Roasting Mallows

Our first fire of the year happened yesterday.  I believe this is the earliest we have ever roasted marshmallows. My youngest last night wanted to have a fire.  We dug out the mallows and roasted some.  They turned out to be slightly stale so that turned into just burning mallows.  It was all good fun.

Project Life Tuesday - Week 12

I am linking up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.  I struggled a little bit this week with photos and words.  This is what I ended up with.

I just had to brag about my Farkle abilities in my Project Life. Farkle is a dice game. We have been playing a round after our dinner.
Supplies:

Project Life Page Protector G
Lucky Like a 4 Leaf Clover  - freebie Dear Brighton
Week in Review Circle - freebie Queen of Quirk

Booking It March

It is kinda been a slow reading month.  I am linking up with Life as Mom for Booking It March.

I read I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirby.  I am interested in other cultural religious groups.  I am unfamiliar with Hutterites and I thought this was a really good introduction to the Hutterites.  A much better introduction than the rather lame somewhat reality show that was on TV. Mary Ann's grew up Hutterite for most of her childhood.  She delves into some of the history of the Hutterites and daily living in a Hutterite community. It was riveting and fascinating to me.

I picked The Wisdom of the Radish by Lynda Hopkins off a library display on gardening.  It was a good read about a young couple who set out to run a small farm.  I think there are probably far better books on this topic but this was decent enough. I did love the part of her book on how she came to love chickens.

On the recommendation from last months Booking It, I read Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. It can be graphic but I thought it was really interesting how birth and pregnancy was handled during this time period.  I did go ahead and watch much of the first season of Call the Midwife and found that the show is pretty true to the book.  I think together they really compliment each other.  Netflix has the first season

Spring

This is how spring is looking around here.  We got daffodils. I even had to mow my front lawn which doesn't seem to contain much grass thanks to the dogs.

Fellowship of Mommies

I had the undeniable urge to pull into the parking lot at a local church where a MOPS session was being held, yesterday.  I guess I miss the mommy fellowship I found there.  It was a ministry that touched me deeply two times a month.  I met with other mom's in the trenches, ate a hot breakfast, and my kid was looked after.  Even though I am YEARS past this time in my life, that ministry still touches me.  I met my best friend there.  I met a lot of Mom's that were passionate about being stay at home mommies.  The hardest thing that happened was getting there on time. Things now are so much more complicated. They helped me be my best self. I miss that. 

Project Life Tuesday - Week 11

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life Tuesday.  You JUST HAVE TO check out what everyone else is doing for their Project Life.

Our week was very diverse.  We started with Springing Ahead and Police Action in practically our front yard and ended up geocaching on a somewhat rainy typical Pacific Northwest day.  That is how we roll.

 



I used Project Life Cobalt Edition journal cards and Project Life Photo Protector Design G.

Linky Love

Some days like Mondays just call for some Linky Love

I know this has been going around the internet but the Pespi Max Jeff Gordon test drive is really funny.



This was featured on Nester's Weekend Links but I had to re-share titled " I Want to be Awesome at Humility" at the tiny twig.  I am totally not a house cleaner but a house keeper so I can relate.

This was posted on Facebook by good friend.  It talks about depression and how it changes the brain.  She also shared this " Don't Ask Me What I Do, Instead Ask Me Who I Am." They are both very thought provoking.

Lastly this one very timely as our family is facing impending doom, "How to Survive a Furlough or Decrease in Income" by Life as Mom.

Celebrating Pi Day

Yesterday we celebrated Pi Day with Pie.  What is Pi day without some kind of pie? I made a pineapple pie.  I know for a fact this is the first time that I have ever made pineapple pie.  This is one of my Dad's favorite.  Crushed pineapple was on sale at my local Fred Meyer so this made this a very cheap pie to make. I did use a pre-made pie shell but the actual filling was not difficult. The recipe can be found here.

Art

I just had to show off some of my nephew's art.  He is 17 going on 18 and I think as my older son said, "Amazing."

Project Life Tuesday - Week 10

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life Tuesday.  Stop by and check out everybody's Project Life.

 

We had a busy week with various geocaching activities so that is what week 10 is all about.  Here is the journaling on a Project Life : Cobalt Edition Journal card - Believe It:

We had a week of geocaching success. Our flag trackable landed back in the USA almost traveling 10,000 miles. We attended a WSGA event on Friday. Saturday had us completing the holiday challenge with a veteran's cache and frog cache.

The "Go and Smell the Roses" was inspired by the Travelocity Ad that shows during the Amazing Race.  I wrote about that here.  I made the chalk art card in Photoshop Elements.  I really like photo protector G.  

Smell the Roses

I thought this was a good slogan for our geocaching this weekend.  "Go and Smell the Roses", is actually Travelocity's new ad campaign that played during the Amazing Race.  I decided that someone at Travelocity must be a scrapbooker because their graphic is also in the style of chalkboard art as well.  Their graphic inspired me to make my own. 

Here are a few pics from our geocaching adventures this weekend. We couldn't have asked for a nicer Sunday.  We grabbed a few caches at Lake Padden.  We found one in a little frog hidden in a tree.

Chuck with frog cache

There was an interesting sculpture outside a bank in Burlington WA that contained a geocache.  Can you see it? 


 

 

My Hubby and I were calling our oldest Obi Wan Kenobi based on his outfit.

 





Slutty Brownies, Furlough, Magic Cake, Soft Kitty=- Maddness

Earlier in the week, my 14 year old came home telling me he had slutty brownies.  Except I didn't understand the slutty part.  He has some speech problems.  They don't really work on the word slutty in speech therapy. He was sensing that I wasn't getting what he was saying. Finally, he just googled it. Just to clarify someone brought the brownies for their birthday.  I guess they were delicious.  I found it more disturbing they were eating their special brownies while watching a video on marijuana for health. That was lost on my son. He kept saying we had these special brownies, too. Here is the recipe.

My Husband signed his furlough paperwork.  They are proposing 14 days without pay and possibly the end to overtime.  The end to overtime is really the killer.

My sister practically dared me or egged me to make magic cake.  Read all about that adventure here.

Lastly, we were getting ready for bed and I was teasing my husband(It is my job). I started singing, "Soft Kitty".  Evidently either the song or my singing disturbed our dog Tigger.  He started growling and basically mumbling to himself in his wire crate.  IT cracked us up. We finally had to put a blanket over his crate to shut him up.

Photo from the Past

Chuckles and #1 Son
March 8, 2008

I actually blogged about this in the way back.  Check it out.

Magic Cake and My Sister Made Me Do IT

It has been a while for a cooking experiment.  Both my sister and I pinned from pinterest a Magic Cake recipe via Jo Cooks.  What is a magic cake.  It has 3 layers without each layer having to be poured.  My sister practically dared ME to make this. 

This is made totally with ingredients I think most people have on hand. It took about 15 minutes to whip up and an hour to bake.  The batter was quite runny which I guess is quite normal.  I think I might have over whipped my egg whites but it turned out fine.  The only addition I made was a 1 teaspoon of Mexican vanilla (Thanks Mrs Epi)

I got 3 layers kinda of.  The bottom crust was barely there.  I had to have the first bite so not to poison my family and prove to my sister that this was quite edible. The cake is delicious.

Project Life Weeks 8 and 9

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Tuesday Project Life. 

I ended up combining weeks 8 and 9.  I was a single parent much of the past 2 weeks.  I think that explains my lack of pictures. My Hubby shot in the Florida Open and later had to attend a work convention in Vegas.  He totally has a hard life, not.  My Hubby contributed the Vegas Pictures.  Does anyone have older children that aren't that interested in getting their pictures taken.  So, I only ended up with the 1 picture with a child in it.  So I at least contributed some of their quotes.

I created the quote cards in Photoshop Elements.

The 4 x6 journal card is from the Cobalt Edition of Project Life. Charlie's art work is a 8 x10 American Crafts Photo Protector.

Saran Wrap and What is on my Mind

Saran Wrapped Car Costco Parking Lot

Things I don't Understand -It must be the newest thing to saran wrap cars or I am just old.  We saw another car being saran wrapped on Friday.  This had the added addition of cardboard. Here are some of my other saran wrap car posts, here and here

Sequester is an UGLY word

Current Life Situation - Ah, it is the life of furlough for us.  My hubby is a government worker so we are trying to figure out what our new reality is.  The news doesn't really reveal the cuts that workers are going to take and the burnt earth approach being taken.  There are certain agencies in the government that are going to bare the burnt of these cuts and they are definitely not the agencies with the most pork.  I realize this is the last sector to be hit by the economy but the hit is brutal especially for government employees and don't let the news trick you. I know it will make a small 4% dent in the U.S. deficit but it will make up to a 40% dent in my family budget.

Interesting Links- These are couple of links to interesting things in the Autism and Special Needs Community

Top 10 Most Ridiculous Comments made in an IEP

Autism Moms have Stress Similar to Combat Soldiers

Song Stuck in My Head -The song stuck in my head for the longest time is Aaron Prichett's  song,  "How Do I Get There" specifically the lyrics
Can I ever
unburn the bridges
the bridges I burned
to the ground