Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful the chance to go camping with friends. We went last weekend and it was a lot of fun. They even sold us their 8-man tent for really cheap since they are buying a new one. Now we can go camping more and not have to borrow a tent! We had fun talking and roasting marshmallows. Well, I pretty much roasted all the marshmallows lol. A certain friend of mine doesn't like roasted marshmallows, can you believe that?! LOL but that's ok, we can still be friends :D It really is great to have friends that we can go do stuff like that with. They've had us over for game nights with some of their other friends too and that has been a blast. I am so grateful for friends.

Tasty Thursday: Cookie Edition

I decided to join in Tasty Thursday, hosted by Trista at The Pumkin Patch. I think this is my first time joining in, because I couldn't miss out on cookie recipes! Not that I bake a lot. I prefer to buy them, or use premade cookie dough, or do it the easiest way possible, which I'm about to share with you! It is called Cake Box Cookies. The recipe is very simple, just 3 ingredients!

1 box of cake mix (my favorite is chocolate, but a spice mix is really good too)
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 cube) melted butter or margarine

Simply mix the ingredients together and spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350*. They come out so soft and chewy and are delicious! I like to use a chocolate cake mix and add chocolate chips, mmm!

I can't take credit for coming up with this recipe, I'm sure it's been around for awhile. I found it at Nikki's blog. But it's a favorite of mine, especially since I don't like baking, anything this easy works for me :D

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Grocery List

I used to always forget things I needed when I went to the store because I would never write down things as I need them. So one day at the store, I picked up a small magnetic memo board. Half is cork board and the other half is white board with a dry erase marker. On the cork board I keep things like business cards for the dentist and doctor's numbers. The white board I use to keep a running list of things we need, as well as write quick notes or messages, phone numbers, etc. The magnetic board goes right on my fridge. Then as I'm making something in the kitchen and see I'm out of something or running low, I can jot it down. When I think of anything else we need during the day I can just go to the kitchen and add it to the list. This is a big help for me, I'm not forgetting things I need as much, and it's easy to glance and see what Hubby can pick up on the way home if needed that day. When I go shopping I just copy the list onto paper and erase the white board to start again. This works for me!

To see more great WFMW tips, head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

Tackle-It Tuesday

Today I am going to tackle my laundry pile! I have been so bad lately and let the clean laundry pile up in baskets at the foot of the bed. Then I don't want to pile up more so I haven't been washing laundry as much, then I run out of clothes to wear lol. So I'm going to fold all the laundry and get 2-3 more loads washed.

I will check back in later to let you know how I did! The boys are both napping so now is the perfect time to work on it.

(ETA: I did end up getting 5 loads of laundry folded and put away, and a few small loads still in the wash to be folded Wednesday)

Go to 5 Minutes for Mom to join in Tackle-It Tuesday!

Tuesday To-Do

Well, today I need to:

* Do laundry. Yep, I've still put it off and it's piled at the foot of the bed and I'm running out of clothes to wear.

* Dishes. I was too tired after running last night to do them, so they are stinking up my kitchen and really need washed.

* Vacuum, but I can't lol. I do need to look up how much the part would be to fix our vacuum.

* Clean up boys' room. Again and again and again...

* Go to the zoo. Actually, this should be first on the list since we are going soon :)

I think that's all. Not really much to do except get dishes and laundry done. Of course, that will have to wait until after we go to the zoo :D

Off to bed

Boy, I'm tired today. I didn't get a nap earlier, but that's my fault. I was busy doing stuff online so I didn't get Toddler down for a nap at his usual time, so by the time he finally went to sleep, Baby was waking up. Then Michelle and I went running, but we were sore from doing sprints Saturday so we only ran 5 laps, instead of 12. I'm glad she wanted to stop early cuz I don't think my legs were going to allow me to go much further lol. We will go again tomorrow and hopefully do better. I think I'm going to go hop in the shower and then head to bed. Hubby was sweet and got both boys asleep tonight, isn't he awesome? Good night everyone!

Monday Madness

Today we don't have anything going on. My little sister went home yesterday, my mom came and picked her up. It was fun having her here for a few days. I don't have Little Baby today or tomorrow. I tried to sleep in a little but Baby decided he wanted to get up and play at our normal time. Why don't they understand sleeping in?! Maybe I can get a nap later if I can get both boys down at the same time. Laundry needs done, and I really need to put it away instead of piling it at the foot of the bed. Oh, I better go get the chicken out of the freezer so I can defrost it and get it in the crockpot for dinner.

Menu Plan Monday

This is my second week joining in Menu Plan Monday, hosted by Organizing Junkie. I've been loving having a plan that I can glance at and know exactly what we are having for dinner every night. It has made me a lot less stressed about dinner time. Planning meals that are simple and that we actually will eat is such a good idea, I don't know what took me so long to get around to doing it!

Monday
- Crockpot BBQ Chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

Tuesday
- Beef Stroganoff, peas

Wednesday
- Pizza, pasta salad, chips

Thursday
- Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, vegetable soup

Friday
- Leftovers

Saturday
- Hamburgers, fries, salad

Sunday
- Turkey, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes

Sunday Saying

"Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness."
- Blaise Pascal

I just thought this was funny. I'm not even sure it makes sense, but I liked it lol. I'm trying to make some sense of it. I guess people in general or all a bit crazy sometimes, and if there was no "crazy" in the world, then it would just be weird, in other words, it would seem like madness for everyone to be sane.

OK, that just sounds odd. Anybody else have any idea what this quote might mean? Because it is making my head hurt!

SMART Habit Saturday

Well, I still haven't been doing too well on my goals. There are about 4 that I haven't even done at all this week. Of course there are a few that I do every day too, so that's good. But for this week I'm going to just keep working on what I have, I have really been slacking on a lot of my cleaning goals, so I'm going to work extra hard on those this week. My main focus will be on laundry. That was one that I did really well on, but have done poorly on the last few weeks, and I'm actually out of clean clothes right now, so today is a good day to get started again.

Goal recap:
#1- Clean 1/2hr a day
#2- Keep up with dishes
#3- Brush teeth once a day
#4- Read scriptures daily
#5- Toddler bedtime routine
#6- Bedtime 11:30pm
#7- 50 crunches a day
#8- Take vitamins every day
#9- No computer for 1hr a day when Hubby is home
#10- 1 load of laundry each day
#11- Daily prayers, morning and night
#12- Dinner 3x during the week
#13- Lotion every day
#14- Floss every day
#15- Bringing dishes to kitchen
#16- Clean office each day
#17- Make bed every morning

To join in SHS go to The Lazy Organizer.

Hot, toasty S'mores

We are heading out to go camping with friends. Hubby and I have not gone camping since Toddler was a baby, so it's been over 2 years. We don't own any camping gear so my friend (Michelle)was kind enough to borrow some things from family and friends. It should be a lot of fun , I bet the kids will love it. I'm making a yummy cherry cobbler, I was going to use our dutch oven, but I can't find it anywhere. How do you lose a dutch oven?! So I'm cooking it now and hoping it stays warm until we get there. And we are going to roast marshmallows, my favorite part of camping.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how polite are you?
- 7-8 I think

Soup
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
- I can't remember. Probably something one of my boys did or something on TV

Salad
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
- I don't have a favorite

Main Course
Tell about the funniest teacher you ever had.
- Mr. Dolezol, my 10th grade drama teacher, he was seriously like Drew Carey, looked just like him too

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I strongly believe that ______________________.
- I strongly believe that it should be illegal to wake up before 9am lol.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful today for my little sister who is visiting. She is 14 and a big help when she's here. The boys love her and she helps me take care of them and clean. Plus it gives me someone to talk to. We also invited Hubby's little sister who is 14, she is just here for the day, but they are good friends so it's nice that they can spend some time together and they both help me out. It really helps to have one person per child lol.

Cute as a bug contest

Cute As A Bug is a new cafe press store with adorable shirts. You really should go check out their cute designs. I like the "I eat dirt" and "Cute as a button" ones best. And now you can win a free shirt, in the size and design of your choice. Just check out Musings of a crunchy domestic goddess and follow the directions. Maybe my luck will turn and I'll actually win! LOL

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Parenting Advice

Today is the parenting advice edition of WFMW. So head on over to Rocks in My Dryer to give and receive your best parenting tips!

My advice is this: There is a lot of different parenting methods, and everyone thinks their method is the right one. Some people are even quite militant about the right way to parent. The thing is, parent's should just do what they feel is right, follow your instincts. What works for one family won't always work for yours. For example, I have a lot of friends who do Cry-It-Out with their babies. This works for them, their babies are great sleepers, but it's just not part of how I parent. Just like some people like skydiving and bungee jumping, I will never do it but that doesn't make it wrong. Try not to separate parenting into groups like "Attachment parenting" vs "modern parenting" or anything like that. It creates divisions between people that cause feelings of competitiveness, hurt, and a "better-than-you" attitude. We need to be willing to accept people who parent different than us, doing otherwise just makes the divisions wider. Like I said, I have friends that parent much different than I do, but that doesn't make them bad parents. Their kids are healthy and happy and I know their parents love them, that's what matters.