Tie-Dye Eggs

I saw a blurb on TV about dying eggs with printed silk from neckties, scarfs or blouses. It looked really cool and I thought it might afford me one year in church with fingers that weren't blue, green and red. So I headed to the second hand store to buy a few ties because I have a husband who does not enjoy wearing items knotted around his neck.

Find yourself some old silk ties or scarves in the closet or hit the second hand store as I did. Also find some white material, it can be muslin or even an old pillowcase.
Cut both materials into squares big enough to wrap up around an egg.
Wrap egg with silk material, printed side towards egg, and fasten with a twist tie. Wrap white material around the silk and secure it with a twist tie.
I buy drawstring trash bags so I did not have twist ties lying around. I headed to the grocery store to find they don't sell a package of twist ties. I could have bought a box of trash bags that use twist ties but I thought that would be pretty useless. So instead, Emily and I got some fresh produce and accidently dropped some twist ties into the bags. Oopsie

Boil your eggs for 20-25 minutes in a non-reactive pot with 1/4 cup white vinegar. Immediately place eggs into an ice bath (this gets rid of that funky green coated yolk) until cool enough to handle.

Have fun unwrapping your eggs!

Easter Cake

I had planned on making this cake with the kids this weekend but they were downstairs playing so nicely that I decided to spend some therapy time in the kitchen baking; just me and my Kitchen Aid. There is one thing that I have learned beyond "never wake a sleeping baby" and that is never ask questions when all three kids are playing nicely.

J and I have done Weight Watchers for three months without any baked goods in the house so I thought we'd splurge this weekend...sort of. I took this recipe out of Family Circle magazine and tweaked it a bit. OK, after looking at the recipe and picture I guess I kind of took this cake as the inspiration and pretty much changed every part of it.

Original:
http://www.parents.com/recipe/layer-cakes/oreos-n-cream-cake/

Now my cake with changes made to be a bit more friendly to those of us who need to fit into the majority of the clothes hanging in the closet.

Cake:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, lite margarine sticks, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/4 cups buttermilk skim milk with 1 1/4 tbsp. lemon juice to make buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 8” circle pans.
Mix dry ingredients (first 5). Beat butter sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes, add eggs 1 at a time. Slowly beat flour into sugar mixture, alternating with buttermilk. (Begin and end with flour mixture.) Divide into two pans and bake 34 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and turn cakes out.
Bakers Note: If I had regular margarine sticks I would have used those. Due to my longing desire to fit into the clothes in my closet I only stock lite margarine sticks in the fridge. The batter gets pretty runny after adding the eggs when using the lite margarine but the cakes appear to have baked fine. Also, it took a bit of extra flour to make a cake batter consistency so either plan on using a bit more flour or a bit less buttermilk. Consider your kitchen a mad science lab!

Filling: (original filling completely scrapped)
1 container fat free Cool Whip
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp. sugar

Divide each cake layer in half.
Mix all ingredients until smooth and then spread 1/3 of mixture between the cake layers.

Frosting: (original filling completely scrapped)
1 container fat free cool whip
3 cups crushed Oreos

Spread cool whip over cake. Place crushed oreos on sides of cake.

The original cake is 13 points per piece (16 servings). My diet twist is 5 points per piece (16 servings).
I can say that the cake was completely gone in two days, so I guess it was edible even with the diet twist.

More veggie soup

Another dose of blogger vegetable soup; if you don't like vegetable soup imagine chicken noodle or french onion- just stay away from the clam chowder. I don't like stinky blogs.

Whenever I go out I look for hidden treasures that other people overlook and try to figure out a way to fix it up and use it. All that means is I like junk; I look for junk and then try to find a way to make it pretty junk that I will use in my house. Sometimes it works, and other times i just make the junk even more junky so I toss it out.

Last week I found this lovely, painted mirror for a mere $16. The frame around it was great and the mirror even had a bevel around it. I would have paid a lot more for just a mirror, let alone a frame as well. Only one problem; it was ugly! Copper looking paint doesn't match a darn thing in my house and I can only imagine that is why it was still sitting on the clearance shelf. But I was able to look beyond the hideous, gaudy colored frame so I bought it and bought a can of spray paint the same day.

Here is the painted version in our bedroom. Every time I bring home of these ugly gems my husband always gives me a look. It is the same look every time which says "that is ugly, very ugly and what do you plan on doing with it in our house?" I always tell him my grand plan and I still get the look, only now it has transformed into "that won't work, but have a nice time trying honey." He hung my mirror for me a couple days ago; enough said.

Last weekend the fifth graders got to take a trip to the science center and sleep there overnight. I didn't think a mom with a group of 10-11 year old boys was a stellar idea so I volunteered J. I could tell the second I saw him Saturday morning that it was a long night on a very hard floor. Although, I think he secretly had a good time wagering bets with the boys on how much pizza they could eat.
(Doesn't Jacob look like a mini-me of J?!)


And finally, here is a picture of the kids' bathroom. We have had ducks in our kids bathroom for four years so I figured it was about time to change to something else. I painted the walls a very light lime green and added turquoise rugs and the brightly striped shower curtain. It is like a color explosion in there! Even with the new theme we still refer to it as the "ducky bathroom" because "stripey bathroom" just doesn't have the same flow.

Your reward

Thank you to all the family members who will soon be receiving three seperate post cards, all containing the same information. Every year at school the kids bring home a packet of post cards to address to friends and family with the hopes that they will be suckered into buying a magazine subscription with money coming back to the school. Some years I'm able to quietly dispose of them, but not this year. An assembly and promise of a great toy made it impossible to wrangle these post card packets out of their dirty, long fingernailed (yes, I say that is a word) hands this year. All three of them were so eager to get their straw glasses.

So, without further ado...I give you your reward for accepting three offers of exactly the same thing and so lovingly disposing of them, for me.

Toes and more

What do you think the purpose is of the little toe? You know, the short little stubby stub at the end of your line of toes; what is that thing there for? Do we really need to spread our weight out among five toes, one of those being a little stubby stub that barely grows a toenail? I think the little toe is simply there to act as our spatial guide and to loudly let us know when we get too close to something. Think of it like a cat's whiskers determining the space they can fit into. My spatial awareness is quite off; like a swollen stubby stub little toe with no nail- off. OK, very off. I'm about to invest in steel-toed shoes.

When you eat whatever you want regardless of calories that would include eating the full fat, full sugar chocolate. Do the manufacturers kindly guide you to the amount you should eat? Nope, they will even sell you a king size version.

What happens when you decide to try and lose weight thus requiring you to buy the sugar free chocolate? You just want to enjoy a little bit of chocolate flavor after all.

Why do they put that suggestion on the DIET chocolate but not the full fat, full sugar variety? Isn't that a bit backwards?

This- This is why they tell you to eat sugar free chocolate in moderation.

Sorry for the poor pictures; my camera is also revolting against the diet chocolate.

Absent

Some of you may have noticed that I am blogging far less these days. If you didn't let's just pretend you did; for me, OK?

Anyway, we are adopting! I have been very focused the past several weeks to get our adoption off and running and it has been an insane amount of paperwork. I researched anything and every thing I could find for over a year and the amount of paperwork still surprised me.

I am reserving this blog for our chaotic, comical moments so I started a separate blog detailing our adoption journey. You can find a link to our adoption blog on the right, titled, "Five, Six...Pick Up Sticks"
Follow along as we work through the mountain of paperwork, rolls of tape and immense joy of adopting our next child...a daughter from China.

A word from Jacob

One morning last week I was in my room getting ready while the kids were also getting ready for school and I overheard the following conversation.

Matthew- Yea, but what is a depression?
Jacob- It was when companies couldn't afford to pay people so they lost their job and then when they looked for a new job they couldn't find one so they had to travel somewhere else and that meant that families were spilt up and separated. Then because their family was split-up they became sad and depressed; that is why it is called the depression- because so many people were depressed.

I did take the opportunity to tell him that an economic depression is different than medical depression but when you stop and think about it; it makes complete sense.

Last night we were discussing a savings account with Jacob. He decided he wanted to open a savings account with his few dollars in change so he could start earning interest and getting more money. We revisited the idea of the 401 P, as in 401 Parents, with matching contribution. We have told the kids for a couple of years now that whatever money they present to buy a car at the age of 16, we will match it. So that got Jacob's wheels turning and J sat him down at eBay to find what $1000-$2000 will buy him compared to $3000-$4000. He looked for awhile and then came into eat dinner.

Later that night I found a sheet of paper with Jacob's requested car features.
-tinted windows
-tilt steering wheel
-tachometer
-split fold down rear seat
-rear window defog

I nearly busted a gut laughing when I saw this list.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Nine years ago today I was lying in a hospital bed, crying and begging for the doctors to induce me. My dear daughter had overstayed her welcome by one week and J would be leaving for a week in two short days. It was imperative that I put the "Closed" sign on my womb and evict the tenant. The doctor's finally relented and decided to induce my labor. I tried to tell them that I'd be no trouble, my babies come quick and I wouldn't use too much of their time. They didn't believe me.

From the start of Pitocin to a bouncing, screaming baby girl in my arms was 2 1/2 hours. I secretly love proving people wrong; one labor nurse in particular.

It is hard to believe my little girl is 9 years old today. Here are a few things I love about Emily.

* She has a very caring heart and is always thinking of other people.

* She loves any type of crafts, making for a great craft partner.

* She has beautiful eyes that are a color of her own. Her eyes are a grayish green that doesn't match anyone in the entire family.

* She has beautiful, thick hair. She often likes to complain about how thick her hair is and I remind her that she didn't have a choice; it is a trait that she comes by honestly.

* She makes friends easily but then does not forget them when we move her around often. She will have many friends all over the country by the time she graduates.

* She loves little children and is wonderful with them; she will make an excellent babysitter in a few years.

* She likes to bake and cook.

* She is an excellent student whom the teachers always love.

* She is extremely responsible for her age.

We will be taking Emily and three of her friends to lunch and a movie on Saturday to celebrate.

Bottomless Pit

So it has started. I knew when I gave birth to two boys that a few years down the road I would be needing to make grocery store trips a couple times a week and a family meal at a fast food restaurant would cost more than a sit down meal for J and myself.

Last week I took the kids to Subway before we took the dog to training. Each child ate a 6 inch sub; so much for the kids meal subs. Then 1 1/2 hours later both boys were clutching their stomach and whining "I'm starving, Mom!" Yes, because you know a 6 inch sub is not nearly enough to feed a 6 and 10 year old boy; what was a I thinking?

I dread the sounds my bank account will be making as we get through the full teenage years.

A little thought for your food

Every woman loves chocolate, right? OK, well I have met a few loose nuts that say they don't like chocolate and I wonder if they've ever had their estrogen levels checked because that just doesn't sound normal.

But, have you ever wondered where your chocolate comes from? I learned last year that most big name chocolate manufacturers actually buy their cocoa from plantations that use child labor. Here is a photo slide show that msnbc.com posted online this morning showing cocoa production in Ivory Coast, Africa. And here is an article detailing the child labor at cocoa plantations.

This Valentine's Day I urge you to pay a little bit extra to buy chocolates from a fair trade manufacturer. It will cost more than the chocolate bars that saturate the market but I have found it tastes a bit sweeter when I know the workers on the beginning end of my chocolate bar were paid fair wages for their work and more importantly- were not children.

To find retailers near you that sell Fair Trade Certified products, click here.

To view a list of chocolate brands that are presumably slave-free, click here.

The kitchen

I've never posted a kitchen after we finally finished the wood floor. We finished off the floor around Thanksgiving but the kitchen has not been showcase clean until this week. We were preparing for our first visit from the social worker for our home study so all the island paper weights were hidden in the cabinets.

Snow Day

A way with words

Matthew seems to always find a way to make us laugh with his one-liner comments and tonight was no different. Emily had quite the attitude this evening and after being very disrespectful to both of her parents she was not only sent to her room but sent to bed early as well. She threw a real doozy of a fit once she got to her room (only reinforcing the fact that she was indeed tired) and it was about that time Matthew came out of the bathroom from his shower. He told her very frankly, "Emily, what is your problem? You sound like a dying pigeon." The good parent in us told him that is wasn't nice but that was only after we laughed and asked each other where in the world he comes up with his analogies.

Lately funnies

Several nights ago we went out to eat dinner and afterwards Matthew wanted to stop by Michael's and pick out some yarn for a scarf (I just recently learned to crochet and Emily has 2 new scarves.) From the restaurant to Michael's we had to listen to the children argue about boys having scarves; Emily insists that boys don't wear scarves and everyone told her yes they can. Among all that chatter Matthew looked up at the store front and saw that one of the letters had a light bulb flickering and pointed it out. We all looked and agreed and then he said "That is a stroke light." Yep, those good 'ole stroke lights.

Tonight I told all the kids to put on their pajamas. This would usually result in Matthew finishing first and Jacob last but tonight it was reversed. I was quite puzzled on what could be taking Matthew so long so I went to check on him. He tried to put his pajama pants on and found the legs to be knotted. He couldn't get them undone and then Jacob yells from his room "just pull the two strings." I tried to explain to him it wasn't that kind of knot and he persistently told me yes, it was. Finally he said "I know how they got knotted; I did it." Upon further questioning he said in his book The Boys Book, How To Be The Best At Everything it says "How to annoy your sister or brother" and follows with tying the legs of their pajamas in knots. I wonder how long those pajamas have sat in his drawer with the legs knotted before Matthew chose them to wear.

This weekend we have to choose Jacob's elective for his first year of middle school. He has the option of band, choir or study skills. He expresses some interest in band but not a lot and I'm trying not to force him into liking band just because he has two parents that were band geeks. Today he brought home the recorder- the screechy when you don't open your throat enough, recorder. After an hour I had to ask him to give the practicing a break; I'm now rethinking this band idea. God bless our parents.

Normal

Hypothetical situtation (well, sort of)

You go to the doctor for reoccuring migraine headaches despite being on a daily preventative medication and even having the dosage increased. Your migraines have dramatically increased and have become more than a nuisance at this point. Your doctor is very caring and seems concerned; he/she looks into your eyes for a great deal of time while shining a 60 watt lightbulb deep into your head causing your eyes water down your face. Then you are sent downstairs for a blood draw to run some labs and make an appointment for an MRI to take place two days later.

Deep down you feel that there really isn't anything seriously wrong but it never hurts to follow through with some basic medical measures just to make sure.

You think you've had an MRI before but quickly realize that you actually had a CT scan and the two things are very different. You keep your eyes closed and try to deep breathe (but don't move!) while inside a tunnel with a cage around your head for 25 minutes. All goes well and the tech says you should have the results in a few days.

Two weeks go by and you haven't heard anything. You could call to get the results but surely you would have heard by now if there was something seriously wrong. No news is good news, right?

OK, so you finally receive your hypothetical letter telling you that everything is fine with your MRI. It might read something like this:

Dear Mrs. Jabberblogger,

The radiologist and myself have reviewed your MRI films taken on Dec. 34, 2039 and want to inform you that all results were normal. If you would like a second opinion please contact me and I will arrange it.
If you continue to have an increase in the occurance of your migraine headaches or feel your symptoms dramatically worsen please call me. I would like to follow up with you in a month to check the effectiveness of the medication change.

Sincerely,
Dr. Kitterzapper

Or, you might receive a letter like this instead (actual scanned letter, just changed the names):So much white space, almost like I might be missing something but my brain is normal so I know that is just plain, white space. Happy New Year to me!

Dinner

As a fly on the wall of our house last night you would have heard the following:

Emily- I am NOT eating that!
Matthew- Eww, what smells?
Emily- You don't need to put that on my plate because I am NOT eating it. (Then green beans went on her plate) UGH, that too?! Well, I'm only eating potatoes.

Then the plates were put on the table in the dining room.

Emily- This is so disgusting.
Matthew- Yea, what is this green stuff on it?
Emily- I am so NOT eating this.

Later we were talking about going camping and canoeing with Papa and J asked them if they would go fishing and then eat their fish for dinner?

Emily- No way, I would not eat that; we would be camping.
J- Well, when you go camping you go fishing and then have a fish dinner. (All the while I'm saying how good fried catfish tastes and Matthew is talking about how fun it would be.)
Emily- No, I'm taking real food with me when I camp. (We ask her what this would be.) Stuff like chicken nuggets, pizza, fish sticks.
WHOA WHOA WHOA

The girl who just called my dinner disgusting, smelly and green says she will eat fish sticks because they are real food. We made sure we told her what went into fish sticks and Matthew even made sure to point out- EVEN THE EYEBALLS!

Want to know what I served for dinner last night? Broiled salmon with a teriyaki glaze, green beans and potatoes. To her defense, the green beans were gross; I like green beans but will not buy that kind again. She made sure she pointed out that nobody ate their green beans, not even mom or dad.

We informed the kids how nutritious salmon is and we called it "brain food" because of the Omega 3's. Jacob gobbled his up and said he knew he was smarter. Emily begrudgingly ate her salmon after the fish stick and brain food stories but followed it up with a sassy "I know it doesn't really make you smarter."

Resolutions

Are you the type to make resolutions every time New Years Day rolls around? Do you keep them or dump them in a week?

I usually do not make New Year resolutions. In the past I have tried to set a goal for myself but I never really set the bar extremely high so if I didn't make it I never had the sense of being a failure (see how that works?). In years past I have thought of trying to be a better mom, or more patient, or always speaking with a sickeningly sweet "oh that is OK you broke my $300 TV with your spray bottle, TWICE, honey" voice, but...well that quickly flew out the window an hour later when I had two or eventually three toddlers/preschoolers all saying "MOMMY" at the same time and I wanted my 12 inches of personal space back. Yea, I tried that goal only once and then I wised up; the only way I could maintain that patient, sweet talking, better mom persona is behind two closed doors with a book during certain times of the day.
OK, so that makes it sound like I'm raising three rowdy, out of control children that drive me crazy. That is only half true- I'm raising three awesome, wonderful children that drive me crazy.

This year I am making a full-fledged effort of setting a few resolutions. To hold myself more accountable I am posting them here for the world to see, so if I fail- I really fail.
In 2009, I plan to:
1. Lose all the weight that I lost once before. This will take a considerable amount more effort than it did last time because at that time I was stressed out and alone with 3 kids for a year. That made weight loss goals unbelievably easy. Now I am happy, fat and comfortable and my stress level is considerably lower; I find chocolate much more desirable now and diet chocolate sucks.
2. I plan to start an individual devotion. I picked up this book yesterday and we'll see how it goes; maybe I'll find that sweet talking mom persona deep down and not raise my voice when my children break the bed for the third time after being told not to jump on it at least once a week.
3. I plan to actively search for a new church. This has been hard for me, far more difficult that I imagined it to be. We city hop and thus, church hop nearly every year but our last year in GA landed us in an absolutely wonderful church where we met amazing people and friends. We were able to share and grow in our financial ministry and found it so rewarding. Leaving that church behind affected me more than I than expected but also clouded my search for a new church. I am vowing to set aside my pouting, whining and my version of a three year old tantrum and come to the conclusion that I cannot have another Westtown but God will lead us to the place we need to serve here.

Merry Christmas!

Do you know what happens around age 6-8? Children learn how to keep secrets and they cannot be coaxed, bribed or even tricked into spilling the beans. J took Emily and Matthew shopping for my present last week and I have not been able to get a hint out of either of them- not even a slip up of the store it was purchased at! These kids are good!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

No Place Like Home

Click your heels three times and repeat after me...
There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

Screw. That.

Home is currently bone-chilling cold and even though the summers in the south nearly melt the skin off your body and you need a gas mask if you enter a location where people might be sweating (OK, everywhere!), I am ready to trade that for these 'you have to be out of your mind to live here and enjoy it' frigid days. I know many people might be saying out loud to their screens right now "I live in climates much colder than where you are." If you enjoy it I think the cold sensor in your brain must have gotten stuck in September and you stopped registering the actual temperature outside. In absolutely no way do I find temperatures under 10°F the least bit enjoyable or even tolerable. When I take the dog outside I like for the fluid in my eyes to remain liquid, not frozen. It is a very odd sensation to close your eyelid and feel the surface of eye now cold; very odd indeed.

Even my van is revolting at the sub-zero temperatures. Last night it creaked, moaned and whined when I forced it to take me someplace warm. So maybe the tires nearly melted to the driveway last year when it was 115 in GA but it never voiced it's "van opinion" like it did yesterday. I think I agree with the van; this just sucks.

I think we need to permanently move to somewhere in the south and then drag all of our relatives with us. We'll make sure to bring them down in the winter so they are settled before the 100+ degree August hits.

Homemade laundry soap

UPDATE:
I changed my "recipe" just a bit and started adding Kirk's Hardwater Castile and Biz to my soap. I have used about 1/4 scoop of Biz for a few years in my laundry to help remove stains so I started adding it directly to my soap, but I cut down on the Borax so there wasn't too much stuff in there.
Now I use:
1 bar Fels Naptha
1 bar Kirks Hardwater Castile
2 cups Arm & Hammer washing soda
1 cup Borax
1 cup Biz

************Original Post*****************
OK, so I don't have 18 kids like the Duggars but that didn't stop me from using an idea I saw on their show: making your own laundry soap. The links I found online made the liquid version look like something from a science fiction movie in the 80's so I opted for the dry powder version instead. It seems weird to use something "homemade" to wash my clothes instead of the standard Tide that I've used for over a decade but all the comparisons I found online seem to point to the homemade detergent cleaning just as well as Tide or other name brand detergents. It is frugal and best of all, phosphate free so I am doing one more part to earn my crunchy halo. I made one batch for our laundry last weekend and so far, so good. I made a larger batch today to donate to a shelter that is in need of laundry detergent and documented so you can learn too; aren't you thrilled?

Recipe I used:
2 cups soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

I used Fels-Naptha soap in our recipe. It is an old laundry soap that has somewhat of an industrial, clean smell to it. I think you'll either love it or hate it; I'm weird and fall into the middle but everyone else in the house really likes it. You can use other soaps (make sure it is soap and not a beauty or deodorant bar) such as Ivory, Kirks Hardwater Castile or Zote. Next time I will most likely use Kirks because it has a very light fragrance and I can add my own essential oils.
Borax can be found at most grocery stores in the laundry aisle although you may have to find a smaller grocery store for the washing soda and Fels-Naptha.

1. Cut up the soap into small pieces or use a grater. I used the grater on the food processor the first time and cut it into chunks this time; I think the grater worked better.
2. Grind soap into a powder using a food processor.

3. Add Borax and washing soda and mix thoroughly; I used the food processor for this too.

That is all! Store in an air tight container. Some sites say to use 1 tablespoon, some say to use 2 tablespoons. If you have figured out the secret to kids keeping their clothing clean you may only need 1 tablespoon. The clean kid fairy hasn't blessed me yet, so I use 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons per load.

This soap does not create suds, don't be alarmed when your water looks as though could not possibly be cleaning dried dirt off your children's clothing. It would be a perfect soap for HE machines.

This particular batch used 2 1/3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, 1 2/3 cup Borax and 1 2/3 cup washing soda. The total batch was just over 6 1/2 cups of powder. Using 1 TBSP this powder would wash 104 loads and using 2 TBSP it would wash 52 loads. Total cost for this big batch was approximately $3.50.

Conglomerate of thoughts

For several days I've been thinking, "I need to blog this" and not done it so now they all get thrown into one post, kind of like Blogger Vegetable Soup. You have to eat it all; don't pick around the veggies you don't like.

Here is what we enjoyed Thanksgiving weekend; the kids were purely delighted to find a blanket of snow on our last couple of days of traveling. Me? Not so much. It only reminded me of what a long winter we have ahead of us and just how accustomed I had become to the South. Can't we just have a winter home and a summer home?

I was driving a few days ago and passed a sign I've seen a few times. Listed for places to eat at this exit is "BEEF EATERS." What the heck kind of restaurant is Beef Eaters? I mean, for real. I'm thinking I'll open a restaurant and name it "POULTRY PICKERS."

Look who showed up in our mailbox yesterday; Mr. Dave Ramsey himself (and Sharon too). How do they know we slacked off this month (OK, kind of the last 6 months)? I'm sure this card is purely calculated to make people feel guilty. Now every time I walk by the card I see Dave looking at me; almost like he's eyeballing that shopping bag and saying "Do you really need that?" Before long you'll hear me talking to Dave and saying "Really, it's for my sister, she needs it." I may just have to hide this card.

Whose idea was it to make a fake Christmas tree? Originally, way back when, who was the hair-brain inventor that thought of sticking poky green paper crap on poky wire sticks? I will give credit to the manufacturers, they have really come along way from the 'match the colored stickers to the layers of colored holes' set-up (which didn't work after a few years because the stickers fell off and then couples fought over which branch went where when finally the male gave up and huffed away while the female sat and tried to figure it out, all the while steaming and stewing and then muttering "why do I have to do this every year?") OK, so that was a long tangent but I know you grew up with a few Christmases like that too and if not, keep it to yourself.

Instead of the muttering about where the branches were supposed to go it was muttering about how I was sick and tired of stupid little green poky things and wires scratching up my skin. At least I get a nice smell after I break out in a rash from a real tree. This one gave me a rash, no nice smell and it isn't much better than my $30 Sears special that I jammed garland into so I could hide the pole. Just as I said this was it, next year we are going back to a real tree, Matthew piped up with "so, Mom, you don't care about me? Because you know I'll allergic to real trees so we can't have a real tree, Mom." I looked right at him, just as my hands were stinging with red spots all over and said, "I'll make sure you have your Zyrtec every day".

Background

I finally made my own background! I've tried several times but this time it finally turned out right. I have successfully wasted nearly my whole day but hey, at least I have something to show for it. Now I need to fold laundry lightening fast so I can pretend I actually accomplished something with my day. I hear Applebee's has carside-to-go so I can pretend I cooked all afternoon too.

Cooking your turkey

Do you buy the Butterball turkeys with the red pop-up thinger-majig so you don't have to actually monitor the temperature of your baking bird? If you find the Butterball turkeys are sold out and you can only buy a traditional, non-molested turkey with no red, plastic thinger-majig poking out of it like the outie belly-button of a 40 week pregnant lady, don't fret. I found a recipe for you today; it will take all the stress out of your turkey preparations.

Now I know it is something new, involving popcorn in the stuffing and all. But give it a try, I thought it was perfect for people who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out.

8 - 15 lb. Turkey
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is Good.)
1 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S LOW FAT)
Salt/pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with melted butter salt, and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.

Listen for the popping sounds. When the turkey's ass blows the oven door open and the bird flies across the room, it's done.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What can you do?

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

No-Frill Chili

I've made many pots of chili in the years. None of them have been bad but once in awhile you get one that turns out really well. I never use a recipe and can never really recall what exactly makes the good pots of chili better than the rest, just chucked it up to luck or the barometric pressure. This time I had the brains to write it down and lucky for me, I still remembered what I put in it two days later. Since I like to spread the wealth, er, I mean knowledge you guys can have the recipe too.

1 pkg. ground beef (I used 1.6 lbs but would have bought up to 2 lbs. Just don't try making it with 3/4 of a pound; chili needs meat.)

Diced onions (You can be fancy and dice your own if you'd like, I'm lazy and buy the frozen variety)
1 pkg. Williams chili seasoning (seasons 2 lbs, hence the reason you need nearly 2 lbs of hamburger)
2 cans Bush's mild chili beans
1 can Bush's seasoned kidney beans (I have no idea what they are seasoned with, the can looked good.)
1 can petite diced tomatoes (because I don't like chunky tomatoes, if you do get bigger chunks)
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
***These 2 cans need to be pureed in a food process or blender before adding***
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can Mexican style stewed tomatoes

Brown your meat with the onions and then drain the fat. While the meat is cooking puree your tomatoes. I pureed one can completely and I pulsed the second can so it wasn't tomato juice. Pour into the pan along with the seasoning and other cans of beans and tomatoes. Make sure you throw your can graveyard into the recycle bin.

Here is where it gets tricky. We had a couple of errands to run and I knew if I left the pot of chili on the stove without stirring it would turn black on the bottom and we'd have black flakes of chili floating around (don't ask how I know this.) So I decided to try out the oven proof pans I've had for 7 years... in the oven! I turned it to 300° and placed the pot (with a lid) in the oven and left the house. I really didn't know what to expect when we returned; I've never baked chili after all. The solids sank to the bottom and the juice rose to the top but one quick stir and it looked like chili again! The oven somehow changed the consistency and made it really delicious; J said it was his favorite chili ever.
I only recommend baking your chili in oven proof pans (and lids). If you put a lid in the oven that has a plastic handle it will melt; this goes for crockpot lids as well; take my word for it.

The Bakery Outlet

For those of you that don't know me well, or don't know my buying habits at all: I do not buy Hostess snack cakes, or Little Debbie or anything else that is generally cake stuffed with some sort of white whipped sugar. In fact, my Mom had to introduce my children to the Ho-Ho and Twinkie during a visit last year. I secretly loved hearing my kids say "Nana, what is a Ho-Ho?!" Of course they loved the Ho-Ho's and twinkies; who doesn't? Thankfully they did not start begging for snack cakes on my next grocery store trip.

Last Friday, Jacob was home from school because he didn't feel well. He slept until noon and then woke up feeling recovered so we went out and got some soup for lunch and headed to a furniture store (one thing better than chocolate snack cakes is new furniture.) Right next to the furniture store was the Hostess bakery outlet. Mmmm...I love me some bakery outlet goodies. I used to buy all of our bread at the outlet and would occasionally pick up the bag of powdered donuts for the kids. Don't bother pointing out that powdered donuts are just as bad a white goo-filled snack cakes; I won't hear of it. So when we pulled into the outlet parking lot Jacob got excited and said "Mom, can we get some powdered donuts here too?"

Well, this bakery outlet was lined with an entire row of every Hostess snack cake made and I was having a particularly sweet tooth day. I stopped myself at 4 boxes and tried to make myself feel better by buying two things that were Lite or Low-fat. I only looked at the nutrition label once and that was on the low-fat crumb cakes; 90 calories per cake. I instantly felt better and stopped looking.Jacob and I shared an individual package of Ding-Dongs in the van before ever leaving the parking lot. I also had to pick up one of the fried fruit pies so the kids could try it; again they had no idea what it was. When J got home we talked about eating them as a kid and how delicious they were with the sugary glaze on the outside and the crunchy shell. Well, there is a reason that kids remember them fondly; it is the one thing that gets left for the kids because they taste nasty to adults!

To make this story even better we went back to the furniture store the next day so I could show J the table I want. He saw the bakery outlet and after hearing my stories of the towering snack cake pillars he needed to see too. We left with two more boxes of snack cakes and a gallon of milk. At least we came away from the bakery store with one healthy thing in two days. I am now soliciting all the neighborhood kids to have snacks at my house so I can clear the closet of these snack cakes injected with whipped high fructose corn syrup goo.

Love, Peace & Hair Grease

In addition to collecting the neighborhood's goodies I have collected their germs as well. The creative juices just don't flow when the sinuses are full; so instead I'll post our groovy pictures from Halloween. We also had cousins here for the weekend for an extra special treat.

Testosterone Overload

What happens when you have 5 grown men and 2 young boys in one house? Your newly remodeled bathroom ends up being a duck's new home.

OK, so it was only a decoy and we got a good laugh out of it; one guess as to which male in the house put the duck in the sink.

John, J's dad, finished his journey on the Missouri river this last weekend and we hosted a few people that wanted to be with him during this time. We also got to meet Abe, who traveled part of the river with John. You can read about John's journey here. He was even a local celebrity! I contacted a news station here to see if they would be interested in the story and they immediately said yes; you can view his news story here. The kids are now set on taking a canoe down a river and camping overnight.

Take an Aleve and call me in the morning

That should have been the theme to the work that happened here yesterday. We are having visitors this weekend so the pressure is insurmountable to get the house ready. Let me tell you now, it will not be ready. It will be very close but not completely done.

J left work early and finally at 11:00 pm, having nailed in the last board and placed the furniture. we headed upstairs to bed. The alarm went off 3 times this morning and each time I could literally hear the bones moaning and cracking as J went to turn it off. I got up a bit later and I think it took me 5 minutes to make it outside the bedroom door. Needless to say, we won't be putting in another day of flooring like yesterday without some sufficient recovery.

Now, look at all this glorious bamboo flooring! I need to go buy one very large rug because I'm an OCD wreck about things scratching the floor. This might be a long 3-4 years! Oh, and I actually unpacked our decor this week. I had grown so accustomed to the minimalist look that I almost thought the room look cluttered with decor.

Just for comparison, here is the living room when we found the house. I am still deciding what kind of curtains to place on the huge wall o'windows; suggestions are welcomed.

Boy toys

What is the difference between little boys and big boys? Little boys throw little sticks and big boys throw big sticks.

Oh My Rally

Today in St. Louis we had 100,000 people rallying for Obama; it was simply awesome. We had more people here than at the DNC in Denver! I'll upload our pictures later but for now here is a picture from news sources.

OK, now for our pictures.

Even though there were 100,000 people there it was a well behaved crowd and went very smoothly. We didn't even get stuck in any traffic on the way home!

Laundry room

It is unfortunate I don't have a true 'before' picture of the laundry room. You can barely see it in photos that were taken of the kitchen when we purchased the house but nothing that shows the laundry room in all its dim glory. Imagine this: wood paneling on the bottom half of the walls, dingy yellowish-white on the top half, wood shutters on the bottom half of the window and 90's vinyl flooring. Make sure you make it look really dated and dim in your imagination; don't give it any benefit of the doubt.

Here is what we did: painted the paneling white, painted the walls tan, removed the wood shutter and put in white blinds and the biggest change of all- new tile floors! The only thing left is installing new base moulding; that will come when we are finished with everything. Welcome to 2008.

Excitement

I just have to share my school girl giddy this morning. Since the Presidential campaign started St. Louis has been visited several times by all candidates. I keep telling J if Biden or Obama visit again I want to go; I mean really want to go. Good things come to those who wait, right?

I learned this morning that there will be a rally for Obama at the Gateway Arch on Saturday. I've already RSVP'd; I wonder what kind of cheesy sign we can make.

Camera pictures

Without a memory card the camera will hold about 4 pictures on the internal memory. I have had the same pictures on the camera forever because I forget they are there and never download them. I finally got around to it this morning; let me show you what I found.

The picture from the Sears Tower in Chicago that I wasn't able to download before. They almost give you the impression that they really like each other.

Emily and Matthew found a fun place to play during our last move in June.

A picture of Emily when she was in the hospital in 2005; this is an old picture! Emily had a piece of wood buried in her heel that had become horribly infected. She had to have surgery to remove the wood and clean the infection. Four days in the hospital was not fun!

Momma needs new shoes

J changed the oil in the cars a few weeks ago. He didn't have enough empty jugs for the used oil so it was sitting in the open oil pan in the garage until we were able to get the kids to guzzle more milk. Honestly, it was kind of forgotten about....until last weekend. J was searching for a tool in the toolbox and I was standing there talking to him; I raised my foot and stepped down on the very edge of the oil pan. Oil poured, splashed and splattered everywhere. It is a very weird, cold feeling as oil soaks through your sock and shoe.

I felt bad for making such a mess and he felt bad for leaving the oil and ruining my shoes. He ran to the grocery store (thank goodness for having one across the road!) and bought 2 large bags of kitty litter; it wasn't enough. Later he went to the parts store and bought the oil soaker-upper stuff and was told by the clerk that he was lucky he wasn't divorced. HA! I just want some new shoes.

Hodge Podge

First, we finished the bathroom this weekend; our little vacation slowed that timeline but overall it only took us 5 work days for the remodel. Two of those days were full weekend days and 3 were a few hours after work for J. We got a much smaller vanity, updated the light fixture (I installed that all.by.myself!) and a smaller mirror. The bathroom feels so much bigger, but the toilet looks a bit out of scale now. It almost looks like a white porcelain throne sitting there.






Now that the bathroom is finished, take a look at my laundry room. Geesh, can't we just sit and do nothing?! We ripped it apart Sunday, I removed the luan Monday during the day and J cut and cemented the backerboard last night. It is drizzly today so I doubt we will be able to start tiling this evening; I'm sure I can find another project to work on instead. See the lovely hole in the wall to the left of the window? We hear that the original owners had a black lab that scratched huge holes in the drywall so they put up wood paneling to cover it. Sometime later someone removed paneling from that location and installed 2 cabinets with a countertop. We removed those to put in the tile and ewww, that was nasty. Black dog hair that is at least 4 years old isn't a pretty sight to find.




While driving back from Chicago I saw the "Maverick Steakhouse;" I had to take a picture. I wonder if they do things different from mainstream steakhouse practices; instead of steak and potato, you get steak and boiled eggs. They probably figured out that mainstream steakhouse followers don't really care for steak and boiled eggs so I'm sure they have abandoned their own practices and now serve steak and potatoes. You have to do what the people want to stay in business, right?

Greencation: Days 4, 5, & 6

Sunday- We slept late in our dark, quiet room and then caught the bus to the Museum of Science & Industry. I was slightly bummed that we didn't get there until 11 but quickly realized that they didn't even open until 11. The place is HUGE and we knew there wasn't any way we could possibly see everything before they closed at 4. The most awesome part of the museum is their new Smart Home; a home that was built with sustainable and energy efficient materials. Guess what?! They used bamboo floors in the Smart Home! We got so many great ideas but unfortunately our home is 14 years old and we won't be making it as environmentally friendly as the Smart Home. J and I did gather many ideas that we would love to incorporate into a future house though.
With so much to see and so little time we grabbed a snack in the food court. If you ever visit the museum, make the food court your definite stop for lunch. They had many different choices including a full taco bar. We were in a hurry for our Smart Home tour so we all split a chicken finger meal and kept on trucking.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped and ate at Chipolte. We said we wouldn't eat somewhere that we could eat at home while on vacation but it was right around the corner and we were all tired.

Monday- The one place Emily wanted to go in Chicago was the American Girl Place. I had waited until the last day to take her because it just worked out best. Imagine my surprise when I got online Monday morning and found out they were CLOSED. They were moving across the street so they shut down the store for 2 days- Monday and Tuesday. It absolutely broke my heart to tell her they were closed. She has listened to two of her friends talk about their breakfast there and the doll salon for weeks now so she was so excited to go.
But, Emily and I were up and out of the room by 9am to try and salvage the shopping day. We took the subway over to the Magnificent Mile and found the Lush store. She had a good time sniffing everything but eventually the bath bombs started fizzing inside her nose. I was able to turn her day around with a bath bomb and a set of pajamas; my daughter knows the good things in life.
The boys took the bus over to the Field Museum and had a good time looking at all the REAL mummies and other interesting artifacts. Emily and I joined up with them around noon and viewed all the creepy mummies as well. The kids really liked Sue, the most complete T-Rex dinosaur ever uncovered.
Mid-afternoon we took the train over to Ed Debevic's (where they are mean to you). We had gotten so many "you must eat at Ed's" comments that we walked in the rain to eat (up hill both ways too). We should have ate there on the weekend because 4pm on a drizzly Monday is not a popular dining time. We were eventually the only ones there and honestly, we should have had Chicago pizza again.

Tuesday- So sad; it was time to check out of our hotel and return to the reality of life. But first we walked to get some breakfast at The Corner Bakery and then walked over to Millennium Park. It is full of cool sculptures and beautiful gardens. The pictures of the kids in the mirror is a giant mirrored sculpture that is supposed to resemble a drop of mercury. Once you know that and look at it, it DOES look like a drop of mercury!
We lost the valet ticket for the car but unfortunately they were able to locate it with our last name and room number; no Lexus for me today.
The hotel we stayed in was The Silversmith. It was lovely and fancy and quiet and all those other things that my house isn't. I hid all the Italian toiletries each day so the housekeeper would leave me more; I now have a few weeks worth of lotion and shampoo! I usually don't let housekeepers in the room while we are gone but I figured if I wanted more good-smelling lotion I would need to compromise on my routine a bit. We were on the same street as an elevated train line so we could hear that but it wasn't that bad and it was very convenient having a stop right outside the hotel door. We were within walking distance to Millennium and Grant Parks, the Sears Tower and shopping on State St. I would definitely stay here again but I would definitely go through hotels.com again as well. We paid approximately $60-$80 less per night by booking through hotels.com.

Greencation: Day 3

Yesterday was a long day, very long. I finally gave up around 8pm and begged to come back to the room. The kids were enjoying the night and weather was beautiful but my head was pounding so hard I felt like I had a percussion show going on in the right hemisphere of my brain.

Since we knew the weather would be warmest on Saturday we opted to do the outdoor activities that day. We got up and walked to Sears Tower. Half way there I realized I had left the memory card for the camera inside the laptop so we had one picture we could take on the internal memory of the camera; we had to make it a good one. I had to take and delete about 4 pictures before I got one with all the 3 kids looking forward. I will have to add that picture once we get home because I don't have the cable with us.

After the Sears Tower we walked back to the hotel to retrieve the camera card and sunglasses. I knew a headache was a certainty if we did not get my sunglasses. We jetted off on the subway to find a traditional Chicago pizza place. The kids thought the subway ride was uber cool and groaned when it was time to get off after only 3 stops.

We ate at Giordano's and it seems most other tourists think 2pm would be a great time to eat lunch, just as we did. While waiting, Matthew found the naked lady statue; J and I were placing bets on how quickly he would find the topless statue and it was quicker than both of us had thought. He climbed up and said "MOM, take my picture!" The gentleman next to him thought that was comical. The pizza was very good but so filling and heavy that we just wanted to go to bed afterwards, not walk another 4 hours. We fought this urge heavily but only because three people under 5' tall were ready to ride on the trolley.

We took the trolley out to Navy Pier and enjoyed a boat ride on Lake Michigan and a ride on the huge Ferris wheel. Matthew played comedian again when he jumped up on a wooden box and said "MOM, take my picture while I pretend to be a supermodel" while posing with one hand on his hip and one behind his head and pouty lips. A group of several adults cracked up laughing and we could still hear them laughing after we walked away. I did not get a picture of this; I simply grabbed my son by the waist and carted him off knowing these adults are wondering where my six year old son learned to pose like a supermodel. We'll send him to your party for entertainment, but we charge a steep price.

I had to take a picture of this concession stand, even if the two girls working thought I was a crazy, lunatic tourist. We have donuts (in fact, I had a tasty one for breakfast earlier in the day) and funnel cakes. Now, the one thing those two have in common is being a wad of dough dropped into a 400 degree vat of grease and then usually covered in something even more fat laden such as sugar or "fruit" topping. This concession stand doesn't sugar coat (ha, pun intended) the truth; you will be getting a paper basket full of nothing else but good 'ole Fried Dough. That just cracked me up.

We found a table at the end of the pier and enjoyed the evening for awhile and I got these pictures of my handsome boys and beautiful girl. We were going to try and stay for the fireworks but I couldn't last any later than 8pm.

We've seen more weddings this weekend than I usually see in half a year. We've seen a German wedding complete with fully dressed priests, a Chinese wedding complete with dancing dragons and an extremely wealthy wedding, complete with 49 BMWs, 38 Mercedes, and 52 Lexus'. OK, OK, I'm not sure that is the exact number but only because we hopped on the poor-man's trolley (FREE) and left Navy Pier before the procession ended. This wedding reception included security; complete with the secret service black suits and earpiece communication; it was very entertaining for us to people watch at this particular event.