Better in Bulk - Family photographer with a large family

I Used to Have a Beautiful Belly. Now I Have Beautiful Kids.

Lolli — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:41:04 +0000

Reality after 5 kids…

Yesterday I stumbled upon a post on Babble, written by my friend Casey Mullins (aka Moosh in Indy) on what postpartum bellies REALLY look like.

The photos of other mothers inspired me, and although I am 6 1/2 YEARS postpartum my stomach still does, and always will, bear the scars of childbirth times five.

There is so much I could say. I could talk about my diastasis recti. I could mention my mom’s similar struggle and her years of exercise. I could whine about the fact that my body doesn’t look like it used to.

My stomach, though, is something I am proud of. Like my friend, Elizabeth (aka Party Planning Professor), I am embracing my wrinkles and sags as battle scars, signs of the miracle of these 5 children who call me Mom.

“You know how in Cars 2…..Mater refuses to have his dents fixed because they are proof of adventures he had with McQueen? Well, I would say these dents or scars are ones you had with your best friend too? And I think that is beautiful and awesome.” – Elizabeth

Miracle – Photostory Friday/Give Me Your Best Shot

Lolli — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:39:08 +0000

Note: These pictures are just cool shots I took at the park this week. AJ grabbed my hand and pulled me over to a branch that had some pretty cool “carvings” on it. I told him they weren’t carvings, but we did have fun contemplating what they could be (like alien markings!).

But that is not the story I want to tell.

On Wednesday afternoon, I started a load of laundry in the dryer (sound familiar, much?). A little later that night, I sent KitKat down to do some of her laundry.

Before I headed to bed, I checked the laundry and noticed that the dryer was running. I figured that it was one of Kitkat’s loads and went to bed.

The next morning, I was trying to rest for a few more minutes before the 6:30 kid wake-up time, and I had an odd prompting to do another load of laundry. Really, I was motivated by a desire to avoid a tantrum later on by a certain someone who needed clean pants…). As I walked down the stairs, I heard a horrifying noise.

My dryer.

It was still running.

My quick estimate (as I rushed to turn it off) was that the dryer had been running for approximately 14 hours. I opened the door and almost burned my hands.

The clothes inside were too hot to handle with my bare hands, but I got everything out and left the door open to cool it off.

The lint container was overloaded.

I walked away, shaking, realizing how easy it would have been for a fire to start in my basement while we were sleeping. The fire would have gotten quite large before it woke any of us up, sleeping two floors above.

It’s a miracle that it didn’t start a fire. It’s a miracle that we’re all safe, and that my house is still standing.

God was watching over us. He always is.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

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Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

Lolli — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:51:39 +0000

In honor of Chinese New Year, we’ve been trying a few new Chinese style recipes at home, and this Sweet and Sour Chicken was both easy AND delicious. The chicken was incredibly moist, probably because that quick frying locked in all of the juices. Yum!

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Sweet and Sour Chicken

Recipe type: Entree

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 6

The best thing about this recipe is that it uses ingredients I’ve almost always got on hand.

Ingredients

Chicken:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
Sauce:
¾ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
Note: Sauce can be doubled if you like to have extra sauce on the side. Just heat the extra sauce in a small pan over medium heat, stirring often, til thickened.

Instructions

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks.
Dip chicken in egg and then in cornstarch mixed with salt and pepper (to taste).
Fry chicken in a small amount of oil until brown but not cooked through.
Place chicken in a single layer in a baking dish.
Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken. Gently toss to coat.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Gently stir chicken every 15-20 minutes so it is evenly coated with sauce.
Serve over rice.

Recipe modified from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.

I have to add – I threw together some green beans as the chicken was finishing up, and they went beautifully with the meal. I don’t have a traditional recipe for them per se, but here’s how I made them:

Garlic Green beans

Wash and snip the ends off of a bunch of fresh green beans.
Cook beans in a steamer until their color changes to a darker green, but still crispy.
Meanwhile, melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a small saute pan. Add a spoonful of garlic (I think I used about a half tablespoon) and cook for 2 minutes.
Toss green beans in the garlic butter and add pepper and freshly-ground sea salt to taste.

Seriously, an amazing meal.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Birthday Boy – Wordless Wednesday #WW

Lolli — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:35:52 +0000

Twizzler celebrated his 11th birthday on Monday. It’s unbelievable to me that he is so old. I’m guessing that the fact that my third child – and oldest BOY – is so close to middle school and (gasp!) puberty is a sure sign that I am indeed old, too.

Since he wanted to be with his friends during lunch time on his birthday, we made alternate plans for our traditional mom-and-kid-birthday-meal and headed to IHOP for a late breakfast together (he was also determined to NOT miss his before-school math class at the middle school, so I met him after math to take him out to eat).

Oh, and if you’re wondering, this boy can TALK. And talk and talk.

And EAT. He can polish off so much food and I still haven’t figured out where he’s putting it.

PS – want to find out how to make the incredible Reese’s-Oreo-Cream Cheese layered dessert? Did you just salivate when I said that? Oh my goodness, this is a dessert to make for your next party!

For more inspiring photos, check: 5 Minutes for Mom, High Impact Mom, The Bonafide Life, Shanamama, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Mom Blog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Are you playing along with Wordless or Wordful Wednesday today? Link up!
Want to grab my button?

Peanut Butter Cup & Oreo Layered Dessert

Lolli — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:31:15 +0000

We celebrated a birthday in the family this week and decided to make a new recipe instead of the same old birthday cake. My oldest daughter found this dessert on Pinterest (I believe she has even more pins than I do) and we followed the recipe to TasteofHome.com.

We modified it a little – specifically, we made ours in a 9×13 inch pan instead of a square pan so that the layers were thinner. I you like your layers thick, you can always use the 9 in. square dish. It might just make spreading easier. Either way, thin or thick, this is a YUMMY treat.

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Peanut Butter Cup & Oreo Layered Dessert

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Approximately 16 servings

This yummy dessert not only combines some of my favorite flavors (peanut butter and chocolate, Oreos and cream cheese) but it doesn't require any cooking. Brilliant!

Ingredients

24 Oreo cookies, divided
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
1 carton (16 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
15 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped
1 cup cold milk
1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix

Instructions

Crush 16 cookies; toss with the butter. Press into an ungreased 9x13 in. baking dish; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread over crust. (this step was difficult since the crust does not really stick together. I would recommend plopping down small spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture and very gently spreading).
Sprinkle with peanut butter cups.
(I was tempted to stop here because it already looked so good!)
In another large bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix and remaining confectioners' sugar on low speed for 2 minutes Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in remaining whipped topping.
Spread over peanut butter cups.
Crush remaining cookies; sprinkle over the top. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.

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http://betterinbulk.net/2012/01/peanut-butter-cup-oreo-layered-dessert.html

The Best Laundry Tip Ever – Never Lose Another Sock

Lolli — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:47:27 +0000

….And never spend another hour sorting through hundreds of socks, trying to find the match.

I discovered a laundry tip on Pinterest recently that completely changed my life. How I wish that I would have started doing this years ago!

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The idea is simple:

Buy each person in your family a simple mesh lingerie bag (you can get them for just over a dollar at Target).

We decided to make each of our bags unique. Using Sharpie fabric markers (called Stained), each of us decorated their own bag. If you do this, just make sure there’s plenty of newspaper underneath.

The kids loved decorating their bags!

Once the bags are ready, attach a pants hanger to the top (you know all of those hangers you get when you buy kids clothes? We had a ton of them!). Let each person find a place where the bag will be easily accessible. Mine is hanging right behind my bedroom door. AJ’s is hanging on his bunk bed.

Once a week or so, gather all of the mesh bags and zip them up. Throw them in the washer and then in the dryer with a normal load of laundry. When they are dry, each person gets their sock bag back and folds and puts away their week’s worth of clean socks.

No more sorting though to figure out whose are whose. No mismatched pairs. It has been working brilliantly.

Champions for Kids – Our #AbbottCFK Snack Pack

Lolli — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:18:09 +0000

I recently wrote about Abbott Snack Packs – a project that I am involved in this month with Champions for Kids.

Before I set about doing a SIMPLE service project with my kids, I shared these statistics:

Fighting Childhood Hunger:

More than 16 million children under the age of eighteen in the United States are food insecure—unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
Even more heartbreaking is the fact that more than three million children under the age of five are food insecure.
The developing immune systems of young children ages 0 – 5 make them especially vulnerable to nutritional deprivation and as a result, the ability to learn, grow, and fight infections is adversely affected.
While having enough food is important, the nutritional quality of that food is equally important. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents ages 2 – 19 are obese, and 1 of 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese.

(Sources: Feeding America; Center For Disease Control)

How can we help?

There are so many things that we can do to help, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or pricey. It really is easy to help children in need IN YOUR AREA, and I would love to invite you to join me in making a small but REAL difference.

Our Abbott Snack Packs

When the kids were off school last Monday, I took three of them with me to Walmart to shop for our snack packs. My goal was not only to put together some nutritious foods and snacks to donate to children in need in our area, but also to involve my own kids in giving back to people in our community.

Over the years, we have been the recipients of many wonderful gifts, from friends and strangers, and I want my own kids to have the experience of feeling how wonderful it is to GIVE.

Our shopping trip was enjoyable, though I was reminded many times how much more difficult it is to shop with kids than it is to shop without them… Although I was pleased with everything I found and added to my cart, I was never able to find Zone perfect bars, another fabulous Abbott product. (believe me, we did plenty of walking through the store). You can see our entire shopping trip (and all of our detours) on my #AbbottCFK Google + album.

I was able to use a coupon for the PediaSure Sidekicks, which was a huge help, and all this food (which can feed a toddler for quite a while) came in right around $30. Want a coupon for $3.00 off any PediaSure product? I figured I’d share.

In the end, we came home with quite a package to deliver to one of our favorite places, the Parenting Resource Center. I know that Miss Emma will find the perfect friends to share this snack pack with.

Our most important detour

Interestingly, our Walmart shopping trip for snack packs proved to be quite the learning experience. As I was standing with 3 of my kids looking at items to add to our cart, a woman walked up to us. She claimed that she was really sick and had come to Walmart to get medicine, leaving her 4 children at home, but her car had run out of gas. All she had was 60 cents. She asked to borrow some money, swearing that she would return it (though I’m not sure how that would work).

I only had a $20 in my purse, but I felt like I should help her, more for my kids’ sake than hers (yes, I have heard plenty of stories like hers and take them with a grain of salt). We trudged through the store, all four of us following our new friend, to find somewhere that we could break a $20. Surprisingly, the only way we could make change was to buy a soda at McDonalds (so she got a soda from us as well as some cash).

I don’t know what she ended up doing with the money that we gave her, and even my young kids were suspicious of her intentions, but she taught us a powerful lesson that day: Sometimes we don’t know the specific needs of our neighbors, but even a simple snack pack or a little bit of change can make a difference to someone.

Check out the ideas for Simple Service Projects at Champions for Kids. What will you pledge to do?

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #cbias. All opinions are my own.

Bertolli Meal Soups – A Fancy Dinner at Home in 30 Minutes

Lolli — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:51:44 +0000

I go through waves. Sometimes I love to cook nice dinners (I really am a good cook, I promise). But other times (the last few months, especially) I don’t want to be bothered to spend two hours in the kitchen getting dinner ready. My biggest problem lately is my lack of planning. I hardly even think about dinner until 5:00, when it’s really too late to make anything nice. Some days I don’t even get home from driving kids to and from practices until after 5:00.

I’m sure a few of you could relate to my predicament.

Eating dinner together is important for my family, and we make it around the dinner table together every night (we rarely miss). However, the hour or two before dinner tend to be the thorn in my side, always causing me grief. There is always something pulling for my attention.

Quick Tips to make the most of your family dinner time:

Plan ahead. There’s nothing worse than realizing that it’s 5:30 and there’s nothing planned for dinner.

Have a list of simple-to-prepare meal stand-bys. Years ago, I wrote down a list of a dozen meals that my whole family enjoyed using ingredients that I almost always have on hand. That list has been a life-saver!

Make dinner time a time to be together no matter what is on the table. Even when we have a mac-n-cheese or sandwich night, we eat together. It’s that important!

Bertolli “Make a Weeknight Meal Special” Challenge

This past week I was challenged to not only try the new Bertolli Meal Soups, but to make our meal into a special, stand-out dinner night. And the catch? We only had an hour to make our meal.

I headed out to the store and picked up salad fixings, some Italian bread, milk (because we’re always out of milk), and three bags of Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken and started my clock. When I got home, before unloading all bags, I put the soup in a pot. All I had to do was add water (one cup per bag).

While the soup was heating, I prepped the other parts of the meal. I set Necco on the salad duty, and I got the table ready. I used a fancy table cover and center piece and the kids started asking me what was going on (you won’t see me pull out decorations very often. We hardly use center pieces for holiday meals…). They really gave me the strange looks when I put fancy cellophane in their cups.

“We don’t have to keep these in here while we drink, do we, Mom??”

The last thing I prepped was the garlic bread. Just a few minutes under the broiler and it was breaded perfection!

In less than 30 minutes from the time I came home from the store, we had a fancy-for-us meal all ready. The kitchen smelled amazing already, but the kids even lit some candles for the occasion.

Ambiance was set, food was ready, table was set with our mismatched bowls and cups….and it was time to try out the soup.

As we were getting the table ready, CandyMan made a comment that made me laugh:

“The only food that is better frozen is ice cream.”

He was skeptical at first, I admit, but he LOVED the Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken soup. I think I saw him take thirds. I also loved the soup – the chicken and tortellini tasted fresh and the tomato bisque had the perfect blend of spices and flavors.

Honestly, I can’t wait to have it again for lunch tomorrow, and I will definitely be keeping some Bertolli soup in my freezer for those nights when I don’t feel like cooking or don’t have enough time after running kids to practices to spend much time preparing dinner.

What are your best tips for making dinner when you don’t have much time? Is family dinner time important for your family? Share your meal time tips on twitter with the hashtag #BertolliMealSoup.

About Bertolli Meals Soups:

Bertolli® Frozen Meal Soups are hearty and fresh-tasting with vegetables, meats, pasta and herbs individually flash frozen at the peak of freshness.

Bertolli® Frozen Meal Soups are available in the frozen aisle, and can be prepared on your stove top in minutes.

With robust flavors and rich textures, new Bertolli® Frozen Meal Soups are available in four varieties: Chicken Minestrone, Roasted Chicken & Rotini Pasta, Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken, and Tuscan-Style Beef with Vegetables.

Connect with Bertolli on Facebook and Twitter and with the hashtag #BertolliMealSoup.

Bertolli compensated me to participate in the Make a Weeknight Meal Special Challenge but as always thoughts and opinions are my own. If you don’t believe me, believe my skeptical husband who doesn’t usually like frozen foods – it’s really good stuff!

Project 365 {Week 4} I Have a New Nephew!

Lolli — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:17:29 +0000

The most exciting thing that happened since my last Project 365 update was the birth of my newest nephew on the 26th, so I had to include a picture of my brother with his two boys in my 365 weekly round-up. I am so thrilled for their family!

Also…I’m pretty proud of my Valentine’s inspired mini pizzas. Are those cute or what?

{Photos taken on my MyTouch phone}

Are you participating in a Project 365 (really a project 366 this year…) like me? Share your pictures in the comments. I’d love to follow you!

Oh, It’s Winter? {Photostory Friday/Give Me Your Best Shot}

Lolli — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:59:18 +0000

This winter has been odd, to say the least. We’ve had snow three times so far, and none has lasted longer than a day and a half. So I didn’t complain about this week’s snow quite as much as I normally would in January. This week, our snow storm brought out one of my favorite birds – one I rarely see in this area…

Sadly, another, less pretty creature has been lurking around a little more lately as well. And, this pest is inside my house, crawling over everything.

I was curious to learn on twitter the other day that stink bugs have not invaded the entire United States. Are they in your area?

PS – I am still sick and SO tired of coughing!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli