Waffle House

You know how sometimes you go to a baby shower on a Tuesday night and get to visiting and decide you want to keep hanging out so you and your 2 friends all get in your mini-vans and head out into the Wild Blue Yon to keep up the festivities because you're still young and you can?

Well, that was me last night.  We roll into a local joint around 9:30 only to find out they close at 10.  We were completely appalled and dumfounded to find out every joint in town closes at 10.  This town is a dive.  I found great humor in the fact that the knowledge hit me the way it did, seeing as how normally at 9:30 on any given night I've already been in my pj's for 78 minutes and am lounging happily in my chair with my face in a book.  But some nights you just need a place to go visit with the lady folk.  Some nights you like to pretend that you're still a fun kind of girl with some spring in her step.

Enter Waffle House stage left.  We straight up rolled into the Waffle House.  I was a wee bit overdressed with my diamond studded broach and pearls but they didn't seem to mind.  At the Waffle House they treat you like family.

Karaoke was our waitress and she was the sweetest thing.  Nevermind the fact that I'd already eaten three square meals plus shower food, those hashbrowns topped with sauteed onion and tomato and cheese were calling my name.  They hit the stomach like a lead bomb but for $2.30 were oh so worth it.

And this cup of hot cocoa topped with whoop cream and mini-chocolate chips?  Shut the front door, it was right.

We stayed until midnight.  The jukebox played.  The indigestion was in full swing and us lady folk had us a jolly ol' time.

That brings my Waffle House experiences up to a grand total of 2.

Some would say that's 2 times too many but I daresay I could see another visit in my future.  Where else can you get a Waffle and a Steak after 10 on a Tuesday night?  And you will be completely blown away by the condiment selection on every single table.  Everything from Lea & Perrins to Casa de Waffle (picante sauce). 

And as Karaoke would tell you, it's really the only place the colorful people go after 10.  Most nights you get dinner and a show for under $5.  Now that's what I call a bargain.

Apple Scones & Devonshire Cream

What better way to enjoy an apple a day than when tucked happily inside a scone and topped with Devonshire Cream?

This is a simple recipe.  Takes under 15 minutes to whip up.

His & Hers

This in essence is a Hot Apple Cake topped with bubbly butter and sugar.  You cut the squares into scone shapes and top with the cream.

Apple Scones:
2 c flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
3 T butter
1/4 c sugar
1 c diced apple
1 egg
2/3 c milk
Garnish: 2 T butter, 2 T sugar

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Cut in butter; add sugar and apple.  Mix in egg and milk; stir until soft dough forms.  Knead until well blended.  Spread in a greased 8x8 pan.  Top with melted butter and sprinkle sugar on top of dough.

Bake at 450 for 25 minutes.  Cut in 2x2 squares.  Cut each square in half diagonally.

Serve warm with Jam and Devonshire Cream.

Devonshire Cream:
3 oz cream cheese
1 T sugar
pinch of salt
1 c heavy whipping cream
Cream together cream cheese, sugar and salt.  Beat in cream until stiff peaks form.  Chill until serving.

Thanksgiving Vlog

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?  This weekend is a great time to spend a few minutes thinking through the details of next week.  Go ahead and get your menus together and get your grocery shopping done, if you can.

I'm going to be trying out some of the desserts from Pinterest.  There is nothing better than a house that smells like freshly baked goodness.

Hugs,
Bugs

My Poor Patio Chairs

If I ever get my hands on this little guy, he's toast. Yesterday I was on the patio and could not believe it.  One of my cushions looked like it had taken a beating.  My first thought was to question the boys, but the detective in me saw the signs.  My cushion looked just like my hammock that was destroyed.

This morning the kids started yelling, "Come Look Mom!!!"  And there he was.  Just goin' to town on my cushion.

We opened that door and said this is NOT Bed Bath & Beyond so you can take your 20% coupon self and get on outta hey-ah!

He gone.  And he took his new down comforter with him.

Rest Time

Every day at 1:00pm we shut it down.

All the phones turned off.  A note placed on the front door not to knock or ring the door bell.  And we have quiet time.  It's as much for me as it is for the boys.

It's the couple hours were we slow and rest.  My big boys will sleep but now I am giving them the option to sleep or read during rest time.

It's my favorite time of the day!  For me, I do whatever refreshes me.  I may nap, read, or catch up on housework.  It's whatever I need that day to energize me.

When you are home all day, every day, with your kids, it is very important to know what refreshes and energizes you.  Then you have to be intentional about taking care of yourself.

For some reason, actually I know exactly why, but I've been Mean Mama this week.  Whew.  The noise levels have seemed extra loud around here and my patience fuse has felt extra short.  It's that hormonal thing that seems to be getting worse with age.

So I am about to go crawl under my covers.  The sun is shining into my windows and my room is so warm!  I may or may not sleep but I'm stopping for a few minutes to rest.

When I wake up I'm going to read my books.  And have a piece of chocolate. 

My friend gave me an excellent idea to try.  She said to make a list of 50 things that refresh and energize you.  She also warned it is harder than it sounds to think of 50 things.

It's good to have an idea of some quick things you can do to energize yourself (i.e. light a candle) and some more involved things that energize you (i.e. asking your husband to take the kids out of the house so you can enjoy your house in peace and quiet).

Do you know that refreshes you, and do you make time to do it?

8:24pm

You know you're getting old when the phone rings at 8:24pm and you look at each other startled, mumbling something about who could be calling at this hour.

Are you as tired as me?  That time change just about did me in, I'm tuckered out.  Plum tuckered out that is.

So I've been wearing my Gingerbread socks.  I really wear them year round, under boots and whatnot.  They are ugly as sin but make me so happy.  They fit better than most.  Snug and right.

We decked the halls last weekend.  I figured I best not show you the finished pics because I don't want you to get angry with me.  That can be sensitive business, posting tree pics before the turkey.  I know some of ya'll out there are passionate about it so I'm respecting the turkey.  Plus I'm too lazy to get the camera out and upload the pics.

It turned out all right, the decorating.  After some tweaking, I love it.  I'll give ya a hint.  Old white window.  Red wreath.  Burlap trimmings.  Pops of red here and there.  And then of course the obscene show of glitter.  The more glitter the merrier I always say.

I'm learning how to take advantage of the library.  But in a good way.  I'm trying to reform my ways.  No more having 16 library books that are a month overdue.  No more getting kicked out 'cause we too loud.  I'm trying to change my ways.  I just reserved 11 books online.  No make that 12, I just re-remembered one to add to the list.  If all goes well they'll be ready for me for pick up manana.  Do you like how I just threw that Espanol right in the middle of the library talk?

And while we're on the subject, who knew purple Now & Later's were so dang good?  I'm like an addict.  I didn't realize it, but we got crappy candy this year to give out at Halloween.  It wasn't intentional.  It felt strategic.  Biggest bag for least amount of money.  We should've known.  We had a whole big bowl left over.  Anyways, those Now and Later's, the purple one's, whew, they good.

Can you tell we've been watching Duck Dynasty re-runs tonight.  I got my redneck talk on.

Well, She Gone.

Burlap Beginnings

We have the beginnings of a burlap tree. This is a very rough draft I just threw up real quick last night.  And, all 9 picks on the top are for sale.  I was going to switch to burlap and creme but all my other Christmas stuff is very whimsical.

I love the pinecone pics.  These sprigs were dirt cheap so if you want them let me know.  I got a steal of a deal on them!

I have 9 sprigs on top and it is only $40 for all of them! They are all brand new, just bought them last weekend. I call the color Pewter...not silver and not gold but could lean either way.

 

You can click on this link to see my normal decorating.

Tradition

I have been reading Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God In Our Traditions.  It is the sweetest, thought provoking little book.  There's a group of us Moms that meet once a week to discuss what we read.  Our little group has been so good.  We laugh and laugh and talk about what encouraged and challenged us.

Our discussions have me thinking about the traditions we've established in our family.  You may be surprised to learn that most of our traditions center around the food.  I'm trying to think about new and creative ways to incorporate Scripture and Truth into the fabric of what we do.

Here's a deep thought I read in the book.  We can't bequeath God to our children.  Only God can bequeath God.  Only God can make Himself known to them.  That's why it is so important that the culture we're establishing in our homes helps point them toward knowing God.  Helps them see what a life lived in the grip of God looks like.

Something else I've been pondering...Grown-ups are the one's who have a history with God.  We're the ones who know the faithfulness of God first hand.  When I read something in Scripture I need to talk about it at the dinner table.  Let them know what I read and what it meant to me.

It's always amazing how I can squander my time away.

I'd say the biggest word on my mind right now is intentional.  Just being intentional with my time and my words.

I'm really processing through how to make the Thanksgiving/Christmas season meaningful and rich with things that help point our family toward God.

My "Be Naughty Save Santa The Trip" is still so stinkin' fun, but I'm wanting to add some Isaiah 9:6 to it.  Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace...you know the one...for unto us a child is born...I just love that verse so much.

One last thought I'll leave you with that I learned from reading this book.  Include our children in the God-air we breathe.  Isn't that beautiful?  Include them in the God-air we breathe.

So between my trying to expand my vision for bringing more Truth into the decorating and celebrating, and Pinterest, my mind is on overtime.  And I'm just warning you.  If you see my decorations and think it's a case of Pinterest Gone Bad, you may be right.  I thought I wanted to switch to burlap, pewter and white but then re-remembered my red and lime green and now I'm just confused.

The tree is up.  Tomorrow we embrace all things glittery and twinkly.  The air outside smells like fireplaces.  Tomorrow is window opening weather.  We're packing Operation Christmas Child shoesboxes this week.  Good gravy I love this time of year!

Weight Watchers

If you sign up for 14 weeks, you save $1.50 per week on meetings.  My 14 weeks ended yesterday.  The program works, it is good.  I like that I get to eat what I want.  My choices are my decision and that was helpful for me.  If we had a birthday party or plans to go out to dinner on the weekend, I ate healthier during the week to save my points for when I really wanted them.

After a lot of thinking, I'm 99.9% sure I am going to wait until the first of the year to re-join.  My goal is to make Lifetime Membership.  That means when you hit your goal weight you attend 6 more meetings.  If you maintain that weight for 6 weeks you are a Lifetime Member.

The reason I am not re-joining right now is because of where the next 9 weeks fall.  The holidays!  During those weeks I am not going to be looking to loose, I'm going to be looking to maintain.  I didn't want to be paying for weight loss when 5 out of the next 9 weeks my goals are different.  My goals will be to enjoy the celebrations and maintain my 19 pound weight loss.

If I start to gain then I'm going to go ahead and go back to meetings, even if it means before the first of the year.

In the meantime, my plan is to weigh in with my friend.  If I loose weight I get to pay myself $12 (the cost of a mtg).  If I gain or stay the same, I don't get the $12.  This is for the next 9 weeks and my plan is to start back up with official meetings the second week in January so that I can hit my goal of Lifetime Membership.

I still need the accountability, I just didn't want to be giving the $12 away each week for maintaining.

3 pounds of gain is my flag that it is time to go back to meetings.  That's the plan Stan.  I worked so hard to loose my weight and I reeeealllly do not want to gain it back-holidays or not.  I'm just going to see if over the next 9 weeks I can do it at home.

Wish me carrot sticks luck!

College Girl? Yeah Right.

This weekend we had our annual (and by annual you realize I mean quarterly) shopping trip, my Mom, Sister and me.  We power shop and it is not for the faint of heart.  We meet around 10:30am to start the day of shopping.  We don't leave the mall till the doors are literally closing.

In case you don't know, the department stores start shutting the large glass doors right before 9pm.  We slide in just in the nick of time.  Then we go eat dinner and don't get home till 11pm.

12 1/2 hours of shopping.  That's how we roll.  When every muscle in our body hurts and our dogs are barkin' we know it's been a successful day.  Oh, and when there's a trunk full of bags, how could I forget that part?

I used to think it was unspiritual of me to like shopping.  Now I just own it.  I've been counting gifts I am thankful for and I'm almost to 1000.  Here's #873 and #874...

#873-downsizing closet-ahhhh!
#874-refilling it again-ahhhh!!!

That just made me laugh when I wrote it down a couple of weeks ago.  So this weekend I was in a jewelry store and the salesman Kevin went a little cray cray.  He straight up asked me where I went to college.  I was like, OK.  Now I know you are trying to sell me this pearl right now but seriously!  I've been out of college for almost 15 years.  I wear velour sweatsuits, drive a bus and have 18 kids.

Which brings me to my next point.  I'm 36 now.  I don't know how the heck that happened but it's true.  This morning I was having the best dream ever.  My friend Shelia was selling me her burlap welcome banner and a set of Pottery Barn placemats that were burlap and cranberry, and she was selling em' for $5.  Just as I was about to buy them I was awakened by singing and breakfast in bed!  My 8 year olds famous breakfast toast and coffee.  It was sweet.  Even though I woke up mid transaction it was a great way to start the day.

Should I mention I had a horrible crick in my neck when I woke up?  Comes with the territory I suppose.

It's been a sweet birthday.  Last night we got the house spruced up so this morning it was freshly mopped and the vacuum lines were in the carpet.  I lit my new Aromatique Cinnamon Cider candle while I ready my Bible.  Friday I went antiquing with one of my best friends, today one of my best friends came over to visit (and I spilled her smoothie all over her van on accident).  The boys and I went to Taco Bueno with my Mom and Mamaw.  Tonight we're going to eat BBQ and today was my last day of Weight Watchers.  I didn't go to the mtg. because I've celebrated a leeeeetttttllleee too much this week-ha! 

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my new Weight Watchers plan.

Come On In

Welcome to Candy Fest 2012.  We kicked off the festivities with a Jack O' Lantern Pizza.  It's the closet we got to a Pumpkin Patch this year.

Orange Crush was the perfect Spooky sidekick.

This little guy wanted to be an Indian.  He went in the back yard, found some sticks, and whittled himself his very own bow and arrow.  He was mighty proud of that.  We've been reading an Indian book so it's all the rage at our house right now.  His cape was one yard of felt that I cut a whole in for his neck.  Total price: $2.97.

Our friend Kari came over for dinner and some trick-or-treating with us.  She got to see the chaotic fun right up close.

Dad had to work but ran home to pick up something so we took advantage of the photo op.

Batman had a costume malfunction at the last minute-his neck area was too tight which led to a break down and tears.  Frantically I'm searching our closets for a new creative costume, praying for some creative last minute ideas.  Finally I told the little superhero it was Batman or bust.  You see what he chose, but it was a close call!

The famous fireplace picture.

Our friends went the extra mile this year and brought a trailer for a hay ride.  It was muy fun riding down the streets on a hay ride.  Boy did that hay ever smell good and it was so soft to sit on.

Upon arrival home we enjoyed Rotel Cheese Dip with Sausage (so good), Hot Apple Cider and Gingerbread with Cool Whip.  We turned the kids loose with their buckets of candy and sat around visiting.

All in all I'd say Candy Fest 2012 was a huge success.  Let's see...friends, candy, hay ride, beautiful fall evening, good food, dress up clothes, candy for breakfast this morning...I'd say that's all the high points.