Fresh Friday

ok, I know I said I was going to start this last week, but to be honest, I didn't make any thing "fresh" last Friday, and I couldn't think of what to blog about. But that has changed this week!!

This is the first ever Fresh Friday for me, but many more in store! An old stand-by at the Anderson's house, but always a winner!!

Homemade Pizza!

pizza crust:

1 cup warm water

2 tsp yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp oil

2 1/2 cups bread flour

you can let rise if you want, but I usually am making these

as a last minute meal and don't take the time for it to rise.

spread it on a greased pizza pan, (I like using a stone)

I sprinkle corn meal on my greased pan b4 spreading the

dough.

Spread pizza sauce over dough.

I use Hunt's Spaghetti sauce for the pizza sauce

because that's what my mom always used, and I happen

to like the taste.

Now this is where it gets fun...

sometimes I will grate some fresh parmesan over it at

this point. sprinkle some pizza blend shredded cheese over

then you can add your favorite toppings...

Handsome Hubby likes italian sausage and onions

Brother Alan likes plain pepperoni

Beans likes sausage and pepperoni, no onions!

Blue Eyes and Joseph love sausage, mushrooms and black olives

Brooker's choice is canadian bacon and pineapple

Belle loves sausage, green pepper and onion

My favorite toppings are gr pepper, red pepper, onion, black

olives and mushrooms. with a few sausage thrown in ;)

Sprinkle with a handfull of shredded cheese and bake at

425 for 20 minutes

enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Decided at the last minute to make the girls prayer shawls for their bdays... their MARCH birthdays.... Alexis' is March 1st!! And I just started it tonight!!! hmmm, I think I have some long nights ahead of me!! 5 nights to be exact. 5 nights to complete Alexis' prayer shawl... 5 nights till I have another teenager in the house... 5 nights till my blue eyed baby is a teenager...
Oh boy, I'll think I'll quit now. I just had this overwhelming sadness come over me :( how is it that I am old enough to have 2 teenagers already?!?!

Not Me......

.... Monday

Ok, I saw this on some other blogs and thought I would give it a try. So here it goes...

I did not wait until 7 o'clock tonight to start thinking about supper, not me!! I am always on the ball and have supper on the table by 6 o'clock, and I always make sure every meal has all 5 food groups... yeah right ;)

I have not spent the last 3 hours working on a crochetting project and when my DDs asked me what I am making, I did not have to honestly tell them that I actually have no clue what I am making. Not me!! That would be a silly waste of time an effort!! And I am not silly or wasteful...

I did not spend 3 hours on the computer this morning. I did not spend that 3 hours on the computer reading people's blogs that I don't even know. And I DID NOT spend that 3 hours on the computer while Handsome Hubby did the dishes and washed all the floors and did 2 loads of laundry. NOT ME!!!!

I did not reorganize the fridge today. I did not make sure that all the labels were facing forward. I did not organize all the soda in straight rows of like flavors. I did not put them in alphabetical order. NOT ME!! only crazy people do that and I am so NOT crazy ;)

I did not walk thru JoAnn's yesterday and seriously contemplate 2 new stacks of scrapbooking paper. Not me, I would never do that, not with my 3 foot tall stack of paper in my scraproom!


Ok, what do you think? Does this look like it could be a fun? I will have to keep a notebook for all the "not me" moments, so I can make sure to write them down as the week progresses.... It is fun to look back and see all these moments and to be able to be totally honest about the imperfections of me, and all under the guise of ," NOT ME!!!" :D

Miss Crabby Pants

Arrgghh, do you ever have those days? Days when you are just so crabby? And you know your crabby. And you don't want to be crabby. But you still find yourself yelling at the kids, and snipping at the handsome hubby? And you really want to be happy! And there is absolutely NO reason to be crabby. But yet you still are crabby :P

Well, that has been me today! Just crabby crabby crabby! Yep, the horns and pointy tail crabby. The "watch out!!! Mom is CRRRAAABBBYYY!!!" crabby.

We went out for pizza with Handsome Hubby's family, went shopping, didn't buy much of anything, but still I GOT OUT OF THE HOUSE. Handsome Hubby wants me to finally get an electric stand mixer, ( yes, all the holiday baking, well, all the baking in general we do, its ALL mixed by hand!!) and tonight we shopped around to see what my options are... but thru all of that, I was crabby!

I hate being crabby. The Brat Pack hates it when I'm crabby. And Handsome Hubby hates it when I'm crabby. But does any of that change the fact that I am majorly crabby? Nope. Still Miss Crabby Pants.... Praying that tomorrow is better, I'm sure my whole family is praying that tomorrow is better!!! :P

I let you know tomorrow ;)

Friendships

Just something that I have to say...

If you are wondering why I know longer pick up the phone and call, why I don't jump at the chance to get together with you. Well, I guess I have felt like I am always the one to call, always the one to push for us to get together, always the one making the efftort. I am tired of feeling crushed when you bail on our plans once again.

I am done making the effort, I am done picking up the phone. I am not mad, I consider you my friends and always will. I cannot be the one putting in all the effort for our friendship anymore. You see, when you cancel at the last minute, I feel so stupid for even thinking that it mattered. I feel that our friendship obviously does not mean the same to you. I am tired of feeling like the pathetic woman who puts time and effort into a friendship that is one-sided.

So, if you want ever want to chat, or get together for coffee, or just hang-out, you can call me, you can make the effort for once. If I don't answer your call, leave me a messege I'll get back with you sooner or later.

Friendships meant alot to me at one time, but I have realized how little they mean in my life now. I have found that my husband is the only friend that I need, I don't need another woman to unload on, or vent to, or to understand me. My husband has become that person for me, maybe he wasn't before because I didn't let him be. Sure we still have our times when we are annoyed with each other, but having to deal with it in my time, my own mind, my own heart, that has helped my relationship with my handsome hubby. I have found that having that friend to unload on,vent to, complain with, well, that never helped me see the problem was in my heart, my attitude, myself. Most of the time what it did was strengthen my self-pride!!

If you have a friend that is calling you, would like to get together for coffee with you, don't ignore her! If your friendship means anything at all to you, YOU need to pick up that phone, YOU need to call her! Or there may come a time, when you look back, and remember how great of a friendship you once had, and you say to yourself, "hmm, she hasn't called in awhile, I wonder whats going on with her..." I hope, if you decide to pick up that phone to call her, I hope it isn't too late. I hope you haven't slammed the door on the friendship you once had. Just a little something to think about...

Wordless Wednesday

the surprise haircut, at least it was a surprise to her parents.... I was not happy with her and Beans!!

Taking This Blogging Thing Seriously?

I have come up with (stolen from other blogs) some ideas to liven up my blog a little bit... I was thinking if I would plan a theme for each day, then maybe I will be more likely to blog everyday, or at least almost everyday ;) so here's what I was thinking...
Wordless Wednesdays
Not Me Mondays ( stole this idea ;)
Fresh Fridays ( was thinking this would be the day I post a new recipe or a favorite recipe)

the rest of the week I will just post my musings, funny stories from the BP or just whatever else comes to mind :)

What do you think? Does it sound like I might actually have decided to take this blogging thing seriously? We'll see how long my attention span is ;)

Sleepless

Another long night... I knew it was going to be bad when I fell asleep at 11:30 and handsome hubby came to bed at 1:00. Of course I woke up and could not get back to sleep. I was really hoping for a full night of sleep, needless to say, that hour and a half was the only sleep I got. And to make matters worse, when handsome hubby finally came to bed and I woke up, I let my frustration out on him. "why couldn't you have come to bed at the same time as me?!? then we would both fallen asleep, and I would (maybe) have stayed asleep all night!" grrrrrrr....

To be quiet honest, it really doesn't matter if we go to bed at the same time or not, I am still waking up 1-2 hrs later and then I'm up for the rest of the night/morning. So I really had no reason to snip at him, it wouldn't have mattered if he had come to bed at 11. I still would have been up at 1. arrrgghhh.

And you would think that with all the hours of time that I have on my hands when I can't sleep, that I would be able to accomplish something! But no, I don't seem to get anything accomplished as I am trying to be quiet and not wake up the BP :P

I think my hand is feeling well enough now, I am going to have start spending my sleepless nights working on Christmas gifts for next year. Then at least I can say that I am doing something with all those wasted hours.

AND this morning I had to apologize to my handsome hubby, and really apologize, not the "I'm sorry, but its really all your fault!" apology but an honest to goodness, "I'm sorry for crabbing at you last night." apology. Amen, end of apology, no excuses, no blaming. Just "I'm sorry".

So I am pumped full of caffeine, on my 4th cup of coffee for the day, and I made it hair-raising strong coffee for today! I know I'm going to pay for it tonight, but I need it to function today :P and b4 everyone gives me the advice that maybe my coffee consumption is the reason for my sleeplessness, I will explain that I went totally off of all caffeine, coffee,soda, chocolate, migrain meds, for weeks and I still wasn't sleeping, the only difference was that I had horrible headaches that I wasn't treating and I was crabby, like all the time crabby, like "look out, mom is REALLY REALLY crabby" crabby, like clear a room crabby, like horns and a spiked tail crabby... I would rather have my coffee and meds for my headache thank you very much!

Well, one good thing about all this time on my hands, I have been checking out other blogs and have decided that I am going to do some fun things to liven up my blog a little. Stay tuned for some fun stuff coming soon :)

I Love...

the smell of coffee

fresh baked bread

the food channel

Alexis' Blue eyes

wood-burning stoves

yummy smelling soaps

a clean kitchen

trying out a new recipe

watching Belle bake monster cookies

Bean's boots

sleeping thru an entire night (hasn't happened in months)

the smell of rain

Joseph's drawings

lilacs

making lists

reading

photography

slippers from my mom

travelling

sightseeing

swimming

the ocean

homemade soups

drinking water from our house( you don't appreciate your own drinking water till you are on the road and water from any other place makes the kids sick for weeks until their bodies get used to it)

rasberry jam

my mom's homemade apple butter

orange blossom honey

Brooke's sassiness

packing up the van and driving away

cuddling with Snowball

taste of home mags

hoodie sweatshirts

receiving emails that are actually emails and not forwards

texting to my hubby in a room full of people

Dennis' smile

A very happy Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful weekend :) Saturday we went to my parents' for the morning, then stayed for dinner and watched a movie. ALL of us watched Spiderwick Chronicles, the BP thought it was so cool that all of us adults watched it too.
Then Saturday night my wonderful hubby took me to St Cloud for supper, we went to La Casita, ended up that there was a bday party being celebrated rght where we were sitting, we literaly could not hear each other talk the entire time we were there. So we decided to go somewhere else for dessert and cofffee, but we very quickly found out that everything in town was packed, 45 minutes wait times everywhere!!!
So he found us a very quiet coffee shop!! It doesn't seem as amazing as it really was. But you see, D can't stand coffee, the smell of it, the taste of it, he can't stand it!! SO the fact that he found us a quiet coffee shop, the fact that he sat in the quiet coffee shop for an hour while we talked and relaxed, that is really truly amazing! He had a small hot cocoa, and I had a lg latte', and we shared a really yummy slice of lemon-poppyseed bread. It was a wonderful night!
But it was't done yet!! We then went shopping and found the girls some really cute knee-high socks :) Found a really good sale at Target and was able to buy 3 pairs of really cute knee highs in the woman's section, for the price of 1 pair of really cute knee high socks in the little girls section!! So of course I bought a pack of 3 for EACH of the girls!!! They were really truly totally cute and I have wanted to run to town and see if the selection in Willmar is different than what they had in St Cloud. Definantly plan on making that run to town tomorrow, its been driving me crazy!! My poor boy, he sat at his plate and was a little disappointed, the girls had these crazy, cute socks on THEIR plates and he had a six pack of plain white boys socks :( thinking I may have to look and see if I can find him some cool, funky socks too.
Back to Saturday night... we then went to the grocery store and I picked up fresh strawberries, and yes, they were crazy expensive to buy at this time of year, but I had it in my head what I wanted to surprise the BP with for breakfast, so I bought them anyway. And I picked up some Valentine's candies and some cool whip.
Then it was back home and to bed, but we started talkin and "dreaming", you know, the "what if we had money, what we would do?" and the " isn't it so amazing to see our children are growing up into these AMAZING little people!",and, "remember when they were all so little, how hard everything was? It was SO worth it!" well, then we decided we weren't tired after all, so we got up an put a movie in and talked the whole way thru it. Finally at 4 (am!) D decided it really was time to go to sleep, so back to bed, but of course I couldn't sleep, so after he fell asleep, I was back up and reading and watching tv. Fell asleep about 6, and by that point, I really didn't want to fall asleep! But I was back up an hour and a half later to get my surprise Valentine's breakfast on the table :) Pink, heart-shaped buttermilk pancakes, fresh cut strawberries with pink whip cream, sausage links and grape juice :) they all loved it!!!!
Then it was to pick out all their clothes for church, the girls wanted to wear their adorable new knee-highs, so they had to change their clothes. And my girls were so good with putting up with my, "its Valentine's Day, wear something pink, or red!!" the it was off to church, then on the way home we dropped off some Valentine's cookies at grandpa and grandma McCaulley's and stopped at Uncle Dean's and dropped some cookies off for him too. Then we spent a wonderful afternoon taking naps and reading :)
It was a VERY happy Valentine's Day at the Anderson's :) Hope yours was as wonderful as ours :)

Stress, life and letting go and Letting God

Wow, it's been forever, again! Things have been stressful in our lives lately, well, really, for the last few months.
Construction has slowed down, pretty much at a standstill, with D building hotels. God has provided work for him, sometimes on a day by day answer to prayer! It has been amazing when I can step back , remove myself from the stress of it all, and see how God is working. But those of you who know me, know that I don't very often step back from it all, and I have a very hard time removing myself from the stress of it all.
Needless to say, stress in my life magnifies itself in my ability to sleep, or my INABILITY to sleep. I may be able to fall asleep, but an hour or two later I'm up, and pacing the house.
The BP are great, they are doing great in school, have found the one thing that they love. Believe it or not, they love to write essays!!! I let them choose a topic and then we head to the library and check out some books on the topics of their choices and they spend the next week studying and reading up on their topics. Which means quiet afternoons for me, and it also means that I have been reading up on the topics too! So I have something to go off of when I grade their work!
One thing I can say, I'm not letting the stress get to me as bad as it was 2 months ago. Now I can pray about it, let HIM take care of it, and I don't live my life with that ever-present icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am learning to let go and let God. Somedays are harder than others, on those days I usually go about my day with a gnawing feeling in my stomach and tears in my eyes. But those days are getting fewer and fewer. And I am getting closer to my Heavenly Father, as I have found out that He is my only strength. So thru all of the stress and anxiety and tears and Tums, and prayers, I am getting stronger!! And I find myself thanking Him for blessing me with my wonderfully amazing children and my amzing, tender, loving, forgiving husband.
I highly recommend letting go and letting God take care of all our worries and cares and all of the things that we find oursleves stressing out about. He can and will free us from all of the cares of the world when we set our eyes on Him, obey His Word and follow His Will for our lives. Such freedom that only He provides!!