{the ringpop bride}

Wanted: Landscaping Ideas!

2008-03-05T10:38:00.003-05:00

Today's expected high is 2 degrees below zero. And considering that last week it was a bitter 14 below, I'm getting geared up for spring.

Did I mention that my hubby couldn't get the car up the big snowy hill at the end of our road this morning and had to call a tow truck to get him out of the ditch? And that the tow truck couldn't come out for hours because he had to wait for our road to get plowed. And that I REALLY need to believe that spring is just around the corner or I just might go absolutely stir crazy stuck inside this house everyday with 2 little babies... We need our vitamin D!!!

So today is Works-For-Me-Wednesday, Backwards Edition. Which means that I get to ask my lovely readers for some advice. So, in the name of spring... I'm going to ask for some landscaping help. And while I enjoy your wonderful answers I'm going to pretend that my front yard isn't buried under 4 feet of snow.

We built a house a year and a half ago and haven't yet done much with our yard. Last year we started a vegetable garden and built a chicken coop...but the rest of the space is mostly dirt and weeds and whatnot. We do have a beautiful split rail fence out front that we intend to keep. What I need from you is some landscaping inspiration; hopefully from your own blogs, but links to sites you've found useful are appreciated as well. I want to see pictures of and read about wild flower gardens, homemade stone pathways and wooden arbors, entry gardens and herb gardens and butterfly gardens and so on!!! I want to be inspired by the thrifty and beautiful ideas of others. So please, what inspiring landscaping websites and blog posts Work For You?

It's a Girl!!!

2008-02-25T11:29:00.004-05:00

I am pleased to announce the arrival of our second little blessing (finally!~) Emma was born on February 18th and is healthy and beautiful. Thank you for all your prayers and well-wishes.

As you can imagine, I have my hands full... so you can expect my blog updates to continue to be sporadic at best for a little while.

Here's a pic of Hubby and Emma cuddling on the sofa. He's such a proud papa.

Homemade Pita Bread!

2008-02-15T10:04:00.007-05:00

First Thing First... in case you're one of my regular readers...(the best i can tell there are atleast 2 of you out there!) and you're here to find out if i've delivered a bouncing baby yet... the answer is no. We are still waiting on little blessing number two to arrive... and I suppose I am learning patience.

Now for my frugal friday post.

I bake most of my own breads and baked goods because I just can't get over how much the grocery store charges for stuff that is mostly flour and water. Even if you don't already do alot of baking, these are easy, delicious, and cheap.

Warning: once you've tried these delicious and moist pitas, you won't want to buy the dry icky grocery store ones ever again.

Yummy Homemade Pitas

1 cup of warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
up to 2 1/2 cups white flour
olive oil

1. Place water in a bowl and sprinkle with yeast. Let yeast dissolve.
2. Add honey, salt and whole wheat flour. Stir.
3. Add enough white flour that dough is no longer particularly sticky. knead until smooth.
4.rub dough with a small amount of oil and let rise for approximately one hour
5. Beat down dough. Divide into six peices and roll out into circles. Let rise again, about 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 500 degres. Brush one side of each circle with a small amount of olive oil and place, oil side down, on baking sheets. Bake for 6-8 minutes. As they bake, you'll be able to see them puffing up and forming the "pockets".

7. Now here is the important part: If you just let the pitas cool on a cooling rack they will be tough and crispy and not all great. What you do to make them soft and marvelous is wrap them in a slightly dampened dish cloth, and then wrap that in a few pieces of newspaper. Let them sit, wrapped up, for about 15 minutes. Then cut in half, stuff with something yummy, and enjoy.

I like to use the quick rising yeast so that i can make these in half the time. I've also been using the Kitchen Aid stand mixer that my wonderful hubby blessed me with at Christmas to knead them up...if you have one go ahead and use it for this recipe (and, um....practically anything and everything else. Yay Kitchen Aid!)

We like to fill ours with BBQ chicken breast, mozzarella cheese and red onions (all purchased on sale, of course!) Sometimes we add rice, bacon, grilled red pepper, or anything else that strikes our fancy. If you know of any especially yummy pita fillings, I'd love to know about them!

8 Rules of an efficient housewife

2008-02-13T14:07:00.005-05:00

As I write this I am approximately a trillion weeks pregnant. (okay...more like 41 weeks...what is this baby waiting for?)

The last couple months of this pregnancy have been tiring for me. Between growing a baby and caring for a one year old, I'm finding myself exhausted more than I expected I would. The blessing in disguise, however, is that this exhaustion has forced me to become more organized and efficient in order for anything to get done around here.

I've cultivated some habits over the last few months that have made my life way easier. My home is (for the first time ever) always clean enough for people to just drop by. I finally feel like I'm in control of the housework...instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. So I thought that for this weeks edition of Works For Me Wednesday (which is being hosted this week at Don't try this at home) I'd share the ground rules I laid for myself in order to become a more efficient housewife.

Most of this stuff is common sense stuff that our mothers' tried to teach us. If your already doing all of this all of the time, kudos. If your not, maybe you'll find like I did that cultivating some new habits can really make your day run smoother.

1. Do a load of laundry every day. Not only that, but fold it and put it away too. This has two advantages: The obvious one being that your kids and husband always know where to find a clean pair of underpants. The second is that you will no longer be tripping over a huge stinky reminder of how far behind you are (otherwise known as a laundry pile).

2. Do all your chores in the morning. Better yet, plan to get them all done by 8,9, or 10 am. This means having the basics of your to-do list done, except maybe some laundry that may still be drying. That way, you have all afternoon to prepare dinner, play with the kids, work on some projects, pay some bills, whatever!

3. Clean up the kitchen immediately after dinner. It's tempting to let those dishes "soak" until we feel motivated enough to clean them... but just get them done, you'll be glad you did. And don't forget to shine your sink!

4. Have a place for everything. If you can't store it all, you have too much stuff. De-clutter and organize until your able to conveniently and attractively store it all.

5. Put stuff away when your done with it. After all, your trying to teach your kids to do this! The other day I was baking some cookies and vacuuming. When I finished vacuuming, the oven timer said the cookies only had 47 seconds left.... I debated leaving the vacuum out, but instead rushed to put it away. You know what? I returned to my cookies with 18 seconds to spare.... Why procrastinate little jobs that only take 29 seconds?

6. Use 'pockets' of time. These are the little bits of time you have while waiting for something else. For instance, every morning I make the bed while I wait for the computer to boot up.

7. Don't watch t.v. during the day. Your husband probably isn't watching doctor Phil while he's at work, so you don't need to be watching it while you fold the laundry. You may also need to be careful how much time you spend on the computer... it can be a real time waster ( except, of course, if your reading my blog... that's time well spent, right?)

8. Keep a Home Management Binder. It's way easier to manage your home when you have all your to-do list, routines, meal plans, recipes and phone numbers in one place. I plan to post all about my own Home Management Binder sometime soon, but in the meantime there are all sorts of bloggers out there who've posted about their binders if you need some help getting one started.

This is what works for me. I hope it helps!

Cheap cloth diapers

2008-02-08T14:27:00.001-05:00

My husband and I started using cloth diapers on our darling daughter Hannah many months ago. We chose flat diapers because they were cheapest, and also used some pre-folds that had been given to us. But when Hannah began sleeping through the night, she began waking up in puddles of pee-pee.... the cheap diapers just couldn't stand up to all that wetness.

Because it's both a shame and a crime to wake a sleeping baby, I was not eager to consider the option of waking her for a mid-night diaper change.

So we started using disposable diapers at night. And because it's the cheapest way to buy them, we purchased the great big economy package of diapers. So because we had about 150 paper diapers lying around at any given time, we found ourselves reverting to our old ways. Hannah was only wearing cloth ablout half the time...and we were throwing good money in the trash.

The answer is a good quality cloth fitted diaper, but those can cost anywhere from 12 -20 dollars EACH, not including shipping costs!!! Not an option.

But this week we were in Sears with a gift card we'd been given and found some Kushies fitted cloth diapers. We bought a pack of 8 for 36 dollars! Can you believe that?

They are great. They work wonderfully at night time, so we can stop throwing money away on disposables! Right now we only use them at night and nap time because we only have 8 of them, but in time we'll get more and use them all the time for both babies (I'm due with baby #2 on Sunday!!!)

We use the Kushies diaper wraps on top of them, which is what we were using with the flat diapers too. They only come in velcro, which doesn't seem to stay on very well when Hannah is running and playing, so I think I'm going to swing by my friendly neighbourhood dollar store and get some little snaps to sew on.

Anyways, for those of you who can't make it out to a Sears store (I think it's a Canadian chain) here's the Kushies website where you can buy them. These are by far the best priced fitted diapers i've seen anywhere.

Happy diapering!

It's Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood. Go check it out and find all sorts of ways to save money.

Breakfast on Route 66 (not really)

2008-02-03T08:11:00.001-05:00

Hubby took me to a wonderful restaurant Saturday morning for breakfast. It's called Stop 33 Grill.

The walls are painted with beautiful southwestern murals.

The food was wonderful. And plentiful. Can you believe their breakfast special comes with 6 pieces of bacon?

Hubby liked it too.

It was a nice warm start to a snowy weekend. It left me longing for a trip to the desert.
I hope your weekend was just as wonderful.

76 Uses for Baking Soda

2008-02-01T07:52:00.001-05:00

This is my Frugal Friday Post for the carnival over at Biblical Womanhood. Head on over there and find all sorts of great money saving ideas.

Recently, when plagued by what seemed to be a hoplessly stinky bathroom sink drain, I discovered the wonders of baking soda: my bathroom is now as sweet smelling as ever. It seems baking soda will clean ANYTHING. I haven't tried many of these tips yet, but i intend to. By cleaning with baking soda, I can save a small fortune on cleaning supplies as well as reduce the number of harmful chemicals I use in our home.

And because there's no point learning about how to make your home sparkeling clean for cheap if your not actually doing it, I challenge you to go try any 3 of these tips and then come back and let me know how well it worked. Just leave a comment on this post... i would love to hear about you adventures in frugal housework.

In the Bathroom
1. Deodorize your sink: sprinkle 1/4 cup of baking soda down drain, followed by 1 cup of white vinegar. Leave 20 minutes and then pour a kettle full of boiling water down the drain
2. Use as a tub and tile cleaner.
3. Clean combs and brushes: soak in a sink full of water and 2 tsp baking soda
4. Clean toothbrushes: soak overnight in a solution of 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup water. Rinse clean.
5. Clean your toilet tank: Sprinkle baking soda into the toilet tank. Let it stand overnight before flushing.

In the Kitchen
6. Unclog your sink. See tip #1
7. Put out small grease fires
8. Wash and deoderize garbage can
9. Keep an open box of baking soda in fridge to absorb odors
10. Use baking soda mixed with water on a damp sponge to clean refrigerator surfaces
11. Polish silverware with dry soda on a damp cloth. Rub, rinse and dry.
12. Periodically run your empty dishwasher through its cycle with baking soda in it instead of soap to give it a good cleaning.
13. Clean your coffee maker: Brew a pot of water with 1/4 cup baking soda. Brew again with plain water.
14. Make fluffy omelettes: add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every 3 eggs used
15. Reduce acidity in spaghetti sauce: add a pinch of baking soda while cooking
16. Reduce acidity in coffee: add a pinch of soda to coffee grinds before brewing.
17. Remove burnt on food from pans and dishes. sprinkle with baking soda and add just enough water to moisen, leave over night.
18. Clean your microwave: put a solution of 2 tablespoons baking soda in 1 cup water in a microwave-safe container and cook on High for 2-3 minutes. Remove the container, then wipe down the microwave's moist interior with a damp cloth.
19. Tenderize meat: rub tough meat with baking soda. Let it sit in the refrigerator for three to five hours, then rinse it off well before cooking.
20. Clean your sink: use baking soda as you would any scouring powder
21. Remove fishy smells: soak the raw fish for about an hour in a liter of water with 2 tablespoons baking soda. Rinse well and pat dry before cooking.
22. Tame the Magical Fruit: adding a pinch of baking soda to baked beans as they're cooking will apparently reduce their gas producing properties.
23. Soak freshly cut fruit in a baking soda solution for a short while to prevent yellowing
24. Make baking powder: mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.
25. Clean and deodorize cutting boards: Sprinkle with Baking Soda, rub with a damp sponge, and wipe clean.
26. Make your own dishwasher detergent: mix 2 tablespoons baking soda with 2 tablespoons borax.
27. Remove coffee and tea stains from china: dip a moist cloth in baking soda to form a stiff paste and gently rubbing your cups and saucers. Rinse clean, dry.
28. Clean kitchen sponges: soak them overnight in 2 tablespoons baking soda and a couple of drops of antibacterial dish soap dissolved in warm water. In the morning, squeeze out the remaining solution and rinse with cold water.
29. Remove stains from nonstick cookware: boil 1 cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons baking soda and 1/2 cup vinegar for 10 minutes. Wash in hot, soapy water. Rinse well and let dry.

Laundry
30. Pretreat clothes: make a paste with 4 tablespoons baking soda and 1/4 cup warm water. Rub it into clothes to remove stains. For really persistent stains, let the paste sit on clothing for two hours before washing or add a bit of vinegar as you're putting the shirt in the wash.
31. Remove mothball smell from clothes: Add 1/2 cup baking soda during your washer's rinse cycle
32. Keep laundry hamper smelling fresh: If the laundry stinks before laundry day arrives, sprinkle with a small amount of baking soda

Vehicle and Garage
33. Put out small fires: throw handfuls of baking soda at the base of the fire.
34. Remove cigarette smells: sprinke upholstery with baking soda, leave 15 minutes and then vacuum.
35. Clean up oil and grease stains on your driveway: Sprinkle baking soda on the spot and scrub with a wet brush.

Babies and children
36. Soak diapers in a solution of baking soda and water
37. Launder diapers with baking soda
38. Put 2 tbsp in baby's bath water to relieve diaper rash.
39. Relieve baby constipation: Add a small amount of soda to baby's bath water. This apparently helps their bowels "let go."
40. Deodorize diaper pails: sprinkle with baking soda
41. Wash baby toys in a solution of water and baking soda
42. Clean crayon from walls: sprinkle soda on a damp sponge, rub clean, and rinse.
43. Clean stuffed animals: Sprinkle Baking Soda on the stuffed animal, let sit for fifteen minutes, then brush off.
44. Clean high chairs, car seats, strollers, and plastic mattress protectors: Apply Baking Soda with a damp sponge, wipe clean, and dry.
45. Clean baby bottles, nipples, and bottle brushes: Soak in a solution of warm water and Soda. Sterilize as usual. This is helpful to remove that spoiled milk smell.

Pets
46. Absorb kitty litter odors. Cover the bottom of the kitty box with 1 part soda, top with a layer of 3 parts kitty litter on top.
47. Deoderize pet beds: sprinkle liberally with baking soda, leave 15 minutes, then vacuum
48. Give dogs a dry bath: rub baking powder into their fur and then give them a good brushing.

Personal Hygiene and Home Remedies

(Note: Like i said, I haven't tried all of these. Attempt these home remedies at your own risk)

49. Relieve itching and irritation: Add a half cup of baking soda to a bath tub full of warm water to relieve itching due to poison ivy, chicken pox, measles, etc.
50. Whiten teeth: Brush your teeth with baking soda periodically to brighten your smile
51. Another way to whiten teeth: Mix a small amount of baking soda with a crushed strawberry to make a paste. Apply to teeth and leave on 5 minutes. Brush thoroughly. Don't do this more than once a week... the acid can be hazerdous to your tooth enamel.
52. Use as a facial scrub: Make a paste of 3 parts Baking Soda to 1 part water. Rub in a gentle circular motion to exfoliate the skin. Rinse clean.
53. Remove chemical build up from hair: Add a small amount of baking soda when you shampoo your hair. Wash as usual.
54. Use as a mouthwash: Add one teaspoon of soda to one-half glass warm water. Swish and spit.
55. Use as an underarm deodorant: Dust baking soda under your arms to absorb unpleasant body odors.
56. Have a foot bath: mix 4 tablespoons baking soda in one litre of warm water. Soak feet to reduce aces and pains as well as foul odors.
57. soothe and heal bug bites: make a paste of water and soda and apply to bite.
58. Use as an antacid: Stir 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda into 1/2 cup of water and drink. This is for occasional use only.

Other
59. Sprinkle in your running shoes to absorb odors
60. When scalding a chicken for defeathering, add 1 tsp of baking soda to the boiling water.
61. Sprinkle on your camping gear before storing it away to keep it from getting a musty smell.
62. Deodorize your linen closet: leave an open container on a closet shelf to keep odors at bay
63. Mop with it: mix 1/2 cup baking soda with a bucket of water.
64. According to ARM & HAMMER, Baking Soda in your drains can help keep your Septic System flowing freely. They recommend adding 1 cup of ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda per week to help maintain a favorable pH in your Septic Tank.
65. remove strong odors (such as garlic) from your hands: Wet hands, and rub vigorously with 2 tsp baking soda, then rinse.
66. Remove scents from carpet: sprinkle with baking soda, let stand for fifteen minutes, then vacuum.
67. Clean and deodorize upholstered furniture: sprinkle with baking soda, let stand for 15 minutes, then vacuum.
68. Clean grout: dampen grout and sprinkle with baking soda. Let it sit for a few minutes and then use an old toothbrush to scrub it clean.
69. Clean barbecue grills: make a soft paste of 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup water. Apply the paste with a wire brush and let dry for 15 minutes. Wipe down with a dry cloth.
70. Keep weeds out of cement cracks: Sprinkle baking soda onto the concrete and sweep it into the cracks.
71. Remove musty smell from old books: place in a brown paper bag with 2 tablespoons baking soda, close tightly and let sit in a dry place for about one week.
72. Make deodorizing sachets for drawers and closets: Fill the toe of a sock or stocking with a few tablespoons of soda and knot it closed.
73. Raise pH in a swimming pool.

Strange and unusual:
74. Soaking insects in baking soda for three to five hours prior to cooking produces a sweeter, more mushroom-like taste in the finished cuisine. Yumm.
75. Baking soda was the primary cleaning agent in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

And of course...
76. Go bake some cookies!

He Loves Me

2008-01-12T11:03:00.002-05:00

He brought me flowers: beautiful long stem red roses. For no reason except that he loves me. *sigh*

I'm dancing on clouds today...I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend too!

16 Five Dollar Dates

2008-01-11T10:56:00.001-05:00

I am so blessed because any time i spend with my hubby feels like a date. We don't have to go out to a fancy schmancy restaurant and spend all sorts of money to really enjoy each other's company. And although we do occasionally indulge in those fancy dates, most of the time we find other ways to spend time together. Here are a few we've tried. Why don't you try one of them out tonight?

1. Play a board game together after the kids go to bed. Watch for good two-player games at yard sales and thrift stores.

2. Make a board game together. Get a large piece of paper or bristol board and design your own game. Use dice and pieces from games you already own.

3. Have a bubble bath together.

4. Play hide and seek. Seriously!

5. Dress up in your fancy clothes and go out for coffee. Sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to wear a pretty dress.

6. Borrow some home decorating and design magazines from your local library. Cuddle up close and plan a dream home. Go ahead and be extravagant, dreams are free. Our dream home has multi faced fireplaces, a huge kitchen, a courtyard, a christmas tree farm.... you name it.

7.Pick up an ethnic cook book at the library and cook dinner together. We've tried Mexican and Chinese. How about Indian, Etheopian or Thai?
Note: It may seem that this date costs more than 5 dollars... but don't forget that you would've had to make something for dinner anyways: take the amount you normally spend on cooking dinner and add five bucks, that should be about right.

8. Have a chocolate fondue. In a saucepan, melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and a few marshmellows. When everything is melted, transfer to a small fondue pot and use cookies, cakes, pineapple, grapes and strawberries as dippers...or anything you'd like to try dipped in chocolate!
(Again, if this seems to cost more than 5 dollars, see note on suggestion #5.)

9. Find a small, locally owned movie rental store. These places almost always rent their older movies at a bargain. You can probably get two or three of them with your 5 dollar budget. Have a movie night with a theme... maybe the scariest movies from your childhoods?

10. Is your favourite television show having a marathon day? Has your favourite movie finally made it to television? Why not drag your mattress into the living room and camp out there for the day? or evening? Wear your pajamas and eat junk food. Luke and I once spent an entire weekend camped out on the living room floor watching Battlestar Galactica!

11. Remember when a mixed tape was the ultimate sign of affection? Make a mixed tape of songs that were popular when you first started dating. Go for a drive and enjoy the memories. (If your car still has a tape deck!)

12. Go to an amateur theatre production. Churches and high schools often put on productions that are nearly free and often pretty good.

13. Go to an 'open mic' night. My old high school still hosts "coffee house nights" that are open to the public. For only two dollars you get admission and a cup of coffee. If you have a talent to share you may even get in for free.

14. Volunteer together. Often couples have their own interests and volunteer at separate venues, but seeing each other in action at the local soup kitchen or after school program could really bring you closer together. Helping out at car washes and community BBQ's can be a lot of fun too!

15. Go for a hike. When hubby and i were first married, we lived near the base of a large hill that had a lookout on top from which you could see the whole city. It was one of our very first dates.

16.Go for a swim at a local river or lake. When we were first dating, hubby took me to a spot in the river where a swing had been hung from a tree...we had a lot of fun together. Since this date is free so far, you could stop for some ice cream on the way home.

Please leave a comment and let me know what other frugal dates you and your spouse enjoy!

This post is part of Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood. Head on over there and find more great ways to save money!

A little less chaos

2008-01-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today, the new me cleaned, de-cluttered and re-organized all of her kitchen cabinets. I know it was the new me and not the old me that did it because it's done.

Oh...don't get me wrong, the old me would've started the task with great enthusiasm. The old me would've emptied all the contents of all her cabinets out onto the kitchen counter and then carefully scrubbed each cabinet clean inside and out. The old me would've gotten all excited about the reorganizing part... would've grouped stuff on the counter according to their size and purpose, maybe even gotten out a pen and paper and drawn a little chart of all the cabinets and assigned a group of items to each cabinet....on paper.

Then the old me would've decided that even though everything looks clean it should probably all be cleaned again since it's all out on the counter anyways.

Then the old me would've gotten distracted by the fact that the compost bucket isn't where it normally is, would've gone and found it, disinfected it and put it back where it belongs. The old me was often distracted in the middle of tasks.

And then, come time to make dinner, the old me would have a pile of twice cleaned mixing bowls drying in the sink, another pile of already clean baking dishes sitting in the sink waiting to be cleaned, a graph of where everything ought to go when it is eventually dried and after I've made a trip to the dollar store for all the necessary organizational bins and baskets and labels...which of course will have to wait for another day. The old me would've been too exhausted to make dinner and probably would've asked hubby to pick something up on the way home. The old me would still have a disorganized kitchen.

The old me did things perfectly. The new me, the 2008 me, the flybaby me just does things. And actually gets them done. Yay!

How to have a sink so clean your mother in law will notice

2008-01-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

I originally learnt this from fly lady. If you don't know who fly lady is then your life is likely in chaos and you're probably not wearing any shoes. Anyways... here's how to have a super sparkly sink.

step one: fill the sink up to the brim with water and one cup of bleach. Walk away and allow the bleach to do it's thing for about an hour.
step two: drain the sink. wipe sink down and rinse thoroughly.
step three: scrub sink with vim or another awesome cleaning product. Make it sparkle. Get the scum that gathers around the faucet and handles and whatnot.
step four: rinse really really super well
step five: shine that sink up with some window cleaner
step six: keep a clean dish towel beside that sink; every time you use the sink at all, dry it thoroughly with the dish towel... this will keep it super shiny.

"What," you may ask, "is the point of having a clean sink...there are always dishes in it!" Let me enlighten you girlfriend.

When your sink is clean, something weird happens inside your husband, children, guests and random homeless people who may be eating in you kitchen. Something marvelous but weird.

You see... people don't put dirty dishes in a clean sink. People don't toss bacon grease in a clean sink. People don't leave soggy dishcloths in the bottom of a clean sink for days on end and allow them to grow scientifically unexplainable stinky germs. Keep your sink clean and people will put their dishes in the dishwasher (which you of course emptied out as soon as it was finished it's last cycle so that there's always a place to put dirty dishes, right?)... likely without ever being asked (or if you don't have a dishwasher, the dishpan you've conveniently set beside the sink before you served dinner so that there would be a place for them to put their dirty dishes, right?)

But more importantly....something weird and marvelous happens inside of you. You take pride in your sparkling sink...which means you take pride in your sparkly kitchen...which means your kitchen stays sparkling clean.

And believe it or not, a clean house is all about the kitchen... if you keep your kitchen tidy you will likely keep the rest of the house clean too. In short: clean sink means clean kitchen, clean kitchen means clean house, clean house means more time for scrap booking and bubble baths.

That is this weeks entry for wfmw (works for me Wednesdays) over at rocks in my dryer. Click the links to find more tips and tricks from the smart ladies out there in the blogosphere.

Looky what i made...

2007-12-27T19:42:00.000-05:00

Hubby and I went shopping on boxing day and am i ever glad we did! I got a scrapbooking book called Free Style by the people of Autumn Leaves.... It's awesome. I scraplifted a layout from it today. Here's what i made.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy the book. Now. And while you're at it, get some new papers and pens and buttons.... cuz you are gonna go scrap crazy when you get this book home.

The best part of Christmas, next to Jesus of course.

2007-12-27T10:41:00.002-05:00

As i finished wrapping the last of the gifts on Christmas eve, and went to throw out a couple empty cardboard wrapping paper tubes, my wonderful hubby stopped me and exclaimed "you can't throw those out...they're the best thing about Christmas!".

Sure enough, after folding some laundry I returned to the kitchen to find my husband and the wee one engaged in a duel of Christmas paper swords.

The wee one fought valiantly

but was eventually de-sworded

and hubby reigned victorious.

Of all the wonderful gifts i received this Christmas, having hubby home for 5 straight days was by far the best. I hope your Christmas was a merry one too.

How to have a Swinging Christmas Open House Party

2007-12-21T11:18:00.001-05:00

Step one: Greet your guests with a giant silly snowman. Nothing says "the party's here" like a snowman with a beer and a pickle-on-a-stick.

Step two: Have lots of yummy food.

Here's what was on the menu:
5 assorted cheeses with olives, grape tomatoes and crackers
pickled asparagus and cheese whiz roll-ups
melon and prosciutto
pumpernickel bread with spinach dip
a veggie tray with ranch dip and homemade pita bites
yummy spicy meatballs
bruschetta
Christmas cookies
chocolate fondue with assorted fruits

Step three: Eat so much food you think your gonna die. Just kidding... don't do that.

Step four: Bring on the eggnog. We labeled ours "naughty" and "nice"

Step five: Garbage pick. Seriously. We found this foos ball table discarded by the side of the road on garbage day. Yippee. We set it up in the nursery and it entertained the hoards of children for hours and hours. Why do people throw out good stuff???

Step six: send your guests home with some yummy homemade cranberry sauce. Mmmmm.

I didn't get any pics of the party while it was actually in progress... i was much to busy tending to a swinging party to play photographer. Hopefully you found the inspiration you need to throw a big Christmassy shindig of your own next year. It was great fun.

Happy Happy Joy Joy, the mail lady cometh.

2007-12-12T14:46:00.001-05:00

After several agonizing days of wondering if maybe the mail lady had been abducted, (or perhaps just my mail) I've finally recieved an ornament from the red velvet swap! And it's from Rachel! Isn't it cute?

You can check out rachel's blog here or you can buy some handmade pretty things from her by clicking here.

Anyways, I'm super duper busy getting the house ready for out (first) annual holiday open house this weekend. I also have an aweful ear infection and am finding myself a lot more tired than usual. So those are this week's excuses for not blogging alot... But i know you can't wait to see all the great photos of my wonderful party, so do check back soon.

Looky what I made: Christmas Stockings!

2007-12-08T11:23:00.000-05:00

I wanted to show you some stockings I made for my neices and nephews. They are finally done, and for a change i didn't leave it until the very last minute. I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

I'm still waiting for my ornaments from the Red Velvet Ornament Swap. The anticipation is killing me.

No, Virginia, There is no Santa Claus

2007-12-07T16:02:00.001-05:00

One of the things about living in a small community is the newspaper doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm sure the people involved work very hard at what they do, but the fact is that they don't have a lot of valuable news to report. That means that every birth, death and arrest gets reported. It means sometimes we read more about the local township meeting than anyone really finds interesting. But the best part is that sometimes we get to have petty arguments in the "Letters to the Editor" section.

I've got a confession to make. When I get the local paper on Friday afternoons i really only read two things. The first is an article written by a friend of the family. I don't like her one bit, and normally her article has me seething by the first paragraph, but i keep coming back. The other is the letters to the editor section. I skip over the crap about why we need more snowmobile trails or the graffiti at the skate park (isn't that where graffiti is supposed to go?) and scan for the juicy stuff: so and so said this and whatshername did that. It's a guilty pleasure.

Because there are more pages than news, the paper asks a "question on the street" each week...they go around, ask 5 or 6 people a question about some inane topic, and then publish their smiling faces and their dorky on-the-spot answers. A couple weeks ago, they asked "At what age should children be told the truth about Santa Clause?"

This week a couple local parents had their letters featured in the paper. Both were scolding the paper for letting the cat out of the bag with the "question of the week"....their children had read in the paper that there was no Santa and now Christmas was ruined. One mother was angry because her 12 year old (yes, 12 year old!) had just discovered the truth and was crushed.

I normally like to enjoy these petty arguments safely from the sidelines, but this week i couldn't resist. Here's the response i sent to the editor today. He assures me that it will be in next weeks edition.

"Dr. Mr. Editor:

I was surprised, two weeks ago, when not one respondent to your "question of the week" (about when to tell kids the truth about Santa Claus) suggested that perhaps we should avoid lying to children in the first place. Surely that's the most obvious answer.

I was even more shocked last week to see that angry parents dared to berate the shield for *gasp* publishing the truth. One parent even accused you of ruining Christmas and claimed that Santa is "what Christmas is about."

I'm sorry, but Christmas most certainly is NOT about Santa claus.

I fail to understand why seemingly responsible parents (who've surely taught their children not to lie) are comfortable telling their children lies about Santa Claus. And then to get angry when a newspaper inadvertently exposes the truth??? Give me a break.

I have some friends who've taught their children, at the sight of Santa claus figures, to exclaim "big fat liar." As much as this amuses me, i think my friends have missed the point all together. It is not Santa, an innocent storybook character, who is at fault. It is the parents who choose to tell their kids that he is real that are in fact the big fat liars.

Children love to play make believe...there is no need to lie to them about Santa's true identity in order to get them to enjoy the idea of him. There's no harm in pretending that there is a Santa claus, but when your done make sure they know the difference between fact and fiction, and that Christmas isn't about a jolly old man with a bag full of toys -- it's about love sent to earth as a babe in a manger. Merry CHRISTmas"

Please leave a comment, let me know what you think about Santa Claus!

Soups On!

2007-12-07T12:02:00.000-05:00

Boo Mama is having a soup-taculor, which means that you can find all sorts of super soup recipes by clicking here. Here's my contribution.

It's a recipe for my favouritest soup ever. Hubby and i both love this soup on cold Canadian winter days... for lunch or dinner (or both?!). I've served it to guests many times with rave review. And it's cheap! I even use less milk than the recipe calls for because I'm that cheap and it still turns out great. ( I promise to add a pic next time i make it: which will most definitely be soon!)

Mommy's Cream of Potato Soup

at least 6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
6 cups water
1 tsp salt
4 slices of bacon
3 onions, diced
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 tbsp soft butter
3 tbsp flour
1 or 2 cups milk

Cook potatoes in water with salt; when tender set aside. Fry bacon until crisp; crumble and set aside. Fry onions in bacon fat until well coloured. Scrape contents of skillet into potato mixture and add bouillon cube. Simmer for 10 minutes and then mash thoroughly . Cream butter and flour together and stir into soup, whisking and cooking until soup is slightly thickened. Add the milk slowly. Garnish with crumbled bacon. Serve with Mom's Homemade Bread. Serves 6, unless one of those people is my husband, then it only serves 2! Enjoy!

Mom's Homemade Bread

1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbsp each sugar and margarine
3 tsp salt
2 hefty tsp yeast
about 6 cups all purpose flour

Boil water and mix with milk in a small bowl. Pour half of the warm milk/water mixture into a large bowl. Add sugar butter and salt to the large bowl, and add yeast to the small bowl ( with a pinch of sugar to help it proof). Allow yeast to dissolve until puffy. Combine both mixtures in the large bowl and add a couple cups of flour. Stir to combine, and then add enough of the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out onto counter and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Punch down, flip over, and let rise for another hour. Shape dough into 2 loaves and press into greased loaf pans; cover and let rise another hour. Bake @ 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.

A note about yeast! I buy Fleschmann's quick rise instant yeast in the large bakery format. ( I get it at The Bulk Barn, but that might be a Canadian thing) It's by far the cheapest way to buy it and if you can use it all up before it spoils you'll save a tonne. Also, i love the quick rise yeast because it allows me to cut all my rising times in half. So that means that while you suckers are kneading your bread before lunch in order to have it ready in time, I can dilly dally all day and decide at 3 o'clock that I want fresh homemade bread at 5:30. What I mean to say is, I highly recommend the stuff.

the perfect tree, part 2

2007-12-03T19:36:00.001-05:00

We did it. After spending twice as much money and twice as much time as we originally budgeted, driving around in awful weather, crying a little bit, and meeting some crazies....we finally have a Christmas tree. It's big. And it's perfect.

We actually got it at Zellers. shame shame. It seems that there aren't any good places to cut your own Christmas trees anymore, so we had to pay some kid a small fortune for this one. But I love it. And at least it's not fake.

Here are some pics of my living room all prettied up for Christmas. Have I mentioned lately how much i love Christmas???

Let me know what you think, will you?

the perfect tree, part 1

2007-12-02T08:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the day I had been waiting for with great anticipation: it was Christmas tree day.

My husband awoke to find his beaming pregnant wife excitedly bouncing on the bed.... "Happy Christmas tree day!"

We had chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate the occasion and then set out on our adventure. Our mission: an 8 foot evergreen, not too sparse and not too bushy.

We started by perusing a property owned by my husbands business (he works in the construction business, the property is one they plan to develop) and found that most of the trees were closer to 80 feet than 8. I did, however, collect some clipping for my wreaths. The van got a teensy weensy bit stuck in the snow, but we got loose and headed onwards to our next destination.

Next we travelled some back roads. It's not that I'm against paying for a Christmas tree... it's just that we thought we'd check all the "free" ones first. No such luck.

We headed out to a tree farm we'd seen up the highway, only to discover it is not a farm at all... they only sell cut trees (expensive ones!). So we figured that since we were almost to the city anyways, we might as well do some shopping. We went to the mall. On a Saturday. On Saturday December First. In the afternoon. Are we crazy?

So we made it out of there alive (barely) and headed home. I'd seen an add in the local paper for a tree farm up north, so i grabbed the paper and we took off again. By this time it's 3 o'clock, and the farm is open until 4... we were pretty sure we'd make it in time.

I had called before leaving and had been told the trees were only 20 dollars. Sweet! If only we could find the damned place. We drove along the road it was supposedly on several times over. The house numbers managed to skip from 456 to 1770 with nothing but barren wilderness in between; we were looking for 1546.

We tried to call but the cell phone insisted it was a long distance call. Phooey.

So we headed up to a nearby town. I'd seen an add for a tree farm up that way, and although i didn't have directions i knew what road it was off of... so i figured we'd be okay. Surely they would have signs????

After about an hour of searching, including a stop off at my nearby parents' house to check the Internet for directions, we found the place. I think they had about 15 trees. 14 of them were dead and brown and ugly. The nice one was about 3 feet tall. No such luck.

I cried on the way home. Give me a break, I'm pregnant and emotional. It was too dark to keep hunting for a tree, so we went home and made rainbow cake and watched batman and sulked.

Today we will try again. Wish us luck.

Click here to read "the perfect tree, part 2"

Grrrrr. Hiss. Boo.

2007-11-29T14:49:00.001-05:00

Lets imagine for a minute that you were sewing some curtains.

And lets say that the sewing machine kept buckling your delicate fabric.

And that the tension dial on that machine was broken.

And that your iron is broken and permanently set on Cotton, so you have to keep plugging it in and unplugging it as not to let it get too hot for your delicate fabric.

Would you be frustrated?

And lets say the carpal tunnel in your hands keeps acting up.

And the baby who is supposed to be napping starts crying.

Aggravated at all?

And imagine that when your finally about 6 inches from being done your last hem, the sewing machine seizes up altogether.

And to top it off.... the curtains are the ones that go over the giant windows in your bathroom, so you can't go pee until they're done!

I'm frustrated. I needed to vent. Thanks.

Christmas Cookies and Crazy Rantings

2007-11-28T19:41:00.001-05:00

I baked today. Yummy Sugar cookies. Here's the recipe:

Kelly's Super Yummy Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend well. Divide dough into 4 or 5 big balls. Cover and chill one hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll one ball of dough out on a floured surface. Cut into awesome cool christmassy shapes. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes or until edges begin to turn golden. Continue with the remaining dough.

This isn't like pie pastry, you can re-roll it as many times as you need to in order to use up all the dough. Depending on the size of your cookies, these will make 6 to 8 dozen cookies.

Yummy cookie frosting! Yippie.

Stir together until smooth:

2 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp corn syrup
2 cups icing sugar

Spread on cooled cookies, and sprinkle with desired sprinkles while the frosting is still soft.

ENJOY!!! and let me know what you think!

Now on to my crazy rantings....

I love Christmas music. I've been listening to it since September. Last week I got a new Christmas CD and it contains a version of the song The Christmas Shoes. I'm sure you've heard it...it's the heart wrenching tale of a young boy who wants to buy some pretty Christmas shoes for his dying mum. It's a really touching song.

The line that always get me is "I want her to look beautiful if mommy meets Jesus tonight." If I'm not already crying by the time that line comes along, bring on the Kleenex!

But something occurred to me when listening to it recently. Now, I don't want to ruin this song for you...it's still a great song: but i have a bone to pick with the schmo who wrote it.
At the end of the song, after this heart breaking tale, the singer says "I knew that God had sent that little boy, To remind me just what Christmas is all about."

Excuse me?

So this is about you, is it?

God, the Almighty, the Powerful, the Perfect, needs to put a little family through misery in order to get you in the Christmas spirit???

Here's a thought: maybe not everything that happens in your little sphere has to do with you.

I think sometimes we are so eager to believe that everything happens for a reason (and i don't doubt it does) that we just assume that WE are that reason. We don't want to walk away from any sad event without an excuse on hand for why God would allow it. So...we assume God is teaching US something.... at least then God has an excuse, right?

But God doesn't need any excuses. And God doesn't always let us in on why He does what He does. And not everything that happens in our line of sight is about us. And...here's the biggie....when we can't make sense of it ourselves, we need to trust that He knows what He's doing.

End of Rant. Go bake some cookies. :)

And the winners are....

2007-11-27T09:13:00.001-05:00

The winners of my Link Love giveaway are sheila and nannabee.
Please contact me with your mailing address pronto so that i can send out your snowflake ornaments.

Thanks to everyone who played along!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

2007-11-25T14:35:00.001-05:00

There are a lot of disadvantages to living in the country in the wintertime. There are days when my husband can't go to work until the plow has come by, and many days that i find myself wishing the mailbox wasn't such a long frigid walk from my front door. But the truth is i wouldn't change it for the world. There is something about snow that has sat untouched, except by the occasional wildlife leaving it's footprints across the yard, that makes a person sigh inside.

I tell you this because for the last week there has been snow resting beautifully on the roof of my chicken coop. Shimmering in the midday light... begging me to brave the cold with my camera and snap a few shots so that i could share it with you. And instead, i cleaned, i cooked, i wiped a snotty little nose...all within the warm comforts of home.

And now the snow is melting...everything is icky and slushy and not the least bit photogenic. But I promise next time I will snap a photo or two for those of you who don't get to enjoy a snowy country Christmas.

Hubby and I are busy busy busy this weekend. He is putting up trim around the windows in the living room, and I'm patching and painting walls in the laundry room. Tomorrow is Wee one's first birthday and both our families are coming over, so I'm sure I'll be cleaning into the late hours tonight. But I promise I'll post more diligently this coming week. I promise.

Link Love Giveaway!

2007-11-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a giveaway?

I had so much fun making ornaments for the Red Velvet swap that I just kept going and made a whole lot more. So two winners are going to each receive 2 of these snowflakes.

But there's a catch. A small catch. An itty bitty almost not there sort of catch.... you have to give me some link love.

Add a link to this blog on your site or blog, and then comment on this post and let me know the URL of the page that links to me. Then you will be entered into the draw. yippie.

You can either link to one of my posts in a post of your own, or you can add me to your blogroll... it's up to you.

In honor of my beautiful baby girls first ever birthday, I'll randomly choose the winners on Monday November 26th and announce the results sometime on Tuesday.

Thanks folks :) Happy Linking!