Update: Cookies....yummers!

OK, so remember the cookie recipe using beans I posted about the other day?

Yup. They were good. So good, in fact, that they were gone the same day. I made two and a half dozen. And I didn't even eat most of them! That means they MUST be good, because normally, Anthony won't eat anything with chocolate in it. But HE ate most of these cookies! They were like a fluffy pillowy cloud of chocolate chip yumminess.



Even the dog wanted some! OK, so that's not surprising, he eats cat poop (I know, ew!)

And just because, I'm going to share with you my most favoritest (is that even a word?! aww, who cares!) curtains. I found them at KMart back when we lived in Biloxi, on sale, and I bought three of them. I love finding things on sale! Don't you just love them?! They make me happy every time I look at them.



Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes, cake does fix everything.

A new way to look at Food Storage....

Okay, so in a few posts in the past, I've written about food storage. I never paid much attention to food storage growing up, even in my early 20s, it never crossed my mind. Now that I have a husband deployed and two kids that rely on just me, I've started thinking about it A LOT MORE. What would I do if there was a big snowstorm and we lost power, or what would I do if for some reason the base was shut down and there was no way to get food onto the base? Or a whole long list of what-ifs, to most of which people would say, "Oh, well, THAT would never happen", or "Oh, the base will take care of us.....right? Don't you think so (insert name of spouse who lives down the street)? Oh, yeah, they've got all that stuff covered...I think....." What if they don't? What if they can't?

Or, as was mentioned by a very talented writer, (whose name escapes me right now and I REALLY wish I could give credit to!), what about something that happens everyday; you rush through your day to get the house clean, rush and pick up your kids from school, finally get a chance to sit down for a second and start thinking about dinner, and realize....you never took anything out to defrost! So you scramble around, and end up either eating hot pockets or going to the drive thru. If you had canned meat in your food storage, you could whip up a meal just as quickly as if you had defrosted meat earlier. Or you need something last minute for the bake sale at school/church/playgroup and can't get to the store because the kids are asleep already. But you've got flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, dried beans (I KNOW, wait!) and chocolate chips in your food storage...wah-la! Most of what you need for chocolate chip cookies. I KNOW! I.KNOW. Crazy! I will be trying this recipe this afternoon. Because I HAVE all that stuff in my food storage! Yay me!

OK, so I hope I've motivated someone to look at their food storage in a different way, because I know I did as soon as I read that amazing food storage article by the amazing author I STILL can't remember...grr. I also loved Wendy Dewitt's vidoes on food storage, if you haven't seen them, go to YouTube and type in Wendy Dewitt and they will come right up. I believe there is a total of about 9 different vidoes, which are approximately 5 minutes or so each. It doesn't hurt that she's really really funny either!

Alright, so my list for this week includes the regular old junk (blech!) such as finish the dishes from the weekend (there's a ton! I don't even know why, it's not like I cooked all that much!), laundry which is never ending, try out these bean cookies, finish valentines for both boys classes, and find a new storage solution for the boys' Matchbox cars, they seem to have multiplied overnight. I really think that when we go to sleep, they all get together and have little Matchbox car babies, because EVERY time I find a BIGGER box, bin or basket for them, a week later they don't fit in the new box/bin/basket. FRUStrating! Anyone have any ideas??

Motivate Me Monday and grrrr.......

I'm so annoyed! I finally have a Target in the area, and they don't have fresh produce. I found a coupon for a dollar off a lb. of apples, and they are on sale at Target for 1$/lb. Grr. I wonder if the commissary has apples on sale....

I'm really into apples because I used the dehydrator to make apple chips this weekend. They turned out soooo yummy - just ask Ayden, he ate them all in sacrament meeting, lol. Anyway....here's my list of things to do today for Motivate Me Monday:


-figure out if Ayden is actually enrolled in Early Head Start next year

-finish the pile of laundry waiting for me

-be consistent with Ayden's time-outs (that is obviously an ongoing one!)

-potty-training (another ongoing one)


I love going through and finding everyone's blogs with cool stuff on them. I found a really great one where the girl uses her food storage to make a bunch of great sounding recipes (store what you use, use what you store). Her link is on the top right. If you can't see it, her blog is called Safely Gathered In.

blah blah blah

Well, I couldn't think of a creative title. So there you have it. I just got home from work. I decided I want a million dollars last night. Dad called me and left me a voice mail saying he won the $135 million dollar jackpot. When I tried to call him back, his phone was busy, which made me think, "Hmmm....even though it is April Fool's Day, maybe he really did win....". Yeah. No. Oh, well, more money just brings more problems.

So I ended up getting a dehydrator! Yay! I just ordered the instruction booklet in the mail, and it came yesterday. I'm really excited! I can make "fruit leather", it's like fruit rollups, and banana chips, apple rings, all sorts of stuff. I bought a chocolate mint plant at the Herb and Garden Festival in Ocean Springs last weekend, and I can use my dehydrator to dry herbs, so I might try it! That would be neat if it worked.

Whew. I'm looking through the CPSC website at the latest recalls. I just found 2 recalls for the kids' toys today, and it has me a little freaked out! There is some scary stuff in there; paintbrushes recalled for lead, cribs falling apart, and this one, which seems pretty self explanatory - DUH! What did they think was going to happen when they wrapped a candle in TREE BARK? Retards. Ugh. It takes forever to go through that website, but when I find toys for the kids on the curb, that's one of the drawbacks - having to scour for recalls. The odd thing is, I was looking really far back, and although they DID have cameras back then, in the late 90's and earlier, they had no pictures of what was recalled, only like, a pencil drawing. WTF good does that do, I'd like to ask?! Anyway....it's late, I'm tired. Off to dreamland....

Rain rain go away.......

So today is crappy and rainy. Blech. It makes me so yucky feeling. B is off playing in his room with his trains, so I thought I'd sneak on here quick. I've been thinking a lot lately about an old friend. I don't know if this old friend will ever read this or not. But if she does, I've been thining about her. I know she thinks I forgot her, but I didn't. I get so wrapped up in my life sometimes, and I tend to just assume everyone back home is fine unless they call me. Ever since the day she wrote me an email, all I want to do is cry when I think about our friendship. Ask anyone, even hubby understands (and that's a BIG THING) how I feel about it. I showed him the email, and if that makes her mad, oh well. He was actually shocked. It hurts deep down inside to know that we'll never really be the good friends we once were. We were like sisters. I just can't bring myself to talk to anyone about it, or even think about it too much, cause I'll just get too sad. But it still creeps in.

Anyway, even though I love this friend to death, I can't even think about her right now or I will start to cry. Or get mad. Or both. I've just needed to write what has been in my head for a long time. So, on to the next subject. And if it hurts, I'm sorry.

So I'm almost done with the dining room. It actually looks a lot bigger now, since I got rid of the big giant cabinet in the corner. And ooh ooh! I just checked my email, and someone had offered a dehydratot on freecycle yesterday, and the lady emailed me back and said I could have it! Sweet! I've wanted a dehydrator for a long time. Now I can make apple and banana chips! And maybe beef jerky....maybe not :p Yucko.

Well, I'm going to go watch Thomas with B. It's a crappy day, and sure, I shouldn't let him watch TV. So what. He looks so happy and cute when I turn on the movie, and I'm a sucker. So sue me!