Bean Soup

We had a snow day today, so no work or school! It's the perfect day for some bean soup (yeah!) and playing in the snow (oh crap!)... I consider myself a pretty good mom. I accept that boys will be loud and rowdy at times, I don't freak out when something is accidentally broken/spilt, and I try to be patient as they learn and make mistakes. My downfall is when the boys want to play in the snow!
Nothing gets me more frustrated than spending an hour hunting through the house for gloves, scarfs, long underwear, etc. Then, the boys go out and play for maybe 20 minutes (ringing the door bell every two minutes to give me a play by play of everything they're doing). It never fails that at least one of them needs to use the restroom while they're playing (today it was Abbott and that's a disaster in and of itself). Then once they're done playing they pile back inside (usually bringing a couple neighborhood kids with them) to unload buckets of snow and wet clothing onto the floor. Their 20 minutes of fun costs me hours of gathering, cleaning, and washing. Not to mention that after they come in (and I'm huffing and puffing trying to mop up the floor and clean up the humongous pile of clothes) they always ask me to make hot chocolate! So as I'm mumbling under my breath and sloshing around hot chocolate, I happen to look outside to see practically the entire contents of our garage strewn about the driveway. They didn't even clean up the snow toys they got out! Blink. Blink. Sighhhhhh...

Ingredients
1 (16 ounce) bag dried navy beans
8 cups water
2 cups of cooked diced ham
1 chicken bullion cube
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
Ketchup- optional

Directions
Place rinsed beans into a large stock pot. Add water and bring to a boil. Boil gently for 2 minutes; remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.
Add cubed ham, bullion cube, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until beans are soft. Add carrots and celery and cook until tender (around 45 minutes). Once the beans, carrots, and celery are tender, remove the bay leaf and it's ready to serve! You may want to get a potato masher and mash some of the beans to thicken the broth... this is just my preference though! I also prefer to add ketchup sometimes, it's just a habit from when I was a kid ,-)