Goals for a Teacher's Christmas Vacation

Messy Messy Fail - the 9284897345892098 dirty dishes I left in my wake after making a fabulous Christmas dinner.  Thanks to my husband for cleaning them up!

Tidy Victory - We cleaned up in preparation for our house cleaner coming while we are out of town.  Yes that's right, we clean for our house cleaner.  But I'm sure she still thinks it's horrendous :)


It's really good to have goals.  Especially if you are looking to get something done during your time off.

So, I present a list of 5 organizing goals for my next week at home.

<One> Organize the spice "black hole".
Because it literally is a black hole that I shove every bottle of seasoning I've ever purchased.  Time to purge.

<Two> Organize the baby's clothes that no longer fit.
He's into 9 month clothes now, yet I still try to shove him in 6 month clothes.  I'm a terrible mother.  But everything stretches with a few good tugs!

<Three> Reorganize the pantry.
I originally had dedicated certain shelves to baby food, baking items, sauces, etc.  Now it's just whatever shelf was closest to me when I was unloading the grocery bags.

<Four> Reorganize & clean the finished section of the basement.
It looks like Christmas threw up in there.  End of story.

<Five> THE BIG ONE - Clean up our bedroom.
Our bedroom is the last room in the house to receive any attention - not painted, same curtains as when we moved in, my pre-maternity clothes strewn across the floor.  MUST BE CLEANED WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

Perhaps I will post some pictures when I tackled #5, however embarrassment may settle in and I could wimp out.  We'll see what happens!!

Any other vacation goals floating around out there?  Do share and get organized with me!  :)

Katie

Oh hey, Friday - Favorite Apple Sauce Recipe

Messy Messy Fail - suitcases are still not unpacked from Thanksgiving - arugggghhh!

Tidy Victory - our house cleaner paid us a visit (so this actually isn't my personal victory but more a household victory, however I was totally the one who found her!)

Check out this list!

<One>  Citrus - Two oranges and one lemon, zested and juiced

<Two>  Fruit - 6 lbs. of assorted apples

<Three> Sweet - 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, packed

<Four> Fat - 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

<Five> Spicy - 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

This is the list of five things to make the most amazing, delicious, flavorful applesauce by Ina Garten.  Every fall I take the boys apple picking in one of our several local orchards.  Not only is it a fun activity for the whole family - i.e. picking and throwing apples, climbing into the apple crates - but it's healthy and SOOOOOOOO much cheaper than buying them already picked or at the store.  I don't know about where you live, but here in the Southern Tier let me tell you it was about $20.00 for a bushel, and I find that quite impressive.  

Anyways, I digress.......let's make some applesauce!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the zest and juice of the two oranges and lemon into a bowl.  Core, peel and slice the apples but be sure to reserve a few peels of some of your red apples. 
Place the apples in the citrus juice and toss.  
Next pour the apples, juice and reserved peels into a non-reactive Dutch oven (what is that?!?!?!) or an enameled iron pot.  
Add the brown sugar, butter and spices to the pot with the apples.  Give a nice toss and cover the pot.  

Bake in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until the apples are quite soft.  

Don't forget to remove the reserved peel.  

Mix with a whisk until smooth or blend in a blender for a really smooth consistency.  

Serve at whatever temperature you prefer.  

To see the original recipe, click here.

Feel free to play around with the amount of the juice from the orange you add - it adds such a level of freshness to the applesauce.  

The toddler loved helping me measure and dump in the spices, which also helped convince him to try it since he "made" it.  He was also in charge of transferring sliced up apples into the bowl of citrus juices.

I literally just used whatever apples I had handy and it came out great.  The baby certainly didn't complain, and even the toddler took a few bites!

Try it out and confirm how delish it is!

Katie

Jamberry Nails Review

Messy Messy Fail - the kitchen & dining room table = the catch all for EVERYTHING that enters into the house

Tidy Victory - cleaned up boy #1's room after three consecutive weekends of travel, and I almost fell asleep in the process but I did it!

I don't know about you gals (or guys!), but many ladies in my area are having Jamberry parties.  I LOVE a good direct sale party, mainly because I get to spend some time with other adults, eat good food, drink and purchase things that I don't NEED but really WANT.

So I recently went to a couple of Jamberry parties, learned how to put these fun little things on my nails, and now I'm hooked.

My ring finger was the experiment - the consultant patiently explained (several times) how to get the Jam on.  I just painted my other nails so they wouldn't feel naked.

I'm sorry but how FUN are these?!?!?!?!

My pinky is the Jam nail, ignore my other chipped nails.

I have yet to try toenail application, since I am newly able to reach them again (patience people my 2nd son is ONLY nearly 8 months old!).

So now I think it's been made public that I will purchase these if people invite me to their Jamberry parties, so my calendar has filled up quite significantly - thanks Jamberry! 

Check out their site - Jamberry

Have you tried these and what do you think of them?

Have a terrific rest of your weekend and Jam on,

Katie