Christmas Crazies!

This year Christmas has been crazy. I totally failed on so many levels. We got out only one box of decorations. I didn't do any holiday baking, nor did we do many of the "traditional" things we typically do as a family. I do however have a good reason. I am doing some baking of another kind. I have a bun in the oven, and I have gone from being super sick, to exhausted and going to bed 2-3 hours early every night. It's crazy. We are so excited to be adding to our family, and I am going to be looking towards better juggling my time. I have this week off of work, and plan to spend some time doing new projects to post about.

Cheers!

Ashley

Far from perfect...

This blog is not about having a perfect home, its about reality.  My reality for the last few months has not been pretty.  In fact, it has been rather embarrassing.  If I were to post pictures of what my home looked like now, you would not only call me homemaking challenged but most likely a homemaking disaster, beyond hope.  I really do want to get back on track, to be able to actually improve my home for my family.  I have been doing a lot of thinking as to what falls under the category of homemaking.

Here are some things that I feel very strongly are a big part of it:
1. Managing the home (things like keeping a calender, cleaning, laundry, anything that needs keeps your family going)
2. Feeding the family (cooking, shopping and what not)
3. Improving the home (organizing, decorating, home improvements etc)
4. Crafting and creating (Making gifts, and usable home items for yourself and/or others, DIY projects)
5. Home finances (the unfun stuff like paying bills, budget, and finding ways to save money.

Bonus things: Hostessing, apron wearing, flawless decorating, pearl and high heal wearing, always put together, puts the "wow" factor into everything.  (I could go on, but the list would just get longer and sillier). 

I feel like these are five key areas, all of which I need to improve on.  As a working mom, it is unrealistic in my home for me to do all of these five things, all of the time perfectly.  Then again, this isn't about perfection.  This is the journey of one woman, attempting to overcome being homemaking challenged.  I am striving to improve these five areas of my life, find new friends in the blogging world to learn from, and possibly as I show my life on this blog show other moms, that it is OK to fail, it is OK for your home to not be perfect all the time.  There others out there struggling trying to make our homes better, with out a huge budget or a ton of time.  I hope that this journey will inspire others (and keep me inspired) to become less homemaking challenged.

Ashley

Home making Fail

I have been failing in many areas of my life of late one main area has been in my duties as a homemaker.  For the past month (up until this past week) I have had the worst case of lazies and procrastination I think I have EVER had.  It didn't help that I was feeling not so great, but that is really no excuse.  I have been able to spend some amazing time with my sweet bundle of joy, who is getting way to big and starting to walk now, but that is another story.

I have learned this past month, that with out a purpose or reason for you to do what you do, it is very easy to see it as unimportant and allow it to go by the wayside.  However, it is important to me to have a welcoming home, to have a place where we can feel good about inviting people over randomly with out me frantically cleaning the hour before they show up.  I want to be able to walk in from a day way to a home that is inviting for my family that doesn't have laundry piles, and dishes for me to do.  I want to come home and feel like I can RELAX and not just see my overloaded to do list.

Two weeks ago, I found out that as of October 1, I am loosing 8 hours of work per week from my job.  Besides the fact that we need the money, I was heart broken, because I love my job, and I love working full time.  I now have to figure out how to cram the things I normally do in 40+ to exactly 32 hours per week.  I have been frantically looking for alternative ways for me to bring income into my home, as my hubby's job is VERY unstable currently (his company is doing worse than mine, and mine is a non-profit!)  However, I think for now I will take this time, as a blessing and use it as some time to focus on me, and becoming a better homemaker. 

I have so many ideas, and projects to share with you that I have been working on the past few months.  I sincerely apologize for my lack of posting.  No internet at home, and no more laptop makes things rather difficult in that area, however as of Oct 1st (not next week but the following) I will have an extra day to work on my postings and set them up for the week.  I think I'm going to have a Sunday - Wednesday work week now, but I may do Sunday & Tuesday - Thursday w/ Monday's off on occasion as well.  Honestly financially we will be ok, as long as my hubby continues to work 25-30 hours per week on average (with no less than 53 in a pay period).  We live as cheap as possible, so I'm hoping that I will be able to use some of my extra time off to figure out more ways to save money.  However, if things get really tight, I will have to go back to substitute teaching again on my days "off" from my regular job.  All of this is in God's hands and a new adventure for me.

I am really excited to be sharing again with all of my readers (is anyone left?) of some of my adventures (and some mishaps) of attempting to no longer be homemaking challenged.  So stay tuned for a new kick off, and perhaps a give away or two in the near future.

Back

I have an alive computer.  Not my original one, but a working one never the less.  I am very excited to be back, and I have some great things to show you all that I have been up to.    Some fun, some no so great, but this blog is all about learning and my process.  Here is a little tease for today:

So long and farewell

My beloved computer has bit the dust.  It will cost $1,000 to fix which means there is practically no point.  Except a new one will cost $1,800.  We don't really have the money to fix it right now.  We are waiting on a few things and we will see what happens, but I very much doubt that I will be replacing or fixing my beloved Mac Book Pro any time soon.  This means that unfortunately my blogging will be more challenging.  *sigh.  I have so many great post planed for some projects and recipes I have completed recently.  I just wish that I could share them with you.  Soon I will be able to, we just have to install a driver on my hubby's computer, so I can upload photo's and then I have to figure out how to run down to Starbucks to post my posts.  We don't have internet at home, (it cost a ridiculous amount) so I used to just create my posts and upload them when at work.  Hopefully this situation will be fixed soon.  I also am hoping to successfully transfer all of my old data to an external hard drive.  I know the data is good, and there (as I pulled some of it off already that I needed for work this week) but we have to format our new external hard drive and run it through a borrowed mac to pull off my whole life.  

Word to the wise, back up your computers often. 

I did it...

After hearing about them for awhile on a few different blogs, I finally decided to buckle down and make a Home Management Binder.  I have the basic sections selected and a basic binder put together, but I am far from finished.  I have decided to start with the basics and build from there with what I need/use and what will work out the best for our home.  Here is what I did:

I started with my computer and created some custom check lists and basic meal planner that would work for our family.  I printed all of them out to put in a very nice hot pink binder (sorry sweetie you can deal).

Then I put some pocket and some regular tabs that I had around to make the sections.

I have the following sections (so far, I know I need more/different ones as I continue to figure this thing out)

Calander

Menu Planing

Future planing

Housekeeping

TO Do

Ahha's

Contacts

Finances

To File

Life Group

Blog

Max

Important

The last few have pockets so that I can slip things in and out of them like unpaid bills and them move the bills to the to file section after I pay them, with my confirmation number or what have you.

My filing system needs help, but that is another post for another day.  I am still not back 100% from literally being down for the count the whole last week.  Hopefully I will be back all the way soon and able to actually get several of my projects done.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week!  :)

Sorry guys!

Sorry everyone for my not posting the past few days.  I have a nasty bug (inner ear viral infection), and it makes me super dizzy so that I can't sit up for very long.  Hopefully I will be back soon!

Pizza rolls and pockets

My husband LOVES pizza.  I would have to say that this was my one big craving during my pregnancy.  Thankfully pizza hut was offering ANY pizza ANY way you wanted it for $10, or we may just have gone broke! I honestly can only handle pizza once a week tops (unless I am pregnant apparently).  Here is a fun "pizza like" dinner that we enjoy having on occasion.  It really is easy, and if you have kids I'm sure they would love it!

Simply preheat your oven to 350 and gather the following supplies:
A baking sheet
Non stick spray
Crescent rolls
Pizza Sauce (I recommend the squeeze kind shown below it makes it SOOO easy!)
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni's

Spray your baking sheet with the non stick spray and separate out the crescent triangles.  For the rolls put  a row of sauce down the middle, if you are making pockets only put sauce on half of them.  We are making both here; 4 rolls and 2 pockets.

Then you add the toppings, ohh the toppings, aren't they the best part of pizzas?

Cheese and pepperonis, yum!  Then for the rolls, start at the fat end of the triangle and roll towards the small pointy end, like so.

For the pockets, place the non-topping triangle on top of the topping filled one, and press the sides down.

Your baking sheet should look like this:

Also, scrape as much of the extra cheese off the sheet as possible.  It makes for less burnt smell and more delicious pizza-like smell from your oven.  Then simply place the sheet into your oven for 15 minutes and you are done!

ENJOY!!!

I originally got these recipes from the Pillsbury website, they are slightly modified for our families preferences. pockets are here and rolls here.

Baby stuff everywhere!

Having a 5 month old child means having tons of small baby toys constantly all over your home.  Mostly ours find their way all over our living room floor.  I am not even going to show you a picture of it, because it is so embarrassing.  So, my hubby started throwing all of it in a random box that we had from Costco.  I really wanted a pretty basket or something so that it wasn't a cardboard box.

My husband likes functional I like cute.  So I set out to find a good deal on a basket or something to contain the baby stuff in the living room.  Oh and yes, that is a wii mote jacket.  Our wonderful son who is fairly mobile and almost crawling discovered it, and likes to chew on it, please don't judge me.  Anyways, while out and about we decided to stop by TJ Max to see if we could find any baskets for cheap.  I was so excited, I couldn't believe it when I found this beauty.

A basket that is labeled "Baby things" and is brown (so matches my living room).  PERFECT!  Then I slowly looked at the price tag, and I was pleasantly surprised so see a little red tag on the price tag.

Not too shabby!  I would have NEVER paid $16 for a basket like this.  $10 is way more reasonable but a little steep.  $7.50 wasn't the best deal ever, but I was totally willing to pay that much for the perfect basket.  It now happily lives on the bottom of my bookshelf, fully of things my son likes to play with.

Labeling containers

Saturday afternoon my wonderful hubby came home early from work, allowing me to get going on the many projects I have wanted to do.  I haven't had an afternoon to work on projects in SOOO long, I forgot that I have project ADD.   I start on one, and then another, and then another.  So I currently have 2 projects that are "in progress" and only mostly completed one.

Here is the project I mostly finished:

I say mostly because my intention was to label more things.  Except I hit a snag, which I will share with you later on.

I decided to take my "indefinitely loaned"circuit cutter for a spin.  I'm holding on to it for a friend of mine due to their housing situation.  I have had it almost a year, and only tested it out once, so I figured it was time to get something going on it.  I loaded some vinyl into the machine, typed out some letters and hit cut.  I did this a few times.

Then I peeled back the extra and it looked like this:

My plan was to do a few different things, but if you are a pro at this, or have done a similar project before, you will already see my mistake above.  If not, you won't figure it out until I get into the project a bit more.  The next step was to take out all the little pieces that are inside the letters.

My mistake is now glaring at me, even more pronounced, but little nieve me doesn't see it.  I cut out the word "rice" and a pice of transfer paper the same size.  (By the way, you need transfer paper, the vinyl doesn't come with it.  And if you don't know that, or what transfer paper is, you may or may not read the directions 5 times then ask your hubby to ready them because you are still confused).

This is super easy right?  All you have to do now, is put the transfer paper on the word and stick it good.

Then peel off the backing of the vinyl

Then simply place your letters where you want them on the desired surface, pressing well with a popsicle stick (included with the vinyl), or like object.

You now have your finished project.

I was SOOO excited, look how great this looks!  And it was SOOOOO easy, now I'm going to label the rest of my containers.  This is where I realized my mistake.  After I had finished cutting the word "rice"I saw a cool button on my machine that said "Paper saver".  In my head I had a simple conversation with myself that went simply like this:  I like saving paper, especially expensive vinyl paper.  That is a genius button, I'm going to push it.  So I did, which now was the cause of my head ache.  Notice how my letters are no longer spaced for simply just cutting and placing.  I now have to cut, measure, arrange and then place.  

 The words "Medina" and "love" are for another project, but the word "flour" I needed to place on my flour container.  Notice how above the "F" and "L" are not aligned with the "our" properly?  Ya, stupid paper saver button.  Still I foraged on.

I made it work, using a ruler, but the "o" was still slightly crooked.  Oh well, i will just place it on my container.  So, here is my flower container.  It was like 2 or 3 bucks at walmart.

I then went to place the vinyl onto it and I realized my even more deadly mistake.  I forgot to measure them to make sure that the words would fit...

OOPPS! (see this is why I am so homemaking challenged).  So as not to be defeated I placed the word vertically instead.

I think it turned out alright.

Except now I'm stuck because I now that my longer words (such as powdered sugar) wont fit on the similar, but even smaller container.   Oh well, you live and learn.  I hopefully will be a bit more successful in my next endeavor.  Thanks for stopping by!

I will be linking up here, so join the fun!

Garage sale finds

This weekend I went garage sale shopping with a friend.  Here is a picture of my hull.  Not to bad for $15 total.  All of the boy clothes are NAME BRAND and in REALLY good condition.  I'm really excited, plus I have big plans (that have already started) for that candle stick and the picture frames!

Supper great morning with a friend and a few good finds.  It was a very successful Saturday morning.

Mini chocolate Cheesecake bites

My very first tutorial, and it is about a desert that I LOVE!



This is a family favorite recipe, and I'm a horrible blogger but I didn't even thing about blogging about it until I was already half way done, so I only have pics for the second half (so sorry!)  However, I think that you will really enjoy this recipe, even if they aren't the most healthy thing around.

The first thing you MUST do, is soften your cream cheese (just take it out of the fridge, open it and leave it on the counter for an hour or so).

When you are ready, preheat your oven to 350

Then make the chocolate batter.
In a large bowl sift these ingredients together:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Once the dry ingredients are sifted, add the following liquid ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 Tbl white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Beat together until well mixed.  It should look something like this.

Yummy chocolate batter.  

Set this bowl aside.

Now we are going to make the cream cheese filling.
Beat together:
11 oz of cream cheese
1 unbeaten egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Once it is well blended, fold in:
12 oz of chocolate chips.

It will look like this (except a larger amount, again picture fail, sorry!):

Line mini cupcake tins with mini cupcake papers (this is IMPORTANT, don't just spray the tins, you will NOT like the final results), and fill 1/3 full of the chocolate batter

Then, 1 tsp at a time, place the cream cheese filling in the middle

 It may be tedious and time consuming...

 but when they are all filled you can place them in the oven for simply 15 minutes.

Now this recipe does make about 4 dozen so if you only have one tin, this is a bit time consuming.  I have two, so while one is in the oven I can prep the other and then flip them.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND having at least two muffin tins, it makes this process SOOO much faster.



Once they have come out of the oven you simply scoop them out gently with a spoon.  Do this while they are hot to prevent the cream cheese filling from cracking.

Then simply place them onto a cooling rack.  

Once they are room temperature.  Place them in an air tight container (ie tupperware) and place them in the fridge or even freezer.  Serve cold.

A few helpful hints this recipe.
1) Don't put too much chocolate batter in or you will have too much cream cheese left over 1/3 means 1/3 not 1/2 (I ALWAYS forget this and end up w/ extra cream cheese batter).
2) They are 1 million times better cold.  So don't let them set out to long before eating.
3) Don't over bake.  They really are done after 15 minutes, and if you over bake the cream cheese will burn.


Here is a recap of the recipe to make it easier for you to copy and paste!  Enjoy!
For chocolate batter:

In a large bowl sift these ingredients together:

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Then add:

1 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1 Tbl white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix well and set aside

Cream cheese filling.

Beat together:

11 oz of softened cream cheese

1 unbeaten egg

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Once it is well blended, fold in:

12 oz of chocolate chips.

Line a mini cupcake tin with liners and fill 1/3 of chocolate batter.  Add 1 tsp of cream cheese mix to the center of each.  Bake at 350 for 15 min.  Serve cold from fridge or freezer.

ENJOY!  They are delicious!