Adventures in Mommyhood

For the first time in almost 8 years, I am working a 5-day week.  I usually work one day a week (which I LOVE and hope to never give up).  Sometimes I work 2 days a week, rarely 3 days a week and NEVER 5 days a week.  Well, it used to be never, because this week I'm putting in 5 days.  I was discussing this rarity with a coworker and she commented on how she wished that she had had the "luxury" of staying home with her children.  Luxury.  A very interesting word to describe quitting my job to stay home with my kids.  As a result of staying home and working 7 hours a week instead of the 24-40 hours I used to work, -I dye my own hair -My kids wear mostly used clothing -We save up for a family vacation... to Minneapolis or DesMoines, not Disney World or the beach. -I wear clothes that I don't really like, but can't afford to replenish my wardrobe the way I'd like to -I make my lattes at home. -We almost never eat out.  However, I don't know that &

I made something wonderful for supper tonight.  All five us us cleaned our plates.  This is what I made: Curtis Stone's Chicken Cacciatore. I followed the recipe exactly (except) I made a few tweaks to make it a little more family and budget friendly. -I used dried herbs -I used bacon instead of pancetta -I substituted a 28-oz can of tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes -I did NOT add mushrooms and olives (I would have loved them, but no one else would have) Curtis Stone recommends serving this with white wine, bread and Gouda cheese.  I served it with skim milk, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower and garlic mashed potatoes.

It has been a very strange winter, weather wise.  We have only had a handful of really, really cold days and hardly any storms.  We've been able to be outside nearly every day, which is wonderful.  But.  A severely cold, stormy winter forces a family inside for warmth, comfort and to find ways to pass the hours inside.  And I love days like that.  On Monday, there was no school and as an extra bonus we had rain, sleet, ice and snow!  They sky was gray, the weather was nasty and it was wonderful. Thanks to  White Chicken Chili  in the crockpot and frozen fruit cups  in the freezer, I had time to do this at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Usually this is the time of the day that is reserved for whining, crying and general chaos.

I have been making  homemade yogurt  for awhile now.  I have hated pouring the whey down the drain, feeling as though I was wasting something of value, but didn't want to save it with no plan of how to use it.  I did a little research and found out that liquid whey is great to use in baking bread.  You just substitute it for the water!  I did just that in my most recent batch of bread.  I used my  Basic White Bread  recipe, but I tweaked it by using half whole wheat and half white flour.  The recipe makes two loaves, and I always make cinnamon swirl bread with one of the loaves. Cinnamon Swirl Bread right out of the oven My niece and 2 of my children eating the cinnamon swirl bread.  I think my dog scored some crusts once they left the table. The Cinnamon Swirl Bread 10 minutes after coming out of the oven.  When my husband stopped by the house a few minutes later, he grabbed this chunk of it and that was that.

I have been using Bum Genius cloth diapers for 2 years now!  I am so glad I made the decision to cloth diaper my last little one.  I love thinking about how much money and land-fill space I have saved over the last 2 years.  I have used a few different soaps over the years... Amway, Charlie's, Melaleucca.  I've liked them fine, but I have always wanted to try making my own. Tonight, I made this recipe: 2 cups Borax 2 cups Washing Soda 2 cups OxyClean (I used the Walmart Brand, which was about 20% the cost of OxyClean) Mix them all together and there you have it!  Use 1 Tbsp for small loads and 2 Tbsp for large loads. The Borax cost ~$3, the Washing Soda was ~$3 and the generic OxyClean was $2.  There is enough to make at least 2 batches of soap. I also purchased a bar of Fels Naptha Soap so that I could make laundry detergent for our clothes as well.  The bar of soap cost about $1.30. Here's the recipe: 1/2 cup Oxy Clean 1 cup Washing Soda 1 cup Borax 1 bar Fels N

What a nice weekend.  The kids are in bed, my laptop is on my lap, and "Friday Night Lights" is on our TV courtesy of Netflix.  It's our newest, most favorite show.  As I think back to the weekend here are some things that I want to remember about it. -Staying home from the gym Saturday morning after my son begged to not go so that we could have a morning to stay home and "have nothing to go and do."  Good call. -Took my big girl on a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby where we picked out valentine-making supplies.  Bonus- all Crayola products were 30% off! -We made classroom valentines!  Beautiful Butterflies for Claire's Pre-K friends and wrestling valentines for Fisher's 1st grade gang.  Yes.  Wrestling Valentines.  Even Pinterest was no help in researching this project, so I had to go old-school and use Word and clip-art to get them done.  "Have a 'tough' Valenine's Day!" -Home improvements were made!  My husband made progress

 This has been true for me this year.  There is so much out there to be done. So many activities beckon.  My kids are in Awana and this week is the derby.  I bought them both the pinewood kits with blocks of wood to be designed, sawed and painted and raced.  They acted excited and said they wanted to do it.  I didn't want to disappoint them, even though I knew it was the last thing my husband wanted to do- make them each a car.  Spend hours on each of them.  The fact is, derby cars put my husband in a bad mood.  But "all" the other kids were going to race a car!  They would be having fun, and my kids needed to have fun too, right?? As the days ticked by, I knew the stress involved with crafting the cars was multiplying.  So we sat the kids on the couch on evening a week ago and talked about what making the cars would mean.  It would mean working with daddy on the cars instead of playing games, going to a movie, going skiing, wrestling, playing hide-and-seek, or whatev

I'm not sure "homemade" is the correct term for how I made handsoap.  I didn't use lye or lard or anything needed to create from-scratch soap.  I just took a bar of handsoap, glycerin and water and made myself a gallon of handsoap for about $5-$6.  To buy an equal amount of Meyer's brand liquid handsoap, you would spend $64.  I'd call that a good deal. First you take a bar of handsoap and a grater.  I used Meyer's Clean Day bar soap in the lemon verbena scent.  I couldn't find the bar soap at target, but I did find it at our local co-op.  I'm sure you can use many different types of soap, but I have read that using soaps with added moisturizers (Dove) can prevent the soap from hardening properly, resulting in soap that is too runny. Grate the entire bar of soap.  It takes a little muscle, but I did the whole bar in 5-10 minutes. Put the soap shavings in a large pot with 2 tablespoons of glycerin.  I found this at the Walgreen's Pharm