Crockpot Love.

It's one of Man's (or was it Woman's?) most awesome inventions. A pot you can dump almost anything food-ish in, plug it in and not worry about it, and when you come home after a busy day, voila! You have dinner!

It's the Crockpot. I have four of them. A really large oval one for when I do my 10-pound pork roasts for pulled pork, a large one for our family Sunday dinners, a medium one for a smaller meat/whatever fare, and a small one for queso, lil' smokies, etc. etc.

LOVE THEM. Crockpots make my life so much easier!!

What's crazy is the STUFF you can do with them. You can bake bread. You can bake brownies. You can do things you didn't think you could do! The possibilities are endless!!

Now I just need to get a crockpot with a TIMER on it--that would be ideal!

Crockpots Rock!

Hold On, Let Me Put Away Henry VIII's Milk...

HAHAHAHAHA!!! (Found this on Pinterest)

SNOW? What???

Got a nice little inch of snow last night. Which is WAY rare for where we live. I don't even have snow boots or gear for my kids, that's how long it's been. My maltipoo, Maggie, didn't know what to make of the snow this morning when my son took her out to go to the bathroom. Of course it's going to be 50 degrees today so it will all be melted, but it's kind of cool to see white lawns and rooftops for a change. :-)

School wasn't cancelled today, thank heaven, because my daughter has midterm exams this week, and her Algebra exam is today. Otherwise she would have had to wait until Wednesday next week, because the kids have a four-day weekend. Yes, we're being total bums and not going anywhere--just hanging out at home.

I am looking forward to the weekend. Granted we have sports games for half the day on Saturday, but that's normal for us. Sunday I want to be a slug. That's my favorite day!

I have a personal trainer I've started going to twice a week, and MAN is he kicking my butt! Literally! I can't even lift my arms to the steering wheel to drive my car home after our sessions. And the next day, I sit down like an oooooolllllldddd lady. We'll see if I get any results.

It's Friday! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Stay warm!

I Think I Just Threw Up In My Mouth...

'Nuff said.

Monday Monday..

Mondays are always crazy days for me--as far as running around. I usually volunteer on Mondays too at Thing 4's school--today will be the last Monday. I have a Personal Trainer I will be going to on Mondays and Thursdays, so I guess Wednesdays will be my "volunteer" day.

It's funny how my 5-year old LOVES IT when I come to his class and chaperone field trips and help out (I'm the room mom, it's actually kinda fun) and my middle schoolers and high-schooler don't say a PEEP about me volunteering at THEIR schools.

Are they embarrassed? Is it "uncool" now to have a mom who helps out in the office or media center or sign-in desk? I guess. Better enjoy my 5-year old's appreciation while I can!

I am glad it's January. Things are calmer. All the holiday stuff is down at the house, and without it even the house seems calmer (except now I get to deal with Valentines Day stuff SCREAMING SCREAMING SCREAMING at me in the grocery store aisles...mmmm....candy hearts...wait...what?"

...ANYWAY, I am on a very focused mission to de-clutter and dejunk the house. As I do every New year/Spring. House first, garages last. I look at the state of my third car garage and I just...can't. Not until I've tackled the house. (Although I DID put all the Christmas stuff back in one section, stacked on shelves in neatly-labeled plastic tubs. NEXT Christmas I will know exactly where everything is! Hooray!)

It's still cold, though. This morning was low 40's. But this week will be nearly 70 degrees every day! I am SO fine with that, but no more comfort food for us! I have fallen completely in love with my new Keurig (Hubby insisted we get one but since we aren't coffee drinkers I didn't see the point, until I realized you can make HOT COCOA and HERBAL TEA with it) and those little K-cups are awesome. Although there's something tactile about having my mug of herbal tea, bag tag out. I still do things old school that way. But I won't give up my hot drinks until about March. That's when things really start to warm up around here!

I just realized I blogged about a whole lot of nothing. I better get showered and get to the school! My 5-year old awaits!! ;-)

ORGANIZATION

It's a daunting word, sometimes. Every January I get what I call the Organizing Itch. I want to dejunk the house, and make the most of the space I have. Home Depot is my friend. I get storage tubs and shelves and what-not-thingies to help save space. There is a lot of wasted space in houses, you know? Like most closets. There's like FIVE FEET of clearance above the top shelf. How many people actually use it?

These past two days have been stay-home days. Cleaning, unpacking, washing and yes, organizing. And I've been getting some writing in, too. I went to a book club meeting in Idaho where my book was the featured book, and it was nice to answer questions and talk about the story. Some of the ladies had really good questions. And of course they all asked when the sequel would be ready. I've gotten about 5K out on...not sure exactly what it is, but I guess if it's good enough to be considered a sequel, then that's what I'll go with. :-)

We are having a Sports dilemma. Thing Three, who is my most active athlete, has been doing Taekwondo since summer. He's advanced quite quickly, and has also been invited to do Elite Sparring. Here's the problem, he is also doing basketball this season, and for the next two months every single one of his games are Saturday at 8 or 9am. Guess when Elite Sparring meets? Yep. Saturdays at 9am. He wanted to quit basketball, and he still sort of does, but he also loves playing it. What to do...what to do...

HAPPY NEW 2013!!

It's kind of freaking me out, how quickly 2012 flew out the door. Does anyone else feel this way??


I was a total Scrooge this holiday season. I was so busy, I didn't send out any cards or gifts, or make cookies and deliver them like I usually do. I was basically just trying to keep my head above water, and it was very difficult.

Christmas break was well-needed. We spent it with Hubby's family in Idaho, and a few days we spent in the mountains snowmobiling and hanging out in an awesome cabin. It was amazing. A little too cold for this North Carolina girl, but amazing all the same.

And now we're back home. I have been working my tail off since this morning and officially erased all traces of Christmas. Everything is moved back and packed up and put away. Now I need to dust and vacuum and tackle the HUGE/ENORMOUS/COLOSSAL pile of dirty clothes we pulled out of all seven of our suitcases. :-P

2013 will be interesting. I just hope it's a "good" interesting. I have written down some goals for myself, and looking at what I'd like to accomplish seems reasonable, only I have to make some life changes to accommodate these goals. Not so easy.

One goal is to definitely blog more. and WRITE. I have a story mulling around in my head and a few other ideas I need to jot down. And I need to start submitting again, now that agents are digging their way out from underneath their slush piles and open to submissions once more.

We all have head colds. It really sucks. Other than that, I'm glad to be home and I am determined to get this house organized. We've been in it a year and a half and it's TIME.

Gotta get 'er done!!