures.  It makes me feel a little out of control when I get too behind on photo albums.  I was around for the days when we didn't have digital photography.  I got my first digital camera in 2005, and since I started motherhood printing out 4x6 pictures, that is what I'm continuing to do now.  I've gone through stages of scrapbooking, but once Samuel came, that was all out the window.  I just wanted to keep up, so I went to just taking pictures, editing them, and printing them off.  It's still a time-consuming task.  But it's doable for me, even in this crazy life stage I'm in.  I don't have nap times anymore.  We are gone most evenings playing sports.  I'm with my kids all day every day, (and I love it!) but it doesn't allow for hours and hours for album making.  One year I did do a Shutterfly album with a year's worth of pictures, but it took a really, really long time.  I loved how it turned out, but it took HOURS and HOURS and I haven't been dedicated enough to do it since.

So here's what I do now...  

I edit my pictures about every month.  I organize them in folders by month on Aperture.

Then about once twice a year, I upload them to Shuttefly, and order the ones that I want in the album.  I always have about twice as many on my computer as I really want to order.  This process takes about an evening or two in front of the computer.  

After they arrive, I make sure they're in order and put them in a book while I watch a movie.

And then I'm done.
That's my favorite part, because then I can cross it off my list.

I would love to be able to be more creative than that.  But for right now, this is all I can keep up with.

You can see in these pictures that I buy regular scrapbook albums and the refill pages that accommodate 6 pictures per page, or 12 pictures if you count the back and the front.  I like this way better than the regular albums that are pre-made because then if I have an 8x10 or a random team photo I want to stick in there with the others, I can still do that by using a scrapbook page.  

Or I can do a few "scrapbook-type" things if I want to, like I did here for Joseph's birth.  I can't believe this was over SIX years ago.  It really does feel like yesterday.

My kids LOVE to look through them.  I pulled them out recently and Nathan just stared at the pictures from when he was born.  He stared for days and couldn't quite figure out why he was born naked.  It was hilarious. 

I'm only sharing this with you because I think there are so many cool things on blogs and pinterest to do with pictures that I wish I had the energy to do.  And I hope to one day be able to branch out and do more creative books and such.  But for now, this works, and it's easy, and it's fairly cheap as well.

What do you do with all those pictures on your computer?  I'm curious to know :)

The only other thing I started doing was an Instagram book.  You can read about that here.
I'm pretty proud of myself because I just finished my 2012 Instagram book.  I have "issues" completing projects these days, so the fact that I finished my 2012 book BEFORE 2013 starts is kind of a big deal ;)

Five on the 5th {June & July}

June on our "trip" to Dallas

Can you tell this picture was taken in the morning?  The morning of Asher's 10th (sniff, sniff) birthday. They were all showing their love for him :)

Lots O Crazy

{This photo has nothing to do with this post, but when I saw this in the backyard, it made me laugh out loud.  It seemed to summarized my life at the moment.  A touch of whimsy everywhere.}

Summer.  

We always think it will be filled with blank spaces on the calendar.

And there are more blank spaces, but at the same time, we try to fill in those spaces with more fun stuff than during the school year.  Because it's summer, after all, and we're supposed to spending long hours at the pool and going to Quick Trip to get 69 cent slushes and staying up late watching movies and lounging around in our PJ's until late morning.

So between trying to mesh all the fun in with the stuff we need to get done (like finish up school, continue in piano, finish up baseball, trips to the doctor, dentist and the like), is it okay to say that I'm tired?

When does MY summer start? :)

I'm not complaining.  I love my life.  These ages with my kids are downright perfect.  But it's flying by at record speed.  And I'm trying my hardest to stop, look around, and savor it.

Happy July 4th, everyone!

A Day In Dallas

The other day I had to make a trip to Dallas, so we decided to make a day of it.  I had to check out some fabric from Restoration Hardware.  So we got that errand out of the way first.  The boys were good and sat quietly for about 20 minutes while I did what I needed to do.  Then we walked up and down Knox Street.  They have an adorable toy store there and the boys had fun browsing there while I drank my iced coffee.

As a side note, they did not sit on this couch quietly for 20 minutes.  That would have been a disaster.  I had them all sitting in individual chairs so they couldn't touch each other.  It's the only strategy that works for me :)

I had planned on taking the boys to the Arboreteum to have a picnic lunch, but didn't anticipate it costing as much as it did.  So instead we opted for a little walk around White Rock Lake.  I'm not even sure where we were, but it was cool to walk around.

I can't believe how big they all are now.

We ate our lunch and just hung out.  The boys made up some game on these bricks.  Something about not stepping on the engraved bricks. 

Asher's signature smile stance.

Couldn't get a good smile out of Jopie.

He was feeling a little too cool for me that day too.

He got a haircut soon after this, but I kinda like when it hangs in his face.

Graham is learning to smile with his new braces.  He got a hair cut right after this picture too.

Joseph likes to mismatch his socks these days.  I keep the socks in a clothes basket and the boys have to sort through to find a pair.  It isn't that hard to find a pair that matches, but he doesn't like to be bothered with those kinds of details.  He usually chooses socks of different lengths, and it makes me laugh.

It was actually a low-stress day.  Those days when it was so hard to get out of the house are pretty much over for us.  There were so many years when I had to juggle between nap times and nursing schedules.  Our "window" where everyone had the potential to be in happy spirits was very small.  Now it is wide open and I'm realizing I need to take advantage of this more than I do.  

Nothing In Particular

I have all these good blogging intentions.  But the days have been so full and the evenings even fuller.  Seems as though every night we are all falling into bed way too late.  

(two little boys super excited about new swim trunks)

(school in the garage just for kicks)

We've started a summer schedule.  Even though we won't finish school until the end of July, we have cut back to the essentials (Math, English, Writing, Spelling, and History) so we can hit the pool in the afternoons in time to make baseball practices in the evening.  I'm trying my best to embrace these days of craziness.  On one hand, I long for a day to myself or to someday maybe complete a project I pinned on Pinterest, or heck, even start a project I pinned.  But mostly, I know that my oldest boys are on the verge of adolescence.  And these days that we traipse around Fort Worth, just the six of us, and they all haven't a care in the world except for maybe what errands we'll run that day, or if we might stop and get a slush on the way home, or how many days we have until we get to go Minnesota, or what time the Rangers are playing tonight.  These innocent days.  I know they won't last forever.  I wish they would, even though it's hectic.  I love nothing more than when we're all together, doing nothing in particular. 

(errands with the boys)

It's Friday.  What are you doing this weekend?  We've got baseball and such.  And going to dinner at a friend's house.  And church.  And I can only hope for some down time, too!  But if not, there's a season for everything, right?  And I guess this is just not my season to get anything done.

(I'm sorry to say it out loud, but there's not much cuter than this)...

... except, of course, your child in your opinion :)

Happy weekend!