Recipe - Drop Sugar cookies

Edited to add: I see Danielle is having an Advent Baking Carnival, I submitted this recipe. I freeze the backed cookies all the time. Mostly because it uses Buttermilk and I get a whole quart of it and I can make 4 double batches. And who knows when I will find the time to bake.


Since all I want to post are ramblings about how my foot hurts and I'm going to New Orleans in 10 days and how grumpy Hubby has been and...

Here's the buttermilk sugar cookie recipe from my Great Grandmother:

1/2 c Butter
1 Cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c buttermilk
2 cups flour

So cream the butter and sugar. add in the vanilla, eggs and soda.

Alternate the buttermilk and flour.
Drop by teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Thanksgiving preparations

My contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner was a vegetable tray and a double batch of drop sugar cookies. I had help making them. But after one pan, he became bored. He does not really like the cookies. Oh the horror! My grandmother used to make them. My brother and I are the only ones who still make them.

Menu Plan Monday

Oh My, It looks like Blogger does not want to upload the banner.

Monday - Turkey sandwiches - open face w/ Gravy -

Tuesday - Turkey and Noodles or Turkey Vegetable soup

Wed - Not Turkey - Meatloaf maybe

Thurs - Thanksgiving - I am taking cookies and a veggie tray

Fri - Um, I am going to leave it open. Odd are with my parents in town, the family will most likely get together.

For more Menu's check out Laura's site

Football weekend

So I live in Ohio. So it was the weekend of the BIG game. And this year it was bigger than ever with the teams ranked #1 and #2.  Hubby and the boys were excited about the game. Then we hear that my High school, the one the boys will most likely go to, won in their march to the state playoffs.

Then the big Ohio-Michigan game… Hubby and the boys had to go to Church Sat evening because of a wrestling meeting Sunday morning. I had to turn off the TV and push them out the door. We then got home we ate our pizza dinner in the living room picnic style to watch the game.  

Then to top it of, University of Cincinnati, close to my heart as my alma mater as well as where I make my living, pulled off a huge upset.

DS7 talks about playing football when he gets older. I just might let him.

Whoops!

Dad came home early than expected Friday afternoon. The 11 YO was doing some questionable web surfing. Ms. Home-computer-adminstrator did not get details, but we ponied up our $49.95 for Safe Eyes to block certain sites. I chose Safe Eyes as it was one of the top 3 rated but it can be installed on up to three machines. We have 2 plus Dad's laptop. It also gives me the ability to set hours that the kids can be on the net. Right now I have them blocked out from 9 PM until 5 AM. I thought about blocking out 3:45 - 5:00 but he does use the 'net for homework. So maybe now we have a clue as to why he has not been completing his homework before we get home.

I did have another package installed on the basement machine at one time, but I reloaded that machine last year and did not reload the protection software.

Now I need to figure out why my older machine won't connect to the internet at all. Sigh, I may be the supervisor at work, but at home I am still the network expert.

More Homework Wars

So Monday afternoon was hang out day after school. The youth ministry has a room when the 6^th, 7^th & 8^th grades can go after school, hang out, snack, play, watch TV and maybe get some homework help. Hubby attended a dinner meeting. So I made plans to stop by and drop off my twin nephew’s birthday gifts. The boys all love to play together. So I pick up the 6^th grader. He has homework. Oh no. He probably won’t complete it if I left him home – as if he would miss an occasion to play with the cousins. So he rushed (with my encouragement) through his definitions for History.

 

Mrs. C sends me an email I thought you'd like to know that B is redoing his History homework from yesterday.  Although hieroglyphs is a vocabulary word, he did not need to make his handwriting look like hieroglyphics.  :)

 

Tuesday he has band practice, he does not work on his homework until Dad get’s home and “motivates” him. He rushed through to get it done in time for band practice. He brings home a Missing Assignment slip saying that his science and History homework needs to be redone.

 

Wednesday is wrestling practice. He does not work on his homework until Dad gets home. Again. He starts his homework. He goes to practice and is supposed to be working on his homework. There are way too many distractions. He asks me to wake him up early. I woke him at 5:00. I let the house at 5:30 and he was working on his Math. I talked to Hubby. The boy did not complete his Math. He never got to Vocabulary or Science.

 

So here’s a plan: He really likes logging on to his email account. I am going to set up reminders at about 3:45 to start his homework. On Wednesdays he’ll get pop ups reminding him that it is Wrestling Practice night and he needs to have him homework done.

 

He has the time. He is not utilizing it efficiently.  I sure could use some thoughts and suggestions.

 

My Accent?

I saw this over at Barb's SFO Mom blog.

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: The Midland

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

The Inland North

The West

The Northeast

Philadelphia

The South

Boston

North Central

What American accent do you have?
Take More Quizzes


Yup, Southern Ohio. They got it right. But they did not ask how I pronounced wash. Both of my grandmother's spoke that word like it was spelled with an R "WARSH"

Works for me Wednesday - Holiday edition

In my Holiday Traditions post, I talked about my extended family on my Mom's side. Last year I was crazy enough to tell my Aunt I'd help her with the Christmas party and she handed it over to me. With a current head count of about 70, there are quite a few different opinions as to how to structure the gift exchange. There are some people who have very firm ideas about how it should go.

When I was little, there was an adult exchange and a kids exchange. My Uncle Bob is 2 years older than me. Of course an some point he moved into the adult exchange. The tradition was that the original 11 siblings and their spouses were the only ones in that group. As the second generation grew older, there was a huge range in ages. Some of the mothers of Toddlers struggled with buying appropriate gifts for those of us in our early 20's. So there was the Adult siblings group, generation 2 group and the kids. Then some of the younger siblings wanted to be able to expand their pool of gift exchange candidates to neices and nephews who are close to them in age, but there are also 2 of the siblings who insist on keeping an exchange pool to be the traditional siblings and their spouses. If it is done this way, this Aunt and Uncle won't participate, if it is done that way, that Uncle and Aunt will not participate. Sheesh.

How do you make 70 people happy? You don't. My Mom - the oldest surviving sibling, has a goal to keep as many people coming as we can. So last Christmas I set out names of everyone on strips of paper and set out 4 large cans. 1. People who decided to sit out the exchange; 2. Only open to the original 11 siblings and their spouses. 3. Adults over 16 4. Kids 18 and under. It was a do-it-yourself, put your name in the appropriate can. The Siblings and their spouses had their choice and kids between 16 and 18 had their choice. I planned to draw names that night, but I do have one traditional-minded Aunt who was not pleased with my set up. But I look at it as only one of the 70 people had issues with it. Pretty good percentage. In July I pulled the names out of each can and entered them in a spradsheet. I engineered the Exchange. I then sent post cards to everyone with their names on it. Of course I did have a cousin who whated to know how I expected her to remember who she had for the next 6 months... LOL! I'm going to set it up this way again unless my traditional-minded aount wants to take it over.

Call Me Freaky -

Hi, My Name is Maggie and I adore Christmas Music.

Today I copied all 11 of my favorite Chirstmas CD's onto my work computer for my listening enjoyment. And yes, I have it playing right now. I probably would have been listening to some Holiday music this weekend, but I left my MP3 playing in my laptop bag at the office. I did find my SD card that has the Chirtmas music on it.

I saw an ad in our paper that the local soft rock station is going to start their non-stop Christmas music this Friday. My Mother in Law will not be happy. They play this station at her office. I think if I did not have the option of turning it off when it got to be too much.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Hubby has a dinner meeting and I forgot to pull Ground beef out of the freezer. So Ground Beef night will be Tuesday this week. Leftovers and Chicken Nuggets.

Tuesday - Cheeseburger sloppy joes

Wednesday - Wrestling practice night - Beef tip roast in the crockpot, slices and served on crusty rolls.

Thursday - Pork Chops

Friday - Homemade pizza

Sunday will be our traditional Sunday-before-Thanksgiving feast. I cook a Turkey and our favorite sides. This started the year Hubby said he really likes Thanksgiving leftovers. My Mother In Law and Sister in law will come too. We will have:

• Turkey and gravy
• Dressing - My favorite part, but only I eat it. Well my Sister iin law had some last year.
• Jelled cranberry sauce in a can
• Sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter and pecans
• Broccoli Casserole

For more great menu plans visit Laura at Org Junkie.

The Great Bed switch

Over the weekend we had the boys trade beds. The 11 Yo had a double in his room and this double bed served as our guest bed. We host my parents every other time my parents come to town (the alternate visits thaey stay at my brother's) and on occasion my Father in law. The 7 YO had a twin with a trundle.

The 11 YO is organizationally and neatness challenged. His room has been rated as disaster area eligible by 3 out of 4 Governors. Some of that standard advice for such situation is to close the door. Well, when the propspect of company looms, Mom and/or Dad have to go in with a trash bag and make it presentable. We try to threaten him with that, but he always allows it to happen. So my new standard will be to do a food check and let him live in his pig stye as he likes. Another advantage of having the trundle in his room is that he cannot shove stuff under his bed. So let's see how this works.

30 Day Organizational Challenge

So I said I was going to try Irg Junkie's 30 day Challenge. I took pictures, but have not yet transfered them off the camera. I will work on that tonight. But I picked my craft area in my basement. There is a set of old kitchen cabinets hung in my basement. A few years ago Hubby installed a 6 ft piece of countertop we got a Lowe's for $36. I got some Iris carts.

I have done a lot of crafts in the past. I have some general supplies, raffia, ribbon, clothes pins, popcicle stickes, eyes, hair... I have a lot fo paints for Tole painting. General sewing supplies, scrapbooking and card making supplies - including runnber stamps. I tried to purge, but a few weeks ago, the 11 YO had to build a model virus. He used a clear glass ornament, pipe cleaners. yarn... All from my stash. So I really don't want to get rid of a whole lot. I could probably go through my paints and throw out the dried up bottles.

So I started to tackle it last weekend. I did pretty well putting my stuff away. Until I got to the 12x12 scrapbook papers. I am looking for some ideas. Laura posted my question on her site and there have been some interesting responses. I will probably hit JoAnns, Hobby Lobby and Michaels tomorrow when I am off work. I'd like to minimize the money spent.

Weekend Memories

 

So with half the family out of town, the 11 YO and I were on our own. We hung out at home Friday night. I made some stir fried shrimp for my dinner. B decided to make Bosco Breadsticks for his. I did manage to get Laundry sorted. Saturday we got up bright and early and hung out at wrestling practice. We got McDonald’s for lunch on the way home. We each got a sandwich and a shake. We shared a package of fries on the way home. Saturday afternoon we went up to the small Mall to have dinner at BW3s they were packed with Football game watchers. So we went to Friendly’s.  It was here he told me “Dad and A. are having their time together and you and I are having our time together.” Awwww. He even shared his ice cream sundae with me.

 

Sunday we went to Church and then out for a Breakfast Bagel. He came home and worked for several hours on his homework. I was pleased. I ended up cleaning his room. I was NOT pleased. We try to give him helpful hints about where to start. I’m sure cleaning his room is overwhelming for him. So we tell him:

 

1. Put your clothes in the clothes hamper (he did that)
2. Put trash in the trash can (lots of wrappers on the floor)
3. Put your books in your bookcase. – His lack of ability or maybe desire to do this really bothers me. Neither of my boys is willing to stand their books on end in the bookcase. Why not? I’ve already removed him books once. He’s such an avid reader that he has been searching them out and brining them back up to his room. But why in Heaven’s Name will he not put them in his bookcase?

 

I guess he knows he collects useless stuff. And It’s Ok for Mom and day to come into his room and throw it all away. They get off his back about cleaning his room. They won’t throw away the good stuff. I’ve read a lot of advice to just close the door. I have 2 issues with that.

1. I found an empty pop can, empty Gatorade bottle, empty Doritos package… FOOD! I am afraid of bugs in my house.
2. We have a small house. We have 3 bedrooms. My Parents live out of town and stay with us frequently. When they come in, the boys double up and the Grandparents sleep in B’s Double bed. Hubby and I decided yesterday that we are going to switch the boy’s beds. We’ll put the twin and the trundle in B's room and the Double in A’s room.  That would mean less cleaning for us when the Grandparents come to visit.

 

 

Holiday Traditions

Sandra over at Diary of a SAHM is hosting meme about Holiday traditions, So I thought I'd play along. I have not been doing well with Crock Pot Thursdays.

My Mom is one of 11 kids. I counter 69 of us before my cousin's engagement, in 4 generations. Even though my Grandparents are gone, the family is still close. The oldest sibling has passed away, but his wife, Sons and Daughters are still very much a part of the family. Most of us are within a 25 mile radius. So we have a big family get-together Christmas night about 6 PM. There is a gift exchange that is optional, we all bring goodies to much on. The highlight is a visit from Santa. He tells us he is on his way back to the North Pole and stopped by to see us. This has been going on for more than 30 years. My Grandpa was a Santa's helper is a department store for years. Several of my uncles have followed suit. It is always great to see the kids. Last year there were 2 6 YO boys who were raptured by Santa. My youngest son and my cousin's son. Sata give each child a small toy and a candy cane. Pictures are taken.

I told my DH shortly after we got married that this party was negotiable for me. I'd like to attend, but if we needed to visit his family at that time.... He decided that this party was one he enjoyed so much that he made his Mom work around it. My brother and his family is not always able to make it every year and my cousin, the firefighter is not always able to get to town. But the rest are there. I love the fact that my children know their Great Aunts and Uncles and cousins how know how many times removed... We do get together other times of the year also.

Menu Plan Monday

Mon - Cheeseburgers and baked beans

Tues & Wed - Mom is out of town. Dad will probably grab stuffed chicken breasts out of the freezer

Thursday - Pizza

Friday - The boys and I are off: I'll figure something out.

So I am not really organized this week. But the freeer is full. Have a good week For more Menus, go to Org Junkie's blog.

Nice dinner, foot problems, weekend plans

Last night Hubby’s sister came over and cooked us dinner. It was a lovely Chicken Parmesan. She is a chef by trade and walked out of the restaurant when she was the salute cook Saturday night when the Executive Chef threw a pan at her. What a volatile profession for her. She came over to the house and she and the 11 YO searched the pantry for stuff she needed and then took the Kroger gift card and went shopping. She had a good time with her nephew. I think it is important that my kids have a good relationship with their relatives.  But the dinner was delicious. I did not mind cleaning up afterwards.

 

I’m guessing this will be a quiet weekend for me. Hubby and the 7 YO are going to Chicago to visit the Sears tower and hangout with Hubby’s Dad. I think Hubby is going to work on a door at his house. I finally went to a podiatrist. I have bad feet – very flat, plantar fasciitis and bone spurs. For several years, arch supports in my shoes or orthopedic shoes worked. But now I have an acute case of tendonitis. So I got a shot and a tight, padded bandage.  While the doctor did not give me restrictions, he did say to take it easy, so I guess I will.

 

I have some projects to work on and I can commandeer the TV in the basement. I have 2 sewing projects I want to work on. My 11 YO can watch the TV upstairs. I expect him to bring home a Missing Assignment slip today since he did not have all of his books to complete his homework, so no Xbox for the weekend.  I should bring home my laptop and figure out why I cannot hook into my wireless router. I ratcheted down the security. Maybe I made it too tight. LOL!

 

He is an Alter Boy

So the 11 YO was a server at the All School All Saits Day Mass. His class was in charge of the Mass. Or at least the parts that the lay people take. He volunteered to be a server. I have to admit the I forgot to watch him. But that is a good thig. He was in the background doing his job. He did not do anything to attract attention to himself. Although, I was sitting in the Church when he passed me on the way to the working sacristy to don his robes. He was clanking. I confiscated a plastic container with Halloween candy (shaped like a coffin no less).

Actually it was the 7yo that really had me in a tail spin. He walked into Church wear shorts and a t-Shirt. I know when I dropped him off an hour before that he was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. He had to walk across the parking lot to get to Church. I know it was gym day and they want the first graders to come to school in gym clothing instead of uniforms. I did let him know that evening that I though it was inappropriate for him to take off his sweats at this time of the year.

I am so thankful my boss allowed me to come into work late so I could be there. I feel so lucky that have the flexibilty.

Patch (Daytrana) Update

I got an email from a reader How is the patch working? We are having an awful time getting it to separate from the backing. I'm at the point where I'm going to give up! Amy

Oh, Those things are sticky. Hubby usually applies the patch. Because I am usually on my way to work. But the time I do put it on, I pull on the corner of the backing that is in the middle of the patch. Actually, I get both sides started, pulling form the center. I slap the center ont he skin and then proceed to pull each side of the backing off.

We are very happy with the effects. It is easy to remember and it works very well with my son. The doctor gave us a 3 month prescription to send to the mail order prescription company.

Good Luck Amy. For us the convenience is well worth any struggle to apply the patch.

Works for Me Wednesday

So What's been working for me is taking time during my drive home from work for prayer. I drive about 20 miles through city traffic. I am finding that - after I hear the initial traffic report, that turning off my radio and turning to prayer is a nice stress release. When I was not doing this, my mind was jumping all around and dwelling on negative thoughts. Now since I am Catholic, I have been praying the Rosary. I know most of the prayer so well that another part of my brain takes over and I can concentrate on driving at the same time.

For more great Works for me ideas, visit Shannon