Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog again.... Bad Catherine, bad.  But, I have an excuse!  I'm been crazy busy packing.  No, not for vacation, although that does loom on the horizon.  The Douglas household is moving!!  Got us a big beautiful house about 30 minutes from where we are now.  We're excited.  Well, most of us.  My son is concerned.  He's 10, so it's the end of the world that he has to leave his friends behind.  He will never make new friends (his words, not mine).  One of these days he'll forgive us.  Like the moment he makes friends in the new city and can't believe we didn't move sooner.  It's a fresh start for us, and this will be great.  So I have been busy de-cluttering, packing things up, driving stuff to the new house a little at a time. 

Princess is super excited about the move, and everytime I pack up a box, she has to pack one up too.  Of course, the boxes she packs up usually contain one or two of her toys.  They're sizeable boxes.  And she's packing happy meal sized toys.  At least she's cute.  She then proceeds to write her name on the box and what's inside.  I may have use for her after all.

So I'm realizing after 8 years in this place that I've accumulated quite a bit of junk that I'm going to try to get rid of at a yard sale.  Hopefully we'll be able to offset some of the moving expenses, not to mention some of the purchases I've already made for the new house.  (hint hint, readers, come to my yard sale! This Saturday, 6/30, shameless plug....) 

For those of my blog readers that I know personally, thank you for the friendship and love you've shown to me and my family during our time here.  We will miss everyone and hope to be back periodically to visit.  Don't be strangers, either.... you guys know where we're going...

Adieu for now, maybe I'll get a blog post in before we move, maybe not. 

DIY, Chocolate Cake & Word to your Mother!

We've been feeling crafty for the past few days in the Douglas household.  I decided to look through my pin list on Pinterest and finally do the things I re-pinned forever ago.  One of the things I attempted yesterday was homemade sidewalk chalk paint, found here: http://hammerandthread.blogspot.com/2011/08/sidewalk-paint.html.  Princess had a great time with it, and I did, too!

It was super easy to do, and also super cheap  I already had all the necessary ingredients: corn starch, food coloring and water.  I think another great idea would have been to put all the different cups of paint I used in a muffin tin to keep them from getting knocked over while we were outside.  I came across some spray bottles in the $1 aisle of Target and thought I might put another Pinterest idea to use today.  I found it here, but I used the other recipe instead of the one on this page: http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2011/06/chalk-spray.html.  We went outside and Princess and I just had a blast splattering the sidewalk:

This activity only lasted a few minutes though, and we were out of paint.  So we came back inside and decided to do some real painting. 

Here's what I painted, don't laugh.... I was hungry at the time.  :)

I polished off my soda and thought I would apply another Pinterest idea found here: http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/cherry-blossom-art-from-a-recycled-soda-bottle/.  I gave Princess my soda bottle and the remainder of our paint and she had a blast making these "flowers":

We've been very crafty and having a blast every minute of it.  I shall spend more time this evening perusing Pinterest for more ideas. 

Now, for those who are keeping tabs on my blog solely for the purpose of seeing what divine delicacies I have been whipping up, here is the mother of all Pioneer Woman recipes so far.  OMG, I got rave reviews on it, and I couldn't keep my hands off of it, either.  Here's the link to it on her page: The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever.  I have to concur.  This cake was the best ever.  I didn't even get a picture of it.  Like her recipe says, please make this cake.  She doesn't want you to be without it a moment longer. 

Oh, and I promised my friend, Angie, that I'd write a shout out to my mother here on my blog and link to her blog in recognition of Mother's Day approaching.  That's this Sunday the 13th for those husbands or children that haven't gotten their mothers or wives anything yet.... hint hint.... and please follow Angie's blog if you aren't already.  She's hilarious.  And an awesome person. She's uber-cool.

Dear Mom,

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.... Ok sorry, that's a bit cliche.  Mother, I can't begin to express how grateful I am for everything you've ever done for me.  You've been a shoulder to cry on (despite the 2300 miles that separates us), you've given me excellent advice, and you've passed on your horrible Sunday Punday gene.  Ok, maybe I'm not so grateful for that one.  Thank you for letting me make mistakes even though I'm sure that you wish I hadn't.  I needed them to help me learn. I think I turned out ok.  I'm glad you never stopped praying for me, especially when I needed it the most.  I am proof positive that your prayers were answered, too.  Don't stop praying, though.  I can still use the prayers.... You're the role model I'm emulating now in this new endeavor of stay-at-home mommyhood.  You made it look effortless, and I am sorry that I didn't make it any easier for you.  Thank you for cleaning my room numerous times after telling me 100 times to do it and then giving up when I hadn't done it and just did it yourself.  I finally understand.  Why couldn't I have inherited your clean-freak gene instead of the horrible punning??  Of all the things you did for us though, I must say the thing that impressed me the most was that you could braid my hair with one hand.  That's just super Mom right there.  I love how I can call you almost anytime and you cheer me right up.  Or vice versa.  Or at least I hope I cheer you right up when you're down.  I love doing our puzzles on a daily basis, it keeps both our minds agile.  My only wish is that I lived closer to you so that I could visit you more often and make you all these yummy treats that I blog about.  Thank you for teaching me to cook at such a young age.  It made all the difference, let me tell ya.




My mother, pregnant with me



Mommy holding me


Mommy, I love you more than words could possibly express, and I'm so glad to know that we're a forver family.  Happy Mother's Day to both of us, and I hope you're crying, cause I am too. 

Love,

Your favorite daughter (I can say that cause I don't think my sisters read my blog)




Ok, Angie... here's the link to your Mother's Day Blog as promised...

http://www.bloglovin.com/m/3687528/458729218/fb

I came, I saw, I pinned!

Today I decided to finally attempt some of the cool ideas I've seen on Pinterest.  I know so many people spend hours pinning, but never get around to following the links.  Ok, maybe that's just me.  One pin that I saw today, that looked really simple was this time-out bottle.  Follow the link here: Relax Bottle/Time-out Timer.  Princess chose the color pink for her glitter (are we surprised?) and this was the result.... shaken up and then after settling:

They didn't have red glitter at the craft store, so my son chose gold.  Still looked pretty cool!

The other craft that I tried was homemade slime using Borax, water and glue.  We couldn't get it to solidify enough.  After 15 minutes, we gave up.  Now I have a box of Borax that I'll have to find other uses for.  Oh, and in case anyone has seen the pin about glow in the dark Mountain Dew after adding baking powder and hydrogen peroxide?  Doesn't work.  At all. 

Tonight's Pioneer Woman recipe was a chili recipe that also seems exclusive to her cookbook.  One of the ingredients that I've never seen in chili before was masa (or corn flour).  I ground some up (with my Kitchenaid grinder) out of popcorn.  My dad told me that popcorn kernels yield fresher corn meal than corn kernels themselves.  My grinder wouldn't make it as fine as flour, but that's ok.  It seemed to work out well for me, and I wasn't about to make a special trip to the global food market for masa.  It became a matter of principal at that point.  This was the result and it tasted fine.  Not a recipe I'm going to go gaga over, but it was acceptable and hubby seemed to enjoy it.

My children on the other hand, have expressed extreme distaste for chili no matter how many different variations I try to slip it to them in.  Thus, my son elected to pass off one of his Faith in God requirements to make a meal all by himself.  I left him make English Muffin pizzas as they're fairly foolproof and they both love pizza.  He did a great job and was really pleased with himself!  Princess said it was the best pizza ever.  Guess he passed that requirement!

Sorry, no fresh desserts to salivate over, we still had leftover pineapple upside-down cake from last night.  My poor father read my post about the cake and was heartbroken that I had made his favorite dessert 2300 miles away and then posted it for him to drool over.  Sorry, Daddy!

Love me some Pioneer Woman!!

Today was puke-free.  Hallelujah!  No one else seems to be sick at the moment, either (knocking on wood).  It gave me the opportunity to work on scrubbing the carpet stains from where Princess missed yesterday.  So with a little bit of housework and errand running, I feel a little more accomplished than yesterday.  I even had the energy to pull out my new Pioneer Woman cookbook and make a few things.  For dinner, I made what she calls The Marlboro Man Sandwich.  (That's what she calls her cattle rancher husband).  Recipe can be found here: The Marlboro Man Sandwich.  This sandwich got rave reviews from hubby and I.  Of course, my hubby picked off all the onions.  Wimp.  I couldn't help myself, I was almost moaning with every bite.  I highly recommend this recipe to others.  I forgot to take a picture, it didn't last long enough.  Please, please, please try this sandwich, you won't regret it.  For dessert, I made a recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake that's found only in her cookbook.  Since I don't have her permission, I won't type it out here, but here's a picture of how mine turned out!

And yes, it was every bit as good as it looked!  I love that her recipe calls for cooking it in a cast iron skillet.  I'm sure I gained 20 lbs today just with dinner and dessert alone, so I'll be sure to take Princess to the park tomorrow so that I can chase her around a bit and burn it off.  So far, all the recipes I've tried from this cookbook have turned out perfectly, and I've got some very happy campers in this household.  Can't wait to try some more out! 

A bug... not an insect

Ok, so let me get back on the blogging wagon since I fell off.  Today's agenda was put off due to the fact that in the wee hours of the morning I hear the pitter patter of little feet running into my room followed by heaving sounds.  I believe there was a comedian that once said something along the lines of no alarm clock works better than the sound of a child puking.  There is no snooze button!!  The victim of this nasty bug was no other than Princess.  Once sucessfully steered toward the bathroom, I quickly realized that she would need to sit on the toilet instead of facing it and hold a bucket at the same time.  Now that I'm sure I have successfully grossed you out, I spent a better part of the day cleaning carpet stains and doing laundry in between running her to the bathroom a zillion times.  Maybe this was my penance for the sinful brownies from the night before.  By dinnertime, the bathroom trips had ceased (thankfully) and she started to seem like her cheery self.  Shall we start taking bets on who gets hit with this little bug next?  I'm going to roughly quote the Hunger Games and say "May the odds be ever in my favor!"

So dinner tonight was a slew of leftovers in an attempt to clean them out of my fridge, and also cause I was just so worn out from the multiple bathroom runs and super early wake-up call.  I don't have a job anymore, I thought the waking up before the sun rises was over.  HA!  I didn't even make a dessert tonight, sorry kids.  (You're welcome, waistline.)  Perhaps it's a good thing as planning to make a few recipes out of a new cookbook I procured the other day based off a popular blog: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ by Ree Drummond.  This cookbook is by no means diet friendly, it's more along the lines of comfort food with recipes like creamy mashed potatoes mixed with cream cheese and homemade mac and cheese, for example.  I think I need to make my next investment an elliptical machine or something. 

I don't claim to be Julia Child or anyone like that in the kitchen, but luckily my recipes typically seem to turn out as planned and for that I am grateful.  Still trying to find out of there's a hidden talent that I have that just waiting to emerge and wow everyone.  So for the time being, I will continue baking stuff, and perhaps try to be a little more creative in the kitchen as opposed to following the recipes verbatim. 

Oops...

Wow, I'm a horrible blogger.  It's been 8 months since my last post.  That's almost an entire pregnancy.  Not that I'm pregnant. (Sorry, that one's not gonna happen again!)  Life has been somewhat chaotic, I suppose.  Since I last blogged, I have given up my job working outside of the home to try my hand at staying home full time.  It's been 3 weeks so far, and I'm enjoying it.  I am documenting this now so that I can look back fondly later to say, "What was I thinking??"  The lack of a second income is somewhat daunting, but I have visions of grandeur with meal planning and saving money on groceries.  I'll let you know how that works out for me.  Perhaps even post some of the recipes that I love most from time to time.  Most of all, I must say that I am enjoying the quality time with my children that I have missed out on so long.  I may have missed some of their more important milestones, but I must say that assisting with a cow eye dissection with my 10 year old's class today was quite memorable!  Definitely not an experience one typically encounters in the working world.  Unless you're a biologist, or the teacher conducting the dissection. 

In case you were wondering, Princess has only gotten more and more precocious in the past few months.  She's preparing to enter Kindergarten in the fall, and please make sure you only say Kindergarten to her, because she is NOT going to "school", for that's not what it is in her mind.  She is eager to carry a backpack and a lunchbox because that's what big girls do.  I will enjoy the next few months with my last baby and soak up all I can before sending her off into the "big girl" world. 

My son just recently got stitches out this past weekend from a nasty slice he obtained from his Swiss Army knife.  He is very adamant that he wasn't playing with it.  At 1 in the morning.  In front of the computer.  Cause that's what everyone does at that time of the night.  Don't you?  Just a few more days and we'll be thrown back into the chaotic world of gymnastics, baseball, and scouts.  Not to mention Princess' t-ball games.  How did I ever manage to fit all this stuff into a career woman's schedule? 

I must admit that it's much nicer to be able to make many more home-cooked meals now that I'm home, and none of this, "Oooh, we have a game tonight, and I'll be home with 10 minutes to spare before we have to scurry off, quick throw a pizza in the oven."  I do think we need to invest in a chest freezer though, as I'm quickly running out of room in our tiny fridge/freezer for all the meal planning I'm trying to do.  Well, as it's nearly midnight, I will close this post with a recipe for some really good brownies I made last night.  I got this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/:

MMMMM.....Brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 c. white sugar
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepanm combine the sugar, butter and water.  Cook over medium heat until boiling.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth,  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture.  Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares.


Enjoy!!  These are sinfully delicious, didn't last more than a day in my house.  Diet, what?