Friday Favorites - October 5th Edition

I know that this edition of Friday Favorites is late, but better late than never, right?!
My favorite thing this time is a wooden jewelry that my mom gave me on my wedding day. It has a picture of her and I from when I was 2 months old. When opened it plays 'You Are My Sunshine' which is the song that she would sing to me when I was a baby.

Halloween Cookies

So anyone who knows me knows that as the years go by I love Halloween increasingly more!!
So on October 1st to celebrate my favorite month I made a batch of Halloween Cookies. They were just regular sugar cookies from a mix that I rolled out and cut out with my new Halloween cookie cutters (which I got from Target, they were $1.00 for 10 cutters).
The shapes were:
~2 different tombstone shapes
~2 different ghost shapes
~a pumpkin
~a haunted house
~a spiderweb
~a bat
~a scary cat
~and a crescent moon



I put Halloween frosting (orange tinted vanilla) with Halloween sprinkles on the cookies.
I can't wait to make these again!

Fall At Our House...

As I've said in a previous post, I LOVE FALL!!! Everything about it is absolutely divine! When the weather starts to change it gets me even more in the Spirit of Fall (here in Central Texas the early Fall temperatures are still soaring). I love the scents that come along with the Autumn season. All of the pumpkin and spice scents just make me melt! I also love all of the rich colors and the fact that nature is so celebrated in all of the pumpkins and gourds and apples and leaves that come along with the seasons decor. It truly is wonderful! So far my personal collection is still extremely small, but in the years to come I plan to make my autumnal decor grow!

First, and foremost I think that scent draws you in, so I got a Harvest Spice scent air freshener.



These are Pumpkin Pie scented candles hanging on 2 wall sconces in my living room, they smell absolutely delicious!



This is a Pumpkin Swirl scented candle that is in the main bathroom.



This is my Dining Room table, with yet another Pumpkin Swirl candle. The candle holder is actually a coaster from Pier 1, the table runner is a new find, also from Pier 1, and the candle stick holders are a ruby red color, I bought them at a garage sale and believe that they are from Avon.



These 3 little felt pumpkins sit atop my television. I bought these last year at the local grocery store for $1.00 each.



This little white ceramic pumpkin is on my coffee table and I found it for $2.50 at Target. I plan on getting some fall candy to put in it.



And this is what greets you at my front door. My mom made this and gave it to me on Sunday as a pre-birthday present.

And although I don't have much "actual" Fall decor, most of my house is done in rich colors such as browns and oranges and mustards and reds and olives and rich Robin's Egg blues. So my house coordinates well into the Fall season!

Happy Fall to you!!!

Back to FLYing.....

This summer I had barely any work, so Audrey and I were home most of the time. There would even be a period of 2 or 3 days where we didn't go ANYWHERE. During that time I really started to FLY. Check out FLYlady to see what I'm talking about. I was doing so well keeping up with the housework, I was making dinner almost every single night, I was getting into a really great routine and was getting excited about starting to "school" Audrey. Well, fast forward 2-3 months and it's all gone by the wayside. I keep up decently with the house work, I cook a couple of times a week and I have absolutely NO routine anymore. I also am a month behind on starting "school". Why is this? Life happened. All of the sudden I'm got SWAMPED at work, a few of my co-workers and I have joked that we should set up cots at the church because we practically live there. There have been many days over the past month and a half where I've had to work twice in a day. I go in for awhile in the morning, come home, feed Audrey, put her down for a nap and then feed her again once she wakes up and then we're out the door for the rest of the evening. Once we get home from the evening shift I feed her and then put her down for the night.

BUT, now, starting on Monday, my life will hopefully be less chaotic. I've dropped 2 of the evening shifts at work (they are both on days where I already have something going on in the morning). And my schedule will be much more set for the rest of the month, and into November. My goal is that starting this weekend I will get back into the swing of things. Namely, FLYing. The FLYlady program really has proved to be a lifesaver for me. I'm so much more calm when I have a routine. I've lately found myself to be getting angry very easily, and I really don't like that. I'm ready to get back to my normal, happy life. I'm ready to actually start schooling Audrey, I'm ready to have enough energy to start swimming again. Folks, after tomorrow (my last double shift day) I will be back to FLYing and my daughter, my husband, and myself will be SO much happier for it. I hope to grab a few spare moments tonight or tomorrow to come up with my routines for the days when I'm home and the days when I work. Wish me luck!

Another Great Article....

Here's a great article on the over-medication of our kids.

Interesting Article....

Here is an interesting article on the use of plastic grocery bags. Made me think, at the very least I'm going to start taking my plastic bags back to the store to recycle them, but I'd like to eventually start buying reusable canvas bags for my grocery transporting needs.

Delayed....

Okay, so my "Make Something New Monday" post is going to be delayed a bit. Maybe by as much as a few days. Even though I've been home all day today, it's been pretty busy around here. So, I haven't had a chance to go to the store and I haven't been able to take the time to make something. I might try my hand at the Butter Bread tonight. I made that last week and really want to try again. The new thing that I want to make this week is Strawberry Shortcake or maybe some homemade cut out cookies (that way I can use my Halloween cookie cutters!!). We'll see. I have to work most of the day tomorrow, so I'll probably make something on Wednesday.

Right now I'm going to go clean my bedroom really quick and then get started on dinner.

On the menu tonight:
Chicken Fried Steak
Mashed Potatoes
Country Gravy
Peas
Rice Krispy Treats (if I have enough time)

PEACE!

The First Day of October....

WOW!!! Is it really October 1st already?!?! I honestly cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. Pretty soon it'll be Turkey Day, then Christmas, and then we'll be ringing in the year 2008. Where is time going?!

October is my favorite month. The top reason being the fact that my birthday is this month, but October also holds my wedding anniversary, and one of my favorite holidays, HALLOWEEN!! Yay!

I'm looking forward to the weather being cooler and, I'm probably one of the few, but I'm looking forward to daylight savings also. I actually like it when it gets darker earlier!

I think this month is going to be pretty awesome!!

Friday Favorites....

My favorite thing this week is my charm bracelet. I've had this bracelet for probably about 10 years now. I had one before that had MANY charms on it, but unfortunately it got lost in a move. =( The bracelet and all of the charms are from a jewelery store called James Avery, which I absolutely LOVE!! I have a few charms that I still need to get put on it, and there are LOTS more charms that I really want to buy!! Here are the charms that I currently have on the bracelet:
~xxoo
~a jingle bell
~tap shoes
~a cat
~a dragonfly
~ballet slippers
~a camera
~a bumble bee
~'99
~a sneaker
~a heart
~jack o' lantern
~graduation cap
~basketball
~profile of a girl
~flip flop
~Te Amo
~butterfly
~shamrock
~buffalo
~scroll heart
~owl
~Best Mom
~music note inside a heart
~theatre masks
~Middle Sister
~J
~popcorn box

I Guess That I Am A Feminist!!

You Are 79% Feminist

You are certainly a feminist - whether you know it or not. You believe in gender equality, at least most of the time. You also believe there are a few exceptions.

Are You a Feminist?

Make Something New Mondays - Butter Bread

Today I made homemade bread for the first time ever!! Made from scratch and everything. Needless to say, eat wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough to post a picture. But it sure did taste delicious, and the house smelled SO wonderful!! I got the recipe from Bethany's Blog.

Here's the recipe:

1 stick butter
1 cup milk
2 packages yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
6-7 bread flour

Melt the butter and warm the milk. Add yeast and let sit for about 2 minutes, then stir and add sugar, salt, eggs and slowly add flour until it is a firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes and then let rise for an hour.

Punch down, split in half, and separate each half into 3 sections. Roll sections and braid them.

Let braided loaves rise for 30 minutes, then brush with an egg white glaze.

Place in oven at 375 for the 30-35 minutes.

I'm definitely going to be trying this recipe again. I'd love to get it perfected!
Every Monday I'm going to try to make something that I haven't before. Mainly things from scratch. Next week I think I'll do some kind of dessert!!

Friday Favorites....

Okay, so I know that I'm actually posting this on Monday, but really I took the pictures on Friday and had fully intended to do my post then, but time just got away from me and then on top of that I got sick Friday evening. So here goes.

The above candle and candle holder I got from a garage sale that a friend of mine and her parents were having about 2 years ago. If you know me at all you know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE butterflies! And I absolutely loved how this had lots of them and how they were carved into the candle. SO cool! The lady who owned this before me burned the candle maybe one time. I got this whole thing from her for $5!! It's quite tall and I have it displayed in my bathroom. Oh, and I've never burned it, the candle is too pretty!

I Wonder If This Helps...

So, for the last week and a half or so I've been hand washing all of our dishes. Yep, you heard me loud and clear, I have not run the dishwasher in this whole time. My main reason for doing so is a little experiment to see if it cuts down on our electric bill. Before I would run the dishwasher every day or so and I just figured that with all the heating it has to do to dry the dishes and such, it wouldn't hurt to give this a go. Now, there have honestly been days where I haven't kept up very well with the dish washing, but overall it seems to be going good. As for drying I just leave the dishes in the dishwasher with the door cracked open and they actually dry better and faster than with the heated dry. I'm actually also enjoying my time washing dishes. I get to look out my window into the backyard and just get lost in my thoughts for around 15 minutes. Even if the electric bill doesn't go down I'll probably continue to hand wash the dishes. Dishes used to be my most dreaded chore, but dare I say, I'm actually beginning to like it now. Well, maybe not like, but definitely not dread!!

Oh, and I figure that in the future this will be a good chore for Audrey and her future siblings to have. I don't want my children growing up relying on machines to always do basic work for them!

Does anyone else out there wash their dishes by hand?

YUMMY!!!

I just got finished making a batch of Rice Krispy Treats! I love these things. I love the smell of the marshmallows and butter as they melt together.

These will be a wonderful dessert to go along with our dinner this evening.
Here is what we're having:
~Homemade Chicken Fried Steak
~Homemade Mashed Potatoes
~Country Gravy (sometimes I do homemade, but tonight is packaged)
~Green Peas (I'll just heat up some frozen for Audrey and myself)
~Rice Krispy Treats

Sounds like a pretty delish dinner to me!

Daily Musing...

I think I'm going to change the name (yes, again) of this blog. My husband jokes with me that I'm a "Feminist Homemaker". What does he mean by this? Well, obviously I'm a homemaker, but not because I have to be or because that's what my husband wants. You see, although my husband and I are committed Christians we are also what you would call egalitarians. Meaning, we believe that men and women, husbands and wives are equal. There really is no "head of our household". I respect my husband dearly as he does me and we try our hardest to treat each other as such. We make our decisions together and are both free to disagree with the other. I also do not believe that "a woman's place is in the home". If you are married and have children or whatever and you want to have a career outside of the home. Go for it! Don't let anyone hold you back. As long as you can balance work and family, all the more power to you! Yes, I am a homemaker and my husband supports me fully in that, but he would also support me fully if I decided tomorrow that I wanted to go back to work full time. It's my decision. As long as I love what I do and take it seriously, he's happy!! And just so everyone knows, I've been a homemaker ever since we got married almost 4 years ago. We went 2 1/2 years being married before our daughter was born and we decided together from the get go that this is what we both wanted and what we both considered best for our family. I've always wanted to be a wife and a mommy, that has always been my biggest dream. We plan to have a large family and as of right now I plan on homeschooling our children (for many reasons that I will get into in a later post), but as I've gotten older my dreams have also grown to one day owning a business. I'd love to have a coffee shop or a bed & breakfast one day. But that is when my children are older. For now, my passion is my family and my home, so that is my job. But I can rest assured that whatever I decide to do in the future my husband will support me 100%!!

So, as an ode to Bryan, the new name of this blog is going to be "Diary of a Feminist Homemaker"!!

It's a 15 Minute Kind Of Day...

For those of you who are familiar with FlyLady (LOVE her!!) you should know what a 15 minute day is. For those who aren't here it is in a nutshell. One of FlyLady's motto's is "You/I can do anything for 15 minutes", meaning, instead of looking at how overwhelming a job is, just start somewhere and do it for 15 minutes. You'll be amazed at how much actually gets done in that amount of time! One of the tools that FlyLady recommends having is a timer, just set it for 15 minutes and go. After 15 minutes is done either reset it or take a small break. And a 15 minute day is when you have a whole lot to do, but a breaking it up into 15 minute increments. Get it?

Well, anyways, it's been that kind of day for me. The last week or so I've really gotten off of my normal routines, mainly because I need to re-tweak them to include my work and plasma donation schedules. But even worse then that is that seemingly every weekend the house gets in complete disarray. Maybe it's because Bryan's home so I don't do my normal stuff, I don't know. And since I was pretty much gone for 12 hours yesterday, when I woke up this morning there was a nice big mess to greet me! YUCK! So, I'm currently working to get it all back in order. The kitchen is clean, so is the living room, the dining room, Audrey's room, and the bathroom. So there isn't much else to do. That is until I get it all tidied and then have to actually get into the rooms and deep clean!! How fun!! Wish me luck!

Friday Favorites....

I saw this idea on another blog: http://home-place.blogspot.com/
and thought it would be a neat idea to put up here. Every Friday I'm going to try and put up a picture and description of one of my favorite things. I think it'll go to show how the simple things in life can and do bring us so much joy! So here goes...

My first favorite thing is:
HOT CHOCOLATE!!!
Now I know what you're thinking. It's only September for crying out loud and you're drinking hot chocolate?!?! Even though it's in the 90's outside this sounded SO good to me the other night. Maybe it's the fact that all the Fall and even Winter/Christmas stuff is going up in the stores now. Fall going into Winter is my favorite time of year and just thinking about a mug of steaming hot chocolate makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! I also LOVE the mini marshmallows that come with the package! I'll let you in on a little secret, even though the package says make with hot water, I use milk. It makes it so much more creamy and delicious. YUM!
So what is one of your favorite things?

Why is it so hard?

To not drink soda?! I was planning on trying to finish out the month of September with drinking no regular soda. Well, I gave in. I think I've had two or so since my last post. I've found that it's the hardest when I'm out. At home I'm fine. I make a lot of iced tea (unsweetened, so I add sweetener) and I'm perfectly content drinking that. Maybe what I need to start doing is taking my small thermos with me everywhere with tea in it. That might help.

I'm still doing my swimming. I started several weeks back. The first week I did 5 days, the second I did 4 days, and I'm planning on doing 5 days this week. I feel so much better now that I'm doing this. I feel my body shaping up and I have more energy and drive.

I also cut my hair off on Friday. It's a pretty drastic cut. My hair used to be about my mid-back and now it's not even shoulder length. I don't know exactly how much was cut off, but I do know that there was a LOT of hair on the floor when we were done!!!

Let's see, what else is new this week? Bryan started auditing a class at the Austin Graduate School of Theology. He's really into Biblical studies and this opportunity presented itself, so I'm happy that he gets to do something that he enjoys. The class is once a week for 3 hours until the end of the semester, and he'll continue to audit one class each semester for awhile!

Also, we're going to be having an open house/dedication here in less than a month. (If you don't already know, the house we live in is owned by our church). So we're going to be super busy over the next several weeks trying to get everything prepared for it. The biggest job is now about half over though. Our whole house is saltillo tile and the sealant on it has been peeling pretty bad for awhile now. So, for several days this week we've had a guy here scraping up the sealant and now I think he's done with that, so we just have to get someone in here to seal it again, and for that, of course, we'll have to be out of the house. Something that I'm looking forward to doing (and with the open house I have additional incentive to get off my behond and do it) is planting flowers in both the front and back of the house. I think that it will be fun to do it and the house will look that much better on the outside!! I'll have to post pictures when I'm done.

Tonight's dinner is going to be a simple one of hard shelled tacos and corn bread. Yum!

Day 2....

...of my "No More Soda" deal is here. I've found that as long as I have a pitcher of iced tea made I really don't "crave" soda much. It's when I'm out and about that I have a hard time! Well, anyways, I've made it through 1 1/2 days, so only 23 1/2 more left...

Another thing that has happened this week is all of a sudden Audrey is fighting taking her naps. Once she's asleep, she's out for a good 3 hours, but it's the actually getting to sleep that's taking awhile now. She just sits/lays in her crib talking and fussing for awhile (sometimes a long while) before she finally allows herself to doze off. Kids are so funny!

I got most of the cleaning done that I wanted to yesterday. But of course the house looks like a tornado went through it again. It's amazing how fast that happens!

I have to leave here in two hours or so to go back to work (I already worked this morning). It's only for a couple of hours, but I have to leave an hour before my shift starts because of traffic and then it takes 30 minutes to get home...boo! And then after I get home and get Audrey down for the night I'm most likely going to head to the gym and see if I can get a swim in. Last night I did 28 laps. I love swimming! And I love doing it at night! I find that the time feels like my own, do you know what I mean? All I have to worry about is myself. And it's great to do it at the end of the day, I kind of just feel the day slide off of my shoulders. And then I'm able to come home relaxed and refreshed and, of course, tired and ready for a shower and a good nights sleep!

That's all for now...

No More....

....regular soda for me. I've decided that I'm going to try and not drink anymore regular soda for the rest of the month of September. It is definitely one of my biggest weaknesses, pretty much an addiction! And also it's a lot of empty calories that I really don't need to be consuming. So today is Day 1 of the "No Soda Campaign"! We'll see how I do. I'll keep you updated!