Too Busy to be the "Housewife"

So I had planned to blog about my life and adventures cooking and being a housewife. That has not worked very well since school began. Work has been kicking my butt and I have had very little time to blog let alone spend time cooking or even spend time with my husband. Anyway, enough of that before I start ranting and raving about how teaching sucks right now...

After a few light frosts and a heavy one our garden took a dump... It was great while it lasted!!

Well I have been doing some cooking and baking here and there. As far as baking goes I have made Pumpkin Bread, Banana Bread, Pumpkin Spice Cake, and Pumpkin Cookies (not at the same time - over the past few months). I have also made some different jams as well; Strawberry-Cranberry, Cranberry-Banana, Blackberry-Apple, and Mixed Fruit (Strawberry, Banana, Mango, Pineapple, Blueberry). Beth and Debbie also came to NC for Thanksgiving so we had a feast to eat!

Chris has bought 2 go-karts and sold them after playing for a little!

Chris has found a tricycle under his great uncle's house... you should really check the video out on my Facebook page! It is pretty hysterical!

Following Beth and Debbie's departure Chris and I got our very first Christmas tree! This will be the first time we will spend at home in NC. It has been nice having our own tree and lighting it up every night while we eat dinner and watch TV. One of these night we will pull out a mattress and sleep in front of it!

In the past few months I have also become quite the coupon addict. These are some of my bargains from today:

Rite Aid - Amount paid = $1.92 + $3.00 off next purchase.

Walgreens - Amount Paid = $10.76 + $3.00 Register Rewards.

 Harris Teeter - Amount Paid = $22.36 - It includes the bag too!

You could probably say I am obsessed with couponing. But hey, it works! If you have the time and need to save money it is definitely worth it!

Austin Texas Here I come!!

When I leave in the morning for school I will not return until Sunday evening.
At about 2pm I am heading to the airport in Charlotte so I can catch a flight to Austin through Detroit. In Austin I will be attending the wedding of a friend I grew up with. It will be an awesome weekend! I will also see the Danley family whom I have not seen in forever and some old college buddies! Have I said it will be a great weekend? It WILL!!
I am excited to see all these people! On top of that I get out of town!! YAY!!
So, Austin, Texas here I come!!

Apple Picking 2011!!

I am about to head out to Morganton for my annual apple picking! This year a new friend, Christy Ann, is going with me. The weather looks perfect and I am uber excited!! I will post more pictures when we get back!!
Then tonight is a Halloween party at our small group leader's house!
Sounds like a fun weekend!!

CRAZY BUSY!!

SO it has been a month and I told myself I was going to post almost weekly on this BLOG...
Quick note before going to bed!
School is underway and keeping me as busy as ever. I have 21 students in my small classroom, an Assistant, and an Intern/Student Teacher. It is way too many people in such a small room. I stay at work crazy hours, most days I get there at 6:50 and leave between 6-7. Much too long of a work day for the pay we get... But I guess you can call it commitment to my students and Profession.

In other news...
It looks like my parents may move to North Carolina in the (near) future.
Chris and I are loving our small group at the new church we are attending (Daystar)! We have met some great people and are glad to have made friends!
The garden is still growing. We have some lakota squash growing, tomatoes, bowl lettuce, cabbage, assorted peppers, onions, canteloupe, and I'm sure there are a few other things!!
I enjoy my cooking and scrapbooking, I am looking forward to having children in the future (not soon - God-willing!) and doing that full-time!

Time for bed! If I can get in bed and fall asleep within the next 20 minutes I will get 8 hours of sleep!!
Doubt it will happen!!
Til next time!!

It all comes to an end...

I really enjoyed my last week of "freedom". Usually at this point I am dreading the upcoming year, however I welcome the changes coming to our school this year!

One of the best things about not working during the week (during summer "break") is that most everyone else is at work. You can get in and out of stores (including Super Walmart) quickly!

Our garden is still growing and we love it! We planted even more! Two more squash plants, broccoli, cabbage, and cucumbers again! Christopher tried to make an XL tomato cage to assist our evergrowing tomatoes!

We had grilled out for my mother-in-law's birthday and had a ton of chicken and steak left over. Chris took much of the steak to work for lunch and I ate some chicken.
I decided to pull a Rachael Ray and do a double duty dinner. (I can't remember what she calls it where you take one meal and turn the leftovers into something entirely different.)

Anyway, I cut up and cooked down a bunch of my homegrown peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Took the leftover chicken, cooked Penne, and shredded cheese, threw it in the oven and out came a pretty good chicken pasta casserole with a Mexican flavor!

It turned out better than expected as I did not follow a recipe!

My last day of total "freedom" (Tuesday), I baked! I made homemade strawberry muffins, strawberry loaf, and banana pound cake! All taste great toasted! Saturday I plan to bake some more and use the rest of these bananas that are going soft! 

Friday was a bittersweet day. I said farewell to a colleague and friend, Bethany. She and her husband both were offered teaching positions in their home state, Michigan. We all had a good time getting together to wish them well, but were sad to see them go!

Tomorrow begins the school year for many teachers here in Guilford County, myself included. I will miss my time and flexible schedule to get many things done without the concern of time.

As I officially head back tomorrow I pray that it will be a wonderful year, with eager students, and God will guide me so I do not overwork myself but instead use my time wisely and efficiently.

My classroom is coming together slowly from the total of about 12 hours I have already spent unpacking and "setting up". I have made some more progress than these pictures show.

Even with open house Monday evening, I still refuse to come in on Saturday to do more "unpaid" work... blah blah blah...

It will be a great year! It will be a great year!

It will be a great year! It will be a great year!

It will be a great year! It will be a great year!

It will be a great year! It will be a great year!

All I have to do is repeat that right!?!?

I am signing off for the night to get some sleep for yet another workshop to teach me an even better way to teach reading, yet again...

The "Calm" before the "Storm"

My final days before the "whirlwind" of school responsibilities begins...
I have done some more cooking, baking, and gardening. I spent all last week blanching, pureeing, and boiling tomatoes. The picture is a little less than half of the tomatoes we had over 5 days!

Chris and I have planted a few new plants in our garden as the green beans are finished and the corn has been pulled (did not grow well this year). I replanted my herbs (Basil, Cilantro, and Dill) that died while I was away. We have now added Sugar Snap Peas, a Summer Squash plant, two types of Lettuce, Asian Cabbage, and a pack of assorted Winter Squash (Butternut, Spaghetti, Acorn, and Lakota - which I have never heard of!) I am curious to see if any of it will grow...

I have made homemade granola. I found a few recipes online and adapted and added my own touch to them. It's not bad for my first time, at least I don't think it is! It goes pretty well in my yogurt!Our last 2 Zucchini have been picked as well. The plant is not entirely dead yet but is pretty close. I was not sure what to do other than grill it or saute it as usual so I looked online. I found a great recipe for Zucchini Cake and Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I did not make the icing for them as I have been trying to eat healthier. It tasted pretty good!!
While I was away Christopher got used to having our King-size bed all to himself. After I returned this was his idea of sharing "half" the bed. His side is the right with the light blue blankie, mine is the left! Boy is he good at fractions!
August 10th so happens to be 2 wonderful women's birthdays! Both of our mothers have the same birthday! As tradition with his family, we get together for lunch or dinner around the person's birthday. We decided to have everyone over to our house and grill steak and chicken instead of going out to eat. With people coming over, we of course cleaned which then made it a great opportunity for taking some pictures of our home.

The more time I spend cooking the more I remember how much I enjoy it!

I also drove to Raleigh to visit with friends! I was able to have lunch with Jessi (my neighbor and friend from the year in China) at The Pit (really good BBQ)! Then I met up with Debbie who was in town for some work meetings. After that I went to visit friends from my childhood, the Pierce's! I enjoyed the conversation as well as dinner with Joy and Scott another set of parents. It felt like old times!
I am glad to have a few more days to enjoy before school begins!

This week...

I had such high hopes of getting my "To-Do" list completed or mostly completed this week.

Instead I have realized that having a garden will take much of your time. Chris (my husband) and I planted a garden this spring with the help of his parents. It is our first garden together. In our garden we planted corn, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, jalapenos, green peppers, red peppers, banana peppers, romaine lettuce, broccoli, onions, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomatoes, and 3 different large slicing tomatoes. In addition we have had more tomato plants pop up as well as spaghetti squash and cantaloupe visit us! It has been an adventure and have picked, eaten, given away, and frozen an abundant amount of produce!

This week I had planned to clean a couple rooms and finish unpacking my stuff. I wanted to get my home in order, cleaned and organized in time for me to go back to school. Less stress during the school year is always best!

So far this week I have donated a car-load of stuff to Goodwill, gone to the gym every morning, completed all the laundry from being out of town, canned 8 jars of pickles, made homemade pizza sauce and tomato sauce to freeze, picked, blanched and froze a couple gallons of green beans, and of course made dinner each night. The vegetables definitely keep me busy. We picked another bucket of tomatoes to go along with the bucket I picked yesterday.

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I made a beef brisket. It tasted pretty good. I think I may have to try it again with a different recipe. I have a desire to make my own BBQ!
My husband being the good-ol-southern-country-bumpkin he is, loves fried squash. I attempted this once before, it did not turn out well. This time was much better. I think it is something you master over time... but it doesn't look too bad does it?!?

Oh and I also had to fix my car door handle. About 2 weeks ago my sister pulled too hard or something because the door handle came clean off in her hand. My wonderful husband showed/taught me how and then made me change it. It is nice to not feel like a "redneck" (as he put it) having to roll down my window to open my door. It sucked, especially when it rained!

Here Goes... The Lowdown...

I have decided to blog again. The last time I blogged was about 3 years ago when I returned from living in China for a year. My other blog (clandestine future) was about my life and time in China. A way for family and friends to stay connected with me while I was overseas.

I have been back in the states for about 3 years. In that 3 years I have been teaching Kindergarten, gotten married, and been living life. As friends of mine will say, I have surely become little miss suzie homemaker. I love to cook, scrapbook, and watch movies. Occasionally I get on a cleaning rampage and that feels pretty good too, though I don't necessarily look forward to that.

This summer my husband and I went to Jamaica and have also ventured into gardening. We have had many vegetables come from it! It has been amazing! I have enjoyed cooking with the vegetables, canning and freezing them as well!

We have also begun going to a new Church that we really enjoy! The small group has been great so far for getting involved with other Christians who are in the same time of life as we are. We hope our relationships with and God continue to grow.

I plan that this blog will be about our life, cooking, cleaning, gardening and all else it entails as we travel life's journey!