Workout 2- "Steal JH's moves"

I will start this by saying that I have no idea who Julianne Hough is. This workout featured a resistance band. Resistance bands are truly multifunctional workout tools and I think everyone should have one. They don't weigh anything and they are compact so you can travel with them. (I do!)

  I looked over the workout before starting and didn't have too high  hopes. One of the classes I teach is targeted mostly for active seniors. These moves we do in that class put some of the moves in this workout to shame. I completed it anyway. And at the end I added 20 crunches. And I almost broke a sweat. It's a great beginner workout. Nothing too crazy hard. But as far as giving me a total body firm up, as the article implied? Nah.

Workout 1- Self Trainer to Go- No equipment

So I found this workout in Self magazine. No equipment. The best kind. I had high hopes about this one but overall wasn't impressed.

What I found is that it was a simple, piece of cake workout. Until you get to the exercises where your hands are on the floor and feet are up on the wall. I did the workout barefoot. I found it was ALOT of weight on my hands and arms, and I struggled to get half the reps done.

I workout. Workout review Intro.

And I'm a hoarder. Of some things.

For years, I've ripped printed workouts from magazines. All kinds of magazines. Sometimes I would do them. Now that I teach several fitness classes a week, and run, and teaching a running class at our homeschool co-op, I don't do them anymore. But I still tear them out, and put them in my workout folder. Every now and then, I'll go thru looking for inspiration for some of the classes that I'm already teaching, or for when I'm going to be substitute teaching someone else's class.

I was flipping thru the folder Monday afternoon looking for some yoga inspiration. There was some good stuff in there. And some crazy stupid stuff. And a lot of the same moves repeated.

And all the workouts promised that if you do them 3x a week on non-consecutive days, you'll lose inches and pounds and you'll look like the model demoing the workout in the photos.

I thought about throwing them away. I thought I should do them at least once before they went to the recycling bin.

I decided to do one 'workout' a day, weeding out the crap.

So I'm going to find a link to each workout, hopefully and post it. And give you my 'professional' opinion.

Homemade Salad Dressing- 2 dressings in one!

  Friday night, a friend posted a picture for a very yummy looking salad. I read the recipe and was going to make it. But it called for bacon. I have bacon. But it's frozen and I didn't want to thaw it, cook it etc. That's just too much work. So I skipped the bacon. Also the base for the dressing was mayo. So I made up my own version of the dressing.
 The salad recipe called for kale, stawberries & avocado. I did kale, dandelion greens, a couple of peppermint & lemon balm leaves & some lemon sorrel. Plus the strawberries and some avocado slices.
  For my dressing, I started with plain fat free greek yogurt. I added some fresh lemon juice & poppy seeds. It had a very sour flavor as you can imagine plain yogurt & lemon juice would. I added a little honey. So that's what we used on our 'strawberry & grass' salad as my hubby called it. (I'm gonna add my hubby wasn't a fan of it, and neither was my 10 yr old daughter.)
  So today, decided to have a salad for lunch. I looked at the bottles of dressing in my fridge and remembered that I had dressing leftover. I got it out, opened it and it had a slight hint of oniony smell (the bowl I'd put it in is my designated onion bowl, but it was the only bowl in the drainer when I went to make my dressing Saturday.) So I went with it and added some minced onion to the dressing. (Let me add, I LOVE onions.) And a dash or 2 or 3 of chili powder.
  It still has the sweetness of the honey, but it balances well with the chili. If you were hoping for exact amounts, just eyeball it and use your judgement. I made a small batch, just one cup of yogurt.
  Enjoy!

Real Food! Poptarts

  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.

 

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.

 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!

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..."

The unruly 3 yr old with the Bed Time Basket

  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. )

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.

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.
 

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....
  

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.

What did you do today?

This is what our whole family did. We woke our kids up early and piled into my car, and his truck so he could take a wheelbarrow. And we helped many other volunteers build a playground.
  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.

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.)
 

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.

Today's Harvest July 1st

Last Friday, we made our first 'harvest' from our garden.

I was so excited. We had a zucchini, cucumber and some purple potatoes. I grabbed a few blackberries and wild blueberries (the little tiny blue balls) just for fun.

I loved I am growing things that I can eat. We've gardened for years, expanding a little each year. Last year I wasn't very active in the garden because I was preggers and cucumbers and tomatoes, one our successful harvests were yuck triggerering foods for me. Just the thought of them made me want to barf.

So this year, despite having a small baby again, plus one that I sometimes refer to as 'A rabid Octopus' and my 8 year old that makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes, my husband said 'The garden's on you this year.'

Wha? He's not working more than he has in the past, but he's been working on this massive chicken palace. Then he's got a greenhouse to build, and an outdoor shower, but I think I can handle that last one, if I could just find the time..

So I've been so proud of my little garden.

Diamonds & Dirt

I'm getting a farm girl tan. Days spent bent over pulling weeds in the garden in a pair of shorts too short for me to wear comfortably in public, a pair of rubber boots up to my knees and whatever shirt I happen to be wearing. I have a stripe across my lower back, and on the back of my legs that stops abruptly at my knees.

My hands haven't developed calluses yet, but they have seen better days. They're rough and stained. I gave up on nail polish years ago- I use my hands too much, it chips and within a day it just needs to be taken off but I don't have time, so I don't bother. I've given up on having long perfectly shaped nails. They break.

I never was super-girly-girl. Sure I wore make-up, got my nails done, even used to get my hair highlighted and *GASP* laid in a tanning bed once. But it never was me.

So I haven't felt like I've had to give anything up, really.

Before I said good-bye to working full-time, we were nervous about me not working. I was quick to point out that when we first got married, that I worked part-time, he worked a little more than part time and was going to school full-time. But when we made more, we spent more. I remember the entire time I was pregnant with my oldest, I didn't spend a DIME that I didn't absolutely have to spend the entire time.

But we still had our doubts, plus we were adding a new member to the family at the same time. And it's worked. We've been running on less money in the past 2.5 years, but our quality of life is so much better. My schedule was allover the place, and I just never felt like a grown-up with a family because we never got to see each other and do family stuff.

It's all been worth it.

Before we were ever pregnant with #2, and I'd planned on being a stay at home mom to homeschool anyway, my husbands ex-stepmom recommended a book called 'Your Money or Your Life' by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez. I did not finish the book, honestly. But the basic idea still rings true. You have to look at things you want and calculate how many hours of your life you have to give up in order to pay for it, whether it's a new pair of shoes, massage, etc.

God has blessed me with 3 beautiful girls and tons more. He didn't give me these girls to pawn off on someone else, my homeschool mantra- 'I didn't have these kids just for someone else to raise them'.

One day, my girls will grow up and go and do things without me. They'll move out of my house. I'll have my me time then.

For now, I enjoy watching my girls each and everyday. They change so much. My littlest grows everyday. My middle does something hilarious everyday. And my oldest is at that make-or-break age where I need to be constant.

So you can keep your designer clothes, your manicures, pedicures, new cellphones. You can keep your trips with no kids. I don't want to be away from my kids anymore than I have to. I'm gonna keep doing what I like. And that's spending time with my kids.

Money Saving Series for Real People- Laundry

Why laundry? Why now? Is there that much to $ to be saved in doing laundry?

Yes.

How much?

That depends on you.

If you read my post from yesterday, then you know how your laundry detergent works. It's the agitation from the washing machine in the water that gets it clean.

I remember when we had an upright washer, on some occasions I would pack it so full, and we used powdered detergent because it was cheaper, there would be white residue all over the clothes. So that load had to be split into 2 loads and re-rinsed. That wasted water, time and $.

• So the idea is to make sure you have a full load, but don't pack it too full or they won't get clean. Like with cars, washing machines come with an owners manual (if you get it new, and if you're getting it used from a reputable looking person at a yardsale (as my mom calls them) then they just might have the owners manual. If they don't have it handy, you can ask if you leave your name & number if they find it, can they call you? Worst thing that can happen is they say no. But you've just bought a washing machine from them- you've done them a favor.) Otherwise in the age of the internet, you can find the manual online. Find out what the recommended wash size is.

• But then your detergent. Just don't use as much, as I already went over in yesterdays post. In an HE machine, that's already very little, but you can still use less. For example, the detergent I'm using now, comes with a cup like most liquids do, and has fill lines on it, one for regular and one for heavily soiled clothes. For our house, heavily soiled is my husbands clothes. When he's home, he's working on something and is getting pretty dirty & smelly in the process. When he's at work, he's not getting as dirty and sweaty, but he's wearing the same clothes all day long, and likely hasn't had a shower in days. And he smokes a pipe, so his clothes REEK! I use less than the recommended amount for a regular wash on his clothes, run a normal cycle (not the heavy duty) and they are pleasantly clean & fresh when they come out of the washer.
• Don't try to skimp and buy the regular detergent for your HE machine either. The HE kind costs more b/c it will not get as sudsy, which is a disaster for your HE. Those very suds can coat the internals of your machine b/c they puff up and get where a regular HE detergent can't. And you just might need to make use of your warranty. So protect it.
  
• Wash in cold. Don't buy the detergents specifically for cold water. If you have something super dirty-oily, then a presoak in your sink in hot water will suffice.
  
• Line dry. The sunlight is free. The UVA rays will bleach out any stains and kill any germs. Also kills the nasty odor causing bacteria that sometimes doesn't get killed in the dryer. You can pop them in the dryer for a couple of minutes with some dryer balls when they're almost dry or dry to soften them.
• If you're saying, I don't have time to line dry b/c I do my laundry at night. Hmm. If you have a front loader, you probably have a delay setting so it can be done when you get up in the AM. For example, I get up at 7 am everyday. I know the regular wash takes about an hour. So at midnight I set it for it's max time which is 6 hrs and it's ready when I get up for me to put it on the line. And it can stay there all day til you're ready to take it off, when you get home from work, or running errands or whatever. So they're also not laying around in a dryer for a long time getting wrinkly.
• Invest in some dryer balls. You can eliminate the need for fabric softeners and your clothes will dry faster with them.
  

• Wash full loads. I have 3 hampers. 1 for cloth diapers. One for lights & delicates and one for darks. They're presorted and I wash those 3 loads.

Good luck!

Money Saving Series for Real People - Things we use

Think about all the things you use. You have to pay for most of them, right? If you use less, then bingo you don't have to buy them as often = saving money.

Lets talk soap. First off, lets understand the way soaps and detergents work. They work by acting as an emulsifier. They have surfactants in them. What is a surfactant? Here's a good explanation. So as it's explained, the detergents bind to the dirt. Extra soap isn't going to get you extra clean.

My husband uses bar soap and when it gets down to a certain size, he deems it no longer useful. I'm not really sure what he did with the slivers before we met, but I have a soap dish full of slivers. They still work! You can grate them up, scoop them in to the bottom of a pump bottle and fill with water and shake it around, let it sit and then you have handsoap.

The fact is, most of us are obsessed with being CLEAN. Don't get me wrong. I like being clean to, but did you know that the recommended amounts listed on laundry and dishwasher detergents are WAY more than you need?

• Dishwasher detergent does not get sudsy, so you never see the remnants of extra detergent in the dishwasher, but try cutting the amount of dishwasher detergent in HALF. I guarantee that your dishes will be just as clean.
• Handsoap is another one. People use gobs and gobs of liquid handsoap. The bar versions are actually cheaper and last much longer, but if you must use liquid, for hands that aren't visibly dirty with mud or grease etc. a pea size amount (just like toothpaste) is all you need. Extra soap isn't going to get your hands any cleaner. It's actually the friction of rubbing your hands under the running water that gets them clean.
  
• Laundry detergent- if you have a front loader, it's very simple- if there are suds in any amount in the ring when the cycle is done, you used too much detergent. In a top loader, your water should be clear. It should all be rinsed away. Not only does it waste money, too much detergent also causes you to STINK more when you start to sweat. When all the detergent doesn't get rinsed out, it dries in your fabric. When you sweat, your sweat reacts with the residue and causes you to stink more. So what do you do? When you do the laundry you use more detergents and softeners, right? Use half the detergent. Trust me.
  
• While we're on the subject of laundry. We've all heard that you should wash things in hot water to kill germs, right? You can save money on electricity if you wash in cold, because you aren't using water out of your water heater. (It will have to pump more in, and get that to temperature, which does use more electricity than keeping it a constant temperature.) Because you're either going to put your clothes into the dryer, which will get hot enough to kill germs, or you're going to line dry them and the UVA rays from the sun will also kill any germs.
• Some people have tactile issues and can't wear crunchy clothes. But for the majority of us, we can. Fabric softeners make our clothes smell good- BUT- again the residue issue. And to me they feel sticky. And smelly. Smells can attract bees, so I find it best to avoid them. But the fabric softeners work by coating the fibers. This actually leads to them breaking down faster. So your clothes, in theory will last longer if you skip the fabric softeners. (Although many people don't wear their clothes til they fall apart.) Clothes dryer dried clothes will still be soft. You can also add white vinegar to your rinse cycle, the smell washes out and it supposedly has softening effects. Really. I use it on my cloth diapers on occasion.

• Lotion. We all like soft moisturized skin right? Lotion does not actually make your skin softer. Lotion forms a coating on the surface of your skin to keep moisture in. The best way to moisturize is to drink water. Lots of it. And it's free most places. Free is good. But if you're going to use lotion, and I do, apply it to damp skin as soon as you get out of the shower. You skin has absorbed moisture in the shower. Lotion will keep it there.

Now I could go on and on and on about all the things we use and how we use way too much. So the next time you're using something non-edible that you have to continually buy, hair stuff, deodorant, etc. Use a little less. Sometimes you get better results. Really.
Know how if you put a thick coat of nail polish on, it takes forever to dry and it chips really easy? And the thinner coats last longer? Same concept.

Money Saving Series for Real People- Lets talk MPG

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the annual homeschool conference. I ended up in an afternoon session by a mom who started out with 'I am an expert at nothing and know a little about alot.' It was on the topic of saving money, and I really went in there to get a break; I had every intention of zoning out while nursing a very wiggly baby and not worrying about having to take notes. But I sat up and paid attention.
I've read 'many a' articles on ways to save. Alot of them are just plain no-brainers for me (as my cousin always says, quoting her late husband- 'Poor people's got poor ways.') And some don't even apply to me. So last night (or the wee hours of this morning) I had the bright idea to do a blog series on saving money for real people. Now, I used to have my best ideas and be my most creative in the middle of the night, but then I had kids. So while hurrying thru a sad excuse for a shower, my head was just full of ideas. I jotted them down as fast as I could until I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer. So here goes.

Lets talk MPG. Gas is all the talk right now. It's so expensive. It's still about the same price as a gallon of milk. At any rate, do you know your MPG? I've asked MANY people this over the years, and I've always been quiet surprised when people JUST DON'T KNOW. I mean smart people just DON'T KNOW!
First thing is you have to figure out the size of your gas tank. You can find that info in your owners manual, but if you don't happen to have your owner's manual handy, then you can always find that information online. Just be careful of your sources. Blogs are getting to be a big source of info on a variety of subjects, and like me, these people may or may not know what they're really talking about. So go with a reputable source. (And while you're at it, go ahead and download a PDF of your owners manual. Cars have them for a reason.)
When you know that your tank, is for example, 16 gallons, you know that filling your car til the (hopefully fully operational) gas nozzle clicks off. Most newer cars and some older ones are equipped with a trip odometer (or 2!) that you can reset each time you fill your tank up. (I repeat, you can reset this. (Imagine my mom's shock when I reset hers- if she'd have taken the time to read her manual she would have known this. If you're lucky enough to have and A & B, use one to track your mileage for your next oil change and one for each tank of gas. Not rocket science people.) You don't have to run your tank all the way out. That's actually frowned upon by most mechanics, but some people apparently still do this hence the 'fuel light' that comes on. Some cars chime at you. My car has a handy 'estimated miles til empty indicator'. )
When you stop to fill your tank up again, for example when it's half empty by the gauge- you fill it up til it clicks on it's own- don't force more gas into the tank (more on that later). Look at the pump and see 'oh it took 7.45 gallons to refill my tank, and my trip odometer said 241 miles'. So you divide the 241 miles by the 7.45 gallons you actually used. That comes up to 32.34. So that's your MPG. Now you may have a fancy computer in your car that does this for you. Still check the numbers yourself. It relies on an electrical gauge in your gas tank so it may or many not be correctly working. You never know til you check it yourself. If your numbers are the same, then maybe check it once a month, depending on how much you drive.
There are many ways to increase one's full economy. The first and foremost is to slow the heck down. My nephew has a Honda Civic, a car notorious for their MPG. He complains that his car sucks up gas, yada yada yada. Well when you accellerate rapidly, and break suddenly that destroys your fuel economy. They have done extensive studies on this.
The science is clear-
SLOW DOWN,
Don't accelerate rapidly,
Don't follow so close that you have to constantly slam or tap on your breaks. (MPG aside, it's NOT SAFE- they teach you this in Drivers Ed!)
They also say to fill your tank up first thing in the AM when the tanks have been cooling all night. I debate that one. The tanks are quite a bit underground. The frost line is at 18 inches below the surface. Anything below that is a constant temperature year/day round.
They also say that you shouldn't let your fuel level fall below half- the air in the tank will cause your gas to evaporate quicker. Again. I debate this one. Your fuel line is airtight. When you fill your tank up, there is very little air. You gas cap should be on tight (my car lets me know when mine isn't!) and when you eventually put more gas in your car, the 'whoosh' like when you open a soft drink? That's the vacuum.
There is debate about whether or not you should run your A/C. For stop and go city traffic where you aren't going over 35 MPH, if you can stand it, turn off your A/C and roll down your windows. For me, most of my driving is rural highway. I run my A/C and I've calculated my MPG with and without the A/C and their isn't a noticeable difference. Nor is there in power. But not all vehicles are created equal so this is going to be model specific.
Also, what I consider no brainers. Keep your tires PROPERLY inflated. Don't over-inflate them- causes them to wear un-evenly and faster, plus it's not safe. Keep your air filter clean. Change your oil.
Use your cruise whenever you can. Take extra weight out of your car. I laugh at this one. I have 3 carseats in my car. They aren't always occupied, but I'm sure as heck not taking them out unless someone throws up on them. Then we have the stroller, my permanent car diaper bag. My purse. My 'day bag'. The mobile diaper bag. The 'stuff I might need in my car bag'. A half gallon of water for emergencies.
Also remember the first mode of transportation is feet! If it's less than a mile, WALK. Ride your bike if you can. Really. It's doable. I rode my bike to work 3x a week until I found out I was pregnant the last time. I can't be away from home for the amount of additional time that it takes for me to ride my bike. Maybe next year.
Last but not least- Don't make trips just to get gas. Leave a few minutes early and get it on your way. :-)