A-Z Homemaking MeMe

Borrowed from Our Little Slice of Heaven...she's so much more homey than I am!

Homemaking Questionnaire

Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?
Yes, if I'm baking and likely to get something on me. My Aunt Nancy made my mom and me matching aprons a LONG time ago...they're off-white with a Pennsylvania Dutch type pattern stamped on the fabric. She's a Suzie Homemaker too.

Baking – Favorite thing to bake
Bread, muffins, cornbread

Clothesline – Y/N?
No, but I really should. I just hate having to go back out and get clothes after I hung them up...I like to have my laundry done and put away right after lunch!

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No

Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day
Wipe my bathroom sink and toilet after I take a shower.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes, I have a deep freeze AND a 2nd refrigerator/freezer in my garage...they came with the house.

Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Nope

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
Organized Home, plus my collection of vegetarian cookbooks

Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results?

Hate it

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
It's only sort of a junk drawer...I know where everything is, LOL. It's in the kitchen.

Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme
I don't have a decorating scheme in my kitchen, unless you consider "stuff on the counters" to be a scheme ;-) OK, let's see. There's carpet in my kitchen (argh, hate it!) that is a neutral color, and I have two green/blue/red runners in front of the sink and stove because that's where I'm most likely to spill things on the floor. Someday I will not have a carpeted kitchen! Half of the walls are white but covered with cupboards, the other half (also the hallway) are sage green and a pale pale pink, with a matching wallpaper border midway up. Hard to describe, but pretty...it was painted that way when we moved in.

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?

Doing things for my family that I know they enjoy.

Mop – Y/N?
I swiffer. My only linoleum is in the bathroom, and two small patches by the entry doors.

Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?

Washing machine

Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
My light is burned out and impossible to replace, so I might as well not have a window. And when it did work, I still liked to open the door...you can't see "brown" thru a window!

Pizza – What do you put on yours?

Vegies and cheese

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Bwahahahaha, am I supposed to get a quiet moment? Somebody forgot to write that in my mommy contract!!! Ummm, lemme see. Read the mail, read a cookbook, get online for a few minutes, make lesson plans. I used to quilt but I lost my quiet time ;-)

Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
Not anymore. I have a huge stack of recipes I've clipped and printed, etc, that I need to get into a notebook, tho.

Style of house – What style is your house?

Modified ranch.

Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?

Nope, just vinyl placemats...patriotic ones for warm months, snowman ones for cold months.

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Organized, but it sure would be easier if those silly drain pipes weren't there ;-) I have garbage and food storage bags there, as well as dish and dishwasher soaps, potato scrubber, sponges and paper towels, and household cleaners.

Vacuum – How many times per week?
My Roomba is my best friend :-)

Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
Hmmmmm, let me see. I do laundry twice a week, usually 3 or 4 loads, so that would be around 8 loads per week.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?

Not every day, only on days when I get up and have a bunch of things to do that aren't in my usual routine and I'm afraid I'll forget to do something!

Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
Since husband rarely helps in the house, I rarely help in the yard. Seems fair to me. I do plant flowers and weed the flower beds tho, or it wouldn't get done.

Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
Read stories to my kids and tuck them into bed.

Just to prove that it's winter where we live!

We don't have a very big sledding hill, but that doesn't stop a couple of bundled-up kids from having fun, does it?

Borrowing from my friend E again ;-)

Enjoyed reading yours, E, so here's mine!

A= Action or Drama~ Drama
B= Best Friend~ My July 97 mommy friends, and Tanya
C= Cake or pie~ Hmmmm, now that's a hard decision. Can I just say chocolate? It starts with C
D= Drink of choice~Usually just water...and Mongolian BBQ's frozen mango lemonade!
E= Essential item you use everyday~ hand lotion & facial moisturizer
F= Favorite color~ pink, purple, red, blue, black
G= Gummy bears or worms~ sour worms
H= Holiday destination~ Camping in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
I= Indulgences~ Hot chocolate
J= January or February~ January
K= Kitchen Color~ Too much brown
L= Life is incomplete without?~ My family
M= Milk with or without chocolate~ Not a milk drinker at all!
N= Number of siblings~ Sister Sylvia, who died in infancy, making me an only
O= Oranges or apples~ Both, but usually an apple cuz I'm too lazy to peel an orange ;-)
P= Phobias or Fears~ Poisonous things
Q= Favorite Quote~ "You really don't think I know how you feel?
R= Reason to smile~ Waking up every day
S= Season~ I'm happy with whatever season it currently is!
T= Tea or Coffee~ Herbal tea, but flavored decaf coffee is my secret weakness
U= Unknown fact about me ~ I'm pretty quiet and reclusive!
V= Vegetable you don't like~ Rutabagas
W= Worst habit~ Not keeping my house clean enough
X= X-rays~ Dental, and my leg when I had osteomyelitis, and my finger when I sprained it
Y= Your favorite food~ Anything vegetarian will do for me!
Z= Zodiac Sign~ Sagittarius

New snack obsession

OK, we're hopelessly hooked on rice cakes. They're not dull and boring like they used to be. They're healthy and flavorful now. I just checked out the Quaker Rice Snacks website and found lots of yummy recipes waiting for us to try them. Hmmmm, now what to make first? I think I'll be snacking on Mediterranean Vegetables next week at work, and I NEED some South of the Border Dip too!

Hope you enjoy the site as much as I did...and the eats, too ;-)

The moon

Tonight's moon as it was setting must have been catching the light of the sun, which had set an hour previously. The moon is a crescent...in fact, a very small crescent (I researched it, to be precise, the illumination was just 4%.) Anyway, the full outline of the moon was illuminated by the light of the sun. Very dramatic, just over the treetops...that small waxing crescent of light, and then the big shape of the moon with light shining around the edges.

As I drove to work, I thought about how the Light of the Son illuminates our lives. It doesn't matter if we're large or small, or if we feel insignificant...He still shines on us and makes us feel big, bright, and beautiful. What a beautiful parallel.

Forget SpongeBob...it's SpongeKris!

So a couple of nights ago, ds4 and I were snuggling in my bed after I read him bedtime stories. He says to me:

"Mommy, listen to this...0...2...4...6" and so forth, up to 12, very slowly and hesitantly! I asked him "Where did you learn to count like that?" and he said "From the math DVD." I said, "You mean sister's math?" and he replied to the affirmative. (That would be Math-U-See for anyone that cares ;-)

Goodness me! He said he liked her DVD that goes with her math curriculum...a couple of weeks ago...so we turned on lesson 1 of the DVD and let him watch it. He only watched it once. He never said a word about it, either. And now he pops it out, skip-counting by 2's! He is such an internalizer...this is not the first time that a new concept has sprouted from his mouth, a couple of weeks after he learned it. Funny to watch their brains grow and develop. I'm thinking we should let him watch the DVD over and over...he'd memorize his times tables while he's 4 and then that chore would be out of the way, ROFL.

Sue's 5 things

Snagged from http://elenajane.blogspot.com:

1. What's the most interesting job you've had? Well, its a toss-up...there's motherhood which of course is a daily adventure, and then there's my job that brings home a paycheck. I work f/t as an EMS/911 Dispatcher. Never know what will happen from minute to minute when I'm at work. There are so many nutty people out there! For instance, a drunk person called at 2 am wanting to talk to one of our personnel. Now I'm sorry, but I'm not going to call someone at home at 2 am just to call this drunk. Uh-uh, not going there! See, people are nuts, I told you they are ;-)

2. Where did you meet your husband? In a swamp over a crashed car. Literally. That's our first memory of each other, anyway. He's a police officer, I work for EMS, so that's pretty much how we met.

3. Have you met any famous people? Yes, a few. Played a concert for President Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillipines (yea, the big bad dictator dude, LOL) at Malacanang Palace (bummed, the website is down for reconstruction, I can't show you pics of the fabulous interior!) I've gotten autographs from a few famous musicians, like Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern, and Mstislav Rostropovich. Spent a day rubbing shoulders with cellist Lynn Harrell when I was a teen, as we got designated to pick up he and his accompanist from the airport and transport them to and from their concert venue, and I also turned pages for them during their concert, which meant I had to sit in on their rehearsal, plus I was a student in Mr. Harrell's master class. Participated in quite a few other master classes with people who are high-up in the American symphonic world, as well. And of course, I currently love rubbing shoulders with members of the King's Singers. Not all bad being on a first-name basis with a couple of them :-)

4. What is your most annoying habit? Who me, annoying??? Well, ok, there's one of them...sarcasm. But it can be funny being sarcastic. Probably my other annoying habit is if I become a nag, but I try hard not to let that tendency show thru, to spare my family their sanity. Then again, if they'd just do things my way, I wouldn't have to nag, right, LOL?

5. What would be your idea of the perfect gift? Oh boy! A remote starter that actually works right? (DH is going to be taking my van back to get the starter worked on for the 3rd time, when he gets a chance!) No, really, I think the perfect gift would be an expenses-paid trip for my family, to someplace that had a good mix of R&R and educational opportunities. I can think of several destinations that would fit that bill and probably wouldn't be picky at which one I received, LOL.

Huh? He said what?

So the other day I was reading a book about World War I to dd, 4th grade. It's definitely not the most interesting book in the world. I mean, she doesn't beg me to quit reading it, but she doesn't jump up and down and beg for more chapters, either. That's ok. I told her it's giving her a hook to hang further info on later in life when she covers the World Wars in more depth. Anyway, so back to Mr. Smarty-Pants, ds4, sitting quietly building with Legos. I was reading about America's officially getting involved in the war, and how we set up factories in Europe to produce things needed to support our troops...including a candy factor. Mr. S-P pipes up "Wow, I didn't know there were candy factories back in 1900!" OK, obviously HE'S getting some hooks to hang further info on at a later time. I thought it was pretty good that he picked up on the general time frame we were talking about (precise dates DO escape a 4 y/o, LOL) and that he realized we were talking about something that didn't happen recently. I swear, he's too smart for his britches!

In praise of...

Legos? I know, what a silly thing to praise. But really, they're a wonderful toy. Especially when you go hog-wild and buy tons of them for your kids for Christmas, and they still love you despite that fact ;-) I've been having so much fun helping ds4 build his new toys. He does well on his own, but it helps if I keep the flow going by finding the next piece he'll need, if he's building a larger model...and once in a while he needs me for a harder piece, too. So yes, I'm praising Legos, as I enter my second childhood, ROFL.

The picture is my ds displaying all of the things he made with his Lego Advent calendar. He's already looking forward to getting a new calendar for 2007 ;-)