Quarantine Day 15. You’re welcome.
Category Archives: House & Home
Frozen Margaritas, Day 2
We did make the kids slushes today which they loved…but THIS is why I got it.
The maiden voyage of my Margaritaville machine!
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve tried our really good blender before (that’s supposed to be good with ice but… didn’t give you really smooth ice) but wasn’t sure the cost of this would be worth it.
But it is. It sooooo is.
The only thing at the moment is I don’t have the individual ingredients for margaritas…so I’m just using my ready-to-drink mix. It’s good, but once you mix it with the ice, it tastes diluted. So…I decided to add some extra tequila, some Grand Marnier, and some mashed strawberries from the freezer!
And then this happened. NOOOOO!!!
Yes, don’t worry. I know how to fix it. After realizing there was no way to get all the cork out…in it went and then I strained it.
Our chef this evening!
Instant Pot spaghetti and meatballs! Delish!
This is about the third time he’s done it and we’re hoping the next one he’ll be able to do ALL on his own.
A Frozen s’more!
Since we had a fire of course we wanted s’mores…except we didn’t have any regular marshmallows?! We only had Frozen marshmallows which were a little small to roast so we just toasted them in our June oven. Still delicious.
The first nice day in forever…
It was nice today (57°!) so we took a walk to do a photo scavenger hunt and leave chalk notes on people’s driveways!
The kids went across the street to decorate the driveway of a single older lady. Owen also told me her brought her trash up to the house. ❤️
As far as for social distancing? Every single person that we saw and had to pass kept the right distance. Sometimes we moved out of the way, sometimes they moved out of the way. Thankfully we didn’t see any kids at the park but I would’ve lost my mind.
I was really happy about all this because I keep hearing stories about how parks are FULL of kids with and without parents around?!?! GRRR. I just think a lot of people are in the “it’s not going to happen to me” camp. And, of course, in the best case scenario, we won’t see anything happen at all and we will think all of this was for nothing. But that just means that it worked.
Anyway, they really had a lot more fun than I thought they would. Now we just need lots more nice days…
I treated myself when we got back… uncovered my egg chair and had a drink!
Show me your drunk face v2
I innocently started a Facebook group to continue the drunk face thing…and we had a mini explosion. Over 100 people joined and a fair amount of them have posted!
Most are my friends (from all times and areas of my life—going back to high school classmates and my first internet friends from 1997 to family members and of course Tivo peeps) but others are inviting people, too!
It really isn’t a drunken fest—it’s more a show me what you’re drinking but I just thought the original sounded funnier.
I’m still in my day PJs and Tom’s in his night PJs.
Don’t judge.
Y’all. It’s time for a quadruple.
The kids went outside today…and ignored my instructions about playing with neighbors… SO THAT WAS…FUN.
SETTLE IN, Y’ALL…here’s what happened on our first day of self-distanced shelter-at-home Spring Break.
The day was going as expected with sibling squabbles and whining about iPad time and complaining about little chores and me not getting to the taxes because work stuff popped up. So I finally sent them outside…and that was the beginning of the fall.
What happened you ask? Well, I might have gone a little crazy bonkers yelling at the kids when they ignored my instructions about playing with neighbors…
Granted it wasn’t one of my better parenting moments but we have just been stressing the importance of staying away from EVERYONE—learning how quickly germs travel and talking about it all the time and why it’s important and how we’re sorry you can’t play with friends now…and then to see them wilfully disobey me? Not good.
Yes, I know they’re kids. Yes, I know they forget—SQUIRREL!!—which is exactly why I said just talk across yards. But then it became “we’ll stay apart” in the driveway and I said no because you’re kids and we can’t trust that you will STAY apart even though you think you will. Heads hanging they went back outside. And the next thing I know I hear screams of kids having fun in our yard so I went to look—really hoping they were being good—and I saw five of them all too close.
Now am I really and truly worried that something bad is going to happen? No. I’m practically the farthest thing from a germaphobe you might find—but I’m trying to be proactive here because too many people think it’s no big deal and look where that got us?
So I was THAT mom who opened the front door and screamed to her children to get their butts inside and for the neighbor kids to GO HOME. I might have been loud enough for long enough that Tom came up from the office downstairs to see what was going on. And then we both proceeded to let the kids know why we were upset with them—for probably a good 10 minutes. Again, not terribly proud of how we handled it but I was just shaking I was so mad. Like I was kind of scared at how mad I was. We then made the kids strip and put their clothes in the wash and take showers (total overkill even for me but we wanted to prove a point).
After they showered and I had calmed down a bit, I hugged them both and apologized for losing my cool but explained that I just wanted to keep them and us and everyone around us safe so they need to trust us when we tell them what they can and can’t do. And emphasized yet again that we are also missing our friends—we’re not punishing them.
The whole thing was rough. And it totally sucked. But tomorrow is a new day and I’ll give myself some grace and we’ll move on. And keep a closer eye on the kids.
So use this post to prepare yourself for if and when this happens in your house so you can avoid acting like a crazy person to your kids.
I put up our Christmas light last night!
There was a mini movement on Facebook too put up holiday lights and decorations (any holiday) in order to break up the boredom and monotony and give people something to look at when they’re driving by. I’m all about the Christmas lights so Tom dug ours out and I put it up last night.
And look what’s happening now?! 😒 SERIOUSLY.
Who’s in for the epic party of 2020?
I’m already thinking about our Saturday dinners we can’t have and our awesome Back to School BBQ that will likely not happen…so get ready. That’s all I’m saying. RSVP NOW. Depending how long this shiz really goes on and depending what happens with Tom’s work sitch…we may also add a Housewarming to the mix. Who’s in?!
Self-distancing Day 2
Owen. Within maybe two hours of being home from a full weekend of camping with his scouting friends (and after a brief discussion about our new Covid Rules including Mythbuster videos on how germs travel), was whining and mopey: “Whoever started the coronavirus is stupid because I can’t play with my friends.”
Katie was sooooooooooo booooored allllllll daaaaaaay. Like she’s never had a weekend day without friends. I finally had to tell her if she told me she was bored we’d start cleaning and throwing stuff away.
I tried to have them help me make Brazilian bread for dinner and that went south almost immediately because no one listens to me or reads directions.
I honestly don’t know how I’m going to survive this.
Getting our last free bundtlet.
Realizing you’re stopping to get a Nothing Bundt Cakes bundtlet…
Realizing your year of free bundlets is over…
I only ask for the laundry room floor to be clean.
So this is what it always looks like. This makes me stabby.
We don’t mess around with meatloaf here.
Today I decided to clean our stairwell walls and railings.
OMG they were disgusting. And all it took was a wet Norwex envirocloth and a tiny bit of elbow grease. I’m floored. 🙌🏻🙌🏻
If you haven’t tried Norwex, you really need to. I love not having to use cleaners 90% of the time. (Yes I still use some. But I’m way more green now than I used to be!)
When Jami texts and asks if you’re free…
the answer is always ALWAYS yes. 殺 A gastronomic experience unrivaled… And thankfully my mom and stepdad were here so they could watch the kids!!
A quick stop at Binny’s! It’s a huuuge liquor store I’d never been to.
Pin the heart on the teacher!
I was volunteering in both kids classes for their Valentine’s parties so I made this game!
The second graders were a bunch of cheaters but everyone had fun!
So Owen accidentally tried to kill us all and burn the house down.
Here’s what having kids looks like.
Owen accidentally tried to kill us all and burn the house down.
Kinda.
I had left these instructions to reheat his cinnamon roll in the toaster on a metal tray:
“Take out and put on tray [that the note was setting on] and TOAST on 3-4.”
I was getting ready in the morning and smelled something kinda burning so I went to check it out and the entire kitchen and dining room was filled with smoke that made my throat instantly hurt. I don’t know why the smoke detectors were not going off. Owen had the sliding door open but it needed way more than that. Both kids were trying to tell me what happened as I was trying to open more windows and doors while choking on the smoke (neither one said it hurt them?!) and seeing if anything was actually on fire.
I initially thought he had put the plastic container in the toaster oven (he’d done it before, hence the note) but the oven looked fine. It took me a minute to realize he had put it in the microwave. On a plastic plate. For three minutes.
I opened the microwave and was blasted with the worst burning smell. Of course the roll was was burnt to a crisp and the plate had started to burn and warp.
I tried not to lose my shit because everyone was safe and there was no fire but still trying to figure out just why he thought that’s what I told him to do while also trying to impress upon him that this was a serious issue while also still fanning the smoke so the smoke detectors didn’t go off and freezing my ass off since I was barefoot in a robe (having just gotten out of the shower).
He’s a smart kid but like any kid doesn’t really pay attention. So he ignored my actual words and did what he thought.
So now all the windows and doors are open downstairs (it’s a balmy 23° today!) and I get to try to get the burnt plastic smell out of my house for the next week.
Instant pot x 2
When chicken breasts are on clearance at Sam’s Club, you make two kinds of shredded chicken for the freezer.
Owen’s birthday shirt…adventure.
Owen’s birthday is coming up next week so I thought I’d make this awesome shirt I saw on Etsy. I only had one snafu but on the bright side I learned how to do something. Do you see it?
I posted this pic on Facebook and a friend pointed out that seconds and minutes were in the wrong order. Gahhhhhhhh!! So I learned how to remove vinyl…
And then printed more text and fixed it.
P.S. If you’ve thought about getting the Cricut heat press, do it. It’s soooo worth it.
Look who’s in the pool brochure?
I don’t know how they ever noticed themselves but they are there!
My happy place…tonight.
Ahhhh. Margaritas. Casa Bonita with friends for Parents Night Out. This pitcher was Jalapeño Cilantro and they were delicious. Pomaritas came later.
Garlic smoked for four hours.
We were excited about it…but it was way overcooked. We’ll try again—I bought a whole bag.
Butter + microwave = Yuck
This is what an entire stick of butter looks like when it explodes in your microwave. Just in case you were wondering.
FYI: I thought I had it set low enough (defrost at 30%) but apparently the time was too long. I was multitasking and forgot about it. I normally do like 30 seconds at a time and changed this time. FAIL.
Hyundai update.
I just spent almost two hours pulling together all the gory details to send to Hyundai regional and/or Corporate about all of the issues, missteps, and blunders with this purchase.
I still haven’t received the post-sale survey. It’s almost like they know they don’t want me to take it.
More Hyundai fun! Are you ready? 😡
We bought the car 12/7. Two weeks post sale they hadn’t yet sent the registration transfer info to Michigan so they did it the next day (12/24). I called today to check on things and Michigan tells me we owe another $830 because the taxes were figured wrong!! So finance screwed that up.
They actually took out Illinois taxes (7%) vs. Michigan taxes (6%) so I figured fine, we’ll just register it in Illinois. Easy, right? No! Since Michigan is a reciprocal state they’ve already electronically deposited the funds… I imagine it will be a nightmare getting the money back from Michigan.
After talking more with the title lady, apparently she has to call the state of Michigan tomorrow to see what can be done because Finance says the deal is done (already funded) and would have to be fully redone from scratch?! 😳 That as far as they’re concerned the car is registered in Michigan… (Yes, even though they screwed it up?!) FFS.
So our temp Illinois tag expires today and we have no legal tag or registration–and they can’t extend it or give us another one. So they dragged their feet on things (Michigan is partly to blame, too) and we’re left hanging.
Since the title lady I’m talking to is nice I’ll wait for her call. Then it’s up the food chain at Hyundai because this is just insane.
Oh, and we go in Thursday for our actual car issue. I’m assuming that will be a nightmare, too.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don’t bake
…aside from brownies or maybe a loaf of bread. I swear I followed the instructions but these are not cute little bite-size cookies. Oh well. They still taste good.
Recipe: https://diethood.com/cranberry-and-walnut-pinwheels/
LOOK MA! NO HANDS!!
Testing Highway Driving Assist at 80mph. 🙌🏻 This car is filled with magic. 😂
A little light reading for our road trip today.
Yes, I’m a geek…I love reading the owner’s manual.
And an editorial fail.
