Super Happy Fun Time Casserole

Super Happy Fun Time Casserole - Whole 30 Approved
recipe from Mike Dodge

roast the following before hand:
spaghetti squash
broccoli
1 package bacon

for sauce:
2 cans full fat coconut milk
2 eggs
minced garlic
salt pepper

for meat:
your choice ground turkey or beef
1 onion diced
minced ginger
minced garlic
sesame oil
rice wine vinegar
coconut aminos
salt pepper

instruction:
preheat oven 400
while browning meat start the sauce, mix all sauce ingredients and cook on medium heat, frequently whisking until it thickens 8 to 10 minutes

when meat is half browned add onions, garlic, ginger, oil, vinegar, and s&p. After fully cooked, taste, adjust seasonings to taste, then add the shredded spaghetti squash, mix thoroughly. then add coconut aminos to taste.

move meat mixture to casserole dish, add broccoli evenly around top, add sauce, gently work sauce into mixture, sprinkle bacon bits over the top. bake in oven for 10 - 15 minutes. serve warm.

A Prayer To My Boys, Part One

To my boys.... I started writing this poem when I was pregnant with Davey and before I even knew if he was a boy or girl. All I had was this orange rocking chair, that my mom found for the nursery. I would sit in this orange rocker and wonder about the baby that was on the way. The title of the poem back then was "A Prayer to my Unborn Child" and I've worked on it off and on over the past two years, mostly in my head, then jotting things down when I got the chance. Today, instead of an unborn child to wonder about... I have two flesh and blood baby boys that I think and pray about. So now, I write this poem for both of them, Davey and Burl. There are a few more verses I need to figure out and work on, so consider this "A Prayer To My Boys, Part One"... and maybe in a few years I will post the rest.

Dear little baby growing inside me,
I wonder what kind of person you are going to be.
Right now I don't even know if you are boy or girl,
Will your hair be blond and fair, or have your mama's curl?
I dream of our nights together, rocking you in the nursery,
In an orange retro rocker, your grammy scored for free.
I cannot wait to hold you, and hear your baby sighs,
Whisper that I love you, and look into your eyes.

My dear baby, this ole' world is a waiting
and there are some things I want to say
To prep you for your future life,
and for you to read one day.

I pray you explore this world, take a car, a boat, or plane,
Find your new favorite place, and then make plans to visit again.
Go to Wales, Peru, and Paris! Explore all of Southern Utah’s Country!
Visit the Arabia Steamboat at least once, and the South Pacific plenty!
Try all the different foods, and walk where the locals walk,
Enjoy days filled with lots to do, and days where you just watch.
See as much as you can and enjoy whatever you encounter,
Just promise you'll find a church on Sunday, and stay for all 3 hours.

May you fall in love with music, and have many a favorite song,
Buy a record player with some vinyls, dance and sing along!
Take long solo drives to unwind and jam out your favorite track!
Get to know Neil Young, Brandon Flowers, & Fleetwood Mac,
May I recommend The Cars, Arcade Fire, and Dolly Parton,
The Judds, Black Keys, Mika!, and the glorious Paul Simon!
John Denver, Postal Service, Elton John, and Chris Ledoux!
All of this, I pray, and our beloved church hymns too!

Please! May you have a love of books, and find time to read each day!
Begin with Calvin & Hobbes and Shel Silverstein, if I should have a say!
C.S. Lewis, R.L. Stine, J.K. Rowlings, are some fine authors you should know,
The Borrowers, Indian in the Cupboard, Charlotte's Web are a definite go
Other required reading: Trumpet of the Swans and Summer of the Monkeys
The Book Thief, James and the Giant Peach, and The Book of Three
You will love Name of the Wind, The Hobbit, and My Side of the Mountain,
But I pray you love the scriptures most, especially the Book of Mormon.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Utah Snowboard Map - Scratch Off!

Utah, snowboarding, and maps. Three things I love so much combined together to make this. I am thrilled how it turned out. 

There are 11 resorts in Utah that you can snowboard at, wouldn't it be so rad to say you have been to them all? Use this beautiful map to document your adventure in visiting them all.

HOW IT WORKS: Each resort is represented by black scratch off paint, once you have visited a resort, scratch off the paint to reveal a surprise watercolor pattern underneath. Each resort has a different unique pattern.

Buy one for yourself and snowboarding friends HERE.

Introducing Burl Dodge

Burl Matthew Dodge

born July 27th, 2018 at 7:53 am
he weighted 7 lb 8 oz in the first picture
he weighs a lot more in that second one

home-making and social media

For the past couple years I have tried to take the back seat in the blogging world. I felt in my soul that I needed to take a break, and really soak up home life around me. I'm so glad that I listened to my gut, because soon after I made the decision to take a break, write a post about it, and free myself from thinking about it, we found out we were pregnant! So I've just settled myself into this social media hiatus and worked on relishing this season of life I'm in. It is one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I love being Davey's mom, it is awesome to me. He is almost 14 months old now, and he is the happiest sweetest boy in the whole wide world. I can't get enough of him. Every day I get to love him and care for him, and watch him, it's a magical job and it has added so much sweetness to my soul, and want to know something else magical? As I type this post I can feel the kicks and punches of baby #2 who will be joining our family this summer! To me, it's a wonderful and miraculous time in my life. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about being a good mom, and about being a good home-maker. I want to be the best. I want this house to be comfortable and relaxing, filled with things that lift our moods and have meaning to our little Dodge family. I aspire to be a good cook, have a clean kitchen, create family traditions, be an amazing record keeper, scrapbooker, budgeter, maybe home school teacher, AND be a good dog mom! For a while I thought that to be those things I needed to give up social media all together, noting that some of the moms I admire most don't even have an instagram handle! But then, after a few weeks of ranting that I was completely done with all of social media and how horrible it was, I realized that for me, I actually get a lot of inspiration and creative motivation from interesting women I follow. And it's a good thing. I love getting book recommendations, fashion inspiration, beauty tips, recipes, and home decor ideas that are from women and companies who intrigue and fascinate me. 

Sure, there are a lot of horrible people on Instagram that make me want to pound my head into a wall with how hard they are trying, or with how self obsessed they are... I've learned to ignore them. I try not to click over to them. If I spend time focusing and scrolling through some of these feeds that I think are total train wrecks with recycled cliche empty captions, I am put in a bad mood. And bad moods are a waste of precious time.

I will always love blogging. I wish everybody I knew had one. I have been blogging since the dawn of the Internet, and sometimes it seems my brain is conditioned to want to be always posting. I think this is how it is for most people, it's just become part of our lives. I guess what I am saying is that I can't give it up, blogging about my pursuit of being a proper mountain woman brings me joy, so I will be sharing that part of myself again... and right now the chapter I'm on in this pursuit is all about house-making and motherhood (proper mountain woman style), with a soon-to-be-walking toddler, and another baby on the way, there is much to learn and discover!