Zwaggle Here..Zwaggle There...

I have stumbled across the most awesome site.

Zwaggle.

Its like Ebay but you get points. Instead of making actual cash you receive Zoints to spend on the site. You pay shipping for the items you "buy". I just got my daughter 2 pairs of shorts for 3.18 in shipping.

If you would like an invitation, please leave a comment with your email and I will send you one.

Don't worry about your email showing in the comment. I have them set so that I have to approve them. Any comments requesting emails will not be shown, I will send the email then delete it so it doesn't show up to the entire world. :)

Zwaggle is an awesome site and I am so glad I found it.

Happy B-day To Me!

Birthdays are always a time of reflection for me. I look back over my life and remember the good times and smile, I frown over the bad times and I shed tears for the times I am still not sure of.

My life has not been all roses and candy. I am 27 and on my third marriage. My first husband was horribly abusive. I barely made it out of that marriage alive. My second husband (my daughters biofather) was lazy and an alcoholic. After six years and being homeless more than once with a child under 2, I moved on. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. My husband now is a wonderful man. He has helped me to heal all of those wounds that life has left on me. He has helped to take a broken heart and has pieced it back together. I truly believe that God led us to meet and fall in love.

My mom was sick my entire life. I can still remember taking a blanket that the EMT's had left at my house to show and tell in kindergarten. I thought it was so cool. At 13, she almost died. She was literally given 12 hours to live. She says she saw Jesus (all I saw was the ceiling, but I am not going to tell her she didn't see it, I know it's possible) and suddenly she was not dying anymore.

My father was a Marine. He was a perfectionist Marine. Nothing I ever did seemed good enough for him. He was also a Baptist preacher. We didn't get along very well. Yet since he went Home to be with the Lord, I feel as if a piece of me is missing. I miss him terribly even if we didn't talk much.

I have made my share of mistakes. I am a clean drug addict and a sober alcoholic. I will forever be a drug addict and an alcoholic. I am very aware of exactly how little it would take of either to cause me to fall. I once dabbled in the occult. I thought I knew everything. It amazes me now just how little I actually did know.

But I have come thru it. I wouldn't change any of it. All of it has molded me and made me the person I am today. I am stronger now than I was then. I am wiser (I hope..lol) than I was then. I am more self-confident than I was then.

So Happy B-day to me! Here's to another year!

I am woman...hear me roar....meow. :D

More clutter...

Here is what has left my house today...

10 used file folders
3 hanging folders
25 pieces of useless, no longer needed paper.


In other news, we had the appt for our daughters behavorial evaluation today. The doc is 99% sure that she is adhd, the only problem is that she is only 4. He said that she is an extreme case. So, we have to take her down to Iowa City's Childrens Hospital to be evaluated again. They (along with us) will see if it's severe enough that it warrants meds this young (which I DON'T want) or if they think therapy or other methods will work.

Please keep us and my little one in your prayers.

Sick

So I have come down sick with a 24 hour bug. It hit the baby (4 y.o.) first then Damon and now me. Fun. It should be gone by tommorrow.

As a result, I didn't get to start the Master bedroom decluttering today like I had planned. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

I did however get rid of some stuff for the 365 day challenge.

Here is what left my home today.

2 highlighters
5 packs of unopened post-its
3 packs of pencils

May not seem like much, but its definately noticeable in my desk drawer.

Tomorrow we have a behavioral evaluation for our 4 year old. We are fairly certain that she has adhd. Wish us luck and please keep us in your prayers.

365 Days of Decluttering Challenge

I stumbled across this the other day via THIS blog and it looks like a great idea to me. So, I am going to jump right in and get busy. Anyone want to join me?

Here is the lowdown:

Everyday for 365 days, you must remove (at least) one piece of clutter from your home. That's it! Just think about it. If you removed 365 pieces of clutter from your house how clean and crisp would it be?

I LOVE this idea!

So here we go!

I will be starting today!

Oh Yum! Homemade Oreo's!

These are so tasty! Bet ya can't eat just one! Lol. I have pics of them when they are done, but I didn't think to take any while I was making them.

Homemade Oreo's

Wafers-

1 1/4c all purpose flour
1/2 c unsweetened dutch process cocoa
1t baking soda
1/4t baking powder
1/4t salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 to 1 1/2 c sugar
1/2c plus 2 tbl (1 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
1 large egg

Filling:

1/4c unsalted butter (I used salted and it turned out fine)
1/4c veg shortening
2c powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbl vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar throughly.

On low, add butter and then egg.

Mix until dough comes together and forms a mass. (I thought I had done something wrong..for a while, it resembles corn meal, but keep mixing, lol...it will come together.)

Drop by rounded tsp, 2 in apart on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Slightly flatten.

Bake 9 minutes. Less if your oven runs hot.



Filling:

Add butter and shortening to bowl,

slowly add in sugar and vanilla.

Beat on high until firm.

***NOTE**** I had to add a small (like 1/8 c ) amount of milk to get mine to work right. Try it w/out then use your best judgement as to whether you need to add some or not.

Assembly:

Spread cream on one cookie, then top with another.

Recipe makes 25-30 cookies.






























Happy Baking!

There are other places too...

So I am not only de-cluttering my house, I am also de-cluttering my computer.

So...tonight I cleaned up my email.

Now yes, this can take a long time to do depending on how much crud you have in there. Mine literally took about an hour. But my email is now cleaned and clear and easy to navigate. I also cleaned out my documents, placing them in the appropriate folder. LOL, you should see my recipe folder now..FANTASTIC! So easy to find them now.

Here's how I did the email.

Step one: Log into your email (this really is a duh moment..lol)

Step two: Pop open your inbox and go thru each message. If you need (notice I said need, not want) to save the message, place it in the appropriate folder. If you don't have a folder for that category, create one. Delete each message that you no longer need.

Step three: Open your spam folder. If you use yahoo like me, then there are probably some good emails mixed in there. Go thru it. You don't have to open each one (unless your email client makes you) but go thru by title checking off (if possible) each one that you don't need. If you find one that you DO need then move it to the right folder or to your inbox to be filed later (see step 5), otherwise, delete.

Step four: Your Folders. Now if you are like me and have a habit of just throwing things in folders and forgetting about them, this is where its going to get boring and tedious. Go thru each folder message by message. Save only the ones you NEED (again, not want). Delete all others. You may be surprised. I was able to delete 4 folders all together.

---Side note: I had a folder in my email for recipes that people had emailed me. What I did when I was cleaning them out was copy/paste the recipes I wanted to save to a word document. Each category has it's own word document, so casseroles, sides, deserts, etc. I was then able to delete the folder all together and still have the recipes, now placed in category's where I can find them easily.

Step five: Once you have done the folders and deleted everything that you didn't need, go back to your inbox. All of those messages that you moved into here from your spam folder now need to be put in there right place. Place them in the appropriate folder.

Step Six: Take a deep breath and relax. Take a look at your nice, clean and easy to navigate inbox! You did it!

Right now (literally taking a break to post this) I am cleaning out my picture folders. I have so many pictures that are doubled and in some cases tripled that I really need to go thru them. It is a very daunting task (I love to take pics), but I will get it done.

I am making a lot of headway on getting everyone's clothes gone thru. I have finally made it to the bottom of that ever growing pile in the basement. YAY! Now I just have to go thru the closets and dressers.

I have decided that I am enjoying myelf. I LIKE living with less clutter. It's very freeing and there's a sort of "high" from looking at something that is nice and clean and clear. I think I am becoming obsessed with everything being in order. I suppose there are worse things that I could be addicted to.

Hope you are all having a good weekend and happy de-cluttering!