So its March now.

How am I doing on my resolutions, you may be asking yourself...daily, because you're obsessed with my life and cant get enough of me. truth be told.

1. move

So we've got our refund money, ready to replace a kitchen wall and our front window. Then we've got some touch up painting, minor repairs and the house will be on the market! (I have decided to go ahead and enroll Vi in Ritenour so she can "transfer" to the next school. I'm assuming this will be easier?)  We may be looking into private schools for 1st grade though because this common core bs is really bs.

2. try 1 new recipe a week.

I have been doing this, kind of. I have not been documenting it though.

3. Etsy store

So far I have about 7-8 things to list this year, hoping to have closer to 50.

4. write my knitting book

Henry has taken all my free time for this activity. so far I've only written about 6 patterns, which is really sad when you find out what the premise of my book is. haha.

5. hike

nope. not yet. too cold

6. bootcamp dvd

I haven't worked out once this year. I have stretched on my ball though. And I do massage about 10 hours a week...so ya know. I guess that counts

7. me

only time will tell.

8. friends

I've been a total hermit so far this year, due to the weather.

9. money

doing better. Picked up another shift at work

10. clean kitchen

uuuuuummm....soooooooo.... uh. yeaaaaaah about that..

11. $100 a week on groceries

been closer to $150+  my bad.

12. spend less time plugged in.

failing miserably at this..

13. meal planning

so far so good.

14. cloth diapering

doing good!

15. wean from breastfeeding

still going strong 17.5 months!

16. money jar challenge

so far so good! And I have exciting plans for this goal. I plan to keep going until August 2015 for a special 10 yr wedding anniversary.

17. book challenge.

:::hangs head in shame::: 

So I've read the first 3 chapters of 1 book.

2014 Resolutions

Its funny, I just read through my 2012 resolutions and some will be repeated here. Having Henry was a big factor in many of my 2012 resolutions not happening.

Here's the 2014 list, in no particular order!

1. Move!

This includes repairing the kitchen wall getting rid of a lot of the stuff we have. So anyone who got us stuff for Christmas or birthdays, dont be upset if you dont see that stuff this year. We'll use it at the next house. : )  If anyone is interested, we want to move to the Lindbergh school district. Or another state would be nice, not IL for those that may suggest it. Somewhere new.

2. Try 1 new recipe a week.

I did this a few years back and it was really fun!

3. Sew a ton of stuff for my Etsy store for next Christmas!

Had I been better prepared for Christmas this year I could have bought all our presents with Etsy money!  This year I was able to cover a third of the cost! : )

4. Write my knitting book.

This is actually going to happen. Whether it gets published this year or not I have no idea. But I've got a bunch of patterns written and a killer concept. So I'll just be knitting in secret all year. -- hooray for all my facebook friends who probably dont care to know I knit a scarf. lol. You're welcome.

5. Hike once a month, somewhere.

This doesn't sound like much I guess, but when you start from nothing, its not a bad idea to ease into it.

6. Bootcamp dvd

This only takes like 12 weeks or something.  So I want to do it at least once this year, to completion. I figure, I should tone up while I'm still small and before my 30's metabolism takes over. If I'm feeling really ambitious I may try for the p90X again in the Spring. But dont hold me to that!

7. Me

Turning 30 has really made me think about my personality, my friendships and how short life is. (yeah yeah. I know I'm only 30 and you're older than me. shush.) 

8. Friends

I would really like to start reconnecting with old friends, so if you're an old friend of mine and you want to hang out, and you're reading this, just let me know! We're available mon-fri, excluding Thurs. And if you're a relative and want to see the kids more, the same goes for you! We've got very good availability right now. I dont want to hear, "I never see the kids." Because we'd love to get together.

9. Money

We need more(who doesn't?!). Gonna fix that.

10. Work on keeping my kitchen clean all the time. 

The kitchen is by far the messiest room in our house. Mostly its because I dont do the dishes immediately after a meal and they pile up. We dont have a dishwasher. Right now there's a pile of dishes that would probably take 10 minutes to wash and put away, but I'm just like, "meh."


11. Spend $100 a week on groceries

I'm also going to try to limit my trips to Target to once a week, because that place has sucked my bank account dry. Granted, I usually only buy things we need, I'm going to take a harder look at what we actually need.

12. Spend less time plugged in

I would like to limit the time I spend online drastically. I dont need the computer. I dont need to know what people are doing and I'm sure everyone's getting sick of me, or has been for years now, on facebook.

13. Meal Planning

This can make a huge difference in your budget and your diet.

14. Cloth Diapering

We've gotten out of the habit, and now we're back in. Cloth Diapering during the day, huggies night diapers at night because Henry is a flipping fountain at night.

15. Wean from breastfeeding, if necessary.

I originally planned to wean at 12 months, and due to Henry's food allergies we just kept going, now we're at 15 months and I dont see an end in sight. As long as he wants to do it, we'll do it. That includes his college years. ; ) 

16. Money Jar Challenge

This challenge is going around the internet right now, you save $1 more per week of the year.

week 1: $1
week 2: $2
and so on. easy right? Its supposed to be almost $1400 by the end of the year.

17. Book Challenge 

Read one book per month of a different genre.

Sci Fi- Star Wars Heir to the Empire
Fiction, Adventure- Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch
Fiction- The Inheritance of Loss
Religion- Misquoting Jesus
Autobiography- I'm Still Standing
Fiction, Conspiracy- Angels and Demons
Fiction, Crime- The Lost Symbol
Romance- The Captive
Western/Frontier- Christy
Mythology- The Age of Fable
Biography- Benjamin Franklin
Autobiographical Memoir- Speak, Memory  (this one is my biggest challenge. I've been trying to read it for 10 years now)

Resolutions

So NYRs:

#1: Work on Me. and become as stress free as possible.  (this includes many steps, here are a few)

• make money
• relax more
• Get a massage more than once this year
• end my depression once and for all, wait, what depression... ;)

#2: Work out as often as necessary.
This could fit in the last one, but I wanted it to be its own thing. I want to get a couple Kinect games for this, but I need to find out which are best.

#3: sell this GOD DAMN HOUSE and buy a new one.
We’re thinking Crestwood so we can get Violet into Lindbergh schools.

#4: eat more healthy.
We actually eat pretty well, there is always room for improvement.

2011 NYR's and their progress

1. less soda/coffee/caffeine
Eh, not so much. In fact, I think I've increased the coffee by 3.

2. stop saying "like" so much

I'm pretty sure this one was a success.

3. start my flipping business already(which needs a new name)
Yeah, that didn't happen. The stress of possibly moving kept us up in the air and I couldn't do it.

4. write a new knitting pattern every week
This didn't happen. I did write a few though, which is better than none.

5. get a REAL website for my knitting stuff with adverts and all that jazz.
This didn't happen. I did set up an etsy shop though. I've made 1 sale.

6. start treating my body like I'm going to be getting pregnant (because when I was doing that last time I felt wonderful all the time!)
This didn't happen.I tried.

7. keep the kitchen table cleaned off
This got a lot better.

8. figure out where to move!
We have a pretty good idea about where we want to move, and where we should move. which are different places.

9. make millions of dollars by playing the lottery...pwahahaha. ok, jk.
ha. the lottery. lame.

10. potty train Vi!! (yikes, scary)
THIS DEFINITELY HAPPENED!!! WOOOOOO!

11. possibly join a running team (those cost money though...)
 Another one I couldn't do based on us possibly moving.

12. join a gym? I dunno. Still skeptical about those things...and they're dirty. yuck.
Even better, we just bought an Xbox Kinect! I started Lindsay Brin's bootcamp and did P90x a couple times. 

13. try not to be so sensitive.
 I'd have to say this one went pretty well. I'll always be sensitive though. I think the problem is other people realizing that I'm sensitive.

14. try to look for the good in people.
I'm definitely getting better at this. I think this is one I"ll learn with age. 

15. try not to over think peoples actions/comments
This one, which goes hand in hand with the last 2, was a problem. People suck. And I need to deal with that. 

16. keep up with the 5 new recipes a month(cuz that one rocked!)
 This one I didn't do for most of the year because of Violet's terrible food eating habits. But for the past few months I've been trying different things. I have a bunch of new spices in my cabinet as proof. 


All in all, I'd say I did fairly well. Considering there are 16 resolutions here and I completed a few of them. Its better than having a small list and not completing any! So this year I've learned to make my NYR list bigger than I could imagine, knowing that there's no way I could possibly finish it, and being content with finishing only a few. 

Time to make my 2012 NYR list.

Chinese Spaghetti and Meatballs

http://rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=4271
Here is Rachael Ray's recipe. I sort of used it. but not really. Here's what I did, following her steps basically the same...

IN A BOWL:
1lb ground chicken
salt and pepper
chinese five spice
grated: onion, ginger root & garlic
handful of breadcrumbs(I had Italian and couldn't tell)
1 egg yolk
sesame oil drizzle

Mix these ingredients and roll in to small balls.
Bake at 400F for 15-18 minutes (until center registers at 165F..because they will cook in the soup too)

IN A POT:
veg oil drizzle
1 leek
1 carrot
5 ginger slices (coins)
Chili Pepper flake

saute these up for a few minutes until soft

ADD IN POT:
3 C water
3 C chicken stock
1/4 C low sodium soy sauce
1/2lb wide lo mein noodles

cook until noodles are soft.
Add in chicken meatballs and serve. (maybe keep a kleenex near by, because you will cry when you taste how good this is...ok not really, but its pretty good!)

Twenty-Eleven Will Cost Us Thousands.

Justin and I are working on a plan to spend as much money as possible pay our credit card debt off, fix up our house so we can put it up for a sale within the next twelve months, eat MUCH more healthy (like when I was pregnant), join a gym and build muscle mass and get Violet involved in some activities with other children her age so she can get used to "mean" kids before school starts. (Because there are some MEAN kids out there. Thanks bad parenting)

Hopefully everything will fall into place, though I am expecting to have some rough patches. (like the summer when Justin doesn't get Webster money)

So, if we tell you we're going to stay home and all that..dont be offended, we're spending thousands of dollars that we usually leave for fun weekend stuff/eating dinner out.


Our goal is to move the hell out of this neighborhood/house within 1 year. I really wanted to move out at year 5, and we've just hit year 6 this month! :( I can wait another year if it means we'll make more on the house at the sale and so we can pay off more credit card debt.

A small list of things we need to do to fix the house, that we're willing to have help on if you want to:

Fix the stairs/top part of our back deck
Seal the outside basement walls of the house
Seal the inside basement walls
paint the basement floor

touch up (paint) the whole house
make-over the bathroom
fix the back door and frame
fix the broken front window
replace the fascia around the house
trim some big branches of the tree
remove the swing set
get our ducts cleaned
maybe replace carpet? (we're debating on this one)

haha, did I say SMALL list? Yeah, this is why its going to take us a year. And we're still talking about everything that needs to be done. Oh well, one small step for this house gets us into a better school district! :) and Violet's education is worth it!

So, once again, if anyone wants to help us out let me know! We plan on fixing up the bathroom first, which should be pretty easy/quick. (provided there isn't too much mold in the walls)

So, that's what's up. for now.

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Alfredo Bake

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Alfredo Bake

1 box noodles (macaroni or penne); cooked and drained

EVOO

Medium onion; chopped

A few cloves of garlic; chopped

2T flour

1C chicken stock

2C milk

1 box frozen spinach; thawed and drained

1box frozen artichoke hearts; thawed and drained

S&P

Nutmeg

3C cheese (whatever….I used Mozzarella feel free to use combinations!)

1lb Cooked & cubed chicken

1.  cook onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft

2. add 2T of olive oil and 2T flour (let cook for a minute)

3. whisk in  1C chicken stock

4. whisk in 2C milk

5. Add in spinach, artichokes, chicken cubes and S&P and nutmeg to taste.

6. Melt in 2 C Cheese

7. Add sauce to noodles in a 13x9 casserole (or slightly bigger, if you can)

8. sprinkle 1C cheese on top and bake at 350F until cheese is brown.

**this is based off of Rachael Ray's Spinach Artichoke Mac N Cheese. (its just a cheaper version...)

Resolutions

I haven't decided on any resolutions, and frankly I'm just too busy right now to really think about it, so here is quickly put together list.

So, my "goals" for this year are:

1. Get the whole family eating healthy again

2. Find a better job

3. Be happy

4. Grow another 6" of hair

5. Drink more water


1-3 are the most important things to me this year. Last year Justin and I started eating like crap again, I never started my business and I was depressed all year. MUST END!!

I can also admit, there were days that I didn't even have so much as a sip of water because I drank so much coffee/tea/soda. bleck.

So, lets go ahead and change that and get back into health!

I didn't add exercise because I really dont want that to be a "resolution" I want it to just be a lifestyle choice. Though, I do need to get back in the swing of pilates because I've been having major neck/back issues this year.

So, Cheers to 2011! Please OH Please, bring me some happiness!

Better Than The Last

2011 is going to change my life forever, just as 2010 did. Hopefully not for the same reasons, otherwise I may have to sell everything I own to hire a hitman. Twenty-Ten has been one of the most depressing years of my life. And, not to brag, but I've had some pretty crumby years. Thankfully, I was married to Justin and had my daughter Violet to help me get through it.

Screw Twenty-Ten, Twenty-Eleven is going to be BETTER than any year preceding it. Justin and I are going to make it so! Anyone who tries to ruin it for us is going down. (or being shunned, like the entire Fisher Family.(which is proof that I'm not joking.)

I just have to decide on my resolutions and get to it. So should you!  Now's the time! Be prepared when Twenty-Eleven comes! 

The END is near!

I'm still thinking up next years resolutions. Some possibilities for the list are:

1. less soda/coffee/caffeine
2. stop saying "like" so much
3. start my flipping business already(which needs a new name)
4. write a new knitting pattern every week
5. get a REAL website for my knitting stuff with adverts and all that jazz.
6. start treating my body like I'm going to be getting pregnant (because when I was doing that last time I felt wonderful all the time!)
7. keep the kitchen table cleaned off
8. figure out where to move!
9. make millions of dollars by playing the lottery...pwahahaha. ok, jk.
10. potty train Vi!! (yikes, scary)
11. possibly join a running team (those cost money though...)
12. join a gym? I dunno. Still skeptical about those things...and they're dirty. yuck.
13. try not to be so sensitive.
14. try to look for the good in people.
15. try not to over think peoples actions/comments
16. keep up with the 5 new recipes a month(cuz that one rocked!) (do we get roll-overs on resolutions..does this mean I can have 6 instead of 5?)


Well, that's about 3 minutes worth of thinking. I am going to narrow it down to 5, like last year. I have many more.

Where has the time gone?

Well, we're into the second week of November, Twenty-Ten! My resolutions have come to a screeching halt. Here is a recap of my resolutions and their success thus far.

1. Be all that I can as a wife and mother.

2. Make all Christmas gifts for next year.
3. Read more often.
4. Make Violet a quilt.
5. Try at least 5 new dinner recipes a month.

1. Be all that I can as a wife and mother. 

Mother. I feel like I've been slacking in my motherly duties as far as educating my daughter. I feel like I've been ignoring her more lately. I mean, she's definitely becoming more independent. If I leave the crayons in a bucket on the table next to some paper she just colors whenever she wants. She reads whenever she wants. She plays whenever. But she's been watching a lot of TV too. I really dont want her to be watching so much. I only read to her a couple times a day. We used to listen to music all the time...I'm sure I could go on and on...

Wife. This one has probably the worst success so far. Although I feel more close to Justin than I ever have, getting there wasn't easy or fun.  And there are still aspects of our relationship that I feel used to be strong, that are no longer. After starting the year off so well, tragically the night before Mother's Day Justin's cousin took advantage of me being drunk and tried over and over to make a move on me. He kissed me so many times. I told him to stop every time. He just wouldn't listen. I was trying to be understanding because I knew he was having a hard time with the way his life was going and I felt he was reaching out, just in the MOST WRONG WAY POSSIBLE. So, long story short, his cousin told his mom the "makes said cousin  look less like a gigantic asshole" story....which she then told to the family. And now I'm somehow a cheating whore. Why is it that whenever someone is the victim, they aren't treated as such. Just because he was having a bad few months doesn't give him the right to ruin my life. And wtf was he trying to achieve anyway!?  And folks, this is why I haven't been a great wife this year. I've been depressed and absolutely not myself since that night. I've never felt so naked and alone. I would rather have more kids and let the whole hospital check out my "lady business" as often as they like than go through something like that again. What's worse, is now I absolutely HATE that family. And no matter who says what to me, I feel I will never be able to be around them again simply because I cannot trust them. I have other feelings about this matter, but those are between me and Justin. Anyway...I'm trying to get over it. Its really hard. Justin doesn't want anything to do with his family anymore, and I dont blame him, it just makes me sad.

2. Make all Christmas gifts.

Yep, no money.

3. Read more often.

hm. kinda stopped blogging about my reading because I took a couple months to write a business plan, play x-box and then I started writing knitting patterns galore. Now my business has never started because I'm not in the right state of mind. bummer. It was a good one. Maybe 2011? : )

4. make Violet a quilt.

This isn't going to happen until we figure out if she's going to be in a toddler bed or a twin size bed. I'm assuming I should just make a twin size quilt, but I dont know what colors the room will be. These are tough and critical decisions.

5. try at least 5 new dinner recipes a month

Ok, I know I've done at least 4 a month, but I stopped blogging about them because no on cared. So...whatevs.

Well, that started off pretty depressing...I'm starting to think about my twenty-eleven resolutions. I think the #1 resolution will be all about me and becoming more awesome. This year has been terrible and I really cant wait for it to be over. Why do I want to wait until the beginning of the year? I'm not sure. I want 2011 to start as soon as it can, maybe I'm hoping 2010 has something wonderful in store for us still? 

We can only hope.

Jude Law and Michael Caine

Absolutely Ultimate Potato Soup Remix

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Absolutely-Ultimate-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx#

Here is the recipe.. I altered the ingredients in the true Cheryl cooking fashion.

4T butter
2 celery stalks
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic
4lbs russet potatoes
4 cups chicken stock
--------------------
3T butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup shredded cheddar
a big handful of fresh chopped Italian parsley
1lb Smoked Sausage


1. Melt butter and soften celery, onion and garlic.
2. Add in potatoes and cook 5-6 minutes
3. Cover with chicken stock

4. In a saucepan melt butter and stir in flour
5. add milk stirring to avoid lumps
6. add in shredded cheddar and parsley

7. Pour milk/butter mixture into soup mixture when potatoes are soft.
8. Slice sausage on a bias and add in last.
9. Cook until sausage is cooked through.

Delish!  Make this. You will LOVE IT!

Violet Rocks my Garden's socks off.

Hey look, my freesia is growing again. Weird. At this point, I have no idea how many corms I actually have left. But there are a decent amount of flowers popping up.

Violet hard at work.

about 10 seconds after I snapped this one she pulled one of them out and threw it in the yard and said, "good girl!" haha, nope, not a weed. sorry.

left side there are 8!

right side, there are 6!

So, maybe I just need to not touch the garden, and it will grow all by itself! haha. If I had gardening nerves of steel I would dig those bad boys up and pot them. But I'm afraid to. Anyone wanna come over and do it for me?

Venus Breeze

I have recently switched to the Venus Breeze razor from the Silk Effects, which I had been using for about 11 years. I never really had any problems with the Silk Effects razor, I just decided it was time to try something new.

Let me tell you something about me. I shave my armpits EVERY time I shower. I can not stand any amount of stubble. It drives me up the wall. So, the best thing to do is to just shave.

Another Cheryl Fact is that I dont wear deodorant. Well, that statement was true up until last summer. I guess my ph levels changed and now I stink. I need deodorant, specifically for the smell. There was no need for an antiperspirant.

As soon as I started using the Venus Breeze, I started sweating profusely out of my armpits. It surprisingly took me a couple months to figure out the problem. So here goes.

I was washing with bar soap(not my usual soap) and I would always wash and shave immediately after and just rinse the shave gel from the razor off with water.  I have since changed my routine and have not sweat since. (for all you smarties out there, I believe the sweating has nothing to do with the summer heat since I'm in AC all day and am always cold) I should also mention that I switched back to body wash about a month ago and didn't notice a change.

Here's what I changed.
I use body wash and a big puffy job again. I clean my armpits, shave with my Venus and then wash again to remove all traces of the shave gel from the razor.

No more sweat or odor. score one for me! Nice smooth shave, score two for me.

ps-I have since started the same routine on my legs/private area so as to avoid any future pore clogging/sweating. (btw-am I the only one whose knees sweat? That's usually the first place I sweat.)

Feed Me! I'm Yours:

In my efforts to find a suitable cookie recipe today, I decided to scour my personal cook books. Unfortunately I do not own this book, but wish that I did. Here is a funny little excerpt from a book titled Feed Me I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky (link below)

How to bake a cake, with small children helping

Light the oven. Get out bowl, spoons, and ingredients. Grease the pan. Crack nuts. Remove 18 blocks and 7 toy autos from the kitchen table. Measure 2 cups of flour. Remove child's hand from the flour. Wash flour off of child. Measure one more cup of flour to replace the flour on the floor. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a sifter. Get the dustpan and brush up pieces of bowl which child knocked on the floor. Get another bowl. Answer doorbell. Return to the kitchen and remove child's hands from bowl. Wash child. Get out egg. Answer phone. Return. Take out greased pan. Remove pinch of salt from the pan. Look for child. Get another pan and grease it. Answer the phone. Return to the kitchen and find child. Remove child's hands from the bowl. Wash shortening from the child. Take up greased pan and find 1/4 inch of nutshells in it. Head for child, who flees, knocking bowl off the table. Wash kitchen floor, wash the table, wash the walls, wash the dishes. Call the bakery. Lie down.

 Feed Me! I'm Yours:

I'll just make my own fancy letters. :P

I've been seeing big fancy letters for children's rooms all over the place. They are usually dictating a name or just initials. Typically I've seen full first names.

Yeah, those things are EXPENSIVE! anywhere from $10-$35 per letter. Ok, I'm poor and feel that I should be able to give my daughter something cute and trendy for her room.

So, with $10 and some old ugly picture frames/glue/mod-podge I had laying around, here's what I did. (if you have to buy glue and mod podge and frames(dollar store) you can add another $7-10 to this project, which will still end up saving you an ass boat-load of money.

You dont have to be particularly crafty to do this project, just patient. I have never used spray paint before and found it pretty easy to use. (I used a WHOLE can for this project because I'm apparently not as good as I think I am.) Other skills you may need are tracing, color matching, frame shopping and using scissors. You can do this, I know you can. Of course, if you want something personalized/similar to this and dont feel like doing the work, I'll do it, but I'll charge you....5 million dollars. mwuahahahaha. just kidding. 4 million dollars. just kidding, but I'm really not, just kidding, I really am but I'm just pretending that I'm not, just kidding.

#1

my frames are 2-  8"x10" and 1- 5"x7"

Things to purchase:

Go to Hobby Lobby(or craft store of your choice) and purchase 3 sheets of scrapbooking paper ($.59 a piece) for a background. And, if you're doing initals only like me, grab another sheet of a contrasting color for the letters. I bought these little wooden letters for $1 a piece!  Also, I bought my spray paint there to paint the frames and letters for $4.99

#2 Cut the paper.

#1 Trace the letter.

#2 Cut out the letter

#3 Rub the paper over the wood letter to show beveled edge.

#4 cut the excess paper off

#3 Cut the other paper.
Cut the background pages to fit your frames.

Then have your cat do a quality check upside down.

#4 Take your wood and paint outside and paint it all.

After you paint, it takes a few hours to be able to handle the wood again.

#5 mod-podge the paper to the letters, being ever so careful.

The paper kind of buckled in a few areas. This was unavoidable for me since I dont know what I'm doing and making this up as I go. :)

 #6 Put the precut pieces of paper in the frames. I put the glass under the paper for stability.

#7 I used a spray adhesive to adhere the letters to the paper.

finished product. I'll post another picture when this is on the wall.

Patchwork Pillow

Patchwork Pillow

I love this idea. I think I might incorporate this idea with Violet's quilt project.  If I only had the fabric now I could get the pillow ready so she can have it before the quilt.

Also, I've decided to make a twin sized quilt. I figure she can have it longer. I remember being attached to certain blankets and it might soothe her to be in a special blanket one night. I can only hope that she actually likes it. ---which is why I keep going back and forth as to whether I want to make a normal quilt or something more contemporary. I dont really want to make 2, but I suppose I could. I'd rather just make one though. So its more special.

(ps, the ice cream cone balloons on that website are a total genius idea too!)

Clean! -er

Hours later Violet finally let me leave her side. So I got some cleaning done. I cant take the remaining stuff off the table until Justin is done painting...ug. I'm sick of that crap! I think I've decided to bring our extra table upstairs while I make Vi's quilt, so it can be a mess the whole time and the dinner table will be clean.

I wish we didn't have 1 or 2 straggler ants every month or so because I'd really like to re-organize (for the 10th time) my cabinets and put my spices closer to the stove again. oh well.

cakes

Vanillla Pound Cake

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I'm so making one of these cakes when I finish organizing the kitchen! I'm hoping this is incentive. Good thing I have a small kitchen! The table isn't that bad, but that's only because I put a lot of the stuff that was on the table on the counter. :( I'm hoping this is clean by tonight because I'm thinking that Cinnamon Coffee Cake will be SUPER yummy with a nice cup of decaf while I knit tonight!