My Kitchen Today

 Cooked four lbs of chicken breast in the crock pot.  Read from this link.  Didn't add anything to the crock pot besides just the boneless chicken breast..   Next time I think i'll add at least salt...maybe Adobo seasoning. Then I used the Kitchen aid to shred.  I had just cut each breast in half, plopped it in, and turned it on to speed 1 for maybe a minute.   The paddle shredded it a little too much for the casserole I made which would have been better with chunks.  But in general, can't believe how great it worked.  It will be perfect for when I make the slow cooker BBQ chicken.  Will save a lot of time...as opposed to shredding with two forks like I usually do.  There was a nice amount of chicken stock, so I saved it for a gravy for Thursday's meal...Hot Turkey Sandwiches.  I'm freezing two portions (tried to guess about a pound each).  Not sure which of these recipes I'll try.
I kept one portion unfrozen to use for this:

 I sometimes like finely shredded chicken salad, so it worked out well.  It will make Jeff and I happy tomorrow to have this for lunch.

Immediately used another portion for this:

I was looking for something to do with a head of cauliflower.  I discovered the whole family liked cauliflower when I made it with a scalloped recipe, that I of course can't locate to make again. Searched on Pinterest and found this, Cheesy Chicken and Orzo Cauliflower Bake.
Negatives:
 I thought it was just okay, but the kids didn't like it.  I think the texture was way too mushy.  Couple of alterations that would have made -keep the chicken in chunks (as a for mentioned, and try using the orzo (I substituted rice).  Also I cut the cauliflower into too small of pieces.
The flavor was good although I needed to add salt... I didn't have a bay leaf and that definitely would have added to it. Also, I used dried nutmeg and thyme when it called for fresh...but not very likely that I would buy fresh nutmeg.  I actually didn't even know it existed.  I actually don't even know what it is in it's true form...pretty certain it's not a nut;)
It also was a LOT of steps.  Took a while to make.
Positives:
Jeff loved it and I was able to make it lactose free.
It made a ton, so it will make for good left-overs and I froze a portion.
Seems really healthy.
And really cheap.

If at First you Don't Succeed.....

Try again, and again, and again, and again.....(enter broken record)

Sooooooo, yep ANOTHER attempt at organizing my life.  I told Jeff I"ve been trying to get my days organized for over seven years now and I'm really tired of the failure.  But, I suppose I have no other choice than to try yet again more systems.  Nothing seems to click really well.  Now that I'm not working for the photographer I have more time and need to invest in finding a flow that works.  That way, when I hopefully land a job, I can better manage housework, kids, homework, quite time, and other activities.
I'd like to try and document some of my successes and failures bc i definitely am more forgetful and scatterbrained than ever (scary) and I feel like I repeat the same mistakes too often. Maybe chronicling will be helpful (a tactic that I tried on this very blog a mere 4 years ago).  But even looking back on that short era was beneficial.

Still not so good!

Frustrated but not defeated....
Had the worse back-up of laundry in months...made me realize how on top of laundry i had been for so long-which is good.
spent a boatload of time on kids' renew last week. trying not to have a bad attitude about taht, but it's hard.
this week i'm prepping for the craft show..so i am allowing house work to be second this week. this weekend was frustratingly busy again. and jeff's busy schedule adds to the amount of work to be done.
SOO, just want to get through prepping this week (i'm really excited about some of the crafts i'm making) and TRY AGAIN to get on top of some thigns the following week.
then to pray majorly about what god wants me to do about this season...i want to see how things go at the craft show. i thinkn if i do well, and it looks like i can persue crafting more indepth-at least through christmas, i'll have to come up with some major organizational structures.
oh, it doesn't help that andrew has been waking up anywhere btw 5:00am-7:00am. the suprise of the morning....10:34 now. bad news.

Not doing good..

okay so did i fall off the bandwagon, or was i never even on it to begin with!?!?! it is 10:33pm, i should be in bed, but was working on renew kids stuff (spent a LOT of time on that this week) and then sidetracked by email. haven't checked my hot spot for a while, or used my timer much, or blogged. tomorrow is another day-can't give up!

Weekend and Project set-back

Ugh. I spent soooo much time trying to figure out how to burn a dvd of our videos with no avail. how frustrating to know i wasted precious time with nothing to show. i did a major clean up of the computer though in hopes that it would speed it up...it felt good to maintain it, but it doesn't seem faster. extremely tired...keep breaking my rules (it's 10:15) shouldn't be on here past 9:45 and i awoke to andrew at 4:45am today. gotta love daylight savings.

New TIMER!

Meant to lay down for a 5 min. power nap during kids' naps, but turned into almost an hour. i've been up late with jeff and up early with andrew so it's been catching up . i don't like sleeping that long...BUT my NEW timer will come in handy with that. i'm excited to utilize it lots. i think a big problem of mine is really not realizing how fast time is going by. i'll think i'm fine with time then before i know it it's way later than i thought. so it's a cheap digital timer from walmart, but it's portable and visible. off to do my 5 minute hot spot:)

Free'd up

Today i arrived at Bible Study EARLY AND my kitchen and house was left tidy and ready for melis and meg to come over for lunch:) then during nap... i actually didn't feel hard pressed to get things done bc there isn't a pressing "dirty" area of the house. i was able to enjoy going through Mailbox magazines for library lessons. even had a quick load of laundry folded and unloaded and everything in order without rushing before dad and trudy came to watch the kids.
Got super-side tracked with my 5 min hot spot tonight, but did attempt. it's 10:15, i should be in bed, but wasted time on dumb hollywood websites?!?!
didn't do my Savor blog...