Swirled sugar cookies

These are the coolest sugar cookies that I ever did see!

http://salttree.net/2012/10/swirled-sugar-cookies.html/

French Toast Crunch!

Woohooo! I LOVED this cereal! It's a comin' back!

http://time.com/3623148/french-toast-crunch/

Helmet Head

I can't believe my oldest son will be 13 this Friday! He earned the nickname "helmet head" bc he has always been clumsy. :) I can't believe he is already taller than me. He wears men's jeans and size 9 1/2 shoes. It makes me proud and a little sad. Individual days seem slow sometimes, but looking back makes it seems like time is flying by. He is such a smart kid. He is funny and handsome.  He is a great artist. He is sensitive, and he has a good heart. I am proud to be his mom! <3

(He is around 6 yrs old in this pic)

Time4learning!

Over the next 30 days, I will be reviewing Time4Learning. They offer an elementary school curriculum, middle school curriculum, high school curriculum, and tools like theGetting Started Homeschooling Guide. Be sure to come back and read about my experience!

Cute (and seriously easy) snowflake craft!

http://club.chicacircle.com/puffy-paint-window-decorations/

These are ADORABLE, and super easy. Easy is good when you have as many kids to supervise/wrangle as I do!

Why am I still awake?

Oh yeah. Because I am the biggest scatterbrain that ever lived, and I am waiting on a load of laundry.

Let me think of some things to ramble about........

We lost three chickens to a mysterious 4 legged varmit. The lack of blood at the three crime scenes points to a weasel, because of the lack of blood. Yes. Weasels are totally gross.

Not sure a weasel would be strong enough to drag three chickens out of the coop though. It was probably a dirty, filthy, rotten, no good raccoon. They are cute but mean!

Why is it so flipping hot in this house right now? Geez.

In other news, kids are expensive. Yearbooks, school t-shirts, class dues, oh my! SMH.....I need to win the lottery. Or maybe my ex could start paying the almost 6 GRAND he is behind in child support. There's a novel idea!

My foot hurts. I was walking across my bedroom in the dark and bumped into crackhead cat who was laying right in the middle of the room. This scared crackhead who took off running and scratched across three of my toes. :(.

Sweet. Just heard the washing machine beep. Time to switch the clothes, brush my chops, and hit the hay.

Later.

Where in the world are the wooly worms going?!

I have never in my 34 years of existence seen so many wooly worms crossing the road! They are hard to see until the last second, but I have been dodging them everyday for well over a week! (For the city folk, wooly worms are the "fuzzy" black caterpillars.) I had to Google it, of course, and it seems that the little fuzzballs may be pointing to a rough winter. I am hoping they are wrong!

Here is an article from 2011:

http://www.state-journal.com/spectrum/2011/12/23/are-we-in-for-a-bad-winter

Interestingly enough, that was the Winter that we had "Snowzilla". 

This was the aftermath:

My mother-in-law told me she heard on the news when the wool on the sheep grows in extra thick, we are in for a long, cold Winter, and "they" say it's extra thick this year!

Dominos Deal!

The Gilmore Girls!

Woohoo! I loved watching the Gilmore Girls back in the day. The series will be available on Netflix starting tomorrow!

Supernatural

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! How is it that I wasted so many years of my t.v. viewing life not watching this show?

I recently ditched satellite (and the emormous bill). Seriously, I was paying over $130 a month to watch t.v. So, anyway, I am doing the Netflix/Hulu thing.

I have been binging on Supernatural like nobody's biz.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

It tastes JUST like pumpkin pie! If you are someone who gets the cold sweats if you try to bake without a precise set of instructions and ingredient list.....this is not the recipe for you.

So threw a few things together, and it actually turned out really well!

I mixed a box of spice cake mix and a small can of pumpkin goo together in a bowl. I added two eggs and a little more flour to get a more cake like consistency. I baked it at 350 F until it looked done. I don't have time to time things. Come on.

Once it was cooled, I slopped a container of whipped vanilla icing on it.

IT WAS SO GOOD.

It's everything is pumpkin time!

Chicken and dumpling casserole

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to find something that seven people will all like? It's hard. If it were up to my kids, we would have tacos or hamburgers every single day. I was craving chicken and dumplings the other day, but I really wasn't in the "soupy mood". I did some sleuthing on the interwebs and found an intriguing recipe for chicken and dumpling casserole. 

Why not? I love casseroles. 

I gave it a shot. 

Everyone L-O-V-E-D it. 

Here is the recipe!

http://www.sarahhalstead.com/chicken-dumpling-casserole/

I didn't have sour cream on hand, so I just mixed the chicken broth and cream of chicken soup together for the top layer. 

ENJOY!

Saturday Schmaturday.

It's 1:32 pm on a Saturday, and I am thoroughly enjoying my "lazy" day. I've made coffee, fed and watered the chickens, fed and watered the dogs and cats, made sausage, scrambled eggs and hashbrowns for the fam, washed a couple loads of laundry, made tea and kool-aid, baked a coffee cake, loaded the dishwasher, wiped down the table and counters, swept the kitchen floor, took an hour nap, supervised the kids making their own lunch, vacuumed (Is it 2 c's, 2 u's, or 2 m's in that pesky word?), made my bed, and febrezed the furniture. I need to hit a couple spots with the carpet cleaner, but I believe I am done being productive for the day.

Get in my belly!

http://m.kraftrecipes.com/recipedetail.do?recipeid=105225&cn=US&cm_mmc=social-_-facebook-_-crm-_-dessert

How come mine never looks like the picture?! I just put this tasty looking treat in the fridge. I shall update after the kids and I inhale it.

Update: The kids weren't impressed. I really wasn't digging it, either. Bummer.

Meet & Greet

This is Jack. Jack is a jerk.

He is the youngest of the feline bunch and one of the meanest cats I have ever met. He sleeps weird too. We hoped that having his manhood taken away would calm him down. Sure, he sleeps more now.....but he is NOT nicer. He is one of those cats who will give you the sweet eyes then rip your flesh open with his claws if you pet him for longer than 3.7 seconds. He terrorizes the older cats. Ugh. His mom was a feral cat who had him and his two sisters on our back deck. We found homes for his sisters but got stuck with this fool. Jack, you are lucky that you are cute.

This is Beans.
AKA: Fatty Beans

 
He is really, really fat. Seriously, these pics do not accurately represent his lardness. More than one person havs said he is the fattest cat they have ever seen. Beans is 8-years-old, and he is named Beans because he is very, very gassy. He is my stinky buddy and has to be laying practically on top of me at all times.

This is Cookie.
AKA: Crackhead

We refer to her as "Crackhead", because she is paranoid and skittish. She was a kitten in this pic. She is the older sister of Jack. Same mom. Different litter. She is THE world's tiniest full grown cat. I am seriously considering calling the Guinness Book of World Records people. Not really.....but she is really tiny. She won't sit still long enough to get a recent pic....because she's insane. If she had hands, she would be tweaking and peeking out the mini blinds.


This is Peaches.
Aka: Plastic bag licker.

Peaches is a bit....quirky. She mostly sleeps under my bed all day. She runs and hides every time the front door opens. Nothing traumatic has ever happened to her, but whatevs. She will ONLY drink out of the bathtub, and she loves to lick plastic bags. Why? I have not a clue. She is pretty and soft, though. That outta count for something, right? 

And the odd couple.

Left to right: Pumpkin and Chewy. 

Pumpkin was supposed to be my dog, but she decided that my oldest daughter was going to be her person. Fine by me, because Pumpkin is insane. She was rescued from a hoarder, and it did A LOT of damage. 

So, I tried again and rescued Chewy. 

He was supposed to be my dog too, but he decided my husband was going to be his person. Ironic considering my husband is not an animal person. Yes, I am bitter. My husband loves that little useless dog to pieces, and they are buddies.

I like watching t.v.

Watching t.v. is my end of the day "thing".  Having said that, I do not dig summer t.v. at all. I guess "they" assume that we all have better things to do than watch t.v.? Pfft. 

I've been watching a lot of Golden Girls reruns lately. Yep. That and Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. My life is sad. 

Some of my favorite show are, in no particular order..........

The Blacklist--I lied about the no particular order thing. The Blacklist is my fav. 

The rest are in no particular order........

Parenthood --Love the characters. 

The Mindy Project --Hecka funny. 

Believe --I can't BELIEVE this one didn't get renewed. :(

Orange Is The New Black (#OITNB) --I may or may not have watched the entire first and second season in 3 days. 

Modern Family --Cuz it's funny.

The Middle --Ditto.

Revolution --I try not to overthink this show, because the idea of no electricity FREAKS me out.

Rizzoli & Isles --I love how there are murders....but in a lighthearted kind of way.

Parks & Rec --Ron Swanson is my hero. 

My DVR list is pretty much full, so I KNOW there are a dozen shows I am forgetting. 

Scatterbrain strikes again.

How you doin'?

Well. I was going to make a halfhearted attempt at sleep, but I realized I forgot to wash my husband's shirt for tomorrow. So.....here I sit.....at almost midnight.....waiting for the washing machine to beep.....eating some cold pizza.....drinking root beer.....listening to the hubs snore.....

Today was kind of a stupid day. I spent most of the morning painting the kitchen. I really do not like to paint. I'm not loving the color I picked out, but that junk is $18 a gallon. There's no turning back now. So, yeah. I painted. Then, it was time to take the grumpy teenager to summer school. Because it's totally worth 4 hours a day of "Team Sports" to get a 1/2 credit out of the way. Mmmkay. Did I mention I am the parent of a high school freshman? I'm 34. I'm too young to have a kid in high school!

So, I walk out the front door this afternoon and one of our hens was out of the pen. The rooster was trying to....you know....with her. It freaked her out, so she tried to go THROUGH one of the holes in the chicken wire and gave herself quite the scalping. :( It's not deep, but it's not pretty at all. She has been cleaned up and is resting in a big dog carrier in the bathroom. Because chickens are dumb and will peck at EVERYTHING, she has to stay inside until she is healed. The bathroom is her home until further notice.

So, anyway. When this went down, I posted on a popular chicken site on Facebook asking for the best medicine to use. The "chick" posted back that I am basically being unfair by letting my chicken "suffer" because she doesn't have any pain meds. She strongly suggested euthanasia because she doesn't have any pain meds. For reals? I appreciate that she sees her chickens as pets and will spend hundreds of dollars on vet visits. I love animals, but the chickens are not my pets. I will buy some antiseptic spray. I will keep her as comfortable as I can. She is eating and drinking. When I let her out of the carrier, she was walking around the bathroom. She was preening herself and checking out her new surroundings. She is alert. I know chickens don't show pain like we do, but if she were "suffering", I am pretty sure she would be showing at least ANY sign of distress. I am going to give her a chance to heal, because I'm unfair like that.

I guess we will have to name her, since she is going to be spending a lot of time in the house. Hmm...I was thinking something flowery. Petunia? Clover? Dandelion? The kids want to name her Lucy, but I am not feeling it.

Tonight was supposed to be date night, but the husband called me on his way home from work to let me know his front left tire was wobbling like crazy. Sweet. So, we had to book it to the tire place and spend $176 on a new tire. AND we ended up eating at Denny's because we ran out of time. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy crappy diner food as much as the next gal, but I had my heart set on some Longhorn Steakhouse.

I ended up eating a dang quesadilla.

Awww. You missed me.

In true scatterbrain fashion, I haven't posted in, like, three months!

I am ridiculous sometimes.

Spring has almost sprung.

Is it just me or was that the longest winter e-v-e-r? So happy that Spring is almost here. I have seen the signs everywhere. Geese are on the move. I have seen those perdy little cardinal birds flying about and lots of skunks squished on the road. *deep breath* Ahh. The sweet smell of Spring.

I am so happy that it's Friday, though I do have a ton to get done today. Cleaning the entire house (Please put me out of my misery. I beg of you!), decorating for my step-daughter's 15th birthday party, baking a cake, and making the dinner that she requested....which is a pain to make.....chicken croquettes. But I am a dutiful step-mombie and I will make 'em for her.

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. I told ya...I am a total scatterbrain. Not to mention, my life really isn't all that exciting. Stressful but not exciting.

We did pick up our new family members last night. 10 little Rhode Island Red chicks.

Aww. They are so cute. We have raised chicks before, and it is a total pain in keester. However, I would rather hand-raise them than buying older birds. You never know what you are getting with an older bird, and it's important that they will let us handle them. Now, we need to figure out what to do about a bigger coop! Our rooster, Early, will be happy about having 10 new girlfriends (when they are old enough, of course). He has been a bachelor since a raccoon took out our last flocks. (RIP Ladies). 

Well, I have goofed off long enough. I would much rather sit here and type a bunch of random nonsense about my life, but I gotta get to gettin'.