I hate cleaning. I mean I really hate cleaning. I could be a hoarder easily. But no seriously I hate cleaning.
Did I make my point?
So how do I manage? I have a handy dandy cleaning schedule.
Monday: living room. Put away everything, vacuum, dust and wipe down walls.
Tuesdays: bathrooms. Toilets, tubs, floors, and counters. Restock extra toilet paper as needed.
Wednesday: kitchen and dining room. Floors, counters, declutter the bar.
Thursday: upstairs. Clean landing, bedrooms, vacuum.
Friday: laundry day! Wash, dry, fold, put away! Also straighten up laundry room.
Saturday: extra projects like the garage and patio as needed.
Sunday: baking day.
This seriously keeps my house from being too disastrous and it helps keep a bit of my sanity! Best part, other than laundry each task only takes me about an hour from start to finish, well as long as I stay on top of it each week :)
The girls also help out a lot too. Even at 2 and 4 they help put away laundry, they put away their dishes from the table and clean up their toys and everyday before dad gets home they clean the living room up.
It took me about a month of moving days around to find a rhythm. I love having laundry day on Friday. It is my way to make sure the kids have clean cute outfits for church on Sunday and any weekend outings.
Also daily of course I load the dishwasher a couple of times, and pick up loose items here and there. But I do not make cleaning my main focus!
To all those wives who love cleaning I envy you! I wish I could enjoy it!
To all those who don't I hope I have left you with some inspiration :)
Monday, February 11, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Our eating habits are evolving
As a child I grew up in a home where we ate out a lot, and ate a lot of process food. I don't want that for my kids. Inadvertently that is a path we have been on for a long time. About a year and a half ago hubs and I sat down and watched a few documentaries on food. Food Inc, Fast Food Nation, and King Corn. We were initially inspired by Jamie Oliver's show Food Revolution. The state of what our kids were eating in schools sickened me. Later we followed up with Forks over Knives. Wow, the information was overwhelming and scary. The way they treat the animals that become nourishment for our bodies, the way they even treat our fruits and vegetables. It was heart wrenching. The amount of potentially toxic chemicals that go into our boxed foods is terrifying. I know some will say, "Well if you believe everything they say, you would never eat anything." After watching these documentaries, that isn't the truth. I will still eat. I will even still eat the stuff that isn't so good for me. But I will think about it more and I will make a better point to avoid it. I will be more apt to purchase free range, organic, and grass fed over conventional meats and produce.
I decided I wanted to do more research. I wanted our family to eat better. I was determined to stop all processed food, and no fast food. Cold turkey. Can you guess why that didn't work? LOL We failed miserably. So, I started more research. I started following blogs like Fooducate, Super Healthy Kids, and Spoonfed. I loved the ideas they had. The plethora of information readily available. But I found at a few points I felt guilty about everything. By far Super Healthy Kids is my favorite. Its a good middle ground, for me. She has inspired me to make yogurt, and even try bread. Both of which have worked out amazingly. More recently I have discovered 100 Days of Real Food. But still her challenge intimidates me. Its crazy to think, I am afraid how I will survive without white flour and refined sugar.
With my trusty kitchen aid artisan mixer I have ventured into bread making. Usually I stick with 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white. BUT this week I bought vital wheat gluten. This will allow me to make a (hopefully) fabulous whole wheat bread! I currently make 90% of our breads. Everything from dinner rolls, sandwich breads, artisan bread, garlic bread sticks, English muffins and even naan and bagels. I make about 25% of our yogurt (mama needs a larger yogurt maker so I can keep up with demand), and I make most of our snack foods. Occasionally I cave, more lately than before. But when I do buy packaged snacks I try and stick to lara bars, rice cakes, mr, wheat, or freeze dried fruits and fruit leathers. Lara bars are by far the new family favorite. They make TONS of flavors but unfortunately our commissary only carries 6 of them.
Over the next few months I am going to work hard on remodeling our eating lifestyle. I have 4 major goals:
1. criticaly reduce our refined sugar consumption (white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar...)
2. reduce our refined grain consumption (white flour)
3. banish artificial sugars and sweeteners (HFCS, aspartame)
4. reduce our consumption of artificial food color
5. a major reduction in fast food
Basicially if I need a science lab to make it, we aren't going to eat it. I hope with being held accountable on a blog we can stick to it step by step. I will be posting recipes that work for us, and stuff I create!
<3
I decided I wanted to do more research. I wanted our family to eat better. I was determined to stop all processed food, and no fast food. Cold turkey. Can you guess why that didn't work? LOL We failed miserably. So, I started more research. I started following blogs like Fooducate, Super Healthy Kids, and Spoonfed. I loved the ideas they had. The plethora of information readily available. But I found at a few points I felt guilty about everything. By far Super Healthy Kids is my favorite. Its a good middle ground, for me. She has inspired me to make yogurt, and even try bread. Both of which have worked out amazingly. More recently I have discovered 100 Days of Real Food. But still her challenge intimidates me. Its crazy to think, I am afraid how I will survive without white flour and refined sugar.
With my trusty kitchen aid artisan mixer I have ventured into bread making. Usually I stick with 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white. BUT this week I bought vital wheat gluten. This will allow me to make a (hopefully) fabulous whole wheat bread! I currently make 90% of our breads. Everything from dinner rolls, sandwich breads, artisan bread, garlic bread sticks, English muffins and even naan and bagels. I make about 25% of our yogurt (mama needs a larger yogurt maker so I can keep up with demand), and I make most of our snack foods. Occasionally I cave, more lately than before. But when I do buy packaged snacks I try and stick to lara bars, rice cakes, mr, wheat, or freeze dried fruits and fruit leathers. Lara bars are by far the new family favorite. They make TONS of flavors but unfortunately our commissary only carries 6 of them.
Over the next few months I am going to work hard on remodeling our eating lifestyle. I have 4 major goals:
1. criticaly reduce our refined sugar consumption (white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar...)
2. reduce our refined grain consumption (white flour)
3. banish artificial sugars and sweeteners (HFCS, aspartame)
4. reduce our consumption of artificial food color
5. a major reduction in fast food
Basicially if I need a science lab to make it, we aren't going to eat it. I hope with being held accountable on a blog we can stick to it step by step. I will be posting recipes that work for us, and stuff I create!
<3
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Crockpot Italian sausage and peppers
This is a recipe I have always wanted to try and make! I have seen a few on Pinterest but today I decided to experiment. This is easy and super tasty! Even my anti meat 2 year old ate a whole sausage!!
Crockpot Italian sausage:
2 packs (about 10 total) of Italian sausage links, any variety.
1 of each red, green, and yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 whole onion, sliced (yellow or red work great)
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce ( I like Newman's own organic)
1 14oz can fire roasted tomatoes
In a crockpot add sausage, marinara sauce and tomatoes. Cook on low for 4 hours. Then at the 4 hour make dump in peppers and onions and cook another 4 hours.
I like waiting to the halfway mark before adding the peppers and onions so they don't get too mushy! But if you wanted to throw them in before heading out for the day I am sure they would be fine.
Tonight we decided to serve these on buns. I took a French roll, added provolone and mozzarella and toasted in the oven on 450 until the cheese was melted before topping with the meat and peppers!
Dinner was a success!
Crockpot Italian sausage:
2 packs (about 10 total) of Italian sausage links, any variety.
1 of each red, green, and yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 whole onion, sliced (yellow or red work great)
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce ( I like Newman's own organic)
1 14oz can fire roasted tomatoes
In a crockpot add sausage, marinara sauce and tomatoes. Cook on low for 4 hours. Then at the 4 hour make dump in peppers and onions and cook another 4 hours.
I like waiting to the halfway mark before adding the peppers and onions so they don't get too mushy! But if you wanted to throw them in before heading out for the day I am sure they would be fine.
Tonight we decided to serve these on buns. I took a French roll, added provolone and mozzarella and toasted in the oven on 450 until the cheese was melted before topping with the meat and peppers!
Dinner was a success!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Emma's half birthday!
Today my oldest is 4 1/2! I can not believe this little ray of sunshine is already 4 1/2!
My shortie is FINALLY wearing 3t paints with the waist band let completely out! But she can wear 4t shirts!
She is wonderful and caring girl and always smiling and showing off those i iconic dimples! She loves to help around the house, help her sisters, and learn to cook! Boy does this girl love to cook! If I am in the kitchen she is right behind me asking to help!
She also had a palate for wonderful foods. Her most requested meals are homemade pancakes, ribs, BBQ meatloaf, and shrimp! She also loves Brie, and goat cheese.
Homeschooling is going well and is learning to read sight words!
She is not a girl of numbers and that is where we butt head during homeschooling! But she is so independent and loves to work on her own.
This girl inspires me everyday with her strength. She gets her blood drawn with only a flinch, and loves to tell everyone about her CAH. Maybe one day she will be an activist, spreading the cause and educating the public!
For a mini celebration we will be making cupcakes!
My shortie is FINALLY wearing 3t paints with the waist band let completely out! But she can wear 4t shirts!
She is wonderful and caring girl and always smiling and showing off those i iconic dimples! She loves to help around the house, help her sisters, and learn to cook! Boy does this girl love to cook! If I am in the kitchen she is right behind me asking to help!
She also had a palate for wonderful foods. Her most requested meals are homemade pancakes, ribs, BBQ meatloaf, and shrimp! She also loves Brie, and goat cheese.
Homeschooling is going well and is learning to read sight words!
She is not a girl of numbers and that is where we butt head during homeschooling! But she is so independent and loves to work on her own.
This girl inspires me everyday with her strength. She gets her blood drawn with only a flinch, and loves to tell everyone about her CAH. Maybe one day she will be an activist, spreading the cause and educating the public!
For a mini celebration we will be making cupcakes!
For the Love of Fluff Cloth Diaper review
Second post today! Say what?! LOL
I LOVE to cloth diaper. The money it saves is wonderful. It's easy, and I am head over heels for the awesome WAHM diapers. Lucky for me (but not my husband's wallet) I have a WAHM diaper maker who lives across the street!
For the Love of Fluff is a Marine wife who loves to make diapers. And man does she do a good job! This past year she had a post Thanksgiving sale! Today I am going to review my favorite one of the 3 I ordered.
I LOVE to cloth diaper. The money it saves is wonderful. It's easy, and I am head over heels for the awesome WAHM diapers. Lucky for me (but not my husband's wallet) I have a WAHM diaper maker who lives across the street!
For the Love of Fluff is a Marine wife who loves to make diapers. And man does she do a good job! This past year she had a post Thanksgiving sale! Today I am going to review my favorite one of the 3 I ordered.
I dropped one of hubs cammie shirts. Honestly, I was nervous. What If I didn't like the diaper? What if she messed up the shirt and didn't get it made? I worried for no reason at all.
This diaper is perfect!
It was exactly as I expected and so well crafted!
Her Christmas turn around time was about 3 weeks. Very good for a custom diaper during the holiday season. I love the craftsmanship on this diaper as well. All of her materials are wonderful quality.
I only had one small "beef" with this diaper. It was a bit big in the legs of my skinny girl when I got it. Tristyn was only 5 months and in the 13th % for weight, but long. So we had some leg gaps which caused leaks. In short it was a little to big even on the smallest settings.
But now at 6 1/2 months this diaper fits like a charm! She wore it today
with no leaks, so she will definitely be in it way more now! It is just
too cute to resist! This is a nice large diaper that will surely grow with her well into her toddler phase and that excites me beyond belief since this diaper is very special to us.
Here you can see the wonderfully soft inside with the white PUL she added, and of course hot pink snaps!
I also love this little skirted ruffle she did for me. We had to have a girly twist on this cammie diaper!
Just a little posing for mommy!
Running away in her diaper!
For the Love of Fluff has wonderful prices, and they are made with excellent quality. She will go above and beyond to make you happy, and great customer service is very important!
She also makes some very cute applique diaper, microfiber inserts an unpaper towels! Go check out her Facebook page and tell her I sent you!
She also makes some very cute applique diaper, microfiber inserts an unpaper towels! Go check out her Facebook page and tell her I sent you!
Tasty whole wheat waffles?!?!
My kids and I have an obsession with all things breakfast. No matter the time of day when I ask, "what do you want to eat?" 9 out of 10 times the answer is pancakes and bacon! I love French toast. Especially with homemade bread! But our latest go to breakfast item has been waffles. I found a whole wheat waffle recipe on king Arthur's website and fell in love! We even swapped out the refined sugar for maple, and wow they hit the spot!
Adapted from King Arthur.
Whole wheat waffles.
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I make my own).
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or you can leave it out all together).
Directions:
1) Preheat your iron while you make the waffle batter.
2) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, honey/maple syrup, and butter.
4) Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. The batter will be a bit lumpy; that's OK.
5) Cook the waffles as directed in the instructions that came with your waffle iron.
Yield: 3 1/2 round Belgian-style (deep-pocket) 7" waffles.
Feel free to get creative! I make these in our waffle stick maker they are the prefect size for the kids and baby! Sometimes we mix in a cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries or even applesauce!
Adapted from King Arthur.
Whole wheat waffles.
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I make my own).
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or you can leave it out all together).
Directions:
1) Preheat your iron while you make the waffle batter.
2) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, honey/maple syrup, and butter.
4) Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. The batter will be a bit lumpy; that's OK.
5) Cook the waffles as directed in the instructions that came with your waffle iron.
Yield: 3 1/2 round Belgian-style (deep-pocket) 7" waffles.
Feel free to get creative! I make these in our waffle stick maker they are the prefect size for the kids and baby! Sometimes we mix in a cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries or even applesauce!
Monday, January 21, 2013
I've gone crunchy
I am not quite granola, but I may just get there. We cloth diaper, and love it. We prefer organic food (but locally don't have a great selection), also to try and make more food homemade rather than rely on the boxes alternatives. I don't buy sandwich bread. I make our sandwich bread, bagels and challah (it's the perfect breakfast bread!), granola, and even about 25% of our yogurt. It would be more but I just need to get a larger maker, the 4 jars don't carry is far. Lol.
Sometimes it can get overwhelming and we cave and have fast food or a can of ravioli but not often. But this is something I absolutely love doing for my family. Making meals, hanging in the kitchen with the girls and friends is just where I love to be. I feel like I thrive there.
Cloth diapering is an addiction. It's just it like it used to be! Once you get a good wash routine it really is a breeze!
We are also a baby wearing family! I have a carrier that we love! Tristyn has spent more time being carried (or spoiled according to some) than sitting in a stroller! I also love that my big tough Marine often volunteers to wear the baby!
The main reason we made these switches is because we didn't like what was being put into our food. Chemicals, preservatives and dyes that are banned in other countries. Artificial sweeteners, corn by products that perpetuate the over use, and over grow of corn.
This is the year we work harder to really get all that crap out of our house!
Right now I would say I am as crunchy as lightly miked cornflakes lol. Maybe one day we will be a bit more granola :)
Sometimes it can get overwhelming and we cave and have fast food or a can of ravioli but not often. But this is something I absolutely love doing for my family. Making meals, hanging in the kitchen with the girls and friends is just where I love to be. I feel like I thrive there.
Cloth diapering is an addiction. It's just it like it used to be! Once you get a good wash routine it really is a breeze!
We are also a baby wearing family! I have a carrier that we love! Tristyn has spent more time being carried (or spoiled according to some) than sitting in a stroller! I also love that my big tough Marine often volunteers to wear the baby!
The main reason we made these switches is because we didn't like what was being put into our food. Chemicals, preservatives and dyes that are banned in other countries. Artificial sweeteners, corn by products that perpetuate the over use, and over grow of corn.
This is the year we work harder to really get all that crap out of our house!
Right now I would say I am as crunchy as lightly miked cornflakes lol. Maybe one day we will be a bit more granola :)
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