Casserole and a Mystery Knit.

Howdy, and how is your Saturday? I have a touch of a sneeze, but besides being stuffy this has been a wonderfully relaxing day. I gave myself a facial and gave the littlest native a facial because he wanted to be a swamp monster like me. He actually didn't like it and wiped it off minutes later. 

I wanted to keep the relax laid back theme so for dinner I whipped up a tuna casserole. This recipe is from my babysitter. She used to watch quite a few kids and would make batches of these and freeze them. Enter a rainy day and she would pull one out of the freezer and make it for lunch. It was everyone's favorite. Years later I sought her out and snagged the recipe. I've tweaked it slightly, but my kids will eat seconds, thirds, and left overs the next day. It's not healthy or fancy but it's a comfort food and reminds me of Bonnie nearly every time I make it.

Tuna Casserole:

6-8 cups cooked rice (I've used brown, white, and minute...they all work!)

1 can of tuna

1 can of corn (whole kernel)

1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom

Shredded cheese (I use cheddar or Mexican blend)

Mix cooked rice and about 1/2 c. of shredded cheese. Add corn, tuna, cream of mushroom to rice. Mix well. Pour into a  13 x 9 inch baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes or until the cheese is nice and bubbly (or if you are like me, slightly burned).

You could serve this with a a salad or (and my personal preference) a loaf of French bread with butter. Hey, I said it wasn't healthy or fancy. It is pretty dang delicious though!

Now, switching gears to needles, I have been OBSESSED with knitting. Just last week on Ravelry my knitting group, Year of Swatches started a mystery knit a long (KAL). I've never participated in one, so this is rather intriguing to me. I've knitted up the first clue and this is what I have...

One more thing before I jump off of here. I read The Lightening Thief in the Percy Jackson series after the littlest native suggested I read it. I'm always down to read what they are into. The book is NOTHING like the movie. It also happens to be BETTER than the movie. I suggest you read it with your 8-10 year olds!

Have a great weekend. (I'm currently watching Knocked Up in my bed. Contemplating a nap.)

To Station 6-7

Big shout outs to Station 6-7 for the most amazing tour last Saturday. We now have multiple scouts that want to be firemen. Thank you for your time, patience and humor!

A Hat and A Hair.

So long time no chat. I really have no excuse. I spiraled down a big hole of lazy and have just recently decided to try to forge my way out. I like to think of it as hibernating, but truthfully I don't find it very beneficial to my health and have therefore decided to "get off my ass" as it were.

Happy New Year! Did you make a resolution? Do you even believe those exist? I really sorta did. Although I'm not promising to stick with it. I resolve, my friend, to manage my time better. I learned that being lazy can be fun as long as you are not putting other things off to do so. So I plan to use my time more efficiently. 

One of my mountain-high bane-of-my-existence priorities in life is keeping a clean house. I suffer from undiagnosed OCD and ADHD. Like I can't even pay attention to the dirty laundry without freaking out. The cleaning schedule I was on made me feel like I was chained to adulthood. Like the only fun thing that existed was a clean couch. (Ew.)

So on a whim I searched for a cleaning app. Most of these consisted of list making tools, which was not what I needed. I needed a mom. An app that would give me a list of things to accomplish in the day and no more. I FINALLY found that app. It's called Motivated Moms and the cleaning list is provided for you. You can, of course edit the list to better fit your schedule, but this thing has you cleaning things you don't even think of, like cleaning the outdoor garbage can. At first when I perused the list I did a mini freak. It looked massive. Now that I've been in it a week though, my house FEELS so much cleaner and I don't feel like a slave to all products anti-bacterial. Apps for the win!

To further my effort to manage my life/time, another resolution of mine is to rid myself of the yarn stash that has accumulated in the living room. The day I went to the craft store and bought a skein of yarn just because, I realized I might have a small problem. My first "stash buster" of the year is this little cabled beanie. It took about 3/4 of a skein. (Or in my case one entire ball from my basket.)

I added the oversized pom pom on the top because it seemed a little bare and that seems to be the style right now (at least according to Pinterest). Anywho, I'd put this at easy. Definitely not a beginning piece, but nothing to be afraid of either! Here's the link if you'd like to knit up one of your own:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/temperance-hat

I know most of this is thrilling. However, the most exciting thing that happened last week was  the chopping of the hairs. I've never really had a "bucket list". Although, trust me, I've tried. I've been growing my hair out for years. No reason why, just did. Finally I couldn't handle it anymore. It was getting caught in purse straps, seatbelts, zippers, arms...the list goes on. I told the stylist, "Cut.It.Off!"

That lady whacked off 15+ inches! I was so excited that I hadn't cut it sooner or colored it! Since high school I've wanted to donate to Locks of Love. I posted the above picture on Facebook because I was sooo excited to accomplish this. Then people were thanking me and commenting how proud they were and I felt foolish because I wasn't looking for that. Then I realized I was so focused on doing something that I had wanted to do for over 15 years I 

totally forgot the reason behind it. Then I got all sorts of mushy down in my heart thinking about my annoying foot long hair being someone else's happy dance best day ever moment and thanked my lucky stars that I even had hair to grow or chop.

On that note, I say to you, Cheers! Happy New Year. Here's to the promise of positive change and hope for great things to come. :)

Stash Bustin'

So, here's what you do when you get a leeeetle tired of the square, and oh, did I tell you that I have a hideous green ball of yarn as big as my husband's head? Oh, yes, yes I do.I have made it my mission in life to use almost every strand of it. I picked a beanie pattern thinking that it would surely use up every last stitch of that ball of yarn....6 days later I finished the "man-hat" which really fits my 8 year old and would probably cut off the circulation in an adult's head.

The hideous green ball is still bigger than ever though! This beanie didn't even put a dent in that scary acrylic demon. I am still fighting the good fight and debating if I should attempt making mittens...did I tell you that one time I was trying to make fingerless gloves at four in the morning and it was the worst project I've ever attempted? (Guess we can save that story for a rainy day.)

Anyways, here's the pattern info for the beanie. Enjoy!

http://knitalonetogether.blogspot.com/2010/11/man-hat-here.html

Week in Rambles

Well hello there again. First off, let me say, that for some unknown reason, this has been a very LOOOOONG week. Can I get a fist pump for the weekend? Please and thank you.

Last Saturday was our annual Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts. I'm an active volunteer for my boys' pack. It has been the very best quality time with my boys and I have made so many really great friends. Blue and Gold is a banquet that the packs put on every year in their own way, to celebrate the birthday of Boy Scouts of America. Usually we choose that night to honor all of our parent volunteers, because believe me, the work is hard and they definitely deserve those shout outs!

This is set-up/when people started arriving. The littlest cubs made the place mats.

The oldest boys (Webelos) made these little google eyed monsters for the tables.

MTV is the cubmaster. He oversees all the pack activities and ensures that the den leaders are succeeding in the boys' progression through the ranks. Goose (Native oldest) is preparing to do a flag ceremony to open the event.

This was the first year in a few years that I was not in charge of running the event. It made me nervous to give control over to other people and "pass the torch", with that said, those people did a wonderful job and I am feeling more confident in putting leadership in their hands!

Another celebration was my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!

I also joined my first knitting group, a KAL (knit-a-long). Year of Swatches for 2012!

Here is my first piece:

It's actually Kelly Green, but this shows the pattern off well.

In other news, this week was really looooong. Here's hoping the weekend feels the same way!

When the Sky Falls..

Well, first off, let me say...my last week installment was put off due to family being in town.

My father in law was having a surgery followed by a biopsy and all the siblings flew home to cheer him on.

Victory was his on Saturday, when the doctor called and informed him that his biopsy came back clean.

To celebrate his brother and him flew to Vegas to enjoy a gun show. When they left, the sky fell...

and we were in a SNOWPACALPSE!

Living in the very wet NW we are NOT, I tell you N-O-T, NOT, suited for this snow stuff. I actually got a mid-week break because the roads were so bad....I can't say I hated it.

After the snowmeggedon we were attacked by freezing rain, which sounds harmless enough, except that the weight from the freezing rain caused trees to snap and break.

It was beautiful chaos, I stood outside late last night and listened to the quietness that a blanket of snow gives with the popping and snapping of trees every 30 seconds or so. They were loud as firecrackers and I watched around me in fascination as the world crashed around our home.

Many people have lost power, and if there is one thing I love about this house right now is that we still have it.

My father in law's flight has been cancelled until Sunday...I have a feeling his return will bring back some warmer weather...please?

Whooooo are you? Who, who, who, who?

Part of my "decluttering your life" calendar tasks is to think about who I want to be. My knee jerk response to this was *snort* "duh! I wanna be perfect", but then I recall that when I say I want to be perfect it results in me being anal retentive, controlling, over sensitive, an overall bitchita face. With that being said...I want to be perfect. Not perfect in the give-it-your-all, no mistakes, now, now, now and go, go, go...but perfect like the universes are aligning and I feel in tune with everything around me. I want to slow down. Enjoy the little things. Learn, grow, gain perspective. Let go of control and have faith in God and the stars above that everything will be fine. I want to breathe.

Who do you want to be?

On that note, here's what I've been doing on this side of the globe:

I put away all those christmas decorations...minus the snow girl I forgot in the guest bathroom...CRAP!

I made mini cheesecakes to use up some of those gingersnaps. I still have a ton of them left. These were delicious. At least my natives thought so....

Here's the recipe: Mini Ginger Almond Cheesecakes

I bought a vintage first aid kit for the kitchen, complete with plant poison cream and smelling salts!

I also knitted some afghan squares from the Year of Swatches blog:

This is January's Intermediate square.

Overall it's been a pretty eventful week...what have you been up to?