A Shocking Lesson..

for the record...the closet is not quite done...
& for the record, my mom said that as long as we work on the "weekend project" just on the weekends than it's still JUST a weekend project...

we ran into some..."issues"...
nothing not fixable...just issues that turned into good lessons...

lets just say when drawing up the plans for the closet I was VERY good about taking exact measurements...
I measured how tall it was going to be
....at the front of the closet
     ...and it's going on a wall with a vaulted ceiling
          ...so maybe I should have measured the height at the wall
...oops, lesson 1...measure all walls and heights of all walls when drawing up plans
&
I measured how wide it was going to be...along the wall...
    ...that just happened to have a small bookshelf on it at the time...
          ...a small bookshelf that was covering up an electrical outlet...
     .....an electrical outlet right...RIGHT...where the closet wall is going to be coming out of the wall...
...oops, lesson 2...look on ALL walls for electrical outlets when drawing up plans

WE...both of us...built the frame to the said closet before noticing either one of these issues...
we "fixed" lesson 1, and cut the wall frame down by 3 inches
(not so easy when the frame is already built...and upstairs...and the saw-cutting-thingy is downstairs on the front porch...but totally do-able!)

and we postponed the lesson 2 until this weekend...and are wondering how shocking our weekend project will turn out to be...yes, we (I'm using the royal we there) know we can do this...but he (the husband) thinks we shouldn't ...stay tuned...

I LIED!

I did, I flat out lied to you guys...

I told you I was going to do this triathlon thing,
and I told you I was doing it to get healthy...
that I didn't care a bit about numbers, sizes, or weight...

Well...
I Lied...
yep, I lied...

I do care...
but...

BUT...
I also LOVE to eat...
and my husband, well he discovered the key to the perfect chocolate chip cookie...
not sure what it is, he made them Tuesday night, a double batch...
put the dough in the fridge and has baked up a dozen every night (or afternoon) since...

and last night I ate at least 5 of them (I stopped counting because I don't care about numbers),
and today I had one for breakfast, and two more when he baked a fresh batch this afternoon...

But I can, because I'm exercising
...a LOT...
and because I don't care about numbers...

so, since I don't care about numbers...we won't count the 5 cookies last night, the one for breakfast and the 2 from this afternoon....

oh, and since I don't care about numbers I stopped weighing myself in January...
...it just made me mad...
since I don't care about numbers...
and I hadn't lost ANY lbs, ZERO since October when I started working out 4-6 times a week
...but I didn't care...

but then today, I did something brave...
especially after the breakfast of champions I had...
I pulled the pair of size 12 jeans out of my drawer...(it's just a number, so I really don't care if I haven't been in a 12 since before the girl child was born...9 years ago...but those are all just numbers and I don't care!)

GUESS WHAT...
they fit...the size 12 fit...
so, who cares if they were so tight it looks like I'm going to a rodeo...

...not actually me...

they are a size 12 and they fit...

okay, so I do care...

What is a Tomato?

I just watched this video, a little over 20 minutes, it's so worth watching.  I have a desire to help teach others how to plan, shop, and cook healthy meals for their families...this video got me thinking even more about that desire...I'll keep you posted on that "project"...

"Weekend" Project

My husband loves me...
Like really, really loves me...
My husband understands that my "love language" is gifts...
that doesn't mean I need him to buy me diamonds to prove his love (although I wouldn't complain!), I just like gifts, no matter the size...

So guess what he "bought" me...

almost 5 years ago my husband bought me (and the rest of the family) a "fixer-upper"
...
yep, that's love...
I have always been the nerd with a slight crush on Bob Villa (This Old House)...what that man can do with an old house is...is...well, it make my knees weak!  I see an old house and I fall in love, I see the potential of those broken down houses, I think of the history, the love that was shared in the homes and I want to bring them back to their glory days...
So my husband, my computer loving, video gamer of a husband, agreed to buy us a 70 year old house (well, it was only 68 when we bought it!)...did I mention that I was 9 months pregnant and scheduled for a c-section (yeah, I'm going to be zero help!) when we bought this gem!

I'm not going to say he's not a handy guy...he knows what a hammer is, and his pretty good with a sander, and boy can he hang insulation (in Redding, in July, in a house without an air conditioner)...and I know that he's handier than he thinks he is!

So, more than 4 1/2 years later, we still have TONS to do on our "fixer-upper" or what I affectionately call our money pit!

We all know that old houses come with little to no storage space.  Ours is no exception...sort-of.
The room that our kids share has no closet..NO closet...the "closet" that was in the room at some point in the past was re-purposed as the stairs for the upstairs loft/playroom...it also has a huge wall that is hard to use, the door opens up to that wall =unusable space, it has a large awkwardly shaped door that leads to the attic, and then a small window...

...then walk out the bedroom door and WHAM, in the upstairs hallway there is the largest linen closet known to mankind!  A linen closet with NO shelves...and a closet made with particle boards not dry wall...weirdness (but, well, the whole house has many weird things like this!)...
so the plan...that I've had since day one...
*demo the hall closet and make a smaller more useful one in it's place.
*build a closet on the large wall with the awkward attic door in the bedroom...hiding the attic door inside the closet...
So last night we finished stage one of project closet..
The hallway closet is no longer with us...

some of the pretty wallpaper from inside the closet

...this house was held together with wallpaper when we bought it!

we've decided to also replace the closet with a piece of furniture, we are using a large black armoire as our entertainment center downstairs, but I want something different and my husband wants a flat screen...so we're re-purposing the entertainment center as the linen closet, taking the wood that we saved from the closet demo to build the closet in the kids room...

Okay, now I also forgot to mention that we planned and started this "weekend" project on the one weekend a year that my MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) have our HUGE annual photo fundraiser...so I've been gone all day everyday since Thursday, and am leaving here in about 30 minutes not to return until after 2!!!...so we are now praying and hoping that we can finish our project by next weekend...
Is it still a weekend project if it takes you 2 weekends?
Hopefully I'll be sharing "after" pictures next weekend!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Stickin' it to 'The Man'

I think I have a problem...

I'm coming clean and admitting my problem to all you right now...

I can't just leave good enough alone...I have to just mess with it...
why?
I think it's my way of breaking the rules...

See, I'm a good girl,
I follow all the rules,
I get upset when others don't follow the rules
   rules were meant to be followed not broken!!!
Stay in line, no cutting
Color inside the lines
Go the speed limit (or no more than 5 miles over)
First come first serve
Do what your told and what's expected of you
Do your own work, don't cheat
Say please and thank you
Raise your hand
Plastic and Paper in the blue bin, green waste in the green bin, trash in the gray bin
Don't mix Plaid and Floral together...
No white shoes after Labor Day (okay, so I'm not that bad)...

But then give me a recipe or a pattern and I BREAK the rules!  So really I guess I'm a rebel at heart!  It's my way of "stickin' it to the MAN"...or woman or whoever wrote the recipe in the first place.
Or making my own rules...

So, we had company the other night (well, we have company every Tuesday night, we're hosting an eight week Bible/Book study and one of the couples eat dinner with us before hand)...and it was breakfast for dinner...

The menu-French Toast, scrambled eggs (my husbands specialty), bacon (the other husbands specialty), and fresh fruit...
but could I just make French Toast?  NO...I wanted stuffed French Toast...but I didn't want to look up a recipe (and you can't make me!)...so I just decided to figured it out...and then when my friend Rayna showed up (she's also a rebel and breaks the rules...but I think she even breaks the "real" rules!)...So I figured out the "stuffed" part and she figured out the "French" part...

so here's our version of
Stuffed Blueberry French Toast
2 loaves French Toast (we used one regular and one whole wheat loaf), cut into 2 1/2 inch slices
8 oz cream cheese
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup frozen blueberries, at room temp (roughly...I really just poured in the amount I wanted and called it good)
6-7 eggs
1 cup milk
1-2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheet with baking spray.
Cut slits into the sides of bread slices.  Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and blueberries together; stuff into slits of bread.
Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in pie pan or other shallow dish, dip stuffed bread slices into egg mixture until just coated, place onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 min on one side, turn over and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve straight out of oven, top with butter, maple or blueberry syrup and fresh fruit...

oh, to be regular

okay, going to start my blog with a warning...
...blog warning...
material contained in this blog might be bathroom talk...and might cross the line from fun blog reading material, to wow, she just over shared!
...end of blog warning...


My body fully understands and accepts the concept of food in, waste out...and that it MUST happen on a regular basis for the system to work properly!
I'm just a regular girl...I've always been a regular girl (minus the few weeks after both my c-sections)...
that's just me...

Well, that was true for the first 32 years of life...
then I discovered that I'm anemic...like NO iron in my body!

easy fix, take iron pills...
iron pills that STOP a body from being regular...
like to a grinding HALT!

So I've been adding lots of extra fiber to my diet, cutting back on the dairy (that's two-fold, it stops the body from absorbing iron, and well it doesn't help with the whole regular thing either!), but we are a cheese loving family!, and Bran...Bran is my new bff...

that's where my new recipe comes in.  Refrigerator Bran Muffins, I remember my mom making these as a child (might not have been too young, but felt like years ago, and it's a warm fuzzy memory!).  I decided I was going to find that recipe, no matter how hard I had to search, yes, I know, just ask mom...didn't think of that...
So, first things first, I remember that I want to find and make this recipe while I'm at the grocery store, so I might as well go to the cereal aisle and pick up a box of Raisin Bran and then at least I'll have something that I'm sure is in the recipe...and guess what...the box had my recipe on the side...well, not MY recipe, but a version of one that I wanted to try...so of course I didn't follow their recipe but it gave me a guideline and I took it from there...
I love this recipe because you can bake up 2-3 every morning and just keep the batter in the fridge, it keeps for 2 weeks and makes 30 muffins so that's 12 days with 2 muffins and 2 day with 3...or bake up half the recipe one week and the other half the next...my son devoured these like candy (and he's already a regular boy...his new bff is the bathroom!)

Refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffins
2 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk*
1/2 cup oil**
2 eggs
3 cups Raisin Bran of your choice
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or white if that's all you have)
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 white and 1/2 brown)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins (optional, for those raisin lovers)

In large bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs beat well.  Add remaining ingredients; stir until just moistened.
To bake now...Heat oven to 400.  Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pans, filling cups 1/2 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.
To refrigerate...Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to two weeks and bake when needed!
*to make sour milk, add 2 Tbs of lemon juice or vinegar to the measuring cup and then fill with milk to 2 1/2 cup line, let sit at room temp for 5 min
**to make these lower in fat, I want to try cutting the oil in half and substituting applesauce so 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 applesauce, just didn't have any at the time


Hope you have a regular sort of day!

Just Don't Have Time

okay, so my list this week...
all the regular stuff...
daily-get the kids up, get them ready, get them out the door to school...get some work done @ church...run a few errands...pick the kids up...feed them snacks...homework...reading...try to fit in some sort of healthy moving activity for the kiddos....piano...make dinner....clean up dinner...working out/triathlon training...
weekly-grocery shopping...cleaning...laundry...bathrooms...bedrooms...living room...kitchen...take a few meals to other families...host a bible study...Wed night church...blog a few times...work at church...MOPS....
then the stuff I added to it
*MOPS annual MAJOR fundraiser...antiquities (3 days)
*promised the kids I'd take them swimming (WHY do I promise them things?)
*clean out the upstairs closet because we're going to demo it and build a new one...this weekend? (demo'ing linen closet and building closet in kids room)
*design plans for the new closet that we're going to build (during the 3 days of the MOPS major fundraiser?)
*purging all the junk in my life and listing it on Craigslist
*working on projects to sell up TheSmithHotel's First Open House and Boutique...(I'm making aprons, kids wall art, purses)
*clean out the entertainment center to become the new linen closet upstairs replacing the closet that we're demo'ing...

hence why I haven't blogged this week...I'll try to take pictures of all my projects (craft and home) and blog with pictures next week...

have a great week!