My Organized Kitchen...In Pictures!

This is my kitchen. It needs some decorating in a big way...all in due time! But for now it's organized! :)

Back in September I shared that I was reorganizing my kitchen. I also promised that I would share the results of that endeavor when I was done. Oops! So I guess this is one of those better-late-than-never posts, hehe.

When we moved into our house, I did a quick stashing of stuff in cabinets as I was unpacking, fully intending to organize shortly thereafter. Well, we found out I was pregnant with Jeremiah just a few short weeks later, and with morning sickness, etc. not only did organizing not happen--it got even MORE disarrayed.

So when I started this project, my primary goals were:

• Get anything that I don't use in the kitchen out of the kitchen,
• Put anything that is used very rarely in the hardest-to-get-to spots, saving the easy-to-reach spots for everyday stuff,
• Find a way to fit some kitchen appliances that I was storing in the basement back in the kitchen so I would actually use them,
• and finally put everything as close to where I use it as possible

So on to the before and after pictures...

My kitchen is quite large, but I have a very small pantry for a family of 9. I solved this problem primarily by converting a larger closet in our basement into a pantry for canned goods, etc. But I still had all sorts of half-used packages of random stuff in my pantry, plus the basic staples like sugar, flour, and the like.



Here it is today. Now, it doesn't look all that different, but I moved most of my staples and made room for my rice cooker and big stock pot that wouldn't fit in any of my other cabinets. The white bin on the bottom right holds our rather substantial tea collection. (Yes, I have a bunch of kids who are big tea drinkers. Must be that little bit of English blood in our family line.)



This cabinet is over a desk area, next to the fridge, and faces the island. It had become a catch-all for all sorts of random stuff, and was the home for all those tea boxes.


Here it is today. I moved my pantry staples and baking supplies into appropriately-sized Rubbermaid containers, and labeled them. I LOVE this set up, as I can find everything quickly and easily, nothing gets hidden behind anything else, and it's accessible to the island, where I do most of my prep work for baking.

(Side note: I drooled over those Tupperware Modular Mates for YEARS but could never bring myself to pay $20-$30 each for containers, especially considering how many I would need. The Rubbermaid ones above are the same idea, and were purchased at Wal-Mart for about $3 to $6 each depending on the size. LOVE them!)



This is the cabinet next to the previous one...it also collected random stuff, and held all my cookbooks.



Today, this cabinet holds my larger bins of stuff like wheat berries, flour, cornmeal, powdered milk, etc. The middle shelf currently holds ziplock bags, although I want to put more of the Rubbermaid bins there eventually.



This is my spice cabinet. It is above and to the left of my stove.



The front section swings out on hinges and has storage on the back side and then shelves in the cabinet behind it as well. I love my spice cabinet!! It didn't need much work--just moving some of the stuff that was making it a bit overcrowded.



This cabinet is above and to the right of my stove. It held overflow spices, as well as other random things that come in bottles and jars.



Today it houses the cookbook collection, and a few things I don't need often that don't fit in the next cabinet since they are too tall.



Moving one more cabinet to the right is my corner cabinet. I don't have a before picture of this one, but that bottom shelf held all my china--which I use maybe 2-3 times a YEAR right now. I have a harder-to-reach cabinet above my fridge that was full of silver serving pieces that I use even more rarely (read: never) so I put all of those in the attic and moved my china to the cabinet above the fridge. Then I moved all those extra spices and bottles into the bottom shelf of the corner cabinet, right above the counter where I typically prepare stuff that's being cooked on the stove.



Here it is closer-up. It's not a perfect solution since it's deep and I sometimes have to dig for things, but it works.

I have other cabinets for dishes, etc., but since I didn't need to reorganize those I don't have pictures. Overall, I love my new set-up and find that it is not only tons easier to prep meals now, but it's also easier to have my boys help me in the kitchen or even cook stuff themselves, since everything has a definite place and is easy to find!

Little Mommy

Whoever said that girls act like girls and boys act like boys only when we train them to do so was wrong. Totally.



Since little Jeremiah arrived on the scene, Miss Joanna's favorite past time is seeing, holding, hugging, and kissing "her" baby. She is such the little mommy. She brings him diapers, bottles, and toys constantly, whether he wants them or not!



She loves to give him hugs and kisses. The boys, while loving in their own ways, were NEVER like this!


MY baby!!


Sweet kisses...



"Eye!"






Josiah gets in on the baby love as well--after all, Joanna can't get all the camera attention!

It's sweet to see Joanna and Josiah loving on their baby brother. One, it makes for adorable photo ops and two, it's about the only love going on here among the kids these days. Jon and Jordan seem to have some sort of battle going on that results in pretty constant bickering between them, Joseph grumps at all his brothers lately, and Josiah picks on Joanna every chance he gets. I'm SO hoping this is just "new baby adjustment" and that all will be back to normal soon. I'm thinking I might just have to make everyone hug everybody else multiple times a day, while reminding them that they need to LOVE each other (or else!!!) Think it'll work?

On an unrelated note, after posting about needing ideas to use up eggs yesterday, I got a suggestion to make French toast. (Thank you, Linda!) Not being one to do things the easy way, I made this recipe of homemade challah bread last night, since it makes utterly fabulous French toast. I'd never made it myself before. Probably not the best project to start at 8:30 p.m. (it takes about 3 hours with rising and cooking times) but it turned out quite nicely:



I used up 15 eggs--5 for the bread itself, and 10 making it into French toast. I think this will make the breakfast rotation, if I can make and freeze a bunch of the bread in advance. It was delish!


No pics of the final product--it got scarfed down as quickly as I could get slices off the griddle!

I have 2/3 of a loaf of challah left...I'm thinking it might make a tasty bread pudding!

I'm a List-making Fool!!

Now that we've started back to school, it's time to get (re)organized! There's something about a new school year that makes me want to revamp absolutely everything possible about our day-to-day routine. This year, that goes double. After moving last fall, immediately finding out I was pregnant again (before getting organized in our new space) and now starting this school year with a new kindergartener AND a new infant, I'm drowning in the chaos!

So I'm making lists like crazy: home school checklists for myself and the boys, menu lists to simplify shopping and meal times, chore lists for me, chores to train the boys in, lists of craft projects I want to do this year, even lists of things I want to blog about! *grin*

Now, I'm not claiming that many of these lists are actually being implemented all at once here, but it's a start!

My primary list-making obsession focus this week is making a set weekly menu for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, then using that to create a master shopping list that will cover those meals for the whole month. In other words we will eat the same breakfast every single Monday, etc. I'm hoping that this will significantly simplify shopping and meal prep, and also help me cut down the grocery budget by knowing exactly what to stock up on.

I've got a basic list going, which I'm sure will need tweaking as I actually put it into action. It'll be a process to make sure my meals are nutritionally balanced throughout the day and to see how much of each ingredient we actually use in a month. I have a feeling that's going to be eye-opening for sure. My bunch can EAT!!

Here's my (very general) plan so far:

Monday--breakfast-scrambled eggs, fruit, bread*--lunch-baked pasta (pasta, sauce, mozz. cheese), veggie
Tuesday--breakfast-oatmeal, fruit--lunch-ham or turkey sandwiches
Wednesday--breakfast-cereal w/milk, fruit--lunch-hummus with whole wheat pitas and veggie dippers
Thursday--breakfast-scrambled eggs, fruit, bread*--lunch-grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup
Friday--breakfast-oatmeal, fruit--lunch something with eggs? maybe a quiche or egg salad sandwiches?

*the bread item can be toast, pancakes (I cook extras when I make them on Saturdays), muffins, bagels, etc.

It's still pretty general. I think I want to make it really specific, so I can have an exact shopping list that repeats every week. The other challenge I have right now is trying to incorporate what we are growing ourselves, so there is no waste. We have large quantities of a few different kinds of veggies, and we're also getting about 7 dozen eggs a week. I'm obviously in dire need of some creative ideas for using up eggs, lol!

Once I get my menu plan and shopping lists finalized, I'll be sure to share them--and my other lists-in-the-works, too! :) I'd love any feedback on easy (and cheap!) breakfast, lunch, and snack ideas as well...or any ideas on what to do with all these eggs!

Pickles!

We are finally getting an abundance of cucumbers from our garden, which means, of course, it's time for pickles! My helper Jordan has been asking if he could be the one to make them, so a few days ago we bought the required spices, gathered up our cukes, and Jordan started slicing away.



Jordan says his favorite part was using a sharp knife for the first time!


He cut up a lot of cukes! He's a diligent little guy (when he wants to be!)


Adding the spices to the jars...


Loading up the slices...


Proud boy (and daddy) with his 4 jars of pickles





These are refrigerator pickles, so they don't require any actual canning skills, lol. We've already made a second batch of 4 jars, though, and my refrigerator will only hold so much. I guess learning to can will be next on our list of skills to conquer!

By the way, the pickles are YUMMY!! :)

Menu Plan and Just for Fun...My Top 8 Fave Kitchen Appliances!

It's Monday again, so time for a new weekly menu! And since just posting a list of meals might be kinda boring, I'm also going to share my SUPER-EXCITING line up of cool kitchen tools! Woo hoo!!!

Okay, to be perfectly honest, super-exciting MIGHT be just a tiny bit of an exaggeration. ;) But if you, like me, cook for a LOT of hungry people (and often), you just might find this helpful!

I have to say that last week's dinner times went SO MUCH more smoothly with a meal plan. I knew they would, since that's worked so well for us before. I should have been doing this for the past 5 months. Doh! Why is it that when things get hectic, we let go of those routines that help us keep our sanity?

Or maybe that's just me...

We had a couple days where we were out and didn't use our planned dinner, so I have 2 dishes carrying over this week. So without further ado, here is this week's plan:

Menu February 28-March 6
Monday--Beef and veggie soup, garlic bread
Tuesday--Aztec chicken (crock pot)
Wednesday--Beef stroganoff over egg noodles, green salad (freezer meal)
Thursday--Pork roast, baked sweet potatoes, green veggie
Friday--Fried chicken strips, french fries, green beans, birthday cake (Josiah's 3rd!)
Saturday--Spaghetti w/meat sauce, salad (make quadruple batch of meat sauce to freeze)
Sunday--Home made macaroni and cheese, veggies, salad

Just for fun, I'm going to show you all my fave kitchen servants, er appliances. When you're trying to home school, keep track of preschoolers and toddlers, keep a house clean, and cook most meals from scratch, you can use all the help you can get! I can't afford to hire someone to cook for us, so investing in some hard-working, time-saving appliances is the next best thing!

First on my list...my trusty crock pot! This is definitely the busy mother's kitchen friend! I think this is also my oldest appliance, received as a wedding gift almost 13 years ago. It's not as pretty as it used to be, but it still works as well as ever!


Sadly the crock pot will only make enough for one meal with our family size, so several years ago we added an 18 qt. roaster oven. This is my go-to tool for making quadruple batches of spaghetti sauce, chili, etc. or for roasting 2 chickens at a time. Since I love the convenience of cooking in large quantities for the freezer, this has become a favorite!


Okay, y'all, here is my hands-down favorite appliance EVER! My Vitamix blender! Yes, this was a big splurge cost-wise, but so so so so so worth every penny! I use this all. the. time. for great smoothies, home made hummus, baby food, and many other things. I also have the dry container, which I use to grind wheat berries into flour and grind coffee beans. This thing gets a LOT of use!!


My other splurge item...my Bosch Universal Plus. This is an upgrade from my old Kitchen Aid stand mixer which I loved, but we outgrew its capacity. I can make enough dough for 6 loaves of whole wheat bread at once in this thing, and I also use it a ton for large batches of cookie dough, pizza dough, etc. LOVE this!


Okay, so this isn't really a big time-saving device, but since I love a good cup of coffee in the morning, I HAD to include my coffee maker. It's nothing fancy, one of the cheaper options from Walmart actually, but it gets the job done!


My boys and I get a big kick out of this...remind you of any evil guys from the Dark Side?

"Luke, I am your father's coffee maker..."

(Okay, or maybe we're just kinda dorky around here!)

I used to own a full-sized food processor and NEVER used it...I couldn't stand cleaning all. those. parts. A few years ago, I got this little gem...I really only use it to chop onions, green peppers, and carrots, but trust me, that's more than enough to earn it a spot on my favorites list. I'm one of those who cries, no WEEPS, when trying to dice onions. There's a time and place for getting all teary-eyed, but dinner prep time is NOT the most convenient time for that! That's what sappy commercials with babies and puppies are there for.


LOVE this one...my electric griddle! This was a gift 2 Christmases ago (thank you Grandmommy and Granddaddy!) and I honestly don't know how I lived without this for so long. Can we say quintuple batches of pancakes for 6 hungry kids? Well, now we can! :) I used to make 3 (oddly shaped) pancakes at a time in my biggest skillet...now I make 8 perfectly round ones in the same amount of time! This is also fab for making everyone's grilled cheese sandwich at the same time.


Last but not least on the handy kitchen helper list is our latest addition...a rice cooker. I'm awful (HORRIBLE, I tell you!) about remembering to start the rice at the right time when cooking it on the stove. I can't tell you how many times I've scrapped a dinner plan just because I didn't get the rice going! With this baby, I can put it all together earlier in the day when I'm prepping other things, and just set the timer for when I want rice. And if it's done early, it has a "keep warm" setting so I don't have to worry about it burning to the bottom of the pan. Very handy!


So now you know who's REALLY doing the work in my kitchen! :)

Now I'm curious...what are YOUR favorite kitchen helpers? I'd love to know what works for y'all, and I might just have to add them to my kitchen wish list!!

Because They Have to Eat...

One of the many things I really enjoy doing for my family is cooking homemade, healthy meals. I love making our tried-and-true favorites, as well as regularly trying out new recipes that I find in cookbooks, magazines, online, and even occasionally on TV.

Except when I'm pregnant.

Now, often what "sounds good" to me varies wildly from day to day, and more often than not when dinner time rolls around I'm scrambling to figure out what to feed all these hungry people around me. I try to get dinner going (or at least figured out) during nap time, but lately I've been finding myself using that down time to surf Facebook, sew something, or even clean. (Yes, I've been on a big cleaning kick lately--go figure. And it's WAY too early to be nesting!)

Oddly enough when my husband comes home in the evening and asks what's for dinner, he doesn't appreciate when I answer "I have no idea, but I got a lot of fabric cut and washed all the windows in the living room."

Something or other about priorities, I think. Another thing pregnancy hormones mess with big time...

So, because people around here have to eat, I've got to step it up and cook more. And because I never know what's going to sound good, I can't just wing it--I've got to have a plan. I'm going to make and post a weekly meal plan, and do my best to stick to it!

I've come up with 4 things I'm going to work into each weekly plan--
1. Once a week make something double for the freezer
2. Once a week make a crock pot meal
3. Once a week have a meal that was previously prepared from the freezer
4. Once a week do something super easy, quick, and cheap (think spaghetti, etc.)

So without further ado...

Week of February 21-27:
Monday--Bean soup (using a leftover ham bone)--extra to freeze
Tuesday--Chicken and lentils
Wednesday--Lasagna--from the freezer
Thursday--Beef and veggie soup
Friday--Aztec chicken with rice--crock pot meal
Saturday--homemade pizza--super easy, quick, and cheap
Sunday--Tuna casserole

So there you have it. Now that I've written it out for all the world (okay, so maybe the whole world doesn't read my little blog) to see, I just HAVE to stick with it, right? I hope so...it will make my husband and children, as well as all their tummies, MUCH happier!!

Thoughts on Food, Planning, and Other Random Things

I haven't done as well as I had hoped in keeping up with this blog lately! We've been busy around here, and April is looking like it will be even busier! I'm looking forward to it, though...between spring weather really truly arriving, expecting several visitors this month, and doing a little bit of traveling as well, it should be a good kind of "busy!"

I've spent much time over the past week or so making my once-a-month grocery shopping lists. I shop at least 2 stores, Costco and Stop & Shop, and sometimes add another if they have a good sale on something. Two things are making my planning much more challenging this month!

First of all, while we've always been fairly healthy eaters, I've felt very strongly the past few months that I should make a proactive effort to cut artificial colors, flavors, and certain additives and preservatives out of our diet completely. I've toyed around with this before, but not long-term. With Joshua's ADHD and sensory issues, and the older boys' asthma, I believe it will make a real difference in health and temperament to finally make these changes for good. I made my plans and started making menus, lists, etc., then the 2nd thing happened!

Jeremy decided (and I completely agree with him!) that it would be prudent to have on hand at least a month's worth of shelf-stable food and water, in case of an emergency. He wants to have items on hand that would require a minimum of preparation, if any at all, in case power is out or whatever. So a nice chunk of our grocery budget for March and April is going towards this project. Unfortunately, many of the items I can find that are shelf-stable and require little preparation (think canned goods) also contain artificial stuff and of course, preservatives. I'm still trying to figure out how to mesh those two things together...food storage and healthy eating!

I am also building up a supply of healthy items that require more preparation, such as grains, beans, and pasta, and stocking up the freezer with meats, veggies, etc. Of course, my freezer is usually pretty well stocked! I'm also trying to put into practice ways that I can rotate through everything so that nothing goes bad. Obviously my canned goods will last a long time, and since we don't currently eat many canned foods, I'll probably hold off trying to rotate them into our menu for a while. But I'm guilty of not keeping a good inventory of my chest freezer, and just using stuff off the top while the frozen mystery roasts languish in freezer burn at the bottom. No more! I'll let you know as I figure this all out! :)

In other news, the boys are all doing well! We're enjoying the spring weather and our almost-daily walks in Riverside Park. The bulbs (crocuses, daffodils, and others I don't recognize) are all blooming in the flowerbeds. I can't wait for the trees to get their leaves again and for everything to green up! Yay, spring!! :)

Woo Hoo! I Did It! :)

Pulled out my old sewing machine (that was gathering dust) and followed an on-line pattern to make a Mei Tai for Josiah, that is!

I've been wanting to make one of these ever since a bunch of ladies on Momys made them for a sew-along well over a YEAR ago. But you know me...I had too many other things to do (and I tend to procrastinate) so I never got around to it. But now that Josiah is at an awkward size for my ring sling (which I can't find, anyway!) I decided to go ahead and give it a try!

I used this site for the pattern and instructions. Even though I haven't sewn anything in oh, about 7 years, I happen to have a stash of not one but two big underbed-type bins full of fabric. I chose a piece that was neutral and big enough, and got to work! It's not even remotely close to perfect, but it turned out sturdy and serviceable and I'm happy with it as a first attempt. Now that I know I can do it, I want to get some nice fabric in a pattern I really like and make another one!

Unfortunately, while I can follow a pattern and sew well enough, I know NOTHING about trouble-shooting my machine. My tension (I think?) is all wonky, so some of my stitches were coming out funky and loopy. I can NOT figure out how to fix it!! Waaaaa!! So Mom, if you happen to read this, please be prepared to help me get my machine running all nicely and smoothly when you come to visit me this spring!! Thank you! :)

So here are the pictures! Josiah seems to enjoy being in it, which of course is a huge plus!!


My adorable cozy little sweetie-pie!!

Homemade Sourdough Bread...an attempt :)

Well, I told you I was going to let you follow along with my bread baking adventures (or subject you to them, depending on how you look at it, lol!) so here is my latest attempt. I surfed one of my current favorite recipe sites, Allrecipes, and found this recipe for sourdough starter. It uses 3 ingredients: flour, water, and yeast, which sounded easy enough. I mixed it up last Monday, and "fed" it more water and flour, along with a little pinch of sugar, each day until last Thursday, when I tried making bread with it for the first time. I used this recipe for the bread. Now, since both the starter and the bread recipe call for yeast, I am pretty much cheating here...come to find out "real" sourdough starters use just flour, water, and natural yeasts that fall out of the air or something...but who are we kidding? I am a mom of 5 boys under 10; I need all the help I can get! I don't feel the least bit guilty for cheating on this one!!

Anyway, back to my bread...the first attempt made a decent loaf of bread, but not very sourdough-y. Which is fine, since I'd read that it takes a while for your starter to really develop good flavor. I tried my second batch yesterday. It smelled wonderful while it was baking and the flavor was equally good--nice and sourdough-y tasting. I even think it looks pretty! I got a nice crispy/slightly chewy crust by putting a pan of water in the oven and spraying water in there a few times early on to make steam, but the bread itself (inside the crust) was very tender, not at all chewy with great big holes in it like the stuff I've bought at the bakery. Overall, though, not bad! Everyone has enjoyed eating it!!

Here are my 2 loaves from yesterday right when they came out of the oven...


Here's a close-up of one of the loaves...


I have to share a story with you that I thought was funny. When Jeremy first saw my starter (it lived loosely covered on my counter for the first 4 days of its life) he said "So THAT'S how you make sourdough bread? Okay, now you've RUINED it for me forever!" He thought the starter was about the grossest thing he'd seen/heard of in a while! I have to say, though, that he's been enjoying the bread just as much as everybody else! :)

New Year's Resolution #1...Out with the Clutter!

Okay, so it's not really a New Year's Resolution, but since the beginning of a new year is a great time to make some much-needed changes, I figured this was as good a time as any to pare down some of the unnecessary "stuff" filling our closets and shelves! When we were packing up to move back in July, I purged what seemed like about half of our possessions, although it probably wasn't quite that much. I had a huge garage sale and donated what didn't sell to a local group that helps teen mothers. Then what I missed putting out in the garage sale was taken to Goodwill a box or two at a time. Furniture that we knew we wouldn't have room for in Manhattan was sold on Craigslist.

So why do I STILL have so much stuff? I think I moved many things that I thought I would use here but so far I haven't. Usually I have a hard time tossing an item that I think I might need at some point, because I don't want to have to pay to replace it. However, here our biggest need is SPACE, so I've decided if it isn't loved or useful right now, OUT IT GOES! I'm giving the boys' clothes a slight exception...if it won't fit within the next year, it's going! So far, I've gone through all the boys' clothes. All baby stuff up to 9 months as well as all the size 7s are going to be lotted up and put on Craigslist. A few items that we have in excess are in a box for the thrift store. I've also gone through their rather large dress-up clothes collection and boxed up some of those for the thrift store. I've got a bunch of baby bottles and related items all ready to go to a new home, and my collection of disposable sippy cups is finally in the trash! Next I will be going through the hall closet and the cabinets in the living room. I might even have stuff in the kitchen that I can part with! And, of course, I'm determined to pare down the ever-expanding toy collection--hopefully the boys will cooperate on that one!

As hard as it is for me to let go of things, I know I'm going to enjoy having clutter-free surfaces, better organized cabinets and shelves, and room to put away the things that we DO use and love!

The Great Fall Clothing Switcheroo!

If anyone had told me that I would ever be in need of fall/winter clothing in September, I would have laughed. Loudly. But now, while our friends in Texas are still sweating in temps in the low-90s, we are enjoying our first ever true autumn weather. We've got highs in the high-60s right now which to us Texans is just a bit above freezing, and definitely worthy of long pants and sleeves!

Yesterday I began the daunting task of pulling down boxes, bins, and vacuum-sealed bags full of hundreds of pieces of little boys' fall/winter clothing. Since I keep everything that isn't full of holes or stains to pass down to the next child, and since we use winter clothing in Texas for oh, maybe 3 weeks (not really enough time for them to ruin it, lol!) we have a TON of clothes to sort through ranging from baby to about size 10. My children hate the switcheroo, because I make them try on things to make sure they're a good fit. I certainly don't want to pull out all the clothes that I think are their sizes and then have to switch them again later when they don't actually fit!

After taking care of clothes for Joshua, Jonathan, and Jordan, I pulled out a big bin labeled "3T Fall/Winter" only to find that it was really full of summer toddler clothes. I looked everywhere for Joey's clothes, growing more and more afraid that I'd left them behind (we did have a huge garage sale before we moved, and got rid of lots of extra clothing)...I couldn't find them anywhere! Finally this afternoon I remembered that I had put several bins under Jordan's bed, thinking I wouldn't need them for a while. Sure enough, one of the bins contained Joey's clothes! I'm very relieved to have found them. As much as I enjoy shopping, I wasn't looking forward to replacing an entire winter wardrobe for my 2-year-old!

Now I just have to finish putting away all the summer clothes and the clothes that aren't anyone's current size. And then we have to do a major bedroom clean-up, which has me baffled as their room looked clean when I started this project. I'm amazed at how much stuff ends up under Jordan's bed. We just pulled all the toys and "stuff" out from under and around his bed about 2 weeks ago, and we've been traveling for most of the time since. Go figure.

In the interest of keeping it real, here's one of my piles.


I had to pick up Jordan's mattress to get to the bins...the sides of his frame are too low to allow the bins to slide under.


More real life here. Yes, this was all cleaned up spotless just 3 days before we left on our trip and yes, they pick up their room every morning before breakfast. Now I know how Jordan cleans up...he just stuffs everything under the bed!


I swept everything into a pile. Some of these items made sense...the toys, legos, pajama bottoms, and slippers, for instance. Some, however, were puzzling and/or incriminating, such as the candy wrappers, chewed gum (eeew! I don't even allow the boys to have gum in the house!) empty juice box, markers (another no-no in bedrooms) and my kitchen gloves. That's my Jordan!


Still keeping it real...here's what a week's worth of laundry (minus towels and sheets) looks like for a family of 7. At least it's clean. There's a bed under there somewhere. And I had no idea that lampshade was so crooked until I looked at this picture.


I did get all that laundry put away, except for matching up socks. After all, Jeremy wanted to sleep, and the couch is currently occupied. My plan is to be completely done with the switcheroo tomorrow. We'll see...

Just more of what we're up to this week...

Last night we had another couple involved in ministry here in the city over for dinner. We've been enjoying getting to know our co-laborers here, as well as getting to know many of the people who live around us in our building and our neighborhood. It was nice to have an adult conversation, although since we had a late (for us) dinner, I spent much of the time afterwards getting the children to bed...especially Joey, who pops back out of bed over and over again if we're not holding him down, lol! We're working on that one. Hopefully soon we'll be able to just put him to bed...

I spent much of the day yesterday doing over a week's worth of laundry, cleaning/straightening the apartment, and preparing our meal. I'm starting to get used to all the back-and-forth trips to the basement laundry room when we do laundry, but I still can't stand how much it disrupts our day. We made I think 4 trips down there between 8:45 and about 11:00, then another trip later in the afternoon to pick up the last couple dryer loads. Ugh! As far as cleaning up, I did get some help from Joshua with all the sweeping (it's AMAZING how much dirt/grit we track in on our hardwood floors--and we take off our shoes at the door!) Dinner itself was pretty easy, thankfully, since I prepared much of it at lunch time. I made Linda's (my mother-in-law) super easy and super yummy beef stroganoff recipe (which was a big hit), a big salad, and Tollhouse bar cookies for dessert. At least part of the day was easy, lol! I can't wait to get organized enough to be able to have guests over without it requiring a half-day of cleaning up first! Now that our school schedule is running fairly smoothly, I've got to get back to work on our chores schedule, both for myself and the boys.

It looks like we will be traveling for much of next week, as Jeremy has arranged meetings with leaders on several campuses and the boys and I will go along for the ride and go sightseeing while Jeremy has his meetings. It looks like we will be going to Hanover, NH (Dartmouth), Cambridge, MA (Harvard and MIT) and Providence, RI (Brown). I'm excited to see the campuses, and I'm hoping that the boys and I can make a side trip into Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. We tried this several years ago--in early March--and it was waaaaaay too cold, so we just toured Fanueil Hall instead, which was very interesting. The weather right now, however, is perfect for a walking tour! I'll be sure to take along the camera and hopefully get lots of great pictures!

The BIG Monthly Shopping Day Is Over!!!!!

Yay! We'll be eating this month, LOL! Of course, we always eat, but after today, I'm rethinking just how much of it we really need...as in is shopping for it and getting it into our apartment really worth this much trouble?!
We started off this morning going to the bank to get me added to the accounts Jeremy opened when we moved here. We just hadn't taken the time yet to both go together. That ended up taking a lot longer than we expected, but soon the boys and I were in the car and off to Hackensack, NJ to go to Costco. I'm still learning my way around, so I made a few wrong turns, but we finally made it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that Costco doesn't take credit cards and had forgotten to get the debit card from Jeremy, so I spent about 45 minutes (with Jeremy on the phone helping) trying to locate a branch of our bank to withdraw cash. After that, we grabbed Micky D's for lunch and headed to Costco.
Josh, Jordan, and Joseph were in rare form (not in a good way, LOL) so the Costco trip was pretty much chaos. I was pushing Josiah, Joey, and Jordan in one basket while Jonathan pushed the food basket, but once the food basket got close to full, it was way too heavy for Jon to maneuver. So we switched. And things went downhill. Fast. From the boys' perspective, it was just a giant party involving wheels that could be made to move very quickly. From my perspective, well the best thing I can say is that no displays were actually knocked OVER and no ankles were actually BROKEN.
We made a quick side trip to Stop and Shop for the non-bulk items we need for the month, then headed home. Thankfully, traffic going into Manhattan wasn't bad at all, even though it was about 5:15 by the time we reached I-95. I made it home, double-parked in front of our building, and called Jeremy to come help us drag everything inside. While we waited for Jeremy, Josh and Jon and one of our wonderful doormen carried things inside and left them by the apartment door, then when Jeremy came I got the rest of it inside while Jeremy parked the car.
Whew! So glad that is over!! I miss the days when I could shop once a week and it wasn't an all-day ordeal! I guess this is something I will get used to over time, though. After all, we have to eat!! (or do we...)
Dinner's done and eaten...we had taco salad so all I had to do was brown and season ground beef, then throw all the fixin's on the table-yay!! Now I'm off to Starbucks--a mocha frappuccino is definitely in order!

Laboring through Labor Day week

The boys don't officially have school this week, so I'm taking advantage of my extra time (ha!) to go through a long to-do list. My list includes such mundane tasks as menu planning, grocery shopping, our monthly Costco trip, and doing some deep cleaning and organizing, as well as a few more exciting items such as doing some art projects with the boys. We also have a few school items to catch up on, and we do math every day, even during off weeks, so we're doing that this week as well.

In Austin, I found that I did much better both staying within our budget and serving healthy meals on time when I had a monthly menu plan. I had a weekly menu for breakfasts and lunches that repeated each week, and made up a new dinner menu each month since I don't like repeating dinners that often. September will be the first month back on that system since we moved here. I got my menu planned out today, and my grocery list written, so I'm ready to shop tomorrow! Our grocery budget here is double what it was in Austin, but I'm determined to figure out ways to cut it back some without compromising quality, balanced meals. We'll see how that goes!

Several items on my to-do list involve baking, so I worked on that today. I had lots of "help" from Joseph. The other boys were busy watching Nickelodeon (TV is forbidden during the day when we're doing school, so this was a treat!) Joseph and I baked 6 loaves of bread (some for the freezer) and made whole wheat oatmeal graham squares (kind of like cereal bars--we use them for a snack or sometimes a quick breakfast with milk). Also on the agenda are chocolate chip cookies that we freeze as balls of raw dough so that we can have freshly baked cookies whenever we want, and homemade granola. We'll get to those tomorrow. Here are some pictures of Joey helping make one of the batches of bread:

Here's my little helper all ready to go!


Stirring yeast into water and honey...


Adding the whole wheat flour...


Adding more whole wheat flour...


Joey loves to watch the mixer mixing...


"No more pictures, Mommy!"


Boys watching TV...yes, even Josiah likes to watch!


This past weekend we spent two days with many of our church friends at a beautiful spot in upstate New York called Mohonk Mountain. I took lots of pictures but am waiting to get some from Jeremy and a couple other people, so I will post those later!!