Breakfast Freezer Cooking

This week Collin at Hip2Save is having a holiday Challenge to win some great giveaways. This weeks challenge was freezer cooking breakfast items and since I am having shoulder surgery Monday I am all about getting prepared (for my husbands sake and my own) for the upcoming weeks and months.

You needed to make 3 breakfast items that can be made ahead of time and frozen until you are ready to use them so I chose my 3 and got started this week. I first made pancakes. Now up until recently I always made them from scratch. How ever the last time I visited my mom she made boxed pancakes and my kids raved about them so now I just buy a box, add water, cook, Ziploc, and freeze. Then any morning The kids can pop them into the microwave and have pancakes for breakfast.

Please ignore my disgusting stove!

Next I made a half batch of the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. Oh my goodness are these great. My family and neighbors can't get enough. You can bake them ahead of time and freeze them for later use. Like Monday mornings when no one wants to get up! I made them, wrapped the pan in saran wrap and then foil. I also make the icing ahead and leave it in the fridge in baggies to use later.

There were more but not all of them made it to the freezer!

Lastly I made banana crumb muffins. I have used this recipe from Allrecipes for a few years. I do tweak the topping recipe by adding oats and a touch more butter to bind. They are so light and airy and have just a little crunch out of the oven. If you freeze them and microwave later they are not quite as crunchy but they are still delicious.

I would recommend trying any one of these fresh out of the oven or frozen for later use. My kids think they are in baked good heaven. Now it is onto other meals. My kids have brown bag lunch for school and that means all I need is to get some dinners pulled together. I make a monthly menu so I just need to plan my menu around my frozen meal items. Let me know if you try any of these recipes! I hope you love them as much as I do!

You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Como Italy 

Mr colonial cottage is across the ocean in Italy right now.  Hopefully sleeping.  He flew all night to get there this morning. He had a few meeting today and dinner tonight at 8 pm. He sounded so exhausted when I talked to him.  If you can believe it, his first day at his new job was in Como, Italy. Not bad for a first day huh!  I really miss him but I am so glad he found a new job so quickly. He actually took the month of August off and started looking for a new job in September. It took him all of 2 weeks to land a new consulting  job

 I feel pretty tired these days also. I don't know about you all but I do not sleep well when it is just me and the kiddos.   On top of that I am still going to physical therapy for my bum shoulder and I am waking up all night in pain. I had better stop complaining before you all stop reading!


Since I have all this extra time with my husband back to work, I have been trying to get organized for my upcoming neighborhood yard sale. It looks like we will have about 8 families involved and I am planning on putting my family to work that day. My husband and I will man all the goods except toys (the kids are taking care of that.) I even put my mother in law to work, she will be running the coffee/cinnamon roll stand. I am making a few batched in hopes of making a little extra dough ( no pun intended.) I am hoping we will have a pretty good turnout.  The weather has been lousy around here this week and is supposed to be bad for a few more days. I am hoping that mother nature is getting it all out of her system before the big day.

Does anyone have any yardsale tips for me? I could use any help I can get.

Maura

 Disney World Mom's Panel



Have you heard about the Walt Disney World Mom's panel?  I filled out my essays yesterday and would love to be a part of this group. It is a voluntary position. No pay. However you do go to WDW for training and get a trip for 4 to WDW. You also need to be willing to answer 25 questions a week from people planning a trip to Disney World. You must be over 18 and must have traveled to WDW within the last year. There are a few other restrictions you can read about it and apply here.  If you are thinking about applying, do it fast as there are only 20,000 applications accepted and they go fast.

I love, love, love Walt Disney World.  I have been 4 times and I know that many people go every year but I just can not afford to do that.  We have taken the kids twice now and have such an amazing time!  I also love planning my trips. I think you really need to put the effort into planning to get the most enjoyment out of Disney World.

1 in 20,000 are not such great odds but I hope and pray I make it to the second round. Oh did I forget to tell you?  You need to get through 3 rounds to be on the Mom's Panel.  Let me know if you've applied too! Good luck!

Things have been a little crazy at the Colonial Cottage! Check out the video at the end of this post!

I know summer can be a little hectic, but this summer has been over the top for me.  hence, that is why the  CC has been a little less bloggy.  So we started off the summer with swim team for two. Both my kids were  on the local swim team, which they loved but it was 3 days a week and I did not want them worn out before a two hour practice, so on those days we kept it low key. Then we would squeeze activities in on the odd days.  We did this from June 7th to August 7th.

ready at the start

back stroke

Also this summer almost my whole family (i am from a family of 8 kids) decided to vacation nearby.  We were at the mercy of everyone elses schedules for about a month.  Don't get me wrong it was great to spend time with everyone and to reconnect with everyone but we were also looking forward to some family time. Just my husband, the kids and I.

Well a couple weeks ago my sister called and said she had rented a cottage in maine (the same place we would rent as kids) and offered us an extra room for a few days.  We were headed to Damariscotta ME. later that week so we decided to go.  I have very fond memories of the cottages, and was looking forward to a little me time. 

the floating dock in the morning

All was well until the day we were leaving. I was laying in bed in the loft at the cottage. My husband thought it would be funny to "surprise" me by throwing a T-shirt over the railing at me to get me out of bed.  Well, I just saw something black flying at me and I jumped up. Only problem was that my arm was trapped under the blankets.   Being the trooper that I am (ha ha) we still continued on to my mom and dads.  My son tried to catch turtles and learned to skip rocks.  My kids went to the whale back midden which is where the local indian tribe put all their oyster shells I guess Harvard now studies that area. We also went out to eat at the pemequid lobster coop (best seafood ever) and watched the lobster boat races from our picnic table. We had so much fun in their little town and were very sad to leave.  

The prettiest little turtle pond 

 whale back midden 

Lobster Boat Races

 So I went to the doctors since I got back, and he said partial dislocation of my shoulder so No more driving, swimming or biking but also no more carrying laundry baskets!    I have 2 1/2 weeks more in the sling and then I go back to see if I need an mri and/or surgery. My husband is being a real trooper as I am pretty limited with only one arm, and the kids are being great too. I guess the fact that my husband is unemployed and home does come in handy! This typing with one hand is for the birds though!  I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and is as ready for back to school as I am!  9 days and counting. Oh and I have another giveaway coming soon so keep on reading.

Maura

Oh and before I forget this is what my son has been up to.

Hip Hip Hooray for Me!

I know, I know I really should not be cheering for myself but after 10 days with no dryer and piles and piles of laundry building up I finally tamed the beast and fixed my dryer!

The story goes like this. About 10 days ago my dryer stopped heating. I noticed after I put towels in and ran the dryer 3 different times thinking I had forgotten to turn it on each time. Well after ordering a new heating element and replacing that my dryer still would not heat (Boo Hoo). So this time I bought two new parts a thermostat and a thermal cut off fuse. (I forgot to mention I don't have a parts store nearby so I had to wait for the parts to arrive via snail mail.) I first changed out the thermostat and I still had no heat but as soon as I changed out the thermal cutoff fuse I could smell the heating element going! It kind of smells a little when you put in new parts so it is a good idea to let the dryer run a few minutes before putting clothes in there so they don't stink when you take them out.

Why am I so excited you may ask. Well for two reasons. First, my husband will be out of work on july 30th and I am trying to be frugal these days and I also love the fact that I spent 85$ on parts to repair it and I would have spent 150 just to have someone come out and look at it. Second I love that feeling of knowing I don't have to rely on someone I do not know, to tell me what is wrong with something (kind of like when I bring my car in to be repaired). Dryer repair is not as scary as it looks. This is actually the second one I have fixed. The first was at my last house and the heating element went on that one.

I know it sounds crazy but I have never been so happy to see a load of laundry in my dryer!

We have a winner!

Sorry I am a half hour late. I was having dinner with the neighbors and just remembered about the big giveaway. So I asked the king of colonial cottage to pick a number from 1-18 and the lucky winner is #2!   B. Fox of bekafox.blogspot.com She is also a new follower. Beka I will be in touch tonight! I hope you have fun picking out something cool at CSNstores.com ! To everyone else thanks so much for being a part of my first giveaway and for following along with me at A Colonial Cottage! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

CSN GIVEAWAY!

Today is the day. I am doing my first giveaway and CSNstores.com has so nicely offered to send one of my great followers a 40$ gift certificate.  Now I am sure you must be thinking what can I do with a 40$ gift certificate, Maybe you need a little money to put towards a new sleeper sofa.  If you are like me and enjoy cooking you can order a some cool cookware or you can add some ambiance to your home by adding some new lighting. It is up to you to decide. CSN has over 200 stores to choose from, so there is something for everyone.  I looked at quite a few things CSN offers and was amazed at their selections. I need a new baking mat- for all my breads and cookies so I think that would be my first choice!  But this giveaway is for you guys so have fun checking out all their goodies!


As with any giveaway there are a few restrictions. First off this giveaway is open to US and Canadian readers only.  There may be shipping charges or in the case of Canadian readers, international fees, for certain products. So choose wisely.

Mandatory Entry: You must be a follower of my blog to enter this giveaway.  So click the little follow button, leave a comment telling me that you follow my blog, and you're automatically entered! Check out CSNstores.com and let me know what you will do with the 40$ gift certificate if you win.

Want another chance to win? 

- Blog about this giveaway. Leave a comment indicating that you've done it and post the link in a comment for me to see!


This giveaway will be open until Saturday May 15th at 8pm Eastern Time.  Be sure your blog or profile has a valid email address on it so that I can get in touch with the big winner.
The king of my colonial (my husband) will be choosing the winner at random from all the entries. Good Luck to everyone! I can't wait to hear what the winner gets with their gift certificate!

Get Ready For My first GIVEAWAY!

I am so excited to be able to do a giveaway this week. Stay tuned and I will let you know all about it in the next day or two!

Maura

A sweet little beside table

I have actually had this project done for two weeks and I am just getting around to posting about it.  I found  two dark side tables on craigslist a few months ago. They were pretty solid but also had some damage to the top. This is what they looked like before the new coat of paint. As usual I remembered to photograph them after I had started priming!

Now here it is after first coat of paint. Don't you love the pull out tray?

And finally here it is at home in my bedroom. I got some new hardware at Lowes to spruce it up even more!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you how much I love the vine detail across the top. I am debating about getting a black paint pen to fill it in. What do you guys think? Should I leave it as is or paint it?

Happy Mothers Day to everyone ! Thanks for your input.

Maura

Disney Week at Fingerprints on the Fridge!

Rachelle over at Fingerprints on the fridge is having Disney Week at her blog. Goodness know I LOVE DISNEY.  We went this past january and also two years earlier. I also went around age 10 and after graduating high school.  My husband is job hunting now and we are hoping he finds something soon so we can go again this january.  So today is day 1- packing strategies.  Rachelle already talked about using ziploc bags to pack an ensemble for the day and I have done that for both of my kids trips. It saved so much time in the morning because my fussy daughter had already picked the outfits out at home so there was nothing to complain about!   One of my favorite packing ideas and money saving ideas is to pack an extra suitcase (if flying on southwest). I fill it with bowls, cups, spoons, snacks, cereal, juice boxes, travel coffee mugs,  ground coffee, and #2 filters. and any other breakfast/snackie items I may need.  I don't have to spend a ton on snacks at the park and It saves about 30$ a day on breakfast. My kids always have cereal in the morning anyway. It also save a lot of time as we don't have to do a sit down meal for breakfast either.  Then at the end of the trip I use the empty suitcase to pack up our souvenirs.  I hope this helps anyone going to disney for the first time or anyone just trying to get more organized for their trip.

Have a great day!
Maura