8-24-10

9:50AM

Breakfast this morning was
doughnut holes. Cut a can of
biscuits up in quarters, then
fried in a pan of oil, removed
to a bowl with powdered sugar
and coated. You could also coat
with a mixture of cinnamon
& sugar.



Hint & Tip

Don't have any powdered (confectioner's)
sugar? Make your own!

* 1 cup regular table sugar
* 2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Directions:

Pour sugar and cornstarch in to food processor, coffee grinder or blender. Turn on high until mixture is a fine powder.

_______________________________

11:20AM

Got a load of laundry hung
and getting ready to wash another.

Went through and cut out some coupons
and got those filed in my coupon binder.
Still have many more to do.

Today's chores include washing &
hanging laundry to dry and getting
most of it put away.
I also need to clean the kitchen.

I'm tired and achy today so am not
moving too fast.

I need to head down to the basement
and find the kids lunch bags and
get those ready to go tomorrow.

I found a bunch of Capri Sun drink
pouches in the pantry so I'm good
with drinks for their lunches.
Need to get them in the freezer today.

Planning a meal list for the next couple
of days. Mom's already asking
about going to the store with her
this week once the kids start back
to school. I haven't really thought
about going this week or getting
a grocery list together. Maybe
I'll work on one for next week.

-Spaghetti
-Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice
-Sweet Italian Pizza Bread
-Ham & Potato Soup
-Creamy Chicken & Noodles
-Chicken Tacos

_______________________________

12:10PM



To make room in my freezers
I took out all the bread heels
I've been saving for the past
couple of months. I got them
all cut up into cubes/pieces.
There's a little bit of everything
in there from wheat to white
to buns.

Next will go out and remove
some basil from the line
and chop some up.

Then will add a little oil
and basil in a bowl with
some garlic salt and stir
the bread crumbs around in the
mixture. Then will spread
out in thin layers on a cookie
sheet and bake them til crisp.
Fill up zip bags full of bread
crumbs/croutons and put back
into freezer.
Use in casseroles for toppings,
meatloaves, meatballs, salmon patties,
salads, stuffing or to bread meat with.

________________________


1:00PM

Just got word from Downy today.
They are wanting to know if we
were available the week of September
20th to go to Cincinnati.

They sent me a form in my email
that they want me to fill out
and fax back to them with signatures
and all that.

Now I'm sitting here wondering how
I am going to do that. I don't
have a working printer to even
print this form out and get it back
to them asap. AhhhhH!!

_____________________________

1:50PM

Got some clothes hung up
in Christopher's room
and organized others into
piles as to which rooms they
go into.
At the moment I am going to chill.
Body hurts and going to
go watch tv or something.

______________________________

2:30-3:00PM

So much for my chill time.
I was trying to watch my
Malcom in the Middle on tv
when the truck driver neighbor came over.
He asked me if I knew anyone that
could watch his kids when
they got off the bus for a
couple hours.
I knew what he was hinting around
at, for me to do it.
Why would he put it that way
knowing I would not know due to
being a stay at home mom/housewife!

I was suggesting church daycare,
after school programs and title 20
daycare. I don't think that's the
answer he wanted, lol. I spent
my Summer of THREE MONTHS watching
kids including ones that liked
to play at our house and in our yard.
I am ready for a break!! And by the
way, this is the same guy that NEVER
paid me to watch his THREE kids one day.
Takes a lot of nerve if ya ask me.

________________________

3:15PM

Decided to work on putting things
away in my kitchen and start baking
all those croutons I cut up earlier.
Sure makes the whole house smell good.
I cheated and instead of cutting up
the herbs outside, I used a Tuscan
grinder blend of herbs in a bottle.

Well gotta go and check on my croutons.
It doesn't take them long to dry out
in the oven and they need turned.
Plus I need to pop a few ibuprofen
for my aches and pains.

Got 2 gallon sized zip bags full.






_________________________________

5:55PM

As if I ain't got enough going on.
Just got an invitation from a friend
of ours we buy Trans AM parts from
to attend a car show at their church.

River Car Rally
River Church
2419 US rt 42 N
Delaware OH 43015
September 12, 2010
registration at 9:00 am
cost is NOTHING
Free food
Free live music
Lots of fun
Awards to the top 20 and door prizes for the first 50.
Donations accepted and all goes to the Orphans!



______________________________

6:45PM

Tony's working late with mandatory
overtime.

I just chopped up all my basil,
parsley & Stevia.



Now working on supper.
Think I'll call it:

Cheap Chicken Cheddar Parmigiana

Boil spaghetti, drain. Add a little
butter. Serve with spaghetti sauce
on top. Top with cheddar cheese
and chicken strips.

8-23-10

7:50AM

Is it Monday already?
Where did the weekend go?
It flew by so fast!
At least we won't have the
pager again for a couple weeks.
It gets so stressful around here
when Tony has that!

--------------------------

I found this site I thought
would be useful. I'm all about
homemade remedies and cleaners
from everyday items I have
around the house.

It's called
WACKY USES FOR BRAND NAME PRODUCTS

Here's a few hints and tips
from his website.

BLEACH

Make a clothespin holder. Cut a hole in the side of an empty, clean Clorox bleach jug opposite the handle, and punch a small holes in the bottom for drainage. Hang your new clothespin holder on the clothesline.

FABRIC SOFTENER

Remove old wallpaper. Mix one capful of Downy Fabric Softener with one quart of hot water in a plastic bucket, sponge the wallpaper, wait twenty minutes, and peel off the paper.

OVEN CLEANER

Clean badly stained Pyrex or Corningware dishes. Wearing rubber gloves, spray the dishes with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, place inside a garbage bag, close it securely with a twist tie, and let stand overnight. Open the bag outdoors, keeping your face away from the fumes. Rinse the dishes with a garden hose, then wash thoroughly.

Clean oil and grease stains on concrete driveways. Spray one or two applications of Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, let sit for a few minutes, then rinse with the highest pressure from the nozzle of a garden hose.

LISTERINE MOUTH WASH

Cure Acne. Use a cotton ball to dab Listerine on blemishes.

Fertilize a lawn. Jerry Baker, author of The Impatient Gardener, suggests mixing one cup Listerine, one cup Epsom salts, one cup liquid soap, and one cup ammonia in a one-quart jar, filling the rest of the jar with beer. Spray this on up to 2,500 square feet of lawn with a hose-attached sprayer in May and again in late June.

___________________________________

9:00-10:00AM

Carpet cleaned the hallway,
living room and dining room.

10:00-11:00AM

Mom & Kendra stopped by.
Took mom down to basement
to see my pantry and how
I am arranging it.
I told her before she shopped
at the store to shop my basement
first, lol. Today she got
2 shampoos, 2 cereals and
a toothpaste.

11:00-12:00PM

Finished cleaning the carpet
in the dining room and cleaned
my new rug under the dining
table. Taking a brief break
then will clean the rug
in Christopher's room.

___________________________________

12:00-1:00

Got Christopher's carpet
cleaned in his room.
Mom brought over some Arby's
for our lunch.

We had Arby's French Dip Sub w/ Au Jus.

If ever you make home made sandwiches
and wanted to make your own
easy au jus dipping sauce-

for every cup of water you put in
one beef bullion cube
(or one tsp. of granules) and boil.

----------------

Here's another tip.
If ever you need an egg when
baking and realize you don't have
any you can use one of these
substitutions instead...

2 tbsp cornstarch = 1 egg

1 banana = 1 egg in cakes

_____________________________

1:00-2:30PM

Got Jonathan's room weeded out,
vacuumed and then cleaned
the carpet. Now I have some
things to take down to the
basement from his room.

I would love to find a small desk
for his room. Got my fingers
crossed to find one at UV
between now and the end of
the month.

------------------------

2:30-4:30PM

Got Jonathan's room done.
Made about 4-6 trips
to the basement to take
things down there.

Got a load of laundry to hang
on the line and another load
started. I'm gonna wait
til later on to hang them
as I have a yard full of kids.
This picture below is a typical
day around here. And people wonder
why I am so ready for them all
to go back to school .
This is the hang out place
for all the neighborhood kids.
Some days there can be upwards
of 15 or so kids here.


4:45PM

Getting ready to head to the kids
school to find out their
classrooms and teachers :0)

Then we are taking the kids
to Sharon Woods and walk one
of the nature trails.

See I told y'all it's never
ending around here.
Now we're talking about
possibly going to Dayton to
the Trans Am Nationals
this coming weekend.

______________________

5:00-8:45PM

Went to the kid's school.
They each have the same teacher
and same classroom as last year.
The only difference is they
have upped a grade. That's weird.

Went to Sharon Woods and walked
the mile trail. Seemed more like
a couple miles when you're wore
out! Didn't see any deer but
as we were walking along we heard
a crash on the trail behind us.
A large branch came down and
scared me. Never had that
happen before!





On the way home I made sure
to stop and get this picture
for y'all because I thought
it was funny!




Stopped in Kroger on the way
home so I could get some pop
and other items.

Got home and took groceries in.
Had Tony start supper while
I hung laundry on line.
Having a late supper due to
all the runnin.
I am whipped so will be chillin
the rest of the evening!!

Oh yeah I forgot to add these to
the pictures of my finds from
this past weekend. I really needed
to replace a couple of my skillets
because food is sticking to them.

8-22-10

12:00PM

Got the whole back end of the
truck loaded up with crap
to haul outta here.

Been working on hauling stuff
from the boys rooms to the basement.

Still gotta haul all this food
we found down to the pantry
in the basement.

Then I still have laundry to
wash, hang on the line and
put away.

My legs and left hip
still hurts so am doing
it in little spurts.

__________________________________

12:55PM

Well I lied. I tidied up the basement
some but didn't go through stuff.
Just arranged things and then worked
on my pantry area. I still have
a bookshelf in my living room
to haul to the basement also.
If I ain't crippled by the time
this is all said and done it
will be a miracle, lol.

Tony's doing his fair share around
here also. He got the kitchen cleaned
up and is working on getting the
Explorer cleaned out so we
can sell it.
So if anyone is
interested we want $1,000 for
it. It is a 96 4x4 Explorer XLT.
It runs and drives but will possibly
need a speed sensor in it as the
speedometer needle bounces
and it has a hard time guessing
when to shift gears. It's an
automatic. We've owned it about
5-6 years and have done most
of the work on it ourselves.
It has been one of my favorite
vehicles I have ever owned.
Has never put me on my feet
and does excellent in snow.
I have never got stuck even
in blizzard conditions on
unplowed streets!

I'm just wanting to get a newer
Explorer.

I still have sooo much more stuff
to do. Like we want to get rid
of the chair in the living room
and bring another one out of
Jonathan's bedroom to replace it.
It's starting to get tears and holes
in it. I'm glad I don't pay for some
things because they don't make things
like they used to. So why pay the money
for things when they don't last
very long.

1:20PM

Well the pager went off so
going to Tony's work
to do a call and unload the
truck.

1:20-5:50PM

Been running around like a chicken
with its head cut off!! I don't even
have time to breath let alone
talk and gab with someone.

While at Tony's work mom calls
saying my brother is over there
fixing lights, a tv and putting
up shutters. News to me.
She never mentioned any of that
earlier this morning when she called
to say he was coming over.

Anyway she is all like wound up
because my brother brought
over a dead drill and needed my step-
dad's drill which is at our house.
Was told I could keep it here
so we can use it to complete our
fence and that's why I had it.

We were not home due to being on
call which I have told mom for
the past week about.
So she's getting ancy wanting that
drill. So we finally get done at his
work and raced home to get the
drill for them. I didn't get out
of the truck but waved to my brother
who was out on the deck. I don't
have time to stop and gab!!
Mom waves for me to get out and
when I said we had to go that I had
tons to do and it was already 3:30PM,
I got the evil eye. I'm trying to get my
chores done along side of
Tony working. I can't hardly
walk through my house at the moment
with crap laying everywhere,
literally!! This was from cleaning
out Christopher's room.
I've got groceries, we found, all over
the kitchen floor, dishes that Tony
washed sitting on the counters
waiting for me to put them all
away. I like to put them away
or I'll never find them, lol.
I've got laundry piled up and Tony
needs work clothes by tomorrow morning.
I've got furniture to throw out,
furniture to move from one room
to another, find time to eat today,
an air mattress to deflate and fold
up and put away, MANY baskets
of clothes to hang up and put away
from last week because I couldn't
get to closets to hang anything-
that was the reason for wanting
to clean the kids rooms.
I want them all organized before
the start of school. I still have
3 hair cuts to give, we all need
showers, an Explorer to clean up
and clean out. Do y'all want me
to go on?????

Tony got called out again
so we hurried up and threw
the living room chair in the
truck to get rid of while
at his work. Mom calls again
while on the way to his work
wanting to know if we have
a saw zaw. I'm sure it's something
else David needed to work at their
house. BUT Tony has call and
we have to leave when the pager goes
off and I can't help it!! I and the kids
go along because he may need my help
with doing things or lifting
heavy appliances and such due
to no other maintenance men being
there on weekends.

I am so wound up at the moment
trying to get things done
I could just SCREAM!!!

I gotta go and hang 2 loads of
laundry and start another load.

It's 6:20PM and I'm running out of
time to complete everything that
needs done today.

_______________________________

9:00PM

Got a chair moved from Jonathan's
room into the living room.
Of course I had to run the sweeper
first to pick up all the crumbs
that was under the old chair
we moved out.

Then with Tony's help we moved
the dining room table and I moved
my circle rug to the kitchen
and put down the rug I found
the other day in it's place.

Tomorrow I will work on getting
Jonathan's room weeded out.
It shouldn't be half as bad
as Christopher's room was.

Went out and swept the driveway
and street from where kids like
to do burnouts with their bicycles
in the gravel parking area flipping
rocks and dirt everywhere.

Now I am getting ready at 9:05
to give haircuts and have the
kids get showers before bed.

10:15PM

Got only 2 haircuts done.
Tony just got paged out.
I then vacuumed the kitchen floor,
hallway and bathroom.
I guess I am afraid if I stop
moving around my body is going
to get stiff and start hurting.
I think I am finally done for the
evening! WHEW! I pretty much
got most everything done today
that I set out to do. Still
have more laundry to do tomorrow.
And there is still some that will
be left out on the line tonight.
When it's not as warm out it takes
longer to dry.
Hey maybe I'll go and read the
Sunday Dispatch which I have yet
to touch today! I still have a bunch
of coupons I want to get cut out
this week and put into my binder.

Really hoping for a clean house
by the time the kids go back
to school! Can it be done?

8-21-10

8:30AM

I was really hoping to sleep in
this morning but that didn't work out.
Our neighbor loves to mow grass
around 8AM on Saturday mornings
and it sound like that mower
is coming through our bedroom!

Then the phone rings.
For 2 year now this 1-800 number
bill collector, for someone
else, calls constantly! It is
a computer recording that says
this persons name they are looking
for which is NOT US! It does not
give an option on the recording
to let them know this is the wrong
number and it does not give
out a business number to stop
this nonsense. So for 2 years +
now I have had to deal with
this number calling here on a daily
basis. I just let it ring
and don't answer.

-----------------------------

9:25AM

Oh gosh, the thought of unloading
the truck today makes me tired.
And I've got so much housework to
do. Kids back to school next Wednesday
should mean less housework right?

Here's one item the kids found
and brought in this morning.
It's mini speakers in the shape
of a soccer ball. They've already
got it hooked up to their MP3
player blaring it! AHHH
It's still too early for me.



______________________________________

10:15AM

Got all the bedding items out of the
truck. This is all for Kendra.

There is a total of 5 comforters.

One set had what I believe is 2
matching reversible full comforters.
It also has a matching sham,
fitted sheet, top sheet,
2 matching decorative pillows
and a third pillow that might match
that was with the set.

I found bedding bags with zippers
to put all them in. Some go
with the bedding sets and some not.









Misc food items.

Also some earrings/jewelry
Megan can have.






And here are two stacking bowls
I found for Tommy with lids.



12:00PM

Got the air mattress blown up
to see if it held air.
So far so good!



12:40PM

Garden Goodies.
These are veggies & herbs
I pulled from the garden today.
Tomatoes, Hungarian & Banana Peppers,
Basil, Parsley & Stevia.








Who says clotheslines are just for
hanging clothes? I took my herbs
and hung them upside down on the line
to dry.




1:30-4:00PM

Took a load of stuff including wood
and weeds from the backyard to Tony's
work to dump. He got a couple pages
while there. I did find a pole
fan, a pizza bag like deliver drivers
use and a bag of girlie things.
Don't know what it is I haven't
been through it yet. Then we headed to UV
which seemed deserted. Nothing was happening.
Will keep checking back between now and
the end of the month.
Jonathan found a cute lion stuffed
animal that when you press it's paw
it shakes and purrs.
He is regularly $25 from Hallmark
if purchased by himself.




From there we went to Kroger to pick
up a few things. I stocked up on some
Rediserve chicken while it was on sale
for $1.00 each, about 1/2 price.
To save me time, I plan to cut up the
breaded chicken strips
and use in meals like Chicken Helper,
LaChoy Creations and Macaroni Grill.
Need to start using those box
mixes out of the pantry.



___________________________________

5:00-6:00PM

Ate supper then went through
a few more things outside that
we found yesterday along with
the items from today.

Kendra-

-warm air mist vaporizer
-vacuum
-tennis shoes


















________________________

6:10PM

Gonna go lay down and try out
the air mattress. Just took
some ibuprofen. My legs are hurting
really bad from yesterday.

________________________

7:00-8:00PM

Ibuprofen helped the pain
in my legs a lot.

I got up and started in on
Christopher's room.
I'm getting really tired of
cleaning kids rooms so am
gonna do something different
this school year. They are gonna
have their bed, closet with clothes
& shoes, tv & stand and maybe
a desk or table with chair
and their computer, NOTHING ELSE!
All toys and everything else
are being packed up
in totes and heading to basement.
What do I have to pick up if I keep
it this basic...nothing but maybe
dirty clothes. So by doing this
it makes it easier on myself with
housecleaning.

The basement will not
get done this year but has a heck of
a dent put in it!! I'm wore out
at the moment from doing it.
So who knows when I will get back to it.
I will put up a shelf for their
school supplies down there and
have my pantry down there.

I feel like when it comes to cleaning
house I take 1 step forward and
10 steps back. So by clearing all
the crap out or to storage, nothing
can be gotten out to make a mess!

Ok I need to get back to Christopher's
room before his bedtime
and get stuff hauled outta there like
trash and totes of toys.
I started going back to 9:00
bedtime last week to get
them on schedule for school.

Not sure what we are doing tomorrow.
I know hair cuts are in store for
all the boys.

____________________________

11:00PM

I'm not a drinker but tonight
decided to have that Mike's Hard
Lemonade we found the other day.
I got a pretty good buzz off just
one! But I'm sure it's because
I don't drink but once in a blue moon.

Well I am heading off to bed
because I have a severe pain
in my hip area. Feels like two
bones rubbing against one another.