Re-doing the Boys' room

Two posts in one (very early) morning? I know, I AM on a roll! With insomnia taking over my life, I have been perusing a lot of DIY blogs, looking for creative ways to work with what I have to do something neat in the kids' room. My boys are growing up (sob) and they have really started to get on my case about "manning up" their room. They are tired of the bunk beds, and adamantly tell me that they don't NEED room to play, they want their beds separated. I watched a little Clean Sweep on TLC or HGTV or whatever channel it comes on and have decided that the boys and I have a project this weekend. We are cleaning out that bedroom. Everything must go! Look for updates!

Some yummy things!

Made from scratch baked beans. These are not dressed up from a can, these are re-hydrated dried beans cooked in homemade sauce. Yum! The picture really doesn't do them justice, but beans are notoriously hard to photograph.Also made some crispy treats, like Rice Crispy treats, but instead of rice crispies, I used cocoa pebbles. So good!

And finally, a mostly from scratch chicken pot pie. Canned ingredients, but the crust is a homemade, buttery, flaky pie crust that Martha herself would be proud of! The one pictured is actually the second one. I made two and froze one for later. It was divine!

PS: Please be patient with me and the photos on my blog. I don't know why I am having such a hard time getting these things to look right. I need to work on my formatting. Oh well.

Crafting

August usually spurs a huge crafting explosion from me. August means we are on the home stretch to the holiday buying season. I like to think of it as the holiday crafting season, but I never seem to live up to the ideal I set for myself. Yet again, I have a list of "want to" and "have to". This year, like most years lately, we are broke. Home-made gifts are going to be a must. If anyone gets a gift (aside from the children) they will get home-made or nothing. I like the idea of home-made gifts. Of course, I can appreciate the hunt for just the right gift from the store, but knowing what kind of thought and time it takes to make something from scratch... or even mostly from scratch, make the receiving of such a gift that much more special.

I am supposed to get my sewing machine back tomorrow. It'll be time to tear into the craft room, dust off the fabric bins, and put my trusty glue-gun in my hip holster... Time to get busy makin' junk!

I walked a mile today

Just one. This isn't the sum total of all the walking I did today, of course. This is in addition to all other walking I had to do to get from point A to point B. It felt good to walk. I had a little extra energy this afternoon, which was nice. I did download some podcasts onto my MP3 player so I will have something to listen to while I walk. I'm going to try to walk on my lunch breaks for a little while. There is no goal, really. Just walk. I need to get into shape if I am ever going to do a 5k, or walk the Appalachian Trail with my dad, but these little one mile bursts up and down the driveway at work aren't going to do much. It felt good to get moving, despite the oppressive heat. Mind you, anything over 73 is oppressive in my book; especially when it's humid. Around here, it's always humid. I am looking forward to tomorrow and another walk, hopefully with an interesting podcast to listen to. I am thinking about downloading the ones from the couch to 5k site, just to keep me motivated to complete a 5k. Still want to do that. Haven't forgotten about it. For now, it's bedtime. I have an early start tomorrow... just like every morning.

I wanted to get a productive jump on the morning, so I decided to bake a whole pan of biscuits (frozen, not homemade) and an entire "log" of sausage. Seems like a lot of biscuits, but I plan to wrap them individually in freezer paper and... freeze them, of course! Sometimes the hubs has to get an early start, like 4am early, and I am not about to get up at two to cook his breakfast and send him on his way. His other option is to stop and pick up something, but that is kind of breaking the bank. This should work out better, provided he can remember that there are biscuits in there!

I am finding that if I go ahead and cook large quantities at once, it does save me a lot of work in the long run. Tonight, we will be feasting on Supreme Pizza Casserole, which I made a double batch of a few weeks ago. All I have to do is pop it into the oven! Hubs is a HUGE fan of the double-batching method. He loves being able to have homemade food, even when I don't feel like cooking or when I won't be at home. Works wonders for us!

Being less wasteful

I love being frugal. Scoring a great deal on an item in a store gives me the nicest rush. I love even more when I get something for free! I have toyed with the idea of homesteading, and one day, I will get there. I just need to make time. My most recent hobby will be backpacking. My little trip to the mountains sort of lit a little fire in me and got me wanting to get out and experience something new. An interesting thing has happened since the backpacking bug bit: I have been trying to figure out ways to do more with less. Doesn't seem like that big of a revelation. A lot of people are having to do that these days, what with the economic crisis. We are having to cut back, but there is nothing wrong with that. I am learning to re-purpose and re-use, rather than just tossing junk out to go buy new junk. Every little bit helps.

My grandfather knew that. He was a dumpster diver back in the day. We all picked on him... now they have TV shows about these people! I'm not sure if I am ready to go that far, but the idea of doing more with less appeals to me more and more, given that we live paycheck to paycheck with almost no wiggle room. It's very stressful. It can be tough on the marriage, tough on the kids.... It would be nice to do things without spending money.