Recent GOOD DEALS that I have found......

My sister swears I can smell a deal from 20paces at walmart.LOL Well,I did work at walmart for almost 8 years---most of that time being spent in the layaway department (oh the holidays I could tell you about LOL). I love to shop. And I love a good deal. And I love anything that will help make my house smell fresher. I love those new auto air-fresheners that they have out now--the motion activated ones. I have one in the bathroom and now thanks to a good deal,one in the living room,too. I found a $2 coupon in the Sunday paper and I think the retail price was over $5 so I paid $3 for a starter kit. I love it! I'm always looking for a deal on bedding. About a week ago I was taking a short cut through the sheets/bedspreads and happened to notice that they had quilts on clearance. I got a kingsize patchwork quilt for $21--regular $40+. I LOVE IT!!!! I'm going to change the bedding tomorrow and will post a pic of my pretty find.

supper

Ditalinni Florentine

package of ditalinni pasta
a bag of frozen spinach
2 jars white alfredo sauce
bag of shredded mozzarella
bag of shredded asiago and manchego cheeses (or white italian shredded mix)

boil pasta--drain--pour into a large bowl--add spinach and stir well--add in the mozzarella and stir well--add the alfredo sauce and stir well--pour into prepped casserole dish--top with the asiago and manchego cheese--bake at 400* until it is bubbly and the cheese topping is browned.

** You could make it more of a "one pot meal" if you added in some shredded rotisserie chicken or turkey. This is the first time making this and it turned out awesome!!!

Winding-down Wednesday

The past few days have been crazy busy for us. Both Zach and I have had dr appointments at the crack of dawn both Monday and Tuesday. And wouldn't you know it,my child that's usually up BEFORE the crack of dawn decided to take those days as sleep late days. Now for both of us because we take meds/vitamins in the mornings,SOMETHING for breakfast is a must-even if it's just a quickie yogurt smoothie. We have to have something in the morning! OR ELSE! So from the time I got up,it felt like I was in a race with the clock-I hate days like that. I am trying to get on a better schedule for us as a family and with our homeschooling. And I hate anything that takes us off schedule-even if we are just getting on one. And both days I was thrown for a loop. Add in a messy house that I just didn't have the energy to deal with and a TON of laundry that had been nicely waiting for me to put it away,some PMSing,2 allergy shots and a flu shot, and I was just overwhelmed and exhausted. I told the hubby that HELL OR HIGH WATER I was NOT going anywhere today--and I would probably spend the day in pjs. Well I'm in shorts,but it's been a good day. I got all the laundry folded and put away and our side of the house swept and mopped and the next round of laundry separated and lugged down to the laundry room. We've had morning devotional--meaning Zach has read another chapter in his kid's bible. Today he learned about Adam and a little about the Garden of Eden. We're on lunch break and I had the intentions of organizing more of our lessons for the year--I will get to that soon,but had to do a little blogging. I was inspired this morning. I have the intent to share a little of what we do as lessons every day on our homeschooling blog. I want to get back to posting more recipes here. Lately our dinners haven't been very inspiring-they've been quick and easy and not too elegant LOL. Hopefully that will change. I just need to go through my cooking magazines and favorite cookbooks. I love fall cooking. And Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking---I'm sooo ready to put some meal plans in order for those special days.

been busy.......

Well we're in the full swing of the new school term for us and things are going well. He's also been on meds for add/adhd for about a month and we are seeing some great results. We are having more good days than bad. And the bad spells are most of the time followed by quick appologies. Now if they had a magic pill to take away some of the hard-headedness he has life would be perfect LOL. Kidding-it's pretty OK now. We visited friends,yesterday so Zach and the girls could get some play time in and my friend showed me some of the new things she was doing in her homeschool routine this year and let me just say,"SUSAN,you are the organized,curriculum QUEEN!" LOL I'm hoping to be able to start and KEEP up some of the tips she shared with me. I've been trying to get us organized since around Kindergarten and we're now in 2nd grade and I don't feel sooo together at all! LOL Now just gotta hit the store and get some files and divider thingies! hee hee hee I ordered some add-ons we're going to use in our curriculum today too-I can't wait for them to get here.

Fall is here! YAY~! I feel sooo alive at the change of seasons this time of year. I love Autumn and all the harvest celebrations and good plain fun that comes with this time of year-and the food--Squash,apples,OH MY! I get into a baking mood and just want to cook everything! I'm already thinking about Thanksgiving menu! Yesterday I baked an Orange-Zucchini loaf and a Pear/Cranberry "crumble"--can we say DELISH! It was fabulous! I'll see if I can find links to share for those interested.

Dieting hasn't been going so well.I haven't gone up or gone down so I guess that's good. It's just at a standstill. Now that the weather is cooling down,I hope to get out more and walk more. The hubby doesn't like me to go out alone in our neighborhood with the puppy and kiddo,so now that his schedule is changing in a few days he won't have any excuse not to join us in our jaunts around the neighborhood! Maybe the walks will do him some good too.

OK-can't get the link thingie to work today so if you're interested in the recipes I used check out:
http://www.allyou.com/food/recipes/

and search for** Pear-Dried Cranberry Crisp**

and check out:
http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/

and go back through their older posts until you find**Zucchini Orange Loaf**

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-09-18T04%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=3

**maybe you can copy/paste and get the mennonite girls recipe to come up.....

notes...notes...and more notes...

For the past week we have been finishing up workbooks and I've been reading over some notes from THE WELL TRAINED MIND to help get us back into the swing of homeschooling this year.I'm going to try and do things as described in the book **mostly** and that will be a new "system" for us.So I'm jotting down points to cover in our studies and making lists of people we need to learn about in history and need to make a list of library books that will re-inforce what we're learning. ALOT of work,but I love it!

Also getting ready to go out to dinner with the hubby next saturday for our 9th wedding anniversary. Sept 1st is our anniversary but we can't get a sitter till that saturday-still haven't really made our choice of where to eat. In a town that is LITERALLY OVERFLOWING with restraunts,it's sad to say that most of them are still mainly fast food-even the "sit down" type restraunts. Hubby took off extra days next week for our anniversary,so he's only working 3 days. Still not sure what to get him-I've looked online and for the 9th year the "gift guides" say "pottery and willow" lol...so I guess I'll get him a coffee mug and a willow tree!

still waiting

Still waiting..........The floor guys came and measured Monday and got our samples for what we want to put down when they re-do our floors. We picked a mahogany wood for most of the house,an brown italian tile for the kitchen, and grandpa wants carpet for his little nook/den area. They were supposed to get back with us with an estimate for how much $ damage it will be LOL the next day,but we're still waiting.....Hubby will try and call them back tomorrow. Going to get the car detailed tomorrow too-been wanting to for the past few months,but something always comes up and it doesn't get done,well tomorrow it is! Those guys are going to earn that $ LOL cause my kid has made a mess in the back seat. Hubby used to detail and keep his truck clean as a whistle but has gotten lazy with my car. I had an eye appointment today to have my eyes checked. I'd noticed that when I would play a game on my cell phone that things were blurry and that when I was reading sometimes I couldn't make out the words if I wasn't right at the book. Funny,the doc said my eyes were still almost perfect and that I just needed a little help when reading,so I'm getting reading glasses. Gotta love eye coverage-a $300+ eye exam plus glasses only cost me $16. LOVE IT!!! Now gotta make hubby an appointment. He's over due for an exam.

Something's gotta give.............

I am so tired of things needing to be "fixed" or "repaired" or "replaced" around the house. I mean SERIOUSLY. A few years ago we had to have the bathroom on our side of the house re-done-all but the sink area and I would like to have that done next. Now Fast-Forwarde to today. About 2 weeks ago we saw some bulges in our floors. We got to looking and they are in every room of the house (except the downstairs area and the laundry room area cause they have concrete floors). There is a huge BUCKLE/BULDGE in the kitchen and an even bigger one in the living room. The ones back in our bedrooms aren't that bad but they are there. Had one guy come in and tell us that if we put some plastic under the house with a fan that the floors could possibly go back down on there own. Well that was last week and hasn't happened. Really didn't think it would. Now we had another guy come yesterday and he actually went under the house. He came back out and told us that it wasn't a water/pipe leak but the "sub-flooring" was wet and that was what was pushing our main flooring up. Imagine that the incredible hulk is down under the house trying to push his way up through the floor. That's what it all looks like. So we called our insurance and they won't even send someone out to look at it-saying that they don't cover "moisture" damage-but if it had been a broken pipe now they would cover that. LOL funny they said the opposite when we had them look at our bathroom-we don't cover leaking pipe damage but if it had been moisture we would cover that. The hubby thinks they are BSing and trying to get out of covering whatever we send in. The only other option we have at the moment is to use some of the equity built up to do the repair. Called the bank to get that started and we have to get an appraisal done on the house. Hubby's been calling appraisers today and it'll run just under $500 for that....It never ends!!!! If we ever get to the point of having it done another problem comes up-where do we put all out furniture and stuff-told the hubby we're going to have to rent a storage unit or something because it's every freaking room of the house!!! And we're going to have to find a pet friendly/dog friendly place to crash while it's being done...LOVERLY-this just keeps getting better and better....AAAAAH where's a big oversized bottle of CALGON when a girl needs one? No,really,I'd much rather have a genie or magic wand so I could FFW a weeks and get this crap over with!!!!!