I could hardly wait for the weekend to come to a close so I could happily report 2 things: 1) People actually ate my baked beans…technically they are my Aunt Tootsie’s since it’s her recipe, but only one spoonful remained and I was pretty happy about that.  Maybe I’ll try my hand at super intimidating kitchen items like baked beans more often. Who knows, maybe this weekend I’ll tackle mac n cheese.  Things might get crazy.  And 2) You guys, I actually made Harper’s class birthday treat this time around.  Like I actually made it.  She went with old school boxed Funfetti cupcakes and canned icing…girl is on it!!!  And now let’s all take a moment of silence to pray I actually remember to deliver them at lunch time tomorrow.  Who wants to call and remind me?!?!?

Sidenote:  Harper got this little pillow craft from a cousin for her birthday and she’s addicted.  She keeps taking all the fabric pieces out and redoing the entire thing.  If you have a crafty kid, I totally recommend Plush Crafts. 

I think I forgot to tell you, but I tried my first macaroon at Hope Spoken.  And then I died.  I might have eaten 211 chocolate macaroons because they are like heaven/brownie/cake/I really can’t decide the texture, but I want to marry it.  Now I need to learn how to make them asap.

The lady in the background is obviously stashing away macaroons for later…or maybe looking for lipgloss…I’d be stashing away macaroons.

Sometimes I set up our kid’s toys in funny positions and wait to see how they react.  Amon busted into loud laughter and lots of “Look momma look”s.  I mean, come on, it’s a bear on a lego car!

When you’ve been saving your money the final decision is hard.  And time consuming.  And patience inducing.  And I like to stand directly by the little self scanner machine and then they all just report back to me with their items they need price checked.  And then the person behind us at check out is always a bit perturbed when they realize we’re doing 4 separate checkouts.  Eeeeeek.

I didn’t know I had calico cat hair, but according to Harper I do.  And she clearly wants me to be more stylish…hello dress and fancy high heels.  My “have hope” dress does however slay me into a 1000 pieces.

   And these little canvases could easily become a consuming pastime.  I’m thinking about making some up to sell.  Just give me all the colors of the world.  Any particular wording you would be interested in seeing?!?!?

Hope your Monday is off to a grand start.  Each day has the potential to be crazy good.  Here’s to a week full of them.

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend?  How’s your Monday been so far?  The kids are off school today for our last and final day of fall break.  We’ve already constructed lots of Legos, endured an intense school day with teacher Harper and watched 3 episodes of Ninjago all thanks to our local library.  Does anyone else use their library?  We have the best one just right down the road.  We don’t have cable or netlix so hello fun DVDs for free.  Word.

We have such a busy week with baseball and soccer and another home study with our case worker and not to mention a thousand other things.  I meal planned yesterday so my mind feels a little clearer today.  Is that crazy?!?!  I just hate cooking so so much.  Baking I love, cooking dinner I loathe.  Monday: breakfast for dinner…eggs with spinach and salsa, bacon, yogurt and fruit.  Tuesday: tacos

Kelley Family Fun Fact:  Every Tueadsay we have tacos…taco Tuesday, hello.  Tacos, romaine, greek yogurt salsa, black beans, fruit, yum.  Easy and simple.

Wednesday:  Spicy garlic pasta (I add chicken and broccoli)  Thursday:  Burgers with salsa salad and refried beans…weird, I know, but so good.  Friday:  5 Ingredient White Chicken Chili (I add a can of black beans and only use 4 cups of chicken broth.)  I did all my shopping over the weekend and I’m cooking all my meat today.  This will make things a bit easier this week.

Amon got the croup last week so all weekend he was fun (insert sarcasm) and we purged more stuff from our house.  Baseball playoffs are in full swing which is another reason we love October.  My new favorite guy is Hunter Pence.  He’s just the gift that keeps on giving.  Oh and Josh Kelley ran another 1/2 marathon.  Super proud of you guys.  And it rained…like all weekend long.

I also decided to use up a bunch of creamed coconut I had bought in bulk.  This is where I admit to sweet Dana that I actually did not like the brownie recipe she recommended…I’m sorry Dana…it’s not you, it’s me…and maybe the creamed coconut.

Anyways, 4 bars of creamed coconut had taken up residence in our food cabinet and my OCD self could let them sit no longer.  Insert 4 recipes which required creamed coconut:  PB Fudge, Pumpkin Fudge, Pumpkin Spice Bread and Coconut Candy.  I’m only linking one of the recipes because the rest were pretty much flops.  Let’s jut say I gagged on the pumpkin fudge and had to spit out the pumpkin spice bread.  The bread was so so bad.  Seriously the worst thing I’ve ever made and maybe I just botched all the recipes or maybe I just need to stick to good ole sugar and flour and eggs for my desserts.

The bread was so bad I sent out messages proclaiming how awesome it was with hashtags like #yummo because I wanted to watch people’s faces when they tried it.  Mwuhuhahahahahahahaha.  I sliced the bread and bagged it individually.  Hudson said, “Mom you are going to be in so much trouble.”  I got Harper to try the bread and she said, “It feels meaty.”  One friend said it was the worst thing he’d ever tasted and he would never eat another thing I baked.  Hahahahaha.  It was so weird tasting.  Some said “why is it salty and gritty”.  “I need a drink.”  I sent the remaining loaf to Bible study with Josh last night and my friend Brooke sent me a text with other comments…”looks like meatloaf”, “tastes like sawdust”, “maybe needs icing”, “kind of like a Krystal” and “smells like dog food”.  You guys, it was awful.  The worst cooking day ever and I burned the palm of my hand bad and sliced the tip of my finger on a can of pumpkin.  It’s hindered my typing.  You wouldn’t even believe how long it took me to type this so far.  Redonkulous.

After the baking gone bad, I made my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and all was right with the world again.  Sigh.  But lesson learned, if you ever cook/bake something terrible, don’t toss it in the trash, instead talk it up and then watch with wondering eyes as you share it with friends and family.  So hilarious and fun.

So many other good and interesting moments this weekend.  And I’m ready for the week to start…pretty pumped everyone is going back to school tomorrow too 🙂  Now, lunch is calling and the post office…along with 4 Kelley kiddos.  See you tomorrow.

Happy Monday!