Ben's Eggnog

This is for Ben, our resident eggnog-lover. Unfortunately for him, I refuse to buy eggnog because it's triple (or more) the price of milk! Fortunately for him, I found a recipe and make it myself. Here it is:

Homemade Eggnog
5 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cups sugar
5 cups milk
shake or two of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a saucepan, combine eggs, sugar, milk, salt. Cook on medium heat (stirring almost constantly) for 10-15 minutes, or until it thickens enough to coat a spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and chill pan in a pan of ice water to help cool it quickly. Pour through a strainer into your storage container. Chill in fridge. If you like "fancy" eggnog feel free to add whipped cream and nutmeg when serving.

The Reason I Never Post Anything...

is named Logan. 'Nuff said.

Good thing he's so darn cute.

Who, me?

Health-o-meter

I wish I had a health-o-meter. You know, on some video games there's a meter showing how much "health" or "energy" your person has left. Then if you do something good, you see the health-o-meter go up, or if you do something bad, it goes down. (I do not actually play video games, but I have a 12 yr old son....)

I have been dragging lately. I want to get a lot done, but, I have zero energy. I feel like my health-o-meter is in the red zone. My mother has been anemic for the last 30 yrs, and on iron pills. I was anemic during pregnancy. Maybe I have whatever my mom's weird condition is and I'm anemic? Maybe iron pills would give me energy. Maybe I'm perpetually sleep deprived and just need some decent sleep once in a while. Maybe my diet is terrible and I need to lay off the cookies. Maybe I need to start taking vitamins. Maybe I could stand to lose 40 or 50 pounds. Maybe I need to force myself to exercise. Maybe I'm suffering depression. Maybe I'm just lazy. And cranky. Maybe (probably) it's a combination of all of these things, I don't know.

I guess it's time to start taking vitamins. Regularly, instead of the once-or-twice a month that is my usual. That would certainly be the easiest fix. If that doesn't cure me then I guess I need to work on the harder stuff. Exercise (although that might just kill me) and weight loss (ditto). Sigh...life goes on.

Bike Riding Lessons

*This post is actually from Aug. 23rd. I had saved it as a draft because I wanted to add a picture. The camera was dead but I videotaped everything. But...I have no idea how to get the pictures off there and onto here. Oh well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night 9 yo Natalie taught 5yo Olivia how to ride a bike. She probably could have done it loooong ago, but she has neglectful parents. Ahem.

So anyway, Natalie decided to do it herself! She was an AWESOME teacher, so patient & encouraging! I heard her tell Olivia "You just have to believe in yourself!" Awwww!  Natalie was giving her instructions, and prompting her on what to do. At one point as they passed by me, I heard Olivia say to herself "I just have to believe in myself!" Awwwww! Within 15 or 20 minutes, there was no stopping her. She was an EXPERT. She could make U-turns, go on and off the curb, and she was having a blast.

The next day my sister brought her 6yo over so Natalie could give her bike riding lessons, too. In no time, Olivia & Hallee were both zooming back and forth all over the street. I think Natalie was a little sad that they didn't need her anymore! Maybe she should go into business!

Refinancing!

We're joining zillions of other people taking advantage of super-low interest rates, and refinancing our mortgage. We're going from a 30 yr mortgage @5.25% (with about 21-22 yrs left) to a 15 yr mortgage @4%, a move that will save us tens of thousands of $$$. I figure that's worth the temporary aggravation of going through this process!

I had been watching interest rates for a while, and finally decided to take the plunge a few days ago. It has been a WHIRLWIND since then, gathering about a zillion documents they need. My advice to anyone considering doing this is to gather up as many documents as you can think of AHEAD of time. They needed the last 2 years of taxes, W2's, the last 2 of: pay stubs, checking account statements, savings account statements, stocks/bonds/whatever other liquid assets you have, retirement account statements, etc., homeowners insurance statements, HOA statements, & mortgage statements. We needed to sign a bunch of disclosures, the appraiser came (had to clean the entire house), and get everything overnighted to them - all within 48 hours of when we said "go." We are by no means done, but now is the easy part - waiting for them to do their part. They said it's currently taking around 45 days.

Every bit of interest you pay is money down the drain, money that lines someone else's pockets. I'd rather keep that money for myself!

Back to School

The kids started back to school this week! Natalie had made a paper chain and was counting down for weeks. (Needless to say, she was excited!) She's in 4th this year. Ben is in 7th and school's not as exciting in middle school. He's not looking forward to homework but he really needs the structure of school. Olivia started Kindergarten, so she was a mix of excitement and worry. Here they are on Day 1.

Ben on the way out the door. "I'm off to meet my doom" he said. He's getting pretty tall for 12 - I think he's about 5'2" or so. He doesn't tell us much about school or how his day went. His scout leader is always telling me about some funny thing Ben did or how much Ben enjoyed such-and-such an activity, but Ben rarely tells us anything!

Natalie on her way to the bus stop. I drove Olivia, but Natalie wanted to ride the bus with her friend. They've been best friends since they were 2. They were sad to find out they're in different classes. They've been excited to learn about Idaho history this year in school.

Olivia waiting for her first day of Kindergarten. She was all smiles - just beaming all morning, dancing around, happy as can be. Right after I took this picture, the teacher opened the door to let the kids in, and Olivia burst into tears. Luckily, she had a great day and was all smiles again when I picked her up. She told me all about Kindergarten, sang me the morning song, and chattered on and on about all the fun things she did. I'm so relieved that she likes it!

I hope they all have a great year at school and learn a LOT!

Woops.

I have been lax in posting things. Got into that trap of "I don't have anything worth writing about" and "I don't have pictures" and "I don't have time." I have started a dozen different posts and just left them as drafts. I'm going to TRY to post more, regardless of whether it's interesting, well thought out, has pictures, or whatever. I forget things that happen around here and need to write it down or it goes down the brain drain. In that spirit, this post is boring, has no pictures, but I'm posting it, baby!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Olivia is a sausage ADDICT. She thinks she needs it every single morning, even with cereal. (She does NOT get it every day, but she wants it.) And 1 yr old Logan is following in her footsteps. I happened across a recipe for homemade breakfast sausage and thought I'd give it a try. It's super easy - mix a few spices with ground pork, and there you have it. It's cheaper than regular sausage (The ground pork was $1.79/lb not on sale, (though I'll be watching for sales from now on!), throw in a dime or two for the spices.) and healthier too. Purchased sausage has MSG, corn syrup, preservatives, nitrites, etc., not to mention whatever "by products" they use. By making it myself I can control what's in it. (Next time I'm going to lower the fat content by mixing in half ground turkey breast.) And yes, there WILL be a next time. It's so easy that I plan to make a bunch and keep it in the freezer. And best of all, it's delicious!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage (from allrecipes.com)

2 tsp ground sage
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground marjoram
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 pinch ground cloves
2 lbs ground pork

Mix spices together. Mix in the ground pork. Form into patties and cook in skillet over medium high heat abt. 5 minutes per side.

I froze the extra patties uncooked, although I think next time I may cook them and then freeze them. (Then I can pull out one just for Olivia and microwave just til hot.) I will also freeze some one l lb chubs for when I make breakfast burritoes or biscuits & sausage gravy.

I plan to make my future batches with half ground turkey. I may cut the salt, and may try using real maple syrup instead of the brown sugar. I might also try putting fennel seed in. So easy to customize when you make it yourself!

Mad Scientist Girls

My kids are NOT afraid to experiment in the kitchen. I think that's a good thing...right? Yesterday 9 yr old Natalie and her friend Cate wanted to invent a snack. (With NO help, mom!) They seemed to have a s'more theme going on. They melted chocolate chips (in the microwave), and spread the chocolate on graham crackers and topped with colored sprinkles. Then they spread the remaining chocolate on marshmallows and sprinkled crushed graham crackers and colored sprinkles over those. They refrigerated them for a while and we had them after dinner. Pretty tasty!

Today their s'more baking theme continues. I came downstairs this afternoon to find them stirring another bowl of melted chocolate chips, and a container of melted marshmallow goo. They stirred them together and informed me that they wanted me to make a batch of muffins, and they were going to put a dollop of yummy goo inside of each muffin. After thinking for a minute, I suggested we whip up a quick batch of cookie dough, and stir the goo into the dough to make s'more cookies. They agreed, so I helped them make the dough and in no time they were ready to stir in their chocolatey marshmallowey goodness. Voila, YUMMY s'more cookie dough! The resulting cookies were rather flat, (they probably needed to be refrigerated before baking), but flat or not, they were delicious! Good job, Mad Scientist Girls!

They say that when they grow up, they're going to own a bakery together. I'll be the first in line!
Now Olivia (5) keeps telling me "Mommy *I* want to invent something, too!"  Maybe tomorrow she & I will have to invent something yummy in the kitchen, too.

Raspberries! Yum!

My uncle has a large raspberry patch. And he's nice enough to share! Lucky us! The other day my girls & I went and picked. About 20-25 cups worth. We got enough to gorge on, plus I made 2 batches of jam, and put 5 sandwich baggies full in the freezer. Hopefully we'll be able to go another time or two, because I'd like to put a bunch more in the freezer.  Raspberries are very healthy (and yummy) and I like to use the frozen berries throughout the year to put in jello, homemade ice cream, smoothies, muffins, etc. Thank you Uncle Robert!

Rotating Food Storage Can Rack - Build Your Own

(Posting this so it doesn't get lost in the dusty recesses of my brain...)
**This post contains various links for making food storage racks. I have been adding links as I find info I don't want to lose.**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I WANT one of these! (Or several, stacked on top of each other.)
Food Storage Can Rack (Watch this Youtube video) So so cool!

For a simple version, here are instructions for building small can rotators from cardboard - these would sit on your existing shelves.

Or if you want the real thing and know what you're doing, here are some instructions, or you can buy plans here. (I *think* this is the type in the youtube video above.)

Some free online plans: http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Rotating-Canned-Food-Shelf

Or, here's one for #10 cans, you would still have your "wall space" but it stores 200 cans. http://peaceofpreparedness.com/Resource%20Library/Emergency%20Prep/Canned%20Food%20Rotator.pdf

Here's a site showing how to make shelving to hold water barrels, plus rolling storage for #10 cans (or you could certainly do regular cans, too.) It has pictures and plans. (See links at the top of the site.) http://waterstoragerack.blogspot.com/

I might just have to figure out how to do this!

Warm Lake

We had a nice couple of days at my sister's lakeside cabin. The weather was cold and rainy, but didn't slow the kids down much. Ben loved going out in the kayak. He gave rides to all the littler kids. One day it rained every time he went outside, and stopped raining every time he went back inside. We told him he could make some money as a rainmaker someplace that has a drought. Natalie enjoyed kayaking with Jolie, and fishing with Connor. She caught 2 or 3 fish, Connor caught a couple, and Ben caught one. Olivia was happy to play with her cousin Hallee. It was a bit of work to keep Logan out of the fire, off the stairs, etc. but he had fun, too. Thank you Karen for inviting us!

Natalie braving a rainy day to catch a fish...

...and then proudly displaying her catch!

Ben giving Olivia a kayak ride on the beautiful lake. He wants to buy a kayak now.

Logan & Tyson watching birds & squirrels. The girls put leftover pancakes on the windowsill and they would come right to the window to eat.

Some of the kids playing games in the cabin.

We had lots of fun at the cabin! It was a great start to our summer.

Yummy Strawberry Jam!

Strawberry freezer jam is the BEST!!!!! I vowed a few years ago to never buy store-bought jam again. That stuff is awful. It is NOTHING in comparison to real homemade jam. And of all of them, strawberry freezer jam is the BEST!

To make a batch of jam, about 7 cups worth, you need about 2 lbs of strawberries, a box of MCP pectin, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, a cup of corn syrup, and 4 cups of sugar. Follow the directions in the box of pectin for quick freezer jam (uncooked.) Basically you clean and mash the berries, stir in the lemon juice & pectin, let sit for half an hour (stirring occasionally), then stir in the corn syrup and sugar. Put it into freezer containers (I use gladware containers) and there you have it. About as easy as it can be, and once you taste it you will NEVER be able to choke down Smucker's again.

Memo to self: MCP pectin and Sure-Jell pectin boxes look identical and cost the same. However, Sure-Jell requires about twice as much sugar per the same amount of fruit. Make sure to get the MCP. (I accidentally got a bunch of Sure-Jell last year when couponing, and am donating it all.)

I didn't take a picture of my jam before I stashed it in the freezer, so here's a picture I stole off the internet. You can almost taste the yumminess through the screen!

Camping!

Almost every year, we go camping over the Memorial Day weekend. We didn't go last year because I didn't want to take a newborn, so the kids were chomping at the bit to go this year. But it's been raining. And raining. And cold. And windy. And raining. And raining. So we weren't sure if we'd go or not. There was enough of a break in the weather, that we went ahead and did it. And it was great! A little chilly, a few light showers here and there, but the kind that blows over in 10 minutes. The kids had a great time with their cousins, we enjoyed having a borrowed camper for the first time ever (instead of our tent), we saw a deer, a wild turkey, a rabbit, and on the way home I saw an owl and a hawk (or eagle, not sure) swoop down and grab something at the side of the road. Fun, fun! Here's a few random pictures.

Our family May 2010

Kids & cousins having fun on the gate.

Logan was DONE with hiking!

Ben with his BB gun

Natalie & Olivia with cousin Hallee on the bridge

Who needs the great outdoors? Kids & cousins playing games in the camper.

Genealogy, I am Doin' it!

These are Rob's great-grandparents. I can definitely see Rob in these people! So fun! They had 11 children, the youngest was born when James was 67 and Adina was 48. Love it!

Memo to self

Memo to self:

Next year, start the garden seeds around the end of February/first of March. They will be the perfect size for transplanting in May.

Do NOT set the trays of seedlings on the trampoline. Even on a beautiful 65 degree day, the trampoline heats up enough to cook the poor little seedlings to death in a few hours.

Seedlings from the store are expensive. It really IS worth the effort of growing your own.

Get some craft sticks to label rows.

Save grass clippings to mulch between rows.

Edited later to add: Broccoli was ready July 12. Grow more next year.  It needs almost as much room as a tomato plant.

Success!

I made some cooked carrots the other night to go with dinner. Olivia ate 3 helpings and announced "I *LIKE* cooked carrots!" Success!

I am a slob.

Actually, it's not *ME* that's the slob, it's the rest of them. I feel like I'm always cleaning the same 100 things over and over and over. And yet I can't seem to get on top of things! Here is my great idea for trying to get a handle on the mess around here. A schedule. NOT an anal, rigid schedule, because that is *so* not my style, but more of a loose guideline for what I should focus on each day. Each day I'll try to do the normal stuff (dishes, laundry, pick up main areas, etc.) PLUS concentrate on a specific area of the house & try to get it presentable. Even if I just manage a few minutes in this "extra" area, over time it should make a big impact. That's the theory, anyway! (And I know I need to train my husband and children, and I'm working on it. But this is a concrete plan that I can try to focus on for now.)

Monday - Family Room/Eating Area/Kitchen
Dinner Helper: BEN

Tuesday - Kids Rooms/Organizing/Garage/Hotspots/Laundry caught up
Dinner Helper: NATALIE

Wednesday - Bathrooms, Entry/Hall/Stairs, Laundry Room
Dinner Helper: OLIVIA

Thursday - Kitchen/Eating Area/Family Room
Dinner Helper: BEN

Friday - Living Room, Playroom, under stairs, laundry caught up
Dinner Helper: Natalie

Saturday - chores need to be done by 10 AM.
BEN - Room, downstairs bathroom, own mess in computer room, cars when dad asks
NATALIE - Room, upstairs kids bathroom, cars when dad asks
OLIVIA - Room, playroom, cars when dad asks
ROB - Computer room, cars
ALISON - Master Bedroom, bath
Dinner Helper: OLIVIA

Sunday - Planning/Organizing - Plan preschool, plan family home evening, plan menu & shopping list, organize/file paperwork, bills, coupons, clean out purse/diaper bag, etc. Make sure Ben cleans out his exploding school binder.
Dinner Helper: DAD

Our Daily Bread

I started making all our bread around December, 2007. Since then, I've bought bread exactly *once*. The rest of the time, I've made it. Yes, even when it was 105 degrees outside. Even when I was 9 months pregnant. Even with a newborn. Why? It's MUCH healthier, cheaper, and a batch takes, oh, maybe 10 minutes (of hands-on time). Honestly, it takes longer than that to go to the bread store. A 3-loaf batch usually lasts us 5 or 6 days, and costs far less than $1 (for 3 loaves). Plus there's something really satisfying about making your own bread. (Not to mention the yummy smell & taste of freshly baked bread!) I make 100% whole grain bread - freshly ground whole wheat (I use hard white wheat which I get from the LDS cannery - white wheat has a milder taste than red wheat), oats, and ground flax meal. Lately I've been experimenting with adding other whole grains, like millet and triticale. I use fresh local raw honey, sea salt, olive oil, water, yeast, & wheat gluten. No high fructose corn syrup. No partially hydrogenated oils. No unpronounceable ingredients. And it is G-O-O-D!!

100% Whole Grain Bread:
3 cups warm water
1/3 cup honey
4 teaspoons yeast (I use bulk from Winco)
5 cups whole wheat flour

~Mix this together in my Kitchenaid, cover, and let sit for about 20-30 minutes, until double or so in bulk. This is the "sponge" and it helps to soften the bran so the whole wheat bread is light and fluffy.

Then add:
another 1/3 cup honey (lately I've often been replacing this with 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce)
1 Tbsp salt
4 Tbsp wheat gluten (really helps whole wheat bread become light and fluffy / -bulk from Winco)
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 more cups whole wheat flour (or a little more/little less - adjust til it's the right consistency) / (For this, I actually use 1 C old fashioned oats (bulk from Winco), 1/3 cup ground flax (bulk from Winco), and the rest whole wheat flour - enough til it's the right consistency)

Mix on speed 2 on the Kitchenaid for about 10 minutes. You want the dough to be slightly sticky. Cover with a towel and let sit til doubled in bulk. Divide into 3 pieces, make loaf shapes out of them, and put them in large bread pans sprayed with Pam. Cover with the towel and let sit til double. (Or about 2" over the tops of the pans). Cook in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Take out and bang pans on sides til the bread falls out. Put on rack or breadboard to cool. Once cool, put in bags. I put 2 bags in the freezer, and we use the 3rd. It's easiest to cut them the next day (or after thawing the frozen ones). Use a long serrated knife. I get 16 slices from each loaf.

Yes, it *sounds* like a lot of work, but as I said this is like 10 minutes of hands-on, and the rest is letting it mix or rise or bake. If you're home for a few hours anyways, it's honestly no big deal. Give it a try!

I use a Nutrimill Grain Mill and a Kitchenaid Professional 600 mixer. Both of them should pretty much last me for life, but if the Kitchenaid dies, I will replace it with a Bosch, which can handle a bigger batch.

This is my brain.

My brain is very tired. It keeps forgetting stuff. Important stuff, not-so-important stuff, stuff I wanted to remember, stuff I wanted to do, stuff I was going to cook for dinner, whatever. So... I am going to try to organize my brain here, and write down all my profound thoughts. (Don't worry, that shouldn't take long!)