It's been a couple of days

I figured after 4 days in a row, I had to take a little time off so I could look like a self-respecting slacker ROFLOL!

I finally finished Ellie's birthday dress!!!! Woohoo! She wore it to church yesterday, but I totally spaced on taking pictures. Meant to do that today, but it was too hot to do anything. I mean, at 10 am, it was over 100 degrees! Eek! That is just silly! Maybe I will get motivated to go out and do something fun with the kiddos tomorrow, as most everything is free on Tuesday afternoons. If so, I can dress her up and snap a couple pictures to share here.

On a cooking note - I made a few recipes this week that have been amazing! I have done up a couple of recipe cards for a chili recipe I made yesterday, and the Core-n Bread recipe I made to go with it. The chili was super easy to make, and everyone liked it! I got the chili going before I made the corn bread, as I figured that the extra cooking time would make the chili even better. I also used a little browning sauce on the turkey, and I managed to make myself think it tasted pretty beefy LOL! Here are the cards - I used Krystal Hartley's "True to Yourself" kit for both of these cards. Let me know if you try the recipes and like them - I modified the core-n bread recipe slightly. To see the original, click here.





Click on previews to download.

Another LO, and we're off!

To middle TN, that is :) Madeline's cheer competiton is tomorrow afternoon, so we are getting up early (or at least earlier than I would like) and heading out. Madeline's uniform is all together, my camera is charged, the diaper bag is packed, and snacks are ready. I made 3 1/2 dozen of my BIG breakfast cookies and have packed some to go along with us, there are pretzels in the bag, and I have lunchables for the kiddos. I have the oven set to warm up around 7 am so I can whip up a batch of Fiber One's new apple cinnamon muffins first thing in the morning, and have 'em out in time to leave. maybe I should plan to make myself a smoothie, too. Hmmmmmm....

So I made another LO :) I did this one for a challenge at Color Line Design. I really loved the lines of Tanyia Deskin's template, and wanted to keep 'em clean. Pink Princess, the kit I used, is like all of Chris' kits - packed full of great stuff! Check out her blog for links to her stores - Heavenly Scraps.



Well, I better get to bed if there is any chance of me being awake in time to make muffins!

Like my new header?

I acquired "Beep Beep Bugs" by Lorie Davison on NSD, and have been wanting to use it.  Last night, I was playing with my blog template and it hit me that it would make the most adorable header!  I love how it turned out - all nice and summery.

I've been busy decluttering today.  My hard drives, that is!  I really took to heart what was said yesterday at my Weight Watchers meeting about clutter being linked to being overweight.  I have decided that I have way too much digital scrapbooking stuff and some of it has to go.  I kinda wish it was like the paper stuff and I could give it away, but digi just ain't the same LOL ;o)  Then again, if I were to give my clutter to others, I would be creating clutter in their homes, right?  So, I am going through all the kits on my external drive right now and I am deleting things I know I will never use.  I've only been digiscrapping for a year now, but the gigs of space that stuff is taking up is insane!  There are lots of freebies I have downloaded, especially when I first started, that are just mediocre quality, or worse, in some cases!  Then there are other kits that are fine on the quality scale, but they just aren't my style.  I am so spoiled and PICKY when it comes to what I like to use!  The bows and ribbons are my biggest issue, I think.  I really hate bows that aren't photo realistic.  So, I am getting rid of all the papers and elements that don't meet my needs, and I'm just keeping the pieces that I can use, along with the designers' TOUs.  I'm storing alphas in one folder, papers in another, and elements in yet another.  Templates have their own folder as do all the zillions of QPs and albums I've collected.  It's all fairly well organized onmy hard drive, but there is just too much.  After I go through all the kits, I'm going to use the same process to whittle down the contents of all the other folders.  Baby steps are the key - it took me a year to get 'em all, and I won't be able to sort everything in a day or two!

As for actual housework, I did make a little headway today lol!  I baked 8 dozen Flourless Breakfast Cookies this morning, mixed up a lime vanilla frozen yogurt recipe, and did all my laundry.  The fro-yo should go in the ice cream freezer tomorrow after I get ice for it.  I can't wait - it sounds so yummy!  I'll let you know how it turns out :o)  

Tomorrow I am planning to make some muffins and some more breakfast cookies, with a different recipe, and I would like to get a little sewing done, too.  I am almost done with the dress I have been working on for Ellie, and Noah needs some new shorts. Bless his little heart - he is so skinny that the 6 and 12 month shorts would fit - except for him being so tall!  They just don't fit thru the rise...  Ah well, it's a good thing that I can sew, right?  I love making the little pull on pants that come below the knee.  They are so sweet and so little boy, yet very practical as they give him grow room, too.  

Time to get back to work - and to watching Lost Boys!  Man, I LOVE that movie!!!!!

Busy weekend ahead...

Woohoo!  It's Friday!!!  We are looking at quite an exciting weekend here :o)  Today is the last day of school for the big girls, and we found out today that Audrey should be moving back here next weekend.  Besides that, my 2 youngest brothers are in town today and are going to spend the weekend camping on our living room floor, my baby sister came over earlier to borrow my embroidery machine and do laundry, and we went to a birthday party earlier tonight.  Tomorrow isn't quite as scheduled, but I think Adron is planning to smoke some pork shoulders - YUM!!!  Sunday is Mass, then there is a picnic at Deb's church, and a member's only party at the zoo, which I would love attend with Adron and the kids.  His mom would like us to come up to visit Monday, but I'm not sure if we will be able to swing the gas for that.... Ah well, if not, at least we will be having ribs for dinner!

I made a birthday present for the party tonight.  I made a spinny skort, and appliqued tank top, and a headband.  It seemed to be a hit - Kendahl hugged the skirt when she saw it lol!  Here's a pic of the skort - I didn't have time to take a picture of the top as I was running way behind EEK!  Ah well, here's the outside, and a pic of the inside :o)  I really meant for it to be fuller than this, but the instructions I was following were on the skimpy side it seems. Sighhhhhh.... (Sorry I didn't clean these pics up... Been a long day and I would rather upload 'em in the rough that put off posting!)





Oh - and I did some more cooking yesterday. I made breakfast foods to freeze, and discovered that this amazing breakfast cookie recipe isn't enough to freeze if I am only making one batch LOL! The kids and I ate all of those yummy litte gems for breakfast this morning! Special thanks to Susan of Raspberry Road for letting me offer these cards made using her kits. This card is made using Grandmother's Delight.



You can download this recipe card HERE

This other card is a favorite recipe of ours. It is super quick and easy, and tastes fabulous! Noah isn't a fan, but it's not like he really eats much of anything good anyway... I used Raspberry Road Always Asia kit for this card.



You can download this recipe card HERE

Ok, I'm off to bed. I need some sleep after the babies keeping me up last night! Both Noah and Ellie woke up around midnight needing attention. Not normal, and rather exhausting after getting used to them sleeping thru the night lol!

Boy, I am SO ready for school to be over!  I miss having my big girls at home, and I really enjoy having them here during the summer.  Granted, Madeline gets out of school and is home around 3:30 every day, but with the evening rush, I feel like I hardly see her.  Audrey has been living with her dad for the past 3 years, but it looks like she may be coming back here to live!  I am afraid to get my hopes up, as there is nothing "legal" yet, but I can't help but be excited at the possiblilty!!!  If all goes according to plan, we will be picking her up next Friday!  That thought just makes me giddy!!!  I know, I'm saying that I'm excited about bringing a teenager home, but I've been looking forward to having teenagers for a long time.  I really think teens are neat people in their own right, and I like them as a whole.  I know liking them from a distance is totally different from living with one, but like all parenting challenges, I know it will have plenty of wonderful things to offset the tough times.  Hmmmmm....  I may have to come back and read this in a couple of months when the novelty wears off and her hormones go into overdrive!

On a totally different subject, I have been working very hard on a menu for all of our meals.  I used a template I got from the Racketty Scrappety blog Megan has a wonderful blog with oodles of fabulous templates, if you are into digiscrapping, and has also put up a lot of her recipes for everyone to use :) I filled it in using recipes that are my family's faves. I have had a wonderful time with it - I am in week 3, and it has made my life so much easier! We have done a pretty good job of sticking to the menu for what to eat on a particular day, with a few exceptions. Tonight, I had planned to make Beef Burgundy, which is a crockpot recipe, but I didn't remember to put it together yesterday so I could just throw it on this morning. So, I'm subbing tomorrow night's Lasagne, and will put the crockpot meal on for tomorrow night. Which will be perfect, as the Spring Carnival at Madeline's school is tomorrow, and I'm helping!

Anyway, I have been trying to make a master cookbook for the 8 week meal plan, and it's going well - one week at a time. The breakfast menu is the same week to week, and includes homemade instant oatmeal packets, breakfast cookies, scones, muffins, French toast sticks, and pancakes/waffles. I made a ton of the oatmeal packets all at once, and that was so easy!  I make the French toast sticks with a free sample recipe I got from 30 Day Gourmet. They are very good, but I tend to make them without orange juice, just 'cause it's not something I keep on hand. Milk works beautifully, and I usually add in some instant powdered milk to add a little more calcium.  I froze each serving in zipper sandwich bags, then put them all into a couple of gallon freezer bags.  Very convenient!  Last week I made 3-4 weeks worth of scones and froze them. I also made a big batch of breakfast cookies, but I hate to say, they were incredibly popular and I don't have any left lol!  Here is a recipe card I made with the Orange Poppyseed Scone recipe I used - and it rocks!  



Chris, of Heavenly Scraps, was very graciously allowed me to offer this card that I made using paper from her "Rainbowz" kit.  The title font is Boingo, and the recipe font is Ziggy Zoe, and I made the paper that the ingredients are on. If you would like the full-sized 4x6 card, it is available HERE.

I will be posting more recipe cards as I get permission from the designers whose products I have used.  My plan is to print them up at Costco, then put them in one of the photo albums that has openings for 3 photos per page.  I am going to have a breakfast section, a lunch section, and a section for each week of dinners.  

Well, it's looking like naptime for me - I have been SO exhausted the past couple of days!  This two little ones have been running fevers, so I wonder if we don't all have some kind of minor bug...

Tuesdays are hard work

Well, today was just nonstop for me! I woke up to the kids fighting. Sighhhhhh.... Gotta love living with a 3 year old. While making my breakfast, I used the last of the yogurt I made Friday, so I had to start another batch. Not difficult at all, however, it is slightly time consuming to sterilize everything. So my thermometer is registering boiling water as being 160 degrees F.  Yeah, not even close!  So I snagged Adron's thermometer from his home brewing equipment, and went back to making my yogurt.  Then Noah went down for his morning nap - woohoo!  Next step was coloring my hair.  Got that started, then sat down to check my emails.  Got sidetracked by IMing with Rebekah, my middle sister.  Finished coloring my hair just before Noah woke up.  I got him dressed, and we hit the road.

Next step was stopping at Rite Aid to buy razors (great deal on Schick Quattro disposables there, btw lol!), and started talking to the cashier.  She was incredibly neat to talk to, and by the time I left, we had swapped numbers.  Then I headed over to my Weight Watchers meeting.  I was about 30 minutes early, and since Noah tends to get antsy if we sit still for too long, we walked down to Tuesday Morning and picked up an oven thermometer.  Walked back to WW, weighed in, and was up 2 lbs.  Ugh!  The kiddos did pretty well at the meeting today, so I rewarded them with the cookies I picked up at Rite Aid.  Came home and started cooking lunch (aka reheating leftovers).  Deb, my baby sister, joined us, and as soon as we got done eating, we went running errands.  

First stop was Hobby Lobby to pick up the door prize for my smocking guild meeting.  Found a cool needlework travel organizer and some pretty varigated floss.  Wandered through the store a bit more, then headed to Walgreens.  I got some amazing deals on a few things there, then we headed home.  I dropped off Deb and the kids, then ran back out to Schnucks to get something to make to take to the meeting tonight, as I had signed up for snacks.  I wound up grabbing some diet orange soda, SF orange Jello, FF Cool Whip, 2 bricks of Neufchatel cheese, a box of graham crackers, a box of those pretzel/crackers, a bag of semisweet chocolate chips, and a tub of ice cream.  I still wasn't entirely sure what I was taking to the meeting, but I knew I had options.

I got back home and started making pizza, our every Tuesday night dinner.  This week was BBQ turkey pizza - YUM!  Then I melted the chocolate chips while I mixed up peanut butter, confectioners sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter, then pressed it into a 13x9.  Poured the melted chocolate on the top, and stuck it in the freezer to chill before I left.  I also had Madeline help me mix a packet of onion soup mix into the Neufchatel, and when it was blended, I rolled it into a ball and covered it with chopped walnuts.  Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the freezer, too, to firm it up.  About then, the pizza was done, so we sat down and wolfed it so I could hurry up and leave for my meeting.  Well, but the time I finally got out the door I was running a little behind.  Then I had to call and get Madeline to bring out the crackers I left inside.    I headed off, and 3 houses down, realized that I had forgotten the darn door prize!  Ack!  So I ran in, wrapped it, and ran right back out.  Got to the meeting safely, and sat down to enjoy it.

First order of business was a program on silk ribbon embroidery.  Then we had a nice long business meeting where it was established that our guild's bylaws had been misplaced some years ago, and we needed some direction.  So I volunteered to help out on the bylaw committee...  Then we finally got to the snacks, and the cheeseball was a particular hit!  Yeah!  I took the Anna ripoffs I made last week and showed those in the sew and show portion of the meeting.  

Once I got home, I nursed Noah and put him in bed.  Then I got on here ready to post, but my dumb router was acting ugly!  Grrrrr!  So I had Adron fix it while I got our obligatory Tuesday night ice cream.  I enjoyed that while I started typing, and now I think I'm ready for bed lol!  

Hmmmmmmm.....  I have no idea why I'm so tired......

The plan tomorrow is to get the house straightened up, drop off my crockpot at Madeline's school, and get some sewing done.  Oh, and I have a bit of scrapping that needs to be done by Thursday night, too.  That sounds strangely like a slow day - wouldn't that be nice!!!