Breaking up with clutter is hard to do...

Earlier today I was reading a new post on my friend Elizabeth's blog A New Version of Me (which by the way is an amazingly heartfelt blog worth reading) and she was talking about a clutter challenge she is doing. A clutter challenge! How perfect would that would be for me!! I have already admitted that clutter is a problem area of mine in my New Year's Challenge #1, so what better way to stay a bit accountable than to join in on this challenge?!

The original challenge is from a lady named SRB and she writes all about it on her blog VeggieSausages. 

The first step in the challenge is to Fess Up about our clutter....so here goes....

Birthday Creations - Birthday Sign

I usually make some kind of "Happy Birthday" sign for my kids each year for their special day. I generally cut out shapes, cut out the letters and assemble it like a banner. However, this year I decided to utilize the wrapped picture frames from my Christmas party to make my daughter's 3rd birthday sign. I simply took the ribbons off and added colorful letters that I drew by hand and cut out of various scrapbook paper. 

Christmas Creations - Hot Chocolate Party

Even though I know that Christmas is over with and it is a long time until next Christmas I am going to post a few creations I made for a cookies and hot chocolate party I threw last year. Pardon the quality of the pictures as I am still learning the picture taking skill.

Texas Sheet Cake

If you do a search for Texas Sheet Cake there are a lot of different recipes that come up. This one, from Southern Living’s Best Ever Cakes and Pies Magazine, is my favorite. It is moist and chocolaty and just the way a chocolate sheet cake should be.

Texas Sheet Cake with Fudge Frosting

Make the frosting before taking the cake out of the oven, and spread it on the warm cake.

Sheet Cake Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 (8oz) container sour cream

Birds and goats and llamas oh my!

Those who know me are well aware that animals are not among my favorite things. Especially the flying ones, or creepy crawling ones, or hairy ones, or big ones, or small ones…..in other words all of them! I am not proud to be afraid of all these supposedly “cute” beings, but I just do not find most of them adorable or appealing or likable at all. Now, however, since I am a somewhat responsible adult and I have kids of my own I am trying my best to not instill my fears in my kids. For example, I pretend to the best of my ability that the swarms of grackles what gather outside the grocery store do not bother me. Never mind the fact that I will rather park a mile away than park in the spot right next to the entrance if it means I will also be parked right next to a half-eaten burger being devoured by a gazillion of these oh-so-unattractive-flying-monsters-with-their-super-creepy-eyes! **mere thought makes me shutter**

My dishwasher is going on vacation

Ok, so it has been established that I am in dire need of some more organization and order in my life and house, hence my New Years Challenge #1. Well, as a step in the right direction I have decided to send my dishwasher on vacation for an unspecified period of time. In other words, I am not going to buy any more dishwasher detergent now that we are out, and I am not turning the machine on for quite a while. It gets to go to a warm and sunny place and enjoy some of those fruity drinks with the cute little umbrellas. It is off duty!

Revelation Update

I just want to let you know that battle hair has officially been won! We have now had four days without hair-catastrophes. Four whole days! I will never go back to using any other type of hairbrush ever again. It feels great to check that battle off my list! .....Never mind the remaining gazillion other battles I still need to keep fighting….

I might just have had a revelation!

So this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it might just be a HUGE deal to me!

Here is the scenario:

Every morning I try to brush my oldest daughter's hair and get her ready for school or for the day.

Every morning her hair is one gigantic, tangled mess and I have no idea how it became like that.

Every morning we have a meltdown or a screaming fit or lots of lots of tears because my daughter is sooooo tender-headed.

Every morning I bite my tongue in a desperate attempt to try to stay calm (see challenge #5).

Orange Raisin Cookies - The Most Versatile Cookie in the Whole Wide World

This recipe is for my most favorite cookie in the whole wide world! It is easy, it is versatile, it is quick, it is  allergy friendly (or at least can easily be). With a couple of substitutions it can be dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free, nut-free, chocolate-free, gluten-free or whatever else free too probably.

The original recipe is from one of my favorite blogs called Attic24 and you can see it here but I have also included it below just for easy reference.

Orange Raisin Cookies (12 small)

100g all purpose flour (or gluten-free substitute)

½ tsp baking powder (or corn-free substitute)

50g soft, light brown sugar

50g soft butter (or dairy free margarine)

Tomato-less Pasta or Pizza Sauce

Pasta and meatsauce has been my go-to dish for as long as I can remember, but since my kids are allergic to tomato and citric acid (which is in most canned/jarred products) this has been a bit of a challenge. However, I have come up with a tomato-less sauce that my kids loved! The color is quite orange because I used carrots but it tasted good and worked well.

Tomato-less Pasta Sauce

1 pound ground beef

1/4 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

Lentil Soup in the slow cooker

This is a great dinner; it is easy, it is cheap and it is good! In fact, both my girls claim this is their favorite soup! The recipe is based on the one you find on the bag of lentils.

Lentil Soup in the slow cooker

1 lb lentils, rinsed and sorted

8 cups warm water (you can use broth but water works great)

1-2 large carrots, chopped in small dice

2 medium stalks celery, chopped in small dice

Coconut Crusted Tilapia

We are trying to be mostly grain-free and I wanted to find an alternative for breading some baked tilapia. I decided on using coconut which turned out quite ok if I may say so. And the bonus was that my kids really liked it too. I know there are several recipes out there already with coconut crusted tilapia, but most include some type of bread-crumb too. This one does not and therefore it can also be gluten-free by substituting the regular flour for something else.

Coconut Crusted Tilapia

Tilapia filets, thawed and patted dry with a papertowel

Flour (May be substituted for gluten free options)

Egg, whisked

Coconut, finely shredded and unsweetened

Oatmeal Waffles

Breakfast seems to always be a bit of a challenge at my house. My kids have grown tired of oatmeal and scrambled eggs or omelets etc. are not the highest on their list either. I do have to say that I have the least picky eaters I have ever met, but I think we just hit a point where the same old breakfasts were just that, the same old. So in order to still give them oatmeal and also eggs here are two options that are big hits:

Blender Oatmeal Waffles

1 ½ c oats (quick or regular)

1 ½ c milk (can be substituted, see below)

2 tsp baking powder

2 Tblsp oil

New Year's Challenges

Ok, so I do not generally have New Year’s resolutions since I always feel like I will never keep them anyhow and life happens and time disappears from me and so forth. However, this year I have decided to come up with something similar. So, I have taken a closer look back at the twelve months that have just passed and I have come up with a list of challenges that I plan to face this year. 

These are not written in any particular order of importance, but here goes:

Challenge 1 - Organization, organization, organization!

I am definitely a more cluttered person and I tend to be surrounded by a lot of things, things I am working on, things I like to look at, things I never found a permanent home for, things I don’t know where came for, where are going or where belong. You get the picture; I am surrounded by things – my things, my husband’s things, our things, and our kids’ things. They all add up to one gigantic organizational challenge. This year though I am determined to take small steps towards getting systems in place that work for me and for us. They might not make much sense to anyone else, but they will hopefully make sense to us.