PSA: Dogs and Plants

This is my dog:

He is a full bred Scottish Terrier. Recently, he came running into our house from a brief potty adventure in the backyard, and he came in covered in about a dozen dried out foxtails:

 As a result, I went outside and weeded for 30 minutes (I did awesome). The rest of my foxtails are behind a gate until I can get to them because they are dangerous for dogs.

Now, that's not the only reason why I am posting. I recently read a sad story about a dog owner who had a toxic plant in their backyard, but they had no idea. Their dog would nip at the leaves, which they were unaware of, and the dog died of liver damage from the toxicity of ingesting the plant.

So here is a website with a list of toxic and non-toxic list of plants so you can make sure your backyard is dog or cat safe!

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants

We have a NURSERY!

Getting ready for a baby is a pretty insane process. I've completed more projects than I ever anticipated I would. I have a giant pile of stuff that we are donating this weekend, and there is still more to do around here before Alyanna makes her grand appearance!

We finally got the spare room cleared out for her nursery. It's like a brand new room. We cleaned it from top to bottom. Since we have wood floors, we went to a local carpet place and we were able to buy a remnant, which they cut down to our exact measurements, bound the edges, and put felt on the bottom of it so it doesn't scratch.

It all became a very rushed process when we found out on the Saturday before Easter that our baby furniture would be here on Tuesday/Wednesday of the following week. That gave us Monday to order the carpet. We had our fingers crossed the timing would work out, but it of course didn't. So we got the furniture first and the carpet second. It made moving everything kind of a pain in the butt.

So here is the room before, so you can recall:

Wow, what a mess. I kind of forgot myself, what a disaster that was.
Here it is NOW:

I donated a ton of scrapbooking stuff, but I also did some reorganizing of other closets and spaces in the house to be able to keep 95% of it. Alyanna's closet might also be filled with scrapbooking stuff at the moment, but we're working on it. ;)

Since the picture above, we've taken everything off the walls, but we need to finish patching the holes and do some touch up painting. One thing at a time though! Did I also mention I scrapbooked ten pages this past weekend? I am beginning to feel so accomplished!

Organizing Breakdown Printable

I needed to make a more thorough to do list of my projects so that I actually have more directions and feel like I can accomplish them. I've started way too many projects in the last two weeks, and nothing has been getting completed, but all have them have had little bits done. So I made this sheet to help myself and give me direction on each of my multiple projects! Below is just a little sample, the download doesn't have the URL all over it ;)

Click this link or the picture to get your free printable

This is an example of what I put on one of mine:

Organization Project: Desk

Items/Space to be organized: 

1. 1st Drawer

2. 2nd drawer

3. cupboard to right

4. shelving

5. actual desk

6. top of desk

Items needed to complete project:

1. document boxes

To do:

1. get rid of old discs

2. file

3. go through paperwork on desk

Needless to say sometimes I need more specifics to actually make things feel more manageable, and as I keep working on them, I'll keep adding more and crossing off stuff off my list!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

I was trying to replicate a classic recipe my grandma used to make us. It was so good. This is close, but not the same. I will definitely keep trying though! Since it wasn't the same, I didn't love it, but my husband and 8 year old were HUGE fans. When your 8 year old eats something without complaining, you know you've done a good job.  This is the recipe for how I made it tonight, but at the end, I'll write some possible modifications, and you can look at the pictures and judge for yourself!

Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cubed
2 cups of water
2 cups of instant brown rice
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of celery soup
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of butter, sliced thinly
about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cheddar cheese 

Directions :
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Mix together chicken, water, rice, and soups in the casserole dish (do it gently or you'll slosh stuff out)
3. Add salt and pepper over the top of it.
4. Arrange butter slices evenly apart on top.
5. Bake for approx 60 minutes.
6. Take out dish, and sprinkle cheese all over the top, put back in the oven for approx. 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Cool for about 10-15 minutes before serving.


Now for some pictures!
First here are the ingredients minus the cheese and water.

 

This is how it looked after adding everything, and lastly the soup. Kind of gross looking.

 This is how it looked all stirred together with the butter on top.

And the finished product:

Now I haven't TRIED these suggestions, but this what I might possibly do in the future. For one, I would either add an additional cup of rice and water OR omit the cream of chicken soup. I would also add some chopped celery and fresh mushrooms to it. The next time I make it, I will try these modifications and report back on my findings. :)

But don't forget! My husband and 8 year old son LOVED it just the way it was, so I'd suggest making it that way first, then messing around with it to see how you might like to change it. 

Easy Egg Salad Sandwich Recipe

This is a really great base recipe with the right proportions of egg, mustard, and mayo for you to be able to add your own extra like celery or bell pepper or whatever you're into.

Egg Salad

Ingredients:

8 eggs
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard (or dijon if you like that)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp paprika

Directions:

1. Place eggs in sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover eggs and let them sit in the hot water for 10-15 minutes. Remove from water, cool, peel, and chop.
2. Place chopped eggs in a bowl, and stir in mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, paprika and all your other optional ingredients. Stir and serve on bread or crackers!



Some variations may include adding chopped green onion, or celery, bell pepper, adding dill (which can be strong so be careful). We tried it with the chopped celery once, and we weren't into it. I think the above recipe with some Dill on bread with lettuce is delicious! The lettuce adds some crispness without any intense flavors, so you can really enjoy your egg salad.

Valentine's Day

This is a little late, but I thought I'd still share our Valentine festivities, which just included eating a yummy steak dinner, pigging out on sugar, and watching Game of Thrones and Dexter.

Jon got me flowers and a much needed gift certificate for a massage. It's weird what a bunch of extra weight in your uterus does to your back. Tulips are "our" special flowers. I actually have never particularly loved tulips, but when we were dating, Jon kept buying them for me, because I would say I loved them. One day, I finally confessed that I hated tulips, but I had received so many tulips at that point that whenever I see tulips, I think of my husband. So they're our special flower.

Jon made us some delicious steak for dinner! All the sides were my doing, but it definitely wasn't the highlight. The steak was fabulous! He cooked it well done per pregnancy rules, but next year we'll have to do medium rare. 

 Overall, we had a fun day, and we had the kind of Valentine's day that we needed: low key, intimate, at home, and quiet!

Decluttering Inspiration

I have less than 7 weeks left before my baby furniture arrives and a house that needs a lot of decluttering and mission organization success.

A helpful idea I came across was 20/10s. It is where you spend 20 minutes cleaning/organizing and then 10 minutes doing whatever you want to do. But start small, maybe two sessions of 20/10s (an hour), the first day. You don't want to burn yourself out. This idea comes from Unfuck Your Habitat (sorry for the language, but a really inspiring tumblr of before and after pictures and a few tips here and there).

Here's a short post with 18 Five-Minute Decluttering tips. I do #16 a lot, and between finding new homes and organizing all the stuff, I make new messes to clean up, but I guess I am making some progress.

Luckily, I am not a hoarder and most of my house is relatively clean. The problem is in the midst of cleaning it always tends to look worse before it gets better (I should take pictures!). That's the stage we're at. And being pregnant doesn't give me an endless amount of energy to work with. Hopefully between 20/10s and putting away 5 random items when I have time, I can hopefully start to make bigger strides. Then I'll get back into how behind I am in scrapbooking... wait.. what? Back to baby steps! Step 1: 20/10s!