Happy Happy Friday

 

Hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving

and a fantastic Friday.

Anytime I don't have to work on Friday,

its fantastic!

 

The kids left this morning, and will be back

in a couple of weeks. 

I got up early and made Chicken and Dumplings

for them to take home.

They left pretty happy.

Other than that it has been a wonderfully

relaxing day at home.

I did a little cyber shopping.

(I prefer computer shopping over a crowd any day).

Todd worked in his shop.

A perfect day off!

 

So how was you Thanksgiving

and

did you have the day off?

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My hope is that you relax

and take time to enjoy your family.

 

Crazy Little Flower

I swear, everything at our house is crazy:

animals, people, plants.

Look what was blooming the other morning

 

 

The stinking flower thinks it's spring.

It's been 40-60 degrees,

and it thinks it's spring.

 

 

Pillow Attack

So you know how pillows normally look, right?

Something like this.

 

 

Well...the other day I was not feeling well

so I went to bed fairly early.

When I woke up,

this is what I was sleeping on.

 

Apparently I tore the pillow case off,

shredded the pillow cover, and proceeded

to shove my hand in the middle of the pillow.

 

When I showed my kids what I had done,

my son said, "Whoa mom, you skinned the pillow.

We're gonna have to call you Buffalo Brenda."

For those of you who don't get the Buffalo Brenda reference,

you have to watch Silence of the Lambs.  There's a

villain in the movie named Buffalo Bill.

Look it up.

 

So it looks like I will be buying myself a new

pillow here in the near future.

On the bright side, now I have stuffing for

any Christmas crafts I may want to make.

Cuteness Explosion

Via

 

Now that is one BA puppy!

 

Thanksgiving Decorations

I want to add a little Thanksgiving flair this holiday.

So where is the first place I headed to?

Pinterest, of course.

 

I had two requirements -

1.  Cheap

2.  Easy

 

Three projects caught my eye.

 

Via

 

This first picture caught my eye because it looks extremely simple.

I believe the pumpkins aren't real, but that's the beauty,

you can either buy a fake pumpkin and cut a hole in the top,

or you can buy a real pumpkin, cut a hole in the top and gut it.

Personally, I think I would go the fake pumpkin way and

either arrange flowers in a vase and place in the pumpkin,

or buy a potted plant

 

Via

 

I thought this would be nice because all I would have to purchase

to get this look are a couple of tea lights.

I have several fallen branches and  pine cones on my property,

and I thought this was a cute option.

 

Via

This final picture is probably my favorite.
I could picture these drilled pumpkins sitting on a table
in a dimly lit room.  If you did one like the middle
pumpkin, drilled the holes, cut a hole in the top and then
place a cup with a flameless candle and then place a
cup/vase with flowers on top of that, it could
 be an attractive centerpiece.

What are your plans for jazzing up the
 table this holiday season?
 

 

 



Time Saving

As a working mom/wife, it seems like there is 

always something to do and never enough time.

I am constantly looking for ways to save time doing chores/errands.

I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert in 

time management or housekeeping, but I thought

I would share a tip on one thing I do to save some minutes during

the week so that I am not exhausted.

On Sunday evening (usually), I will try and prepare meals

that will keep during the week so that we may have a 

homemade prepared meal in the time it takes to heat something up.

It has never taken me more than an hour to

prepare the meals, and I find it to be time well spent.

I usually talk to Todd and ask him what he would like to eat,

and if he doesn't care, then I just make a couple of easy meals.

This Sunday I wasn't feeling particularly well, so I made meals

that were fairly easy to put together.

First,

Ham with red currant sauce.

I fed this to Todd this evening with green beans and stuffing.

It took no more than 10 minutes to put together.

Next up, 

Split pea soup.

(There are peas in there, they were just 

on the bottom when I took this picture).

Add a salad and some bread, and 

Voila!

And finally, 

Potatoes.

I baked about 10 potatoes (I think I went a little overboard).

We haven't had these yet, but my plan is to 

do a potato bar.

Todd wants to put chili, cheese and onion in them.

You could also do broccoli and cheese with ham,

sour cream and chive,

mixed vegetables

or whatever your heart desires.

I would add a protein, personally, because it 

tends to fill me up for a longer amount of time.

I have a few go to recipes that I tend to default to.

Spaghetti

Corn bread casserole

Chili

Chicken and dumplings

Chicken soup

and so on.

I make these so often that I can put them together

quickly and have them come out edible.

So there you have it my friends,

a little trick that I use that I thought you might find useful.

What do you do as a time saver?

Please share.

I think this could be helpful to several people.

Doing the Friday Night Weekend Dance

 

This was the LONGEST short week

I've had in a long time.

Work was a bear, and I'm exhausted.

 

I do plan to relax, but Todd has Saturday

pretty filled up with errands.

 

I hope you have a great weekend

and I will talk to you next week.

No Bake Cookies

I had a craving.

A bad one.

For some reason I REALLY wanted

No Bake Cookies.

 

If you haven't tried them, you should

(assuming you're not allergic to peanut butter).

Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

 

  2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 stick butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups oatmeal

Waxed paper

 

 

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk.

Let boil for 1 minute

 

Add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal.

 

On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by

the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

 

Not really low fat, but really delicious

if you like chocolate, peanut butter and sugar.

Recipe from foodnetwork.com .

 

Go Alyssa!

This past weekend Todd and I watched a soccer game.

Alyssa Wimmer and Lexx played together on

the same competitive soccer team for four years.

While they were in the same age group,

Alyssa is a year above Lexx.

Ms. Alyssa is graduating from William Jessup University

in December, so Todd and I decided we needed

to go watch her last home game.

I'm so glad we did.

 

WJU played against Menlo and beat them 1-0.

Alyssa almost made a bicycle kick into the goal

in the last few minutes of the game but it barely missed.

So exciting!

I was so impressed with how much she has

grown as a soccer player and a woman.

 

Lyss plans to move to Ecuador and work with

impoverished families in the jungle.

She is truly an amazing human being.

 

Kathy, Alyssa and Max Wimmer

 

Max and Kathy

Ayssa's sisters watching her game.

Alyssa with a big smile on her face.

 

 

Our victory cowbell.

Go WJU!

 

WJU travels to Arizona to play in the championships.

I'll keep you updated as I hear more.

Fall Surprises

This weekend I noticed a rose growing.

Big deal, you might think, and usually I would

think the same.  However, most everything is

dead or dying due to the weather and season.

 

I couldn't believe it when I saw this beauty.

 

It is big and beautiful and purple.

 

AND

 

Remember when I told you that our garden was

sputtering out and it was time to pull out all the old

plants and plant some new ones.

Well, we haven't done either.

I figured since everything was dead there was

no huge hurry, and I'm not set on

planting a winter garden. 

 

Check out this bounty ...

 

 

 

 

The bucket is about 1/3 f the way full with pear

 tomatoes and a couple of cherry tomatoes.

 

 

Sindy had to help pick the tomatoes and

she told me she wanted some recognition for all her hard work.

Here you go Sindy.

you're famous now -

you're on the Internet!

 

So is your garden still producing?

Veteran's Day Weekend

We have started our three day weekend.

Some really big plans are involved.

Are you ready for this?

 

Laundry

Dusting

Dishes

General cleaning

 

My house really does need a little attention.

I've had a busy past couple weekends and

cleaning hasn't been a priority.

I can't say I'm super excited about my plans,

 but I can't complain too much because

at least I don't have to work.

 

Please tell me you that you have more exciting plans than me -

I really want to live vicariously through you.

What In the What?

When I was going to work the other day,

I looked down the driveway and saw

something that I had never seen before.

 

I drove a little closer so I could get a picture.

 

See if you can tell what it was I saw.

Bird

Colorful bird

Disappearing bird

 

I'm pretty sure it was a pheasant,

but for the life of me, I couldn't find his picture on the Internet.

I have never seen one around here so I'm

wondering if it belongs to somebody and escaped.

OR

maybe I just haven't seen one and they are all over the place.

Who knows?

 

Anyone out there know what type of bird this is,

and if it's a pheasant, what type?

My Kiddos

Todd and I visited the kiddos this past weekend.

It was a short visit.

We arrived at their house around 3 PM and headed back home by 10.

Although it was short, we packed a lot in those few short hours.

 

Our visit consisted mostly of shopping and eating (what else).

We also managed t take quite a few goofy pictures.

Typical family picture.

None of us can act serious.

We did some serious shopping.

 

We took some pictures in the Walmart parking lot at night.

 

And in the mall while we were waiting for Lexx.

 

We hit up TJ Maxx,

Walmart, Home Depot, Hometown Buffet, & Bath & Body Works.

After the whirlwind shopping spree,

my feet were aching, and everyone was tired

so we ended up going back to the kids apartment.

 

 

Natan came out and visited for a bit.

And before we knew it, it was time to go home.

 

It was a short visit,

but I got my kiddo fix.

They are happy and healthy and doing well -

I can't ask for more.

Bang

Or should I say bangs.

I got my hair done this weekend and I got bangs.

 

It's been at least 15 year, and probably

more like 20 since I've rocked the bangs look and I really like them.

However, there is a slight problem.

I don't remember how to style them.

My lovely hairdresser, Nicole, works magic.

But when I go home and try and do the same thing,

well, this is what you get.

 

 

Ya, I think I need a little more practice.

 

 

Happy Friday

We made it to another weekend.

Yeah us!

 

 

I'm going to see the kids this weekend,

and I'm super excited.

Can't wait to see how their apartment is shaping up.

 

I'll be back next week with all the details.

 

~Hugs~

Brenda