Oh So Good Dinner!

The other day, Wednesday I think, I was so focused on working out that I forgot to put the pork roast in the crock pot for dinner! I had been planning all week to make a new recipe from the Kraft Foods magazine, but I had also been stuck inside with my kids home on snow days, and I was desparate for some workout time! Around 3:30, I made a last ditch effort to save dinner and hurriedly threw the roast in, but when 6:45 rolled around and it was no-where near done, I had to go to a backup plan.
So, on the very night that I complained on my blog about the awful school menu, I'm ashamed to say that I myself ended up serving my family mac&cheese and little smokies!
Thankfully, the roast was not ruined, it just had to be held over until Thursday evening. Wow, what a treat! I must say, it was worth the wait. I used the recipe Slow Cooker Oranger BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches from the Kraft Foods site. When the roast finally finished cooking, I put it away in the fridge, and then reheated it the next evening on low in the slow cooker. It's a good thing I ate lightly all day Thursday, because I helped myself to two of these sandwiches. Even though I was fully stuffed, it was just too good to resist! The best part is there was plenty to feed my family of 5 for another meal the next day.
All together, I had about $23 into this meal, including 12 sandwich rolls and a vegetable side, but if you count that as 2+ meals for a family of 5, it's not bad at all!

Self Indulgence

Every body needs a little some time! This is my self indulgence. I love these special edition rotary cutters from Olfa. Plus, I dressed it up with a scissor charm. So what if I had 2 perfectly good yellow rotary cutters? This is much more fun, don't you think?

Quilt Magazine

I'm so excited to be featured in the newest edition of Quilt Magazine!. The Crazy Quilter is featured on page 97. The magazine is currently pictured under "Our Magazines," and then under "Preview Next Issue," although it will probably be moved to current issues soon. It went on sale yesterday. Hopefully this is just the first time I am featured in a quilting magazine! It is a rather expensive method of advertising, so this is my trial run to see if it's worth it.

Projects Lists

I updated my current quilting projects list this morning, so now you can click on them and see exactly what I'm working on. That Classic Tablerunner that's been there forever? Don't expect it to move anytime soon. I'm making the one that looks like a penny rub, top middle. I saw it at Market and loved it, yet I haven't been able to get any farther than a pile of pieces on the end of my quilting machine. I even got so desparate that I asked Monte if he would cut out the fusible pieces for me. He pretended not to hear me, so I gave up!

The girls are back in school today after a day off yesterday due to high winds and power outages. It's actually really nice to be able to come into the shop at normal time, with some sort of a regular schedule. Will is with me this morning, since there's no preschool on Friday. No school today put him in a bad mood, since he doesn't understand why the girls get to go and he doesn't. (Yes, believe it or not, he loves school, at least for now) He missed two of his three days today due to the weather. Plus, he "hates, hates, hates" the shop.

He's in quite the mood today. First, he wanted to watch a show. I only get 2 kids channels at the shop, and he informed me that he "hated" Mickeymouse Club. However, it seems he doesn't hate it enough to hinder his enjoyment, since he watched the entire show intently and even shouted the answers to all of Mickey's questions. He hasn't remembered there's chocolate chip cookies in the case today, but I'm sure that's coming. Here's Will, watching Mickey Mouse:

Internet Withdrawl

Whew! The shakes and shivers from my Internet withdrawl are slowly subsiding! After going all day with no Internet access, due to the high winds we are having, it's suddenly very clear just how addicted I am. No email, no website maintenance, no web orders to fill, I almost didn't survive it! Not being able to check for new orders drives me crazy! (More than usual, if you can believe it)

My dad used to make fun of me when I first started my website, for how excited I got whenever I got a new order. That excitement still hasn't subsided, I check orders constantly, all day every day. If you're an Internet customer of mine, know that you are fully appreciated! It may seem like I'm money hungry, or greedy, but that is really not the case. I just love what I do, and I love sending out quilting products all over the world! More sales just means I can get more inventory. Trust me, I'm not getting rich off of this anytime soon.

Monte is always asking me "How's business? Can I retire yet?" I always laugh and say no, thinking to myself that it'll never happen. It's just not that kind of business, at least not so far. When I do sell, I just use the money to buy more fabric! I'm such a quilt-a-holic that I usually know exactly what new fabrics and notions I want months before I can actually afford them! It's a way of business that only a quilter can love.

I've been known to go into the shop and package orders at 8, 9, even 10 at night when they come in. I can't stand to wait until morning. I'm utterly addicted, I just can't help myself! So, order up! Help me feed this addiction of mine, prevent withdrawl, and watch for new fabrics coming into the shop soon!

Who's Idea is this Menu???

Since the new year, I've been trying to not only eat healthier myself, but also provide better meals for my family. So, when I actually took a harder look at the lunches I've been paying for my kids to eat at school ($100/month between the 3 of them!) I was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of apparant nutritional value. I'm sure there are state or federal regulations governing the school menues, but really, who's driving this thing? Based on my observations, I'm guessing the C.E.O's of McDonalds and Taco Time might be involved!

This is the current menu for my two younger kids: Lunch Menu. Is it just me, or do they seem to be serving a lot of french fries and fried mexican main dishes?? Bailey's menu is no better, see it here.

The calendar is covered in hamburgers, fries, fried chicken patties and nuggets, pizza, corn dogs and tacos. And since when is "Super Nachos" a MAIN dish of a balanced meal??? Most of these items I reserve for special occassions at my house, so it is disturbing to see that my kids are actually eating them every day at school! As a result, I've began packing their lunches more often than not.

This solves the problem for my family, but not for the school in general. I would be interested to know what it would take to change the trend, and bring healthier meals to the school. It doesn't cost any more for me to send healthy lunches than it does to purchase the school lunches. So, why can't the menues be changed to include healthier alternatives without raising the prices?

Boring Days Ahead!

The snow just won't quit, and it makes for a very boring life. We have about 4 feet on the ground right now, got 4" more last night, and are expected to get 4-6" more inches tomorrow. If it wasn't already too hard to go anywhere, it's about to get even worse! The result is that I haven't been doing much of anything exciting lately.

I can be thankful that I decided to trade my 2wd car for a 4x4 Durango this Fall. I can't get to my house without 4wheel drive anymore, I can only imagine what it would be like with the car. Plus, we all know how Monte's pickup does in the snow, so driving it wouldn't help much. The Durango does great, I just hope I don't have to buy new shocks this Spring! The roads in town are very rough, in some places it's like driving on a logging road.

Tomorrow is Monte's birthday, and we will probably be snowed in. So yesterday, since I had to go to Moscow anyways, I bought an apple pie and ice cream, and we celebrated early. Apple pie is Monte's favorite, and it is already gone! The kids and I ate a little over 1/4 of it, and Monte had the rest, having the last piece for breakfast this morning. I'm not sure how it's humanly possible to inhale that much food, but he seems to do it with ease. We should all be so lucky!

So, what did I get him for his birthday? The same thing I got him for our anniversary in November, Christmas, Valentine's day and Father's day: A Jamaican vacation, of course! I think this should be good for two years of gifts, at least, but Monte already claims that I've used it past it's limit. Sometimes it's like having 4 kids! By the way, what do you suppose it would cost to extend that vacation from 1 week to 2 months, starting tomorrow?

Kylee's Take on God

A couple of years ago, the kids were at my Grandma's house when Kylee got her first lesson on God. I wasn't there, but when I arrived to pick up the kids, my Grandma pulled me aside and told me she thought maybe Kylee could use some Sunday school. Here is the story:

Kylee had some how hurt her foot or knee or elbow (I'm not sure which it was) and she was crying. Grandma hugged her and told her to pray to Jesus to help the pain go away. When Kylee looked puzzled, Grandma took her into the bedroom and showed her a picture of Jesus on the wall. "This is Jesus, and if you pray he'll come and help your pain," she told Kylee.
Evidently Kylee quit crying, and went off to play. About an hour or so later, Kylee came into the living room where Grandma was, looking around anxiously. She pulled Grandma's arm, and asked her quietly, "Grandma, is that man here yet?"

I still think this is possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard Kylee say. Since then, the girls have gone to Vacation Bible School in the Summer. Yesterday afternoon, I was reminded of it when I overheard Kylee filling Will in on her take on God.
They were talking about our dog that died last year, "Murphy." Whenever someone brings him up, Kylee is quick to tell them that Murphy is in heaven with God. Will followed Kylee into the kitchen yesterday, and I heard him insisently asking her, "But Kylee, what's his name. That guy, that's with Murphy, what's his name?" Then, Kylee turns around and says with exasperation, like she's told him a hundred times, "G - O - D, (She sounded it out slowly with exageration) His - Name - Is - God, Will!"
Then, Will asks, "Then what's he look like?"
And Kylee, cleary annoyed that Will doesn't seem to get it, replies, "You'll learn about him this Summer."

Get Your Sidewinders Here!!!

Wow, what a Monday! Just when I thought I had a day at home, the universe conspires against me! That quilting machine? Haven't even turned it on today.

First, I decided to bite the bullet and try to make sense of my taxes. I am happy to report that they're almost done, but they also took up my entire morning! So, I headed to the shop to "quickly" fill some orders.

To my surprise, my shipment of Sidewinder Bobbin Winders arrived today. What I thought was going to be a quick trip to the shop to fill one order turned into a crazy 3 hours trying to fill Sidewinder back-orders! Imagine orders, receipts, boxes, bags and shipping labels everywhere, and then add Will into the mix, following me around whining, "I hate the shop, I wanna go home, I hate the shop, I don't wanna go back to the shop," and you have my afternoon!

So, since they arrived today, and I'm too exhausted to think of anything else, the Sidewinder is my product of the week. They have been hugely popular, enabling you to wind bobbins without unthreading your machine. They are very portable, and run off power or batteries. There are several types of bobbins the Sidewinder will not work with. It will work with any bobbin with a normal, round center hole.
The Sidewinder works great if your sewing machine doesn't wind bobbins well, or is difficult to rethread. If history repeats itself, they won't be in stock for long, so order while their hot!

Just in Case.....

you might be thinking it's not that bad ---- think again! My front porch is behind this wall of white. It may look fun at first, but trust me, the novelty is wearing off quickly!