havocandmayhem.com

An Epic washer & dryer. Front loading. 4.0 and 7.0 cubic feet capacity!  I can at long last wash my comforters in my own home!! I can also dry a normal load of laundry in less than an hour & a half! That is the first layout I have done in over 3 weeks. I haven't had much scrapping mojo lately but I'm feeling like if I can get through this week, I'll be in a better mental place to scrap. Plus we're going to Day out with Thomas Saturday so I'll have some fun new photos to scrap as well. That means I'll miss the NSD excitement & sales. I seem to miss it every year though so I am used to it. I've been reading a lot instead of scrapping or crocheting. I'm about to finish my 20th book this month this afternoon. giving me 15 new reads and 5 rereads. I've also been working on a Gandalf figure but I'm not having much luck. My stitch counter keeps falling out of the yarn & I'm not tracking what row I am on very well.  We have a...

Mayhem had an appointment with an ENT today, an hour away from home. At noon, which pretty much shot my morning because I only had 90 minutes to work with & that is not enough time to drive 25 minutes in the opposite direction and run errands. It ended up shooting my afternoon as well. Mayhem has swollen tonsils and adenoids. He probably has allergies. He's been given a prescription for Nasonex and we go back in 6 weeks to see if there is improvement. We waited a half hour to see the doc. She then sent us off to the outpatient clinic to get Mayhem's blood drawn for allergy tests. That took over an hour. We'll get results in 2 weeks. Once we know what we are dealing with & see how the meds do, then we'll decide where to go from there. Mayhem was cooped up from 11am to 2pm in a car, waiting rooms & offices, then he got stuck with a needle. He behaved really well throughout it all. He watched the rain drops on the car window chase themselves.  He played wit...

Havoc wants mac & cheese for dinner. The problem with that is DH is not fond of it & while I will eat it, I prefer not to. Mac & cheese dinners must occur on nights when we get Thai take out. The boys have yet to find a single edible item on the menu at the Thai place so they get mac & cheese when we want Thai. Thursday is take out night & we were going to get Thai then.  We'd had the braised endive Tuesdays, and as predicted Havoc ate his eggs, Mayhem's eggs and some of my eggs, plus the required one bite of endive. Mayhem choked down a bite of endive & a bite of egg & had a piece of cheese & some grapes. He asked, rather pathetically "We have meaf-woaf tomowoow?" Havoc is not wild about meatloaf but he ate a few bites of it and the mixed veggies and then requested mac & cheese for the next night. That worked out well with the Thai plan. Except then we were invited to join several other people for dinner at a teppan yaki place. T...

damn hippies! backstory...it's an underground home built in 1977 almost entirely by the owners themselves, possibly while they were stoned. The house is full of 'quirks' as a result. where to begin...... There are 3 problems, 2 stories...Normally I'd start with the one I saw coming, but I was dubious from the beginning about both situations. Not because I am so much better at figuring these things out than the others in my life & just not assertive enough to get my point across, but because I am dubious about everything measurement related until I see the actual thing in it's actual place. It's not intelligence or prescience, it's just simple mistrust predicated on a lifetime's experience. I'm a cynic. I don't believe, given a choice, that I will make the right one. It's always too much or too little. It's never just right. Let's start with the dryer because it started us looking for a replacement. Plastic ductwork is ...

We bought a washer & dryer this weekend. Just doing our part to keep the country out of a recession. The rebate check had nothing to do with it. We don't have it yet so it can't help pay for them. Besides we already earmarked that money for a root canal & tooth cap. This is just gratuitous spending. Our current 13 year old washer & dryer still work, you see. We don't actually *need* a new washer & dryer. Mostly.  The dryer is dying. It now takes 3 runs to dry what used to, for the past 3 years, take 2 runs and before that only took 1. The washer has capacity issues. It's a 3.2 cu ft washer, bought during our "Oh hell no, we won't be having kids" phase. So I am now during laundry 6 days out of 7 because I now have the clothing laundry equivalent of another adult in my house. Plus the towel and sheet equivalent of 2 adults. That will only get larger as the boys get larger. I'm fairly sure I am running up the electric bill running the mach...

It began at 5:45am, when Mayhem came stomping down the stairs from his room and began loudly playing with trains in the kitchen. He was dropping small metal trains off of the table & onto the slate floor. Noisy. This was followed around 6am by the discovery that I had purchased cinnamon flavored toothpaste instead of mint. I hate cinnamon (except cinnamon rolls). I discovered this, not by reading the box or tube, but by sticking a toothbrush with it in my mouth. Nasty Then there were the usual issues of small people dawdling while getting ready for school, followed by the engine light coming on in my car while I was driving them there. Could be expensive Gas was $3.49 a gallon! One of the cats got in the house while we were leaving for school. The one that pees on bathmats (which is why they are an outside cat). Smelly Lowe's called. The dryer they were supposed to be delivering and installing today has a massive dent in it and it could be Friday before they can deliv...

I have about 50 cookbooks. They are all full of post it notes marking recipes I was to try cooking. Most of them have been marked for years without my ever cooking them. Lately I have been trying to change that. Once a month I pick a cookbook and select 3-5 recipes to try. This month's is All About Braising & the dinner plan for the next 2 weeks features 3 recipes from it. Braised Endive with eggs (tonight) Braised Chicken with Cider & Parsnips Braised Short Ribs We're also having: meatloaf green soup (last night) lasagna roll ups chicken with bacon marinade tacos homemade pizza x2 pasta to be determined steak & lentils That is only 11 meals out of 14, but we get take out, go out to eat or have insta food (tyson chicken patties or fish sticks) on the remaining 3 nights. Probably one of each. I'm not silly enough to think my kids will like braised endive with eggs. I'm not certain I'll like it, but I want to try it. Problem is ...