Thanks to Paul & Ellen

My brother Paul and his wife, Ellen have been helping me change some things around my place these last few weeks. I'm done for now which really means I'm out of money. I changed the things I could do cheaply :) I still want wood floors and new counter tops but that'll have to wait. This is what my place looks like now.

Flowers and a Hug!

My friend Darla delivered these along with a hug yesterday morning :)
What a wonderful friend to have!

How I Spent My Morning

I baked 5-1/2 dozen sugar cookies yesterday afternoon and spent this morning frosting them. You can't really tell but the green sprinkles are shamrocks and they actually look a little cuter in person.

My friend is the boss where she works and sometimes brings in goodies for special meetings and things like that. She asked if I would make St. Patrick's Day sugar cookies for her to bring to work tomorrow.

So I did and I've got 4 dozen for her, a dozen for Stella's groomer because they're having a Leprechaun party tonight, a half dozen for my friend Darla who I'm going to be seeing tonight and it leaves just one for the baker to try which is a good thing because I ate a dozen of them yesterday before I frosted them :)

Sleeping in!!

The only thing I like about Daylight Savings time is that Stella let me sleep in until 7:00 this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Using Leftovers

I hate to throw away food so I was very proud of myself for using a lot of leftovers this week.
I had friends over for dinner Tuesday night and made chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. I had chicken leftover and also some cream from the mashed potatoes so I made chicken fettucine alfredo yesterday. It was very good :)

I found a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in my freezer last week when I was cleaning and had a package of shredded Mexican cheese left from a party I had on Sunday. I bought flour tortillas, used a can of diced tomatoes and an onion I had in my pantry along with the chicken breasts and cheese and made four chicken quesadillas for my freezer yesterday. They're so handy to have because they heat up as fast as a frozen pizza but are twice as good.

I had two flour tortillas leftover from the quesadillas so tonight, going with the same theme, I used two slices of bacon I had leftover from Sunday, a couple of eggs, the last of the Mexican cheese and made breakfast burritoes for supper.

Years ago when I was cooking for a family, I planned meals using leftovers like that. Nowdays it's just a happy accident when it happens.

Blech!

I spent most of last week cleaning. My kitchen, bathrooms and bedroom are all clean and looking wonderful! I still have a long list before I can put away my ammonia, Spray Away and Magic Erasers though.

Curio Cabinets
Laundry Room
Computer Room
Closets
Garage
Basement

I just cannot believe how much junk I seem to accumulate! And I'm a "thrower"! I don't suppose my garbage man is very excited when I start deep cleaning every year.

I think every muscle in the upper portion of my body hurts but if I don't keep going, I'll lose the momentum and the dust will continue to collect in all those strange corners and crevices. And my girls will have that much more crap to haul out of here when I die. I hope they realize what a HUGE Favor I'm doing them :)

My Shoulders Hurt!

I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out cupboards :(

And cleaning all the cracks and crevices on my appliances. I am amazed at how many crevices there are and how greasy/dirty they get. It's pretty bad when you need toothpicks to clean the gunk out! And I wipe down my appliances on a regular basis!

I have two drawers and one cupboard left and plan to do that this morning... if I can get my ass out of this chair.

I Hate Cleaning!

But I love a clean house.
Today, I cleaned out, washed out and scrubbed down the cupboards on the window side of my kitchen. I can't believe how much crap I have that I don't use. Into the trash it goes!!

I also scrubbed out the frig, the stove, the dishwasher and microwave. In between I washed, dried and put away 5 loads of clothes. I'm beat.

I figure I have about 2 more days worth of work in the kitchen and then I can move on to the rest of the house.
Thank God I have new light fixtures because they are about the only thing in my house that doesn't need a good scrubbing! YUCK!