Boom!

Watch out!

Seven kids...Christmas cacophony!

Family does not have to be blood related.
Family can be who you choose!
Christmas with the Damewoods 2013!

Twenty-Five Years!

Twenty-five years is a long time!

And we are still here!

It's Jacob's senior year and the girls are sill his #1 fans!

Here they are back at the beginning!

Delicious!

I made a great dinner tonight. The kids ate everything put in front of them and more. Here is the recipe from Cooks.com:

GERMAN PANCAKE

I actually doubled the recipe and used a 13x9x2 pan

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cube (1/4 cup or tbsp) butter

3 eggs

Melt butter in 8" x 8" X 2" casserole dish in the oven as it preheats to 425F degrees.

Beat all other ingredients together. Slosh melted butter around the sides of the casserole dish, and then pour batter of other ingredients into butter and bake in center of oven for 20 min.

Serve with powdered sugar sprinkled over the top and/or your choice of syrup.

Ours was topped with mixed berries and served with ham steaks on the side.

So Good!

C.H.A.O.S.

At my house we are suffering from C.H.A.O.S., that is the Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, because This. Place. Is. A. Mess.

I need some help. I make lists, I make chore charts, I prioritize what should be done and you know what happens? The bare minimum.

I need help. I would love to hire a housekeeper, but the problem with this idea is that I think my family should clear their own clutter.

Proof that I DO make them clean sometimes.

I am looking around my living room. I see: no less than 8 pairs of shoes (and 3 of them are mine!); 2 loads of clean laundry on the loveseat; breakfast dishes for 2 kids on the coffee table; magazines, mail, and homework on the end table; hair from the dog all over the carpet and upholstery, 2 laptops, pillows, games by the shelves they are supposed on and not actually on the shelves, and various other items....

Yet, here I sit. Today's plan is to clean it all up and then what? How do I get my dear children to buy into the fact that once clean it should stay relatively neat?

Happy January

This little mouse is Ruby on Halloween

It's January! The month of the year that I like to think about organization and resolutions and getting the year started on the right note.

2010 is no different.

For 2010 I resolve to:

• Do at least one load of laundry each day. This means wash, fold and have the kids put away.
• Plan and prepare better meals. Cereal is for breakfast.
• Create and implement a chore list for the kids. Force them to stick with it.
• Stick with my Motivated Moms plan.
• And take more pictures. I only took 3 pictures total on Christmas day!

And that's it. That's as much as I can handle.

Also, I got the tree pic by turning off the flash and opening up my shutter to increase the exposure time.

The best week of the year!

Our sad little tree. It is a beautiful noble fir whose branches cannot handle the weight of our ornaments. Poor droopy tree!

The week between Christmas and New Year's is my favorite of the whole year. All of the Christmas pressure is off, but the good feelings of the season are still hanging around. My house is clean-ish and there are plenty of yummy leftovers to eat. We are planning a small party for New Year's Eve, nothing really special, just good friends, good food and hopefully a good time!