A look at my day--Facebook style

Today has been a good day and I noticed that I chronicled much it on Facebook, so I thought I'd use my Facebook statuses (or the ones I would have used, had I remembered to update at the moment) to blog about the happenings today.

I packed the boys lunches this morning in their Laptop Lunch boxes for a little variety. I made sandwich wraps and gave their apples a little checkerboard fun. My status would have said: Jaime is spending way too much time just to cut up her boys' apples for their lunches.

I was very pleased with the result, though!




I found out when the boys got home from school that both liked the apples, but neither liked the sandwich wraps because they had cucumbers. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.

I was busy and didn't post about this, either, but if I had, it would have said: Jaime 's sweet hubby helped to start her day off right.

This morning, after everyone had left for school or work, I grabbed my cell phone to see if I'd missed any texts or anything during the night and discovered a sweet love note from Slade folded up and placed inside. What a lovely start to the day. It is tucked in my wallet.

Jaime just discovered that Febreeze does not have a lid and if you pull the little handle-thingy that looks like it would lift a lid off, you will get sprayed.

I went shopping this afternoon using my online coupons, my regular coupons and my sales fliers and came home with some great deals! (A whole 'nother post on that later!) One of my great deals was a $2.99 can of Febreeze for $.99. I was going to try it out and grabbed the lid (or so I thought) and promptly sprayed myself in the face. I admit it. I am an idiot. But, I smelled great all day.

You will be happy to know (or at least, I was happy to know) that Febreeze doesn't sting when sprayed directly in your eyes at a very close range. So, go ahead and give it a try. Everybody's doing it. At least, that's what I tell myself...

Here are my great deals:


I bought $78.62 worth of groceries and household items and only paid $33.78 (some stuff wasn't on sale but I needed it anyway) thanks to the ridiculous amount of time I spent cross-referencing and checking for the best deal and such. It was worth it, though! I'll post the details of the trip later. And, hopefully, I'll get quicker at finding those good deals so I don't lose my mind.

Next status: Jaime wants a baby. Actually, I just want *this* baby that I'm holding while I type this!

I offered to watch my friend, Eun-Jin's adorable little guy while she got her hair cut today and after a little bit of playing, he slept most of the visit. Am I that boring?!


A close up of his sweet face.


Isn't he adorable?! He's the perfect size and has the sweetest little personality. Playing with him really did make me want another one. Usually it's just the little girls that do that to me.

For dinner: Jaime just made homemade pizza. I think it's the first time ever. It was Gwen's pizza crust recipe--Thanks, Gwen!! It was YUMMY!

I made homemade pizza tonight. All by myself. Like a big girl! I was so proud. I used Gwen's recipe for the dough (recipe below) and my own simple, no brainer recipe for the pizza sauce. Then the boys helped me add the toppings. I should say "boy" because Randall was having a difficult afternoon and wasn't in the mood to help, nor was I in the mood to have him help at that point. My status would have said: Jaime has a 5 year old boy that is free to a good home.

For the pizza toppings, I browned some hamburger meat and we had one hamburger pizza (half with chopped bell peppers and onions for Slade and me) and one meat lover's pizza--hamburger, salami and turkey chunks. I used mozzarella cheese and a Fiesta blend (whatever that is) because I didn't have enough mozzarella.

The pizzas before going in the oven.


Done and delicious!




Pizza Dough:
3 C flour
2 T sugar
1 t salt
1/4 C oil
1 pkg yeast
1 C warm water

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let sit while measuring other ingredients into large bowl. Add yeast mixture and mix well. Let stand for 5 minutes. Press onto greased 17x11 pan. Top as desired. Bake at 400* for approximately 20 minutes.

So easy and so good!!

Pizza Sauce:
I took a can of tomato paste and watered it down by filling the can with water one time. Then I added 2 Tablespoons of Pampered Chef's Italian Seasoning. It was delicious!

So, it's been a good day. For some reason, right now, Facebook isn't working for me. It won't let me do anything. So, I'll post my final status here: Jaime should be getting ready for bed, but is blogging instead.

Good night, blog friends! And, if you're on Facebook, look me up!

O! Bento Goodness!

Bento, also referred to as obento (thus the title), is commonly a Japanese practice of packing food in single portions for take-out (kids' lunches, spouse's lunches, work meals, picnics, etc). My friend, Elizabeth, first introduced me to the idea of bento on one of her (many) blogs. :-) And now she's started a Bento blog. She is super creative and it's fun to see her food art.

Elizabeth sent me a link to a blog that had more links to other bento lunches. I spent hours going through different posts and admiring the time and effort and the end result of these fun lunches. I also discovered an online store that sold bento supplies for very cheap. Think Japanese Dollar Store. The store is Ichiban Kan and their Bento section is so fun! They change out their supplies regularly, so if you find something you like, go for it!

Here are all the goodies I bought:


There are 2-tier boxes, single-tier boxes, food picks (think glorified toothpicks--the kids love toothpicks), rice molds (not sure if I'll ever get into molding rice, but I might) and so much more. The kids were so excited!

This morning, I made my first "real" bento boxes for the boys' lunches. I found a link somewhere that listed how many mL are needed for ages of boys/men and girls/women, but I can't for the life of me find it now to share it. I'll keep looking. I do remember, though, that both boys have enough food in the following containers. Really, we don't need to eat as much as we think we do! Big surprise, huh.

This one is Russell's. He's a little bigger, so supposedly he can eat more than Randall, but, as I've said before, he tends to come home with food left, while Randall totally cleans out his lunch box.


Top tier: Ritz crackers, peanuts (stuffed under and beside crackers), cheese stars (with leftover pieces underneath) in silicone cupcake mold, and sliced salomi.


Bottom tier: Carrots with Ranch dressing (in blue container) for dipping, apple "fries" and a peanut butter cup for dessert.


Here's Randall's.


And with the clear lid on, just for fun. :-) He had the same foods as Russell, just packed slightly differently and he doesn't like Ranch on his carrots. I used a silicone food divider so the cheese doesn't make the crackers stale.


Randall said, "I wish I got to go to school today!" because he wanted to take his lunch. Then he said we'll have to have lunch in the livingroom to feel like we went somewhere. Silly guy.

I have a few blogs that I read with bento lunches and inspiration, but my favorite is Wendolonia because she's packing simple lunches for a preschooler and her style is more like mine. Another that I like is this one because she has more artistic bentos, but still not as elaborate as some!

So, I'm still learning, but I'm loving it! It's like a craft and since I can take pictures, I won't feel badly when the kids eat my crafts!