Wordless Wednesday– A Little Birdie - May 2, 2012

A little birdie visited our yard a few weeks ago. I was only able to take a few photos before she flew away and this was the only shot that was in focus.  I have not seen her since.

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesday on these great blogs: 5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday

Wordless Wednesday–April 18, 2012

 

We Sprung a Leak on Spring Break!

A single water stain on the ceiling leads to calling a plumber who cuts one hole in the ceiling:

who finds multiple leaks in pipe 

that leads to a LARGER hole in ceiling AND a second hole :

And, that leads to hole number THREE being cut:

And, replacing DAMAGED pipes:

with new FANCY pipes:

Thereby eliminating MUCH of my tax refund before it was even deposited- SIGH!

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesday on these great blogs: 5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday

Ultimate Blog Party 2012- The Party Started without Me!

This past month or so has proven to be a challenge to my blog.  My posts have been non-existent since March.  I have drafted a few but never got around to completing them.  I’m sure we all know how it goes.  Mommy gets sick, then the kids follow, then daddy gets sick only to have mommy get sick a second time.  Add that to arm injuries, eye doctor appointments, birthday party for my 6 year old twins, etc., etc.  I could go on and on with excuses, but I’ll stop there.   Spring Break was last week and I had a great time with the hubby and kids running around our area doing fun activities but  I took a break from Twitter and my blog reading only to realize this morning that the The 2012 Ultimate Blog Party hosted by  5 Minutes for Mom has started – WITHOUT ME!  Oh No! 

When I read about the 2011 UBP last year, I didn’t have a blog to link up at the time, but I followed along and watched- blog-less and wanting to party.  I told myself that I wanted to have a blog by the time the next UBP came along.  Now I do, and here I am, better late than never! 

A little bit about me and my blog -   My name is Shelagh (pronounced like Sheila for all those of you wondering )  and I have a wee baby blog.  I am a stay-at-home mommy to 3 kids – one 10 year old girl and 6 year old boy/girl twins. I love photography, crafts,  reading, and party planning and many other interests (sometimes too many!). My blog is my creative outlet and my way to express and explore that creativity.I just started blogging this year and I am slowly finding my way.  For now, most of my posts have been about my project 366 and some menu planning but I plan  to expand that to books I’ve read, apps I like, fun party ideas, crafts and more.  At this point, I have one or two followers that are not family members or friends and I am hoping to add some more followers by participating in the UBP.  I hope to find some more great blogs to add to my reading list because I believe that there is no such thing as too many blogs to follow!

Cheers!

Birthday #6 Times Two

My twins are turning 6 years old today.  It’s both a wonderfully happy and bittersweet day.  I love celebrating their birthdays with parties, cake, and presents, however, I am saddened by the fact that they are growing up so fast.  Now don’t get me wrong, many days with my twins seemed like they were never going to end.  Especially, those days when they wouldn’t sleep through the night or they wouldn’t nap or they tore up twenty or so books instead of napping.  Oh, I have lots of "war" stories!

I guess part of what makes me sad is that they are now in that stage where they are identifying more with their friends, they are learning to read, and becoming much less dependent on the "mommy". They are no longer babies or preschoolers - they are now “school-aged” kids. <<tears welling up in eyes>>   Okay, I am drying my eyes now and am looking forward to celebrating with them tonight with a Carvel ice cream cake and pizza and then again tomorrow when they have their first “friend” birthday party. 

My "babies" six years ago:

       

My "babies" now:

  

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!  Love, Mommy

Wordless Wednesday–February 29, 2012

I have boy/girl twins and we are getting ready to celebrate their birthday this week.  They are turning 6!  My daughter has been out shopping with me a lot lately and this is one of many photos that she made me take so I remember what presents she wants for her big day.  She loves Hello Kitty (she's just like her mom!) and wants this poster to put up in her room.

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesday on these great blogs: 5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday

Wordless Wednesday - February 15, 2012

My "Picnik'd" up photo for Valentine’s Day.  This is my 5 year old’s adorable Juicy Couture eyeglass case.  Who knew kids glasses & cases could be so cute and fashionable?  It’s so very different from when I was a kid!

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesday on these great blogs: 5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday.

And, this photo is also part of my February Photo A Day Challenge at Fat Mum Slim - Day 14 - Heart.

MENU PLAN MONDAY–FEBRUARY 13-19 (on Tuesday-finally!)

Last week was a crazy week and I did not get a chance to blog at all and I really missed it.  I missed setting up my menu plan and kind of felt lost without it.  I missed sharing my results of the previous week’s recipes (and I had quite a story – I set off the smoke alarm!).  I missed writing about my misadventures in the kitchen and the photos I’ve been taking for my 366 project & Feb Photo A Day.  Although I know not many people are reading this blog o’ mine (yet), I enjoy it. 
Last weekend, I made Seared Salmon with horseradish and scallions from Martha Stewart and it was a keeper:

Here’s the menu for the week:
Monday – Spaghetti with Tomato sauce with garlic bread
Tuesday – Dinner out for Valentine’s Day
Wednesday - Breaded Chicken cutlets with salad and stuffing
Thursday – Grilled Cheese
Friday – Pizza Night
Saturday – Shrimp sautéed with bacon and herbs
Sunday – Crockpot Bacon and Cheese Chicken

I’m linking up to Menu Plan Monday on Org Junkie.

February Photo A Day Challenge–2/3 & 2/4/12

The subject of Day 3 of the Feb challenge hosted by Fat Mum Slim was HANDS. I took a photo of my 10 yr. old daughter’s hands as she was at the computer. She is learning to type (properly) on the computer as part of a school assignment this year. I think it is a great skill for the kids to learn.

Day 4 of the challenge was to take a photo of A STRANGER. This one was difficult for me. I wasn’t sure how to go about taking a photo of a stranger.  Do I go up to some random person on the street and say “Hi!  Can I take your photo for a photo project I am working on?”  They probably would have looked at me like I was crazy or worse.  So, I took some anonymous photos with my cell phone camera at the supermarket and in the parking lot.  My daughter and I were having fun- she was taking some on her IPod Touch and I was taking mine on my Droid Incredible. (What was strange was that with a phone camera, anyone could take a photo of you at any time and you might not even know it.) I thought it wouldn’t be proper to take photos of people’s faces without their knowledge so I took all of the shots from behind.  This was the best one:

 

(I like that woman's coat. And, I love using Redbox! We rent all of our movies for Family Movie Night from Redbox. I highly recommend it.)

February Photo A Day Challenge–2/2/12

The subject of Day 2 of the February Photo A Day Challenge hosted by Fat Mum Slim is WORDS.  I took a photo of a canvas that is hanging in my laundry room that is a daily reminder of how I should be living each day of my life.

February Photo A Day Challenge - 2/1/12

I've been looking for some inspiration on subjects to photograph for my 366 project and I came across the February Photo A Day Challenge on Fatmumslim.  It is just was I was looking for.  So I am taking up the challenge!  Today's challenge is to take a photo of "your view today".  Here is my view today taken from my back porch.  I love this view. It is a major reason that I bought this house.

Wordless Wednesday–February 1, 2012

Today, here in the Northeast, it is 60 degrees, not what you call typical winter weather in this area of the country. This photo, which was taken almost one year ago to the day, is what winter usually looks like around here:

I’m linking up to Wordless Wednesdays on these great blogs: 5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday

Menu Plan Monday – January 30–February 5

The third week of menu planning went pretty well until mid-week when both myself and my daughter were not feeling well.  My daughter stayed home from school and by the time dinner rolled around I still was not feeling well so I scratched my plan for that night and ordered pizza. Uh,oh! Although I like to have a plan, I think that the plan (and my mindset toward it) need to be flexible, too.  I don’t want to see my menu plan as something I “have to do” because it probably will not last.  But rather, I want to view it as a “guide” to the week and if things need to switch up and move around well, so be it.  Life is constantly changing and there are bumps in the road (big ones & little ones) so I think the best way to deal with life’s challenges is to have a plan that is flexible. I am finding that it is better to have a flexible plan than no plan. (This may apply to more than just menu planning!)

As for the new recipes that I tried last week, hubby & I both thought the Herb-Roasted Salmon and Tomatoes was yummy.  I thought it was a bit too salty though so I am going to try it with a bit less salt the next time I make it.

The Slow-cooker Chicken Tikka Masala, however, was not a keeper.  I don’t think it was as spicy and the flavors were not the same as the Tikka Masala that I’ve had at Indian restaurants.  Since my hubby and I love Chicken Tikka, I will have to search for another recipe to satisfy that craving. 

My menu for this week:


Monday -  Thin spaghetti and tomato sauce with garlic bread and a salad

Tuesday – Ham Steak with mashed potatoes and edamame

Wednesday – Breaded Chicken with Stovetop stuffing and salad

Thursday – Crunchy tacos with Spanish rice

Friday – Pizza Night

Saturday – Broiled sweet and spicy salmon with spinach rice

Sunday –  Easy crockpot potato soup

And since this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and my hubby’s favorite team, the Giants are playing, I plan to make a special appetizer for the event: Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pull Apart Bread

I’m linking up (a little late!) to Menu Plan Monday on Org Junkie.

Wordless Wednesday – 1/25/12 - Doggie in the Window

How much is that doggie in the window?

I’m linking up to Wordless Wednesdays on these great blogs:  5 Minutes for Mom and Angry Julie Monday

Project 366: Week 3

I am on my 3rd post for project 366 and I’ve realized that I need a system to keep this blog post/project going smoothly.  I had a system for week 1 & 2 and that system broke down this past week which is why this post is late.  I have been keeping a small notebook with me to record notes for each day’s photo to help me with my recap at the end of the week.  This week my notebook was buried underneath a pile of papers and I forgot about jotting notes about my photos. Now, I am realizing how valuable the notebook was in writing week 1 and week 2 posts.  So, I need to remember to keep that notebook in a visible location to jot down those notes, if I am to make it to photo #366.  Lesson learned!

Okay, so here’s my week in photos:

Project 366: Day 15  (15/366) - Piggie Food Face – My youngest daughter made this face with her breakfast this morning.  I am amazed at the different pancake food face creations that they can come up with when they have the same ingredients to work with each week: pancakes, butter and bacon.  Actually, when I was making a Shutterfly photo book this week of some family photos, she suggested that I make a book of all the food face photos that the three kids have made and I think that is a wonderful idea.  Now I just need to find all of them on my hard drive.

Project 366: Day 16  (16/366) - The Twins’ Backpacks – Although I have hooks in our breezeway to hang the kids’ backpacks, they always seem to end up here on the floor behind the couch.

Project 366: Day 17 (17/366) - Basement Corner “After” Photo – I spent some time in the basement over the weekend reorganizing one corner of the basement.  This is such an improvement over the mess that was there before.  My next goal is to go through EVERY box and really decide whether or not I need everything that I have saved. Wish me luck!

Project 366: Day 18 (18/366) - Lego Creation – My youngest daughter is usually left out of the Lego creation activity that her brother and sister participate in and she complains that she doesn’t have as many Legos as the other two.  So on this day she decided to use the one bag of Legos that I bought for all of them (these were not part of a “kit” that made a specific item)  to create a robot and a wall to  photograph with the robot.  Now, she wants to send it to the Lego magazine so that she can enter their monthly Lego creation contest.

Project 366: Day 19 (19/366) - Final Scrabble Board – I have been playing this one game of Scrabble with my 10 year old daughter for over a week and today, we finally finished the game!  It was fun to play on a real board for a change rather than on my smart phone or computer.  Also, my 10 yr old surprised me with the interesting words she knew.

Project 366:  Day 20  (20/366) - Shadow on the Floor – This shot was technically taken early on Sat morning but since I did go to sleep yet, I still consider it Friday's photo.  I came home from a night out with friends to realize that I didn’t take Friday’s photo so I picked up my camera and looked for something to photograph.  I saw various shadows on the floor and I thought this one looked really creepy.

Project 366: Day 21 (21/366) – Family Movie Night Ticket – Most Saturdays we have family movie night.   When we first started, the kids would make tickets for everyone each week that they would need to hand in to gain admission to the TV room.  It’s been awhile since we did the tickets and I found these really cute ones online that I could just print out for everyone instead of handmade ones.  It was my son’s choice to pick the movie that night so he wrote the name of the movie on each ticket and was in charge of collecting them before everyone entered the “theater”.  Everyone was impressed with the professional looking movie tickets.

Menu Plan Monday – January 23-29

Last week I followed my menu almost perfectly except that I was supposed to make the Herb-roasted salmon and tomatoes from the Feb issue of Woman’s Day and somehow I messed up and wrote down on my paper Monthly Menu Planner that I was going to make the Horseradish salmon cakes from the same issue.  There are 4 salmon recipes in that issue and I plan to try all of them so this week I will be making the Herb-roasted salmon instead.  As for the salmon cakes, they were a bit dry but still very delicious and the salad paired well with it.  I was really out of my comfort zone on that recipe though.  It wasn’t difficult to make, but I was putting fish in the  food processer which I have never done before.  And, I actually was enjoying making that meal ( dare I say, it was fun?).  In fact,  the recipe felt so “fancy” to me that I took out my Lenox china to serve the meal on.  Here’s a photo:

The other new recipe I tried was the Shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches and since they were made in the slow cooker, there was just a little bit of prep and then I let the “cooker” do the cooking!  The slow cooker is such a great kitchen tool that I do not use as often as I should.  (Note to self:  find more yummy slow cooker recipes!)  The sandwiches were yummy and my husband gave them a thumbs up, too. 
So, I will be adding both the salmon & the BBQ chicken recipes to my recipe binder!


My menu for this week:

Monday- Ham steak, mashed potatoes & baby arugula salad

Tuesday-Leftovers

Wednesday-Quesadillas

Thursday-Macaroni & Cheese

Friday- Pizza Night

Saturday- Herb-roasted salmon and tomatoes

Sunday- Slow-cooker chicken tikka masala

I’m linking up to Menu Plan Monday on Org Junkie.

Wordless Wednesday- 1/18/12

Since I’m not really a coffee drinker, this is what keeps me warm in the winter – a cup o’ cocoa.

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesdays on these great blogs: Angry Julie Monday & 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tackle It Tuesday-1/17/12

Well, here I am back with my second “Tackle It Tuesday” post and I am happy to say that I tackled a couple of things around the house this past week and I am so happy about it.  I have so many things that need to be done.  My two youngest are in 1/2 day Kindergarten this year so I have some additional time on my hands to finally tackle some projects that I have been putting off for a looooong time.

I found some really good deals at the supermarket last week and I had hardly any space in the pantry to put all the groceries I bought.  So, I decided that instead of just stuffing those items into the closet, I would go shelf-by-shelf cleaning out and reorganizing the pantry.  I found items that I am never going to use and will be donating them to the local food pantry and I tossed out items that were past their due date (some WAAAY past.)  I have a few items on the floor of the pantry and I dragged them all out into the hallway and vacuumed out all the dust and dirt that was on the floor.  Then, I reorganized what was left.  I did not take a “before” photo but I did take an “after” photo to share.  Here is what my pantry looks like now after the cleaning & reorganizing:

Another big tackle this week was cleaning out & reorganizing a “small” section of my basement.   This was more of a reorganization and vacuuming up all the dirt on the floor and the spider webs rather than actually purging stuff that I no longer need (although I think I did get rid of two small boxes of “stuff” that was just taking up space). My next goal for this area is to really look at what is in all those boxes and decide if I really need those items (doubt it!). But, that will have to wait for another day. Here is an “after” shot of that project:

What have you tackled this week?  Leave me a comment and let me know. I’m linking up to Tackle It Tuesday on 5 Minutes for Mom.

MENU PLAN MONDAY–January 16-23

Wow!  My first week back to menu planning and it went so well.  Now if every week would be just like that, my life would be so much easier!  I followed my plan every night and I loved the new recipe I tried – the Blackened Salmon Soft Tacos.
Here’s a photo:

This week I have two new recipes to try and hopefully they will be yummy, too.  My menu for this week is as follows:
Monday- Breaded Chicken Breasts, Mashed Potatoes, Spinach salad
Tuesday- Leftover night
Wednesday- Thin Spaghetti & meatballs in tomato sauce with garlic bread
Thursday- Tacos served with Spanish rice
Friday- Pizza Night
Saturday –  Herb-roasted Salmon and Tomatoes (Woman’s Day, Feb. 2012 issue)
Sunday – Shredded Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches (Fitness Magazine, Feb. 2012 issue)
I’m linking up to Menu Plan Monday on Org Junkie

PROJECT 366: WEEK 2

Well week 2 started off a bit shaky with my Project 366 and I almost did not take a photo on Sunday.  Scary, I know!  I was too busy cleaning the house and setting up my new office bookshelf to realize that I needed to take some photos for Project 366.  The rest of the week was busy and I seemed to have gravitated to taking many food related photos this week.  I guess my mind has been on food a lot lately.  I have been in a food rut and I’m tired of making the same old stuff over and over again so I plan to try some new recipes this year.  In addition, I started menu planning & couponing again so it’s been a foodie week around here.  So here’s week 2:


Project 366: Day 8 (8/366) – Noodle Writing - This is my lone photo from Sunday. Lucky for me, I took a shot of this noodle lying on my counter. I am amused when my food “speaks” to me. I have found faces in Jell-O and in butter containers and my kids love to make “food faces” with their pancakes. Who says food can’t be funny?


Project 366: Day 9 (9/366) – Christmas Ornament – It was finally time to take the Christmas tree down and I just love looking at all the new ornaments that we acquired this year including this one made by one of my kids.  I really love the handmade ornaments the kids make in school.


Project 366: Day 10 (10/366) – Paws – I am amused at how my dog places her paws and how she grips things with them.  Many times she has them crossed like a little lady and I think it is so cute.

Project 366: Day 11 (11/366) – Grilled Cheese – I took many food photos this week.  I found the “food” setting on my camera and I  have been experimenting a little bit.  This is a photo of Day 11’s dinner.

Project 366: Day 12 (12/365) – Southwest Mustard – My new food find is this deliciously spicy mustard from Woeber’s.  I found this mustard with a few other mustard flavors at the end of one of the supermarket aisles during the holidays.  I also have tried their Honey Mustard, the Whole Grain Dijon  and the Champagne Dill mustard but the Southwest flavor is my favorite so far.  I know they have a Horseradish sauce that I have been wanting to try, too.

Project 366: Day 13 (13/366) – Leinenkugel’s – My drink of choice tonight.  This is one of my favorite beers.  I am so happy that my SIL introduced me to this brand of beer. 

Project 366: Day 14 (14/366) – Blackened Salmon Soft Tacos – I found this recipe in the February issue of Woman’s Day magazine along with 3 other salmon recipes and I vowed to try all of them since my husband and I love salmon and I only really know how to prepare it one way.  Well, this recipe was a big hit.  Not only was it delicious, but it was so simple to make, too.  Now if only my kids would eat it.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY–1/11/12

Wish I was here:
              

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

I'm linking up to Wordless Wednesday on these great blogs:

Angry Julie Monday & 5 Minutes for Mom