cleaning: part one, my kitchen or how I use an old easter basket

I've had lots of people ask me how I go about cleaning, here's my kitchen "arsenal":

It's not a lot of silver and shine but it's been working for us for about a year now.  Here's a breakdown:

orange spray bottle (travel section, target): vinegar, undiluted
white spray bottle (this is a rubbermaid 32 oz, target): all purpose cleaner...see below
clear bottle (old method floor cleaner bottle): DIY floor cleaner
sponge
rag
yellow bucket (here's where the old easter basket comes in)
shaker (clearance bin, michaels): baking soda

Here's how I use it...

floor cleaner
mix up this recipe:

1 gallon water
1/4 C castile soap
1/8 C vinegar

I pour into this clear bottle and store the rest in a leftover vinegar container (I buy the largest one they sell at Target)...I like the ease of spray from this bottle, rather than a bucket/mop combo.

Mop (not pictured): I use a wet/drop mop with a reusable mop pad...it's a glorified swiffer without the refill cost...picked it up at Target but they no longer carry the model.

all purpose cleaner
2 C Water
1/2 C Vinegar
3/4 C Hydrogen Peroxide
1 tsp castile soap
10 drops of tea tree oil
5 drops of lavender oil
grapefruit oil to smell.

I use this cleaner for my granite counter tops, glass stove top and my cabinets...basically all surfaces in my kitchen, including to wipe down my chairs and cleaning the inside of my refrigerator.

This little guy is my best friend, I use this shaker of baking soda, a sponge and some water to clean:

Oven: remove racks, then sprinkle inside of oven surface with baking soda, let it sit and then wipe down with a sponge.  Repeat, rinsing sponge in yellow bucket.

Sink: at the end of each evening, I shake some baking soda around the sides then spray down with sink sprayer...to deep clean the sink, I use this method...so easy.

Deep cleaning with baking soda:

I have no methods of my own, I steal all from Pinterest

Garbage disposal she takes the idea of drain cleaning and applies to the disposal, brilliant.
Stove Top
Dishwasher

Random shout of to Epicurean...I love their cutting boards, they aren't plastic but an engineered, dishwasher safe wood...I use these exclusively for my cutting boards and they still look new after several years.

That's it, time to dirty up my clean kitchen with some yummy baking:)

snow days

I wish that we had good photos from christmas, but we really don't...and it's already february, so these snow photos will have to do:

Snow fell, the kids were ecstatic and we suited up to head outside...shockingly, it only took about 10 minutes to get them all bundled, and they actually waited for me to bundle and then obliged me with a few photos before I dropped the camera in the snow:)

Robert appears to be an old pro in the snow, while Joshua, despite this being his first real encounter, did amazingly well with the cold hands and wet clothes that come with falling in the snow.

enjoy:)

not sure exactly where that snow ball was going, I'm going to tell myself he wasn't going to throw it directly at his brother...

Tis the Season

For cute and special moments with my kids.

like this one, today at Robert's Christmas Pageant...could he BE any cuter

(please remind me that I say this when he is pretending to be a fireman and yelling about everyone getting out of our home for the "fire"...which will happen later today...guaranteed)

Merry Christmas:)

fall + leaves = some pretty cute photo ops

I often forget that all kids really need is to be outside, with their mom (and her camera)...add a leaf pile and a dog and you have some pretty great fall memories...

gotta rake it up for brother...

Joshua was a bit more unsure...

and I don't even know what's going on here...

Eventually Sabre will learn that Robert is an asset rather than an annoyance:)

Happy end of Fall:)

my two firemen

Halloween isn't a huge holiday in our house, but we do love a good chance to dress up..especially Robert, so trick-or-treating we went.  Robert chose to be a fireman, and Joshua chose to be a fireman at the last second when Daddy decided that he needed a costume also (Mommy was content for him to just stroller-it, but apparently that wasn't fun enough:)

In typical psycho fashion, I chose to start Joshua's costume at 9pm the night before, sewing him some orange pants to go with his orange raincoat to complete the matching fireman look...adding some yellow duct tape and a fireman logo on his "future wahoo" baseball cap...

If that weren't enough, obviously my boys needed fire extinguishers to carry around...spray painted pepsi bottle and black hosing=fire extinguisher:)

Enjoy the photos, I think that they are pretty darn cute.

Joshua was a bit unsure of what to do with his prop and his candy bucket:

He preferred to walk around with Robert's fireman hat on, unable to see,  because it's brothers and he wanted it:

Sadly, I only got one shot with them in the same frame...speaks volumes to our lives around here...i take what I can get:)

I'm busy making my way through Robert's Halloween candy, trying not to make the rapidly depleting stash too apparent.

school days

The first day of school for us is usually meant with much trepidation, despite the "meet the teacher" time and massive conversation, my sweet Robert has such a hard time with separating from me...until now.  As I prepared for the worst, we were meeting a new preschool teacher AND sunday school teacher is the same week..my big man passed with flying colors.  Although this was a sign of his growing up, instead of crying over how big he is, I cried tears of joy that he did so well at drop off...just thinking about it now makes me well up.

Here he is, allowing mom a few photos:

first, the play nice option:

to be immediately followed by, this is my real personality...

and my personal favorite:

This year, Robert is going three days a week...but the big news is that JOSHUA is also going once a week...mommy's morning out never looked so good!  He's in a class with only a few other kids, and has already warmed to the workers...

here's our sweet boy:

Do you think little brother idolizes his big brother?

Joshua rewarded mommy for sending him away by coming down with strep and roseola at the same time...awesome...we are on the mend and trying to enjoy the weather before fall really sets in:)

can we go back?

I gave up the blog for the summer, sorry family and friends, but my finger just made it too hard to put forth the effort...now that we are all healed, here's our trip to the beach...

we really had such a lovely time, Robert got to test out a bit of surfing:

and pulling his cousin around on the board...

Joshua got his first taste of the water, and loved it...big surprise:

riding cousin Braden's truck...both little guys LOVED this:

Robert got to dig with the big boys, he took his job seriously and loved spending time with his wonderfully patient uncles.

The four cousins are all so close in age, we are often asked if they're twins...I can't imagine why:)

AND we managed to get a whole family pic...where all the kids were looking at the camera, and all adults were smiling...a miracle if you ask me...

I would love to be back there right now, especially considering it's 70 and raining right now...plus, I stinkin' love the beach, my husband DIDN'T WORK all week and we got some great time with our own kids plus it's such a blessing for me to watch my boys play with their cousins..such a special time for all.

visit to the zoo

This summer we are going to attempt to stay busy with lots of outings and activities...although this plan was already derailed last week with a broken finger for mom, double pink eye for big brother and a cold for little brother...but alas, we DID get to the zoo before this all went down and have the photos to prove it!

We started out a bit apprehensive...staring from afar at a kangaroo...

then we moved to the giraffes!  Richmond zoo is fantastic because they allow you food the giraffes, and my sweet timid son was having nothing of it...this was a close as we could get:) Rolling the food down a ramp rather than actually feeding...

Then, I don't know what came over him but he decided to give it a try!

Then there was no stopping him, he loved feeding the baby goat (much more his speed and size really)

Joshua was a champ, riding in the stroller and loving just looking around:

Last but not least, we took a spin on the carousel..

We ran through the zoo using a animal scavenger hunt, which was a huge hit!  if you live in richmond and want a copy, let me know:)

i love little boys when they hold hands, so sweet and innocent.

We finished up out zoo week with a little giraffe craft at home the next day, and I must confess that my son chose to color his giraffe orange and blue, without any influence from mama, i swear. HE WAS SUPER PROUD OF IT!

recent eats

although not a weekly menu, here are a few things we've been chowing down on recently:

The CSA started up for the spring which means one thing...Kale...a vegetable so good for you and so out of my comfort zone...BUT throw in some bacon and other veggies and I'm sold.


Kale and Red Pepper pasta with bacon in a light cream sauce:
(no photo, sometimes don't even have time to snap an iphone photo before we sit down to eat...)
serves two adults, one kid and one next day lunch:)

Cook 4 slices of bacon in a skillet and remove once it's nice and crispy.  In the bacon drippings saute half a red pepper (or more if you love it...i'm teaching Robert to like it) and some summer squash (a full medium sized piece) sliced.  When the vegetables are nice and brown add the bunch of kale, roughly chopped.

While you're doing this, cook up some pasta, then add it to the vegetables mix once the kale is cooked down. 

(if you're me...pause and run the boiling water up the stairs to pour down bathroom drain in an attempt to protect husband from having to pull out the nasty drain-o)

Pour in some half and half and just stir enough to coat and produce a light sauce. 

Spoon into bowl and heap on some parmesan cheese..yum.

Next up...and admittedly just for Robert and I

Radish and Carrot Salad with shredded chicken.

I loosely followed this recipe but made an orange-lemon vinaigrette instead of just juicing the salad, then I put the whole thing over some field lettuce.

My only regret was not having any crusty bread and we had to settle for english muffins...not bad, but not the best compliment either:)

 Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Strawberries
made 24
One box Pillsbury Yellow cake mix
6 mini reese cups
6 strawberries plus more for toppings
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
strawberry jelly of choice
buttercream frosting (I make the same frosting my mother has made for years...I don't measure and therefore have no reference for you...BUT the side of the confectioner sugar box has a great recipe that we use as a general guide)

1. mix up cake batter according to box instructions
2. add in crushed PB cups and chopped strawberries
3. bake using cupcake liners:)
4. while cooling...heat up peanut butter and chocolate chips in microwave for about 30 seconds to 1 minute...mix thoroughly
5. once cupcakes are completely cool, spread layer of peanut butter-chocolate mixture on top and allow it to harden
6. place a half teaspoon of jelly on top of each cupcake
7. frost your cupcakes.
8. try not to eat 6 in one day...like I did.

 

Heath Bar Mug Cake

I hadn't tried a mug cake yet, but have really been wanting to...they ARE as easy as people claim and they do taste pretty darn good considering it only takes 5 minutes to throw together.  AND one cake fed both me and my young dessert loving son..he had his plain while mama threw in Moose Tracks Ice Cream and Strawberries...clearly.

I used this recipe and in the future will cook for less than amount listed, probably only 1.5 minutes instead of three

The heath bar also sank to the bottom so I might stir it in beforehand or make the pieces smaller in general. And I didn't use pecans because little man doesn't like nuts in his dessert and I was afterall making it as a special treat for him after he ate his Kale pasta dinner so good:)

Last and certainly not least was this gem:

Summer Squash Gratin

my 8 x 8 pan fed two adults and one complaining three year old (who, despite complaining he hated it after every. single. bite. ate most of his portion...shocker)

I VERY loosely borrowed from this recipe,  but only used about one step of it since I didn't make the salsa verde and cut ingredients AND steps out of the actual gratin:)

3 summer squash (I used two yellow and one zucchini)

3 TBS butter

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tsp herbs de provence (or really any herb you choose)

1/2 grated Gruyere...I freakin' love this cheese

olive oil

1. slice up the squash really thin, add to baking dish

2. melt butter in sauce pan until just browning, then add breadcrumbs and saute crumbs on low until they just begin to brown...mmm brown butter bread crumbs.

3. mix herbs into the breadcrumbs

4. pour breadcrumbs and grated cheese over squash and shake dish a few times to get them good and mixed in with the squash.

5. bake at 400 for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly:)

side note: if, by chance, you are like me and the gratin starts to get a bit dry because, for instance, you don't check it because you're following around an almost walking 10 month old/jumping 3 year old...splash on some olive oil and gently shake the pan...works like a charm.

We ate this with some bbq chicken sandwiches, the husband exclaimed "this squash is so freakin' good"...try it and let me know what you think.