Fall days

Well hey there! Here's another day and it was a typical chilly fall day here in Upstate, NY.  Today I was happy because I tried out a new recipe and mixed up an old favorite!

Our fall and winter staple recipe is my grandmother's famous Hot Cocoa Mix.  We make it every year and one batch makes up 3 of those nice big plastic Folger's Coffee cans.  Of course, with my SON that doesn't mean much anymore.  You only use 1/4 c per 8-10oz mug of hot water and it great with not only marshmallows or whipped cream on top if you like that.  Warning though, you need a huuuuuge bowl to mix it in!  So with even my largest big red mixing bowl, it was heaped over and made mixing a big old pain in the butt to do without spilling it all over.

Then I got to make my first ever loaf of pumpkin bread, which although didn't look as nice as I'd hoped sure tasted great, especially warm from the oven with melty butter on it.

Where have the last two years gone?

Well..um...I guess I should just say OOPS!! And grovel for forgiveness!! I finally found the link to my poor forgotten blog!  Long story short....we were burglarized, computer stolen, stuff lost, all gone, moved to rental house, lost job, car died, kids home-schooled! Phew! I think that about covers it!  Yep, so here we are two years later!

Recap:  Johnny is now 13, and 5' 8" tall.  He's still obsessed with video games (Minecraft) and Xbox 360.  He is doing much better now that he's home-schooled, but has a LOT of issues and teen attitude to overcome!  Jenna is 12, 5' tall and total tween "tude" going on with all the girly drama on the side! She's had a really tough last year dealing with bullying and a bff being a victim of child abuse and getting stuck in the middle.  She's doing good home-schooling so far and is much more relaxed.  Therapy is helping!  Jasmine is 10 and soon to be home-schooled.  I'm TRYING to hold her off til next year (the dreaded Middle School!) but it's not looking so good.  Her BFF moved and she feels invisible at her school, so her self esteem etc not so good.  Doesn't help that we pretty much had fast food 3+ times a week the year and a half I was working full time so her and I did a lot of "self-medicating" adjusting to Mom working!  Julie is almost 8 and well....she's Julie LOL! She's still miss personality and full of attitude. 

Good things that happened:  We are renting a house, with a little backyard and a deck and a decent neighborhood with a street they can ride bikes & go for walks etc.  Now that we had a house & a yard, we were able to adopt a hairy, silly, DUMB, crazy, cuddly dog named Buddy!  We also have had all our sweet ratties pass away from old age, so we moved on to Guinea piggys! 

Not so good things: Lost my job, car engine died, finances stink really big time LOL

But it's all worth it in the end, cuz if things hadn't happened the way they did, I wouldn't have been able to consider home-schooling and the kids really REALLY, and did I mention REALLY didn't adjust well to mom being away and needed their MAMA!!!!  So now we're struggling in some ways, but OH SO MUCH happier and doing better in others!!!!!   Guess that's all for now! Tune in again........until then, hold on for the ride!