Good day..

Well the test went as well as possible.. not really the answers we were looking for, but answers nonetheless. She's allergic to beech trees, maple trees, cats, and cockroaches of all things. The allergist let us know that if we take Ashy to a hotel and she becomes stuffed up and sneezy, there's a good chance we're in the midst of roaches. Nice huh? My kid is a roach detector. (gimme 10$ and I'll loan her out to sniff the room when you're a -holidaying ;)

In other news, it's February now. (Guess that's not really news unless you've been living under a rock for a few months.) February in this house is a bad word. I'd love to skip right over this month and move on to March. This month brings this mama many a-challenge. I fight daily to remain chipper. I KNOW it's the lack of sun and outdoor oxygen, it happens every year around this time. Vitamin D, SAD lights, exercise and routine are supposed to help.. and they do..when you use them :)

Today the sunlight is pouring into the house, which is a delightful change to the past few cloudy days. When we built the house we turned it, so that it would face south east in winter, thus allowing the sun to attach itself to my face on a regular basis. Today it is attaching nicely. Burning my retinas actually. Guess the choice is now between blindness or depression....tough call.

As I was just settling into my armchair this morning, preparing to leave a large (large because February is also my prime month for growing .. out not up .. ) dent as I spend a good portion of my day in it, a truck caught my eye as it slowed in front of the house. I'm not sure about you, but when a car slows in front of my house, it sends me into a panic, taking quick evaluation of my appearance and the disarray surrounding me. The evaluation came back to me with nauseating results. The Hubs sweatshirt, no make-up and a house thats been neglected for 3 days meant there was little I could do before the doorbell rang.

Thankfully, as I scurried to my room, as fast as my sloth like beast of a body could scurry, I took note that the truck was that of 'Denois' (names have been changed to protect the innocent) (pronounced Den-wa). Denois purchased our last vehicle from us, and asked for a payment plan as he couldn't afford the price upfront. We agreed and he's been showing up every 2 weeks with what he can pay. In hindsight, post dated cheques of a nominal amount would have surely provided less anxiety. There's no set time for his arrival and lucky for me it's when he's on his way to work ( read: EARLY)Applying a fly-lady principal, of dressing head to toe each morning..would also result in far less anxiety. Why don't I learn!!

Ding-Dong.

The exchange was made and he also brought a double double from Tims. Can't complain really...cold hard cash and coffee. The sight of his truck should bring Glee!

So here I sit, dent growing, coffee cooling and the budget awaiting its addition. Oh .. and retinas burning.

It's gonna be a good day.

Banning Bananas..

In this here household, we've not eaten nearly as many bananas as we once did. Our little Ashy has been showing symptoms of an allergy to them..itchy ears,face, mouth and tongue. The same goes for Kiwi..totally weird huh? Pretty awful fate for a kid who gets most of her dietary needs from raw fruits and vegetables. (If ONLY God had blessed me with a solitary craving for these foods.) She also reacts to Advil chewables, and fruit punch of all things...

When she had the chewables (about a year and a half ago) we had to bring her to the hospital because she suddenly resembled Gonzo. Her nose grew about twice the size! With the fruit punch she says it hurts her brain really bad, and believe it or not she gets dark patches on her forehead..  poor girl.

Today is the day of reckoning.. time for the test.  Please pray for her :)

The BIG Cook!

Here's how it all begins: Christin and I both  shop for our alotted grocery list from the wonderful spread sheet she's created. We try to save as much money as possible by shopping at No Frills and look for deals up to a week before we shop. Once that's done, we await the BIG day and bring all our ingredients together! Here's a picture of how we organize it - label each meal and put all ingredients for that meal together. (this was our Christmas bake, where we made a ridiculous amount of cookies, bars, squares, cookies, dipped pretzels etc)

This was the Bacon meatloaf that was from the recipe book ' The Big Cook' .. Anyone who is interested in this style of cooking, MUST buy this book. It provides great tips of the trade as well as an abundance of recipes. Some of the recipes are trial and error..but we've found a few keepers...the 'Zippy Porkchops' are a favourite! All of the meals are put into either large ziplocks, or aluminum pans for freezing. Each bag is labelled with recipe name, style of cooking (crockpot or oven), temperature, and time to cook.  No need to keep recipe book handy that way.

Here is Christin in the kitchen, using the processer she totes along each time we cook - what a great tool it is!

Here are a few of the dipped pretzel rods we made. Some were dipped in sprinkles, skor bits, and cookie crumbs. Made for a nice decorative treat.

These were the date pinwheels (Christins nana's recipe) that turned out to be a family favourite for us!

The real bonus to cooking in these large batches all in one day, is the savings on dishes and time. I'm also more apt to invite company for dinner when I've got a frozen meal on hand!

A great idea for busy moms!

 And yes ... the kitchen definitely gets worse before it gets better. We try to clean as we go, and keep an open garbage, a burn box (something that folks in the country have the luxury of having ;) and a recycling bin on hand to keep the empty packaging to a minimum.

 Slappin' the meat in there :) Cooking CAN be fun!

What's for supper tonight???