This and that

*We had Matthew's parent/teacher night last night. This was the teacher's chance to share policys and procedures with the class, get to know her personality, as well as meet other parents in the class. I really like Matthew's teacher and feel comfortable with her teaching style.

Bryon and I had a chance to talk to her for a while last night. She told us a funny story about Matthew that occurred that morning. They were in circle talking about letters and the teacher asked what word began with the letter "q". Matthew raised his hand and said, "quill". The kids didn't know what that meant so Matthew explained how people used quills during the American Revolution time. Some kid raised his hand and said, "Couldn't we just used 'quilt'?" Matthew popped his head back to the teacher and said, "What's wrong with these people? Don't they care about American history?" Matthew's teacher got a big kick out of that!

*My blog friends are dropping like flies. I miss you, Meredith and Kelley!

*Thomas and ME started Mother's Day Out yesterday. Thomas, woke up and started bouncing around because he was so excited about the first day of school! The most exciting part? Aunt Lauren was his teacher! He had a great time and stayed on green all day. This means he had good behavior. Thomas heard, "I got a green today in school" all year last year because Matthew's teacher used the same color coding. Thomas felt very big having a discipline chart! He probably talked about it 20 times yesterday! I loved picking the kids up and seeing Lauren. I am so glad she is Thomas's teacher this year!

*There were some comments about my double up and freeze recipes on my last post. There are several tried and true recipes I use for this and I will share some over the next few posts. Here is perhaps the easiest double up and freeze, Taco Soup. I am pretty sure that you can't be a member of my church without knowing this recipe! We eat our weight in it during the fall and winter. When I was making it on Saturday, Bryon had some football game on and I was daydreaming that it was October! I can't stress enough how good it is, easy, and kidfriendly. Here is goes:

Taco Soup
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion
1 package Taco Seasoning
1 package ranch dressing (powder)
2 cans pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
1 large can tomatoes (I like progresso crushed)
1 can green chilis

Brown meat and onion together. Follow directions on taco seasoning package to mix in with the meat. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large pot and simmer 1 hour.
Serve with either corn bread, cheese, and/or chips.

Again, since this recipe is just mainly dumping cans into a pot, I double it and freeze the massive pot into family portions. My favorite way to eat it is to put cornbread on the bottom of a bowl and spoon the soup over it. Yum!