Survived the Holidays

So you probably thought I disappeared and I kind of did in the black hole that is called 'the kitchen'. The holidays were rough. I did not have a holiday luncheon this year for the ladies as there wasn't enough interest in it so I spent from Yule to Christmas (I know a strange span) getting ready for Christmas dinner in which we had a friend over because no one should be alone then and we were able to see other dear friends that stopped by including one that just came back to the states from serving over seas. The last few weeks have been a blurr trying to get the house back to order and then trying to get back into the swing of school for the kids and work for me.

I will try to have at least one product opinion from me in every post at the bottom but I've done a lot less deals and freebies the last few weeks so I'm going to have to get back into the swing of it.

So let's zoom through my holiday baking frenzy shall we?

Well first like I said in my last post I was going to make shortbread and berlinerkraser cookies. Both of these have become a tradition for our family as the girls really enjoy cooking with me and being able to help cut out or decorate each cookie.

Now the thing about shortbread cookies is it uses a LOT of egg yolks which leaves you with all the whites and I just could not justify throwing those out nor did I feel like making scrambled egg whites to eat so what uses egg whites? Why Angel food cake of course! Now I have to admit the reason I never made this cake from scratch before is because of the huge amount of whites needed and because of this need I ended up doing 2 batches of shortbread cookies (which is a LOT of cookies) and I didn't have cake flour so I had to take out 2 tbsp from 1 cup of flour and replace it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch and it worked out great. In fact the cake was the first thing ate. Now if you are wondering why it looks so dark its because I made it a Spiced Angel food cake which went over really well.

So during break we all went down to the Hospital Day at Winter Wonderland for the hospital employees. We ended up not staying very long because it was crowded and due to the down town construction they did not have the normal activities but they did have the crafts section still so each of the girls got a big bag of crafts that we did over winter break. Everyone thinks I'm so crafty but here's my little secret I don't put these crafts together myself... shhh don't tell anyone.

We had our Christmas dinner this year with a honey orange glazed ham and potato soup with bread bowls I made from scratch. I took my normal savory pizza bread recipe and just made the bread since I knew it was a recipe I could trust. I had to make it twice since I didn't feel comfortable just doubling the recipe.

 

So there you have it a Sims Holiday. We also made a plaster volcano during the break for Katherine to use though sadly didn't get much of a reaction out of the chemicals provided so I grabbed a big box of Baking Soda and a giant bottle of vinegar and we made that volcano go! but first we painted the newspaper green and we took some extra plaster and crumbled it up too look like the rocks at the bottom of a mount and use Monopoly houses/hotels to give us a nice little town at the base. The girls had great fun with it!

Alright then! Let's move on to a quick product review for this week...

Dr. Pepper 10 : If you like it great! Personally since I'm in love with Dr. Pepper I found it to be blasphemy they claim it tastes the same but it's very light on flavor in my opinion and has an after taste like Splenda. It's drinkable but it's not even remotely close to the original.

Well until next time folks! Peace!

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Again with the Busy!

Oh my word! It's been run run run! I've been so busy I haven't been able to fill out for many samples or coupons at all! Between holiday shopping, school performances for the kids, my husband's work keeping him over and working him weekends and my work just being stressful I can't hardly keep up let alone get enough thoughts together to blog. Not that I was any sort of master blogger in the first place.

I have been trying to keep the kids busy though during the little bit of time we do get together between all our hectic schedules. Mommy went a little crazy this past weekend when Daddy was at work and found some old window snow and I decided I'd like the some light from the outside world. Our livingroom window has the most horrible view so this was a simple solution for things I had laying around the house and the kids enjoyed me teaching them how to make snowflakes again. It also helps because my husband has been whinning due to the lack of snow and how green everything is this winter.

Winter is my time for baking and to make sure this spare tire around me doesn't go flat hahahaha! If you have a JoAnn's in the area and you're not signed up on their website then what are you waiting for! This is the first year we've had JoAnn Fabric and Craft in the area and I'm loving it. We had them when I lived in Oregon but I guess they are just now getting to this region. I got my 20% off coupon which is 20% off my total order and have been spending way too much down there. My latest investment was a cookie press to make up decorative spritz cookies. Next I'll be making up some Berlinerkraser and Shortbread cookies with the kids. I also plan to try my hand at making bread bowls for my potato soup this year. Sadly everyone is so busy we will not be having our lady luncheon so I'm saving the ham and soup til Christmas. No real Yule celebration here our goal is normally just to enjoy each others company and stay warm... so I guess that's pretty traditional depending what part of the world you are from ha!

Okay one other thing before I get back to life... Coca-Cola, you've seen the points on the caps and on the boxes and probably like me you think to yourself, "I'm sure that it takes so many it's just not worth my time"  and normally you would be right but Coke runs these deals if you search and pay attention. I got a coupon for a free 12-pack for 120 pts. (each bottle is about 3 pts if I remember correctly) and because I was trying to imput everything to get a Kroger $25 gift card but didn't have enough pts so I got 2 coupons. Now they are mailed in and the 12-packs was the deal at that time but keep your eye out I also got free ritz crackers coupon one time.

Have a Happy Holiday Season!!

The promised posting...

I've been a bad girl lately and haven't been forcing myself to take the time to write here. Basically it boils down to dealing with the school because of Brielle's disorganization which is causing her to lose assignments and also contributing to her showing up to classes late. I've also been very tired lately averaging 5 hrs of sleep per night so I haven't had much motivation for anything and then we also had Halloween. It's been a busy few weeks and other than taking pictures for A Budget You Can Live With of my shopping trips I've just not bothered spending the time I normally do. Let's see if I can catch up on a few things.

Product Review
Garnier Fructis Anti-Dandruff Shampoo - Clean & Fresh
Over all the smell of this shampoo is pretty good not too much perfume and I've had an over all positive experience with this product though it is pretty thin and I prefer a thicker shampoo personally. I don't really have heavy dandruff so I cannot speak to how well this product works on that. Would I buy it? It depends on how cheep I can get it but I would not be opposed to it if I found it on sale.

Kitchen
So this past Monday was Halloween which means we carved pumpkins this last weekend I found a farmer's market trying to clearance out their pumpkins and got each pumpkin for $1 so I bought 5 of them. What does all this mean? It means this past weekend I was baking a lot of pumpkin seeds, 5 1/2 cups to be exact!

My Pumpkin Seed Recipe
Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin, rinse and try and get what little bits you can off and any seed shells that didn't develop seeds separated out. Boil seeds in salt water for 20 min. this helps get the salty taste in the seeds and also makes cleaning them much easier. Arrange tray's with cloth or paper towels, lay the seeds out in a single layer (this will probably take a couple trays), cover with a cloth and let the seeds dry over night (if you start this in the evening or approx. 8 hrs). The seeds do not need to be perfectly dry so don't try for that, you can also speed it up by patting out the moisture if you are in a bit of a hurry.
Now my recipe:
3 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Salt
4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Salt
2 cups Pumpkin Seeds

Melt Butter then add salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and blend together. Add seeds and stir until all seeds are completely coated and then put on trays in a single layer. Bake @ 300 degrees for 40 min. (I prefer my seeds a little more crisp since I eat the shell and all so you may need to adjust the baking time). Remove the seeds, lightly sprinkle with sugar and then allow them to cool before storing them in an air tight container.

Alt. Recipe
3 tbsp Butter
1 Tsp  Steak Seasoning (You can definitely add more for a more pronounced taste I sprinkled extra on before baking)
1 1/2-2 cups Pumpkin seeds

Shopping & Planning
So I'm not going to go over my whole shopping trip if you want to see pics of this last week then please join my Facebook page linked above. What I will say is that I've already started buying for Thanksgiving. I'm trying to work out my complete list of what will be needed as we are going to have guests for Thanksgiving and if I leave it all to the last minute then I know I'll be doing some midnight shopping trips. As we get closer to time I will start working out my cooking schedule and will try and remember to post it up. I encourage people to go to my Facebook page linked above and look at the older document I wrote up about keeping your sanity during the busy cooking holiday season.

Well I've used up all my time and it's time to get ready for work but I will try not to take such long vacations from here in the future.

Busy busy! Zoo, Work, Fall Break....

Well I didn't make my normal posts Sunday on FB for 'A Budget You Can Live With' (I really should have came up with a shorter name I'll call it ABYCLW... anyone else get Abby Claw out of that? Okay okay I'll call it 'FB Budget page' more natural to type). I was going to take the kids to the Great Pumpkin Festival but when we added it all up it would have cost us about $60 to go to the farm with the kids and with us having the Louisville Zoo planned for Monday it just didn't seem like the best idea. Instead of pouring through ads all day Sunday I made my best guess meal plan and grocery list up at about 1 AM Sunday before going to bed, just long enough to look through the grocery ad. So Sunday I had to do my running, which is a bad idea since the places I shop stock on Mondays so the stores were cleared out of nearly everything I wanted which I guess is good because they had the items I absolutely needed so brought down the cost of my trip some.
This week Peter took off for vacation so he could be home with the kids during Fall Break, that and he really needed some time away from work.
Monday we went as a family to the Louisville Zoo because we had 2 tickets we had purchased at a benefit the prior year but buying 2 more tickets was outrageously priced. We got to the zoo about an hour after opening and had to rush through a good part of it because the zoo closes so early there thank goodness we didn't pay the extra for the 4D movie or carousel. The Outback area was closed that day as were the Lorries and when we went to go feed the Giraffe it just happened the girls got their containers of food and the giraffe was no longer hungry and walked away. We got our money back of course but it was a disappointment, but the girls were good and we all understood and we continued on our way. During the middle of the day we stopped for some food and something to drink because we didn't know we could have brought our own in there and that was a mistake. Peter and I have never in our lives seen such horrible prices for not so good food and not enough seating. We wanted to have a good time so we paid it and tried not to say a thing about it. The other mistake we made was going to the gift shop because you know you're going to walk out with about $30 or more of junk but I got my traditional coffee cup, Brielle got a shirt and Katherine got a stuffed baby tiger toy; Peter was the only restrained one in there and decided not to pick anything up. The girls fell asleep on the car ride home and they had a good trip and I guess that's all that matters because Peter and I are trying to make their childhood really something to look back on and smile about.

As I said above Peter's been home with the kids all week so they've been doing a bit of the cleaning up I've requested and he's been letting them color and go outside and actually play. He's also been doing the dishes for me and trying to help by cooking dinner though I know it still irritates him my ass still keeps being found in the kitchen. I'm not used to someone doing for me or helping me though I'm starting to get used to it right at the end when this little faerie tale is about done and now I'll have to program myself back into super mom.

I've been beating my head over work this past week too so been coming home extremely tired. Some nights I can't even find the will to work on my crocheting. I can't wait for a vacation myself but it'll be December before I have any real time off because the time off in November I'm cooking like a mad woman for Thanksgiving.

I hope next week is a little easier on me at work.

Product Review Overview

So I've gotten a lot of trials lately and a few good deals on products so I thought I'd give my own opinion on them.

Swiffer 360 Duster
The Swiffer duster is made from soft fabric so it does collect the dust and I did not see a lot of dust going back into the air. It has it's main frame as a thin design so the entire duster is good for dusting around TVs and getting under and around other electronics. One of the down sides is if you have a lot of nick-knacks like I do that you may find the soft fabric to get caught (especially since I have quite a few dragons and their scales are detailed) and if the item is light it may cause the duster to come back towards you or it may catch the fabric and take the duster straight off the wand. I have not looked in this area but prices are being reported as $8 per box of 6 refills. Personally I find the price steep. I may pick up a box of refills to make dusting door frames easier but for any heavy dust items like ceiling fans it will still be the old rag method for me.

Breathe Right 'Advanced'
The new Breathe Right strips are split down by the nasal passage which made them very awkward for him to put on and sadly our experience so far is that they do not help any at all. Personally I will go for the original design when getting his nasal strips.

Suave Dry Shampoo
Now we take regular showers in this house hold but Brielle has very oily hair so by the morning her hair looks greasy and shiny again. I use this dry shampoo and while it doesn't really help remove any of the grease it does take down the shine and give her hair a more dry look to it. I could definitely live without this product but if I find it at a good price I would still purchase it for her. Kind of a mix review but I guess I'm not sure what I was suppose to experience with this product.

Oregon Chai
I got this with a coupon and so far have loved the Original liquid concentrate. You mix half that with half milk and warm or cold I cannot say enough about this product. Every one's tastes are different though but for me I found my new favorite thing.

Super Weekend & Hopeful for the Week

Well sorry I didn't get my post in last week I was just very busy last Monday since I had a luncheon with the girls from work and I went to Sam's Club and ended up weighing and packaging 32 lbs of meat.
This past weekend we took advantage of the Smithsonian free museum day and all four of us went for $6 and went into a mobile star lab and then went on a coal miners tour. The kids enjoyed themselves and it was very educational. I also did a lot of crafts with the girls this weekend since our crafting projects were starting to build up because we could never find the time. It was a stressful week last week because I was sick and ended up coming home sick last Friday but the weekend made up for it and I'm hopeful for this week.
This week should be pretty standard other than I have to go into work today (Monday) which means I'm in a little bit of a rush right now because I still have to do my grocery shopping before I can go to work. I have a pretty small grocery list and I plan to stick to it because 1. there are really no sales to speak of and 2. I'm in a rush. Reason I have to work today is because there is no school Friday so I had to do the schedule shuffle to be able to cover the kids being home.
I did do some searching this morning for freebies and samples and posted what I found in my quick search on A Budget You Can Live With.

9/26 Menu

• Tacos
• Chicken Bake
• Breakfast for Dinner
• Spaghetti with Parmesan Chicken
• Steaks & Burgers
• Pizza
• Hamburger Helper

Weeeeeeee! & Adventures in Cleaning

Interesting title right? Well I'm on a bit of an emotional roller coaster as things stand right now. I've been getting very little sleep and I have so much work to do that none of it is getting done! Doesn't sound like it's making sense? Well basically I'm so stressed out I don't know where to start so I chase my tail and then get mad at myself when I see no progress made. I'm sure I'm not the first nor the last person to experience this so just have to push through.

Next Few Days Schedule:
Today

• I have to go searching for a toy horse to put on a cake for my daughter's 11th birthday party. I have been all over and calling every place in town and no one has a horse cake so I've got to try and put together one myself. I will also probably see if Walmart can have a cake done by Saturday afternoon because she really wanted a marble cake and I canceled my order when they told me they did not have the horse packet in.
• Brielle needs new shoes she's been wearing sandals with socks and before I just thought she was being stubborn about not wearing her shoes but with it turning cold and her still doing it that means there is a shoe run to be made because she really must have out grown her shoes in just the last couple months... growing like a weed.
• Need to find where Brielle lost her tooth so the tooth faerie can do her job.
• Katherine and I need haircuts.
• Need to find out if the kids are going to the Grandparent's house tonight.
• Cleaning house: kitchen floor, vacuum house, make beds, clean playroom, clean all flat surfaces in living room & kitchen, clean bathroom, scrub tub, fold laundry
• I need to take Katherine out to pick up her sister's present.
• Go to the bank.

Saturday
(Peter will be working)

• (if kids are at Grandparent's house) Get kids.
• Pick up Brielle's best friend Leslie.
• Take all the kids to the Scarecrow Festival (probably eat lunch there to make life simple)
• Pick up cake.
• Go home and get the house decorated for the party.
• By 5 o'clock people should be arriving by 7 o'clock everyone should be here so should have the pizza here by that time and will have a house full of girls watching movies and doing girl stuff while eating pizza, cake and cookies! Sugar high time!

Sunday

• Wait for all of Brielle's friends to go home then hopefully have time to clean up the house and rest.
• Search for coupons & match deals.
• Make the next week Menu
• Cheesy Chicken Pasta for Dinner - has to be prepped and in crock pot by 10am.

Monday

• Groceries
• Sam's Club
• Divide, weigh, package and freeze about 30 lbs of meat.
• 11:30 Red Lobster to meet the girls from work.
• 3pm Dental Cleaning
• Pick up Katherine
• Make dinner
• Normal nightly chores.

Adventures in Cleaning
As promised my little over view with my recent experiments with cleaning. As some may know I got my steam cleaner from 1SaleADay.com and it was advertised as a hard surface steam cleaner though I had hoped it'd work on fabric. Well it does work on fabric but not very well so you won't see me steam cleaning a lot of things around the home like that and it didn't do so grand on the grease on the plastic fake tile behind my kitchen counters but! it cleaned the microwave like a charm I had never been so happy I am now so willing to keep it clean because it's just steam and wipe. Also, I ended up using WD-40 on the grease I was talking about but I steamed it afterwards to help me wipe it back off to get rid of that horrible smell. The steam cleaner also did well on removing the built up dust, dirt and grease from my stove; the plastic and the metal areas and let me get in between all those little areas that I used to spray kitchen cleaner into and then use a toothpick. Over all I'd say a little hand steam cleaner is a must have in a house hold to help get away from heavy chemical cleaners and make some jobs easy as can be.