The Beginning, A Continuation or The End?

Photo copied from Facebook

 

As we wind down here on the last day of 2012, I sit here pondering...is this the end of a year, a continuation or the beginning of a new year?  We sometimes don't take the time to ponder these little things in our busy lives, but this year I have chosen to think about such things. 

  I have a tendency to get rattled to the core when I don't have structure in my life.  I strive for perfection and tend to not always handle imperfection the best.  I care about things that are trivial to others but are of the utmost importance to me.  Having said all of that, I do have a small toddler and a Husband that helps me daily see past the imperfection, to see the moments in our lives that are meaningful to us and to help me remember that we do have structure in our lives just a little looser than I had planned. 

  2012 was a great year for us however I am also glad that it is going to be ending.  The main points of the year for us was: Moving into our OWN home with OWN stuff!  Visiting family and friends and meeting new friends and family.  Feeling more settled in our rural lifestyle and adjusting to life on the ranch.  Sharing each day with Mr T, we are very blessed to have him in our lives.  And last but not least for each one of us to be healthy, happy and ready for the year which I am sure will be full of challenges, memories and adventures!

  I have decided that this new year **2013** is going to be an end for me in certain ways.  I am choosing to 'clean' up our food and put an end to using plastics in the kitchen.  I am putting an end to being just another person in the throwaway society that we have become.  More use, less trash just might become our household mantra.  I am also hoping to an end to my Mt Dew addiction (GASP, I know, right!).  I also have a few personal habits that I am wanting to put an end to/change as well but feel that the whole world doesn't need to know!

  2013 will be a continuation of a lot of things, such as the blog and work on the house!  If it's not broke don't fix it!  I feel that we are doing a lot of things right in our lifestyle and will continue on.  I will continue to work on improving our menu planning and general overall flow in the household, raising our son with love & guidance, being a better wife and last but not least, a better listener.  I think we all have certain aspects in our life that we doing great at but just need to 'keep on, keeping on'.

  A beginning of a new year always holds some thoughts of excitment as to what I am going to start doing.  This year, I have decided - Nothing!   I am going to focus more getting rid of old rubbage and work on making our home a home and making sure that our family is our #1 priority in life.

  What are you looking forward to in this New Year?  Love to hear from ya!

Have Blessed New Year!
~C~

Putting Up a Gutter

  A few weeks ago, Hubby took on the job of putting a gutter up on Boss Man's house.  He had never done that before but knew that the job wouldn't be too hard.  The weather was in the 60s so we all joined in on the fun....until I got started not feeling good and ended up in Bed that afternoon with the flu :(.   The last picture is a few days later when Hubby went back over to Boss Man's house to finish up and fix one thing that he didn't like the way it turned out.  Now, Hubby can add Gutter Installation to his long list of 'can do's'!

Getting the clips up on the house

#1 Helper!

Helping Dad

Cutting the gutter pipe the right length

All done! 

Hauling the pieces away from the construction site :)

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Snow!

We are still around here!  Just took a nice break from blogging to make cookies, travel and enjoy the holidays with loved ones. 

During the night we got a few more inches of white fluffy snow and I took Mr T out to play for short while...it's cold here!!!  This is the most snow at one time since we moved to Nebraska.  Hard to believe that our last few winters in ND, we were getting nearly 100 inches of snow!!  I don't miss shoveling all of that snow despite the great workout that it is!

Here's a few pictures of our fun morning in the snow.  I need to get the sled out of the barn but didn't get there since we had to take a spoon over to Boss Man's house and Mr T was getting tired by the time we got back.  Next trip out, we venture to the barn.

Hope that you are staying nice and toasty warm!!!  Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Code of the West

Saw this on facebook and decided that it would be my post for the day.  If more people followed this code, we would have a much better society!




Have A Blessed Day!
~C~

Drinks of Choice

  While on our short holiday to ND, Hubby and I went into a liquor establishment to buy some wine for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Now, neither Hubby nor I claim to be wine connoisseurs by any means but we wanted to bring something to dinner other than ourselves and Mr T.  I have a fondness for a wine labeled Pink Truck, however Hubby never has been that excited about it so we asked the lady at the counter to give us some recommendations.  She pointed us in the direction of this wine and it's delicious and I found out that I can buy it locally as well!!!  This is a sweeter wine and cost just under $20.  We don't buy expensive wine!


Risato  -  Moscato d' Asti

   On a totally whim and totally by the cute title, I picked out this next wine.  Hubby was sure that I was crazy and a waste of $8.00 however this one proved to our favorite out of our wine buying trip.  I am pretty sure that we will be stocking up on this wine the next time we head north, I have not found it locally yet.  Of course, I haven't actually looked anywhere but the local grocery store which carries mostly Yellow Tail and BareFoot wines.  It's so convenient to buy wine during the grocery shopping trip since I usually have Mr T with me. 

Flip Flop -  Moscato  (isn't Elmer my wine holder adorable!?!?)

  I am thinking that this wine will be the first drink of my choice during the NFR watching at our house.  A little rodeo action, a glass of wine and I should have an enjoyable evening and a good sleep! 

 I also grabbed a few bottles of my Pink Truck since I cannot buy that locally.  We ended up opening one of my bottles for Thanksgiving and trying it out as well.  I think that 7 of us drank 4 bottles of wine in a rather short period time!  MIL had one bottle and I don't remember the name of it, it was something that she likes (and most of the family).  Pink Truck is a sweet but just a little bit of a dry wine.

Pink Truck  - California Pink Wine

  I am wanting to try the Red Truck and White Truck flavors as well but I think I need to work on getting some of my collection used up first!  My SIL told me that if I ever give up wine, that she wants my collection :) I told her not for awhile!!!  I am just starting to find wines that I actually will buy more than once!

Schade -  Blackberry Wine

  This wine is from a winery in SD and my SIL's sister introduced me to it.  I have been saving the last bottle since I don't have the best outlet to get it.  However, I am thinking that I am just going to have to crack it open soon or Hubby is going to have to build me a wine cabinet!!!    This blackberry wine is a red, semi-dry, full flavored wine and tastes good with a good holiday meal.

Cupcake  - Moscato d' Asti

  A good friend of mine told me that if I liked the Moscato wines to try the Cupcake brand.  I am thinking that after the Flip Flop is finished that I will pull out this little beauty as my drink of choice for the NFR watching! 

  Hope that you enjoy my little wine review, just in time to grab a bottle for Christmas dinner!  We are taking the Risata to dinner with us since that can be bought locally in case my aunt likes it then she can buy it! 

  Do you have a favorite wine or type of wine that you enjoy?  I am so glad that we found the Moscatos!

  Have a Blessed Day!
  ~C~



Monday No Funday

  Well, the flu has hit our household once again.  I was down for the count on Thursday and Friday.  I tried so hard to stay away from the fellas but it was hard.  I was lucky this time that I got to rest and Hubby was home to take care of Mr T. 

  Today, Hubby has been striken with the illness.  Luckily for him, I can cover his work which consists of helping Boss Man with moving some electrical fence and feeding cows all the while keeping Mr T with me.  I am afraid that I have seen some signs of Mr T getting the flu but will deal with that as the day goes on. 

  Pray for us to get back on our healthy feet....we have a busy week lined up!

New Toys and A Trip North For Thanksgiving

  We just returned from ND, hence the lapse of blog posts.  What an awesome time we had!  We spent 5 days visiting friends and family, checking out all of the changes in the area and eating a magnificent meal for Thanksgiving prepared by my MIL!  It was hard to come home but we had chores to do!

  Mr T traveled very well and had a blast getting to play with his cousins and meeting other kids for play dates.  Hubby and I enjoyed the trip as well, it had been a year since we had gotten away from the ranch and needed a little R &R! 

  Back to the post title and all that it implies :).  While visiting one of my besties and her son in ND, Mr T got to experience his first play kitchen.  The fun part about this, is that I had been wanting to get him one but Hubby thought Mr T needed more 'manly' toys and wouldn't play with it much.  Ha!

Little Tykes Kitchen play.

Playing with the Little Buster Toys.  We have started Mr T's collection!

Mr T's new kitchen courtesy of Aunt K and the Nieces!!!

Another fun toy from Mr T's cousins!

The bucket works too.

When all else fails, get Daddy to push you!

  We are loving the new toys and always glad to get something new for Mr T to play with.

  The rest of Thanksgiving was spent with the family that we love in ND.  An awesome meal put on by my MIL, some good wine and lots of entertaining conversations!

  Have a Blessed Day!
  ~C~

Dilemma

Dilemma - There will be no farther blog content until I figured out what to do.  I seem to have hit the max picture storage available for free.  I am trying to get the blog downloaded into a PDF file for a keepsake however I am struggling with that. 

Keep checking and I will be back soon!

Recipe - Flan Cake

  This cake takes a special pan to make it in.  I got the recipe from my MIL and then had to search Amazon to find a pan.  This is my Hubby's ultimate favorite cake and it is what he requests on his birthday.  I like to make it when we just have a few people over for a meal, since it makes enough to serve about 6 people (depending on how you slice it). 

Flan Cake - A little slice of goodness!

Recipe - Flan Cake
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Eggs
1 cups Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Preparation:
 *In Saucepan scald the milk, add butter.
 *In large bowl beat the eggs till light yellow in color. 
*Add sugar and vanilla beating till light and fluffy. 
*Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; then fold into egg mixture with hot milk mixture.
 *Pour batter into greased and floured FLAN PAN.
 *Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until cake tests done.  Cool 5 minutes and turn onto plate. 
*Fill as desired and Enjoy!!! 

**We prefer Vanilla Pudding but it is also tasty with Butterscotch Pudding;  then we add Whipped Topping on top that!

The bottom side of the Flan Pan

Inside of Flan Pan

Flan Cake aftter it's been turned out of the flan pan.

Filled with Vanilla Pudding

A Final Kitchen Reveal and a Dining Room Reveal

  I am proud to say that the kitchen is finally 'complete' at this point.  By saying 'complete', I mean that everything is installed or construction has been completed.  I do have some decor items to work, like window treatments and I am trying to find the right 'saying' for over the pantry door from Uppercase Living.  More online shopping ahead!

  Anyway, back to kitchen.  As I posted the other day, we got the back splash on the counter tops and we finished my 2nd pantry so all is ready in the kitchen to reveal.  Please do not mind the floors....I can either clean the counter tops or clean the floor and today I chose the counter tops!  I had a twenty minute window of cleaning time since Mr T went the guys to move some heifers.  Ya gotta pick your battles!



The Kitchen - View from the Living Room.



Another look.  I wish that my kitchen stayed so neat and clean everyday!  But, the reality is that after three meals a day and chasing a toddler, well it just doesn't sparkle every day!



Looking into the kitchen from the Dining Room.



Another view :)

The 'Office Station' next to the Pantry.



Side view with a look at the 2nd Pantry.



The door opens on the end of the upper cabinets for more storage!

A closer look at my pullout shelves for my bottom cupboards.



They do hold a lot of stuff!

I put in one slide out for my bar pans and stoneware.

The drawer located above the slide out has a Butcher Block that stores in the drawer with knife storage underneath it.



Most of the drawers are large like this one and has lots of storage space.  I do wish they were a smidgen deeper but they are nice and long!



The Island:  It is 7ft by 3ft and overhangs on two sides to fit at least 4 island chairs. 

Dining Room



This picture was given to me when I passed my Series 3 Exam by my boss.  I am a huge Tim Cox Fan.



This clock is next to the Fridge and hangs behind the dining room table.  It is originally from my Hubby's parents store.  When they sold the business, this was one thing that Hubby wanted to keep as a memory.
 

Hope that you enjoyed this little reveal and update on house progress!!!  I am off to work something while the little man takes his nap.

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

2nd Pantry Reveal & Back Splash!

  Hubby got some time off from ranch work to work on the inside of the house yesterday afternoon so I put him to work on my list of 'to-do' stuff that I needed him for.  He even seemed almost happy to do it!  Actually, he didn't mind working on the pantry but we had been dreading the backsplash on the kitchen countertops.  However they went better than we expected and this AM, they looked good!

A Countertop backsplash pic in progress is up first! Another kitchen reveal is on tap for later in the week!

Our 'helper'!

  We used all sorts of devices to hold the back splash tight against the walls.  We siliconed everything last night and then let it dry all night and this morning, I had a working kitchen again :).

  Here are the 2nd Pantry pictures:

Before

Before: A closer look

Hubby working on the shelves.

After!

Mr T helping me put stuff away in the new usuable pantry.

All of that fun storage!!!

The 2nd Pantry is located at the end of the Hall Closet by the Front Door.  Hubby had the idea to split the closet to give me some seperate storage.  Originally, this was to be a cleaning closet but we decided that we need more pantry storage!

  Now, I am off to finish putting the kitchen together and do a little 'fall' cleaning since the weather has warmed up some and Mr T is spending some time with his Dad outside in the newly concreted shop!

Have A Blessed Day!
~C~