Yesterday I asked for help with the burnt popcorn odor. I got an e-mail from my aunt suggesting I simmer cinnamon in water. It smells yummy. I’m hoping this and the bacon I made for dinner will help with the overall odor. Thanks, Auntie Pam.
I’ve made it two months with a picture/post everyday. Can you believe it?
An experiment gone WRONG!
Today started out just like any other Saturday. I got to sleep in a little. The kids were up watching tv or playing the computer. Mickey made a run to Lowes. Then he took Meg to a softball practice. (Yes, already, and yes, it was indoors.) Megan also needed to finish up a little work on her science experiment. Mickey helped her with it. I was still lounging in bed (one of the perks of having a great husband) when Meg comes to the door asking where the air freshener is. I asked why. Oh, the popcorn burned. Right after that I could smell it. I got up and I could see the smoke filling the entire house. (This is really good when your house is on the market.) I went to the kitchen to see what the damage was. Just really smokey. The windows were already open. I lit a candle hoping that would help with the smell. I got a fan to blow the smoke out. After most of the smoke was gone I got out some Febreze and sprayed that stuff everywhere. It’s now about 10 hours later and the smell is still here, although I’m getting used to it. How do you get the burn smell out of the house? We have a ton of realtors coming through on Tuesday and another showing on Wednesday.
A couple days ago Mike, Mickey’s dad, asked if we’d like to do something other than watch a movie on Friday night. ND has family nights with fun planned activities. This Friday, today, was a night at Strikes & Spares. For $5 a person we all got to bowl, play mini-golf, and drive go-karts. That’s a deal when one ride on the go-kart is $6.
(Isn’t this the cutest bowling shoe you’ve ever seen?)
Afterward we stopped at Steak & Shake for some ice cream. We were a little nuts doing this since it’s frigid and snowing.
It’s getting late. Tomorrow I will post a link to an album of pictures I took tonight, until the battery died.
Edited: Here’s where you can view the album of pictures, if your interested.
Tonight I had a date with my mom. We went to see “New Moon“. I’m not going to comment on the movie since I don’t have many nice things to say, although it was better than the first, only a little. It was nice to spend time with my mom and give her something different to do. Thanks for going with me, Mom.
(Sorry, not the best picture. It was dark and I don’t know how to work the little camera as well as the big one. But you get the idea.)
Meanwhile, at home, Mickey got the kids to bed and then Chris came over to play games. They really get into killing people. Good thing it’s not real.
This morning I’m on my way to drop Meg off at school when my cell phone rings. This takes me totally by surprise because it NEVER rings. So I answer it even though I’m about to enter a no cell phone area by the school. (Not sure what the sign means since a lot of kids come out of school and turn theirs on.) It’s Deborah, our realtor. She cheerfully tells me that she has two requests for showings this afternoon. I said “What!?” I had to rework one of the times since I have to be home for Mat to get off the bus. (This will show you I wasn’t thinking. I could have told Mat I’d pick her up instead of her taking the bus. It was 7:30 and my brain barely works then.)
I get home and tell Mickey the news. He’s quickly figuring out when he can leave work so he can help me clean up. After I got home I realized I never scrubbed the tub. And yesterday someone was nice and painted the laundry room for me. They also forgot to plug the sump pump back in so when I did a load of laundry last night the laundry room floor got flooded. Yikes. That’s pretty much cleaned up. Thank goodness. I’m kind of hoping that Mickey will be willing to pick up my slack and scrub the tub for me. Maybe he’ll do that right after he tackles this.
This is the room of our pack rat. (You can see why this didn’t get photographed for the blog on Friday.) I think it’s all going to be swept into boxes and left there until we unpack in the new house, which we haven’t found yet. Getting her a loft bed was a huge mistake.
I’m off to clean. Thankfully I’ve been keeping up with laundry and dishes. The kids now have a “clean up your mess” rule that they’re made to follow and that helps immensely.
That was the theme of the day at Kade’s school. (It seems like I have more to report on him. I guess it’s because he’s with me more and his school does more fun things.) Kade started out in his Star Wars jammies but I noticed they were about 3″ too short and the shirt just barely covered that pot belly of his. I talked him into his Scooby-Doo ones that fit better. He took his Citrus Dragon with him to share the day. I helped out with the event. (I didn’t end up doing much, filling cups for the kids and taking pictures of everyone.) The day was a success. The kids all had fun eating breakfast and wearing jammies at school.
This is one of our family’s favorite home-made cakes, banana. (Most of mine are Duncan Hynes I’m not ashamed to say.) I got the recipe for this cake from my mom. Not sure where she got it from. As with most recipes I’ve altered it a bit, cut out the fat and it’s a lot more moist. (And here I had told myself no more sweets until Kade’s birthday/Easter. But there’s so much fruit it’s not really a sweet, right?)
Banana Cake
Place 2 teaspoons lemon juice in a measuring cup, making sour milk. Add enough milk to make 2/3 cup. Sift 2-1/3 cups flour, 1-2/3 cups sugar, 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt into a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 3 mashed bananas, and sour milk; mix until all flour is dampened. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs, beat 2 minutes more. Bake in 2 greased and floured 9″ round pans at 350 for 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove and cool completely before frosting.
Now I like to bake this in a bundt pan. It bakes for around 55-60 minutes. I have a one of those silicone pans so I don’t know if that takes longer to bake. I also use the Duncan Hynes Cream Cheese frosting. I warm it in the microwave until runny and drizzle over the top.
The cake is almost gone. I did take 1/3 of it to our friends along with dinner but when I make this it goes fast.
Enjoy!
Yesterday while cleaning out some cabinets in the kitchen I thought I had better boil some eggs. There’s a little person who often asks for a big egg, meaning boiled. They finished cooking and then I ran them under cold water….and put them in a bowl in the refrigerator to use/eat later. A few hours later I was making dinner and pulling some stuff out of the fridge when I decided the eggs needed to be cracked. I did it the fastest way I knew how, I knocked the bowl onto the tile floor spilling the eggs everywhere. That started the makings of our lunch today. After we got home from church I peeled a few and Kade used a tool my sister-in-law gave me. It’s a small food processor thing-a-ma-bob. It worked very well. Kade and Mattey both had a turn turning the crank. (Kade’s picture turned out better.)
I then added the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper and we had lunch. Quick and easy. Just like I like it.
Kade had his date with Mickey today. Mickey really needed a haircut and Kade kind of needed one too. After stopping for some lunch they went to the barber shop. Kade got his hair cut by Mike. Today he got it spiked. Afterwards Mike used the “dassager” on Kade’s back. It’s his favorite part of the visit.
For the second part of the date Kade went to Strikes and Spares to race the go-karts. He “raced other people and one was behind and three was in front of me”. This was his third time going and it’s now his most favorite thing to do. I’ll have to go next time to watch this kid in action. Maybe we’ll get some video.
