Linky Lou

I know it's Wednesday, though it feels like Tuesday because Monday was a holiday and it always throws off my whole week but my point is, I'm writing about the weekend. ha. If you followed that, please explain it to me.

We labored over Labor weekend. Well, I did. I dusted blinds and washed windows on the first floor of my house. I usually try to put off dusting the blinds as long as I can. But a certain 10 year old boy who resides in this house put little smiley faces with his finger in the dust on so many of the blind slats that my husband noticed so I knew it was time. I love love love LOVE looking out my windows now. Even on this rainy day. Now I need to do the blinds upstairs. While there are only 2 less windows than downstairs, it feels like a lot less because the bedrooms only have one window each. Not four like the dining room or three like the living room. It's a mental thing that makes sense probably only in my head. Welcome to my world.

I also made chicken spaghetti from Pioneer Woman. It is one of my very favorite comfort foods. How can you go wrong with pasta, cheese, & chicken? I purchased a rotesseire chicken and deboned it instead of boiling chicken pieces. Much simpler. I don't have cayenne pepper in my pantry so I didn't add that either. It is a big recipe so you can freeze half for a later date or give it a neighbor or a friend who's had a long week. It is so very delicious. Make it soon!

I tried a new recipe from Melissa d'Arabian of the Food Network. Grilled potato salad. Steve wasn't too sure when he saw it on TV. But he was agreeable to trying it for our BSU football watching party Monday evening. My mom makes the best potato salad in the world and so I've been spoiled that way. I am a potato salad snob of sorts. Some are too mustard-y or the potatoes are too big. (Although, my friend, Cody, makes a dill potato salad that I do love, too.) Mom shreds hers, not like shredded cheese, more like thinly sliced on a mandolin. If we were the type of people who had such a kitchen tool. We have a slicer from an Amish store in Iowa, so I call it the Iowa slicer. I'm all kinds of classy. All this to say, I tried a potato salad this summer at my favorite lunch restaurant, La Belle Vie, which had a vinaigrette dressing instead of the traditional mayo. It was so yummy! I was pleasantly surprised. By the way, if you haven't been to La Belle Vie, please go. Go tomorrow! Take a girlfriend and go. Take your hubby and go for dinner this weekend. It's a French bistro and suffice it to say, I highly recommend it. I'll even watch your kids so you can go.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, potato salad. Good grief. The grilled salad from Melissa is so yummy. I started it two hours before I needed it because I wanted it to come to room temperature instead of being warm right off the grill. That gives the flavors a little time to get to know one another and they get along so well. I loved what the mayo/mustard did to the potatoes on the grill, gave them a little char. But then you put on a vinaigrette with bacon & bacon grease (don't judge until you try it!). Simply delish.

So my weekend was mostly cleaning, cooking and football watching on TV. It was nice to be home. This is another crazy week. Are you getting tired of hearing that from me? Maybe I'll just tell you when we have a calm week around here. We have two volleyball games, one karate test, & one football game yet this week. I dropped my daughter off at school this morning at 7:30 and realized I won't see her until 13 hours later. She has a game and then youth group and is carpooling with a friend because we're going to the karate test with our son. If you are reading this and you have small children and you wonder how you're going to survive day in and day out with them, please pay attention. Soak them in, soak them up, hug your sweet babies tight. In the blink of an eye, she'll be taller than you and out of your sight for 13 hours a day. Faster than you can sing the clean up song, he'll be putting of football pads and running sprints away from home. Soak them up while you can. Countless women told me this when my kids were swaddled babes in arms. I smiled and nodded at them. Some days were so long when they were little and clammering for attention. When I never got a break. But it is true. It goes so fast.

Okay, one more link for ya. A week from Saturday, Beth Moore is doing a simulcast and if you're in the Nampa area try to go see her at Bethel Church of the Nazarene. She is such a gifted speaker and teacher of the Word. It's only $15! You will be blessed for going.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate you continually checking in on me even when I go quiet for awhile. Just living life here. Have a great week!