Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Recipe!

You guys!  I am the worst blogger, but I am an adequate cook who now has a recipe published in a cookbook!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/slow-cooker-frittata-provencal


I am so excited!

I got the cookbook in the mail, after a long day at work and it was really the pick-me-up I needed to feel OK about my day.

I do love this recipe.  I have a rack that fits into my slow cooker, so I do not need to do the thing with the foil.  Also, I sometimes make it with egg beaters instead of whole eggs, or a mixture.


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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Cure: Week 1

I have been marginally following The Cure, except that for the last 2 days, I have been horizontal.  My back has basically decided that I need to lay down.  It does that once in a while, which you might imagine, does not really help one with home organization.  Also, due to the bitterly cold temps, school had a 2 hour delay today, and yesterday off.  

Nevertheless, I did manage to make some progress on my list, even if I did not 100% follow the Cure assignments. 

Kitchen/Office
  • Clean up my desk
  • Clean up Thomas's desk
  • Deal with the things piling up on the window sill and counters
Dining Room
  • Christmas Decoration Overload  
  • Lego have taken over this room.  
Living/Entry
  • Fireplace screen falls overhand is fragile.
  • Storage ottoman: what is even in that thing?
  • Entry show drop off is a disaster
  • Better lighting for my side of the couch
Bathroom
  • Artwork is banged up
  • Need more hooks for robes and towels
  • Need to do something to contain the toothpaste
  • Need to organize the things falling out of the medicine cabinet. 
Master Bedroom
  • Organize my makeup and jewelry
Thomas's Room/ Guest Room
  • Fix up the curtains in Thomas's under-bed reading cave. 
  • Organize Thomas's art work for the guest room, and hang up some additional pieces. 
I also did a few extra things.

  • Obtained a small table for in between the two chairs in the living room. 
    • Now that Thomas is older, we don't all fit comfortably on the couch, and having no table over there has been trying. 
  • Moved a drawer unit up from the basement to house Thomas's art supplies and school papers.  

The Cure assignment for today is to do one of the projects on my list.  I am considering that the answer here might be to order a new table lamp for myself online.  I can do that from my horizontal position and technically it counts. 

Yesterday's assignment was to set up an "out box", which is basically a holding tank for things we are undecided about.  That seems like it might be a bit of a culture shift for my family, so I need to have a conversation with Jeff about it first 
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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Connie Does the Cure

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday or winter break or whatever that ends up being for you.  For us, it was a lot of lego, a lot of cookies, and a lot of pajamas.  I couldn't be happier with it. My 2013 had a bunch of high points, and I am hoping 2014 can top them.

In this blog's previous incarnation, I posted about our home remodeling projects. Mostly the kitchen. That whole set of projects kinda stalled out, in part due to finances, and in part due to family/contractor situation.  (Short form: Our contractor is my father in law.  Step mother in law passed away over a year ago, and my father in law just hasn't felt like doing anything, which I am totally sympathetic to. In addition, we were in aggressive debt repayment mode, which should be coming to an end in the next few months. Hopefully, it will soon be Game On for home remodeling projects.)

Will it ever be 'done'? 


For now, I am doing the Apartment Therapy January Cure. I am really hoping this will help me get over my "nothing will EVER be done around this house" malaise.  We have so many projects, many of which are completely dependent on other projects. (Like, remember the structural engineering?  Still need to finish that.)

I am hoping the January Cure can help me spruce up without freaking out too much about the dependency chain of our home reno.

My List:

Kitchen/Office

  • Clean up my desk
  • Clean up Thomas's desk
  • Deal with the things piling up on the window sill and counters

Dining Room

  • Christmas Decoration Overload (did this tonight!)
  • Lego have taken over this room.  
Living/Entry
  • Fireplace screen falls overhand is fragile.
  • Storage ottoman: what is even in that thing?
  • Entry show drop off is a disaster
  • Better lighting for my side of the couch
Bathroom
  • (Not doing much in here, since we are hoping to do a gut job in 2014)
  • Artwork is banged up
  • Need more hooks for robes and towels
  • Need to do something to contain the toothpaste
  • Need to organize the things falling out of the medicine cabinet. 
Master Bedroom
  • (Not doing much in here, since we are hoping to do some medium sized reno work here)
  • Organize my makeup and jewelry

Thomas's Room/ Guest Room

  • (Both of these rooms just got spruced up, so not much to do in here.)
  • Fix up the curtains in Thomas's under-bed reading cave. 
  • Organize Thomas's art work for the guest room, and hang up some additional pieces. 

So that's my list for Day 1 of the January Cure.  Hopefully I'll post some highlights over the next month.  In the meantime, here's a small selection of my 2013 highlights.

A Selection of 2013 Highlights

We had a 10th anniversary!
And renewed our vows after a golf cart ride



I finished a half marathon! 13.1 baby!


And I got a new haircut.  It will never look like this again because my hairdresser dried it all straight. 


Hope you all had an awesome year. Happy 2014!
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