Ahhh Yes.. The Noms.

So with my last post, I believe I mentioned some yummo fried steak. Well, I have finally found a moment to sit and share it. It's back to school now, and evening time with the family is sacred. Even at this moment, my 7 year old minion is asking me to warm up some leftovers... so with that, let's roll.

First things first: I made both fried venison, and fried liver. The liver was for the hubbins, the venison for the minions. We are carnivores. Let it be known. I poured about four cups of flour into a glass pan, and about a third cup of Lawry's Seasoning Salt.

The "batter"

These are venison tenderloins. I cut any remaining membranes and silver skin from the meat.

I slice it cross-grain and thin. It cooks quickly and is easier for the kids this way.

You see the taters to yer right? Mmmmm.. Taters. Oh, and butter.

Onions. Nuff said.

Okay, so I may have had to use some kind of butter substitute, but always, ALWAYS use butter. I won't discuss this matter any further.
Fried up the onions and set them aside. The flavor is in the pan, and the onions aren't overcooked with the meat. So to batter the venision, I toss it all in a bowl and drown it in milk. Then dredge it generously through the flour mixture.

Then it's to the pan with it.

I let it fry in the butter until blood starts to emerge from the surface, and when I check the underside it's golden and crispy. Then I turn it and it looks like this:

Your goal is crispy outside. Because it's sliced thin, you can rest assured that once the outside is crisp, the inside is cooked adequately.

I repeat the same process with the Hubbin's liver (gag.. gag...gag.)

I won't explain it, but it actually isn't bad once fried up. Now if you're frying a lot, you'll have to keep adding butter between batches. Don't be cheap with yer butter. Use lots. And honestly, there's something uber cool and country cook about frying the crap outta stuff in a pan with butter. I almost wore an apron; it was wicked hot.

So we had the onions, the fried steak, and the taters. What's missing?

Sweet tea.

• Boil 8 cups of water. 
• Add 6 tea bags.
• Let set for 15 minutes.
• Remove tea bags.
• Stir in TWO CUPS of sugar. That's right. I don't play.
• Pour in a gallon pitcher filled with ice.
• Brush your teeth before you go to bed.
• Voila.

The minions love, LOVE this meal. I did four pounds of tenderloins and there was none left. NONE. I didn't even make it to the table. My meal was snitched from the dish as I served the minions. It was glorious, and everyone had a full and happy tummy.

Oops.

Well, first of all I updated this blog, on my other personal blog. I need more coffee.

What is that I hear? Could it be the hiss and gurgle of my Keurig? Why, it is! It calls to me, I shall return in a moment.

And I'm back.

So first things first:
It's back to school today. I did not accomplish my goal of home fantabulousness over the last two weeks. As per usual, I found other things to occupy my time, which turned out to be pretty okay. I did, however, apply some skills not quite used consistently before.

• One- The minions are fully capable of helping out. If they trash the living room, they get to pick it up. If they didn't trash the living room, they can still vacuum and dust because it turns out they won't die. Who knew?
• Two- If you give a kid an mp3 player, they'll scrub a bathroom and you'll get a show. If you're not sure what I mean, stick some earbuds in your minions ears and hand them a rag, some vinegar water, and direct them toward the bathroom. Sparkly and musical. All I'm sayin'.
• Three- Do you dishes before you go to bed. It makes for a more pleasant morning. I don't always follow this rule, but at this moment, I really wish I had last night.
• Four- This will be today's great lesson and advice. Ready?

Employ a Calendar

So why the bold title? Aha, I was hoping you'd ask.

For a few months, on and off, I have been using an online calendar. I've tried a few different ones, and the primary qualification was that there had to be an "app" for it. This means I needed to be able to sync it with my iPhone. Don't have an iPhone or Android? It's still super valuable. Stay with me..

Now, I have a trusty paper calendar that I love. It has the month spread out over two pages, with enough lines in each day for me to put what I believe to be most everything. That was, until I started to utilize my Cozi Calendar.

Cozi is a free online organizer that goes beyond describing. I'll do my best, and try to include screen shots. But I'll jump to my point first. Once I added all my appointments, including hair, school, scouts, doctors, and assignments, I realized that I was completely, COMPLETELY overcommited. No wonder I can't keep up with everything. I do NOT have the time. The kind of time needed to meet all my commitments simply does not exist. I had to put every single appointment, commitment, assignment and due date down and actually look at it on a page to see what I was doing to myself. Incredible.

So why do I use Cozi? Well, at first, because it was new and free. It was colorful, and clean, and had a lot of neat features that I must admit to getting lost in at first; but we'll get to and through that later. Cozi runs on advertisments, which actually aren't as pervasive as you might think. There are always a couple of ads on your start page, and then once you start working within your calendars and lists, the ads stay tucked neatly to the side of your work.

I wish I had the time to go through all the really cool ins and outs of the calendar, but for now I don't. I will instead just hilight some super cool stuff, and trust that you are all ambitious enough to sign up and check it out for yourselves. If you have any questions about it, leave them in my comments section of this post, and I'll try to help.

First cool thing about Cozi- you have separate calendars for everbody. Before you think "Whoah. That's crazy", just relax Brian Fellows (Safari Planet...). I'll show you how this works.

Here is the homepage:

Now, you may or may not have noticed the "Flylady" theme. I loaded a special version of Cozi that walked me through importing Flylady lists to help me around my home. I keep all those lists in my "House" calendar. That calendar displays "To Do" lists tailored to Flylady zones.


Here is a picture of my calendar with EVERYONE's appointments on it:

First you notice a box dangling over the calendar. Well, if you click on the "Who" tab, you can see a list of calendars to choose from. This view displays all of them. You'll notice I have separate calendars for Celebrations, the house (I'm a flylady flunkee, but I try every day), and SPA (for my Spa parties). You can select who's appointments appear on your calendar, thus making individual calendars for everyone. They are color coded (you can see that on the homepage), which is kind of fun, but you can always see labels too, so you don't have to really memorize the colors. You can set up your calendar to text or email reminders to family members. How cool is that? Up at the top, you can see a couple "to do" items (near the tiny calendar grid). Cool eh?

How about a peek at the To Do lists?

You can add headings to add the list items under, drop and drag orders, cross off accomplished items, and add due dates. If you add the due dates, the list items will make their way onto your calendar. Suh-weet. Approaching dates are hilighted to uh, alarm you. Again, there are adds, this one was a bit bright, but I don't see them. I imagine at some point they might offer a subscription service that would remove adds, but frankly, they don't bother me enough to pay to remove them.

Now, Cozi offers apps for smartphones or iPod Touch. You do have to pay for the app, but it's not horrible, and it's money well spent. There are no ads on the app.

Some other features that I don't use as much, are shopping lists, and journals. The shopping list is kind of cool because you could make headings  (Dairy, Meat, Coupon items) and add your items under the  headings. Then once you cross items off, you have the option to remove crossed off items, or simply keep them crossed off till you need them again. I'm not sure if I'm making sense at this point, but hopefully you can play with it enough to follow.



So folks, that's it for today's rambling post. I will probably be re-titling the blog, though the address will stay the same. My two weeks are up, but I'll continue to post anything that is funny, helpful, or worth sharing. Thanks for playing along.

Oh, and stay tuned, because y'all are going to get a lesson in frying venison in the coming days.

Another Day off.. Peacock style.

Well, spring break is over the half-past mark, but life has stayed every chaotic. Piano lessons, Girl Scouts, Cookie delivery, Girls on the Run, hair, Spas.. it's all pretty consuming. That said, I'm really making a point to enjoy my home. Now, my previous post was on the destruction of said abode, and I was going to time myself in getting it back in order. Remember a few things for me:

1. I have been keeping the kitchen tasks revolving. If my dishwasher isn't running, then it does NOT hold clean dishes. Empty RIGHT away, so it can catch all your dirty dishes for you, leaving your sink available.

2. If you have children, work them like you own them. Catchy eh? But seriously, I have been super guilty of feeling, well-- super guilty. When I was a kid, I had chores. I cleaned my room when told to, I watched my sisters, I cleaned the kitchen, I dusted and vacuumed. You know what? I turned out okay. (Silence from the peanut gallery please!)

So what I did, was delegate my friends. I put the bigger minions on bigger duties. They all had to pick up the living room. Straighten pillows, tables, and get all their stuff out of the room and put away. Then the 9 year old was handed a bottle of pledge and a rag and set to task. Without even being prompted, she moved from the living room to the dining room, and then hit the floor boards with it! The 7 year old took over with vacuuming the living and dining room. I then pulled out the hose attachment for her, and she cleaned up the kitchen floor. I took over in the mopping dept. I have one of those Swiffer Wet Jets, and in leui of using the replaceable pads, I have a microfiber pad meant for another floor cleaning kit (I'll look for a link) that I just attached to the pad holder.

Meanwhile, I went to work on the kitchen. Without being prompted, the oldest girl went to work in the entryway, doing everything from straightening shoes, to mopping! Gotta love those type "A" personalities! I kept the tiny minions out of the way by assigning them to cleaning up the wee boy minion's room. Not much was accomplished, but they were out from under everyone's feet.

When all was said and done, it had been an hour since we started. ONE HOUR. That's it. Popcorn and tv ensued, and there was great rejoicing.

Here is my picture proof:

Work that dust rag Minion! PUSH that vacuum! Mwahahahahah!

Whoah.

Can you hear the voices of the men's choir? Sooo perfect!

The Warden inspects.

So there you have it. If you have small children that take up destroying (er.. um, enjoying) your handiwork, just put them to work. It's amazing how empowere they are with a bottle of vinegar and water. They feel like they are doing big important work, and you don't have to worry about dangerous chemicals. Send them into the bathroom to clean (even if you have to do it again in a bit). Then praise the crap outta the job they did, streaks and all.
If they feel valued and that the work they did was appreciated, they'll be more willing to help more often. I mean, that proves true for me! If DH come's in and just shrugs when I say "Doesn't the house look great?" I end up with a screw it mindset. But if he gives me a "Wow" then my chest puffs up like a freakin' peacock.
I want my kids to feel like that all the time, just a flock of peacocks.
Strut you fab minions, just strut.

Ahem.. A Minor Setback.

Sooooo, in the spirit of total honesty and transparency, I would like to share with you the current state of my house. Behold:

Okay, she's clean, but she ate some tissues, so that was messy and naughty.

Oh hey, this is still clean~

Someone got a shipment of fab.. but did NOT put it away.

Noms

MORE noms

MMmmmmm

The price we pay for noms

ZOMG

 

 

 

 

So there you have it. The kitchen, living and dining room are destroyed. Tonight's mission? To time myself and see how long it really takes to tidy it all up. Why? Because you and I both know it doesn't take as long to conquer these pitfalls as we would have ourselves convinced. (Oh hey, a run-on sentence. How full of win.)

I'll check in later. Enjoy your own home, and remember: if it's a mess, you are SO not alone.

Teeny Weeny Tip

That just occurred to me:

When moving from room to room changing sheets and tidying, open a window. This is more to the colder climate ladies. It's not 30 F out right now, and yet the 15 minutes of fresh air does wonders in each minion cave. Also, when you finish a room right down to the dusting, reward yourself and your room by lighting a candle. It really gives you a completed feeling of accomplishment.

Carry on.

Saturday

It's well past Saturday's halfway point, and I have managed little more than changing all the linens. That said, I am recommitting myself to making it a weekly task. For those of you who already change linens weekly, at this point I will dutifully inform you that the majority of us do not. We just act like we do, and nod in agreement when a linen discussion occurs. For those of you guilty of only occasionally changing linens, I have outed us. Feels good doesn't it?

I have spent the first half of my day giving makeovers to little girls, and watching HGTV. Therefor, I will still deem today as productive. I have some laundry to fold, and I may embark on some larger task. As I have conquered my kitchen and fridge, decluttered my living room, and pwnd (gamer speak for totally owned) the totes, I ask myself "What next?"
My bedroom could use some lovins, and my "new basement" is pretty wild. I'm going to think on it. I'm hungry for some kind of home improvement crafty project. Some kind of decorating for living or for the spring season. I'm just not sure what yet. I'll check back in later. For now, enjoy some pics of my fabulously clean fridge, drawer liners, and some relaxed minions:

Ooooh, so pretty!

ZOMG

Tadaa!

EEEEEP!

Mmmmmmmmm

To show that progress is messy..

Major declutter. Half the utensils went to the downstairs kitchen.

Isn't that great?! (What? Well I only ate a couple...)

Before. Seriously there was crap behind the drawers that was growing.

After. Phew.

So clean. Yaay!

And here's a picture of tiny girl minion's completed bed:

Building plans can be found on Ana White's blog (Button on right!)

The Divas:

What day is it? I think Day Eight

And I totally schooled my refrigerator. No mercy, cleaned shelves, pitched condiments. YeeeeeHaw. I was wild and without abandon.

So now what?

Nothing. Because today is a slacker day. Well, not completely a slacker day. I cut someone's hair, and have to take a minion for a checkup, and there is dinner too.. But I'm just maintaining today. And that's cool. Maintaining can be a crap ton o' work. You have to keep on top of the kitchen. Remember to run your dishwasher before bed, and then you have somewhere to deposit dirty dishes all day. Then be sure to toss a couple of loads of laundry around. Folding it right out of the dryer is the way to go. I have taken up the less than stellar habit of piling it on the floor in the hallway. Our machines are in a hall closet.

Not productive. I'm just being honest here.

But IN THEORY, fold out of the dryer. If you don't have time, don't flip yet. It's too easy to let it pile up on you. Don't set yourself up like that. It's a horrible way to go: Smothered in blue jeans and sweatshirts. Gruesome.

Last night I had a spa, and that was so much fun. Manis and pedis and facials OH MY! I ended the evening with makeup applications. Too fun! Oh, there may have been some margarita action, but you didn't hear it here. I'm really excited about the mobile spa concept. It's a really fun way to get out of the house and meet different people.

So there's day eight. Not a super exciting post, yet the weekend is arriving. I'm sure to do something outstanding with it.