Leap day to remember - Day 202

Today I am not going to post about anything I normally post about. Today I am going to post about miracles.

Last night at about 1:20 a.m. Daniel jumped out of bed and ran to the window. I am groggy and don't understand why he would do that, so I start listening to the rain outside. It sounded really loud and thought, "Mmm, it sounds like hail."  I keep listening and tuned in to the way the rain was hitting the house. Normal rain comes in constant sheets if it is hitting the side of the house. The sound I heard was more like if you turn on a twirly sprinkler. There were pauses in between thuds...like it was coming from a tornado! I jumped out of bed when my brain made the connection.

Daniel was already in the living room checking it out. He said he heard the tornado sirens. Oh man! I got really close to the window to see what was going on. All of a sudden it started to shake and vibrate. Oh no! This really scared me! So Daniel grabed the kids. Now where to go? We have no basement. the bathroom we have is right by a huge tree that could fall over, so we decided the living room couch was best. So we have no power so we can't watch the news. I grabbed my phone, but I just stared at it thinking what do I do? Suddenly my mom was calling me (hallelujah!) and she is watching the news. She gave us a play by play. We suddenly thought of Daniel's brother Michael who was only a few minutes away from us. We gave him a call and told him to jump in the shower. Daniel got dressed just in case. We just sat in silence waiting until my mom gave us the all clear. It was horrifying.

We waited a little while till we heard the rain and wind calm down. Then we put the boys back to bed and crawled into ours. Ben came running a few minutes later and would go back into his own bed.

We finally fell asleep. At about 6 a.m. my dad called me (he works nights with no reception and just heard the news) to check on us and Ben woke up. It was so cute.
He said, "Who was that?"
I replied "Papa Ed."
"What did he want?"
"To check on us."
" Oh ok!"
And he fell asleep again. This happened a few more times!

When we woke up we went outside to see the damage. Nothing big in our yard. The neighbors tree fell, but no damage. My mom brought my brother by (they cancelled school) and they said it looked horrible out there. We jumped in the car and brought the camera. They were right. It was devastating. Here are some photos.

Spring cleaning checklist - Day 201

Today I was inspired to start Spring cleaning. My house is just full of junk and toxins from the winter, so I am cleaning house! I have always been poor and you don't just get rid of stuff. You keep it for later because you might need it and you just saved money! I have realized that this isn't always a good trait to have. I have a tiny house and even tinier storage. I have a storage unit that holds half of my house. I don't know why I can't let it go. I have been maturing lately and realized I am ok with letting most of it go. I am going to make my hubby clean out our attic and make some room for a little storage (Christmas, keepsakes) and sell the rest. Even baby things. Even if I am not yet done having children (Ok I might keep a few things, but most of it is going).

I read this book about Feng Shia (say "fung shway") the asain way of balancing our homes. They say that if you have a junk room, closet, or even a drawer it weighs on you. You physically carry that around on your shoulders. It weighs you down subconsciously.  Just think of how relieved you would feel if every inch of your house was organized? AMAZING! I have a junk storage unit.

SOOOooooo, my goal for Spring cleaning this year is to rid my shoulders of all the junk I carry around. So keep me accountable and I will hold all of you too. Everyone who wants to participate, leave a comment. If you are really brave send a picture of your "Junk Drawer" (or closet, or garage) before and after. Start small. If all you can do this time is one drawer, that is awesome!!!

At the end of April I will post my before and after and anyone who sends me their photos and we can all pat each others backs and feel amazing together.

Who is with me??

Wee mouse in a Tin house - Day 200

200!!!!!

I am more than halfway done! I am so thrilled! 

If you are an avid follower, stay tuned today is special!

I saw this wonderful idea on Pinterest. I just had to make one. It was really easy too.

 I cute a square out of brown fabric and sewed it on three sides. Turn right side out and put in fluff and cute two circles for ears. Pin them to the inside of the open edge and hand stitch it closed. Stitch the face on with embroidery floss.

Your bunny has to have a teddy bear, so I drew one on one side of felt and then pinned another layer on the back of the teddy drawing. Then stitch the drawing. Cut around the drawing.

Stitch on a face.

Aww so cute!

Next cut a simple rectangle the size that will fit in your tin for the pillow. Fold in half,  sew sides - but leave a hole so you can turn it right side out. once turned right side, put fluff in and set the hole closed. Next pick fabric for the blanket and fit it in the tin. You want it long enough so it will cover the bunny and go down the tin a little. You will eventually glue the bottom of the blanket. Sew all the way around to hem the blanket.

 Lay a piece of felt inside the bottom of the tin and cut it to fit. Using hot glue, glue it to the bottom of the altoids tin.

 Next glue the pillow in.

 Glue the bottom of the blanket to the far end of the tin.

Isn't Wee mouse so stinking cute all tucked in?!?

I think it is so stinking cute and the boys played the entire time at church with him. At first the tin wouldn't close because there was too much fluff, but eventually it will close. I tied a ribbon around it for now.

Update: I am holding a naming contest for wee mouse and the winner gets a $10 gift card to Michael's!!!

Just leave your mouse name in the comments (hint- be creative).
Wednesday I will pick and let you know who won!

Really rich hot chocolate - Day 199

I tried another recipe from my hot chocolate book. This one was from Madrid, Spain. I guess they like it thick over there. You are supposed to dunk churros into it, but they are in short supply in Missouri. I did not have cream, so I added 3/4 cup almond milk instead. I also used chocolate chips for the chocolate morsels. I have maybe had one thing in my life that was too rich, chocolate wise and this was #2. I tried to keep drinking it, but it was so chocolatey. I think it was made for dunking. So I made some toast and dunked it and it was PERFECT! So Other things I would dunk would be cinnamon raisin toast, doughnuts, cookies, bagel, etc.

Chocolate a la Taza

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 tsp corn startch

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine milk and cream over heat in saucepan on med-low heat. Gradually add chocolate, stirring constantly. in a small cup dissolve cornstarch in a few tbsp of water. add to the saucepan. stir until it becomes almost as thick as pudding. 

Or

If you have a hot chocolate machine, you just dump everything into the machine and turn it on. It didn't melt all the chips the first time around, but if you take off the lid and stir it, the machine will turn back on and they will finish melting.

Lace hair bow - Day 198

 I love girly things and bows are no exception. I don't have a hair bow clip and as I was sitting next to my stash of fabric I thought "Hair Bow!" It is the same way I make the boys bow ties, except in the bow ties I added an extra layer inside with felt for stabilization.

 So first step you cut the size of rectangle you want. Sew all the way around, making sure you leave a hole  open so you can turn it right side out.

 After turning the right way, fold in half.

 Then fold the open sides to the middle.

 This is the way it looks from the side. It makes a capital "E". 

 Sew right down the middle. 

 Add a clip on the back with hot glue.

 Add some pizazz!

 Here is what it looks like in my hair!

House slippers - Day 197

 I found this adorable slipper pattern and have been dieing to try it out. I thought I could make it up, but nope. So I broke down and bought the pattern on etsy. I have never used a crochet pattern before so it was a little tricky and took me a couple times on the soles, but I got the hang of it. I chose turquoise and pink. I wanted the soles to be a little dark so the dirt wouldn't show up so quickly. So I don't think they look exactly like the pattern, but this is my first pair and I am sure they will get better!

Favorite Hot chocolate - Day 196

I recently bought a hot chocolate recipe book. I flagged every page because they all sounded so great. The only recipe where I had ALL the ingredients is my new favorite! It is two ingredients: Milk and Nutella. I am allergic to dairy milk, so I drink Almond milk. You just use 3/4 cup Milk and 2 heaping TBSP of Nutella. I use my hot cocoa machine so I just let it do the magic of heating. I think that you can warm it on the stove or in the micro just as easy. Today I put both marshmallows and whipped cream. It was sooo yummy!

Cuban red beans - Day 195

  Cuban Red Beans

 This recipe was great! I love it and it was super easy!

Here are the ingredients all laid out.

This is what it looks like when your cooking it on the stove.

Yummo!

Update: The link is fixed

Sticker mess - Day 194

I went to Target yesterday and looked at their 70% off Valentines items. We use placemats at our house so I found two that were adorable and a steal! They were .50! So I took them home and started to take of the sticker and it was a complete mess! I know you all have had this problem before too, so I saw on pinterest and idea using a blow dryer. So I take them into my bathroom and proceed to place the blowdryers hot air on the sticker from the front and back for about 30 seconds. Then I peeled back the label with ease! It was so much quicker to pull out and set up the blow dryer than to actually try to take off the label one piece at a time.

This is my attempt at showing my first video on the blog, so let me know how it turns out and if you want me to introduce more videos, or if you like pictures better!

Victory rolls - Day 193

This hairstyle came about right after WWII as you can probably tell due to the name. They are super popular right now.This past week I had an epiphany. I realized that the clothes styles now days are horrid and they make everyone look like a shlub. Where has our femininity and pride gone? It's not about dressing girly and putting beautiful things on our bodies, but about crawling out of bed and doing the least amount of work. I am guilty, but I am changing my ways. I am making my style less about comfort and ease and more about feminine and effort.  I want to only put on beautiful things and feel great about how I look. So I am sure there will be more tutorials of making clothes and hair. Here is a picture of my first attempt at 1940's hair. I got some compliments and some "What the heck!" looks at church yesterday, but the important thing is I felt pretty! If you want to do them too, just youtube Victory Rolls and picj anyone you like. Ihad to do a side part due to my scar being in my middle part.