I have to brag . . . . . .

So, a couple of weeks ago, Mom told me she had decided to rip up the carpet downstairs and stain the concrete. To which I replied, "um....okay?" I asked her who she was going to get to do it and she told me she was. To which I replied, "ummmmmm......ooooooookay??"

Next thing I know I'm getting phone calls about how to get nails out of concrete.........didn't matter my answer, because she figured out her own way to do it.

Next she's telling me about the pry bar she bought at Home Depot, and the acid wash, the this and the that........anyway, long story short, we went over to see her handy work this weekend and it looks outstanding!



View from under the stairs.................(and Poodle holding court)


View from the landing inside the front door........(with Stinker rounding the corner)


View from kitchen into living/dining area........


I can't express enough how good this floor looks. As a weekend warrior myself, I've put together more than my fair share of projects that one could examine and quickly deduce that I did them. But this floor looks professional. Mom not only took the bull by the horns, she wrestled it to the ground, gutted it and grilled her own T-bone. (and yes I threw out the "g" word for her benefit.)

I've got a ton more pictures and I could literally go on and on about how this looks. But I won't. Because I need to save the blog space. Because apparently, she's only getting warmed up . . .

Author of Peace

After a weekend where I didn't feel like I got anything accomplished (I may have, but I don't feel like I did, you know?), and it being Monday when the kids are always a little weird because they are decompressing from the weekend, and with a really messy house, and a to-do list that was long and growing - I was..... out-of-sorts this morning. No, let's call a spade a spade. I have lost my cool with the kids multiple times this morning already. It has taken me all morning to pay bills, I'm only halfway thru with getting "the bed" washed, (I'm doing everything on our bed today - sheets, bedspread, extra blankets, and the mattress pad that takes a minimum of two cycles to dry. This is the type of day that Jmk could probably talk me into one of those washing machines that does "17 pairs of jeans at one time" or whatever it is), and I've got so many things swimming in my mind, that even my to-do list isn't helping me stay focused, like it usually does.

I guess you can tell that I'm in a state right now.

Well, in the middle of all this, when I was close to absolutely breaking down, I get an email from dear Sister Patty, a sweet church friend. I was waiting on an email from the mortgage company to get a blasted access code so I could log onto our account, and instead, the Lord blessed me with something that I needed to see and read.
I don't need to be on here blogging right now, but one of you out there may need this as much as I did. There's a reason that my messy house is breaking me down - because there is no peace in cluttered countertops and junk-filled floors.

I hope you get the comfort from this that I did:

O Lord, You are not the author of confusion

And that is what I feel today.

This home that You have blessed me with

Overwhelms me with its abundance.

As I skirt around misplaced objects and clothes

I find myself sinking into despair.

Though my cup runneth over I feel no peace

For there is no order here.

O Lord, You are not the author of confusion

For You are orderly and perfect and just.

Grant me the strength to find my way back to peace

To find enjoyment in Your provision and my orderliness .

I have not been careful with my time and I now reap

The rewards of idleness and lack of planning.

Help me redeem my time and reclaim my home,

That I may serve You and my family better.

O Lord, You are not the author of confusion,

Help me to discern those possessions that are truly needful

And dispense of that which is robbing me of my joy.

For having too much is as much a curse as having too little-

This anguish of soul and spirit still causes me grief the same.

Teach me Lord to be content with sufficient for each day,

For by freeing my heart of this burden of over abundance,

I will make more room in it for You.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks 2005

'For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.'
1 Corinthians 14:33

Well, this explains a lot!

I've always loved the look of pearls, and an article in the recent Southern Living just clued me in to what MUST be the reason.

I can't find a link to the direct article in SL, but this article explains it pretty well too.

The basic gist of the article, for me:
Although only one-tenth of one percent of the world's cultured pearls come from their waters, approximately 90% of all cultured pearls begin with a mother-of-pearl nucleus taken from the shell of a Tennessee mussel.


There's a little Southern charm in most all of those pearls, girls! A little bit of Dixie inside each lovely jewel. That's why we ALL need a few strands. ::vbg::

For Jmk.....

...to remember in those later years when Poodle dares to bring a boy to meet her Daddy.....

I just lit a candle, and was letting her blow out the match. She pretended it was a birthday candle and here was her wish:

"I wish, I wish - to love my fahther fo-ever and ever!"

Honey, you'll always be her first love. :-)

Overhead in the Park.....

Woman #1 (with more fashion than sense): What in the world are those women doing wearing flip-flops? Don't they know it's October?

Woman #2 (with more patience than me): But it's October in (insert our state of residence here). It's too hot for anything else!

Kudos my dear!!! Comfort and common sense a part of our fashion decisions - that's what I like to see! I know that I'm still a slave to the no-white-shoes-after-Labor-Day rule, and all that..... but I say if it's 78 degrees in December (which isn't uncommon in the Deep South), then wear those flip flops. Hose? Bah - who needs 'em? (And I don't care how white your legs are. Un-hose those white legs!) They're helpful in the little bit of cold weather we get. Other than that, they are good for nothing but upping your core body temperature.

You get my point. I think we should have an award for people who spread common sense and logic in the face of questionable opinions that really don't make sense. The Zoo's FlipFlop award?

FlipFlops to you, Woman Number Two!!!

Website Update

Okay. I feel the need to explain something. I haven't updated the website in forever, because:
#1 - it takes time that I don't usually have. I depend on the blog, mostly.
#2 - our desktop crashed awhile back, taking with it 2 months of pictures that I didn't have stored elsewhere. My brother is working with it to see what can be salvaged, so we'll see what can be done.
#3 - Sony's Imagestation website is closing, and it has taken me awhile to decide where to start posting pictures.

I wanted a place that could do a few things: give me lots of storage for free, not make people sign into the site in order to see the pictures, allow me to password the site so I could post a direct link from the blog, and be easy for me to create the only album.

Couldn't find that animal.

Finally decided to just go with Google's Picasa for now, and will see what else is out there. But, I can't password protect the album. And, because I tend to include personal info on the pictures (like names!), I don't want to post a direct link to the pictures.
Crazy people use the internet, unfortunately.

So, I have gotten August's pictures up to view, and will wait and see what kind of problems may unfold before I put up any more. The website address is described at the top of the blog - but if you want to see the pictures, and aren't sure about the website address, just leave me a comment, and I'll email the link to you!

Practice

The Zookeepers have picked up a new camera which is quite a bit smaller than our old one (and, no - there's no velcro holding this one together), so I'm having to get used to the new one. And what better way than to snap the kids!

I loved this one of Poodle, because she has her baby face in it. ::sniff sniff:: sigh......





And - Mr. Tooter. He pretty much has his stinker face!!!
:-)

Thank Goodness for Audrey

Preface note - Audrey is Poodle and Tooter's dear baby cousin, who is a mere almost-7-months old.

So, we're walking yesterday afternoon, and we pass by another family walking with their two kids - one I would guess about 2 years old, and the other one was just a wee lass (or maybe lad). Poodle promptly told us that SHE wanted a baby. Jmk and I raise eyebrows at each other and tell her that she has Tooter. Just to see what happened. (And, I was thinking about what I had read on a friend's blog about what her 4 year old had said about his baby sister. Which was very sweet. I wasn't expecting quite the same response from Poodle). So, anyway, we mention Tooter, and she turns around and looks at him... just studies him intently. Then turns back around to face forward and says "No, I don't think so. I want a girl baby".

More raised eyebrows between me and Jmk.

I tell her that Mommy doesn't have any babies in her tummy, and that we can't promise her a girl baby anyway.

Well, this isn't going to do, of course. So, she says "oh, what am I going to do about a girl baby? Oh! That's right!!! I have baby Audrey!!!"

lol.... I guess we can keep those infant clothes up in the attic a little while longer. ;-)

Playing with the camera

This was in front of Poodle's swimming class yesterday - they are all decked out for Halloween! This is one of those blow-up dealies, with the extra added fun of a speaker that lets out one of those yowling cat cries. Right after Poodle's little I-Just-Won-The-Title-Of-Miss -America pose (which she managed all on her own), the cat started yowling, and she turned around a few times and ran back to me. It was pretty funny.





This is Poodle and Brooke - one of her swim class buddies. They were waiting on the other boys in the class to get there, and were having a very intense discussion about a toy that Brooke has. It's a Barbie fishing pole. Mmm-hmmmm. Sounds like Santa Claus is going to be taking a trip to Bass Pro Shop before coming to the house this year!

This is why we have a dog.

This dog is finally coming in handy.
;-)

Late yesterday afternoon, as Jmk was on his way home from work, I was trying to get supper started while the kids were wanting to play outside. This quickly turned into wanting to throw the ball to Custard, so I just left the back door open, watched them through the windows, and kept on chopping potatoes and veggies. (After taking a moment to grab a picture or four out the back door).

He kept them happily amused for a good 15 minutes! It was fabulous!!!



This was a shot of Cus in mid catch. Poodle was cracking up in the chair, and Toot was in the process of getting the other ball to keep the dog hoppin'. It was fantastic. I was seeing future visions of being able to tell the kids "go outside and play" while I stayed inside to turn on "mommy music" and listen to peace and quiet! Woohooo!

Now, wait a minute.

So, we're walking after supper tonight, and we get in a conversation with Poodle about why the sun goes down earlier this time of year. That leads into asking her about the seasons, and Jmk starts helping her with the order of said seasons.

In case you weren't aware of the proper order of the seasons of the year, they are as follows:

Spring.
Summer.
Fall.
Deer.

And, there you go.

Yahhhh!!!!!

It's Friday!!!!!!!!!

Daddy's Birthday

Daddies always need lots of hugs and kisses on their birthday. It's an absolute necessity. This came shortly after we sang the Happy Birthday song to, as Poodle puts it, "my fahtha"

And even MORE smooches and hugs from Tooter Pooter!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JMK!!!

I am so glad that they built the DeSoto County Civic Center.

::smile::

I love you so much, and I hope you have a wonderful day today! We'll see you soon!!!

Pachelbel Bedtime

For Mommies and Daddies everywhere... hat tip to Rebecca Thomas for this fabulous youtube moment!

Another use for Coke

Unfortunately, it's another one of those things that makes you wonder why we put that stuff in our bodies. Why does it have to taste soooooo good?

Anyway, this household tip is along the lines of coke-helps-you-keep-your-car-battery-terminals-clean,. You've been warned.

It also helps take chlorine out of your hair!

We get back from Poodle's swim lessons right at lunch time - and it's always a rush for me to get them fed fast enough and to nap fast enough without losing Tooter in the process. Sometimes I'm able to get her hair rinsed out properly, and sometimes, well...... you know what chlorine does to blond hair.

So, I read this tip online - pouring a can of coke over hair will help to strip the chlorine out of it!
::gulp::
And it does. Yay for that!!! I used both a can of diet coke which took about half of it out, and then used a can of "real" coke that night to get the rest of it. Both worked about as well as the other. I think there's maybe still a little bit of the greenies left - but I don't know that you'd notice it unless you had the perfect lighting and were trying to find shades of green.

But, for me, it's just one more thing to think about when I pop the top on my occasional treat of coke. This stuff is capable of cleaning my car battery terminals and stripping chlorine out of blond hair.
Ugh.
Maybe this will make it even easier to save the 110 calories.

I'll just substitute with chocolate. Ha!!!

The first sign that....

a person needs to relax.....

I just caught myself trying to remove a stain from one of Tooter's t-shirts. The slogan on the t-shirt says "Dirt is my favorite color".

Mmmhmmmm. Me thinks I need to chill out a wee bit!

Journey of the cake and "ganache" recipe

So, a couple of months ago, I asked Poodle what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. At that time, she told me she wanted a "tower cake with Snow White Princess on top". Mmmhmmm. Jmk was figuring out how to configure this architectural marvel.

Then, the tower cake became a pink cake with pink icing. And Snow White Princess on top.

She then decided she wanted a pink cake with purple icing. (And maybe some pink flowers).

Then she wanted an ice cream cake.

Then, it was back to pink cake and purple icing, BUT, with ice cream on top.

Then, all of a sudden, she wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing with blue flowers. And she didn't change her mind except for saying a couple of times that she didn't want any blue flowers. But then decided that some blue roses were "very pretty".

Well. As you may know, I enjoy making her cakes. I'm not all that great at it - never taken a class or anything. But I enjoy doing it. However, due to my unschooled skills, figuring out what I'm going to do takes some thinking. And with Miss Priss changing her mind so many times, the culinary section of my brain was in a tizzy!

But when she made the momentous decision to go all chocolate, I knew that I wanted the icing to be a smooth and shiny concoction.

Hmmmm.... ganache! Hours of watching FoodTV paid off!

Ganache is a simple mixture of heavy cream and chopped chocolate. BUT, I don't usually have heavy cream at the house. HowEVER, I do have COOL WHIP! Plus, the extra corn syrup junk in the cool whip helps to keep the "ganache" shiny. Another plus, ganache is a pourable type of icing that is really very yummy.

So, the only right thing to do in this situation, of course, is to share the chocolate joy!

It's a hard recipe, just so you know. ::cough cough::

Ingredients:
Equal parts cool whip and chocolate chips. (A bag of chocolate chips is around 2 cups - just fyi).

Put the cool whip into a microwable container and bring just to a boil.
Pour chocolate chips into hot, liquid cool whip.
Stir really well until everything is combined, dark, and shiny.

Pour over cake.

Told you it was hard. :-)

The more cool whip you add, the thinner the "ganache" becomes. Somewhere around 4 parts cool whip to 2 parts chocolate chips makes for a fantastic sauce for ice cream!

AND, the extra keep nicely in the refrigerator. Just scoop out what you want to use, heat it up in the microwave to loosen it up, and you're done.

Go have some chocolate fun today!!!

Bowling Babies

The day before Poodle's birthday, the CHEC group (the homeschool group) went bowling! This was her first time to bowl, and she had a blast. They also celebrated the kids who had birthdays in either Aug & Sept or Sept & Oct, so that was extra special for Poodle, too!

I was a bit crazy trying to keep up with Tooter, since he didn't exactly bowl, but we all had fun! Until the very end when Poodle's lack of a nap kicked in - but, she was too excited about the idea of doing something new and knowing she had a party coming up the next day, and she just couldn't sleep. Whadayagonnado?

This is a great group of kids - fun time for all!