My Husband is One Lucky Guy

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Jennifer

My dad loves to give silly t-shirts for Christmas presents.

Over the years we have all had our fair share.

One Christmas my sisters and I each received a shirt that said, “What Happens With the Sisters, Stays With the Sisters.”

Another year Derek received a shirt that said ,”Derek, the Man, the Myth, the Legend.”

Last year my shirt had a wine glass with the phrase, “More book club please.”

But this year my dad found a shirt for me that speaks the truth.

When you see this shirt, you will automatically think, “Yes that’s Jen.”

I am this shirt.

I think you will understand once you see it.

Housewives of North Dallas, anyone?

My Super Bowl Victory

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Jennifer

My Super Bowl victory has nothing to do with the Packers or the Steelers. My victory is one between man vs. food. Okay, woman vs. food. I’m talking about the ever elusive perfect potato salad. More specifically…my mom’s potato salad. I have dreamed of making it for years.

My mom makes the best potato salad. At every family gathering, whatever time of year, this dish makes an appearance based on popular demand. Now you may have this dish down pat but remember I am not a cook. The prep time, the layering upon layering of ingredients, and the need to chill overnight, were daunting to me.

I was always intimidated. But no more. I have conquered my potato salad fears and come out the victor.

Last year I asked my mom to let me help her make the potato salad so I would learn the process. I watched as she created it layer by layer but I was sure I would never be able to recreate it. I’d like to say I promptly went and tried to make it soon after but that would be a lie. I didn’t even think about attempting it until a few days ago.

For some reason I felt sloppy joes and potato salad would be perfect for Super Bowl Sunday. I bought the ingredients and waited until the kids were in bed on Saturday night. I read the recipe several times. In fact, I read each step several times. I put the finished product into the refrigerator and hoped for the best on Sunday.

As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised with my potato salad. It was good. Really good. After the years of worry and self doubt about tackling this recipe I scored! In fact my husband liked it too. On Super Bowl Sunday I had roughly 6 servings of the potato salad a few scoops of the potato salad with my sloppy joes.

Now I’m going to go through the family cookbook to figure out what recipe to try next!

Do you have a family recipe you’ve always wanted to master?

Honey Cornbread

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Jennifer

So I was sitting in bed last night watching “The Mentalist” when I mentioned to Derek that I didn’t have a post for today yet. Suddenly a topic popped into my head. I announced, “I should share the cornbread and chili recipe we had tonight. Those were good.” Derek responded, “Yes, the cornbread would be a good one to share.

Silence.

Me thinking.

“Oh I get it. You didn’t like the chili.”

“I’m not saying that. It was good too.”

“Right. I think that was very clever how you phrased it.”

“What?”

“You are in charge of dinner tomorrow. I’m out.”

So, in light of our conversation I will only be sharing the cornbread recipe. Apparently it’s good enough to share.

Honey Cornbread

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

4 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1 and 1/3 cups milk

2 and 1/3 cups flour

1 and 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup corn meal

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar adn butter. Add in eggs, honey, and milk. Mix well.

2. Mix together flour, baking powder, corn meal, and salt. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Do not over mix. Batter will be lumpy.

3. Pour batter in greased 11 x 14 inch baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. (I cooked mine in a 9 x 13 pan for 28 minutes. I think it could have been taken out a few minutes earlier – just watch it carefully).

Anyone have a tried and true chili recipe?

recipe found at www.moneysavingmom.com

Trying in the Ice

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Jennifer

I came across this beautiful quote from a dad the other day

Life is so precious,

so cherish every moment of every relationship.

I am trying hard to remember this quote as we enter our third day of canceled school.

Closet Redo

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Jennifer

My husband turned to me one Friday night several weeks ago and asked what our plans were for the weekend. I looked into his big brown eyes and knew he wanted me to say, “We’re eating out, going to the movies, and relaxing all weekend.” Instead I looked at him and knew I was about to burst his bubble. “I want to demolish the coat closet.”

“You mean the new closet in our new house?”

“Yes, I hate it. It’s messy. It has no organization and the kids can never find their things.”Sigh. “Okay. Show me what you want to do in the morning.”

Our coat closet had the awful hanging single shelf but not much more. The kids (and I) would end up throwing our coats and bags in their and shutting the door. I think my husband was the only one who actually hung up his coat, hence his inability to see the need to demo the closet.

Our first step was tearing out the shelf. You can see the left over piece at the top of the above photo. My husband then taped dividing lines about every three feet. I wanted everyone in the family to have their own dedicated space.

After painting the lines (first white and then blue – to have somewhat straight lines), we added hooks.

Each person has 3 lower hooks for items they use on a daily basis…..

5 small hooks to hang hats……

and 3 large hooks again at the very top for items not used daily (soccer bags, etc).

I then painted the kids’ names into the section they chose for themselves.

So far our new closet works perfectly. We bought the hooks new but used paint from another project. A little bit of work that makes a huge change for us.

Any little projects you’ve been thinking about tackling?

Financial Goals Updated

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Jennifer

As I mentioned in a previous post, Derek and I have made some financial goals for our family this year. One of the ways I was going to directly help was keeping an eye on the food budget.

January’s goal was to spend $125 less on groceries/eating out a month (compared to 2010 monthly average).

Before I give you the results, here are a few “happennings” concerning eating during the month:

Derek’s birthday dinner, cookie cake for $24.95 (yes, I could have made one, no it would not have been as good), ladies night out for me, kids eat free night at BBQ place, Ben & Jerry’s dessert trip, Double Dip trip for dessert, coffee and breakfast for a friend, several meatless nights, bought diapers and wipes (yes, that’s included in this budget for us), several impromptu visits to CVS for gatorade due to the flu, and we ate out on several occasions.

So…how did we do……..(drum roll here people, work with me)

January 2011 food groceries / eating out budget was $328.35 less than our 2010 monthly average! Yeah for us!

What was the key to our success you might ask? Well, let me tell you. I ignored looks from my husband when I knew he wanted to go out to eat. No, seriously, I think it was our meal planning and cooking some meals ahead of time. It’s always easy to go out to eat when nothing is prepared at home. But if there is a casserole already sitting in the fridge, we’re more likely to go home and eat it.

I used this little form to keep track of all the food purchases. The form actually has 2 months on it. I cut off the top section to keep in my wallet for January and will use the bottom section for February.

It helped me keep a constant watch on what we were spending.

Here’s a peek at our January form filled out.

Thank goodness my birthday is today, February 1st. Just in time for our food budget to be huge. We are going to eat like kings tonight. Who cares if we have beans and toast the rest of the month. OK, maybe not but it’s fun to dream.

Now onto our February goals.

1) February’s goal is to spend $175 less on groceries/eating out a month (compared to 2010 monthly average).

Yes, we were very successful in January, but anything can happen and I’d still like to consider $175 a big achievement in the end.

2) February house goal: anything we buy for the house (decorations or furniture) has to come from money we earned by selling items on craigslist or ebay.

We have several items in our house which I’ve wanted to get rid of and replace for a long time. Sometimes it’s hard to justify getting a new lamp when the one you have works just fine. This goal could be a total disaster but I think it’s worth a shot. Don’t worry, I bought a gallon of paint last weekend so we would at least have a project to work on while we figure out this whole craigslist game.

So that’s what’s new with us in the goals department.

How are you doing with your 2011 goals?

The Salvation Rush

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Jennifer

The other day I had 20 minutes to spare between finishing swim practice and picking up Caroline from school. The Salvation Army store is a couple of blocks from both locations so I decided to go in. I usually like to visit these types of stores any chance I get when I don’t have kids once every couple of months. Some of my favorites are the Habitat for Humanity Store, Goodwill, and the Salvation Army.

I like to search and find “diamonds in the rough.” My husband thinks I just find “rough.” I know he hates getting the call at work, “Hey, what are you doing for lunch? I’d love for you to meet me at the Habitat store and see a bookcase.” I know what he hears is, “Hey, what are you doing for lunch? I need you to come and transport this rickety piece of junk home, sand it, paint it, and haul it up a flight of stairs for me.”

I have never been a big garage sale shopper. It makes me uncomfortable to actually know who I’m buying from. I hate the whole bargaining procedure at garage sales. How about five dollars? Can you do three fifty? what about four dollars? Drives me crazy so I just avoid it all together.

I have just started venturing into estate sales. On Friday morning Caroline and I went riffling through someone’s house. I came out with a $4 mirror that’s destined for our guest room. Somehow knowing the previous owner is dead is a lot more comforting to me than actually having an encounter with the current living owner.

So there I was browsing my local Salvation Army store, minding my own business, when an announcement was made, “Shoppers, for the next hour, everything in the store is half off.”

“Yes, books are included.”

“Yes, children’s clothing is included.”

“Yes, furniture is included.”

Apparently the term everything is a little unclear to some people.

People started dashing around like crazy – grabbing shopping carts, flinging clothes into their baskets, yanking clothes on and off their children. It was pretty unbelievable. I admit I was almost on my way out the door when the announcement was made. But since everything was half off it necessitated me taking a second trip around the store. I ended up taking home 3 books. I mean, I had to, they were on sale.

3 books: $2.79

No Sanding, no painting, no hauling for hubby : priceless

Limit?

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Jennifer

I wonder if the weight limit listed is just for the one sitting in the car or does it include those sitting on top of the car too?

Your Mom

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Jennifer

For the last three weeks I have been tutoring some kids in math to get ready for our state test. The school didn’t need me this week for various reasons so I decided to see if I could volunteer at Alex’s school. Caroline was already going to be at her school so I thought I’d use the free time to help out. I emailed Alex’s 3rd grade teacher a week before and asked if she had anything she would like me to work on; stapling packets, cutting out laminating, or making something for the room. She asked if I would be willing to take a small group of kids in math. I said, “Sure, I would love to.”

I showed up at 9:30 like she requested and found out which fraction concepts she wanted me to review with them. She showed us the place in hall where we would be working (a luxurious carpet area next to the water fountains and apparently the main thoroughfare for 2nd graders.)

At my tutoring job I have groups every 30 minutes so I figured I was in store for something similar. I asked what time they needed to be back and she said 11:00. Using my amazing calculation skills, I quickly ascertained that I would have these 3 students for an hour and a half. Wow, she must: 1)have some confidence in my teaching ability 2) have no confidence in my teaching ability and thinks it will take forever to review or 3) is ready to have a break from these kiddos.

What ever the reason, I was happy to take them. We drew pictures of fractions, put fractions on a number line, compared fractions, and played a fraction game.

At the end of the lesson, Burke turned to Shelly and said,”Alex has a really nice mom.”

Then turning to me, Burke said, “You are really nice.”

I said, “You should tell Alex that.”

We packed up our things and went back into the classroom.

I watched Burke go up to Alex and say, “Your mom is really nice.”

Alex stared at Burke.

The left side of his mouth turned up in a snarl.

And he rolled his eyes.

Yes, he did.

Oh boy, buddy. If you think I’m embarrassing at 3rd grade, just wait to see what I have planned for your 5th grade year.

A Wintery 1st Birthday

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Jennifer

My adorable nephew Corey just celebrated his 1st birthday. While we weren’t able to be in Canada and celebrate with them, his mom Deanna sent along some photos. I knew I had to share them with you so you could see a 1st birthday through the eyes of a new mommy. Enjoy!

This past December we celebrated our son’s first birthday! I was pretty darn excited to plan for this event; I think I started designing the invitations in October!

Seeing that our Champ wasn’t really into anything in particular, I had thought a winter themed party would be appropriate and fun. We had decided to only invite family members to keep it somewhat intimate and hopefully not too overwhelming for Corey.

The planning went pretty well. We had established the menu and cake in advance so no need to stress, right? Wrong! Stress is a funny little beast. Having never really decorated a cake before I would highly recommend not piping a cake the day of the party!! Lesson learned for next year.

The finished product! This occasion was my first attempt at making a cake and ‘piping’ a cake…how hard could it be, really? Ace of Cakes makes it look easy….yah, well I’m no Duff Goldman and my first cake looked a bit rookie..practice makes perfect I guess. I made a banana cake in the shape of the #1 with cream cheese icing. It was pretty delicious actually ( I’m hoping the taste made up for the presentation).

We were debating on putting up a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign and decided that this one would be perfect. Everyone would see it and it would be subtle at the same time.

The Smörgåsbord. Seeing as we had decided on a winter themed party, we thought it would be fitting if we served up food that somewhat complimented our theme. Candies, chocolates and finger foods were high on our menu list.

I’d have to say the most fun (and maybe the most delicious) treat on our table was the pine-cone-shaped-roasted-almond-cream-cheese-bacon-dill-pickle dip. You may think that food combination is a bit crazy, but all I’d say to that is don’t knock it until you try it. I think this presentation made up for the cake.

A fun spin put on your run of the mill regular rice krispie square. The only downfall would be the base product is not like cookie dough so you can’t re-use the treat base once you’ve cut your shape out. I tried and the rice krispie pieces cracked and crumbled.

Our winter themed party sported a hot chocolate and apple cider bar. I had read about this idea on a website and thought it was a fantastic one. I mean who doesn’t like chocolate and when you can add marshmallows, whipped cream and more chocolate to it, it’s like heaven in a mug!

Ultimate cake test. After singing Happy Birthday, we divvied up the cake and gave Corey his first piece ever! He studied it for about 2 seconds and then devoured it … with both hands! He didn’t stop plowing the cake into his mouth until he was finished.