Resale Madness!!

So today I took the limit of what I was allowed to take down to the resale shop where I take my stuff.  I ALWAYS take the limit!  There is always stuff to get rid of.  No matter how often I take stuff down there always seems to be more I can take.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Then mom, the kids, and I decided to walk around the store and see if there were any bargains to be had.  And as it turns out there were....maybe that is why I always have big bags to take to the resale shop. 

Anyhow, The Prince had some fall/winter clothes but he seems to never have long sleeve shirts and his pants are getting shorter (it can't be that he is getting taller cause he is never gonna grow up, right?).  So I decided to see what there was to be found.  And he SCORED!  He ended up with 2 new pairs of jeans.  One of them are Wranglers and there is nothing cuter than a little boy butt in Wranglers.  Then we found 6 long sleeve shirts, 1 zip up hoodie jacket, new cleats (since his soccer coach cut the toe cleats off of his other ones- long story- sigh).  Nanny bought Knight rubber boots and another shirt for Prince that I think is ugly.  And we spent next to nothing.  My total was just around $30 and I don't really know what hers was. 

I am honestly kinda new to resale shopping but, man, is it worth it.  I love getting my kids clothes for pennies on the dollar and still look great.  We felt a little dusty when we left but the clothes are in great shape and I just saved a fortune.  

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes

We eat the same things for breakfast all the time.  And it gets old.  But so often we need something quick, easy and FILLING.  Cereal just doesn't cut it around here.  The three boys will demolish a box of shredded wheat in one sitting...so I find myself baking for breakfast a lot.  Still many coffee cakes and muffins are really just cake and cupcakes in hiding so I am forever trying to find something that is good for us, fast, and will prevent the need for snacks for at least an hour. :)  This one fits all those requirements.  

recipe from Simply in Season cookbook

Stack of hot pancakes ready to head for the table.  YUM!

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used buttermilk)
Stir together, cover,  and let soak in refrigerator overnight. 

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup oil
In the morning , stir into oat mixture.

1/2 cup flour
2 Tbls sugar
1 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas ground cinnamon
1/4 teas salt
Mix all together in a small bowl.  then add to oat batter and mix briefly.  Fry in a hot, greased frypan. 


You can also stir in shredded apples or blueberries.

I found this batter to be very sticky and wet.  Almost like it needed more flour.  But I cooked it as written and MAN was it good and filling.  I could only eat 2 smallish ones.  I'm not sure about adding apples or blueberries since the batter is already so wet...but I bet I try it someday.  :) 

With butter and real maple syrup...ready to eat.  YUM!!!

Lights Out!!!

Playing some Chuck It Chicken during our black out last week.

Last week a little storm blew through our neighborhood.  Living where we do, it takes a lot to get us worked up about a storm and this one didn't freak us out at all.  There was some lightning (so I was very grateful when my little hunter man got home) but other than that it was just some rain.  After the storm passed though, our power just went out.  Usually, we get a few flickers before we lose it altogether...but not this time.  We got a few candles lit in the school room where the woodstove is and planned to tough it out like we usually do. 

Shane and the kids played Chuck It Chicken and I read a magazine by candlelight.  It gave me a lot more respect for those pioneers who toughed it out with no power ever.  It is no wonder they went to bed when the sun went down.  HA!  The power was only out for about an hour and came back on just in time to go to bed.  Guess it was a good "breaking in" for winter storms this year.  Last winter, the doozy ice storm left us powerless for a day or so...but others were out MUCH longer.  Now I have a list for getting ready...more candles and flashlight batteries are at the top of that list.

Get Dressed Challenge!!

A friend of mine posted this challenge that she found on another blog. And I decided to take the challenge myself.  Wearing clothes seems like a good thing to do.  :)  Honestly, I spend a lot of days in my pj's till after lunch when the kids have rest time and I shower.  It is one of the "perks" of homeschooling...it is also one of the things that make it hard...no time to shower until 1 in the afternoon.  Sigh.  However, the days when I get up and shower and get dressed first thing are usually better.  I feel more productive, and I don't have to pray about the UPS man not stopping by my house.

I'm not sure I can live up to her standards but I know I don't really have to.  I like to be comfortable around the house but there is nothing wrong with wearing a nice pair of yoga pants and a matching shirt.  (Maybe I should ask for some of those for Christmas).  Maybe I'll even do my hair. 

I'll give a report on yesterday.  Well, we went to church so I did get up, shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, fix my hair, and put on makeup...(you are welcome fellow church goers).  Then I yelled at my kids to do the same (it was NOT a good "get ready" morning).  I wore skinny jeans, a green and white striped shirt and brown knee boots.  I put the shirt in the resale pile when I got home because it didn't fit right and made me uncomfortable.  The rest of the day I wore gray capri yoga pants and a long sleeve blue t-shirt that I got in college almost a decade ago...but it still fits and I was cleaning.  sigh.  Well, I was dressed so maybe I should plan on starting small. :)  Aiden likes to take photos...maybe he'll take photos of my uber stylish house clothes to post online...they should at least make you feel good about what you've decided to wear for the day.  LOL

I just read Sarah Mae's blog posts on getting dressed (her blog is linked above) and I think she is pretty stinkin cool...so I'm gonna do it...but I'm not sure how I feel about needing to take this challenge...oh how far we sometimes fall!  :)

Menu

Planning a menu for this week was really hard...why?  Because of the 5 weeknights we will be home just one of them.  You would think this would make it easier....but some of those nights we still have to eat at home but it must be quick.  I also depend on leftovers a lot to make lunch and when we don't eat at home...there aren't any leftovers to use. So this is what I've come up with for this week...I'm betting it will change.

Breakfast
peanut butter muffins (taken from the freezer and thawed)
Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes (new recipe)
Oatmeal
Bagels
Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake
????

Lunch
leftover pizza
sub sandwiches
egg, ham, n cheese bagel sandwich
????

Supper
tuna casserole
Pasta e Fagioli with Italian Parmesan Bread
Meatball subs
Roast with sweet potatoes
We eat at AWANA each wednesday night. 
And we will be eating out twice this week. sigh

As you can see there are a lot of question marks and fly by the seat of my pants days this week.  It will just have to be that way.  We won't go hungry...I don't think.  :)  The pantry is full.  I just don't feel like I have enough of the weeks schedule to plan ahead very well. 

While I'm Waiting... (or The Hardest part of adopting...so far)

Waiting patiently is not one of my better qualities.  I could blame living in a world instant messages, texting, drive thru, microwaves, and worldwide connectivity for my impatience.  But while that certainly doesn't help matters, I think I am often just an impatient person.  As I think and type, I am not necessarily impatient for things to happen...just impatience for information.  Maybe my struggles aren't really due to impatience (but that doesn't help any)...maybe it is my need to know what is going on or to even be in control.  So I am struggling with impatience for information and a need to be in control of that information.

In the stage where we are in our adoption, all we can do is wait.  Wait for the phone to ring.  I am not enjoying this stage at all.  I subscribe to Proverbs 31 ministries and earlier this week the devotion was called "Tired of waiting."  I thought "Ooo, this is just for me."  She talked about Isaac who waited 20 years after marrying Rebecca before they had any children....and at the time their twins were born he was sixty!  I realize that I have already been blessed with children but the encouragement during the time of waiting was not what I was hoping for although I did understand the point.  :)

The King has to hear about how much the waiting stuff stinks from me all the time and he heard this song and got it for me this week as well.  

 

In a devotional on waiting that our home study social worker suggested for us, I read this today "None of us will take the same path in like, but all of us will experience disappointment....While powerlessness to control the future poses great frustration for some people, for others, it brings tremendous security"  (Trust, Hope, Pray by Luke and Trisha Priebe)

Although we are waiting on an adoption, everyone is waiting for something at some point in their life...medical diagnosis, a first home, a spouse, to graduate, to get pregnant or to into labor, to get a drivers license, a new job and other things too many to list or count.  No one is exempt, not by age, gender, financial status, or skin color or any other thing.  And as the song says, I pray that while we are waiting we still serve and worship even if it isn't easy and the wait seems crazy hard.

"God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth  gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the seas, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at it's swelling.  Psalm 46:1-3

my summer weakness

So I have already established that fall is my favorite season...except when it is spring and then I like Spring best.  I tolerate the heat and humidity of summer and the frigid, snow and ice in winter.  But even my least favorite seasons (currently being summer since it just ended) hold at least one thing that I just love!  Winter's is soup and sledding and ice skating on our pond.  (Ok so that is technically three, sue me.) 

In summer, I enjoy lazy days at the pond and cooking over a campfire.  My favorite campfire food is .....roasted marshmallows.  Marshmallows are just little bite size bits of pure pleasure, when they are roasted correctly.  There is nothing quite like a marshmallow roasted to perfection.  Now I realize there is contention on the perfect way to roast a marshmallow.  The King insists on charring them black.  Now, I can appreciate the value in totally blackening a hot dog on a campfire but NEVER ever doing that to a marshmallow.  I am a fan of the s'more (come on, really, who isn't).  But for roasted marshmallow perfection, you have to cook it slowly, so that it turns goopy all the way through the marshmallow.  There should be nothing solid in there.  I should be able to mush it with my tongue (and singe off every tastebud in one swift move).  And it should be golden...not too dark but a nice caramel color.  YUM!  Now this can only be achieved with patience over the perfect marshmallow fire.  And my dad can build the perfect marshmallow fire.

However, it is fall.  And campfires are coming to a close for the season so I am making due with my cheap alternative to the perfect roasted marshmallow.  And I am "roasting" them like this....

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It a  pale shadow to what a roasted marshmallow should be but it will suffice until I am able to stick some marshmallows in hot cocoa after coming in from an afternoon sledding with my kids.  :)

First this Fall!

We heat our home primarily with a wood stove.  And it has gotten just chilly enough to light the first fire of the season.  It is a small one since it really isn't cold yet and we would like to be able to stay in the house.*

*Wood heat is HOT...it is nearly a tradition in our house to have a fire going and the sliding door open on most winter holidays including Christmas and New Years.  And I never ever pack up all of our shorts and tank tops cause we will use them year round.

I love the smell and the sounds of a fire crackling in the stove.  It just screams warm and cozy to me.  Now I wish I had some hot apple cider or maybe mulled wine to sip and enjoy the flames this evening.  Lots of evenings with a fire in the woodstove left for that this year.

Minion BIrthday Party

Props to Adrien for posting photos on her facebook page so I could steal the idea and do the same thing for my minions for their birthday.

Happy Birthday Boys!  (some of you got a late party and one of you got an early party...but at least you each got a party!!  right?)

Menu

My first menu in a loooooong time and the first one that feels like fall food.  YEAH and YUM!

Breakfasts:
cereal
peanut butter muffins
banana splits
bagels
fruity baked oatmeal
hearty oatmeal pancakes
blueberry streusel coffee cake

Lunch:
Burgers
tuna burgers
sub sandwiches
hot dogs
bagel, egg, & cheese sandwiches
picnic (sandwiches, chips, fruit)

Suppers:
popcorn & snacks
Minestrone with baguettes
fried fish, sweet potato salad
coleslaw
Mexican Shepherds Pie
Beef Stew
Pizza

Several of the breakfast meals for this week are new recipes.  Looking forward to trying them and seeing how the family likes them.  I'll let you know.  The sweet potato salad is also new.  But the kids all like sweet potatoes better than regular potatoes so it's worth a shot.  Also we don't often have popcorn and snacks for supper but that day we are having the boys birthday party in the late afternoon and I don't anticipate anyone will be incredibly hungry after eating birthday cake.  :)

Introducing......

my new favorite toy!  I've been wanting one for a while but the King wanted to wait till we could pay cash for it.  Well, it went on sale last weekend PLUS I had a coupon PLUS there was a rebate so I convinced him that this was a great time to go for it!!!  So Happy Anniversary, Merry Christmas, Happy Mother's Day, and Happy Birthday to ME!!!!! 

This is now sitting happily on my kitchen counter.  :)

And I am just fine with this being my gift for all those holidays....it is a gift that just keeps giving...till I have to get a bigger size pants.  :)

So far this week, my new mixer and I (I think I need to name her-any suggestions?) have made chocolate chip cookies, English muffins, and the most beeyoutiful bread bowls ever.  Tonight she is helping me with the corny outside of some corn dogs.  And so far neither one of us has broken a sweat.  I LOVE her! 

The rebate is for either a glass bowl (pshaw, I don't need that!) or the food grinder attachment (ding! ding! ding! that's what I want) so in about 8 weeks, we'll be grating cheese, making bread crumbs, and who knows what else.  I, honestly, don't really know what else that attachment will do but I just found a spinach garlic dip on their website that I think MUST be tried!! 

The extra little bonus is that when I got her home, I needed make a special place of honor on the counter for her so ALL of my kitchens counters got emptied, cleaned, put back again nicely.  Win/win if you ask me!!!