Blanchards in 2015: A Year of Our Lives in as Few Words as Possible

Welcome to the synopsis of the Blanchards in 2015! January 2015: Taylor got a new car and headed back for her 5th semester at LSU! Todd, Lauryn, Camryn, Patty, Autumn.. all back to work and school as usual. **Note: I am going back to my timeline on Facebook to get some ideas of what to write here, and honestly, January has a lot of "I wish it was summer or still Christmas vacation" posts or "Time to go run" posts, plus some pictures of normal daily events. A regular ol' month, really... Except for the Odell Beckham world record. :)

February 2015: MARDI GRAS SEASON! once again! This time with a freshman in the Fontainebleau's High School Band! Camryn played cymbals, and marched in 4 parades in Mandeville, New Orleans, and Metarie. This was our FIRST uptown parade, and boy was it fun! Looking forward to Krewe of Tucks next year!

March 2015:  A busy month!  Patty ran the Shamrockin' Run 8K in NOLA.  Taylor and Patty ran the Rock N Fly Half Marathon in Pensacola.  The whole family plus the Cadles and the Gillmans went to Austin for Katie and David's wedding at the end of the month.  OH and Patty turned the big 4-0!!!

April 2015:  Taylor and Patty ran the Crescent City Classic.  We had a peaceful, fun Easter here at home, with swimming on Spring Break.  Taylor was inducted into Psi Chi, the Psychology honor society.  We bought a camper!  Ready for some outdoor fun in the Sun Lite!

May 2015:  Taylor and Patty ran the Huey P. Long Bridge Run.  The big girls went to a Paramore concert for Taylor's birthday.  Taylor and Autumn had their 20/5 birthday parties.  Autumn graduated from Pre-K and registered from Kindergarten.  The school year ended for all... AMEN! says all of the teachers! Let the summer BEGIN!!!!

June 2015:  We headed to the beach for an extended weekend of fun in the sun.  The Bodies moved to Mandeville at the beginning of the month.  The Blanchard daughters went to Florida for Girlapalooza, and the Blanchard Mr. and Mrs. and Guinny Boy headed to North Carolina with the camper for a week in the mountains.  (We hiked and hiked and hiked some more.)  Then we came back home for some relaxing pool time and summer goodness in Mandeville.

July 2015:  We enjoyed 4th of July fireworks near the house.  (The first time Autumn watched fireworks and actually enjoyed them.)  We visited in Houma for Paw Robbie's birthday.  Then the whole Blanchard clan headed out for a week+ of camping in Georgia and North Carolina.  We enjoyed some of our old NC stomping grounds.  We loved the majestic views, the cool rivers, and had a few encounters with snakes.. but no bears!

August 2015:  Ah, back to school.  Lauryn started junior high (7th grade), Camryn started 10th grade, and Taylor moved on to her Junior year at LSU.  Autumn started Kindergarten as well.  Camryn joined ROTC; she would soon be moving up in the ranks!

September 2015:  A very busy month getting adjusted to new routines, classrooms, work loads, etc.  Patty became a Girls on the Run coach at Lake Harbor.  Autie truly loves Kindergarten and her teacher.  Autumn was named the Kiwanis Club's Terrific Kid of her Class in September, and she started violin lessons at her school weekly. Patty ran the Saints Kickoff 5K in September.  (and after the season we have had, I may never run across the field again.. was I bad luck?)

October 2015:  Lauryn turned the big 1-3!  We watched the Saints and LSU games every week... ah, the trials and tribulations of being a Louisiana football fan!  We visited Bourg to celebrate Mrs. Bonnie's birthday.  Lauryn started weekly guitar lessons.  Dash and Euen Bodie were born on October 27th!  They stayed in the hospital for a little over a week.  Halloween was a super rainy one- we trick or treated the night before in a nearby neighborhood!  Camryn and Taylor went to Voodoo fest for the first time on Halloween.

November 2015:  LSU's hopes and football dreams took a downturn with the game vs. Alabama.  There was some time freed up on the weekends that was not spent watching football!  :)  Camryn turned 16 on Nov. 22.  We had a great Thanksgiving week off, and decorated for Chrismas in the days before and after Thanksgiving.

December 2015:  And so this brings us to December again.  Our trees are up (one small in the foyer, a bigger one in the living room), we have some lights outside, stockings are hung.  Autumn is anxiously awaiting what her elf, Lucia, will do next.  She wakes up at 5:30 almost every morning to see where Lucia has hidden or caused mischief the night before!  Autumn had her violin concert on Tuesday, and Lauryn had her Christmas concert at FJHS on Tuesday as well.  We are eagerly awaiting Christmas vacation from school!

We hope you have enjoyed this synopsis of our year.  We are never bored in this house, that is for sure!  We wish you all the best of luck and love in 2016!

Blammitpalooza! Mr. and Mrs. trip to NC 2015

Headband ice pack for hands free gaming

Tay is swollen from wisdom teeth oral surgery today. She is wanting to play Sims but needs to hold ice on her cheeks. Here is the cajun ingenuity at work tonight. 

Frozen pancakes plus press n seal plus packing tape.

Todd said, "you are all ready for breakfast in the morning. Just put your head in the microwave."

Huevos Hongos Pimientas y Cebolletas on a bed of Zucchini Parmesan Crisps

Back from vacation.. spent the day catching up on emails and reminiscing  on our awesome week by organizing pictures.  Autie and I made a trip to our neighborhood Wal Mart, only to leave a few key ingredients for our planned salad supper.  Therefore, I took the recipe for zucchini Parmesan crisps and created an egg dish that could make tummies happy for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Step 1.  Zucchini Parm Crisps
Here is the recipe for these: Thanks, Ellie Krieger and Food Network!

Ready for the oven!!!

Step 2:  Dice up the veggies.  I diced about 10 baby bella shrooms, one small bell pepper (could use your fave color), and 3 fairly large green onions/scallions.  Sauteed all of that in some EVOO.  Took it off of the heat when the shrooms were done.

Step 3:  HUEVOS!  I scrambled 8 large eggs (probably could have stuck with 6- there was some left over that the Guinny Boy got to enjoy) with about 5 TBL of half and half (could use whole milk or 2% milk) plus salt and pepper.  Cooked those on a medium to low heat until done.
**Side note:  From this Ina Garten dish I saw her cook on Food network years ago, I learned to add cream or milk to scrambled eggs AND to cook over a low heat as a higher heat makes the eggs rubbery.  Pour the eggs in a pan and scrape the 'cooked layer' periodically until all are done.

Here is the finished product:

Zucchini crisps on bottom,
Shroom peppery onions on top,
huevos on top of the shroom mix,
little bit more of the shroom mix on the huevos,
and topped with one more scrumptious zucchini medallion and a drizzle of sriracha or Tabasco.








I give it a 3 out of 4.  Tasty and light.. could have used a little more heat.  Will definitely repeat soon!

If you try it out, let me know your thoughts and your deviations from above.

LSU Chancellor's Welcome 2013

Here are all of the videos I took yesterday at the Chancellor's Welcome in the PMAC.
Sorry for the shakiness.. I was trying to video over our happy dancin' 3 year old!
  Enjoy!

This next one is of colorguard.  Taylor is standing directly to the left of the drum major, in the back row of colorguard.

This one of pregame is from a member of the LSU Tiger Band Family Facebook page, Rose Guillot Childress:

The scum of the earth.. soap scum, that is

So the shower in our master bathroom is a glass shower, and the scumminess of the doors has been bugging me since we moved in..And of course it has only gotten worse. So today I decided to look for a homemade cleaner to get rid of it, because the ones in the stores are so chemically and strong. First one I came to was a winner because I had all of the ingredients...

Here is the one I used, from Fabulessly Frugal.

Vinegar, corn starch, and dish detergent.. I used Dawn as used here.
The corn starch is obviously the agent that holds the vinegar and soap to the wall to keep it doing its job longer.

Now, if you stand in the shower like I did, you will feel like you are in a pickle jar. :)

But 10 minutes later, I used a sponge and wiped it all down, then I sprayed it clean.

I wish I had taken before and after pics!  WoW!
I tried a magic eraser a few weeks ago with no results..
This just cut through the grime!!!  I need to do another application, as some spots were missed.

Anyway, had to share!  Happy frugal cleaning!

UPDATE: Homemade cleaners

So I have been using my homemade cleaners for about 4 months now, and thought that the info I posted about them could use an update.

Laundry Soap:  So I never did try the liquid version of my laundry soap because frankly, that took way too much time.  So I now create my powder version in about 5 minutes.

• 1 bar of Ivory soap, grated fine (small holes on my hand grater- the whole bar)
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda

That is IT!  I use a 1 1/2 tablespoon measure that we saved for some reason from Miracle-Gro.  Most loads get one scoop.  Some bigger loads or dirtier loads or stinkier loads get 2 scoops.  

This recipe makes about 15 regular loads.  I honestly have never taken the time to count how many.  

Fabric Softener:  Super super easy and so much cheaper than the regular brands.  If you are addicted to the smell of Gain or Downy or whatever, well, this won't fill that void.  (I have started adding a dryer sheet to big loads for more static cling fighting power.)

Recipe:

• 1 cup of hair conditioner  (ANY kind... I now use V05 because it is 75 cents a bottle at Walmart.)
• 1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
• 3 cups water

I now don't even bother with a bowl and whisk.  I pour all of this in my saved fabric softener bottle from my Downy days, put the cap on, and shake to mix.  A bigger bottle will hold a double of this recipe.  

I use a capful of the stuff for every load.  Sometimes I add 10 drops of lavender oil to the mix also, for extra freshning power.  (Running low and need to locate this in our new town!)

Dishwasher detergent:

• 1 TBL Borax
• 1 TBL Kosher salt
• 1 TBL Washing Soda

This is enough for one load.  I usually put about 4 loads worth in a small container under my sink and swirl the contents to mix well.

About once a week I squeeze a lemon into the dishwasher (no seeds please!) to get the freshness of lemon in there as well.

And my rinse aid dispenser is always full of white vinegar.

Toilet Cleaner:

This is probably the most "fun" because of the bubbles that remind me of volcano experiments as a kid :)

Sprinkle baking soda in the bowl.  Pour white vinegar on top to get the bubbly action going.  I probably use about half a cup of baking soda and a cup of vinegar.  Again, sometimes I sprinkle in some drops of lavender oil, but the vinegar smell goes away after a little bit.

Let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

If you need some more scouring power when scrubbing, sprinkle more baking soda in there.

I did go back to buying all purpose cleaner, as I felt like the vinegar and water wasn't cutting through the grime on my countertops.  I love the smell of Method cleaners from Target (pink grapefruit is my fave right now.)

Shower Cleaner:

I tried the Method shower cleaner and low and behold, it is not doing as good of a job as my homemade stuff, which is mostly vinegar and water with a little Dawn dishsoap.  (See my previous blog post for the link).  

All this homemadeness has enlightened us to making our own foot scrubs and foot soaks and lots of other things.  Next blog post will share some of those.  Happy cleaning!