Our life and stuff

don't wait

A few months ago...  as we stepped onto our porch at about 8pm we saw the power arc at the end of the street.  You could hear it, and then the explosion. 

Then all the lights went out ~ as far as we could see.

We opened up the door to our dark house, fumbling around for a flashlight.  Within a few minutes the house was glowing- pop lights in the kids rooms and candles in the rest.  There was a peaceness (is that a word?).  No TV's, computers, phones. 

It was almost magical looking, the flickering warmth.  While I did fear the thought of my freezer melting slowly, I was in no rush for the power to come back on.  It did.  40 minutes later.

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A few days ago... I found a few jumbo packs of tealights from Target and Ikea.  I buy them all the time - for special occassions.  Then I thought...

dinner with my family is special

They cost pennies and I have hundreds. 

So now, each night I light them. 

Just a few... here and there.

Don't wait for a special occasion. 

Make one.

  

In the backyard

 

I always forget that we have a HAAS tree in the backyard.  In fact, I had avocados on my grocery list for this week.  Now, I have some from my tree in a brown bag in the kitchen.  I hope they ripen quickly.

And just today while out back, I noticed that we have little peppers ~

 

I think my gardners found them before I did...

  

and helped themselves.

   

Empty office, Full freezer

 

Simplify - Plan - Organize

 

Today I cleaned out the office (including the files). 

We filed an entire green trash bag with old shredded paperwork, like utility bills from Feb '07.  It took me a while to sort thru and preserve all the kids drawings and little notes from my babies. 

I'm working on a pile for a garage sale - it's growing.  Feels good to move that old stuff.

Finally, in my efforts to de-stress I've decided it's time to start a menu plan.  Dinner time rolls around before you know it and most of the time, I'm sadly unprepared.  I contemplate what's in the fridge as we drive home from football practice at 7:30pm.  I whip something up, nothing special.  We eat by 8:15 if we're lucky.  I'm not proud of that.  (tell me I'm not the only one...)

So I've made my shopping lists for each meal and saved them on the computer.  I think after a month of so it will be faster and easier to pick 5 or 6 dinner meals from those saved.  In fact on Saturday I spent 2-3 hours and prepared everything for this week.  The Shephard's Pie, Taco Soup and Lasagna are ready to heat and eat.  I have all the crockpot items and will throw them in that morning, easy peasy.

Hopefully I can keep this up.  Do you have any yummy recipes that freeze/heat up or make easy dinners?  I'm looking for yummy crockpot recipes especially...  my starving children thank you.

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I made whole chicken this week in the crockpot- delish.  It was so tender and shredded up easily.  It was enough to enjoy 3 different ways:  

• Night 1: DINNER- served over tropical rice.
• Day 2: LUNCH- mix in dried cranberries and candied pecans for chicken salad sandwiches.
• Day 3: SNACK- sandwich filling & cornbread mix = after school muffins. 

*Jiffy Cornbread mix prepared with cream, egg and cheese. 

*Dollop 1Tbsp of mix, then 1Tbsp of Chix and then top with 1 more Tbsp of mix & bake.

*Tasty surprise in the middle - Serve warm with butter.

   

Right now ~

the sprinkler's are on~

the boys are playing a game~

and there is laundry spinning~

My man is outside fixing this~

 

and he just finished doing this~

 

Our little helper is by his side~

 

I should be working on this~

 

but I want to play with this~

 

{ Saturday Afternoon }

What took so long... ?

Maintenance and upkeep are never-ending with a home.

As soon as you finish one project, someplace else screams for attention.  It's an on-going cycle that all homeowners are far too familiar with.  

We easily put off starting the big jobs because...

'We don't have the time/money right now'. 

What this really means is...

 'I'm too lazy and that's a lot of work'. 

Months, even years will go by. 

This is one of our bathrooms CIRCA 2001:

( August 2009 )

 

• Remove: everything- including the wallpaper
• Move electrical
• Replace: vanity, cabinet, lighting, towel bars etc...
• Paint: everything
• Install: new crown and base moulding
• Buy: fresh towels, shower curtain and accessories

 

I still need to buy a few cutesy things but it's pretty close to complete.  It was a family project with the huge help from my brother-in-law, thank you Joe! 

 

Ever since then, we say the same thing to each other when we pass the new bathroom...

"The bathroom looks so nice now'

And, what this really means is...

'Why on earth did we wait so long?'

  

   

As the clouds burst.

From every window in the house

 

you can see it...

   

 

... and hear it

 

It pours off the roof, pounds the driveway and floods the street...

I'm pretty sure it's doing damage somewhere :  I hear sirens all morning.

 

 

...but I LOVE it  ~  I hope it rains ALL day!

 

 

Time to CHANGE things up

 

It's been years...

He picked out this bedding.  His original request was 'sporty'...  (no surprise)

Then he saw what was available in the Sporty category and he deemed it 'too little'. 

(Translation - too young - yikes!)  Thank goodness too.  Baseball paraphernalia already invades the entire back of my car and my weekends.  I wasn't thrilled with the idea of it all-up-in-my-face, decorating a room in my house.  

He's at a tough age for a make-over- not a little kid anymore, not a teenager yet... not even a 'tween'.

None the less we were determined to find something, anything at this point.  His choice is a good one.  I'll have to splash some lime green and pull the red out because it's kind of blah. 

This bed with the necessary under-storage = perfect.  He has the smallest room ever!  He wants a cool lounging type thing going on there will be no room for a dresser of any sort.

We'll see how long this takes... finding all this stuff is one thing.  Finding the time- that may be the biggest challenge.