Lazy Saturday (Fairly long)

I slept in. Hubby was at work early and the chickens were very good this morning. OK, I didn't really sleep, but getting to stay in bed is pretty cool. He brought me home a coffee (my old one without sugar, so I gave him half and added Splenda). OK, vice satisfied. Now he's gone for a nap.
Gonna take monkey #1 shopping today. She's got $45 in birthday money burning a whole in her vinyl purse and I promised her the Twister Dance game. I also have to buy some birthday party stuff for the LO's party. I am going to try Brownie cupcakes as I think all of these birthday cakes are really testing my resolve - there was the 9yo's party, a co-worker the following week, the the family cake on the girls real birthday, now I need something for the 4yo's party. Here goes:
1 package Betty Crocker LF Brownie mix
3C Bran (not the cereal - I bought generic)
2/3C water
Now that I've tried the Brownies and know they are chocolate-worthy, I will attempt this one. Apparently only 1 pt/cupcake and I don't have to mail-order. Unlike many of you, I am not a fan of baking or cooking. You'd think boiling water would be easy. I looks so simple! NOT say my graveyard of once-beloved kettles. I need to get me one of those fancy shmancy electric ones that shut off - they're just so...generic. I always seem to fancy something out of the ordinary and end up buying a stove top one for too much money that is more of a conversation piece and another element-destruction waiting to happen. For now, I use a pot on the stove top - I think we've only lost 1 of those. I love pretty things, but recognize that hubby and/or the monkeys will not allow me to display pretty things without making a clutter in front of it. So, I have moved my focus to anything that makes my life easier.
My favourite kitchen tools are:
Slow Cooker
Blender
A good teflon fry pan
George Forman grill with bun warmer (gonna take mine to Mom's cottage and upgrade to the family sized one like Collette's - 4 chicken breasts at once, WOW).
Microwave (actually I hate mine, it's from the 80's and won't die. I tried to sell it at a yard sale once - someone bought the microwave stand and the microwave now takes up SO much valuable counter top space. I really want a cute white one, or a range one).
Coffee maker (Oh, I don't actually make the coffee. I buy mine at Tim's or hubby makes it on the weekends. Still I need it and wouldn't be without one).
Toaster (I've actually given some thought to trading it in for a convection oven. Mom has one at the cottage and I really like it - maybe I'll steal it for next winter when she shuts down).

My favourite space savers are:
Shelf saver racks from Wally-Mart. This doubles my cup capacity and allows me to not have to 'stack' plates without using extra room.
Storing spices in a drawer. I put them in little baskets from the dollar store and have been meaning to lable the tops of bottle for a long time, but never made it to that. It saves them falling out of the cupboard all the time. Thanks for my friend Heather who told me to do that around 1.5 years ago.

Now, if I could only convince hubby it's time to get rid of the second fridge. Ahh, we bought a new one last December because the old one leaked from the freezer down below the crisper and out onto the floor. Anyway, it was Christmas so we kept both temporarily. Then a friend was going to take it for his workshop once the weather cleared up then changed his mind. 7 months later and I still have 2 fridges. Amazingly, both are full. Maybe I'll clean them out once I get the monkeys settled down - yup, they can't see you actually sitting doing something and not paying 100% attention to them for any length of time without arguing and getting into stuff.

Cheers, Candace