Cleaning - or not

Such cuties.  Anyway, today Rose helped me clean up the St Pats decorations we had out and after we took the sticky ones off the door, she also helped clean it.  Between her interest in it and the work outside...it probably took her almost an hour to work on this one window.  She loved spraying it then wiping it up.  Eventually, James joined in, and spread it all around with his hands instead of the towel.  

While she was cleaning, I noticed the HOA hired landscape crew out front.  So I ran out and asked if they would mind pulling the two dead shrubs out.  No problem they said and in less than 2 minutes they were gone (most of the roots too!).  SO EXCITED!!!  Anyway, I paid them in Gatorade and cookies.  I gave a cookie to the kids too - hence the chocolate all over his face.

Hey do the bushes count towards my 40 in 40?

Yummy!

In an effort to practice more of the traditional aspects of Lent, I have been trying to make more meals without meat.  Luckily, I received a vegetarian cookbook for Christmas that has provided great stuff so far. Here was tonight's dinner: Mediterrian Hummus Pizza.  It looked so good, I had to share.  

Premade pizza crust - bake according to directions, with garlic and evoo basted on top

After baking, spread hummus, chopped tomatoes, kalamata olives, deseeded cucumber, diced artichoke hearts, and feta.

Enjoy - you will probably need a fork and knife!

40 Days Update

So, I haven't completely fallen off the band wagon, just been too busy to post anything about my progress. And it hasn't been as impressive as the closet or whatnot from other rooms.  I have gone through my half of the dresser and closet in the bedroom - waiting patiently for Dan to do the same (wink wink), and got a good sized pile/bag out of that.

I have also been working on things like the bathroom cabinets and such.  I have probably added a small trash bag to the list with that kind of stuff.  So I think I am up around 10 - I will have to go back and do a real count soon.  And I need to keep up with my cleaning out!  

My only excuse is that the weather has been so darn nice that we have been playing outside instead of working inside!

Linked up.

St Patrick's Day (full version)

 For breakfast I made, or tried to make, shamrock pancakes.  And yes they were green.  Despite the face, she actually ate all of them.  

For lunch I did what is called a muffin tin meal.   She had chicken nuggets with green mustard (a drop of blue food coloring did the trick), grapes, kiwi, a pickle and 3 leftover heart candies in the shape of a clover.  She got green sprinkles in her milk.  Most of it was gone at the end of lunch, so I guess it was a hit, maybe I should theme more of our lunches.

We had lots of fun at the park in the early afternoon.  I played around with the black and white setting on  my camera a little and loved the results. 

We went over to my friends house for an afternoon snack.  We both had wanted to make white chocolate snakes  but neither had the time or all the ingredients.  So we improvised with apple rings and Fruit roll ups.  and put them on top of her cupcakes.  

 She is really enjoying that cupcake.  There was also leprechaun juice (green fruit punch), but kind of hard to get a pic of that.  

 James enjoyed their ride on tractor.  It has pedals like a bike, but he really liked moving the digger.  And NO I DO NOT WANT ONE (really, my house is too small to store it).

Later I gave them pistachio pudding.  James liked it so much that he licked the bowl clean.  

I am linking this up to the LENS photo challenge this week.  Of course the theme is green! And linking to Muffin Tin Mom.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

More soon...too many to figure out right now.

Rainbow Art

In honor of the holiday this week and the typical rainbow stuff associated with the leprechaun and whatnot, Rose made some rainbow art with Fruit Loops then enjoyed the 'leftovers' for snack.  I don't know if she knows it is a cereal (as in you could eat it for breakfast) since she keeps asking for oatmeal - I won't tell her just yet!  Pretty art though huh?  I am hanging her bean art from the other week in our bathroom after it is painted!

LENS Photo Challenge

This week's challenge is to have mom in the middle.  I don't really have any good shots of me (period). I happened to catch this one while trying to show the mess we made with the Oobleck.  I thought it still fit the theme well enough. See the others at Home is Where You Start From.

40 Bags in 40 Days - Rose's Room Day 2

The closet...UGH!  What a mess!  No help from the kids on this one, I needed the space to sort and less stress of them asking to keep stuff.  I got rid of a lot on this one!  So I decided to take Monday off - and then just organize the yard sale pile on Tuesday (since I spent lots of time picking up the paint for the painters this weekend).  I will get back to it on Wednesday - I promise myself.

Not as clean as I would like, but it is definitely a lot less stuff.  And some of it will move into James' room once the office is totally moved.  

The 'bag(s)' of stuff!!!

40 Bags in 40 Days - Rose's Room Day 1

BEFORE

Day 1 of Rose's room involved going through all the toys, books, and clothes in the dresser.  I know the pictures will just look like I cleaned up the room, but I did have a bin of stuff at the end of it that either went away (in the attic) or to the yardsale pile.  

AFTER

The 'bag'

Sleepyheads!