Hi, I'm Cheryl, And I'm a HOARDER! {who makes applesauce and redecorates her house}!

It's embarassing. BUT...I'm a HOARDER! Amy pointed this out when I sent her a picture of my cabinets all exposed! I never saw it before, but sure enough, when I sat there drinking my coffee and eating my toast this morning, I could clearly see it. I'm a hoarder! Mark my words...1/2 of all this stuff is going to go "bye-bye" before I get the cabinet painted and the doors back on!

Mark my word!

And just so you don't think poorly of me, I can also make applesauce!!

Look at these beauties!

Paula, a new friend of mine (an old friend of Jeanne's) {Jeanne is the short one standing next to the tall one!} had Jeanne, Pamela and myself out to her country home to make homemade applesauce and then we canned it! Each of us brought home 8 beautiful quarts of delicious applesauce for the cold winter months ahead!
Paula had Hot Apple Cider ready for us along with cheese and crackers when we arrived! Some of us put red hots in it...and boy howdy, did that taste scrumptious!
Did you notice her square pan? We all decided we needed one of those! What a smart idea!!

Here are the cooks! Me, Mike (Paula's chef hubby!), Pamela and Paula holding our bags of Jonathan Apples!
And we pressed cooked apples all afternoon...in between card games! Mike, bless his heart, kept grinding applesauce since there was only one mill. Next year, I'm bringing both of mine and we'll speed up the process to 3 times faster!

{good thing I hoarded my food mills!!}
Above is Jeanne and Mike, chopping away! I think I remember one said man imitating Julia Childs once...but there was no blood loss involved! Ha!
Paula and Pamela boiling apples....
While I snooped until I found her pantry, FULL of freshly canned goods! I want to marry that pantry!

Below you'll see what's been occuping my days and nights for a week now! I'm painting my cabinets! Did you think I was going to let my kids do theirs and me not do mine?

NO WAY JOSE!

Yes, I'm still a horder. I did get rid of 1 coffee mug and 2 old cards.

Tomorrow's another day Scarlett!! I'll try again!

Now here you'll see the different color I'm putting on my center island. It's called Pearwood by Williamsburg. Carolyn suggested it. I do whatever Carolyn say's b/c she's smart and I love her taste! As you can see, I have no doors on that baby either. And my drawer fronts are all spread out in the garage getting 2 fresh coats of paint. I am also painting my knobs. Boy, that's a lot of work!

Oh girls....look at this picture below!! Jeanne got it for me for my BD! She was proud to say she got it at the Thrift store she volunteers at a day a week. I was proud of her for getting it for me!!! I couldn't believe how it fit right into my decorating colors!! I'm even going to move my shelves to accomodate this little baby! The lowest shelf is going to sit only a few inches from the bottom shelf. I plan on finding a couple of short wide baskets to slide under there to hold the mail and such other things I HOARD!

It'll be the "mystery baskets"!

I'll bet you'll wanna come and snoop in them!

Here's another angle of the center island.

I know, I'm going back and forth and probably making you dizzy 'bout now! I'm so excited to cover this laminate siding on that center island! The beadboard that's going on it's sides are out in the garage waiting to be cut!

Ready to see the BLING?

There it is!!

I've decided on a beautiful Quartz countertop that I won't have to worry about scratches!

Oh..I can't wait! It gets ordered tomorrow and the time from order to install is approximately

FIVE WEEKS!

How in the world can I wait FIVE WEEKS?

Well, easy. It's going to take me that long to take off the other 21 cabinet doors and drawers and get them painted!

Plus, I have a little grannyson that's coming to visit his Grammie and Poppie next week!

I must have doors on my cabinets by then.

Carter is walking now.

And he loves to get into cabinets so I must get the doors back on so I can put rubber bands around the knobs!

Then he'll feel like he's at home!

I like things to come together all at one time.

And it'll take me FIVE WEEKS to DE-hoard!

MARK MY WORD!

Random Thoughts....

This was an odd day.

Dennis worked last night and got home at 5:30 AM. That's not odd, that's normal for him when he's on nights. I prefer him being on days b/c my day's go smoother, yet it offers me the opportunity to stay home and be here to serve my hubby...so that is a good thing.

I talked to Amy several times today. It seems they had quite a hail storm out there in Phoenix...where it's dry! Today, it wasn't. They got a mess of hail and all kinds of wind damage. Praying that the damage is minimal at their house. Here's a snappy I swiped off her blog!

I don't make very good homemade pizza. The last time I made it, I swore {well, I'm not a swearin' lady BUT...} I swore that I'd never make it again. That didn't last. It's always a challenge for me to accomplish something like this, so I tried it again today. I snooped on allrecipes.com for a great pizza crust recipe. All of mine seem so tough. Well, today I hit the jackpot!! Are you surprised that the title of it was Valentino's pizza crust ? For you locals who still follow this boring blog, Val's is a hometown favorite from Lincoln, Nebraska! {GO HUSKERS!!!} Ha!! I tried it and tonight, the pizza was AWESOME!! Be sure and click on the link if you need a good pizza crust recipe. I only used a little over 2 cups of flour. I've determined that I've been using too much flour. You want the dough to be "soft", not hard too stiff. It takes practice...and a good recipe. I hope I can continue to make good pizza dough b/c the crust is 1/2 the battle! Check this out...this is an actual snappy of MY pizza tonight!!

Another little tip or two. I used 2 packages (4 cups!) of mozzerella cheese! That's more than the recipe calls for, but hey, we like cheese! And to top it off, I used another 2 oz. or so of fresh Parmesan!! Oh...did that ever make a difference! And then there is the sauce. I used to make homemade sauce. It wasn't good. Ally introduced me to this sauce:

Oh girls...it's GREAT! I hope you can find it locally b/c it seems to be a Chicago brand. It's really good. I use a small can on one large pizza and it works out great!

This is what I used to grate my fresh parm! It's a microplaner and every woman needs one. They run about $12.00 at one of those fancy pants cooking stores in the outlet malls. I'm sure you could pay twice as much and get one from Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel, but why? This one worked real good. There is something about fresh parmesan. I'm on a kick for it right now!

I layered my pizza a little different that normal tonight. I spread the crust on a DRY pizza pan using olive oil on my fingers so they didn't stick. Then, I put the sauce on. Then went my fresh green peppers, onions, black olives and fresh mushrooms, sliced. THEN...I put on the cheese (yes, 4 cups of grated mozzarella cheese!) and topped that with 1/3 lb. browned breakfast sausage and pepperoni. THEN...I hid that meat with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Oh...did that ever fall off the microplane smooth!! Turned out really good. Hubs ate 2 1/2 pieces. I only had 1 1/2! We are stuffed. I served it with a great big green salad which made it a "healthy dinner"! Ha!!

More randomness:

Have you noticed more polital commercials on TV lately? They get me in a tissy and I'll be so glad when these local elections are over. You see, I've been around long enough to know these people are full of empty promises. Promises for a better government, lower taxes, more jobs, bigger income...bla, bla, bla. I'm so glad I trust in the Lord for my needs rather than trying to figure out who is lying on these commercials! I dislike election time. I'm supposed to make a wise decision about someone who's character I don't even know? It's my legal right to vote, but I have to do a lot of homework in order to make a somewhat "wise" decision. Praise God that HE puts those in office that HE wants! I hope I am voting the way HE wants me to!

While we were nibbling away on some mighty fine pizza tonight, we had the TV on b/c we were waiting for a "NEWSBREAK" to tell us what in the world was going on with some shooter in Lowell, Indiana...moving from Beecher, IL. to Crown Point and headed up to Gary. This man, who lost his job this morning, lost his mind and went around shooting people. What is it with Lowell, IN?? This little town is just south and east of us and they have sure had their share of big time gun slingers the past few years. I remember when Amy lived here and worked for the bank, they had a real "holdup" at Centier Bank in Lowell. Thank the Lord Amy was at the St. John branch b/c I'd have been beside myself if she'd have been working in Lowell that day. Anyhow...I guess there was one man murdered as a result of todays rampage. Sure hope Jayme is okay. She lives outside of Lowell and I hear tell that the "shooter" stopped by a farmhouse and engaged a man in a conversation about Beekeeping before he shot him! Jayme is a beekeeper. Glenco is her husband. I figured she was okay b/c she could take on a shooter any day! I wish she'd answer her phone though. She is so rural that she doesn't have an answerwing machine so I couldn't leave a message! She used to be a city slicker and since has gone the way of "simplifying". I could use a lesson in that!

Speaking of phones...ours has been in and out for 2 1/2 weeks now. Comcast came out today and the fixer boy was here 2 + hrs. I sure hope it's fixed. Our sweet neighbor came out towards the end of the service call this evening to ask Dennis what was going on. He told her and she told him that her's is out now. Oops...sure hope our "repairman" didn't cut her wires!

And while we were eating pizza..and had the TV on, Glee came on. Have you ever watched it? I've heard so much about how good it was. This was the second time we paid attention to it. The first time I said "never again". It was all about s.e.x. There is too much of that on T.V. these days. Yes, I'm about to turn 55. I guess that makes me old fashioned. Tonight was the second time I watched part of it and they were making a mockery of Jesus Christ. It's no wonder I play on the internet instead of watching T.V. Back to Comcast...our bill went up $20.00 a month. If it weren't for football and my husband...I'd tell them to discontinue the T.V. alltogether! I'm trying to re-negotiate my bill. We'll see how far I get there. I'll never watch Glee again.

I found out today that a friends husband is going to loose his job the end of the month. Would you please pray for Doug? He is a wonderful leader in our church and will need a new job come November. His company is shutting down the two Indiana offices and he is in one of 'em. His wife Jennifer was one of Mom and Dad's nurses in ICU. Very special family indeed. And no, she has no idea I have a blog!

Dennis is off for 4 days! YAHOO!! Scott and Robin are planning on coming over tomorrow to get the treadmill from Mom's house. We are going to take them out for lunch. The weather here is supposed to be FANTASTIC! And I get to see little Julian again. They say he's getting big!! Can't WAIT!

Have a great week ya'll! Thanks for putting up with my randomness!

Two Wonderful Reminders...back to back!

Here's another reminder for us not to chase after things of this world. It's a fine line at times, don't you think? After all, we as women are to be the despot of our homes, yet we aren't to get our lives out of balance and put our homes before our God. Easily done in my life...very easily done. Let this devotion serve to remind us where our hearts are supposed to be grounded...and then we can function in our homes with a pure heart!

October 5, 2010
Unfulfilled Longings

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: If you ever glance at the covers on the magazines at the check-out counter of the grocery store, you’ll notice those covers are filled with promises to satisfy your longings.

“25 secrets to looking young”

“Indulge yourself with instant long hair.”

Nancy: Of course these magazines can’t deliver what they promise. In fact, the pursuit of fulfillment has caused all kinds of heartache.


It’s led women to trade their virginity for empty promises. It’s led married women to seek fulfillment in the arms of a man at work. It’s led couple after couple down the aisle of a divorce court—all in an effort to satisfy deep, inner longings.


The truth is, we’ll always have unfulfilled longings this side of heaven. If we’re constantly looking for satisfaction here, we’ll end up with disappointment and bondage. But if we let those longings point us to heaven, we can look forward to true satisfaction for eternity.

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss

OUCH!

This one hurts.


Verse of the Day for October 4, 2010

Haggai 1:9
"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house." (NIV)


Meditation
If God is not a part of what you are doing, it will be blown away. Do you spend as much time on God's interests as you do on your own?

~Revive our Hearts