Friday, October 31, 2008

Last stop on the insanity train

I'm sitting here, eating a tootsie roll and although we had a FABULOUS time today, I'm so glad that Halloween is officially over. It's been too much, all lumped together and I'm looking forward to some weeks of NOTHINGNESS until we roll through Thanksgiving and straight into Christmas.

Yesterday, I met a friend at the gym to do the track and stairs with, after dropping Morgan off at school. I haven't done cardio quite that intense in a couple of weeks, and I was REALLY feeling it. In fact, after sprinting my last lap, I felt as if I were going to pass out. We were walking laps around the track to cool down and I got that chilled, shaky feeling that I know all too well. Luckily, I just kept breathing deeply and it subsided.

After the gym, Bennett and I came home and I did a few chores and then we went to pick Morgan up from school. The kids came home and had lunch and then went down for naps right on time, since we had planned to go to the park for playgroup after. While they were sleeping, the rain started to fall and playgroup was canceled. I took advantage of the atmosphere, and took a nice long nap, leaving my dirty floors to be mopped at another time. By the time we all woke up, it was nearly time for dinner! We did leftovers for dinner and then I headed off to bible study.

Today was Morgan's parade and party at her school, followed by Trick or Treating tonight, of course. The party was open to siblings, so Bennett tagged along. I was SHOCKED by how well he did. Yeah, he threw a few goldfish on the ground, but that's not something that the five year olds weren't doing. He even played with them when it was "choice time", playing and SHARING at the doll house and chalk board! I was so proud of him! All the true kindergartners seemed to be having a really good time at the party. There were stations for decorating cookies, making spiders, a witch's cackle station, monster hands, fishing for treats (my station) and other cute crafts. The kids had a blast and it was so fun to be able to be there and experience it all with them. :)




After school, we came home and had lunch and then I got to work finishing up the chores I had put off on previous occasions. I worked non-stop until the kids woke up. I'm so glad I did too, because now I won't have that stuff hanging over my head. Pretty soon, it was time to cook dinner. I made a chicken pasta dish (artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, goat cheese, and chicken) with the remaining chicken that I roasted the other night. Lance said again tonight,"you need to always make this with the chicken leftovers!". I think he likes it!

After dinner, the kids got back into their costumes and we took the obligatory cheesy pictures and then took off for trick or treating. We went with our neighbor, who's son went to preschool with Morgan. They did the whole neighborhood and filled their buckets! Bennett hung in there the whole time and was rewarded when he got home with his first Reese's peanut butter cup! He's officially hooked on Halloween!

2 comments:

emily said...

Mmm, dinner sounds delicious, do you have a recipe?

The kids are, as always, adorable. I love their big "CHEESE" faces in the photo of them standing together.

Work in Progress said...

I don't really have a recipe, as it's just something that I threw together. Here's what I did, though. I cooked up some pasta (I think I used a pound - any kind will do) and while it was cooking, I threw some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan and sauteed the mushrooms in that (with some basil, oregano and Italian seasoning) until they were done. Then I threw in some of the chicken that I had roasted the other night, just chopped in about 1/2 inch squares.

I added one can of quartered artichoke hearts, a package of julienne cut sun-dried tomatoes, and a can of sliced black olives. I took some Italian dressing (maybe 3 TBSP or so) and tossed it in there to give it a little liquid mixed it all up and let it heat up.

When the pasta was done, I drained it and put it in a bowl, where I added everything from the sautee pan. Then I took a full container of goat cheese (12 oz?) and added it and about the same amount of Italian dressing to the mix and just kept stirring until the cheese was melted and everything was well mixed.

That's all there is to it!