My Peacefully Chaotic Life

3 c mashed sweet potatoes 1 c sugar 1/4 c milk 2 eggs 1/2 c butter or margarine 1/2 - 3/4 pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp vanilla extract Mix ingredients and put in casserole dish. TOPPING 1 c brown sugar 1 c flour 1 c butter or margarine 1 c chopped pecans Mix and put over top of casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Hints: You can use canned sweet potatoes instead if you don't have fresh ones. I usually cut the sugar back to 3/4 cup. You might also like to add coconut but I don't usually. You can cut the eggs back to one if you really need to. (like when you forget to buy them and its 45 minutes to the nearest open grocery store and you want everything to be ready in 1 and 1/2 hours - ask me how I know this) Also if your casserole dish is smaller, use only 1/2 topping recipe or it will boil over, make a mess and just not taste as good. (ask me again how I know!) You also might like to add some spice to the topping as well. Maybe a tablespoon or so of cinnamon or pumpkin p...

This has been a full week! Monday called for many errands, hospital visitation, and grocery shopping. Yesterday my mom had a routine colonoscopy done. Today I need to let our pediatrician take a look at two of the children's ears. They have been sick with congestion and cough and are having some ear pain now. I sure don't want an ear infection to set in on Thanksgiving! Cooking begins today for our meal tomorrow. I need to make the cornbread for the dressing. I will make it today and let it sit to dry out some. Tomorrow after trimming the crust and crumbling the rest up, I will add bread crumbs, onions, celery, spices, boiled eggs and broth before baking. I also want to go ahead and cook some of the vegetables. I am also going to make a pumpkin pie. Supper tonight is frozen pizza...the only way the FisherMan will agree to that is knowing what kind of meal awaits him tomorrow LOL! Oh, and I need to run right now but this afternoon I will post the recipe for sweet potato cassero...

Can you believe Thanksgiving is here? My favorite time of year! The GuitarMan is home for the week and I have happy children....they love their big brother! I'm still in the process of clearing out, decluttering, rearranging and organizing. It may seem to others that it sure is taking a while. But with young children, homeschooling, doctor appts, and all the little things that come up in life, it pays to take it slow and do it the right way. Otherwise things will just wind up unorganized again. I am seeing progress little by little. Once I get all the rooms arranged to my liking I will begin tackling closets. Eventually the inside will be finished....then we will tackle the shed outside. It's not a coincidence that it should be good and cold by the time we get to it. Snakes move slower in the cold...at least that's what I'm told. I really hope to not even have to find out LOL. I have a ton of laundry to attend to today. I'll get to it...amongst the [surprise]birthda...

I came across this website tonight and it looks great. It gives the standards by state and by grade. It also gives lots of practice problems all broken down by topic so you can focus on particular weaknesses. I bookmarked it and we will definitely be taking a further look at this! http://www.ixl.com/ Edited to add: This really does look good. The only thing is they let you play one game then take you to the page to register. It' s $9.95 a month or you can pay a discounted price for the year. Still it seemed to work faster and offer more than the free sites.

Slowly but surely I am getting the furniture arranged to my liking, the toys sorted, and restoring order. Yet I am still surrounded by chaos. It is aggravating but I know I will get it finished and my home will be better for it. What's funny is that while I am finding long lost items I am also losing everyday items. Usually it isn't actually lost but just blended in with its surroundings. A hairbrush carelessly tossed is instantly hidden. It was there the whole time I just couldn't see it for the other items. This also tends to happen when I am at my busiest and in a hurry. I want the item when I want it! So I am really trying to stress to my girls to return things to their proper home after use. I find the same to be true with my spiritual armor. I know it's there somewhere. But when I get lazy I tend to toss it down, assuming it will be instantly available at my beck and call. Then when I can't find it I realize it is hidden in the clutter of my life. The thing is...

I haven't been around much this week...one, thanks to Ida we had lots of rain here and it always interferes with internet service....two, I've had some projects going to keep me busy. We did some painting and some rearranging...the girls to a larger bedroom (they were busting at the seams!) and Cornbread to their old bedroom (perfect for a toddler...I can't believe LadyBug wasn't much older than him when we moved here!). Their room was a nice girly PINK so we had to change that to a more masculine tan. I had no idea they had so much stuff! No wonder it was such a nightmare to keep their room neat! I still have to go through all the toys and clothes to get them organized and find an easy suitable way to store them. Any ideas for Barbie dolls and their accessories? (it just occurred to me that these days the aim seems to be to make the toys as realistic as possible but this is ridiculous! I swear the barbies and baby dolls seem to be somehow reproducing!) You know how t...

Hope you've had a good day today. We have been having some lovely autumn weather at our house! Yet I still have the urge to get the Christmas decorations out. Normally I am one of those people who likes to get Thanksgiving completed before moving on into the Christmas festivities. But there is just something about this year that has me ready to get all of the holidays going and squeeze out all the wonder. So my house now has icicle lights hung 3/4 of the way across the front. It's a small start but still an official start! I can't wait for the holiday cooking shows on Food network and the Christmas romantic comedy movies to begin. We also did a little rearranging today along with some cleaning out. I am going through the children's things and doing away with broken toys or the things that just don't interest them. I still have a ways to go until I can check "satisfied" or "completed" on my mental list. But still, like the Christmas lights, I can ...