This post is about two completely different stories, so I’ll try to make both short. :) First I’ll start with the food. I was making sausage balls for my Bible study this morning, and as they came out of the oven, I set them on the counter to cool before placing them in the dish I was going to use. At one point, I left the kitchen to do something else while one batch was cooking. To my surprise, I came back in the kitchen to find several of my sausage balls gone! I walked into the living room to find Owen, my little piggie/thief, smiling with a mouth full of food and a sausage ball in each hand. He looked right up at me and through all the food in his mouth, he said, “MMmmm Mommy, good!” How could I do anything but laugh?? On the way to church, Joshua asked to try a sausage ball so I gave him one. First he declared they were the BEST sausage balls in the whole world. But then, after looking carefully at what was inside, he asked, “What’s this white stuff in here?” I told him it was cream cheese. He doesn’t have anything against cream cheese, as far as I know, but for some reason, this turned him off. He immediately said, “I don’t think I want anymore. These should NOT be called sausage balls, they should be called cream balls.” Not sure why he got so offended by the cream cheese, but he made a good point; they look a lot more like cream puffs than sausage balls. Hence the title. Here is a picture and the recipe. Not sure what’s wrong with my flash so the picture is a little dark.

Easy Sausage Balls

1lb. breakfast sausage, browned and crumbled
2 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
2-3 rolls of refrigerated crescent rolls

Brown and crumble sausage and mix thoroughly with softened cream cheese. Refrigerate overnight (or place in freezer for about an hour). Roll out the crescent dough and cut the pre-made triangles in half. Spoon about a teaspoon of sausage mixture into each triangle and wrap closed, pinching the edges to seal the mixture in. Bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes. Best served at room temperature so the sausage mixture can ‘set’. Enjoy!

Okay, the second story is about my house and the way I think it smells. I don’t know about you, but I’m always paranoid that when people walk into my house they’re going to think, “Good gracious, what is that smell?!” Don’t get me wrong, my house stays pretty clean and I enjoy burning candles and using reed diffusers, but it always seems to have a ‘certain smell’ to me. Well, I’ve been looking for a while now for a carpet deodorizer that isn’t overwhelming and really “artificial smelling”. To me, there is nothing worse than walking into a room or a home that has the overwhelming smell of Glade plug-ins! The old building at our church always smelled that way and it drove me nuts (especially when I was pregnant!). Last night I found two really items at the grocery store. The first was Febreeze fabric refresher in the scent, “Cranberry Frost”. I really like berry scents and that is a lot of what I burn for candles. I bought that to freshen up my car and possibly the shower curtain in the boys’ bathroom. But the second thing was absolutely fantastic: “Glade Carpet and Room” in Clean Linen. It smells exactly like the clean cotton (or fresh linen…can’t remember the exact name) from Yankee Candle. Very fresh, like clean laundry, but soft and subtle. This morning I sprinkled it all over the boys’ carpet in their room, which just happen to smell like PEE. I let it sit for a few minutes and then vacuumed. It now smells amazing in there! In fact, when I walked into the house several hours later, after being gone all day, I could still smell it, but in a subtle, good way.
Now, if I could just get the “Waffle House” smell to go away, after cooking sausage in the kitchen this morning. :)

~audrey

I love a “day off”.  I mean, in all actuality, do I ever REALLY get a day off…no way.  But yesterday, Labor Day, was as close as I’ve come to a “day off” in a while.  We slept in until about 8:15 when the squirrel in our attic began gnawing away at the beams in our ceiling…then in my half-dozed state, I mistook my frisky husband for a squirrel in my bed and jumped almost high enough to catch my hair in the ceiling fan.  When I realized what I had done, we both just about died laughing… and woke the kids up.  It was hilarious.  Cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we were off to Savannah Rapids with some friends who had never been there.  It was a beautiful fall morning.  When we got to the rapids, the sky was clear and the air was crisp.  The boys played on the playground for a while and then we strolled down to the water where we watched the kayaks, bikers, dog walkers, and devoted runners, all enjoying their day off.  After lunch we went out to the country to have dinner with my in-laws.  I absolutely love their home and their land.  It’s so peaceful and quiet.  Their house always smells of grand home cooking, even when nothing is in the oven.  They have ten acres and two ponds, so the boys are never bored.  It was fabulous.  The highlight of my day was definitely not when my sweet husband opened the door from the back porch and announced, “Mommy, your son has poopy, he’s all yours.”  That was right about the time I had settled into the living room love seat with the two latest issues of Southern Living magazine and a tall glass of sweet tea.  I put everything down and slowly walked to the back door, knowing good and well that I did NOT have an extra pair of underwear OR shorts for this kid.  “This kid” would be my two year old who has miraculously been potty trained for two months now, but still has random acts of body fluid leakage!!  It doesn’t seem to bother him a bit.  The worst part of this particular poopy was….consistancy.  Oh yes, my potty training friends, every mother knows that the best poops are the ones that are in one solid ball or lump.  You can simply grab it with some gloves and a paper towel and flush that bad boy down the toilet.  This poopy, was more like a messy nuclear disaster.  My nose was burning from the stench and it looked as if every square inch of his lower half was slightly coated in POO!  I paused for a moment to picture what Owen may have done to cause this mess.  Maybe he realized what he had to do, but it was too late.  The poop was already running down his legs and seeping between his toes, so in a last ditch effort to not get caught or scolded, he tried to “rub it in”.  I know, sounds crazy, but if you were looking at him from my end, anything seemed possible.  My poor mother-in-law was clearly grossed out as she brought me a WHITE wash cloth and towel to clean him up!  There wasn’t a single baby wipe in the whole house.  After I cleaned him up, he still smelled like toxic waste and was somehow, still a light shade of brownish green so I decided the tub was our only option.  He went in smelling like a toilet and came out smelling of fresh honeysuckle and orange blossom.  This lovely event did me in and I was more than ready to go home and put our pooping, whining, sweaty, and completely exhausted boys in bed. 

Ahhh, sweet relief.  Bedtime is by far my most favorite time of day, especially during the school year.  I spent the next two hours sitting with my hubby in the living watching HGTV and folding a self-regenerating pile of laundry.  I folded and folded and folded and that darn pile never seemed to get any smaller! 

Anyways, I hope your labor day was as relaxing as mine, minus the poop, of course.

Here’s to a short week! 

~audrey

Jesse was glowing from ear to ear on Monday when he hopped into the car and announced that he was “The Student of the Week!” As student of the week, Jesse had special priveledges in the classroom throughout the week, and the grand finale is being able to take ‘Leo the lion’, their class pet, home for the weekend. This just happens to be Labor Day weekend, so Jesse’s teacher reminded him all week how special it was that Jesse got to keep Leo an extra day. I’m thrilled that Jesse is off to a great year already. He’s excited about school each morning, comes home smiling most afternoons, and is more than ready for bed each evening.

As we drove home, Jesse had Leo buckled into his seat belt with him and Jesse announced, “Uh, oh, Leo just peed in the car!” LOL! Only Jesse would think to say something like that. He’s got a wild imagination and I look forward to our weekend adventure with Leo the lion. Hopefully we’ll return him to kindergarten on Tuesday morning with all four limbs still attached and no visible stains or offensive odors…you never know in our house! :)

Happy LONG Weekend Everyone!

~audrey

As soon as school starts each year, I long for cool autumn mornings.  Being in Georgia, our weather often skips straight from summer to winter, and it usually isn’t until early NOVEMBER!  I have an ongoing joke with my best friend from high school because we both start listening to Christmas music in September or October!!!  HAHA!  Well, today I woke up to a crisp breeze in the air.  It was absolutely PERFECT outside.  I immediately opened every window in the house and lit a few candles.  After Jesse left for school, we cleaned up a little around the house, put some quiet music on, and sat down to do our school work for the day.  It was so serene.  On days like today, I often find myself stopping in the middle of something, just to take a deep breath and enjoy the quiet stillness of my day.  It has been a perfect day.  My house is clean, Joshua got his school work done, we ate lunch with Jesse, Joshua and Owen played outside for over an hour while I tied up some lose ends in the house…I even painted my toe nails, which have been unpolished for…I can’t even remember how long now!!  I can hear the birds chirping outside my window and as much as I’d love to curl up on the couch and take a little nap, I have to go pick up Jesse from school and get my materials ready for church tonight.  I hope your day has been a good one as well!

~audrey