Time Off

Well, remember we changed our minds for our 10 year anniversary trip?

We should be leaving in 3 days.

But, we're not.

Our trip has been canceled due to the novel coronavirus.

So we're taking a much-needed "staycation."

There's no where to go.

The weather is supposed to be FINALLY warming up.

There are a lot of things I'd like to get started on.

My garden, for one.

I'm trying desperately to wrap up what I can at work so I don't have to log on too much during my PTO.

If there's anyone who actually follows me, knows that my lack of posting can mean a couple of different things:
1. I'm SO BUSY I can't keep up
2. I'm on vacation and I'm choosing not to keep up ;)

It's the latter, which I'm thankful to say.

Here are some photos of my time off.

This is by far the best purchase we've made. It's incredibly convenient! 

Starting to move some of my guys outside!

The girls are obsessed with catching toads!

I have to say I've been able to enjoy this time off. I've been off my computer, way less stressed. I have focused more on the girls and it's super fun when I can engage with them and just be. 

We also "broke" quarantine with some close friends of ours. They've been quarantined, we've been quarantined...but we finally broke and went over to our friend's place and hung with them. Outside. We had pizza and enjoyed the gorgeous evening. It was SO FREAKING NICE TO SEE THEM. 

This is the family we are vacationing with this summer for July 4th at the 1000 Islands. I wasn't sure if the trip was still on...but I'm SO glad it is.

I'm not that paranoid. 

The condo that's been rented is beautiful and we can clean it when we get there. It's just us two families in this one huge condo. We'll be outside a majority of the time.

Anyway, more detailed post on it later, but I'm SO EXCITED it's still on! The kids has SO much fun together, so it'll be great to spend 3 days with them on the water. 

Oh, Steve and I rented a 24" pontoon boat too :)

Painting Ceilings Suck

We spent all weekend getting the living room ready to paint. There's always something.

I washed and painted all the baseboard moulding.

I painted the window and door trim.

I painted our master bedroom door (HUGE DIFFERENCE OMG).

I taped all the edges so we could do some wall painting today.

But first. Ceilings and the vaulted ceiling.

Our vaulted ceiling is SO high.

We've never attempted to paint or...anything.

Until now.

Steve painted the entire vaulted ceiling and walls.

We took this opportunity to clean the ceiling fan. SO. GROSS. This is my perspective laying on the floor. My office in the loft is the left of the pic. You can just barely see the railing.

We (meaning, Steve) also vacuumed up there. 

We stayed up and painted the other side of the living room. We had to let the ceiling paint dry before we could tackle taping that one wall. We also need to mud and sand the wall the TV is on. 

Before

After! A fresh coat of paint does wonders! 

You can kinda see the corner of the new couch in the above pic. I LOVE THEM. 

I can't wait to show you all the reveal! More painting and accessorizing needs to happen.

More shelving and furniture needed to tidy the place up. 

Can't wait! 

Living Room Updates

Like I mentioned in my previous post, Steve and I are looking to give our living room a facelift.

We desperately needed furniture that could you know, fit our entire family.

The walls needed to be painted and we need to rearrange some things.

Here's the before.

The couch worked when the babies were babies. We now cannot all fit on the couch comfortably together. Side note: we realize the paint colors do not match. We painted the one wall when we did repainted our kitchen. We are going to paint the rest of the living space the same gray color. 

The furniture was too big for the room from the very beginning. I'm excited to simplify! 

I sold it the same day I posted it! You can see Steve outside checking to see how much siding we need.

With his upcoming time off (heaven week) we're thinking we'll get a lot of this renovation done. He claims closing up this hole isn't a big deal....

I'm impressed that he got the window out and hole covered in less than a day. We do have to wait several weeks for the siding to come in, so we covered it up in the mean time to weather-proof it. 

Next up is electrical, insulation and drywall.

Sunday (hopefully) we paint.

Furniture gets delivered Monday! 

When I was 5 & 6

My parents don't save a lot of stuff.

They are definitely NOT hoarders.

When they moved, they threw out a ton of shit.

They also just never kept anything that I would think parents would want to keep.

I struggle with knowing what to keep and what to chuck. I want to keep it all. I love my kids' artwork.

I mean, of course.

Some are absolute garbage and I know very little effort was spent.

That shit I throw away immediately.

But things that they clearly spent time on? And thought about?

I can't throw it out.

Or it takes me a very long time before I feel like I can throw it out.

So I never understood why my mom threw everything out.

However, while I wondered that throughout my adolescence, there were a couple of pieces that she hung on to.

I found them recently.

I need to get a laminator so I can save all my kids stuff. 

Put that on the list of "things to do while in quarantine".

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

I didn't do shit today.

Steve told me yesterday that I could veg out all day if I wanted to.

He knows it's been tough on me lately, working from home and trying to homeschool, and all that other shit I've been complaining about.

I'm usually a busy-body on weekend. Well, there's just so much to do all the time.

Animals to feed.

Clothes to wash.

House to clean.

Floors to vacuum.

Groceries to be purchased.

Feeding of children.

Steve said he'd do it all.

Asked what I wanted this year.

And you know what?

I got what I wanted.

That right there is an apple fritter. In all its frosted glory. 

I had a coffee. 

I was sitting on the couch watching Netflix. 

Ignoring my kids' pleas of this or what. I'm not sure what they were whining about. I tuned them out.

It was decent outside so the kids went out to play.

Of course, they DID first give me these.

Are you kidding? Ava's little handwriting. Mila's card. They made me ooblek :)

Since it's quarantine, it's not like we can actually go anywhere.

Not that I'd have anywhere to go. Maybe out to lunch? Dinner?

Luckily, we're homebodies and like being home.

I got to relax and pretty much watch TV all day. The girls floated in and out, and would stop for cuddles in between their activities. 

On top of doing nothing for most of the day, I also decided it was time to redecorate our living room.

Our current set up just isn't working anymore.

The couch we got almost 6 years ago is literally too small for our family of 4. It worked when the kids were babies, but now? It's a struggle to fit us all on the couch. And the way our living room is set up...there's really only one wall to put a TV against. So that limits how we arrange our furniture. 

I kinda get why the previous owners put up a wall between the kitchen and living room. Not that I would have chosen that route...

ANYWAY.

We had talked about closing up windows on the one side. We'd still get a decent amount of light coming in from the sliding glass doors and from the windows in the two-story vaulted ceiling. 

So...we're going to do it. Steve said it "shouldn't be that hard" to close up the window (we'll save it for the barn), re-drywall it and paint. It would give me the opportunity to paint the last wall of the great room as well.

We also have what I would call "old school" audio equipment - it's like 10 years old at this point (got it after we got married), so it's fucking bulky as shit. Takes up WAY too much space.

Plus, the furniture itself was purchased for our old home. The living room was a different orientation, so it fit better in my opinion. 

I never thought it fit in this house anyway.

The girls have also completely destroyed the furniture. 

So I got to spend some time online finding new living room furniture. 

We found a couch set...which is the first "set" we've ever purchased. All of our previous couches have been sectionals. And while we've liked them, we've found that it can be annoying not to be able to move things around or rearrange things. 

We got a couch, loveseat and a "chair and a half". This should be enough space for the 4 of us. Plus, with removing the huge credenza, we'll gain some real estate in the room itself. 

I got a smaller coffee table and we are going to get a single sound bar to replace the sound system we have. 

Things should start arriving this week! Couch will be delivered next Monday. We opted to pick it up to save on the $119 delivery charge, only to find out that due to the quarantine, the stores are closed and the option to pick-up is no longer. They are offering FREE delivery!

Sweet!

Here's what it looks like with us all on the couch. I'm obviously taking the pic. That's about it! So the window behind Mila is going to get closed up. We'll put the TV on that wall instead. 

Here's a good view of the back of the couch/TV situation. It's going to completely change and I can't wait! 

I will do an official before/after. 

Big Red is Broody

Last year we ended up with some new baby chicks. 

Chicks we didn't buy from a store.

It was great!

Well, Big Red is ready to be a momma again.

She's been sitting on a bunch of eggs for a while now.

BUT, we fucked up. We didn't mark the original eggs she was sitting on. And more chickens kept laying...so we now have this abundance of eggs that are likely NOT fertilized, but I have no idea when/if/etc. so ugh. I'm SO annoyed with us. 

So, hopefully we'll see a few chicks in the next week or so. And then we'll need to dispose of the ones that didn't hatch. 

Live and learn, people. Live and learn. 

Quarantine Cooking

Being stuck safe at home has its perks.

I've always enjoyed cooking.

Let's be real. I've always enjoyed eating.

Now, I've never been the "throw it all together and it turns out amazing" type of cook.

I can read.

Ergo, I can read recipes.

When I started cooking, like a lot, it was mainly when I started dating Steve. When I'd come home on weekends and stay with him I'd make us a meal at least once or twice during my time at home (the other times we'd go out or eat at my parents).

I realized I really liked feeding him.

So I started printing out recipes we liked and keeping them in a binder.

Haha. That sounds so old school now. I still have the binder.

But, with being home all the time now (even though I'm busy as shit during the week), I can easily get started on dinner while multi-tasking with work.

Here's a sampling of what's been cookin' over here!

I had these poblanos on hand that needed to get cooked. I used half pound of ground beef and half pound of ground pork.

Cooked the meat with half a chopped up onion. Added in 1/3 cup of plain rice. Mixed in one can of crushed tomatoes.

Brought to a boil, then simmered for a while until the rice was cooked. I also seasoned the meat with dried onion, dried garlic, paprika, chipotle powder, salt, pepper.

I pre-roasted the poblanos in the oven for about 15 minutes. I should've done it for twice as long. Next time I'll remember. 

Threw a SHITLOAD of cheese on there. Because, well, quarantine. So all rules are out the window. Amiright?

Baked in the oven for another 10 or so minutes. 375 degrees. 

I have to admit, the stuffing was amazing. Like I said, the pepper itself was just a little on the crunchier side than we would've liked. We normally have stuffed pepper either the Chinese way my mom makes them, or Italian, the way Grandpa Teenie made them. So this Southwest flavor was a nice  switch up. We added sour cream and some chopped scallions and it was pretty dang good! The next day, they were even better. I also ate just the stuffing with cheese and it was a pretty good leftover dish. And it's #glutenfree! So that's a plus in my world. Next time, instead of the meat in the mixture, I may try using black beans. 

Trusty ol' InstantPot

Started with the mirepoix. 

Used drumsticks this time. Browned them on the "Sautee" mode. Threw in some Italian seasoning, dried thyme, plenty of salt and pepper. 

Added in the stock and water. Put the IP on "Soup" and let it go.

About 15 minutes later...? It went off and I added a half a bag of country style wide egg noodles (which I'm allergic to, but c'mon, you can't have chicken noodle soup any other way). I usually add peas, but I didn't have any, so I skipped it. Brought it to a boil on "Sautee" again and cooked until the noodles were done. DELISH. This is a fantastic go to recipe. And NO, I did EAT my PET CHICKENS. Jeez. So many people ask me that. 

I failed to get a pic of these pork chops before we ate them. And the process. Oh well. But, these are an OLD recipe that I've had forever and I have no idea how or where I got it from. Two thick pork chops. Pounded with meat tenderizer. Salt and pepper. The mixture is ketchup and brown sugar. Mixed with a little water and lemon juice. Just a bit. Slice up an onion. get it all mixed together and then top with the lemon slices. Bake in the oven (375 degrees) for like 35 minutes? Check with a meat thermometer. But I think that's about how long it takes. I usually serve with some sort of potato. Steve likes mashed potatoes with this dinner. 

A Visit With Mom

We had a gorgeous spring weekend around here.

Mid-70's and sunny.

ALL DAMN DAY.

I went and spent some time with mom.

It's been over a month due to COVID-19 and we've just been keeping the distance. But, now that it's been about 7 weeks, and we're all healthy, we feel like we can at least be around our parents. 

The girls spent a night over there last week to give me a break for work. So...

ANYWAY.

It was a lovely day.

Hm one of my fave foods. Some sort of crispy roll wrapped in sticky sweet rice. Literally something I've been eating for 37 years. 

And dun dun dun! We made eggrolls! 

I'm so grateful to have my mom home. It just feels right.