Is this reallly how it's going to be today?

Falling under the-I can't believe I'm saying this category

Today's favorite is something I would never in a million years consider to be a favorite.

I had a few other things in mind, but I decided I needed to count my blessings.

Today's favorite is.....tax season. Yes, you heard me tax season. I had heard what tax season was like before we were out of college. T grew up with his dad as a CPA, my SIL had already lived a few years through it. It didn't sound fun. And don't get me wrong, it's not that fun.

But, being 23 when we bought this house and T started tax season I was still young and selfish. I was inconvenienced. It was all about me! I was home alone with little kids. I didn't have a husband. Well, time and maturity tends to change ones perspective.

A very dear loved one lost a job this week. So, can I really complain that T has too much work?

No, I can't. Here are the reasons I love tax season:

1) Self-employment has it's advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that he won't be laid off. Business might go down, but he won't be fired.

2) Absence makes the heart grow stronger. I love that my husband will work 70 plus hours of stressful work to take care of us and allow me to stay home.

3) I love that it makes him want to live life after it's all over. He loves to spend time together and go on trips, etc. because it somehow it makes it all worth it.

4) It's the best time of year for it. Holidays are over, the weather still stinks, not much going on anyway.

5) Taxes are just going to get harder and more complicated, giving us job security.

6) I get to winess that honesty pays off. They try to be honest in every way possible in their business, and the business (and us) are blessed.

6) Like all things, it ends!

This is not to say that I still won't have an attitude at times. If I do, I should re-read this.

And some years are harder than others. This year everyone is old enough to play and not need me every second (just every other).

The other thing that is my favorite today is parent payday moments. I always wonder how my kids are doing and if they are gaining a testimony.

B has been reading the New Testament reader and he came out of his room last night so excited and said, "I know why the church was taken off of the earth! All of the apostles died and there was no church until Joseph Smith came!" He had finished the whole thing in less than two weeks. It is exciting to see testimonies being born.

Making progress...

So, I decided to go with Violet Whimsy (not violent whimsy) for Capri's room--the same color as my bathroom.

I got it done this weekend.

My crib set:

This is the bumper, which made me decide on purple so it would contrast.The comforter. I think I'm going to try to find some green fabic for the curtains so I have pink, purple and green in the room.

I just found the coolest thing

So, I lost my primary book (and my Bear book-what is my deal?) today and I was trying find the lyrics to Choose the Right Way for family night. And I found the coolest website. It is an interactive church music web-site.
You can search for songs and then you can actually play the music. You have options of music with words/no words/melody etc.

This is perfect for my musically challenged family. I love the Internet.

It's 100 Day

At school they get to celebrate 100 day. Today is my 100 day. 100 more days until my due date. And I've gained 100 pounds :)
I was hoping this would be my 100th post, but it is my 98th. It would have been 99, but I deleted one because weird people kept looking at it.
Happy 100 day.

Disclaimer on last post: We tried the quesadillas in the book. You could taste the squash way too much and it didn't go over very well.

Friday's Favorite: Deceptively Delicious

My family is eating veggies without even knowing it.

So, I've heard of this book and been semi-intrigued but I haven't wanted to spend the money. Then I saw it at Seagull for $7.50 and bought it. You may have heard of it. It is written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife and I think it was featured on Oprah.

I have been a little intimidated by the thought of making all of the purees. But when I read through the book, I thought it looked doable. So I made butternut squash, cauliflower, and broccoli purees. She usually uses about ½ cup of puree per recipe, which is about the size of a Baby 2nd Food. I found that the homemade squash was about 70 cents per half cup, and I could get a baby food squash at Wal-mart for 25 cents. The broccoli was only 22 cents and the cauliflower was 16 cents.

Anyway, so far I have put pureed squash in Billies mac n' cheese recipe, pureed squash and tomatoes in my taco meat (which I think made the meat taste better than usual), pureed cauliflower in my Crock-pot Italian chicken, and chickpeas in my Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made for the Blue Gold Banquet.

No one has noticed and everything has been really good. I was not going to let it intimidate me and maybe try one breakfast, one dinner, and one dessert from her book per week. But I've enjoyed it so much that I think that once you get started you will find many ways to add these purees to your food.

For those of you who have kids who love their veggies already, maybe this isn't that neat. For the rest of us, I would highly recommend this book. I'm hooked!

I feel like I should get loyalties for doing these favorites.

Thursdays Tips of the Day

Being a semi-disorganized person I'm always looking for tips on how to simplify and make my life easier.

Here are three tips that I have learned recently. The first two I learned from my friend Z while at a cabin weekend we had together.

1)I started saving used ziplock bags and making Brandon bring his home from his lunch. Then I put them by the diaper garbage and zip up stiinky diapers before you throw them away. This helps a lot with garage smells. (Which I'm sure you know can get pretty bad in the summer)

2) Save a couple plastic juice containers like this one. Then when you go to make Crystal, Kool-aid, frozen juices it is already in a nice 2 quart container so you don't have to measure. You just shake. Frozen juice concentrates have to mostly thawed so it will fit through the hole. With the square bottle it also can lay on its side in a full fridge.

3) This one comes in handy if you especially if you have three kids of the same gender, who are very close in age. C and B could share shirts, and C and T could share shirts. I would love it if we had just had one big shirt bin with everyone's shirts, but no way. You would think that being boys they wouldn't be so possessive of their clothing. But, someone has once bitten for wearing another's shirt. They don't share clothing nicely.

Anyway, sometimes I have a hard time remembering whose shirt is whose, so one day we went through all of their shirts and I made cut one in the tag for B, 2 cuts for C, and 3 for T. If there was no tag, I used a marker. This way I'm not using initials, so when they get handed down I can just make another cut and not have to cross off a name. This had made laundry a whole lot easier.

So these are my tips of the day. Do you have any? I would to hear!

By the way, Tammie you need to let me know if you want to be the 3rd winner on pay it forward. Debbie was the 3rd commenter but she isn't playing, so you are the next in line.

Let me know if you want to play.