Simplifying

I’m realizing more and more each day that as a family… we have TOO much stuff!

We are in need of some serious re-organization and simplifying! All the closets/cupboards/drawers in our house are in need of an overhaul!

Our top cubby in our Hall closet is a source of tension for Jason and I. When I leave something out or he doesn’t know where to put something of mine or Keira’s he puts it in the hall closet…. And lately he’s been shoving it in there an hoping that the doors don’t pop open! I’ve been ignoring the problem, hoping that it’ll just go away on its own, but we all know that isn’t going to happen! This past week we made a deal… if I took care of the dreaded cubby in the hall closet, he would add another shelf in the kitchen cupboard for me. That was enough to get me motivated, since the kitchen has been driving me crazy since we moved in 6 years ago!

I took everything from the hall closet and threw it in a huge heaping pile in the living room. I brought in the recycle bin and a garbage can and set to work. I started with all of Keira’s coloring books, activity books, puzzle books and decided to dedicate an entire shelf to Keira. Now, her play-doh, paper dolls, coloring books/crayons etc are organized and in her reach. I made another shelf for my books…. Not parenting books (those are in the bottom cubby), binders, photo albums, and Keira’s “work in progress” Baby Book. The Third shelf is dedicated to my sewing kit, Kleenex and iPod accessories. When I got stumped on where to put something, I’d leave it and come back to it. If I couldn’t think of where to put it, or what purpose was served by having it… I tossed it. There were a few items which I agonized over whether or not to keep them…. And in the end, I tossed them. I filled the recycle bin and an entire garage bag and it felt good!

Once I finished, I decided it was time to move on to the main bath. I went through the medicine cabinet and tossed anything that hasn’t been used yet this year. Things I had been holding on to “because they were a gift” or “because they were expensive” that I haven’t been using because I don’t like they way they feel on my skin…. Garbage. All those hotel bottle lotions that I grab, because you can never have too much hand lotion, but I don’t use cause they stink or because they are too greasy… Garbage! Stretched out pony tail holders… hmmm don’t I have short hair?Garbage! I consolidated all the bottles/containers I could, threw away everything I could and gave my bathroom a very long overdue ceiling to floor scrubbing! I don’t think it’s been that clean in at least a year… maybe longer. YIKES!

I have a list I’m working on of areas in the house which need major love. I am hoping to check at least one area off the list each week! Here are some of the area’s which I’ll be hitting in the next few weeks:

• The kitchen pantry has gotten way out of control! Too many spices, cans, boxes of pasta for too small of a space.
• The entry way closet is packed full of jackets the never get worn.
• The Master Closet is filled with clothes/shoes that don’t fit, are no longer stylish or I just plain old don’t like/wear.
• My dresser has become somewhere I just throw things into the drawers when I don’t feel like hanging them up. I also am the owner of entirely TOO many pairs of pajama bottoms, many of which I never wear or don’t fit.
• The office. I don’t even know where to start, but a major overhaul needs to occur!

Here's a picture of my pantry. It’s frightening to admit how disorganized it is, but I have a plan! I’m hoping by this time next week to report that I can check it off my list!

Menu Plan 4/26 - 4/30

I’m trying to be better about planning ahead for things… especially dinners! It’s so much easier to start the week out with a plan of attack for things. Here’s our meal plan for this week through Friday, cause once the weekend comes planning usually goes out the window!

Monday: Left over Pizza Chicago
Tuesday: Classic Chicken and Coconut Soup
Wednesday: Chicken Lyonnaise
Thursday: Steak, Garden Salad, Artichokes
Friday: Chili Verde and Spanish Rice with Garden Salad

I'm excited to start using my chicken stock so I tried to find 2 new recipes to try and 2 family favorites!

Another Kitchen Success!!

This weekend Keira and I made Bagels! They took a lot longer than I thought they would to rise, I think because we use 100% whole wheat flour, so we broke up our baking session over two days. Saturday, we made the flour and let the dough rise once and then we put it in the fridge for the night. Sunday morning, I set my alarm for 6am so I could get up and take out the dough and let it come to room temperature by the time we woke up and had breakfast.

After we made pancakes, the dough was at room temperature, so we added in our cinnamon, sugar and raisins. We then divided the dough into 14 little balls,weighing each one to make sure they were about the same size. We poked a hole in each one and tried to get them to resemble a bagel as much as possible and let them raise again.

I am so please with how they turned out! Keira loves them, of course. She still thinks they are doughnuts! If she grows up thinking that is what doughnuts are and doesn't eat a real doughnut... I don't object!

Bird in the Oven...

Here I go again doubting myself… for no reason!

I got home from work last night planning on making a delicious sounding recipe that I found on Recipezaar. When I booted up my laptop to find the recipe it froze.

Seriously! I don’t have time for this! I need to throw together the ingredients, chop up some veggies and get this beast in the oven so I can go enjoy Happy Hour with Shelle!

What am I going to do if I don’t know what the ingredients are?
I need a recipe!
I don’t want to screw up this beautiful bird, I need someone to tell me what to do!

OK, screw it, I don’t have time for this! Man up, Amber! Or rather Wo-man up!

So, I ran out to the front yard and grabbed 4 sprigs of Fresh Rosemary, 6 sprigs of fresh Thyme and 6 Fresh Sage leaves. I love my herb garden!!

I took the 3 of the Rosemary sprigs and 4 of the Thyme Sprigs and tied together and shoved them into the bird’s cavity. I pulled the skin away from the breast meat and took the 6 Sage leaves and placed 3 on each breast underneath the skin. (I remember this being something that Mom does to our Thanksgiving Turkey, and it looks beautiful when the skin has cooked and is a crisp golden brown with the Sage leaves showing through.)

I sprayed the bird down with a bit of Olive Oil and ground fresh pepper over its breasts. I then chopped up the rest of the Thyme and rub it all over the bird’s breasts and thighs.

I had some fresh fennel from the Farmer’s Market that I wanted to cook, so I chopped it up along with some red potatoes and put those in a casserole dish along with some olive oil, garlic and the remaining (now chopped) Fresh Rosemary. I set the bird down in the middle of the dish (pushing the veggie mixture to the side) and called it good! Nervously, I shoved a meat thermometer in and put the bird in the oven, set it to 350 degrees and left to go enjoy some girl time!

After enjoying a wonderful Strawberry Margarita (or two) it was time to come home to Keira and Jason and enjoy our family dinner….. and it was great! I was pleased with myself. I didn’t have an exactly list of ingredients and measurements to guide me through and I still made something that turned out quite tasty! Now I just wish I had taken a picture of it before we cut it up!

Tonight I plan on taking the carcass (sitting in the fridge in a stockpot of water waiting for me) and throw it in the crock pot along with some onion, celery and carrot…. And the thyme and rosemary which are still in the cavity. Mmmmmm, this will be my first experience making homemade stock, but I’m excited to try! Maybe I'll get over this whole low self esteem in the kitchen thing one of these days too!

And the winner is....

Me? Really! I'm in shock! I never win anything, but that's changed now!
I'm excited for it to arrive in the mail!

Garden Update

After spending the better part of the day pulling weeds I thought it was time to take some pictures of garden. I'm so excited with how much everything is growing.

We finally have little corn sprouts!

Keira's very excited to point out

the little strawberries

that are starting to grow on her plant!

I discovered that I'm off season with our broccoli, but they are still growing!

Look at all those beautiful carrots! I can't wait to sample them!

When I started the garden, I thought it would be a fun little experiment and something that Keira would enjoy. I thought that it would be good for her to learn where real food comes from! Little did I know how much I would enjoy everything about it! Everything... the getting dirty, the weeding, the anxiously awaiting sprouts to make their appearances, the smiles and pride on Keira's face when she shows off our garden! It's been such a great experiment for me!

Baking

While we were visiting Las Vegas, Keira fell in love with Lindsay's Bagels. I've decided to try making some homemade bread. I always doubt my abilities in the kitchen when trying new things. I am afraid I'll make a mistake... afraid that it won't turn out like I imagine it to. I don't know why I just can't trust myself to succeed, I always do.

I had a great time making Carrot Cookies with Keira while waiting for the dough for the bread to rise. Finally it did and once the bread was out of the oven...

it was a huge hit! Keira loves it!

Articles to read

I've been coming across several articles that I want to read... and was trying to figure out how to keep track of them. I thought I would share here so everyone can benefit from my list.

http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Kitchen-Transition.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/Ancient-Dietary-Wisdom-for-Tomorrow-s-Children.html

http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/Home.html

I also wanted to keep track of this website... as it looks interesting:

http://www.threestonehearth.com/

How do Working Mom's do it!

How do other moms working outside the house keep on top of everything! It seems that the more I do... the more I have left to do. I haven't mastered the art of staying on top of everything.

If the laundry is washed, folded and put away in the same day it's a miracle (or Jason did it)!

If the garden is weeded.. chances are that dinner is going to be late to the table.

I'm trying to figure it all out, and thankfully I have a supportive husband who isn't above doing dishes, washing the laundry, and dusting the living room! He's wonderful.... otherwise, we'd be living in a pile of dust bunnies and dirty dishes!

I'm trying to figure out a way to simplify our lives and live healthier. I used to follow the Fly Lady program and it was amazing how easy it seemed to keep the house clean. Of course, this was pre-Keira so we'll have to see how things work now. I think it's time to get out my Fly Binder and update a few things and start "Flying" again.

Time flies when you're....

going crazy, having fun, traveling, gardening and working.

Recently, Keira and I took a trip out to Las Vegas with "Broken" Grandma Dub in tow to pay a visit to WLAH... aka Wyatt, Lindsay, and Addison and Huckleberry Dog! I say "Broken" Grandma, because I was "Amber the torturer" and picked up mom from the hospital after her hand surgery and put her in the car to immediately drive out to Vegas. I mean really... what better way to recover from having your finger bone shaved down and 2 pins put in your finger than by jumping in the car for a 10 hour bump filled drive!

In all seriousness though, I thought we should take advantage of Mom's time off work and my Holiday (Good Friday) and go pay a visit to Keira's favorite cousin... and two of my favorite people. When we planned the trip, I didn't think Mom would go directly from hospital gurney to passenger seat! I thought she might have a couple hours to come to and change her mind! We were both wrong though... her surgery started several hours behind schedule and that's exactly what happened!

Since we got such a late start, hitting the road at 8:36PM, we decided not to push it to Barstow and stayed the night in Bakersfield. Mom and I, in all our recent travels, have found that we have pretty good luck with Comfort Inn and Comfort Inn and Suites, so that is how we determine what city we'll rest our heads in.... but when we arrived to the GPS navigated Comfort Inn... we discovered it was a Baymont Inn. We decided to chance it anyway, since it was close to 1AM and the room rate was just $75 for the night. Wow, it was a nice room... comfortable beds, nice sheets, pillows, towels. There was a fridge, microwave, tv, in room internet, and a continental breakfast in the morning. There was also a little putting green outside our window. This will definitely be somewhere we'd stay again if we decided to break up our drive (and we did on the way home)!

We arrived at WLAH's house in what I think was a record time. Since it as a work day, Wyatt wasn't home, but Huckleberry, Addison and Lindsay we happy to greet us. Lindsay is always such a great hostess! She is quite the homemaker and has the most delicious recipes picked out for our stay! If only I ate that way at home every day.... I'd be fit and healthy and very satisfied! During our stay we enjoyed the following, Pecan Crusted Chicken with a beautiful salad, Sprouted Bean Chili, Salmon, and Rack of Lamb. I had never had rack of lamb before... I was a little nervous about what it would be like, but I loved it! I think Keira loved it more than any of us! She mush have had 4 cuts all to herself! At one point Wyatt looked over at her as she was taking a bite off the bone... he said she had her eyes rolled back in her head and looks like a great white shark devouring it's prey! I was glad that Keira was able to experience trying something new... and that it was a favorable experience for her! I do think though, that Keira most enjoyed the homemade bagels Lindsay had.... eating 5 in one day!

Easter Morning, Lindsay discovered during her morning walk with Huckleberry that the Easter Bunny had paid Keira a visit! Thanks Lindsay!! Keira was so excited to walk down to the park, finding treasure filled eggs every 5 feet to fill up her basket with! At that park she found egg shaped chalk, beautiful dress-up necklaces, and a hopping chick. Who knew that Easter was so exciting! I love these magical moments in her life!

We decided to break up our drive home and left Vegas after Easter dinner. On our way home we decided to stay in the same hotel in Bakersfield, knowing that the rooms were nice and the price was just right! We had a great drive... very uneventful. We mostly missed the high winds that were on the forecast and only had a few minutes of heavy downpour! We arrived home early enough on Monday that we were able to spend some time with Daddy, Grandma and Papa P before Keira's bedtime. All in all... when all is said and done it was a good trip. We had an uneventful drive, a nice visit with family, and good food in our bellies.