Cheapest Vacation EVER

We are currently enjoying the cheapest vacation ever. Seriously.

It's Spring Break for Corene. Hubs has a gig in Sioux Falls this whole week (nice timing, thank you Lord!), which pays for his hotel, a daily per diem for food, and even gas money/mileage for the trip. So we tagged along, pretty much for free.

I figure that if we were home, I'd be buying groceries, right? Breakfast is provided at the hotel. Since we have a fridge in our room, we decided to do one meal a day in our room(PB&J all the way...).

We are ALMOST staying within his per diem each day, even for a family of 5. Woohoo.

The thing that's putting us over the top of the budget is our occasional ok daily morning coffee shop splurge. We considered bringing our espresso machine with us but figured that would be a little bit much. Ahem.

The totally sweet part about having a symphony gig out of town is that the rehearsals are in the evening, the performances are in the evening, and the days are... free!! Woohoo.

You might be thinking: Sioux Falls is not exactly a huge vacation destination, and not even any warmer than home.

So, what are we doing? One word: swimming. A pool was my only requirement for hotel. So far, we have been the only people swimming the entire time we were in the pool area (which was, um, like, the whole day yesterday).

Other highlights: TV (we don't have cable at home, and don't watch much at all). We're getting our fill for the year while we're here!!

I am going to take a risk of looking like a total wierdo here, but how cool is the Antiques Road Show? I know it's like a PBS show, I know we get it on our TV at home, haha... no wisecracks, please! But how cool is it to watch someone bring in a family heirloom diamond necklace that was appraised for $10,000 and be told that it's conservatively worth $250,000??!!!! That's my kind of reality TV show.

I know. What a dork.

Moving right along...

Wrapping it up with the quote of the week, (so far) - probably the most complex sentence ever spoken by Isaac:

Are you ready for it?

"Isaac tooted in Sioux Falls yesterday"

That, Mr. Taz, is what we call TMI.

Anybody else?

Does anybody else get the major spring-cleaning bug when you're going out of town?

This used to cause serious consternation in Mocha Man. I can remember really kind of fighting about it back in our younger days...

"Why should we clean like crazy and stress ourselves out when we're LEAVING??"

I don't know why. I just know I HAVE to do it or else I will implode.

He doesn't ask anymore.

He actually even pretends that he understands!

And he HELPS!

Anybody else get the deep-cleaning bug before a vacation?

Unsupervised Children

Corene: (calling) MOOOOOOOOOMMMM! Where are you?

Me: In the basement!

Corene: (coming down the stairs) Isaac is... (pause) He got a stick.

Me: (getting up) And?

Corene: He put it in the peanut butter, and was licking it off.

Me: Where did he get the peanut butter? Who took it out?

Corene: You left it out on the table.

Me: (oops)

Me: (calling) Isaac!

Isaac: ... Whught?

(mouth full of peanut butter, hands full of peanut butter, face FULL of peanut butter, table full of peanut butter... why didn't I get a picture- FULL of peanut butter? Sorry to all the peanut moms out there... I know you are probably breaking out in a cold sweat right about now!)

Me: Where did you get the stick?

Isaac: Outside-in-ot-a-tick. (Outside and got a stick)

_____________________________________________________________________

Nice.

Without me knowing, my silent-while-destructive son went OUTSIDE, got a stick, brought it inside, and was using it as a utensil to devour a tub of peanut butter.

Excuse me, I need to go pluck a few gray hairs.

The Lottery

I have roughly 11,000 posts swirling in my head these days, with seemingly only 30 seconds of energy to ever devote to this poor neglected blog.

Confession: I've realized that I have kind of a perfectionism in my writing which keeps me from posting anything unless I can "craft" it to be good writing (Nothing like a trained writer, of course, ha ha, but at least thoughtfully written). And, though I have the time to sit and jot short notes down, I just never hit "Publish Post" because I've not read and reread my words enough to change it into something that I would consider "well-written".

So, the blog goes un-updated. Sigh. I really do miss it. I miss writing.

Anyhow, I'm not letting this hurried post stop me from hitting "Publish Post" to share with you this little gem of a Bible verse.

Many of my friends have been waiting in Charter School lotteries... If you're not familiar with the process, your child's name goes into a hat with 300 other applicants who want to go to that school, and the names are drawn randomly for the 22 slots available. Then they draw each name in order for the waiting list. You wait for months to get "that letter" that says what number your child's name was drawn as. You pray that it NOT be #300. This month has been the month most schools have sent out their lottery results.

It's totally random.

Right?

Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Maybe not so random, after all... Muwahahaha.

Somebody is behind it all. And He loves you and knows what you need. (Luke 12:22-34)

Priceless

Scene: In my Ebay work room, while I'm photographing a tank and shirt that might just win the "most hideous" award for something we've sold (and, let me tell you, that's sayin' something! Cuteness is NOT a requirement for what I sell on Ebay).

Ava: Ooooooooooooooh. Mooooooooommmmmmmmy. That shirt is SOOOOOOO beautiful! Can I touch it?

Me: Sure, you can touch it, careful!

(Ava touches material)

Ava: OOOOOOOOOOHHHH! It's sooooo soft, and the flowers on it look like raindrops! Oh, mommy, I wish I had a shirt like that!

Me: Do, you, really?

Ava: But YOU could wear it, mommy! Oh, mommy, you should wear it!!

Me: (laughing) It's not my size. It's way too big for me!

Ava: That's ok, you could wear it like a short little dress, with tight pants, like tights that are pants, you know? It would be sooo fancy!

Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't think that would look very good, though.

Ava: WHY NOT???? (Donning her Fancy Nancy pose, head cocked, hip out, fingers splayed)
I think it would look lovely!

Me: (Laughing)

Props: Shirt pictured below, best described as part house coat, part bowling shirt, best suited to be worn by a woman in curlers sporting a ciggy.



Sometimes I can not even believe these things sell on Ebay in 2009.

Cost to buy ugly shirt: $3.oo

Sold on ebay for : $24.10

Chance to have above conversations and laughter that ensued:

Priceless

5 random things I learned today...

*If you take out a container of breadcrumbs to make meatballs, and think "I've had these for a long time", and if you look on the bottom and notice the expiration date is April '07, then you should NOT open the container and look in it. Don't do it. Trust me on this one.

*You can make violins and guitars out of legos.

Yes, that is a pair of tights on her head. Haven't you heard? It's the newest rage.

*Chiropractors are my friend.

*Homemade spaghetti and meatballs (minus the breadcrumbs) taste really good with hot cocoa, especially when it's a winter wonderland outside.

*Having a fire in the fireplace and a postcard-worthy picture out my window makes me a very unproductive homemaker, but a productive blogger.

Pretty Spicy

Goodbye ugly spices, hello pretty spices.

It was so simple, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. My IKEA love friend, Charlene (who has no blog to hyperlink to...yet...) told me of a simple Target item (sorry, IKEA) that helped me organize those spices.

This seems like such a BASIC place to organize, like most people have already figured out how to organize their spices. I had them in little trays that I would slide out and look through... but my spice collection grew to overflowing, and that method didn't work anymore. Look at the ridiculous amount of spices here:

I did a little bit of purging, a little bit of consolidation (I had 3 garlic salts, 2 basils, 2 oreganos - disorganization is a money waster, too...), add an ingenous stairstep spice organizer, and voila!

Pretty Spices!

Pee your pants funny...

It's warm! It's warm! Oh wait. It WAS warm.

I don't even know how warm it was yesterday and today. Somewheres around 45 degrees. Warm enough to shed the jackets, and even shed the sweaters for a moment. There is but one word to describe such a condition:

Glorious.

Part of it is just breathing air that isn't either:

a)outside air that freezes the lining of your nostrils, or

b)recycled inside air that you have been exhaling and then breathing in for approximately 3 months.

Part of it is taking a walk and letting the kids splash in puddles and run around. Yes, running full speed on the melting ice, which happens to include slipping and doing full-blown belly flops or butt-plops on the ice... multiple times. (That's what we call deep sensory input, baby. It's all good)

It's all-around a God-ordained, beautiful, needed, right-about-when-I-thought-I-would-die-from-the-cold, breath of fresh air.

But.

This afternoon, Ava sang on the way to the car, "It's SPRIIIING!!!"

It's February 1. Tomorrow it's cold again. Not Spring.

Not. Spring.

And herein lies the Minnesota conundrum. We love days like this, but it makes us want things that are, um... like...

4 months away.

So. Inspired.

I love to be organized.

Stop laughing.

If you saw my house at the present moment, and I mean REALLY see my house, like looking in closets and drawers and storage rooms, you would have a very different opinion about my organization. I'm well below average in behind-closed-doors-home-organization.

The mantra "everything in its place" doesn't exactly work when, um, there isn't a place for everything.

A few years back, for our anniversary, Matt and I had a little bit of discretionary money to spend and a grandma to take our kids for the weekend. We had 2 choices of how to spend it: a night away at a B&B, a nice dinner, maybe a show or concert. OR, a trip to IKEA, dinner in the IKEA cafeteria (oooh, so romantic!), a host of organizational supplies, and a WHOLE DAY to ourselves, organizing our house.

Which did we choose? IKEA, of course. It was SO awesome, we had a ball, really, it was super fun, and my inner nesting need was satisfied. An added bonus? My house was 400% cleaner day-to-day after that weekend of organizing.

So it might sound like I have a nicely organized house after that IKEA trip, right?? Well, except that... we moved. We live in a new house, and I have many many areas in my house that are in need of some IKEA love.

I went to IKEA on Friday with a friend. You just never know what a whim trip to IKEA may do. In my quick tour of the first floor of IKEA, I got majorly inspired. I decided I am going to organize my:

pantry
spices
linen closet
music studio space
girls' closet/playroom/toys (read: PURGE)
my desk
storage closet (out of season clothes)
snacks (I'll explain later)

So my first organizing adventure was to mount a coat rack on the wall at child level in our entry room. This way, when I say "please put your coat away", there is actually a PLACE to put it that they can reach.

Here's a picture of the space:

We need to get some seating for out here, it's too cold in the winter to really enjoy, but it's an awesome morning coffee room in the spring/summer/fall.

Will you join me for an IKEA adventure through my home this spring? It will probably take me all spring, but I'm determined to tackle my trouble spots one at a time.

This is what we do when it's 22 degrees below zero outside

I AM SO MAD I COULD SPIT

**Edited to add: A fabulous commenter, Janelle, left me this link to clarify the new rules. Thanks, Janelle! Makes me chuckle that they "clarify" it now that everyone's mad, but didn't clarify to the LA Times and all the AP reporters who reported it before... maybe they are "clari-change-ifying" it. Haha. But I'm leaving the post up so everyone's informed. :) Here's the original post:

I'll try not to spit AT you sweet readers.

Have you heard about THIS?

Go read it first and then come back here.

Part of me wants to rant on and on about it, but I'll spare you.

Here's my cliff notes rant:

I'm MAD.
I think the government needs to get out of my business.
I cringe to think about how this is going to affect our planet (think about the landfills of used children's items that are *gasp* HAZARDOUS), our economy in the macro sense, as well as my little micro slice of the economy (to which this regulation is devastating).
I'm MAD.

I hope someone smacks some sense into these people before the regulations go into effect next month.

Go forth and be mad, ye fellow thrifters and crafters.

She's a music video star

Corene has a penchant for taking pictures. And apparently, videos. She confiscated Aunt Dawn's camera on New Year's Eve and produced this gem.

Did I mention it's cold.

-3 degrees.

I got up early this morning to take my Sister and Brother-in-Law to the airport and I *almost* jumped in one of their suitcases.

They're flying back to San Diego. Of all the cruel, cruel places they could be going.

Grumble, grumble.

I know two people who biffed it bad just yesterday on the ice and snow. One took a trip to the ER and the other will be sore for many days.

On my way home from the airport, as I was entering our neighborhood, I saw a blind woman walking down the street, presumably to the bus stop. She climbed over the snow berm into the street and crossed the slick ice, back over another berm and down the icy sidewalk.

She was smiling and singing.

Lesson 101 at 6:00am today:

Count your blessings, name them one by one. Thank the One who gives you those blessings.

And then maybe you will smile.

Even if your teeth are chattering.

Hellooooooooooo out theeeeeeeeeeere...

Under threats of disowning, I hereby re-enter blog land.

For at least a day.

It feels good just sitting here staring at a blank screen. I'm warming up my writing juices. They're frozen from under-use.

And, we DO live in Minnesota, so they freeze more quickly up here.

Speaking of Minnesota, you know I can't go a whole blog post without talking about how flippin' freezin' cold it is. It snowed 6 inches today, and tomorrow it's supposed to be blowing around at about freeway speed.

We have family from San Diego coming in a few days.

Muwahahaha. Snicker snicker.

So. It's Christmas time. Time for some holiday cheer.

I have a confession. I think Santa is creepy.

Call me a fuddydud.

But, we celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas, and what more amazing fabulous thing is there for us to be celebrating? And Santa has a way of upstaging Jesus at His very own birthday celebration. That bugs me. Really bugs me.

So, last year, I was all about telling my kids that Santa's just a pretend man. They never thought he was real, so we never dashed their hopes. Case closed.

Case closed, right?

Fast forward 12 months to yesterday. Out of the clear blue, Corene brings a clay snowman up to me and says, "I'm going to give this to Santa".

(Rembmber, this child isn't one of those story-teller types. She's my black and white child. She doesn't do imaginary pretending unless she's saying, "Let's pretend ___fill in the blank___". She's serious about this.)

Me: Really? How?

Corene: I am going to put it on a plate by the fireplace next to his cookie (!!!!!!) and put a sign that says, 'For Santa'.

Me: Huh. (thinking... do I dash the imagination? Or do I let this go on?)

Me: We used to put out cookies and milk for Santa when I was a kid.

Corene: (Eyes LIGHTING up) REALLY? Cookies and MILK? Can WE do that, TOO? Does Santa LIKE milk?"

Me: I don't know. I think it was always gone on Christmas morning.

Corene: (Thinking....) But, Mom... what if Santa's allergic to milk??

Me: (Laughing) Should we give him some of your soy milk, just in case?

Corene: But he drank your milk when you were a kid.

Me: Yes, I guess he did.

Corene: So I think it's ok. Let's give him some regular milk.

Me: (Big sigh) OK. That sounds good. (Gulp) I think he'll like that.

Corene: (Big, big, beautiful smile) Me too.

Well, my big conviction of no Santa just went kaplooee. Right down the drain. Something about her sweet belief in something just so utterly unbelievable (reindeer on the roof, and a rather large man coming down the chimney?) warmed my heart and made me smile. I just couldn't spoil the fun.

But, Christmas day? It's a birthday party for Jesus. Birthday cake and all.

How do you make the day about Jesus?

Tidbits of Wisdom

If you hear a little Taz voice saying, "Ready, Set, GO!!" followed by peals of laughter, coming from the bathroom, you may just find yourself a wee little mess of hand soap squirted all over the counter, the floor, and on the hands and clothes of Taz. And, if the moment you walk in to the bathroom, Taz throws himself on the floor in a fit of laughter and glee, you will know that it is time to put new jammies on him and to put the little hyena to bed.

If you hear a little girl say "I'm so tired" at 6:30, walk over to the couch, lay down, pull the blanket up and say, "I want to go to sleep", you will know that it is time to put the sweet girl to bed.

If you turn around and another little girl is standing at the door, lower lip out, shaking, and looking forlorn, and when you ask her what's wrong, she says, "I... I don't KNOW! I just... I think I just want... to... CUDDLE!!!", and then bursts in to tears, you will know that it is time to put her to bed.

And then after an extended cuddle-fest, you will put them all to bed and smile.

Because it's only 7:30PM, and all your children are fast asleep.

If all three of the above scenarios happen within 15 minutes of each other, all before 7:00PM, you will THEN know that they stayed out REALLLLLLLLY late last night having fun with Auntie Dawn and Uncle Lee (While Mom and Dad had a cozy alone-night IN eating Carne Asada Tacos a la Jenny...)

Yerrrr the BEST-y.

Playin' catch-up

Life is so good.

Even when we're going at breakneck speed, God is gracious to me.

Even when I'm stressed (over something big, or something stupid), God gives me grace.

I'm thankful for that.

Can I tell you about my new fun thing I'm doing?? So I mentioned before that I was looking for a job, and I found it! In my basement!

Really.

We have a Mother-in-Law apartment kind of set up in the basement of our house, and my mom lives with us. She has this little Ebay business where she buys women's clothing at thrift stores and garage sales, and resells them on Ebay. So with my help, we're doubling her output of items for sale, and I have an instant job!

It's great, because I can work at whatever hours I want (often after bedtime, during naptime, video time, etc...), and it's completely flexible. It's also great because part of my job is... shopping!! Am I lucky or what??

It's not all roses and chocolates, though, because I have this thing called a Taz who happens to come with me to shop pretty often. Taz has this little habit of being a ter.ri.ble. shopper. He has learned nothing from his big sisters who, from a very young age learned the love and art of thrift store shopping.

They would sit in their little carts and eat an apple for an hour. If they got fussy, I'd hand them a hanger and they'd play with that for a while. They were just a little bit heavenly. As they got older, they would flip through the clothes, just like I do, and hold the dresses up to themselves, twirl around, and choose which ones were their favorites.

Taz? Not so much. I have discovered one trick: food. Problem is, it lasts a mere 15 minutes, and then he's bored and full. His idea of shopping is climbing through the clothes and "hiding" from me. At home, it's really cute to see two little feet sticking out from underneath my curtains, while he's hiding from us. It's a game we've played. I've encouraged it. He cracks himself up, it's completely cute.

But not so cute at the store when I can't see his feet and he's crawled 15 feet through dirty women's clothes, where he's sitting on the floor hiding, in the midst of long flowing THRIFT STORE DRESSES with who-knows-what in and on them. Gag me.

Picture me, shouting, "Isaac! Isaac!" as I wade through racks of women's clothing, looking for my "lost" child. The looks I've gotten have been a bit sharp.

So, we have a bit of work to do to perfect the "Taz WILL learn to love shopping" training regimen. Any tips from you die-hard shopper mommies would be welcome.

So, overall, this explains my breakneck speed... we do what God calls us to do, and I'm learning to be content in my situation, to have fun with it, to Praise God in all of the craziness. He is a gracious God.

As you might have guessed, I'm ditching Foody Friday. I can't keep up with it. If you want to adopt it, let me know! It's yours. I'm sure I'll post some if someone else wanted to host it, so if you're interested, let me know.

I'll close with a little 6-year old conundrum:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A simple command, right? What if what you would have them do unto you is to NOT do something? Then it's DON'T do unto others what you would NOT have them do unto you. So if your brother pours water over your head, and you DON'T want him to do that, then, according to this clear charge, you should...? Well, pour water over HIS head, right??

"But, Mommy! You said, 'Do unto others...'"

"YES, Do to them what you want them to do to you. You don't want him to do that, so don't do it to him!"

"But it says, 'DO unto others'. It's so confusing, Mommy. I don't get it!"

(Continue conversation ad nauseum for 10 minutes)

"Forget it. Pouring water on someone's head is mean. Taz, please don't do that. Corene, please don't do that."

"Oooooooooh! OK, Mommy!"

My Brain! It is FULL!!

I could tell you about what I've been thinking about MMS (Martyr Mom Syndrome).

I could tell you about what I've been thinking about re: entitlement. That's deep. Can't go there tonight.

I could tell you how incredibly, disgustingly messy my house is right now.

And how, somehow, I don't care.

I could tell you what fabulous parents and in-laws I have and how much they bless me.

Or I could tell you about my new fun job.

Or, I could tell you that I do NOT currently suffer from Martyr Mom Syndrome and that I'm NOT going to go clean my house. I could also tell you that instead of finishing this post, I am going to go take a bubble bath by candlelight.

I guess that's what I'll tell you. I need to go empty my brain.

Catch ya later, when my thoughts aren't nice little bullet points, flying at me like I'm in a Star Wars simulator.

The many faces of fall

There was much work to be done...


My kids are always very serious about their work...

Some might call it child labor...

But we make him forget about soaking his parents in that lawsuit...


He wouldn't SUE us, would he??

NAH...

It was 100% fun.

Foody Friday - Freezer Meals

First off, I know you want the candy update. Remember my promise of no-candy-by-Nov.3?

Failed.

We still have candy.

However, it is disappearing quickly and the plan still seems to be a good one. My new hope is that by the end of the weekend, it will be gone.

Really.

OK, onto more important business. You might be wondering if maybe I should change the name of this blog to "A Litte talk" since I haven't been too talkative lately.

I've had a few people ask me if we're doing ok, and I assure you -- we're fine. We're actually doing really well, but blogging just hasn't been high on my priority list lately.

Part of it is that along with the rest of our fine country, our little pie slice of the economy is in a financial meltdown, and so a good portion of my free time has been spent looking for additional income opportunities, as well as penny pinching, which has been a bit time consuming (And FUN! Y'all, it's fun. Most of the time.)

My current work project is also fun, and demands a whole post of it's own, which will be forthcoming.

The bottom line is that I'm working after bedtime, and therefore blogging has been relegated to a lower priority. Humph. !! :)

In the spirit of our busy life, freezer meals are my best friend. Especially in the winter when fresh food isn't quite as plentiful, having meals ready to go in my freezer is awesome.

There are so many ways to approach this, and I will briefly touch on two ways:

A) Simply double/triple your meals you are already making, and freeze leftovers. This takes only a small amount of extra time, and it's fabulous home cooked food without the work later on. Many many dishes are suitable for freezing: soups, casseroles, quiche, fillings for tacos/burritos, etc... no special recipes necessary, just a little bit of planning.

B) Buy a book that has freezer-specific recipes, and set out to batch cook, tripling recipes, and have a "day of cooking". This could be great done with friends. I have a couple of freezer meal cookbooks, but my favorite is "Don't Panic- Dinner's in the Freezer". I have used many recipes from this book.


Here is one of my favorite recipes from that book (this recipe is for one batch, easily doubled or tripled):

Chimichangas

1t salt
2lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2t ground cumin
2t oregano
1/2 cup canned green chiles, chopped
1/2 cup taco sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Serving day
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
9 7-inch flour tortillas

Cooking day instructions
Sprinkle salt in a medium skillet. Place over medium heat. Add beef garlic, and spices. Cook until meat loses pinkness. Stir in remaining ingredients. Remove from heat and cool. Freeze meat mixture in a freezer bag or container.

Serving day instructions
In 8-inch skillet, melt butter or margarine. Dip both sides of 1 tortilla into butter; drain off excess. (alternately: spray both sides of tortilla with olive oil cooking spray, or skip the fat altogether by simply warming in the microwave) Mound 1/3 cup thawed filling on center of tortilla. Fold tortilla in envelope fashion. Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7 baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and return for a few seconds. Top with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and additional sour cream.

Yum.

Please, join in below if you have a freezer-suitable meal to share!