It's Time To Tackle the Clutter....

As I sit here and look at this crazy mess (aka my craft space), I can't help feel overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with schtuff and overwhelmed with all the projects I want to tackle.
It's both physical and mental clutter and it's starting to drive me nuts.

Starting tomorrow, May 1st, I'm going to start working on that.

Here's how.....

Tomorrow starts day one of Céline Navarro's Get Messy Class over at Studio Calico.  I'm super excited for this class because I love to get messy (clearly.  look above :) and I'll be creating a mini.  Two of my favorite things.

While thinking of what I was going to make my mini about and surfing around Pinterest (and deciding that I had waaaay too many things pinned), it became clear as to what my mini will be about.

Creating a pin a day!

Each morning, I will surf my boards and find something that I want to cook, bake, create, scrap, or even experiment with an idea that I thought was brilliant.   It can be absolutely anything that I have pinned and will probably change throughout the course of the day (based on time, etc).

Once I settle on what I want to do, I have until I go to bed that night to complete it.  No excuses.

The other catch is, I have to use what I already have on hand. I will not purchase not one thing for this experiment.  I will keep this in mind when choosing my pin or make adjustments and use what I have on hand.  Obviously, I have way too much crap!  It's time to start using it up instead of hoarding.

After I complete my pin for the day, I will then snap of pic of it (which will probably end up on instagram), print out the picture, and scrap/smash what I did in the new mini.

This is going to be a HUGE challenge for me.  It's been about a week since I've really focused on finding some creative time for myself and I'm kinda tackling a couple projects in one, however, I really think that this will be good for me.  It will give me that creative stress released I really do need on a daily basis, I will use up some of this crap I have, and will tackle some of the projects/idea I've really wanted to do since I pinned them.

Does anyone out there want to join me?

You don't hafta do 30 days, you could tackle a week, ten days, 23 days really.

If you wanna join me (aka be my support buddy as well), leave me a comment.  I'd love to follow your progress too!

Sea Salt Honey Butter Popcorn

I'm not really a popcorn junkie.
When I go to the movies, I'd rather have a box of Dots or Twizzlers than a big ol bag of buttery popcorn.

But every now and again, I get a major craving for it and when I do, watch out!
I probably really the most unladylike popcorn eating girl on the planet.
I shovel it in.  And I mean in the worst possible way.  Like if i don't get this popped corn in my belly this nanosecond I'm going to combust way of shoveling it in.

So last night, I was going thru my pinterest board "let's eat" looking for something to bake actually, when I stumbled across a recipe for sea salt honey butter popcorn.

I decided that instead of just pouring the sea salt honey butter on top of microwave popcorn, I would do it the old fashion way and cook it on the stove.  I followed cookie & kate's instructions on popping the corn on the stove (Michael likes to make it this way too but he was busy with homework and I didn't want to bother him).

After the oil got good and hot, I threw in the kernels and waited for this to happen

mmm....popped kernels!

Then after it was all popped, I separated it b/c I knew that Michael probably wasn't going to want the fancy butter.  So I pretty much did 1 T. of melted butter with 1 T. of heated up honey (to make it thinner), mixed it up, poured it on the popcorn and tossed on some salt.

Needless to say, I was shoveling it in!
This is some really good stuff.  Has the sweetness of kettle corn but it's different if that makes any sense.  This is definitely some popcorn that I would make again.

So yummy & sticky good!

I Love Games Mini

Here's a mini I did in 2009 devoted to my love of playing board/card games.

I used a scrabble board for the cover (front and back) and just used cereal boxes that I covered in scrap paper for the inside pages.

PinterTest Kitchen

I'm addicted to pinterest.  Like crazy addicted to it, but fortunately, I don't just pin.  I also create what I pin (granted, I haven't quite had the chance to try out the 4,415 things I've pinned but I'm working up to it :)

I'm also super addicted to instagram (find me: elizabethmanna).

So when I saw on instagram that jessica had a series on her blog called

I knew I had to jump on board!!

This week I made some healthy breakfast cookies that I saved to my "let's get physical, physical" board.  I did this b/c I'm back to hard core weight watchers and doing a couch to 5K program (more on that in another post).

So here's the inspo for the cookies I made from chocolate covered katie.

I altered the ingredients slightly.  I threw in some mashed baked sweet potato, added some honey, a sprinkling of sweetener, and a dark chocolate chip on top when they were done.

And here is what mine looked like

The verdict:

I thought they were pretty tasty.  Granted, I'm the only one that thought so....lmao.

No one else would touch em (well Michael had a bite, but he wasn't a fan.  He's not a fan of anything not covered in sugar).

They are NOT sweet at all which Katie tells you in her original post.  This will not taste like a regular ol oatmeal cookie.  Even with the lil bit of sweetener that I added, you couldn't tell that I had.  Having the lil dark chocolate chip on there helps though.

But for a lil healthy cookie, I would def. make these again.  Next time I'd like to try em with some applesauce maybe and 1/2 the recipe since I'm the only one who likes them.

Also, I've been storing them in the fridge.

Can't wait for PinterTest Kitchen next week :)

Frustrated Mommy

(Long post warning!!!) 

No one ever tells you that being a parent is very, very, very hard work.  Yeah, you know that it is not going to be a piece of cake going in and you know about all the common things like….

When they are a teenager they will talk back (actually…this statement is a LIE!!!!  It starts waaaaaaay before they hit 13.)

They will bicker with each other.

They won’t keep their rooms clean.

They will fib to you.

They will even forge your signature on tests (even though this can happen way before you think it will…been there done that!  You’ve been warned.).

These are the things that I kinda expected somewhere down the road and I feel like I have mentally prepared myself for b/c of course I was the type that when I hit 14 or so I talked back….alot, I forged mom’s signature on a few papers as a teen, and my brother’s and I definitely had our days of bickering.  My mom also went in my room while I was at school and took all the dirty dishes and left them either on my bed or the center of my room so I was forced to deal with them. 

But it’s the other things I’m not prepared for.

Like trying to raise two decent, good people with manners, respect for others, and knowing the difference between right and wrong.  Two people with BIG hearts.  Two people who will follow their dreams, be creative and have imaginations that are bigger than life.

And….

Two people who are not going to go into adulthood wondering where I’m at to clean up after them.  To tell them exactly which cup I’m referring to when I tell them to get them off the table. And not only that, but to be specific and tell them that they don’t just get to put the cup on the counter next to the sink, but that it actually has to be rinsed, and placed in the dishwasher (and if the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, empty the darn thing!!)

My kids are 8 and 12 for crying out loud.

Is the above really still a necessary step???

Therefore, when I say to take out the trash, I shouldn’t hafta hold a 12 year old’s hand and point to each trash can in the house telling him that that specific can needs to be emptied into a garbage bag and then take his hand and walk him thru the garage to the outside garbage cans to dump it.

And this is the point where I feel like I’m at right now.  Like if I don’t follow them around, make sure that the chore is done correctly, that they bulldoze me into thinking that it’s done and later I find out that it’s not and make that huge mommy error and (gasp!)…..just do it myself.

I know.  Rule number one in having neat children that pick after themselves has been broken.  I get tired of looking at it and feel that it’s just easier to do it my own damn self.

Sigh.

Ya see, unfortunately I work. 

And when I say unfortunately, I mean UNFORTUNATELY!!! 

But right now there is nothing that I can do about that. 

So is it too much to ask (aka scream and yell) to get a lil help from the kids?

To ask them to clean up after themselves?

To take care of their own messes?

You might be wondering why after months of not blogging anything at all, much less something fun and crafty, or something incredibly yummy that I have baked, I’d choose this subject matter.

Well…

…this a.m. when I went out on the front porch to watch the kids get on the school bus, I noticed a bat  bag on one of the rocking chairs, one rocking chair completely outta place, a pair of crocs in front of the front door, outdoor pillows on the porch, bella’s shoes in front of the swing, three baseball bats in the yard by the porch, a T-Ball T in the yard, a baseball glove in the yard, a popsicle stick and wrapper on the window ledge, a pair of Bella’s flip flops on the walk way, and a bow (as in bow and arrow) on the front porch.

This of course was there only a week after I spent all.day. cleaning off the porch and walk way trying to get it to look nice and was done in a matter of two hours b/c the porch wasn’t messy when we got home from Sunday Family Dinner.

Sigh.

So after I saw this and did my lil speech (aka talking sternly) while they walked down the driveway not even acknowledging that I was speaking to them, I wrote this note and left it for them when they get home school:

What else do I do?

I’m tired of screaming.

I’m tired of yelling.

I’m tired of begging for some help from them.

I’m just plain ol tired.

We have done with much success the Manna Family Store. This is an incentive for the kids to do their daily/weekly chores and earn Manna money to be used at the end of the week for purchasing Wii time, computer time, ds time, or to buy lil goodies.

This works.  It does.  But Mommy doesn’t always have time to follow behind the kids to make sure that they did everything correctly or something comes up and the store doesn’t open.

Because again, I work. 

So as much as I have great intentions on keeping up with it, it can be hard.  A lot of times I tell myself to turn off “Downton Abbey” and just give them their Manna  money (if they deserve it) or to open the store, but sometimes I’m just too damn tired.

Because again, I work.

And  because of this, I believe my kids have some how got it in their head that if there is no store, then there are no chores that need to be done.

So it’s this never ending, vicious cycle of frustration, screaming, yelling, crying (me, not the kids), and asking Michael (the hubby) “How in God’s name did we end up creating two pigs who seem to think that I’m their servant, chef, and whipping board???”

Sigh.

I’m just really at my whits end here and don’t know what to do.

So, to get to the whole point of this post, I’m hoping that there are other mommies and daddies out there that have or are experiencing this too because so help me God, if I’m the only one out here dealing with this, I dunno what I’ll do. 

Any other mommies out there that can totally feel my pain?

Can give me some advice?

Can take my kids for a week and send them back like lil militant cleaning machines?

Or at least let me borrow a copy of the parenting handbook that the nurses forgot to give me at the hospital. Email me.  I’ll send you my address and even the money to overnight it.

Disclaimer:  I love my kids very, very much.  I wouldn’t trade them for the world.  Well, maybe I would for cleaner kids ;)