B-I-N-G-O February 9, 2010

Today I am blogging about two things that are near and dear to my heart:

Tupperware

And

Bingo.

Did you know I sell Tupperware?  Just started a couple of months ago.  It’s kind of a joint venture between me and Tresia.  We both L-O-V-E Tupperware, and we wanted to get into it simply for the product discount.

Once a year, at the Buffalo County Fair in Kearney, we play Bingo all night long at the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department tent. For that one night, we go Bingo-crazy.  Many quarters are spent on Bingo cards during that evening.

“So what does Tupperware have to do with Bingo?” you may be asking yourself.

Well, when we do have Tupperware parties, we like to do it up right.  Neither of us are the type to stand up in front of a group and lecture about various pieces of Tupperware.  So instead, we play Tupperware Bingo.

And it is big fun.

We pull out the pennies and use special Tupperware Bingo cards and the guests play for free Tupperware!  It gives us a chance to share about our favorite Tupperware products, and it’s fun for the guests because they get to take home free stuff!

Who doesn’t love that?!

Tupperware Bingo – sweeping across central Nebraska and coming soon to a town near you.

Decorating for Dummies February 3, 2010

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is the best night EVER for 2 reasons:

1. LOST is back.  (Oh, how I’ve missed your dimples, Sawyer.  Charlie is alive again?! And Sayid is dead?!  What is going on?!  I love this show.)
2. I have finally, at long last, solved the mystery of The Wall in the bathroom.

For the 2 ½ years I’ve lived in this house, I have struggled with how to decorate The Wall.  We have a long, skinny bathroom, and it’s decorated in a lodge/deer/hunting/fishing theme.  I have tried to decorate it with many a wall art, never with much success.  It’s such a long, blank space, but today, it came to me.  The answer to the problem of The Wall.  And it came to me in Alco.

And when I saw it, it was as though a beacon of light shone down from heaven.

They are called Add-Heres.  They were $17.99.  And they are wonderful.

These are adhesive, removable, reusable stick-ons for walls.  The package says, “Peel – Stick – Remove – Reposition: Instant decorative adhesive art for walls and more…”

There were tons of different designs and sizes of vinyl tiles, including a set called “Lodge,” which was perfect for our bathroom wall.  This set had nine tiles, and the picture on the package even showed how to arrange them in a grid pattern.  LOVE that!

The hardest part was taping off the lines for the grid pattern, to ensure that everything would be nice and straight once on the wall…but even that wasn’t that hard.  I was in a hurry to get done in order to watch LOST, so I just eyeballed it and taped off a quick grid. Slapped on the tiles, and BAM!  Perfection in approximately 12 minutes.  It just doesn’t get much easier than that.

I hesitated buying these for a split second just because of the fact that I did apply a texture to the bathroom walls a couple of years ago.  It looks like this, and was done using sheets of tissue paper from presents received at my bridal showers:

The Add-Heres package recommends using the tiles on smooth, non-textured surfaces, so I wasn’t sure how they’d do on the bathroom walls.  But I decided to chance it and try anyway, and I’m so glad I did, because they worked just fine.  And I’m considering going back to see if they have any that will work in other rooms of our house.

So if you live near an Alco, rush out to see if they carry Add-Heres.  You will love them.

Now that I’ve found the solution for The Wall, I kind of feel as though my purpose on this earth has been fulfilled.

And LOST has returned.

Life is good.

Helping Haiti January 26, 2010

It’s been two weeks since the earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti.  Though time is passing, the stories of heartbreak don’t seem to be lessening.  I’ve thought a lot about what’s happening down there.  All the sorrow, sadness, and destruction…it’s easy to feel helpless, wanting to help but not knowing how.  Nebraska is a long way from Haiti.  I can’t do much…but maybe I can do a little, with your help.

I’m taking my cue from a lot of other bloggers out there.  For each comment left on this post from now until Wednesday evening at 8 p.m., I’ll donate $.25 to the relief efforts in Haiti. We can all help through prayers…I know there are a number of agencies involved directly with relief efforts that we can pray for, including Haitian Support Ministries in northern Indiana.   My donation will go to IDES, a ministry that helps missionaries and churches financially.  100% of this donation will go to help the people of Haiti rebuild their homes, churches and schools.

So, if you have a few seconds to spare, leave a comment!  Together we can all help Haiti.

Confessions of a Shopaholic January 25, 2010

(Have you seen this movie?  LOVE!!)

My name is Jen, and I’m a shopaholic.

I like shopping.  A lot.  Too much.  Since we live an hour away from the nearest Wal-mart, I blame my shopping frenzy on the fact that I don’t get to do it often.  Before moving to Nebraska, the longest drive I ever had to go shopping was 10 minutes.  So I think I just get to feeling like I am shopping-deprived sometimes and I lose all control when I am in the midst of aisles and aisles of bargains.

And when I am out shopping, I have started buying in bulk for two reasons:

1. To save time during the week:  Working full –time, teaching anywhere from 2-4 fitness classes during the week, and extra activities such as Bible study, Tupperware parties, and time with the hubby consumes my hours…so the fewer trips I have to make to the store to pick up random items, the better.  Plus, it’s just more convenient to buy 48 rolls of toilet paper at once and not have to worry about it for a few months.  Now, finding a place to store 48 rolls of toilet paper in the cozy house – that’s a post for another day.
2. Money: Obviously, buying in bulk saves money.  I have a membership at Sam’s but I don’t necessarily buy bulk there often.  More and more stores are selling multi-packs of items such as cleaning products, toiletries, etc, so I just keep an eye out for items I know we use and buy them in bulk when the price is right.

Plus, I kind of tend toward retail therapy.  I admit it.  It’s sometimes a good distraction from day to day junk that I just want to forget about. This isn’t necessarily a HEALTHY form of therapy, but hey.  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Hence why I have felt the need lately to get a better handle on our finances.

The number one fight at our house isn’t over who has to do the cooking, or home improvements, or starting fires in the woodstove…it is arguing about who has to enter the bills/receipts in the checkbook register.

A year ago we started using an Excel spreadsheet for our register, instead of the traditional pencil/tracker.  And it was…ok.  Math is NOT my strong suit, so what I loved about Excel was that it would do the math for me.  No more math errors = a happy hubby.  But using the spreadsheet almost seemed to take more time than doing it by hand, which didn’t exactly motivate either to keep up on it. I use my debit card to purchase EVERYTHING, which meant we usually had a huge pile of receipts to enter.

Plus, I’ve been wanting to redo our whole bill paying system lately…the whole shebang, including a bill inbox, a bill paying calendar, a place for mailing supplies, filing system, everything.

So I took a gamble last week and took the first step towards a financial system makeover – I bought Quicken – the simple, no frills basic starter edition.

It may be the best $30 I’ve spent lately.  Here are the reasons I decided on Quicken:

1. It automatically imports our checking account data from our bank so we don’t have to enter it manually.  Translation: we no longer have to fight about who will enter the receipts and thus harmony has returned to our home.  Hallelujah and praise the Lord!
2. It will graph our spending categories.  I think the visual of how/where we are spending our money will be good for us.
3. It has a bill reminder system.  Every time I turn on the program, it will show the bills that are due within the next 14 days.  LOVE this!
4. It has automatic bill pay, which I haven’t taken time to set up yet – but it’s on my to do list.

So far I am optimistic that we can make this work for us.  I haven’t quite figured out all the ins and outs of the program, but I think it’ll really help us feel more organized financially.  I’ll keep you posted.  This may be the first in a long line of posts about our financial makeover…we’ll see how it goes.

Living With A Stranger January 19, 2010

I was sitting at home vegging out on Sunday afternoon when my hubby, who was out chopping wood, called.

Me: Hello!

Him: Do you know how to roller skate?

Me:  <silence…thinking “huh?”>

Him: Hello?

Me: Yes, I know how to roller skate…do YOU know how to roller skate?  (Still thinking that this is a bizarre conversation…)

Him:  Yes. I’m on my way home to pick you up.

Me: To go roller skating.

Him: Yes!

Me: <stunned silence again>

So believe it or not, our little town, population 304, has a community center that doubles as a roller skating rink.  And said rink can be rented for a mere $55 for birthday parties, get-togethers, wedding receptions, etc.

Turns out Jon’s buddy, Bill, rented the building for a family thing and invited us to join the fun.  Hence why my farmer/tough guy/boots-wearing husband called and made me leave the comfort of my couch for a couple of hours of holy rolling.

Ok, so part of me totally just went to see Jon in roller skates.  I mean, seriously.  I’ve known this man for 7 years and roller skating is one of the top 5 things I never thought I’d see him do.  So seeing Jon in roller skates?  Count me in.

The other part of me went to show him how great of a skater I am.  “Ha,” I thought.  “He wants to go roller skating?  I’ll show him roller skating!” After all, I am a child of the 80’s…I remember taking roller skating lessons at USA Skate in Indianapolis when I was 6 years old.  LOVE!

All I have to say is this: that man skated circles around me.

Dang.  He was GOOD!  And I couldn’t keep up with him.  He totally kicked my butt.  Christie told me the next day that they used to roller skate in their basement growing up.  And not only did they skate, they jumped over couch cushions with their skates on.  Hello!?!

Jon.  Roller skating.  Who knew.

Freezer Cooking Recipe: Pizza Pizza! January 19, 2010

Yummy yummy!  Enjoy!

Pizza crust: (Tip:  use the bread machine or food processor for easy assembly on cooking day.)

2 c. flour

2 t. active dry yeast

1 t. sugar

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. water, warm

2 T. olive oil

For automatic bread machine: place ingredients in container in the following order: water, oilve oil, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.  Select dough setting and press START.

For food processor: dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a measuring cup; let stand til bubbly – about 10 min.  Stir in olive oil and salt.  Insert metal blade or plastic dough blade.  Place four in work bowl.  With motor running, pour yeast mixture through the feed tube in a steady stream, as fast as the flour absorbs it.  When the dough forms into a ball, process an additional 45 seconds to knead.  Shape dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl; turn to grease the top.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled – about 1 1/2 hours.

Pizza:

Spray pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray or brush with olive oil. (I buy the disposable aluminum pans from the grocery store to make these pizzas since they are stored in the freezer for a while.)  Gently stretch pizza crust to fit pan.  Sprinkle crust with Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning and then mozzarella cheese.

Add desired toppings: hamburger, Italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon, ham, green peppers, onion, olives, mushrooms, etc.

Gently spread marinara sauce to cover cheese and toppings.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

To freeze: flash freeze for 30 minutes in pan.  When frozen, wrap in aluminum foil.

To prepare: do not thaw pizza.  Add cheese to top, if you’d like.  (I do!) Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake frozen pizza for 30 minutes, until crust is browned and cheese is fully melted.

This recipe ensures a fresh, crisp crust through the freezing process.  The secret is in the cheese; when applied before any toppings or sauce, the cheese seals the crust against the moisture in the sauce.

The Longest Post Ever Written About Freezer Cooking January 18, 2010

Tresia recently suggested having a freezer cooking day, which I was 100% in favor for.  I thought it was time to break out the new cookbook and try a few new recipes.  So last weekend we gathered at Bev’s for some meal-making.

Here are the recipes we picked:

Tresia – Meatballs, mashed potatoes

Bev – Spaghetti Pizza Casserole, Cheesy Hashbrown Meatball Casserole

Jen – Pizza, Chili, BBQ Porkchops

PS – this was the temperature according to the pickup when I left the house at 8:00 a.m.:

The first thing I got to work on was the dough for the pizza crusts.  It was a yeast dough that needed to rise for 1 ½ hours, so I used bread machines for two crusts and made the other 4 by hand.

I was also super excited to use some new Tupperware: I am IN LOVE with these mixing cups and spoons.  Here’s why: the spoons are designed to sit on a flat surface like a countertop, so they stay put without spilling all over and making a huge mess.   The thing I love about the cups is that the set includes 1/3 and 2/3 cup sizes, and they nest really well for storage.  My other two sets of measuring spoons and cups are so going into the garage sale box in the basement.

Tresia started off with the meatballs – I think she wanted to make between 125-150 meatballs.  Holy piles of meatballs, Batman.

Bev’s first dish was the Spaghetti Pizza Casserole, and I don’t know if she tripled or quadrupled the recipe, but there was a LOT of it.  It was like a never-ending pile of spaghetti.  I think we each ended up with at least 4 containers of this casserole, but that’s 100% ok with me – we had one for supper this week, and it was de-lish.

I moved onto chili next, because it basically consisted of throwing everything in a pot and letting it simmer for 1 ½ hours or so.  This recipe was awesome.  Super, super good.  I put our portions in small bowls that we can just take them out for lunches.  I guess I must have been a bit distracted at this point, because I didn’t get any pics of the chili.  We were short on stovetop space at this point, so Bev taught me to do something I’d never done before (and didn’t even realize was possible): I browned the hamburger for the chili in the microwave.  Fab!  We just cooked it for five minutes at a time, then took it out, drained it, and repeated this cycle til it was browned.  I am so doing this for the rest of my life.

Tresia got started peeling potatoes, and we all chipped in to help whenever we had a few down minutes since she had about 30 pounds of potatoes to peel.  To each batch of potatoes, she added a couple of eggs, cream cheese, and butter.  Yum!

Once the dough had risen, I pressed the crusts onto the pizza pans.

Dave and Kara introduced me to this seasoning when we had pizza night at their house – it is my new favorite seasoning.  They said they use it on just about everything.  And they actually sell it at our local grocery store, which about made me faint in happiness. So I sprinkled some of this on the crust before adding toppings.

Next I added cheese and the other toppings – we had pepperoni, hamburger, ham, green peppers, and mushrooms.  The trick with this recipe is to put the pizza sauce on top of the pizza…this helps keeps the crust from getting soggy on cooking day.  This was my first time using the pizza sauce I canned this summer, and it was pretty tasty.

Then you just flash freeze each pizza for 30 minutes before covering it, and you’re ready to roll!  I am so making pizzas again the next time we freezer cook.  Super easy and super yummy.

Bev finally finished the twelve hundred pounds of spaghetti pizza casserole and got started on the cheesy hash brown casserole.  She mixed frozen hash browns and a cheese sauce together, and then added some of the meatballs that Tresia made earlier.

Last thing I worked on was the BBQ porkchops.  First brown them on both sides, then make the sauce, using ketchup, honey, olive oil, bbq sauce, brown sugar and catalina dressing.  The sauce was mmm, mmm good, so I whipped up an extra batch of that to freeze and use with Tresia’s meatballs.

Then just simmer the chops in the sauce for 15 minutes and you’re done!  I freeze these individually in ziplock baggies.

And done!  In about 5 hours.  I’m getting more and more addicted to freezer cooking.  How did we get along without it?!

Spic and Span January 14, 2010

This week has been crazy-busy at work and the fitness center.   The cozy house is now officially a mess, but it started out clean at the beginning of the week, and I owe it all to my new favorite cleaning helpers: a metal nail file and a toothbrush.

So in the kitchen we have a porcelain sink and it has definitely seen better days.  Even though it’s an old sink, I like it to look as spic and span as possible, so when I came across some tips on how to get a super-clean sink, I thought I’d give it a try.  There were many, many steps involved in the process, but I’ll just share the highlights that I think made the most difference on our sinks.

To clean the kitchen sink, I used a Lysol kitchen antibacterial spray.  I sprayed the sink and surrounding counter and let it sit for just a few minutes, and then I got to work.  I used the nail file first, and used it to get in the ridge where the sink meets the counter.  That nail file can get into every nook and cranny and removed gunk that I’ve never been able to remove.  It was fabulous!  Once I went over the sink and around the faucet with the nail file, I re-sprayed everything and went over it with the toothbrush.  And the end result was amazing. A-MAZING.  I was actually so excited about the results that I moved on to the bathroom.

The hardest part about cleaning our bathroom is the shower.  We have sliding shower doors, and I think they are the worst, hardest thing to clean in the world.  A nightmare.  I have used every type of sponge and cleaner out there to clean the cracks and crevices around those shower doors and have never had much luck – until now!  In the bathroom I used that Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner stuff, and followed the same basic routine on the shower and the bathroom vanity that I used on the kitchen sink.  FAB!

I mean, seriously.  I hate to clean.  But I could not get enough of using this nail file.  It was miraculous.  I kind of think this was the best part of my weekend.

I’d post “before” and “after” pics if the “before” shots weren’t so disturbing.

Game On January 5, 2010

Many, many hours were spent playing games over the weekend.

Somewhere between Boggle…

And Clue…

And Spoons…

And the all-new, psychedelic Schauer game, christened “Stick It” by Christie…

…2010 got off to a great start.  

My Word Of The Year January 5, 2010

My WOTY for 2010:  Acceptance

So, there are many reasons I chose “acceptance” as my WOTY, the main one being that I struggled with accepting a lot of things that happened in 2009, and I don’t want to go there again in 2010.  It wasn’t a fun place to be.

When I start to worry about jobs, about how/if the status of our family will change, about the fitness center, about travel plans…I know that the Lord holds all of these matters in His hands.  He knows the outcome of each situation already, and He is in control and will lead each situation to the end that He knows is best.

I am learning that the sooner I ACCEPT this, the sooner I can move on with my life and quit wasting time worrying and planning and plotting and scheming.  I don’t have to do any of those things because the Lord knows what is best for me, and by accepting it and moving on, I can focus my time and energy on being happy and hopeful and productive, rather than sulking and living in fear of the unknown.

I looked up “acceptance” in the thesaurus, and was really encouraged by some of the synonyms that were listed.  Check these out:

• Receipt
• Taking
• Getting
• Reception
• Approval
• Agreement
• Tolerance
• Favorable reception
• Belief

I started thinking about these words in relation to life.  To me, these words equal “blessings!”  Taking and receiving and getting and believing in and ACCEPTING the days and moments and situations and problems and people that God gives me.  Why would I turn away from that?!

So I want to be more accepting this year.

More accepting of people.

More accepting of ideas that aren’t mine.

More accepting of situations I have no control over…and more trusting that God knows what he’s doing.

What’s YOUR Word of the Year?  Feel free to share in the comments – I’d love to hear from you!