Mid-Winter Cleaning

Well, my parents did end up taking Noah for the weekend so I have been able to get a lot of cleaning done today. It feels *so* good to have a tidy house! I went through the toys in the den as well as dusted and vacuumed everything. I’ve changed the sheets on the beds (well, ours are still in the dryer - I need to put them on the bed after I finish blogging). I rearranged our office furniture a little bit, as well as cleaned out files and stuff. I’m looking forward to full-fledged spring cleaning once the weather warms up and I can open up the windows and air out the house, but that won’t be for another few months. At least things are good for now!

Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Remember the other day when I was craving chocolate cake? Well, I decided to give into temptation and bake one. I got the recipe from Lisanne and I hope she won’t mind me posting it here as well! I also made a sour cream frosting to go on top. I’d never made this before and unfortunately it didn’t go over well with my family. I liked it well enough, but Drew didn’t care for it and Jake thought it was just OK. Still, it was healthier than a traditional frosting with butter or shortening. Here’s a photo and the recipes. I hope you enjoy!

Double Chocolate Snack Cake

1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
1 C packed brown sugar or granulated sugar
1/4 C baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into an 8×8×2? greased pan. (You can sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the batter instead, if you want.) Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

In a double boiler, or in a saucepan set over a pan of hot (not boiling) water, melt the chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add the sour cream and the vanilla and beat, with an electric mixer on medium speed, until smooth and creamy. Let cool just slightly - until the frosting begins to thicken. But don’t wait too long because it will quickly thicken beyond spreadability. Spread frosting evenly over cake or brownies, then chill until set.

Makes enough to fill and frost one 9-inch two-layer cake, or a couple of pans of brownies.

Another Snow Day

So today is snow day number five for the school Jake attends. If they have any more snow days, it will start eating into vacation time. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen! I am so over the snow, really. The cold, the bleak landscape… ugh. But what can I do about it, really? So I’m trying to make the best of it. I think this afternoon I’ll bake something with the boys. Originally I’d planned on banana nut muffins, but chocolate cake is sounding so good to me. I’ve been pretty careful about what I eat, but honestly, the carbs just call out to me. Let’s hope that after this baby is born I lose the weight quickly and won’t need to think about diet products. Hopefully nursing and proper nutrition will help the pounds come off easily! But for now, in this midwinter funk, a piece of cake won’t hurt anyone.

Change in Plans

So, originally my parents had planned to visit us this coming week and stay over for a night or two. It was going to be a surprise for the boys. Unfortunately my grandmother (who is in a nursing home) is just not doing well lately and my mom doesn’t feel comfortable leaving for a couple days. I totally understand that, but it’s still a bummer. The last time my dad was down was in November (that was when he helped Drew install our new bathroom lighting. I don’t think my mom has been down here since August But I really do understand her situation.

When I talked to her on the phone yesterday she said that if the weather is going to be OK they might take Noah for a couple days instead. (And who am I to argue with that? LOL! That would give me a lot of free time while Jake is in school.) And we plan on going up there on Presidents’ Day weekend. Jake has Friday off for a superintendant’s conference and then Monday off for the holiday, so that will work out well. I do wish we got to see my family more, but at least they are not that far away and we can do quick trips like this.

As Seen On TV

I have a confession: I have a weakness for infomercial-type gadgets. Somehow they make the products look and sound so compelling, don’t they? Of course, nowadays you don’t always need to call the 800 number to buy the product. A lot of them are available in regular stores, too. For example, Drew really wanted a Shamwow for Christmas (seriously!). Mostly for drying off the car when he washes it, but who knows where else it might be useful, right? Well, I was able to find it at Target. And remember Floam? It turned out to be nowhere near as cool as in the commercial, but I’ve actually seen it in dollars stores lately, LOL. And then there are some products that I probably wouldn’t buy, but I love the infomercials anyway, like Magic Bullet. When Noah was really small, the Magic Bullet commercial would be on in the middle of the night and I would watch it every time. They made all those tasty treats that looked so good! Ah, adverstising…

Crazy Drivers!

By the way, I did get my call back this afternoon from the woman I need to interview. Finally! So that is set up for Monday morning. At any rate, this afternoon I had to go and do an interview with a local realtor. Her house (she has a home office) was easy to get to, but most of the drive there is what I guess you’d call a rural highway. The speed limit is probably 55, and I was going 60. There were also two cars in front of me. Well, I had this *crazy* driver in a pick-up truck riding right on my tail. It was super stressful! I mean, I wasn’t going to speed any faster. He kept creeping closer and closer and I just kept thinking, Oh my goodness, if I have to stop short, this guy is going to totally hit me. The pickup was old and junky and who even knows if the driver had auto insurance - probably not. Well, I didn’t have to worry about it because he did eventually pass me (only to then get stuck behind the two cars in front of me that I mentioned earlier, ha!). I hate aggressive drivers!

Presidential Style

It’s not a big secret that I voted for Pres. Obama in last fall’s election, so it should also come as no surprise that I was glued to my computer and TV on inauguration day! Did you check out any of the photos from the inauguration balls that evening? Wow, Michelle Obama’s dress was just beautiful. And our president looks pretty sharp in a tuxedo! (Though what man doesn’t). Jill Biden’s dress, however, was my favorite of the two. I thought she looked amazing and the color really suited her well. I think we have four years of some very stylish folks in the White House ahead of us!

Frustrating

Most of the time I really enjoy freelancing for a certain small, local paper. Basically, the paper runs stories on its advertisers. It’s a neat way to help support local businesses and meet people in the community. Usually it’s great and people are always excited to have me interview them and write about their company. However, I am having such problems with one company this month. I’ve been trying to set up an interview (over the phone, at their convenience) for over a week now. What is even more frustrating is that there is no voicemail at this company. They use an answering service all day long. So I call, I leave my message with the operator, they type it up and fax it over to the person I’m trying to get in touch with. How backwards is that? It’s not 1976 here, people.

So I don’t know what I’m going to do. I said that I had to set the interview up no later than next Tuesday. At this point, I don’t even care if I hear back or not. I almost don’t want to do the story. It’s unfortunate that they don’t realize that these stories are for their benefit. I’m not selling anything! We’ll see what happens.

Awesome Target Clearance!!!

I might be pretty CVS savvy, but my husband gets all the credit for Target deals. Since December 26th he has been watching and waiting for toy clearance sales. This morning he was reading a few message boards and became convinced that today was the day our Target would be marking things down to 75% off. He had a plan, which included breakfast out (no doubt to lure me into coming, LOL!) and then a stop at Target. Well, I have to give the guy credit because he was totally right. In fact, they were marking things down as we were looking at them! We got all the boys’ birthday presents (and then some) for about $80. This included the MagNEXT iCoaster, which both boys wanted SO BAD for Christmas, and the big Diego Dinosaur Rescue Set. We got a few smaller items as well, a couple birthday gifts for other kids, and I found two cheap baby sweatshirts and this sweet dress (the dress was just $4.98!):

It’s size 6-9 months and will be just perfect for Christmas, don’t you think? Ah, it feels so good to have the birthdays taken care of, though. Love shopping clearance!!!

We’re having a…

… girl! That’s right, can you believe it? I didn’t really have a strong feeling either way, but I am showing so much different with this pregnancy than I did during my last two. I am much more “round” if that makes sense. I had an informal poll on Facebook the day before my ultrasound and most people thought I was having a girl. Well, at the sonogram on Tuesday we found out that they all are right! The tech said there was little doubt that we’re having a girl baby. She showed us “the parts” and yeah, it was pretty unmistakable.

 It’s so funny, everyone is running out to buy clothes, LOL. This morning I got a sweet little dress for Christmas and two sweatshirts for dirt cheap. I’m hoping to hit Kohl’s clearance on Sunday. It is a lot more fun shopping for girlie clothes, I have to admit. So many adorable things out there!