Finally, Some Pictures!! Molly's New Room

Our house has been in a constant state of upheaval! Strangers coming in and out all the time, making huge messes and not cleaning them up. Thinking that this or that person will show up at this time and then they come the next day. My children being clingy and feeling uneasy. Having our kitchen roped off so that we can't use it. I will not even try to tell you what we've been eating for the past two days, because it involves Subway, Chic-Fil-A, and Chili's and very little home cooking (unless of course you consider peanut butter sandwiches and scrambled eggs home cooking).

I did finish Molly's room and absolutely LOVE it!! It only took about a day, although I still need to paint the closet doors. I'm hoping that tonight, Jonny will finish the paper in the bathroom and then I will post pictures of that as well.

For all you recipes hunters out there, you will have to wait until the kitchen is done for anymore additions to your recipe file. My mind is so consumed with remodeling, that is all I can do to remember to brush my teeth anymore!

I eat, sleep, breath, and dream remodeling. It seems to be that funny sort of word that gets stuck in your head and the more you say it, the funnier it sounds.

Still can't decide if I want to paint the base of the island red. I would LOVE your opinion. The floor will be pale turquoise, the fireplace black, the wallpaper is white with thin black flowers, the accents are red and turquoise, the cabinets and counter tops are white, and the back splash is white and black. What do you think? Red or white? The thing to remember is that if it's white, it will be filthy because the kids sit there to eat, and they kick their grimy little feet all over it.

My mind is soooo tired of thinking of details that I would love your thoughts. Feel free to suggest another color if you think of one.

Have to run now. We're SUPPOSE to have a drywaller coming this afternoon (although to me, by 4:30 afternoon is over) and I need to prepare my boys for more scary strangers. By the way, so sorry about the one blurry picture. I can't for the life of me, figure out how to erase a picture once I've put it on here! I'm sure it's pretty obvious but I just couldn't find it.

Thank you so much letting me spill my thoughts that are all jumbled up in my head. Bye now!

Just another day in the Jeppsen house

I have been running like crazy all day long! Up first thing this morning trying to stick with my no grocery shopping rule and use up food that will go bad soon. So I made pamcakes (and no I didn't misspell this word. Look up my blog about breakfast.) and bacon because the buttermilk and the bacon were just about on the brink of trashing.
Then off to Hobby Lobby to find things for Molly's new room which I will be posting pictures of soon. We painted it today, and tomorrow will add the finishing touches.
Then ran multiple errands including the rather disappointing trip to the grocery store. I absolutely had to buy juice, bananas, grapes, eggs, dish washing liquid, and bread. But that is all I bought and that is going on three weeks without grocery shopping.
Then home to make sloppy joes for lunch. Painting all afternoon. Then grilled salmon (if your family likes salmon, then you absolutely have to make dill dip with it! Just sour cream, salt, and dill. Delicious!!!), pasta salad, and green beans for dinner. It is simply amazing to me all the possibilities I have been able to find in my pantry when I just set my mind to it.
Not to mention the fact that a man was here all afternoon splashing dry wall mud everywhere, and my boys just don't like having strangers here. They were down right cranky!
This is all for tonight. I am plum worn out, and have a busy, busy day tomorrow.

Three new recipes for you! Simple and Delicious!!

Still working on cleaning out my pantry and fridge and today was a really good exercise in self-control (in other words, not running to Chick-Fil-A).
For breakfast we had scrambled eggs with shredded Parmesan and whole wheat toast. For lunch we ate up whatever leftovers we had in the fridge, different kinds of chicken, sliced tomato, pickles, carrots and ranch. For dinner the first of the three recipes.
I was cleaning out the outside fridge when I discovered all the leftover ham from a couple of weeks ago. Mom assured me that ham lasts for quite a while, so after both of us smelling it to be sure, we concluded that it was indeed safe for people.
Anyway I cut this up into bite size pieces. Then in a large stock pot, I dumped every kind of canned bean that I had on hand (not green beans of course). My personal favorites are black, northern, and pinto. I really don't care a fig for kidney beans. To dense for my taste buds. I didn't have enough black beans today so I added a can of chili beans as well. Then I dump in all the ham, and add onion (dried or fresh) salt and pepper, and enough water to make a nice soup. My favorite thing about this recipe is that I put it on in the morning, and it simmers all day long christening the house with it's flavorful aroma and giving me the peace of mind that dinner is taken care of. I just add water every couple of hours. Trust me, even if your family doesn't care for beans, they will love this recipe. It is one of my family's favorites. Tonight I made a pot of brown rice (not instant) and poured the bean soup over that. It was amazing!! Not to mention easy and cheap! In my opinion easy, cheap, and delicious is the magic combination in the life of every mom.
The other two recipes I tried for the first time last week, and they were both quite amazing, not to mention quick and easy.
The corn recipe is from allrecipes.com

Corn Casserole II
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8 x 12 casserole dish. In a mixing bowl combine 1 can cream style corn, 1 can niblet style corn (I used regular) drained, 2 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1 (8.5 ounce) box dry corn bread (Jiffy was perfect), and 1/2 cup melted butter. Pour into prepared dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese. Return to oven and bake for 15 more minutes or until center is firm.

Now a few weeks back, I told you about a corn pudding that I tried that was rather nasty. This wasn't like that at all. It was more like a really moist cornbread casserole. One of my favorite casseroles that I've ever made.

Crunchy Baked Chicken
In a shallow bowl, whisk 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk. In another shallow bowl, combine 1 (2.8 ounce) can french-fried onions, 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, and dash of pepper. Pound 3 to 4 pounds chicken breasts until nice and flat. Dip in egg mixture then in onion mixture. Place in a greased 13 x 9" baking dish. Drizzle with 1/4 cup melted butter. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until juices run clear.

Now you may be wondering what happened to eating healthy. Well this chicken was my version of healthy. My original thought was "Baked has to be better then fried!"
That was before I got to the "drizzle with butter" part.
By that time, I was in too deep. I will tell you that it was amazing! So tender and flavorful and didn't take any time at all to prepare. This meal was also very cheap for me given that I keep these things in my pantry at all times. The french-fried onions are actually kind of a funny story. Right after I started couponing, I discovered that Dillon's had French's Fried Onions on clearance. So I ran for my coupon folder and discovered that I had twelve coupons for $1 off. So I bought twelve large cans of French's Fried Onions and now, one year later, am still trying to find good uses for these things!

Hope these great recipes work out for you and that you enjoy the thrill of making something new!

Chaos and Jen do not go together well!

No indeed!! In fact we are a terrible match. Life has been utterly crazy compared to our rather hum drum stay at home and do school and cleaning and laundry type of life.
I'm so sorry that I haven't been keeping up with my promise to post our menu these last few days. But Jonny announced Friday, that he was going to continue the tearing down process in the hall and that it would be better for us to not be around. So I loaded up the kids for what I thought was an afternoon at Mom and Dad's and in fact turned out to be a weekend. As a matter of fact, we just got in tonight.
My house is torn apart between remodeling and yard sale paraphernalia and I just don't like it.
How am I ever going to survive the next month?? I can't even imagine!
The good news is that the cabinet people are planning on building our new cabinets this week, so the plan is for Jonny to tear out our kitchen next weekend. We are planning on moving in with Mom and Dad again except this time for a whole week.
It is a good thing they love us so much!
I'm so sorry to tell you, but I'm afraid the grocery shopping plan is rather messed up.
I am planning on trying to eat out the pantry alot this week. But given that we are not being able to stay here very much, and Mom and Dad don't have a pantry stocked up for little folks, I am going to be having to live day to day for the next couple of weeks.

I would love to say that I will keep you posted with what we are doing but I know better now than to promise that.
Here is my honey-do-list:
Finish tile and paint in girls bath
Finish wallpapering, tiling, and painting hall bath
Drywall and paint hallway
Paint Molly's room
Paint girls room and some of their furniture
Remodel kitchen (of course!)
Remodel downstairs bath (it is not even usable)
Paint two yellow walls green in family room
New floors in family room
Re tile fireplace
Paint piano and armoire
Re-cover red chair
And these are only the big things!!

I have been accused of being a work horse and after reading this list, I'm starting to believe this accusation. As you can see, we have a very long spring in front of us!

On a different note, I found two marvelous recipes that are extremely easy and delicious, but I don't have time to give them to you tonight. I will try my hardest to get on that either tomorrow or the next day.
Hope you had a wonderful day of rest today and that God ministered to you as lovingly as He ministered to me.

A little bragging and a little confessing

So maybe day one was not the biggest success story every written. We started off well, bananas and toast for breakfast and grilled chicken salads with mandarin oranges and sunflower seeds for lunch (peanut butter sandwiches for the babies). But then I got a little carried away with organizing and ironing, and dinner time snuck up on me. I did actually have a bag of chicken thawing in the sink. But Jonny walked in at five o'clock starving to death, and I only had four pieces of ironing left. My cardinal rule is "Never put the ironing board away until the last piece is done" or else I won't pull it back out for another two weeks.

So he proposed we order pizza.

As far as the healthiness of the night went, I must admit I was rather proud of myself. He ordered a thin crust pepperoni pizza and I only had two pieces. Plus I filled up on lots of salad.

I am determined however, to not get caught like that again. I simply have to go back to starting dinner while the babies are napping, so I only have to put on the finishing touches that evening.



The good part about the day was that the girls and I totally overhauled their room and came up with more clothes to get rid of than any child should have in their entire wardrobe. Plus we organized their closet with a shelf that I brought up from the playroom after I emptied if of all it's toys and they are now in the yard sale pile.

My genius Mom suggested that I start packing away the books and toys in the playroom, because for the life of me, I can't keep that room even a little bit picked up.

The boys have about fifty tools, fifteen balls, guns, bats, tons of cars, potato heads, legos, duplos, lincoln logs, hundreds of books, four large sets of little people, and who knows what else.

Not to mention Molly's dress up, tea sets, pots and pans, play food, and polly pockets, barbies, my little ponies, strawberry shortcake, and play-do.

Is it any wonder why we can't keep that room clean??

Especially considering that the boys favorite thing in the universe to do is dump everything out and hear it go crash, then walk off and leave it there for someone else to clean up.

So using the good sense that Mom raised me with, I listened to her advice and packed away about three fourths of their books and toys either for another day or for the yard sale.



I also finished the ridiculous pile of ironing and got it all put away. So here comes the sunshine, bring on the summer clothes!!!!!

So excited about the chore for the day!

Being Thrifty

I read this blog one time about this lady who was determined to not go grocery shopping for so many weeks. This totally intrigued me. I have a very well stocked freezer and pantry due to couponing and sale shopping, and I have been thinking about trying this. I would of course have to buy produce and milk, but other than that could I in fact go a month without grocery shopping one time?
As I was reading her post, I noticed that some days the menu was rather interesting but I bet that her family was still able to get full.
My reason for possibly considering this is because I am in the middle of multiple home improvements as you well know by now, and I would love to have the extra money to buy paint, a new rug, tile, and the many other things that keep coming up during a remodel.

Okay, I have talked myself into it! I am going to challenge myself to not go to the store for anything other than absolute emergencies!!
I will try to post each day what we are eating (as she did) so you can possibly be motivated to try it for yourself. I have found that it's always easier to try something if you have seen someone else be successful at it.
I am now so excited that I can hardly contain myself!!!!!

I have to run now and start the tremendously humongous pile of ironing that needs to be done today. I don't really mind it though because I am planning on watching the old Pride and Prejudice. It is six movies long, so it should last through the pile of ironing.
If I can do all of this today, then tomorrow I'm planning on starting the long but exciting process of sorting through summer clothes. Just another step closer to the yard sale!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

So sorry about the lack of recipes but I am far to busy to be cooking feasts! I am cleaning out every closet, drawer, shelf, rubbermaid, box, pantry, and anything else that can hold stuff. Getting ready for the biggest yard sale I've ever had!! I am selling everything from kids clothes to just about everything in my kitchen. Tons of books and toys. Games and decorations too! Don't know when this yard sale will take place just yet. I'm watching the weather for a super fantastic weekend with lots of sun and warmness. Sometime this months I hope, because my poor laundry room won't hold much more!

In the midst of all of this, Jonny has ripped out the wall beside my big staircase and is building a new rail so it will be open. Not to mention getting things ready for the kitchen remodel. My house is rather unpleasant right now between dust, torn out walls, and piles of stuff.

But whenever I'm tempted to scream with frustration about the mess, I just tell myself how gorgeous and uncluttered everything will be this summer. A new kitchen, bathroom, staircase, and all the new paint schemes I'm getting ready to try.

Have to run! There are books to go through and cabinets to empty!
Be sure and enjoy the warm weather thats suppose to be coming our way this weekend! I think we're going to the zoo!!