Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Two For the Money

That's right. TWO. As in, I completed two more goals today. Yeah. Happy Dance. *wiggles*


---- Last night I dyed my hair. It came out pretty swell...


& then Today went as follows::

* Kids to Preschool


* Quick re-trip to Food Lion

* Make Playdough Cookie Dough, stored it in the fridge

---- The original recipe's reviews claimed blandness, so I deviated a little bit and used maple extract rather than vanilla and threw in a bit of coconut as well. In the end it helped a bit, but overall the taste is still wanting.

---- However, the dough itself entertained my kids for an HOUR. One full hour of happy, mostly QUIET playtime. It was a miracle. A divine intervention. An angel sitting upon my shoulder, sprinkling her magic dust over the lands.

...But that actually took place later in the day...


* Did a fast re-dusting on those ever-dusty spots

* Prepped green peppers & onions for dinner

* Picked up Kids from preschool, fed them lunch, and went outside to play

* Washed my car & my puppy - yay, clean!

* Packed up the hot & sweaty kids for a trip to Sonic's happy hour!

---- One blue slushy, two junior ice creams, and a giant Dr. Pepper later and my whining devils were sweet and smiling angels once again. I'm quite sad that I forgot my camera on that trip. Stoopid me.

* Back home was the time we actually played with and baked the cookies. They're supposed to be all swirly & pretty... and on a stick... so I did a few like that (minus the stick).

---- But then, that took up too much time and I got antsy so... I made them tie-dye instead. Fun!

* The girls wanted to play with their REAL play dough then and I handed it over, allowing them to continue to play and behave for ALMOST another hour. Really, it's by no exaggeration that I label this a miracle. My kids are sweet, but they like to throw elbows with one another as much as they like to play nice. ... I might just make them some [more] play dough this week ...

---- Their dough time allowed me a moment to *gasp* sit down so I indulged in some Harry Potter fanfiction. Yay! Then I got twitchy, so I decided I should do something else.

* Clean up and organize my baking supplies! Thing number Two from my goals!!!

---- I actually have two locations for all my baking crap. One is a spare bedroom that's used as a make shift storage/supply room. Canned goods, extra table chairs, a fifty pound sack of all purpose flour... it's all there.

---- However, it's the cabinets in the kitchen that had gone to hell. In my many mad dashes about my kitchen my supplies have sadly been abused and misused, pulled out and shoved back.

---- Surprisingly, it took a short amount of time to get my affairs in order. Only a few things needed to be thrown away. (Those sugars that aren't sugars but say they are right before they claim to be good for you?? yeah... my mom's a sucker for those. i no longer let her food shop. *maniacal grin*) Everything else fell into new containers, nice line ups and groups of similarities.

---- I'm making up excuses to bake again now, just so i can open my cabinets and grin without looking life I've completely lost my mind for it! Not that anyone would be surprised if I did the open-and-stare bit anyway... Oh well.

* Next it was dinnertime. I started Mexican rice on the back burner and cranked the heat up. A pound of fresh mushrooms went in a small frying pan with some olive oil and a light coating of spices. I tossed them a few times and then ignored them.

---- Several tortilla shells found themselves snuggled up into foil wrapping and tossed to warm in the oven while a pound of sage sausage, a diced green pepper, and a chopped white onion jumped into a large frying pan. They rolled around together, getting friendly, sharing flavors back and forth for the better part of twenty minutes. By that time the side dishes were ready and the sausage mix got it's final touch: an egg bath.

---- Once the eggs were scrambled and fully cooked through out, it was time to serve up! Cream cheese coupled with monetary jack and cheddar cheese got smeared across the hot tortilla shell before the sausage topping was added. Everything got rolled up, the cheese melted and oozed through the meat and veggie combo and every bite was delicious. Damn! I mean, good!!!

* Back outside, as I promised the girls, we watched the sun begin its nightly decent before putting away the outdoor toys and heading in for quick showers. I believe they've actually gone to sleep straight away... Tonight was one of the first nights that they haven't sat in there screaming and yelling for the better part of an hour. I find myself impressed.


---- The dishes, bless Teflon, were quick, easy, and painless, thus allowing me to now be parked in front of the television and computer (wonderful combo). Today leaves me feeling satisfied and content, an even better combination than television and computer. I'm unsure of what tomorrow brings but any accomplishment is a big one if you view it as so. One thing is all it takes.

It's the simple things in life - too many people forget that. I hope I never do. :)


The List (as it stands)::

1. Cooking
1. Brown Sugar Meatloaf
2. Maple Porkchops OR Maple Salmon
3. Drunken Coffee Jello Squares - You can argue that these are "bake", but i'll argue back ;)
4. Homemade Cinnamon Bread

2. Baking
1. Eclairs! Loooove them! Now I want to MAKE them!
2. Cherry Pound Cake. Yum.
3. Playdough Cookies. Fun for the kids, too!
4. S'mores Cookie Bars My sister's obsession is slowly becoming my own.

3. Crafts
1. Flower Faires
2. Hair Bows
3. Paper Flowers
4. Toliet Paper Roll Wall Art

4. Cleaning
1. Organizing the Laundry Room Cabinets
2. Decorating the Mantel
3. Reorganizing the Baking Supplies
4. Cleaning the Kitchen Counters (the dreaded moving of the microwave!)


... Suppose I should get to cooking something, or maybe doing a craft? Oops? :)

4 comments:

  1. Those playdough cookies look, um, interesting. LOL Kind of like the playdough ice cream at our local ice cream shop that is bright yellow and truly looks like playdough.

    And are those legwarmers? Hahaha! Love it!

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  2. YES!!! I found them for 99 cents and I squee'd right there in the store. It cracks me up every time that the girls wear them - i LOVE it!!! :D

    The cookies LOOK awesome. Now to fix their taste so I can do something more with these puppies... ;)

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  3. Oh my gosh I love the playdough cookie idea!!! That is brilliant!! And I too love the leg warmers!!! Good job!

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  4. The playdough cookies look neat. We might have to try that.
    The girls are adorable like always.

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