Food

Hubby has been wanting chicken-n-dumplings for dinner.

He said it's one of his favorite foods.

How did I not know this after almost 20 years?

Anyway, I am making it tonight...Paula Deen style.

Her recipe calls for her House Seasoning.

Well, I whipped shook some up this morning.

I quadrupled it.

It's a simple recipe.

(Ackkk! I just realized that I made this wrong.)(I used teaspoons instead of cups, hence the need to double double it!)

1 cup of salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder.

Mix well and store.

Last night I went through, devoured, read and read, you get the idea some recipe mags that a friend gave us.

(We have an addiction to recipes, hubby, me and she!  We feed enable each other.)

 Back to the food.  I made these YUMMY Peanut Butter Bars from Taste of Home Feb/Mar 1996 edition.  (Food recipes never go out of style!)  You will want a nice glass of milk with these.

Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 c butter, softened

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c flour

1/2 c quick oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c chocolate chips

Icing:

1/2 c confectioners sugar

2 TBL creamy peanut butter

2 TBL milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter sugars and peanut butter.  Add egg and vanilla; mix well.  Combine flour, oats, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture.  Spread into greased 13in.x9in. baking pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. or until lightly browned.  Cool at least 10 minutes.  Combine icing ingredients; drizzle over bars.

Yield: 3-4 dozen

Enjoy!

The Master List

I got it done...the master to-do cleaning list

I broke it all down into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly for each room/section excluding the garage.

Here's a sample:

Daily
*Kitchen
-Wipe stove top after use
-Wipe counters
-Dishes wash & put away
-Pick up & put away any clutter

*Dining Room
-Clean table

*Other
-Sweep outside of the door

*Living Room
-Pick up/put away clutter (15 min)
-Straighten pillows
*Blue Bathroom
-Pick up trash off floor
-Wipe down sink
-Put away clutter
-Wipe shower walls off with squeegee after each use

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*C’s Room (Her list is much shorter because she already does most of it already.)
-Make bed
-Pick up clutter

*J’s Room
-Make bed
-Pick up clutter
-Throw out trash
-Put shoes away
-Pick up toys

*Master Bathroom
-Trash
-Put away hair products

*Master Bedroom
-Make bed
-Pick up items on floor
-Put away shoes


AS NEEDED-microwave, windows, shower curtains, rugs, bedding

Weekly (I'll just give you the kitchen.)

*Kitchen/Dining Room/Hall
-2x sweep
-Mop

Monthly

*Kitchen
-2x bleach sink
-Clean cabinet faces
-Scrub counters

Yearly

*Kitchen
-2x clean fridge
-Completely clean out top cupboards
-Completely clean out bottom cupboards
-Deep clean dishwasher
-Lights
-Go through recipes
-Oven
-Dust blinds
-Clean appliances
-Clean under stove
-Clean under fridge
-Go through cabinets

Now our list may differ from yours, and I may tweak it from time to time.
We are going to start with the daily and get in a routine with all of that.
Then quickly move onto the weekly and so on.
I may even go out of order.  That's what I like.  As long as these all get done roughly when it states on the list, I am a happy camper.

Have a great day!

two quick items

just two very quick items...

one...the detergent...
pros: i am really it.  all of the clothes seem so fluffy.  we have very hard water and everything's so soft.  i have to agree with denise's hubby that the whites seem whiter. 

cons: it didn't seem to get out some of the hard smells.

two...pudding
pudding and soy milk do not mix.  well, they mix but the pudding doesn't set.

Detergent

Making my own detergent has been on my to-do list for too long.

One of my blogging friends wrote this post and inspired me to get it going.

One of the members of our family gets skin "stuff" (Dr.s keep guessing) and this may help.

You need 2 1/2 bars of ivory soap...

 

...1 cup Borax...

...1 cup Arm & Hammer WASHING soda.  This is not available here.  I bought a box (bigger then I thought) from a friend.

Shred the bars of soap in food processor, with OUT the blade.

Empty out the shredded soap and add blade.

Pour in Borax, Washing Soda and soap.  Blend away until you have a fine powder.

This is how much it made.  Denise has all of it nicely broken down on her blog.

I have to be honest, the smell from the ivory stinks-to me.

I just washed our bathroom mats with this and so far so good.

I will let you know how it works after I use it a few times.

Let me know if you make/use this too.

Cleaning-Closet-Mine

This morning I started cleaning my closet. 

Here is the before top half.

You're looking at stuff I have no other place for, out of season clothes and shoes, bathroom supplies, etc.

The bottom half.

I took everything out, dusted, vacuumed.  When we first moved in the closets weren't painted.  Just a messy simple white coat or two made a BIG difference.  And yes, this is all of the closet space I have.  It works but I do hang my pants on hubby's side.

Found a spill.

What do you do with items like this?  Seriously, do you keep or toss them?  

Bottom after.  Remember my shoe dilemma?  Well, I went back to my hill billy roots and came up with this.  We'll see how long it all lasts.  But for now it looks better.

Even cleaned out the little spaces I had.  All of these samples are old, old I tell you.  Tossed them all.

I put all of the loose bathroom items in a handy container.

(We have smallish bathrooms and no hall closet, etc.  So the extra supplies are in our closets.)

About the curtains.

When we moved in there were accordion doors for each closet!!  I think I had hubby take them down and out first thing!

I had these curtains from the previous house.  Put them on a curtain rod and voila!

They add an airy feel to the room.

Here's the top after.

Not too pretty, but much better.

I almost started in on hubby's closet, then stopped.

That will probably be next.

As always thanks for following.

OH!  Mandi had a question about the Fly Lady.

*The 15 min. rule is pretty much set the timer for 15 min and declutter a room or current zone.  Works good for kids.

*FlyLady FAQs.

I liked her thinking and her heart.

For me it was too organized.  She has weekly "zones".

I found that I needed to get other zones cleaned that differed from where she was.

We could never match up.

I got a bit overwhelmed.

*Here is an example of how she breaks her zones down:

These are the zones for March - mark your calendars:

Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room (March 1 - 4)

Zone 2: The Kitchen (March 7 - 11)

Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room (March 14 - 18)

Zone 4: The Master Bedroom (March 21 - 25)

Zone 5: The Living Room (March 28 - 31)

You can click here to see the current zone.

Happy cleaning!

cleaning-for lack of a better title

Time for honesty here.

The kids, the house and I need a kick in the bum as far as house cleaning goes.

I went to the library and loaded up on a few cleaning books.

I want and like to have a clean home.

I like being domestic.

And it's not that I don't know how to clean, I need motivation and can always use more tips.

I am going to be accountable to you, my faithful readers.

I hope to document our cleaning process here.

Don't worry, we're not hoarders, just normal Americans with too much junk.

So, after reading through a couple of the books I sat down today and made a room-by-room to-do list.

I have to mention here that the notebook I picked to keep my lists in had "The Power of Your Words" by Robert Morrison notes in.  Way to tell me something God!  I need to clean my heart and my mouth first!

As I walked room to room I tried going over everything that needs to be cleaned/done.

D-daily cleaning

2xw-two times a week

W-weekly

2xM-two times a month

M-monthly

2xY-you get the idea

Y-yearly

I will combine all of the to-dos into/onto one big master list/chart.

(I have to let you know that the kids were totally wondering what I was doing in their rooms.  They are dieing to see their room list.)

When it is done I will show it to you. 

A couple of things: 

One of the books, Clean it Fast Clean it Right,(do I underling a title or italicize it?) said to start with one added "chore" do that until it becomes a habit. 

This is helpful.

As I tend to want to do it all in one week!

Can we say burnout?

Rewards help too. (from the above book.)

Also, the Fly Lady was introduced to me by my dear friend Anne.

Her system worked for me for awhile.  Some swear by her.

She has a website.

Anyway, enough chatting.

If you have any MUST have cleaning tips, tools or products PLEASE to tell.  Anything to lighten the load!

let's talk calendars

If you are like me your calendar can get pretty full.

If you're like me you can get a bit lost in it all.

Here's what I used to do, at the end of each year I'd take the passing year's and the new year's calendars and write everyone's birthdays.  (still do this) 

I used to write everything in one pen.

I would know that someone's special day, etc. was coming up but forget. 

(Our calendar has gotten fuller since I took the photo.)

Then I switched to colored markers.

Hubby had these markers for cd's, but they worked nicely for the calendar.

I came up with a color-coded system.

RED for birthdays.

BLUE for church events.

GREEN for school events, vacations, etc.

ORANGE for lessons.

PURPLE for appointments.

This made a world of difference.

I knew just by glancing at the color what was coming up.

I have used the other colors for various other things.

I also keep a paper clip clipped to the photo part of the calendar.

This is where I keep appointment cards, etc.

Just another visual reminder.

I move it and any cards each month.

Sometimes dates get changed or moved. 
So we will have scratched out areas, but at least they look colorful!
Hope this helps.
I'd love to hear your calendar secrets.

It's Going Around

I am sure you've seen this on other blogs.
Will call me a copy cat.
Here's mine:

A. Age: 38
B. Bed size: queen
C. Chore you dislike: Like most of you out there...the toilet.
D. Dogs: One bassett named Dolly.
E. Essential start to your day: Prayer and reading the Bible.  MUST haves.
F. Favorite color: Gray.  Seriously.  Just not in my hair.
G. Gold or silver: Silver.  I am just too pale for gold.
H. Height: 5' 4"
I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano and the bass...do spoons count?
J. Job title: Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Teacher.
K. Kids: Two, one who's growing a mustache and the other is signing up for driver's ed today!
L. Live: I don't get this one.
M. Mom’s name: Mom...what did you think?
N. Nicknames: None anymore.
O. Overnight hospital stays: Having my babies.
P. Pet peeves: Hmmm...do you really want to know?
Q. Quote from a movie: I honestly don't have one.  Maybe "May the force be with you."
S. Siblings: Are you ready for this?  Two bio sibs, 1 brother and one sister, three half-brothers and two step-sisters.  Oh, can't forget the in-laws too...6.
T. Time you wake up: 6:00
U. Underwear: Don't you?
V. Vegetables you don’t like: Sadly, lots.
W. What makes you run late: I am a mom, so my kids among other things.
X. X-rays you’ve had: On my teeth, and I think a chest x-ray as a kid.
Y. Yummy food you make: I made this sausage dish that was the rave at a potluck, desserts.  The kids are really too kind.  More and more when we eat out they say, "It's good, but I like Mom's better."
Z. Zoo animal favorites: The monkeys, who doesn't?

Darth Lego

(all of the following photos were taken by son.)

Our son has LOVED legos for years.

He LOVES building.

And really likes Star Wars.

I believe this is Anikan becoming Darth Vader.

Can you see the droid at the helm of the table?

This one is my favorite for some reason.

You can see the love by the teeth marks.

Love having a son.

Cleaning Tip

We have a problem in our house.

Me.

I microwave my tea instead of brewing a proper tea.

I know that it a cardinal sin to some.

The other day hubby pulled out a mug and said "It looks like someone threw up in this cup."

Subtle, I know.

Alas, I know that the mugs need to be de-stained, if that's a word. 

My Mother-in-love taught me this on one of her visits.

Pour a little bit of bleach into the mugs.

You can see it working already.

Fill with water and let it sit while you load the dishwasher.

Or paint your nails.

Or brush your teeth.

Empty and voila!

Nice white mugs that get a "WOW!" (from son).

Want a cup of tea (minus the spoon scratches)?

You can also clean them with a baking soda paste and your fingers.

Info thanks to my grandma who I inherited the love of tea.

Being Fruit-tee

Ready for a SUPER easy, extra tasty fruit recipe?

Pile your favorite fruit into a bowl.

(cantaloupe doesn't taste too good for this.) 

Top with vanilla yogurt and cinnamon.

Amounts depend on the amount of fruit.

Give it a good few stirs.

Enjoy!

You can keep the yogurt mixture separate in a bowl and dip the fruit.

This is GREAT for picky fruit eaters.

distractions

distraction (n.)-something that diverts attention: something that interferes with concentration or takes attention away from something else

multitasking (n.)-running number of programs simultaneously: the simultaneous management of two or more tasks by a computer or a person


yesterday i felt maxed out.  grouchy.
i have an ever growing list of to-do's.
no room for distractions or added stuff.
the phone rang in the middle of our homeschool.
i answered.
what was going to be a "quick" call, wasn't.
i went to the office to work on a church project.
didn't.
started to digi-scrap.
someone came over, said "i should be getting going" more then once.
 

 
i thought of how i need to/could pare down.
the computer-blogs, scrapping, forums are somethings i can control.
 
no more reading through forums while playing history for kids.
no more looking online while making copies for school.
no more...fill in the blank.
 
i really need to focus and not do too many things at one time.
my mind can't handle it.
my time isn't enough.
 
wish me luck!
 

random

So the little group of blogging ladies I did the 30 days of blogging with have been blogging themes.

Once again I am behind.

BUT to day is Sit-around Saturday: this is a time to blog about the every day things...things that are sitting around your house, car, your life.

So...I have photos on my camera.  Does that count?

Some S.O.S. I made a couple of weeks ago. 

It turned out pretty good.

My niece, son and brother. 

 Niece feeding Dolly pecans.

 Nephew at the park.

 To see what this is all about go here.

Have a good weekend.