Weekly Menu - the one where life is kinda back to normal.

I have no photos to post this week.  I did shop last weekend but had very little food prep this time around and was also in a rush to get it done before I headed out of town.  So, nothing exciting this week :-)

Friday - So, I decided that for now, Friday will become more of my "new recipe" night.  If you know me at all, you know that after a few months I get bored with doing the same thing over and over so this will change.  There is a blog I follow that often posts recipes and, so far, I've liked all of her recipes that I've tried so I'm going to try her Pepper Steak Recipe.  I'll pick up some frozen egg rolls for an easy side :-)

Saturday - Dinner with the Parents or my brother and sister-in-law . ..depending.

Sunday - Dinner at my parents; Then, I have a pan of manicotti that I made up on Saturday before leaving to throw in the oven when we get home. 

Monday - Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken, green bean casserole, Savory Rice and Biscuits

Tuesday - Easy Philly Sandwiches, Potato Salad and Chips

Wednesday - Darryl will have practice so I think I'll pick up frozen pizza's for the boys and I for dinner.

Thursday - Oven baked tacos, chips and salsa. 

For something yummy - Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake muffins and "The Best Fruit Dip Ever" - actually something new but since we always have fruit in the house, I thought this would be tasty. Oh, and some type of cookie for my husband's lunch - thinking that molasses might be good - we haven't had those in awhile

Digging for Frozen Treasure

When I knew that the temperatures were going to sky rocket last week, I tried to be positive and plan some fun activities with water.  Then the heat index hit 100, we bought a second A/C window unit, blocked off the living room and the boys and I "lived" in the living room and their bedroom during the day when it was at least cooler then it was outside.  Even the kiddie pool is too hot to use - by the time it is full enough to use, the water was already hot!  We did swim on Monday but that was it.  Tuesday-Friday were spent indoors. 

So, now that it cooled off a little, I finally got to use one of my activities that I had planned for that hot week! I first saw the idea over at Counting Coconuts but it is also on many other sites linked up to Pinterest.

All you really need are some small toys and . .. .water :-)  Freeze everything then let the kids bang away and try to get the stuff out.  I used small Army "guys" and some little ocean animals.

 I couldn't see giving my kids screw drivers and hammers to bang on the ice so I let them use left over wood from the porch.  They banged and banged and BANGED but that ice would not break.

I finally suggested that they pick it up and slam it down on the ground.  That worked.  I ended up having to help both Nate and the munchkin with their ice but we did get all of the toys out and the boys all loved it.

One lesson learned - freeze the ice in layers.  All of the toys ended up on the top of the ice since they all floated.  OR get items of different density so some will sink.  I think that it would be fine to freeze ice cube size blocks with a small sea creature in each one and then throwing them in the kiddie pool on a hot day :-)

Too Cute Not To Toot

Can you believe that we are already into the month of August?  That is just crazy to me.  I love this first idea from Dukes and Duchesses for a homemade deck table.  I need this next to my swing for an easy place to keep my soda or water.

Another fun idea from Dukes and Duchesses is some awesome bull's eye shirts for some summer squirt gun fun!

Every year, I struggle with planting a small (very small) garden area.  I really just want some cherry tomato plants, a few zucchini plants, and a few other small items but I don't have a lot of space and I hate weeding so when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I had to share.  Sorry, the link goes no where but the photo has a comment that explains what to do!

It's Blogworthy shares a great post on daily and weekly home cleaning as well as her list of daily/weekly tasks.  If you have followed this blog for any length of time then you will know I love schedules but get bored with the same schedule so I'm always looking for new ideas :-)

Finally, I love this toothbrush organizing tip from Little Penelope Lane and think I need to use it now that my boys tend to brush their own teeth multiple times a day ;-)

Pre-K . .. the week the kids were gone

Normally, you would be reading about what we did in school this week but, this week my kids were at Papa and Nana's house for VBS at the church where my Brother and Dad pastor.  Needless to say they had a lot of fun and I took advantage of only have 2 kids here instead of 4 and got a lot done.  If you have followed this blog for long you know that I've been saying for months that I need to clean my basement.  I guess all of the 'stars' aligned this week with the kids gone and perfect weather for me to get it done. Lets start with some before pictures.

 So, this is my storage area and it was out of control.  Things had just gotten tossed down there with no thought to how it needed to be set up.  I also felt like I was storing way too much stuff - stuff I never would want to move if we move someday. 

 The pantry - it always starts out neat but eventually becomes a mess :-)

 The laundry room - it just needs to be cleaned - since I use it every day it tends to stay non-cluttered but it does get messy.

The soon to be playroom.  Again, stuff got piled in here this winter and just needs to be cleaned up.  It's a tiny room, really, but it would be nice for the boys to have a play area elsewhere in the house.

I spent all day Monday and then about an hour on Tuesday working on the entire basement.  I turned the boys room into my sorting room and set up bins for trash, Good Will, and keep.  Then I slowly brought up bin after bin and sorted through every single one.  By the time I was done I took two FULL truck loads of stuff to Good Will and had managed to clear out over half of the bins.  What is left is what I really want to keep either for the sake of a memory or because I will use it again.  I also cleaned out all of my holiday stuff - Fall/Halloween, Spring and Christmas Stuff.  I cleaned out a lot.  So much of what I had was upwards of 20 years old (Yikes!- It was stuff I got my first Christmas in my first apartment . . .wow!) and was showing wear.  I look forward to maybe picking up a few new items this year for Christmas and have a cleaner look over the holidays instead of just a bunch of stuff out and about. One thing I did to make sure that the basement doesn't implode again is to make sure that there was space to put new things that need to be stored.  There are several half full bins that can be added two plus I have lots of empty bins that I can pull out to use if needed.

So, now I think it is time for some after photos :-)

 Doesn't it look nice?  It is so open and . . .clean :-)  Plus I have stuff organized and the bins are color coded even though you really can't see that in the photo. 

 I moved that big desk from what is now the playroom into the basement and it is my "sorting" zone for now.  I have a couple of small baskets on the desk for dropping things until I find a home for them. 

 We are cat sitting this week and the cat likes to sit on the suitcase and watch me.  It freaks me out.

 The pantry - all neat and organized :-)  I need to have my husband add shelves to the left side for a little more storage. 

 The laundry room all nice and clean and organized :-) 

The playroom.  I'll be adding a few toys to this area by the end of the week.  See those shelves of books - I have to do something with those too at some point.  I've had a Kindle for over a year and a half and have not taken a single book off the shelves.  That tells me it is time to let go of the majority of them.  I need to do a little research but I might actually have some books that are worth more than a $1.00 but we'll see ;-)  The bookshelves will come down to add a little more space to the room too.  The boys love having the love seat down there so I don't plan on moving that but I do plan on getting rid of the stinky pretty rug and using something like this on the floor -

 

Source 

It will give the boys some place soft to play but they are easy to clean and remove as needed.  

I also have a few ideas pinned on my Laundry Room and Playroom boards on pinterest that I want to incorporate over the coming months  BUT before I conquer those, my next task is our music/office room that we need to put together.  I'm selling some things on e-bay (hopefully they sell) get some money for a trip to Ikea to buy the few things I need for that room ! 

I'm very happy with the completed project . .. now, to just get rid of the spiders. 

Twelve Years - For Real

 Twelve years ago, two people got married in a picture perfect ceremony.  Those two people were . . .Darryl and I!  It's hard to believe that I've known this guy for a . . .12 1/2 years :-)   He's my best friend; makes me laugh all the time; and keeps me sane on days I'm ready to check myself into somewhere with padded walls!  

 We've had some fabulous this happen over the past 12 years.  We traveled to Brazil, Las Vegas, Vermont, Tennessee, Niagra Falls and more.  Add to that buying a house, adopting a dog . . .and a cat.  Multiple vehicles and, most importantly, 2 kids!

 Not every moment was perfect but we managed to always come through the difficult days knowing that God used each moment to bring us closer and build our marriage stronger.

We look like two kids in this photo on our honeymoon.  HA!  How crazy is that?

Happy Anniversary to my fabulous husband!

Why I don't Drink - a great read

There is a post that I have wanted to write for a long time; I've even started it a few times but just never could get it written correctly.  The topic of drinking is a sensitive topic and people have many opinions but very simply, I don't drink.  Shoot, I don't even cook with any type of alcohol.  Recently, I read a well-written article on this topic and the author hit the nail on the head of Why I (nor my husband) drink.   I thought to myself, why should I recreate the wheel when she said pretty much what I wanted to say.

Why I Don't Drink

I'm not out to make a debate or to offend, I'm just allowing you to read my basic viewpoint. 

Food Friday - Lemon Icebox Pie

Lemon Icebox Pie
adapted from Rachel Ray

Ok, I love Lemon dessert so when I saw this recipe for a Lemon Icebox Pie AND it used Sweetened Condensed Milk in the recipe, I knew I had to try it.  Let me tell you, this is awesome.  I could eat the whole pie.  When I first served it for dessert with my parents, I had taken out of the freezer about 45 minutes before we were going to eat it so it was nice and creamy but still super cold.  It was so good.  The following day I had it frozen straight from the freezer and it was just as good :-)  

First, you need a graham cracker crust.  You can either make your favorite version OR do what I did and use a storebought crust :-)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

In a bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice with 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk.  Whisk this together until smooth. (I used 2 fresh lemons for juice and then added enough lemon juice out of a bottle to equal the amount needed)

In another bowl, whisk together 8 egg yolks with the zest of two lemons until the color is golden and smooth.

 Then you mix the condensed milk mixture together with the eggs and combine well.  Pour into the prepared crust and stick in the oven, on a baking sheet, for about 1/2 hour.  The custard will not totally set and crack but it’s pretty darned cooked.  You let it cool for an hour, then you put plastic wrap on it and freeze it overnight.