Short Check In

Yes, I am still around and this is just a little short check in. A few things 1. Yes, I'm on winter break and no I haven't had a ton of free time with the kids yet. I'm not sure what's going on there I think my priorities got out of whack and my perception of time is off. 2. I have a cold so bare with me.

Two weeks ago I got out and put up the outside lights myself because getting my husband to do it is like pulling teeth thank goodness for gutter clips it makes things easier. Mind you this week I've had to redo much of it due to the wind storm (that also ripped apart my green house so my gardening progress this next year may be rather off and I hope I don't lose all my herbs in there I need to get an area cleared to save what I can I'll have to call all the saved tomatoes and peppers a loss).

We got enough time to finish decorating our tree last weekend though I don't think most of my other decorations are coming out this year.

For my Supervisor I made Spritz cookies and let the girls help. We decorated them and put them into a tin and I gave it to him this last Monday as a Christmas gift.

So Tuesday was a lot of meetings at work and then in that time I fit in doing the majority of the wrapping.  Though needless to say Santa's elves went on strike and he asked me to help with the wrapping again so I'll be doing that probably all Christmas Eve.

With time off with the girls the other day I sat down and made a few of the Star Wars models Katherine got for Christmas last year that we never got around to building. Her daddy didn't want us to do them all so I saved a few for him to do with her. Now I just need to kick him to do it. 

This past Wednesday Brielle had her baby teeth pulled out though the tooth fairy has still not come. I guess I better go give her a swift kick tomorrow since these are the last of Brielle's baby teeth. She's still suffering from the after effects of having teeth yanked but she'll be fine and she's slowly but surely getting back onto normal foods. The next step will be gum help and finding a loan so we can start the process for braces.

Lately I've been strained and pushed to my limits with the storm tearing up my green house, the doctors appointments and lately I've been trying to donate a lot of item though Facebook items my family doesn't need any more but other families might want. The problem is as good willed as this sounds because my husband got tired of me using so much gas now they need to come to our home and people are standing me up which means I've been standing on street corners at odd hours of the night and day freezing because you can't see the street from my house. It's taken too much effort because people are being no shows so I think from now on I will go back to donating everything to goodwill. I really can't give up my life like that for other people and for junk. I have though been clearing items out of my house and though I've gotten rid of stacks and stacks of stuff so far it just doesn't feel like I've made much of a dent.

In any case this was just suppose to be a short update to show I'm still around, alive and kicking. I need to see if I can get some sleep since it's 2 am and this cold has made it really hard for me to get any rest.


--Oh and tomorrow we made Shortbread cookies and Berlinerkranser cookies. I'll update later :)

Our Hearts Go Out to Newtown, Connecticut

I can always seem to find something to complain about or always seem behind in things but today shows just how trivial all that can be. Our family prays for the families of all those who were affect by today's tragic events in Newtown, CT.
I've had to fight every urge to go get my children from school just to give them hugs. Violence in our schools is something that should never be accepted and we must strive to try and find ways to prevent these tragedies.
In 1998 Thurston High School had a very tragic shooting where I lost a very good friend and had many friends injured. I have never forgotten and I've always prayed that a tragedy like this would never happen again though over the years my prayer has not been answered but I will continue to pray and pray for all those that have ever been affected by violence.
Again, our hearts go out to the community of Newtown.

2 Cookies in a Jar Recipes

So I figured after being on a few forums I'd go ahead and share a few recipes of my favorite holiday presents and treats.

Cowboy Cookie Mix

(as seen above)

1 c all-purpose flour
1 c uncooked old-fashioned oats
3/4 c semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c chopped nuts
1/2 c seedless raisins
1/4 c granulated sugar
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

I prefer to mix my baking soda, baking powder and flour together and if I feel there is too much white and I want to separate it out more then I'll mix in my white sugar also. Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart jar in any order I found that packing it wasn't too necessary for this recipe and I tried to push the more colorful items to the sides and then fill the middle with the flour mix so that I didn't have a whole bunch of white showing. Make sure your lid screws down tightly and securely.

Cowboy Cookies

(add these directions to the card)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 jar Cowboy Cookie Mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
2. Beat butter in large bowl  at medium speed approximately 2 minutes until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla until blended. (Mixture may appear curdled.)  Add cookie mix to butter mixture; stir until well blended.
3. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes. Remove cookies to wire racks and let cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar

1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Again mix white ingredients together (flour, salt and baking soda with optional sugar) and then layer the ingredients in a 1 quart jar. I have found the flour will need to be compacted pretty tightly to get everything to fit probably because flour likes to fluff up and this has more than the other recipe. What I've found to use is the bulb end of a turkey baster to help pack stuff down. Make sure the lid is secured tightly.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(add these directions to the card)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. In large bowl, cream 1 cup of unsalted butter or margarine until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix in cookie mix. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough, spaced well apart, onto greased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

Decorating the Jar

For any type of cookie jar I find whatever fabric I have around the home and I grab a lid from off the coffee or from my shortening container. Around a 9" diameter is good but it will also depend on if you have normal mason jars or if you have wide mouth jars. Use your best judgement. I took a small strip of hot glue around the outside rim, placed the circle of fabric on top to an estimated center and then pushed down the fabric on the glued side. I found the glue was cooling too fast for me to put a steady strip of glue then to fasten the fabric so I just did it in small sections trying to keep my circle centered since I did not want to put glue on the top lid in case it sealed tightly and then there might be a problem removing the lid later on. The first year we did this we printed the directions out on paper and then glued the paper to construction paper and then glued that directly onto the jar. This year we tied cards on with ribbons. Either way I would suggest putting a ribbon around the top to help give it a more finished look. It doesn't have to be ribbon but could be something like raffia.
-Alternative-
Instead of gluing your fabric on if you have rubber bands you can snap a rubber band on over the fabric and then use your ribbon or raffia to hide the rubber band.

Crazy Monday

Okay it's Tuesday and I'm writing about Monday. You know somethings up. Pretty much it was a messed up day from start to go. I can't say it turned out badly but gosh darn it I was stressed out.

First, Peter worked Saturday which means he set the alarm to his normal wake up time of 7 am so when I turned on the alarm Sunday night I didn't think to reset the alarm for my 6 am wake up call. Both of the girls slept through their alarms enough to turn them off or mute them or something so I wake up at 7 am and I look at one of the clocks as I was getting the kids up and I didn't understand at first I was like, you know their clock is an hour off time no wonder the alarm isn't going off and then I wander off to the kitchen for coffee and see the time on the microwave and was like, "Oh no!" So Katherine had to get up and dressed for school while I quickly tossed on some clothes all within 8 min so I could drive her down to school while Brielle rushed herself to get ready for her bus that hadn't come yet. I gave Katherine a cup of milk and cereal to eat in the car and we drove down to the school and as she was giving me the cup back milk splashed up everywhere. Fun right?

So I got home and had to wipe down the car, get a shower and my lunch packed and put my coffee in a thermos and then load Blacky into the van to drive across town to PetSmart to drop him off at the groomers.

I then rushed clear across the city to work and tried to get myself sorted for my 9 o'clock meeting which of course took a lot of walking around the plant, confusion and just feeling overwhelmed though after the Engineer sat there and talked with me just about the state of the world, politics, whatever which thankfully we see eye to eye so I didn't have to fake anything. I got out of that meeting around 11 o'clock and worked until 12:30 when I then ran back into the center of town to go meet my husband for lunch. We really need to avoid these lunches especially since he didn't get the job and I'm trying to tie up a lot of loose financial ends but I kind of needed the moment and to eat.

From lunch I went to the chiropractor and got adjusted again. I'm suppose to go back Monday again unless things get worse between now and then. Things were moving more freely this time so trying to keep up on my therapy while at home has done some good.

Next I went to Jo-Ann's trying to see if I could find something for the girls at work since Tuesday (today) is our Christmas luncheon and we always exchange gifts. I wasn't impressed with anything so I left without buying anything and went next door to pick up Blacky.

Now Blacky didn't have his normal groomer so this groomer was trying to tell me that Blacky got so stressed out that I either needed to break up his visits or they couldn't take care of him any more and that I would have to have the vet do the grooming. I really think it comes down to it not being his normal groomer but he got all trimmed up and he was so happy to leave and come home.

I got home and made up the weekly menu and the grocery list and then went out to buy groceries, picked up Katherine, got home within just a couple min after Brielle got home so it worked out.

Started working on dinner and talking with Katherine who had a bad day at school. Poor girl wears her heart on her sleeve and quietly crying isn't something she's learned so she got into pretty big trouble at school.

A friend of ours Richard came by and bought my old desk top computer so I've finally got that sold and a little money in my pocket which is much needed.

After watching a few shows with Peter to spend time with him I then stayed up to make gifts for the Christmas Luncheon though I wish I would have gotten to it sooner as I think at least one of them has too much sugar in it because I was so disorganized. I think next time I do cookie jars that are this complex that I will make a check list that I can actually write on.

Hopefully they don't taste horrifically bad but it's over and done with. I still am worried about the amount of sugar though.

Worst day in a very long time

So I woke up with a headache that was making me so ill I was dry heaving but needed to go to work so after I got Kat out the door I woke Peter up to get Brielle out the door while I laid down. The headache continued so badly I hardly got any work done for the meeting Monday. I got an appointment down at the chiropractor at 2:30 I go down there they have to enter me as a new patient the doctor doesn't come to talk to talk to me until 3:30 I have to have Peter leave work early to go get home for when Brielle got off the bus at 4. My military neck (it doesn't have the natural curve it should) has started getting a reverse curve and things are looking at bone spurs and my scoliosis is less than pretty. I have to go back in Monday.

Peter didn't get the position at the hospital and it really is a blow we really needed it with all the medical stuff going on.

I'm ready to break down and cry. I just am going to start looking at making more cuts around the household.

Brielle is at her winter dance right now. I've held myself together today for the kids.

Closet Challenge Accepted - No I'm not cleaning them!

Okay this is horrible Don't look! So on Money Saving Mom the task yesterday was to clean out closets yes I skipped that but she posted her pictures and she was so embarrassed so I figured I had to take on the challenge to show totally messy closets... but with no cleaning heck I'm proud I'm down to just to get the laundry down to 1 basket and to see my couches again today! It has been so bad that the clean laundry started eating the other couch too! Anyways without further ado the perhaps messiest closets of this century and this IS clean for us... sad but true...  I need a bigger house.

Here's our coat closet though not all the coats are in there and the mess of umbrellas and gloves and hats and... yeah

The bedroom closet it's maybe 2' deep? and about oh 6 long.
Here's how we cram it (which by the way everything always lands in my pile of stuff because mom is suppose to take care of it all apparently).

My side VS. My husband's side you can see the floor because I pick it up for him. 

Top of husband's side with his collection

Bottom of husband's side with his collection

Top of my side with everything from gifts, halloween to Christmas wrapping paper. You name it it is probably in there to some extent.

The floor of my closet. No I have not been able to step into my closet for a very long time other than occasionally pulling everything out so I can vacuum so it doesn't become some dust bunny breeding ground.

Girls closet in the playroom

Kids room closet currently not in use since we use the wall in there to get to the bathtub plumbing that we've yet to actually finish fixing properly. 

So there you have it some of the worst closets ever so if you ever are home and thinking to yourself, "Oh this is so awful" just think back to this and realize it can always be worse. 

Successful Wednesday

So you may or may not have seen that I had a lot going on today. Well I was able to get it done though work was still very stressful and I cheated and bought food out instead of cooking at home just to try and make things less stressful.

I got home this afternoon and decided to tackle the bathroom. In the tackling of that I decided to clean out the hair tie drawer. Yes, between myself and two girls we have a whole drawer dedicated to hair clips, ties, brushes and more and it's not all of it just the majority. I of course didn't think to snap a picture until well into the organization. Which I would like to clarify organization doesn't always mean things look neater or cleaner but it means that you can grab what you need quickly and efficiently.

 After starting the process you see how much random stuff I had. I went through and picked out the good hair ties and the ones that were older or frayed I tossed away and then separated everything by type and gave it a sandwich baggy. It may not look pristine but it is definitely more organized!

I did the rest of that afternoons running of kids and then came home to watch a little bit of TV with the husband and work on spelling words with Katherine. Which by the way Peter's work did not announce who got the position like they were suppose to so we are all still sitting on pins and needles.

I decided tonight to paint my vase. Now I realized that I never posted a picture of my vase and not sure if I mentioned it or not on my blog. So this past fall I went to the dollar store and they had spring items 70% off and one of the items was this vase:

Kind of an off color green but it's suppose to be for spring. So I got crafty with it this fall and with some washable paint I did this:

Well it isn't fall anymore so I washed off the paint that had only recently started chipping off so I think it was a pretty good idea over all and stumped for ideas I just started in the only request that was made by the girls was for it to look like it was snowing. Now I'm not an artist but seeing how this is my 50 cent vase with paints I had laying around I don't feel bad and if later on I decide I can't stand it then I just wash it off and try it again.

I might have done better if I wasn't so tired but that's alright.

Today I also received a package from a friend of mine who oddly I've never met in person what it boils down to is we were teamed up with her husband on a random game in a video game and we thought they were neat and we became friends and started playing the game together and come to find out he was a published author and then we started talking with his wife, Cindy, when she was around and became friends. Anyways it's kind of silly but they are great people and I'm so blessed to know them. Anyways.... So I get a package from Cindy and it's a scarf she knitted for me but not any scarf but Tom Baker's scarf (Any Doctor Who fans out there?) It's a little over 20' long! I'm not joking here! It's awesome and I love it! I had to take a picture of it even though I'm sporting Eeyore which totally doesn't go together.

Tomorrow I go into work somewhere between 7 and 8 am and I'm currently fasting because I have blood work that is going to be drawn while I'm at work. I know fun stuff right. Also, tomorrow afternoon I will be going to Katherine's school to update her IEP as she is being released from speech therapy. It's going to be a busy day I just hope it is an also productive day with as little stress as possible.