Blessed Beyond Belief

Out and about with TnT

We had a RAD morning out today!  Yep, I said RAD.  You would too if you ate at Chronic Taco for breakfast/brunch.  Check it - 

 

We've totally come to the conclusion that we are destined to live on a homestead.  Not large scale farming, but rather a more self sustained way of life.  Can't wait.

Oh, and Bill - Tim throws in a line just for you. Did you catch it?

bits and pieces we find on our vid cam

All by William.  My favorite - 'the chair in idaho' and 'the william in idaho'.

Today ~ list style

• Woke up to rain beating on my windows.
• The wind blew the trampoline over the fence into the front yard.
• Will stayed home sick with a slight fever.  Autumn was home Monday and Tuesday with the same thing. 
• I didn't do my Thursday cleaning list. 
• Couldn't get motivated to do much of anything. 
• Watched an episode of The Soprano's with Tim. 
• Came to the conclusion that Italian mobsters are big cry babies. 
• Made some mini muffins with spelt flour and low sugar mini chocolate chips. 
• Have chicken enchiladas in the oven for dinner.  
• Bummed about my crock pot - it has a crack in the pot part. Should I live dangerously and go ahead with my crockpot roast tomorrow?  I can't live without my crockpot. 
• Posts without photos are boring. 
• So here's a photo of Autumn and the pride that lives upstairs. She's like the cat lady.  They follow her everywhere.  When does a person get a bed that's free of sick kids and their cats and popsicles?    
•  

Happy Birthday Dad

I was able to personally wish him a happy birthday via webcam this morning and actually I got to watch him open the gift I sent to him. Dad is always hard to buy for, but I did get a hint from a little birdie that he could use an outdoor bottle opener.  Wouldn't want him to be stuck outside with an unopened beer.

Here's a photo of Dad with his mom and all three sisters. 

And of course, here's the three of us more than 30 years ago. We've been together a long time, huh?

I am so incredibly proud of my dad and mom.  They have both been amazing examples of hard work and determination.  They didn't let fear stop them from taking risks and they've beat incredible odds.  I love them so much.

Oh yes, I sleep.

See?  I thank God that I am now able to sleep a full night without waking up.  I've had sleep issues for years.  For a full year before my surgery I was taking ambien and trazadone every night to sleep. I slept alright, but the hard drugs were taking a toll.  I believe my weight loss is a big reason for sleeping better.  The prescription sleep aids are now replaced with 3mg of melatonin each night. Works great.  I typically get a full 8 hours.  11 - 7.  I don't think (actually I KNOW) I wouldn't be able do what I do without the uninterrupted sleep.  Naps used to be a daily routine, now they are a rare treat.  Tim snapped this last month during one of those rare naps.  This was an extra special treat because my black boyfriend joined me for some cuddle time.  Mick loves me.  And I loves me some Mick.

Making stuff.

I signed up for an online art class taught by Elsie Flannigan.  WAAYY... out of my comfort zone as far as creativeness.  I've always admired her work, the quirky youthfulness of it.  Although I like it, it's just not the way my creativity flows.  So, I decided to take the class in order to challenge myself and get back in the crafting groove.  Besides, I have been wanting to start sewing for a very long time now and I knew there would be some sewing projects in the class. 

It's kind of funny.  As I was using Grandma Mathews sewing machine and going through all her supplies, I found myself talking to her and asking her where things were.  Anyone who knows Grandma knows how she kept things - a little disorganized.  It was like she was sitting there, well actually more like leaning over my shoulder like she would, and talking with me about the supplies and such.  I really enjoyed the sewing experience so much more using her things.  Really connected to my roots, as cheesy as that sounds. She's been gone almost a year now at the end of this month and one of the things I said at her funeral was that one way I could remember her was to carry on with the traditions and memories that she gave me.  Crafting was most certainly one of them.

Anyhow - this is supposed to be an 'X' marks the spot picnic blanket.  It's the first 'big' sewing project I've done since I was a kid. It was so fun and I completed it in an evening, even with hand stitching the X.  The back fabric has little colorful creatures on it, very cute.

Until the weather warms up it will have to serve as a play picnic blanket.  Hopefully we will get some use out of it this summer.

This is a rainbow felt album that was sewn together with strips of felt and white card stock.

 

I thought it would be fun to do a little album of some of Will's costumes.  Mostly misc supplies, but I did use the robot line from cosmo cricket.  I haven't worked with this much felt since I was a kid.  Apparently it's a hot item right now.

Speaking of felt - behold the teepee.  Pretty cute, huh?  I made it to give to William to use with his 'guys'.  Cavemen lived in teepee's with their pet dinosaurs, right?

I'm looking forward to next weeks projects and will for sure share them with you.

Tonight for dinner I am making crispy yogurt chicken.

I've made it once before and everyone liked it. Except I'll be making it with chicken breast strips and I marinate the chicken in the yogurt sauce and roll it in the panko bread crumbs right before baking.  Maybe a salad with blue cheese crumbles and some other type of side dish - I made quinoa last week for the first time.  Maybe I'll try it again.  Otherwise it might be boxed pasta for the rest of them.  Such extremes, right?

Weekly house cleaning ~ Friday

Ah! Friday.  Love Friday.  Look - friday only has three listed chores. Not bad.  Course, I did it that way on purpose.  I knew that by friday I would not be feeling the whole 'keep your house clean' deal.  So I kept it simple.

A good day to go through the fridge and straighten, take stock and throw things away.  I throw very little away these days.  We are really maximizing our food by eating left overs for lunch and sometimes dinner and what doesn't get eaten as a left over becomes something else that no one would ever guess used to be a left over. How's that for a run on sentence?  I also do a quick wipe down of the shelves.  This took me less than ten minutes.

Scrub the sink with ajax.  Nice shiny sink.

Then I replaced all the sink accessories. 

You'll also notice that I vacuumed again today.  I have a love hate relationship with that damn vacuum.  I hate that I need it so much, but would be so lost without it - and completely out of my mind driven crazy with dirty floors.

Look at these lovely creatures.  This week I tried my hand at sprouting beans.  Adzuki beans to be exact.  I love to grow things and this really satisfies my instant gratification.  Fives days.  That's all it took to sprout these.  Adzuki beans apparently take longer than the typical bean.  But here's my question - now what?  What do I do with them?  I asked my friend google and he found me a recipe. It's on the stove now.  I have my doubts.  We'll see.  Let's hope for everyones sake that it's good - you know how I hate to throw food away.

So that concludes cleaning week.  Aren't you glad?  I am.  Now I can close that darn book and let it collect dust.  Just kidding.   Hopefully this week will have given me the spark and inspiration to keep going.  Thanks for coming here to share the experience!

Weekly house cleaning ~ Thursday

Only two days to go.  I know this must seem ridiculous to most of you (with the exception of my favorite father in law) to post my cleaning lists and talk about my chores.  I don't do it to brag or claim perfection - far from it.  I do it mostly to hold myself accountable.  See, Wednesday is usually as far as I get.  I can't remember the last time I got to Thursday.  I get tired, distracted and plan other things for Thursday and Friday.  But Thursday is a great day!  It's the day that I get to do things that usually don't get done.  It's project day.  So each week I rotate areas and pick something that needs doing.  Today I chose the kitchen/dining area because I knew my pantry was in serious trouble.

I took most of the things out, rearranged, threw away empty boxes, consolidated, and organized.  This took me all morning.  

Each of those different 'zones' have areas that need more than just a weekly cleaning.  And I would never get to them without a plan. Maybe one of these days I'll actually get to the living room so I can clean the inch of dust off of the ceiling fan before summer.  Or maybe not.  

Weekly house cleaning ~ Wednesday

Now that a the bulk of downstairs and upstairs is done, I get to scatter a bit.  First I start the laundry.  Mine and Tim's.  Three loads a week, all done today.  Sometimes if I have a short load I'll do some of Autumn's too.  But Russell and Autumn are responsible for their own laundry.

TODAY is microwave day, along with cleaning out the toaster oven, wiping the fronts of the dishwasher and fridge.  See the water dispenser?  I hate that you can see the hard water marks on it.  I've tried and tried to scrub it clean, also used a hard water cleaner. nothing.  Then when Mike and Jayne were visiting over the summer Mike was walking around with one of his white towels.  Before I knew it he had that thing looking brand new.  I think I'll send it to him so he can clean it for me again.  I also dust the top of the fridge.  Must keep my collection of torani's sparkling.

Again with the vacuuming.  Maybe that slow boat to china is still accepting passengers.

Then I dust and pick up in the front room.  This is my room.  I have my computer and all my crafting stuff in here.  The big cabinet holds 99% of all my photos that I own.  I love having this room here. It's out of the way, but close to everything.

Must go now.  Tim has LOST on pause and is anxious start it.  He can't miss an episode, yet every week talks about how he can't wait till it's all over.

Weekly house cleaning ~ Tuesday

Here is Tuesday's list.  Today I worked upstairs.  

This is pretty much the kids living room.  Russell's desk, a small couch, tv, wii, and board games occupy this space.  They need to keep it picked up.  I dust and vacuum it once a week.  While the dogs live downstairs, the cats live upstairs, so I get a vacuum full of cat hair.  eww.

Will's room.  Yes, those are veggie tales sheets from when he was 2 years old.  I have several sets of sheets that I change out once a week.  This week he gets the vegetables.  We made William's room very easy to organize and clean up.  The black toy box holds all of his costumes.

He has two of these white shelves.  The bins are all labeled for specific toys.

I even labeled the shelves.  This makes it very easy for him when it's time to clean up.  After the long weekend his room was quite the disaster.  Yesterday I told him that he needed to go put all of his toys away.  He was able to go and do it no problem - because everything has a place.  So today I dusted, changed the sheets and vacuumed.  Oh, and I usually do his laundry on Tuesday's.  One load a week.

Our room - the most time consuming part is vacuuming.  This room is huge.  And we don't have much in it.  So lots of floor space.  Someday I will make the room more cozy and decorative.  It just hasn't been a priority.  Not that I haven't thought of a million ways to do it up.  Someday.  Anyhow, I change and wash all the sheets, dust and vacuum.  That's all it needs, oh and pick up any stray toys that Will has hauled in.

I love our bathroom.  While sitting in a hot bubble bath the other day (by myself.)  I was telling Tim that I don't know if I could ever go back to a regular bathroom with a tub shower and toilet next to it.  I love that the toilet has it's own little room.  That door goes to our closet, but I closed it because it's a mess.  Tomorrow is laundry day.

This is a special photo for Kim and Mike.  I dug Will's old tooth tunes tooth brush out of the trash just for you guys.  It was kind of fun to scrub the faucet to the tune of Hakuna Matata.

This morning before starting all of this I did day two of week one of the couch to 5k podcast I never thought that I would be one to run. But I've wanted to challenge myself a bit and know of other people doing this program.  And check this out - See Jane Run. It's a 6 week 5k free training program with the goal being a 5k in May.   I can't believe I'm actually considering this, but it does look like fun. Fun? Yeah, it SOUNDS like fun.  Will I think it's fun once I've committed to doing it?  We'll see.

Tonight our friends, Jeremy and Rebecca, are coming over for dessert.  Rebecca is about to deliver their second baby and we wanted to have them over to wish them well.  I made two sugar free desserts from bariatric eating.com.  I also roasted a chicken for dinner with this recipe. We'll have baked yams with it. Good smells coming from the oven. 

I'll be ready for some serious couching later.