A walk in the Park

Moves her momma didn't give her.

2012-02-03T08:31:00.001-06:00

This is my baby. But "boss of the world" would be a better title. She's got confidence in amounts I can't even fathom. I told her I wanted her to do a dance for me and she didn't hesitate before whipping up this little number.

P.S. Sorry about the quality of the video. We're having issues with Youtube.

Conversations with my kids

2012-01-31T07:30:00.000-06:00

On careers.

This is my friend, Leigh Archer. His picture is in a real estate publication my daughter picked up at the store yesterday. She was looking at all the pictures on the back and when she got to him she said, "Whoah! I know that guy!" I told her who he was and she was awed. Rock start status, I tell you.

Then, later that evening, my 13 year old son picked up the same publication and asked me what I was doing with it. I told him that Anna had picked it up and noticed someone we knew. Here's how our conversation went after that.

John: Who's that?
Me: It's Leigh. He goes to our church.
John: Why's he on that ad?
Me: He sells houses.
John: Is that why he's so rich?
Me: What?
John: He has a nice car.
Me: Yeah.
John: He has a nice house.
Me: Yeah.
John: He has nice glasses.
Me: Yeah.
John: He always looks like he just took a shower and he's from Canada.
Me: So based on all those things, he's rich?
John: Yeah. He's cool. I wanna sell houses.

One Bite at a Time: Bite #23 - Regularly turn off your tv

2012-01-30T08:14:00.000-06:00

I sort of chose a gimme task for this past week's project, regularly turn off your tv. It's something we already do, but since it's not that intentional, I realize it has the potential to get out of hand. When we're all at my in-laws, the tv is almost always on. That's really the place I need to enforce this one.

The thing that is intentional, though, is the lack of satellite tv at our house. My husband made a promise that he would never pay for television and so far, he's kept his promise. I've noticed that when I'm at my in-laws there are so many options, some of them very educational, it's easy to pick something that seems harmless and waste a couple of hours. It is harmless if that happens only occasionally, but if we had that many options at our house, it would be a regular thing. Especially with my need to get what I pay for.

So, in our home, where we have about 5 channels of less than mediocre programming, we are content with a regular movie night, provided by Netflix. My husband and I have complete control over what our kids are watching and have the freedom to be intentional about it. Sometimes, it's something fun, and sometimes we have a hidden agenda to educate. No matter, we are all together, popcorn in hand, enjoying something that was a planned event.

Regularly turn off your tv - check. What does your family's tv habit look like?

William Morris Thursday - My girls' wardrobe

2012-01-26T09:17:00.001-06:00

I'm linking up again this week with Jules' William Morris project. Get the full scoop here.

I know I said I would be done with my coffee table project by now, but neither my schedule nor the weather has cooperated. My theory is that the two have conspired against me to keep it from getting done. The days it's been nice out, I haven't had time and this past weekend, when I had a full Sunday to get it done, it looked like this.

I don't know if you can tell by this picture, but that's some other town's dirt in the air. Not sure if it was Midland or Lubbock, but it wasn't ours. It doesn't do that very often, but when it does, I don't go out. For anything. I stood on the porch just for a minute to get a picture of the sun and my legs were stinging from the sand in the air.

So I stayed indoors and did some organizing. Not as much fun but so necessary. I have 3 girls and two of them are 19 months apart, so I feel like I am overrun with girl clothes. To make matters worse, both of the kid's grandmas like to pick things up for them now and then and I have a great friend that passes most of her girl's stuff down to them. That makes for mounds of clothes in my house. An unnecessary amount of clothes. I've known for some time that they have too much, I just couldn't bring myself to pare it down. Well, trapped inside my house this weekend, that's what I did.

Here's all the clothes they own. Well, I should say all the clothes they own that are in season. There's more in the attic for summer. The piles toward the top of the picture belong to my youngest daughter and the piles in the bottom half of the picture belong to my two oldest daughters.

Oh, wait, I went in their room and there were clothes everywhere. I mean, everywhere. I didn't get a shot of it, but I did get a shot of the big basket that I hauled out of there and then had to sort because I didn't know what was clean and what was dirty. In their defense, I haven't modeled very good habits when it comes to the whole business of clothes. They come by it honestly.

I put that into the wash and then sorted it. Then, I had the girls pick their favorite outfits. I probably let them pick too many, but we did make a sizable dent in it all. Some of the rejects will go back to my friend and some will go to the consignment shop in town.

Here's everything hung up in their closet. I have to admit, after the girls chose everything they wanted to keep, and we loaded that same blue laundry basket with it all, I felt like it was still too much, but once I got it in the closet, it looked normal. Normal, of course, by first-world standards. ;) I was thinking about buying a Martha Stewart closet system like the one Andrea posted about last week, but since I don't have the extra cash right now, I rummaged around my house and found cheaper, flimsier versions of the components I needed and that will have to do for now.

They're only 5, 8 and 9, but they are already showing a propensity for shoe hoarding. God help me.

All the usual dresser stuff, panties, socks, pj's, t-shirts and leggings, went into this dresser. Which I will be refinishing as soon as I can find a hole in my schedule to do it. It's a hand-me-down from my sister's husband, who gave it to us for our son's nursery 13 years ago. I haven't even begun to suck the life out of this thing. That's what a well built piece of furniture is worth.

This is the girl's other closet. Obviously, I have given them free reign to use it as they please. Eventually I will take it back and organize it. Not today.

And that's my completed project from this week. I've been so motivated by everyone's accomplishments, I think this just might be the catalyst I needed to get it all done. Thanks Jules!

The problem with choices

2012-01-25T13:05:00.000-06:00

In our house, we've been trying to give our kids more choices. When they are acting up, I give them a choice between changing their behavior or continuing - with consequences. It works pretty well when I don't get lazy and resort to ordering them around like a drill sergeant.

My youngest, April, is pretty used to the drill. This morning, she was making noises at the table while we were trying to do school. I gave her the choice of making noises in the other room by herself or stopping the noise and staying with us at the table. She sighed and chose to stay with us.

Later on, I was giving her her reading lesson. She told me she had to go to the bathroom and when she came back she had this to report:

April: I was going to the bathroom and God told me I had a choice whether I wanted to wipe or not.

Me: Oh, great. Well, what did you choose?

April: I chose not to.

She later admitted that she was just joking. I didn't check to see.

One Bite at a Time: Bite #3, Establish a morning routine

2012-01-23T07:27:00.000-06:00

Get it here

Since I'm only 3 weeks into this 52 Bites thing, it seemed pretty natural to me what project I should complete this week. Project number 3 is "Establish a morning routine." Lord knows my mornings are usually a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of affair unless I have something in my schedule that requires a plan. Schedules, let alone a specific morning one, have never really been on my radar, but I realize if I'm wanting some different results in my life, I have to change some things.

I am not a morning person, per se, but I can easily adapt to something that's required of me over a period of time. That's what happened when I started having kids 13 years ago. Even after all these years, I still wake up a hot, groggy mess, but I can function when I need to. Thank you, coffee. My current schedule requires that I wake one child at 7, fix breakfast for that child and either send him off to school with my husband or take him myself. While I'm doing that, my other 3 sleep until I wake them up.

And that, folks, is about the only schedule I have. It's a little more hurried when I have someplace to be or Tuesdays when I'm hosting coffee, and a little more laid back when it's just a regular day. And on the weekends, I sleep in. Period. Granted, I can't sleep much past 8 anymore, but that one precious extra hour has become golden to me.

When I read over the section about establishing a morning routine, I started to dread it. I know my day will go a lot smoother if I have some time to myself every morning, but I've just never done it so I can't imagine being able to establish a habit in that area.

Here are some suggestions, from the book, to include in a morning routine:

Take a shower
Pray
Exercise
Drink a glass of water
Stretch
Make your bed
Read your Bible
Meditate
Journal
Take Vitamins
Read encouraging quotes or a devotional
Review your family purpose statement
Listen to a particular song
Sit outside for a few minutes with a cup of coffee
Dump your brain

Hmmm, I can see I'm going to have to wing it. Which is what I should be doing anyway because no one can make a morning schedule for another person. It has to be personal. The only thing I do regularly is drink a cup of coffee so that has to be in there somewhere. And a list. I love making lists so maybe I'll sit with my coffee and make a list for the day. I guess that would be considered dumping my brain. I do remember a time when I used to sit on the edge of my bed in the morning for about 10 minutes doing nothing. My husband used to call it 'sitting', but I think all that was was me waiting for my brain to wake up so I could actually function. Eventually, with the increasing needs of my children, I didn't even have 10 extra minutes to sit on the edge of my bed. Things have calmed down a bit since then and now my kids are more predictable sleepers so maybe I'll revisit the sitting. I'll just have a cup of coffee in my hand and I'll make a list for the day.

So here's my new morning routine:

6:45 Get up, wake John up, sit, drink my coffee and make a list until John comes in for breakfast at 7. (He takes a shower every morning)

Since this morning routine just involves me, it seems pretty simple. Fifteen minutes of me time may not sound like much, but I think it might be just what I need. Then, when everyone else wakes up, I'll start my regular chores and things that involve everyone else. I'm not very good at keeping to a routine so I guess having a simple one to begin with is the way to go. If I can keep it up, and it helps, maybe I'll add some things to it. We'll see.

I guess I should change this week's project to 'come up with a morning routine'. I can't really say I've established it yet, but it's written down. Now, to do it.

What is your morning routine?

The crate that became a coffee table, Part 1

2012-01-19T08:53:00.000-06:00

Pancakes and French Fries

Today I'm linking up with Jules' William Morris project. I didn't choose this item on my list because it's the only one that fits in with the "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" theme, but because I couldn't stand to stare at it for one more day without taking some action. Believe me, I have plenty of overstuffed drawers, cluttered closets and dirty cabinet doors clamoring for my attention. It's just that sometimes, my personality type needs a fun project to be motivated to do a hard project. And this crate was just what I needed. I'm planning on using it as a coffee table/blanket storage chest for all those nights the kids make pallets in the living room and I end up with a huge pile of bedding the next morning that I have to deal with. This chest is going to solve that problem.

This is the crate that my husband got from the locker room of the junior high in our town. Our church bought the building and when they cleaned it out, my husband called dibs on it.

It appears to be some sort of military crate that was used for shipping supplies. The date on the label says 12/69. We've had it sitting on our porch for about a year. I knew when I first saw it, I wanted to transform it into a coffee table, but Mr. Park wasn't too sure. He kind of ignored my dreaming out loud and promptly started storing stuff in it. Fast forward to last weekend, when I forced the issue. I told him I wanted to start working on it and he told me he didn't think it was a good idea. We debated the issue until my husband confessed that he thought it was too flimsy and wouldn't hold up to a life in our living room, which we both knew would include being a stage for spontaneous performances. I released him to shore it up however he saw fit and he was instantly on board.

Unfortunately, for him, that was going to require a lot of tedious work. Fortunately for me, he can do pretty much anything he sets his mind to. I kind of felt bad for him, working all day last Saturday cutting and hammering and running back and forth to Lowe's for more supplies, but he was right, it needed it. Besides, I was the one who ran to Lowe's. ;)

The first thing Mr. Park decided this crate needed, in order to be the perfect coffee table, was to have a little taken off the top. I wanted to put caster wheels on the bottom, so it made sense to make it shorter.

I have to agree, that's a lot better height for a coffee table. Especially since our couches sit kind of low to the ground.

The next thing it needed was inside reinforcement. Mr. Park cut plywood pieces to reinforce the inside walls and screwed them in place.

Even though this part of the project was mostly about what my husband wanted to do to make this thing structurally sound, I had some pretty firm ideas about how I wanted it to look. I knew I wanted caster wheels on the bottom, so those skids that were there had to go. The only problem was that they were holding the whole thing together and a few pieces of thin plywood inside weren't going to do the job that they were doing. So after a little consultation with his brother, Mr. Park decided to turn the box upside down, remove the large skids and replace them with smaller pieces that matched the braces on the sides.

Once he removed one of the skids, we saw that they had been attached with nails from the inside.

Nice.

While I sawed the ends of the nails off with a Dremel, Mr. Park cut and attached the new braces in place.

As we lost the last bit of sunlight, the first part of this project was complete. Now all I have to do is settle on the wheel style I want, find hinges for the lid and stain the whole thing. Stay tuned next week for the completion of this project!

Linking up here...

Pancakes and French Fries

One Bite at a Time: Bite #6, Create a family purpose statement

2012-01-16T12:11:00.000-06:00

Get it here

After last week's haircare post, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go next in the 52 Bites book. There's no set format for doing the projects. There are 52 of them, but they can be done in whatever order and at whatever pace you prefer. I like that flexibility, but I also have a hard time making decisions when faced with a lot of options. I was still undecided during church yesterday when we stood up to do our declarations. After saying them out loud again, I realized they had become more of an empty mantra rather than something I was intentionally living by. I remembered that there was a project in the book about creating a family mission/purpose statement and decided that that would be a good place to start this week.

In the book, there's a link to a mission statement builder on Franklin Covey's website. I went through it and came up with a rough statement, but wanted to start our family with something more foundational. I'll be working on a more practical, day-to-day statement, but this is where we're going to put our focus for now. I've listed the point, and then expanded on how I've interpreted it's meaning and how that will apply to our family.

1. We experience love daily.

In our home, there will be an atmosphere of love. Love will be something we can always count on. My children can be confident that they will feel loved every day.

2. We give love on all occasions.

In our interactions with each other, we will make love our highest priority. We won't be controlled by fear or anger. We will let love dictate how we should handle situations.

3. We open ourselves to be fully known.

Our home will be a safe place to be completely open and honest. We won't hold things back because of the pain it might cause to share it. We will trust each other with every part of ourselves.

4. We see others through the lens of love and destiny, not condemnation and judgement.

In our family, we will do and say what's best for each other in a loving way so that we can be the people God created us to be. We will not condemn or judge each other, but speak truth so that we can overcome the areas that are holding us back.

5. We value family, no matter the cost.

Our family will be our top priority. We will do what it takes to know each other fully and be intentional about our time with each other. Even if that means sacrificing things like lots of extracurricular activities.

6. We are free from the weight of performance.

In our family, love is not based on how well you perform. There will be freedom to try new things and explore what we are passionate about, knowing that if we fail, that will not determine our worth. Each one of us is a valuable member of the family based on who they are, not what they do.

7. We value people over purpose.

We will pursue our dreams, but not at the expense of our relationships. Success can only be achieved if we can go after the things we are passionate about, while maintaining full and healthy relationships with the people around us.

This year, I will be going through all the projects in the One Bite at a Time book and sharing my experience on Mondays. You can keep track of my progress here.

Linking up here:

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana: an illustrated recipe

2012-01-13T05:00:00.000-06:00

Y'all know how I love a good illustrated recipe, right? Well I've got one for you. This is what my son requested for supper tonight. It's his favorite and I love it when I can do something special for him. He's 13, you know, and lately, everything I do gets a dramatic eye roll, but not this soup. Personally, I think he wants to kiss me after I make it, but instead he flashes that cute grin at me, eats 2 or 3 bowls full and I'm a happy momma.

This is my version of a soup called Zuppa Toscana and it's served at The Olive Garden. The Olive Garden isn't my favorite restaurant, I'm more of a Carino's kind of girl, but they do make a mean soup and paired with their salad, it's a perfect meal. I found the recipe by doing a search about 10 years ago and found that there are a lot of versions out there. Whatever version I started with, I've tweaked it into what I'm sharing today.

Here's a group shot of all the participants.

There's 1 lb sausage, 6 strips of bacon, an onion, a clove of garlic, 2 medium baking potatoes, a quart of chicken broth, 1/3 cup whipping cream, 2 cups of kale.

Start by browning the sausage and setting it aside.

Take your onion, dice it and add it to your soup pot. Next, take 6 slices of bacon and cut them into one or two inch pieces. Add this to the onion and brown until the onion is translucent. Don't you love that word? Translucent. It's almost too fancy a word to describe the color of an onion.

Once your onion is, say it with me, translucent, add the garlic and cook another minute.

Here's a little something I've learned with garlic. The only garlic I could find was a couple of cloves in the bottom of my fruit bowl. They had become quite accustomed to that bowl and were getting ready to sprout when I so rudely decided to use them for my soup. See that little sprout coming out?

Some people may not be bothered by such things, but I find them to be a little bitter. So here's what I do. I just cut the suckers in half and remove that sprout. They come out pretty easily. Then I just dice as normal and add them to the pot.

Mmmm, here's the bacon, onion and garlic cooking away and making my kitchen smell like Italian heaven.

How you do this next part is entirely up to you. You can add a quart of water and then add whatever chicken bouillon you prefer, or you can just add a box, or can, of chicken broth. I started out with the water and bouillon method and later added some broth from a box to make more because I have a big family and they like to eat soup.

This is the bouillon I like to use, for what it's worth.

Unfortunately, I was down to only a couple of tablespoons and I was having a hard time getting the last tablespoon out of the jar because this stuff is pretty pasty. If this ever happens to you, just add a few spoonfuls of your broth to the jar, screw the lid on tight, and shake, shake, shake.

Then you can just pour that last bit out. Viola! But you probably already knew that.

Now that the broth is going and getting hot, take the potatoes and cut them first lengthwise, and then into 1/4 inch slices. Add these to the broth and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, get the kale ready to add. This is kale.

If you're not familiar with kale, it's a leafy green vegetable that's full of vitamins and minerals and I think might even be a super food. It's really dense, but when you add it to this soup, it softens and turns a beautiful bright green color and frankly, makes the whole soup.

The kale I bought was organic and therefore covered in dirt. I decided to cut the leaves away from the stem and then rinse them in the sink. The stems are really fibrous and tough.

After you've rinsed the leaves, roll them up and cut them into slices. This is called chiffonade. I don't know if you can put an 'ing' on the end of that word, but that's what it's called. Another fun word to say if you want to impress people. But basically it's just an easy way of slicing a leafy green so you don't have to slice each individual leaf. Just gather up as much as you can and roll it all together and start slicing.

You'll end up with something like this.

As a side note, I have found that you can't buy just a little kale. It's sold in big bunches and you may not use it all the first go around. If that's the case, my friend Ali has a recipe for you. She's the co-author of The Cleaner Plate Club blog in my sidebar and the book by the same name and she makes the yummiest kale chips. I've witnessed several small people in my house literally fight over them until they were gone, 2.5 seconds after I set the plate down!

Here's where I decided I didn't make near enough soup and added a box of chicken broth. This is where I also realized that most of the sausage I had set aside to add at the end had been eaten. I know what you're thinking. And there's nothing I love more than crumbly sausage, but I didn't eat it all. I'm not the only one living in this house, you know. No worries, I just browned another tube of it and added that to the soup. It needed to be doubled anyway.

There. That's much better.

At the end of 15 minutes, the potatoes should be done since they were sliced so thinly. Doesn't that look delectable?

I know it does, but there are 2 key ingredients left to add before it's really ready. It's time to add ~~a cup~~ 1/3 cup whipping cream and the kale strips.

Here it is, folks. A veritable souply masterpiece!

And here's Mr. Park, eating the kale outta this soup!

Here's the recipe all written out:

Pam's version of The Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

1 lb. sausage
6 strips of bacon, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 medium baking potatoes
1 quart of water and chicken bouillon or 1 quart chicken broth
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 cups of kale

Brown sausage in a skillet. Drain and set aside.

In a large pan, saute bacon and diced onion until onions are translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for another minute. Add broth.

Cut potatoes lengthwise and then into 1/4 inch slices. Add to broth and simmer for 15 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, cut the kale into strips. After 15 minutes, add sausage, kale strips and cream.

Serve while hot.

Linking up here:

Home Goals 2012

2012-01-11T08:52:00.001-06:00

The Nester is hosting a linky party on our Home Goals for the coming year. Honestly, when I started to think about my list, I couldn't get past my living room. It's all I can think about lately, so I decided to do a detailed list of the things I need to do in there and then a more general list of the rest of the house.

The living room list will also serve as a bank of before photos because I fully intend to have before and afters of that space! This is my living room.

Thanks to Ashley at The Handmade Home, I have a whole list of ideas to do in this room. Click on over to see her creative take on improving this room. I think she pretty much nailed it!

Changing wall color.
Paint a floor canvas to replace the rug.
Art on the walls.
Adding a gallery wall to the empty space you can't see to the entry way.
Possibly hanging some curtainy things from the ceilings on either side of the columns.
Slipcovering the Craig's list couches I got to replace the leather ones.
Something for above the fireplace mantle.
Panel the ceiling in wood planks.
Update/replace ceiling fan.
Add/Update lamps.

Turn this old thing into a coffee table on casters.

Paint and slipcover this chair and table combo.

Paint this bad boy a lighter color and remove the arch thing from the top to update the piece.

Now, on to the rest of the house:

Dining room - paint, wainscoting or board and batten, turn the thrift store table I got into a farmhouse table, some kind of window treatments, paint the bookcase.

Laundry room - clean out completely, install some kind of lockers or benches with storage for kid's stuff, install a counter top and plugs as a work surface for ironing, crafts, etc.

John's room - paint, new bed, gun rack, shelving.

Girl's room - paint, chair rail and wainscoting, artwork for the walls, closet organization, paint dresser, update fan/light fixture.

Outside - landscaping, bordering driveway with a concrete curb, planting hydrangeas, hollyhocks, garlic, redo garden with raised beds, update chicken coop, flower beds around trees.

I think that should keep me busy for a while. I might be able to do a project every few months, maybe more if I'm good with my time. We'll see. Regardless, it feels good to get it all down in writing.

P.S. This list doesn't even include all the areas I want to purge and clean. That actually needs to happen before I do any decorating/improvements. I have Jules @ Pancakes and French Fries for encouraging me in that area with her William Morris posts. You can read more about it here and join in here.

What are your house plans for this year?

I'm linking up to the following blogs:

The Nester

Jules @ Pancakes and French Fries

One Bite at a Time: Bite #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly haircare

2012-01-09T10:50:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. We had a city-wide power outage this morning that slowed everything down. And this is a small town so things already run a little slow.

I mentioned last week that I'd be doing a weekly post on the One Bite at a Time project. You can still get the e-book by going here. It's only $5 and you can print it out or keep it on your computer's desktop, however you roll. I've got mine in a trusty binder because I have a love affair with binders.

The bite I'm starting with is #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly hair care. This was the perfect place to start for me because I haven't been happy with my current hair care regime for some time now. When I was single, I had a roommate who was a hair dresser and I got Aveda products at cost so I was a little spoiled. Now that I live with 5 other people, we're on more of a Pert Plus budget. The problem with most shampoos, from cheap to expensive, is that they are full of chemicals. And with skin being our largest organ, and extremely porous, all those chemicals can enter the bloodstream and stay there for quite a while.

There's a lot more you can read on the subject here. It's the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep site and it has loads of information on all the products we use on our skin from day to day. You can even look up the products you're currently using and see how they rate.

So, at the beginning of December, I stopped using shampoo. Yep, I quit cold turkey. I figured with the holidays being just around the corner, I wouldn't be going out as much so I could try it out and see what kind of results I got. I don't get out much anyway. I started by using baking soda and water mixed in a squirt bottle. I can't remember the amounts I used, I just poured a couple of spoonfuls of baking soda, added water to the top and started squirting it on my head. Be warned, there are no suds. That was hard for me to get used to because I've been programmed to think suds=clean. I couldn't really tell if it was doing anything so I rinsed with a mixture of vinegar and water that I had poured into another bottle. That was it. I had read on some sites that your hair can easily become dry while you find the perfect amounts for your hair type. Well, mine stayed a little oily for a while. No matter, I kept going. I didn't leave the house for a few days unless my hair was up in a pony tail and I washed it again about 4 days later. I gotta tell ya, even after those 4 days, it wasn't much oilier than the day I washed it. Not near as bad as when I let my hair go an extra day on regular shampoo and conditioner.

This was my hair before I washed it.


This is after I dried and straightened it. I'm obviously not all that impressed yet.

Over the next few weeks, I kept at it, tweaking my recipe each time until I found the perfect combo for me. I researched a lot of sites and YouTube videos to see what others had done. There's a lot of advice out there. Eventually, I settled on what this girl does.

It's been over a month and I have to say, I feel like my hair has adjusted and I've settled into a routine. In case you didn't watch the video linked above, I'll share what I'm currently doing.

I have a bottle with a small squirt spout that I use for the baking soda mixture. I add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and fill the rest with warm water. Then, for the vinegar rinse, I fill it about a third with apple cider vinegar and the rest with water. I marked my bottle so I wouldn't have to measure every time.

When I first started, I was washing my hair in the sink. This got to be pretty messy because the baking soda mixture splatters everywhere. And you can't tell where it's splashed until it dries.

Little white water spots on everything around the kitchen sink.

Plus, I knew I wanted to eventually do this while I was already taking a shower. So this is how I do it. I get in the shower and instead of wetting my hair down, I use the baking soda mixture to wet my hair completely. That way, I know that when it's wet all over, I've got the baking soda everywhere. Then I start scrubbing. I do this for a few minutes and then squirt the vinegar mixture all over my scalp. That part is actually kind of nice. The vinegar acts with the baking soda and creates a fizzy sensation all over the scalp. Once that's all worked in, I just rinse with water and continue with my shower.

Here's Mr. Park feeling my hair to see if it's too oily. He's a pretty health conscious guy, but he doesn't get the shampoo thing. And he's a little afraid if you start telling people you don't use shampoo anymore, they'll think you're one of those people. Too late. When I told my sister what I was doing, she rolled her eyes at me as if to say, "You're always doing something weird." She's right about that.

Yesterday morning was the first day I was really satisfied with the way my hair felt. They say that it takes several weeks for your hair to adjust to this new method. You won't be stripping away every bit of oil on your hair every time you wash it so your body won't need to produce extra oil to compensate. I curled my hair before church, got a few compliments and it felt great. I will say that the squeaky clean feeling you get after you wash your hair in shampoo is long gone. That took a little getting used to. I would say that washing your hair this way takes it to a 2nd day feel. You know, the first day your hair is squeaky clean and then the next day it has a little oil in it. I could never get my hair to cooperate with me until the 2nd day anyway, so this works perfect for me.

My hair really is soft and manageable and all the things you want it to be while being healthy for my skin. I'm sold. One bite down, 51 more to go!

52 Bites: A schedule

2012-01-04T05:30:00.000-06:00

Alright, I've made a decision. In keeping with my 'fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' theme for this blog, I've decided that starting this coming Monday, I'll be posting the current 'bite' I'm working on for the 52 Bites project. This all started back in November when I discovered this wonderful guide to simplifying your life. I love the idea of working on something for 52 weeks and hopefully, at the end of the year, I'll have a completely transformed and simpler life. You can read more about the e-book here.

If you want to follow along with my progress and maybe even do a little simplifying yourself, you can get the book for a whole dollar off until next Tuesday, January 10th. Click here and enter the coupon code HAPPYNEWYEAR and get it for $4! Your copy will arrive in your inbox and all you have to do is download it, print it out and put it in a binder or read it on your desktop. What could be easier?

Get it here!

On Monday, I'll be starting with bite #29. This bite has been quite an experience so come back Monday for all the gory details!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and anything else I missed

2012-01-03T08:48:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a break! My last post was a craft project I did as a Christmas gift to my girls and I didn't even end it with a Merry Christmas! I guess I was thinking I'd be back before now. Oops, I took a longer break than I expected.

This past holiday season was a little different than any I remember. Everyone I encountered seemed to be extremely laid back. It was like the Christmas season was happening in slow motion. I decided early on not to stress about the things that I normally stress about so that meant some things inevitably fell off my list. Things like putting out my favorite vintage silver Christmas tree, sending out Christmas cards and making salt dough ornaments. Oh well, in the end I didn't really miss those things. I just enjoyed relaxing with my family and doing a whole lot of nothing.

I'm not sure what I want my blog to look like this year other than a meandering stroll through the daily minutia of my life right now. I'd like to post my 52 Bites progress and maybe a craft now and then. I'm probably going to just let it happen as it happens. I'm learning to be a better planner, but right now, this blog is not one of the things I feel called to be intentional about. In saying that, I'm giving myself permission to let it go sometimes. I don't want to be up late trying to get a post finished for the next day when I have lesson plans to work on. Or laundry to finish. I don't want it to be an afterthought, it's just not at the top of my list right now.

That being said, I'd like to start this year off with a list. You know I love lists, and evidently, I'm passing that on to my children. Here's a list I found when I was cleaning my daughter's room over the holidays. It's one that my middle daughter, Autumn, made.

I don't know if she got distracted and wasn't able to finish it or if that's it. If it were me, I'd consider it done. After eating fudge for lunch, what else is there?!?

DIY Christmas gift: A Barbie carrying case

2011-12-19T10:13:00.000-06:00

Earlier in the fall, I found this glorious find at my local Goodwill.

What, you don't think it's glorious?!? I know the pink is a little alarming and it is, after all, just an old suitcase, but I looooove old suitcases and can't get enough of them lately. I actually didn't have a plan for this baby. I just saw it on the shelf, checked it for broken hinges, gave it a thumbs up and threw it in my cart. Pretty much every time I go into any thrift store, I check the luggage section. Not to give away my secret or anything but if you've been on Pinterest lately, you've seen how often repurposed luggage is showing up. From a stacked suitcase night stand to kitty beds. So, no, I don't ever pass up a cheap piece of luggage.

When I pulled this piece out of my car, I noticed something familiar about that particular shade of pink. Where had I seen that? And then it hit me, Barbie! It's the perfect shade of Barbie pink. And then I knew what I was going to do with that suitcase. It would make an excellent carrying case for the gobs of Barbies my girls have laying around their bedroom. Let me tell you, I have 3 girls, ages 5, 8 and 9 and with them being in the height of their Barbie-playing years, they've got a lot of junk. What they don't have is a trunk for all that junk. All I needed to do was stencil that familiar barbie logo on the outside and viola, I'd have it! Here's how I did it.

The inside of the case, as you can see, is already perfect for holding all their dolls and the little pouches on the sides will hold all those shoes and clothes they have. So let's just go straight to the outside.

First I went online and looked up Barbie logos. I found the name and the silhouette logos I liked and printed them out.

One thing I noticed with this suitcase is that it was a little faded on one side so the pinks were just a shade or two off from each other. I know my girls would never notice, but let's face it, this project was just as much a present for me as it was for them and I wouldn't stop noticing it so I decided to do the silhouette on the perfect pink side and do a reverse stencil of the name logo on the other side. That way, there wouldn't be enough of the faded pink to really notice a difference.

I bought some black spray paint made specifically for painting plastic and created two stencils. Let me just say, if I had a Silhouette, things would have been a lot easier and less time consuming, but I don't have a Silhouette so this is a true DIY project.

I tore a piece of wax paper big enough to cover the image I wanted to cut out. Then I took green painters tape and stuck it to the wax paper, overlapping as I went, until I had an area slightly bigger than my image.

Next, I taped my image over the green tape/wax paper and used an exacto knife to cut it out. What I had after everything was cut, was my stencil. All I had to do was peel away the wax paper and stick it down. On the barbie head side, I masked off everything around the stencil so the only black would be the silhouette and on the other side, I stuck the letters on and painted everything else black.

One mistake I made when painting over the barbie head stencil was that I put several layers of paint on at once and this caused the paint to bleed under the tape a little. No worries, though, I just used some goof off, a toothbrush and a sharpie to clean up the edges. On the other side, I learned my lesson and did one coat at a time for a nice clean edge.

I'm so happy with how it turned out. This was one of those once in a lifetime lightbulb ideas for me, so I'm hoping my girls love it!

The next time you see a suitcase in a thrift store or a garage sale, look at the color and think of the toys your kids play with. Is it Ninja Turtle green? Star Wars blue? Lego red? Almost any color suitcase could be turned into a great carrying case for all those toys with accessories out the wazoo!

Linking up to these blogs:

A Perfectly Random Thursday

2011-12-14T23:39:00.000-06:00

This past week has been a hodgepodge of activities. On Friday night, I wanted to take my girls to the movies since Mr. Park and my boy were hunting. At first, I planned on taking them to the dollar movie, but the only movie playing there was the smurfs. Thankfully, I remembered the historic theater in town that usually plays old Christmas movies around this time of year. I checked their schedule and sure enough, they were showing White Christmas. Oh, how I love that movie. And to see it at The Paramount really makes it an experience. Here's a shot of the girls before the movie started. This was taken right after April said, "Oh my goodness! This place is so romantic!"

I was really proud because the place was packed. It seems like so much is vying for our attention these days, especially with movies, so it was refreshing to see a theater almost completely filled to see a Christmas movie from 1954. And the audience ranged from little kids to senior citizens with lots of college students in between.

On Saturday night, our family had a date to watch Rudolph on CBS. Of course, we all know the words and say them out loud along with all the songs. When April was just 2 1/2, she cried at the part where Rudolph didn't get to play in all the reindeer games. We thought it was just a fluke, but when we asked her what was wrong, she said she felt sorry for Rudolph because he got left out. Now, whenever we get to that part in the movie, everyone looks at April to see how she's doing. This year she got a little irritated and said, "Stop looking at me. I'm not gonna cry this time!"

After Rudolph, we watched It's a Wonderful Life and I cried like I always do. It's such a good movie to watch to reset yourself if you're feeling overwhelmed with the commercialism of the holidays or just hopeless in your situation. It reminds me that I always have something to be thankful for.

Speaking of being thankful, I got my Christmas present early this year. And this is it.

As you can imagine, I've been making smoothies like a mad woman. I'm sure one of these days I'll get around to watching the DVD that came with it so I can get my money's worth out of it, but for now, I'm happy to make a delicious smoothie every morning for Mr. Park before work and have him tell me that it really hit the spot and he didn't even think about food until well after noon.

One evening this past week, Mr. Park played a game with the kids where he would hide a little elf ornament while the kids sat on the couch. Then the kids would open their eyes and try to see who could spot it first. It turned into a story time where Mr Park told the kids about the mean side of Santa's elves. And then my boy, who is always looking for an opportunity to liven things up, dressed up as what he imagines a scary elf would look like, quietly went out the back door, walked around the house to the front door and knocked. The evening ended in screams and running around and eventually a request to be walked to bed because they were scared. I always say our kids are either going to be the most well-rounded kids on the block or they're going to need therapy.

This is what I found when I walked in from taking a short trip to the store yesterday. I wonder if this is what the rapture is going to look like.

Here's some random things I've heard from my kids this past week.

On music:

(With Kenny G's version of Silver Bells playing on the radio)

Autie: Can you change this, please. I don't like jazz.

Me: I didn't know you even knew what jazz was.

Autie: Oh, yeah, I know about jazz and I don't like it.

On travel:

April: (with a sigh) I can't wait to go to France someday and see the awful tower.

On being efficient:

The kids' Papa came over to cut some wood and when April went out to see him he had his foot propped up on his truck tying his shoe.

April: Hey, Papa, whatcha doing?

Papa: I'm tying my shoe, darlin.

April: Why'd you come over here to do it?

On respect:

Me: Anna, I need a response from you. When you just shrug, I think you're ignoring me.

Anna: Yes, ma'am. (rolling eyes)

April: Ahhhh, I remember when I used to say, yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, yes mam, yes ma'am."

My favorite Christmas cookie. Period.

2011-12-14T07:14:00.003-06:00

Hey, everyone, I'm guest blogging over at Tales of a Clyde Woman today. I'm sharing my favorite holiday cookie recipe. They're yummy and easy so you need to be making them this season. And Leilani is posting cookie recipes all this week so if you don't have a go-to cookie recipe, you need to go to her blog. ;) That, and the fact that she is a really funny woman with stories that will keep you snickering to yourself all day long!

A crafty Christmas project

2011-12-09T08:22:00.001-06:00

Do y'all remember that great fortune I got last week when we had our annual look at Christmas lights and buy a tree night? Well, it was a keeper. And I'm already making good on it. I'm really proud of this project because I feel like it really fits me but is something I probably never would have done in years past.

Last month, I entered a contest for a room redo idea board and I won. Not only did that light a huge fire under my rear to make things the way I want them in my house, but it also introduced me to a great blog I hadn't known about. Ashley from The Handmade Home has a great design eye and she's always coming up with something fresh and fun for her house. The other day, she shared a project she did in her dining room that I knew I had to try. I was needing something for the space above my mantle and I could see this filling it.

I'll spare you all the details of my project as she has a perfectly good post on the whole thing over at her site. But I will share some of the process and some creative problem solving I had to do in order to get things just right.

Here we have a "u-g-l-y you-ain't-got-no-alibi" wreath I got from Goodwill for $1.99. Come to think of it, I probably paid too much for it. ;) It had decent bones, though, so I snatched it up. And I am so sorry for the orangey-ness of this photo. I hope I didn't burn your eyes. I couldn't find a good place to take a picture where that stupid wreath didn't camouflage itself into the background. After stripping it down of all it's gaudy fall glory, I had a plain old straw wreath to start my project.

I didn't get pictures of this next step because I was on a mission and when I'm on a mission, I can't be bothered by taking pictures of every tedious step. I hope to change that this next year. I know people like a good visual.

Basically, I took an old vintage Christmas tablecloth that I got at a thrift store for $2, took a deep breath and started ripping it into strips. It was actually quite liberating. I tend to hold on to things when I find a good deal, but that often turns into a hoarding mentality and I never end up using all the good stuff I find. I knew those kinds of tablecloths were a dime a dozen if you know where to look so even if my project didn't work out, I still wouldn't be out much. I took those strips and wrapped them around my wreath, hot-gluing until the wreath was covered, then I set out to find some little trinket/ornament type stuff to dress it up. I was liking the direction it was going but I couldn't see where it was going to end up and I needed more supplies to make the letters that would go on either side of the wreath, so I went to town and figured it would all just come to me.

After a crazy day in town, with my three girls, I felt like it was close to a wasted trip. I had some silver glitter and white satin ribbon and some spray adhesive. I forgot to take an extra strip of my material so I could make sure I got the right shade of red or green so I ended up just going with silver glitter and white ribbon which made for a very blah arrangement. Here's how things looked after I finished cutting out and glittering the letters.

Ummm, I'm not feelin' it.

I was determined not to scrap the whole idea because I loved it so much. I went digging through my craft stash looking for something that would work with those silver glittered letters when I spotted a tablecloth I had picked up at Goodwill during the summer for $1.89. But it was a blue plaid. Hmmm, blue plaid. I started looking at that blue and remembered how much I like houses with blue lights on them, especially when there's snow on the ground. Something sentimental about it, I guess. I decided I would go with an icy blue theme and switch the location to my kitchen window where I have a line of vintage blue Ball jars. Perfect.

I covered the wreath in strips of the blue plaid, found an old plastic ornament, glittered it up and added a couple of glittery white plastic leaves that fell off of one of my centerpieces. I hung it in the window with a thumb tack and hot glued the letters to the metal frame of the window. Viola!

I'm loving the blue in my kitchen. I couldn't get myself to think outside of the red/green box until I encountered a roadblock, but once I did, it opened up something different that I love. I seriously can't stop looking at it! Which is convenient because that sink is where I spend a good 60% of my day and that window is what I look at the whole time I'm standing there.

I've linked up to these blogs:

Centsational Girl

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

2011-12-06T21:44:00.001-06:00

One of the things I love about Christmas is that it has its own sound. I love music anyway, but when you take great classic music that you can (and should) only listen to for a short time, once a year, it becomes really sentimental and special. That's the way it is with Christmas music. Over the years, especially since I've been married to Mr Park, I've narrowed down my selection of cd's I listen to. Of course, I listen to the radio when I'm in the car, and I like to listen to Pandora when I'm cooking or housecleaning, but this collection has become my go-to stash for several years now. I've added one or two, but I imagine this club will stay pretty exclusive. There's not much room for newcomers in the Christmas music category.

Today I thought I'd share my list of favorites and a little about how each one made the cut. Now, I'm no music reviewer. In fact, I've looked at the liner notes on old albums and even reviews on i-tunes and I do not speak that language. I don't notice bass tones and rifts or continuity and bridges. Even though my husband is a musician and he can discuss that stuff at length with the best of them, I either like it or I don't and I usually can't explain why. But I'll try to give you a little more than that, here.

These first two are pretty sentimental and we don't pull them out until we're ready to officially begin the Christmas season in our house. Usually while we decorate the Christmas tree. When Mr Park was little, his mom used to buy Goodyear Christmas albums every year. If you're not familiar with the promo that Goodyear put on for a number of years, here's a commercial from 1963 about it.

When Mr Park and I lived in Arlington, he found these albums at the public library sale. These two have an all around good collection of songs most everyone is familiar with. These are the classics sung by the greats. And you can still find them in old record shops and thrift stores. For a while, I was always hunting them. Then I realized it's not much of a hunt because they're not really that hard to find. I've included a link to a guy that sells these already converted to cd.

source

This next one could possibly be my favorite Christmas cd of all time. I know that probably seems weird, considering all the great classic Christmas music out there, but I'm a sucker for the big band stuff. If you grew up in the church, you probably remember Russ Taff from his Imperials days. I grew up listening to that stuff so I probably picked up this cd because I recognized the name and I could tell from the microphone that I would like the music. ;) Or maybe it was during the time I was a member of that cd mafia club and it was unbelievably easy to build a cd collection without spending much money. This particular cd came out in 1992 and I've probably played it a hundred times since then. Speaking of Russ Taff, did you know his wife is a blogger? Her name is Tori and she's pretty funny. Here's a link to her blog.

source

I spent my teenage years in the 80's so I'm naturally a big fan of Annie Lennox. She had me at "Sweet dreams are made of this." When I saw that she had a Christmas album out last year I was intrigued. First of all, I love the cd cover. It's something I have to be really careful about. I'll buy anything if I like the way it's packaged. This cd's beauty isn't just skin deep, though. It has an old English sound, like the way I imagine Christmas carols sounded in the 1800's. It's different, but I really like it.

source

My Diana Krall Christmas cd came out in 2005, but I just got it a couple of years ago. This is just a simple case of loving a certain sound. I could probably listen to Diana Krall sing the phonebook. This one has a classic sound with a full jazz orchestra accompanying.

source

I've saved the best for last at my husband's request. This is a compilation cd he made in 1999. It contains his all time favorite Christmas songs. He took them from a bunch of cd's and painstakingly put them in the perfect order so it can merit the title, "The Greatest Little Christmas Album of All Tiime!" It's the one we take with us when we get our tree and look at Christmas lights every year. It's also the one that Mr Park plays on Christmas morning to wake up the kids. We've listened to it so many times that we know the order of the songs and can start singing the next song before it begins.

I've told you my favorites, now what are yours?

A few Christmas traditions

2011-12-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

Sunday afternoon, Mr Park and I loaded the family in the suburban and headed to the big city. First, we stopped by the zoo to see if the ice skating rink was up like it has been in past years. No go. The kids were a little upset but I was relieved because I don't ice skate anymore and it was too cold for me to sit and pretend I was interested in anyone iceskating. Next we headed to our favorite chinese restaurant and ate steaming hot bowls of hot and sour soup and stuffed ourselves at the buffet. Well, ok, I stuffed myself. The kids have learned their lesson with chinese food and are starting to get the concept of moderation. Plates were cleaned, ice cream cones finished off and fortune cookies cracked open and read. Here's what mine said...

I'll let you know if anything crafty develops around here this week. After supper, we drove through some old neighborhoods known for their Christmas lights. Mr Park popped one of our favorite Christmas cd's in the player and then, as we passed a house decked out in old school, traditional house lights, he announced that the Christmas spirit had hit him. Here's how the conversation went...

Mr Park: Ahhhh, it just hit me.
Me: What?
Mr Park: The Christmas spirit. Just now. Ohhhh, I love it! Has it hit anybody else yet?
April: I got it! It just hit me!
Autumn: Me, too!
Anna: Ooooh, me too!
Me: Really, Anna?!?
Anna: No, I'm just kidding. I don't feel anything yet.
John: Let's roll down the windows until we're freezing to death.
Mr Park: What about you, Pam.
Me: I've had it since October 31st.

Right as we were all getting hit in the face with the Christmas spirit, one of my children announced that she had to go to the bathroom. And not just a little. She was in emergency mode when she decided to tell us. (Aren't they always?) We finished the tour in super sonic speed and went to search for a bathroom. The first place we saw was a donut shop. We pulled in and Mr Park decided that we needed to add another tradition to our list. We let the kids pick out a donut, drink hot chocolate and use the potty. Speaking of traditions, weren't they just made for kids? My kids love them and are always looking for more to add. On our way out of the donut shop parking lot, they saw a carwash and said, "Can we make it a tradition to get a carwash when we look at Christmas lights every year?" That's about how often I wash my car, but no, I gotta draw the line at a carwash tradition.

This year, the gas station where we usually get our tree, didn't have any. So we went to Lowe's because we needed some other things, too. We picked out a tree, got a couple extra strands of lights, some beautiful half priced poinsettias and a water filter for our icebox.

I know I said I wanted to be fully present when we did all of our Christmas stuff, but I have to confess, I did lose it a little toward the end of the night. The kids were getting tired and irritated with each other and I knew the night wasn't near over. We still had to get the tree in the house, put it in the stand, pull out the lights and string them on the tree. And by the time all that was done 2 out of our 4 kids had fallen asleep in front of the fire. I let my oldest girl put some ornaments on the tree before we called it a night.

We woke up to a light dusting of snow on Monday morning, so I decided we only needed a light dusting of school work and a heavy dusting of the house. We did laundry, cleaning, organizing, and more decorating. But first, my girls started the day with a science lesson. Namely, water and it's different forms!

2011-12-02T08:33:00.001-06:00

This weekend, I'll be climbing up into the attic, pulling down all those familiar red and green plastic storage boxes and decorating for Christmas. I'm not much of a holiday decorator, or even a regular decorator for that matter, but for Christmas, I try to make an effort. I do like the way the Christmas season has a look all it's own. But, I don't want to go crazy with it. I want my kids to remember the warmth and coziness of this time of year. I want them to remember the time we spent together doing things and enjoying each other. I don't want them to remember me snapping at them for stepping on the Christmas tree lights, again. I don't want them to remember sitting around the tree, amazed at how those little colored lights can make you feel like all is right with the world, while mom was in the kitchen clanging dishes into the dishwasher. I want to be fully present this year.

With that said, I feel a scale down coming. I have a lot of things that I take out every year and stick somewhere just because they were in the box. A lot of it I don't even like. I don't want it to look like Father Christmas threw up in my living room. I want it to look simple. And inviting. Without all the fussiness. I'm even seeing visions of the expensive nativity set my mother-in-law gave me several years ago, painted white. Can I do that? Will I? I guess we'll know soon enough.

So, this weekend, I'll be weeding out the things that I don't love. And I feel like I'm going to be really strict. It's gonna take a lot to make the cut. (I can see all the ornaments in the box right now, like in some movie from Pixar, discussing who'll get to stay and who'll get tossed. Some will start to say their goodbyes early just in case it's them and in the middle of it all will be our old, vintage elf doll, reassuring them just like Woody would do.) I'll try to find something simple to do with my mantle and maybe even make some new stockings. I hate the ones I have that I picked up from the dollar store years ago.

On Sunday, we'll head out to buy a tree from the local gas station, eat out at the kids' favorite chinese restaurant, come home and start to decorate. I'll fumble with the lights a lot longer than I expected to and we'll end up sending the kids to bed before the decorating has even started. But it'll be different. I'll be there for real this time. I won't just trudge through it because it's something on the list that needs to get done. I don't want to try to fabricate idyllic scenes hoping to ensure good memories for my kids. I think we all know how well that works. They'll know. Kids are too smart for that.

I guess what I'm wanting to do more than anything this year is create an atmosphere where my kids feel loved, wanted and worth my time. And of course, I want them to know what it is we are celebrating in the first place, the simple fact that we were loved, wanted and worth His time.

Things kids say

2011-12-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

From time to time I'll be posting things that my kids say because as you may know, I don't scrapbook and I'm a terrible journaler. (I think I made up that word) I have four kids and three of them are girls so I pretty much have an endless supply of good material for this blog. Don't worry, though, I have lots of other important things to blog about. Today just isn't one of those days.

On Homeschool vs Public:

(This is one of those conversations that really boosts my confidence in the decision I made to homeschool my kids. (Note: I may or may not have said the things I was accused of. I don't remember. If I did, I'm sure I didn't mean it.))

April (5yo): Mom, remember when we drove by the school and you said it was junky?

Me: I don't remember saying that.

April: Remember, I said I wanted to go back to my old school and you said oh, you don't want to go back to that junky old school?

Me: I don't remember using those words exactly, why?

April: Well, I was just in my room with Blaise, and she can read already and I can't and so I was thinking well, maybe that school's not so junky after all.

Me: (sigh)

On favorite colors:

Autumn (8yo): Hey, what's everyone's favorite color?

April: I like puwple.

Autumn: I like blue.

Anna (9yo): I like cayenne.

Me: (perking up) Oh, Anna, that's a great color. You mean, the rusty red color?

Anna: No, it's not red at all.

Me: Oh, wait, do you mean cyan?

Anna: Yeah, that's it. I got the c sounds mixed up.

On future professions:

Me: What do y'all want to be when you grow up?

Autie: I want to be a massage therapist.

Anna: I want to work in the reptile section at the zoo so I can bring home a snake and scare John.

April: I want to be in karate.

Monster fingers

2011-11-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon I got groceries, came home and unloaded them all and then put them all away. After that, I made supper. After that, we all ate. After that, I was tired. I sat down on the couch with a book so I could rest a bit before starting the whole process of cleaning up the kitchen and getting everyone ready for bed. Mr. Park took over with the kids and when he does that, it either turns into a quiet evening with music and drawing or a crazy evening with wrestling matches and a daddy monster chasing little children. Last night, it started out calm enough, but things quickly turned crazy when Mr. Park pulled out the kid's favorite game.

This game is a favorite with all kids, actually. Mr. Park holds his hands out flat, palm side down, and the kids, in turns, select a finger to push down. With every finger that's pushed down, Mr. Park makes a funny noise. Eventually, you never know when, someone will push down the finger that activates the monster. When that happens, all kinds of crazy breaks loose. Tonight, I decided to video the whole thing so you can get a feel for the suspense that builds in the room.

By the way, that high-pitched scream you hear above all the others is my 13 year old son's. And it's days are numbered.

2011-11-28T09:38:00.000-06:00

Today, I'd like to talk about my husband. Mainly the fact that, 43 years ago yesterday he was born. His dad was playing football for the Oakland Raiders, so he was born in California, but they got back to Texas as soon as they could and I'm so glad they did!

I thought I'd give y'all a little photo tour of some of the things I love about my husband.

1. This is his favorite time of day. If he's outside working or goes outside to do something around this time, he'll almost always poke his head in the door and say, "Y'all come outside. It's gawgeous out here."

2. Same goes for an evening with a beautiful moon out.

3. His amazing ability to solve problems. He made this dog house several years back for our dog, Dixie. Last summer, one of our chickens fell in love with the spacious living area and thought it was the perfect place to lay eggs. As in 2 dozen of them by the time we realized she was in there. Consequently, a bull snake kicked her out because he found it to be a lovely place to lay around and eat eggs. With all those unwanted residents and the smells they left behind, Dixie decided she'd find another place to sleep. She's flexible like that. Since my husband had put so much work into the dern thing (it even has insulation between the walls) he was not going to let it go to waste. This past weekend, he took some hot coals from our fire and threw them in the dog house. He tipped it this way and that until the coals had rolled all over the place and thesmoke came billowing out. After about 20 minutes of this and a new paint job, it was good as new. Once we got Dixie's dog blanket in there, she thought so, too. Problem solved.

4. He's frugal, like me. Actually, he's only frugal in the areas he educated about, but that's why we fit together so well. Take for instance, energy efficiency. I don't know a whole lot about it so I leave that kind of stuff to him. I don't build fires, I don't change air conditioning filters and I DON'T touch the thermostat. We built our house 6 years ago and one of the things we were most proud of was the fireplace. But, as you probably know, fireplaces aren't the most efficient form of heating a house. Since our kitchen is across from the living room, my husband started using our gas range as a second heat source. This is what he created to direct the heat away from the stove so it could be circulated. Nerdy and engineer like? Yes, a little. (I am so attracted to the nerds!)

5. His ability to create. Not just beautiful art and music, but practical things like bookcases. And he's not a carpenter. He just sets his mind to doing something, researches a little, gets to work and viola, there it is. (If you know us personally, you know that this bookcase almost caused us to split up, but everything's good now! I'll tell that story another time.)

6. His ability to see usefulness in natural objects. He was so excited when he found this piece of wood that looked like a wood carrier. So naturally, he started using it as a wood carrier. He calls it his wood wood carrier which started a whole round of "How much wood could a wood wood carrier carry if a wood wood carrier could carry wood."

And this rock he found years ago. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me and said, "Here, you can use this as a spoon rest next to the stove." And you know what? That's where it's been ever since. I couldn't get rid of it if I tried. It makes me smile.

7. His love for Christmas and the magic of Santa. Even though we're nearing the end of the Santa-belief time, he's always gone all out to make Christmas special for our kids. From phone calls from the north pole to having someone bang on the roof while he told the kids to listen for Santa's reindeer. This is a note he left for the kids after he ate the cookies and milk they left for him.

8. I love that a perfect day for him in the summer, is to have a slow, soaking rain and the Ranger's on a winning streak. In the fall and winter, it involves a pot of chicken soup on the stove and his favorite Adidas slicky pants. (by the way, they're about 20 years old, those pants.)

9. He's convinced that skinny ties are going to come back in style and when they do he'll be totally prepared.

Actually, he looks pretty awesome in a skinny tie.

10. He's confident, dramatic when needed, he's still got it on the basketball court and I love him!

Happy Birthday, honey!

The rolls you'll want to make for Thanksgiving this year. cont'd

2011-11-22T11:17:00.001-06:00

Hi! If you're just joining me, I'm talking about yeast crescents. Basically, making them and eating them. If you missed the first part, it's here.

Here's how the dough looked when I got up this morning. That's how it should look.

Next you're going to be rolling out the dough so you want a large floured surface so it doesn't stick.

(Just a side note. See those tomatoes in the background? Those came from my aunt's garden. They were picked green right before the first freeze we had a couple of weeks back. I really had my doubts that they would ripen, they were just so hard and green. But what do you know, they're actually ripening. In fact, some of them are rotting. I'm hoping I can get to them before they're a total waste.)

Just plop the dough ball onto the floured surface. It will start to shrink a little when you handle it because the risen dough has lots of air in it and when you start to mess with it, that air comes out.

Now divide the ball into two balls.

Take one of the dough balls and begin to roll out into a large circle. I'm sorry a lot of these pictures are blurry. I had 3 cups of coffee this morning so I'm a little shaky.

Here's the dough all rolled out into a nice, big circle. You want to shoot for 12-15 inches across, but it's not important enough to get out a ruler. Just make it look like a large pizza crust.

Now, speaking of pizza, this next part is kind of fun. In fact, if you have kids around, and you're not a control freak, you can let them help with the next couple of steps. Take a pizza cutter and cut the circle into 12 pieces.

This is what it should look like when you're done cutting. Of course, if your kids helped you out, it may not look like this, but it's no big deal because each one of those pieces will make a roll and they can be any size. Technically, this recipe makes 2 dozen rolls, but you may end up with more or less than a dozen and that's perfectly fine.

Now we're going to make crescents. Take one of the triangle pieces and spread out the top two corners a little and then roll it toward the small end.

Hey, look, a crescent!

Now you can curve the ends around so you'll have more room on the pan.

And here they are, ready to bake. You know, I've never made a batch this small before. In fact, tomorrow, when I make these for our Thanksgiving dinner, I'll be making 8 dozen. There's a sea of bowls and pans and there's flour and melted butter everywhere. It's quite a sight.

Set your oven to 375 degrees and while it's preheating, cover the rolls with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set it somewhere warm to rise again. If you wanted to freeze these for later, you could do that now.*

I put them on top of my stove because the warmth from the oven preheating was just enough heat to help them rise. I left them there for about an hour and a half. Are you're wondering why there are twice as many rolls now as in the previous picture? Remember when I separated the dough into two balls? I forgot about the other ball. Now there are 2 dozen rolls instead of 1.

When I took the towel off to check on them, they looked like this. Aren't they just so cute and chubby?!?

You can butter them before putting them in the oven or you can wait and butter them afterwards, OR you can butter them before and after. In fact, that's what I would suggest. Then put them in the oven and set your timer for 12 minutes. If you're not sure how your oven performs, check on them at 10 minutes and then every few minutes after that until you get the brownness you want.

After 12 minutes in the oven, this is what mine looked like. I used my little oven on top and apparently, it doesn't cook very evenly, but that's no problem because in our family we have two teams - team doughy and team done. So there's something for everyone on this pan. I can't believe I just made a reference to the Twilight series. I'm not even a fan, but it's all anyone can talk about right now.

Don't forget to butter them again. This is just my opinion, but where bread is concerned, I don't think you can over butter.

Now would you look at that. That's perfection, right there. In fact, if you don't feel like you have enough things to be thankful for, make these rolls at once and you'll have one more thing to add to your list. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Put the pan in the freezer just like it is and leave it in there long enough to flash freeze them, then you can put them in a ziploc bag and they won't stick to each other. When you get ready to thaw them, just lay them out on a pan like they were and set them somewhere to rise.

Here's the recipe in case you just want to copy it:

Yeast Crescents

1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour

Put warm milk in a small bowl and sprinkle yeast and sugar on top. Let rest for about 30 minutes. It should be foamy if the yeast is good. Pour milk mixture into a large bowl and beat together. Mix in eggs, butter and salt. Add half of the flour and mix well. Add remaining flour and mix until smooth. Cover bowl and let stand overnight at room temperature. The next morning, divide the dough in half and roll each into a 9 to 15 inch circle. Cut each circle into twelve equal wedges (a pizza cutter works great for this) and roll up beginning at the wide end. Shape them into crescents and place on a greased baking sheet and let stand until ready to bake. (Rolls can sit for up to 6 hours at this point.) Bake in a preheated, 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with butter if desired. Yield: 2 dozen

The rolls you'll want to make for Thanksgiving this year

2011-11-22T08:19:00.001-06:00

About 15 years ago, my mom and I went to a Christmas cooking class together. I've forgotten most of the things we learned to make that year, except for one. I have 2 words for you. Yeast. Crescents.

I had been one of those people who didn't make bread. I just didn't. It was a complicated and delicate process and I just didn't have the knowledge or the discipline to be a bread maker. Besides, I thought, I'm too young to make bread. I have a life. There'll be plenty of time for that later when I have nothing to do but cook and clean and well, make bread.

Then I watched as the teacher showed, right in front of my eyes, how to make the most mouth watering, light and fluffy crescent rolls you've ever put in your mouth. It really was a simple process. Sometimes, it takes seeing something done right in front of you before you can actually imagine yourself doing it. That's what I'm going to do for you. After this post, you're going to be able to make yeast crescents for Thanksgiving and the only thing you'll regret is that your family will volunteer you to make them every Thanksgiving until the end of time.

Let me introduce the players...

There's a cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of salt, a stick of butter, a packet of yeast and last but not least, 4 cups of flour.

Start by pouring the milk into a microwaveable container and adding the sugar. Heat it in the microwave for about a minute and half.

Next, sprinkle the packet of yeast onto the surface of the warmed milk and wait about 20 minutes. Basically, you're going to be looking for signs of life in your yeast. I had some in my icebox that I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure if it was still good.

See there. No good. This yeast has left the building. No life whatsoever. So I went to the store and got a new packet of yeast. Yeast is one of those things that you can't really keep on hand. That's why you test it.

Here's the second batch I did. This yeast is obviously alive and kicking and ready to make some bread rise! See that foamy consistency around the edges? That means that this yeast is happy and healthy and good to go.

Now, pour your milk mixture into a large bowl and stir to combine.

Next, melt your butter and add it.

Then, add the eggs that you've beaten.

And finally the salt.

Mix it all up and get ready to add the flour.

You can start by adding half of the flour, mixing until it's combined

and then add the rest.

Once you really get in there and start stirring, the flour will start to ball up. The stirring will get a little bit harder to do with a spoon so at this point, I usually just finish mixing it with my hands. Continue to mix until all the flour is incorporated into the dough. When you feel like you're done, if it's still sticky, add more flour. You want to be able to touch it and not have dough come off on your fingers.

See what a nice looking ball of dough that is!

At this point, you want to cover it up and give it some alone time. During that time, if the yeast was good, the dough should double in size. I'm not sure how long this takes because I always leave it overnight, but if you're doing this all in one day, it'll probably take a couple of hours depending on how warm it is in your kitchen. I had mine sitting on the kitchen counter and then Mr. Park built a big fire in the fireplace and we went to bed. One time, I got up in the morning to check on my dough and it had risen so much it was overflowing onto the counter, so if you think it may be too warm in your kitchen, you can cover it and put it in the icebox and then set it out in the morning to rise some more if it needs it.

I'm about to go check on the dough to see if it's ready to roll out so come back later today and I'll have the rest of the recipe up. It's gonna be delicious!

On going paperless...

2011-11-20T22:23:00.001-06:00

One of the items in the 52 Bites list I've been working on is going paperless in the kitchen. This is one of those things that I figured I'd do eventually anyway, so I went ahead and decided to be intentional about it. In other words, I ran out of paper towels and forgot to buy more. Again.

The first to notice was Mr. Park. He was helping me clean up the kitchen one night and he asked where the paper towels were. I told him to just use a rag. That wasn't hard for me because I don't usually clean up my kitchen with paper towels. I'm a dishrag kind of girl. I like to have lots of them on hand and I like a clean one every day. Sometimes twice a day if someone else has been in my kitchen. He rolled his eyes and got a rag out of the drawer.

A few nights later, we had friends over for dinner and one of them asked if I had a paper towel to wipe her daughter's mouth. I sheepishly told her we were sort of trying to go paperless in the kitchen and sorry but I don't have any and here's a clean dishrag. That one was a little harder, but I'd say I was still feeling pretty confident with my new lifestyle decision. Until last night.

Here's the list of events that took place. I assure you, none of this was made up.

I awoke at 2:45 am to go to the bathroom.
I went into the living room to check on my daughter who had asked if she could fall asleep to a movie on the couch.
She was out cold and the Highschool Musical menu page was still playing that familiar Wildcat anthem for the one hundredth time so I turned it and the tv off.
I turned off all the lights she had left on because she doesn't like to sleep in the dark.
I heard a noise near the back door that I couldn't put my finger on so I went to check it out.
But first, I turned all the lights back on. (I know you're not supposed to turn on all the lights when you think you hear a noise, but I'm a girl and I forget things my husband has told me when I get scared.)
On my way, our cat came around the corner and I realized it was just her using the litter box.
I picked her up.
I smelled something awful.
I felt something moist on my side where I had held her on my hip.
I immediately dropped the cat and looked at my night shirt. Stained. With cat poop.
I know that's not normal so I go over to the litter box and simultaneously discover the source of the horrific smell and that my cat has diarrhea AND had unknowingly backed her rear up over the edge of the litter box and missed it completely.
At that point I asked myself, "Where are those !@#$% paper towels?"
I tore my kitchen apart until I found a stack of napkins from Subway and cleaned up the mess before it had a chance to harden on the floor.
Changed my shirt.
Crawled back in bed.

I think I'm going to "half cross-off" item #15. I will still purchase paper towels, BUT I will stash them in a place that I alone know about. While you're hiding Christmas presents, I'll be hiding paper towels. That way, in emergencies, like the one mentioned above, I'll have access to them, but for everyday things like wiping sticky hands and cleaning kitchen counters, we'll stick to rags.

Then I'll feel better about being a little less wasteful, but in the event that I need to clean up cat diarrhea, or vomit or anything else where I want to clean it up, toss it in the trash and be done with it, I'll have a stash of paper towels for that purpose.

Baby steps, Bob. It's all about the baby steps.

Note: This post is dedicated to my hardcore, cat-loving friend, Leilani. I'm sure her highly intelligent cat-children would never misjudge the edge of the litter box and make a mess for their momma. You can read more about them here.

Skills

2011-11-18T08:44:00.000-06:00

Pretty exciting night at the Park house last night. Watched a documentary about Egypt and then for the after-entertainment, my husband showed off his awesome skills.

Yeah, you heard right, he's humming Devil Went Down to Georgia. Guess he's planning on getting really good at this. ;)

Lists

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

Lately, I feel like my life is ruled by lists. Maybe it's because I just can't be held accountable for stuff that's left to float around in my head anymore. I've always been a list maker. Something about it feels like half the work is done, if I can just write it all out on paper. Of course, I know it's just the easiest step in the whole process, but let's just let me have my theories.

I remember when I was single and didn't have a lot of money to buy frivolous things, as opposed to now when I roll down the car windows and let the wind carry it off just for fun ;), I would order catalogs and when they came, I would sit and pore over them, page by page, check-marking and circling until, when I got to the end, I would fill out the order form as if I were buying all the stuff I had just circled. Then I would tear out the order form and throw it away. For some reason, that satisfied me. Kind of like window shopping in my own apartment.

Back to today's lists. You won't find me poring over catalogs anymore, probably because I spend all that time on Pinterest, but I do still find it therapeutic to make a list. I don't expect anyone to really care about my lists, as they're usually just for me, but I've been wanting a little bit of accountability for them so I think I'll post one every now and then. This one was inspired by Jules and her 31 Days of William Morris posts. She kicked the whole thing off with a list of things she wanted to do in her house to live more closely by the William Morris quote, "Have nothing in your house you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." It got me thinking about all the projects I have around here that I haven't put a deadline on. And without a deadline, it might as well be dead. This list will concentrate on my kitchen.

Redo my chalkboard wall the way I originally planned it in my head.

Patch chipped corners and repaint walls.

Make/buy some sort of cabinet or shelf for the computer desk nook.

Trim out areas of baseboard that were never trimmed out. Just noticed this the other day. How is that possible?

Trim island in beadboard.

Trim bar area in beadboard.

Hang something, anything, from the window. Valance?

Reorganize pantry.

Scrub all cabinet fronts and baseboards.

Inventory kitchen items and discard what I don't/won't use.

Art on walls.

Re-evaluate kitchen table and chairs. More useful in another room?

That's all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for bearing with me while I empty my brain a bit. If you want to help me accomplish any of these, you know where to find me. ;)

Instagram Sunday

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was filled with the sights and sounds of my family. After reading this post, I just wanted to be with them. I'm so thankful that God saw fit to bless me with a fantastic husband and 4 beautiful, vibrant children. I got laundry done, my kids dug a fort in the sand, April did what she always does when the weather's nice - took her clothes off, and Mr. Park got some firewood chopped. And later in the day, we saw a horse-pulled, covered wagon pass in front of our house.

These are the kinds of days that make me thankful for my life.

Note: If you want to read more about Compassion International or the bloggers who are in Ecuador right now, click here. And thanks to Nester for sharing.

Resist the devil...

2011-11-11T09:25:00.001-06:00

Sometimes, life with my husband is like a treasure hunt. He's a poet and a songwriter, so I often find little slips of paper here and there with partial song lyrics or thoughts scribbled on them. Sometimes I read them. Sometimes I don't. Either way, I usually put them in the box on his nightstand so he'll have them for later.

This morning, as I was toasting bagels for the girls, I saw a note, in his familiar hand, tucked under an empty canister waiting to be filled with more sugar or coffee. I can't remember which. This note looked like an actual note to me so I read it. Here's what it said...

"Resist the devil and he will flee."

True.

But not the whole truth.

Resist the devil and he will very slowly pick up his things, one at a time, all the while offering you another chance until finally, with one last nik-nak in hand, he will mount the lead camel of his caravan, and saunter out of your life. But even then you may find, later that night when you're all alone, placed cunningly on your night stand, a coupon with no expiration date - redeemable at any point the rest of your life.

Last night I was at a meeting with friends and Elliott was home with the kids, so I'm not sure what happened to inspire this little gem, not sure I want to, but I'm glad I found it.

Have a great weekend. As for me, I'll be working on my 52 Bites list.

Starting with #16.

52 Bites

2011-11-10T15:57:00.002-06:00

Not long ago, I was reading a post by Jules about her life list. I love the idea of a life list, and I've started composing my own as I think of things, but as I was reading her list, I noticed a link beside a couple of the items that said 'inspired by 52 Bites'. Since those items were organizational in nature, I followed the rabbit trail, as I often do, and found something great.

What I found was a source of inspiration and motivation to my somewhat lazy soul. Tsh Oxenreider is the creator of SimpleMom.net and over the years, she has written lots of posts about simplifying life. She took her most favorite ideas and rewrote and compiled them into an e-book called One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler.

Click here to get it!

When I saw the list of projects and read the sample chapter, Project 5: Start Menu Planning, I was hooked. Not to mention that it was only $5. I promptly downloaded it, printed it double-sided and inserted it in a binder. Then I sat down and started to read. Here's the list of projects:

1. Eat your frog

2. Make a debt-free plan

3. Establish a morning routine

4. Establish an evening routine

5. Start menu planning

~~6. Create a family purpose statement~~

7. Downsize your book and magazine collection

8. Streamline your mail

9. Streamline your receipt system

10. Take an annual vacation (or staycation)

11. Clean as you go

12. Clean your kitchen as you cook

13. Plan weekly meetings with your spouse

14. Eat whole foods (on a budget)

15. Make your kitchen paperless

16. Schedule regular date nights

17. Create an essential papers file

18. Get more sleep

19. Dump your brain

20. Plan in advance for holidays

21. Organize your files

22. Declutter (and rotate) your children's toys

23. Regularly turn off your TV

24. Switch to non-toxic cleaners

25. Organize your photo collection

26. Cook staples from scratch

27. Streamline your email

28. Create a regular monthly budget

~~29. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly hair care~~

30. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly skin care

31. Give

32. Go on dates with your kids

33. Streamline your kids' art collection

34. Drink more water

35. Declutter your wardrobe

36. Start a garden

37. Streamline your entertainment sources

38. Carve out intentional down time

39. Create a daily to-do list

40. Set up sinking funds

41. Create a chore system that works for the whole family

42. Make a compost bin

43. Eat locally

44. Find a hobby (and become a lifelong learner)

45. Make annual goals

46. Create a family tradition

47. Wake up earlier (and use kaizen)

48. Use the envelope system

49. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly beauty products

50. Evaluate your home

51. Get help

52. Say no

Am I the only one guilty of putting Make a list as the first item on all my lists so I'll be sure to have one thing crossed off at the end of the day? That was kind of my thinking when I wrote out this list and found that some of these items I had already done. Crossing them off was motivating and made me feel like I already had a little bit of a head start on such a daunting project.

I also found that some of the items I can't wait to focus on (16,18,32,44) and some I'm dreading (21,22,25,41).

So for a while, I'll be posting about my progress along with the other randomness you'll find here. I've been feeling the need to simplify my life for as long as I can remember, so I feel like, for me, it's kind of a precursor to the life list. Maybe it's just the most important item on that list.

Wish me luck and if you want to get the book, you can click the link above and I'll get a little portion for being an affiliate.

It's up! It's up!

2011-11-09T11:53:00.001-06:00

The day before yesterday I posted about the awesome contest that I won on the handmade home.net. Last night, I got an email from Ashley saying my design board was ready to go and would be up on her blog the next day. Well, that's today and sure enough, it's up! I am blown away by all the great ideas she came up with. In fact, some of those ideas are actually a little out of my comfort zone and I already feel myself being stretched. But that's a good thing because, obviously, I'm a little conservative and could use a kick in the pants to get this project going!

here's the full scoop!

So hop on over and let me know what you think. And if you like what you see, give Ashley some love from me. Oh, and if you live near me, get ready for a phone call from me and go ahead and get your paint brushes ready! ;)

A simple meal

2011-11-09T05:00:00.001-06:00

Every once in a while, I stumble upon the perfect meal. Nothing fancy, mind you, just one that comes together easily, is liked by everyone and gets eaten completely.

That's pretty rare at my house, so I'm gonna share it with you. I didn't think to take pictures of the process because, well, that would take it to a level that was not easy and enjoyable. It's pretty self-explanatory so I'll just give you the recipes and let you figure it out if you feel like trying it sometime.

I started with frozen tilapia filets I got at H-E-B. I just put them in the sink and cover them with water to thaw. Then I follow this recipe:

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia (source)

4 4oz. tilapia filets
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Salt and pepper both sides of tilapia. Combine in a bowl the cheese, butter, and lemon juice. You may need to put into microwave to soften butter. Put tilapia on a cookie sheet sprayed with oil, cover the top of tilapia with the cheese mixture and broil until it's golden brown. Serve hot.

Roasted Broccoli

broccoli (however much you need to feed everyone)
olive oil
kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash broccoli and break into bite sized pieces. Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat and spread out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt and cracked pepper. Put in oven and cook until you smell it and remember you put it in there. ;) Actually, I've never paid any attention to how long it takes, but I would say after 15 minutes or so, the edges start to get brown and it gets a little bit soft. That's how we like it around here. You'll have to experiment to see what your family likes.

Tri-colored Orzo

This is just what I make because the kids love it. It's a type of pasta and it cooks up just like macaroni. You could serve this with rice or noodles or whatever type of starch you like to eat with fish.

That's it. This may not turn out to be your perfect meal, but you'll never know until you try. Now I'm off to watch Annie with the kids. That Pandora show tunes channel is really starting to rub off on me.

2011-11-07T05:00:00.000-06:00

The 31 Days posts that I worked on last month really got me thinking a lot about my house and what it says about me. During that time, I discovered the fantastic Jules over at Pancakes and French Fries and she, in turn, introduced me to William Morris. I haven't been able to think about much else since then.

For my 40th birthday, which occurred this past May, my husband gave me the gift of permission. He felt like he had held me back when it came to designing the rooms of our house and wanted to step back and let me do all the things I've always wanted to do. I politely thanked him and then explained that the reason I had never done anything special with our house or even asked for permission, for that matter, was because I didn't have a vision for it. I just pulled it together the best way I knew how and moved on.

Now, I feel like I'm figuring out what the vision for my home is, I just don't know how to pull it all together. That's where Ashley comes in. Last Wednesday, I entered several contests as part of The Nester's Fall Giveaway Day. I looked through the blogs that were hosting the contests and only entered those where the prize was something I really wanted or needed. I think I entered to win a wall stencil, some art work and a couple of different room redo's.

Because of where I'm at right now with my house, the thing I really wanted and needed was the room redo. And you know what? I got it! Out of 780 or so commenters, Mr. random number generator smiled down on me! I can't tell you how excited I am! I got the email on Saturday morning and by that afternoon, I had already responded to her email with pictures of my living room, a little bit about my family and what I want to see done with the room.

So sometime in the next few weeks, I'll have some great ideas to use as a jumping off place to start changing some things around here. And in the meantime, I'll be sitting here waiting with a paintbrush in my hand. If you like 'before and afters', stick around!

31 Days: Day 28 - The beginning of the end

2011-10-28T12:00:00.000-06:00

Who am I kidding with all this organizing and home improvement stuff? I'd rather cook all day. And not clean up the mess. That's the truth. And who cares anyway? It's not like I have advertisers to please. I don't even have that many readers to please...uh, what was I saying?

Oh, yeah, this morning I had a break down. An all-out, kicking, screaming, cussing, all alone in my closet break down. I was trying to go through some old t-shirts of Elliott's and asking myself why I have held on to so many of them for so long. There is no way I could trace my thought process on that one. Useful material? A t-shirt quilt in the future? Sentimental reasons? Who knows. Then, I heard my girls in the living room, screaming at each other for the 85th time this week and I lost it. For the most part, they get along, but lately the fighting has driven me to the brink. I had my break down, counted to 10, collected myself and emerged looking like a stepford wife. In an eerily calm voice, I told the girls that we would not be having any more fun today and that as soon as the house was cleaned, we would start school and not stop until we were done. We finished cleaning around lunch time so I decided to make myself a respectable lunch. (Anna made lunch for herself and her sisters) While taking pictures. It's not really interesting enough to post about, but I needed something.

This is the basil plant that sits on my kitchen window sill. It's done pretty well since I've had it, but the cooler temps have made it start to look a little anemic. I think Basil likes it hot, hot, hot.

So I put him out of his misery and decided to make a batch of pesto. Normally, I'm really chintzy with my basil. I'm afraid to take too many leaves at one time for fear that I'll kill it. So I just take a couple of leaves from different spots now and then to add to dishes. Today, I stripped it down like an ATF agent. I would guess I only got a cup and a half of basil, but I didn't need much to make a small batch of pesto. I threw it into my food processor and started adding the rest of the stuff.

Did I mention I'm doing the cheap, lazy girl's pesto? Well, I am. I threw in some walnuts because who can afford pine nuts?

Next comes the freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. What? You don't have that laying around? Just grab a container of non-refrigerated, wal-mart brand grated parmesan cheese. And if you're Italian, or if you know someone who is Italian, or if you just empathize with Italians, I'm sorry if canned parmesan cheese is a sacrilege. It's all I had.

Now we take some garlic. You should be impressed because I have a jar of grated garlic in the fridge that I could've used, but it's a little too juicy and grated too small so I decided to use the fresh stuff.

I ended up only using 2 cloves. That was plenty.

Next, we bind it all together with the finest extra-virgin olive oil picked by virgins in the most breathtakingly beautiful region of Sicily. No, we take our plastic bottle of H-E-B brand olive oil and pour in about 1/4 cup. You can always add more later.

Now would be a good time to set your oven to 425 degrees.

With all of your ingredients in the food processor, hit pulse until it's got a pesto-like consistency and you're done.

Isn't it pretty. I think even cheap pesto is beautiful.

Now, did you think I was going to just eat this pesto by the spoonful? Well, that's not an unrealistic thought, but I needed to eat some veggies today. And I got some late season squash from the farm store yesterday so the timing was perfect.

I washed and cut up my squash. Threw in an onion leftover from the girl's lunch and sprinkled it with kosher salt and pepper.

Put that in the oven and wait until you can smell it. When it looks good enough to eat, take it out and smother it with your freshly made pesto.

Bon apetit, ya'll.

31 Days: Day27 - A fall recipe

2011-10-27T07:08:00.001-06:00

Yesterday the forecast called for cooler temps in the evening and since it's been a little warm for the past week or so, I decided that in honor of it getting cold again (hopefully this time for good) I'd make a nice fallish dish. I made a Garlic Root Roast several years ago for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. It's pretty healthy so knowing I could eat as much of it as I wanted helped steer me away from the hominy casserole and crescent rolls.

These are the ingredients (minus the onion, they didn't make it in time for the picture). There's carrots, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, rutabagas, garlic and some rosemary and sage. Except for the herbs, do you notice a theme?

First, start with a large roasting pan. Put it in the oven and set it to 450 degrees.

Then, prep your veggies. I happen to love this step. When it comes to prepping veggies, I am a machine! Once you peel and chop everything into chunks, mince your herbs. By this time, your oven should be preheated. Take out your roasting pan with oven mitts on (we can't forget we just heated that pan to 450 degrees!)(oh, believe me, it could happen) and coat with half the olive oil called for. Then, dump your veggies and herbs into the pan and stir them around to coat them with the oil.

Next, cover the whole thing with a tight fitting lid or aluminum foil. I would suggest using the heavy duty stuff even though my children left me with the cheap stuff. It came from the dollar store and it's about the thickness of saran wrap. It worked, though, so if you don't have the heavy duty stuff don't sweat it.

Put it in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and roast for another 15 to 20 minutes. And prepare for your house to smell like Thanksgiving. This dish just requires a little salt and pepper to taste and it's ready to eat.

See all those brown, crusty bits underneath? Those are yummy bits of carmelized veggie goodness!

Doesn't that look scrumptious?!?

Well, let me tell you, it is! Enjoy!

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31 Days: Day 26 - Another crafty project

2011-10-26T08:36:00.002-06:00

I'm going a little crazy around here. My time is short, so I've been looking around my house for quick, easy projects I can do in a couple of hours, while photographing the process and then blogging about it. Ugh. I'm tired of it. I have made a switch in my head, though. I feel like after this series is over, I'll want to tackle some of the bigger spaces without feeling the pressure of having to get it done and posted the next day. An organizing house is on it's way!

Today, I thought I'd post about a project I did a few weeks ago that isn't quite done yet, but is on it's way.

source

I saw this on Pinterest a while back and fell in love. It's from the crafting chicks website, which I also love.

Mine came together pretty much like theirs did except for one little detail. The day I decided to work on it, I went to the hardware store in my small town to get some E6000. They didn't have any and I didn't want to go to trek all the way to Abilene so I settled for some other adhesive that I thought would surely work. Not so. I'll have to see for myself if E6000 lives up to the hype, but so far, the other stuff doesn't cut it.

I didn't take pictures of the cake tins, but you'll see them in the final pic. They were around 50 cents a piece from Goodwill. The brass candle sticks were around a dollar a piece and I already had the spray paint.

Here's how they turned out after my first go.

And here's how I modified it after the glue I used didn't hold up.

I only ended up using 2 of the 3 tins I had and 1 of the 3 candle sticks so I think I'll work with them and find something that I can live with and that's durable enough to hold up in my house.

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31 Days: Day 25 - The island cabinet

2011-10-25T07:33:00.004-06:00

When we built our house, we put an island in the middle of the kitchen. I love having that big work space right in the middle of all the cooking action. It really comes in handy.

Under that work space is a set of deep drawers and a rather large cabinet. I have found plenty of uses for the drawers since I have a little bit of a gadget obsession. The cabinet, however, has stumped me since day one. I started off by putting my trash can in there. Then, the trash can got moved to the outside, up against the side and there it has stayed. And then the space quickly filled up with cleaning supplies and other stuff from last minute cleaning stashes.

Isn't it cavernous? Actually, right now, it looks like a cavernous landfill.

This morning, while getting ready for coffee, I took all that crap out, went through it, and put things where they belong.

And then it looked like this.

And now, it looks like this.

Don't you dare try to move my trash can out of this spot!

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31 Days: Day 24 - The dryer

2011-10-24T09:38:00.000-06:00

I have a problem. And I've had it as long as I can remember. Horizontal surfaces. They kill me. I've always been a stacker (not to be confused with 'slacker') and as long as there are horizontal surfaces around me, I will organize and stack things. They may be neat stacks, but they are still stacks and stacks, generally, are not really that attractive. I love the saying "A place for everything and everything in its place" but my problem is that I've never had a place for everything. If I don't know what to do with something, I'll just stack it up with everything else I don't know what to do with yet and at least I'll have a neat stack until I have something better. The problem with that system is that stacks don't stay neat. They get toppled and scattered and more things added to them until they look like the innards of a file cabinet strewn across a counter, or in this case, a dryer.

This is how my dryer has looked for at least a year. Actually, let's say 2 years so I won't feel dishonest. It's just a hodgepodge of things that I haven't known what to do with and this morning, while doing laundry, I decided to fix it. Most of it went straight to the trash, the rest of it I will file. In a real filing cabinet. A few things were drawings that needed to go into my kid's individual 'stuff to keep' boxes and one thing, that I almost threw away, was something my husband's been looking for, for a while. All this time, I thought it was something else, so it was the first thing I started to pitch.

It's the stuff we needed the night that Elliott got an award for "I Loved Her First". The parking pass, table assignment, wrist bands, etc. Elliott's been asking where it is so he can put it in his music scrap book, and I've been telling him, "It's around here somewhere." For a couple of years after this particular awards night, we've gotten invitations to the same event and for some reason, I've held onto them. I know that sounds crazy, we had no intention of going so why would I keep them? Well, they weren't just your everyday invitations. One of them was an actual vinyl record with some country song on it and the invitation specifics were printed on the label. I just couldn't throw it away. Anyway, I thought this packet was that invitation. I almost threw it in the trash without even opening it. And this would have been totally unlike me. So I will give my husband this packet when he gets home from work today and he will again remind me that I need to get started on that music scrapbook he's been wanting me to start.

Here's how disgusting it looked when I cleared off all the junk.

And here's how beautiful it looks now.

And as a reward for that little project, I think I'll just stare at this picture for a while and be thankful for my handsome and talented husband. ;)

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31 Days: Day 22 - Let's do some easy cooking

2011-10-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but I need a break from all this purging and organizing. Let's do some cooking, shall we? Actually, it's pizza so there's not really any cooking involved. Just baking, and if you want to get technical, it's really just warming.

I have been on an on-again-off-again diet of sorts since August of 2010. I don't like to call it a diet because the very word seems temporary and what I set out to do was something I wanted to be permanent. In a nutshell, I cut way back on carbs, sugar, and processed foods. For the most part, it's been pretty easy, but sometimes, when my family asks for pizza, I get weak in the knees. I've always loved pizza. And I never considered it to be bad for me because I love it loaded with every kind of veggie you can imagine. I think my downfall may have been eating too many pieces and volunteering to eat all the crusts no one wanted. I feel bloated just thinking about it.

One day, while grocery shopping, I noticed a product I'd never seen before in the bakery section. It's a bread product called Flat Out Flatbread. What got my attention was the claim at the bottom of the package that it makes "Amazing Pizza!" So I picked it up and turned it over to find the carb count. This bread is 100% whole wheat and it also has flax in it. I can't remember now what the carb count was, but because it has so much fiber in it, it only has 8 net carbs. Sitting next to the Flat Out on the shelf were Joseph's Flax Oat Bran and Whole Wheat Pita Bread. Also low in net carbs.

I threw a couple of packages in my cart and proceeded to find the rest of the ingredients I needed. "I'm havin' pizza tonight!" (Said like Bruce in Finding Nemo)

I gathered up my ingredients, laid them all out and told everyone to make their own pizza. I gave the kids the pitas and Elliott and I took the flatbread. I assume everyone here knows how to make pizza. Usually, the most complicated part is the dough. Since we already have that part covered, the rest is pretty easy.

Here's the ones I made for Elliott and me.

And the one's the kids made.

Normally I wouldn't buy any kind of low carb bread or tortilla product because they tend to taste gummy, but I gotta tell ya, once they were baked in the oven, they got crispy and made for a pretty good stand-in pizza base.

The great thing my husband and I noticed was that we couldn't eat as much as we normally can. There's so much fiber, you fill up quicker. And even when I did eat until I was full, I didn't have that heavy feeling and I wasn't unquenchably thirsty the rest of the evening.

The kids just thought they were eating pizza. Now that's saying something!

Yum!

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31 Days: Day 21 - The freezer continued

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think the same can be said of the freezer.

The second part of my freezer clean-out involves the upper drawer. If the bottom part is hell, then the upper drawer is purgatory. It's shallow, so I can see everything that's in there so I'm pretty good about rotating it, but still, you never know. In fact, I found a ziploc bag of leftover chicken thighs that were unappetizingly monochromatic. Not sure when they first entered. In fact, it took a second for me to figure out what I was even looking at.

Here's a rundown of the poor, wasted-away souls I found.

Sorry it's so small. Click to see.

Here's the finished product. I threw so much stuff out, that I could fit everything in purgatory the top drawer. I'll probably start keeping things I use more often like bread, lunch meat and frozen juice in there. Before, I had to keep those kinds of things in the big freezer in the laundry room. And believe me, that's a job for another day.Sometimes my depression era ideas get put in the purgatory drawer because they have a slim chance of actually being used, but I don't know anyone who actually froze and then later reheated and served leftover pancakes. Oh, well, it's the thought that counts, right?

The bottom drawer

The top drawer

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31 Days: Day 20 - The freezer

2011-10-20T11:26:00.000-06:00

The seasonal clothing exchange is still going on. I'll give you an update as soon as I have one. ;)

Today, though, we're moving on to something a little easier because yesterday was a teensy bit overwhelming. Today I'm starting to clean out my freezer. I say 'starting' because I have to work in little blocks of time. My girls are at a friend's house helping with a project and I've got just enough time to work on part of my freezer. The part I'm working on today is the actual belly of the beast. The inner sanctuary or the depths of hell, whichever way you want to look at it.

This is where food goes to die. Actually, this is where I put food that I have no intention of ever touching again. Don't worry, it's not intentional, just something I'm not willing to candy-coat anymore. It's what I do. I keep things so I can continue to call myself thrifty, resourceful and frugal, but the truth is, I stick stuff in there because I can't bear to throw it out...just yet.

Some examples of my madness:

Leftover crusts and heels of bread that could be turned into yummy croutons. Really?!? Am I currently living in the depression? I don't even eat bread anymore.

Frozen corn. Another thing I don't eat anymore.

The great banana stock-up of October 2008. Maybe I was planning on having a giant smoothie party.

And apparently, at some point, I didn't even bother to prep the bananas, I just threw them in whole. Banana mummies, anyone?

Coconut shrimp. Was it so delicious, I had to give my family a future night of it? No, I was the only one who liked it, thus the large amount leftover. Why couldn't I just call it a fail and throw it out? Also, not eating spaghetti anymore.

Tomato juice leftover from canning tomatoes. It's basically tomato-flavored water. What could I possibly do with it? Obviously, I haven't come up with the answer to that, either.

There was a time when my dad was getting medication in the mail that needed to be refrigerated. My mom gave me all these cold packs because, evidently, she had a hard time with the thought of throwing them away, also. Why am I keeping them? To pack in my children's lunches, of course. My now home-schooled children? I think it's time for them to go. I may keep one.

This next one is not for the faint of heart. I don't mean to startle you, but I literally found 3 different bags like this. And I'm not collecting dead birds, I'm being a good mom by telling my son I'd be happy to prepare the dove he just shot in the backyard. Only problem is, who cooks 3 or 4 dove at a time? They're like chicken wings, in my book. They just aren't worth it. And he is onto bigger game, now. I think I'm safe to get rid of these.

Here are a couple of things I found as evidence that I've passed this madness on to my children.

A cut up apple and an ice cream sandwich with one bite out of it. I guess they just didn't feel like eating it at the moment. And this is where mom puts things to suspend them in time so that's what we'll do.

Glow sticks. This one is kind of endearing because I did this as a child and I don't remember who told me to do it. I remember getting home from a trip to Six Flags and putting my glow stick in the freezer so it would keep forever. It did keep forever, it just never glowed again. The funny thing is, I don't remember telling my kids to put these in the freezer. Maybe it's instinct.

And here's the drawer empty and ready to be scrubbed. Haven't started that yet, but since I threw out almost everything in there, it can wait until this afternoon.

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31 Days: Day 19 - The seasonal wardrobe exchange

2011-10-19T08:31:00.000-06:00

Today, I'm doing something a little different. I can't seem to get ahead on my posts so what you're reading is what's happening in real time. This project is nowhere near finished and I have school to teach and a house to pick up for company tonight so I'm giving you the before and then leaving it up. As soon as I have after pictures, I'll update.

Last night I pulled down all the winter clothes from the attic. I think it was like, 10 trash bags.

Then I proceeded to empty all of those trash bags, one by one and separate the clothes into piles. Individual piles for each person, piles for stuff that's too big, stuff that's too small, stuff I don't like, you get the idea.

These pictures were taken last night, hence the horrible lighting. And why am I apologizing for bad pictures taken of a living room strewn with winter clothes? Nevermind.

That chair in the corner is full to overflowing with mine and my husband's winter stuff. Mostly, my husband's. He has as many sweat shirts and hoodie jackets as he has t-shirts. What I'll end up doing with all that stuff is anybody's guess. But, I can tell you one thing, it's not all going into our closet. Some of it's got to go to Goodwill or the curb. Anywhere but here.

Update: 9:15 this morning - My children thought they woke up to Christmas morning and started trying on clothes. This is the current state of my living room. Still have to do school and clean. Sheesh.

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31 Days: Day 18 - The front walk

2011-10-18T07:34:00.000-06:00

I know this is probably only a big deal for me, but this past weekend, my husband, aka Superman, started and completed a walkway up to our front door. Four years ago, we hired someone to do it, which didn't work out, and then the bricks sat in a pile, along with some sacks of concrete, since then. Four years! Do you know how silly I have felt with a beautiful front door that was salvaged and refinished and just waiting to be used, only to have a pile of bricks welcome anyone who would venture up to it? I'm so proud. Elliott and I have already started to plan what kinds of things we want to plant around the front of the house and if we want some beds along the walk for seasonal flowers. It's gonna be fun!

My dog's already breaking it in. I can see that's gonna be a problem.

I don't have before pictures, but trust me, this was definitely a home improvement!

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31 Days: Day 17 - The mantel

2011-10-17T07:42:00.001-06:00

I'm kind of at a stand still with the laundry room. It's better, but no where near finished. I still have lots to sift through and weed out, but there is a wide pathway to the washer and I can see more floor than I've seen in years.

So, until I get back to that, the mantel. I think I finished it. I'm not sure, though. For now, it's finished. By the time I think of what to add to it, it'll be time to change it for Christmas.

This is about as spooky as I get when it comes to Halloween decorations

Pretty 'weeds' I found in our field. They remind me of Queen Anne's Lace.

I'm in love with these fairytale pumpkins. This one looks like it came straight out of Cinderella. It's probably too big to have on my mantel and would probably look better below near the fireplace, but I was afraid no one would notice it down there. I think it's gorgeous.

The sun kind of messed up the lighting in this picture. Well, actually, it probably has more to do with the fact that I'm using my iphone again. Shame on me. The 'autumn' banner is actually something I added this past weekend. My daughter, Autumn, had her birthday party and I knew if I made a banner with her name on it, I'd be able to keep it up all season. ;) And you can read more about the quilt bunting here.

There it is, my mantel. This is the second season in a row I've changed it. I've never done that before. I know I'll change it for Christmas and I'll have to take Christmas down and do something different so this might just be a new habit for me. Who knew?!?

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31 Days: Day 15 - The laundry room

2011-10-15T08:37:00.001-06:00

After I finished the first junk drawer, I needed a change of scenery. The laundry room has been whispering my name for a long time now. Actually, every time I go in there to do a load of laundry and I have to step over things to get to the washer and dryer. I put a curtain on this window a couple of years ago while getting ready for a baby shower. It lets light in, but the mess behind the door is obscured just enough to keep people from doing a double-take.

This is why I'm always intercepting people with bags of ice or questions of "Where can I store this until after the party?" It's a mess people. I realize it. It's just one of those things that seems so daunting, it's just easier to walk by or pile one more thing on top and say I'll get to it, I promise. The problem for me, lately, has been that I just don't have the time. I started some of these projects during the week and decided that homeschool was just going to have to be put on hold for a few days. Now that I've gotten into the belly of the beast, I feel like I can finish it by working in the time I've got here and there.

Something I didn't even realize until I got some space cleared was that one of the outside doors doesn't even close completely unless it's dead-bolted. I don't know what the problem is, but what's the point of having a door if it's always got stuff piled in front of it as if it's a wall and it doesn't even work properly? This is worse than I thought.

An old game I bought for a friend as a joke for Christmas last year. Ha, ha, looks like the joke's on me.

This is a great cabinet, albeit a little too big, that I was excited about when we built the house. Somewhere along the way, when I still hadn't figured out how to utilize it, my husband claimed it as a place to heave everything school board related after he got home from a board meeting. And, of course, sometimes I would use it to hide stuff from the kids. The pile was twice that height. I had already started filling a garbage can when I realized I should take a picture.

I actually made some headway in the afternoon I worked on it. I'm no where near finished which is why I hate even posting. But it's all about the process, right?

Someday soon, I hope to have an awesome before and after post with everything staged perfectly. At least with everything put away. I will say that I had my husband haul off 4 bags of trash and I took a couple of loads to the storage building that didn't belong in the house. Yeah me!

I'm having a party for my 8 year old today and as you can imagine, I have lots left to do and bake and clean, etc.

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31 Days: Day 14 - Tackling the dreaded junk drawer

2011-10-14T07:45:00.001-06:00

I drank my second cup of coffee and set the timer for 30 minutes. I opened the first drawer in my long bar in the kitchen, pulled out the contents and this is what I saw...

Then, I took that pile and tried to separate it out so I could see exactly what it was I was looking at. It was quite a mess. Everything from hair accessories to coupons to a fake tattoo sleeve. You see, this is the drawer that on occasion, spends a week, at the most, being organized and then people start using it as a place to dump things they don't know what to do with. If I hand one of my kids something and say, here, take this to your room and put it where it belongs. They will usually get distracted with something else and that item will magically appear in the junk drawer. When I clean for company, whatever is left on the bar that I don't know what to do with, I slide it off into this drawer. It's a pitiful mess.

Some things I could immediately tell needed to go into the trash, then it was just a question of sifting.

After the trash pile was established, I started categorizing. School stuff, stuff to go to the bathroom, to file, pictures, etc.

My timer went off and I was not finished. So I put everything back into the drawer that I wanted to stay there permanently, minus pretty shelf liner paper, and admired my work. All I have to do now is find a place for the stuff that didn't make it back into the drawer.

Here are some interesting finds from my junk drawer foray.

Storage containers. Not filled with anything in particular. Just floating around in a mess of objects.

A picture of an unidentified woman getting a hug from Elvis. Who knew he was such a committed hugger?!? From now on, when I'm feeling neglected, I'll just say I need an Elvis hug.

An assortment of past years Christmas picture cards. My refrigerator isn't magnetic on the front, so I don't have any place to display these kinds of things. And where do things go that don't have a home? The junk drawer, that's where!

Napoleon Dynamite glasses my son wore for Halloween a couple of years ago. He won the contest and now I can't thrown the glasses away. I popped out the scratched lenses and put them in the kids dress up drawer.

A hopeful craft project supply. We'll see.

More to come. I have three more drawers like this in my kitchen alone!

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31 Days: Day 12, er 13 - Re-evaluating things

2011-10-13T08:08:00.002-06:00

Here we are, day 13 of the 31 Days challenge. I see now why the word 'challenge' is in there. Yesterday, I just completely ran out of time and ideas and thought I was done. I'm sure a more seasoned 31 Dayer would say something like, "Oh, yeah, that 12th day is when it really starts getting tough. If you can push through that, the rest will be a breeze!"

Actually, It's not the writing part I'm having so much trouble with, it's my subject matter. When I first decided to do this, I had an idea that I would systematically go through my entire house, tackling ugly closets and forgotten junk drawers and sharing it with the world. Then I chickened out broadened my subject to include other things like recipes and crafts and furniture projects so I wouldn't completely chicken out get burned out. Then, I discovered this blog. Jules is doing exactly what I wanted to do, but, as you can see, haven't. I haven't shared a single decluttering/reorganizing thing since I started. I'm fascinated and inspired by the idea, I just can't take that first bite of the proverbial elephant. And, let me tell you, I'm staring at a very large elephant here.

I have been doing a decent job at keeping my house presentable mainly because I have people over at least 2 times a week. That has forced me to keep things picked up and looking nice - on the outside. But there are still rooms in my house that I keep closed off to friends and even relatives because they are just catch-all rooms used for last-minute stashing. Even my bedroom is that way. For as long as I can remember, I have been at peace with that. I've felt that I have a right to have places in my house that are closed off to others. Now, I'm not so sure.

I accidentally brewed caffeinated tea last night so I had plenty of extra time to think before I could fall asleep. One thing I realized was that I'm not really content with my current system anymore. I live in constant fear that the guest bathroom toilet will explode and someone will have to use the bathroom in my bedroom. Oh, no, please not that. Or that, God forbid, someone would need to put a bag of ice in the freezer in the laundry room. My husband and I are always having to intercept that one. Why has this been ok with me for so long?

In my personal life, I'm going through a season where I'm trying to be real, completely real, with my friends and family. I'm trying not to keep hidden those things I've thought best to keep hidden for the good of everyone. I gotta tell ya, it's not a very fun process. I'm having to go to neglected corners of my mind and sift through ideas and thoughts that, for whatever reason, have been there for years. Sometimes, someone will stumble on one of those places and I've just stood aside and let them enter to find whatever they find. That's been the hardest. Kind of like letting someone go through your stuff even before you have and just sitting there, watching. It's the ultimate 'before' picture, left to linger for a while before the 'after' is revealed. I want the 'after', but I'm very hestitant to share the 'before'. But, in the same way that I want to be 'known' by those who know me, I want my house to be a reflection of that. I want my friends and family to feel completely comfortable and at ease in my house. I want them to feel like it's their house, too. That's what I've always wanted. That's how I've always felt. But instead, I get irritated with myself that they don't have all of it because I haven't been willing to share all of it.

I thought this whole thing was about a William Morris quote, but, for me, it's turned in to something else. It's about letting everyone in on my process. It's about deciding, once and for all, to let my friends and family have an all-access pass into my home and my life, no matter what the current state. Then, when I've let people in to my 'before', they'll really appreciate and celebrate the 'after' with me.

P.S. Tomorrow I'm starting small. My kitchen junk drawer.

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31 Days: Day 11 - It really is the little things

2011-10-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

Funny thing about little things. They do make a difference, yes, but they also can become part of the surroundings and aren't noticed by people who see them every day. Such is the case with my living room curtain rod brackets. Once upon a time, when I first moved in to my beautiful new dream house, I wanted curtains on the windows. I guess it's something left over from my days of living in the city. But, now we don't have any neighbors so there's really no point in curtains except for aesthetics.

So, one day, I took my curtains down, wadded them up and stuffed them in a bag bound for Goodwill. And then I walked away. I just forgot one little, teensy, weensy thing. The brackets that my curtains hung from. They were small and black and had lots of screws and I figured I'd get to them later. The only thing was that later didn't come until several years later.

Even with the poor lighting in this picture, you can still see those hideous brackets

To tell you the truth, I didn't have any intentions of taking those brackets down until I got into a conversation about my curtain situation with one of my friends and she said, "I think your windows look great without curtains. You just need to get rid of those brackets." Hmmm, I had started to look at them like they were part of the window trim and they didn't even look out of place to me anymore.

So this morning, I got a screwdriver and took those suckers down. Now I can see how much work really needs to be done with wood putty and paint, but I think it's a major improvement.

Now go through your house and look at things like it's not your house. Or, better yet, invite a friend over and find out what they see. Then, do something about it!

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31 Days: Day 10 - Stain removal

2011-10-10T08:17:00.001-06:00

This post was originally from May 27, 2008. I feel like I'm cheating a little, but I wanted to do a post on cleaning the stains from my grody carpet, but I'd already done it. Part of me improving my home, is learning to be efficient. So here's me at the peak of efficiency...

Today, ladies, we're talkin' stains. I don't know what made me do this, but the other day, while I was cleaning, I decided to document some of the stain removal that took place. I do love a product that does what it says it will do and that is what I want to share with you.

I give you Exhibit A:

This is where my youngest little darling ate a red popsicle while sitting in my new chair, and apparently dropped it on the floor...unbeknownst to me. Now, some of you may say, "Just move that rug over a little and no one will be the wiser!" Well, I would know. End of discussion. Here it is a little closer up...

Closer...

That's close enough. If I were doing an infomercial, I would show you pictures of how I used everything under the sun to get this stain out and how I struggled and strained and made myself look like a complete idiot who had never even seen a rag before. Instead, I went right to the product that I knew would do the trick and I went straight to work.

Here is where I sprayed the product on the stain and already it's starting to work.

That's red popsicle on the rag there. It doesn't look as bright in the picture as it did in real life. I was impressed with how it picked it right up.

Oh wait, here's a better shot of the rag.

There's the place where the spot was. It has a little bit of a pinkish hue, but I have three girls so I'm not really afraid of the color pink. And besides, if anyone notices that I have a small pinkish colored hue on my carpet by my new chair, I think I'll just move the rug over a bit.

Aren't you just dying to know what this miracle cleaner is? Well I'll show you. Ladies, meet Folex. Folex, meet the ladies.

Now this is one of those cleaners that doesn't have any fancy packaging and kind of sits there in the cleaning aisle either on a shelf far below or high above the national brands. I imagine it sitting there, just waiting for someone to take a chance on it. Knowing it has a big secret. What's that secret? IT WORKS! And I have my mother-in-law to thank for telling me about it. She has lots of pets. In the house. Dogs. And Cats. In the house. She goes through this stuff like you wouldn't believe. And I have a toddler. In the house. And we're potty training. In the house. Well, you get the idea. Nevertheless, it works every time.

Here's another problem area that I simply got tired of looking at the other day. I just had to do something about it.

This is an area right by the door that everyone comes in and out of. I can't even tell you what those stains are. They're the kind of stains generated by 4 kids. Some of them were sticky and some were hard. It wasn't pretty. This sounds like a job for Folex.

I know the carpet still looks a little dingy, but that's another problem all together. I barely put any elbow grease into those stains and look at how much better it looks.

I have one more product to share with you. This is the stuff I pull out when I've got a really stubborn stain. Like this one here. And don't underestimate this stain because of it's size.

You want to know what that is? That, my friends, is a little glob of silly putty. The rest of it I found in the pocket of my daughter's favorite jeans. It has a nasty habit of melting wherever it lands and fusing itself to whatever it lands on. I tried to pick up this little bit of green goo no less than 10 times before I finally got it through my head that it was fused to the carpet and it wasn't going anywhere.

Now it looks a little more like chewing gum. Which would be equally impossible to get out.

Enter my new best friend, Stainz-R-Out. I bought it one day in a moment of weakness watching an infomercial. Some idiot lady was trying to figure out how to use a rag and suddenly all of her problems were solved by this little yellow bottle of goodness. I actually used all of my first order and had to call the 800 number on the back and order more. I love it.

I works particularly well on sticky and greasy things that seem to repel water based cleaners. It's made with banana oil so it gets in there and really breaks up the offending stuff. It does smell like bananas, though, so if you're like my friend Francesca and hate the smell of bananas, you won't like what you smell when you start using this stuff. I, on the other hand, don't mind the smell of bananas, so we get along great. Here's where that spot was.

I know, I know. You say you see a little bit of a greenish hue. Well, I'm not going to try to pick up that greenish hue 10 times while vacuuming. I'd say that's another victory for Stainz-R-Out!

Here's one last story. You know those things little kids bring home from Chuck E. Cheeses or Mr. Gatti's that look like a mini lava lamp? It's a clear plastic tube that has goo in it and you tilt it back and forth watching the goo slowly move from one end to the other like slow moving waves? Then you wonder what that goo would do if it were outside of the confines of that plastic tube and you throw it to see if it will break? Well, my son wondered that very thing and I'll be darned if that goo didn't leave a permanent stain on my mother-in-law's carpet that would come and go at will. Some days it was really dark and sticky and some days you couldn't really see it at all. When I got my Stainz-R-Out, I was really excited about how well it worked so I took it over there and it got almost all of it out. Even I couldn't believe it. Here's the link again, just in case you missed it. That link again is Stainz-R-Out. Now I'm starting to sound like an infomercial!

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31 Days: Day 9 - Using what you have

2011-10-09T09:26:00.003-06:00

This is sort of a continuation of yesterday's post because I gotta get to church. Another way you can be frugal is to use what you already have. Sometimes you won't even know what you have until you start looking at things with a different perspective. I needed a container to hold the homemade laundry detergent I made yesterday. The liquid version I previously made, made a batch so big, I needed an empty liquid laundry detergent container and a large glass pickle jar. The powder version takes up a lot less space so I needed to find a smaller container. The metal bread box I ended up using wasn't ever a real bread box. Obviously, since it's only big enough to hold a half a loaf of bread. It was one of those gift tins that had a collection of kitchen stuff in it and shrink wrapped. I liked that the container was metal so I saved it. It's served as a candy container for most of the years I've had it, but lately it's just been sitting at the back of the pantry taking up space. It turned out to be a perfect fit for my homemade powdered laundry detergent. It only needed a coat of green spray paint that I had left over from another project. Voila!

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