Notice My New Look?

Notice the new blog header? I worked most of the day on that. It's my "fall" header. I am pleased with the way it came out.

Sorry it's taken me so long to post, but I guess I'm still recovering from Jackson's party weekend. I've been really tired, for some reason. Maybe chasing after a toddler?

It's been so pretty outside lately. We went to Charlie Daniels Park this morning to play. There weren't any kids there at all when we arrived, which is nice, because sometimes I can lose Jackson in the crowd if there's a lot of kids. The place is like a maze. He had a great time there. He's surprisingly good when I tell him it's time to leave. He doesn't cry or anything. He just follows me out. Maybe he wasn't having as much fun as I thought!

Jackson had such a good party for his second birthday. I know he won't remember it one day, but that's why I take so many pictures and scrapbook and blog. He'll always have pictures of from it. He has been playing with all of his toys all week. He carries around the 18-wheeler from the Cars movie that Uncle Darin and Aunt Tonya got him. He tried to sleep with it one night, but it was a night he laid down with me and he wanted to put it up on my pillow so he could lay his head beside it, and that just wasn't going to work. So "Mack" had to rest on the nightstand where he could admire it from afar as he drifted off to sleep!

I actually made a stew last night, which I know is surprising. It was pretty good. Tom thought it was good anyway. We ate it for leftovers today. I got it out of the Southern Living magazine for October. Here it is:

BEEF VEGETABLE STEW

Prep: 15 min.; Cook: 1 hr., 15 min. An extra-large bouillon cube adds more flavor. If you don't have this size, you can use two regular cubes.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (32-oz.) bag frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans, and lima beans)
1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-oz.) can diced Italian-style tomatoes
1 medium-size baking potato, peeled and diced
1 celery rib, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1 extra-large chicken bouillon cube
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preparation
1. Cook meat in hot oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven 6 to 8 minutes or until browned.
2. Stir in frozen mixed vegetables, next 9 ingredients, and 1 1/2 qt. water, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of Dutch oven. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 55 to 60 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

That's pretty funny, huh, me sharing a recipe. Who'd have thunk it? My goal is to make two meals per week, at least, and then work my way up from there. Sounds good in theory.

There's really nothing exciting going on here. I'll try to take some new pictures to share with you the first of the week. We have a play date with Wesley tomorrow morning, so maybe I can get a few good ones of them together.

Come back again real soon!

Sabrina