Favorite Thing Friday

I love all things pumpkin . . . pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie (forget the crust), Pumpkin Spice Kisses (these are too good!), I just love the look of pumpkins in general, heck, my favorite color this time of year is orange!

So after eating pumpkin pancakes at IHOP a few weeks ago, I had to try to find a good pumpkin pancake recipe and I tried this one a couple weekends ago and it's really good:

2-1/2 c Pancake Mix

3 T Brown Sugar

2-1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 egg

1-3/4 c milk

2 T vegetable oil

2 T vinegar

1 C pumpkin (not pie filling but pure pumpkin from a can)

Mix it all together and pour 1/4 c of batter on hot oiled griddle. (I didn't have vinegar when I made mine and left it out, didn't seem to matter).

This recipe said it was 6 servings. I thought 2 pancakes per serving but it made about 18 pancakes so 3 per serving, I guess. The kids refused to eat them but don't go by them -- they only like to eat pancakes in a restaurant or the mini frozen ones out of the box from the grocery store -- YUCK! I ended up with about 8 pancakes left over and they were so good I couldn't throw them out so I decided I would try to freeze them and it worked. I let the pancakes cool, stacked them up separating each one with wax paper, and put the whole stack in a freezer Ziploc bag. Whenever I wanted to eat them (which was everyday until they were gone), I simply took 2 out, put them on a plate and heated them in the microwave for about a 60-70 seconds and they were just as good as when I made them.

Now I think I might try to make them mini size and "trick" the kids into eating them or I saw that Williams-Sonoma had these Halloween pancake molds for sale which may persuade them into eating them.

I thought $20 was kind of steep but then I saw you can change the faces of the molds around -- how cool is that?

I have to make more of these pancakes this weekend, let me know (or invite me over) if you do the same!

Favorite Thing Friday

The internet is a dangerous place for many reasons! This week I am realizing it can be downright unhealthy.


I love finding cool blogs. I have found so many of them on photography and crafting and scrapbooking and just cool people. I realized the other day that I have been hoarding a HUGE secret. It's the Pioneer Woman. Now maybe you know about the Pioneer Woman. I just discovered her a few months ago . . . how? I don't know. But I thought I had stumbled on to something fabulous that hardly anyone knew about. I was slightly wrong. She had a contest one day about a photo she had taken to give it a good title. I looked at it thought of something clever and realized that I am not the only one who knows about the Pioneer Woman. I should have known she had a big following since she was giving a $600 e-card to Amazon for that contest -- that's a great prize. I went to enter my clever title and as I started scanning to see if anyone else thought of my exact title and I realized 400 people had already entered the contest that day, scrolling to the bottom of the page I realize 400 entries fit on the first page and they were 9 pages. 3582 people submitted a entry for that contest in one day! As I browse the many blogs I frequent, I started to notice that the Pioneer Woman is a pretty standard blog that many bloggers follow. So maybe I was the only one in the dark about her, but hey if I am . . . why didn't you tell me about her, huh?

Why do I like the Pioneer Woman so much? Well she takes fabulous photos. She lives on a working ranch and most of her photos are of the daily goings-on of their ranch. Farm life. Plus I just love cowboys and there are cowboys there . . . I wonder if Aaron could become a cowboy? I would really like that . . . I'll have to see. Anyway, she has 4 kids and homeschools and she gives great photography advice and she's self-taught on that and I need lots of easy to understand photography advice!

Mainly why she's my new favorite thing is her recipes! Oh, I made the mistake of looking at that portion of her blog last weekend. So I added some ingredients to my grocery list and made some Pioneer Woman vittles. Serious weight will be gained here if I continue to use her recipes on a regular basis -- no lie! So far I've made:


Crash Hot Potatoes These are AWESOME! I could eat these every day!


Onion Strings These are good too just like in a restaurant and the kids love them even though they hate onions, but I remembered that I can't eat too many onions at once or I get a bad tummy ache!


Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich This one we really didn't care for but it gave me a spring board to make another sandwich changing the ingredients a little.


Chicken Spaghetti This is was really good. It made a ton! 2 out of 3 kids liked it too but next time I make it I'm putting it in 2 smaller casserole dishes and cooking one and freezing the other. We'll have enough for a meal and still have leftovers with half the recipe.


I also want to make her wings, olive cheese bread, bacon wrapped Jalapeno thingies, Cowboy Nachos, and about a million other things . . . I think I've gained weight just typing this!


So if you want some great recipes, good photography tips, or just see how the cowboys live check her out!

Favorite Thing Friday

Aaron and I are late for many things. We have trouble getting to appointments on time but he's good about work. We never leave the house early when going to a social engagement -- we don't have that many social engagements with 4 little kids anyway. We live approximately 20 steps from our library and I had books that were 3 weeks overdue. Sometimes we owe late fees for bills even though I pay everything on the computer. My sister let me borrow a scrapbook book and I was supposed to return it the next week when I saw her, that was in July -- I still have the book (sorry, Monica). We end up paying beau coup bucks for rented movies too, enough that sometimes we should just buy the movie rather than rent them.

Movie rental is especially hard for us because we live in a little town in the middle of nowhere and for us to rent the movies we have to drive about 20 minutes to get the movies and by the time we get there they are all picked over, we can't decide what to get, and then we usually have a late fee from the time before. We have to watch them and get them back when they are due. So much time and gas for movies that probably stink and I will more than likely sleep through. Then my sister, Keely, talked about how she liked NetFlix. I got a free one month membership in the mail and tried it out. This is the best thing ever!

Basically it works like this: You choose your plan (we chose to get one movie at a time for $9 a month -- there are other plans like from 1 to 8 movies at a time for varying monthly fees). Then you choose your movies and put them in your queue (this is like your want list or cart) you put the movies in the order in which you want to receive them and you can change that at anytime. They send you a movie and you can keep it as long as you want -- there are no late fees at all! We just had a movie for 3 weeks before we returned it. You return the movie in the envelope it came in and there's no postage/shipping to pay ever, you just drop it in the mail. NetFlix emails you when they get the movie and then emails you to tell you a new one has been sent out. Lately they have been super quick. I mailed a DVD on Monday and we had a new one by Wednesday.

Another great feature of this company is they want you to rate the movie with stars and then based on how you rate movies, suggestions are given as to other movies you may enjoy based on your ratings. Movie ratings are shown so you can see what other people thought was great or not so great. There is also the option of viewing many movies online so there's no wait. I've never done that as I don't want to sit in my hard computer chair for 2 hours and watch a movie but it's a nice option to get extra movies especially for kids. There hasn't been one thing that we have disliked about it so far. We pay with our check card once a month -- it's automatically taken out and you can cancel a membership at anytime. A while back they emailed me and said they were sorry it took so long to send out a movie and gave me a $2 credit for the month. I hadn't even noticed that it took a day or two longer but it was super great customer service.

If you are interested in joining NetFlix, I have been given five one free month memberships. You can join for one month and see if you like it and it will cost you nothing if you decide to stop or you may discover it to be a favorite thing like we did and keep going. If you are interested in a trial membership, email me and I'll get the information to you. Check out Netflix here.

Favorite Thing Friday

I’ve kind of been slacking on Favorite Thing Friday. Partly because by Friday my life has fallen apart so much that I’m lucky if I can find all 4 of my kids -- forget about actually “thinking” of something that is making my life easier or better – lately my life seems anything but easy or better! But this week is different I knew exactly what my favorite thing is. I was even so sure that I typed this up on Thursday! Can you guess what it is?

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer – it’s . . .

PRE-SCHOOL!

I am so happy with how well everything has gone! I kind of feel like I’m on vacation – no kidding! I’ve gotten a shower every day and this is before we leave for school. Not to mention that I am fixing a semi-decent breakfast for them (and me) – we don’t have time for donuts in the car – we live 2 blocks from school now! They’ve brushed their teeth every morning and Addison’s hair is combed and they’re wearing shoes and socks, their glasses, and hearing aid and we’ve made it to school by 8:30! We’ve walked every day except Thursday (and Friday) because it was monsoon season.

The kids love school and their teachers and aides! Ethan has been doing well after the first day and has earned all his “stars” on Wednesday and Thursday! I have less laundry because kids aren’t changing their clothes on a whim, they are super hungry for supper because they aren’t eating junky snacks all day so their eating healthier, they are fighting way less when we are home, they seem more cooperative when I ask them to do something, and they are going to bed without coming downstairs even once at night. Of course the house is easier to clean because they aren’t destroying things as soon as I pick it up.

Now all this really may be a mirage -- I may just think they are fighting less and cooperating more because I am not extremely stressed and exhausted by 10 am and by the time I have everybody back home at 3 pm I feel like I still have a lot of patience and I want to be with them. I have even enjoyed cooking supper and have time during the day to “think” and plan what we will be eating instead of panicking at 5:30 or 6:30 standing in front of the fridge trying to pull something together.

The best thing is I’ve had uninterrupted time to complete a few things. I redid our playroom on Tuesday and took every toy upstairs that wasn’t safe for Reese to play with and I also picked up the whole house on Tuesday to prepare for our bi-weekly cleaning. On Wednesday I got the oil changed in the van, went to two grocery stores, went to Walgreens, took Ethan and Reese out for lunch, and dropped off our recycling. Thursday I learned something: I need to have plans. I thought after I got the kids to school and got Reese down for a nap that I would figure out what to do. Well that’s not such a good plan. I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing anything but I did put away a bunch of scrapbook layouts in albums, picked up the house from last night, sorted through some dresser drawers, cleaned out our linen closet, made some appointments, and worked a little bit on a scrapbook layout. So I got stuff done just felt like I had no direction. I need to schedule time to do stuff I need to do and stuff I want to do like scrapbook. I’ll be working on that the next few weeks. I feel like I have time to think thoughts and just some peace and quiet instead of hearing screaming, whining, and complaining. I have been leaving the TV off and sometimes turn on music but sometimes just enjoy the quietness of the house.

My only complaint is preschool is messing up naps for Reese and for Ethan. Reese goes down for a nap at 9 and normally I let her wake up on her own, which is anywhere from 2-3 hours. I have to wake her by 11 now because we go get Ethan at 11:45 and she will need to go back to sleep by 1. I put both Ethan and Reese down at 1 but they have to get up by 2:45 so we can be at school at 3 to get Caden and Addison. Normally Ethan and Reese could easily sleep 2-1/2 to 4 hours in the afternoon but I have to wake them up after an hour and 45 minutes. Today I had to lay Reese back down at 4 as she was getting grumpy and she slept until 6. There’s really nothing I can do about it but it’s just an adjustment and it will all get figured out in the upcoming weeks.

So I’m lovin’ preschool after the first week!

Favorite Thing Friday

Today I am endorsing a product that I found for about $2.50. I didn't know it would be so fabulous when I saw it on clearance but I just got it Sunday and we have used it 3 times so far. It's a . . .



popsicle mold, exciting, huh?

This has been one of the highlights of the day right after Vacation Bible School. The kids were starved after Bible School each night because they wouldn't eat the nice suppers they were given so this was their treat. 3 year olds and popsicles don't go so great together around here.

It's hard to explain to people who have children one at a time because if you have one child who isn't so great at handling popsicles like those ones in the plastic pouch that you push up to eat, you can sit and help them with your undivided attention, dab their mouths, wipe their hands as you go, show them, talk them through it. When you have 3 demanding, overtired, grouchy 3 year olds who aren't quite old enough to do the push up ones by themselves and make a HUGE mess on themselves, their clothes, and the floor and furniture (times 3, thank you!) while running everywhere and dropping them on the floor and/or ground and insist on eating them with hair/dirt stuck to them then you never want to see another messy popsicle again.


Popsicle eating usually ends in tears for all of us. If I buy other kinds of popsicles then there are fights about what color they want, or they don't like this kind, etc, etc, etc. So this way they are all the same and the mess was less because they had handy little drip catchers on the bottom of the stick. We've been making all kinds too: Tuesday was a blueberry smoothie popsicle, Wednesday was Apple Juice, Thursday was banana pudding, and tonight is Lemonade. I like that the smoothie one had blueberry yogurt (which Ethan won't eat -- but he did when it was frozen on a stick mixed with milk, a banana, and apple juice); so it's way more healthy than the colored sugar water ones. It is so easy and cheap to use whatever we have on hand and sneaking in the nutrition is quite fun for me. Here you can find some recipes if you don't want to wing it like me (I am going to try the applesauce ones next, hmmmm if I add some sprinkles that may be a hit here!) My only complaint is that there is only 4 molds . . . you know probably for that average family size we have in America. I guess since Aaron and I are overachievers on the family size thing, I don't need a popsicle and since my hubby is still roofing the house he can have the extra one until Reesey decides she needs one. I got my molds at Target on an endcap of clearance stuff but you can find some here and here for a little bit more money and here you can find various kinds of molds even a sailboat one for reasonable prices and you can buy a brush to clean your molds (oh, brother!). Get some, it may be the best $$$ you ever spent on popsicles.

Hip, Hip, Hooray, for Popsicles!

Favorite Thing Friday

I normally don't buy as seen on TV products as many of them turn out to be not so great but Keely's SIL said she loved this and then Marie from Make and Takes said she loved it too so I broke down and got mine at Walgreens. It's the PedEgg that will make your feet much more summer-like. Seriously it works and if you don't believe me my BIL, Jeremy, is considering on becoming the next spokesperson for this product. He was using Keely's while we were visiting last weekend and I think he could do a commercial for it. He even has ideas on how to improve it some even though it does work really well as is. It's basically a cheese grater for your feet but it doesn't hurt at all and it gets rid of all that dry, yucky dead skin. I've seen it sold at Walmart and CVS too and CVS had the replacement blades 3 for $10. So if your feet need some summer pampering pick one up -- if you're still unsure call Jeremy, he'll talk you into it!

Favorite Thing Friday

I guess I have what is considered by today's standards a large family. I don't think 6 people in one family as large until we go into restaurants and have to wait forever, even when it's not that busy, for a table. Or buying a vehicles that can hold 4 carseats -- it's hard to find one (ours can hold one more but that would require completely taking out one carseat every time someone wanted in or out of the backseat along with LOTS of sweating and cussing). So that's how I'm formulating the large family opinion. Then I found out here the average American household size is 2.61 people and since we're over double that so I guess my family is HUGE! Another way I came to the conclusion that our family is big is when I recently decided we should start the tradition of family Sunday breakfast. Sometimes we go out, the kids like IHOP but it's an hour away and last time it took over 45 minutes to get our food and I overheard the waitress telling other customers that it was taking so long because it was Sunday -- HELLO? -- isn't that when most people go out for breakfast? On the weekend? Maybe I'm wrong, I don't think so, but maybe . . . After waiting forever for a table then some more time waiting on food with 4 HUNGRY kids it best if most of the time we eat breakfast in. I like to make pancakes, bacon or sausage, eggs, toast, etc. This is a difficult task because everything takes a while to cook on the stove and you have to do it separately . . . and when your cooking for a large family you need a pound of bacon or sausage. That's a daunting task when most skillets can't hold much bacon or sausage at once and the more you put in the longer it takes to cook. Pancakes create another problem too because I can only cook one or two at a time by the time I get a few cooked the first ones are either cold or devoured . . . and I end up standing endlessly at the stove, have a million pans dirty and eating by myself. Not exactly the way I pictured our breakfast tradition.

So as the kids and I were searching the aisles of Target for a father's day present, I stumbled upon this:I know Aaron wasn't exactly thrilled when he opened it but I told him why I got it (along with golf balls and a shirt) and that it would be easier to flip his over-easy eggs on it and he seemed to understand my thinking -- after all isn't it the thought that counts? So our breakfasts have been easier, as I can cook a whole pound of bacon at once and several pancakes and we don't have to eat grilled cheese in shifts anymore either. Happy Father's Day to me every Sunday and Daddy is not complaining about me fixing a big breakfast either! Now I need a really good blueberry pancake recipe (or any other pancake recipes) -- please share!

Favorite Thing Friday

This is certainly not something glamorous but it's something I currently use on a daily basis around here. They're called Kandoos Wipes. Basically it's baby wipes for potty trainers and beyond. What's distinguishes them differently from baby wipes is they come in this small colorful dispenser that sits on the back of the toilet. I like that you can buy refills in 2 packs so you don't throw away containers (thinking green). I also liked that most of the ones I have were free. A while back when Keely was in her coupon/CVS frenzy (and I was copying her), Protector and Gamble would put out Kandoo coupons once a month that were buy one product (like diapers) and get a Kandoo product free. We stocked up and coincidentally, they no longer put out that free coupon. I like that they are small in size, perfect for the tushes they are being used on and they can be flushed which baby wipes cannot! I am the one using them on the kids as they haven't figure out this particular skill of potty training yet and that's fine with me because if you've ever seen a three year try to get toilet paper off the roll they might as well just leave it all on the roll and throw the whole thing in the potty -- definitely an acquired skill that is we have not acquired yet. We love the Kandoo soap too and that's all I have out right now so if you come to my house and use the potty, you can sample some of the soap. Looks like my Kandoo stash is getting low I'll have to start stocking up as I still have 50% of my kids to potty train!

Favorite Thing Friday

I am back to being an avid reader of a blog called Amazing Trips because Jen has triplets about a month older than mine and she has a baby about 6 months older than Reese. Last week she started doing Favorite Thing Friday where she describes an item that she absolutely loves and can't live without. Last week it was a chopper thing and I must now get one because I am easily persuaded by other triplet moms and/or blog entries. Anyway I thought I would do the same: show an item that I love, triplet related or not, large family related or not, practical or not . . .

We bought a recliner about 3 years ago when we turned Aaron's Man Den into a playroom. The room is on our main floor and it's our third bedroom and not very big. Before the kids were two years old, I would spend a lot of time in there with them and there was no place to sit but the floor. Aaron and I seldom agree on TV shows so he needed a place to sit and watch his shows at night. We decided a recliner would be great since we didn't already own one. We went to a chain furniture store and picked one out in a dark tan microfiber fabric. I thought it was a great color for stains. We also spent an extra $50 on a warranty that covered anything humans or pets did to the soil the fabric. For 5 years if anything happened to the chair, they would try to clean it for free or if it couldn't be cleaned then we would get a new chair (for free!). This is an excellent deal for someone with 2 old cats and 3 infant babies. We used the chair and then we used it some more. I never worried about anyone eating or drinking in it or the cats laying it. First, I don't believe in buying something and then be so overly concerned with keeping it "new" that you can't relax and enjoy it and second, I knew we would be getting a new chair in 5 years or less. Then the furniture company announces it's going out of business. So even though it had only been 2 years I decide to call them to get my cleaning/free chair NOW! Well, it wasn't so simple -- they were claiming bankruptcy so basically I got nothing but a form to fill out and maybe I would get part of my warranty money back -- still waiting on that. I borrowed by sister's carpet/upholstery cleaner and it didn't help. I warn everyone that if you are considering new furniture to stay clear of microfiber/microsuede anything if you have children, know children, or even on occasion think of children even if none come to your home -- bad stuff! Aaron hated sitting the chair but it was the only place to sit if he wanted to watch TV. It was really disgusting (see photo above)! We were ready to throw it away and I wasn't even sure the garbage man would touch it even if he had gloves on. I hated to buy a new chair in fear of of the same thing happening all over again.

So this week my favorite thing is triplet, large family, and practical all in one! It's a slipcover for the recliner! Now I know you're thinking: that is just stupid and when I first heard of it I thought the same thing. After all, I've owned slipcovers before. It can takes hours to get them on right and they can make a ugly or used piece of furniture look so much nicer until someone actually sits on the furniture and then it looks like you threw a sheet over your couch to cover it up. We were at Target looking at slipcovers. I noticed that they come in pieces (ours is 4 pieces -- one piece for each arm, one for the back, and another for the seat/footrest) rather than in one big sheet you have to tuck and tuck and tuck. And this one is stretch so it fits our recliner (which is a Stratolounger) like a glove and the best part it's washable! Now I can take off the dirty part and wash and dry it . . . oh heaven! Our chair looks so much nicer that I even moved it out of the playroom and into the living room. I noticed they have the same stretch slipcovers for loveseats, couches, other types of chairs, and even ottomen at Target in this stretch fabric and it comes in several colors. So if you have a piece of furniture that is disgusting or just disgustingly ugly I would try one of these out.

Also if you would like to join me on Favorite Thing Friday, please post on your blog and leave a comment on my blog so that I can enjoy your favorite things too!