Well this day didn't go as planned....

Today was a promising day, our first Saturday not having to go to a soccer game or football game to cheer, we were just going to stay at home and do some laundry and organize a little. It was going to be such a great day.

So I went to the deep freezer to pull out a pork loin to throw in the crockpot, and realized that said pork loin wasn't completely frozen, and it's been in the freezer for weeks. OH NO! The freezer isn't freezing! 

So all of my plans for just organizing closets, turned into moving tons of food from the deep freezer to the other freezer, a cooler, and the kitchen sink. Then cleaning up the mess as the deep freezer defrosted (it's an upright, so it makes a mess. I'm sure there's a way to do it with out making a mess, I just don't know what it is yet) But the good news is that the freezer is working again, I've moved all the food back to where it goes, and I've straitened the house back up. Isn't it amazing how one thing being thrown off in your house effects everything else, and throws it off too?

While I had all the food out of the freezer, I decided to move it over, and rearrange the laundry room all together. I guess it's more of a "mudroom," I've never really known what to call that room out there. There's the freezer, the dogs' crate they sleep in, and the litter box (ew). I then decided it's time to start a new project: a small remodel of the laundry room area. It's just a wreck out there, no one has ever bothered doing anything with it, and I just can't stand it any longer, since I spend so much time out there. For Christ sakes, there's freaking green astro turf for the flooring! It's got to go.... SOON!

There are cabinets in the laundry room, and they're going to stay, they just need a good coat of paint to cover up the yellow (I've got to get some pictures so you can see the green astro turf and yellow cabinets), and we've got to replace the subfloor, for several different reasons, and then some new flooring. I've been pinning away ideas on Pinterest tonight.

I really think this is a project that we could tackle ourselves, but when I brought it up to Joey, he told me to call and hire someone. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that I'm trying to plan home improvement projects in the middle of deer season and he's worried it will interfere ;)

So coming up next, to show you some of my ideas for the space, and some pictures of the actual room.

(Do you see how this went from a freezer not working to it leading me to decide to remodel the room? Yeh. That's how my mind works.)

Cleaning 101

Source: homedesignpins.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I found this on Pinterest the other day (who'd imagine that? finding amazing things on Pinterest -- never!) and I've been using this schedule to keep my home clean, and I've got to say, it's working for me. It also helps that the kids' busy schedules have slowed down too, so I'm able to get more done. 

The every morning and every night stuff I've always done, so that's nothing different. 

I do my laundry at night, I don't know why, but it's how I do it. It's taken several years to get a good routine going for my family for our laundry, especially with a family of 5. I used to always have clean clothes piled on the couch or piled up in clothes baskets, but I've finally put a stop to all of that -- JUST STOP DOING IT! ;) Simple, right? It is! Just don't pile the clothes up on the couch or baskets. Ever. 

I never start laundry unless I can finish it, completely -- wash, dried, folded, and put away. This is why I do my laundry at night, because during the day I'm in and out, so I have a harder time having the time to do the laundry from start to finish. I also bought each of the kids their own little clothes basket. So I put a load in the washing machine, put it in the drier as soon as it finishes, and after the load is dry, I stand in the laundry room and fold the clothes as I pull them out of the drier. I separate each kids' clothes to their baskets, and I put mine and Joey's clothes on top of the drier. I usually wait until the kids' baskets are full before I take the baskets to their rooms, because... well I'm lazy ;) 

With our family of 5, I usually have to do two loads of clothes a night. How about you??

Slowing down

Things have slowed down a good bit around around, thank goodness. Blythe Anne was on a cheer squad, and Jonah was playing soccer, so that took up our Saturdays for the past two months or so. And it took up our Mondays and Thursdays after school with practice. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy that's all over and we can slow down.

Waiting for Bubba to play soccer :)

This was Jonah's first year playing soccer, andI do believe he'll want to play again next year too.

(Some how I don't have any pictures of Blythe Anne cheering. I really don't know how this happened)

So now maybe I'll have time to do some things around this house!!

Pinterest Recipes

Lately, I've been getting all of my recipe ideas from Pinterest. I really do not know what I did before Pinterest. And for the most part, we've loved everything new I've tried (except Blythe. She doesn't like anything. But, that's a topic for a different day.) Today I want to share a few of the recipes that I've cooked lately, and our opinions of them.

Source: menumusings.blogspot.com via Jenna on Pinterest

This was probably one of Peyton's favorites over the past few weeks for one simple ingredient -- meatballs. This kid could eat  meatballs every day, and be as happy as a clam. It was fairly easy I thought, took about an hour from start to finish, including clean up. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of I used extra meatballs (see above ;))

Source: overworkedsupermom.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I had really high hopes for this one. But I was let down. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it missed the target completely. Maybe I wished it had more of a sauce to it, I looooove my sauce on my noodles. I followed this one exactly as  written also. Another one that Blythe totally turned her nose up to, and even the boys didn't care for it.

Source: phemomenon.com via Jenna on Pinterest

This was heaven.  I cooked this for the kids for the first day of school, and I love anything that I can fix the night before and just toss in the oven in the morning. I didn't change anything when I made this either.

Source: tastykitchen.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I made this for a football party we had here at the house a few weekends ago (Go Saints!) It wasn't a big of a hit as my aunt's shrimp dip that I make (I will share that recipe next time I make it and can take pictures!!), but it was good. 

Source: bricelife-gabrielle.blogspot.com via Jenna on Pinterest

My kids LOVED this. I did too, and we will so be making this again.

Source: trickschefs.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I also made this for the football party, per Peyton's request. He saw the picture on pinterest and begged me to make it. So, of course, I did :) Another hit.

Source: 365daysofcrockpot.com via Jenna on Pinterest

It's been a while since I made this one, and I said I was going to make it again, I guess I had just forgotten about it. Again, the girl didn't like it (are you seeing the trend here??) but the boys did. I ate on it for several day several different ways. I actually plan on making this again this week.

What have you been cooking from Pinterest??

Front porch project

We've been working on the exterior of the house, first was the roof, and next is the siding, which is going to happen in the next few weeks. And the exterior still has a lot of work to be done. We're keeping the original old windows, but fools over the years would get paint on the windows and just leave it. I'm sure that they thought they had a good reason, like, lets slap this paint on all ugly, but we'll come back and fix it later.....

And that day just never came, for those poor, old girls. (The Windows. They're girls)

And I believe that more people put some more messy paint on our old girls, and something must be done about this madness. 

The madness! It will end here!!

When we redo the siding, there's going to be a guy taking care the Old Girls (the windows). He's gonna give her a nice sand bath, get all the old off, fill her in where she needs it, and then... it will be painted correctly.

Somewhere in all of this mess, I decided that it would be a great idea, to strip the front porch. It was this color blue that I'm really getting sick of seeing on porches. And I was envisioning a wonderfully, beautiful, darker stained front porch.So the stripping and scrapping has started. And it's been the slowest, longest, on going project ever.

And this is as far as I've gotten. I feel like such a failure. This is what it looked like as of this morning before I worked on it a little more. 

So, let's start taking bets, of how long my little project is gonna take me.

I'm gonna say... FOREVER

Kids and a lizard

We went to the lake a few weekends ago, and I caught Blythe Anne and Peyton, while Jonah was gone fishing with his daddy.

My daughter isn't your ordinary girl.

I love that :)

And my Peyton Rayne? He's a nut.

Kissing lizards and such.

I guess girls have frogs that turn into princes when  kissed.

Boys have lizards?

And this lil guy was happy to have a little bit of a break ;)

Lucky lizard, getting kissed by this handsome devil

"Look, Momma, he's playing dead!"

I'm sure he was wishing he was dead at this point.

Lizard-tache?

Who ever knew that one little lizard could be so entertaining??

School year 2012-2013

My youngest, on his first day of Pre-K.

*sniffle*

I don't know who gave him permission to go and grow up on me, but I know it wasn't me and I demand that he stops. Now. Immediately.

Good news though, he still say's he Momma's boy, so at least I still have that going for me.

He say's he's going to be Spiderman when he grows up.

My middle child, on his first day of 1st grade. He was so excited, no more naps this year!!

That, my friends, officially makes you a big kid. I think he grew a foot this summer, so I guess he's right, he is a big kid.

I didn't give this one permission to grow up either. I've really gotta nip this in the bud.

He wants to be a professional gamer when he grows up.

The girl. First day of 3rd grade, says summer didn't last long enough. I agree. Because another summer gone means one less summer I have with them.

I can't believe that I have a 3rd grader in the house, this in crazy.

She want to be a horse trainer when she grows up.