Change Your Mind

By Kris of A Small Life 

The brain is a breathtaking piece of work; even after functioning for 30+ years it remains plastic and able to form new connections-even grow new neurons from stem cells.  New skills can be learned but the brain needs to be worked like a muscle-USE IT OR LOOSE IT!  My brain has been undergoing some serious renovations, and while I realize it is necessary and will make my brain stronger in the long run, it is not a comfortable process.  It has left me questioning my previously assumed intelligence level, my general competence for life!

 Twelve years out of grad school, eleven years of motherhood, seventeen years of marriage and everything is pretty much on autopilot.  I had reached a point in my life where I did not read instructions anymore.  I had stopped doing anything new.  My recipes were the same; I had not learned any new crafts or techniques.  Both work and home-same old, same old.  Recently I have been learning to make bread, plant a garden, make jelly, can, and dehydrate food.  All of which are new skills and all require reading instructions!  Apparently it is a skill I have lost and retraining my brain had been a painful process.  

Earlier this summer I made some Ginger Rhubarb freezer jam (Rhubarb: More than Just Pies by Vitt and Hickman).  I skimmed the instructions but did not read the entire description.  The recipe called for a 2 inch piece of ginger-so I went into stir fry mode - diced the chunk of root and threw it in.  Reading further it said ‘remove ginger root with slotted spoon’.  Oops.  I now have some VERY gingery (and chunky) spread for my bread. 

Over the years I have told myself that ‘I am not a detail person’, and ‘I am not an organized person’.  I believe these to be self fulfilling affirmations.  I have allowed myself to pass on the opportunity to practice these skills (and they are skills –not something innate) and the cycle continues.   This is a cycle I am determined to stop.  Details are important; diced versus whole, was that tax bill due on the 1^st or the 15^th, what time was that Dr’s appointment? 

My biggest challenge right now is money management.  We have been very fortunate and it has been years since I have had to really budget, balance and reconcile.  So I have let the details go- I eyeball things.  Our medium range (2 yr?) plan is to be a single income family.  Eyeballing is not good enough anymore.  I need to know where we spend, how much we save, can we do this?  Uggh!  I get knots in my stomach thinking about it;  ‘I’m not good with money’.  It looks like I have another opportunity to train my brain a new skill.  Last night I ordered Quicken- my previous version was nearly 10 years old!  I will train this old brain another new skill.  Just like the canning and gardening, money management is a skill I need to help our family take the next step on our adventure!

my favorite kitchen gadgets

by Stacy from Little Blue Hen

It was my intention to do a non-kitchen post this week, I swear, but I am opening a show on Saturday and (after being sick for a week) I’m running about two days behind and gave up. I’m still about 12 hours behind where I want to be – in fact, this post was supposed to be up Thursday morning. But here we are!

While I enjoy both cooking and baking, as much from scratch as possible, I have some great kitchen gadgets. Not basics, like knives, wooden spoons or colanders, but appliances, special-use items and time-savers. You may disagree with some of these depending on your preferred cooking style, but this is what is constantly in use in my kitchen. These brands are mentioned only because they are what I own and know.

Kitchen Aid

I love my stand mixer! Making bread dough, cakes, whipped cream, pie filling, and so much more is a cinch in this stand mixer. Personally, I don’t have any attachments (grinder, juicer, pasta-maker) and still use mine all the time. Awesome tip (and gift!) from my mother-in-law: buy an extra bowl. When you make cake, you don’t have to wash the single bowl before you can make frosting, or you can make different batches of batter or dough right in a row.

Food Processor

While I honestly still slice-and-dice most of my veggies with a nice sharp knife, my food processor gets used a lot. I happen to have a blender/food processor combo which is handy for saving on storage space instead of having two separate units. The downside is that the food processor doesn’t have a very large capacity. The blender doesn’t get used that often, so if the motor ever dies, I will likely replace it with just a food processor. Hummus, pesto, salad dressing, dumpling filling, and peanut butter are all things that take mere moments in a food processor.

Microplane Grater

My Microplane grater is constantly in use. Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, or ginger are continually shredded by this wonder gizmo. I want a larger one for vegetables (think potatoes and zucchini) and softer blocks of cheese. I rarely use my box grater anymore.

Toaster Oven

When we first started dating, I told my now-husband that he seemed almost perfect, but he didn’t own a toaster oven. Two days later, he bought one. We do also have a very nice toaster, but I love using the toaster oven to broil a single sandwich, or to bake a small fish filet without having to wait for the oven to heat up. I even make mini-apple crisp in a small glass baking dish that fits perfectly inside the toaster oven.

Coffee Pot

Your weapon of choice could be a French press or espresso machine (we have one of those, too, but it gets saved for special occasions), but my drip coffee pot is lovely. It’s programmable. It makes coffee. It’s considerably cheaper than buying coffee at a coffee shop every day. I finally bought a reusable mesh filter to reduce waste (even though we compost paper filters, coffee ground, and tea bags), too.

Coffee/Spice Grinder

Perhaps a “duh” accompaniment to the coffee maker, but more. I use my electric coffee grinder for not just coffee beans, but for flax seeds, small amounts of nuts, and other spices. These cheap grinders don’t give the precision of burr grinders, but they do the job. Whirl a few teaspoons of rice inside to help clean out stubborn, pungent coffee dust.

While I have other useful gadgets, these are the top picks. My salad spinner almost made it in, but five was a nicer number. While I own one, I’m not much of a slow-cooker-user. Again, depending on your menu choices, you may have a much different  list.

What are your top five kitchen appliances/tools? I’m interested in hearing how other people prioritize! Again, no need to mention basic equipment.

SYTYCM

So You Think You Can Move?  Great!  Are you ready for the big day? Yeah!  If not, read on for some helpful hints, fantastic dos and a few definite don’ts.

A little background here.  I, Willow, moved with my parents several times during my growing up years.  I specifically remember eight places we lived before we moved from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay area when I was 17.  Then my parents proceeded to move once every year to year and a half until they retired (all job stransfer related and mostly state to state).  When I met The Professor I was already a veteran mover.  So was he.  It was a marriage made in moving heaven. 

Since marrying him, I’ve moved ALOT, again mostly job related. The first post honeymoon  move, to a transitional summer graduate program, was, shall we say, interesting.  And here lies my first bit of moving advice.  Three weeks before our move, I sat around the apt. wondering when HE would go get the boxes and start packing the books.  HE sat around wondering when I would begin picking up moving boxes and packing the linens and dishes.  A week before M-day, we argued.  Why wasn’t the other one doing the ‘assigned’ job? !  Then the light bulb went on.  Our packing and moving backgrounds were very different.  In MY family, the daddy organized the move and did most of the packing of non essential items.  In HIS family, the mommy was the organizer and executor of the move.  

Thus resulted: Rule #1:  Determine ahead of time who is in charge of doing what during the packing and  moving.

Rule #2: Make a schedule and stick to it. Don’t wait until the last minute, the week of the move, to start packing! You can never start too early, and you must realize that packing will take at least twice as long as you think it will.  Because, face it, we all have way more stuff than we realize. And things happen~ you run out of boxes, you run out of tape, someone gets sick.  This is especially important if you are a Homework Who Works.

Rule #3: Pack non essentials as early as possible.  Books. Out of season clothes. Photos and artwork, both hanging ones and albums. Even dishes and pots and pans you know you won’t be using.

Here I’ll interject BIG HINT #1: After you have packed the box, close it securely (tape it)  and label the contents in three places. ON THE TOP, ON ONE SIDE, and ON ONE END.

BIG HINT #2:  If you are moving very far, are using a moving service, or will have your boxes in storage for even a few days, make a list of the box contents and mark the box and list with a corresponding number.  It also really helps the movers if you write the room name (master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen)  where the box will be placed on arrival at the new abode.

BIG HINT #3:  When you are packing, look at each item and decide if you are going to keep it, whether you want to pay in money and energy for moving it.  If it’s not useful,  you don’t love it,  it’s ugly, you have no place for it in the new home, either throw it away or give it away.

Rule #4: Keep packed boxes in a designated place, such as an extra bedroom or the garage.  Make sure that the box pile is not in the way of where movers on moving day will be carrying furniture.

OK, then. You’ve got your boxes packed and ready for moving day.  When M-day arrives, make sure that you have baggies and tape and marking pens for keeping parts of furniture together, including all the screws, nuts and bolts that hold things together.  And make sure you have the appropriate tools for removing those pieces of hardware~ screwdrivers.

If you want more great ideas and encouragement for making your move efficient and easier  on everyone in the family and everyone who is helping with the move, I would highly recommend  looking at Flylady’s website.  www.flylady.net/pages_MovingTips.asp

When we moved ourselves in 2003 from Portland Oregon to Los Angeles, we moved “The Flylady Way”.  It was the easiest move we’d ever made.

The handy homemaker

By Judy of My Freezer is Full

I’m good in the kitchen.  No, really.  I’ve got gadgets galore- some of them much more useful than others- having the right tool for the job makes things go much more quickly.  But when it comes to doing things around the house, having the right tool is also important.  But equally important than having the tools is having the knowledge and willingness to use them.

I’m a firm believer that everyone should have rudimentary knowledge of using common household tools and that every home should have a basic tool kit- even apartment dwellers.  Essentials would be screwdrivers (both phillips and slotted), hammer, slip-joint pliers, a crescent wrench and a power drill (I prefer cordless/rechargeable)  with both regular drill bits and screwdriver bits.  Some would argue with me that a drill is unnecessary but it makes home projects go much more quickly.  I personally would add a level into that tool kit- but that’s just me (have you ever tried to mount a hanging shelf without one?).

I’m not saying that everyone has to be a Jack (or Jill) of all trades but having the knowledge of doing basic home repair is important.  There is something satisfying about being able to fix your own broken window, replace a window screen or fix a leaky faucet.  One of my co-workers was moaning about the bill she received from the plumber recently when she had called about a leaky faucet.  All he did was arrive, tighten down the cold water faucet and then sent her a hefty bill.  I asked her if she had tried to tighten it herself first and she gave me the strangest look. I don’t think that had ever occurred to her that she could even do something like that.

Growing up on a farm, I learned to swing a hammer at an early age and as I got older, I graduated into power tools: band saw, table saw and air wrench.  My husband wasn’t so lucky.  He grew up in the suburbs and his dad was not very handy and preferred to hire someone to do his repairs for him. I’m fortunate that my hubby is very much the ‘do-it-yourself’ type and taught himself lots of home repair techniques.  We’re both continuing our education with our recent home renovations on our new-to-us farmhouse.  I finally got to use our new compound mitre saw with a laser guide.  Pretty cool, huh.

With our recent move, our children have been learning lots as well.  They’re all good with hammers (some more accurate than others), our 15 year old daughter has become quite proficient with using the cordless drill to drive in sheetrock screws and they’ve all been doing framing or helping with it recently.  They know the correct names for tools and have for quite a while.  Even as young children they were the go-fers during projects.

If you’re willing, but don’t know how, there are many places to learn.  Your local home center can be a source of either information or frustration.   Ask questions, visit your local library, go on-line (you’d be amazed at what is on You- Tube) there are a great many step by step tutorials out there.

There are still some things that should be left to professionals or someone who at least knows what they are doing- for safety’s sake.  I’m a good helper when it comes to electrical work but I don’t have the knowledge to do it myself.  That, and the the thought of what could go wrong terrifies me.

In the reality of today’s economy, more people are turning to ‘do it yourself’.  Are you?

Give Myself a Break!

by Paulette of Smith Funny Farm

It’s Sunday evening. I have a post all written to submit tomorrow morning to this blog, but my mood has taken over and changed my mind. That post will be another day.

Working outside the home means there is so much less time to get things done at home. I look so forward to the weekends, and doing all the things I love in my new home, garden and with my husband. I’m a planner, so I always know exactly what I’ll do each Saturday and Sunday. And it almost always gets done.

This weekend consisted of shopping and errands on Saturday, with my hubby. We do this all the time, spend the entire day running around together. This Saturday was the CO-OP, grocery store, Farmer’s Market, picking up mail at the old house, running by Home Depot to pick up some things, then home to get things done around the house. That was the plan, and that’s the way it went.

Then came today. Today was planned as well…get out to the garden EARLY and get a second round of planning done. Shell 6 lbs. of peas and freeze. Bake zucchini bread and zucchini cobbler, make weekly wheat bread, clean the wood floors, wash the linens, make dinner from the garden, do laundry for the week. Not unusual for a weekend day.  These are things I really want to do.

What actually happened was we got the garden planted early. Then I took a nap. While my husband shelled 6 lbs. of peas. Then I got up, and he went out and spent the next 2 1/2 hours weeding the garden. While I did…nothing. I mean nothing, except for getting the linens into the washing machine.  They are still there, about 2 hours later.

I’ve felt guilty all day because I didn’t help with the weeding, my floor is dirty, I didn’t help with the peas, I have no clue what we’ll have for dinner.  It really makes no sense because I did work really hard for 3 hours in the garden, so it isn’t like I slacked all day.  But I feel like I did.  Why? Why has bugged me all day long?

For the past hour I’ve been telling myself that it is really ok.  I don’t have to meet every goal for every day.  I can even have a day when nothing gets done.  I’m human. I’m not expected by anyone else to be perfect, so I shouldn’t expect it from myself.  Give myself a break!

So now I’ve decided, after hours of being mad at myself, that it’s ok.  I’m going to take another nap.  I may get back up before morning, I may not.  I think it’s ok if I go cover my head up and stay there as long as I want.

Do you do this??? Am I a crazy lady???  Is it hard for you to give yourself a break when you have a down day? How do you get past it?

Monkey Bread

I had several thoughtful posts planned, but life is conspiring against me at the moment, so I’m going to post a recipe instead. I’d mentioned monkey bread in an earlier post. It’s one of my favorite things to make for a special-occasion breakfast/brunch. Reading the list of ingredients, you’ll see it’s not something you’d want to eat daily–okay, maybe you’d want to, but you probably shouldn’t–but it’s soooo tasty. And quite easy, too.

The Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a bundt pan. (You can use a tube pan as well, but the bundt’s prettier.)

4 small tubes buttermilk biscuit dough or 2 of the giant-sized ones (or a batch of homemade, of course)
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon +1 tsp.
1 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup to 1.5 cups butter, depending on whether you want a very buttery caramel syrup or a thicker one (I like it thicker. Your mileage may vary.)

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces (or make your homemade biscuit dough into lots and lots of small balls). Combine sugar, 3 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg and roll the dough balls in it. You can also put the sugar mixture into a ziploc and shake-shake-shake. (That might a fun job for a young helper or hovering spouse.)

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Heat together, stirring, until it’s caramel-like. Put half the sugar-coated dough balls into the bundt pan. Sprinkle with half the remaining sugar mixture and then pour half the syrup over the dough. Put in the rest of the dough balls and cover them with the rest of the syrup. Sprinkle on any remaining sugar. Bake for about 30 minutes–it usually takes 35 in my oven. Let cool a minute or two, then invert onto a large plate, letting the yummy caramel syrup run down and puddle around it.

I adapted this recipe from The Family of Rotary Cookbook, one of those ringbound fundraising cookbooks, put out by (you guessed it) the Rotary in my home town. My mom has a couple of recipes in it; this isn’t one of hers, though.

From Teresa, aka safirasilv

How do you keep a healthy home?

Written by Maria of Dirtundermynails

When I was younger, I was a vegetarian.  It lasted for 20 years!  I had no problem steering away from meat at the grocery store, served at a restaurant, or at friends houses.  When I started eating meat again it was a conscious choice, not a slip up.  The same can’t be said for sweets!  I love to eat them, smell them, bake them… anything to get that sugar taste on my tongue.  When I was a kid, my father use to go to the store almost every night a get a 1/2 gallon of Neapolitan Ice Cream.  I would get a bowl, my sister would get a bowl, and my father would eat the rest!!  Yes, we have a huge genetic sweet tooth in my family and unfortunately, I’ve passed it on to my daughter, Kaia.

I know that they aren’t good for my body!  I know the effect sugar has on my mood, sending me into a blood sugar roller coaster.  I know that prolonged sugar exposure in my blood can lead to insulin resistance.  I know that many sweets and candies have artificial colorings, flavorings, preservatives and other nasties in them.  Still, I have to fight myself to resist.  And I have to fight Kaia daily (sometimes hourly!) to resist.  “Yes, you’ve had enough sweets already today”.  “No, an ice cream sandwich is not a lunch food”.

When I go to the grocery store, I try to avoid the sweets.  If I break down I try to at least get stuff that is made with natural ingredients, and only small amounts.  Still, sweets get into the house.  The biggest breakdown in my ’sweets barrier’ is through the children.  Everyone wants to give them candy!  (At 3 months old, someone offered my son a lollipop!!  He doesn’t even have teeth!)  It’s a way of showing love.  Adults know that kids love candy; give it to them and it will make them happy and they will love you.  They give you lollipops at the bank, samples of sweets at the grocery store, heck, when I was a kid my dentist gave us candy!  Now, I’m one to talk, I know!  Kaia’s birthday party had enough sweets to cover the Empire State Building!  Still, my post postpartum body, my cranky attitude, and my roller coaster blood sugar have had enough!  I don’t want to have to fight this daily battle.  I’ve asked people not to bring sweets into our home, even at the risk of sounding like the over protective mom who only feeds her kids home made sesame bars as a treat, but the sugar still comes in.  Of course I still want to bake yummy goodies for special occasions, but there has got to be a happy medium that keeps the family healthy and happy.

Do you have this fight in your home?  What do you do?  How do find that balance to keep a healthy home?

Yesterday, I threw out all the not-so-healthy sweets in the house!  And I made some of these home made doughnuts ease the transition!  They are delicious!!  And the cool thing is that you can’t eat too many or the flax (which helps keep the bowels moving) works too well.  So, it’s incentive for me to only eat a few!  They are also fantastic for Kaia who needs help keeping her bowels moving!  Yay!  Healthy sweets that have a purpose

Fail!!

There are times that things just don’t turn out the way they are suppose to, regardless of how much time, attention, and effort we put into them.  There are a myriad of factors that we just cannot control.  We hate this fact. We rail against it and we stress out over it to the point that sometimes we kill all the fun of whatever it was suppose to be.  To some the fear of failing is almost paralyzing.  Sometimes we do not try something new because we are afraid of failing. Sometimes we swear off things because one time it just didn’t turn out right. What’s scarier is that some of this is getting passed on to the next generation.

Last year I had a great garden, which is funny because I put it in at the beginning of June ( a month or more behind everyone else here).  I didn’t have much time to really mess with it and it exploded with veggies galore. I kept thinking “Oh just wait til next year when I start everything indoors and have more time to plant…..etc,etc”  You get my point.  However this year’s garden has been a disaster.  A bunch of different things that could go wrong did. We have stunted corn, the yellow squash is fighting for its life and I’ve lost most of the pole beans.  While not everything has been a loss it has been hard for me to not to look at this and say “Fail!” Several times I’ve sworn that I’m tilling it up and never doing another garden.

I decided a few days ago to stop fearing failure.  Dont get me wrong, I’m not giving myself a pass on doing the stuff that needs to be done, not at all.  I’m just allowing myself to let go of the extra stress and baggage that this fear has needlessly brought into my life.   It’s not just the garden, it’s my whole life. (And no, its not easy) I’m accepting that it doesn’t have to be perfect all the time, it just needs to be done with love.

Once Upon A Time

This topic is far more extensive than what I will cover here.  Story telling (not ’tall tales’) has a rich past; for the longest time it was the only way history and important information was passed to the next generation.  Would you believe that a version of this (story telling) still exists today?  Watered down to be sure, but still viable.

I can remember reading fairy tales to my girls when they were younger or making up stories that began with “Once upon a time. . . “.  Not much thought went into from where fairy tales came until a few years ago when a friend recommended Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Estes.  This was a collection of tales I had not read before; however, it did get me thinking about how fairy tales came to be and the purpose behind them.  These tales were originally stories meant to teach some of life’s more difficult lessons, were often gruesome and most certainly not for children; passed down through the maternal line, discussing all manner of topics from discontent or relaying important lessons or information.  Think of it as a hidden code within the tale. 

Did you know that Cinderella as about 340 different versions/endings?  This site includes some of those variations including the one where Cinderella’s deceased mother comes back as a calf to help Cinderella.  The calf is killed and even in death, is still able to afford some assistance to her struggling daughter.  Oddly enough I remember this version yet cannot remember from where.  Perhaps it was my Belgium Grandmother that shared it with me; I do remember being very young when the story was told. 

Next time you pick up a book of fairy tales to read your children/grands, remember the original had, sometimes, a much different tale to tell…

~ Annette from the Ward House.

Morning Routine

By Joanna of Keeping Feet
I’ll admit it, I’m a morning person. I love being able to get up early and get stuff done before others have even started their day. On the weekends, I’m often up with the sun, and have 2 loads of laundry hanging outside before anyone else has stirred. During the work week however, my day looks different.

Here’s how my morning goes:

• Get up & ready for the day (~6:15)
• Let the dog out
• Fix lunch for myself & my husband
• Feed the dog & leave for work

I like getting to work as early as possible, around 7am, so I can leave earlier and have more time at home in the afternoon to work in the garden, get dinner ready, and do home-things. I hate that I’m losing these productive morning hours, when I’m motivated to do things around the house. Also, I know that I should be eating breakfast, and I do sometimes after I get to work, but not as regularly as I ought to.

How long do you spend at home in the mornings, for those of you that work outside the home? What does your routine look like?t