long time….no blog

Well, I have been really busy.  I wish I could say that I have been busy getting important things done, but I really can’t.  Just busy with life and no time for blogging.  We had the stomach flu attack our house a week or so ago and it was absolutely horrible.  Gracie was sick with the flu for three days and was just a mess.   Ever since then she has turned into a Velcro Baby and won’t let me put her down and she hates it when I’m even close to my laptop, so no computer time for me.  We have gotten a lot of things done around the house.  We painted our living room a colonial blue, our kitchen/dining room a warm yellow and our basement “Gumball Red”.  That is now the entertainment zone and lots of fun.  We also put new, white doors on two of the closets on the main floor and have 3 more to put up.

I guess my big goal for the new year is to actually use my planner, EVERY DAY!  I bought a new, smaller one that can fit in my purse and new pages and it’s all ready to go.  I also want to start doing monthly planning for activities for the kids to do, especially ones that follow along with the church liturgical celebrations and saint feast days.  And, scrapbook more…….of course.  I counted up the number of layouts that I have completed and the number of photos I have scrapped this year and I was quite amazed.  I think it’s the most I have ever done!  I have done 119 pages and scrapped 350 photos in 2008!  I am really proud of myself for that.  I just need to get them into albums.   Plus, I want to blog more!  Now I just have to find the time to do these things!  Hopefully my new little planner will help out in that department!

Here’s our tree for this year!  I was so excited because we changed our color scheme to good, old red and white.  I LOVE it!

Christmas Tree 2008

God bless!

di

uuummm……coffee

So we finally ordered some coffee from Mystic Monk and it is WONDERFUL!!!! The service was fast and the coffee is really, really good. We have been wanting to support Monasteries and Abbeys and this is a delicious way to support this group of Carmalite Monks.  We ordered the ‘Big Monk, Little Monks’ set which came with one 12-ounce bag and two sample bags of coffee.  We have only tried our big bag, which was Sumatran, so far.  Our little bags are Mystic Monk Blend and Dark Roast Columbian.  I’m anxious to try them!!!

God Bless!
~d

purging……

Well, I need to purge out some of the photos on my blog here.  Flickr is warning me that I’m at 175 photos and I can only have 200 to stay on their free program.  I can’t justify paying for something extra like that so I’m going to go through and delete old posts/photos and weed down some in other areas.  Maybe one day I can pay for photo storage like that, but not now and it’s definitely not one of my priorities.  We have bigger fish to fry right now. lol  I do hope to be able to spend some time on here and add links to some of my favorite blogs and websites.   Maybe sometime soon…………

God Bless!
~d

yep. another bookmark…..

Lots of reading is going on in my house……..I needed another bookmark.  The first one that I made for myself is quite big so I needed a smaller one that would easily fit into a paperback book.  The quote says, “There is time…for everything.”~Thomas Edison.  I had to put in my two cents worth and add, “especially books”. lol   It’s lot of fun to make these and oh-so easy!  Now I need to go grab my new book that I bought today and get to reading!

God Bless!
~d

a bookmark for Abby

Here’s a corner bookmark that I made today for my daughter, Abby. I thought of the “this is my spot” idea sometime late last night and I almost got up to make this bookmark, because I could see the completed project so clearly in my head. lol  I tried to make it fun and use her favorite colors. It’s a surprise and a good thing to give her today because she and I went to the bookstore this afternoon and she got a new book to read. She’s just like I am……..always with her nose in a book!

God Bless!
~di

GO PACKERS….oh wait….GO JETS!!!

So I am trying to watch the Jets/Redskins game that’s on right now and I’m really having a hard time with it! I keep on yelling “GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!” And Brett Favre just doesn’t look like Brett Favre in white and green! Where is the green and gold? I have to keep checking, shaking my head, blinking my eyes and reminding myself that he’s no longer a Packer. Wow. It’s almost too much to comprehend! lol But, alas, I am still a Packers fan, through and through. I will follow Brett and wish him the best as a Jet and follow all of his games there. I can’t hide the fact that I’m just a football fan. I have my favorite teams, but if there is a football game on TV……..I’m watching it! So, I had better get back and watch this game. Brett’s coming back out to play and it’s time for me to start blinking my eyes and shaking my head again. Maybe by the end of the season it will have sunk in………. I don’t think so. lol

God Bless!
~d

distraught…….

Okay, I admit it. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I even have a silly countdown for the next movie that’s coming out on my desktop from Mugglenet. So, today I finally get on-line and look at it and it went from 97 days until the movie (which it said yesterday) to 335 days today!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! I am going to flip out! I was really looking forward to this next movie this Autumn! So, alas. I am quite distraught. Just like Moaning Myrtle. boo hoo………

I’m semi-excited about the Twilight movie, but afraid to put too much hope into it. I just don’t know if it’s going to be a good movie or not. We’ll see. lol

God Bless!
~d

my favorite things LO

I have been working on this one here and there for over a month. I started it and got stuck, so I left it out and I have been working on it little by little since then. Today, I really got on a roll and I got it finished. It NEVER takes me this long to complete a layout, but for some reason this one wanted to take it’s time, so I let it. Lots of odds and ends supplies here and just a lot of stuff! I like it and it will be put in my BOM. I am really enjoying doing these “for fun” layouts just because I want to. lol

TFL!
God Bless,
~d

back to school already?

Well, I have been spending the past few days trying to get things organized better around here. I had tons of clipped recipes and craft ideas that needed to be purged/filed. I am such a closet, magazine article and recipe hoarder! lol So, my big thing lately is to purge, purge, purge. Our recent move helped get this need going and I have tried to keep it up even though we are all moved in and settled. It has been a very freeing experience to get rid of so many things that we just don’t need and were bogging us down.

My table has been a mess for several days now as I try to get a system down that will fit me and my needs the most. The hardest part is fitting things to me! I tried to put together a control journal/master plan book/homemaking book. There are so many great ones that you can look at on-line. But, that just didn’t work for me. I am such a HUGE visual person. I need things right there and I hate to admit this, pretty. lol So, I found this really cute, wire desk-top file holder at Target and some fun, pink file folders at Wal-Mart. After I get things put together, I’ll post and let you know how I have things set up and how it’s working for me. I think it’s important to share, because I am getting a lot of my ideas from other people and putting them together in a way to suit me. Hopefully something I share can help someone get their home life a little more organized, too. I am embarrassed to admit that I have missed school activities and my children have missed birthday parties because I have lost important information. I can’t let this happen again because of my lack of organization! So more later and hopefully my table won’t be so messy the next time I check in. lol

God Bless!
~d

Polka Dot Cookies

I have been eying this bag of green mint chips in our grocery store for months and I finally broke down and bought a bag last week. The colors just were too much for my visual mind to resist. lol They are green mint chips and the company is Guittard. They taste like those mint melt-a-way candies that come in pink, yellow and green. How pretty are these chips???

So I made the cookies from a recipe off the back of the bag called: Polka Dot Cookies. They are DELICIOUS!!!!! If you like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, then these are perfect for you. They taste just like them and actually BETTER!!!!

The dough for these cookies are more like a thick cake batter, so be sure to put the dough in the fridge for 15+ minutes before dropping onto your cookie sheet and keep the dough in the fridge the whole time that you’re not using it to stay firm. The dough is also very sticky. I used a small scooper to scoop the dough up with. I also kept out some of the green mints, just a small bowl full, and put several of them on top of each cookie before baking them. I thought that since they were called Polka Dot Cookies that she should really have some dots that you could see! Be sure to try these! They were easy and are absolutely incredible!

Polka Dot Cookies:

2 cups (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (12 oz.) green mint chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In top of double boiler over low heat, melt semisweet chips and butter, stirring constantly until smooth. Set aside to cool. In small bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In large bowl beat eggs, sugar and vinally until light. Blend in melted chocolate then dry ingredients. Stir in green mint chips and chill for 15 minutes or until stiff. Drop by well rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes; cookies will be soft in centers but will harden as they cool.

Notes: You can also melt the semisweet chocolate chips and butter in a bowl in the microwave. Stirring often and cooking for about 30 seconds at a time until it is melted. Reserve some of the green mint chips and use them to dot the tops of each cookie before baking, if desired. I store my cookies in plastic tubs with a slice of bread. It keeps my cookies from getting hard and crunchy. We like our cookies soft and chewy here!

Here’s how they look! Just YUMMY!!!!!

God Bless!
~d

*Another note- I did keep these in plastic tubs with a slice of bread to help keep them soft.  Boy, did they ever stay soft!  They were almost like brownies they were so soft.  So, if you don’t want your cookies to be that soft, maybe just storing them in a plastic tub or zip-loc might work the best for you.