Excuse me, can you tell me what happened to November?

I just got the memo! tomorrow is December 1st!  Holy shit where has time gone?

November seemed to fly by.  You know i want to say it was work.  I do not like to talk much about work here very much. but life and work seem to be going hand and hand with the amount of stress they are producing….

LIfe and work feels a bit like this…i feel as though i have been bombed.  The shelling has not stopped.  Some days i walk around in shock that this is happening. i know the economy is bad, and life is rough for everyone.  but we are being bombed at work.  then someone comes by, shakes me and says pull it together, we have programs, we still have some customers and we need to be on our game.   and of course in the confusion, we try to pull it together get it done.  take up the slack as needed but it is rough.  Smile. play nice. and oh by the way, there is more work for you to do. all the while, i am already doing the job of multiple people. yes sometimes i feel as though i have multiple personalities.

I know work is rough right now because i feel like a stressed out Mommy.  I am quick to snap at them.  nit pick, demand perfection from them, i know this is unrealistic but i feel there needs to be some control in my out of control life. I know they do not understand what is happening. i know they have no understanding money is tight, we are not cranking the heat because the thought of the oil delivery is daunting, going to the movies costs a lot of money.  everything seems to cost a lot of money. and then one thing that has been nagging me is the fact that will be the first christmas without my exhusband.  he still has not contacted us or done anything to prove he is still alive.  the kids sadly do not talk about him anymore, not even a mention of where he is or what he is doing.

but the positive in all this…yes i said positive, is looking around my little fox hole while we are being bombed, i am not the only one shocked or being affected by all this.  battle buddies.  i know work is rough right now and i know it might get worse before it gets better. so i will hang on to my buddies.  deep breathes and before you know it christmas will be here.  i have made our christmas card as you can see…

do they not melt your heart? OMG.  All the preparation for christmas, it will all be over before you know it.  I want to make some promises to myself. to be good to me and the boys.  we deserve it.  i bought a book for me, Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  I am so excited to be reading something just for me.  I want to start planning a few trips to New Hampshire to go skiing!  and of course I want to continue going to the gym with one of my battle buddies, Chelle!!  It is not only a great physical release but I have gotten to know Chelle and just love the chats we have!! Thank you Chelle!!

Well now that i have written this post, eaten a bowl of oatmeal to warm myself after a night at Lantern Lights soaking wet, i am off to try and get some sleep.  it has been hard to come by lately even with ambien!!

You want to see what 14 loads of laundery looks like?

Okay so cleaned the house! phew, this 15 min clean up that i talked about last weekend, well it still WORKS! i must say my house was a lot neater this week as well!  YEAH!  well i just could  not bring myself last weekend to do laundry.  enough to get by, ie underwear.

So this weekend LAUNDRY! OMG did i have laundry, the pile in the basement was up to my waist it was so big, awful actually.  a couple of times i though perhaps i should just package all this up and bring it to the laundrymat and have them do it.  but NO MONEY.  so what to do, spend the weekend washing it! OMG did i was it.  ALL OF IT TOO!  16 loads of laundry.  You see i just hate folding a load of laundry just for another one to be done. i want it all to be here and just fold it all!  that is what i did! baskets overflowing upstairs by the couch.  so i settled in this morning, with a glass of ice tea and the remote control (raymond)  watched a few shows on TV for a couple of hours and presto 14 loads folded, one load of sheets i just put back on the bed, no need to fold them if they were going to be used and the last load is in the dryer (todays clothes)

Fear not we went out today and went bowling.  that was fun too. but coming home to put all that laundry away was a good feeling! and fresh sheets, the organic a billion thread super super soft, on a feather bed ummmmm what a wonderful comfortable bed (to bad i sleep in it alone

whole lot of laundry!! I am goign to bed!!

I just could not wait for another food friday!!

With all this food friday stuff, i have surfed around for cool things to do with good with kids.   Look what i found and actually made!! It was so much fun and the boys were surprised.  I have always made kings out of their hotdogs but making an octopus was soooo cool!!  i took some pictures what do you think??  what fun things can you do to make food more interesting for kids??

The boys had a lot of fun eating them!  Enjoy!

Food Friday: More Uses for your Waffle Iron

Hello! I know it has been a couple of days but i have been so excited to post this food friday post, i almost posted it on wednesday.  But alas life got crazy and now it is friday night and i am home trying to keep warm….

But have you ever thought about your waffle iron… I do not know about you but mine lives in my cupboard most of the time.  I find it a pain to get out and make two at a time.  pulling out the griddle is much easier to make everyones meal on at the same time.  one thing i HATE is serving dinner just to wait for mine.  everyone else eating and i am watching them….i like to eat all together.  alas i digress…. here are a few new ways to use your waffle iron.  Now mind you have not tried any of these but plan to this weekend.  perhaps you will try it and let me know how it works out!!  here goes

Waffle iron eggplant

Slice an eggplant about 1/3 inch thick. Dipped in beaten egg, then in finely grated parm. Add fresh mixed herbs to the cheese too. Then put the slices in my waffleiron, brushed with olive oil.

Waffle iron french toast

3 eggs
1  C. milk
1/2  C. fresh orange juice
3 T. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. finely grated orange zest
8 bread slices, each 3/4-inch thick
2 T. unsalted butter
Preheat the waffle iron on medium.

In a pie plate or shallow bowl, using a whisk or fork, beat together the eggs, milk, orange juice, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and orange zest. Soak the bread slices in the egg-milk mixture for at least 15 seconds per side. The longer the bread is soaked the moister the French toast will be. Cook immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

If using a regular waffle iron, brush it lightly with the butter. If it is nonstick, you don’t need the butter. Place the bread in the waffle iron. (How many slices you can cook at a time depends upon your waffle iron.)

Close the iron and, using a sharp knife, cut off any bread that extends beyond the edge of the iron. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the bread is toasted on the outside.

Makes 4 servings.

Waffle iron brownies

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

powder

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar for

decoration

Directions

Preheat waffle iron.

melt butter and add cocoa. Mix in sugar, eggs and water. add flour and salt. In each well of the waffle iron one rounded spoonful.  Cook brownies as you would waffles.  Sprinkle confectioners sugar over warm waffle brownies.  Enjoy!!!

Cornbread Waffles

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups frozen white shoepeg corn, thawed

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together egg and next 3 ingredients; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Bake in a preheated, oiled waffle iron just until crisp.

Yield: 12 (4-inch) waffles

Other ideas

• Waffle Burgers
  • After the burger is done you can use the square crevices to hold ketchup and other sauces on the burger with no mess.
• Round Egg Omelette
  • Mix vegetables, eggs, and other ingredients into bowl.
  • Just pour all the ingredients into the waffle maker and you can make a perfect circle shaped omelette with no mess.
• Chicken Quesadillas
  • Place a corn tortilla on one side, put cheese between the tortilla and chicken to make it stick.
  • Place another corn tortilla on top and close.
  • Close the lid and you have an instant quesadilla in minutes.

Six-Stick Waffle Maker:

• Stick-Shaped Burgers that can be eaten as Hot Dogs.
  • This is something that I find very useful. If you just too lazy to fry up the burger in the pan, just put the meat into this waffle maker to get the desired shape. Just remember not to press too hard on it so the meat won’t stick.
• Stick-Shaped Egg Omelettes for sandwiches.
  • Same as above

Basketweaving with 3rd graders

Today parents were invited to come help with a basketweaving project at school.  Both Raymond and Nathaniel being in the third grade get to do this fun project.  their classes are doing this project on two separate days, thank god there is only one of me!!

I think if you need to invite EVERY parent to come help with a project then you should be rethinking your project choice.

I arrive at school about 10 minutes early so i could spy on my kids at recess.  Well there they were, Raymond being pushed on the swing by a little girl.  Flying free.  Then in scanning the play ground i see Nathaniel as a flash of white. (wearing an off white sweater)….he was being chased by TWO girls!! AH WHAT!! my sweet little boys they do not need little girls chasing them around the play ground! arent they to young for this??  apparently not.  (nathaniel confessed at dinner tonight that the two girls were fighting over him so he just ran. OMG)

Inside the classroom we go.  every desk had a basket started…and we as the parents were to help them….ARE YOU KIDDING….DO YOU NOT KNOW ME!! I apparently have a little OCD.  when the teacher said, now weave this in and out and they cut it off with 2inches to spare.  I asked where the ruler was!!  She looked at me and told me to guess.  OMG REALLY???

photo from google search...Country living

Poor Raymond I keep trying to make his tight, neat and each piece of wood equal distance from each other!  Then i though next week when i have to go back for nathaniels class, i am marking two inches and one inch on my hand so i know for sure how big to make it!!

Although i must say it was really cool to go to school and see raymond in action. He is a good little guy and so so so different in school.  He is well liked, has a lot of friends, GIRLS INCLUDED (not sure how i feel about that).  He was proud to have his mom at school!!  So it was a great day!

Another reason to live on a BOAT

Okay okay okay, so i must say there are some chores better left to the professionals.  Now I must say i am not the professional when it comes to lawn grooming!  Hell I actually think it is a mans job!!  No offense but come on….men could get to play with a cool little 2 stroke engine….did i just say 2stroke engine?  yes i know what it means!!  I have 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines at work on power boats but really if i want to smell a mix of gas and oil i want it to be because i had some fun!!! Not blowing leaves!!

You know in my perfect world when the leaves fell off the tree they would just vanish.  or in my perfect neighborhood no one would have well manicured lawns just like  mine!  I am sure my neighbors hate me right now.  The past couple of weekend my neighbors have very diligently have been preparing their lawns for the fall.  you know replacing their cute painted or carved pumpkins with bails of hay and scarecrows or even f’ing lights!  and the stupid inflatable lawn decorations like this one…..

…have been taken down only to have new ones go up!  OMG I am so not looking forward to the holiday season.  The thought of the decorations around here. Honestly who has time to make such a mess and then have to clean it all up.  A little secret, my brother actually buys my xmas tree because he is afraid i will not buy one.  truth be told, i probably would not.  what a mess it makes in the house! and then all the crap i have to pull out just to put away the day after xmas?  who needs that?  i digress….well lets get back to the 2 stroke engines…

Here in my town they pick up your leaves if you get them to the street.  Then one mysterious day they will vanish.  but the trick is to get it out to the edge before they come.  I am sure there is some sort of schedule hell if i know where to find it.

Last week the town came to pick up the leaves but they only picked them up on one side. strange but true So i figured this weekend with any luck i could go and get the leaves to the edge. earlier this week my brother convinced me to buy a leaf blower to help with ALL the LEAVES in my yard.  well after getting gas for the little engine that could… ripped the cord and off we went.  the boys had to be outside if i had too rakes in hand!

After a while had to reload.  my iPod at work so i had to listen to my kids whine that this was not fun and why could they not go instead and play.  Did they think i was having fun? AH let me think about that NO!! So for almost three hours we moved leaves, hit each other with rakes, cried and jumped in leaves.

Well we got a mini pile of leaves to the edge.  My backyard is a bit bigger than i had remembered.  i had to leave the HUGE pile in the back yard and cleared out a side section next to my neighbors.  If only i had a man.   To make matters worse it was a bit windy as well leaves were everywhere….even on the well manicured lawn across the street….MUWHAHAHA….I am sure my neighbors were standing in the windows inside wishing i was not putting that pile out front because they would be blown around into their yards.  i felt guilty for a hot second but honestly why conform to their standards?  I would rather play with the boys. Are you really going to put in my obituary that not only did i not keep up with my laundry, house, dishes or yard?  You think i will be on my death bed wishing i had raked or blown more leaves? AHH NO WAY!!

There you have it.  you do not want to be my neighbor…i need to live on a boat, NO LEAVES!!

Hogwarts sorting hat quiz

I just took this quiz Hogwarts sorting hat… here is my result.  What do you think?  Let me know if you take the quiz i would love to hear what you think about the results of yourself!! I actually think it fits me well…

Your Result

You are a RAVENCLAW!
As a Ravenclaw and as an NFP, you value imagination, ideas and intelligence. You are probably somewhat of an individualist and avoid conforming just for its own sake. You are insightful and perceptive, and since you are empathetic and value harmony, you usually try to avoid conflict. Of course, you may enjoy participating in heated debates, but only as long as they remain on an intellectual level and not a personal level. In general, you are open-minded and curious, and set high standards for yourself.

15 minute clean

Okay so today i learned something cool!  The 15 minute clean.  You know i have read about cleaning and keeping a neat house and so on.  Today we needed to clean the house, it was a M.E.S.S.  You know last week we went to NH and well lets face it i so did not want to clean like a mad woman when i got back.  SO…i have always tried new tricks in trying to get my kids to clean without to much fuss.

When they were little I would sing, and they would sing with me.  Then as they got older i would give them each a job.  Then i would make it a contest, who could pick up the most…blah blah blah….well nothing has been working.

Today I tried the 15 minute clean.  we all go to one room, set the timer for 15 minutes and clean as much as we can.  The deal is if the timer goes off you have to drop everything and go on to the next room. Then reset the timer until you finish all the rooms.  So some rooms took one timer some took two or three timers…. Jordan thought it was an awful idea.  he so did not want his brothers to touch his stuff.  But i told him he could tell them what to do.  Well i must say, that was the fastest i have ever gotten the house clean.  The kids loved when the timer went off they got to drop what every they were doing!

So what are your tips on keeping clean? How do you get your kids to clean?

Have a great weekend!!

The Bus stop

So I have been thinking about this bus stop and feel it is time to reveal the random people in my life.

So I live on a cute street, when i first moved here Jordan was in kindergarden and he rode the bus in the afternoon.  Just jordan and another little boy rode the bus together.  A year goes by, and Jordan was the only one at the bus stop. It was nice in a way, the twins would be buckled in the car ready for day care and we would sit in the car and wait for the bus.  This went on until this March or so.  Then a little boy moved in across the street and his mother would walk him to the bus stop.  We did not have much to talk about.  But one day i opened my mouth, I asked a few questions about her and she opened up like pandoras box. OMG.

Nice enough lady, and she has a story just like the rest of us.  Hers tugs at our heart strings.  Her exhusband was in the towers during the attacks on 9/11 and called her even though they were divorced and she was remarried with another man and had another child.  But then this mom felt as though she needed to talk to me all the time. and most mornings i just wanted to get to work.  I understood she was lonely and in need of a new friend but honestly i was not it.

so this year we have new cast of characters at the bus stop and more kids!  so lets break it down for you….

1. “The cop”…he has a little girl in the first grade.  He is your typical mucho cop.  he needs to know everything that is going on in town.  waves to everyone that goes by.  has gossip about everyone even the bus driver, who was fired two weeks ago for text message while driving!! OMG you read that right. but he knew!!  He has two other children, two little boys and most morings he leaves them to their own devices at home, about 7 houses down! OMG never would i leave my kids alone like that! but to each their own
2. “the crazy cops wife” CRAZY.  So desperate for attention.  my heart sinks when i see her standing at the bus stop.  she wants to talk, want to be a name dropper.  she is tickled that she knows a friend of mine and wants to talk about her and her family.  Her trying to invite herself over to my house, me running away.  She has no regard for personal space and my personal space bubble is huge with her.  I have even said, “I am so sick, cough cough” you know what she does, she stomps over to where i am standing and says her kid is sick too so no worries on getting her infected!  FAIL.
3. “the watch tapper” this father, taps his watch as if this is going to make the bus come sooner.  He huffs and puffs as if he has control of this.  He feels his job is the most important and that this is a waste of time.  His watch tapping totally stresses me out.  I have even offered to make sure his son gets on the bus if he feels he needs to get to work.  he has not taken me up on my offer but one day i might just tell him to GO and stop tapping your watch. (husband to exhusband from NY)
4. “the nanny” this woman is young. she barely speaks english.  the only few things she can say, “hello, thank you, have a nice day, alec come here please” she wears the same outfit everyday.  she is railroaded by the kid she babysits for and has no control and the two year runs like he has been set free most mornings.  she looks so sad.  i actually feel bad for her.

I just think it is to early in the day to have to get out of the car and have to be nice to people. I always imagined living on a tree lined street with all these neighbors that all got along.  We would have block parties or BBQ in the summer time.  But no.   I am the only single parent on the street. I feel as though they look at me differently.  There are two adults in their houses to do yard work and laundry and house work and taxi children around.  Sometimes my yard does not look perfect.  Sometime my house is not perfect. I have no desire to be friends with any of them.

maybe i should move?

Food Friday: Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Pasta

So I know it has been a slow week for me.  Not really sure why.  I think i will probably post again today or tomorrow about some random things but i figured i would keep with my food friday.  Now Anna last week wrote about these awesome Pumpkin ginger Cupcakes! Well I had to try them! So i made a batch and even brought some in to work.  Sadly Anna was not here to give her official taste test, but a few other bloggers got to try them.  Perhaps they will review them for me!  Man were they good, so good they were gone before i could even get a picture!!  YUMMMY

Well today i am posting on of my favorite recipes.  I have had it for years, i think i got it out of the newpaper once.  Let me know what you think!! Enjoy!!

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Pasta

4 boneless chicken cut into strips

1 tablespoon veg. oil

salt and peper to taste

1 17 oz jar of alfredo

Fresh mushrooms

15oz ricotta cheese

box of bowties (cooked)

2 cups broccoli

1/2 cup Parm cheese

1. Cook, brown chicken with salt, peper and oil.
2. Combine ricotta and alfredo, blend well.  Add to chicken, pasta, broccoli, mushroom and bring to a boil.
3. Cover. Reduce and cook 8 to 10 min.
4. Sprinkle with parm cheese.