27 Mini Snickers Bars Ought To Do It

It just occurred to me that I might need some kind of plan to deal with the invasion of Halloween candy tomorrow. That’s really the scary part of all this Halloween business, isn’t it? Would you be shocked to learn that I haven’t bought one single bag of candy this year? I am. The idea didn’t even occur to me! It’s really wonderful when you think about it. Not only am I not eating sugar, I’m not thinking about eating sugar. I’m not even thinking about not eating sugar! Until today when I finally faced the fact that tomorrow was the BIG night and my blood began to run cold.

I have to confess something. You know how I haven’t been eating sugar for a few months? Well, I did the same thing last year. I stopped on the fourth of July and I stayed away from it for 4 months. Until last fateful Halloween night when I thought eating just a few pieces of chocolate wouldn’t hurt me. I started with the whoppers because no one else wanted them. Then things got out of hand. I think I lost conciousness somewhere between Pay Day and the Milky Way but I didn't stop until I had cleared out every last tootsie roll from a four mile radius. I don’t even like tootsie rolls! Does anyone like tootsie rolls? Come on tootsie roll makers. No one likes your disgusting rolls. Stop making them and subjecting innocent trick-or treaters to your cheap make-believe chocolate! Stupid kids aren’t even dumb enough to like it! Enough already! And you cheap people who are buying it should be ashamed of yourselves!

All those months of sugar deprivation kicked my butt and had their paybacks all in one night. And the next and the next. Now here we are at the one year anniversar-eve of my nine month long breakdown and I’m feeling the need to make a plan. Should I lock the kids in their rooms until Halloween is over and then spend a lot of money on their therapy later? Or should I let them go begging for candy and force them to eat every last piece of it all in one night, resulting in more therapy? It’s going to be really hard choosing between all the therapy options here.

Oh my goodness, I just had the most fabulous idea!!! I could have the kids gather more candy than they can carry, stealing some from other kid's bags if they have to and we’ll come home and make a candy sculpture with it! Are you so in love with this idea! It will be kind of like a Christmas gingerbread house only with Halloween candy and hot glue. I think the sculpture would be far less likely to disappear in the middle of the night if it is held together with hot glue rather than frosting. Oh, except the hot glue would melt the candy. You thought of that before I did, didn’t you.

Never mind, we’ll work out all the details later, like how I’m going to talk the kids into falling for my mad plan. It’s going to be so fun!!!

So what’s it going to be? Am I going to hold strong to my sugar free convictions? Or will I surrender to the powerful evil forces of all that is chocolaty, chewy and charming? (I was going to write sweet there but it didn’t start with Ch so I went with charming. Part of sugar’s lure is that it is so charming isn’t it? Yes, it totally makes sense.)

By the way, we are going to my friend’s house for dinner and then her husband is taking the kids treating while we stay home with the babies, handing out candy. Yes, you read that right, we're going to make the babies hand out the candy. Hopefully my friend bought Airheads again this year because I would never sell my soul for an Airhead, 27 mini Snickers bars maybe but never an Airhead.

For those of you who haven’t seen the kid’s Halloween bags here they are. They cut the fabric designs out from a pattern and blanket stitched them on a dish towel, all by themselves! (Take that you rude 4-H losers! Sorry, that’s a whole different post.) Victor made the Frankenstein, Persistence made the pumpkin and I made the ghost for Lovely. Then I took all of them, lined them with heavy duty vinyl (we wouldn’t want any candy escaping from a week seam!) and sewed everything together.

Shop With Bob

I finally have my new Bob jogging stroller! My shop-o-holic husband broke down and bought it after looking at strollers for six months which seems to be the minimum shopping requisite at our house. I got my new stroller several weeks ago but it has taken me this long just to snap a photo of it. I can’t blog it without a photo! Let me tell you though, it is wonderful! It’s lightweight, yet it can hold up to 70 pounds so I don’t worry when Persistence wants to climb in with Lovely. Even with both of them in there it is a breeze to push with its front swivel wheel. Thank you for all your diligent shopping Stranger!

Lovely can’t wait for me to buckle her in it with all the fancy rings and straps and pockets for her drinks. The peek-a-boo window is fun for her too. She can keep her eye on me to make sure I don’t transform into a 6 year old maniac driver who doesn’t know how to watch for cars and might ditch her to chase a bug that’s skittering across the street. It’s funny how babies can tell who’s holding them and who’s at the wheel. Big people just feel better.

I decided last spring that I wanted a new jogging stroller. Stranger thought this was a frivolous idea. The jogger that we bought used at a garage sale 5 years ago for $20, that’s falling apart, is perfectly good enough for us. Somehow I convinced him that a new one was in order. (Just because he lives in Louisiana doesn’t mean he’s too far away to nag.) I wanted to spend $100. Stranger decided Bob was the best and he wasn’t going to settle for anything less. It was Bob or nothing. I think he could just imagine himself skating the Bob across the floor during dollar night at the roller rink. All the other Daddies would see the Bob and hang their heads in shame. It would be Daddy’s Roller Rinkapade Heaven.

Since I couldn’t get that ONE place to give me the sale price on a Bob, Stranger turned to E-Bay. Oh, you were thinking we’d get a good deal there were you? Think again. Let me just tell you that Stranger bought our jogger on-line for $285 with free shipping and no taxes. Regular price is $360 so he saved more than $75 and that was the cheapest we could find it anywhere.

Take a look at what someone paid for one a few weeks ago on E-Bay. $330 + $40 shipping. $370. That’s $85 more than we paid for it and $10 more than you can get it anywhere else on-line since everyone else offers free shipping! While we were watching the strollers on E-Bay I saw people pay even more than that.

This is just to show you how crazy people are on e-bay. It used to be a place to find good deals but no more. People pay more for stuff there than they can pay anywhere else. If you are shopping on-line, definitely look at E-Bay but don’t stop there. Here is a search I did the other day.

Can your brain even comprehend what you are looking at? (Or can your eyes even see it?) $112, $135, $152 for hot rollers!!!! I get that they are a discontinued style. And maybe they would complete that Roller Rinkapade look you’re going for but come on people! They’re not ten year old toasted cheese sandwiches! They’re hot rollers!!!

Which leads me to my next discovery. First of all I want to say congratulations to all of you out there who get to go grocery shopping without your whining children. I’m so happy for you. Really. I don’t feel resentful in the slightest. Really. Unfortunately I get to take three ornery children with me each and every time I go to the store. As if the fighting weren’t enough, the last several month Persistence and Lovely have gotten too much for me to push around in a shopping cart full of food, if there is even room for food with both of them in there. Yet Persistence hasn’t been ready to give up her shopping cart royalty crown. Another problem is that Lovely likes to lie down. She is a very lazy baby and will snuggle up to a blanket/jacket/piece of fluff any chance she gets. A shopping cart isn’t a very comfortable place to get cozy.

Our solution? We take Bob shopping with us! It’s wonderful! Lovely can relax all she wants without touching all those nasty cart germs, Persistence has something to amuse herself with as she pushes Lovely through the store and I actually have room for groceries in my cart now. Yay!!!

Guess what we had for dinner tonight? You guessed it didn’t you? We really need to eat toasted cheese sandwiches more often. Not only are they tasty but our salvation might be on the line.

Organize Your Closet

Well Rosie didn’t seem to think my advice was very helpful. Imagine that! Am I here to be helpful or famous?

I guess I’d rather be helpful so if you must know, in my old house I used wash tubs in the kid’s closets that I bought for $1 each at Big Lots. They were a poor solution though as you said. The kids would pull them all out onto the floor looking for what they wanted and never put them back.

In my own closet I stacked jeans in the cubbies. Are yours the right size for that? I liked them for jeans. We didn't have to dig through drawers and they didn't topple over like they would on an expanse of shelf. If you want to stack them on a shelf by the way, you can use boxes tipped on their sides to keep everything separated and neat.

I wonder if something like this would work for your cubbies. You could screw them in so the drawers would stay put. I'll have to look at home depot the next time I'm there. Kind of expensive though. I’d stick with the dollar store myself!

Has anyone else found something that works for them?

This is my dream wardrobe. In my next life I'm only going to buy white and pink and wear everything together. If it looks that good in a closet then it's got to look good on me, right? it doesn't have to be pink either. I could buy only brown or red or blue. Or green. Green is really my favorite color right now so that's what it's going to be. When I walk down the street people will point and say, "There goes that crazy lady who only wears green. Have you seen her house? It's green too." And friends will say, "Yes but she is so organized!" What better compliment could you ask for? Crazy and organized! And green.

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be?

By the way, I stole this photo from Lowes. I started feeling bad about it so I was just going to link to it but then I couldn't find it again! So I used it anyway. Does that make me a criminal? Going to jail could really solve all my wardrobe dilemmas too.

The Lazy Organizer Gives Advice

I received an organizing question yesterday from one of my blog readers, Rosie. I thought I would take the time to answer it here so I can feel like some sort of important advice columnist. Just don’t call me Dr. Laura! On second thought, if I’m really rude then maybe I can become a millionaire like her. Here goes…

Do you have any ideas on organizing those cubbies in closets? I thought about baskets but I just don't know if I am motivated enough to use them, then there is the problem of finding just the right size for the space.Help me my organized friend!

Hello Rosie,

First of all don’t even think about using baskets because you are a lazy slob. I have never had a close look at your home but I can tell from your letter that you have serious issues. Next, start right away by unloading all of your friends. Their dead weight is just holding you back from your organizational potential. Thirdly, make some time in your schedule to give your husband a foot massage every night when he comes home from work. This won’t help you become more organized but he deserves it after all that he does for you while you laze about the house all day. Lastly, everything you own is junk and you should get rid of it. Really, burn it if you have to. I can’t believe you actually drug all of it into your so called home. The only way to truly get organized is just to start over, especially for someone as indolent as you.

Write to me again if you manage to accomplish any of this, which I’m sure you won’t. Then I will decide if you are worth wasting any more of my valuable time on.

I’m The Lazy Organizer
Now go take on the rubbish!

Wow, that was more fun than I thought it was going to be! I think I have a real future in this sort of thing. Don’t you? If you also would like to receive such helpful advice in the same thoughtful way I have answered Rosie’s letter, feel free to send your own organizing questions to The Lazy Organizer @ get a life dot com.

Cleaning Demons

Oh how I love the water and ice dispenser in my side by side refrigerator.


Oh how I hate trying to keep the spill tray clean!


Ice falls on it and melts. The hard water deposits build up and they do not come off, according to my lazy self anyway. Anything I have to scrub for twenty minutes is a lost cause. I took it off a few days ago to clean and couldn’t bring myself to do it. So there it sat in my sink for a week. In the mean time guess what I have discovered? Only time will tell but so far I like living without it! If ice spills out of the dispenser then I can see it sitting there and wipe it up right away. Yay! Another discovery that makes my life easier!!!

I’m sure there are other cleaning demons around us that are trying to make our lives miserable and that we could actually be living without. Can you think of any? Your children perhaps? Just kidding! (I think)

Oh I thought of a good one. How about horizontal blinds? I had those on every window when I bought my old house. First of all they are ugly, they block the view, they’re a pain to open and close and they are a nightmare to keep clean. (Sorry if you have these and like them!) I spent the first few years replacing them with drapes, basically just simple pieces of hemmed white linen. I like white to let in the most light and I’m using the same thing in this house.

I did get the tray clean by the way. I scrubbed half the plastic off in the process but it's clean! Now it's going into long term storage. 

Special Knits Shawl

Last night I took a few minutes to finish sewing the edging on this doll quilt I made for Love. It’s the same pattern (Special Knits by Debbie Bliss) as her baby blanket but smaller and with beads. I’ve wanted to knit with beads for a while so I’m pretty excited about it. It's been a whole day and Lovely hasn't tried to pull one off yet. I wish I had a better photo. Can you see the beads in the second one?

Doll blankets are so organized! Besides wraping up baby dolls, they are small enough that I can throw one in my purse for the baby to snuggle when we're out. They don't drag on the floor and they are easy to make up. In fact, when I see a quilt pattern I like, I just make it in miniature so it's finished in a fraction of the time a full sized quilt would take but just as beautiful. We have so many doll quilts laying around the house that I grab one every week to match Love's outfit for Church.

This is her baby blanket. Look how tiny and bald she was!


This is a perfect day for knitting because it hasn't stopped snowing. Not that I've been doing any. This was our day to go to the library and then the gym but Lovely has been acting fussy. She's always a happy girl so I'm wondering if she is sick. We stayed home just in case. The kids are playing outside in the snow and I'm trying to keep her happy until bed time. As soon as she goes to bed I'm going to knit something warm!

I'm recycling! I'm a recycler! I recycle!!!

But what about Bob???

I’ve always wanted to recycle but I’ve been too lazy to actually do it. Now I am and I feel so much better about myself. Who knew that recycling could be directly related to self esteem. I'm just so excited to finally be doing my small part to help the environment.
I discovered that I can drop off paper on the convenience store down the street and I can take cardboard, plastic and tin cans to the park and ride that’s just a little bit out of the way to the gym. Curb-side service would be better but I'm not complaining.

I have a box in my office for paper. My office is just two steps from my kitchen so I throw a lot of packaging in it. Then I have a dbig kitchen garbage can that I throw cans and plastic in. When it’s full I toss the bag out to the garage until I have a couple to take to the recycling bin along with any cardboard boxes I've accumulated. It's so easy! I'm sure Bob would agree.



I bought a new compost bin last week! We were using an ice cream bucket but I’ve been looking for something a little more stylish. This matches our kitchen and it’s easy to use. It has a removable plastic insert that we can take out and wash. When I’m cooking I prop the lid up with a clothes pin so it’s easy to toss vegetable scraps in. Dumping it on the heap outside is one of the jobs I have delegated to the kids! 

Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese chicken salad seems to be a standard at Utah functions. I always enjoy it and I finally tried making my own. I put together all my favorite ingredients until I came up with this tasty version that definitely isn't standard.

Chinese Chicken Salad
1 cup almonds, chopped
4 packages ramen noodles, broken
1 medium to small head of cabbage, shredded
3-4 stalks green onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
handful Chinese pea pods cut into pieces
two carrots shredded
1 head broccoli chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced

Dressing
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 T ginger paste (optional)
2 t sesame oil (optional)


Cook almonds and noodles on a cookie sheet in oven at 350 for about 10 minutes or until toasted. I like to burn a couple batches of this until I finally get it right.

Mix dressing in blender until combined then chill. Toss the vegetables and chicken in a large mixing bowl and chill. When you are ready to eat toss everything together and serve. This makes enough salad to feed an army! 

10 Weird Organized/Unorganized Things About Me

Julie gave me homework for the weekend! And it’s Deer Hunt and everything. I totally was going to go but then I had to stay home and write this. Do you think she is this mean to her students???

I was supposed to write 10 weird things about me, but when I started typing them out they were too scary to post on the internet so I had to type up a new list. Admit it, there are just some things you don't want to know about me.

10 Weird Organized/Unorganized Things about Me

1. I organize my shirts by color.
2. My computer files are more organized than my pantry.
3. I have flushed my car keys down the toilet twice. Not my toilet, public toilets and not the same keys because no, I never got them back, either time. This happened back when I was single. Now I secure my keys to my wrist and I wear my cell phone on a cord around my neck. And Julie thinks listening to public radio makes her a nerd?
4. This is my newest weird thing that I absolutely love. I epilate my entire body once a week! I think it’s very organized of me. I'm sorry. Should that have been on the "other" list?
5. I wear underwear with holes in it. That’s it, I’m buying new underwear!
6. I am never more than three steps away from a pair of nail clippers.
7. My telephone is held together by electrical tape.
8. When I use sewing patterns I fold them back up on their original fold lines so they fit exactly back into their envelopes. See Mom? I wasn’t doing it just to bother you. I still do it.
9. I eat spam. Doesn't using your food storage mean organized? Just kidding, I don’t really have food storage. That’s just my excuse for eating spam!
10. I sleep with my planner every night so I don't forget to look at it in the morning. I still forget to look at it in the morning.

I am tagging Rosie and Kimberly. Have fun ladies! I can’t wait to read more about you!

Bonds That Make Us Organized

So how do these promptings relate to getting organized? Just imagine how clean your house would be and how organized your life would be if you followed every prompting you received every day. It wouldn’t be perfect of course because nothing is but everything would be so much easier. You would stop buying so much junk. You would put things away as soon as you were finished with them. You would finish getting the kitchen cleaned up before you started blogging. You would be able to accomplish more because you would never stay up too late and make yourself exhausted the next day. You would be able to gracefully juggle your responsibilities between your kids, home, work, exercise and play. You would be in charge of your own life instead of letting life charge over you.

Someone mentioned to me that the important part of happiness was our attitude. I agree. If someone cuts you off in traffic then you need to have a better attitude so you won’t lose your temper and hunt them down with a shot gun. “But what if you want to change your attitude,” I replied, “but you don’t know how?” What if you want to be happy and nice and forgiving and helpful but you don’t know how to make yourself become any of those things? If you’re not feeling it how do you make yourself feel it?

Picture this: If you were more organized because you were listening to the promptings you were receiving you would have left the house ten minutes early instead of ten minutes late. Someone pulling in front of you on the road wouldn’t have made you mad in the first place. There would be no temper to lose or attitude to change. It would not even occur to you to be upset. In fact you probably would have slowed down to let that person in front of you! So when someone cuts you off and you’re contemplating road rage, who is the one with the problem? YOU!!!

The wonderful thing about realizing you are the cause of all your misery in life is that you have to power to change it. Isn’t that enlightening? You don’t have to settle for depression and fear and loneliness and despair. All you have to do is start right now by doing what you know is right and you will begin feeling better immediately. You won’t be mad at anyone because there won’t be anything to be mad about!

I think that’s one of the reasons why organizing feels so good, because it’s the right thing to do. Have you ever wanted to stay in bed all day and read a book? Have you ever done it? I have and I didn’t enjoy it. I thought I would but the longer I laid there the worse I felt. I started getting a headache and I felt lazy and depressed. Compare that to how you feel after you have organized a closet or cleaned out your van. Did you feel depressed after doing those things? Of course not! You felt excited by what you accomplished! Getting organized just makes you hunger for more and more. Don’t stop now! Go clean out that fridge!!!

Bonds That Make Us Free

I read the most amazing book a couple weeks ago, Bonds That Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner. I read a lot of amazing books. They really change my life, some of them for as long as two weeks. Really. It’s not like I don’t get anything out of them. I usually will learn one or two things from every book that really stick with me and I am able to put into practice.

But this book was different. I’m glowing. A complete life change is imminent. I'm just sure of it. It had all the secrets in it for being the kind of person you have always wanted to be but you could never figure out how. I talked to my sister about it on the phone.

Me - “I really feel different after reading this book. I feel like a whole new person.”

Her - “Yes, but are you going to feel that way two weeks from now?”

Me - “Well, I’ll just make myself read it every two weeks then.”

Here’s what I got out of it. You get promptings to do certain good things. When you don’t follow those promptings then you are going against what you believe is right. Since we don’t like thinking we are doing the wrong thing then we justify what we did in our minds. In other words, we have to make someone else appear wrong in our minds so that we can feel better about ourselves. Eventually we start believing the lies we tell ourselves which is that all our problems are someone else’s fault and everyone else is making us miserable when in fact we are making ourselves miserable by not doing what we know we should. Make sense? I know. My book reviews are so helpful. I should probably just stick to my famous, “I really liked this book. You should read it.”

Since reading this book I’ve been trying extra hard to follow every prompting I receive. It’s amazing how many there are every single day and it’s amazing how many of them I don’t want to follow. Even the easy ones like, “You’re baby is playing in the stickers. You really should stop writing and paste stickers all over her body. It would make her so happy.”

Me – “But I don’t want to stop writing. I’m almost finished and then I’ll play with her.”

Prompting – “But she’s tired and you really should either be playing with her or getting her ready for bed.”

Me – “Well I can’t get her ready for bed because her pajamas, sheets and blanket are in the wash. She’s just being an annoying little pest. Why can’t she go play with her brother and sister? Why does she have to keep getting into everything and making a mess?” See how I start blaming her because I’m not doing what I know I should be doing?

The small promptings are just as hard to follow as the big ones. I don’t want to do any of them. I just want to be a lazy do nothing. Why? If a prompting is telling me to do something good then ultimately doing it will make me happier won’t it? Then why do I choose to be lazy and unhappy? That is a good question. Can you please answer it for me?

This morning I found a plate in the sink with a big chip on the edge. I didn’t raise my voice to the offender but I said rudely, “Can’t you be more careful? That was one of my favorite plates. I loved that plate,” pause and feel like an idiot. Then follow a prompting to say, “But not as much as I love you. I know you would never break it on purpose. It must have been an accident,” feeling much better about myself. “Just don’t ever let it happen again!” See how this book has changed me? I am a much better Mother today than I was last month. Aren’t you all so happy for me?

Did you see what I just did right there? See how it was all about me? Did I feel bad that I had made my son feel bad? A little, but mostly I was feeling sorry for myself. Then I do the right thing and feel like such a righteous, magnificent Mother and I want all of you to congratulate me for it.

Apparently I missed the whole point of the book and I need to read it again. I need to buy the book and underline every sentence in it because my sister was right. It’s been two weeks and the glow is gone.

Toy Central

There is nothing as motivating as being too sick or too injured or too pregnant to do something you know you should be doing but you just keep putting off. You know when you’re eight months pregnant and you’re thinking, “What I wouldn’t give to be out running five miles at this very moment.” Because that’s exactly what you’d be doing if you weren’t doing this other thing instead, suffering from a cold, agonizing over a broken foot or cooking a baby, right? I believe you.

While I was sick last week all I could think about was organizing our toy and game cupboard. (Let’s not talk about why it was such a mess in the first place.) I had a perfect view of it as I lay on the couch crying because I couldn’t get up and take care of my kids or organize the toys.


But somehow when I was feeling better that toy cupboard didn’t seem as important anymore. A few days later Victor was pestering me so badly about playing with a friend that I said, “I know what we can do! We can organize all these toys and games instead! Won’t that be fun!!!” He agreed whole heartedly that he wished for nothing more at that very moment. Isn’t he just bubbling with excitement?


This first thing we did was pull everything out of it. Then we decided that that was enough work for the day and we took a nap. I mean, that was when the fun started because Lovely could cast her big blue eyes on all those fun trinkets and she just had to have every single last one of them! This made our job much easier so we dug right in and started organizing. The puzzles went in one drawer, the game pieces in another, the game boards stacked on a shelf, etc. I always throw all the boxes away and everything is organized into a tidy Organizing Bag. If I had the energy I would count it all up to impress you with exactly how many toys, games and puzzles I fit in there but no. Just know that it is a lot!

I reserve one little drawer for pieces that get separated from their families. Whenever I see a Puzzled This or a Sorry That on the floor, I pick it up and drop it in the Foster Drawer. All the displaced pieces go back home later when we have time for a big happy reunion.


I love my toy cupboard. It’s sits in the living room, right where the kids like to play. You know the organizing rule; store it where you use it? That sums it up. I don’t see the use in keeping toys in their bedrooms when they are just going to drag them out to the living room anyway. Plus I can keep a better eye on the mess and make sure it gets cleaned up before another mess is made. You can easily make your own Toy Central out of a bookshelf or a hall closet.

Now remember all those projects you wanted to finish as soon as you were feeling better? Remember that marathon you were going to start training for after you had the baby? Get to it!

Beautiful Goodbye

I’m sorry to say that I’ve been sucked in to the world of the MP3. I’ve been thinking I wanted one to take running and use at the gym so I have something to do besides stare in amazement at the scrawny little legs of the weight lifters with big bulging upper body muscles. Can’t they tell they look a little bit top heavy?

Lucky for me Stranger brought one home for me on his last visit. It took me a few days to venture onto the internet to figure out how to put songs on it. I was not happy with what I found. There are a lot of songs out there and none of them were titled, “A Song That Lara Would Like.” That meant I had to listen to them. One by one. For hours and hours. Then my eight year old volunteered his hours and hours which was fine by me because he has good taste. About one song anyway. Beautiful Goodbye by Josh Kelley. I loved it! Click on the link to download it for free. Then go here to get the rest of his album at 15 cents per song. If you like that sort of cheap thrill. (Please share your favorites so I don't have to keep hunting. I'm completely clueless about music.)

Now that I’ve completely wasted three days of my life for this machine that is so tiny I could swallow, I finally have enough songs on it to get me through a workout. Which, by the way, is the only time I’m allowed to use it since my kids spend the rest of the time fighting over it. When I spend three more days figuring out how to sync my play lists to it can we call that organizing?


I used my player at the gym tonight. I was so entrenched in my own little world of sultry voices that I didn’t feel the need to wonder what all the girls were thinking when Romeo walked in with his wife or whether my underwear was showing when I sat down at the bench press. No. I didn’t care about these things at all. In fact I was so far gone that I almost ran into someone. Three times. Luckily it was a different person every time. I think. All I really noticed was that each time it seemed to be a short man with big muscles from the waist up.

Sleeping Angels

Persistence saw my “Going To Bed” list and asked me what “Cover Angles” meant. “It says cover angels,” I replied. “So we’re your angels,” she asked smiling? “Only when you’re asleep," I teased!

You would think a little girl who could do this, could hang on to the back of a slow moving van in the dark of night over bumpy roads. Apparently not. One gentle turn and down she went. Luckily her brother was there to signal me to stop and collect her wounded body and spirit. It was one of my most glorious moments of Motherhood when I scolded her for falling off and getting hurt. Aren’t I a good Mother? I’m ready to accept my award now.

When we arrived at the house I pulled her into my room with me, snuggled up beside her in my bed, and tried to comfort her. I was little needed once Lovely arrived on the scene. She gave her injured sister many kisses and hugs and rubbed her hair and face. She covered her with her favorite blanket and lay down beside her. Once she perceived her spirits lifting she instinctively knew that sitting on her sister’s stomach and bouncing up and down was the suitable thing to make her giggle and snort. All better.

A few weeks ago Lovely sat on my lap while I was in the doctor’s office being examined for a sinus infection. All of a sudden she popped her thumb out of her mouth and offered it to me. Somehow she knew that I needed comforting and it was all she had to give. The doctor was amazed and declared that he had never seen anything like it but I wasn’t surprised. How does she do it? How does a one year old know such empathy? Lovely is full of more understanding and compassion than anyone I know. Sometimes when I tell her no she will instinctively swing a tiny fist at me in her frustration. Seconds later she will follow it with a kiss. It’s always fun getting whacked across the face when you know it will be followed with a kiss of the most sincere apology. And she never forgets. She has never hurt me, even accidentally, without apologizing.

Persistence and Lovely share a room. Big sister likes to read to little sister until she falls asleep. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my children reading together. I don’t know what it is. I think if they can get close enough to share a story together then they really must love each other. Well tonight when the story was over I didn’t even try to put Lovely in her crib. She made it perfectly clear that she was staying put. She scooted down under the covers when she saw me coming, waved at me and said, “Bye! Night night!” Persistence agreed that she could sleep there for a little while so I tucked them in and shut the door. I never heard another sound.

Tonight I couldn’t resist taking photos when I went in to Cover my Angels. Even snoring angels are sweet aren't they?

Laundry Room Organizer

Oh how I’ve wanted to post a photo of my new ultimate ironing board holder! I controlled myself though and waited till it was completely finished. I built and installed it several weeks ago but needed to finish caulking and painting it which I did yesterday. Yay!!!

I was getting so tired of my ironing board propped up in a corner and Stranger wouldn’t let me buy a holder for it. When I was looking at one at Target he said, “You could build something sturdier than that cheap thing.” Well look at that. I guess he was right. It was quite a project too considering it was my first in our new house so I had to hunt through boxes to find all my tools.

It holds my ironing board and iron, a bag full of dryer sheets, a bag of socks waiting patiently for their mates to come through the wash, and extra pegs where I can hang clothes that need ironing as I pull them out of the dryer. Now I need to go do laundry so I can have some wrinkled clothes to hang on my finished Laundry Room Organizer!

How To Stop Eating Sugar

I know steering clear of sugar is a difficult thing for most people. If you are really serious about going cold turkey I want to tell you how to do it. First I’ll tell you how and then I’ll tell you why.

1. Have a REASON to do it and then DECIDE to do it. Really. Stop saying you’re going to start tomorrow. Start right now!
2. Stop eating sugary foods, soda, juice, everything. Cut it all out of your diet and get it all out of your house.
3. Tell your family what you’re doing and ask them to please not bring any sweets into the house or to eat them in front of you. When we went to a Chinese buffet my family moved to a different table to eat their desserts!
4. The first week will be difficult. All you will think about is dessert. All you can do is just suffer through it.
5. To make it through the first week, make a meal plan. That way you will know what you are going to eat for every meal. Don’t skip meals or you will get overly hungry and vulnerable to falling off the wagon.
6. Next, buy every kind of snack food that you could possibly want that’s not sweet. Chips, crackers, nuts, popcorn etc. You’re not trying to eat healthy the first week. You’re just not eating sugar. If you have other snacks available then it won’t be such a hardship.
7. Buy lots of fruit. I know it’s sweet and it has lots of sugar in it but it’s good for you and for some reason I can eat all the fruit I want and it doesn’t make me crave sugar. It just doesn’t. Buy a box of strawberries and tell your family that this is dessert. They might complain at first but they will secretly like it and get used to it. I go to Sam’s club and buy watermelons, cantaloupe, bananas, boxes of kiwi, strawberries and plums. So, fruit juice, no. Fruit, yes.
8. If someone offers you a brownie say, “No, thank you.” A soda, “no”. A candy bar; “no”. A jelly bean, “NO!!!” “But thanks for asking”.
9. The second week on will be easier. You will have that sweet taste out of your mouth and you will stop craving sugar.
10. You will start yearning for healthier foods. You will stop thinking about eating junk food. If you do eat junk food, it won’t taste as good to you. Go with the flow. If you want to eat salad for three meals a day, do it.
11. Don’t start eating sugar again. Remember how hard it was this time? It will be even harder the next time you try to stop. When you tell your brain you are going to stop eating sugar again it will say, “Ya, I’ve heard this before. I’ll believe it when I see it.” And then you will have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head until you give in and eat one. What is a sugar plum anyway? They sure sound tasty.

I found this about sugar addictions. I haven’t read her book and I don’t know about her methods but I thought her website was interesting reading.

Stop eating sugar for all the obvious reasons. It rots your teeth, it’s bad for you, it will make you fat, etc., etc.. Here is a reason you might not have known about because I sure didn’t. I only found out from my own experience. Once you stop eating sugar your food cravings will stop. Seriously, you will eat less of everything. Even foods that I normally love, I have to force myself to eat. I don’t think about food like I used to. Sometimes I even forget to eat or I have to make myself stop and prepare something to eat when I’m busying doing something. Does this sound depressing? It’s not. It’s liberating. When you’re not eating all the time or thinking about food you are freed for so many other things in life. Ok. This is getting too preachy for me, especially since I’ve eaten a plate full of brownies in the last two days! But all is not lost. I’m still on the wagon. I just plucked a couple sugar plums from an overhanging tree that came a little too close. I’ll do better to steer my wagon away from the sugar plum trees in the future.

Sweet

Yes, I went cold turkey on the sugar thing. But after the first couple weeks I did start eating some sweets again. Some. Usually only in social situations. If I’m at a party and I’m offered a cookie then I will probably eat it. I couldn’t eat three dozen even if I wanted to so that’s a safe situation and it doesn’t get out of hand. I don’t buy sugar for myself though. I don’t buy treats for the kids and I don’t allow them in the house where all H-E-Double Toothpicks can break loose if someone isn’t keeping an eye on me. Let’s face it. I’m an addict and I always will be. It’s especially difficult for me since I haven’t been attending my meetings. And you folks are no help at all. I know you’re at home reading this while you’re shoving peanut M&M’s in your mouth. Snickers? Brownies? Ok, now the truth is out. I’ve been eating brownies tonight too but I only did it for you. See this lovely photo? I made these just for you. Now if only you were here to share them with me so I don't eat myself into a brownie coma. Tomorrow it will be detox all over again.

Guess what else I did today? I installed latches on the kid's secret door so now they can lock each other out of their rooms. I'm having visions of one of them getting mad and kicking the door down. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it. Just because that's something I would have done doesn't mean my kids will do it. The kids and I also cleaned the entire house. I didn't want to do it but they begged so I said, fine, but how come we always have to do what YOU want to do?

Have you visited Mental Tesserae yet? She has an amazing blog. When I grow up I want to be as smart as she is. For now, I'll teach her how to spell words like D'oh, and she can explain to me exactly how to schplake someone.

101 Useless Organizing Tips

I’m feeling overwhelmed. By the internet! I got looking around tonight at other organizing websites and it gave me a brain cramp. There is just too much out there. Too, too much! There is too much information, too many ads and too much demand for my attention. When you visit an organizing blog and you get overwhelmed by the clutter then you know there is a problem!!! Lucky for me I can turn the dang thing off or simply walk away.

I’m feeling guilty. I don’t want my blog to just add to the confusion. I need a mission statement so I don’t forget the real reason I blog. Here it is:

Post all about your neurosis on the internet so you don’t have to bother people with them in real life.

Ok. Maybe it needs a little work but that about sums it up. If I read a book and blog about it then I don’t have such a need to shove the thing down the throats of everyone I meet. Only half of the people I meet. And only half way down their throats.

For some reason it’s not socially acceptable to walk around telling people they’re doing things all wrong and here’s how they should do it from now on. I don’t know why. If I’m wrong about something I definitely want to know about it.

Just kidding!!! You can keep your mouth shut right now! I’ll do it any dumb way I want and it’s none of your business. Seriously. The thing about me though is that you can come over and tell me you really hate the color of green that I picked for my house and I won’t care one single bit. I don’t get my feelings hurt that easily. In fact I might even enjoy the fact that you hate my house and everything in it. That would just verify to me that you have terrible taste and, thankfully, we have nothing in common. Just don’t come crying to me when you’re looking for a good Marshmallow Brownie recipe because you are out of luck. Oh I’ll give it to you all right. But yours aren’t going to taste very good because I might get a couple ingredients mixed up by mistake.

Are you kidding me? I would NEVER do that! Oh no. I am the worst liar in history. Like when I was single it would have never even occurred to me to give a guy I didn’t like, a fake phone number. I would prefer to stand there and tell him all the reasons why I didn’t want to go out with him rather than do something DISHONEST like give him a fake number. That would just be MEAN! Telling him he doesn’t stand a chance with me because he eats like a slob, with food all over his face and his pants are too tight, you know the Seinfeld 80's kind of tight, is the compassionate thing to do. Yep. I’m nothing if not nice. Well, maybe not exactly nice, just very, very honest. Except for when I’m lying.

What was I writing about again? Oh ya, about how I’m going to put down the mouse and back s l o w l y away from the computer.

Get Well Basket

Thank you! I am feeling much better today. I can stand up without getting dizzy and nauseous. The kids have really pitched in and helped with the baby. Mostly I just lay on the couch while she uses my face as a stepping stool to reach things behind the couch. Things such as the Get Well Basket I made for myself. I think its way better than flowers. Don’t you? It holds tissues, cough syrup, Advil, water and my reading and writing books. I got tired of carrying all my gear from room to room in my weakened state so I dug a basket out of storage to contain it all.

Marshmallow Brownies

Here is my favorite brownie recipe. I tried to copy a brownie from one of our favorite restaurants. Instead I came up with something completely different but delicious! I haven't made them since I stopped eating sugar a couple months ago.

Marshmallow Brownies
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa
3 cups sugar
6 each eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
dash salt
1/2 bag large marshmallows, snipped in half

Mix all ingredients. Spread into a greased cookie sheet, bake for 25-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Don't overcook them. I tend to like these a tad undercooked rather than overcooked. A gooey brownie never hurt anyone. If you don't get it just right the first time than I guess you'll have to make another batch!

Arrange marshmallows halves on warm pan of brownies. Make frosting recipe. Warm in the microwave until runny. Drizzle warm frosting across the top of brownies and marshmallows so they're all pretty and irresistible. Let cool, cut into squares and