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January’s Favorite Photos

nicostuff — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:41:01 +0000

I took a crazy amount of pictures in January. There wasn’t that much going on, but I was better about having a camera with me. Here are way too many of my favorites.

On to February…

January’s Tasty Treats

nicostuff — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:22:37 +0000

January is always a busy month in the kitchen at my house. We had lots of great tasty items for Thade’s birthday, lots of homemade cookies for snack time, and I even got the family to try a new recipe too. Here’s what tasty treats kept me busy in January.

I had a few cans of pumpkin hanging out in the pantry, so I decided to give a pumpkin roll a try.

The cake turned out great, but the filling needed something a bit more. I’m going to tweak the recipe a bit, and see if I can make it even tastier.

Sticking with the roll theme, I made a lot of dinner rolls in January. I love to knead dough, I count it as an arm exercise.

The dinner rolls were buttery and yummy too. They make a great side for Chicken and Noodles, or Beef Stew too. You can even just eat them all by themselves, they are awesome.

I had a yellow cake mix, and I tried my hand at Chocolate butter-cream. The frosting was awesome!

To celebrate the sorta snow day we made a batch of iced sugar cookies. The family loved them, but I got tired of rolling them out. They were really tasty though.

I made some banana muffins using frozen bananas. I let the frozen bananas defrost in the fridge, and they worked out just fine. So save those bananas, and bake with them.

I also made biscuits for breakfast for dinner night. I love to make biscuits, they make some tasty breakfast sandwiches too.

I’ve been trying to use what I have on hand, and use up what I’ve got. One day we needed cookies for an afternoon treat, so I made up a batch of toffee shortbread cookies. The kiddos didn’t care for them too much, but I thought they were awesome. They wern’t too sweet, and they had a great snap to them. Great for dunking in milk or tea. (P.S. they tasted like pecan sandies without the pecans)

To make amends with the kiddos for the shortbread I raided all of the chocolate candies left in the house from Christmas, and made some candy cookies. The boys loved them, they were their favorite colors red and green. They were really tasty, and a great way to use up some leftovers.

So when it was time for Thade’s birthday, he asked if he could bring cake pops to school. If you have made them before, you know it takes a bit to get them done. Thade was happy though. I ended up making enough for his class, his favorite teachers, and then a batch for us at home too.

To package the wraps, I wrapped them in little squares of waxed paper (my favorite kitchen tool), and tied them with silver twist ties. They were gone in a flash, everyone loves cake pops.

I finally had success with Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were my kitchen nemesis, but we’ve made friends. My family is thankful for it too. I think homemade chocolate chip cookies make the best afternoon snack after a really long day at school, or after a night of no sleep, and not enough coffee.

So here we are in February, and I’ll be busy cooking some tasty homemade treats. I need to restock the pantry again though, I’ve run out of sugar and flour.

School @ Home

nicostuff — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:25:16 +0000

I know he doesn’t start for awhile, and trust me I’m not ready for him to go. Even though it makes me a little sad, I’m doing what I can to get Dylan ready to go to kindergarten.

Dylan goes to preschool three times a week, and on the days he isn’t there, we work on school @ home. We practice writing his name, letters, and numbers too. Dylan is really interested in math, so I need to work that in too. He also colors lots of pictures, and we read books too. It is really fun.

We also tour his soon-to-be school whenever we get the chance. Right now it is the attendance center that Thade attends, and we go about once a month when we need to load Thade’s lunch account. I take Dylan for a little walk around the school, and we look for all the different rooms. We find the lunch room, the gym, the library, and then the kindergarten hall.

It is fun for him too, he has met a lot of the teachers, and on our last visit he met the principal too. He made her laugh too. We were introducing ourselves, and Dylan said he would be attending school soon. The principal introduced herself, and asked Dylan if he had any questions about school. He quickly retorted “I’m very concerned about homework”. She and another teacher giggled a bit, and the principal reassured Dylan that he didn’t have anything to worry about, his teacher would be there to help. He then said “but, what about math…” I think he is just about ready to go.

Kindergarten will be here before I’m ready for it…

500 Items

nicostuff — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:16:43 +0000

I read a great article about tossing out 50 items. Fifty was the magic number that was supposed to get your mind ready to toss away a lot of unnecessary clutter. I have to say, it really worked. It worked so well for me that I decided to set a goal of getting rid of 500 items of clutter in January.

I wanted to clean out all of the hidden clutter in the house. I started with my desk, then moved onto the kitchen drawers. I then worked on the upstairs storage closet, and the downstairs buffet. James even cleaned out his closet, and the boys were happy when I worked on their room too.

At first it was a little worrisome, but by the middle of the month I hit my stride. I worked while the kids were both at school, and Agnes was napping. I was surprised by how much clutter I could rid the house of in just an hour.

I’m really happy with the results too. My craft supplies are organized, my kitchen is cleaner. The closets look great, and it will be a snap to paint. I want to keep going through February though, I’ve finally found a clutter-busting system that is working for me.

So you might be wondering if I hit my goal… I’m happy to report that I did, 507 items of straight-up clutter are gone for good. It feels great too!

February’s Monthly Dinner Menu

nicostuff — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:30:01 +0000

Here’s what a dork I am, I was so excited that this February has a leap day, and I have 29 days to meal plan. Yeah, I know, I’m a little silly. I’m keeping the menu simple this month, and although it isn’t an official no take-out month, I’m planning for meals for the entire month. You never know what the Winter weather is going to do, and I want to have enough groceries on hand just in case I can’t get out for a few days. So here we go it’s February’s Monthly Dinner Menu.

2/1/2012: Nacho Bar
2/2/2012: Salmon Cakes, Salad, and Homemade Rolls
2/3/2012: Tacos, Tortilla Chips, Salsa, and Cheese Dip
2/4/2012: Homemade Pizzas: Cheese (no sauce), Pepperoni, Triple Meat, and BBQ Chicken with Bacon
2/5/2012: Panko Popcorn Chicken, Tortilla Chips and Mock-Chili’s Salsa, Veggie Tray, and Vanilla Cupcakes
2/6/2012: Hamburgers, Potato Chips and Dip
2/7/2012: Chicken Chow Mien, Rice, Chow Mien Noodles, and Sugar Dumplings
2/8/2012: Pulled Pork Tacos, Tortilla Chips, Salsa, Cheese Dip, and Re-fried Beans
2/9/2012: BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Potato Chips and Dip
2/10/2012: Chicken Burritos, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, Salsa, and Re-fried Beans
2/11/2012: Chili, Saltines, and Brownies
2/12/2012: Chicken Noodles, Mashed Potatoes, Homemade Rolls, and Peach Pie
2/13/2012: Tostadas, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, and Salsa
2/14/2012: Beef Stew, Homemade Rolls, and Cherry Pie
2/15/2012: Chicken Burritos, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, Salsa, and Re-fried Beans
2/16/2012: Chicken Chow Mien, Rice, Chow Mien Noodles, and Red Velvet Cupcakes
2/17/2012: Nacho Bar
2/18/2012: Hamburgers, Potato Chips and Dip
2/19/2012: Panko Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Cherry Jell-O Cake
2/20/2012: Salmon Cakes, Salad, and Homemade Rolls
2/21/2012: Nacho Bar
2/22/2012: Tacos, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, and Salsa
2/23/2012: Chicken Chow Mien, Rice, Chow Mien Noodles, and Sugar Dumplings
2/24/2012: Chicken Burritos, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, Salsa, and Re-fried Beans
2/25/2012: Chili, Saltines, and Brownies
2/26/2012: Beef Stew, Homemade Rolls, and Chocolate Bundt Cake
2/27/2012: Tostadas, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, and Salsa
2/28/2012: Hamburgers, Chips and Dip
2/29/2012: Tacos, Tortilla Chips, Cheese Dip, and Salsa

Hello February! Time to make some shopping lists and get to it.

Happy 8th Birthday Thade

nicostuff — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:50:46 +0000

Happy 8th Birthday to our big kid Thade!

We love you big kid!

Party Planning

nicostuff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:58:43 +0000

This weekend is someone’s birthday. I’ll give you a hint, he’s super cute, and he’s the little hipster of the family.

Oh yeah! It’s Thade, and he is turning 8!

I’ve been working on the birthday party plans this week, and he has a fun weekend planned. He is so excited!

I just hope the little ones are all better by the weekend…

Unwell Two

nicostuff — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:16:07 +0000

Last weekend Thade had a miserable cold. His cold also happened on a three day weekend which was a bummer. Well Dylan and Agnes have finally caught it, and they are miserable…

Dylan has aches, fever, and coughs. He is more pale than usual, and says his head hurts so bad…

Agnes has coughs, fever, and extreme toddler-rage. She is ten kinds of miserable…

Oh goodness this is going to be a long week…

nicostuff — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:37:03 +0000

We got out of town for just a bit yesterday, and it was awesome.

Sneak Peek of January’s Tasty Treats

nicostuff — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:12:54 +0000

I’ve been cooking a lot this month, and baking a lot too. I’ve got lots of tasty pictures to share with you, but here are just a few.