Happy Birthday 9th DD!!!--Her Favorite Pasta Recipe

  This weekend we celebrated our DD's birthday.  Boy does time fly by!  It seems just like yesterday my husband and I brought her home.  I remember sitting down the carrier she was in, looking at each other and saying..."Now what?"  :)
  What a blessing this journey has been, and I thank God for my wonderful family every day.  I cherish every moment spent with them.

  I thought I would share with you the recipe for her birthday meal.  I found this recipe on the back of a spaghetti sauce jar years ago.  I don't remember which brand it was, but whatever your favorite brand of sauce is will work just fine.

I take a 9 X 13 inch baking pan, and pour one whole box of Penne pasta (16 oz) in it.  Do not cook the pasta ahead of time, just open the box and pour right in.  Then take your favorite jar of spaghetti sauce and evenly pour over the pasta.  Next, fill the empty sauce jar with water until almost full and evenly pour over the pasta and sauce.  Cover with foil, and cook in oven at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until fork tender.  Finally, remove the foil and sprinkle the top with shredded mozzarella cheese, and return to the oven to melt.  Then serve.  It is simple and delicious.

Tip:  To make the meal complete, simply buy a mixed bag of lettuce, and prepared garlic bread that just needs to be heated in the oven.  With about 15 minutes or less of prep you can have dinner on the table!  The longest part of the process is just waiting for the pasta to cook in the oven.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Jennifer

Housecleaning hangups

 Hello,
  Do any of you get overwhelmed with cleaning responsibilities?  The main area of my house is usually only minutes away from being "company worthy."  This helps tremendously!  Just by keeping the kitchen, family room, and main bathroom picked up and clean makes the house feel fresh, gives a satisfying since of accomplishment, and relieves the stress of unexpected company.

  However, by the time I do the everyday "have to's," like cleaning the kitchen after breakfast, lunch and dinner, vacuuming daily (we have two dogs, need I say more :) ), making the beds, at LEAST one load of laundry (so it doesn't pile up), and homeschooling during the week, I quickly run out of steam.  Which makes it very hard to find the energy, or desire to clean the other areas of my house that aren't high profile.


  I just wanted to share with you all a website I found called,  Flylady.  Her website gives great tips on how to get, and keep your house clean one step at a time.  Click on the Beginner Babysteps section to get you started. Now, some of these steps you may find you're already doing, but keep reading!  This website will help give you a nudge into the right direction, when you just don't know where to begin.

  You'll see that they pick weekly zones to work on, by breaking them up into small chunks each day, so that by the end of the week you have completely cleaned that particular zone from top to bottom.   By breaking it up this way, you don't put off doing something that you know is going to be a daunting task, because you approach it in small doses at a time.  This way you don't run out of steam before your finish, and then end up never completing the task.

  I just started looking at this site this week.  I've been dabbling in it so far, but plan to fully commit to it starting on Monday.  Anybody else want to "Fly" with me?  Let's get our homes sparkly clean one step at a time. :)

Happy Cleaning!
Jennifer

I'll never iron clothing again!

Hi all,
  I told you in my last post that I would explain what I meant by wrinkle removal.  Well, I saw an infomercial on a Shark Portable Steam Pocket.  Yes, I was oooing, ahhing,  and said I want that!  So, my husband surprised me with it.  I LOVE IT! I'll never iron a clothing item again!  I hang up the piece of clothing, plug in the Shark, and within seconds steam is gushing out of it, and a few swipes later...no wrinkles.  It has also become my new favorite go to cleaning item for the bathroom grout.  With the scrub brush attachment the grout looks brand new after a few scrubs.  It also has attachments for cleaning large surfaces, like windows, mirrors, doors, cabinets, and a long skinny attachment for in between faucets and knobs.

  I just had to share!  I'm not getting paid to review this item, I just thought some of you might like to hear about it.  If your interested in it, I added a link for you to check it out.  I do get some compensation if you purchase through that link. ;)




  Thanks for stopping by, until next time,
Jennifer

P.S. Do you have a homemaking tip you would like to share? If so, feel free to comment here, and be sure to go  over to Raising Homemakers and link your tip. :)

My typical day....

  Hello!
  A fellow blogger...50s Housewife, is hosting a linky on her blog titled, "A Housewife's Life-August."

She asked us to share a day of our life.  I thought that could be fun, so here goes.  My day started at 5:30am.  I don't know why I'm waking up almost the exact same time every morning so early lately, but I'm just going with it.  I came downstairs to fix a cup of coffee.  Poured too much creamer in it, but too tired to care.

I went back upstairs into the office and got on the computer.  I caught up on all my emails, and read some blogs.  It was so quite, until.....dogs started barking at 6:15 wanting to go out.  I let the dogs out, then went ahead and got showered and dressed.

  Then I made the bed, and emptied the dishwasher.  DD woke up, and I told her to get dressed while I got bagels ready, per her request. After breakfast, it was up into the playroom/classroom to start school.  Between back and forth teaching, while she does her independent work, I vacuumed family room, cleaned up coffee cups, and breakfast dishes,  put clean comforter back on bed that I washed yesterday, emptied all the garbage cans, and got the big garbage can ready to take to the street, completed 2 loads of laundry (washed, dried, put away, and wrinkle removal).  Yes, I said wrinkle removal...you'll have to see what I mean by that on my next post. ;)  Then lunch, clean the kitchen from lunch, let the dogs out again, and short break before we went back to finish up school.

  Ok, once school is done, it's free time which usually means catching up with DH and hearing about how his day went, then getting on the computer again checking emails, and/or working on a post for my blog.  Today I added some Girls Summer 3T clothes on ebay to sell. :) DD likes to watch some TV, read a book she picked out from the library, or play a video game.

  Shortly after that, it's time to figure out what to fix for dinner. I've really got to look more into getting a menu plan together.  Today, I did remember to set out a chicken to bake in the oven tonight.  I love getting dinner ready to eat by 5:30-6:00, so that by the time we eat, and clean the kitchen it's still pretty early.

  Then dogs go out one last time, DD and I usually go up and snuggle up for a movie before bed.  Once DD is tucked in DH and I usually watch something together before bed.  Then we start it all again the next day.


  I just love being a stay at home mom!  I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  It's the most fulfilling job I've ever had.

  Well, don't forget to go over to 50s Housewife to share your day!


Thanks for stopping by!
Jennifer

Comfort on a plate!

Hello,          
   For lunch today, we had comfort on a plate!  The meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and rolls hit the spot.  My daughter had a blast in the kitchen today, since she had a big hand in making her first meatloaf from beginning to end!  (That's an old picture of us to the left there. She's now 8, I just like that picture.)

 The best thing about lunch today (besides it being just delicious), is I know what we're having for dinner. :) I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday.

Off to clip coupons!
Jennifer