Friday I’m In Love

Today marks the first full week of summer break and the girls and I are FINALLY starting to settle into our summer routine. Over the last week and a half, I’ve found a few things that we are in LOVE with and I’m so excited to share them with you!

So…let’s get this LOVE going!

~one~

Legos!

These only come out only when the baby is sleeping. And these are the real deal, not the chunky toddler ones that we have had for years. My oldest loves them! She got her first set for her birthday last week and I LOVE watching her play with them. I can actually see her think when she puts them together. She does this cute little thing with her lip when she’s thinking hard and the whole process of following directions, figuring out which pieces go where and actually creating a finished project has her mesmerized.

~two~

I stumbled upon these dry erase boards on one of our Saturday morning trips to Lakeshore Learning for their FREE weekly craft. My almost 4 year old would rather run, jump and twirl than sit down and practice her letters but…she is in LOVE with these boards! She actually sits down and does them all. And I happened to get them on sale for 1/2 price! #momwin!

~three~

I didn’t expect to add this one to my list but here it is… Grammy’s Indoor Playground. The girls went nuts! I actually wished I had brought my book to read because I was just sitting there. All by myself! Best money I ever spent! And we were there for FOUR hours! If you go, make sure to look for a coupon or get some friends together for a group discount.

The girls even read a few books!

~four~

Trotwood Park Splash Pad was my back up plan yesterday because we missed story time at the library. I surprised the girls with this outing and even hid their bathing suits and towels in the car. It’s a great splash pad! Completely fenced in and small enough for you to stay seated and still be able to see them at all times but big enough that they can run and have fun. Oh and it’s FREE for Winter Springs residents! $3 per kid if you’re not. As you can see, the girl LOVED it!

~five~

All the libraries! I cannot stress enough how wonderful the libraries are. It’s air conditioned and they have programs for every age…even the parents. From Lego Building to Mother Goose Stories, it’s the best place for families to hang out and it’s educational too!

Seminole County Libraries

Maitland Public Library

What are you in LOVE with this week?

Menu Monday {Jan 25, 2016}

It’s always good to start the week off with a plan but as we all know, life with children and a husband who was traveling for work, it can get a bit unpredictable and crazy. We never had the on Tuesday because we had more than enough left overs of the Chicken Soup. And I used the white meat from the chicken to make several homemade chicken salad sandwiches…my husband’s favorite lunch! I did make the Mustard Chicken but served it with rice instead of spaghetti squash and a potato…much easier! The Little Big Meal from The Fresh Market was DELICIOUS!! I can’t wait to check out what they will have this week! We ended up eating the The Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joes (the best recipe ever!) Friday AND Saturday night so we saved the Pork Chops for Sunday night. I didn’t have the kids try it because I needed to feed them earlier and I knew we weren’t going to be eating until later. These pork chops NEED to go on a regular rotation because they were OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Homemade Whole Chicken & Veggie Soup

Mustard Chicken, Broccoli & Jasmine Rice

The Fres h Market’s Big Little Meal

The Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joes

Ruhlman’s Twenty Brined & Fried Pork Chops and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

What do you have cooking this week?

Get Uncomfortable {Jan 2016}

Orlando Moms Blog

I was inspired by a fellow Orlando Moms Blog contributor, Tracy, to just choose one word (or words in my case) to “guide and lead me through adventures of uncharted territories.” I chose ‘Get Uncomfortable‘. Click, take a look and see why.

I have been using this phrase, ‘Get Uncomfortable’, every day. I know words are powerful but I never knew repeating this ONE phrase when I was unsure of what to do or what step to take next, would push me in every aspect of my life. From pushing myself on a speed workout or tempo run, to pushing myself in keeping the lines of communication open with my family when all I really want to do is shut down…and sleep.

Last week, my oldest and I had a disagreement. She’s 5 (going on 25) and I’m 43. Both of us love to be right. Most days, I’m the parent and the other days, she thinks she is. It was a rough morning getting out of the house.

My patience was gone. I was wound up a bit tight and she needed more compassion and understanding than I had that morning. All I could think about was getting to school on time. The big kids were acting up in the car kicking the seat in front of them.

I ignored it…for a few minutes. I asked them to stop…a few times. Needless to say, they didn’t. We were at a red light and I turned around with anger in my eyes I said, STOP KICKING. I didn’t yell or raise my voice but there was not an ounce of love in my words.

They stopped. She started crying. Uncontrollably. I screwed up yet once again.

Thankfully, we were around the corner from school. I had to fix this. I couldn’t let her be angry or mad or sad all day at school.

We parked and I jumped in the back of the minivan. She wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t make eye contact or acknowledge my presence. She shut down…completely.

I said all the ‘right’ mother things but she wouldn’t budge. I grabbed her bag and out the car we went. Her teacher at the door said good morning and she didn’t respond. Into the classroom she went…

I drove to the other side of campus to drop off the three year old. All went well and I looked at the time…I had seven minutes before her class was to start. If my heart was aching, what was her heart feeling?!?

Go ‘Get Uncomfortable’ Kate!

I made it to her classroom with four minutes to spare. Unbuckled the baby and ran to her door. I asked her teacher if I could speak with her for just a minute. I walked into the class, she saw me and with the biggest smile on her face said “Mommy!” My heart started beating again, a lump formed in my throat and my eyes started to fill. I can’t remember the last time she called me mommy. Don’t blink. Don’t blink. Not here. Not now.

I walked over to her, got on my knees and gave her all the love I had and squeezed it into one hug. I whispered in her ear that I loved her with all my heart, to have her best day ever and to remember to have fun.

My baby girl was back. The love was in her eyes and and that smile was radiating the room. I don’t know if she was already over it. I don’t know if it was a distant memory for her. We never spoke of it again. All I do know is that I needed to get uncomfortable and make it right. My baby needed to know that I loved her regardless of what had happened.

As I left the classroom and buckled the baby back into the car seat, I blinked and all the tears came pouring out.

I know I’m not the first mom to say this but seriously…

Parenting is the toughest gig I’ve ever had.

How did you ‘Get Uncomfortable’ today?

My New Favorite Kitchen Gadget!

I had a Pampered Chef party a few weeks back to help my best friend raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She is running the Space Coast Half Marathon in a few weeks with Team In Training and when she first told me about this, I volunteered to help her raise some money! I’m all about a good cause, food and a running! The perfect chance to give back since November is all about ‘Giving Thanks’.

I’ve been trying (and I use that word loosely!) to get my eating back on track. My youngest is almost 1.5 years old and I really can’t use the excuse ‘I just had a baby’ anymore. It’s time to combine healthier eating WITH my running. Running alone is not going to get me into better shape.

Breakfast is my most challenging meal. The mornings are CRAZY in this house. Going for a run, showering, and getting myself dressed before the kids wake up is a piece of cake! It’s getting THEM dressed, fed and out the door that is the hard part. Before I know it, we are in the car on the way to school and I haven’t eaten breakfast. Not good. Not good at all.

So…my best friend told me I needed this gadget…aka Microwave Egg Cooker, because everyone has one minute to cook a decent breakfast.

I love my eggs over easy with a runny yolk that is perfect for dipping my toast in. Following the directions for ‘Fried’ Eggs, I added a little butter in each well.

Next up, I melted it in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

I cracked one egg into each well and then pierced it once with a fork.

I covered it with a paper towel and put it in the microwave for a total of 55 seconds.

And voila! Two eggs done in under a minute. And they were delicious!!

This gadget is definitely a keeper! Thank you BFF! You always know what I need! xoxo

Happy Cooking!

Weekly Meal Plan for August 3 – August 9

My mother, sister, nephew and niece were in town visiting this week and I was beyond excited to cook for them. It was a bit trickier than usual because the big kids really didn’t nap but we got it done. It really does take a village to raise a family, doesn’t it?

Malaspine Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Broccoli

Now, my mother had this meatloaf the last time she was in town and she LOVED it! So of course I had to make it again for her. This was a huge hit with everyone, kids included! My mother in law, sister in law and her kids stopped by the next day and I fed them the leftovers. They loved it too! Seriously, if you are looking for a great meatloaf recipe, this is the one.

The kids did not love the broccoli because of all the garlic but us grown ups gobbled it up with no problems! Ha!

Jenn’s Chicken & Veggie Soup

This one was easy to do with the family in town. I chose to make this one on the day that we stayed home. It takes about 2-3 hours in the oven. I have done it in the crock pot as well and it’s good but I really love it in the dutch oven. Best. Comfort. Food. Ever.

Chicken Mozzerella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ahhh….one of my husband’s favorite meals! There were no leftovers this night. Even the kids ate it! I left out the red pepper flakes for the kids but sprinkled them on ours. The red pepper flakes give it a nice kick!

Lasagna Soup

My sister is the one that told me I needed to make this so I knew her and her kids would love it. I was a little worried about my mother though. She loves lasagna but I wasn’t sure she would go for it as a soup. But she was living in my house, under my roof for the week so she had to eat it, right?!?! Hahaha! I’ve always wanted to say that!

I used regular sausage instead of the chicken sausage the recipe calls for. I love all the skinnytaste.com recipes but I tend to fatten them up just a bit. 😉

Mother LOVED the soup! I overheard her tell my daughter that I was a great cook. OMG! I learned from one of the best cooks around!

Desserts:

We put a HUGE dent in the #GoBigOrGoHome birthday cake but we still needed something sweet. I had to make my mother’s favorite banana bread and I also wanted to make something new for them. Cannoli Cake was it! My mother and my sister LOVED it! I should have made that at the beginning of the week because now I have a ton left and they flew back to NJ today.

Cannoli Poke Cake

Banana Bread

What favorite meals do you like to cook when you have family in town?

Enjoy all the recipes!

Happy Cooking!

and Happy Eating!

Katie 🙂

Hey, Plan To Eat users…look me up and let’s swap recipes!

MrsRoemersNest

Weekly Meal Plan for July 27 – July 31

Tilapia with Garlic Roasted Tomatoes & Corn

Jenn’s Chicken Veggie Soup

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

(I must remember to get a picture!)

Honey Balsamic Chicken Breasts & Veggies

And here’s a shopping list for this week’s meals, minus the brisket, burgers and hotdogs. We are having the family over to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday and my husband usually does the shopping and the grilling for the cookouts! Love that man!

I would LOVE to connect with some more Plan To Eat users! Look me up… MrsRoemersNest

Happy Cooking!

Katie 🙂

I Should Have Saved The Template…

Right before my oldest was born, we bought a wall photo collage to hang in the hallway. It was beautiful! But it sat on the floor in the boxes for months collecting dust. It was a project I thought I could do while I was on maternity leave. Ha! Talk about being a naive first time mom. I remember thinking…”I’m going to need to do something since I won’t be working.” Hahahaha. OMG. I’m laughing now as I type this. I won’t let this post go there though. That needs a post all on its own!

My father and step mother came down from New Jersey to meet their newest granddaughter (grandbaby #3- they now have 10 and the oldest is only 6!). While they were here my step mother insisted that my dad hang the pictures for us. I have to be honest, I don’t really think he wanted to. I’m thinking he didn’t want to drill holes in another man’s walls. But I proudly dusted off this template that I bought with all the frames. All you needed to do was pick the design you liked, tape it to the wall, make sure it was level and then drill on all the X’s. Now hang the pictures and VOILA! Easy peasy!

Well, at that time I never in a million years thought we would MOVE! So…I threw it out the template once we were done. Four and a half years later…we moved. Yep. And we LOVED our wall collage. I was determined to get it on the wall in our new house, our forever home. Come to find out, the template is no longer available. WHAT?!? You’ve got to be kidding me. I know I can find it somewhere. Michaels.com. Google. Amazon. Nope. Nope. Nope. No where to be found.

{insert many, many, many curse words here}

Like I said, I was determined to hang this in the new house so I had to find a way to create my own template. I picked up a roll of brown paper from the Home Depot (the girls and I made it a #CampRoemer adventure!) and traced each frame with a sharpie on the paper. I then cut each one out, as accurately as I could and after, I flipped the frame over, placed the cut paper on top and rubbed a crayon on the nifty, little hangers on the frame. This way after I taped them on the wall, I would know where to drill the holes.

Not only did I have to create a new template, I had to add another 16×20 frame so that each child would have their own. That got a little tricky.

I sketched it out the best I could, trying not to let my perfectionism take over but getting very close.

I used painters tape to tape the brown paper to the wall. I have to be honest, this part was awful. I was running out of patience and it was getting late…so sorry for the dark pictures. This was a project I could NOT do with the kids awake. I was measuring and leveling and drinking wine…not a good mix. Ha!

The next morning, I rechecked my measurements and my leveling and gave the go ahead to the husband to start drilling!

We excitedly hung all the pictures and then I remembered…I needed to get 2 more frames! One broke during the move and one was an addition. Oops! Off to Michael’s! And what perfect timing we had! The frames were BOGO! Woohooo!

The B&W pictures of the girls are from February so they will stay but I’ve got to pick out some new ones and replace the original photos in all the other frames. That may take a while! Ha! I’ll be sure to post a new picture once I have all the new photos in and I promise to take a picture in the day time. It didn’t come out ‘perfect’ but it looks great and warms my heart to see my babies!

Do you have any tricks when hanging multiple pictures?? I would love to hear them because I still have a bunch on pictures, frames and art to hang up.

Katie

xoxo

Taking A Chance

(image found on Pinterest)

I was scrolling through pics on Instagram, and stopped when I came across Orlando Moms Blog post. They were looking for new blog contributors. What? Seriously? The post said they wanted local moms who “inspire, encourage, support, inform and simply share this journey of motherhood we’re all navigating together.” I paused, caught my breath and said, “This is the perfect job for me.”

And in the very next thought, all the negative, self destructive thoughts came flooding in. They would never pick you. You aren’t a writer. When would I find time to do this, IF they even picked me. What could I actually contribute??

I shut that voice up and went to sleep. The next morning on my run, it was all I could think of. This was meant for me. I knew. I felt it. But could I actually get the nerve up to apply for it?? That was the million dollar question.

I only had a few days until the deadline to submit the application. I knew that if I let this opportunity pass, I would be more upset than if I applied and didn’t get the job. So…I shoved all those insecurities in a box, duct taped it closed and answered those questions. All that was left to do was hit ‘Submit.’

{Insert Jeopardy music here…..}

It took a while…maybe a few hours. It wasn’t until my sister pretty much yelled at me through text that I went running to the computer, pulled up the application and sent it in.

HOLY CRAP! What did I just do??

A few weeks went by and I hadn’t heard anything. I just assumed the new contributors were chosen and I didn’t receive my “Sorry, try again next time” email. And I was okay with that. I was glad that I took the chance. I didn’t have any regrets.

I was feeding the baby in the car, waiting for the big kids to finish school and I happened to check my email. Low and behold, there it was. I received an email from Orlando Moms Blog but it was asking me to join the team!!! I freaked out. I cried. I was shaking. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it.

My first post for Orlando Moms Blog,”Stock Your Freezer. It will save your sanity. I promise” went live this morning. In it, I give a bunch of simple freezer cooking tips to help make the endless task of feeding the family a bit easier. It saved my sanity and it can save your. Promise.

Happy Cooking!

xoxo

Meal Plan For The Week of April 13th

Meal Plan for the week…

Black Bean Soup & Roasted Broccoli (LOVE this one!!)

Shrimp & Asparagus Stir Fry w Lemon Sauce

(**new one**)

Teriyaki Chicken w Vegetables

(**new one**)

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili

(one to eat & one to freeze!)

Click here for the shopping list!

I’m going to start including the shopping list when I post a meal plan for the week. Right now, I’m just copying & pasting the list Plan To Eat creates for me. This will definitely take a little tweaking to get it just right, so hang in there with me. And please share any comments or suggestions on how to make it easier or more user friendly.

Happy Cooking!

xoxo

Easy, Delicious AND Kid-Friendly!

I tried a new recipe this week… Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili from Pillsbury. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to try this one because it seemed too easy but Tuesday nights my oldest has ballet and it’s way too crazy to try to actually cook something. So, I took a chance on this one.

I love dark meat chicken and when I saw that the recipe called for thighs, I was excited! Most recipes call for chicken breast and I have a tendency to cook them too long causing them to dry out. I bought skinless, boneless thighs and just dumped them in the crock. I didn’t bother cutting them. I was looking for easy, remember? Oh, and I didn’t bother to spray the inside of the crock pot with cooking spray either.

Typically, when I cook a crock pot meal, I never put the beans or corn in until the last hour or so but this recipe had me do it all in the beginning. I was thinking the beans were going to be mush but again, I wasn’t going to be home all day so I really needed something easy. In went the corn and beans! What was the worst that could happen? I would eat mushy beans, curse a bit and never cook it again. A chance I was willing to take.

To my surprise, this meal was beyond delicious! I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. The chicken was juicy and the beans weren’t mushy! I served it over jasmine rice (my absolute favorite!) and with tortilla chips. I fed the girls something different because I really didn’t think they would like this but again to my surprise, they LOVED it! Both of them! They practically ate my whole bowl. Now, I love this one even more….an EASY crock pot recipe and one that the kids LOVE?? Win, win all around! This will definitely be added to my meal plan on a regular basis.

I was thinking I would put in a can of Rotel or some hot sauce (I love a lil’ kick!) next time but since the kids love it, I won’t. I’ll just spice up my bowl. Hmmm….maybe that will keep them out of my bowl! Ha!

Next time, I’m going to make two…one to eat that night and one to freeze. It doesn’t take any extra time and you will be so thankful to have a meal already prepared. I’ll freeze it raw, defrost it the night before I want to cook it and then dump it in the crock. The only thing I won’t put in the freezer bag will be the cheese, sour cream and green onion but everything else will even the beans! 😉

Definitely print this one out or save it to your Plan To Eat and make it next week. I promise you will be surprised at how easy it is to make and how delicious it is. Remember to make two and don’t forget to let me know how it came out and if your family loved it 🙂

Happy Cooking!

Katie

Mrs. Roemer’s Nest

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Mrs. Roemer's Nest

Seated in the front car of that emotional roller coaster otherwise known as motherhood without a seat belt.

parenting

Friday I’m In Love

Menu Monday {Jan 25, 2016}

Get Uncomfortable {Jan 2016}

My New Favorite Kitchen Gadget!

Weekly Meal Plan for August 3 – August 9

Weekly Meal Plan for July 27 – July 31

I Should Have Saved The Template…

Taking A Chance

Meal Plan For The Week of April 13th

Easy, Delicious AND Kid-Friendly!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!

Share the love!