Writings on the Wall

Carson has been so great to get his art box out and color all on his own. He is very independent. I had a thought a few weeks ago that we might not ever have to go through the coloring on the wall phase. A few days later, I was wrong. I was explaining something to Jordan when I heard Carson making some noise. I didn't know what he was doing, afterall he is pretty noisy. After a few minutes of the constant noise, I went to find out what he was doing. He was coloring...ON THE DOOR! Do I yell at him or do I grab the camera thinking this would be a good blogging experience?


Of course I grabbed the camera! We did have a talk about not coloring on the doors or walls. As I grabbed my 409 and some paper towels, I hoped the crayon would come off easily. The purple came off so easily. I looked down at the crayons on the floor and realized he had some that were washable and some that were not. The only purple was washable. I looked for the orange crayon. There was only one of those too and it was washable! However when I went to clean up the orange, it wouldn't come off. I didn't understand. I stopped scrubbing and took a step back. I found the culprit...the NONWASHABLE orange crayon. Needless to say I quickly threw the few regular crayons away that did not say washable on them. We are now a washable only crayon house.

So Much to Post...

I hate getting behind with blogging. I get so behind that I don't want to blog because I know it is going to take forever to update my blog. I've finally made the time to do this though. After I'm done, hopefully I'll blog more since I won't be so overwhelmed.

A New Recipe

***UPDATE. Thanks Julie for catching my mistake. I did a simple copy and paste from Rachael Ray's site, but I did not include the recipe for making the mashed potatoes she made with it. The mashed potatoes called for some of the lemon juice. I have corrected the recipe. The joys of blogging late at night is my brain doesn't work as well.***

First off, before I get into sharing my new recipe, I have to tell you why I have time to blog tonight. Jordan went to work today and will go tomorrow with two of my cousins. They own a roofing business and told Jordan if he didn't have a job this week that they could use some extra help. So he had to get up at 5:30 and be at work at 6:30 this morning. He worked all day in the Florida heat (thank goodness it was cloudy this morning). He came home around 5:00. He was beat to say the least. So he and Carson (who did not get a nap today because we went swimming and it through him off his routine) went to bed early tonight. It is kind of nice to hear only the faint sound of the fan in the living room. So after a nice relaxing bubble bath (when do I ever get to take one?!!), I decided to post a new recipe that we tried tonight that was really easy and delicious. I love trying new recipes (only ones that fall within my comfort zone that I am pretty sure I know I will like). These kind of recipes tend to be Rachael Ray's because of the level of ease and I usually love her food. This one was on her show last week I believe.



Roast Citrus Chicken

Ingredients
* 4 legs and 2 whole chicken breasts, cut in half (I just used all chicken breasts since that is what I already had at the house)
* 4 cloves garlic, smashed
* 10 fresh bay leaves
* 2 lemons, sliced
* 1 cup green Cerignola or Sicilian olives (I opted out on these because my boys do love olives, but these have pits and I was not about to take the pit out for Carson...he'd want to eat them all and I'd never get to eat)
* 1 large onion, chopped
* Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
* Salt
* Pepper

Directions
Preheat an oven to 450ºF.
To a roasting pan, add the chicken, garlic, bay leaves, lemon slices, olives and onion. Drizzle everything with EVOO, season with salt and pepper, and transfer to the oven. Roast, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, until they are golden brown and cooked through, about 30-35 minutes.

We had mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, and rolls with the chicken. It was really yummy.

How Do You Keep Your House Spotless?

I feel like I am constantly cleaning and cleaning, yet never fully satisfied with the results. Carson is at the age where he can and will help me clean up, but as soon as he "helps", he undoes EVERYTHING! Whenever I go to my mom's, dad's, and grandma's, I always covet how clean and uncluttered their houses are. I know, I know. That's bad. I think having a little one around the house has something to do with why my house feels so cluttered. None of them have tons of little toys in every room like we do. Chance's (my youngest brother at 17) toys include the laptop, PS3, and his cell phone. Alice has a killer play room that is enormous to keep all of her kids' things. Maybe the spare bed should be a play room. It's small, but could work. Then again, baby #2 is coming and will need somewhere to sleep. At any rate, how do you guys do it!?! I need some tips on keeping it spotless with a little one! I think my problem is I want everything spotless and I get overwhelmed. I am going to try something new this week though and see how well it works. It's really just simplifying the whole cleaning process. Here's the plan...I am going to clean a few rooms a day and when they are done, then I can scrapbook, go to the pool, etc. without feeling guilty. I know...not a hard concept, but one that I think will really work for me since it's not so overwhelming trying to clean it all in one day and never having any me time. So here's what I'm going for:

Monday - The Kitchen
Tuesday - Laundry, Laundry, Laundry
Wednesday - The Bedrooms
Thursday - The Living Room
Friday - Laundry, Laundry, Laundry
Saturday - The Bathrooms

Can I really get all the laundry done in only 2 days without letting it seriously pile up?? We'll just have to see this week. I may need to make some adjustments, but I am thinking this will work!

Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime...

This summer we have had a lot fun so far. We've spent some time up at Pop's house. Where we have swam and rode 4 wheelers.

Carson has even learned not to eat everything that Pops gives him.

Carson has helped out around the house and earned some money by doing so.

Our gerber daises are in full bloom and gorgeous this summer thanks to Carson.

We have made, chased, and eaten bubbles.

Carson has tried his hand in photography.

I attended a 2 day AIMS inservice for school. It was great! I got paid for it and we got all of this free stuff!!

I can't wait to see what else the summer has to bring!

Tobacco Free at Age 2

Lately there has been an anti-smoking commercial on. I tried to find it so I could post it with this, however I could not find it. The commercial is a shoot 'em up video game that someone is playing. He kills everyone and it says level complete. After the level, he pulls out a cigarette, lights it, smokes it, and dies. Then it goes on to say that smoking kills 50% more people a year than hand guns. Whenever this commercial comes on, I always say something like, "Eww!! Gross!" when the cigarette is pulled out since Carson is normally watching. Carson has been on this dead kick. I don't know why or how it got started, but he likes to pretend he's dead or the bad guys are dead. (In a matter of like 3 weeks he's started this mess.) So I always point out that the guy is dead in the commercial and end by saying cigarettes are bad or yucky. I thought it couldn't hurt to start Carson off early. A couple of nights ago we were watching something and that commercial came on. I wasn't really paying attention until I heard Carson tell Daddy, "Ew! Yuck!" when the cigarette was pulled out. This was followed by an, "Oh no! He's dead!" I could not believe it! We were cracking up about it. Carson is only 2 and he is a tobacco free campaigner!

A Sense of Accomplishment

This is NOT my house, but I am too chicken to take pictures of my house and post them. So I lifted it off Google.

I started working back in February. Since then, my house has gone downhill. You can just imagine from February to June how horrible my house looks. I was planning to start Monday on getting the house back in order and getting some things done. Monday morning I slept in a little bit and then got up, showered, got dressed, put on my make up, got Carson ready, and was walking out the door to buy Jordan's Father's Day gift at 9:00 a.m. when Jordan called me. This is normally his break time, so I didn't think much of it. He told me he was coming home to help me clean (he was off the week before from work with only Monday paid and felt guilty about not cleaning that week). Come to find out, he was calling to tell me that he had been layed off. I freaked out and bawled. I just kept thinking that this could not be happening to us because we have another baby on the way. With Carson we weren't prepared because I was on birth control when I became pregnant with him. With this one, we were so prepared. Both of us were working. We had killer insurance (which we had already met the hospital deductible with thanks to the kidney stone incident). Then we found out that my ESE unit was being dissolved, so I have no job next year. Now Jordan has been layed off and our killer insurance is only good through the end of the month now. Anyway, now that I have totally vented and did not intend to do so when I sat down to blog...it has taken me a few days to get over this fear of unemployment and now I have refocused my energy back on getting the house in order. Today I have cleaned my kitchen. I promise we're not dirty people, but man there was a lot of work to do in our kitchen. Now my floors are nice and shiny. The room smells of cleaner. The stove top is scrubbed along with all of the cabinets and counter tops. There is not a dirty dish in the sink. It feels GREAT! We'll see how long it will stay that way with a two year old, a husband, and a wife that loves to cook.