When You're Tired of Chicken...

I really love Paula Deen, I like to watch her cook, I like her magazines, I entertain the idea of visiting her restaurant, I love her house, etc. I read her magazines alot and occasionally venture after a recipe or two.

Anyhow the point of this post is a recipe I suppose. My kids love chicken strips and I get tired of making them so I tried a Paula recipe.

Steak Fingers!!! Basically you take two cubed minute steaks and cut into two inch strips. Mix flour, cracker crumbs, salt, pepper, and paprika together in a bowl. Fill a large skillet with about 1/2 inch of canola oil (or other oil) and heat on medium heat. Dip the steak strips into the flour/cracker crumbs then into buttermilk (the recipe called for egg and milk but I substitute buttermilk for everything and it works great!) then dip back into the crumbs and place in hot oil. Cook for about 3 or 4 minutes per side until really brown and crispy.

The best part? After you cook and drain the steak strips onto paper towels you reserve about 2 Tbs of the hot oil and the crunchy stuff in the pan and cook with 4 T of flour and some milk and salt and pepper and it makes GREAT gravy to dip it in! We had the steak fingers and gravy with Texas toast and corn on the cob fresh from the garden and it was too yummy!!! Oh and the 2nd best part? The entire meal took be about 20 minutes to make and there are plenty of left overs for Travis to take to work tomorrow! Go Paula!!!! The third best part? The recipe wasn't originally "Allergen friendly" but it was very very easy to substitute a couple of items to make it safe for the munchkins who can't eat eggs.

Backpack Saga Part 2

Because I am evil and devious I have told a tiny white lie to win N over to my way of thinking...I call Noah over to my dog-earred Pottery Barn Kids catalog and say, "Look Noah, there is a backpack in here alot like the one Freddy has..." (Freddy is Noah's hero on iCarly)

Is there actually a backpack in there like the one that Freddy carries...of course not...unless you count that it has straps and holds books on your back which I think counts...

The rest is history...

The burning backpack question...

As the beginning of Kindergarten is swiftly approaching we are starting to formulate a list of things we need to buy for Noah to start school. Obviously at the top of the list is a new backpack, which raises quite a conundrum around the Parsley household.

Mainly the question is this...do we give in to the 5 year old and let him pick out the hideous cartoon characterized backpack that will have holes worn into it by Christmas break (as did the one he used in preschool) or do we go ahead and order the better one from Pottery Barn or LL Bean which is much more durable (and more expensive) and much better suited to Mommy's taste (did I mention they are monogrammed...I'm a sucker for something you can put a name on...)? Actually, I"m not even sure it will be that more expensive in the long run because we would have to buy another cartoon characterized one before the year is out and he can carry the other type through first grade....Hmmm....

I suppose the real question is do I want to endure the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will surely begin the second we gets the "plain" backpack...I will let you know as the saga unfolds...

There's No Place Like Home

The Parsley family are all happily back under our own roof and in our own beds!!!! HOORAY!!! Lilly was released from the hospital on Wednesday around lunchtime so we are trying to get back in the swing of things while fitting in breathing treatments, steroids, and antibiotics, all while trying to keep her from getting too hot or too wound up (both things which trigger horrible coughing fits!!!)

This has taken some thought since most of our summer days consists of playing outside and the kids running around and swinging. So today I've had to get creative. For Lilly it wasn't too hard, she slept until 10 and after her pancakes and morning breathing treatments she was content to play baby dolls and to watch Little Bear.

Noah however, was a little harder to entertain inside. He played jungle animals, sword fighter, watched cartoons, and helped me clean out the coat closet.

They finally were so bored that I filled up my big bathtub with bubbles, plastic cups and spoons, stripped them down and let them "swim" indoors! That lasted for over an hour and after that they finally took some naps...I'm not sure how we'll entertain tomorrow...or the rest of the weekend, because Lilly still won't be getting out until next week at the earliest!!! Email me some ideas...

Lilly Update

Hello all...just going to update on Lil's condition this morning. She is feeling some better today. Her oxygen levels were higher this morning and she rested last night as well. We rested fairly well between breating treatments. We saw Dr. Simmons this morning and she is hoping to be able to release her tomorrow at some point.

Right now she is getting restless so I"m going to cut this short

Thank you all for your calls and kind comments and especially to Staffanne for the yummy lunch and visit

Love you guys

Poor Baby Lilly

In case you guys had not heard, we are back in the hospital with Lilly Grace. I am posting this from a borrowed laptop at the Medical Center. Lilly started wheezing, coughing, struggling to breathe again on Sunday and we were up with her most of the night Sunday and brought her into the ER early Monday morning where she was admitted.

Her chest X-Rays show walking pneumonia (microplasm) and bronchitis which is worsened by asthma as well. This is the first time any physician has actually used the diagnosis of asthma to describe her, so I guess she's joining Mommy and Big Brother in having asthma.

Throughout the day today, her oxygen saturation levels have been up and down, but they have been giving her breathing treatments round the clock, as well as hooking her up to oxygen, and giving her steroids, antibiotics and fluids in her IV. She's being good natured about most of it, but she had a really hard time having the IV put in.

Anyway she is a pretty sick little lady but she is also very tired of having to be confined to a bed and an IV cart. It's getting very challenging trying to keep her still especially when she's pumped up with so many steroids.

Anyway, say a little prayer for Lilly tonight, we are hoping she starts turning around soon. Dr. Simmons is not really hopeful that she will get to come home tomorrow but she is thinking maybe the day after that.

Until then we are missing our own beds and showers and most of all missing Noah! But he sent his sis a new blanket and baby doll, and he and Nana and Papa are holding down the fort at home!

PS Thank you guys for everyone who has called or visited, we truly appreciate it!

My Little Blessings!!!

We just got out of revival at Travis' church and thanks to my wonderful Mom, the kids stayed with her most of the services. Now, don't get me wrong, I think church is the most important place to take my children and I want them to grow up knowing that as a family, it is our main focus for our lives. However, day and night service with two very active kids is challenging to say the least.

Noah is fine at church, other than being a little too talkative with his buddies (he so can't remember what whispering is...) we pack up a drawing pad, a couple of crayons, some gummies, and his beloved rubber critters (frogs, turtles, etc) and we are good to go.

Ah but you're forgetting about princess...she is officially 21 months old. Translation...she is old enough to talk (and sing) LOUDLY, and squirm her heart out to get down and run the aisles and not old enough to understand why it is not appropriate to hold your dress up over your head and spin down the church pews while singing a rousing rendition of "Five Green and Speckled Frogs.."

The high point of the week was the night that Lilly Grace discovered that spitting large mouthfuls of milk down the front of her otherwise previously clean church dress was too much fun, especially because it got such disapproval from mom and dad. Oh did I mention, this one earned her a tiny smack on the leg which she rewarded us with by going into hysterics and wailing intermittently the rest of the service. Or perhaps, maybe it was when we were standing in the aisle waiting to go up and shake hands with the boys who had gotten saved and joined the church and Lil refused to stop pushing on the shoulder of the gentleman in front of us and saying, (in Lil talk which no one else understands) "Doh boy, doh," (Translations...go boy go)

But all joking aside, the services were wonderful and made me even more thankful for my friends and family.

BUT I did make the comment to one of my friends after a particularly challenging service with Lilly (think shrieking for Daddy up in the singing class only to refuse to go to him when he got back and then chewing up a rainbow assortment of Skittles to decorate your own dress with) that this revival gave me a new understanding for the song they sing, "It'll Be Worth it After All..."