Saturday, February 1st, 2014
Sheese, we got a new lap top for us to share and I am NOT used to this keyboard. It seems to be more to the left and the keys have to be pushed a bit harder. Convenient... yes, frustrating...yes. I feel better now....
One of my other frustrations is getting my girls to eat better and it also has been to try and get healthier options as well as some protein in their breakfasts. My lovely mother cooked up an entire package of bacon one week while we were staying at her cabin so that all she had to do was get it out of the freezer and pop in the microwave and warm up. Genius! 40 secs over 20 minutes! So I came home and began to do that on weekends. Then I can give her one or two pieces of bacon at breakfast before school! I got smarter after reading the 100daysofrealfood.com blog on facebook as she does something similar. She makes ahead and freezes muffins so I made a big batch of buttermilk biscuits using wheat flour (tastes good, not as good as regular, and heavy!) so I froze them. I pull out a couple the night before and warm up in the microwave or I just set them out on a pan and then stuck in the toaster oven on the toast setting and they were perfect. Monkey loves them with some butter and apple butter. Lawyer doesn't like them but she is still a work in progress. This also has worked well for our GF pancakes which Lawyer and I love but Monkey says they are too dry and big. I need to figure out how to make them thin and small. Hubby doesn't know how to get them smaller as he likes his thick dripping with butter, which I also happen to like and he cooks them for me. I love a good challenge...
Last night I made homemade tostado,s but they are still not right. My theme was Mexican last night and I knew Lawyer wouldn't eat the meat so I made a cheese quesadilla for her. Plus we made a new salsa recipe as Lawyer loves salsa even when I told her she is eating tomatoes. It needs more cilantro so I am hoping that the flavors have melded together better over night. My issue with the tostados is I have to figure out how to get the corn tortilla crispy as the pan method isn't making it crispy enough, more chewy instead. Could be my fire temp or amount of oil, not sure...have to tinker a bit more. Anyway, I always have left overs so I used the meat to make burritos for Monkey and last night I just froze the meat for taco's or burritos another day. I have discovered that Monkey likes her burritos crispy and not soft so it really wasn't the meat mixture as it was the texture. With this idea of freezing leftovers, I have not had to cook much as we are still eating tomato and butternut squash soup, lasagna, and mexican chicken spaghetti. I have a nice variety of meals but I want to make sure I keep using up my meals so I am not stuck with hot food in the hot months. I love that I don't have to rush to eat leftovers for a week by being smart for a meal for another day. What was I thinking all of these years???
My newest idea that I got from one of the many home-school sites I follow was using a grease board to lay out actions/chores for the day for each kid. I bought the boards and different color dry erase markers for each kid. I also bought different color boards as well. Now I line out how many chapters a day they have to read and any school work they need to do. I have also begun to make them help with laundry. I wash and dry it then I dump it on their bed and they have to sort it out for me. I come back and hang it back up b/c they are too short to hang it plus I have a system I prefer to help me rotate thru their clothes. It takes them forever but it allows me to do other things like start a new load or sweep while they prep it plus it gets them used to helping and taking care of the house and things. They grumble and it isn't perfect but it is one less step I have to deal with.
Today my hubby went for a massage. He dealt with a kidney stone last week where he made two trips to the ER. What a way to test your new insurance! Anyway, he came home from work with pain and long story short by 2nd trip Monday he had plenty of pain meds trying to get his pain controlled. He hopes he passes it but he stays tense from intermittent pain bouts. So he went for a massage today as his back seizes up if he doesn't and he came home wreaking of peppermint oil. We had a funny laugh as he was supposed to go to get a haircut after his massage. After he got in his truck he was overwhelmed with the smell of peppermint and he can't smell all that well! He decided going to a place where typically only men go to get their haircut the last thing he wanted was to smell like peppermint and try to be manly. Why that mental image made me laugh until I about peed is a mystery. Anyway, he came home to shower and then go back and get a haircut smelling a bit more manly. He was also wonderful enough to go pay our storage bill and take a few pictures of our camper as we are wanting to sell it. He changed trucks so now his truck is too small to pull it. So our little money pit is our project to off load this year.
I am trying to simplify my life. I want to purge anything that we haven't used or is not worth keeping for later. The camper fits that bill as we don't use it even when we could tow it. We need something smaller so we can pull it easy and not have to pay to store it. I have managed to pay many things off this past year and I don't want to add back to it. After having to replace all our appliances over the past two years and upgrading my kitchen after a hot water heater leak, I am trying to downgrade so when an emergency does happen, I have the means to get around it and not go back into debt again! I want to upgrade my ridiculously cold bathroom out of the 90s into 2014. I need a new counter top, tub, shower, tile, and paint. Many of which we can do ourselves as far as demo but we haven't had time to look much and decide what we want to replace it with. Plus it has been so cold this winter I am not keen to start demolition in an already cold bathroom. There is always tomorrow...when we thaw out!
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