Nana's To die for Spaghetti Lasagna

There are many times in life when you need comfort. Okay, more to the point... Comfort FOOD. During the blissful years when my babies were little and staying at home with their Nana, I would often come home from a stressful day and find Spaghetti Lasagna in the stove. Ooey Gooey Cheesy perfection. This recipe is not anything mind blowing, or anything complicated. It is one of those recipes that can transport you to a certain day in time. I guess this is a side effect of my love for food that lead to my expanded waist line... 
Anyways, I will always remember the feeling of relief when coming home to find dinner on the stove and the kids all alive and in one piece. Back in the "3 kids under 2 years of age" days, this was considered a beautiful success. I know every working Mom can relate. Some days the thought of going home to cook dinner is almost more than your mind can bear. 
So, here is Nana's ever so simple, ever so delectable recipe!! It can be dressed up with fancy cheeses, or gourmet meats...BUT WHY?  It is perfect the way that it is 

8 Oz. cottage cheese 
8 Oz. sour cream
8 Oz. mozzarella cheese (I like to shred my own off the block, but shredded will do!!)
1/2 Cup Parmesan cheese 
1/2-1 lb hamburger meat browned and drained -Some like their meat sauce a little more chunky! 
Tomato sauce (home made or bottled) 
Cook noodles al dente and spread in the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking dish 
Combine all the "white stuff" and spread evenly over the noodles (AKA all the cheese stuff)
Next heap on the Meat sauce
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes on 350*
If you love Jesus and good food, you can choose to add extra Parmesan or mozzarella to broil on the top for the last 10 minutes (This is not optional at my house... ) 

BAM, There you have it. Delicious and easy dinner that everyone in the family will love. It is better than spaghetti and easier than lasagna! This is a quick work night meal that can be thrown together at the last minute, and part or all of it can be prepared ahead. Sometimes I brown the meat and make the sauce the night before to make the meal a snap to prepare the day of, and if I am feeling super Awesome, I make the whole thing and stick it in the fridge the night before! 

This also makes a great meal to put together for any friend or family member needing a good meal after a new baby, or surgery, or just because you love them! #Happydining

I don't own a cat, the continuing saga

Last night, in all my wisdom, I decided it was a good idea to trim the boys hair. When they were toddlers I had sworn off this duty for life. But, as they are now mature worldly boys of almost 7 years...I had forgotten the pain of the gruesome chore. I gathered my tools of destruction and we all proceeded to the back porch, so the hair could be "easily" cleaned up after our "quick" trim (please note my complete lack of cosmetology training, yet sheer confidence for the task at hand.) So, after two hours of whining, crying, nashing of teeth and roughly 45 mosquito bites, we were DONE. I was covered in hair, sweat and tears (my own tears). I decided to go inside, lock the door, deny my reality and leave the mess for next day clean up. 

Fast forward to tonight. While sweeping under the breakfast table and scraping the remnants of dinner from the table top, I looked out the back door at the scene of the crime. The rolled up porch rug that could easily have passed for a body, the piles of hair that had seemingly multiplied over night, the scissors, cape, and buzz trimmer that had been thrown to the four winds were all there and then I spotted...wait for it....Cat vomit. Cat vomit siting atop my beautiful outdoor rug. Sticky. Stinky. Hairy Cat Vomit. Apparently, when the neighbor behind you feeds every feral cat in town, you can not leave the stuff that hairball nightmares are made of on the back porch. As I cleaned up the horrid and unspeakable mess, for the second time in my life, I uttered the words "I don't even own a cat." CLICK HERE FOR CAT BACK STORY ;)

Needless to say, I have learned a few lessons tonight. 

1. My hatred of laundry was unjustified.  

    This chore never looked or smelled so good. 

2. The only cat I like is grumpy cat

3. My poor children may never get a pet. 

It's only Tuesday. Jesus, keep me near the cross. 

Within the veil!

This morning at church was so uplifting! To say that I needed to be "lifted" is the understatement of the year. I am known to exaggerate at times (don't tell my husband), but it is only February, so it is definitely the understatement of 2013... Our Sunday mornings usually consist of me bathing and clothing the kids and barely making it to the car with my underwear on straight, followed by a hair-raising 7 minute car ride where at least one of the 3 kids lives are threatened, undoubtedly followed by some variation of the phrase "Jesus Keep me near the cross" and then Jonathan takes the brood to their Sunday school class rooms while I sit in the car to do my makeup and clean kid snot off my sleeves with a baby wipe...

Back to the uplifting part: Our sermon series is about being the hands and feet of Jesus as the church.  Aka: getting off our spoiled butts and loving Jesus and others outside the doors of the sanctuary! The music was amazing too. We sang cornerstone by Hillsong. Do you know I almost had a glory spell! The words of this beautiful song literally broke my heart and renewed my spirit all at once. PEOPLE, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING and THINK about the meaning!!!  "My anchor holds within the veil!" The fact that our security in Jesus is in his presence! There is no more veil in the temple to separate us from his presence, no need for a priest to plead for forgiveness of our sins! The image of the veil being torn  from the top to the bottom by the unseen hand of the heavenly father, upon Jesus' death on the cross gives me chills! I said chills Ya'll!  How can we not go out and share the light, the love and the life?

 

Hebrews 4:14-16

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,^[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

This week I pray that the love of Jesus will light a fire in my heart and in yours! Challenge:  Be different. Start at home. Ask Jesus to give you a renewed spirit and a sense of urgency. How many of your friends and family need to know your savior?!? I am asking God to make me a suitable vessel to spread his Love. I want people to see the light in my life and desire to know WHAT I have!  I have a savior who died for me and for you! I am not always the most eloquent at explaining my faith, but thank God that I don't have to be. I will be praying for God to light a fire under all of us this week....so, if your britches catch fire...know that you have been prayed for...LOL

Things that go bump in the night

This weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing a sleep study to determine whether or not I have sleep apnea.  It seems that I stop breathing in the middle of the night in between my obnoxiously loud snoring. This cheery bit of news came from my husband who has the unfortunate job of sleeping next to me every night.  According to Jonathan, this job should require gun range quality ear muffs, and a hard hat.  The ear muffs need no explanation, but there is apparently a small risk that my snoring may one day bring down the ceiling fan... thus the hard hat.  I hate him. So, I signed up for the aforementioned sleep study.

It is widely known that I am a danger to myself and others, whether on foot or in a car, on a train or in a plane... You get the picture.  So, Saturday evening rolled around and Jonathan and the kids went to my nephews 3rd Birthday party (Happy Birthday Landon Man!!!) I stayed home to shower and show up for my sleep study at 8:30 P.M.  I was running a little behind, no time to dry my hair or put on tennis shoes.  The old faithful flip flops were calling my name.  As I ran towards the stairs at my usual break neck pace while carrying a overnight bag, blanket and King sized pillow, the flip flop decision came back to bite me.  I remember making it half way down the 21 steps before my feet went out from underneath me.  Then I woke up surrounded by my things with a literal pain in the @** and the nagging suspicion that I was supposed to be somewhere.  I broke 3 fingernails, scraped up my toe, scratched my hand, bruised my tail bone and my pride.  I think I only lost consciousness about 5-10 minutes, who can be sure?  The only thing that is certain is that I need constant adult supervision.

I gathered myself together and made my way to the car (second smartest idea of the night...coming in right behind the flip flops).  Then I called my brother and sister to confirm that as long as the bump on my head was going out I should be okay.  Clearly they are both medical professionals...not.  But, on to the sleep study with a possible concussion I went! When I arrived to the sleep study center the parking lot was empty and dark.  I rang the bell and was greeted several anxious seconds later by a man I had never seen before.  Stranger danger, anyone?  I proceeded to make nervous chit chat with him to get around to the lingering question,Who else is here with us in this creepy dark building? Yup, you guessed it. Just me and Lurch!  After my stranger friend got me tied up to every electrode,  EKG, cannula and probe he could find he told me to get some sleep!  Muahahahahahaha!  Or, at least that is the crazy laughter I heard in my head.  At one point he asked me to blink 3 times to get a baseline, so I did it and said "OK". Then he replied that there was no need to answer him because "He could see ALL.". Well, color me creeped out.  After saying my prayers for several hours followed by calling on the intercession of the virgin Mary and saying a Buddhist chant (p.s, I am Southern Baptist), I finally fell asleep for maybe 3 hours.  I was rudely awakened at 5 AM and escorted back to the scary still dark parking lot. I drove bleary eyed back home from one house of horrors to my own...The kids were up at 6:30.  But, in the words of Uncle Si, Hey! I still made it to church and that's a fact Jack!

 

Double the love, Double the Fun!

   I have the great honor and privilege of being Mommy to three beautiful children.  They are each unique and beautiful little people who add something different to our crazy family dynamic.

My precious twin boys are almost 4 years old and they learn new ways to enjoy life each day (most  of which involve torturing their Mother & Sister.)  We have always known our boys had a little trouble hearing.  However, in March of this year we received a diagnosis that shocked our family and turned us down a new path of life.  

   We were told that both of our boys have bilateral Aural Atresia.  This is a congenital birth defect, it means that the boys have no opening to the inner ear.  They each have about a 35-40 decibel hearing loss.  We new they were having a slight problem, but attributed it to their "Narrow" ear canals.  We had been told that as they grew the canal would open up to allow more visibility to their ear drums.  Since Andrew & Chase displayed no other signs of microtia (deformed outer ear) or symptoms of the syndromes commonly associated with Aural Atresia their pediatrician did not suspect this was an issue.  The diagnosis was very hard for Jonathan and I to accept.  We felt so guilty as parents that we did not suspect the extent of their problem.  We were scared for what the future held for them as far as their education was concerned, etc.  We are so blessed that they do not have any speech delays, but sadly we realized after the diagnosis how many times they were guessing at what we were saying to them or focusing on our lips to concentrate on what we were communicating to them.  

   Talk about a wake up call.  Reality came knocking and we were hiding under the bed.  It was very sad and overwhelming.  There are not enough options for repair, there are no easy fixes.   As a parent you want to be able to fix everything.  For the first time in our parenting lives, we were lost.  In these past months we have gone for second opinions,  earned our Doctorate in "Googling" and found peace and calm in the midst of this storm.  God has really given us a peace and shown us how strong we are, but more importantly how strong and powerful he is. 

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."  Psalm 46:10

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

We are researching our best options now for surgery and/or Baha devices/Symphono devices.  My sweet husband has really been glued to the computer every minute of his free time looking for other families to speak with,  trying to find out about their success rates and trying to get a better feeling for the direction we should be taking.   He came across 2 families in Australia who are coming to the States this week to the California Institute, so we are praying for their families when we pray for our own!

2013- The year of at least 6 blog posts

It is 2013.  I vow to be a better blogger.  I vow to blog more frequently.  Okay, Okay... I vow to blog at least 6 times.   That is one more than last year.  So much has happened since my last blog post, that I will not bombard you with the details.  The Holidays came and went in an uneventful fashion, my kids continued to grow at an alarming rate of speed and I managed to keep the marriage going without my husband running out the back door screaming!   So, overall the end of 2012 spelled success at the Goodman household.   I can only wait with nervous anticipation at what 2013 has in store.

 

1) The twin sis and I will be turning 30- Oh My Lord, How did this happen?

2) My twin boys will be getting their corrective ear surgery this year

3) My sweet girl will be turning 6 & graduating Kindergarten in the Spring

4) Fingers Crossed we sell our condo and move...anywhere with a yard

5) My Twin sister,Sister-in-Love, & BFF Kim will be expanding the family with         new BABIES!!!

6) Did I mention the BABIES??????????????????

7) Adendum to the Baby Count- LK from my office- also having one!!! My heart       can't take it!

So, All in all.. I think 2013 is looking pretty promising for this girl...(Or Old Lady) which is what everyone in my office keeps calling me due to the impending celebration of 30 years of greatness.

I am hoping and praying that all of my family and friends will be as blessed this year as I feel this very moment!

Psalm 20:4 

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Do unto others....

No one ever tells you how hard it will be to teach your children the golden rule.  I think when you get pregnant that somewhere in the back of your mind you see fluffy bunnies and butterflies and clouds and you think that child rearing will be like a picnic in the park.  Lies from the devil.   I mean to tell you that it is closer to that scary scene from Father of the bride II where George Banks is seeing all the bad kids on the right hand side of the road screaming and throwing ice cream and his wife is looking lovingly on the sunny side of the street at all the beautiful mothers and sweet babies.  I like to call this mindset the "pregnancy bubble."  God allows for this brief period of pure and blissful ignorance so that we don't eat our young when they are born.  I am pretty sure that is in the bible somewhere, but I will have to get back to you on the exact scripture reference.  If I don't get back to you with that by the end of this post... wait longer. 

Tonight during bath time I thought I would really nail down this whole Golden rule confusion that seems to be taking place at the Casa de Goodman.  Come to find out the kids are in agreement that we should use the "Eye for an Eye" mentality at our house.  Example:  You accidentally knock someone over, they in turn scream like a gladiator and knock you down, or You take my toy, I knock you face first into the side of the tub.  There are some moments in motherhood that you look back on with pride and joy.  Tonight was NOT one of those moments.  I actually uttered the words "THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE."  You can imagine their utter joy and amusement at seeing me so exasperated.   You will also be glad to know that on multiple occasions in the past I have already had to explain what rocket science is.  By the end of our bath time enlightenment session the only thing that was clear is that I have a lot to learn about this parenting gig. 

I was frustrated and exhausted and quite frankly looked like a drowned rat.  P.S I was the one sitting on the side of the tub in all my clothes... But, I digress... I was completely beat down about my impromptu Mommy moment with the kids.  I got to thinking that this is probably how God feels about his "teaching moments" with me.  I don't listen, I mock and laugh and generally am a little slow on the uptake.  Thankfully, my heavenly father is more patient with me than I seem to be with the kids.  But, it is times like these where I sit  in complete frustration having fallen flat on my face that God picks me up, dusts me off and asks me if I would like anything with my humble pie.  So, tonight I must say Thank you to God for allowing each day to come with little hugs and loves and a fresh start to serve him well accompanied by a whole lot of new perspectives. 

PSALMS 25:9  He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.