Turkey Leftovers

Every Thanksgiving, I end up with a dilemma of what to do with all the turkey leftovers.  In years past, I've made sandwiches, and ... well, that's about it. 

This year, I decided to try something else and I wanted something easy.  I found this Campbell's Kitchen Turkey and Stuffing Casserole recipe here, and since I had all the ingredients at home already, I decided to give it a shot.

Here's what came out:

 

Can I just say, cooking American food is waaaay easier than cooking Korean food.  There seems to be less chopping and the overall time spent inside the kitchen is way less because most of the American food I've prepared require baking, which allows me to get other chores done.  With Korean food, I'm constantly watching the soup, dicing, chopping, etc.  But, I can't live without Korean food, so that is my plight in life.

 

So, as most moms know, the real test of whether or not a dish is good or repeat worthy is if your kids eat it.  This is how my kids felt about the casserole:

 

 

I was surprised by their reactions because there was a good amount of vegetables in the casserole.  But, both ate their whole bowl of casserole!  I told my son to show me how much he liked the casserole, and his response was the above picture.  I think he was just hamming it up for the camera.

 

So the turkey casserole was a success and I will be putting this recipe in my go to stash of recipes.  What do you guys do with your turkey leftovers?

 

 

Shop Sale & Update!

Vintage 1960s Corduroy Vest

Vintage 1970s Pink Sheep Sweater

1930s Cotton Batiste Heirloom Dress

1960s Hearts and Floral Calico Dress

1970s Dinosaur Party Overalls

1940s/50s Tribal Print Little Girls Dress

Vintage Wood Abacus

1960s Textbook. My FAVORITE book in the shop right now.  Check it out for description and pictures!

I haven't had many shop updates or sales, but here it is, all in one! Starting today, I'll be listing "new" vintage in the shop daily.  I have many cute overalls, heirloom dresses, puzzles, and more to be listed! I'm actually quite excited to be back to work.  I took a long break from the kids shop to analyze if running two shops and two blogs was realistically doable, and I think it is.  So, expect more!  Also, you can use the above code until tomorrow at midnight, so happy shopping!

Not About the Kids

I know this blog mainly describes my time with my kids, but I need to share that I couldn't do this without my husband.  He works super duper hard, and then comes home and plays with the kids, bathes them, and puts them down for the night so I can finish up the chores for the day and start working on the shops.

Last night, he brought me chocolates and my favorite- raspberry framboise.

Today, he brought me 3 pieces of See's chocolates from his work that he hid from his coworkers so he could bring them to me. Ha.

Finally, you wouldn't know it just by looking at him because he's so stoic all the time, but he's really funny and he makes me laugh .. alot.

He was being nice and considerate again.  He knew I had a tiring night because I had to put the kids down, so he stopped by Redbox to get me a movie.  I didn't ask him to, but he was just being nice.  This is the conversation that followed...

 

First, he knows how to spell Twilight, but for some odd reason, he spells light as "lite" on text, all the time.  Secondly, he was being sarcastic and he didn't get Prometheus.  Anyhow, it's little things like this that make me realize I really like him.

 

The end.

To Hit or Not to Hit?

No pics in this post.  Just a semi-rant.

I started sending my son to preschool a couple of months ago, and I think I was more nervous than he was on the first day.  Ever since both were born, I have been with them everyday.  To send my son off to be under the care of another person made me quite nervous.  The first couple of weeks were especially hard because there was a boy that would hit and poke my son and Jonah would come home and say things like, "I don't feel like smiling today."  It literally felt like my heart was breaking into a thousand pieces, and it took all of me to teach him to not be violent back. 

That particular boy was asked to leave because the teachers said he was not quite ready and mature enough to attend the class yet.  So, problem solved.

It's a couple of months later and there's another boy in my son's class that has a major hitting problem.  This kid makes the former boy look like an angel.  He hits many kids in class, apparently, and gets put on time-outs several times a day.  He seems to hit my son almost every class.  He also yelled at my daughter to not look at the same bird he was looking at as all of us were waiting outside for the class to open.  The dad did not say anything and I just kept telling my kids to come stand next to me.

Here's what I've done:
1. Talked to the teacher.
2. Told my son to tell him firmly "Stop.  I don't like that."
3. Told my son to tell the teacher if the boy hits him.
4. Don't play with the boy.
5. Play with his friends that don't hit.

The only comfort I have is that my son still enjoys school and doesn't seem affected by the hitting.  The teachers have also told the class to not play with people who hurt them.  Of course they didn't point out any names or students. 

It is taking all of me to not tell my son to go slug the kid.  I know that sounds horrible (or maybe not so bad to some), but my husband and I have discussed it and we don't want to fight violence with violence.  Of course we want our son to defend himself if the situation is that intense, but we'd rather have a son that can verbalize his feelings and walk away from the situation without resorting to violence. 

But, the boy keeps on hitting and all I can do is think of passive aggressive things to say in front of the dad.  But, the dad is aware of the situation so I'm not sure if that will help at all.  Plus, the dad is quite scary looking. I guess I'm just mad.  My son is not mad, but I'm mad that another boy is putting their hands on my son.  I want the boy kicked out like the first boy and I have no idea why he isn't being kicked out. 

I thought of pulling him out of class, which is still an option, but as mentioned above, my son enjoys it and doesn't seem affected.  Besides, I don't want to teach my son to run away from problems.  I want my son to keep standing up to the boy the way we're teaching him to so that if this similar situation were to happen in later years, he'd know how to handle it. 

It's funny because when I was a teacher, I would always excuse the students with behavioral problems because I knew most of their problems stemmed from the home.  But, as a parent, I've forgotten that and I just want to protect my kid.  On the other hand, maybe this is teaching me how to deal with bullies because I have a feeling that my daughter may be one.  She's one tough cookie. :(

Anyhow, what would you guys teach your children in this situation?  No judgement here.  Thanks for reading the rant.

I've Decided...

So, trying to keep up two blogs and two shops caught up to me, and for the last two weeks, I just felt so behind that I didn't even try to keep up with anything.  The more I felt behind, the less I wanted to work.  Very counterproductive.  I thought about dropping this blog entirely because blogging is the hardest for me in regards to my business.  I can clean and mend products, photograph, edit, and list, but blogging always comes last on my to-do list, and because it's last, I end up not doing it because I just run out of time during the day.  Anyone else do that?

Anyhow, after much thinking and trying to figure out how to combine the two visions for my blog, I decided I just couldn't.  I started this blog to focus on being a mother and to force me to take pictures of my kids growing up and to document that.  I thought about just adding this to my original vintage blog, but it just doesn't fit with the direction of that blog either.  That blog focuses on vintage and fashion inspiration, whereas this blog is more of a lifestyle blog that's more mommy friendly.  So, I've decided to keep both, but to not expect myself to update everyday.  If I set myself this lofty goal that I know I can't achieve, I'll just fall into the same rut again.

So, here's a cute update.  I know Halloween was last week, but it was an extremely packed week, so here's my update and I die whenever I see these pictures.  I have no idea when my kids got so big.  Moms, spend time with your children and take lots of pictures of them because it goes by so fast!!

So hard to get them both to look at the camera at the same time! 

She's growing up so fast!!

One of the rare pictures of me, and of course it has to be a weird one where the lighting creates some weird looking growth on my neck.  

So, more blog updates, and even more shop updates!

Mistaken for an Apron

 

 

 

So, this little girl's dress is about to hit the kids shop today, and I had to dedicate a blog post to it.  It's so special , and I wish I could find an adult sized dress with the same design and pattern.  The color is extremely vibrant and the tribal like print near the hem makes it extra unique. 

 

I actually was hunting for vintage at the Long Beach Flea last month, and a vendor had some vintage aprons on display.  I don't actually look through vintage aprons usually, but for some odd reason, I felt inclined to sort through her pile and voila, I found two girl's vintage dresses unlike any other I've seen.  Most little girl's vintage dresses are extremely girly and pretty- ruffles, Peter Pan collar, lace, etc.  The two I found were pretty, but not the usual "girly."  I felt extremely lucky to have stumbled upon those finds, one of them was the above dress.  Have you ever found something looking in unlikely places?

 

The Mundane is Pretty Great

I slacked a tiny bit in updating the kids shop the past week because I wanted to spend more quality time with MY kids.  It seems silly to say because I stay at home, but working from home sometimes prevents me from enjoying them.  Sometimes, actually, all the time, I am behind in my housework, cooking meals, blogging, and listing items in both shops.  I fell behind in these and they took precadence over my children.  I somehow forgot that I stay at home because my husband and I decided that it was important to us that one of us stayed at home for the children.  All families are different, but for ours, this is what we value. 

So, this past week, I wanted to be more intentional with my kids.  I wanted to spend quality time with them, whether it was taking walks, riding bikes, or going on outings.  Thank goodness for my iphone because without the iphone, I don't think I would have any pictures of my kids.  I barely remember my keys, but I never forget my phone!  It's sad that I need to remember to do this because I feel like I should be like this all the time because they grow up so fast.  But, at the end of the day, I just need to ask myself, "Did I love my children and did they feel loved today?"  If the answer's yes, then it was a good day.

Here's what we've been up to:

Taking bike rides and walks around our complex.  That's my daughter's "Smile" face.

This picture cracks me up. 

We visited a children's museum with a new dinosaur exhibit since my son thinks he's a paleontologist.  My daughter was more into dressing up in the museum's dress up gear.

 



And she likes dressing up at home.

 My son got a haircut.  He looks like such a big boy now. :(  Excuse the mess in the background.

 

 

Jonah visited the dentist for the first time.  Pediatric dentists really make it a great experience for the kids now! Jonah loved it!

 Sometimes, being a mom, and particularly a stay-at-home mom becomes mundane in a way.  Raising kids, keeping up the house, feeding your husband all seems just part of a routine and mundane.  But, what a great blessing it is to be able to actually raise your children and watch them grow!  I need to remember this more often so I don't get myself stuck in so many "ruts."  Anyone else feel this way? 

Thanks for reading!