Asian Pot Roast

I found this recipe in a magazine recently and we tried it last night! It was yummy!

Asian Pot Roast

1 3-pound roast
1 chopped onion
3 carrots, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
6 oz shiitake mushrooms (no mushroom lovers here, so I made it without)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 piece fresh ginger, minced
2 (28 ounce) cans whole tomated, undrained
1 cup water
2 T oyster sauce (found in the Asian food aisle)
1\2 t salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1\2 t Chinese five-spice powder (found this at Smith's in their Asian food aisle. WM did not have it.)

In a skillet or frying pan, cook meat in oil until both sides are brown. Put in slow cooker. Add all ingredients, mixing to cover meat. Cook on high 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. I served it with rice and it was delicious.

Birds, birds, birds

Making water color pictures of birds. I found a series of books I want really bad. But, I found them online and each set it nearly $200 and there are like 12 sets. So, guess I'll just check them out at the library for now...... :)

Our works of art. Mine is the top and Sasha's are the other two. We are such great artists, aren't we!

Making bird feeders. Pine cones, smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed.

We hung them out in our trees outside and are patiently waiting for some birdies to come nibble....

Broken dryers are DUMB...

My dryer stopped being hot this week. I did all the "checks" to see if it was the breaker, the vent, the coil and nope, it was none of the above. It was the heating element. We took the dryer apart and I went to the Dick Kearsley Service Center twice this week to get parts.......

Here is the back of the heating element that we were told needed to be reconnected the exact same way.......so I took a picture of it so we could get it right. We felt good that we fixed it ourselves and did not have to pay $200 to have them come and fix it. It took all week, and boy, oh boy do I have a pile of dirty laundry to catch up on. But, I am sooooo glad it is fixed and it only cost us about $70. Yay! Good job, Will! :)

Here I go again....

We went to Quilted Bear last weekend because Will has one by his office and he needed to do a bit of work on Saturday. We tagged along since I knew there was that awesome store close to his office. He dropped Sasha and I off and I saw some cute things I knew I could do myself! They were charging $7.99 for a pillow just like the big ones I made for mere pennies. I got some stinkin' cute reminant fabric from Walmart and put them together, stitched a ribbon on, stuffed them and there ya go. I put them out for Valentines Day. Yay!

I saw a dress like this in a booth there and I loved it! It is so simple to make! It has ribbon for ties and I put a little bit of glue on the ends so it won't fray. I bought the fabric at WM from the reminant rack and paid like $1.00. I love brown. I love pink. I love polka dots.

I tried it on Addie and it is really cute. I think I shall make some more......

Lasagna Soup...

I came across this recipe over the weekend and tweaked it a bit. I made it tonight and it was very good.

1 1\2 pounds sausage (I don't like sausage, so I used hamburger)
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp oregano
1 can tomato paste
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
8 oz pasta of your choice
8 oz ricotta cheese
1\2 grated parmesan cheese (didn't have any, but still was good)
1\4 t salt
pinch of pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella (didn't have any, but still turned out yummy)

Cook hamburger with onions and garlic. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, broth, bay leaves and oregano. Bring to boil and simmer. Add pasta and cook until tender. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, parmesan, salt and the pepper. To serve, place about 1 1\2 ricotta mixture in each bowl, sprinkle with some mozzarella, and ladle the soup on top. Makes about 13 cups.

Yummy soup!

Just thinkin about things...

"When trial are not consequences of our disobedience, they are evidence the Lord feels we are prepared to grow more." --Richard G. Scott



I read this fabulous quote on a blog that belongs to a girl in my ward that just found out her cancer is back. She had it 10 or so years ago, before she had kids and went through chemo and all of that. She had only been married like 2 years at the time! She went on to have 4 darling kids and just found a mass this week and they are pretty sure it is cancer. I have a dear friend from my days at the IHC in Layton and this girl is her brother's wife. I remember her tellling me about her years ago and it 'bout broke my heart. I could not imagine having cancer at such a young age and having it right after you got married! Then, we moved here in June and come to find out, I am in the same ward as this girl. Small world, I know!



Anyway, I found out on Friday that her cancer is back and I have not been able to stop thinking about them and their little family. Their kids are so worried, especially the oldest who is 9, I think. I have been kinda bummed about my own problems and I really feel like I got a kick in the pants and realized that we all have trials and that it is ok. I called the R.S. president and let her know I want to help in any way I can and I sincerely hope I get a chance to serve this sweet family.

I may not have things the exact way I want it, but I truly am thankful for what I do have. I am very blessed and need to remember that each day. Will is so good at counting his blessings and he boosts me up every day. I am so thankful I have him. I know that Heavenly Father gave me to him, and he has taken such good care of me.

I am thankful for all the friends I have and for their trials and testimonies that strengthen me. I was thinking the other day about the ladies I am serving with in Young Womens and two have lost their mother's at a young age, and one lost her husband when she was pregnant with their daughter. Tough stuff. These ladies are wonderful and really inspire me. I love each sister I am serving with.

Anyway, I have had these things on my mind lately....

Did you know that.....

Did you know that.....

1. I just barely took down our outside Christmas lights the other day. I quit plugging them in right after New Year's but it is not quite as holly-jolly to take them down as it is putting them up! It has been cold and snowy and I have just been proctrastinating, big time. I used to wonder why people left theirs up so long after Christmas. Now I know why.

2. I ate chips in the tub the other day. Big naughty, naughty. Put the kids to bed. Filled the tub with hot, hot water. Ate chips. Yummy. Will bought the chips. I don't buy chips very often since I luv them way too much.

3. I finally put the baby boy clothes away from the spare room upstairs. Our son would have been born at the end of December. Sasha and I put out the clothes one summer day right before we lost him. I have not had the desire, or courage, or whatever to put the away, but I decided it was time. Sasha helped me and we both got a bit choked up. She is my little crying buddy. So compassionate and sweet.

4. I made homemade noodles for chicken noodle soup the other day and they were awesome! Yay! Now I don't have to spend too much money on the super thick ones I love!

5. We got approved for health insurance but they increased our rate from the original quote because of my "build". I told the agent, "Oh, because I need to lose weight? Just say 'Lady, you need to lose weight'!" He was trying to say it in a nice way. The sad thing is, I weigh less than I have in a long time and am only 10 pounds away from what I weighed when Will and I got married. That made me sad.....Oh, and it costs like $400 per month, has a huge deductible, so it covers nothing. Self-employed insurance stinks like sulfur. We got turned down by IHC because of me and my crappy history. Bummer.

6. I cleaned the eye boogers from Casey's eyes last night and almost gagged. I can't buh-lieve we have a dog and I am grooming him like I am. He is so cute, though.

7. I need to start reading my "Square Foot Gardening" book NOW so that I can be ready to plant my rockin' garden. I really want a good one this year.....

8. I want to make dresses or skirts for my girlies! I love the fabric at Hobby Lobby! Anyone been there lately!? They have the cutests prints there! Yay!

9. We have someone that is going to lease option our house in North Ogden. Cross your fingers.

10. I have been loving country music lately. I have not listened to it for seriously, like 2 years. Now it is on our blog and I have it playing often. Weird, if you ask me.

Feelin' the love....

We truly are a happy, loving, family.......

I just wanted to post some pictures of our FHE tonight. I am truly blessed to have such well-behaved, loving children that never fight or cry, certainly not while we are conducting family night....................(You know I am totally joking, don't you!!??)



Things started out normal. The usual fight about who was going to say the prayer. Our little assignment chart is not working. They still fight and cry about everything! The prayer, the song, the activity, the treat. Addie HAS to sing "Daddy's Homecoming" every FHE and Seth cries because he does NOT want to sing it. **Sigh** (Sasha's face in this picture is hilarious, wouldn't you say?!!)



We played UNO. A great game that all my kids can play! And it's not Candy Land! Yippee!



Addie won the first round fair and square. She quite likes the whole winning thing. Very fun.

So, Addie won. Seth freaked out and cried. So, I decided to grab the camera and he decided he'd better stop crying since I was totally going to take a picture of him bawling his pretty blue eyes out.

Guess what happened here? Seth won the second game. Needless to say, it was early bedtimes tonight. (Except for Sasha Belle. It was those other two whipper-snappers that hit the hay really early tonight). Will and I put those two to bed, tried to relax and waited for the ringing in our ears to go away.

Goodness gracious. What a circus things are around here. You'd think we have 10 kids or something. Nuts. Totally nuts. Can't wait for next Monday night! LOL.

What's for dinner???

Annie, I like your idea about asking for recipes for dinner on your blog. So, those of you that read my blog, please share your favorite recipes! Here is one I tried tonight and it was a big hit! Yay! That makes me happy when my family likes what I made!

Creamy Tortilla Soup
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans chicken broth
1 can refried beans
2 c shredded, cooked chicken
1 can corn
1 can mild green chiles
Combine and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve topped with shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

(Did you know you can make your own refried beans from pinto beans? I have been doing this and I love it! They taste so much better than canned and way cheaper. I know there are complicated recipes, but I just boil them until they are soft, ad some cumin, minced garlic and some salt to taste. Super easy and a good way to use all those beans in my food storage. I just make a batch and stick it in my freezer, but I think I would like to make some and can it so I can add it to my food storage. Anyone ever done this?)

Ok, now it it your turn! Share, share, share!

Our week....

Some things I did this week... I found these darling decorations at Hobby Lobby this week for the girls' rooms for $2.99 each. I am not sure what they are meant for, but I suspended them from the ceiling and love how they look. They were in the outside decor aisle. I also got a blue dragonfly, and a big yellow daisy for each of them, but am only posting pictures of these. Super cute, if I do say so myself.

I also found a cheap $1.99 letter "R", spray painted it black and hung it by our front door. I like it a lot. Yay.



Casey.......

Then there is the POOCH! He sleeps like this sometimes and it is hilarious. Such a BOY!! We have figured out how to get him to stop yipping all night: put his kennel in our bedroom at night!!! A friend of ours suggested it and it really worked!! The potty training is going.......well.......I don't know what to say. Some days I think he's got it and then the next day he has lots of accidents, so then I think we are back at square one. The kids are having a ball with him and hate to be away from him for too long. If we run an errand, we put him in his kennel so he won't have any accidents (they won't poop or pee where they sleep) and when we get home, they kids run like mad to let him out and give him loves. He is so playful 1st thing in the morning, like 5:30am!! Geez. He really is cute. Such a darling little puffball.

About Homeschooling....

School went well this week. My set of McGuffey readers came, so I was thrilled to not have to borrow anymore. We really spent a lot of time on counting money and telling time. I also had her do at least 2 math worksheets a day, or more if she wanted. I decided I really want to have us all memorize The Articles of Faith, so we are working on the 1st one and I will be having Sasha have them as her handwriting assignment during the week. I found a great book at the library full of winter activities; experiments and such, so we will be doing that in the coming weeks. Our homeschooling friends, the Shingletons, will be joining us once a week for our "winter fun". They are great friends!

This week was the 1st week back after Christmas Break and it was not as hard to focus back on school as I thought it would be. (I'm talking me too, not just Sasha!!). I am however on the hunt for another book to supplement my curriculum. The book I tried, that outlines what she needs to know this year was not as in depth as I would have liked. Live and learn, I guess. Trial and error. I am just glad I have a great network of homeschoolers I can seek guidence from. Anyway, things are going great and I am still glad I have gone this route......just in case you were wondering.....

Memories of Christmas 2008...

*Dancing while Will plays "Jingle Bells" on the piano. The long hall in our house is perfect for running and running down, by the way.

*Making cookies. Delivering cookies. Eating cookies.

*Our 1st annual "Rodgers Christmas Party". Can't wait for next year.

*Watching Sasha cry real tears on Christmas Eve as she clutches the present she is begging us to let her open right then. So funny.

*Having Christmas fall on a Thursday was so cool. Will took Christmas Eve off and didn't go back until Monday. Yay!

*Eating more cookies and other junk food.

*Sledding at the ditch.

*Eating more cookies for breakfast and for dinner last night. Sledding again at the ditch.

*Watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and rewinding the part where Snoopy kisses Lucy and she freaks out. We especially love that part now that we have Casey, the pooch.

*Opening presents Christmas morning and letting Addie open mine and Will's since she had already opened all of hers. She loved the ripping of the wrapping paper, apparently.

*Playing with our new pooch, Casey.

*Taking him outside in the blizzard to go potty and having our neighbors that live behind us tease us at church the next day about it. Ha, ha, ha. Laugh it up.

*Taking the green tree skirt off the tree and putting it away a little early since Casey thinks it is grass........you know what he was doing. Bad poochy.

*Having the Mortons over for pizza and games. "Big Boggle is like a college test", said Tyler. Hee hee hee.

*Having the Smiths over the next day for lunch, getting more pizza and playing more games. Outburst and Balderdash are such fun games. Remember that word that means stinky armpits? So funny!!

*Letting the kids hang out in their pj's all day. I can't do that. I just don't have it in me. I must shower each day, get dressed, and slap some makeup on even if I am not leaving the house.

*Taking some time to work on my scrapbooking! I got behind, for me, anyway. I had not scrapbooked since last January! I usually don't get that far behind, but since I am now homeschooling, I was really starting to get behind. So, I set up camp on our huge kitchen island, and scrapbooked for 2 days. I did 72 pages. I counted them up last night! Funny, huh. Will got me a gift card to Hobby Lobby and I restocked my paper and other supplies! Yay!!

*Ringing in the new year in bed, with pillows over my head, while Casey yipped and barked all night despite me taking him out to go potty many times. He wanted to play, I guess. Not happening, pooch. Last night was a rough night. Sheesh.

*Reading the nativity from the scriptures, and pausing to let the kids fill in the blanks.

*Listening to our ward choir sing last Sunday. Amazing! They sounded beautiful!

*Me playing Christmas carols on the piano and begging my kids to come and sing. How come they don't ever want to do that? Sniff, sniff.

*We had a great holiday. But, it is done and now I think I will go take the decorations down today. School starts on Monday and I am in the zone to get homeschoolin' again......