Five Years

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Two weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our fifth anniversary.  He asked me, "Do you think five years is a long time to be married?"  As I thought about his question, it occurred to me that, while five years shouldn't be a long time to be married, there are so many marriages that end before five years.

We are so blessed to have been married five years and to still want to be married for the rest of our lives.

Here are a few highlights of our marriage.

2013 - the year we were married!

15 - the number of people at our wedding

I know you're thinking...that's crazy small!  Yes, we chose to have a small wedding.  A very small wedding.  We were married in my hometown church; the very same church my parents were married in, in fact.  The pastor that married us was the father of a dear high school friend and my grandparents' neighbor.  (Funny fact: I went to my very first high school Homecoming dance with his son more than a decade before Pastor Kenton officiated our wedding!)  My grandpa was sick with cancer at the time, and we didn't expect him to live much longer.  We were hoping that my grandpa would be able to attend the wedding, but that night, he wasn't responsive.  Instead, we went to his bedside right after the wedding and told him all about it.

Instead of a big fancy dinner, we had dinner at a private room at a local restaurant.  We were supposed to have a different room, but the restaurant double booked it, and we got pushed to the small semi-private room, but we chose to make a great evening of it anyway.  Everyone ordered what they wanted, and we laughed and talked, spent time with our loved ones, cut our cake, and laughed even more.  (I honestly have no idea what I ordered for dinner.  Ha!)

We laugh a lot.  Can you tell?

5 - the number of children in (and out of) our lives

In five years, we have had four pregnancies.  If you know us or have seen pictures of our family, you know that there are only three small children in our family.  Little Prez was born in 2013, and we couldn't have been more thrilled about our first baby boy.  In 2014, we had a miscarriage at eight weeks.  We only knew that we were pregnant for about three days before finding out that there was no heartbeat.  There are no words to describe the feeling of loss, but I can't wait to meet that baby in heaven someday!  About the same time as the miscarriage, we were blessed to welcome our niece, Miss Coco, into our family.  Becoming the parent to a middle schooler without being around for the first ten years of her life was quite a challenge, but every day was a blessing with that beautiful girl.    A year later, our little Mermaid Princess was born.  You'd never know that she's two full years younger than Little Prez; they are like twins and do everything together.  And finally, there's my Little Viking who was born a year and a half ago.  He's the baby in every way, but wants to be a big kid!

If you stop and do the math, we have added one child to our family each year since we got married (except this past year).  It's the good kind of chaos.  :)

Baby Prez

Mermaid Princess

Little Viking

4 - the number of houses we've lived in since getting married

We started out in a 100+ year old house in Lincoln, Nebraska.  When Little Prez was just 8 weeks old, we moved due to a flooding basement and a terrible landlord.  Our second house was where we really began making memories as a family.  We painted a nursery for Little Prez, planted a garden, welcomed Miss Coco, brought home our Mermaid Princess, and really created a home.  In that backyard, two of our puppies remain.  We also sent Little Prez to daycare for the first time...right next door.  It was truly the best daycare scenario.  Alexander the Husband built his businesses there, and I wrote my dissertation.  (We still had basement flooding and different terrible landlords.)  Then we moved to another rental, but this time, in South Carolina.  We brought home our Little Viking to that house and lived with a black living room for two years.  And finally, this past summer, we finally bought our first house!

7 - the number of degrees we have earned

Yup, that's a lot of degrees.  I have earned four, and Alexander the Husband has earned three.  Most of them are in business -- 5 of them.  We haven't ever received one, but we joke about the day that we'll get an invite or a Christmas card addressed to Mr. and Dr. Harvey.  It's a little odd sounding, don't you think?

0 - the number of times my husband has seen me with my natural hair color

Isn't that wild?  He has never ever seen me with blonde hair!  It's been the same chocolate brown since we met.  I've always liked having dark hair, but I used to change it up pretty frequently.  Switching back and forth from light to dark and dark to light.  When I got to grad school, my first year I didn't get paid enough to cover my bills and wasn't allowed to get a side job.  Thankfully, I had saved up quite a bit while working corporate before that, but there was no way that I was going to waste hundreds and hundreds of dollars that year to keep up my fun hair changing habit.  The next year, I was officially a PhD student, so my pay doubled.  Just enough to pay the bills, but there was still no way that I was going to waste money on getting my hair professionally colored every six weeks.  So, Natural Instincts Chocolate Brown has been my color for almost eight years.  I can't remember a time since before high school that I kept my hair the same for that long!

 

Mom's Healthy Cheesy Potato Soup

There's nothing like a good bowl of soup on a cold day.  I remember so many delicious soups from my childhood.  Taco soup, white chili, traditional chili, and mom's cheesy potato soup were my favorites.  My mom's cheesy potato soup is hearty and filling, especially with a side of cornbread.  

But, the soup calls for milk or heavy cream plus Velveeta.  I love this recipe, but eating healthier means cutting the unhealthy food, even when it is a favorite comfort food.  So, I thought I would have to save my mom's cheesy potato soup for special occasions.  But then I made a vegan zucchini bisque using cashews to add creaminess.  I was skeptical, but the cashews really did make it creamy.  Nevertheless, the soup tasted really healthy and was just missing something.  With this in mind, I decided to adapt my mom's cheesy potato soup recipe into a healthy version, but to balance the healthy changes while maintaining the original flavor.  The cashew cream takes the place of the milk or heavy cream, but this is not a vegan recipe because I kept the Velveeta instead of using a vegan cheese substitute. 

The new and improved version of Mom's healthy cheesy potato soup was an absolute success with my husband and kiddos!  It will be added back into the regular rotation of soups this fall and winter!

Mom's Healthy Cheesy Potato Soup 

Ingredients
3-4 potatoes, chopped into cubes
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
2 c. water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 t. parsley flakes
rosemary
thyme
salt
pepper
2-3 inches Velveeta loaf

Cashew Cream
1 c. cashews
1 1/2 - 2 c. water

Directions
In large soup pot, combine potatoes, celery, carrots, onion, water, and bouillon.  Add parsley, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste.  Simmer 15-20 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender.  

In the meantime, boil cashews with water just covering the nuts.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes.  The cashews will plump up and be ready to be made into cream.

Using a food processor or blender, blend the simmered cashews with water.  Use leftover water from boiling.  Blend until smooth.  Continue adding water until mixture reaches a consistency that is near heavy cream or whole milk.  (I used a magic bullet and did this step in batches.  In all, I added about 1 1/2 cups of water.)   You should end up with about 2 cups of cashew cream/milk.  

Add the cashew cream/milk to the vegetables and stir.  Add 2-3 inches of a Velveeta loaf.  This works best if the cheese is cubed first.  Stir until melted.  

Variations and Additions
1/2 c. mushrooms
1 c. fresh spinach or kale
1 can sweet corn kernels 

I could not tell a difference between using milk, cream, or cashews.  And if you're not convinced yet, Mom's Healthy Cheesy Potato Soup has been endorsed by Baby Prez!

 

*The post "Mom's Healthy Cheesy Potato Soup" originally appeared on HarveyEverAfter.com*

8 Unique Chore Charts & Chore Systems

Baby Prez isn't old enough for chores yet, but at 11 years old, Miss Coco is!  Of course, I turned to Pinterest to find some inspiration on organizing and setting up a system.  Here are my favorite options so far.

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Chore Jar from Whatever Dee Dee Wants

This seems like a really simple and fun way to organize chores, especially for multiple children.

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Mom, Too Chart from Alaboard

This chevron inspired system is for sale at Alaboard.com for $20, but honestly I just like this as an example that chore charts can include Mom (and Dad).

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Button System from She's Crafty

This system incorporates monthly allowance, tithing, bonus opportunities, and competition!  I've also seen a version of this from the Winthrop Chronicles with buttons and mason jars.

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Chore Cards from Madsen's Memories

These chore cards are great!  No miscommunication about what needs to be done!  Now I just need a laminator and cardstock!

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Daily Job Zones from The Creative Homemaker

What a perfect way to make sure all of the tasks in each room are completed.

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Free Printable Chore Chart from The Gilded Pear

My favorite thing about this chart is that it incorporates a penalty for bad behavior.

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DIY Magnetic Chore Charts from A Spotted Pony

I love the Magnetic Chore Charts from Abbie's House.  They are cute, but I'm not in the market to buy a system.  Love the magnets, though!  So easy for kids to move the magnets from To Do to Done.  

And you could easily do a DIY version with inexpensive cookie sheets and chalkboard paint from the dollar store like in the photo above!

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Coloring Book Chore Chart from And We Play

And I honestly can't wait to start using this adorable coloring book chart with my little one!  Seriously, what could be cuter?


Check out more chore charts and other kiddo organization ideas on Pinterest!

Coming soon...a giant list of free printable chore charts!  If you have one on your blog, please submit it in the comments below!  I'd love to include as many as possible!

*This post may include affiliate links.

Resources for Homemakers, Wives, & Moms

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See the full list of 80+ eBooks, audio files, eCourses and printable packs included in the sale.  Want more information?  Check back each day of the sale for a new review of eBooks from the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle.

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This post may include affiliate links. Read the fine print about this bundle and read the answers to frequently asked questions about the bundle.

10 Weekly Goals {11/18-11/25}

Last Week’s 10 Goals
1.	Catch up on HarveyEverAfter baby updates - still a couple weeks behind
2.	Put together blogging schedule/plan
3.	Menu plan & grocery shop for the next week
4.	Plan Christmas gifts - started
5.	Finish Baby President’s new room - 2nd coat of paint on (thanks to Mr. Harvey)
6.	Combat dog shedding by vacuuming at least every other day
7.	Try out speed cleaning for the next month
8.	Finish survey for 2nd year paper - in progress
9	Write a conference paper by November 18th December 7th - in progress (deadline extended)
10.	Grade exams

This Week’s 10 Goals
1.	Catch up on HarveyEverAfter baby updates
2.	Put together blogging schedule/plan
3.	Menu plan & grocery shop for the next week
4.	Plan Christmas gifts
5.	Finish Baby President’s new room
6.	Combat dog shedding by vacuuming at least every other day
7.	Try out speed cleaning for the next month
8.	Finish survey for 2nd year paper
9	Write a conference paper by December 7th
10.	Decorate for Christmas!!!! (I'm so excited for this!) Not many changes this week; I'm still working on many of my goals and some of them are continuous.  I'm hopeful and determined to make more progress this week!

{10 weekly goals} 11/11-11/18

 

This Week’s 10 Goals
1.	Catch up on HarveyEverAfter baby updates
2.	Put together blogging schedule/plan
3.	Menu plan & grocery shop for the next week
4.	Plan Christmas gifts
5.	Finish Baby President’s new room
6.	Combat dog shedding by vacuuming at least every other day
7.	Try out speed cleaning for the next month
8.	Finish survey for 2nd year paper
9	Write a conference paper by November 18th
10.	Grade exams

Reasons Why I Love My Husband

This post was inspired by a blog post over at {Sara}Under the Sun.  So often we go through the day without really stopping to give our spouses encouragement and gratitude.  It may be enough to simply say, "I love you."  Or maybe you express love through actions and deeds.  But another way to express love, encouragement, and thankfulness is through expressing the reasons why you love your spouse.  

One Valentine's Day, I hid notes of reasons why I love my hubby (boyfriend at the time) all around his apartment, but to be honest, I haven't put a lot of effort into reminding him of these reasons.  I'd like to tell him and the whole world why I love him and why I am thankful for him as a husband.  

Here are just 5 reasons why I love my husband.

#1.  My husband is one of the most intelligent people I know.  I am constantly awed by his scientific mumbo jumbo.

#2.  My husband is a good Christian man.  He takes his faith and his role as the spiritual head of our family very seriously.

#3. My husband is a hunk.  Yes, he's that handsome.

#4. My husband is funny.  Seriously, he might be able to make it as a comedian.  He makes me laugh every single day...literally.

#5.  My husband is an ambitious DIY-er.  He has done so many projects for our family including refinishing a crib for our son and is always planning new projects to make our life better and easier.  


There are so many more reasons why I love and am thankful for my husband, so stay tuned!

Pinterest in Practice: Freezer Tater Tot Casserole

While I was pregnant, I put together some freezer meals to get through the first month or so of having an infant.  We were blessed to have help for a couple of weeks, so the freezer meals have lasted longer than I expected.

Most recently, we ate the Tater Tot Casserole that I found at Just A Little Nutty.  Here's the original pin from Pinterest.

I adapted the recipe for more vegetables in an effort to add veggies to our diet, so here's the recipe:

Tater Tot Casserole

1/2 lb ground beef, browned

1/2 small onion, chopped

2 T milk

1/2 can cream of mushroom soup

4 oz Velveeta

8 oz fresh or frozen vegetables

1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 package frozen tater tots

Place all ingredients in freezer bag and freeze.  

To use, place frozen meal in slow cooker on Low for 6-8 hours.

Pros:

• Taste: The casserole tasted as expected.  It was full of cheesy, potato-ey goodness.
• Prep: The preparation for this meal was incredibly easy and fast.

Cons:

• Appearance: As you can see in the photo below, the casserole ended up looking like a gooey mess, which is fine if you are expected it, but I wouldn't serve this to company.
• Healthiness: I added extra vegetables to this recipe, but it is still rather unhealthy with the cheese and tater tots.
• Texture: Though the casserole tastes delicious, the tater tots lost all form in the crock pot and did not have the crispiness normally associated with tater tots. 

Because I didn't have 6 hours to cook the casserole, I put it in on high for a couple of hours and then switched it to low for another couple of hours.  Though I often use this little shortcut, this time it backfired.  The casserole was looking great after the first couple of hours on high, but after another couple of hours on low, it burnt!  I can only imagine that it would have been worse had I cooked it on low for a whole 8 hours!  The other major complaint that I have is the loss of tater tot form, not only were the tater tots not crisy, they simply fell apart when I stirred the casserole together.  Finally, even though I added almost twice as many vegetables as the recipe called for (about 16 oz), the casserole definitely could have used more.  The flavor was great if you are looking for yummy comfort food.  

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Taste/Flavor:  A
Ease of Preparation:  A+
Prep Time:  A+
Presentation:  D

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Overall Grade for this Pinterest in Practice Project: B-

Alternative Recipes:

To improve this dish, I would recommend:

• Double the vegetables
• Omit the tater tots from freezing.  Prepare them according to package instructions and add to casserole immediately before serving.

Pinterest in Practice: S'mores Popcorn

For Independence Day, the hubby and I were invited to two barbeques, so I made a couple of Pinterest inspired desserts to take - Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, which I reviewed previously, and S'mores Popcorn.

I found the recipe for S'mores Popcorn on Pinterest from the Nest of Posies blog.  The recipe sounded delicious and was too good to pass up with only four ingredients!  I already loved to add chocolate chips and marshmallows to my popcorn, so adding Golden Grahams to the mix sounded like a perfect addition to make something resembling s'mores.

And who doesn't love s'mores?  

Pros:

• Super easy: This recipe is uncomplicated and requires almost no cooking skills.
• Attractive: The end product looks yummy.
• Taste: Overall, the taste of the s'mores popcorn is, in fact, yummy!

Cons:

• False advertising: Even though this tastes great, it does not taste like s'mores, at all. It tastes like popcorn, marshmallows, and cereal with some chocolate.
• Unclear instructions: The recipe seems simple with only 4 ingredients, and it is. BUT, you'll notice that there are no quantities of ingredients listed.  So I just had to guess on how much to add because the recipe is not clear on what size the box of cereal should be, what size the bag of chocolate chips should be, etc.  
• Kernels: Simply mixing the ingredients is not enough, which I guess goes back to the clarity of the instructions, but I found that it is extremely important for the success of the recipe to remove each and every unpopped kernel of popcorn prior to adding any other ingredients.

When I was preparing this recipe, I found that the lack of clear instructions was quite frustrating, especially since I was trying to tweak the recipe just slightly.  Instead of just using normal semi-sweet chocolate chips, I also used white chocolate chips to which I added food coloring, resulting in some red and blue drizzle for Independence Day!  It worked great to add the food coloring, but I was unsure how much total chocolate drizzle was needed.  Also, drizzling the chocolate was harder than it looked.  I didn't know how long to microwave the chips to get them to the correct consistency to pour.  It turns out that I never found the magic number and ended up adding a small amount of vegetable oil to the melted chocolate to make its smoother.  Even then, it was difficult to get it smooth and melty enough to drizzle like in the photo.  Adding the oil also introduced another problem - the chocolate did not set up and harden as expected.  Instead it stayed in a liquid-like form, which made the final product very, very messy.  Finally, the popcorn kernels presented a problem.  Since I did not think about picking each one out before spreading the dry ingredients on the sheet pans, the melted chocolate stuck to the kernels along with the other ingredients.  Then, when the dessert was served and eaten, the kernels were also served and (not) eaten.  In other words, I had to spit out kernels with each bite.  

Overall Grade for this Pinterest in Practice Project: B-

While the flavor of this dessert was yummy, it did not taste like s'mores as expected and the unclear instructions resulted in a product that I wish I would not have served to friends.  

If you try this recipe, heed my cautions and learn from my mistakes!


Alternative Recipes

Alternatively, I think the ingredients of the recipe could be combined in other ways to create better dessert options.  

S'mores Bars 

Melt the marshmallows and mix with the Golden Grahams (with or without the popcorn) to make Rice Krispie-like treats.  Then melt the chocolate chips and spread on top for a chocolate icing.  Don't forget to remove the kernels if using popcorn!

S'mores Chex Mix 

Follow the original instructions, but Nix the popcorn and add Chex to the recipe instead. 

S'mores Popcorn  

Instead of melting the chocolate chips, simply mix them in with the marshmallows, popcorn, and Golden Grahams.  

photo credit

Pinterest in Practice: Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

For Memorial Day weekend, the hubby and I went over to some friends for a little pre-Bean barbecue.  I offered to take dessert, and I was super excited about finding a new recipe to try.  It seems like I am always looking for main dish recipe ideas, but I just don't have the time (nor do any of us need the extra calories) for finding sweet recipe ideas for dessert.  

My two loves for recipe ideas are All Recipes.com and Pinterest.  Thanks to a recommendation from a friend AND a Pinterest recipe, I decided to try and test Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie from A Little Bit Crunchy!

Sounds delicious, right?!

The best part is that has less than 10 ingredients, and most of them I already had on hand (and you probably do, too).  I even had a pie crust in the freezer that I bought on a couponing run awhile back.  

The only negative was that it was already humid and warm outside, so having the oven on for an hour was uncomfortable, and I couldn't justify turning on the air conditioner yet.  

The result was well worth it!  The pie really does taste like a chocolate chip cookie with a slightly more moist texture.  I didn't serve it right out of the oven (which would most likely be awesome), but microwaving each piece for 15 seconds melted the chocolate again and really took it one step above amazing!  

The recipe is:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

1 unbaked pie shell (I used a premade Pillsbury one)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup flour

small pinch salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Pie:

Beat the eggs, on high, until foamy.  Beat in the flour and then both sugars on medium or medium low.  Then, beat in the butter.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Spoon into the pie crust and bake for 55-60 45 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

Topping:

Melt 1/4 cup chocolate chips.  Add 1/2 teaspoon oil.  Stir and pour into a piping bag zipper bag, and use a narrow tip.  Cut off a tiny corner and drizzle over the pie.

As you can see I made a few small changes.  I eliminated the nuts from the recipe altogether.  Also, thanks to my friend's suggestion I removed the pie after 45 minutes instead of 55 minutes.  Next time, I would probably even check it at 40 minutes because the crust was slightly darker than perfection.  If it had baked any longer than 45 minutes, it would have burnt.  The other big suggestion I would make is that if you have cake decorating supplies, a piping bag and narrow round tip would work much better than a ziploc baggie.  This time I was lazy and tried using a baggie.  While it did work, the drizzle would have looked much better and more consistent if I had used a piping bag instead.  Next I will make the effort to get out extra supplies.  If you don't have access to cake decorating supplies, I would suggest starting small when you cut the corner of the ziploc.  I thought I was cutting small, and the hole turned out bigger (i.e. the drizzle was thicker) than I would have preferred.

Overall Grade for this Pinterest in Practice Project: A-

The pie was delicious, but if I had followed the instructions perfectly, it would have burnt and likely been ruined for our Memorial Weekend BBQ.