Monkey Pizza Bread

I made this for lunch as a test try as something I saw off Pintrest. That pintrest is dangerous, espeically when you search for bread. There is some good looking bread on there!

I followed the recipe and directions at The Sweets Life. I don't think I put enough butter around each little ball, but it really didn't matter. The top of mine was a golden brown, but the bottom is pepperoni colored. Oh well, it tasted really good. I used the dough recipe from Our Best Bites. I just stuck all of the ingredients into the bread machine, and it was enough to make two pans full.

My food critic (Genius) decided that he didn't like it with sauce (I had Ragu, so I used Ragu). He liked it better with real pizza sauce. It was flaky and pulled apart easy. It was also pretty easy to do.

Now to find something else to try.

Coupons, Diapers, and Full Price *Gasp!*

I went to Target yesterday since we were almost out of diapers. Usually, I get diapers for pretty cheap by stacking coupons with store giftcard deals/ECB/+UP rewards, or the time that Toys R Us ran the $5 diaper deal.

But last night I reached the end of my stash of diapers. No one has them with a deal that I see, and I only have a few coupons- $2.00 off a box or two bags, a Target one for an extra $1.50 off a box, and a $4.00 off a Huggies Slip on Diaper.

Even with the coupons, the Huggies Slip-On Diapers were the most per diaper. Even though it would be great to blog about the pack of diapers I got for $5.50, it would have cost me more per diaper then buying the big box with  $3.50 off. And after 20 diapers (My son is a size 5- so there is 20 diapers in their Slip-On pack), that would last him about 3-4 days. They call them Slip-Ons, but my son thinks they are Slip-Offs. As soon as they are the slightest bit wet, or scrunched up, he slips them off. And if it's #2, your chasing a messy kid, and then  finding where he left the messy diaper.

I almost went with the Target diapers, which are great and I love, but usually Doorbuster gets a all over his bum rash with them. So in addition to diapering him, I have to powder and slather him with A+D. So I went with the box of pampers. Who'd of thought buying diapers would be so complicated? I had to figure out the per-diaper cost on each of them. This is why I don't like shopping with my kids!

I also used my time at Target to get started on some Christmas shopping. I like their dollar isle things around Christmas and they are perfect for stocking stuffers. I found quite a few things for everyone, before it was all picked through. Now to move some things around in my closet so I can stick all the gifts together.

I also bought dishwasher detergent. I had a bunch of free cascade that I got with coupons. I was so happy to get the Cascade for free- until I tried it. I usually use Finish (costco had a buy one get one free, so I was well stocked), but since it was free I got a bunch of packs. Finish spoiled me, I didn't have to do very much pre-rinsing, I could load up and run it and my dishes would come out sparkling. Then I switched to Cascade, and it stunk. I had to wash the dishes before I put them in. Then our water bill started creeping up. So even though I had a couple coupons for Cascade, I bought the Finish. I have not paid full price for a box of detergent in a year and a half. It was worth it between the money it may save on the water bill, and the kick in the pants to watch my couponing and deals a lot closer!

Around Here...

We've been working on projects around here (when we have time) since Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up. I've been working on a few big cleaning projects and trying to get things decluttered and cleared out. It's no fun to decorate for Christmas when you have to wipe dust off the walls to put things up. It's also cold and flu season, so I make sure to wipe doorknobs and doorframes off pretty often.

I tackled my dirty oven after trying to use baking soda and vinegar to clean it. I saw it on pintrest. It didn't work. I used my old standby of comit and brillo pads. Now I have a back ache from leaning over into the oven, and from cleaning up the whole bottle of shampoo that the kids spilt behind the toilet in their bathroom. That was loads of fun to clean. Soap is a controlled substance around here now- they get the bottle when they are taking a shower and then I put it away. Today I need to do the oven racks and the top of the oven. I'm very thankful for my laptop, I put it by wherever I am cleaning and watch a movie while I scrub.

I have to get Princess's room cleaned and gone through. My stepdaughter is coming down for Christmas break, and I don't think she will want to sleep on top of a ton of toys. I like to make sure she has room for her stuff too. Currently, you can't even walk INTO Princess's room, so I am NOT looking forward to cleaning it. At least it will be easy for her to clean when I am done.

I've been in a craft mood lately and made Princess a very fluffy tutu. I think the best tutus are super fluffy. Hers makes me think of cotton candy. She only goes to dance once a week, but she has three leotards and a bunch of tutus. She is also outgrowing all of her socks, so I've been putting beads on new ones for her. It's her favorite, and it gives me something to do while sitting at dance and drum lessons.

It's almost time for 2nd semester already. I have everything planned out for next year except for Genius's extra activity. He needs to try something new. Maybe he will take music lessons too. I've been forcing everyone along in their books at a good pace, and I'm happy where we are starting the next semester at. Taking the time to plan out everything well sure helped. The older boys have been riding their bike every weekend for about 6 miles or so, and playing with the neighbors when they can in the afternoons. It gets dark pretty early, so they don't have too much time to be out playing.

Doorbuster plays "Where'd it go?" with his belly button, and it's the cutest thing ever. He'll play it with anyone's belly button. I love this age, except for wanting to walk very slowly through the store, and then protesting very loudly when I put him in the cart. He knows how to undo the baby latches in the kitchen, and will even bend the latches down and re-latch them when he's done. I may have to buy some magnetic locks for under the sink, even though he is very good about leaving them alone.

The rest of this week we are busy with our usual, but we may try to visit a friend later in the week. One of our friends had his appendix out. Poor guy!

Thrift Store Treasure Hunting

.We went out and took a trip all over town to a few different thrift stores. I was looking for kids pants (which is rare to find, since they wear through them most of the time). I didn't find any pants, but I did find some cool things. The kids favorite part of the trip was looking at all the old stuff.

Here's what we found:

A basketball hoop for Doorbuster, that he absolutely loves. The jeans Princess is wearing were a whole $2.50 at goodwill. Sometimes you can find what you are looking for.

Brand new rollerblades, with a bag and wrist guards for $3. Now when the kids take their scooters to the park, I can take my skates and push Doorbuster in the stroller.

And a floormate. It's my new best friend. It was $15. I thought it would leave the floor dryer then it does, but getting it for this price I don't care much. It got all the stick off the floor in a few passes, and I really, really like that only clean water is going on the floor. There's just something about mopping and wringing the mop into a bucket of dirty water that just seems...dirty. Most of my house is tile. The hall is tile, the baths are tile, the living room is tile. I love it, but it's a PAIN to keep clean. Especially when it's wet and rainy. Then I have to keep a towel and a mop by the door to collect wet shoes. This should help a lot.

Now to get back to my "job" for the day- getting the hall cleaned. I have one wall and baseboard done, the junk that was piling up on the end of the hall is put away, and my stockpile is organized and sorted. I just have to finish the last wall and baseboard. It's covered in little dirty hand prints.

And the cutest thing ever- Doorbuster snoring

Rice-capades

I bought a 50lb bag of rice the last time I was at Costco. I figured we ate the 20lb bag of rice pretty quick, so I'd buy the 50lb bag this time. After I got hubby to bring the bag of rice in (I got it into the garage, he put it in a baby stroller to carry it in), I tried to fit the bag into my bulk container for it.

It wouldn't fit.

So I figured I'd put it into gallon sized ziploc bags inside the bin. I got about halfway though of filling bags when one of the kids needed me for something. By the time I got done with all of the things everyone "needed" me to do, I sat down for a minute.

Then I heard the sound of rice being thrown everywhere. Not exactly the sound you want to hear when there's at least 20lbs of rice still in a bag on the floor.

Doorbuster had "helped" me put the rest of the rice away. He put handfuls in the bulk bin, handfulls in all of the kitchen drawers, and since he ran out of places to stick them, he started throwing them on the floor.

That was some good incentive to get the rest of it put away!

10 Goals for the Week

I linked up with Money Saving Mom! I'm hoping to get all my goals DONE for the week.


Family/Mothering Goals:
1) To tell each Child 3 positive things per day.
2) To have movie night and watch the whole movie with them
3) To make everyone practice their 15 min per day, and their bible verses 2 times a day.


Personal Goals:
4) Exercise for 15 min per day
5) Take my Vitamins & Allergy Meds every morning
6) To increase my WoW raid healing by 1.5k (Hey, it's a personal goal!)


Home Management Goals:
7) Everyone does 15 min morning pick up of their room (including me).
8) To clear off the kitchen counter that collects junk every evening.


Business Goals:
9) Clear Out, Organize and Inventory my pantry & hall cupboard.
10) Cut out and sort all the coupons on my bedroom floor, plus cut this Sundays and organize.

I'm Back!!!

I haven't blogged in awhile. It's a long story. Well, not really. I ran out of picture space on my blog, and it's no fun to blog without pictures. I was using imageshack, but it was a pain and stunk to use. Then I looked and saw I could upgrade my Picasa storage, and I figured I'd pay the $5 and be set. Except I kept leaving my card in different places then my computer was. Add in our normal busy stuff, and my hubby working lots of overtime, and I've slacked. So here I am again!

We had a great Halloween Trunk or Treating at our church. The kids carved pumpkins (they picked the pattern and we handled the sharp tools). They also dressed up.

I got the transformer costumes last year on clearance for $8 each. Princess picked a princess dress she already had (she has tons and tons of costumes). Doorbuster was the only one I bought a costume, his was $9. I was going to put him in his costume from last year, but for $9 I bought him the train one. Which he hated.

But once he realized he got candy when he wore it, he was much happier. Now he is happily inspecting himself as I write this. I still have our Halloween decorations up. I need to take them down today. We are going to make some thanksgiving decorations today to replace them.

I'd also like to thank Pinterest for sucking the time out of my days. I sure got some good ideas on some craft projects though. I also got some holiday cleaning and purging done. The boys room was a disaster, the schoolrooms was a disaster, and now its all sorted out and cleaned.

Doorbuster is practicing to be a stripper. I'd say it was time for potty training, but it's not.