Weekly iPhone Roundup {12.24 - 12.30}

 I know I haven't blogged all week, but there's honestly been nothing to blog about. I've spent a lot of time with family this week - when I'm not doing that I'm playing games... shocker. I'm so very thankful for our new internet provider, but it's still not fiber fast, but it gets the job done. I've been downloading God of War: Ragnarok since Sunday and it's still not done. Mind you, I don't let it download 24/7, but roughly 12 hours a day maybe. It's like 86gb, but I was able to play it when it hit like 28gb, so there's that.

Let me just say that this game is a blast! I mean, it's as GOW as any other, but the combat in this game is what makes it's so much fun.

In between downloading that, I've been playing the remastered version of The Last Of Us. Literally been one of y favorite games of all time since December of 2014, which is when I got it for the first time on PS4. Plus I'm wanting to play while I impatiently wait on HBO's The Last Of Us to come out. I've been counting down the days for months now.

Anyways, here are the random ass photos from my week. Hope everyone has a save and Happy New Year!

Snowy view from upstairs, just before we went home Christmas Eve.

The most random Christmas Eve shopping items.

Our beautiful snow covered road.

Homemade rice crispie treats.

Homemade sugar cookies.

The one present I'll share with you, my awesome new tripod that my aunt and uncle got me. SO thankful to have a new one, I can't wait for Milky Way season!

Homemade pumpkin bars with homemade icing.

Kool-Aid pie and cream cheese pie with toffee topping. 

My beautiful boxador.

This is one of my favorite purchases this year. It's a palm tree light for camping, which my uncle mentioned he wanted late summer. He loved it.

More snow Christmas night.

This was like 3:30am Monday.

Still snowing at 3pm Monday.

God of War Ragnarok was 89% away from being able to play. There was still like 60gb to go.

Seriously obsessed with this spinach and artichoke dip right now. I took this pic because I asked my aunt to pick some up for me.

The Last Of Us Remastered. Seriously the best game ever.

And lastly, a wet leaf on concrete.

Stocking up on holiday carbs...

We've been making all kinds of deserts as of late. Christmas cookies, shortbread, macaroons and then some! We added to our holiday sweets yesterday evening by making Oreo balls AND peanut butter balls. Talk about delicious!

The peanut butter balls take a little patience, but the Oreo balls are oh so simple! Who doesn't love a recipe that calls for THREE ingredients?? All you need is:

• 1 Package Of Oreos

• 1 8oz Package Of Cream Cheese

• 1 Package Of White Baking Chips

See, easy peasy! We made regular flavored Oreo balls Sunday night, which were a huge hit. Since LaVaughn and I both prefer Blonde Oreos, we decided to go to the store yesterday and get all the ingredients we needed to make some with those. Equally delicious, but I think I prefer original Oreos.

Next week we're making classic fudge, butterbeer fudge and white chocolate fudge! I'm also making a couple different varieties of rice crispy treats, along with more sugar cookies.

I think after the holidays I need to skip desert for, I don't know, 3 months or so. Oh well, that's part of the holiday season, right?

Here are some pics I snatched from my Insta:

Thanksgiving prep plus Black (Thursday) Friday deals!

We've been in full swing Thanksgiving Day prep since Monday, but hardcore today. The bread has been made, cake, pies, pumpkin rolls, cauliflower salad, potato dishes -- basically everything! We're also shifting all of the Christmas decorations around in the garage for Friday. It's our tradition, like many others, to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving.

We're also in Black Friday prep mode. We have everything written down for tomorrow after dinner, even though I know we'll forget the list or not even bother with it if we do remember. There are some amazing deals this year that I hope and pray we can get our hands on.

We go for the movies and games 70% of the time, but there are several other things that we want to get people. Our Christmas list is small this year in the way of people. Our family has disbanded over the years and changed. Aside from my sister, there are 3 other people that I care about buying for and being around -- my aunt, uncle and Shawna, the girl I work with. She doesn't have it easy and really needs something there that can care for her. Such a sweet girl, she shouldn't have to live the way she does.

That's for another time, I suppose.

I guess I need to stop blogging and finish cooking. Not too much time left to prep. I won't have time to blog tomorrow and there's a good chance I won't blog Friday due to more shopping and the tree farm. So until then, have a Happy Thanksgiving! Stay safe, have fun and most importantly, be thankful...

Cauliflower salad in the works!

I love how clean and festive the kitchen looked before we cooked again, lol.

Gotta have pumpkin rolls on Thanksgiving, and before. :)

5 Ingredient Macaroons

So, LaVaughn and I experimented with a super simple, super delicious macaroon recipe Monday night. She found the recipe over that weekend and I was blown away by how simple these things were! I'm serious, ANYONE could make these -- even if you don't bake!

Here's the list of the super simple ingredients:

• 5 1/2 Cups of Coconut

• 2/3 Cups of AP Flour

• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

• 14 Ounces (one whole can) of Sweetened Condensed Milk

• 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

See, how simple is that? I honestly never thought making something as delicious as macaroons would be that simple. We even added chopped pecans to half of the recipe for out own spin. They were good, but not as good as the original.

Here's the finished product: 

Yummy homemade macaroons!

Here's the rest of the directions for those interested in making their own. :O)

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut and salt. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla using your hands until well blended. Use an ice cream scoop to drop dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about golf ball size.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until coconut is toasted.

Semi-Homemade vegan chicken salad...

That's what we had for dinner! I know it's so random, but we have dinners like that on occasion. I believe I've posted enough so that people should know my love for vegan meat. Don't get me wrong, I love regular meat all the same, but I'm EXTREMELY picky when it comes to meat, so vegan meat is the perfect solution.

Now, back to what I was originally going to blog about, my absence. I've been working literally every other day this week. Thursday was the first day that I didn't work OR sew, so it's been nice. You can imagine why I didn't want to ruin it by blogging. I actually ended up making 4 batches of HPW yesterday anyways, so it didn't leave time for much else.

Well today was my first day all alone at the store. I have to say, not NEARLY as stressful as I thought it was going to be. And the real kicker -- they already gave me a key to the store! I'm eventually going to be closing by myself, which means I'll have to lock up by myself. I've never had this much responsibility at one place before.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

My vegan chicken salad.

Looks pretty awesome, eh?

Can't leave out the Parmesan thyme crackers.

Loads of HPW!

Love this boy.

My key to the store. Insane!

Say it ain't so...

I felt kind of odd last night. I kept getting this feeling in my throat and chest like I needed to cough, which I did every little bit. I've had enough colds in my lifetime to know when one is starting to set in. We've all been there -- fatigue, scratchy throat from trying to clear it so much, heaviness in your lungs. It's an all too familiar feeling.

I was scared that I would wake up today and be severely congested. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't too ill. Congested, yes, but severely? No. I took an incredibly hot shower within 5 minutes of being up, which helped tremendously to break everything up. I've had a funky smell in my nose every since. I'm also starting to cough again, which is causing my throat to feel weird.

I just hope and pray that I'm not worse tomorrow -- I have to work! Luckily it's only until 7.

Speaking of working, as soon as I got out of the shower I had to sew a 7 piece cage set that was paid for a couple days ago, My original intention was to sew that and one other to try and sell. Yeah, that definitely didn't happen. I felt far too crappy to sew anymore than I absolutely had to.

I'm hoping I can sew some Sunday if I don't have to work. That's IF I feel up to it. I may be worse tomorrow, or I may be better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for better.

Well I guess I'm going to call it a day. I want to go ahead and post today's picture on my new Project 365 blog HERE before I get too far behind on posting, like I did with my old Project 365 blog HERE. I'm actually still in the process of uploading all of last years pictures. It's such a pain, you have no idea. It's so tedious to put each date and each day in, god I'll be glad when I'm done. I am so not getting that far behind on this years if I can help it.

Anyways, that's all for now. Until next time...

Love & Peace
... and Happy New Years!

-Megan

Randomly boring pictures from today:

My hat. Best gift LaVaughn has ever given me.

Pork for dinner. It's a good luck symbol to eat pork on New Years day. Stay far far away from chicken!

More smoothies in the making.

They look far better than they taste.

I'm not sure what, but something is off in these drinks.

The Walking Dead Mid Season Finale! Plus our COMPLETED Christmas Tree!

Just finished the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead!! Omg, it was SO awesome! They're following the comics fairly well, which is awesome. Even MORE awesome comic stuff is yet to come -- I'm hoping Jessie's story line plays in. And we all know Negan is coming, who is being portrayed by my man, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I cannot wait!!

We went to town earlier and grabbed some garland for the tree, plus what we needed for the cabinets. I have to say, everything turned out really awesome, I' proud of us. Of course there are loads of pictures at the bottom that showcases just how beautiful everything is.

While we were in town we decided to grab some stuff for the glider to make their new diet with. I found this online a couple months back, but we never got what we needed to make it. Well surprisingly enough, we found 98% of everything that we needed! And so far it's a HUGE hit!

Speaking of the ratties, we ordered a bunch of stuff for them on Black Friday from around the web. We should get it all in the next few days, I can't wait!

I guess that's all for now. It's late and I have quite a few thing to take care of for tomorrow. Until then...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Our new rat diet:

Christmas decorations around the house:

The Christmas tree:

All the presents we wrapped last night -- for 5 hours:

That is such a suggestive santa hat.

More decorations from my phone:

A glimpse of the rats diet:

And now my current favorite picture of our Xmas tree.