If Only I had a Magic Wand

If only I had a magic wand, I would wave it and my house would be clean. It is a beautiful day out, (well besides the wonderful South Dakota wind), but I am cleaning like mad. I did decide to take a little break to blog a bit. I did promise an after picture of my closet project, but I cannot get blogger to cooperate with me and it will only upload upside down. I will have to try again later.

So today, I move on to another room, another project. I do have a deadline. Thursday night my husband's family starts to arrive so I am under the gun to get going. I didn't get my Spring Cleaning done that I needed to, so I am focusing on Summer Cleaning.

This is going to be our Annual Camp Thue. I wish my house was clean so I could focus on the fun stuff. I am planning a big Messy Art Party for my nieces and nephews and I would much rather be getting the supplies ready for that.

Hopefully by tomorrow, my house will be clean and I will be figuring out all of the activities that are going to make my house messy again.

The Closet

I should be embarased to post a picture of this closet. But, I am not. It is reality in this Stay-at-home mom's house. This is my entry closet (that isn't in a separate entryway. It is in my dining room). It is one of the many tasks on my plate for this Monday. My husband's family is coming this weekend. Most of them come once a year. I am a little stressed over the tasks ahead of me this week.

I decided that I am going to take it one room at a time. You see, I am domestically challenged. I told my husband yesterday, "It isn't that I don't want a clean house, I love a clean house. The problem is, I am not sure how to get there." So I go to tackle the closet. I will post an after picture. . .that will be motivation to do a good job. First task: put away the winter coats, gloves and hats. Except for Nadia's one pair. She needs those for her freezies.



Second task: Trying to keep my kids from going to the pool today so I can get my work done at home. I might have to hire a babysitter. You see, I can never say, the pool isn't open today. In the below picture, the gray house behind my daughter, just beyond the fence. . .that is my house. My girls know exactly when the pool opens and when it closes. Now you can see why we spend so much time at the pool.



Have a great Monday!

Home Again Home Again

Well, we survived our trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday. . .barely. Our trip did not start out very well at all, it went from bad to worse. I ran around trying to get out of town so we could get home at a decent hour.

We had just left our house and my middle daughter said to me, "mom, why are you in such a hurry?"

Of course, just as the words came out of her mouth I saw the police officer. Sitting in his car just waiting for someone like me to drive down the street. I was going 30 in a 20 (not sure why that road is only 20 mph). So my goal was to be really careful about how much money I spent yesterday. . .well I spent $70 on a speeding ticket before I even got out of town.

We finally got out of town, no road construction on the bridge, this trip was going to be just fine.

Then I hear those dreaded words from my middle child, "Mom I think I am going to throw up."

I had her move to the front seat and I blew cold air at her. I told her to close her eyes. I tried everything I could think of. I should have just pulled over to the side of the road. Unfortunately on this drive through Nowhereland, there is not really any shoulders along the road. In fact, there is a lot of really tall grass. And with really tall grass in the Dakotas, by the river, is also, rattlesnakes. Especially this year with our high water levels. So, I didn't want to pull over. I should have pulled over. I looked over to her and she threw up. All over herself. Yuck. No extra clothes, no wet ones. Just a few napkins. Yikes.

We found an approach and I got her cleaned up as best I could. The seat and her hands got a majority of the throw up so her clothes were not as bad as they could have been.

We were getting close to town now and I thought we were going to get to the store, I would run in and get a new outfit for her and then we could start our shopping trip.

Then I hear the second most dreaded words in the car from my youngest, "Mommy, I have to go potty."

Are you kidding me. We still have this tall grass/rattlesnake issue. Only now we are about 15 miles from town. I plead with her to hold it and I will take her to the first gas station I see. We got about 5 miles from town and she said, "I'm going."

Crap. So now I have puke and pee soaked clothes, no extra outfits, no wet ones and I wanted to cry.

The only thing I could do is drive as fast as I could to the nearest Kohl's and find some new outfits. Of course, as soon as we got to the store my littlest said, "I have to go potty again." Well, I could not take her into the store with her wet pants so I made my middle child give her shorts to the littlest. Before we got out of the car my middle child said, "Get me something cute, you know I am picky."

We ran into the store as fast as we could. She was holding the shorts on because they were three sizes too big.We got everyone outfitted in cute clothes and I decided we were eating lunch at my favorite spot. No McDonalds today, I deserved a big bowl of pasta.

We did get back home safely. We did salvage the trip and have fun after all. Next time I head out of town, I am going on a Saturday and leaving the kids home with their dad!

Give Me Your Best Shot

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Linking over to Lolli at Better In Bulk for Give Me Your Best Shot. I was trying to get a shot of the two of us by holding out the camera in front of us. This captures her personality perfectly.

Hobby Lobby Here We Come

Well, I am getting ready to load up my 3 and 6 year old girls for a trip to Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, the nearest Hobby Lobby is 1 1/2 hours away. (And this 1 1/2 hours is through the middle of what my girls have labeled as "nowhere land". It isn't just slow traffic through a big metropolis. My cell phone doesn't have service and the towns are few.) But, this is a much needed trip. . .

I am excited to get out of my little town for the day, but shopping with my girls in tow always makes me a little nervous. Some trips are great. Everyone gets along and I don't end up with tons of extra packages. Some trips it seems that we are all almost in tears before we head home.

I am excited to get some supplies for the Outdoor Art Party and Nature Observation Stations that I will be hosting next week for my nieces and nephews. Plus I have seen some amazing Father's Day Ideas in blogworld that I need to get done before Sunday. (Last minute is when I seem to acomplish my best work).

Here is a shout out for some great Fathers day Ideas from Roots and Wings Co. I love this blog and they have a couple of ideas that I just have to try. Scroll down through the week, they have a lot of ideas.

Party planning

I am busy trying to make my plans for the second annual Camp Thue. All of my husband's family will be here for a weekend of entertaining. And I will be the one doing the entertaining. I am trying to figure out all of the activities, menus, etc. We have kids ages 2 weeks old to an 11 year old.

I know there are a lot of awesome bloggers that focus on kids activities and party planning. I need your help. If you have a blog or an ideas, post in the comments so I can head over to your blog and check it out.

Kids in the Kitchen

Yesterday I asked the girls to help me decide the menu for supper. They sat and flipped through the New Junior Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens. Their decision was Chicken Fajitas and Gimme S'more (Please) Dessert.


They really didn't care about the entree. In fact, they let me do all of the work for the actual meal. They were only interested in dessert. It isn't easy for me to let them help in the kitchen, but I took a deep breath and we had a lot of fun. My middle child had a blast crushing the graham crackers with a meat mallet.



My youngest wasn't a lot of help, but she managed to sneak a few chocolate chips and marshmallows.


My oldest was the most help. She read the recipe, helped measure out ingredients and made sure everyone got an equal amount of tasks in the preparation.

The result: Thumbs up from everyone except the youngest. She just wanted more plain marshmallows and chocolate chips.



Here is the recipe for dessert, it was really easy to make and it tasted really good.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
18 graham cracker squares
1/3 cup sugar
1 12 oz jar fudge ice cream topping
2 cups tiny marshmallows
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 6 oz serving size pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
1 8 oz container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed
1/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chip pieces
8X8X2 inch baking pan (just a note. . .we used a 9X13 pan, we missed that direction, oops)

1. Put butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with waxed paper. Place in microwave and cook 40 seconds or until melted. Cover with waxed paper before starting the microwave.
2. Put graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush into fine crumbs. Pour into baking pan. Add the sugar and melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixed. (Save out 1/3 of mixture to crumble on top) Put into freezer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove lid from fudge topping. Microwave 45 seconds (we found this wasn't quite enough to have it really easy to pour. Pour over cooled crust. Sprinkle with 1 cup of marshmallows.
4. Pour milk into the large mixing bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Use a rubber scraper to gently stir in half of the whipped topping. (save the rest for a future use). Pour onto marshmallows. Spread evenly on pan.
5. Sprinkle with remaining marshmallows, the saved cracker mixture and the chocolate chips. Cover with foil and freeze for at least 1 hour.