Welcome to Dana's blog!

Almost ready for Thanksgiving!

God must know I'm going to be eating like a pig cuz my workouts have been 'boot camp' style!LOL BUt that's good. Laundry is done and SHOULD be dry by tomorrow. The onions and celery are ready to saute for the dressing. The sweet potatoes are ready to boil as well. We'll get the leaf in the table and move furniture as soon as Mat is done w/school. I found all the paper goods (I bought Thanksgiving stuff in bulk one yearL!OL) and have plenty and will drag the crock pots out in a bit. I need to find out how many the rest of hte family is bringing so I know what can go where.

That leaves mainly peeling 10lbs of potatoes for tomorrow. DH does the bird so that's off my hook. The rest of the stuff is mainly dump, mix heat and toss into crock pots to stay warm until ppl arrive.;)

cheeseballs, potatoes and bells

Ok, I managed to mop, workout, vacuum and shower. I attempted to try and clean the kitchen chairs, but it's useless. We'll just recover them this winter.

I also got the cheeseball made for Saturday. I ground up enuf green onions and beef to make 2 more next week. I have the cream cheese and just need to get a box of crackers. We're giving one to horseman. I even have a fall paper plate to give them to serve them on. I also have the potatoes sliced and waiting to boil for au gratin potatoes. I'm desperately trying to use all the potatoes before they go bad. They are not lasting nearly as long as they did last year. They were good until Feb, but taht doesn't appear to be the case. So we're having pork chops and potatoes for supper. I can just throw them in the oven when we get back from Joey playing bells.

I also got the rugs washed.

tired;)

At any rate, I'm dead. I got up and started the food and worked out and got us and everything I needed out the door. Our MOMS group made checkbook covers and a bunch of bday and anniversary cards since we were almost out. I made them legal size so envies will be cheap. We had 2 cricuts going so it went quickly. From there, I went to the pie place and scored big w/pies. Mat's youth is hosting a Thanksgiving meal on Tday so he can't help, but I offered to get 10 pies. Thankfully, they had sugar cream, pumpkin chess and german chocolate 2nds and I got 7 for $12.50. I'll get the others elsewhere. Then to the grocery for our Tday foods and then to Walmart for waht was left. Then to pizza hut for lunch (We got 2 personal pans, salad, and breadsticks for $3.20!) and finally to library. We got home about 3:40 and unloaded and I dusted and cleaned the bathrooms. Then we read a chapter in the Plymouth book. Supper is easy and I need to get it int he oven.

TOmorrow is cleaning floors, probalby seeing if I can clean the kitchen chair upholestry and making cheeseballs.;)

cooking, cleaning adn WOW!

Yes, I've been at it this am. I worked out and folded the dry laundry and put that away. Then I got busy w/the woolite rug stick. It really doesnt' do a half bad job. My spots are 'old' so it's taking a few applications (making me glad that I bought the big can!), but they are either gone or faded for the most part. I'm debating on trying them on the kitchen chairs. Then I vacuumed the basement (we picked it up yesterday afternoon) and vacuumed upstairs. THEN I made the sausage casseroles and my sister gave me the recipe for the apple turnover so those are in the frig and ready to bake in the morning. I also gathered up alot of other things that I need to pack in the morning. Mat's got school done (for the most part--he needs to work on a project) and they are outside playing in the barn (the wind is wicked here). I'm also bound and determined to get this dishwasher issue cleared up. I can't find anything to 'clean' so I'm just running several empty loads. Yea, not good for the electric, but I don't care at this point. SOMETHING has got to give or I'm calling the repairman.

I finally managed to get a shower in.........LOL

But the best news is that I KNEW I hadn't gotten a paycheck from my 'job' (I use this term loosely as I"m a decoy mail agent and make $50/quarter!LOL). So I emailed them. They responded today that not only had I not gotten paid for the summer quarter, but that I also had not gotten paid for spring!LOL But the best part is that I"m to get the check in the next 10 days! This should be PLENTY of money for my Cricut that I want to get on Black Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hadn't figured out how to fund it (even tho this is my Christmas!LOL) and this is how! I can buy the carryig case and a cartridge or 2 for Christmas.

What a day!

I knew we'd be jammed and we were! I got up and worked out, got the roast on and decided to go ahead and toss int he potatoes. Then I decided to live on the edge and took a package of pork gravy (the powder stuff) and added maybe 1T of onion soup mix. I mixed that w/1.5 cups water and dumped it in. I'll tell you how it worked out when I eat it!LOL I put in carrots, but they are on top and hopefully not int he gravy.;)

Then we got ready and headed out. I was VERY glad I loaded the van yesterday since it was 35 and RAINY here today! We made it to the PO, bank and the recycling. While at the recycling, when I flipped the lid open a bunch of cold water ran down my arm. That was fun. Then to the cultural center. They had Harry and Digit from Cyberchase there. They also have an exhibit and it was really neat! JOey LOVED Harry (the real Harry!)! So we were there a couple of hours and ran into other HS families that we know.

Then to lunch, which was kind of funny cuz one of the other HS families went to LJS as well. They talked about going to Quoba so when Joey asked if he could sit w/these 2 girls and I said yes, thinking that we weren't going to the same restaurant. Oops!LOL Then to Goodwill, Miejer and ALdi. I did buy the new Woolite Rug stick. I'm not one for TV ads, but our carpets are disgusting and DH keeps saying not to have them cleaned cuz we'll get new. That's been 2 years.......LOL  I was expecting it to set me back about $15. I was VERY happy to see it marked down to $10 and I had a $3 off coupon! So I went ahead and bought the big cleaner (it can be used sans the stick if I didn't like it) since it was $3. Probably the plan, but it worked. It's 'drying' as I type.

So we made it home (Dh beat us!) and I tossed the carrots in the CP, scrubbed the carpets and got the checkbook updates. ANd SIL called about the rental condo in the Ozarks. We're still looking for a family vacation (For 13) and this place has 4 bedrooms/4ba and sleeps 12! Plus in the off season it's $1200/week so it'd be $300/family for 7 days! I thought that was a decent deal anyway. Gas getting there will be another issue......LOL

Ok, I"m off to vacuum and see about supper.

Quiet.........

Yes, I've been enjoying it! I worked outa nd started laundry. The boys both slept until about 9 and they needed it! I have a TON of laundry and had to improvise in order not to use the dryer. I'm sure I'll have to dry my jeans int he morning if I plan on wearing them, but they should mostly be dry anyway.

Both boys got school done. Mat finished his reading test w/100%.  Of course, I had to ask him about 3 of his answers cuz it made no sense!LOL I THOUGHT he was answering them correctly, but I wanted to make sure. I still have to grade 2 quizzes, but that's easy.

I got Sunday School prepped while JOey did school and made my list for tomorrow. I still need to load the van w/the box for teh PO (I need to get the label on it!LOL), goodwill and recycling.

We're having pizza for supper. It sounds good and I had dough int he freezer, browned sausage in the freezer so it's very little effort on my part.

This means that I finished reading my book and will probably read another one. After I grade quizzes, we'll read about the Mayflower.......

Company!

I got up and mopped and worked out and vacuumed. I did some odds and ends and made lemon bars. Then the ins man showed up adn we didn't get much done!LOL But that's OK. I guess UPromise is still not allowing reps to sign ppl up for 529s so I"m goign to do it online tomorrow.

Then I read. Finished a book I started last night. I have 1 left in the series that I'll read tomorrow. I also plowed thru the Mayflower book. We're about 1/3 of the way thru--farther than I thought. There is a good possibility that we'll be done by Thanksgiving!

Then company came over. We had a very nice visit. She has 2 boys and the 4 of them hit it off very well. They spent time in the loft eating sunflower seeds and spitting (the seeds). I'm pretty sure it was a dream afternoon for my 2 anyway.

So I have chili going and we'll eat here in a bit. I have 15 minutes left on my phone until Monday. Sunday doesn't count cuz I almost never use it on Sunday. So I just have to make it thru Saturday night!LOL

DONE FALL CLEANING!

Whew! My list is basically complete! I went thru every stitch of clothes in the boys room and have the 'send' pile and the 'goodwill' piles ready to get out of the house. BOth will happen on Saturday. I have a small pile for my sister as well. The best part is that I'm finally past the stage where there were TONS of clothes. Apparently up thru 6s go CHEAP cuz I had TONS of them!LOL Now I"m at a slightly more managable size in each wardrobe.

So today I will read a book.

more cleaning......

fall cleaning, Fireproof, and busyness

Yes, I"m still at fall cleaning. So far, I have worked out, cleaned the ceiling fan (which requires a ladder), did the gutters on the back of hte house (requiring same ladder), cleaned the kitchen light (that hangs) and the stove top. I really need new drip pans so maybe I"ll put that on my CHristmas wish list (Yes, I go big).

Joey's also got school donea nd Mat's almost done. I called and reordered my Rx and the insurance guy called and we are good to go. Only we'd never gotten out 529 stuff. That was cuz we'd not gotten the stuff to close out the acct (we were using that money for the 529). So I called that company and they were getting ready to stop payment and reissue (at today's market value!) and I was sifting thru the shred pile on the off chance the checks were in there. I FOUND THEM! Saved ourselves some money too since they were issued in JUNE!!!!! (pre market nose dive!) So the ins guy is coming out Thursday to wrap that up. I"m sure that he'll be glad to loose us as clients eventually!LOL

So my work for today is basically done. I've got a book that i"m going to start reading the boys about the Mayflower and Pilgrims. There is no way unless I read for HOURS a day that we'll get it done by Thanksgiving!LOL

All of this after after a hugely busy weekend. Saturday was the crop. Joey was up at the crack of dawn and Dh asked Joey if he wanted to go to work w/him. Joey said yes. This was HUGE! My hold up on going to teh crop was waiting for DH to get back adn get JOey. Mat's youth service project was from 10-4 so we got stuff done and I dropped him off at 11:30 (they even fed them!) and I got to the crop 1.5 hours early! So I got 17 pages done. That's well over 50 in the last month! Then home to clean up and get supper going. I also had made peanut butter balls taht morning and made no bake cookies that night. Joey's class was studing Jacob and Esau and the different cookies where to represent the differences in them. The boys have enjoyed the leftovers!LOL

Sunday was pretty hectic as well. I loaded 4 turkeys and a chicken for my sister (one freezer is getting bare!) along w/change of clothes, Joey's kid's club stuff and all the Sunday School lesson stuff. I also talked to 2 ppl at church about Mat's youth stuff. One is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day. She knew nothing about it. ;( But I explained to the lady at the lockin that Mat would not be allowed to spend the night if there was no male chaperone. I'm sure the church is probably ready to throw me out between that and the communion stink I made. I'm not trying to be difficult, and I do want Mat there to help make the bread (they are selling as a fund raiser), but I just don't think he should be there w/o a male chaperone overnight. My sister or someone can go get him so it's not really a big deal (and I tried to emphasize that). Then to eat lunch and Dh and I finally saw Fireproof! What an AWESOME movie! I'm so glad that we were able to see it (we don't watch movies as a general rule). Then the flying dash to my sister's to grab the boys and to my mom's to get MY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!LOL I saw my cousin at the theater and wasn't able to chat. We dtiched DH and Mat and JOey and I headed onto kid's club. Did I mention that I had on my mom's old coat? The one really from the 70's. It's CUTE style. It's also cream w/teal and avacado flowerish type design!LOL You either love it or hate it. I jokingly said that I tore an old davenport apart and made it!ROTFL! At any rate, we got home atou 7:30 and DH made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper. YUMMY! He'd also done a load of laundry.......

Somehow between Sat and Sunday I read TWO books. FLuff so they go fast. But then I sat straight up in bed at 11 last night and said, "I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO BARB"S AFTER CHURCH!" DH was thoroughly impressed as usual!ROTFL! So now I get to send HER an apology email........

Mom's cancer!

More work than I thought!

I somehow blanked that I needed to make bagels today. So after my workout and getting Joey started on school and laundry, I made bagel dough. Only I only had about half of the 7 grain flour that I use so I guess it will only be half as healthy?LOL I couldn't afford to not make them so I'll just get some more flour next week.

All the laundry is hanging up to dry, Joey's done w/school, I've prepped for Sunday School and Mat's over halfway done w/school. I stumbled across the pumpkin soup recipe w/sausage and since I have all of that stuff in the freezer, it will make a very easy supper! Which is great since I still need to make chocolate chip cookies for the boys to snack on today (they are really for Sunday School, but this takes care of both issues). Mat needs to vacuum before his friend gets here and I think that will wrap up most of my work for today. I'm not sure how long it will take the laundry to dry in this weather. I hope not long since the lines are full.;)

Bus tour

We had a city bus tour today. It was pretty neat really. And if you lived in town a BARGAIN! Students ride free and you can get a pass for $1/day! But they took us thru the bus wash (in the bus!LOL) and other stuff.

So that's why we went to town!LOL I got up and worked out and got everyone semi moving. Mat lost his nerf toys for the next 2 days thanks to his self distractions. UGH! But then I called my neighbor to tell her about the Wiimote charges for $22 at Costco. She told me of something that I needed to call someone else about so I got that done. I found out that gas was going back up (to $2.19) so I pulled in and got it for $1.97. Then we cashed in a free bfast sandwich (I did not get bfast so it worked out well!LOL). After the tour, I scoured Hobby Lobby. It's just not cheap unless you have a coupon!  Then we did TONS of things. ONe of which was go to several stores trying to find 6-6.5 men's shoes! We found some boat style shoes at Target on clearance for $15 in size 7 (mens!) and they actually fit Mat pretty good. I was having cardiac arrest! But Joey wore a 12 in skates last May, 13 in October and a 1 yesterday (this is why we don't buy roller skates, altho I'd love to find me a pair on clearance or garage sale!) Also at Target, I bought myself a cute $5 Christmas Tshirt, and a nice athletic shirt ($2.48) and a cute brown plaquet shirt ($2.48). It's not as cute as the brown plaquet that it's replacing, but for that price, it will more than suffice. I promised the boys after shoes that we'd eat so we tried the Rally's .79 menu. Then to the grocery, where I dropped a bundle. But I now have the turkey, sweet potatoes and french fried onions for Thanksgiving.;) Lastly, to spend some bday money. I now own a Vera Bradley Morgan in Cafe Latte (a brown and black purse!LOL). Mat wanted to go to the book store while we were at the mall so we did that. We left at 8:45 and got home at 3:15. A long, but very productive today. Next week, we only have Mat's youth on Monday night and an event at the cultural center on Saturday. So we'll be home Tues-Friday ALL DAY!

so much fodder.........so little time.......

Ok, LONG DAY! But I knew that waking up--which was way earlier than I should have, but I was wondering if the election took a major swing by any change. Oh well. I got up and worked out. Both boys were up early, too. So they emptied the dishwasher and ate bfast and got ready and off to town we went. I dropped off the recycling and we went to MOMS. It went very well. I wound up buying a ton of raffle tix since I didn't sell many and won 3 of the prizes! They were the smaller ones, but ones that I'll use!

Then off to skating. I got a great workout there! We also had a parent meeting so I didnt' get my full hour of skating in, but that's OK. We got quite a bit accomplished and planned out a nice Christmas party. Now to remember ot make pumpkin soup and sugar cookies for that day............LOL I called Pizza Hut from the rink and ordered the boys personal pans, ran and got those and they ate while I did the banking at 2 banks and up to library. That was at least slow paced!LOL From there to Aldi to grab a couple of things and then to the chickenlady to pick up 6 TWENTY FIVE POUND TURKEYS and 3 dozen eggs and 6 bars of soap!LOL Clove and peppermint (not together!LOL)--YUMMY! The peppermint is going to be AWESOME!

Then home. Which sounds easy, but I took two tubs for the turkeys so I had 75 lbs of turkey to get out of the van, up the steps to the back door, down the steps to the basement. I told Joey to guard the van to keep the cats out. I was breathing heavy by the time I got to the freezer w/the 2nd load. But those fit int he freezer and my sister's ILs want them for Thanksgiving so I won't have them long.;) I just sat down from that and my sister called to tell me that the surgeon was pretty adamant about mom having the needle biopsy guided by cat scan. Meanwhile mom beeps in to tell me the same thing!LOL But that will be Friday. I may need to watch my neice.  So Mat will vacuum in a few minutes and I"ll do some last minute picking up and we'll sit down to a fabulous (smelling at least!LOL) Italian roast and au gratin potatoes and wait for the ins man to show up at 7. Then I"m sure I"ll fall into bed.

I went out to put the van in the garage and opened the door and a cat nearly sprung on me! I about had cardiac arrest! So much for Joey guarding against cats......LOL

They just said that there is some chemical in red wine to reverse (fight??) aging. Too bad you need to drink 1000 bottles a day.;)

I VOTED!

In record time too! I'd heard of waits up to 45min at *my* polling place, but I walked right in and out in 6 minutes! And that's with the lady explaining to the boys how to use the electronic voting maching!

Then I dropped $60 at the bulk food store.........LOL

fall cleaning!

WAHOO! I started yesterday w/some inside stuff and today I did about half the windows! The ones I can reach sans a ladder!LOL But they are the ones that everyone will see at Thanksgiving so it works out well!ROTFL! I also swept down the front porch. We never use it and therefore it almost never gets cleaned.

I also worked out and I'm getting ready to hop in the shower! Joey's done w/school and Mat's on his way. Then we'll go to the bulk food store, post office and VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to make au gratin potatoes for supper for tomorrow night and sloppy joes for tonight. So I'm pretty much on schedule! Next week we have virutally NO WHERE to go! So I'll be washing down cabinets/wood one day and doing more picking up another. I'm going to get a GoodWill pile together and haul that in about the end of the next week,too.

Monday.....

I had a spurt of energy!LOL I worked out and got started on laundry (almost all of which is dry now!) and Joey whipped thru school (he wrote prose about Grandpa's coffee cup!LOL) and Mat got done before lunch. We they ate and we trimmed the bushes, threw out the carved pumpkins (I dind't get a pic--SUPER BAD MOM MOMENT!), cleaned that up and vacuumed. I also got a couple of 'hot spots'. Plus I needed to weed thru Mat's kid's club bag. He's not in it anymore and I told them I'd tear off the patches and return the sashes, pins, patches, etc. Turns out he had TWO sashes--one from another girl in there!LOL I called her mom and they had replaced (which I figured), so that stuff is all ready to go. Per DH's request, I also called the country treasurer back home and made sure that there are no taxes due (govt buracy at it's finest.;) ). 

I've decided that tomorrow, we'll wash the windows at least on the porch--hopefully the one by the kitchen sink (outside) and the door. That will wrap those chores up before Thanksgiving. The weather is SOOOOOOOOO nice here that it's a shame to waste it!

homeschool update

homemade pumpkin latte/coffee and pumpkin rolls (not what you are thinking!LOL)

Pumpkin Spice Coffee/Latte

Ingredients

3 tablespoons canned pumpkin
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla syrup or creamer
3 ounces espresso or a half cup of strong coffee (I made coffee by using 2 tablespoons of grounds per 1 cup of coffee)
2 teaspoons sugar but this depends on preference
pumpkin pie spice
whipped cream
Directions


Heat milk and pumpkin puree in a small saucepan on the stove. Put on medium heat.
Add vanilla and a dash of pumpkin pie spice.
Once steaming and a little frothy, pour into a mug and add espresso or strong coffee.
Add sugar to taste.
Top with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice.

I also made sweet dough and instead of the normal butter/cinnamon filling (like a normal cinnamon roll), I used pumpkin (w/pie spice). It smells HEAVENLY! Hopefully they taste as good! I just mixed up a can of pumpkin (it needed used!LOL) w/pie spices and used 1/3c-1/2c (a thin layer) for the rolls. The rest is in the frig to make the 1st recipe!

Fall fun pics

This was basically a giant trampoline--*I* had a ton of fun on it!

My road and money tree: