Lazy, cold weekend

I don't have much to blog about this weekend.  We had a nice relaxing weekend and spent lots of time staying cozy in the house, watching football, and just hanging out together.  Friday night the kids' school put on a family fun night and so we spent the evening there.  The kids had a blast.  They had lots of fun stuff for them to do.  We started out with some fun carnival type games and face painting and then went to the book fair.  Wow!! Let's just say, book fair= not my favorite part.  Not sure why but the kids could not decide on a book.  Once they made their choices we headed down the hall to the gym where they had a giant twister bounce thingy, rock wall, cake walk and of course Butch!  Both kids said that the bounce thing was the best part.  They spent a long time on it.  Matt and I were convinced that the longer we let them bounce the more energy they would burn and BOOM early bed time!  WRONG!!!  When we got home we put the kids to bed and said they could read their new books for a bit.  After about an hour of silence I thought for sure they were asleep when I heard, "mom should we turn the lights of yet" Oh my.  Still awake.  I said, in the very nicest way yes turn off the lights and go to sleep.   Again a period of silence passed and I thought about how lovely and obedient my children are.  Let's just say the story could go on for a while.  In the end the kids were awake until at least 10:30.  Sheesh, this momma was tired and ready for some quiet.  I guess the bounce twister did the opposite of what we had hoped for.  :)
Saturday somehow seems like 4 years ago and I don't really remember what we did!  Matt is working tons these days so he spent the majority of the day working and when he wasn't working we watched football.  And when we weren't watching football I watched some quality Christmas specials. :)  The kids are doing a wonderful job of playing well together and did that most of the day.
Sunday, was church and family time.  We are really enjoying our church.  I joined a ladies bible study this week and am really looking forward to getting into a regular routine of meeting and studying the word.
This afternoon I decided it was time to get organized in the meal planning area.  Most days I am doing the last minute scramble of deciding what is for dinner and it just makes for unhealthy choices and chaos in general.  First I asked Matt and the kids what their two favorite dinner meals are and got the regular answers.  Spaghetti, lasagna, potato soup and a family favorite runzas.  Those were great ideas but I am always wanting to add new options to the list so I went online to look for some crock pot meals.  I quickly found a recipe for meatballs with country gravy.  Now, if you have ever read this blog you know how Matt loves his gravy.  Side note: we once spent the better part of a 40 minute drive discussing the hierarchy of gravy!  He is passionate about it folks, so when the recipe called for a packet of gravy mix I knew I was going to have to do some tweaking.    So what did I do?  Called Mom! We came up with a plan.  I had some meatballs in the freezer and got them out and put them on warm in the slow cooker.  I just thought it would be an easy way to get them thawed.  From there I made a roux,
Now, looking back at the roux, I think next time I would bring it too a little bit of a darker color simply for looks.  But since this was my first time rouxing (would you like me to say roux again?) I was being careful not to burn it and stopped possibly a little too early.  Once the ROUX was ready I added some beef stock and brought it to a nice gravy consistency.  I tasted it and thought it was just a little too bland.  ENTER............the newly discovered Golden Mushroom Soup!

I added the soup and warmed it back up.  

Meanwhile, on the burner to the right these bad boys were getting their tan on! 

It seems like I would have perfected the browning of these thinly sliced beauties before now, but I actually think this was the first time we had no burnt ones! YUM

I didn't get a picture of the total finished product but just imagine some nicely browned meat balls atop this pile of goodness.

The final consensus from the family was "not gross, but probably won't make it again"  In looking back at this recipe I see it is a variation of one of Matt's favs.  Good ol' hamburger gravy and potatoes.  I would say it is just as easy as this and I know the family will always be pleased.  

After the success of our lunch in a muffin tin I started to wonder what else could I do to encourage my kids to EAT!!!! Why is it so hard?  Madels actually asked me the other day "why do we HAVE to eat food?"  Oh child what I wouldn't do to have such a problem. :)  Anyhow, I know that my kids love lunchables I don't know why, but I do know that I too loved them as a child.  I think it is the appeal of a nice little portion all set out and ready for your enjoyment.  Who knows, but what I do know is that for some reason when my kids don't finish them I get mad.  It drives me nuts.  It is such a small portion, but I think it is that stinking little candy bar waiting on the side and they just can't handle it.  Soooooo, all that to say, tonight I decided to make Madels her own lunchable.  I have tried in the past and she enjoyed it, but tonight I decided to try just a bit harder.  Step one: I had the deli guy cut the ham super thick to resemble the ham in the lunchable.  Step two: sliced cheese nice and thin, just the way I know she likes it, and three: cut the meat into cute little shapes.   I put them in a little container and am hoping she will be so thrilled that she eats it all!  If so I may go as far a purchasing a bento box for her lunch.  I have seen these before and didn't quite get it but now I do, and if it works then we are SOLD!!! I am pretty sure I won't go as far as these people do but I think there is a lot of fun stuff to be done! Bento Boxes 

Please note that I included a candy bar just to see if she will eat the food with the candy bar sitting there just begging to be eaten.

We are quite excited for Jude to start his bowling team this week!  I am happy for him to get involved in some sort of a group activity.  I didn't think he would pick bowling over basketball but he did and we hope to have lots of fun with it. 

Madels is doing spanish twice a week and has so far learned that 745am comes a lot quicker than she first thought and also lots of numbers.  

Fun times at the King house!  We are getting excited for our trip to Oregon in 10 days!!!!!!!  Yippeeee

See you soon.