I never was crazy about poptarts as a kid. I didn't even get the 'real' ones anyway- I got 'Toast'ums'. My hubby likes the brown sugar & cinnamon flavored ones. They have to be THE Poptart brand. That was fine, I could always find them on sale, usually had coupons, and would stock up.
But then I guess last summer is when it happened. My brother was here alot. He likes poptarts (because I honestly don't think mom buys them for him at all!) They were his food of preference. My kids wanted them everytime he ate them. I'd rather have him eat my junk than healthy food anyway, and everyone left my hubby's brown sugar & cinnamon ones alone.
Then I fell into this baking everything from scratch frenzy. I'm getting comfortable replacing our families baked staples (ok, whole wheat bread) so I decided to look for a poptart recipe.
There are MANY! They all were essentially the same. I solicited recipes and advice from my domestic oriented friends on Facebook.
I finally decided on this recipe from the '100 Days of Real Food' blog. Seemed simple enough.
I embarked on this baking adventure in the middle of the night- after I'd put the 2 little kids down, took a shower, got all the ingredients set out for some marathon baking. It's mid-August. The last thing I want to do is fire up the oven, but if I'm going to, I'm going to bake several things.
The poptarts required the most work, so I left those for last.
Since I linked the recipe, I'm not going to post it here. It will force you to go to the other blog and maybe you'll find something else you like there.
So the recipe called for using a food processor with the dough blade. I happen to have a fp that my grandma didn't want anymore. It had one blade- one side for slicing, 1 for shredding. I first started out with my hand mixer with just 1 paddle. Mixing dry flour and cold diced butter wasn't working with the mixer, so I switched to the fp, and it made mush of my butter, so I switched back to mixing bowl. It was working, slowly but surely. I finally got frustrated and dumped all the remaining 1 1/2 sticks of butter into the bowl and microwaving it to melt it. I mixed it from there. It seemed a little dry so I added some tap water til I got a good doughy ball. (That was my only real straying from the recipe- It's not that I can't follow directions- if I can find a short cut or eliminate some steps, I will.)
My floured surface was my kitchen table, and I used white flour for thats. I rolled and cut and spooned homemade blueberry jam onto the dough. Used a spatula to scrape it up & transfer it to my baking pan. I didn't have parchment paper, so I used a silicone baking mat on a cookie sheet.
I ended up with 7 pastries total, all different sizes. I baked for around 20 minutes, then turned the oven off and let them sit in the oven while I worked on putting together my first baking project from that baking marathon.
I tried one last night, but I was so full and so tired of looking at all the baked goodies so I went to bed. They were delightful this AM.
I was very pleased with the texture of my crust too. It was flaky, but not too crumby. Not something I would want to eat as a breakfast meal- maybe to go with my coffee.
The moment of truth was when we were talking about poptarts this morning, and my 3 yr old said she wanted one, I presented her with one. She looked at it carefully, took a bite and said "BLECH! Not that poptart. I want a white one."
The baby eyed them carefully before taking a bite. She ate them. But she usually eats anything we give her, except for cherry tomatoes.
My hubby ate half of one. He didn't rave about it. But he also didn't tell me what he usually thinks of my cooking :-)
My 9 yr old refuses to try them for some reason. So it's all good. More for me. These baking experiments won't be doing my waist or hips any good, I can tell already.
So was it cost efficient? Probably. I used homemade jam from blueberries that I picked myself for free off of our neighbors bush (they invited me... I didn't just sneak over to the fence and reach thru and pick them haha!) I buy butter in bulk at the club store. I have my own chickens, so I have my own eggs. I could have done without the salt. Next time I will omit the salt anyway. Cost of electricity. These could probably be easily baked in a solar-oven. If you omit the egg wash, you wouldn't have to worry about them getting 'done' enough. Although they wouldn't be good if they weren't done.
The only problem, with any baking project is the time to roll out, cut, etc. And the clean up. Will I make them again? Probably. Not every week though.
Are you going to give them a shot? Let me know how that goes for you! In the meantime, I might look at some different recipes and give those a shot.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
What to do with all the tomatoes??
Tomatoes. You either love them or hate them. I'm of the former, as well as my husband. Our oldest daughter sometimes likes them. Our unruly 3 year old does not like them. The baby doesn't care.
Last year, we bought 19 various heirloom tomato plants. We ended up with a nasty tomato disease- never did completely figure out if it was 'Early Blight' or something else. However, we ended up with quite a good amount of tomatoes. I ate alot of salads, gave alot away, and ended up canning 3 pints of them.
For the in-experienced homegrown/homemade foodie, 3 pints doesn't seem like alot. When I pulled out the Ball Blue Book today, it said to start with about 10 lbs of tomatoes, and the final product would yield about 3 pints. I'd forgotten this fact, while I was covered with tomatoes.
This year we were a bit more conservative with our tomato plants. We tried almost unsucessfully to start our own plants from seeds- we ended up with 1 cherry tomato plant that's survived. (Ironically, my mom had a couple of volunteer cherry tomato plants come up, and is essentially what led me to today's tomato project.) We've had enough tomatoes to satisfy our needs.
But then my mom unloaded two huge bowls of cherry tomatoes on us. Some quick research indicated there are many many ways to preserve them. Many people suggested just freezing them. Some dehydrating, then freezing. Dehydrating, then packing in oil. Dehydrating, then grinding.
I have frozen them before. And I still might do that, if there is a surplus later. I originally thought of making salsa, since we had some very hot peppers also in our garden. But I didn't have all the ingredients I needed, and plus, I just didn't feel like doing all that.
I decided to do a basic tomato sauce, then we could use it for soup or spaghetti or whatever. But I really really didn't want to strain out the seeds. Seemed too wasteful. Plus today is just a day where I didn't want more steps than necessary.
I started with a pot of boiling water, and a bowl of ice water. I blanched all of the 'good' tomatoes, whether they were from our garden or moms.
Last year, we bought 19 various heirloom tomato plants. We ended up with a nasty tomato disease- never did completely figure out if it was 'Early Blight' or something else. However, we ended up with quite a good amount of tomatoes. I ate alot of salads, gave alot away, and ended up canning 3 pints of them.
For the in-experienced homegrown/homemade foodie, 3 pints doesn't seem like alot. When I pulled out the Ball Blue Book today, it said to start with about 10 lbs of tomatoes, and the final product would yield about 3 pints. I'd forgotten this fact, while I was covered with tomatoes.
This year we were a bit more conservative with our tomato plants. We tried almost unsucessfully to start our own plants from seeds- we ended up with 1 cherry tomato plant that's survived. (Ironically, my mom had a couple of volunteer cherry tomato plants come up, and is essentially what led me to today's tomato project.) We've had enough tomatoes to satisfy our needs.
But then my mom unloaded two huge bowls of cherry tomatoes on us. Some quick research indicated there are many many ways to preserve them. Many people suggested just freezing them. Some dehydrating, then freezing. Dehydrating, then packing in oil. Dehydrating, then grinding.
I have frozen them before. And I still might do that, if there is a surplus later. I originally thought of making salsa, since we had some very hot peppers also in our garden. But I didn't have all the ingredients I needed, and plus, I just didn't feel like doing all that.
I decided to do a basic tomato sauce, then we could use it for soup or spaghetti or whatever. But I really really didn't want to strain out the seeds. Seemed too wasteful. Plus today is just a day where I didn't want more steps than necessary.
I started with a pot of boiling water, and a bowl of ice water. I blanched all of the 'good' tomatoes, whether they were from our garden or moms.
In a larger pot, I heated some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, chopped up some garlic, 3 onions from the garden slightly bigger than golf balls. I also added a green pepper of some sort from mom's garden, and a 'Cajun Bell' from ours. Then I started peeling the tomatoes. Wasn't hard work, but it was tedious, since I was using small tomatoes (since that's what we had). I eventually went ahead and cut the bad spots off of the other random tomatoes from our garden and moms, and peeled them and chopped them into the pot.
All tomatoes finally peeled!
Final product after the stick blender to chop it all up. Added a few sprigs of rosemary. I love rosemary.
I later tried this over some leftover whole wheat pasta with some fresh spinach. I wont say it's the best sauce I've ever had, but I think I did pretty good for making my own sauce from scratch with ingredients I grew myself (except for the garlic & olive oil).
Have you ever made tomato sauce from scratch? How did it work out? If you have a recipe, please share it in the comments below!
Friday, August 10, 2012
The Bed Time Basket
I have *almost* revolutionized the bedtime routine at our house. Almost. Bedtime is the most hectic time of day for us, when it should be the least hectic.
At least 1 evening a week, we are away from the house until nearly 7:30. And then we still have to eat dinner.(More about that in another post).
I have friends who put their little ones to bed WAY before this, when the sun is still very much shining. That works for them, so that's fine. I think it's more natural to go to sleep with the sun and get up with the sun.
So in keeping things routine, we don't eat dinner until later. Then after dinner turns into a rush of baths, cleaning the kitchen and getting the little ones wound down & to sleep. Then getting lunches packed for the next day, coffee pot ready to brew etc.
Inevitably, I have to solicit help from the hubby or my older daughter. Whether they clean the kitchen or get the littles cleaned up, it seems like it all falls back on me to get everything done at night. They usually elect to bathe the littles, often my oldest daughter putting the baby in the bath with herself, and my hubby taking care of the unruly 3 yr old.
There was always the question from them, 'Where are the little kids pajamas?' I always had those laid out either on my vanity or bed. They never could seem to find them, so they would leave a naked wet kid running around while they went in search of pj's. That led to more chaos. Then there was the question of 'what diaper am I supposed to put on her?' Again not rocket science, as the big one has 3 distinct night time only diapers, and the baby has 4 distinct night time specific diapers. Which led to half dressed kids running around. More chaos.
In my recent house purging, I was able to clear out a drawer in my vanity, to put the kids pjs, night diapers & clothes for next day in. This worked for awhile. Thru a combo of my oldest daughter not liking the clothes I picked out for the little kids, my 3 yr old not liking what ANYONE picked out for her, and the baby playing in the drawer, the drawer lost it's steam.
After some re-organizing in the toy room, I came up with an empty basket. At first I was just going to use this empty basket to collect misplaced items thru the day. Then it ended up being a catch all in the living room. I don't like catch alls, because it's still misplaced stuff. I was using it as laundry basket for the littles room, thinking it was small enough for the 3 yr old to handle and she likes to put up her own clothes. Light bulb went off in my head. Let her use it to pick her own clothes out the night before & put them in the basket.
So the Bed Time Basket was born. Invented. Whatever. The bedtime basket contains 1 each per child- pair of socks, underwear (or diaper suitable for next morning-thicker one for going out- thinner for staying home), entire outfit, nighttime diaper, pjs, items needed for sleep (3 yr old has a 'silkie cloth' she holds when sucking her thumb- trying to get baby to get attached to stuffed dog as she's not a thumbsucker). The most recent addition was having the 3 yr old pick out earlier in the day the bedtime story she wanted, which ended the 10 minute "I want this one. No. Not that one. I want, um, no... that one! Yes that one. No..."
There is never any question about where/what now. The Bed Time Basket ends all disputes & confusion about diapers, clothes, all things Bed Time & getting dressed in the mornings. I'm seriously thinking of instituting a Bed Time Basket for EVERYONE. (At least the hubby to cut down on the morning noise as he goes in & out of the closet. )
At least 1 evening a week, we are away from the house until nearly 7:30. And then we still have to eat dinner.(More about that in another post).
I have friends who put their little ones to bed WAY before this, when the sun is still very much shining. That works for them, so that's fine. I think it's more natural to go to sleep with the sun and get up with the sun.
So in keeping things routine, we don't eat dinner until later. Then after dinner turns into a rush of baths, cleaning the kitchen and getting the little ones wound down & to sleep. Then getting lunches packed for the next day, coffee pot ready to brew etc.
Inevitably, I have to solicit help from the hubby or my older daughter. Whether they clean the kitchen or get the littles cleaned up, it seems like it all falls back on me to get everything done at night. They usually elect to bathe the littles, often my oldest daughter putting the baby in the bath with herself, and my hubby taking care of the unruly 3 yr old.
There was always the question from them, 'Where are the little kids pajamas?' I always had those laid out either on my vanity or bed. They never could seem to find them, so they would leave a naked wet kid running around while they went in search of pj's. That led to more chaos. Then there was the question of 'what diaper am I supposed to put on her?' Again not rocket science, as the big one has 3 distinct night time only diapers, and the baby has 4 distinct night time specific diapers. Which led to half dressed kids running around. More chaos.
In my recent house purging, I was able to clear out a drawer in my vanity, to put the kids pjs, night diapers & clothes for next day in. This worked for awhile. Thru a combo of my oldest daughter not liking the clothes I picked out for the little kids, my 3 yr old not liking what ANYONE picked out for her, and the baby playing in the drawer, the drawer lost it's steam.
After some re-organizing in the toy room, I came up with an empty basket. At first I was just going to use this empty basket to collect misplaced items thru the day. Then it ended up being a catch all in the living room. I don't like catch alls, because it's still misplaced stuff. I was using it as laundry basket for the littles room, thinking it was small enough for the 3 yr old to handle and she likes to put up her own clothes. Light bulb went off in my head. Let her use it to pick her own clothes out the night before & put them in the basket.
So the Bed Time Basket was born. Invented. Whatever. The bedtime basket contains 1 each per child- pair of socks, underwear (or diaper suitable for next morning-thicker one for going out- thinner for staying home), entire outfit, nighttime diaper, pjs, items needed for sleep (3 yr old has a 'silkie cloth' she holds when sucking her thumb- trying to get baby to get attached to stuffed dog as she's not a thumbsucker). The most recent addition was having the 3 yr old pick out earlier in the day the bedtime story she wanted, which ended the 10 minute "I want this one. No. Not that one. I want, um, no... that one! Yes that one. No..."
The unruly 3 yr old with the Bed Time Basket
Sunday, June 10, 2012
2nd Round of Cleaning & Modesty- What do they have in common?
I'm laughing at the title. Really. It makes me think of the names of some of the session titles at the homeschool conference I went to week before last.
Anyway, I know, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I do things, hear things, think of things, and say 'Oooh I want to blog about that.' I don't take pictures. Sorry. I'm just a bad blogger.
So Cleaning and Modesty. What do they have in common? Clean people are more modest? No I doubt it.. could be... who knows.
I'm hitting round 2 of Cleaning & Organizing my house. (In short, I have 1 room per week (I do both bathrooms on the same week) that I completely gut. I move all the furniture, dust, wash curtains, windows, you name it. Go thru drawers, closets.) I felt like getting started a little early, like a technical hour early. I had all the kids in the bed, and I always wait up for the hubby to get home from saving the world, one pizza at a time.
This week is Kaylor's room. Kaylor is girly & frilly. She LOVES tutus. I'd been looking into some other thing to pass onto a family member, and one of the solutions that kept coming up, was how does your teen or tween dress? Too revealing? Too old? She's at the age where I can nip it in the bud. And what kind of role model are you?
Honestly, I don't care what I wear. I don't know that I'll move to wearing floor length skirts all day every day anytime soon, but you have to practice what you preach. Be the change you wish to see. So I took my 3 2 piece bathing suits and put them in my yardsale-(actually my sister took them. Next time I will know to THROW them away. I'm not trying to force my morals on others, but I will inevitably see them and think 'oh I loved that bathing suit.') I don't really wear spaghetti strap tops- I have a couple that I wear around the house. I'll get to that in a minute.
I don't wear short shorts, and I hate belly shirts so we're good. I do love my tank tops though. I work out. Have to have my tank tops. I'm still working on this people! We do have some ladies who wear skirts come in to work out. They aren't cycling or doing yoga but they do come in to work out. Yay for them.
So I started in Kaylors room, and first got rid of all the 2 piece bathing suits. Well almost all. One has a matching swim shirt with it, and it's also her favorite. I know. I know. And another that's a tankini. Anyway, then a couple of pair of short shorts went away, then a couple of short skirts. I decided to let her keep her tutus- for now. As long as she wears leggings with them.
Also, why is it okay for me to wear spaghetti strap tops around the house and not her? There weren't alot of spaghetti strap tops anyway. She won't notice. But then that defeats the purpose. A talk with her is coming up.
Anyway, I know, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I do things, hear things, think of things, and say 'Oooh I want to blog about that.' I don't take pictures. Sorry. I'm just a bad blogger.
So Cleaning and Modesty. What do they have in common? Clean people are more modest? No I doubt it.. could be... who knows.
I'm hitting round 2 of Cleaning & Organizing my house. (In short, I have 1 room per week (I do both bathrooms on the same week) that I completely gut. I move all the furniture, dust, wash curtains, windows, you name it. Go thru drawers, closets.) I felt like getting started a little early, like a technical hour early. I had all the kids in the bed, and I always wait up for the hubby to get home from saving the world, one pizza at a time.
This week is Kaylor's room. Kaylor is girly & frilly. She LOVES tutus. I'd been looking into some other thing to pass onto a family member, and one of the solutions that kept coming up, was how does your teen or tween dress? Too revealing? Too old? She's at the age where I can nip it in the bud. And what kind of role model are you?
Honestly, I don't care what I wear. I don't know that I'll move to wearing floor length skirts all day every day anytime soon, but you have to practice what you preach. Be the change you wish to see. So I took my 3 2 piece bathing suits and put them in my yardsale-(actually my sister took them. Next time I will know to THROW them away. I'm not trying to force my morals on others, but I will inevitably see them and think 'oh I loved that bathing suit.') I don't really wear spaghetti strap tops- I have a couple that I wear around the house. I'll get to that in a minute.
I don't wear short shorts, and I hate belly shirts so we're good. I do love my tank tops though. I work out. Have to have my tank tops. I'm still working on this people! We do have some ladies who wear skirts come in to work out. They aren't cycling or doing yoga but they do come in to work out. Yay for them.
So I started in Kaylors room, and first got rid of all the 2 piece bathing suits. Well almost all. One has a matching swim shirt with it, and it's also her favorite. I know. I know. And another that's a tankini. Anyway, then a couple of pair of short shorts went away, then a couple of short skirts. I decided to let her keep her tutus- for now. As long as she wears leggings with them.
Also, why is it okay for me to wear spaghetti strap tops around the house and not her? There weren't alot of spaghetti strap tops anyway. She won't notice. But then that defeats the purpose. A talk with her is coming up.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Cleaning the Kitchen
At the beginning of the year, I got onto this blog for a weekly, yearlong challenge to organize my house. I felt pretty organized already, but I knew there is always room for improvement and I might learn something new.
Every week I was eager for the challenge and completed them fairly quick. Some weeks were easier than others. Some things I already had a good system in place and didn't see the need to modify it.
Eventually I kinda branched off on my own and in an attempt to de-clutter my home, developed a schedule for 'gutting' each and every room in my house.
When I say 'gutting' I mean touching everything. In bedrooms for example I go thru all the drawers, getting rid of what I don't use, relocating items that serve no purpose in that room (ie: all the notepads I had crammed into the vanity in my room- I don't write in there, so those were relocated.) I wash the windows inside & out, curtains, move all the furniture and dust & vacuum behind/underneath it etc.
I've wound my way thru the house and have arrived at the kitchen. The kitchen is a room that's cleaned regularly, so it won't be too hard.
Infact the 52 week challenge that I started at the beginning of the year started in the kitchen, so it's already in decent shape. Drawers have been purged and organized. As have the cabinets.
My ultimate goal in my kitchen is to get the tops of my upper cabinets cleaned off. A smart designer would have designed cabinets that went all the way to the ceiling, in my opinion. I have about 12" of space that collects dust & cobwebs. And junk.
So that's what I am doing this weekend. Finding other places to store the 'junk' that make more sense than on top of my cabinets.
Every week I was eager for the challenge and completed them fairly quick. Some weeks were easier than others. Some things I already had a good system in place and didn't see the need to modify it.
Eventually I kinda branched off on my own and in an attempt to de-clutter my home, developed a schedule for 'gutting' each and every room in my house.
When I say 'gutting' I mean touching everything. In bedrooms for example I go thru all the drawers, getting rid of what I don't use, relocating items that serve no purpose in that room (ie: all the notepads I had crammed into the vanity in my room- I don't write in there, so those were relocated.) I wash the windows inside & out, curtains, move all the furniture and dust & vacuum behind/underneath it etc.
I've wound my way thru the house and have arrived at the kitchen. The kitchen is a room that's cleaned regularly, so it won't be too hard.
Infact the 52 week challenge that I started at the beginning of the year started in the kitchen, so it's already in decent shape. Drawers have been purged and organized. As have the cabinets.
My ultimate goal in my kitchen is to get the tops of my upper cabinets cleaned off. A smart designer would have designed cabinets that went all the way to the ceiling, in my opinion. I have about 12" of space that collects dust & cobwebs. And junk.
So that's what I am doing this weekend. Finding other places to store the 'junk' that make more sense than on top of my cabinets.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
I just ate a handful of sprinkles
Yes. I did. I just ate a handful of pastel colored sprinkles. You see, I was organizing our spice cabinet today. We were generously gifted several boxes of spices. I couldn't ever find what I was looking for, and on more than one occassion, I came across something in a recipe that I didn't have, and looking at overflowing spice cabinet, couldn't possibly justify buying anything.
When my hubby came home with 2 more boxes, they sat on my table since Saturday afternoon til today. 3 whole days! And after I got over the intial crazy of 'oh my goodness, i have to find some time to organize my spices so i can go thru the new boxes', I was actually okay with the boxes. Except that my oldest daughter kept digging around in them and every time we sat down to eat, I had to move them out of the determined baby's reach.
So I got around to them this afternoon. I got in touch with a couple of close friends, put together some bags for them, still some leftover, that if the other couple of people I contacted don't claim them, will be going to a food pantry.
I had the intention of taking all of the lurking baking supplies out of the spice cabinet, and putting them with the rest of the baking ingredients. When I started rummaging in that cabinet, I didn't make alot of room. As I organized and put like things together, I actually had a bag of almonds and something else that I had no room for. In cleaning that cabinet out though, I found that I have PLENTY of birthday candles. I also have plenty Halloween & Valentines Day sprinkles. Then I had a zipper bag with a package of generic pastel sprinkles off of a can of frosting. That Kaylor had opened once, and we'd never finished.
I can't bear the thought of throwing food away. The kids unfortunately weren't too excited about sprinkles. So that left me.
Also not making the cut to stay in the cabinet was a bag of fried chicken breading. I couldn't find a discernable expiration date on it, but I'm 99.9% sure that when Aaron and I moved into our house, that came from a random box of food that he'd put in storage. Ironically, we gave the mix to our chickens and they loved it. I'd have a picture of the irony, BUT it's raining now, and my camera batteries are dead....
When my hubby came home with 2 more boxes, they sat on my table since Saturday afternoon til today. 3 whole days! And after I got over the intial crazy of 'oh my goodness, i have to find some time to organize my spices so i can go thru the new boxes', I was actually okay with the boxes. Except that my oldest daughter kept digging around in them and every time we sat down to eat, I had to move them out of the determined baby's reach.
So I got around to them this afternoon. I got in touch with a couple of close friends, put together some bags for them, still some leftover, that if the other couple of people I contacted don't claim them, will be going to a food pantry.
I had the intention of taking all of the lurking baking supplies out of the spice cabinet, and putting them with the rest of the baking ingredients. When I started rummaging in that cabinet, I didn't make alot of room. As I organized and put like things together, I actually had a bag of almonds and something else that I had no room for. In cleaning that cabinet out though, I found that I have PLENTY of birthday candles. I also have plenty Halloween & Valentines Day sprinkles. Then I had a zipper bag with a package of generic pastel sprinkles off of a can of frosting. That Kaylor had opened once, and we'd never finished.
I can't bear the thought of throwing food away. The kids unfortunately weren't too excited about sprinkles. So that left me.
Also not making the cut to stay in the cabinet was a bag of fried chicken breading. I couldn't find a discernable expiration date on it, but I'm 99.9% sure that when Aaron and I moved into our house, that came from a random box of food that he'd put in storage. Ironically, we gave the mix to our chickens and they loved it. I'd have a picture of the irony, BUT it's raining now, and my camera batteries are dead....
Monday, May 7, 2012
Simplifying, chocolate, crayons- what does it all have in common?
Today's post finds me exhausted and wanting a nap. My head was spinning with thoughts.
We (at least, me) have been working our home to a more simple home. Less is more. Less things to clutter our home & our minds, freeing up more time to do more things that are important to us, instead of looking at the piles of things we've amassed and thinking 'I've got to do something with that stuff'.
One of my big challenges was my oldest daughters room. She's a very emotional hoarder. She wants to save junk mail because it has a pretty picture, receipts from when my mom bought my grandma a Mother's Day card at the Dollar Tree. She can't part with anything, it seems. So when I cleaned her room the other week, I got rid of all the things that were piling up. She was fine with her new clean room and hasn't noticed that so much stuff is just gone. She told me she's happy she can find stuff again.
Part of the new agreement, is that if it's something you care about, you don't leave it out of place. (I found socks crammed in desk drawers, pajamas on hangers, good clothes in drawers... a mess.) That's worked so far. Til today.
Earlier I sent her into her room to put away some clean laundry in her newly organized & thinned out drawers. 30 minutes later (I was busy trying to get little ones down to naps, clean up after lunch, do laundry etc.) I call to her and she comes out. She goes back to the table and resumes her work, so I go to her room to find a couple of photocopied pages from a coloring book out and that had been partially colored. I was so angry at this point, that I ripped them up and threw them away.
She got upset, and then I got even angrier.
After my reaction, I started thinking, is this how Jesus would have reacted? No. Ofcourse not. But then I thought about it some more. You have to take the temptations away. Like with dieting, trying not to fall into the same old sin- trap, staying focused means eliminating the temptation. Whether it's chocolate, hanging out with old drinking buddies, or crayons stashed in your desk. I thought about it some more, and felt okay with my decision. I'd just had the same conversation with her before we started schoolwork. Was her room clean? Yes it was. Everything in it's place? Yes. Found dolls just thrown in the FLOOR! So they had just gotten packed away into the yardsale pile.
Any successful dieter will tell you, you have to eliminate the junk foods from your house. Period. Just knowing that you have a stash of chocolate somewhere will tempt you. It's all or nothing.
There's a bigger picture, and there are forces working against us to keep us from obtaining that bigger picture. Whatever those forces are chocolate or crayons. If you can't say no to them, then they have no place in your life.
Now I'm not going to throw all the crayons away. But maybe I take all the writing utensils out of her room. (I would prefer having them all stored together then have bits & pieces in every room anyway.)
Sometimes you have to get tough to get things done. Sometimes we've been la-la-la-ing along, and now we have to take back some control. Maybe tomorrow it'll be something else.
I'm not preaching a life of deprivation, but there really is so very little that we really NEED, and beyond that is excess. Excess makes us comfortable. Comfort isn't necessarily a good thing. Excess isn't healthy in anyway shape or form- excess food (makes us fat) excess alcohol (makes us do dumb things), excess vitamins can make you sick, excess exercise can mean you burn too many calories.
I'm taking back my family, my house, my life & my sanity and saying NO! to more stuff.
We (at least, me) have been working our home to a more simple home. Less is more. Less things to clutter our home & our minds, freeing up more time to do more things that are important to us, instead of looking at the piles of things we've amassed and thinking 'I've got to do something with that stuff'.
One of my big challenges was my oldest daughters room. She's a very emotional hoarder. She wants to save junk mail because it has a pretty picture, receipts from when my mom bought my grandma a Mother's Day card at the Dollar Tree. She can't part with anything, it seems. So when I cleaned her room the other week, I got rid of all the things that were piling up. She was fine with her new clean room and hasn't noticed that so much stuff is just gone. She told me she's happy she can find stuff again.
Part of the new agreement, is that if it's something you care about, you don't leave it out of place. (I found socks crammed in desk drawers, pajamas on hangers, good clothes in drawers... a mess.) That's worked so far. Til today.
Earlier I sent her into her room to put away some clean laundry in her newly organized & thinned out drawers. 30 minutes later (I was busy trying to get little ones down to naps, clean up after lunch, do laundry etc.) I call to her and she comes out. She goes back to the table and resumes her work, so I go to her room to find a couple of photocopied pages from a coloring book out and that had been partially colored. I was so angry at this point, that I ripped them up and threw them away.
She got upset, and then I got even angrier.
After my reaction, I started thinking, is this how Jesus would have reacted? No. Ofcourse not. But then I thought about it some more. You have to take the temptations away. Like with dieting, trying not to fall into the same old sin- trap, staying focused means eliminating the temptation. Whether it's chocolate, hanging out with old drinking buddies, or crayons stashed in your desk. I thought about it some more, and felt okay with my decision. I'd just had the same conversation with her before we started schoolwork. Was her room clean? Yes it was. Everything in it's place? Yes. Found dolls just thrown in the FLOOR! So they had just gotten packed away into the yardsale pile.
Any successful dieter will tell you, you have to eliminate the junk foods from your house. Period. Just knowing that you have a stash of chocolate somewhere will tempt you. It's all or nothing.
There's a bigger picture, and there are forces working against us to keep us from obtaining that bigger picture. Whatever those forces are chocolate or crayons. If you can't say no to them, then they have no place in your life.
Now I'm not going to throw all the crayons away. But maybe I take all the writing utensils out of her room. (I would prefer having them all stored together then have bits & pieces in every room anyway.)
Sometimes you have to get tough to get things done. Sometimes we've been la-la-la-ing along, and now we have to take back some control. Maybe tomorrow it'll be something else.
I'm not preaching a life of deprivation, but there really is so very little that we really NEED, and beyond that is excess. Excess makes us comfortable. Comfort isn't necessarily a good thing. Excess isn't healthy in anyway shape or form- excess food (makes us fat) excess alcohol (makes us do dumb things), excess vitamins can make you sick, excess exercise can mean you burn too many calories.
I'm taking back my family, my house, my life & my sanity and saying NO! to more stuff.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
What did you do today?
I didn't carry anything heavy, use any tools (other than a rake, shovel & wheelbarrow), or shovel any cement for that matter. Nothing to write home about.
But when my kids play on this playground, along with many other kids, they can say "My dad & grandpa helped build this!" What's more, is there were so many people there who's kids & grandkids even are too old for the playground, or their families lives far away. There were even people there who don't even have any kids! And they all showed up to show community support & voluteer one day of their time.
We fell short of our goal number of volunteers- but we got it done. It did really aggravate me, that there were people in the YMCA working out, while all of this was going on. Deep breath and let it go.
A devoted group of people at our YMCA worked hard, for a long time to get this project rolling. But now it's done and the kids can play.
Work in progress
You know the saying, 'You never stop learning? Means we're all a work in progress too. We're aren't *there*, we're working on it."
Several years ago, I got on the 'go green' bandwagon before it was cool. Alot of the things we did out of necessity growing up would be considered 'green'. One thing I get from my mom is a deep sense of frugality. I'm not saying I'm the most frugal person in the world and am more frugal than you by any means. We splurge. Often. But that's a work in progress too.
Every time I would read an article about '10 ways to save on your electricity bill without spending another penny' I was like, 'We already do all that. I've been doing all of that all of my life.'
So last night, we inadvertantly started a new thing at our house. It was late, I had all of the windows open. I'd just cleaned the day before, including my stockpile of smelly candles (someone's gonna read this and say, "but burning smelly candles releases XYZ into the air & will give you cancer!"-more on that in a different post.) I left one sitting out for us to burn, because we all want our homes to smell good & inviting, at least to use right? It's 80 degrees in my house, I'm not about to fire up the stove to bake something to make it smell better, also because I would eat whatever that something is, and it would not be good for my health either so...
Burning smelly candle. Kaylor washed the dishes by candlelight, while I got the little kids to bed. She carried it to her room and used it's light to clean her room.
Adds an extra step or 2 into our day, but as we work on earlier bedtimes, we attract less bugs than with traditional lights. The fumes from the candles might have some bad stuff in them but apparently my CFLs do too. Also the glow of the candles will be more conducive to getting the babies down than bright lights glaring.
Several years ago, I got on the 'go green' bandwagon before it was cool. Alot of the things we did out of necessity growing up would be considered 'green'. One thing I get from my mom is a deep sense of frugality. I'm not saying I'm the most frugal person in the world and am more frugal than you by any means. We splurge. Often. But that's a work in progress too.
Every time I would read an article about '10 ways to save on your electricity bill without spending another penny' I was like, 'We already do all that. I've been doing all of that all of my life.'
So last night, we inadvertantly started a new thing at our house. It was late, I had all of the windows open. I'd just cleaned the day before, including my stockpile of smelly candles (someone's gonna read this and say, "but burning smelly candles releases XYZ into the air & will give you cancer!"-more on that in a different post.) I left one sitting out for us to burn, because we all want our homes to smell good & inviting, at least to use right? It's 80 degrees in my house, I'm not about to fire up the stove to bake something to make it smell better, also because I would eat whatever that something is, and it would not be good for my health either so...
Burning smelly candle. Kaylor washed the dishes by candlelight, while I got the little kids to bed. She carried it to her room and used it's light to clean her room.
Adds an extra step or 2 into our day, but as we work on earlier bedtimes, we attract less bugs than with traditional lights. The fumes from the candles might have some bad stuff in them but apparently my CFLs do too. Also the glow of the candles will be more conducive to getting the babies down than bright lights glaring.
Monday, April 30, 2012
How I organize all the kids clothes
If I'd been thinking clearly, I would have taken a picture of what my house looked like an hour ago. You see, Monday's are cleaning days. And every week, I completely gut 1 room in the house- I touch absolutely EVERYTHING in that room, windows inside & out, wash the curtains, move all the furniture & vacuum, and put it most of it back. Not all, which is the point. I throw some stuff away, make a pile to donate/yardsell or pack up for the next kid in line.
Last week was Kaylors room, and I THREW away ALOT. Not losing any steam, instead of just doing all my normal cleaning today, dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms etc. I decided that E & F's room would be a piece of cake. Essentially it was, til I got Eowyn's dresser.
It's been hot, it's been cold. I needed to keep both seasons of clothes out, but she's at an in between stage- I don't want to pull the 4 winter stuff yet.... I started pulling things out, setting aside what's too small for their cousin that's inbetween E & F. Then I went thru Finn's stuff, pulled out things that were the cousin's that needed to go back, things that were ours that I was done with, and things that I want-to-hold-onto-just-incase-we-have-another-baby.
I had a massive box of clothes K has outgrown & a box of shoes that needed to go up.
I'm thrifty- but let me tell you I HATE putting cardboard boxes in my attic. I want all the( size 7/8 winter stuff in one container. Not 2 or 3 or however many. I like totes. (I used to not label them. I had K. At the end of a season, it all went in, and then it all went up.) Then I had E, and realized I didn't know what the crap was going on in any of the totes in my attic. So I came up with this code, E1, E2 etc. for which tote we would need for E. But then I emptied a tote and put something back in it. So I went to pieces of paper taped on.
So I needed some totes, and Aaron was going to the home improvement store on his way home for rat traps & small planters for transplanting seedlings. He brought me home 5 new totes. (2 are giant ones that I wouldn't be able to get up the pull-down-stairs into the attic by myself it it were full- plus the lids didn't fit- so they're going back.)
So I had a bunch of boxes spread allover my living room, various sizes thrown about. Still not done.
I want to get all the shoes into 1 or 2 totes as well. I can tell you what size clothes all 3 of my kids wear, but please don't ask me what size shoes they were. So it just makes sense to keep all the shoes together.
But I did take the chance to pull a whole box of clothes to pass on. And a giant box of stuffed animals (mostly mine. I saved them for my kids to play with. They want to play with everything. I kept my favorites. The rest is going into the yardsale.)
I think there are 12 or 14 totes, plus 2 boxes of shoes. 3 totes (1 is shoes) is stuff for K to grow into. I didn't count the 1 tote full baby clothes- newborn-12 mos. I made it all fit in one. I eliminated pieces til it fit.
I still have several totes to go thru and pull stuff out of. Maybe I can condense them enough to empty a whole tote and get those 2 boxes of shoes into one.
I can't remember which room is next, but when I get to the toy room, my goal is to get all the toys (with the exception of Kaylor's since she has her own room) into the same room, no more packed up. (Except for the stuffed animals that will get rotated (and some eliminated), depending on what the girls are into (it was dogs, but now it's unicorns & mermaids, so all the dogs are in the attic.)
Last week was Kaylors room, and I THREW away ALOT. Not losing any steam, instead of just doing all my normal cleaning today, dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms etc. I decided that E & F's room would be a piece of cake. Essentially it was, til I got Eowyn's dresser.
It's been hot, it's been cold. I needed to keep both seasons of clothes out, but she's at an in between stage- I don't want to pull the 4 winter stuff yet.... I started pulling things out, setting aside what's too small for their cousin that's inbetween E & F. Then I went thru Finn's stuff, pulled out things that were the cousin's that needed to go back, things that were ours that I was done with, and things that I want-to-hold-onto-just-incase-we-have-another-baby.
I had a massive box of clothes K has outgrown & a box of shoes that needed to go up.
I'm thrifty- but let me tell you I HATE putting cardboard boxes in my attic. I want all the( size 7/8 winter stuff in one container. Not 2 or 3 or however many. I like totes. (I used to not label them. I had K. At the end of a season, it all went in, and then it all went up.) Then I had E, and realized I didn't know what the crap was going on in any of the totes in my attic. So I came up with this code, E1, E2 etc. for which tote we would need for E. But then I emptied a tote and put something back in it. So I went to pieces of paper taped on.
So I needed some totes, and Aaron was going to the home improvement store on his way home for rat traps & small planters for transplanting seedlings. He brought me home 5 new totes. (2 are giant ones that I wouldn't be able to get up the pull-down-stairs into the attic by myself it it were full- plus the lids didn't fit- so they're going back.)
So I had a bunch of boxes spread allover my living room, various sizes thrown about. Still not done.
I want to get all the shoes into 1 or 2 totes as well. I can tell you what size clothes all 3 of my kids wear, but please don't ask me what size shoes they were. So it just makes sense to keep all the shoes together.
But I did take the chance to pull a whole box of clothes to pass on. And a giant box of stuffed animals (mostly mine. I saved them for my kids to play with. They want to play with everything. I kept my favorites. The rest is going into the yardsale.)
I think there are 12 or 14 totes, plus 2 boxes of shoes. 3 totes (1 is shoes) is stuff for K to grow into. I didn't count the 1 tote full baby clothes- newborn-12 mos. I made it all fit in one. I eliminated pieces til it fit.
I still have several totes to go thru and pull stuff out of. Maybe I can condense them enough to empty a whole tote and get those 2 boxes of shoes into one.
I can't remember which room is next, but when I get to the toy room, my goal is to get all the toys (with the exception of Kaylor's since she has her own room) into the same room, no more packed up. (Except for the stuffed animals that will get rotated (and some eliminated), depending on what the girls are into (it was dogs, but now it's unicorns & mermaids, so all the dogs are in the attic.)
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Happy Earth Day... more than 9 mos. later
In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I'm re-launching my blog. So much has been going on that has been down-right hilarious, or interesting or good learning experiences.
So I here I go again. I was going to start a new blog, keep this one, (last time I started over blogging, I deleted the old one..) I like simple. I don't need multiple blogs. So I'll keep adding to the pile on this one.
So follow my blog. Tell your friends about my blog. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be inspired (at least I hope that's what happens)!
Once I get 15 followers- I will do a giveaway of some sort. Giveaways seem to be hot in the blogging community. Can't say I've ever won one, but then again I don't enter alot of them. You will find out why if you follow my blog, because as some point I will write all about why I don't like 'stuff'.
But what does my favorite holiday (yes today's a holiday, for me anyway) Earth Day have to do with re-launching my blog? I'll also provide you with greener living tips, which is my ultimate goal- share real practical advice for living lighter, healthier and cheaper, all at the same time.
So I here I go again. I was going to start a new blog, keep this one, (last time I started over blogging, I deleted the old one..) I like simple. I don't need multiple blogs. So I'll keep adding to the pile on this one.
So follow my blog. Tell your friends about my blog. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be inspired (at least I hope that's what happens)!
Once I get 15 followers- I will do a giveaway of some sort. Giveaways seem to be hot in the blogging community. Can't say I've ever won one, but then again I don't enter alot of them. You will find out why if you follow my blog, because as some point I will write all about why I don't like 'stuff'.
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