Minor OCD



So I have been clinically diagnosed with OCD and I often make fun of myself for it. Don't get me wrong it is a serious disorder and there are people out there who suffer from it so bad that it takes over and dramatically alters their lives. Thankfully mine is not that extreme. I do have the normal issues: even numbers freak me out, I have to triple check my doors, my closet is color coordinated, can labels all have to face forward, etc... I also can't deal with having my house be trashed. When it gets to a certain point it gets depressing and as much as I want to clean it I get into a funk where I literally cant. Well my kids room has been at that point for a while. It was to the point where I just avoided their room all together because I couldn't handle it. Just last month I had done a complete over haul on my craft / storage closet so I had  been trying to find the time to get into their room and do the same. Every time I would set aside time something would come up and I would just go back to avoiding the room. Well at about 3 a.m Monday morning Little Man woke up puking, all over his bed and floor, so needless to say he stayed home from school and I stayed home from work. After catching up on a little sleep and then getting him comfortable I decided to tackle the room. I knew it would take a little bit of time but what I wasn't counting on was it to take fricken six hours! I guess deciding to dump out all the toys and go through everything took longer then        

I thought but on the upside I was able to gather multiple bags of toys that they no longer play with to donate to one of our favorite charities, Families Helping Each Other. I know the founder of this charity personally and she is a great person. She has helped so many families including myself that whenever the kids and I can give back we do.   

Where did the weekend go????

I know I promised to get recipes up and another post on cupcakes, and trust me they will be coming tonight or tomorrow, but this weekend was jam packed. Yes I did bake a ton on Sunday, 3 different cupcake recipes and a muffin recipe all from scratch, but the frostings' wont be complete until tonight. I may have a problem with procrastinating and trying to fit too much in at once. Friday started out crappy at about 3a.m. Yep woke up and let me tell you sometimes it royally sucks to be a girl. With erring on the side of TMI, I started my period and I am a sufferer of horrible cramps and hands down feeling like ass. They used to be so bad that when I was younger they would warrant trips to the hospital. Well originally this last weekend was supposed to involve a lot of "adult" time with the guy I am dating, I'll call him Mr. Big, but that put a halt to that. Being a single Mom I don't get alot of time away from my munchkins but my Mother has started to take them every other weekend for one night so I can try to be a normal 25year old. Once I let Mr. Big know that the fun times planned were a no go and that if he didn't want to come over then that's fine he let me know that he didn't care what we did that he just wanted to spend time together :). So Friday night was spent with me in sweats watching movies and gorging on Chunky Monkey ice cream while Mr. Big rubbed my back. I definitely think he is a keeper so far. Then Saturday early afternoon was spent running errands with Mr. Big. Again I tried to tell him I would do everything on Sunday but regardless we got everything done before heading back to my place since again I felt like crap so once again he rubbed my back and watched a movie while my crappy feeling self ended up taking a nap. Saturday night was spent at Monster Jam, haven't been to one in years but had fun and realized that I will be bringing the kids to them next year again. Then Sunday afternoon after Mr. Big left and my munchkins came home all day was spent baking. Once again my procrastinating got to me and I neglected to realize that not only did I have to mix 4 different batters but then I also had to bake them and since I live in an apartment with a crappy oven only one cupcake pan can go in at a time or they wont cook evenly! Well that was just a quick update, I have at least three other blog posts that I am sitting on so those should get out eventually :)

Back to Baking

Well as everyone who personally knows me knows I love to cook. Finding new recipes or coming up with my own is always fun. Not everything I come up with turns out but I have three (not so) willing taste testers at home and because I am Mom they have to eat! One day I’m sure that they will catch on that if they don’t eat I’m actually not going to let them starve, but while they still have that fear I am going to use it.

What a lot of people don’t know is I also have a passion for baking cupcakes. Not so much anything else but I love cupcakes. Before it was all about just decorating them so I used to always stick with simple boxed cakes. Now I much rather make them from scratch. Don’t get me wrong boxed mixes are ok but once you have that cake made from scratch you will definitely taste the difference. Finding the time to bake is often difficult so it generally just got forgotten but I have lately realized that I miss it terribly so I am actively dedicating time to it. It also might help that I may like someone who happens to enjoy baked goods and you know what they say “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”! Plus my kids love that they get to help decorate again.

With that being said I made my first batch of cupcakes this past weekend. I saw this idea last summer but never had the time until now so I give you

I may have cheated with these and used a boxed cake mix but I also added a couple extra ingredients (sshhh they have sour cream in them!) I know sounds horrid but it helps keep the cake moist.

 After making the cake mix I separated it into 6, what I thought were equal, bowls and then used food coloring to make my colors. Make sure to use gel food coloring to get the vibrant colors.

Then it was time for the homemade frosting. My thoughts were since I used a French vanilla cake mix that strawberry frosting sounded the best well I have a younger sister who is allergic to strawberries so I decided to be creative. I made a simple butter cream frosting recipe and then added Strawberry Nesquik Powder! The frosting came out tasting just like strawberry milk and she was able to eat them with no risk of a reaction.

The true gem of these cupcakes is when you bite or cut into them! These definitely took longer to prepare but if you have the help of another adult it should go faster. I don’t have the recipes with me now but I will get them up in another blog post hopefully tonight.

Hello Again

Ok what to say here except I MASSIVLY failed again at blogging. I swore that I wouldn’t abandon this blog like I did with my first foray into blogging but lo and behold I did. I can write all the excuses and reasons I want but I’m pretty sure that I used those in my last two blog posts. How many ways can someone say that life just is busy, hectic, insane, and ridiculous? Add in being a single mother of three and it turns into being chaotic. But I really want to make an honest go at this. Even if this never gets read by anyone but me it’s still a good outlet. Going back and reading what I wrote previously is always eye opening. It’s amazing how fast time goes when in the moment it feels like it is taking for-bleeping-ever. So instead of me apologizing I am just going to pretend that this is the beginning.

Well quick overview of who I am: single mom of three, full time worker, avid cooker, shoe junkie, tattoo enthusiast, etc. I was pursuing a degree in photography but decided on a more stable, yet ultimately more boring, career in medical management. I yawn even writing that but I need the stability for my kids. Doing the dating thing again and banking on this time it working. You have to always think positive but my track record after the ex has yielded a crazy person, then a minor stalker, then a two time felon! Yeah this time around I’m going to meet prince charming?!?

My oldest, Little Man is 7 now and I really need to stop calling him Little Man, seeing as he is a whopping 4’ tall already. Plus his feet are a whole inch and a half smaller then mine! Seeing as I am almost 5’ 8” I thought I would have a while before he would be looking down at me. Nope predictions are by the time he is 12 I get to stand on a chair to yell at him! He’s in first grade now and rocks in school. Top of his class and even likes to help out the other kids with math. At least we will have one math whiz in the house since I am math illiterate! I have calculators and internet for all that junk J

Then there is my mini me who is the Punk Rock Princess of the house. And yes you have to have the Punk Rock in front of the princess to make it okay with her. Biggest tomboy with loving to get dirty and play outside but has to be wearing a dress the entire time. Now living in freezing cold MN this tends to lead to many fights at 6:00a.m about having to wear jeans! And that is where her mini me name comes from. My 4yr old already has my attitude and my snarky sarcastic comebacks. Plus she knows how to turn any argument in her favor. I am in for a ride once she hits the teenage years!

Finally there is my little monster. My youngest is now 15months old and has to be the center of attention. As long as you are giving her that she is pretty chill and calm but the minute your not paying her attention she will either do something ridiculous or loud to get it back. And thanks to her lovely Aunt, who used to get her to stop crying by doing the “devil/growl” voice (think Anna Faris in House Bunny), she now loves to run around growling at people! Always a good conversation starter though.

Well there’s the intro into my own little fam. I already have another blog post stewing in my head so until tonight or tomorrow chickies…