First Fail.....

Ok so the apple pie over night oatmeal was very yummy!  I do think that it could use some vanilla, however my boys did not like it.  As in enough that one threatened to throw up....yep and thanks.  He did not though.  The other 2 it was like pulling teeth to get them to eat it.  The 3 year old and I ate it for breakfast and lunch....and I'll eat it tomorrow morning too.

In the morning I am making baked oatmeal we'll see.  Before the end of the weekend I will add pancake cupcakes (pancakes made in cupcake tins) and some breakfast burritos that one of my sons loves!

I did get the coat closet cleaned out today and the rest of the Christmas decorations put in the back.  It is a closet under the stairs so it is pretty deep.  I also put in the Pack and play and portable swing...the only baby gear I still have, though there is part of me that wants to purge that too.

Tomorrow is one of the last responsibilities for Call Committee at church (looking for a new pastor) and then laundry.  Oh the exciting things that are my weekends!  I just am really looking forward to spending some time with the kids and no birthday parties (4 already this month) even if it involves work on third grade science reports.....wow seriously my weekend sound AMAZING!!

Have a great MLK weekend...

Baking soda and vinegar

I started the day with pizza cinnamon rolls...big hit and they will come back for breakfast soon.  

After packing 4 lunches and dropping 3 boys at 2 schools I was home to start trying some cleaning pins.  I also created a new board that includes the things that I have tried.  So feel free to check there, again I will someday figure out how to link what I am working on....not today.  

I started with the dishwasher, unload add a cupful of vinegar in a Pyrex measuring cup in the top rack....power scrub and walk away.  Next I made a mistake (logistically) in starting with the windows in the ovens I made a paste of baking soda and water and put them in the windows, which meant the doors were open (mistake) they had to sit for 15 minutes...onto the microwave another pyrex measuring cup this one with one cup of vinegar and a cup of hot water turn it on for 10 minutes.  While the paste is working on the windows and the microwave is steaming I cover the cooktop with baking soda and then wash clothes that have been soaked in hot soapy water....sit for 15 minutes.  At this point the windows are almost done and so is the microwave....I scrub the first window and realize that it will take more....so I restart.  This was the true mistake, now I can't reach the microwave as well as I should.  But trust me the microwave cleaning was amazing!!  

I have pictures but my memory card and computer are not cooperating today....I'll post and some are befores!

All I had to do was wipe out the microwave, no elbow grease or anything just an easy wipe....except that I was moving around the oven doors still open (I have a double oven in a free standing model)

Once the microwave was wiped out I moved onto the cook top.  I used the wash clothes to scrub the paste off the top and it worked great!  All but one small part of one ring that has been burned on for like 5 years came off, and I have one more thing to try before I am going to move to a razor blade.  (For the cook top not any part of me!)

Then back to the windows, and full disclosure here I have never cleaned my ovens....I know shocking, but the true truth is I have never lived one place with the same oven for this long so I never cleaned them.  So this is kind of a big challenge.  I scrubbed the second round of paste and more gunk came off...but not nearly all of it.  So tomorrow I have a second paste to try....we'll see.  It is really nice to be cleaning things and not worried about the fumes or that Gretchen is right next to me.  Though the vinegar did give me a slight head ache when I had it going so many places!

The dishwasher was done so next I took a cup of baking soda and spread it around the bottom and back to power wash (which is my hottest cycle) It was great!!  I don't think that it even got this clean when I used the dishwasher cleaner...which is way more expensive anyway!!

So that is what I cleaned today...I will concur the ovens and I know that the washer needs done too.  On to the food for the day...

I already told you about breakfast.  Dinner we had what is called "hamburger mess" kind of a homemade hamburger helper I guess.  It did make enough for 2 9x18 pans so we will be eating it again the beginning of the week.  It was hamburger with onion, garlic, s&p, chili powder and a bit of Tabasco with crushed tomatoes and macaroni all mixed up then baked for 45 minutes and then cheese on the top for a few more minutes.  Everyone seemed to like it, next time I might add some cheese to the meat as well.  

Now for the morning....I need bananas to make the baked oatmeal, and to mix up pancake batter for the individual pancake cupcakes, plus I did not want to deal with the breakfast burritos tonight....so since I jumped into this with both feet and have no plan B other then may be toast there is apple pie oatmeal in the crockpot.  We'll see on this one.  I seriously doubt the kids will like it, and I am not even sure that it will turn out as once I had it in the crock pot I read that you should stir it every hour.....come on now it is a breakfast food that takes 6-7 hours in a crock pot and you are to stir it every hour!!  Come on now...so it may be an epic fail!

And now it is Project Runway night so enjoy reading of my adventures of the day...hopefully pictures are coming.  I do have a new camera but this was a computer crabbiness.  We'll try again.

Update

Pizza cinnamon rolls were a hit.....

On to bigger and better for the day!

So tonight is sort of a cheat.  I made pizza cinnamon rolls for the kids for breakfast in the morning.  Making them was so fast and easy that if the kids like them (that will be the judge) then I am sure I will be making them often.  Just some pizza crust, sauce and toppings rolled up like cinnamon rolls.  In the morning I will slice and bake.  Fingers crossed....I'll let you all know.

Tomorrow I am trying a dinner, though I am not sure which one so I can not give you a preview.  I also think that it will be a heavy duty cleaning day.  As in the dishwasher, microwave oven and stove top....unless I run out of vinegar or baking soda.  I may even get brave and photo before and after.....that is almost as scary as posting weight or measures of me!  Yikes!

I spent too much time today drinking cinnamon tea and snuggling under a quilt in progress (soon the top will be done and then I'll post new pictures) with my 3 year old watching Johnny and the Sprites.  All in all a pretty good day....even if I really want to spend the next 4 hours cleaning my downstairs while everyone else sleeps upstairs.  I enjoy these 4 hours (a discovery I made over Christmas break) however then the 6 am hour (and a few more after that) kind of stink.  So not a great idea. So all of you that visited today...come back tomorrow and I will have some pictures to share along with some more fun.

Oh and I have a pirate eye patch to make for a pirate princess this weekend, so that will come as well.

New Adventures in Pinning!

So here is the new adventure.....TA-DAH, every day I am going to try something new that I have pinned on Pinterest on one of my boards.  I will learn better how to link what I am trying, Pinterest and this blog, but not tonight.

This is a Pinterest project, not from today.  These took almost 3 days to make (probably not a great money maker for Etsy either) They were a gift for my niece Keirra.

Todays adventures were Taco Seasoning (instead of the stuff from the pouch) pinned on my Dinner board.  It was pretty good, though I am pretty sure I will need to tweak that amount of cumin.  This one used chili powder, onion powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika and sea salt.  

The other thing we tried tonight (we being me and my 3 year old) we made yummy for milk (or creamer for coffee if you are not 3) this one is on my breakfast board.  I really want to find a good replacement for regular creamer.  Something about partially hydrogenated oil in creamer makes me kind of sad. Plus I really like it in either black, chai or cinnamon tea.  Anyway this is sweetened condensed milk, regular milk (we have skim in our house) and vanilla.  The 3 year old liked it in her milk, (like a splash in a cup of milk as a treat) we'll see how the SU likes it (thanks RA for sharing Spousal Unit instead of Hubs)  

Tomorrow will be pizza rolls, like cinnamon rolls.  May be, just may be I'll even add some pictures.  Yes that is in the plan.  Mostly this will be random thoughts on the recipes I try and the projects I continue to play in.  Still working on the hexagon quilt for my new niece, the top is nearly together...pictures to come.soon.I.hope...

Enjoy the new adventure....come see the success, or failure tomorrow!

Making a List

This is the time of year that I make lists like a crazy person!  Lists of what I have bought, lists of things I need to buy, list of who gets holiday cards, project lists, cookie lists, menu lists......I could be Santa!!

The project list needs to be organized because it needs to also be in priority order of who I see and when.  Good thing I have been told I may see my nieces on Christmas Eve....other wise the project for one of them might not have been done by then!  

It is raining and I am baking, not a bad gig for a December afternoon.  Now if I just had Mrs. Weasely (sorry to offend those anti-Harry Potter readers) to get my house cleaner.  I'd say tomorrow, but I have a doctor's appointment mid day so that is not very likely!  

Once I am organized I will post the lists of the projects....this week I did get the Cub Scout awards put on their shirts, and the supplies for all of the holiday projects so checking a few things off the lists.....now if I can just find some paper to print the holiday letter on I will be somewhere!

For now it is more cookies and unloading the dishwasher to run a cleaner load through oh the excitement of my Tuesday afternoon!

Stacking up....

The projects are stacking up!  Quilts to quilt, tops to piece, projects to organize, felt to cut, jeans to patch, holiday letter to write, holiday cards to address, tree to put up, lights to be bought, ornaments to hang, and to make......

I am pretty sure I could keep going....yep teacher's gifts (dinners) to make, cookies and more cookies.....

Somewhere in all of this crazy I need to remember first that the season is all about family being together....it is fun to have kids to enjoy it with....there are times when I think that my husband and I get more excited then the kids.  

For now it is to work on cutting and folding for a book report project and working on one more quilt top for the afternoon.  ALong with the list making and lift making to keep things organized and me sane, slightly neurotic but mostly sane.

And yes, I think I am back.......