I am eating this right now.  It is so good…….

So last night I overfilled my goulash casserole and it dripped all over the bottom of the oven as it baked and filled the kitchen with smoke.  As a result, I can’t make my lemon banana bread this morning until the oven self cleaner is done.  It’s 34 degrees outside, the sun is shining brilliantly, my house is once again smelling of smoke as the oven cleans.  I have windows and doors open to keep the smoke alarm from going off.

This morning the first thing she said to me was, “Can I put a puzzle together?”  And then she asked me, “Are the Northern Lights REAL?”  After questioning, I learned that she saw a picture of them in Kindergarten.  The puzzle is of Alaskan animals and the Northern Lights can be seen in Alaska so I was floored by the entire conversation which occurred much too early in the morning (6:30am).

We bought this small piece of furniture this weekend from the guy down the road.  He refinishes pieces and we really like him and his shop.  It’s very rustic and down to earth.  This small chest of drawers, very narrow but made of hard wood, has two shallow drawers and one deep drawer.  From now on the mail and papers get stuffed into it rather than piled on the counter.  The pile was driving me nuts.

I’m freezing..hold on…I gotta turn the fan off and shut the door….

We also bought this chest.  The top opens and shuts without a latch which makes it easy to use and also no children or cats can get trapped inside of it.  I’m using it to hold all the wrestling things and any back packs and bags that I can fit into it, in this way the spot near the door doesn’t have QUITE the pile of stuff it normally does in the evening.  If I put a blanket on top of the chest Gentleman Gray will curl up and sleep on it too; it’s also a cat bed.

I went to the grocery store before I picked up David from newspaper club yesterday so I could get a few things for goulash dinner.  And guess what?  I discovered a new-to-my-grocery-store flavor of FAGE yogurt!  It’s sooooooooo good!

ALSO this is very exciting…..Panera bread in the grocery store!!!!!!  I discovered it yesterday by the hot soup station.  I LOVE their tomato basil and I bought the white for the kids and as you can see, it’s almost gone already.

This is what I’m going to bake as soon as the oven is done cleaning itself.  I said in a few posts back that I wanted to depend more on my cookbooks than the internet and when I realized this morning that I had old bananas, I went and sat on the floor by my cookbook shelf to search for a recipe……and it looks great.  I found eggs in the coop this morning that I will use, too.

B A N A N A  L E M O N  B R E A D

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups mashed banana
6 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking soda
3 Tablespoons grated lemon peel

Grease 2 loaf pans or one bundt pan.  In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar.  Blend in the eggs, bananas, and juice.  Stir in the dry ingredients.  Add the grated lemon peel.  Pour the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Of course, I don’t know how it will turn out.  If it’s a flop I’ll come back online later and cross out the recipe.

Lastly, we (mostly Jacob and myself) have been currently working on a room in the basement and I wanted to show you our style of decorating.  It’s not so much decorating than filling up……and we love it.

Our inspiration?  “The Burrow” from the Harry Potter movies….here is a picture:

Now, our room will not be the same because of the very unromantic drop ceiling but that’s beside the point.  What we love is “clutter”, pillows, blankets, comfy lived in couches and chairs, rugs, books everywhere, all kinds of stuff hanging on the walls, just a very eclectic humble and cozy room…..

So far, this is what we’ve accomplished out of practically nothing (cast offs, things from the thrift store, stuff from our own storage that I had put away).

And by the way, this is only part of our basement. There is also a section which is a bedroom for three of the boys, an exercise room with a treadmill, and a storage room.  This part is Jacob’s bedroom/PS4 video game room.  When teenagers come over this is where they end up.  Because it is the basement we threw caution to the wind and cheerfully hung things up everywhere (the walls were bare a month ago).  And we aren’t done!  Jacob is having just as much fun as I am with this space.  It’s been a fun project for us.

Obviously not a very good photo of the curtains, but they are very cool vintage Star Wars curtains that I bought at Iroquois Antiques “back home” several years ago.  David wants me to leave them to him in my will.

The wooden shelf to the far right of the photo next to the TV is Jacob’s rock collection.

The desk was already down there but they moved the two bookcases down, along with the blue chair and the rug.  Michael and Jacob bought the coffee table from walmart but they are looking for another one, possibly a round wooden one.

(this is also Michael’s room when he stays the weekends with Jacob)

I bought the clock at Target.  Army guys are solid medal from a tag sale.  Cross stitched army guy also from tag sale.  Art work from Emily to Jacob.

Old quilts covering our shabby old very very comfortable couch.

The black frame is from the Family dollar.  The gold frame is from Goodwill…I love that it had seven spaces for my seven children.

“It’s not much, but it’s home” ~Harry Potter

*****

“Comfort is born out of use, therefore the comfortable houses seem to be the ones that have been lived in.”

“Clutter=finding solace and a little beauty in the things we cherish in our everyday lives at home and at work”

“I want my house to be comfortable, not perfect”

all quotes from a wonderful book titled A PERFECTLY KEPT HOUSE IS THE SIGN OF A MISSPENT LIFE.  Not a life/decorating style for everyone, but I personally like it so much and it speaks my language for what an ideal home looks and feels like.