Little Known Fact

These are MY tools. My husband may have been the one to purchase them, but they are MINE. (hmmm...starting to sound a little possessive aren't I? ....of course, honey, you are ALWAYS welcome to use them. ;) ) Actually, the Titanium trimmers were purchased specifically for me & at my request.

You see, I LOVE trimming our plants. Not sure what it is, but I get extreme satisfaction from hacking away a tree or shrub. I am no expert by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I take pride in my little contribution to our yard maintenance. It may take me a week (or month) to get all the plants trimmed up & sometimes they may look a little....uh, whats a good word....ummmmm....interesting when I'm done, but hey there is nothing more gratifying than choppin' off a big ol' tree limb. Plus, power tools are fun. :)

Next I want a blower cuz...

I may love to trim, but I HATE to clean up.

Miracles

My new favorite quote:

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is."

~Abraham Lincoln

Happy Wednesday.

Command Center

I have loads of ideas for my house floating around in my head all the time. However, lack of time & funding delays bringing these ideas to fruition. BUT at last, an idea that has been bouncing around in my head FOREVER was made a reality this past weekend! I give you....

The R Family Command Center!!!! TaDa!!

Yea!!!, A place for the kids backpacks, a place to write messages to each other, a big family calendar (each of us are assigned a different color--yes I'm THAT nerdy), a home for the keys, a cool clock to hopefully keep us on schedule & my fun FHE board that tracks who's in charge of what for family nights.

I LOVE it!!!! (thanks honey for staying up late to get it just right!)

Yeah, I know its not February yet, but I wanted to start FRESH in a new month. :)

These Are the Days

These are the days that we live for here in Arizona...cool, 65 degrees, sunny with a nice breeze...aaaahhhh.

These are the days we dream of when its 115 out in July.

Days when we can play in the park without snow boots or sunburns.

Days when the kids can even run around barefoot...yes even in January.



Days when it doesn't matter if your clothes match or not.

Days when sticky blue taffy on your face is quite alright.

Days when we've got nothin more pressing to do than hang out with our grandma, aunts & cousins.

Days when combing your hair is just plain unnecessary.

Days when its ok to just be silly

Days I will always remember.

Our PERFECT winter's day.

A Tale of Two Eyebrows

Do you ever have something happen that makes you laugh out loud, simply by thinking about it? I mean seriously laugh so much it hurts, even hours & hours after it happened? Well.....something like that happened at our house today & I'm still giggling about it.

So we all dragged out of bed this fine Sunday morning to get ready for church...ok I guess I dragged out of bed, everyone else seemed to be up & at em' just fine. The fun started when I headed into the bathroom to wash my hands. I glanced over at Rob who was getting ready. He was using his hair clippers to trim his eyebrows. Now, although I have not actually seen him do this before, I knew that he did do it to "tame" the brows...thus avoiding the bushy brow look some men find so attractive. ;)

Anyways, I smirked & was thinking to myself..."better make sure you don't shave your eyebrows off" & was just about to open my mouth to say it when he looks at me & says..."Uh, I'm not sure what just happened."

Yup, you got it...he basically DID shave off one of his eyebrows. (K....I'm laughing out loud AGAIN just remembering it!) :D :D :D

So I am CRACKING UP....He looks absolutely hysterical sporting one normal eyebrow & one EXTREMELY short...almost nonexistent eyebrow. I can't even look at him, I'm laughing so hard. Funny thing is...he had the #6 guard on the clippers, same as usual, but for some reason it didn't work quite as expected this morning. He says it must have been because I needed a good laugh today. Boy did I get one!

Well, we had church in 30 minutes...what to do...what to do....AHA! The beauty of the eyebrow pencil.....just a little careful application & viola! You couldn't even tell. No one in church even noticed.

Thanks for the laughs babe & for being such a good sport (I'm sure I would NOT have been.)

Tired

There are some days when I'm just soooooooo tired. Deeply, painfully, excruciatingly tired. Like today. I was up too late last night on a date with my sweetie & then L was up FIVE times in the night!! Sometimes it feels like I haven't been well rested since I had kids...actually even before that...since the first time I got pregnant!

So I am going to bed.

I'm feeling kinda how L was feeling here...its 5:00 p.m., I'm making dinner, he's lying at my feet & says:

L: "Mommy, how much longer before dinner?"

Me: "About 10 minutes buddy (have you noticed we call him this A LOT?)"

L: "Okay."

Moments later, he was asleep on the hard, cold kitchen floor. I get it though. Some days, like today, I could go to sleep on the kitchen floor too.

Goodnight!

Tag, I'm It....Part II

Ok so here's my next recipe to share. It is prepared in my BELOVED crockpot. I absolutely adore my crockpot. Would not get along without it. It is a MUST for any time starved, sleep deprived mommy like me....but I digress....behold...Teriyaki Pork Roast:

3/4 c. unsweetened apple juice

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. pepper

3 lb. boneless pork loin, halved

2 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch

3 Tbsp. water

1. Combine apple juice, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, garlic powder, and pepper in greased crockpot.

2. Add roast. Turn to coat.

3. Cover. Cook on low 7-8 hours. Remove roast & keep warm.

4. In saucepan, combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir in juice from roast. Bring to boil. Cook & stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with roast.

I serve this with brown rice for a healthy, delicious, EASY meal. Bon appetit!