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.