So-Easy Comfort Food Dinner

Today with gusty winds and rain drizzling down, it wad a comfort food kind if day. What says warm and cozy better than a vat of chili and some cornbread?!

If you're opposed to canned goods, feel free to sub in beans that you've soaked overnight. Today I used black and garbanzo beans; two cans of garbanzo, four of black and two cabs of diced tomatoes. Dump 'em all in a slow cooker (I have a large oval), drinking the juices of the garbanzo beans.

As I layer in the beans, I add about a palmful of chili powder, a healthy sprinkling of cumin and about a teaspoon of salt. You could also use a pouch of chili seasoning. This is great on it's own, served with Greek yogurt and shredded cheese or whatever you like on chili. However, my carnivorous J has requested meat in his chili so I also browner a pound if lean ground turkey, seasoned with chili powder, cumin, salt pepper and about a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Stir it all together and let 'er rip in the crock pot all day.

About a half hour before serving I made Mark Bittman's skillet cornbread, using liquid egg whites and maple syrup in place of sugar.

My Funny Valentines

Greeting the day with a kiss

Valentine Party Fun!

They sent home a class list in pictures, so you cut out the picture and attached it to the valentine so it was easy for the kids to hand them out without reading the name of who they were for. Great idea!

And They Called It....Puppy Love

Not a very willing subject...but that's nothing new for the boys in my life :)

Bubblegum,Bubblegum in a Dish

Swimming Lessons!

Henry started new swim lessons at the Y. It's our first after-school activity and he was night and day from his attention span in Massachusetts when we attempted swim lessons. I was looking at our pictures from before and he's gotten so big! When he was not quite three we did the mommy and me lessons...pardon the Grimace double, Charlie was just a week from making his appearance!

Moose on the Loose!

A mama moose and two of her babes in the lot next to ours (that's the corner of our fence.

Then they ambled over to the neighbor's yard

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She's a big 'un!

He's been in the military all along, but it feels so much more official now

Horseshoe Prairie

We took Charlie up while Henry was in school one day...this is about as happy as he got. Needless to say, he doesn't have quite the affinity for cold or snow as does Henry. We'll definitely be investing in a trailer for future years until he's ready to go it alone.

It wsa a super cold and windy day!

Like my ski jacket from 1997? Preeeetty sweet!

Jared took Henry snow-shoeing by himself and they had a great time!

They brought the sled and Henry had so much fun going up and down, up and down, up and down

If you look closely, you can see that even his eyelashes are caked in snow. He faceplanted at the bottom of the hill and was very flustered when he told me about it. I asked if his daddy helped him back up, and he said 'Of course he didn't! He waited at the top for me!' Ha...oh, the differences between a mom and a dad.

Brody was such a good sport, he let all of my boys romp around with him. Dailey was in heaven!

Dailey loved the kisses from Jessie (and the carrots she was holding in her hands)

Bridge spent a fun night at the nail salon...I mean, my house

And at the end of the weekend filled with cousins and fun, Henry was very excited to welcome his Daddy home

The boys love to take a bath in our big tub!

Daddy gave them mohawks the other night...it's the little things that make them happy :)

Henry at Family Math Night. Ms Reiter, his teacher, is right across from him.

Playing a fun dice/counting game.

Our dresser came with a mirror, so I detached it and put it in the nook...along with our growing plate collection

I found this little bird plate on etsy. I love that it's a clock as well!