Thursday, September 23, 2010

Microwave tip


As I'm sitting here enjoying my caramel apple slices on this First Day of Autumn (quite by accident, but delicious nonetheless) I thought I would share a little microwave tip that I read in one of those handy dandy magazines like Better Homes & Garden or Martha Stewart Living.... wish I could give credit where credit is due but I'm not sure where it goes.

I'm not a microwave cooker, don't particularly like mine except that it's a combination convection oven which is pretty handy sometimes.  When it does get used, I demand that food is covered or else you clean off the explosion that's stuck on the roof.

Here is my little bowl of caramels that are getting melted down (gotta love these cute little bowls from The Pampered Chef, they are wonderful!).

We're not coffee drinkers so I bought a bag of coffee filters at the Dollar Tree. 160 for a buck.  You put these over your food for cover instead of wasting precious paper towels.  Paper towels are precious in our home, we seem to go through them quite fast!

Oh, but that's not all folks!  They can even be used as little plates...

This is wonderful if you have little ones in your home.  Mine would much rather have chicken nuggets from the microwave than deliciously cooked in the oven. I don't even know where he gets that.

Another great use for these are when you are washing windows or mirrors.  I have not tried this one yet as I keep forgetting.  Using coffee filters are much more cost effective than paper towels.

Just wanted to share my little tip with you.  Today I am grateful for little bits of information that make our life a little bit easier, a little bit cheaper.  =]

Rusting jingle bells

You girls are truly wonderful!  Thank you so much for all your words of support, advice, and encouragement on my last post!  I really love and appreciate each one of you!

I have managed to set some jingle bells outside to rust.  I loaded up when Hobby Lobby had their bags 50% off!  That included the ones in the Christmas section that were in big tubes.  It always excites me to get my supplies so cheap.  I had such a huge grin when I was walking out of the store.  Is anyone else as cheesy as me?  Lol!

My thoughtful husband saw my platter of bells and said "It's going to rain, those bells are gonna rust, you better get them inside".  Haha!  When I told him that was my plan, he just looked at me like I was crazy then went on about his business without saying a word.  He's just used to it by now.

That was on September 8th.  Here it is two weeks later and they are doing pretty good:

The bigger ones are going pretty slow.  I will have to move them to a deeper dish so they will be completely covered.

So you girls that rust bells the natural way... how long does it usually take?  I check my water level every few days to fill it up and give them a shake.  My itty, bitty ones are probably done.  They are so tiny, so cute!  You can't even see them, they are covered in the water.  I can't wait to use them!

Have fun crafting and creating!  Till next time~

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WHERE'S MY CREATING, CRAFTING, SCRAPBOOKING TIME?!?!

Wow girls!  This is really not going as I envisioned it would.  =[

Today marks the 5th week that my kids have been in school.  I was not pushing for school to start, I enjoy spending the summer with my kids especially since I was able to quit work this summer and spend even more time with them.  But I will say that I would get excited when I thought about the alone time I would have to create, craft, and scrapbook!  WRONG!

My little guy started half-day Pre K this year.

My baby girl started middle school this year.

My big guy started high school this year.

Let me just run through what my typical day has consisted of these past five weeks.
  • Get the kids up at 6:40am
  • Leave the house at 7:20am
  • Drop off daughter at middle school at 7:30am
  • Drop off oldest son at high school at 7:35am
  • Go home and spend the morning with youngest son
  • Leave the house at 12:10pm
  • Drop off youngest son at elementary school at 12:20pm
  • Go home and do dishes, laundry, pick up the house
  • Leave the house at 2:20pm
  • Pick up daughter from school at 2:30pm
  • Pick up youngest son from school at 2:50pm
  • Go home and help with homework, check the computer
  • Leave the house at 4:45pm
  • Pick up oldest son from football practice at 5:00pm
  • Go home and cook dinner
  • Leave the house at 6:20pm on Tue and Thur
  • Drop off daughter at cheer practice at 6:30pm on Tue and Thur
  • Go home and relax!
  • Leave the house at 8:15pm
  • Pick up daughter from cheer practice at 8:30pm
  • Go home and get school bags and clothes ready for the next day
  • Daughter in bed at 9pm
  • Youngest son in bathtub at 9:15pm
  • Oldest son in bed at 10pm
  • Read books to youngest son in bed at 10pm
  • 10:30pm till I crash-- computer time
Daughter's games are every Saturday.  Son's games are on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

WHERE'S MY CREATING, CRAFTING, SCRAPBOOKING TIME?!?!

I know, I know!!  I've heard it thousands of times and that's no exaggeration... enjoy this time with them while you can for they will soon be gone.  I'm trying my hardest!

In-between these "times", I did manage to get things gathered, priced, and set up for a garage sale that we had.  We did really good... sold lots and lots of stuff... not much left.  Yah for that!  I was also able to get almost all my fall decorations out.  Yah for that too!  Now to find the time to take some pictures of it so I can get that header picture changed, haha!

So if you don't see me for awhile, I'm still here... trying to catch up on my blog reading (only one week behind now instead of two) and taking care of the duties of one blessed momma and wife!  I will add this... yes, my husband is very involved with the kids, helping out with them and the chores of the home but he works between 48-60 hours a week on the midnight shift.  He's always willing to lead a helping hand after he gets a good day's sleep.  =]

Looking forward to seeing all of your fall decorations~

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Our first day of school



I can't believe I've been gone from here for a month and a half.  Wow!  I expected things to slow down when school started but silly me was wrong!  Things have been crazy busy lately.

Well we are 4.5 weeks into school already.  The start of this school year has been a rough one for me.  There are lots of "firsts" with my kids that makes me stand up and take notice of the fleeting years.  I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that my oldest baby started his first day of high school.  My middle baby started her first day of middle school and my youngest baby started his first day of elementary school.


My almost five year old little guy was so excited about finally going to "big school" like his sister and brother.  But after three days of it, he was ready to stay home with mom. Robbie is a momma's boy and momma did have a hard time with her baby leaving. He is only in school half a day in the afternoons so we still have our mornings together, just him and I... and we love it!

Oh my word!  Let me tell you how perfect God's timing is!  Robbie picked out a book for us to read on the night before school started.  I've always had a love of children's books and have been collecting them since before my first child was even born.  We have so many books in our library, that I had forgotten about "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn.  It is a perfect first day story!  This is a story about a little raccoon getting ready to start school.  He talks about his fears to his mother.  His mother comes up with a wonderful solution to help her little raccoon remember that she loves him and is thinking about him, even when she isn't with him.  She kisses him in the middle of his palm and whenever he feels lonely and needs some loving from home, he is to press his hand to his cheek and he will be reminded of her love.  I had tears in my eyes after reading this story.  When I dropped Robbie off at school the next day he was such a big boy.  As I was leaving, I blew him a kiss.  He caught it in the air and put it to his cheek.  We smiled so big!  Then I rushed on out of there before anyone could see not just the tears that were streaming down my face, but the full blown crying spell I was having.  He's so adorable and has brought so much joy to our family.

My 11 year old baby girl, as I sometimes call her is maturing well into her years.  It makes me happy but at times I would love to see her enjoying life a little more.  I know it doesn't help to live with two boys though.  Amariah is our smart, beautiful, well-adjusted, compassionate, mature, loving, diligent (I could go on and on and on) athlete.  We have received numerous compliments on how well-rounded she is... being good at every single thing she does.  She pushes herself to the max and doesn't give up.  She is truly a breath of fresh air and I am so thankful for her willingness to help out at all times without even being asked.  We enjoy our mom/daughter shopping trips so much!

I went in the school with her and embarrassed her three-fold but not really meaning too.  For some reason, parents don't go in the middle school and take pictures of their kids at their locker and in the hall.  Hehe!  As she was pushing me down the hall to get rid of me, I told her I loved her anyway, was very proud of her, and wished her a wonderful first day of school.  

My big guy has grown tremendously over the summer.  14 year old Ryan has come so far and matured so much just since May, the end of last school year.  Here he is on his first day of high school.

He likes to look tough but he can be a sweetheart... when he wants to be.  He's always cracking jokes and making us laugh.  He is a huge help to his dad and I.  I took him to his doctor for his football physical and he is now 5' 5 1/4" and weighs in at 154 pounds.  I said "He can't be that tall, that's how tall I am."  He stood right in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes!  When did my baby boy grow up like that?!?  I took him school clothes shopping and we had to transition from youth sizes to men's sizes!  I was having a hard enough time with the thought of him entering high school, now I am having to shop in the men's department for his clothes!  Ugh!

This day was full of tears... Sad tears, joyful tears, melancholy tears, proud tears.  I just couldn't seem to stop the tears.  I've always been an emotional person but this day was a hard one for me.  Thankfully Rich understood all too well how hard this was for me.  Why, I even caught him wiping away the tears when the last child was dropped off at school.

As if you couldn't tell... my life is full of busy-ness, but it's also filled with lots of love.  I am so proud of each one of my kids and have so much love for them.  I am extremely grateful and thank God daily for bringing our family together and growing us up in love!