Bread with the Brisels

Happy Monday! I'm back. 😊 Dustin was out of town for the majority of the week last week and we were barely hanging on by a thread over here. I'm excited to share a new recipe with you today!  If you're from the Midwest, chances are high that your family has a signature chili recipe. If you try someone else's chili recipe, it just doesn't taste quite "right." Today I'm sharing the chili recipe that I grew up eating. As a rule, you must serve with cinnamon rolls and carrots + celery sticks. Don't ask me why, it's what my mom always told me. 😉 Brisel Family Chili serves: 6-8 Ingredients:  1lb lean ground beef  1 white onion, diced  4 stalks of celery, diced 1 large can of diced tomatoes in tomato juice (28 oz) 1 can of dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed (15.5 oz)  1 can of tomato juice (roughly 3/4 of a 46 oz can)  2 tablespoons minced garlic  1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon brown sugar Salt + Pepper  Directions: In a skillet, brown up

Our very favorite brand of pajamas are called  Little Sleepies  and they are pretty much all that our boys wear to sleep in. They are so soft, I don't blame them! The very best part of these pajamas is the length of time your children can wear them.  Here's Jack wearing his Halloween pajamas last year... ...and here he is wearing them this year. 😊 Isn't it crazy the difference a year makes? I don't think I'll get him to squeeze in these pajamas next year, so you'll find me soaking it up until October ends. 😉

Our oldest son Sammy began Kindergarten in August and it has been so fun to hear about what he is learning during his days.  This weekend, he played "school" and was doing phonemic awareness activities with his stuffed animals. He was using the same verbiage as his teacher and it just made me laugh so hard! My favorite funny from this weekend happened at church.  The lector got up and welcomed everyone, and said what page number the opening song was on. Sammy stood up with the rest of the congregation and put his hand on his heart. Bless him - he was all set to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Dustin and I about died from holding in our laughter! His two worlds were colliding, and he lost track of where he was. 😅 In case you needed a laugh on this Monday morning, there you go. 😉 Have a great start to your week! 

Happy, HAPPY Friday!  I hate to even say it outloud, but Jack slept through the night two nights in a row this week. He's been getting so many teeth - all at the same time for about three weeks. This led to lots of broken nights of sleep for our boy. It is AMAZING how much better I feel getting a full night of sleep. Haha.  Needless to say, I'm feeling extra perky this Friday.  I'm linking up with Andrea  and  Erika  to share a few favorites from my week. 😊 Sammy's flag football team is the Chiefs, and so obviously his favorite dog supporter needed to get a matching outfit. Look at Sammy's red cheeks! We're ready for fall weather to arrive in full force over here. Haha.  This week was National Night Out in our town, and Dustin helped work it. I stopped by with the boys, and Jack was genuinely surprised to see so many people who looked like his daddy. He got so excited when he saw the first police car, but was disappointed his daddy wasn't inside. 😉 Dustin

  There are a few cleaning jobs I do daily that just seem to make life run a bit more smoothly around here. I always run the dishwasher (no matter how full), I always "close down" the kitchen, and I always run at least one load of laundry and finish it completely,  On Monday I just wasn't feeling great, and so we threw dinner together, I neglected to run the dishwasher, and I didn't run a load of laundry.  Somehow, on Tuesday I had to do three loads of laundry to make up for it. Can someone explain this laundry math to me?  Needless to say, I haven't missed a daily load of laundry since. 😉

Our Sammy boy is pretty tenderhearted, and had what we call an "owie" day yesterday. Nothing seemed to go his way, and he was pretty emotional about it all.  I was switching laundry just outside the bathroom door while the boys were in the tub together. After Sammy had had a roller coaster of a day, it made me so happy to hear them splashing and giggling together in the tub.  I got Jack in his pajamas and had him tell "bubba" goodnight and they pressed their foreheads together. I snapped this blurry picture of them just so I could remember the moment. It just made me so emotional and proud of these boys. While I know they will have their fair share of altercations and scuffles as they get older, I hope that when the day is done they'll remember that they are brothers and their special bond.  XX