Sugar Cookie Day!

Did you know that today is National Sugar Cookie Day?  I didn't, if you look  at this website Bizarre Holidays  there's all sorts of interesting holidays to celebrate......

This is what the website gave as a description of the holdiay:
National Sugar Cookie Day is a day to satisfy your sweet tooth. Popular with young kids, and old kids, sugar cookies usually don't last long around the house. It's pretty easy to see how Sugar cookies came to get their own special day. Almost everyone has had them. Many people are hooked on them. Put out a plate of sugar cookies, and you can be certain they won't be there for long. We haven't seen any surveys, but it's a sure bet that sugar cookies are right up there with chocolate chip cookies as America's favorite cookie. And there is no explanation of how the holiday was started....

In honor of Sugar Cookie Day, my daughter Grace and I made Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies from Martha Stewart.  I'm eating one right now, and they are very Giant and very good.  How can you go wrong with chocolate and sugar.. am I right or am I right?

here's the recipe, but if you click here it will take you to Martha Stewart's page and you can get a printer friendly copy....

Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. vegetable shortening, (substitute: 1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled - which we did)

1 large egg

1 1/2 ts. pure vanilla extract

1.Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

2.Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in shortening (or additional butter). Add egg and vanilla; mix until creamy. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until just combined.

3.Using a 2 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 4 inches apart. Bake until edges are firm, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to 2 days.

So here are some pics of Grace helping me out, and Nelson came in a little later to help lick the bowl and the spoon....

Grace cracked an egg w/out any spilling or shells in the batter!

Nelson joining us....

and the finished cookies (p.s. if you let them cook to long then they get too crunchy, I happen to like mine a bit softer) but they are still very, very good!

Well, have a good National Sugar Cookie Day!

P.S. Do you think we have enough Barbies in our house? 

Thankfully, I got all of them for $1

Sarah

Failing W/Style!

WHOO-HOOO I'm failing w/style................ ya know those goals i've talked about and lists that I've made.... Well, haven't followed any of it yet!  I know way to go me! 
it's just silly now, I've got all these plans, and goals, and dreams and I'm just not getting them done....

So, on our little vacation (more tomorrow) I read a book titled  Time Mangaement for the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern.   It is a really good book, you may have heard about her other book Organzining from the Inside Out.  My mom gave me both her books, or maybe I "borrowed" them from her.  

I'm summarizing my notes from her book.  She writes that a goal is a destination and an activity is how you get there.  Makes sense right! Like DUH!!  A goal, is WHY you want to do something.  I've come up with my Big Picture Goals in the areas of Work, Family, Home, Self and Friendship, and I'll share later what the specific goals are, and what are my activities are to get to those goals!

Also, another thing Julie talks about is a TIME MAP....  which is a schedule (yucky word for me) BUT stick w/me..... to help you (copying from her book) "to make time for your activities"  and once again here is another HUGE DUH! 
so hopefully, you will stayed tuned for my journey thru once again another way to manage my time!

Tomorrow, i'll tell y'all about our family trip (not a vacation b/c REALLY is going anywhere w/ a truckload of food and clothing a vacation.  ABSOLUTELY NOT!)  It was good and fun though!

My excuse

I'm here, i really truly am, I'm wanting to do soo soo much, all at once, but I can't, so the blog slipped out, BUT I really, really want to write here, so I will, but I'm not going to pressure myself to write every day, come up w/cutesie stuff, i'm just gonna write what comes to my mine.  i do want to show off the stuff i do and ideas i have, but i also have to be me, so.... look for me tomorrow :)

List Making.................

I LOVE lists, they make me so happy, so organzied, so smart, and notebooks are even better.  I could collect notebooks, they are always so pretty, and just all the blank pages bekon me to write and make lists.......

Two things I did to make my day go much faster, smoother and easier, make a master grocery list and make an blank hourly schedule/calender. 

I've been wanting to make this master grocery list for a while now, and one day about 3 weeks ago I did it!  You know, if you want something down, just sit down and do it, stop thinking about, talking about it, JUST DO IT!  (there, now is that enough motivation for you or what!)  From, what I can remember, I think it only took me about an hour, and I just typed out a list of any item (by memory) that we buy at the grocery store.
How I use it:  Every week, when I am ready to make out my list, I print the master list off the computer, and just circle each item that we need.  I think this saves me at least 10-15 minutes b/c I'm not writing the same thing done week after week.  Now, as I find things missing from the list, I will add them.  I have it divided up into categories, and it is organized by our route thru the store.  It isn't in alphabetical order yet, but i'm thinking that is the next step, and then the items would be much easier to find on the list.   So, an hour of my time one week, saves me 10-15 min. each week, so it will "pay for itself" in about a month.... I think that is time well spent.

Next,  I made up my own daily schedule.  I've tried this several times before, but with only short-lived success.  Since, I've been frustrated with not getting much done, I once again took the advice of my very wise friend.  She has told me this several times before, so thank you Diane for telling me once again.  I've been thinking, a teacher takes some time to plan out thier day, so why can't I?  So, every Sunday, I will sit down for a little bit, list any projects (w/steps) and phone calls, visits, emails, my blog that I would like to get done each week.  Then, I will divide it up between the days of the week, and that gives me focus, instead of wandering around wasting time, I have everything planned out.  Since, I've lately figured out my life, I really like schedules and routines.  This was my 3rd day to do it, so I just need to keep going! 

Now, the key will be to actually keep this going, but I am at that place in my life, where I am ready to do this, be a planner, be organized, get things done, instead of wishing that I could be that way.  Right now, I feel like I've hit a wall, and I think if I can knock down this wall, get past it, then i will be on my way to success with my goals.  I'm pretty happy and excited!!

Here's a link to my Daily Schedule and my Grocery List!

Thanks for reading!
Sarah

Snow Day!

6 inches of snow, 4 people w/a stomach virus, and 10 hrs. without power

That was my week last week, how was yours???

The snow was absolutely AMAZING!  I know for all those living everywhere else in the country are absolutely sick of it, but for me and my family it was incredible!  I've lived in Texas now for almost 12 yrs, and I haven't seen so much snow in that long of a time.  So I'm gonna just be all nostalgic about the snow now....... When I woke up Sat. morning, it was all so beautiful and peaceful outside. 

Now, i grew up in Indiana and Iowa, so I know snow, Joe and I went to Vail on our honeymoon (March).  But after years of not being around snow, it was beyond belief. 

All that snow brought back so many memories of when I was growing up.   We lived in Goshen, IN when I was younger, we moved to IA in 1989. 

I remember waking up in the morning after a good snow, and listening to the radio, very, very closely to see if school was cancelled.  My dad had this big plow and he would plow our driveway and then go down the street and plow some of our neighbors driveways.  We lived on a dead end street, so the snow plows would plow our street and leave this huge "hill" of snow, so we all would play on that  all day.  We would "hitch" our dog Prince to the sleds and he pulled us down the street.  It was awesome.  We would be bundled up in our coats, hats, scarves, snow pants.  Just some really fun memories.  I can't remember where we went to go sledding, I think it was just a park nearby, it had this huge hill, and it would get pretty icy, and man you would just go flying down this hill.

Our kids have seen snow before, but of course not this much.  So they had an absolute blast.  It snowed all day Friday, so Nelson especially was out there alot , playing in it and making snowballs, and throwing them at anyone and everything. 

Saturday morning, before it all melted away, we all went outside, made our "Snow Family" and had a snowball fight.  It was fun.

It was wonderful while it lasted and I'm glad it's gone and it's supposed to be 60* tomorrow! I'm definately getting out my flip flops!

Here are some pics of the snow, I ended up taking over 100 pictures, of course I deleted some....but I was suprised by how many when I downloaded them.....

Out our front door, I took a whole bunch of photos from the same spot to "record" the snow falling. This was Saturday morning.

Our Snow Family

and then just a fun one of the shirt I made for Valentine's Day!

Hope y'all have a good day!

Sarah

New Day, New Week

Hi, I am so very thankful that today is a new day and the start of a new week, well technically, yesterday was, but anyway........

All, I'm gonna say about last week, not good, very frustrating,....so glad it is over.

I'm focusing on the good things so far this year, I've accomplished. 

I so thought that this was more, but not so when I started checking back over all my pictures that I took in January....  Out of 31 days......I only took pictures on 11 days.... now I really did take pictures every day, but the rest of them were just stuff.....not people.... oh well, I shall continue. 

What the Project 365 has helped me with, is I carry my camera EVERYWHERE!  It is always in my purse, so that I can get those "moments" that are oh so cute......

LIKE:

this:

or this:

 or this one:

These were all taken at Joe's parents house, and if I hadn't had my camera those memories would have been lost.

So, I'm very thankful for my camera!!

so last week wasn't so bad b/c this was on Saturday!

Sarah

Poof!

I watched this Joshua Brody Francis: Hair Poofing 101 last week, and tried it!  I'm so excited!  my hair is longer, and it doesn't have layers, but it still worked out really, really well!

Here are the results!

this is on Sunday!

and then on Monday!

a view of the back!

and here is the hairspray I used.  I tried to find the hairspray she bought, I couldn't, I think the key word is

"freeze"

this stuff worked pretty good! 

I am soo very happy this worked, and it didn't take too long at all.  It just opens up a whole new world of style for me! No bumpits were used in this hairstyle, very happy not to spend the $10 on them thingies.

Sarah

Frugal Friday Tip + more.....

Today, it has been almost a week since I've washed my hair!  you are thinking GROSS!!! right, no........ not at all.

I am making my own conditioner. 

This is the recipe (and for the life of me, I can't remember where I got it) but here it is...

Homemade Conditioner

 make a mixture of 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar,

little bit of lemon juice and

1 qt. water.

before I washed my hair, I put olive oil on my hair for 30 min., then I washed w/shampoo and then poured the "conditioner" on my hair, let it set for 5 min or so and then rinsed.  My hair is so soft and clean feeling.  Now, I know you are wondering about the smell.  Well, let me share, it smelled so horrible when I was poring it on my hair, I thought I was gonna die, BUT, the smell lasted for only a few minutes, and then not so bad..... After my hair dried, I couldn't smell in vinegar at all and my DH couldn't smell anything either.... so very successful I would say.....

Now, normally, I would have to wash my hair every other day b/c it would start to feel gross, and my head would get all itchy.  NOT a bit w/this new "rinse".  I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next, I'll be making my own shampoo! :)

I just wanted to also report on my goals this week.  um, well.... sorta, o.k.  um, I lost my um....  list :) teehee :)

and moving on.... Joe made some Jambalaya for supper tonite. 

We had his parents over to help eat it.... we are planning on making this a monthly habit of fixin' a pot of jambalaya and inviting friends over to eat and play Wii.  Joe showed his 60 yr. old + parents how to play, Gordy played around of bowling, and Janice had a turn at the Island Flyover.  I think they had a good time :)

Oh, I'm from the Midwest, and am not a huge fan of spicy foods :( so this is what I ate for supper.

Toast w/strawberry jam/jelly, (i can't remember the difference)

I made some Valentine crafts this week!

Here is my vase:

Do u like my "Just a dollar" flowers?

I took this

 +

+ some of this...

and made a Valentine's decoration.

I only had to buy the flowers.  Everything else, I had around the house!

oh and I made some of these:

I used some modge podge and candy hearts

don't forget the GLITTER!!!

My friend Lin is moving into an apartment on Monday!  Guess who she asked to help her decorate it??

do ya need a hint?

ME!

she will be my first "client"

Her theme is Paris!

and we are both pretty thrify, so I'm gonna be doing a lot of projects, and of course taking pictures and posting them here!

And one more thing....

did u know that pawn shops have layaway?

cool! right???

so, I'm gonna check it out soon. 

on my list:

way cool camera

laptop

video camera

oh and joe wants a flat screen tv, so after MUCH hesitation he agreed we can go there to check them out!

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

(It's gonna be cold and rainy here, so I'm staying inside!)

Sarah

Yeah Today!

I had such a wonderful day today!

I had a playdate at my house!  I love playdates!  It consisted of me, Grace and 3 other moms +5 more kids!  It was a blast!  A bit cold and rainy outside, but they had plenty to do inside.  One mom had to leave to pick up her daughter from preschool, but the others stayed until after lunch.  It was so, so much fun.  I LOVE having friends/anyone over to my house! This is one of my goals for this year, and it is making my heart happy that I am fulfilling that goal.

So before everyone left, we decided to do it again next week at another mom's house......

Another cool thing we decided to do, is a meal exchange.  Each mom picks one recipe, makes it 5 times (or the number = to the # of moms in the group), then we all get together one day and exchange meals and PRESTO, we all have 5 meals already made! So far we have 5 moms, and I'm hoping to get a few more.... We are going to buy those large foil containers w/lids from a restaurant supply store, and if we buy enough, they are only $.50/apiece.  I think that is a good deal!

I've been wanting to do something similar, for a long while!

Fun thing #2 today, I went to a Fashion Party!  I bought a long gray sweater for $10, I think that is a pretty good deal.  I'm wearing it right, and I'm all warm and cozy!

Well, the purpose of this party, is to highlight women/moms who make and sell things, clothes, jewelry, purses.  Just to help get the word out etc.....

pretty cool idea, so next go around I'm hoping to have a few things to sell also.

So, that is my day!  it was a really good day, and to put the icing on the cake, the kids are spending the night at Grandma and Papaws :)

night, night

Sarah

ShillyShally!

I think shillyshally is a nicer way to say procrastination. 


I'm a shillyshallier!  This is way I have been absent lately.  I dislike this quality in me the most....... I keep putting off and putting off things and when I do get around to doing them, I am so behind, I can't finish them like I want or planned on......

So, this week, in hoping to help with my problem of shillyshalling, I made a list.  A list of all the things that needed to be done, or I would like to get done this week.  Amazingly, it really isn't that long!  I'm a visual person, so seeing everything written down, helps me focus on what needs to be done...... so instead of wandering around, knowing in my head what needs to get done, I just reference this list and work on some small part of it. 

And since it is almost Wednesday, so far so good.....I've gotten a few craft projects done, some items made for my booth, and the house is fairly well cleaned.  I changed the sheets on the beds today, The laundry is caught up, so overall pretty good.  I've worked a little bit with Nelson on his reading for school.  The only two things, I haven't addressed yet is exercising and practicing the piano. 

Of course, like almost every child, I took piano lessons when I was younger, and have regretted not continuing with them every since I quit.  Well, I happen to be garage saling one day and came across this piano for $50! (+ 2 hrs of moving by my husband and his brother) I couldn't resist!!!!!  I mean $50! So, I have a beginners piano book and have played occasionally, and it does need to be tuned, but right now, I don't have $80, but it isn't too bad.....

That is my confession for today! 
Anyone have some tips for me, to help me quit shillyshalling???? ( I would sure appreciate them :) )

I do need to apologize.  I was planning on posting about my shopping addiction, but I'm having difficulty putting it into words, and making sure that it makes sense.... so when I get that figured out, it will defintely be  a post....

Sarah

Linking Up.....

I'm linking up today at A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day.  Go on over and check out all the cool things that have been listed......

Sarah

Here I am!

I'm over here today @ or so she says......

Tomorrow I will be writing about my shopping addiction......

Sarah

A little about me... and an Announcement

Today is Monday, and I know I call this day Make It from Scratch Monday, but I decided today, to share more about ME :)

I LOVE sewing, crafts, painting stuff, beading, just creating/crafting anything.  I never thought I would be saying or writing that ever.  As I was growing up, I always thought my two sisters were the creative ones and I missed the creative gene.  Well, I didn't !  I did got to college and get my RN degree (totally wrong path!). I've always wanted to help people, and medical stuff is always interesting, but after I graduated and started working, I WAS NOT happy, I kept changing jobs, thinking that would do it, but not at all.....
Well, one day while my kids were napping (BOTH at the same time - I know AMAZING right !)  I had a thought, I'm supposed to create a clothing line, design clothing!  From that moment I knew what I was supposed to do......now that was back in 2005, and  last year, I started sewing, I have a booth at a local consignment shop here in town.  I am just starting out, and I don't want to be way famous, but just being able to sew and make people happy with my creations is good enough for me...... :)

So, for the announcement, I opened up my Etsy shop SoCutebySarah.  I have only one item listed, but everything takes time...... :)  I'm just excited to have fulfilled my dream, and now I want EVERYONE to find theirs, b/c it is just so fun to live!
So here's the link to my shop So Cute by Sarah

Thanks for reading!
Sarah

I"m here but very cold!

I am cold.  It is not supposed to get this cold in Texas.  Yesterday, on the way to the grocery store it was 15 degrees, today it was 22 this morning.  This is cold, i don't like it at all!  I think that being so cold is draining me of my energy. It is hard to get anything done, let alone be motivated when it is that cold outside.

So, I think we are almost thru the first week of this new year 2010, and let's see how am i doing on my goals for this year, not so good, but alas, tomorrow is Sunday, and it starts a new week and I'm going to start over. 
At least the kitchen is cleaned, and my room is picked up, the kids rooms are clean, so that is good.  Cleaning is the hardest thing for me to do. I don't like it at all. I will avoid it at all costs.  So this year, I am following FlyLady, I'm sure everyone has heard of her by know, but if not here is her website.  If you sign up, she will send you daily emails, telling you what to clean.  The tasks are always easy, and only take a few minutes, for example: clean all the cobwebs off the ceiling or dust off the light fixtures.  It is helpful to me because, she helps me to remember to clean the little stuff. 
Another reason I want to follow her this year and really stick to it, is I don't want my mom to do so much cleaning when she is here to visit.......
Enough about cleaning!

So, I made this tonite

Cherries "N" Spice Cobbler

2-16 oz. cans red cherries tart, pitted

1 c. sugar

3 TBSP cornstarch

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. cloves

1 can refrigerated cinnamon rolls

1 tsp. lemon peel

Preheat oven to 450*

Drain cherries, reserving 1 c. juice. Place cherries in a 2-quart round baking dish, set aside

In a small bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in 1 c. cherry juice, mix until smooth. Pour over the cherries and stir.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbling vigorously around the edges. Place rolls, cinnamon-side up, in a single layer over hot cherry mixture.  Reduce heat to 400* and bake 15 minutes longer or until rolls are golden brown.

Spread rolls with icing and sprinkle with lemon rind.

Serve warm.

This is a really good recipe, I love cherry pie, so this is yummy!  I got the recipe from http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/.

Oh, and I forgot the lemon rind, totally didn't miss it :)

I'm off to enjoy another piece!!

Sarah

A Super giveway by Superwoman

Brittany over at Superwoman is giving away this super "inspring" Country Peg Board.  I love, love, love country :) Click Superwoman to go see what she is giving away!

Make it from Scratch Monday

I'm calling Mondays: Make it from Scratch Monday!

Today, I made from scratch: Fire Starters. We use a wood stove to heat our house in the winter, which I absolutely love.  No worries about what the thermostat is set at b/c it is free heat. You can buy fire starter logs from the store and they are not too terribly expensive. BUT making something from scratch is way better and everything was free.
  This is so cool, and everything I had on hand, and it was really simple to do.  I got the directions from My Byrd House and it worked out fabulously!  The only thing different that I did, was melt my candle in the microwave instead of on the stove. It probably took about 2-3 minutes and the little metal thingy at the bottom of the wick didn't cause a problem.
Here is a picture of what mine looked like, AND the mess I created while pouring hot candle wax :) 

2010 Things I want to do this year!

So, of course, since it is a new year, new beginning, new decade I decided I want to make some goals, things I want to get done this year! This is going to be a random listing......

send more cards, read the Bible thru in a year, make all the birthday presents, exercise: I want to run a 5K, do some pilates, stretching, core and strenght training, eating healthy, increase my water intake, decrease my coke intake, eat fruits and veggies, learn to like yogurt, veggies, and salads, try to eat more organic, take my vitamins and supplements, and use natural/aromatherapy healing, make and do more from scratch, work with the kids on doing their chores, Bible memory verses, learning church songs, do some fun science/craft projects at home, do a TON of crafting.......... the list can go on,

Obviously, I can't do it all starting tomorrow DUH! :), but I'll be working out a plan, and make some charts and graphs to moniter my progess, and am going to be sharing my progress on here, along with recipies and crafts, and pictures, and all that sorta fun stuff!

I'm pretty excited!!!!

Sarah

Project 365

O.k. so this is my second post, and this blogging is a lot more involved than I thought.  I've been following and reading a lot of blogs the last 6 months, so I have ideas, but I'm not sure how to do anything, so I'll be learning how to do all this. :)

Well, there is this Project 365 started by Becky. (I hope I did all this right!)  Well, she takes a picture every day, and then has this cool album to scrapbook it in.  Way Cool!  O.k. so I can't get the album, but I'm gonna do it anyway! 

So my first pictures were taken today and they are of my family playing our new Wii!

I think I will be working on my picture taking and editing this year too! :)

Happy New Year!

Yea! My first post!