beautiful addiction

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Yes, indeed they are.  After I folded all the laundry the other day they decided they wanted to help somehow.  Not knowing how to put the laundry away for me, they decided it was best that they lay on top of all the clean clothes.  Yes.  That was a big help.  Now if I could only teach them how to use a lint roller to clean up after themselves then we’d be all set!.

In other news I decided to use up some of the veggies I bought from the farmer’s market to make a veggie stir fry.  It turned out really good!  I put in a zucchini, tomato, onion, green pepper and banana pepper and cooked it with a little extra virgin olive oil and seasoned it all up.  Turned out very tasty.  Of course, I’m the only one who will eat it because Dave hates veggies, but whatever.  Made a good lunch yesterday and I still have quite a bit left over.  It’s really good if you sprinkle some feta cheese on top.  Mmm.

Other than that, not much going on.  We’ve got a week before we go to Chicago for Dave’s business trip.  We’ll be there for a week (Monday-Monday) and then coming home.  I’m excited because it’ll be a good opportunity to actually save some money since his company is paying for everything, including his food ($35 per day).  That’s a week we won’t have to pay for groceries or gas or anything.  Plus we won’t be home, so the electric bill should be a bit lower.  So even though I’m paying a friend $50 to come take care of the cats every other day, we’ll still be making out better.  Especially since Dave will be getting paid for the drive there and back, plus overtime and mileage and all kinds of stuff.  Will be good for us, financially.

1. I’m enjoying all the jam we made a few weeks back. I’ve been having toast with jam on it for breakfast and/or snacks. So yummy.
2. Our homemade canned pickles came out just wonderful, too! I’m so glad. We were worried because we’d never made them before.
3. I did three loads of laundry today. I hate laundry.
4. Our air conditioner broke over the weekend, but got fixed today. I’m going to still try to use the box fan in the bedroom window at night to save on our electric bill. We’ll see how that goes.
5. I love Glade Scented Oil candles. They smell amazing. The refills are kind of pricey because I go through them so much, so I’m trying not to burn them as often. *pout*
6. Spent a while organizing my iTunes on my desktop computer since I had to migrate over from my laptop when I sold it. I’m now on last.fm again if you want to check that out. Still has my stats from 2005 but I didn’t want to make a new account, so I’m just going with it.
7. I’ve got cramps crazy bad and just want to curl up and sleep. But I just woke up from a nap on the couch. At 10pm. Ugh.
8. Currently reading “Fight Club” and so far it all matches up really well to the movie. I’ve got another 35 or so books on my shelf to be read after that. Yes, really.
9. I went to the farmer’s market today and bought a few pounds of potatoes, 2 huge green peppers, 2 banana peppers, 6 tomatoes, and a zucchini for $8.50. I’m happy about that.
10. I made homemade potato salad for the first time ever and it turned out yummy. Needs more mustard though.
11. I am looking forward to the end of the month so that I can do a summary of my finances and then set new goals for August since this month didn’t go as well as planned. I’m a geek, I know.
12. I miss my family.
13. …and my best friend. We were supposed to have lunch last week but she wasn’t feeling well. She will be giving birth in the next few weeks and I’m so excited for her.
14. Dave is currently napping on the couch where I left him when I woke up, and he looks so peaceful that I don’t want to wake him up.
15. I should really wake him up so he’s not awake all night when he has to be up for work at 7:30.

My goodness, all day today I have felt hungry no matter how often I eat! It’s just one of those days where I eat something and it only satisfies my hunger for an hour or two before I feel the need to be eating or munching on something else.

I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, followed by a big bowl of homemade chili for lunch. I was hungry before dinnertime, so I had a snack of a yogurt and english muffin with peanut butter on it (thinking the protein would satisfy my hunger!). A few hours later I served dinner (pasta salad, corn, and boneless BBQ ribs). Not long after that I shared a bag of popcorn with my husband and a friend while we watched a movie, and ate a small handful of chocolate covered peanuts. Now I just got done eating another bowl of cereal because my stomach was growling! And I’m still hungry…

I wonder if it’s hormones or something as it’s almost “that time of the month” and hormones are all out of whack.

What could it be and does this happen to you? It doesn’t happen to me very often but when it does I feel like such a pig!

I’ve had such a sweet tooth all evening (thank you PMS) and remembered that I had Betty Crocker Delights in the cupboard! I made the Double Chocolate Cake for Dave and the Chocolate Chip Fudge Cookie for myself. Really hit the spot with a tall glass of milk.

Even for Dave, who isn’t a big dessert eater, he finished his and said, “I wish there was more…!”

It’s the little things in life.

I made some oatmeal cookies this evening from a recipe I found online and it was just basic ingredients (oatmeal, flour, salt, oil, brown sugar, water, and baking soda). I was looking at the “dough” thinking to myself how was it ever going to turn into actual cookies?

Well, it did. But they are flat! I’m assuming that’s how they’re supposed to be, but they just look funny. The edges are nice and crispy and the middle is very soft and chewy. So I was pleasantly surprised. Relatively healthy, too, from the looks of the recipe. And a great way to get rid of the huge canister of oatmeal I’ve had forever.

It’ll be a great snack to take up north with us this weekend when we go to the cabin! Five hour car ride requires some healthy snacks.

Haha…you have to check this out! It’s pretty much right on when getting to what women REALLY want!

Ok, off to take a late evening stroll with the hubby. It’s still light out and warm, and I could use some fresh air.

I’m seriously hooked on this canning thing. I think I found a new hobby. I’m so hooked that we made another 12 jars of pickles tonight (yes…12…putting us at 18 total) and 2 jars of strawberry jam (to test out the recipe). I’m really excited and can’t wait to taste the pickles! I figured it out, and with all the edible supplies for the 18 jars of pickles we made, it comes out to $1.22 per jar. Not bad at all! And I can reuse the jars and stuff, so those costs will be absorbed over the life of the jar! I’m a dork.

Made some yummy looking freezer jam and some dill pickles today! Can’t wait to try them! The jam I will be putting into the freezer tomorrow (has to sit at room temp for 24 hours) and the pickles will be ready to eat in 1 week. Relatively low cost if you’re not including the hardware.

Freezer Jam

• 1-16oz bag of frozen strawberries = $2
• 4 cups of sugar = already had on hand
• 1 box of fruit pectin = $2.09

Yielded 2 and 1/2 pints of jam for under $5!

Dill Pickles

• 3 lbs of pickling cucumbers = $3.27
• Mustard seed = $2.69 (didn’t even use half the jar)
• Dill seed = $2.99 (used the whole jar)
• Canning salt = $1.99 (only used a very tiny portion of this!)
• Vinegar = $2.49 (again…only used a portion)

This yielded 6 pints of pickles!