Fly on the Wall

Have you ever thought about what people might think if they saw what goes on behind-the-scenes at your house? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to catch a glimpse of someone else’s daily life? Here’s your chance. Today 15 bloggers are inviting you into their homes to be a fly on the wall.

 

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In A Tornado                                                        The Mommy Chronicles

The Insomniac's Dream                                                    DeBie Hive 

Follow me home . . .                                                        My Brain on Kids  

Stacy Sews and Schools                                                    Raising Reagan

Sorry kid, Your Mom Doesn't Play Well With Others             Simply Chic for You   

Just a Little Nutty                                                             Life on the SONny Side 

Frikken Duckie                                                                 Momaical

Sanity Waiting to Happen

The theme for my Fly on the Wall post this month is conversations in my home:

 How many times have you heard the line “do you know where your kids are?” Well, my kids are currently at school so I know exactly where they are. But do I know where they’ve been?

Me: “I’m so frustrated, I went to 3 different grocery stores today and can’t find what I’m looking for.”

Older Son: “what are you looking for?”

Me: “Cinnamon baking chips.”

Older Son: “Did you check HyVee, I think they have them there.”

Me: “They’re for baking, like chocolate chips, and you don’t even know where the oven is. When were you in the baking aisle?”

Older Son: “Mom, I’m always in the chocolate chip aisle.”

I never really understood Home Schooling. I mean, am I the only one who needs a break?

Me: “Go get ready for school."

Younger Son: "No, I'm gonna stay here with you."

Me: “Only if you’re providing anesthesia."

Another school conversation that turned into a lesson for Mom on priorities:

Me: “You need to leave for school, you’re going to be late.”

Older son: “I got up late.”

Me: “You’ve been watching a TV show on your computer in your room all morning and you weren’t even ready for school?”

Older Son: “Yes, I missed the show last night and needed to watch it this morning so my friends don’t ruin it for me.”

It seems we talk quite a bit about school these days:

Me: “Get ready for school.”

Older Son: “It’s Saturday.”

Me: “But you had Friday off, your teachers owe me a day.”

Conversations with my younger son need to be very specific:

Me: “I’m trying to plan dinner. Are you working at all today?”

Younger Son: “Yes.” . . . and he walks away…

Me (yelling up the stairs): “Hellooooo, still trying to plan dinner. Are you working over the dinner hour or will you be here?”

Younger Son, yelling down the stairs: “I’ll be here.”

Me (looking for a little help while cooking dinner) to Younger Son, who’s sitting at the kitchen counter: “Do you see the rice in the pantry?”

Younger Son: “No.”

Me: “Could you look and then answer?”

I was on one of the couches in the living room on a Saturday afternoon. Younger Son comes in, lays down on the other couch, falls asleep for an hour, wakes up and starts to walk away:

Me: “Wait, can you spend a little time with me?”

Younger Son, still walking away: “I just spent an hour with you.”

Me: “Can you spend a little time with me when your eyes are open?”

Younger Son, heading up the stairs: “No, I’m good, thanks”.

I wonder what it’s like in other houses where someone uses food pictures in a blog:

Husband: “Is it OK to eat this, have you taken a picture of it yet?”

Dinner time is always a joy. I used to think that once my kids grew up the complaining would end but no such luck:

Older Son: “You know Mom, when it comes to cooking, you’re a great baker. Maybe you should quit while you’re ahead.”

Younger Son, at the dinner table: “What’s to eat?”

Me: “Well, probably the food on that plate sitting right in front of you.”

Younger Son: “Can I have another option?”

Husband, at the dinner table: “That was a good dinner. Where’s the cake?”

Me: “What cake? It isn’t anyone’s birthday.”
Husband: “It doesn’t have to be someone’s birthday to eat cake.”

I guess he’s got me there.

Cookie Frosted Cake

So that’s what a fly on the wall would hear at my house. Thanks for stopping by, come back soon.  I'm sure I’ll have something baked, you bring the wine.

Cookie Frosted Cake
                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients Cake:  
1 pkg Devil's Food Cake mix
3.3 oz box instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil

 

Ingredients, Frosting:

8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBSP sugar

24 Keebler Dark Chocolate Fudge Stripes Cookies, crushed

 

Ingredients, Topping:

4 oz semi sweet chocolate

1/4 cup butter

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans.
*Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, water and vegetable oil for 3 minutes until well mixed and a little fluffy.
*Pour into prepared cake pans and bake (according to cake package directions) until center springs back to the touch.
*Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then carefully remove from pans and let cake cool completely.
*Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in cookie crumbs.
*Beat heavy cream until soft peaks form. Beat in vanilla and 2 TBSP sugar until stiff peaks hold.
*Gently fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
*Microwave chocolate and butter for 1 minute. Stir until melted. Set aside to cool while frosting cake.
*Frost the top of one cake layer, put the other on top and frost the top and sided of the whole cake.
*Drizzle melted chocolate mixture over the top.

DO NOT call me.

I am a dinosaur.  No, I’m not just alluding to the reality of how old I’m starting to feel, I’m referring to the fact that I (yes it’s true, I admit it) still have a home phone.  I talked about my addiction to my desk calendar (Put it on the Calendar), and now I’m admitting to having a home phone. Dinosaur.

Because I maintain a home phone, I’m on the “do not call” list. Do you people who’ve gone cell-only know what this means? Absolutely nothing. You go on-line, you call, you put yourself on that thing six-ways-to-Sunday and it doesn’t matter, you still get telemarketers calling you.  Most days, at least a few times a day I end up checking Caller ID and do a quick pick up-hang up routine. Often this does nothing and they keep calling back.  They’ve gotten smart and sometimes Caller ID will show a State and a phone number.  If I know someone in that State I’ll answer.

I posted on Facebook about a recent call I recounted to my husband:

Me: "telemarketers are getting so aggressive"

Husband: "what happened?"

Me: "One just called, when I picked up he literally yelled at me "DO NOT HANG UP!"

Husband: "and..."

Me: "I don't know. . . guess what I did?"

I have to admit that I do cause some of my own problems.  Although I just said that I usually just pick up and hang up, I sometimes can’t resist talking to the ones that Caller ID identifies as “Unavailable”.  I’ve been known to wait for someone to come on and say “you know, I would have loved to have talked to you, I’m even in a buying mood, too bad you’re unavailable”, and then hang up.

Let me tell you something about telemarketers. Some of these guys are seriously dangerous.  I once angered one and he phone-stalked me.  One day, a few years ago, a telemarketer called for “Joe”.  First, anyone who knows him knows that “Joe" isn’t a nickname my husband uses. Second, Husband works and isn’t home during the day, again something known to anyone who might call him.  What particularly angered me about this guy is that he picked a nickname instead of asking for Husband by his formal name deliberately to mislead me into thinking he was a friend.  So here was my mistake: I said “there’s no one here by that name”.  He said something about looking for "Joe" and mentioning our last name, and again I stated that there is no one here by that name and hung up.  I guess he figured it out because this guy declared war.  He called 2 or 3 times a day.  Different phone numbers would show up on Caller ID but it was the same guy.  Not picking up just made the calls more frequent. When I picked up, many times he’d ask for Joe, other times he’d just hang up on me.  We went in circles like this for close to a year.  I don’t know why it stopped, I’d like to think he was fired for harassing people but since that was his job, I doubt it.

Cinnamon Cranraisin Pumpkin Bread

We all have cell phones, of course.  Mine is mostly turned off when I’m at home due to the aforementioned Dinosaur Phone. My kids rarely use their cells to call anyone, almost exclusively using them for web access and to text.  Pretty much the only time they call is when they pocket-dial (you know, the phone’s in their back pants pocket and they lean on something or sit down and a button gets pressed that calls the house).  I actually enjoy these pocket dials as I get to listen in on them, where they are, who they’re talking to and what they’re saying.  It’s like being a voyeur into parts of their life that I wouldn’t normally see. And they can’t blame me, I’m the pocket-dialee not the pocket-dialer.

 Lately though, they’ve been using their cells, like everything else, as a means of manipulation.  They’ll stay out late or not come home from school or do whatever they want to do. When I get angry and question why they didn’t call they generally say “I texted you”, knowing my cell wasn't on.

Just to make it clear:  
Telemarketers, STOP CALLING ME!   
Kids, CALL ME, and I don’t mean with your A$$ (butt)!

Cinnamon Cranraisin Pumpkin Bread
                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp nutmeg

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

1 cup oil

5 eggs

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 cup cranraisins

3/4 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

*Grease two 9X5 loaf pans.

*Mix flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar.

*Mix in the water, oil, eggs and pumpkin just until incorporated. Gently mix in the cranraisins and cinnamon chips.

*Bake for approximately an hour or until the center springs back to the touch.