Hot & Boozy Caramel Apple Cider for #AppleWeek

Messy Messy Fail - Did I mention in previous posts that the front left burner on my cooktop only boils now?  I'm so mad about this that I feel as though I may have ranted about it on another post, but I'm going to again because I'm that mad.  Regardless of the setting on the dial, that burner only boils.  I discovered this after pretty much burning two separate meals in my NON-STICK pan which is now my NON-USABLE-CANCER-CAUSING pan.  Did you know you aren't supposed to cook above medium heat on a non-stick pan?  That's right folks - it can't take any more heat than medium and the pan will be of no good.  So thank you to my only-boils-on-the-left-burner cooktop for ruining my non-stick pan.  Rant finished. 

Tidy Victory - After months of just stuffing and CRAMMING linens into my linen closet to make them fit, I decided it was time to clean out and reorganize.  I love organizing the sheet sets so that you fold the fitted sheet, top sheet and one pillowcase in a stack together then insert the stack into the other matching pillowcase, fold the end over and TA-DA - all together and ready to go.  No searching anymore.  AND I found a plastic bag full of travel size toiletry items that I forgot I had also stuffed in that linen closet :)  

Great Ideas for the 4th of July Roundup with the Blog Friends

Messy Messy Fail - I had concerts right up until the last week of school, which meant my classrooms definitely did not get cleaned up in time.  

Tidy Victory - Therefore, I spent my first day of summer vacation in my classroom purging, recycle and clearing everything so that the custodians could do a thorough deep cleaning over the summer.  And it only took 3.5 hours - #winning!

Let's Get Grilling - Father's Day Roundup with the Blog Friends

Messy Messy Fail - I thought I could trust the UPKer to go to the bathroom on his own.  Two bathtub toys buried in the pipes of the toilet later, I realized that I cannot.  

Tidy Victory - If you need to know how to get two bathtub toys out of the plumbing of your toilet, just drop me an email or a PM - did you know you could take a toilet off of the floor and flip it over?   Needless to say we got the toys out - we really shocked yourselves with this extraction!  Two unwound hangers, multiple towels and a bucket later the culprits were removed.  What a way to spend a Friday night!

Toilet toy bleaching in my LuLaRoe's.  The boat and the odd shaped upside bunny head were the culprits.  Unbelievable.

Holiday Fun With Our Bloggy Friends - Let's Do Brunch - Mother's Day Celebration

Messy Messy Fail - What do you do when your 4 & 1/2 year old has no clean pants to wear, and there is no time to run a load of laundry?  Dig for the cleanest pair of dirty pants in the hamper.  Good criteria - they don't stink.  You've gotta do what you've gotta do sometimes.

Tidy Victory - Up until this point, I have tried to keep all of my craft supplies in a large canvas bag my husband had bought for me a few years ago.  Of course I out grew the bag.  And of course I bought some plastic containers last fall to organize and move everything in to.  Did it tonight!  I even broke out the label maker!

Toasty Breakfast Casserole

Messy Messy Fail - It's spring concert season again, so that means many nights spent away from home.  It's part of the job as a music teacher, but these evenings away from your family can really become a drag when your kids keep asking if they can go to the concert with you.  "Sorry buddy, maybe next time".  Breaks my heart!

Tidy Victory - My high school spring concert was last night and I must say, I have never been more prepared ahead of time as I was for this concert..  I almost had free minutes to do things prior to the concert I never had time for before, such as make sure my lipstick was on correctly.  Quite a successful performance from my students, they made me so proud!  I cannot wait to hear the recording!

Fluster Buster Creative Muster #172

Messy Messy Fail - Back to the missing Toms issue - I did end up finding them, however, we have shoes ALL OVER our house.  Boots, sneakers, Crocs, dress shoes, Toms, sandals - you name it, they are here.  Time to organize the footwear, but is there a container big enough?

Tidy Victory - The weather was so beautiful this weekend (almost 75 degrees F!) that we were able to go outside and work in the yard for a good chunk of time.  Most of the front yard and part of our backyard gardens were weeded - love my weed poking tool!  You wouldn't believe how deep some of those bad boys were - I pulled out a weed whose main root was nearly a foot long!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #117

Messy Messy Fail - My Toms have disappeared.  Vanished.  I wore them on an unseasonably warm day in February or March, and they have since gone completely missing.  

Tidy Victory - I had a lovely thought to watch one of my favorite movies from my single girl years - Marie Antoinette.  I almost forgot I had it, had to dig around in some boxes downstairs to find it.  I am so glad I did - fabulous movie!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #116

Messy Messy Fail - I literally just finished making a somewhat heinous looking Little Einstein's rocket cake.  I bit off more than I could chew on this one.  Cake cracking issues, frosting issues, you name it - it went wrong.  I'm really not even sure how this cake is going to taste.  I made sure to have lots of ice cream though, because everything tastes good with ice cream.

Tidy Victory - I have been trying to upload all of our old movie videos from the video recorder to my computer.  To my dismay, it seemed as though several were corrupt.  After many hours trying different ways to import the videos and researching online, I figured it out!  Somehow these older videos were .mpg files and they needed to be .mov files.  I have begun the slow process of converting them, but I am THRILLED that they are not gone for good!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #115

Messy Messy Fail - Our weather has seriously been at extremes these last few weeks - 72 degrees F one day, 31 degrees the next.  Quite literally, no exaggeration.  Therefore, hasn't our beautiful new weeping cherry tree that we planted in front of the house trying to bloom.  It actually started snowing today, so I frantically went outside with a king size fitted sheet to drape over the poor tree.  This baby better bloom after all of my efforts!

Tidy Victory - It's a miracle - The Land Before Time DVD just showed up in the boys hands this afternoon as I caught them playing with the DVD's in the entertainment center again.  No explanation, but that's okay - it has returned!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #114

Messy Messy Fail - So I thought I had a really great idea of using Elmer's glue to draw our initials on our Easter eggs.  My thinking was the glue would dry, we would dye the eggs, and then I'd peel the glue off to reveal a white initial on the dyed egg.  Total fail.  Didn't leave enough time for the glue to dry and it just fizzled off in the vinegar.  At least now I know it won't work.  Still determined to discover a cool way to decorate our eggs (for next year wah wah)

Tidy Victory - I've had all of our Easter goodies purchased and ready to go for about a week now - it was nice not having to run out last minute!  Each of the boys got a small toy, DVD, book, hatching dinosaur egg and candy.  Can't wait to celebrate in a few short hours!

24 Favorite Easter Recipes Round-up

Messy Messy Fail - In our climate zone, I cannot leave plants outside or in the ground that typically can be left out in others.  I know this.  But do I follow this?  No, instead I leave my pretty red canna lily roots in the giant pot that I planted them in out on the back deck.  Since it's been in the 50's here recently, I finally decided to check out the pot and try digging the cannas out.  What did I find?  Mushy canna roots.  They are currently drying out in a box in the basement, we'll see if they recover.  Might be asking Nana Patti for new ones this summer.

Tidy Victory - I made a slew of appointments for my vacation next week that I've been putting off for quite sometime.  I'm actually surprised I was even able to schedule them all - dentist, vet for Pablo the cat (he's been sneezing these insane boogers for a few months now) and a specialist to check out my kidney stones, or lack there of hopefully.  Crossing my fingers for good news from everyone!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #112

Messy Messy Fail - As you know, I do enjoy my wine and beer.  We enjoy it so much in our household that we have acquired quite the can and bottle collection in our garage.  We are so silly - the redemption center is quite literally down the street.  I just simply have gotten my act together to collect everything and drive it down.    Money just sitting in my garage!

Tidy Victory - Even though I have not planned for meals or done serious grocery shopping in about two weeks, I have managed to clean off my pantry shelf quite a bit.  Stocking up on regularly used items or purchasing in bulk can be great, but you have to remember to use it.  It can be tricky to force yourself to only use items you have in your refrigerator and pantry, but it pays off in your bank account!

Holiday Fun with our Bloggy Friends - Easter & Spring

Messy Messy Fail - I swear my boys are growing out of their clothes so much faster than I can even keep up.  The toddler needs to start getting into 24 mo. and 2T clothes, but I cannot get those out until I pack up all of the 12-18 and 18 mo. clothes currently overtaking his drawers - it's madness I tell you!

Tidy Victory - I am working on a review post for a lovely group of gals and their LuLaRoe business - if you haven't ever heard of this latest craze in the world of ladies & girls tops, dresses and leggings you are MISSING OUT!  Be watching for my review of their butter-soft leggings this week!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #111

Messy Messy Fail - The ABS (break system) light has been on in my car since at least last summer.  When I had my car inspected last August, the mechanic said it was just a sensor, it was fine, passed.  Until this past Thursday when the break system started kicking in on its own and there was no ice. I swore my breaks were completely giving out!  Going in on Tuesday.....

Tidy Victory - We bought our tickets for our Dave Matthews show this summer - going to see them in July at the Molson Canadian Amphitheater in Toronto, ON.  We love this venue - it's small (for a more intimate performance), in a terrific city, and typically has a mostly adult audience.  And guess who scored the better seats when both my husband and I got online to buy - ME! 

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #110

Messy Messy Fail - I haven't published my own post in a couple of weeks now.  Lots going on around here - concerts, swim lessons, meetings, but I've got an Easter roundup and a couple of great posts in a different format than what I typically publish coming up, so be warned.

Tidy Victory - I was able to conduct my first all-county ensemble this weekend - an elementary orchestra - and I had an absolute blast!  This ensemble was made up of the best elementary string students in the county and I had the distinct pleasure of leading them through rehearsals and at our final performance on Saturday.  An absolute joy and a treat - this was why I wanted to teach orchestra!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #109

Messy Messy Fail - One of my goals over my winter break was to get our tax information gathered so I could submit it and have that task checked off on the list.  This goal has yet to be accomplished.  Our taxes are not that difficult, but all that printing off of the interest from our student loans and gathering all of our donation letters takes quite a bit of time.  However, if I do submit them during the month of March that will be the earliest I have ever done them!

Tidy Victory - Even though I did not get a lot of housework done on my week long winter vacation, we did get a lot of snowmobile riding in.  We went for two rides together, one of which I got tossed, but I'm okay folks!  On or second ride we went to one of my favorite trail restaurants called Guppy's Tavern where you can get a killer stromboli, and that's exactly what I ordered.  I was even able to pack the leftovers on to my sled when I was done!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #108

Messy Messy Fail - We are winter break from school this upcoming week, and I will say I am embarrassed about the condition I left both of my classrooms in - disaster.  I had a guest conductor in at both buildings on Friday to complete a workshop with some of my students who will be participating in a side-by-side concert shortly and it was quite the whirlwind getting to both buildings on time.  Let's just say I'll be going in for a little tidying up during my vacation.  

Tidy Victory - Last year, I tried making it a goal to do a small organizing/purging project a day.  Be it my makeup drawer, a bookshelf, etc., I wanted to make a little difference one small step at a time.  Sometimes I did my project for the day, sometimes I didn't.  I came across this blog project from Susan at Organized 31 - 31 Days of 10-Minute Purging Tips and I was really inspired.  You can start with her first post at the above link and she gives you a task every day - very manageable (10 minutes or less!) yet very effective.  I'm going to try this and attempt to get rid of some more nonsense in my house!

Holiday Fun with Our Bloggy Friends - Great Ideas for Valentine's Day

Messy Messy Fail - Hubby bought tickets a few weeks ago to see Disney on Ice today.  Come to find out one of the sponsors is Stonyfield yogurt which is ALL the boys eat.  Come to find out there is a coupon code on the inside of our Stonyfield yogurt box for 50% off the ticket price.  Definitely missed that coupon code.

Tidy Victory - We had a great time at Disney on Ice with the UPKer - the look on his face when Mickey and Minnie came out was priceless!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #106

Messy Messy Fail - The snow has nearly melted away, which means the snowmobile trails are closed AGAIN until further notice.  Because don't you know this is what happens - you get new sleds and it's a lame-o winter.  I can't even believe I am complaining about having no snow.  I'm really not crazy.

Tidy Victory - I have had an idea for a post for literally nearly a year now - to interview one of my favorite Etsy shops - and it finally happened!  I do not want to give away too much too soon, but if you are interested in crocheting and/or starting your own Etsy shop, you need to stay tuned folks!  :)

Holiday Fun with Our Bloggy Friends - Great Food for the Big Game

Messy Messy Fail - In our low-budget remodel of the finished part of our basement, my thoughtful husband pulled out the carpet and foam padding to save some money.  He's such a DIYer, that guy.  Unfortunately, the foam padding with quite securely glued to the cement floor, requiring a straight edge shovel to literally scrape it off of the floor.  Truly a messy messy mess!

Tidy Victory - The new carpet is being installed in the morning, a few pieces of new furniture and my husband's man room will be complete!  I've already been banned, from decorating that is ;)  I have a hard time incorporating deer heads into my typical decor.