Finally Friday

Yeah, the work week is over. Now time to actually work.

Hubby was off the first part of the week and decided to get something, anything, accomplished. He cleaned out the storage room which had several boxes of my fabric and 27 plastic bins of yarn for a knitting a machine I gifted to a co-worker's wife about a year ago or more. She actually uses it. I emptied the bins and took her the majority of the yarn. Okay...so shoot me, I kept a little bit for myself, but hey one bin as opposed to 27, the "Clean Sweep" guy would be proud. I will post a photo of the now empty and stacked bins tomorrow. I do still get the yearning to crochet from time to time, and I do have some regular yarn in this house somewhere...okay, in a bag in the RV, but only because I take it with me camping. It isn't all of it, just what I would work on at the time. And, it is a small bag...okay so technically it is a Duffie bag, but that is just knit picking so to speak. Yeah I know, lame pun.

Now, to go through the massive, I'm talking obnoxiously offensive massive stash of fabric for quilting. It is literally in stashed in every room of the house. Well...almost, there isn't any in my son's room or the kitchen...or the bathroom's. Every where else though, a cedar trunk in the living room, boxes and plastic bins in the garage, a hall closet with shelves over stuffed, bins in daughter's closet, boxes in my room, shelves full of fabric and books (crochet books, quilt books, stamping supplies, embroidery books) in my room, plastic flat boxes under my bed as well. Hubby is so generously (okay you did not see me roll my eyes at that) giving me a specific amount of space in the garage and storage room. He thinks maybe if I pair it down to 6 of the big gray bins. I agreed. He just doesn't know that I had already determined to purge it all down to three big bins of quilting and one bin for garment construction. My summer goal of a new wardrobe which I plan to actually start working on over Spring break. I mean really...this is just totally disgusting from even my point of view. At any rate, I also need one bin to seal up a couple of sewing machines in, or go buy a couple of carrying cases that will keep the majority of the dust out while they sit idle. Which they have been doing. It really ought to be a crime to have so much to work with except the on thing that is most needed...time.

Just check out my photo album, there is a link at the side of the page, and you will see, I do know how to do things, the quilts, machine embroidery, crazy quilting, it is all there. I just need to not work so I can work on some projects once again. But then I would be out of money to buy more things to work with. It is just an unending circle of thoughts you see. Kind of like my mind. Lord only knows what kind of mayhem I could get in if I took up scrapbooking with the way I jump in and build up supplies to store in every nook and cranny.

At any rate, I am in purging mood, have already got names lined up of people to take the stuff too. Just need to clear my time up to actually get out there and start sorting. Okay, I get it, about now would be when a planned, prepared menu plan for two weeks, plus some made ahead dinners, would be extremely valuable. I did plan out a menu plan for this past week, it worked one night. The night I made the Quick Chicken Chili Mole. It was a total disaster. I don't care how open I try to be when it comes experiencing new cultures, their food and people and traditions, I just can't enjoy the taste of chili and chocolate at the same time. The leftover Mole was trash, and I couldn't even give it to the dogs because it had chocolate in it. At any rate, the week end is coming and I will be very busy, so lucky I have a few things that quick cook so to speak.

I had much much more to say, really wanted to vent more, but I took some allergy medicine to get rid of the big blister looking whelps that were plaguing me earlier and I am dozing off mid key stroke an not making a bit of intelligent thinking for anyone to follow. Besides, I will be getting up for work soon.

By the way, if you do read this, post a comment so I know someone actually read this.
I'm out of here.

Organizing

Well, since my dear little daughter age 12 took the photos, guess I should show you our cleaning.

This is the main pantry. The photo on left is the top portion. There is actually three shelves, but my teen photographer didn't think to point up to get the whole effect. The photo on the right is the bottom section and is the three shelves shown. We have an overwhelming problem with these pesky little brown moths that come from the most destructive little maggot looking worms that I have ever seen. They eat through anything and everything. Any wrapper there is, cardboard, foil, plastic coated makes no difference. They are in the cake mixes, Ramon noodles, pastas, crackers, even pudding boxes. I keep cereal and flour in big plastic containers, but if the kids don't get them closed completely they get in. I can't even begin to count up how much money I threw in the trash because of the worm infestation. Brand new bags of chips that had not been opened had moths flying around inside. Oh, and one swat does not kill them, takes at least four or five and if they land on the floor have to stomp them about three times.

Yes, very annoying.

At any rate, I know have cleaned out the cabinets, pulled out the old shelf paper, sanitized the cabinets and put all new shelf paper down. I also bought these little moth repellent sachets with lavender in them. Since there is no exposed food, it is all in closed containers, I figured it would be fine, especially since the box states it is safe for pets. I can already tell a difference. I also made a list of just what and how much I have on hand so I know if I can make a recipe or not. My new goal for the new year is to be more organized in all aspects of my life so have been working on planning out menu plans and getting it all in to a system that I can manage and work with. I have the latest version of MasterCook on the way which will organize my recipes, pantry inventory and cost, once I take the time to type it all into the proper places. That is good for the budget which I am working on slimming down along with my own weight. MC is great for that too as it gives me a nutritional analysis of each recipe. I am also getting back to the pantry challenge. In other words, will see how long I can go with out going to the store. The goal is to use only what I have on hand, there for saving me money as I can buy the sale items easier. I also defrosted the freezer and sanitized the inside before making a list of what I had in there as well. While I was at it I cleaned out the side by side fridge and freezer, sanitizing the inside of it before tossing all expired items and bits and pieces of left overs. Hmm, maybe I should have saved those, could have used the crop of penicillin growing to fight off this cold (that all four of us have).

So, I am starting the new year with a well stocked (probably overstocked) pantry which I actually know what it contains, a very well stocked freezer (was surprised at how much I actually had) which actually has an empty shelf just waiting for some casseroles to be served at a later time, and can actually find all my pans and left over dishes.














The before and after photos of my cookware. While I was at the grocery store, New Year's Eve, standing in line for literally hours (had to hit 3 stores to get my list filled) my wonderful little daughter became a bit bored as she waited patiently for me to return so occupied herself with cleaning out and lining every drawer in the kitchen. What a job, to give you some idea, she is 12 and found the syringe I had to use to give her oral medicine when she was a toddler. Found packets of yeast that expired in 2004.

I took today off from the cleaning. As I said, am fighting a head cold and just needed a break. I spent most of the day looking over new recipes to try, figuring out a menu plan for the coming week and visiting some really amazing blogs of extremely organized homemakers. Envying them as well. I work 40 hours a week, like the majority of homemakers, and in looking at my present life can see that I am not handling life well at all. I plan to work on that. Therefore, the organizing. Trying to delegate out some task a bit as well. I leave at 7 in the morning and not back home until 5:30 making meals the hardest thing to cope with. I have already learned to let the laundry go until the week end. However, the meal issue is a major one as it is causing a problem with getting time for the gym. It is either eat and then work out on a full stomach or work out and eat the supper meal at 9. Neither is a positive aspect.

You know I have to.
so here it is. Okay, daughter's photographic skills are a bit undeveloped, and red eye correction does not seem to work on yellow eye, but hey, the effort is there. This is Kit, my new baby that was rescued from the middle of a country road that he had been dumped out on. He is still young, vet puts him at around 6 months, but he has stolen every heart around here. I just cannot imagine the coldness of a person that would allow them to throw out a puppy like that.

Tonight's meal: grilled fillet minion with baked potato, salad and homemade Hawaiian bread.

Man was it good. We got a deal on the meat and hubby is wanting to go back tomorrow and get some more. It was in a cryovac pack, uncut, and a fraction of the cost of buying that cut already trimmed and packaged. We were able to cut the steaks to the thickness we wanted and for $12 we ended up with 6 nice size steaks (comparable in size to what you would get at a restaurant) plus some pieces that were more like strips instead of steaks. That comes out a little less than $2 per steak. Weight wise, the difference was $2.97 per pound as opposed to $9.98 per pound. We have a vacuum sealer and will cut up the next one and seal in packages for the freezer. HUGE money saver.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, taking daughter to get nails done, hair cut, and am then going to give her a reverse frost. She is already blonde so am giving her brown highlights, maybe with a touch of red to match mom. Shh, don't tell her that though. Then, have to start on bathrooms and my bedroom before heading back to work on Monday. Sadly, it is times like this that make me miss being a stay home mom. It is getting harder and harder to head to work each day, emotionally that is, but thankfully I have a really good job for the most part.

Weekend Menu:
Sat:
Meatloaf, marinated green beans, mac & cheese, cheesecake (leftover from New Year's)
Sun:
CP Quick Chicken Mole (new recipe), Frito Salad, rice

I will post the menu for next week on Sunday.

Accomplishments

Well, I accomplished quite a bit this week end. Daughter's room is almost cleaned up and set up for the new school year which starts tomorrow morning. Have made small head way on the mountains of laundry. We bought a new little cleaner sweeper to help with the floors. I still think a swiffer type jet mop would be better, but that is on the "maybe" list. Has anyone got an opinion about the swifters? I did the shopping for the household needs and bought a huge bill of groceries today. Mostly meat and veggies, but with the prices I found, I also picked up some convenience items for breakfast. A huge box of french toast sticks were 1.99 and I cannot make half as many for that amount.

Now, as for the menu around here. Have not gotten it completely worked out yet, will post the details when I do. As for the next few days though, here it is. Only supper, no one is really home for lunch.

Sun: Steak, grilled squash packs, grilled corn, Hawaiian rolls, carrot cake.
Mon: Carne asada, spanish rice,
Tue: Crock pot herb chicken, carrots, green beans, crescent rolls
Wed: Green Chile casserole, Sweet cornbread bake, brownies
Thu: Herbed Pork Chops, scalloped potatoes, brocolli
Fri: Sausage & rice dish

The carrot cake is called Decadent Carrot Cake and is a mix (Duncan Hines I think) which I had a coupon for and it was on sale. It is way to pricey other wise, but oldest son is coming over for supper tonight and it is about the only dessert he will eat. Both of my boys are not big sweet eaters, but do love buttermilk pie and brownies. The squash packs will cook on the grill as will the corn. The corn is a new recipe I am trying. The carne asada was on sale, as was some mesquite marinade. Californians don't know what mesquite is, except as chips in the BBQ store, but we are transplanted Texans so we know the real deal. At any rate, the package was enough for two meals, so I divided and bagged the meat with the marinade up and the one for tomorrow is in the fridge, the other one is in the freezer for next month. I did this with some other meat that I bought as well. Froze the portions in various kinds of marinade or seasonings. I just forgot to label them so it will truly be suprise dinner.

I need to go pull out the bundt cake I made to take to work from the oven and check on the final progress of youngest dear daughter on her room.