The Saturday 7

1. I did an amazing job with cooking this week.  Although when I looked back, I realized every meal was full of cheese. Not great for the waistline.  M-homemade mac n' cheese with peppers, T-amazing white chili, W-cheesy rice with smoked sausage, green beans, and Brussels sprouts, Th-lasagna with spinach! (my first time trying that), F-leftovers.  I'm pretty sure we had vegetables in or with each meal.  That's a major accomplishment for me.

2. Lucy's new vegetables this week were Brussels sprouts and spinach.  She wanted nothing to do with the Brussels sprouts, but she gobbled the spinach right down because it was hidden in lasagna.  (She ate a whole piece of lasagna, btw!) We didn't do a new fruit because I still had lots of grapes and pear leftover from last week that I wanted to finish off.

3. Lucy has officially learned how to climb up stairs.  Fortunately our stairs only go down and the stairs at Chase and Lyla's house have a gate on them.

4. Work was brutal this week. Spring Break. Extra kids. The extra kids have friends over to make even more extra kids.  Lots of whining, fighting, and crying.  And of course it rained pretty much every day.  We did go bowling one day.  Niki watched Lucy and I took a couple of her boys with my kids to hit the lanes. That was Thursday and I'm still wicked sore.  Haha!

5. My brother accepted a job in Florida yesterday.  He's been interning down there for a month, so we all knew it was coming, but part of me hoped he'd miss us so much or not be offered the job or something and come home.  No such luck.  I seriously am overjoyed for him.  He loves the job, loves the people he's living with, loves the weather (ugh - how could you not??).  But we love him! And we want him home.  I'm sad that he'll probably just be Lucy's "Florida uncle."  She won't grow up knowing him like I want her to. :-( But at least we have a place to go on vacation now!

6. I got up at 7:15 to nurse Lucy this morning, then Justin took her and I went back to bed 'til 11! I don't think I've done that since she was a newborn! It was amazing.  And now she and Justin are taking a nap and I'm enjoying my coffee on the couch in a quiet house with the windows open!!! (Although I'm sitting under a blanket, because it's still too cold for me.)  Thinking we might go for a walk today.  Maybe spring is here to stay this time??

7. I can not think of a seventh thing, so I'm going to leave you with that amazing white chili recipe:

1 lb. ground turkey, browned
1 c. water
1 c. salsa (I used corn and black bean, and probably a little more than a cup)
1 c. frozen corn (I didn't use this because of the corn salsa)
8 oz. block monterey jack cheese with jalapeno, diced
2 cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

Throw it all in a pot and heat until the cheese is melted.  Delicious!