~Green Monster~

No, I am not talking about halloween costumes I am making for the kids.  Actually, I don't even have any of that figured out yet.  Guess I should get on the ball with that one!

I am talking about the yummy, delicious, WAKE ME UP, better than listening to Christmas music (that is saying a TON right there) green monster smoothie.  yummmmmmmm!

I got the (most) ingredients a while back, but honestly the picture of it kind of frightened me and I kept telling myself it was too much work.  Pshaw.  It wasn't at all!!!  It was and still is (I'm still drinking it) delish!

I found the recipe here.  You should definitely check out more than just the smoothie though.  Her blog has tons of yummy recipes on it.

Doesn't it look Yummy???

I have officially learned the lesson that looks can be deceiving.  It looks like processed peas to me.

To make this you need:

1 cup chunked frozen pineapple

1 pear (I used canned and rinsed the syrup off)

1 1/2 cups orange juice

2 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves

3 Tbs ground flax seed

if you want to actually follow the recipe (seriously, does anyone actually do that?)

you will also need 1 banana cut up and 1-2 Tbs honey.

then blend away!

There are a couple of things missing from my picture and it was REALLY sunny in my kitchen.  Sorry!

Then drink and enjoy!  I promise it's delicious!!!

Update:  I made this yesterday and then got bananas today, so I tried it with that.  Both ways are wonderful.  The banana toned down the tartness a bit.



~Last Taste of Summer~

I LOVE living in Iowa.  Especially in the fall.  Not so much in the winter, but every other season is wonderful.  This time of year is particularly beautiful as the trees are turning, the corn and bean fields have browned and color is everywhere.  I love seeing fields dotted with orange pumpkins and I especially love to see yellow and orange leaves laying on top of the green grass.  So pretty! 

I have been doing some deep cleaning in my kitchen the last couple of weeks.  ( I do it in shifts so I don't get burned out) and this is the view that I have out my big kitchen window above my sink.

I love having a wooded ravine for a back yard!

I also picked my random watermelons.  Yes, watermelons in the middle of October.  Talk about random! 

I had my tonsils taken out in July and my mother was here taking care of the kids while I was recovering.  While she was here she told me that we had a melon plant and a tomato plant growing in the back yard.  Our actual yard is pretty small and very shaded, so we didn't think it was possible.  Sure enough a couple of melons showed up and a third later on.  The tomato plant did produce one tomato that was then trampled by the kids. ( It's the plants fault for growing next to the swing set.)

We finally figured out that the melon plant was growing  where everyone spit out their seeds last year. 

Please excuse the yard.  Since we have never grown anything before, we got pretty excited and let the melon plant take over part of the yard. 

I have been watching the melons closely and waiting for the signs that the internet told me to watch for.  Namely when the cord dries up.  Well, today was the day!  I got the kids' wagon to collect my three melons and find out how they did. 

The little melon did not do so well.  It started later and just didn't have time to ripen.

One of the large ones did much better!

This little cutie REALLY liked it!!

What a good way to say good-bye to the warmer temps that we have been having.



~Monday Mania~

I'll get this title figured out one of these days. Input would be graciously welcomed.

This week I am giving a couple of tips and they are BIG ones in my world! They control my every weekday morning which then controls how the rest of my day goes. See? It's HUGE. Mondays are a massive production that remind us we are no longer on summer break. It reminds us that we have responsibilities and schedules that don't always accommodate (easily) the little extras that it takes to put on the productions of each and every day. In order to prepare for the massive production called "THE WEEK," there are things that I have learned to do ahead of time. If I don't, my week is soooooo much more stressful which affects me, my kids, my husband, everyone around me.... It's true. I secretly control the universe. Actually, my moods do.

At the beginning of every month I print off the school lunch menu and sit down with the kids to discuss when they want to eat the school's food or take their lunch. They are allowed to eat school lunch one time a week, but don't have to. My reason behind this....SCHOOL LUNCH IS EXPENSIVE!! For my three school kids to eat it all the time, would cost us over $45 a week. That's over $180 a month. The other reason is because I can make sure and buy things I know my kids will eat. I hate thinking about spending over 3 buckaroos on a lunch where they are probably throwing half of it away.

I mark the initial of whatever child will be taking their lunch to school for each day and then on Sunday evening I prep the meals. Peanut butter and jelly is always part of the menu because my kids LOVE pb&j, but I also have a second option every week. Sometimes it's sausage and cheese kabobs, lunch meat sandwiches cut out in fun shapes (because most of my kids aren't very fond of lunch meat and it makes it a little more fun if they are creatively cut), bagel pizzas and roll ups. There are endless possibilities though. This week we did pb&j and pizza bagels. I also try to have 2-3 sides. A vegetable, fruit, dairy, carb or treat. I should also mention that I portion everything out into serving sizes as soon as I get it home from the grocery store. It's great for quick, on the go snacks or for the meals.

I do everything in an assembly line fashion. Line up the baggies (also pulling them open, placing the bread in top of each one,

then pb on half the slices, j on the other half

 and then smoosh together. I like to smoosh them because a couple of my kids like to pull them apart and that drives me b....atty. You thought I was going to say bonkers didn't you? Ha, fooled you!

For the pizza bagels I lay out the baggies (already pulled open) then lay one half of a bagel on each bag. I bought these great little containers online at eBay which work great for holding the sauce, cheese, pb for celery, ranch for carrots and so forth. I had small Tupperware containers that I was using, but I no longer have any as Little D threw all of them away at school as he was throwing everything else away. I seem to learn my lessons the hard and expensive way.

 

Anyway, a Teaspoon of sauce in one, then a little bit of cheese and the pizza bagels are ready to go. Then decide what the sides are. Remember, everything has already been portioned out so all I have to do is grab the baggies, put them in containers and then the next morning the kids know to pull one item from each section or container.

It has worked GREAT!!! The kids know that, after breakfast, they need to go get their lunch boxes (which are stored in the cedar chest in the piano room) and put their lunches together. There is no arguing over what they will have that day because they know they have to choose from what is already there.

~ A Cheery Welcome~

Sorry it has been a few days since I last blogged.  I had a friend who was hurting a husband who was leaving and children who were, well, they were being children.  Enough said.

In the midst of it all, I have completed another project.  I am on a roll baby!  This one only took two years to do.  I know, I'm fabulous!  And I'm blogging from a place that is not the dark, furthest from the world, corner in my basement.  My new space is not necessarily pretty yet, but I am only 10 steps away from the kids, the kitchen and only 3 from the bathroom.  In the basement I was at least 4 away from the bathroom.  That extra step is killer.  I kid!

I know I have mentioned before how much I dislike the hunter green in my house and how much, apparently, the previous owners liked it.  That and carpet in the bathroom.  Yuck!  Well, we had gotten rid of the linoleum in the half bath and the kitchen that had hunter green diamonds in it and we have gotten rid of one more thing.  The front door.  We didn't actually get rid of the door, just the hunter green paint on it.  I even took a before picture.  I am really becoming a pro at this!

The previous owners used a brush on the door and they went in different directions.  It drove me bonkers.  They also tried to touch up a couple of spot with a different green paint that did not match.  You can't see it here, but I saw it ALL. THE. TIME.  It drove me bonkers too.

I really wanted to do it right and do a good job at it, so first off I needed to take off all the hardware.  The door knocker was easy.  It was just held onto the door with some 3M adhesive.  Next came the dead bolt.  I took the screws out from the inside, took the piece that the screws were holding in place and then tried to take the rest of the pieces apart.  Nothing.  So I unscrewed the side where the deadbolt actually comes out as those were the only other screws I could see.  Nothing.  I pulled, I wiggled and still..... Nothing.  I thought about calling my husbands friend, who happened to be working down the street, and seeing if he could come play husband for a few minutes and take it off for me but I thought that might be inappropriate.  I think that was a good call.  So I did the next best thing....

 and taped around the dead bolt and door knob.  If my husband doesn't like it, when he gets home, then he can take them off and finish the painting.

I chose the color Red Rebellion from Valspar.  I also used a small foam roller and one of my crafting foam brushes.  Painting the front door is a form of crafting. 

After one coat:

Two coats:

AND the final coat:

It is not a dark red.  It is more of a rusty red.  A red orangeyish color.

OH... and since I taped around the hardware, I used an xacto knife to cut around them before I took the tape off.  Just enough to cut through the paint and be able to pull the tape off cleanly.  It worked great!

I did a lot of research before doing this and found that the best way to roll is to gradually put less pressure on the roller as you go along.  I would push hard at first and then go back over it more gently.  it really gave it a nice finish and almost covered up all of the brush strokes.  Enough so that I think I can look past them now.

Only two more hunter green things left to go.  One of them is also in the near future.   Can't wait to show you that project, which I will not be doing, but will be managing my husband while he does it.  I'm great at that!

~Button Bracelet by E~

Quick and to the point, right?

Well, if you didn't read my post yesterday, E did a craft. She loves to try to make lots of things but this was her first REAL crafting. I helped her by doing the any sewing needed.  Here's what we did and what she did on her own.

First we found ribbon that went with her color scheme and sewed it to some elastic.

In order to keep everything stretchable, sew a little ways on the elastic and ribbon until you can grab it on the back side of the sewing machine foot. Once you can grab it, pull the elastic tight on both ends and while keeping the ribbon centered, sew down the middle.

It will look like this:

Then lay it flat on your work surface (you may need to put a weight on each end) and start laying out your buttons.

Once you like how something looks together, hot glue it together. I have seen where some sew it to the elastic. We kept it simple and E was able to do that entire process (other than the sewing) on her own.

Once everything is glued down, overlap the ends and sew them together.  I went over it multiple times to make sure it would hold.

Project complete!! Good job E!!!

~Saturday ups and downs~

It has been a CRAZY day around here.  I'm exhausted, frustrated and ready for 7:30 to roll around.  Who am I kidding????  As soon as 7 hits, those kids are goin to bed!  OK.... when the movie is over, which will probably be 7:30.  If it's later though.....I'm stopping the movie. 

I woke up with great plans and expectations for my day.  THAT was my first problem. 
Big D was gone for the day, playing farmer, and then tailgating before going to the big ISU vs Texas game.  He has some great friends that let him play farmer at their house and then give him a ticket to the game.  He doesn't get a ticket for playing farmer. ( That would be silly)   He just got invited this time because someone else couldn't go.

Since I was playing single mom for the day, I decided to go get some supplies I needed for projects I am working on.  It was a beautiful morning and I just knew that going to five stores with four kids....NO, my four ANGELS,  was going to be no problem.  I even took my camera with me to snap cutsie little pics of my perfect children posing with our fabulous finds.  Ha! 
First store was great.  Dollar Store!  I let each kids pick something to take home.  A couple of them were sweet enough to bring their own money.  The other one was too smart for that idea.  My baby just wanted gum, which I already had.  GREAT!!

Second store was Michaels.  I don't know what happened between 9:30 and 10 but all of a sudden the stores were completely packed, AND, the store had like 50 rolling ladders in every other aisle that my cart could not get around.  So then, frustrated mommy and four kids were trying to gracefully back out of those aisles.  We did leave with some fun finds though, so I left still excited for the day to continue.

Third store: Pier One.  Found a couple of awesome items that will work great in a space I am redoing, the kids didn't touch a single item AND I even got complimented from another shopper on how well behaved my children were and how proud I should be of them. 

Fourth store:  TJ Max.  Totally packed again, with internationals that decided to talk in the middle of the aisles and therefore I couldn't get through with my cart.  (I'm thinking right now that I am going to invent flying carts.... for people with children only..... better yet...flying packs for mothers with small children only AND "move to the front of the line for free" passes.  Yes, I am brilliant!)  I was going to get E a coffee mug because apparently 8, almost 9 year olds need them, and an oven mitt, because I only have one and I can't leave a store without buying something.  For myself.   I was going to buy those things, until....(have you noticed I like to ..... A LOT!  I do.  It's a disease....)  UNTIL.... I saw the line was 20 shoppers deep.  I needed one of those "move to the front of the line for free" passes.  We laid our two items in a random pile that looked like 40 other people had done the same, and left.  Please don't judge me right now.  Remember there were lots of internationals, that didn't speak english and they were blocking the aisles, AND I had four kids with me. I left with nothing.  No oven mitt.  No coffee mug for my eight year old.  I felt defeated and weak.  But I had one more place on my list.

Am I up to five?  Yep.  Fifth store:  Hancock fabrics.   Pretty fabrics make me happy.  The possibilities are endless as are the patterns.  I'm smiling right now.  :) see.  I found fabric that I was looking for and although I was a little bummed by the price per yard, buying the things already made was going to be 3 times more expensive, so I decided to spend the most I have ever spent before, per yard, and enjoy my final victory.  WELL, when I went to have the fabric cut, I was told it was half off!  My headache suddenly went away.  I was able to stand up straight again, instead of hunched over.  SCORE!!!  And I walked to the check out lane with my head held high.  While the kids and I waited in line of the slow cashier that I seem to get wherever I go (It doesn't really bother me, I just notice that I always get them) I asked the kids if they would like McDonalds for lunch.  I was obviously feeling my day was going exceedingly well.  So well, in fact, that I offered to eat INSIDE at McDonalds.  If you know me, I do not eat inside a restaurant with four kids unless 1: the food is ordered from and brought to our table  2: It is kid friendly but there aren't an over abundance of kids, and 3: I have another adult to help me.  I thought I was going to get mother of the year, OK... day, award and my children were going to cheer and tell everyone how blessed they were to have me for their mom.  Instead, Little D declares he does not want McDonalds, he wants Taco Johns.  In which everyone starts arguing about where we should eat.  OF COURSE everyone has to yell because you can't be heard over the other person because they are yelling too.  Did I mention that I was in the line with the slow cashier?  I was beginning to be bothered by her at this point.  Then Little D asks if he can get a happy meal at the McDonalds but not eat any of it because he only wanted the toy.  I honestly thought about it, but decided if he didn't eat I would be dealing with that issue the rest of the day. 

We finally got out of there, decided to do drive through McDonalds and PB and J for Little D at home.  Great plan!  Until, the line at McDonalds was 20 cars deep.  I decided to run inside, as it looked slow there, and grab everything to go.  I placed my order and waited.  While I waited Mr. Other Customer decided that there must not be a personal bubble space that needs to be respected.  Again, if you know me, I am very bothered by ANYONE being in my personal bubble space.  The space is different for different levels of people.  I won't go into that now as I have already written a book, but there is.  Anyway, this gentleman decides to stand nearly shoulder to shoulder with me.  No one else was up there waiting, there was plenty of other places to stand and even lean on things.  He was on one side while his little boy was on the other side of me.  We looked like a family.  I'm sure we made a lovely family, but they were not MY family.  It was very awkward to say the least.

That is the story of my 9-12.  Yes... that was only 3 hours.  It felt like it was half of a year.  A season at least.  I did not want to craft or work on anything when I got home.  OH, and my fries were stale and cold.  Such a bummer for someone who eats McDonalds only a few times a year. 

Instead, I helped E do a little crafting.  I just gently showed her that there is no wrong way to do it.  It was completely up to her and that however she chose to do HER project, it would be perfect.  I don't usually do that either.  I'm a control freak.  Not today though.  I'm tired, weak and wishing I had picked up Hy-Vee chinese for supper.  Hy-Vee chinese makes everything better.

I will do a quick and to the point post tomorrow about E's fabulous accessory that she made.  She is very excited and can't wait to start wearing it.  She's my kind of gal!  Next Saturday, as Big D will be gone again, I will stay home.  In my pajamas.  A-l-l,  D-a-y,  L-o-n-g.  Happy Weekend!!

Oh, and as you can see, there were no pictures taken.  Pushing a cart with one child sitting in it while three are trying to ride on the sides, and taking pictures is not possible.  Especially when one child gets off of one side and the cart tips over because it is suddenly off balance.  Lesson learned and noted.