I found it! I finally found it!!

The week before this past Christmas our son lost/misplaced his Nintendo 3DS. We looked EVERYWHERE. I rearranged furniture, I cleaned every room in the house and we even looked through tote bins in the basement.

Being the week before Christmas everything was busy; the day he lost it I was doing holiday baking and I was getting really frustrated that every time I asked him for something he was on that stupid 3DS. At one point I got mad and told him to put it down right now and (fill in blank with whatever was pressing at the moment), so he did, and then we never found it again.

Until last night that is. We had pretty much given up on it, assuming someone had thrown it out somehow by accident. Then last night daughter threw a fit about a nightlight, something she never uses, and while searching for that I found the 3DS. In the oddest place.

Yup there it was! Sitting in a tin! In plain view! On top of the kitchenette in daughter's bedroom!

Now imagine how utterly stupid I am feeling right now. I had cleaned this room countless times and never, not once opened these tins. I moved them to clean around them, but never opened them.

As far as we can figure she got mad at her brother for something and hid it, then when she was asked if she knew where it was she simply forgot.

Our son is ecstatic that he finally got it back, especially as he got 2 new games for Christmas and his sister got her own 3DS. But I am telling you we now have designated spots where they are kept when not in use.

Spice Cabinet Organized

 

Today I spent 2 hours cleaning out and reorganizing this cabinet.

It houses most of our spices and my baking ingredients. It may not look very big but holds a lot when I can keep it organized.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband is out shoveling snow for a couple of hours so the kids and I decided to bake some cookies for Valentine's Day.  The kids had a blast and I wish that I had taken a picture of the kitchen when they were done (picture a flour bomb being set off). We baked basic sugar cookies we cut out with round cutters, half with heart cutouts in their centers, sandwiching them together with leftover chocolate frosting and heart sprinkles. We only baked half a batch of the sugar cookies and put the rest in the freezer for another day.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/4 cup    butter, softened
1 cup          sugar
1                 egg
1 1/2 tsp     vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups   all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp         salt

 Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cream butter and sugar on low-medium speed. Mix about 1 minute scraping down sides of bowl.
Add egg and vanilla, mixing until combined.
Sift flour and salt together then add to bowl. When dough clumps around the paddle it is ready.
Roll out half of the dough on a well floured surface and cut out your shapes. place cutouts on cookie sheet(s). Reroll scraps, and second half of dough, and repeat.
Bake 8-12 minutes until edges are golden brown.
Let cool on trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks. Once completely cooled, decorate as desired. Enjoy!

Whats been happening

   We had a great Christmas and we are well into the new year now. My husband got a job the week of Christmas and is now being laid off, again, tomorrow. Which isn't such a great loss, as out of the weeks he has worked for this company he has only worked one full week and is getting half the pay cheque we are used to. I have some projects for him to tackle and he has a few plans.
  
   We found out that our son is apparently so quite in class that the teachers didn't notice that he hasn't been doing very much of the in class work, until I pointed it out to them. They have no idea what levels he is at and this year seems to be completely focused on the EQAO testing that is done in May. Now that I am aware and on top of him about it, we hope to see improvements.

   There are lots of home canned goods still sitting on the shelves in the basement and I am starting to plan out this years small garden. We built a new plant stand this week and I have started some herb seeds we will grow inside all year round (some times it's just nice to have fresh instead of dried). I also have a rabbit who should have a litter at the end of this month.

   Oh and my husband bought our daughter two dwarf hamsters, so she can have her own pets, that the kitten just can't seem to stop watching. She has named them Sophia and Amber from one of her favorite cartoons, and she is learning the responsibility of taking care of them.

  I have set myself the goal of blogging regularly now and there are so many projects coming up that I can't wait to post about. Here's hoping :)