how I made cookies

I made cookies this afternoon!  I am a brave woman.  here's how cookies get made in my house...  at least today how they got made.

step one - clean up the stove top and find a bowl big enough for the dough.  while looking for the bowl, find that four year old who fights sleep like a pro has passed out on the couch in a rather awkward position.  go find camera.  grumble cause the battery is low and first attempt at a pic doesn't work.  try again.  it's blurry.  try one more time.  this pic is also blurry but you have cookies that need making!  put camera away while mentally updating your FB status with the pic.  I don't have a cool phone that takes the pic and will let me post it.  and I would have to drag out the cord and then open my photo program and I'm trying to make cookies here!  back to the kitchen.

step two - find an unopened jar of peanut butter.  my recipe uses a whole jar and I am making a double batch so I need one of the big jars.  once that is found, it's time to look for a measuring cup.  oh good!  it's clean and in the cabinet.  I place that on the stove top with the bowl, spoon and jar of peanut butter.  get sugar down and measure out the amount needed.  then go to fridge and get eggs.  start cracking eggs into the measuring cup, checking them for blood (hey now, it's not uncommon in home-raised birds that are younger).  get those into the sugar.  start mixing.  realize you need a bigger spoon or a better hand.  opt for the first option and head off to find the spoon in question.

step three - save toddler.  toddler has managed to wedge his 40 pound self into an opening roughly 8 inches high by 12 inches wide (under the arm of a chair).  well, only half of him.  the back half.  I try to work him out of there but chunk is stuck!  I consider my options.  option one - leave him there and go wake up my sick hubby.  I realize that since he's sick that it's probably gonna be harder to get toddler out, probably resulting in him wanting a saw to get him out so I toss that option.  option two - attempt to break the chair.  yes, this is a good option!  no, wait, nevermind.. that is my toddler in there!  option three - shove him really hard til he goes thru.  this one fails, I tried it.  I would shove, he shoved back *sigh* so I went with option four - take off his sweat pants and diaper, protect his boy bits and slide him back thru.  SUCCESS!!

step four - go rediaper the toddler.  return to kitchen and wash hands.  finish mixing the cookie dough.  pull out pan to be used and turn on oven.  start spooning dough onto pan and mess up, several times resulting in "two-by" cookies as my children refer to them.  get so distracted by shiny things, small children and FB that you burn at least two of the six batches you make.  wait, did I say six?  oh no!  make that burn at least three of the seven batches you make.  thankfully none of them were burned to the point they couldn't be eaten, just darker than the family prefers and a little less chew to them.

step five - sample the cookies, many times.  have your helper minion sample them many times.  uh-oh!  hubby is up...  wait, he's sampling them too.  at this rate I may not need to make dinner.  oh well, there's the voice of reason.  no more cookies right now children.  off with you!

so, cookies were made and eaten.  a life was saved in the mix as well.  yes, it was life or death!  we thrive on dramatics here.  I do have two little girls after all.

are you ready for a party?

Big News!  Swag Bucks is having a party tomorrow!  they're celebrating being around for four whole years!

in addition to codes galore (rumored at being 130sb worth) there is a team challenge where you can earn bonus bucks!

there should be lots of fun and even more insanity on their Facebook page and on Twitter!

the huge part of it is that FOUR people will win $1000 each!  how awesome would that be?  so, break out the bubbly and let's celebrate!  get there early and plan to stay late.  it's gonna be awesome!!!

not already a member?  well then sign up and join in the fun with me and nearly 1 million other users! 

upgrade for momma!

for quite some time now, this is how I have been computing.

yes, my little computer sitting right next to the big gaming computer used by my beloved (side note - see that massive monitor, the one on the right?  yeah, I payed for it with money earned from SwagBucks).  no storage space or anything.  it was hard!  now, thank to a neighbor moving, I have been upgraded!  this is my new computing home....

do you see all those shelves?  the door?  the file drawers?  okay, those are pretty much hidden behind my chair.  but they are there.  it's a lot messy right now and, no, I don't plan on keeping my bread up there.  it was a quick move for me.  I had to relocate the piece of furniture that previously held my bread so until I am done organizing it, there's bread on it.  I am dedicating the door to homeschooling.  much better than the diaper box I was using.  yes, I kept all currently being used books and things in a diaper box that I carried around and stuck in odd places cause I had nowhere else to put it.  now, thanks to uber awesome neighbor (who moved away now), I have a place for it all!  my children were quite excited to be able to see the current books we are using and asked for an extra reading from one of them since they could now see it.  now blogging, GPT sites and everything else will be so much more relaxing for me.  I have a real computer home.

where's the computer for hubby you may be wondering...  well, it's still on that table.  he's happy there.  he's just a gamer afterall lol

making crayons

so, my children tend to break crayons, a lot.  I'd always heard you could melt them down and make your own so I decided to give it a whirl!  I took this mini muffin pan I have and sorted out the broken crayons into the different cups.  I tried to keep similar colors together...

I also let my daughter do some.  those would be the totally randomly colored ones.  we had a lot of fun doing it.  even better is I have crayons for Shem to use without buying those expensive toddler crayons.  this is a total win/win.

basics on how to do it.  peel all paper from crayons, sort crayons into metal nonstick pan.  put in the oven at lowest setting til they are melted.  pull out and let cool then pop them out and enjoy!  this works best with the big name brand of crayon but other brands will work too.

and then I laughed

there we were...  in one corner - toddler!  in the other corner - mom (that'd be me).  let's set the stage...

toddler is standing in a chair at the table.  mom is standing in the walkway to the kitchen which is on the other side of the table.

round 1 - mom tells toddler to sit.  toddler responds in baby gibberish while still standing and bouncing a little.

round 2 - mom repeats that toddler needs to sit in the chair.  toddler responds in baby gibberish and grabs a nearby coloring book for effect.

round 3 - getting exasperated, mom repeats the order again.  toddler, obviously unphased by the exchange, responds in more baby gibberish but emphasizes it with some finger tapping to the coloring book while reaching for the crayon box.

mom gears up for round 4.  she knows that this will be the final round.  either toddler will comply on his own or mom will move in and use her uber mom trick (pick up and tickle). 

round 4 - attempting to sound stern mom once again tells toddler to sit.  toddler barely looks up while coloring in the book, taps it a few times while once again gibbering. 

then it happened.  the battle was won and lost.  this round goes to toddler...  because mom laughed.  it was unavoidable.  how does one not laugh at a 16 month old who is that grown up and serious?  at least he was in the chair and not on the table....

I must prepare better for the next battle with this one...  he's a tough one to beat!

how crumby!

this has been a really crumby day.  not crummy, I really mean crumbs.  they are everywhere!  maybe they're not all crumbs but seriously, little tiny things you cannot see are all over the carpets, the wood floors, the linoleum too!  I vacuumed just yesterday, or was it the day before?  oh bother, whichever it was, I did it rather recently.  I know I swept the kitchen last night while making dinner - gotta get the food I always seem to drop on the floor up somehow and bending over to pick it up is entirely too much work.  to save myself the work of bending over to get it, I walk outside, get the broom and then sweep my little kitchen.  I sweep the stuff right out the door and onto the porch where I continue to sweep it out off the edge, the far edge because there's too much stuff and/or sides on the porch for me to do it right by the door.  no, I go all the way to the far side and sweep it off into the yard.  I have a dog.  I have a cat.  I have three chickens and a turkey.  therefore, this is a public service to sweep the junk outside, right?  you can't argue with that logic so don't even try!

the amount of crumbage (it's a word, I don't know why it's underlined in red!) in my house today is baffling.  yeah, I have four children and children by nature are crumb magnets or catchers or whatever but they only eat at the table or in the highchair when it comes to the toddler.  no, I'm serious!  we eat at the table!  only the table...  well, except the morning cookie from the hubby.  on his way out the door he gives each child a lemon sandwich cookie.  but there is no way that four little cookies can cause this amount of crumblies!  

perhaps some of it has come from our pants...  don't laugh!  I don't mean it like that.  I roll my jeans up.  a lot of the time hubby rolls his jeans up.  our oldest has been wearing jeans with like mega cuffs at the bottom.  when you walk around in the yard stuff flies up in there and hangs out!  it does too!  try it...  but for it to work right you may need to come to florida where there's more sand than dirt and lots of crunchy dead grass bits and come to my yard too where I have lots of leaves or needles or whatever they are from my bald cypress.  yeah, all that junk gets in the cuffs and then it falls out in the house!  technically not crumbs but still stuff under-foot.  

so, what would a rational person do?  a rational person would get out the broom and vacuum.  not me...  I came here and rambled a witty, okay, probably not so witty, blog about it.  I lost my rationality a long time ago!  probably around the birth of baby number two.  perhaps even before that.  so anyways now that I have whined about it here I am going to go tell my children to pick up everything off the floor for the umpteenth time today so I can vacuum it.  but what will happen is they will start, I will get distracted and the house will remain crumby.  they can sense my weakness....

I'm on Facebook now!

you can find me on Facebook now!  I will post my blog posts there as well as random deals I find and things like that.  check it out and give me a like...  I need likes <3

when you see a larger than average family...

as a mom of more than the socially acceptable 1.3 (or whatever percentage of a child we are allowed now) I have some thoughts and suggestions to others who see us out.

it should go without saying that our hands are full.  yes, I mean it should go without saying.  we've heard it before and sadly will hear it again.  really though, you should see how full our hearts are!

my reproductive life is really not your concern.  yes, we know what causes it and apparently some of us are better at it than average...

if each child has the same father is also not your concern.

now some suggestions.

if you see a larger family out and the children are not screaming at the top of their lungs and running all over the place, compliment the parents.  you may not see the children doing those things but I guarantee you that it feels like they are to the parents.  parents get outnumbered and it's draining trying to keep reigns on them all.  let us know we're not failing and that you noticed, it will do wonders for those parents.

if you are a friend or relative of a family with more than a couple children.  invite them over.  really, they get left out of a lot.  no, you don't have room, invite anyways.  or even offer to watch the children once in a while.  once a year is fine.   really, it's rare for parents of many to get time out together sans children.

don't assume that they need all your hand-me-down clothing but do feel free to ask as much of the time it is very appreciated.

most of all remember that they are a family.  they are real people and not freaks to be gawked at and commented on.  maybe you should try admiring them because we get told all the time that you couldn't do it ^.~

mail call!!

I love getting free things in the mail!  I just checked my mail and I have 12, yes, that's one dozen, coupons for a FREE 12 pack of coke!  they had an epic sale at my coke rewards back in december where you could get them for like 30 points.  I got as many as it would let me.  12 came today.  now to decide what to do with them.  use them?  gift them?  hmmm....

January wrap-up

so I'm going to round-up my earnings/winnings for the month of January.

SwagBucks - cashed out $100 in amazon gift cards.  5 x $5, 1 x $50 and 1 x $25 while it was on sale.

iRazoo - cashed out $20 in amazon gift cards.

instagc - cashed out $44 in amazon gift cards.

Calyp - $120ish loaded to a card (still waiting on it to load but the money was removed from Calyp this morning so I should have it in a few days *happy dance*

I did use a few other sites this past month but none enough to cash out.  January is generally an off month for me so I am more than pleased with my earnings and interested to see what I can pull off for this month.  there have been some changes to SwagBucks going on that will certainly make earning more difficult but I am hopeful that I can maintain at least $50 a month, meaning I would cash out $25 each month in $5 amazon gift cards and then either wait a month and get a $50 amazon gift card or I would get a $25 to $50 paypal.  if things change enough I will just have to put more energy into the other sites I use.  SwagBucks is my first love but I will break up with them if they do too much craziness.  okay, maybe not break up with them but they would get the silent treatment and take a back seat to the others...

so, there's my month.  I'm ready to get into this month now!  already cashed out for 2 x $5 amazon gift cards with SB.

Rafflecopter Launch Party Giveaway: Win an iPad & a Kindle Fire!!

Soooo  this is like my first attempt at using one of these.  I am not the one giving this away.  if you do enter, please list me as the referring blog "That's the Caffeine Talking" cause if you win and I referred you, I win too.
I am actually hoping to do more giveaways with the rafflecopter in the future.  figure this was a good way to start since it's all set up for you!  cool beans man!  let's get started....
if you're interested in doing these on your blog, rafflecopter is free to use and very cool indeed!
 

I feel like a winner!

I won 3rd place in a referral contest on instagc which got me 250 points or in gift card amounts that is $2.50!  I got 10 referrals last week.  not too shabby that  I was able to hold onto 3rd considering the top two are obviously bloggers, one of them is a pretty big blogger too.  I am thrilled with it.  I'd like to see if I can swing getting 3rd for the month but I'd need at least 10 more referrals this month.  want to be one of them?  I'd appreciate it!  just click here and sign up!

I also won a comment contest on Facebook for irazoo which got me 250 points!  are you seeing a theme here?  yeah, me too but it's all good!

it may seem like such a small thing but really, being able to win those is absolutely awesome to me.  now back to my regularly scheduled earning and clickings - yeehaw!

dust rhino

I found a new creature in the house today!  it's a dust rhino.  there seems to be a family of them really.  they hide in the corners and under the large, heavy pieces of furniture.  there's probably a colony of them under my bed since I have hard wood floors in my room.  I had heard of the infamous "dust bunny" but really, the creatures in my home are too large for bunny status so rhino it is!

so today I am going on a hunting trip!  I am hunting the dust rhino into extinction or at the very least it will be an endangered species when I am done.  if you don't hear from me, send out a rescue party!

this is so perfectly me!

some days are better than others in the world of GPT sites

as with everything in life, there are good days and there are bad days.  today is a good day so far in the world of GPT sites for me!  on one site I had a referral win 100 points!  can we say yay?  then on another site I got a new referral and they were racking up points.  I only got a few pennies but that is okay, I am really just glad to see someone else earning!  I also had several offers easily credit me this morning so I was able to cash out $3 in amazon gift cards.  I LOVE the instant cash outs with that site.  instant gratification is fun.

but the best part of today is that on Swag Bucks it's a code extravaganza day!  first one of the year!  I am so stoked!  one code has already come and gone...  now we're chomping the bit waiting on another one.  yes, we get excited over the pennies!  those pennies really add up!

so, if you're reading this... has your day of GPT been a good one?

cat with no name

we got a kitten the other day.  he's a cute little thing.  there's just one wee little problem.  we haven't named him.  so far we're calling him "kitty" but that name doesn't work so well for a boy as an actual name in my opinion.  hubby and I are not the best at coming up with names.  he uses the same name for every character he makes for games because he just doesn't want to come up with something new.  I'm no better...  did I ever mention that our youngest child was named as I was being prepped for surgery?  yeah, we're that bad!  so here we are faced with wee little ball of fluff without a name.  the obvious name for him would be Oreo but I am not calling my cat a food name.  no way!  so that leaves us with only the suggestion of our oldest child which is spots or the suggestion of our second oldest which is robot.  hmmmm...  I think not!
so, I have a couple readers here...  any thoughts on a name for a black and white male cat?  no food names!

why I use GPTs

so I figured I'd do a blog on using GPT (get paid to) sites.  I use several of them.  I don't use all of them on a daily basis, some I only use a couple times a week but I am a firm believer in every little bit adds up.  basically GPT sites have you do different things and they reward you with virtual currency that can then be exchanged for things like gift cards or items.  the things they have you doing vary from site to site.  some offer lots of things to choose from like searching, offers, tasks and surveys and some are more basic and only have offers and the like.  so I will do a quick run-down on my faves, highlight my fave parts of them and whatnot.


Swag Bucks - this is my first love of GPT sites!  it has more to do than any other site.  it has searching, offers, videos, surveys, tasks, coupons, daily points, codes and games plus shopping options too!  I use this one more than any other site and can make anywhere from $25 to $125  month there.


iRazoo - this one is the most like Swag Bucks.  it doesn't have it all but has a lot of it.  I don't prefer this one though so I basically only do searches and videos there but even at that I am able to pull off at least $5 a month or more, generally more.


ZoomBucks - this one is again, very similar.  I only use this one for the dailies and occasional task.  I still average about $5 paypal a month doing just that.


InstaGC - this one has instant payouts which is really nice and you can cash out at $1 for an amazon gift card!  this site has all offers.


SuperPoints - this one is good if you have referrals...  I don't have referrals.  but it's a button that you push for points plus they have offers and videos too.  if you wanna join, just let me know and I'll get you a token to let you in ^.^


Calyp - I like this one a lot.  I just joined but so far it's pretty awesome!  basically you're endorsing different companies by posting their ads on FB or twitter.  then you get paid when people click on the ads and go on to view the website or whatever associated with it.  once you hit $25 they will send a card that the money gets loaded onto twice a month.  I haven't made it there yet but I'm close!

Mturk aka Amazon Mechanical Turk - this one is tasks, tasks and more tasks!!  I love it!  some of the tasks are so easy and fun to do and they pay out better than other sites in general.   best day ever was around $10 in a couple hours one evening while also doing other things.  this one you can get cash or amazon money.  I go amazon.


HillybillyClickers - this one I don't use much but when I do it's been worth it.  I was able to cash out little over $5 in paypal in november and then just under $5 in december and I only used it a few days a month.  this site is all offers and does really take some getting used to but eh, it pays so that's all that really matters to me.


GoodSearch - this one is not a GPT but I like this one so I'm mentioning it!  it will donate money to your selected charity for searches and shopping done online!  I make sure to search there a few times a day for my charity of choice.


so there's the itty bits on several GPT sites I use.  but here's the real why I use them...  we're broke here!  seriously...  we live in a smaller area where people think that you should fix their car and let them drive it even if they can't pay for it >.<  so, by me doing this we're able to afford things that would have been hard otherwise, like diapers for my 15 month old!  these sites have been the only thing keeping our heads above water the last few months.  is it any wonder I love them!?

sleep is for the weak!

sleep is for the weak has been a running theme in my house since late in pregnancy with my oldest child.  then she was born and it got worse thanks to our wonderful friend colic.  oh yeah, that was grand!

anyways, I no longer have a colicky child, nor one that wakes in the middle of the night for feedings but do I sleep thru the night?  not hardly!  I was woken up last night by our great dane at just after 1am.  he needed a potty break *rolls eyes* and then I was up the rest of the night!  though I will say it was interesting.  I watched a few episodes of hoarders on netflix, just the ones with good captions, not the scrolly kind cause that messes with my seizures.  I was also visited by my three year old twice.  once she gave me her "best favorite elephant toy" and the second time she put her bear on one arm of the loveseat to watch the telly with me and her sheep on the other arm.  the baby woke up around 4am and was singing with his glow worm for about 20 minutes before he started laughing hysterically at nothing.  I was afraid he'd wake up his brother so I got him up and he watched hoarders with me.  he is not nearly as interested in it as I am, especially with no sound.

ah, then 6am rolls around and my older son gets up for the day.  so, no sleep for me!  no coffee either cause I am not strong enough for black.  as is I have to put obnoxious amounts of milk and/or creamer for me to be able to drink it and we're out of both.  hubby tells me it's coffee flavored milk that I drink lol.

I am quite sure that will be one of the worst blogs I write!  *takes a bow*  I am rather tired and have this totally kicking headache too.  but decided to make myself come type something so I don't fall off my own band wagon.

have you seen my baby washcloths?

I will totally admit I am a total cheapie.  I hate spending money or wasting money.  it actually makes me feel kinda ill...  yeah, not normal, deal with it m'kay?

anyways this is where baby washcloths come in.  I have four children so we've been give a LOT of baby washcloths over the years.  I mean, they make such wonderful filler gifts for baby showers, right?  yeah, so there's that.  I seriously got bombarded with them with baby number two.  there I sat with dozens upon dozens of them wondering what to do.  family cloth was out of the question but thanks for thinking of it!  don't know what that is?  you probably don't wanna know either so don't bother swag searching it!

well then I had a light-bulb moment!  I have dozens of little squarish pieces of cloth that when folded look strikingly like a napkin folded for the table!  oh yes, I use baby washcloths as napkins in my house.  we are quite stylish here.  we have patterns ranging from plain blue or yellow to colored stripes and even a few yellow ducky ones.  they are great!  we just toss them into the washer after each meal and they get washed with the next load.  less waste in that we're not buying paper napkins and obviously less expensive.  I bought a new pack yesterday for $2 which is roughly what a package of napkins would cost.  a package of paper napkins in my house used to last about two weeks.  this pack of washcloths will last months upon months!  just watch those dollar signs float baby!

so you're thinking that is nuts, right?  well, that's okay.  just remember when you're wiping your mouth with paper, my little ones are smearing their jellied faces with soft as a baby butt cloth lol

looking ahead!

as I looked back at the previous year I was pleasantly pleased with the way things went.  I learned a lot of new things and met a lot of new people, granted all online but still.  I managed to earn several hundred dollars at various online sites.  now I am looking ahead, anticipating what all I can and will accomplish this year!  I am excited!  I am finding new sites to try my hand at earning a few dollars and letting go of ones that just aren't working for me.
this year I plan to do more, earn more and enter more.  I want 2012 to be the best yet!  I am not making any resolutions (except the one where I plan to be mentioned and/or featured in a blog written by Swag Bucks) but I am so amped for this year!  and if you're here I want you to get ready and enjoy the ride!  we're gonna rock this year like never before!!!