mason says...

Mason says, "Head on over to my mommy's new blog!!"

Photography Blog

working wednesday

I promise "Monday recipes" and "working Wednesday" will be the only posts that are assigned a day of the week. Promise. It sort of calls for accountability on my part. I know I need to make those 2 posts, at the least, every week. I'm excited! You better be too. 

Working for me is usually taking care of my zoo. Two are in school and two stay at home with me. They are 4 and 8 months. Today we went for a walk/run on a beautiful trail. It was about 3 miles and I ran half of it. We had to stop every few minutes to pick up all the goodies the kids threw out of the stroller. Not sure if they were working on their littering skills or thought I need a break. That would be sweet of them right?!

Also, I managed to snap a few pictures. While I needed to get out of the house, I was also scoping out possible photo sessions sites. 

This weekend I have 2 photo sessions scheduled. I'm currently working to build my portfolio, so I've asked a few friends if they would mind working with an amateur. Lol! I'm not charging them, so it's a win for them! And a win for me!

{This was a pretty walkway, It's not quite fall, everything is still pretty green. I made a few edits and ta-da!I think I'll keep working with the edits, you never know what people will be wearing.}

Well enjoy your day lovelies!!!

monday recipes

I think I will start a weekly recipe post! Monday is perfect, it falls after that long lazy weekend we just had. The last thing on our minds is what's for dinner the rest of the week. 

Originally, I wanted to share what I was cooking on Monday, but I can't promise it that. We might have cereal, order pizza or Friday's leftovers. I'm trying to keep it real here. 

But here is a super easy, delicious crock pot meal I made last week. 

Real quick, I want to add that I just threw some things together and can't promise it's something you never heard of. You've been warned, you may have made this yesterday.

So ingredients:

whole chicken (yep the whole thing - and you get to clean out it's inside) 

1 can sweet corn

1 can black beans

1 can rotel (used mild)

1 package of taco seasoning (used mild)

I think this cost me less than $10. I don't use fancy vegetables.

My recommendation is to buy your chicken and cook that next day. I froze mine, waited, then was annoyed by all the extra work I had to do. Lazy Crocker here. That and I have my own zoo.

Clean the chicken out and place in the crock pot.

Add can corn, undrained.

Add can black beans, drained.

Mix the can of rotel and taco seasoning. I did this to avoid clumping with the taco seasoning. 

Add mixture to the rest of the goodies. 

Then cook!! My crock pot goes by hours, so I can't confirm on a temperature. I put it in at 8am and it was ready by 4pm. I turned to warm and then removed the chicken. Now as I'm typing this I'm realizing a few things, you can decide on your own though. 

I had to break off all the meat and then add it back to the crock pot. Threw out the bones and such. Now, if you wanted, maybe cook the chicken, pull off meat and then add other ingredients. 

I added a cup of water at the end, I liked it soupy. Totally forgot, but try and find those tortilla strips to add, I'm sure that would have been delicious. 

Recap:

chicken

corn

black beans

rotel

taco seasoning

cup of water

crock pot

8 hrs

{Sorry the quality is lacking in the final product. I will tell you it's delicious though and reheats nicely.}

Hope you enjoy and your family thinks you slaved all day creating this delicious homemade chicken soup!!

lost in blog land

So I've been blogging, a lot, but not here. I feel like I've neglected "my" blog in the process of writing one for my daughter. I'm not sure what took me so long to start one that chronicled her journey through treatment at St Jude Children's Research Hospital. She has been through so much, it's amazing how well she is doing today. 

You can find her story and more about cancer, research, funding, etc at:

Bailey's Journey & Cancer Chronicles

September also happens to be Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Maybe you have seen the surge in gold over social media. Or maybe some of the hashtags and slogans such as, #beboldgogold, #showyourgold, #wheresthecure and many more. Some will join in and support, other's will ignore and unfortunately some will be annoyed.  But, we all have causes that are near and dear to our hearts. This is mine.

I wanted to add a quick before and after of our sweet girl. To show you how far she has come in the last 3 years and it's all because of St Jude Children's Research Hospital. 

{Mommy, Daddy and B the night before her 1st surgery July 19th 2012. During surgery, surgeons removed not only the tumor, but her left kidney and part of the right. They also removed several infected lymph nodes.}

{In pre-op waiting to go back. The sweetest girl.}

{Bailey 3 years later. 2 relapses, 3 surgeries, stem cell transplant and much more.}

She's our hero!

Become a Partner in Hope today ---- www.stjude.org