Sick Weeks

Our house should be quarantined. First it was a nasty cold about a two months ago. It seemed to last forever. Then I started having really bad pain in my jaw and ear. Next, Trent caught the flu. Luckily the kids and I had our flu shots, so I am hopeful we will skip that particular type of torture.

While most of it has now passed, that pain in my jaw and ear has now spread halfway up my face and into my throat. My dr. has no idea what is going on.

So while I would love to tell you about our trip to the snow that ended up with our van getting stuck,

or perhaps about Gabriel's third birthday party and all the really great things we made for it,

 instead I must prepare myself mentally for a visit with an ear, nose, and throat specialist and a dentist all in the same day,

 

and promptly take a nap.

I promise to regale you with stories of our snow adventure, and all of the great DIY projects and finds for Gabe's birthday. But for now, after fighting with whatever is going on with me for the last two months, I am just toast. Wish me luck tomorrow.

Getting Stuff Close

If only that title said "Getting Stuff Done", but sadly the cold circulating around has really hit our house hard. Poor Abby cannot breath, leaving her unable to use her bink. No binki = no bueno in our house. Add to that the molars coming in, and she is a sad mess.

Gabe seems to finally be on the mend, but his cough kicks in at night. The adults in the house are trucking along, although there are times when Trent's face looks like it might melt off.

I think Nicholas is the only one able to avoid this bug. Lucky jerk.

Despite feeling crummy, we are doing our best to get prep work done for a special event. Gabe's 3rd Birthday party! It is so surreal to me that our funny, stubborn, and smart little man is turning 3. I am so happy we will be able to celebrate in a fun, exciting, and fitting way.

For today I am done with the prep. Now I am off to eat oranges, while drinking orange juice, followed by a chaser of NyQuil and tea.

Night!

Eggnog Quick Bread

It seems every January I find myself staring at a half empty carton of eggnog. We buy it throughout the holiday season, but after Christmas it just sits there. Sad. Ignored. Forgotten.

Inevitably I end up pouring it down the drain, hurting it's pride. Not this year. Thus my hunt for, and modification of, a great quick bread recipe.

Now this is a bread in the way a cake could be called a bread if it was baked in a bread pan. It is sweet, made my house smell divine, and went wonderfully with a cup of coffee.

Eggnog Quick Bread adapted from Allrecipes

2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups eggnog
2 teaspoons of rum
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (be generous)
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Begin by creaming sugar, applesauce, and butter.

The mixture will look a little different because of the applesauce, but this is ok.

Next, lightly beat 2 eggs.

Add eggs, eggnog, and vanilla to the butter/applesauce/sugar mix.

Now, here comes the part where you have a choice. The original recipe called for rum extract. At my local grocery store rum extract was $6 for a small bottle. Paying that much for a few tablespoons kinda defeated the purpose of this bread (a quick way to use up what I have). I chose to instead use some rum I had on hand.

Don't be scared. The alcohol cooks out during the baking process. But if you are super worried you can always fork over the cash for the "extract". Your call.

Add the rum to the wet mix and stir. Then sift together your flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

Slowly incorporate your dry mix into your wet mix, until just moistened.

Pour that delicious smelling concoction into a lightly greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mine took 65 minutes, and then this was what I had:

Yum! Allow to cool for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.

Once cool, slice up and enjoy with a fresh brewed cup of coffee in a monkey mug. Oh, you don't have a monkey mug? So sad. This eggnog quick bread will be delicious regardless.

Enjoy!

Back and Forth : How the New Year Feels

2012 was a weird year for me. The two years prior I had brought new little people into our family. There had been huge house projects and big changes. In comparison 2012 held a lot of half finished things.

The backyard makeover that started with such promise has been left incomplete. The deck, sod, fire pit, and numerous other pieces laying half done.

The feeling of  half-done extends in to the house with little projects everywhere looking sad and abandoned.

Part of it has just been time. Hubs worked two jobs for the majority of the year and I went back to school (so grateful!), however that doesn't temper the sting of feeling lacking.

Perhaps it was a good thing this year was slow. A blessing to refocus our priorities. But it is hard for me to look around and not tally up all we have to tackle this year in addition to our plans for 2013.

2013 is going to be an adjustment. Hubs and I will both be going to school, in addition to him working full time. Abigail is getting bigger, and it is hard to believe but our little Gabe is turning 3 this month!!

We have big plans for the homestead this year. A main bath remodel, moving a wall and building a custom wardrobe in the master bedroom, new counter tops in the kitchen, and new storage system in the kids closet. All this in addition to finishing up the projects from last year.

I think my big goal for 2013 is two fold: be realistic and knowledgeable about the time you have. Having plans for big projects is great, it keeps you driven. But having unrealistic expectations about the time available for these things will only create disappointment. My family needs time first, the house will have to wait. And my feelings of failure over projects needs to shift to joy at the abilities and joy my children display every day.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Came to These Here Parts

Christmas around here always sneaks up on me. I start shopping, planning, and celebrating months in advance of the big day but every year it seems I find myself on Christmas eve shocked that the time has come. 

This year was especially fun now that Gabriel and Abigail are a little older. Gabe new what Christmas was and couldn't contain his excitement. He was quite the little helper in the kitchen, and put a great deal of energy into making special presents for family. 

Abigail was in awe of the tree. Several times a day she would delicately touch the tips of the branches and say "Pretty tree". Then, once I wasn't looking, snatch one of the pretty ornaments off and go running. Sneaky girl. 

Sadly, I think this will be our last year with a real tree. In my family, fake trees were sacrilegious, so the thought of owning one makes me feel like a traitor. I also relish going to the tree yard, the smell of the trees, going through at least a dozen until I find the perfect one. But as I am the only one in our house who enjoys the tradition (Trent tolerates my eccentric tree ladyness, and the kids could really care less), and this year our tree seemed to die fast, I figured we could try the fake tree thing. 

Maybe I will just get a small real one for our master (ha, ha, ha I mean shoe box) bedroom. We'll see. 

We spent the morning of Christmas at home, enjoying coffee, breakfast, and the fun of shiny new toys with intact parts. Nicholas was thrilled with his new Nintendo 3DS and kept marveling us with it's different features.

After Abigail had a morning nap, it was of to Grandmas to celebrate with Trent's family. That many people (5 adults, 1 teen, 3 kids, an infant, and a dog) in a Christmas present filled living room was crazy, but so much fun! As a Christmas present to my mother in law we all wore pj's. Beyond the materialistic, our gift to them was 5 bazillion homemade cookies. Well, maybe not that many but pretty close. Snicker doodle, no bake chocolate cookies, gingerbread men, and chocolate rolo cookies. 

Overall, a blessed day of food, family, and a reminder that while our family keeps getting bigger we have plenty of crazy love to share.

I Voted

The excitement in our house is always tangible on election night. It's like the Super Bowl and Christmas all wrapped in an American flag. It typically involves a lot of grumbling, fist pumping, and coffee drinking as my husband, mother-in-law, and I stay up late and flip through every news channel. This year I am battling the avalanche of multicolored US maps as the hubbs works and my mil travels.

No matter your political views, or your beliefs regarding the electoral college, I hope you voted. Not only for your President, but for all of your local measures and representatives. I may not agree with how you vote, but I will still give you a high five for doing so. Because if you don't vote, you lose your right to complain about the state of our country, states, and counties.

I voted. So now I can whine. Yay me.

Happy Election Day!!

DIY Backyard Landscaping: Jacuzzi Time!

Trent and I are affectionately referred to as scroungers by our family. At least I hope it is affectionately.  Recently we were searching the free section on Craigslist for landscaping supplies

 (a backyard transformation isn't cheap people!) and came across this beauty.

I seven person, fully functioning hot tub in great condition. It was on a rental property and with the current tenants moving out, the owner wanted the tub gone so he could redo the patio. Nice! 

It has been a dream of Trent's for a long time to have a hot tub. What better a price than free?

With a lot of muscular help from the contractor and his crew working on the property we loaded it up onto a flat bed trailer and towed it on home.

Once home, we ran into a small snag. It was a weekday. No one was home. And we didn't have the muscle to get it into the back. Did I mention this thing weighs 1,000 lbs? So in our driveway it sat for a few days. I'm sure our neighbors just looooved us.

Finally, using some ingenuity, Trent strapped two furniture dollies to the bottom of it and with just four of us we hoisted that bad boy up into the air.

The hubbs and our good friend Robert striking a celebratory pose.

Slowly we rolled it into the backyard. Once we hit the dirt-patch-that-will-eventually-be-grass we used sheets of plywood to provide a solid base to roll the massive thing on.

It was 100 degree weather that day. Which I am sure you know is the best time to be moving heavy hot tubs. 1,000 lb hot tubs.

Oh yeah. I am styling. And melting. And in desperate need of a shower and an adult beverage.

We had preped the area already by laying down a 2" bed of 3/4 gravel on a level pad of compacted dirt.

Finally, with all hand on deck we got the sucker down there. Success!

It still needs the electrical to be run before we can use it, but having it out of the driveway is a huge success. With it in place we can make sure to align the sprinklers and sod properly around the area. By next summer there will be a large two level redwood deck wrapping around the front of the hot tub and the pool.

Next up: Cleaning up and prepping for Abigail's birthday!