daylight

I have things to blog about, but unfortunately I am currently being held hostage by my basement.

The terms of release require the disposal of all trash, clutter, and otherwise purposeless junk that I have been storing there for the last four years.

Hopefully I'll be out soon!

unpublished

Last Saturday all three of my home and garden magazines came in the mail. It was quite a nice afternoon coffee break: perusing through paint colors and wall papers, checking out potted plants full of salad greens, and eyeing up interesting antiques.

Looking around my house, it was hard to not chuckle at the disparity between what I saw around me and what was published on the pages.

The magazines displayed no playrooms as visually stimulating as mine.





No step-by-step instructions on how to make a "crystal" and tissue paper centerpiece.




No kitty-enhanced houseplants.




And not one magazine had any fingerprint-and-dust window coverings.





I have been making attempts to be a better housekeeper lately. There is obviously still room for improvement. Much improvement.

It is my struggle in the never-ending battle between housekeeping and homemaking.

And then you throw homeschooling in the mix...



The difficulty is in finding the balance between having an organized home and making a place for a creativity-filled, relaxed atmosphere, but at the same time not making excuses for my laziness or poor planning.



I can try to make a fresh start and find my style.




But ultimately, this is where life happens.
It will never be perfectly clean, but I want everyone to love living here.


So how about you? Are you clean?
Are you cleaner than me? :)

Do you face the struggle between housekeeping and homemaking, or is it no big deal for you?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

the sauce

Around these parts, cranberry sauce is not a condiment. It is not a little smear of magenta dutifully placed on the side of your plate, but almost considered a sidedish. It rivals gravy as the perfect sauce for a roasted bird. Simple and homemade, with just a bit of sugar to sweeten the tart berries and some orange juice to brighten them.

I use the first of the three recipes found in this post, but I cut the sugar back even further to 1/2 cup and use a bit more orange juice and a little less water. And I don't use the orange peel anymore, because it is one less thing, and I don't miss the flavor at all. So I guess technically, I don't use that recipe, but a version all my own. But I love Smitten Kitchen and why not stop on over and see all the glorious things Deb cooks up.

Speaking of Smitten Kitchen, the other night right before bed, I read her post about sweet corn spoonbread which contains a link to an unbelievably cute photo of her son. While sleeping, I dreamt that I drove into New York City, knew where Deb lived, went to her place, she invited me in, let me hold her son, all which interrupted her baking a mint cake flavored with -- toothpaste. It was very weird. I was pleased when I woke up to find that the toothpaste cake was just a very bad dream.

Anyway, back to the cranberry sauce.
I put Joey and Katie to work making our double batch of sauce for Thanksgiving.


It's nice when your helper is cute.
What is not so nice is realizing how stained your daughter's shirt is in the photo you just posted.

In the fifteen minutes it took to change this


to this


the kids cracked themselves up making funny faces on the side of the pot.



If you haven't ever made your own cranberry sauce, you really should.
It is good to the last, sticky drop.

the pie

Adam and I enjoy watching Good Eats with Alton Brown. After seeing this episode, Adam decided he was going to make a pumpkin pie with fresh roasted pumpkin this year. I have never been a big fan of pumpkin pie, but Adam really likes it. Since pie from canned pumpkin is the only kind he has ever tasted, he was excited to see how it would compare.

Fortunately, I had two little pie pumpkins sitting on my counter from our garden this year. (My procrastination to roast them up and make muffins with the kids like I said I would paid off. Ahem.)



So Adam roasted,


and scooped,


and pureed.


The interesting twist with this pie was the crust, made from crushed ginger snaps instead of a rolled pie dough.
mmmmm...


The pie was cut and served and tasted



and according to Adam, it is not even "in the same stratosphere" as canned pumpkin-pumpkin pie.



So I guess it is fresh pumpkin pie for our household from now on. And I have a great in-house pastry chef to make it. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~

I made a pecan pie for the first time this year. Yes, tis true-- 32 years old and never made a pecan pie. I am the designated chocolate chip cookie girl when it comes to Thanksgiving, but this year it was fun to make something new. I figured I couldn't go wrong with PW's recipe.

It was awesome! The crust was perfect, and the filling as sickeningly sweet and wonderful as a pecan pie should be.


Joey and Katie helped me make the pie, both crust and filling, and when you make a pecan pie with a three and six-year-old, every bite is that much more enjoyable because of the loving labor involved. :)

Yummyummyyummyum!

imagine, if you will

I am currently operating under the assumption that if I pretend my dining room and all the mess that lies therein do not exist, then it will cease to be a disaster or my problem. I am going to go about my business without allowing my eyes to linger upon the mountain of books and papers stacked upon the buffet. I will walk through my house without letting my mind get all twisted up in the thoughts of organizing the shelves full of scrapbooking supplies, kid's craft supplies and workbooks. I will check on the progress of the seeds sending up their little sprouts in the light of dining room window without interrogating myself about how it got this way, when will I get to it, or how will I make the room one the helps me instead of sending me into denial.

It will get better. But not today or even this week. So it's Bye-bye reality and a great big hug and warm welcome to my new friend delusion.

Have a great day keeping your house cleaner than mine! :)

toss or sell

Yard sale Saturday.
Down to the basement to conquer Mount Toy Mess.
Lack adequate chocolate to elevate mood.
Cannot rev up on caffeine because of baby.
Must operate on will power alone.
"I will triumph!" is my cry.
(Have white flag just in case.)

one more weird thing

This pregnancy, if I read a recipe I think I will enjoy, I cannot stop thinking about it until I make it. About a month ago I found a recipe for lemon iced pumpkin cookies, and it bothers me that my can of pumpkin sitting in the pantry has still not become those cookies.

Last Monday I made the recipe for Cranberry Sauce that was in the previous day's Parade magazine because I just had to know how a cranberry sauce with apricot preserves and chopped dried apricots would compare to my other cranberry sauce recipes. I loved it. I actually think it is my new favorite cranberry sauce. Adam loved it too.

I also made Caramel Crispix mix last week, which satisfied my caramel cereal mix curiosity (and stuffed my belly), and today I made Pumpkin Banana Bread that has been on my mind since Thursday. It was from the November o8 issue of the no-longer-published Country Home magazine that I paged through while Joey was working on something for school. The bread was very yummy, and Joey was pleased that it had no nuts. It does not matter how finely I chop walnuts in the food processor, any nut particle at all ruins his quick bread enjoyment.

There is a recipe in last month's Better Home and Garden for Pumpkin Corn Bread that is still haunting me. My lack of masa harina prevents me. I am not sure what else I would make with the remaining masa harina and cannot yet justify its purchase.

But do you see a trend in the type of recipes I must make. Sugar! Sweet! Must bake!

I need to start reading some recipes for salads.

my garage

My garage has been a mess forever. I bought a shelving/workbench unit when we first moved in, and placed things on its many surfaces, but the workbench has been just a big heaping mess for quite a while now. We had put into place no way to hang the garden tools and fishing rods and ladders and all the other garage stuff.

Yesterday we attacked with all our might and got it done. Pegboard up, additional fishing supplies shelf hung, 2x4s screwed into the wall to hang garden tools, work bench cleared, garbage disposed of, floors swept, mouse droppings removed, all done.

But this post is not about how clean my garage is, but is instead about what a dork I am because I do believe I have gone out in the garage and looked at the finished product no less than ten times. Just to look, and stare, and behold what is a project that will last for more than five minutes, two hours, overnight.

Dishes -- never done. Laundry -- never done. Cleaning -- never done. But my garage is done. That feels really good.

big ol' messy mess

With a few weeks of many evenings of Adam home from work after 9, pregnancy fatigue hitting already, a yard sale, my dishwasher's refusal to work, and my general lack of motivation and skill have all contributed to the house being, um, shall we say...gross. Adam is always great about it, and would rather have me rested and happy than the house clean, but well-rested for me doesn't always mean happy if my brain can't relax because of the filth in my face everywhere I go. This is just the playroom.

Every other room is some sort of variation of this visual delight, so I need to get off this computer and get cleaning. Boo.

On a completely unrelated note, we spent a good portion of yesterday at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. The kids loved it. Katie was surprisingly captivated by the sea life. She was much more interested than I thought she would be.

She enjoyed touching the starfish, and would have touched the sharks in the Touch-a-Shark tank if her little arms were long enough to reach to the bottom where they were resting. Joey enjoyed observing more than touching. His favorite part was the Shark tunnel, the underwater glass tunnel that went through the shark tank. My favorite creatures were the sea turtles and hippos, both surprisingly huge. God's creativity was evident in every display of His aquatic creations. It was an enjoyable day of family time.

Well, off to go clean, wash, put way, straighten up something, anything, everything.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

yeah, baby!

The yard sale was AWESOME!!!!!

Awesome because:

• My husband woke up early and put up our sign at the ends of our road and helped us get the tables out of the garage and got the kids up and dropped them off at Grandma's.
• My mom watched my two kids and my sister Sherrie's four all day long so we didn't have to deal with child care. Let it be said, she is awesome! That's four boys ages 8, 6, 4, and 3, and 2 two-year-old girls. If we had had to take care of them, the day would have been impossible. Thanks, Mom!!!!!! (one exclamation point for each child)
• My mother-in-law was over on Friday, and she was a huge help setting up the tables and getting all the stuff on the tables. We would have been setting up much later into the evening if it wasn't for her help. She also brought food to eat for lunch on yard sale day, which was very generous and thoughtful. Thanks, Mom! (and you were our best customer!)
• It was crazy busy! I mean it. I am not exaggerating-- at one point we were both totaling up orders and taking money, with a line of five or six people waiting to pay. And that went on for a while. At this point I probably need to explain that most of what we sold was our (mostly my sister's) huge stockpile of drugstore stuff after a year of couponing, rebates, CVS ECBs, and drugstore deals. We had hundred of items for sale including hair care, dental products, shaving products, cleaning products, dish soap, make-up, otc meds, and more. We got the stuff for free or very cheap and then sold it at a huge savings from the drugstore price. It was a hit. We used the empty lot next door as a parking lot and it was full!
• Even though we had the lot full of cars, some people still parked on the side of the road (I live on a road that doesn't have sidewalks) and a township police officer came and warned he would ticket anyone parked with their tires over the side of the white line. So in addition to trying to keep up with all our customers, I had to be the parking police and keep people from getting tickets, and keep them off the front of my neighbor's lawn, and direct them into the lot or our driveway. No one got a ticket, and I think my neighbors understand we were doing the best we could.
• We had tons of customers with just a free ad on craigslist, and 4 road side signs. It was nice to not spend any money on a newspaper ad.
• At one point we were running out of plastic bags, and a customer jokingly suggested if he would have known he would have brought some along. I told him if he went home and got some bags I would give him a free toothpaste. About a half-hour later he was back with bags, and got his free toothpaste!
• At the end of the day, a huge majority of our items sold, so there wasn't too much to have to pack up.
• Someone stole a phone case and wallet I had for sale, but when we figured out our totals, there was more money than what our books showed. After we split it up, I made up the value of the two items. (Can you believe people steal at a yard sale? I mean, really! We will have to hire security next year.)
• When we figured out our totals, I was blown away by the success the day was for both of us. Praise the LORD! It was way more than I was expecting, and made all the hard work worth it.
• We had the most beautiful weather one could want for a yard sale.

I am so thankful, so very grateful, to the Lord for what a blessing the day turned out to be. And like Adam said, in the daily, everyday life of motherhood, it was fun to have a little crazy excitement. Also, I don't get to spend that much time with my sister, and even though we were running around like crazy maniacs all day, it was fun to be running around like a crazy maniac with her:)

So what to do with my cash.....Hmmm...I know it is early, but I have a big project I'm working on that should be ready by Christmas, so I think that maybe this and this, or maybe this will be a great way to spend some of that hard-earned yard sale earnings. What do you think?

I'm a lazy blogger

So this is all you get today.


Make this lentil soup.





It looks terrible, doesn't it? But you must believe me - it is yummy! (And easy. And made with stuff you probably have in your pantry - if you are the type of person that keeps a bag of lentils in her pantry.) You can make it even more delightful if you top it with a blob of sour cream or mashed avocado. It is a thick, wintry type soup, and with only 21 days left of winter, you better get cooking. You must puree it with an immersion blender, so if you don't have one, go and buy one. I am not sorry I have added it to my collection of kitchen gadgets.



And just for kicks:





Katie, the biggest kook in our house.

sinking

I just loaded the dishwasher and this is how empty it left my kitchen sink:

Happy Monday to you all. May you take pleasure in my filth.

How clean am I?

Under my stove today I found:

2 matchbox cars
an Olive Garden coupon expired in August
a Sensodyne coupon
1 1/2 crayons
2 wooden beads
a bouncy ball
silver Christmas ornament
my husband's house key (have been wondering where that was)
a child's fork
1 dirty napkin
some caramel corn
a toy traffic pylon
dust, crumbs, and coffee grounds

The sad thing is, I sent out a similarly long and embarrassing list to some girlfriends for an "under the oven challenge" just four months ago.

So I suppose the challenge is on again -

No No Nanette presents the official

2009 Under the Oven Challenge

Who is brave enough to post what is lurking under your oven?
Go exploring under your oven and post the list on your blog (and link back here if you feel like sharing some linky love), or spill the beans in a comment below.

Maybe we will even vote on a winner -- we'll see how many accept the challenge.

Have some dirty fun!

Bon appetit

In an effort to trick you into thinking I am a wonderful mother and industrious keeper-at-home, I am publishing the one thing I actually did today (besides getting caught up on my coupon clipping-- I know, I know, my ability to perform astounds you) and pretending like it was just nothing, nothing at all. I will pretend like I do a cooking activity based on a library book almost everyday, because that is just how creative and organized I am. If my son can spend about 78% of his day pretending, can't I have a minute or two?


So, without further ado...


Crepes!!! (There is supposed to be some sort of punctuation above the p because it is a French word, but I did not research what it is called, or if it is possible to type it.)

Today, we made crepes. We made regular ol' pancakes yesterday, and went international today. It all started when Joey watched an episode of "Toot & Puddle", a cute show on PBS kids based on the series of books by Holly Hobbie. In one episode Joey saw Toot and Puddle, the traveling pigs, visit France and enjoy some crepes. When we were at the library a couple weeks later, I saw this book by Monica Wellington,



and thought we would increase our understanding of these thin pancakes that the French enjoy so much. (I also borrowed a non-fiction book about France to really broaden our horizons.)

Anyway, we read Crepes by Suzettte the following day, and since then I have read it about twenty times. I am not exaggerating. Joey loves this book. It is a very simple story about Suzette who has a crepe cart, and goes around Paris making and selling her crepes. Each page is a different setting somewhere in Paris. The backgrounds are illustrated with photo collages, and the characters are drawn with markers and colored pencils, and laid on top.

The text is simple, but each page includes a French word or phrase, with a glossary in the back of the book to help translate. Joey is intrigued by foreign languages, so he enjoys hearing the French words and then trying to remember what they mean. He laughs every time he says "bonjour."

The last pages include the glossary as well as a recipe for crepes. Joey has been asking me to make crepes since we read the recipe. In order to do that, I needed to get a new non-stick pan because mine was shot, and I knew that as a first time crepe-maker, I would have an easier time with a good non-stick surface. Yesterday, I used my Marshalls gift card and got one.

I have seen this Good Eats episode on crepes and watched Alton Brown perform the batter swirling in the pan, to get that perfectly thin, perfectly circle-shaped crepe. My first couple attempts were sort of circle, the next few almost circle,





and I did get a few near perfect ones. It was pretty fun trying to get the hang of it.




The book tells of the various crepe fillings Suzette offers her customers, and online I read that jams or simply sugar and a spritz of lemon are most popular in France. I made a strawberry sauce with frozen strawberries that have been getting quite frosty in my freezer, and I just called it jam. I also made a sweet lemony ricotta, because I was in the mood for it, but that is not a traditional French filling. I did serve them folded in half, then folded in half again to make a triangles, because that is how Suzette does it in the book.





I ate all mine with the strawberry sauce and ricotta together, and they were delightful. The kids had a couple with sauce and a couple with just powdered sugar. Joey liked them, and enjoyed watching my batter swirling attempts. Katie ate them, but I couldn't tell you her thoughts exactly.

So that was our day of crepes. Crepes by Nanette.

Now, I better get busy and do something else. Important things like take a shower and get dressed. Possibly even fold the laundry heap resting on my bed.

On y va!

Some mornings...

...pancakes are a needed dose of love covered in powdered sugar and syrup.

A pancake for both Bear and Red-Scarf-White-Fur

One in the shape of Bear (not Mickey Mouse)

A snowman with marshmallow nose

And a couple dozen mouse-sized pancakes, though Katie called them "babies."

Smiles for everyone.

Joey prefers powdered sugar, and Katie likes hers in "dip-dip" - syrup. I have mine with peanut-butter and syrup, which Adam thinks is disgusting. How do you like your pancakes?

Pop, pop, pop

Today was the day of caramel corn.

Caramel corn cooling on the table,

caramel corn in a few two-gallon bags,

caramel corn in huge Rubbermaid containers,

caramel corn in cute little bags,

and caramel corn in my nephew's mouth.




Yum!

My sister and I use this recipe. Thanks to Sherrie for doing lots of the work (and the dishes) today.

Monday, Monday

(Warning: the following post is a boring recap of my day - feel free to ignore. I am feeling chatty today with no one to chat with but my unfortunate readers.)

It's Monday again. Time to recover from Sunday, which has the strange ability to leave most of my house trashed, the sink full of dishes, and stuff everywhere. The ideal Monday would be a day of cleaning and organizing to start the week off right; but grocery shopping has found its home on my Monday.

Adam isn't home from work until 9 o'clock on Mondays, so it is a good day to be out all morning, because if I get behind, I have until 9 to catch up. So on my weekly schedule, I have written for Monday:
- grocery shop
- coupons
- library or fun

I know that doesn't possibly sound like enough to fill an entire day, but somehow it does (which speaketh volumes of my skills as productive homemaker). Grocery shopping isn't 45 minutes inside one store. Grocery shopping is hitting many stores for the best deals at each. Today's trip was Weis, Walgreens, Giant, and then Wegman's. Joey and Kate come along, and I am sure they wish they were doing something much more fun the whole time. Joey is a great shopper since he has been doing this for 4 years now. Kate is pretty good too, though she usually has some tears at our last store, which is most often Wegman's, so the people there probably think she is a terrible child, or I am a terrible mother, or both.

I am home around 12:30, then lunch, unpack, get kids down for naps and then it is 3 o'clock already. Then I get to the coupon part of the list and clip and sort my q's from that week, and discard any expired ones, and put away all weekly fliers and coupon holders into their bin. That is usually followed by some time wasted on the computer with a cup of coffee, then I will get dinner prep going.

We eat around 5-5:30. If it is library night, we locate all the books and CDs, I log all the ones we have read, and head off to the library while Adam's dinner is in the oven. We drive to the library which takes me through some of the beautiful old homes in the city that I admire every time we pass by. We then return our gazillion books, pick out a gazillion more, I say "quiet voices!" a gazillion times, and head home. Katie is usually ready for bed then, so I get her down. I finish up Adam's dinner and clean any kitchen mess. I then unpack the books with Joey, reading him the titles of all the ones I picked out so he knows what they are.

Soon it is 9, Adam is home, he eats and hangs out with Joey for a little bit. I put Joey to bed, and around 10 is time with Adam until bedtime around midnight.

And that is my Monday. That is how three tasks fill up my whole day. You were all wondering, I'm sure.

To do, or not done?

I am feeling a bit guilty about my Thanksgiving post in which I sound a bit too Martha. So today you get Nanette-for-real.

My crystal clear windows
The corner where...

...these pictures are supposed to be hung.

The thankful tree project we started weeks ago

and the paper beast

I wish you all a day of completed to-do lists.

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Thessalonians 5:17

Thanksgiving is coming (I can already feel the after-dinner yawn coming on)

I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year. This will be my second time hosting; last year I hosted my mother and father-in-law, my husband's grandmother and brother. This year will be my parents, sister, and aunt, as well as the four of us.

Besides obviously being in charge of the bird, I will be making gravy, cranberry pineapple sauce, stuffing, green beans, rolls, my mom's yummy salad - a jell-o/tapioca/fruit/cool-whip concoction(anyone who has ever been to anything my mom has hosted knows what I am talking about), apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, and a nibbling tray in case I am late with dinner. (Last year I was only five minutes late, but you never know.)

Mom is making her legendary sweet potato casserole that is the stuff legends are made of. :) And I talked her into making the mashed potatoes too, as one type of potato is just not enough. I love carbs, but detest peeling potatoes, so thanks, Mom. She is also bringing a chocolate lush for my sister's birthday which is Friday, so we will sing to her on Thursday while we are all together. My aunt is bringing a pumpkin pie, because you can't have Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie.

I finished my food shopping today for the big day. I think. I will probably be back at some store this week. I thought I could stay somewhere close to my usual weekly grocery budget. I didn't. And that is okay. Since I have company over for dinner about 3 times a year, I can splurge on these celebratory occasions. And celebrating the estimated 36, 476 things we have to be thankful for is a pretty good reason to celebrate, don't you think?

A week of thanks is better than just a day, so Happy Thanksgiving Week everybody!

And to get us in the thanking spirit, leave a comment with an "I am thankful for..."

(come on lurkers, you can do it!)

I am thankful for all of you who take the time to read here. I hope you have a great time with family and friends, hearts full of love and gratitude, and bellies full of food.

Cleaning Schedule?

I have set up a cleaning schedule for myself. This is the second week I have not completed the cleaning schedule.
So I should make changes, right? Changes to me or the schedule?
(There is no way it could have anything to do with starting this blog or my occasional stop on facebook. None at all.)