Half-Way Already?

I realized that the summer is already about half over.  Wha.....????  Where does the time go?  We've definitely been busy, but we've been relaxing as well.  In fact, so far this summer has been exactly what I had envisioned in my mind.

So, this is my philosophy: I want my kids to do things in the summer that are constructive, as in, I don't want to hear the phrase "I'm BORED!"  BUT.  I don't want to over schedule my kids so that they don't have free time to just BE KIDS, you know?  They need to be able to explore, and relax, and come up with their own entertainment, too.

Luckily, I've been blessed with self-entertainers, that play together very well.  One day they made up a game called "Dandelion Store".  This speaks ample amounts about the state my back yard was in at the beginning of the summer.  (More on this topic later.  I have, like, 5 blog posts swimming around in my head that I have yet to put down on paper.  I mean, on computer.)

So.  What have we done this summer?  One of the things I wanted to do was sort of a "field trip" idea.  It hasn't been anything terribly creative, but we've still gone out and enjoyed what is around us.  I wanted to do something about every other week.  Like, for instance, the zoo.

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago, before it got too hot.  My cute friend Joanne and her amazing kids went with us.  We headed over first thing in the morning, and all the animals were out because it was fairly cool.  Even though the kids went there at the end of the school year, it's still fun to go and see the animals.  And it wasn't really busy that early, either.  So that was nice.

Troy has been climbing the walls-literally.  He is such a monkey!  But this is one of the examples of just relaxing, and entertaining themselves that I was talking about.

Summer time is not just a vacation for my kids; it is also my break time, for me to do things that I want to do.  I've had these quilts that I've been wanting to make for the boys sitting around for almost a year.  I was going to make it all from scratch, but that was too expensive.  So then my friend Arin suggested I just buy ready-made bedspreads, and add some squares of color or something.  Brilliant idea!  Or so I thought.  It really is a great idea, if you have a quilting machine, which I don't.  There's no way that big hulking blanket is going to fit through the little tiny hole of my machine. 

So....I glued it, with fabric glue. 

I'm sure every quilter lady out there just about fainted after reading that.  But you know what?  It's done, and my boys REALLY REALLY REALLY don't care if it's beautifully stitched on or slapped together.  And in a few years, when they wear out, I'll either do it the right way, or just buy an interesting bedspread that I don't have to sew.

(Now I want to paint the walls to match, but that's going to have to wait, I'm afraid.)

I also made a new skirt for myself, that gets totally wrinkly all the time, but oh well.  I had a couple of church tops that needed a bottom, so I was going for color when I picked the fabric.  The pattern ended up being jacked up, where the top of the skirt didn't quite work out on the inside, but I jimmy-rigged it.  Plus, it's on the inside, so no one can see its flaws.  I'm currently working on a vest for myself as well.  We'll see how it goes-it's only cut out so far.

Let's see.  I've also had time to clean out my vacuum really well.  I replaced the filter, and the belt, etc.  It's much more happy now.  I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately.  But that's yet another topic for another blog post.

Like I said, my kids are self-entertainers.  They are also very artistic.  I have no idea where it came from, because even my stick figures are questionable at best.  Here are two pictures, gifted to me from Troy (that's him and his "grown-up" house on the left) and Brock (his is on the right-his house when "I was 19 years old").

We've also been doing a lot of reading.  Brock has gotten really good at reading this summer.  He even attempts to read in The Book of Mormon when we read at night-he'll do one verse, and I help him with the big words.  But even those he's trying to do on his own.

So far this summer I have read some Sherlock Holmes short stories (I read some last summer and loved them), The Great Gatsby (two thumbs WAY down-HATED it), The Walk by...Richard Paul Evans?  I think that was his name.  Anyway, it was fairly good. I also read a book called The Third, by Pete's mission companion Abel Keogh.  It was good, but ends on a cliffhanger.  I've also read two books by Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, and The Bonesetter's Daughter.  I LOVED both of them.  I really like her style of writing.

My kids have also been riding bikes non-stop.  Troy wanted his training wheels off, and has tried a few times to ride his two-wheeler, but he gets freaked out and then steers too sharply and falls over.  Oh well. 

And Ivy, well, she's my little outside baby-she loves being outside all the time.  Yesterday it was raining super hard, and it stopped for a minute, and she was all, "Can I go play outside?"  I'm like, uh, not with thunder and lightning.  She also tends to wander, and I've lost track of her a couple of times.  Luckily, we've found her, but it makes me nervous.

Also this summer, we went to the Playmill and saw "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels".  It was really cute, and a musical to boot, which I wasn't expecting.  I haven't seen the movie, though, so I didn't know the story line or anything. 

Another goal I had for this summer was to have my kids do some worksheets.  I have a few little books that work with math and matching and letters and stuff for Troy and Brock, but I couldn't find anything for Jakob.  So I've been making my own sheets, mostly of times facts.  The 2nd graders started some of those at the end of the school year, so I thought it would be good for him to keep learning those and working on them.  Some of the facts he knows really well; others, not so much.  But that's the whole point of practicing them, right?

I originally wanted to have my kids do the worksheets every day, but I haven't been super diligent.  It's been, like, twice a week instead.  Maybe we'll be better at it for the second half of the summer.

We've also played soccer in the back yard, endured OODLES of ALLERGIES, watched some fireworks, had some barbecues, attended my nephew's baptism, gone swimming, watched one sister go off to China for 8 months, had another sister come out to visit from New York, and my other sister is getting married at Targhee in a couple of weeks.  (While we're up there, I want to go horse back riding with my family.  We'll see, because I don't know if they'll let little kids go or not.  But if so, that would be another "field trip".)

Which brings me to the second half of summer.  Things to look forward to: three birthdays, swimming lessons (hopefully), playing tennis in a goof-off way, the wedding, Harry Potter movie this weekend, and...maybe more posts from me.  Hopefully.

Brave New World

I'm the kind of person that likes to start a project, and finish the project, without having other projects that are half completed.

My current life? So not like that right now. And it drives me crazy. I have a bunch of half-way, kind of started, PROJECT projects laying about. Like, big humongous, can't tackle in one sitting kind of projects.

For instance, I've started in on my genealogy. That's not just a one hour, or one day, or one week project. It's actually kind of an ongoing thing.

Or painting. Sure, I got Ivy's room done, but I have a huge 5-gallon thing of paint, sitting in my kitchen, just waiting. Waiting for me to clean walls and fix dings and move furniture and cover up carpet in my downstairs family room, and get kids out from under my feet so I can paint the dang white walls a beautiful blue already.

Scrapbooking. Neverending. About, oh, two plus years behind on that now.

Anyway, because I'm crazy, or JUST NOT BUSY ENOUGH, I've taken up a new "hobby", if you will.

Couponing.

Week after week, I'd go grocery shopping. And week after week, I'd get more and more frustrated at the prices of the items that I'd be buying, and my grand total.

I had heard the whole schpeal before: get coupons, hit the sales, yadda yadda. But I had never put forth the effort. Then my cousin and his wife came up not too long ago, and my cousin starts bragging to my dad about his wife's mad shopping skills, how she can literally come home from the grocery store with a car full of groceries, having not spent a single dime. And I got all jealous, and motivated, and thinking, maybe I can do that too.

So I started. And it sucks.

Don't get me wrong. It's good. And I'm still very motivated. But that first Sunday, when I sat down with 5 newspapers, attempting to separate ads and coupons and all that, it took me hours upon hours to get through it all. That was two weeks ago. Last week was better. It didn't take me as long, and I actually found some things that I knew were a good price, and was able to actually match up a coupon with a sale. (Yes, singular. But hey, I'm still just starting out.)

I figure if I can save even $25 a week on groceries, that's $100 a month. That's my starting goal. The first week, I spent just as much on groceries, but I got a ton of frozen chicken (it would normally have cost me $60 to get the amount of chicken that I spent $28 on). Last week I spent about $20 less than I normally would have. And this last shopping trip, I spent $103 but saved $100. YAY! I also got hot dogs, which normally I'd spend $1 on a package, but each package was 38 cents instead. So, thus far, I'm shooting about 50% off on 50% of my grocery needs. That's not too bad. Not too good, either, but I'm just starting out.

I've realized that this new "project"/way of life is going to be slow going. That I'm sure I'll get frustrated. And, I hate shopping, and making several stops. I know that there will be a big learning curve. But, I love saving money. I love that I feel smarter with my money. I know that there are a lot of ladies out there that know the system, and can help me out. I know I'll get better at it. And even if I can't hit $0, at least I'll be spending less than what I was.

Coupon world, here I come!

Before and After

My kitchen before:

Monday morning. This is what happens when I neglect my dishes all weekend, because of painting, and attempting feebly to eek out a relaxing Mother's Day for myself. Needless to say, if I'm not the one doing it, it doesn't get done.


My kitchen after:

Monday afternoon. Ooooh, sparkly!

Curtains before:

I've loved having these curtains where they've been for the last 4 1/2 years. But, it was time for a change, and ever since I got blinds for my front bay window, um, windows, I had been wanting blinds on the back.

Curtains after:

And now, I moved the curtains against the sliding glass door. It opens up that area so much! Now I get to fix all the holes in the wall, but at least I have the stuff out because I'll have to fix holes in the walls downstairs when I go to paint there in the near future.

Little boys' hair before:

Brock's hair grows into a ducktail in the back-it kind of goes sideways towards his neck. And Troy's grows very flat. He looks like Julius Caesar.


Boys' hair after:

Nice and buzzed! What handsome little fake smilers.


Ivy's room before:

Winnie the Pooh themed. Which I loved having for my babies. I made a couple of cross stitches, I got some Winnie the Pooh gifts, and because we were super extra poor when we had Jakob and Brock, I got a coloring book, and colored some pictures and put them on paper. When we moved here (when Brock was still little), I painted two walls solid green, and two walls green, but spongy. And I loved it. But again, time for a change.


Ivy's room after:

VERY purple. Pete calls it lavender. It matches the purple on Ivy's princess bedspread. I don't have anything on the walls yet. I was going to do a stencil of pink butterflies and flowers, but the paint bled underneath the stencil, and it got all smeary. So I'm thinking I'll go vinyl or something. Or get some princess posters. We'll have to see.

"Gay" Aerobics and Other Random Life Events

Random 1:
Yesterday I:
-washed 6 loads of laundry and folded 9 loads
-unmade, then made 4 twin beds and a king bed
-patched a hole on my jacket, and darned some socks
-went to part of mutual
-vacuumed my whole house
-loaded and unloaded my dishwasher, twice
-did a little sudoku
-took out two huge bags of garbage
-cleaned up two dead mice in my garage
-along with the usual (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dirty diapers, fixing hair, fixing lunches, helping with homework, etc.)

I just wanted to document how I pretty much rocked yesterday, so I know that I actually can have the energy and time to get a whole lot done.

However, I did not exercise, because my back was killing me. I think from making the beds. Oh, and from P90X.

Random 2:
One day, Pete came home from work and said, "We should start doing some gay aerobics", and did a little disco-esque move. And I thought, Richard Simmons? But he meant just some sort of aerobic exercise. So we got a copy of P90X, and have been working out ever since. It's a lot of yoga, with some weights, and a whole lot of push ups. Each day of the week is a different workout, and it gets jumbled up after three weeks. I could barely do parts of the ab ripper one, we only did about half of the 90-minute yoga night, and my "weights" for the arm day were little tomato sauce cans. (Hey, when you haven't worked out in who knows how long, you gotta start out slow.) And even though my back was killing me last night, it's been good. It's only been a week, and I feel like I'm sleeping better, and I have a bit more energy, which is probably why I could do so much yesterday (though today, not so much).

Random 3:
The other day I decided that I need to take more pictures of my kids. The spur of the moment ones are the ones that seem to really capture my kids' personalities.

I love this picture of Brock and Jakob. My kids were all taking turns telling "secrets" (mostly just whispered nonsense words) at dinnertime, into each other's ears, and into mine.


I also love this picture of Ivy and Troy. Taken the same "secrets" night. Blue eye heaven.


Random 4:
I'm getting the urge to paint rooms again. I don't know why I get motivated to do inside improvements when I should be feeling the need to work on outside stuff. Though it's still been too nasty and cold and freaking windy to do anything outside, anyway, so maybe it's just fine that I want to do inside stuff.

Anyway, I'm hoping to paint Ivy's room, this weekend. Stay tuned for that! (And I promise I'll be faster at posting. I've been sucking it up lately.)

I also want to paint my downstairs family room, though that's going to be quite the undertaking. I'm hoping for maybe next weekend...ish. (Hey, if anyone out there reading this likes to paint, and you aren't a crazy stalker, feel free to come help me.) And other future projects: making new bedspreads for my three boys, and painting their rooms, too.

Random 5:
I checked out community classes for learning guitar. Turns out they don't teach beginner guitar in the summer. Grrr. So hopefully this fall...

Random 6:
Just spent oodles of money on our minivan on Monday. One of the break pads was totally worn away. And we needed new tires. I really hate spending money on things like that, even though it's inevitable.

Random 7:
I'm starting Brock and Troy on chores-cleaning up toys (which they already do) and helping me dust and windex. They were REALLY gung-ho about it. And Important Kid #2 (Ivy) had to help as well. She cried and cried until she got a rag, and absolutely fell apart when we were all done dusting. Yesterday she was pointing and kept saying "bill! bill!", and I thought she was looking at something outside. Finally she got down from the chair, pulled out a washcloth from the drawer, went back to the table, and starting wiping up the spill that was there that I hadn't seen. Such a little cleaner. Are all girls like that? Because my boys sure as heck wouldn't have cleaned up a spill-they would have spread it around and made the mess bigger.

Random 8:
Memo is getting declawed tomorrow morning. The stinking cat sunk her claws into our new couch. She'll probably hate us for a while, but I'd rather have that than clawed up furniture. (We've tried the claw stand thingies. She doesn't care about those a smidge.)

Well, I'm off to do some more "gay" aerobics with my hubby. I think it's legs and back tonight. Hoo, boy.

Spring Break Projects

You know how I said I don't have any hobbies? Well, I can think of one. A big one. I like to organize. Okay, so it's not a really cool hobby, per se, but...it's totally me. And I own it.

I'm a nerdy organizer!!

Oh, and I'm also a minimalist. Big time.

Toss that crap out!

Anyway.

I don't know if it's the nasty weather. Or the extra time that I've had this week with not running kids around to activities, or teaching piano lessons, or helping with homework. Or the fact that it's just Spring Break, and my brain thought, "Hey! Spring! Spring = Cleaning!" But something has got me going on projects.

I wiped down my stair well, and both of my halls. I organized my pantry today. I cleaned out both of my hall closets. I made a run to the dump and to D.I.

So refreshing!

But part of my downstairs hall closet held a bunch of disorganized pictures. Seriously, it could keep me up at night. I think I've mentioned about 5,000 times how much I've been wanting to digitally scrapbook. This isn't just one project, though. It's scanning stuff from the last two years to add to the digital pictures. It's scanning my baby pictures, and my kids' "professional" yearly pictures. It's...just so much.

Here's a picture. Tip of the iceberg, my friends.


But, I figure I have a good 8 hours coming my way this weekend. If I just sit and listen to conference, I fall asleep (it's those soothing apostle voices!). If I sit and listen and scan pictures, I'll get double the awesomeness in the same amount of time. And then hopefully I can keep the momentum going until the dang thing is done. (Another thing about me: I hate having partial projects laying around. I like to focus on one thing at a time, and get 'er done.)

To my pictures and my scanner, I have one thing to say. And I will say it using a quote from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs": See this contact? This represents you. See my eye? My eye represents my eye. As in, I've got my eye (sticks in contact) on you.

Bring it on, mountain of pictures.

Bring it on!

Lost

Wake-up call #1: Pete and I watched "The Bucket List" the other night. It was more philosophical than I would have guessed. Pretty much, though, two guys travel the world and have these experiences, things that they've always wanted to do but just have put off. In one moment of the movie, Morgan Freeman tells Jack Nicholson that the Egyptians believed that you must answer two questions correctly in order to get into heaven. Question one is "Have you found joy in your life?" And question two is "Have you brought joy to others?" I really liked that. But the whole time, I thought, what is on my bucket list?

Wake-up call #2: We have an awesome new Beehive advisor in Young Women's. And she introduced herself, and asked the girls to introduce themselves and say what they like to do, etc. When it got to me, I said, "Uh, well, I'm Natalie, and uh, I have four kids, and, um, I..." I think I mumbled out something about teaching piano, and later was all, "Oh yeah! I love chocolate! And Coke!" Seriously, I couldn't think of a single thing that I currently do in my life that is just for me, just for fun. And I felt lame that two things with which I defined myself were food items. Am I...just an absorber/calorie burner?

Wake-up call #3: Jake and I were talking one day. And he asked, "Mom, what do you like to do?" Again, I fumbled with an answer. "Well, I, um, I like to cross stitch." I thought about the last time I had cross stitched something. It was at least two years ago, a piece I had done for my mom. "I like to play piano." I play all the time, but when was the last time I just sat and played for myself, or learned a new piece just because I wanted to? "Um, I like playing racquetball." Again, the last time I played I think I was pregnant with Brock. 5+ years ago. "I like to scrapbook." Though I haven't done that in over two years, and besides, I'm moving to the digital world in that arena. I kept thinking, are my hobbies things of the past? Am I made up of things that I used to do? What are my hobbies now? Am I just so busy with the daily grind, and so mixed up in my children's lives that I don't have time to be me any more?

Wake-up call #4: A couple of Sundays ago, a cute little girl played the violin in church. She did a fabulous job. I've always loved hearing the violin, and I was totally crying. Jakob was sitting next to me, and after she was done, he said, "Mom, that was so beautiful. I sat like a statue to listen. I could be a statue all day long." I agreed with him. I could listen all day long, too. I kind of had a twinge of regret, that I haven't tried to learn something new.

...

So, let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Basically, I'm wondering where I am. Where did I go? Did I get lost in my "job", so much so that I no longer have interests outside of my kids? Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, I love what I do. But lately, I've felt like all that I do are the things I should do (which is still fun and rewarding and fabulous), rather than something that I want to do, that is totally just for me. I almost feel like I've let time slip by.

When I was younger, my parents enrolled me in different classes-gymnastics for a year, jazz dancing for a year, singing lessons for a year...But the only thing that stuck long-term was piano. I also did other things for several years, like water skiing and snow skiing. At first I hated both, for years and years. Then I eventually liked them. Now...I'm kind of at a point where I could take them or leave them. I'm just saying that I'm not going to buy a season pass to a ski resort, or go out and buy a boat. Here and there, sure, but they aren't something that I absolutely love.

I think there were other things that I could have tried, that I should have tried. I took swim lessons, and I remember in one of my classes the teacher told my mom that I was a really good swimmer. She suggested that I join the swim team. (A city team? A school team? I really don't remember.) I was flattered. But it never came to be. I don't know if it's because I was shy and lacked confidence, and so I didn't try, or if I left it in my mom's hands to pursue the option, and she just never followed through, or what. But, thinking back, what if I had done that? Missed opportunity.

When I was a freshman in college, I decided to take a racquetball class. Just because. My roommate told me I'd hate it. But I LOVED it, from day one. And almost every semester, I signed up for a racquetball class. It was twice a week, but I'd go once or twice a week extra with friends. I'm glad I got to try it. And I would love to go again. Though right now I'd have to find a babysitter if I wanted to go. But that's kind of beside the point. The point is, I tried something, just for fun, and if I would have hated it, then oh well, at least I tried, kind of like I did when I was younger with dance class, etc.

I want to try stuff again. New stuff. I want to pick up on the old stuff that I love, too. And not put it off because I have something that I have to do. Because I always will have stuff that I have to do. That list just never ends. I always think, oh, someday I'd like to... or, maybe such-and-such would be fun... or, if I have time tonight, maybe I'll...

...

That was a lot more 'splainin', a lot less summing up. Let me try again.

I need to stop "some day"-ing my life.

So, what's on my Bucket List? What do I want to do/learn/try/pick up again?

-I want to learn a new instrument. I love the harp, the cello, the violin, the guitar. Apparently, I'm drawn to string instruments. My mom said there are community classes offered where I could learn guitar or something. I really want to check into that, hopefully this summer.

-There's a piano piece that I've always wanted to learn. I even have the music. "Rhapsody in Blue", by Gershwin.

-I have a beautiful cross stitch, just sitting in my closet, ready to pull out.

-I want to go to Austria again.

-I want to go to Grand Cayman again. (Pete and I are planning to do this for our 10-year anniversary.)

-I would love to take a photography class.

-I wish I was artistic. Some kind of pottery class or something would be fun.

-Gotta do the digital scrapbooking. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

-I've always wanted to be able to do back handsprings. But I think the window has closed on that one for me. (And I get all twisted around when I go upside down-I can't tell up from down. I know I'd fall flat on my face.)

-I love dancing. I took a ballroom class in college, and loved every minute of it. Dancing like that again would be so fun.

-I love to read. I feel the need...for read(ing). (You can tell I watch a lot of movies, though. Sheesh.)

-A cake decorating class would be awesome. I tried doing fondant, and it was fun, and it was terrible-looking because it was the first time I had done it. But making cool cakes would be so fun.

-I graduated in finance. I want to actually do something with my degree.

So, that's the tip of the iceberg, bucket list-wise. There are so many things I want to do and try and be. And not that I want to push aside my responsibilities and be completely selfish, but I want to experience. And I don't want to wait to experience until my kids are out of the house. So, maybe a little here, a little there. So that, when someone asks me about me, I can say what my current hobbies are, and what I'm actually doing, instead of what I used to do, or what I'd like to do someday.

I saw this quote on Mormon Mommy Blogs the other day. So, for a sum up (for real this time):

"If we as mothers do something we absolutely love alongside raising children we absolutely love, we will almost guarantee that our children will be raised in an atmosphere steeped in joy." -Debra Sansing Woods, It's Okay To Take A Nap

Can You Smell What's Cookin'?

I am about to proudly present my project that I've finally finished. And because I'm counting it toward one of my Young Women projects, you get to hear all the nitty gritty details. Lucky you!

Behold:


Yes, that would be my super organized, super amazing recipe book. Isn't it pretty? But wait, there's more!

Here's the before shot:


At one point I was trying to hand-write all my recipes and keep them in a box. But my writing sucked on some of them, my pen sucked on others (where it smeared or bled all over), and the contact/lamination paper also was not helping things. I also had other recipe books and recipes from Relief Society, etc. I decided I wanted all of my most-used recipes in one spot. So I started typing. I even typed up the recipes that I don't have a written recipe for. That way, someday when my boys start to cook, they can't pull a "I don't know how" excuse on me. (Also someday, when everything I do is electronic, my recipes will already be on my computer.)

After I typed everything up, I categorized them all, but I kept it simple: dinners, breakfasts, desserts/pies/cookies, and sides/salads. I decided to put all my dinners together, but then arrange them so that they are chronological instead of like chicken all together and burger stuff all together. That way, in one week, we'll have a chicken meal, then something with rice, then a pasta meal, then another chicken meal, then a beef meal, etc. (Does that make sense at all?)



I was really surprised when I ended up with about 6 1/2 weeks' worth of dinners that I like and are easy to make. Sure, some things are similar (like burgers and cube steaks), but those things I also spread out as best as I could. I stretched the meal schedule out to 7 weeks, inserting a night here and there where I try out new recipes or we go out to eat somewhere.

I also threw in easy side dishes that can go with that dinner. For example, next to chicken noodle soup, I put "bread", which could mean rolls, or scones, or French bread, or muffins, etc. And not that it's set in stone, but just as suggestions.


After I got all that done, I decided to make a grocery list for each week. I wrote down all the things I need for each meal. Where things repeated I just added them all together (if I need 2 cans of tomato sauce for one meal and one for another, I put down "tomato sauce x 3" for that week). Then I made it all nice and neat, where I mentally walked through the grocery store; so I listed all the meats together, and all the canned goods together, and all the produce together, etc.

Also on my grocery list, I wrote down things to check on. For instance, I might need bread crumbs for one meal, but I don't need to buy a container of bread crumbs every time I go to the store. But I do need to make sure that if I'm getting low, I need to pick it up when I go shopping.

After that, I wrote down things to prepare. Someday, I will get to the point of having a lot of freezer meals added in to this fabulous little system of mine. (Also someday, maybe I'll get breakfasts and lunches rotating and going in here, too.) But until then, it would be nice to at least have a few things done ahead of time, mostly cooking the meat that needs to be cooked. I have a bunch of meals that call for cooked, chunked chicken. If it's already cooked and chunked, then I don't have to spend the time that night doing it; I can just scoop it up and stick it in, or pull a pre-measured bag out of the freezer. Badda bing.

Even though I've still been putting this together this week, I started following my first week's meal plan. I loved not having to think about what I wanted to make/eat for the week. I loved having it all right there. I love the idea of eating something only about 7 times in the whole year. I love that I won't get in a cooking rut. I will love having things pre-cooked, so there's not a rush to get things in the oven or whatever else. And I love that there's still some flexibility with trying new meals, because some of my favorite recipes have been new ones.

Doing this has also helped me realize that I have a lot of really yummy dessert recipes, so I decided that either Sunday night or Monday for Family Home Evening I'm going to make a dessert of some sort.

D&C 109:8-Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

And because I've rediscovered some fabulous recipes, here are a couple that I'd like to share:

WILD RICE SOUP2 Tbl. Butter

1 cup celery, sliced (2 stalks)

1 cup carrots, chopped

½ onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

3 Tbl. Flour

¼ tsp. pepper

3 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup water

1 can condensed chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half

1/3 cup slivered almonds, if desired

1 Tbl. Parsley

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook celery, carrot, onion, and green pepper in the butter about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in flour and pepper, wild rice, water, and broth. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in half-and-half, almonds, and parsley. Heat just until hot. (Do not boil or soup may curdle.) May also stir in 2 cups cooked chicken with the half-and-half.

Mmmm, so yummy, and so easy!

TEXAS BROWNIE SHEET CAKECombine 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar in a bowl.

Boil: ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 1 cup water. Stir into sugar and flour while warm. Add ½ cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour mix into cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

For frosting: Combine ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 6 Tbl. Milk.Bring to a boil. Add 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1 cup chopped nuts (if desired). Spread on cake while frosting is still hot.

Oh, how I love you, Texas sheet cake.

And one more, for good measure:

LIME JELLO COTTAGE CHEESE SALAD1 6-oz. package lime jello (or other flavor, if preferred)

1 20-oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained (or other fruit, if preferred)

1 24-oz. carton cottage cheese

1 12-oz. Cool Whip

Mix dry jello into drained fruit. Add cottage cheese and fold in Cool Whip; chill. Add 2 cups of marshmallows, if desired.

This week I made this cottage cheese salad with strawberry jello instead of lime, and I put in fresh cut-up strawberries instead of pineapple. I also did not add the marshmallows. Oh, it was SOOOO good! Yum.

So there you have it. The thing that's been keeping me away from the internet. But aren't you so glad that I shared my tidbits of wisdom and yummy goodies with you?

Jelly Belly

No, one of my New Year's Resolutions was NOT to blog less. It's just been kind of crazy around here, and I simply haven't had time. (I know, a pretty blasphemous thing to say.)

So my boys all got balloons from their Grandma, and one night while I was making dinner they decided to play "Fat Tummy". That's what they called it, anyway. It pretty much consists of them putting the balloon in their shirts and running into each other. Huh, it's kind of like Sumo Wrestling.


I've actually been working on a project, and I'm thisclose to finishing it, but I wanted to have it actually done before blogging about it.

My boys would yell "FAT TUMMY!!" before running into each other. After impact, they'd explode into a fit of giggles.


Yesterday for Troy's preschool, we took the kids to Craigo's. The pizza guy showed them how they make the dough, and they each got to pick toppings for their own pizza. The guy also made a big pizza for the moms there, and also brought out a dessert pizza and drinks. All for free. It's one of the best field trips I've been on, ever! SO yummy.

Oh, and did I mention...

FAT TUMMY!!!

(I love this action shot-Troy's face running right into Jake's balloon.)

And yesterday, just because Pete loves me, he got me a dozen roses. He asked for a dozen red, but the lady said they didn't have a dozen red ones, so he did half red and half lilac-colored. (I personally think she's lying; I think they're keeping all the red ones for V-day coming up. But I really like the mixture, probably even more so than all red.) How stinking sweet is that? I don't know if I've ever gotten flowers, just because.


FAT TUMMY!!!


I taught a lesson on Sunday in Young Women's. I was so worried about it, but I think it turned out really well. I've also been reading (slowly but surely) Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. I've been loving it! And-

FAT TUMMY!!!

I just-

FFFFAAAATTTT TUMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY!!!

(I promise, I'll blog about my project soon.)

(Fat tummy.)

Bits of Heaven

This is a raspberry filling cream cheese icing donut. YUM! Oh, my mouth waters just thinking about how scrumptious it is. I got them from Walmart, but they don't make them all the time. (Otherwise, I'd be buying them all the time.)

And how cute is this note that Jakob wrote to me and Pete? I think it's pretty clear-cut, so I won't translate, though I will explain that this week Jakob is the star student in his class, where he makes a poster about himself, and gets to bring something for show-and-tell.

Also, I've been actually accomplishing things on my "to-do" list. Like, actual projects. For instance, I wrapped all my Christmas gifts yesterday. Of course, then I had to hide them because the kids kept trying to sneak peeks in the ones in bags. So they won't be under the tree until, oh, probably Christmas Eve night, I imagine.

I also made these little window hangy things. Sure, it's a project that little kids could probably do, but I did 'em! And they're pretty cute. The gingerbread man looks like he has a sweat band on his head instead of frosting, but I'm okay with that. More things keep getting added on to the "to-do" list, but it's mostly things to go to rather than things to just do. It's nice to be able to actually cross stuff off.

Troy has done tremendously with potty training. He takes himself, and really doesn't care anymore about stickers or treats for going-he just likes to be able to go. I think I'm ready to move him to the real Big Boy undies.

Also, I have Coke. Ah, heaven in a bottle.

What have been your bits of heaven lately?

Fragments

Brain scattered.
Back hurting.
No drugs for three days. (Hooray!)

Ivy three stitches on chin/lip.

Bonked on couch.
Trooper.

Progress with potty.

More stickers than shown.
Very few accidents.
Still glad in Pull-Ups for now, though.

New blinds finally put up.
After 2 months.

Better late than never.
LOVE them.

Now curtain rod holes to fix.
Home ownership standard, I think.


Shopping done.
Christmas cards done.
Lots and lots to still do.
New "must do"s coming this way, every day.
Got Coke.
Should be okay, then.

To Do

I'm having surgery Wednesday morning. Also, YW in Excellence is tomorrow.

I have SO much to do, yet I'm sitting here, checking people's blogs, and generally doing nothing much.

To do:
- Clean the entire house. This includes the absolutely disgusting bathrooms, which I hate hate hate to do. This last week two of my piano students had to use the bathroom; they are both girls. And, um, we have no toilet paper in that bathroom, because a) I have boys that only have to wipe every once in a while and use Kandoo wipes to do it, and b) when the roll is on the holder, my kids (usually Ivy, now) unroll the WHOLE thing onto the floor. Both girls were like, Uh, you have no toilet paper. I was like, use the kleenex? Yeah, it was embarrassing.
- Make these yummy applesauce bars, kind of like carrot cake, with a yummy cream cheese frosting on top. Mmmmm....
- The Neverending Laun-n-dreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (I wish I had a house elf, just for doing laundry.)
- Sew some scripture bags that we're giving to the young women for tomorrow night. Easy peasy, but first I need to clean my kitchen and mop my floor so I have somewhere to put my sewing machine.
- Pay some bills, which is why I originally sat down at the computer, but decided I would check blogs/email first.

*sigh*

What are you procrastinating doing right now?

Nice Rack

Look what I did! It's hard to see, but this weekend I hung a little tool holder rack in my garage, along with the weed whacker holder and two garden hose holders. (Oh, and that snazzy shelf? Yep, did that all by myself a while ago. Which is totally a phrase that a 3-year-old would use when, say, dressing himself.)

When it comes to being handy, Pete and I both suck. Sure, he has brute strength, and I have the patience to put things together. But, Pete can get very angry at inanimate objects very fast, and I have zero strength to lift things, and usually mess it up and have to redo it. And this is why we almost always hire out handiwork.

So, I'm rather proud of my racks. It's all level and everything! Just call me Handy Manny. (Okay, really, please don't call me that-I hate that show.)

My Dirty Little Secret

I'm kind of sort of definitely maybe an extreme minimalist. I love things to be simple, and clean, and organized, and I hate having stuff around. That's what I love, but that's so not my reality. So when someone sent me a link to a blog called Organization for Real Life, my heart leaped for joy at having a soul sister out there. This chick, Mary, is having a blog kickoff with spring cleaning, which was desperately needed at my house. I'm in the midst of the cleaning; the start date was April 2 and the finish date is April 22.

Here's the list. I added a few things to it, like projects that I've been putting off. I'm not following her order exactly, which is why I printed it off.


I started with kind of an easy area: my downstairs hallway and linen closet (that doesn't actually hold linens). Yeah, that hallway is all of about 2 feet long. But it was good to start there, because it didn't take me very long, so I felt like I accomplished something and it gave me a good-feeling jump start. It also forced me to face the closet that I just kind of throw random things into, and got me to change my burned-out hall light bulb.

So here's the before shot:


And here's the after shot. I know it doesn't look like much changed, but Mary talks about keeping zones pure, where the same types of things are all bunched together. So now this "linen" closet is my crafty closet.


And since I had some of those crafty things in my laundry room cabinets, I moved them around and all together, and purged a few things that I knew I didn't need or use.

So here is my laundry room cabinets before shot:


And here's the after shot. Again, moved some stuff, condensed others, and I ended up moving the games from the upstairs closet to down in here.


I also did my upstairs coat closet. Here's the before:


And here are the guts. It really surprised me, seeing all the stuff pulled out and into a different area. I couldn't believe that my coat closet contents filled my living room. That's one thing they do on Clean Sweep, is pull everything out onto their lawn. It helps you look at the individual items, and really see and scrutinize each item before putting it back.


And here's the coat closet after shot. It also gave me a chance to put away the snow pants, which I hope doesn't curse us with more snow. One would think that the chances of needing snow pants in April are nil, but this is Idaho, my friends. (I haven't, however, put away the snow coats. Just in case.)


I've also found projects along the way, which is a very good thing. Like changing the belt in my vacuum, which had melted onto the brush part, which will work for now but definitely needs to be replaced. Vacuums work a lot better with new belts, in case you didn't know that, or were confused by that slight rubber burning smell.


Oh, and I totally want to repaint some areas, like the closets that were badly done. Or the stairwell, after I repair all the dings from the toys that get thrown down the stairs by the kids wanting to see some physics. But that will have to wait-I still have a bunch of rooms to clean.

So even though I got started a little late (I didn't start until the 8th), it will still be so nice to get everything deep cleaned and organized. Wish me luck, and good luck to all those that are taking on the challenge as well!