Archives for 2008

New Poll: What is You Favorite thing about Fall?

Overall I’d have to say that fall is my favorite season. I love the weather, the changing leaves, and of course Halloween. There’s also just something about the hay bails, the pumpkins, the corn, and all the little harvest symbols/decor that I’ve always liked. And of course it’s a season of high school football, college football, and NFL football, which is a fun time for one and all.

And though spring is thought of as a time of birth and renewal, I’ve always got a sense of “newness” and “new possibilities” in the fall. As a kid I was one of the “strange” ones that actually looked forward to the start of a new school year, with new classes, new teachers, a new routine, and so on, and so I’ve always associated fall with the back to school season and the feeling that I’d get at the start of a new year. To this day, I still get excited when all the newly stocked school supplies items hit the shelves.

So for my new poll question, I’m asking everyone: What is your favorite thing about the fall season?

Weather
Leaves
Halloween
Football
Back to school

Menu Plan Monday for September 15

This week I’m trying to get back in the swing of things with my menu planning. The movers will be bringing our stuff this week so we can move in to our home. Since we’ll be busy unpacking, I won’t have to time for a lot of cooking…but I don’t want to spend our money eating out every day either, so we’re gonna be doing a lot of *quick fix* meals. So here’s my quick-and-easy, on-the-go menu!

Monday – Eating with my parents
Tuesday – Sub sandwiches
Wednesday – Tuna salad sandwiches
Thursday – Burgers & fries
Friday – Burritos
Saturday – Barbecue
Sunday – Pizza


A Little Miracle & Story of Hope

Between going around looking for jobs and waiting to move in to our house (yes, I’m still waiting) I haven’t really had a lot of time or inspiration for posting, so I looked over a couple of articles & things that I had saved for a few *quick & easy* posts.

That was I when I re-read this story. So much of the time I watch & read news stories that I have tragic endings, even endings which make me angry, but occasionally I run across stories that make me happy and even inspire me. A few months ago I found this article about a mother and her baby, a baby who’s survival by all accounts is a miracle. The story touched me, not only because the baby survived, but because of what the mother did to ensure her baby’s survival. The story is very heart warming, so I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

One-Time 10-Ounce Baby Well on Way to Terrible Two’s, Mom Says

The tiniest survivor: How the ‘miracle’ baby born two weeks before the legal abortion limit clung to life against all odds


National Preparedness Month

It’s interesting that as kids in schools (and in the work place as well) there is so much emphasis placed on safety. In school each month we had firedrills and tornado drills. And we learned all about how we can keep our home safe and free of hazards, but unfortunately these lessons don’t always carry over into adulthood because we just assume that the accident or emergency won’t happen to us, and we take our safety and good fortune for granted.

And it’s in these times when we’re unprepared and we’re least expecting it that something does happen. Personally I don’t think you can ever be fully prepared for an emergency; nor can you ever be quite certain of how you’ll handle yourself in emergency until you’ve done it. No matter how well you plan, there’s always this chance that in the heat of the moment, you’ll make a mistake or forget the protocol. But this all the more reason that we should at least try to be prepared.

I was cruising through some of the usual blogs I visit, when I ran across a post at Get Organized Now regarding National Preparedness Month. I remember reading about this in the past, but I had totally forgotten about it until I saw it on this blog. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the sponsor of National Preparedness Month, which is an effort to inform the American people and encourage them to get their home and family prepared for any disaster or emergency that may occur. This includes everything from making a disaster supply kit to planning an escape route in the event of a fire. To learn more about National Preparedness Month and download emergency plans and supply lists and other information, visit Ready.gov.

Contact Me

If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me anytime. Please put something in the subject box relating to your query, such as “Sweet Thursday,” “Sponsorship,” “Question,” etc. I usually respond within a few days.

simplysweethome@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Jerri

A Brief Look At Our New Home

Above is a picture of our new house. Disregard the 2002 date stamp. The photo was taken a few weeks ago by my stepdad…I guess he wasn’t paying attention. I’ve always liked houses built in this style, with the porch going across the front. It’s very cute and simple, and sort of country looking, which I like. We still have to paint the porch and the shutters, and we’re probably going to break up the “walk way” that comes out from the middle of the porch and just let the grass go over it. And we’re going to build new flowerbeds, but we probably won’t do that till next spring.

All in all, it’s a very nice house, especially for a “starter” home. And of course it has its pluses and minuses.

Pluses: Big back yard, Huge outbuilding, Brand new laundry room (just added on to the house), Big kitchen/dining area, 3 bed rooms, 1 1/2 baths, Has a living room + the previous owner closed in the garage to make a den area (this room will be our office), Large deck area. Plus we’ll have new appliances, fans, carpet, and paint.

Minuses: The bedrooms & bathrooms are small. Lack of closet space (I sense a post coming on this). The outbuilding needs some work. No garage/carport. (but we have room to build one off to the right of the house, or we could use part the outbuilding to park cars.) Also, not sure how energy efficient the house will be.

My Favorite Feature: The Kitchen Area or the den/office room.
My Husband’s Favorite Feature: The Den/office. His second favorite feature is the outbuilding aka his “Man Cave” or “The He-Man Woman Hater’s Club.” (he’s a Little Rascals fan)

I’ve been imagining where all the furniture will go and how all our stuff will be arranged in cabinets…but imagining just isn’t quite the same as actually doing. I can’t wait to move in!

My Week In Review

I’m happy to say that our week went fairly well. The drive got a little crazy as we were going through the rains of Faye. It was the worst weather either my husband or I remember ever driving through, and to top it off, it was dark. We were driving about 45 mph on the interstate and saw several wrecks along the way and actually stopped at one time because I couldn’t see the road at all and was getting scared. I’m still glad we didn’t wait until this weekend to come up. I hear that a lot of people in the gulf region of our state are headed north. There’s not a mandatory evacuation, and we’re not sure if Gustav will hit there or not, but either way, it’s good to have all of our stuff out ahead of time. And I’m happy that my husband and I aren’t sitting for hours in stand still traffic.

All in all, we had a pretty good week. I went to a job interview on Friday for a temporary position. I was very nervous about it, but it went pretty well. Not sure if I’ll get the job or not because I don’t have experience in the area which the position is for, but you never know.

As for the house, everything is looking good. In a lot of ways, it’s going to look like a new house when their done. Once the work is done, I’ll take some pictures and post them. I have a couple of “before” pictures that I’ll try to post as well. They were taken with a disposable camera rather than digital, so I’m sure how good they’ll look once scanned, but we shall see. Anyway the painting is almost finished, and they should begin putting in the new floors sometime this week. We’ll still have to do some cosmetic work to the outside of the house and to the outbuilding. But we can do all of that after we’ve moved in. (and boy, am I ready to move in!)

In thinking about moving, doing home improvements, and doing a little decorating and organizing, I’ve already got a ton of new post ideas. And hopefully in the next few days or week, I’ll get back to doing some regular posts on these very topics. It’s strange how you get so used to posting that you actually miss it, when you don’t get to do it. I also miss my laptop and my highspeed connection. (Right now I’m using my old computer which is on a dial up connection and is very slow!) Can’t wait to get into the new place and get back in the groove!

Planning the Move, Phase One is Complete!

The other day I got out my handy dandy notebook and made out a “to do” list of things we need to do before & during the move (see the list below). Well, phase one of the moving process is over. Thank goodness! Packing is the worst! I keep thinking of that DirecTV commercial that says, “packing, unpacking, your mind in a haze.”

We had a pretty good system though. We went through and numbered each box and gave it a “room label” and of course wrote what was on the box. And as we went, we made an inventory sheet of all the items. The list included each box number, the room the box should go in, and a breif description of what’s in the box. Hopefully this will make it easier when it comes time to unpack, so we’ll know exactly what box holds what before we open them. And on the list we also wrote down all of our furniture, “loose items,” plastic drawer sets, and plastic tubs, just so we’d be able to remember exactly what we have.

We stayed up late last night to make sure that we had everything packed up so that the movers could come in and do their thing without us getting in their way. (my husband used to move furniture, and he said people were always doing last minute packing..and arguing…when they’d get their to move…we definitely wanted to avoid that.) Now our apartment is essentially empy, with exception of the bare neccessities and a few special items that we wanted to carry ourselves. It’ll probably still be a tight fit to get everything we have left in our car and truck, but we’re gonna get it done.

Moving Check List:

Phase 1 -Boxing Up Our Lives – Stuff We’ve Already Done
-Get boxes & other supplies
-Make a list of essential items that we must have while we’re in limbo & set aside
-Pack, pack, pack
-Get Truck
-Line up people to load & unload truck

Phase 2 – Leaving it All Behind – Stuff to Do Tomorrow
-Pay electric bill and cancel service.
-Cancel internet service and pay final bill.
-Drop off book donations at library.
-Load up car and truck.
-Check mail, turn in apartment keys, and sign papers to get out of lease.
-Fill out change of address forms at post office.
-Stop by husband family to say goodbye.
-Drive up to my parents’ house, where we’ll be staying until the new floor covering is put down in the house.

Phase 3 – Living in Limbo – Stuff to do this Week & Beyond
-Get a change of location/number for our cell phones.
-Return unused Uhaul boxes.
-Get voter registration information changed.
-Make appointment for installation of satellite & internet services at the new place.
-Get address changed for magazine subscriptions & other important mail: bank accounts, student loan accounts, cell phone account, various online accounts.
-Do a pre-move in survey of the house to decide where we’ll put furniture and stuff.
-Work on anything that needs to be worked on in the new house/yard.
-Get prepared to start new jobs.
-Move in & unpack.

Recipe of the Week: Coconut Cream Cake

This week I’m featuring an old family favorite. At Christmas time, my mom or my aunt always make a Coconut Cream Cake, but it’s also a really good recipe for spring or summer as well (especially if you love coconut as much as my husband does).

I was looking at some blogs the other day, and I found a couple of people that said they hated cake mixes. Well, I used one to make this cake, but of course, if you prefer you can make a homemade white or yellow sheetcake cake rather than using a mix. I personally like the convenience and simplicity of the cake mix, and I love the taste of them, because…well…I grew up eating cake mix cakes. We only ate made from scratch cakes on a special occasion…so for my “simply sweet” purposes, the cake mix works fine. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 White or yellow Cake Mix
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoon coconut extract.
1 can cream of coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tub whipped topping
1 bag flaked coconut

Directions: Mix cake ingredients (mix, oil, water, eggs) as directed on box. Add extracts and continue to mix well. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan, and bake as directed (about 350 degrees for 32-35 minutes).

Let cake cool completely. Mix sweetened condensed milk and cream of coconut together in a bowl. Poke holes in top of cake, with fork or spoon handle. Pour mixture over entire cake. (Be sure mixture fills/goes into all holes. Spread whipped topping over cake and top with coconut. Keep cake refrigerated.





Menu Plan Monday for August 18


This week I’m cleaning out my refrigerator and freezer so we won’t have a bunch of food (other than dry goods) to take with us to the new house. So I’m not planning any casseroles or big recipes this week, as we tend to have more leftovers when I do that, and that would keep me from cooking up all the meat that I have left in stock. And as my schedule will be up in the air for the next couple of weeks, there will probably be no MPM post for at least a week.

If you visit my blog regularly, you also may have noticed that I did not post the recipe of the week yet. I haven’t forgotten it. Actually as part of my kitchen-declutter, this weekend I made a Coconut Cream Cake, which I planned on posting for the Recipe of the Week. However, I didn’t get a chance to upload the photos until today, so I plan on posting it in a day or two. Since we’re moving this week I won’t have time to post a recipe at the end of this week, so I decided I would just have the coconut cake as the featured recipe for both this past week and this coming week. So look for it in the next day or so. Now on with the menu….

Breakfast – Bacon & Egg Sandwiches, Waffles, cereal, fruit

Lunch – Leftovers from dinner, Chicken Sandwiches, Tuna sandwiches, Chicken Salad

Monday – Lemon Pepper Pork Chops w/ Corn & steamed veggies
Tuesday – Tacos
Wednesday – Cheesy Chicken w/ rice & broccolli
Thursday – Ham Steak w/ Great Northern Beans & corn
Friday – Leftovers
Saturday – Eat out
Sunday – Eat out

Check out I’m an Organizing Junkie if you’d like to see other menus.