Goodwill, baby shoes, and fireworks

This weekend is the last weekend of the month. Which means that Goodwills around here have 1/2 prices. This might not seem like a big deal to some, but when you have 9 children to clothe, second hand is like manna; especially when it comes half price. Yesterday was spent perusing two local Goodwill stores. Today will be spent hitting two more. I did get a lot of good deals yesterday. Of course the kids make out like bandits. Toys that are usually .50 were only .25. They must have thought it was Christmas all over again. :)

I was not the only one that got good deals yesterday. My hubby stopped at a fireworks supermarket to pick up some free fireworks. He came home with this:

and this:




How hard is it to shove a baby's foot into a hard, unyielding shoe? I hate that! Therefore I love the soft shoes that baby Abel wears. I can't remember where I got them. If I come across some like these I'll post about it.


Now usually I don't have my babies wear shoes until they start walking. But in cold weather they need something on those little toes. So these are my favorite baby shoes. I'm going to try to find some more. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

Keep those mashed 'taters warm

Do you ever go to a potluck and want to take mashed potatoes, but just KNOW that they'll be cold when you get there? Well here's a little trick I learned from a friend of mine a few years ago. Mash the potatoes and add the butter, milk, salt, pepper, etc. Put them in the bowl and wrap with foil. Make sure you wrap the entire bowl. Then take a towel, not a dish towel, but a regular bath towel and wrap the foil covered bowl in the towel. This should keep those 'taters warm until you are ready to eat them.

Fun days ahead...

Tomorrow is National Kazoo Day. So if any of you out there have kazoos be prepared to use them. Thursday is National Puzzle Day. Dig out those puzzles you always say you'll put together...someday. Thursday is that someday. And the big one...Saturday is Backwards Day. Wear your clothes backwards, eat your meals backwards. hint: start the morning with supper; dessert first. I'll try to post how those days go in our family. Have a fun week everyone!

4th pic from the right

I got this idea from Rachel. Here's my 4th picture from my 4th folder.
This is from 2006 and I have no idea what it's about! It has something to do with my husband's work. I assume he took this picture 'cause the boys like construction vehicles.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Here is my recipe for Triple Chocolate Cookies (if anyone is interested)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 eggs
3 cups self-rising flour
1 cup each semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and white/vanilla chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix. Then add flour. Mix, again. Last add the three kinds of chocolate chips and mix. Roll into 1 inch balls, place on cookie sheets or stones. Bake for 12 minutes. I used stones so it might be 10 minutes for sheets. Cool for a couple of minutes on the sheet/stone then move to a cooling rack. Or you could just transfer them directly to a plate and eat. :) Yummy. Best served with ice cold milk. Servings - depends on if you are eating them as they come out of the oven or if you are saving them.

Enjoy!

HELP

Can someone help me figure out how to put buttons on here? When I copy and paste the url the button doesn't show up, only the url.

I did not...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
And here is my Not Me! Monday! post.
I SO did not order a trial bottle of Acai Burn last night. Nope, not me. I would not try a so called quick fix to weight loss. (Of course if it works I will post the results on here, but since I didn't order it I will not be posting about weight loss).
I also did not just have ice cream for breakfast. Not me (who is trying to lose baby fat). I would not eat Mayfield's Butter Pecan with a couple of scoops of Mayfield's Rocky Road on top. Nooooo that was definitely NOT me.
Hmm...since I obviously did neither of the afore mentioned items thus contradicting myself I am doing alright.

Measure your feet

Today is Measure Your Feet day. Who thinks up these things? Well, I didn't measure mine (who wants to know how big my feet are, really? I've had 9 kids, they're big enough). Anyway, the kids wanted me to measure theirs. They really get into this stuff sometimes. So, my 5 yob feet is bigger by 1/4 inch than his bigger 6 yob. Does that mean anything? He's already wearing the same size clothes. Is he going to be taller? The average height in my dh's family is 5'8". He has an uncle over 6' and his brother is over 6'. Maybe my son will be one of the odd ones. :)
So that was my exciting day. Oh yeah and scheduling the kiddos check-ups. Yep, I do it all at once. Thankfully our family dr is a large family man himself (they have 8) and he understands the concept of trying to get this done. So they are set to take up half his day with just my kids. Joy. :)

Winter Wonderland

It snowed in Tn yesterday. And it stuck. I thought my kids would spend the whole day in the snow. My kids? Nope. 30 minutes in the white stuff was enough. And not even all of them went out. Oh well.
We saw deer across the road from our house. Usually we see one or two, but NINE!? Nine deer were in the field across the road from our house yesterday evening. The pic only shows eight, but I have another one not zoomed in as much that shows nine deer.
Also a male cardinal was feeding at one of our bird feeders. Now these we see a lot. But there's just something about a male cardinal in the snow. Must be the whole red and white contrast.
Anyway, that's it for today.

life goes on

So my last post had to do with my aunt's death. I quietly mourn, but meanwhile, I have to live.
So in Pigeon Forge there is a Wildlife Wilderness Week going on. We have been the last two days. We had a friend speak there and went to hear him Sunday. We totally missed his talk (I couldn't find the hotel/convention center) but we saw a really neat presentation afterward. I had live animals; always a favorite with my kids. So we went back yesterday. We plan to go to one this afternoon and a few more the rest of the days this week. It's pretty fun. I just might post some more on here later about it.

Why does it take a tragedy to post new? Not that anyone will read this anyway. Oh well.
My dad's sister died last night. She had been fighting cancer for a few years and now she is with Jesus. I can say that because I truly believe she is. She loved the Lord and served Him with her life for as long as I knew her. My granny said the same thing when I talked to her. I will miss her. Even though I'm in TN and she was in OK I will miss her. Miss knowing that I could just pick up the phone and call or write an email. So the mourning isn't really for her, she is much, much better off. The mourning is for those of us who are left behind and have to wait to see her again. Because we lived so far apart (and because I have 9 children) I didn't get to see her as often as I would have liked. I hadn't seen her in two and a half years. We pretty much had to keep in touch by letters, emails, and phone. But I'm kind of glad I'll remember her as she was before. In the end she was so weak she hadn't eaten for two months and couldn't even pick up the phone and talk. I'm glad I didn't have to see her like that. In my mind she is walking towards me with a welcoming, loving smile and ready to give me a big hug. She never married and never had children, my grandpa had gone on before 13 years ago, but my granny who lived with her and my dad, aunts and uncles will certainly miss her very much also. Well, I feel better now that I have written this out.

My first blog on my site.
I have no idea what to write.
I'll have to try this later.