the year of the dinner

i decided that 2013 was the year of the dinner!  ok...so my family decided that they would continue to want to eat dinner every single night and so i decided that i wanted to get really good at dinner.  i want george to say this christmas that i fed him well all year...tasty, healthy, real food.  and the occasional keller's hamburger :) which is amazing too.

5 o'clock is a bad time to think about whats for dinner.  have i said that before?  its true.  it makes me crazy.  it makes my kids extra hungry and extra crazy.  i want to plan and prepare and get really good at dinner this year!

two nights ago, i cooked a spaghetti squash in the microwave and served it with meat and tomato sauce.  it was good.  no one was crazy about it.  george wasnt that into spaghetti squash in general.  but it filled peoples tummies.

i had a ton of spaghetti squash left over and wanted to figure out how to make it delicious.  where everyone would love it!  lick their plates.  and what do you know? when you follow a recipe...people like what you cook.  i followed this recipe and it was amazing.  my people licked their plates.   george took all of the leftovers to work today and declared that he would be eating it before his 1st period class even got in the room.  i love that!

i served it with the best broccoli of your life and it really is the best.  i do this recipe's method of roasting vegetables at least 4 times a week.  always with different combos...broccoli and cauliflower or sweet potato fries or bell peppers or carrots.  yum yum.  the citrus really makes it so yummy!  i buy the bag of broccoli/cauliflower florets already ready for you which makes it super easy.

wildflower flora with her bed head hair

new years eve at the creek house

God made a mother

i had a big (fun awesome freeing) weekend of celebrating my sweet sister-in-love Val's 30th birthday.

and the kids had a big weekend with all of their cousins in wichita falls.  so i missed most of the super bowl and all of its commercials and beyonce's amazing halftime show because i was getting children to bed on time.  we all needed our rest!  

one of the only commercials i saw was the "God made a farmer" dodge commercial.  wasnt it good?  well, take a few minutes and go read ann voskamp's post about God made a mother.  so good too.  

while i was making dinner last night, i peeked into the playroom to see walker had taken the crib, rocking chair, and baby from the dollhouse and was hugging the baby and rocking the baby and putting the baby in the crib.  i will never forget it.  she sees me being a mother, hugging my babies...rocking my babies... and caring for them.  and so she does it too.  it was beautiful.  at 15 months old, bald and toddling, walker watches me and learns how to be a mother one day.  i love this job.  hardest thing i have ever done, but also so much fun and so overwhelmingly good.