Italian Mini Meat Pies

We had baseball practice for Landon tonight so I threw something together before hand, then just reheated it when we got home. It actually turned out pretty good (3/4 of the family that had it liked it!) So here goes:

Italian Mini Meat Pies
one pound ground turkey (mine already had Italian seasoning in it, if you can't find that, add about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning)
1/2 onion, chopped
butter
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce- your favorite kind
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper (I only added this to about 1/2 of the mix so the kids' wouldn't be spicy. In their words, they don't do spicy.)
a handful of chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup Italian blend cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350.
Saute the onions in about a tablespoon of butter until clear. Turn off heat. Add sauce, meat (raw), 1/2 cup bread crumbs, basil, and red pepper, if using. Scoop mixture evenly into muffin pans. (Mine made about 15)

Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top, and add mushrooms on top as well. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, then check. You want the breadcrumbs to be nice and toasted. Give them a little more time as needed. Once they look nice and crunchy on top, sprinkle with cheese, and pop back in for a few minutes to melt. I also added more fresh basil on mine after cooking.
Enjoy!

Delicious baby!

This child has stolen my heart. I didn't know it would be possible to love a third child like this, but there is apparently a God-given place in a mother's heart for each of her children! Who knew???
I am soaking in every second with her just *in case* this is our last.

Oh and thanks to my friend Ashley for the wonderful pictures!

The Beautiful, Terrible Cross

This song beautifully sums up Good Friday. Please take a moment to listen. (Pause the music at the bottom to be able to hear it, or go directly to YouTube to listen.)

Doing Well

As a stay-at-home mom, I have struggled with feelings of "failing" and being overwhelmed a great deal of the time.

I have really had a hard time putting this into words. As my sweet husband always tells me, I am the one putting the pressure on myself! I recently read a blog post (which I could remember which one) about homeschooling. The author brought to light a thought-provoking fact to me: that as long as there are little children at home all day long, my house will never be perfect! Sounds strange that a stranger made it clear to me.

However, early one morning I had a thought finally come to me concerning WHY I feel this pressure to cook more, clean more, fuss less, teach more, discipline in a better way, have laundry caught up, ..... you get the drift. When I worked OUT of the home, I finished my job at the end of the day and went home. (except when teaching, of course.) But having results there was attainable and noticeable and lasted for at least a few minutes- and right now- I feel as though I am in a constant cycle of re-doing everything I did the last 24 hours! And I know this thought is nothing new... it has been haunting stay-at-home moms forever... But it helped to have it finally formulate in my own mind. I do consider myself somewhat intelliget and probably could have done well in the "outside world" but since I have chosen to walk this path of staying at home with these three (for now!) precious gifts... I need to know that I am doing it well. Because if not, that means my whole parenting life has not been done well.

So what does it mean to "stay-at-home" and do a good job at it? I would love to hear others' thoughts...

Project 365ish

I wanted to do this great project where I took (and posted) pictures every day for a year. This was supposed to give me a few months practice before Baby Girl got here so I would be in the habit of taking daily pictures. I have not done such a great job, but I will post what I have and attempt to carry on! I want to capture some of our day-to-day moments instead of just breaking out the camera at
Christmas, birthdays, etc. I am going to backdate the photos to the date they were actually taken. :)
Today's photo: what our school table looks like most of the time. My kids are addicted to crayons and markers, although they are currently on a marker ban. Landon decorated his nightstand with guns and deer, while Allie colored herself green one day while I was in the bathtub. I knew we were in trouble when I heard her tell Landon, "Look Landon, I'm not white anymore, I'm green!"

Because I don't want to forget

I read recently that women lose brain cells in late pregnancy- well let me tell ya, I believe it! The kids have said some incredibly funny things this week and I can only remember 2 of them! So I will write them down before I forget:

Sunday morning, I asked Landon if he was ready for Kindergarten on Monday. He looked at me in surprise and said, "What? I thought I got off of kindergarten for hunting season!" Oh, what a good Hays he makes!

Monday afternoon we were driving to dinner and Allie was whining. We are trying to get her to tell us in an "unwhiny" voice when something is bothering her. So Ben asked her to tell us her problem. She said immediately, "My pants aren't straight, I don't have a belt on, and you just ran that stop sign!" Oh goodness we laughed and laughed. Which she did not find funny. (on a side note, the stop sign was not run, I guess she expected us to sit there all day!)

Girls' night!

Saturday night I was in the homeland and my sister was nice enough to get together a group of girls from my previous church together to hang out, eat, and talk. We had a fabulous time! My cousin from out-of-state was also able to join us. I miss these ladies!