Veggie-Loaded Meatloaf

Here is what we had for dinner last night.  Veggie-Loaded Meatloaf. It was a cool spring day and felt perfect for it. Plus, Mr. Hart had also come home the day before saying we should have a casserole or lasagna or something like that for dinner, but that takes planning. So this is what I planned for the next day.
Meatloaf makes me think of childhood dinners. I never liked meatloaf then. My memories of it consist of not quite done white rice mixed with maybe done meat and lots of ketchup on top. Because of those memories, I hadn't even considered making meatloaf in my adult life until this last year.  A lovely cook friend of mine had our family over for dinner and served us meatloaf.  At first thought I really couldn't believe she would serve that to guests! Turns out, after I explained to the girls what it was, it was really good! Thanks for the inspiration to find a meatloaf that our family loves and I am not embarrassed to serve.
 I usually skip the bread crumbs, which makes it a little crumbly, but also gluten free. It is also great because you can substitute veggies you have on hand and not stick to the exact recipe, which I never stick to.

Veggie-Loaded Meatloaf

1 and 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 egg
3 carrots, peeled and shredded
3 stalks celery with leaves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small red or green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 Roma tomato, chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley
1 cup soft bread crumbs
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Mix together the meat and egg. Add vegetables and mix well. Stir in bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and seasonings. Mix well

Pack mixture into a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 and1/4 hours. Cool slightly before slicing. Makes six to eight servings.

Coloring Lesson

I never realized that you could actually have lessons on how to color correctly, but that is exactly what our art curriculum starts with! It has mad a large improvement in their coloring abilities. Everyone's very proud of their improvement. Today we talked about coloring things realistically. Ava didn't quite catch that, but that girl LOVES to color. She usually does it neater than her work below, but must have been feeling rushed or something. "You can SHARPEN crayons!" was one of the highlights. Mass crayon sharpening coming during playtime soon!

Happy weekend!

The Help

We had a free movie rental from redbox on Valentine's day and had a hard time finding anything worth while to rent. ie There were no Barbie movies the girls hadn't seen. That meant trying to find an adult show. I'm not much into movies, but had heard The Help was good, although I wanted to read it first. And let me just say, of course it was good, it was a fully written, totally developed book first! I really cannot stop thinking about it. How that kind of injustice and pure meanness was so accepted. AND that it really wasn't that long ago. Really, my house looks just like those in the movie. It could have been in MY house! Which means to me, that these ideas are still prevelant. They surely get passed down. I'm just saying I don't want to be that kind of woman and I want to love people. People like me and people different than me. And I want to be brave enough to call out that ugliness, if I see it.  So, Ladies, we are also shaping our children's hearts, lets make sure they are loving ones!

BTW: I don't any of my readers who aren't loving...probably more than me! So maybe this can be just a suggestion to read or watch The Help :)

Girls

Today I just want to remember how much I LOVE my three girlies.  Getting to stay at home with them all day is so fun! If you haven't heard, we are homeschooling this year. That is another post I will get to later.
I love Naomi because she is such a soft, romantic spirit! She loves to lay under her pear tree and dream while gazing at the clouds.  Music speaks to her so much.  Composing and singing is one of her favorite things to do.  Actually it just happens. She doesn't really have to DO it. How great!
Stella is about to turn five. She is really growing up out of toddler stage all of a sudden.  I love lots about her.  She always throws out a good quote or two. Words have always been her gifting.  One of my favorite things she says that I know she will figure out soon is the prayer God is good, God is great, she always prays "God is good. God is good..." Which He is!  Soon she will realize and not double the good and it will be a little sad for me.  Starting soccer this fall has shown her competitiveness.  She goes for that ball with an iron will.  And she scores! It is serious on the field, but all smiles and laughs when we get home and she talks about it.
Ava is... well, the baby.  The only two names she will allow you to call her are monkey and princess.  We do not call our girls princess here at our house!  But she sure wants you to.  I like monkey because she lives on bananas and climbs everything, quietly.  She will play with barbies and ponies and dollies all by herself for an hour.  Loves dress up. For her and her babies.  That girl can put barbie clothes on that the older two cannot get on the dolls!  Her smile is heart melting when she bats her big blue eyes up at you.
Just needed to put their youthful cuteness out there before they grow up a single minute more!

I've been really tired lately, which leads to reading more blogs.  Sometimes it is just so peaceful to sit with the windows open, a beverage (I like coffee or water in a par tic ular glass) and sit and read some blogs that I follow.  These blogs lead me into a life that is otherwise foreign to me.  They also inspire me that I can do stuff that is outside of my normal flow of life. I love seeing life in another country or state.  How it is the same as my life and how it is different.  These two blogs don't have much in common, but I think they both speak to the creative side of me.
Down to Earth is a blog written by Rhonda who lives simply in Australia. Boy, the weather always looks nice there. And all her reused items always look so clean and neat.  Which is my problem with reused stuff. It doesn't look clean and neat at my house.
Sandra writes Sawdust and Paper Scraps from Chicago, maybe.  She recently moved and as I said, I don't regularly follow. Anywho, when she moves she redoes her house.  Not hire it redone. She does it. I would love to be able to do that much wood work.  It really seems like an expensive and time consuming hobby to start right now, so I will just live through her blog.
You can visit these blogs or read the ones that make you feel relaxed and creative. Wishing you some peace today!

Tuesday

Grandma Julane wanted to spend some time spoiling ALL her grandkids so off to Hutchinson we went!

Picnic at the park.

Elena & Bryce

Hey Grandma!

Headed for the zoo.

Gobble, gobble!

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

This dinosaur is great!

"This my puppy!"

Oh, my word! There is dinosaur bones in here!!!

Everyone held the fuzzy caterpillar.

She fell and hurt her nose :(

Ice cream made everything good.

Mmmmm! He was quite a mess!

Yum!

These are great! We are still hungry!

Mom and Aunt Pud. I had some too, but had the camera, so I didn't have to have my picture taken :)

Stella was cold and needed to snuggle.

Rock, paper, scissors

These two joined Nate & I outside, while the others chilled playing wii all evening.

They are holding hands.  So sweet!

Monday

Monday was a full day! Being a holiday we had all sorts of fun activities to do....here we go. We had our Monday morning donut run, of course.  Then...

At the AWESOME playroom at Grandma and Grandpa Harts house!

Zane would hardly leave this room! Look at the toys stacked to the ceiling!

The older cousins played doge ball in the yard, while we picnicked.

Running around and around...tired yet?

Plenty of water and headed to the river.

Testing the water.

Hunting for fish.

Whoa!

Think we got something!

The catch of the day.

This is one of Grandpa Jim's favorite activities.

Good thing for Nate and Jerrod to watch the kids in the water :)

Next up ice cream party at a friends house.  Their bowls were empty fast!

Kai's bowl still had some in it:)

Cutie with all the cicada shells.

Sweet girls getting sweeter!

Hmmmm?  Do I know you?

Sweetest little man!

Got enough? That was some good ice cream!

David likes it too!

Cute!

It was so fun with the lights, swings, and frisbees in the backyard. Thanks Alisha & Will!