One thing always leads to another

It's been a whirlwind of a month. We all started the new year sick. L and I coughed, wheezed, and slept for two weeks while the kids battled the stomach bug that was going around. Once we were all recovered enough to at least sit up in bed, I settled down to start working on our income tax paperwork.  That was when we found out the zip drive with all of our 2012 farm records (and necessary information for some tax paperwork with a quickly looming deadline) on it was conspicuously absent.  Panic, on my part anyway, ensued. My husband's clear head prevailed, however, and we spent the better part of a week spelunking, treasure hunting, and peering into all those dark, dusty corners you forget are in your house in an attempt to find the missing zip drive.  Just when I was beginning to think it had gone to the same mysterious place dryer-eaten socks go to, we found it...in a box I had dumped out and searched during the first hours of our week-long hunt for the drive.  I breathed a deep sigh of relief anyway as I filled out the necessary forms and sent them in with plenty of time to spare.  Apparent tax crisis averted.

Then, just as I was sitting down to enjoy my sparkling clean house (well as sparkling clean as a house can be when it's in a renovation/construction mode), the hubby springs a new project on me-we were going to paint our living room floor and install laminate flooring.  After a few days of sweeping, furniture moving, and floor painting, we decided to amend our initial plans and install new flooring in our kitchen as well.  Contrary to my initial worries, it only added a few hours of work and moving the cabinets proved easier than I expected.  Due to the furniture moving portion of our flooring project and the addition of a new doorway, I now am enjoying a larger kitchen and living room.

It's been well worth the hassle of the last weeks. Due to the cleaning necessary for the flooring project, my laundry pile no longer resembles Mount Everest, the sink is empty of dirty dishes, floors are staying relatively clean, and all of our tax stuff is corralled in one place.  I can now sit down and work on just tax paperwork without housework intruding.  I think it's the first time I've ever looked forward to tax season.

White Christmas Tree Revisited

Our Christmas tree this year was on the simple side. It was so refreshing to leave all the decorations in storage and only take out the white lights.  Our needle-less poplar, though not the stately birch I wanted, needed little tending other than the occasional reminder to the kids to leave the lights alone.  No watering, no needles on the floor every five minutes, and no sticky sappy fingers on the kids. There weren't even that many ornaments to take off-just a few homemade applesauce/cinnamon ornaments, jingle bells, and candy canes.  It was sweet, simple, and somehow matched the country Christmas image I had in my head. The lights twinkled just as bright, the candy canes hung just a nicely, and the magic of a Christmas tree was there even if the green wasn't.  I'll definitely do this again. Perhaps it will become our own unique Christmas tradition.

My Kitchen Quirk

What kind of a cook are you? I've asked myself this question many times in recent years and the answer is always the same. I'm a self-described haphazard cook.

What do I mean by haphazard cook? I don't follow recipes. Most of the time.

I do follow recipes, especially if it's the first time I've made something, but my staples (spaghetti sauce, meatballs/meatloaf, chili, etc.) are all cooked without me looking at a recipe for more than an idea of what spices I should use. (I've never followed a recipe for making pasty, lasagna, or stew.) Even when following a recipe, I will often measure things out in pinches, palms, or "That looks about right" instead of tablespoons or teaspoons. It's happened where I've started making one thing only to stop halfway through and turn it into something else. Prime example-I was making chicken pot pie recently but the filling came too runny so I left it as a thin gravy and served it over biscuits instead. The next night, I thinned down the gravy with milk, added a cup of cheese, and voila, I had cheesy chicken soup. I've even tried combining random leftovers that sound like they might be good in hopes that something yummy is created. (example:diced leftover round steak, leftover navy beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and leftover chicken stock made a really tasty soup.)

Cooking like this guarantees I will never make the same dish taste the same twice but I like not knowing how things will turn out. That uncertainty makes it fun in a way. There is one thing, though, that L would like if I could cook it the right way every time. He's not a fan of VERY well-done steaks and that, unfortunately for him, is about the only way I seem to make them.

Our White Christmas...Tree that is

Being as it's the start of December and, thus, the Christmas season, decorating has been foremost on my mind these days. I've already conned myself into putting up white lights outside. Ostensibly, those lights are to provide light for the stairs but deep down I know the truth. I'm dreaming of paper chains, popcorn garlands, and candy canes. My recipe book 'magically' falls open to the recipe for sugar cookies even though I'm looking for meatloaf. So what's keeping me from getting things decorated? The fact that my house is in bits and pieces yet. I'm constantly moving piles/furniture/construction materials from here to there to make room for something else. There is precious little room in the house too, since we aren't able to use the bedroom yet. So my forlorn decorations will have to wait. However, this doesn't mean I haven't thought about decorating-especially The Tree. Since I have a monkey for a son and A is a human vacuum cleaner, I decided I didn't want to deal with needles falling from branches, watering a tree, or watching a tree topple over several times. Fake trees are out too since I don't want to store one til next year so my options were rapidly decreasing. Then I remembered an idea L had-why not use a birch tree instead of a spruce? The more I think about it, the more it sounds kind of cute-I'm thinking white lights, red bead garland, and candy canes as the main decorations. No needle mess to clean up, no watering, and it can be secured directly to our floor so I won't be hearing Timber! several times a day. Best of all, we have an overabundance of birch on our land but spruce, pine, and other such Christmas tree varieties are far and few between. Yes, I think I'm going to enjoy my white Christmas tree this year. No guarantees next year's tree will be white though.