Are you interested in seeing what other people do at home when they think no one is watching? Every month a group of bloggers give you a glimpse on “Fly on the Wall”. Here’s mine – hope you’ll read through to the bottom, where you’ll get the links for the other 11 blogs!

Cookies, cookies, cookies. Every surface was covered with cookies in different stages, because I somehow decided that hitting 1,000 “likes” on my Rowdy Baker Facebook page meant I should make 1,000 cookies. I thought I’d have plenty of time, but a sweet blogger pimped me out a bit and the last 50 “likes” happened very quickly.

Do I need to tell you I didn’t make 1,000 cookies? Not even close. I think I hit 250, which was still pretty impressive, since they were large rolled cookies (what was I thinking?) and I added icing and put names on some of them before I pooped out. If you don’t see your name it’s because it’s off to the side and I cropped the photo. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Keep your fuzzy little fly butt off my cookies!!!

I was doing the happy dance when I hit 1,000 but The Man was less impressed. I believe he just grunted “yeah?” (such a charmer) so I didn’t share my bottle of champagne with him. I was a little sorry about that the next morning. I will say he perked up a bit and showed some enthusiasm when he realized the photos were done and the cookies were fair game.

Baking in a Tornado posted a comment on her Facebook page about ironing, which immediately took me back to my childhood. I spent a lot of time ironing since Mom worked and it seemed like everything in our house was pressed. When I was younger and less skilled I ironed handkerchiefs, dishtowels, sheets, and pillowcases. As I grew older I was trusted with actual clothing, including nightgowns. Yes, nightgowns. I can tell you right now that you should NOT use a hot iron on a sheer gown. Nope.

What my mother taught me – and I think of this every time I iron anything – was to go slowly and spend more time smoothing than ironing. It takes less time to do it right than to go back and try to remove a crease in the wrong spot.

Heads up! This is more than a tip about ironing; it’s very wise, and applies to so many circumstances. I need to remember to smooth things over so I don’t say the wrong thing. I need to learn to think before I speak because it’s a lot harder (or impossible) to backpedal and take back wrong or hurtful words. Sometimes you just can’t iron out those creases.

Smooth, smooth, smooth!

I have messes everywhere. Little bits of paper cover the dining room table and floor as I wrap the stems of almost 100 paper flowers for my Homemaker’s Club spring tea. A small group of  us made the flowers, but ran out of oompf before the stems were wrapped, and we wanted some daisies too, so…I volunteered. I don’t mind – it’s actually kind of fun, but with my short attention span I just do a few and then get bored and walk away. That’s okay; we like eating in our recliners. I should just give up and call it a craft table.

Making messes…it’s what I do.

Leftover oatmeal usually goes to the chickens. Somehow I always make way too much! (They love it, and I love to indulge them a bit.) But today I looked at that oatmeal and then looked at the bag of dark chocolate-covered raisins, and experimented. Though my method of adding and mixing defied the rules, and the dough seemed heavy and sticky, it made really nice, puffy, cake-like cookies with slightly chewy bottoms and plump chocolate raisins peeking out.

I should have added the whole bag, but a lot some of them spilled out…into my mouth.

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate covered raisins!

Mix everything but the dry ingredients together.

Add the chocolate covered raisins. Oh, go ahead…dump in the whole bag!

Our young rooster has finally found a home. I take him to town tomorrow to rendezvous with his new owner. She has a brand new chicken coop and has even rounded up a few hot babes for my randy roo. He should be in heaven. He’s been bullied by our old rooster for months, and now will be cock of the walk. Here he is, running from Big Red!

Run, Rooster, run!!!

While you’ve been rubbing your legs together on my wall, I’ve been out working with The Man to get our greenhouse ready. New dirt, compost, and straw to (hopefully) keep the weeds at bay…it’s a thing of beauty. And we didn’t kill each other. This is a big plus, because we DO NOT WORK WELL TOGETHER. We have a lower garden and an upper garden, and I try to always be in the one where he isn’t. Today I wasn’t raking out the dirt “correctly” so I gave up and screened compost instead. He wasn’t pulling off the flakes of straw neatly and butting them up against each other…grrr…so he gave up and went to cut cardboard. See? We’ve got it all worked out. Separate corners.

Yep…you just stay there, and no one will get hurt!

Proud Mama alert! My daughter Brenna just started her own blog, and I expect nothing but amazing posts in the future. She’s a wonderful writer, cook, mother, and photographer, and has a wicked humor to boot. I’m setting your bar high, Honey! Go give her some love, my friends. Click on the picture of my (ahem) beautiful grandbabies to see her introduction. Nut Without a Shell

Here is a list of links to eleven wonderful bloggers who played along this month. Please buzz over to their house and visit!

Baking In a Tornado
Stacy Sews and Schools
Just a Little Nutty
Menopausal Mother
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
The Momisodes
Follow Me Home
Moore Organized Mayhem
Hypnotic Bard
Tiny Steps Mommy
Outsmarted Mommy