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I know you all have those days, when you think, I really shouldn't have gotten out of bed. Well today has been one of those for me. My kids slept in which was nice since they NEVER do that (should have know it was only downhill from there). My parents are in town. They came in town for my dad's high school reunion a few hours away. So they aren't really here for us, which is ok because we get to go visit them this summer. They got in last night and left late this morning, but I'm glad they were her for the morning! I had every intention to make breakfast! I went into the kitchen to find water coming out from underneath my fridge! Turns out the hose that brings water from under the sink to the fridge got a hole in it. I pulled out my fridge and I quickly soaked up 3-4 bath towels, dripping with water! My husband had already left for work, or course! Then I realized I should probably take the stove out and sure enough there was a lot of water back there too. I couldn't get the water for the hose to turn off. I knew where it was but I couldn't get the thing to turn. Luckily my husband works 5 minutes from work and it was slow at work, so he came home and got that taken care of. By this point my parents had gotten up and were helping me. I was hoping to let them sleep in but I'm sure all the commotion woke them up. I'm sure I could go on and on about what happened and what still needs to get done. Needless to say we had cold cereal for breakfast. Has anything like this happened to you? And it seems like today my kids are more hyper than normal and not listening and fighting more. Is that because of me, I don't know. But let's just say I need this day to be over and just hope I have the patience I am severely lacking right now!
So for my birthday I had these!
They turned out pretty good, all things considered. At first I went into my birthday thinking I was going to make a chocolate peppermint filled cupcake. Sounded super yummy. But I made the pudding filling, it didn't taste right. I tried several things to try to improve it, but it didn't work. So I came up with this option from combining a little from several different recipes I had looked through.
First I just made a batch of chocolate cupcakes from a box, you could make them from scratch. Then I let them cool and then took the centers out so I could fill them. I used the idea from here to cut out the center.
For the filling I used a small box of sugar free instant banana cream pie pudding and made it according to the box. Then before I let it set up I added a small container of of cool whip. Then I stirred in about 1/4 c. of caramel topping. Then I put it in the fridge and let it set up. When it came close to time for cupcakes I cut up 2 bananas pretty small and stirred them in. Then I put the filling in a ziplock bag and filled the middle of the cupcakes and then put the tops back on.
For the frosting, I just put a big frosting tip on a ziplock bag and then filled it half with vanilla frosting and half with chocolate frosting. Once I piped the frosting on I drizzled some caramel on top and garnished with bananas.
I think all of us have "secrets". Well maybe they aren't secrets but we like to keep it to ourselves, and pretend like we don't do these things as mothers, but when we hear other people say it we kind of smile and chuckle, because it makes us a little happy and feel good that we aren't the only ones who do these things.
1)I don't really like to do laundry. Ok that probably isn't a secret, I'm sure most of us don't. It seems like the more kids we have the harder it is to stay on top of it. Well instead of staying on top of it, I usually do it when it's a necessity. Like when there are no more clean pairs of underwear and I know it needs to be done. Or all my exercise wear is dirty, and I know the people that I'm next too in a class won't appreciate the already sticky sweaty clothes.
2)What goes better with washing clothes then folding. This is the worst part for me. Sometimes clothes or towels stay in the dryer until I need to put another load in which might be a few days. Or the hubby is looking for something and ask if there is any clean and I say go check the dryer, and while you are at it bring the clean stuff up so I can take care of it.
3)Even worse than folding, or at least for me is hanging up clothes. When I'm folding clothes I usually toss the stuff to be hung up into another basket that is all the clothes that need to be hung up. I usually wait until this is full before I do anything about it. Which means most of the time they get a "few" wrinkles in them. I kind of wish it would take care of itself. When I'm folding clothes I can just be in one place and put everyone's folded clothes in their own piles and then they can take care of them. But with the hang up stuff, that requires me to get up and go into the different bedrooms to put them away. Not too hard I know but I still don't like it.
Well I think I've probably aired enough of my own "dirty laundry" for today. I hope this makes some of you moms feel a little better about that job you are doing. We all have those days! And we all have those tasks we don't like doing!
Today being my birthday my thoughts are turned to life. On this Thankful Thursday I am thankful for:
1)My life, and the wonderful parents I have
2)My body and being healthier now than ever before
3)For my wonderful family (I wish I got to see them more)
and
...like your life is boring. You get in the same old routine as a mom and feel like, what do I have to send out to cyber space that anyone will find interesting. Well that's me! I've gotten in a funk. When I started this blog I was religious about posting, but sometimes I feel like I have nothing to entertain the few of you that are out there that read this. So why the post then....Well I got a nice little text from a cute friend of mine saying she just found my blog. Now don't be judging her about being a friend and just finding my blog because #1 I don't pass around my blog info to everyone I know and #2 we just recently met when she moved into our neighborhood. Needless to say her text made me think. Why don't I blog, I have to time to do it? I feel like I have nothing exciting to share. I'm sure I'm not the only one, RIGHT? As mom you get into a routine. For me that consists of cooking, feeding kids, laundry, exercise, trying to keep my house clean, etc., etc., etc. So what about that is exciting or would people like to read about? So here's to trying again. I've come up with a topic for 4 days, so that should give me some ideas of things to write about. So here goes nothing. And thanks to my friend for helping me want to get back in the swing of things.
What a wonderful day! Ten years ago today I married my wonderful husband for time and all eternity. Time has flown. I can't believe it has been 10 years and we have 3 wonderful children together. How lucky I am to have you in my life! From the moment I met you I know there was something different about you. I never met a guy that insisted on opening doors for girls, even when you weren't on a date or dating someone. I tried my hardest to not have this be anything serious, but Heavenly Father knew differently. I'm glad you were patient with me and still are. How lucky we are to be together! I love you more than I show sometimes, and I'm sorry for that! I look forward to the rest of our lives and eternity together. Thanks for loving me, my imperfections and all.
P.S. I miss you and can't wait for you to be home!
It's been a pretty crazy week. It started off with the tree incident. And then on Sunday we had a birthday celebration for my mom since she was in town visiting, even though her birthday wasn't for 2 more days. Then on Monday we celebrated this handsome boy's birthday.
I can't believe he is 8! Where did time go? On his birthday we celebrated with family and had with cake.
Then today we celebrated with friends. He wanted an animal party so we had a friend of ours who owns a wildlife education facility. It was a hit, or at least I loved it. I wish I would have taken more pictures. I always think about getting my camera out a little too late. She brought a chinchilla, a skunk, an umbrella cockatoo, a bunny,
and a sulcata tortoise. Oh how cute, these two were reunited, although I don't think they really cared, since our little titan wouldn't come out of "his" (not sure its gender, but we always refer to Titan as a boy) shell. This is Titan with his mother. He used to be the size of a quarter when he was born, but he is much bigger now. It's amazing how much he has grown in a little over a year.
To go along with the animal theme we made these adorable cupcakes.
Happy Birthday to my little man.
Things have been pretty crazy lately, we've had somewhere to be every weekend for the past several weeks. A couple weekends ago we made a trip up to Oregon to visit my brother and his family (we don't see them often enough). We were only there for the weekend and drove so we probably spent just as much time in the car as we did with family, but it was worth it! We had a good time, even though we had to drive through a pretty crazy storm. Here are some pictures of the trip.
   
And this past Sunday morning we woke up to this.
Then later that morning the last standing piece fell so our big huge tree was laying on the ground in 4 pieces. We finally broke down and bought a chain saw since we couldn't find one to borrow. Most of the tree is now down, but we have a lot of work still to do.
There has been a lot going on lately, and to add to that, I've had tons of peaches to do something with. So since you have heard from me last, I've made 5 batches of jam (peach berry and spice peach) and canned 7 quarts of peaches. I'm done for a little bit until I get my apples (at this point I don't know how excited I am for them to come, but it's always nice to have it!). Friday for dinner we had breakfast, we had Oatmeal Pancakes. Saturday was a our date night and we went to subways and got some footlongs $10 Sunday I made this Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak, and we really enjoyed it. If it is something you want to try here's some advice...For my family of five (2 adults and 3 small kids) I cut the ingredients for the patties in half and that was plenty for us. When I made it I cut the whole recipe in half, but that didn't leave you with much sauce, so next time I'd keep the quantities the same for the sauce, also I substituted cream of mushroom soup for cream of chicken. To me cream of mushroom goes better with beef than cream of chicken. Tonight for dinner we are just having sandwiches. We have stuff in the fridge to make several different kinds and after spending all morning and most of the afternoon (not to mention most of the weekend) in the kitchen I'm done for today. I also bought some more bananas which would put my total amount of money left for the month to about $9
Today is a crazy day for us, so we are just doing tuna melts with tomato soup. I did go shopping today Bananas $1.80 Parmesan Cheese $2.50 Graham Crackers $3.69 Eggs $1.88 Total Spent $9.98 Total left $20.76 I think we'll make it! I'm not sure about the eating out part, but that's ok.
Today for dinner we had a very simple recipe, that I learned to make when I was a young teenager. Seasoned Pasta Bow Tie Pasta (several cups uncooked), cooked and drained 1/4 c. butter 2 cloves garlic 2-3 green onions finely chopped 1/3 c. chopped parsley 10 large basil leaves chopped 1/4 - 1/3 c. Parmesan cheese Melt butter in a deep pan on medium heat, then add garlic and let cook a minute or two. Then add green onions, parsley, and basil and let cook for a couple minutes. Add hot pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Add parmesan cheese, stir. Taste it and see if it needs salt and pepper. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top before serving.
For dinner tonight we had baked chicken, with some rice and veggies. I did take readers advice and bake it instead of broil it, I also cut back on the butter, which I'm not sure I would do again, since by the time it was done baking most of the liquid was gone and starting to burn a little on the bottom of the pan, so maybe instead of using 1/2 of the butter I'd try 3/4. Nothing too exciting. Things have been kind of hectic and busy around here so I don't have much to talk about sorry!
Well I took an inventory of the fridge and there is a lot of left over food in there, so I opted to have today be leftover day. It ends up working rather well, because my son went to the orthodontist today, which means a soar mouth. The meal I have planned next probably would be better for him tomorrow, so he'll have pasta or a sandwich tonight.
Today for dinner we tried a new soup using things out of our food storage. We didn't really love it so I'm not going to be sharing the recipe with you.
Today was quite the busy day! We got a swing set last Saturday! But it came with A LOT of pieces. It took the hubby and I (mostly the hubby) several hours to organize and label all the pieces to make the set up much easier. His younger brother came over several times throughout the week after the kids had gone to bed for an hour or two each time. And today was the get it all done day! Which meant a lot of work for the hubby and those who helped, his brothers and my brother (a BIG THANKS to them)! Work started bright and early, around 7:30 in the morning when my brother arrived. I usually don't make something for every meal, but today I did because I felt like that was the least we could do was to feed those who were here helping us. For breakfast I made german pancakes. Shortly after that I had a volleyball game. When I got home from that, I had to take my daughter to a birthday party, then come home and make lunch for the crew. I had a ham and cheese loaf. While that was cooking, I started making bread, since we were almost out. After lunch I decided to take the 15 minutes I had to go and get ready for the day. Then ran to pick up my daughter from her party. Finished making bread. About this time all the help had gone, so I became the helper, I'm not sure I was the best helper, but better than nothing I guess. Well we finally got it all up and done, with even enough time left in the day for the kids to try it out. For dinner we had chicken salad sandwiches which I had put together the chicken salad the night before, because I knew what kind of day we had. Here is the recipe for my mom's ham and cheese loaf Ham and Cheese Loaf Preheat oven to 400 1 Tbs. yeast 1 c. warm water 1 Tbs. softened butter 2 1/4 c. flour 1 Tbs. sugar 1 tsp. salt Mix all together and knead until you have a soft dough. Roll out to a 14x10 rectangle. Then down the center of the dough layer, leaving about an inch at the top and bottom. 1 lbs. of thinly sliced ham American cheese slices Swiss cheese slices Cut the sides of the dough starting at the edge and cutting until you have almost reached the ham, making one inch strips on both sides. Weave the cut ends over the top of the ham and cheese, to seal everything in. If this is too complicated, I would think you wouldn't have to worry about cutting the dough and just fold all the edges up and over to surround the meat and cheese. Beat egg whites and water and brush the top of the dough with that and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes.
Tonight for dinner we are having Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff. I love searching around All Recipes looking for a new recipe. Ingredients - 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
- 1/8 cup margarine
- 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
- 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
Directions - Put chicken, margarine and dressing mix in slow cooker; mix together and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.
- Add cream cheese and soup, mix together and cook on high for another 1/2 hour or until heated through and warm.
Today for dinner we are having enchiladas. A while back I was asked if I would be willing to have a freezer meal in my freezer ready just in case someone in our area got sick or needed help and needed a meal. So I made several pans of enchiladas to have ready, since I had most of the stuff I needed to make it anyway. Well I have yet to be called and they need to be eaten, so I got one out and let it thaw and am going to cook it for dinner tonight. I also went shopping today, again! I didn't have enough time to hit the last store I needed and it's only a few minutes away and they usually stock well for sales, so I wasn't concerned about getting there the first day. 3 Onion soup mix packets - $1 4.4 lbs. Ground Beef - $7.85 Celery - $0.97 Total $9.82 (I bought some other things to stock up on so I wasn't sure the exact total) Total left for the month $30.74 The store I went to today had Quaker granola bars on sale for $0.98, so I stocked up and bought 15 boxes. Since I almost always pack my child's lunch, fruit snacks and granola bars are nice to have around to toss in there on occasion. I'm planning on not using them until after the project, I have them kind of hidden in my storage room, so hopefully the kids won't say anything, or I can talk them out of it. If I do use any I'll subtract what I use.
Today for dinner we are going to our friends house. One of the nice things about inviting people over to dinner, like we did on Sunday, the action is often reciprocated. But I did go shopping today, which means less in my budget for the rest of the month. Shopping 3 Gallons of Milk - $5 4.68 lbs. of Bananas - $1.78 2 lbs. of Mini Carrots - $2 Sour Cream - $1.38 Applesauce - $1 Sugar - $1 (I only needed a tiny to last me the rest of the month, so I went to the dollar store) Total Spent with tax - $12.24 Total left for the month - $40.56 I'm going to do a little more shopping this week at another store. They have the hamburger I need on sale! After this trip it should be my last besides for staples like milk and produce, but we'll see if I can make what we have last. Also there were some really good deals this week, which mean I spent money outside of the $100 for my food storage. Here's what I did. Walmart 7 Gain dish soap - Free 3 Johnson EZ grip soap - Free Grocery store 16 Fruit Snacks - $0.75 each 16 boxes of cereal (trix, reese, multi-grain cheerios, apple cinnamon cheerios, ect. ) - various prices Total spent - $31.43, averages around $1 per item I'm almost half way there!
Well today for dinner we are going to use what we have from our garden. We are making a zucchini casserole that is in our family cookbook, from my sister-in-law. Zucchini Casserole 1/4 c. onion, chopped 4 c. sliced zuchhini 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 package of stuffing 1 c. sour cream 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese Cook onion and zucchini in boiling water about 5 minutes, until tender, drain. In a bowl combine soup, sour cream, and cheese, stir in cooked zucchini and onion. In another bowl, make stuffing according to the directions. Spread half of the stuffing on the bottom of your dish. Pour zucchini mixture over top. Top with the rest of the stuffing. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes until bubbling. Top with more cheese.
Today was breakfast for dinner. We did french toast and I tried something new. It didn't turn out fabulous, and for that reason I'm not going to share the recipe. I still have about $47 left in my budget and still should be fine making my goal of $100 or less. I'm just hoping that the new sales starting this week some of the items I need will go on sale.
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