WHY?!?

Why do you visit my blog? I keep running out of blogging ideas so I want you to comment and help me out!

What do you need from my blog?

What do you get from this blog?

Why do you keep coming back?

Infrequently Cleaned

I realized last night that there are many surfaces in the common house that don't get cleaned as often as they probably should. So, I'm making a list!

• The outside of your toilet. You scrub the inside, I hope, but how often do you get down on your hands and knees and scrub the outside? 
• Bath Mats. Mold and other Yuck grows in wet, warm, and dark places. Can you guess what type of environment your bathroom becomes after a hot shower? Plus, if you have one of those U-Shaped mats around your toilet you should go right now and flip it over...there's probably a "pee ring" on the underside. Wash these with cold water AND DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE DRYER!!!
• Keyboards and Remotes. You sit and touch them all day. You eat and touch them. You change a diaper and touch them. You wipe your nose and touch them. And things GROW.
• Doorknobs. Check the above reason. How often do you disinfect doorknobs and handles?
• Toilet Handle. Think, what is one of the first things you touch after taking care of business? And how often do you clean it? 
• Toothbrush Caddy. Do you have one? Your mouth is the dirtiest part of your body (yes, dirtier than THOSE parts) and the same environment that grows mold grows bacteria. 
• Cell Phone. Have one? Give it a quick wipe with an alcohol moistened something. Especially if you let other people borrow the thing!!!

Grossed out yet? Go scrub something hidden!

Showing the Dark Side

I have a confession to make....

I'm really not as organized as I pretend to be! 

My Front Closet.

It actually extends more to the left when you get inside...

My "hall" closet...also known as a black hole. See the cords on the third shelf? I have no idea where most of those are supposed to attach.

I was going to make "storage" my goal between Mid March to the End of April...but Franklin started teething last week. We popped two top teeth at exactly the same time. I know what hell is like.

Hopefully showing you my dirty secret will help me remain accountable.

Spicy Sausage And Rice Casserole

Not my photo

I thought I'd do a step by step of one of the best, easy meals!

Full Recipe 

Ingredients

• 28 ounces fresh, ground spicy pork sausage
• 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
• 1 slice onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a skillet, brown sausage and drain grease. Stir in rice, onion, garlic and peppers. Cook 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Pour into 9x13 inch pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Or, at this step, you can cover and freeze it.

2 Pound of Sausage, browning

Assorted Veggies. You can chop them up...but I used my food processor! (The hubby doesn't like veggies all that much so I have to get them nearly pureed!)

Sausage, veggies, and rice!

Added the chicken stock and put it in the pan.

I forgot to take a picture of it finished...we were too excited about eating it! 

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I'm tired of the "it's just like sugar" commercials. It's not sugar...it's fructose. Fructose is highly processed. Highly processed food is BAD FOR YOU! America doesn't quite get this.

We're trying to phase out the HFCS from our diet. We're doing pretty well. All of the food we bought this weekend was free of it. There are only a few things left in the house that contain it...mostly my jam and a sleeve of Ritz Crackers. (Yep, CRACKERS...but I'll get into that)

I dare you to go and see how much of your kitchen is full of HFCS. Really, go for it. Look at EVERYTHING.



Cracker rant: As I've said before I can't have processed dairy. Add in that we're phasing out HFCS and that leaves us with almost NO choices. Crackers without dairy have HFCS and vice versa. It's crazy and quite frustrating.


Sorry I'm boring today. I spent last week with a teething baby (two teeth at the same freaking time) and it was my birthday on Friday!

She walks into a room And you know from her Maddening pose, effortless whirl, She's the special girl.

The list for the day isn't bad. I like this being on top of housework kind of thing. It makes my days SO much easier!

- Laundry (remember our word? Sisyphean?)
- Exercise (my knees have been acting up so I need to do my physical therapy stuff)
- Diapers
- Kitchen Exploration (I'm going to see just how much High Fructose Corn Syrup we eat)
- 2 Chore Cards (have I mentioned these?)


Franklin has been quite a talker today. I'm hoping that means he's getting close to actually using words. He has a lot to say for someone that can't say real words! ;-)

Well, off to change a wet diaper and sip my coffee!

New dining area, to do list, and a cute kid

Pretty, huh? It took my all morning because my apartment isn't level! Yes, I'm serious...*sigh* It looks pretty though.


My list isn't too bad today...

- Hang art (done!)
- Fold Diapers
- Laundry
- Dishes (done)
- Declutter Bar Area (also known as the catch all)
- Clean Master Bath

I'll probably do more things...but the baby is napping at the moment!

My son slept for 5 straight hours last night. Technically, that's sleeping through the night. I'm SO excited! And, I didn't wake up engorged and in pain so I guess it's time. He's so sweet.

Do you see that attitude? ADORABLE

If you think you're getting away I will prove you wrong

"Murder on the Dancefloor" by the way


Let's kick off Monday the right way!

The time change has SCREWED ME UP. It's almost 10am? No!!! My morning is almost over already. Stupid time change. Ben Franklin, this is a punishable sin.


Of course, we have the basic stuff to get done today:
- Dishes
- Laundry
- pick up baby toys
- Kitchen

I've also made "chore cards" for myself. I took a stack of index cards and put a chore on each one. It could be a basic chore (like one of the above), the name of a room (master bath, guest bedroom, etc...), or have a single task on it (wipe 5 surfaces, sweep, organize one drawer, declutter one room, go through one box in storage, etc...) Basically, anything that needs to be done in the house. I'm pretty much on top of the housework (for the first time in MONTHS) so I find myself standing around going, "Now what?" too often. That's where the cards come in. After getting the basics done ( or my list of MUST DO) I shuffle the cards and flip one over. After completing the task I either 1) Do another (if it was a short and simple one like sweep or dust) or 2) Take a short break (for longer tasks like organize a room) If I've already done it (a daily task) or can't do it for some reason (I can't declutter the guest room because I don't have the space in storage) then I flip the next card.

Go clean!

Tuesday To Do

But first, a public service announcement...
If you make Empanadas (meat in pie dough...SO GOOD) do not use Phyllo Dough. You might think, "It's pastry dough, close enough." You'd be wrong. It has the consistency of tissue paper. This does not go away with preparation. Once cooked it either feels like regular paper or wet paper. Not cool.

Okay, now that you know I bombed dinner last night :) we can get to the list for the day.

- small laundry (just a few things I want to pack)

- Clean guest bath (because I didn't do it yesterday)

- Pack (for real this time)

- Diapers

- Dishes

- Fold clean laundry

- Put away laundry!

- Shave (yes, this has to be put on a list)

- Kitchen

- Wipe 5 surfaces with a disinfectant cloth


Such is my day and then we're OFF ON VACATION SUCKERS!!!

"This is the same as where I just came from, I thought it was over, Aw that's just great."

 

 

It just never ends. See everything I did yesterday? Good work, right? NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! :) Nah, I don't have much I have to do today.

- My Sisyphean task (laundry) I MUST wash Stefan's ABU hats today.

- Dishes (put them up. Hubby was nice enough to load and run them last night)

- Put up clean diapers (yep, left them there ALL NIGHT)

- Clean Guest Bath

- Finish Master Bedroom (make the bed, declutter, take a photo so you can see my before and after)

- Pre-pack

- Clean the stove top (I just wiped it yesterday)

- Dinner prep

- Pick up living room

- Fold grocery bags so they aren't all over said living room



I just finished my cup of coffee so I should be ready soon. Let's Go!!! .....after a word from our sponsor.