Organizing Your Stuff

I feel kind of like an imposter writing a post on organization.

Honestly quite often, I do the bare minimum. Enough to get by. But often times, it is not nearly enough and I find myself ready to pull my hair out.

This year and on, I want to be diligent in being good stewards of my blessings by organizing them.

My first step is my time. I have been allowing time to run me and not the other way around. I want to be intentional about a routine and putting events directly on the calendar.

There are also many different daily planners (also known as homemaking binders) that you can put together. (Click here to view mine... ) You can go to almost any homemaking blog and search and there homemaking binder will appear. The important thing is to mold it to what works for you and your home.

The next area to work on is organizing the material stuff. After I have decluttered, every will have a "home" or a place it belongs. This is vital when trying to teach little people to put away. If there is a specific home, they know the place it belongs and there is no question.

There are MANY organizational tools and products out there. Many homemakers and moms find that Organized Junkie is an awesome resource.

As soon as I have my home decluttered from the Christmas craze, I am going to begin finding homes for everything. I feel a long road ahead of me but one that I am sure will be worth every minute!

What are your organizing tips and secrets?!

Day SIX of our Journey - Decluttering that STUFF

I think I have found the key to cleaning and decluttering. Almost anything that I HAVE to do but don't necessarily like to do...

Do it with a friend!

Photo Credit

When I say, "Declutter with a friend...", it has to be a special friend. 

A friend that has stuck around through those bad monthly times. Those times of crazy hormonal pregnancies and crazy melt downs. A friend who will stick with you through the thick and thin. A friend that really loves you. 

The kind of friend who can say, " I love you but you don't need five popcorn poppers." 

The kind of friend who can handle it when you exclaim, "But we LOVE popcorn and one might BREAK!"

It is important to remember a few things when you find a cleaning/decluttering buddy and dive into it - 

1. Make a plan before you jump in. Think about it rationally. If you are a new declutterer, don't resolve to get rid of everything. You will go into shock and regret it and get bitter after.
2. Think of where you want the stuff to go. I know for myself, thinking of giving the excess stuff to people who will need it or turn it into cash to put towards debt excites me. This helps me push through.
3. Find a friend that is patient and will continue to plow through all the stuff even with your nasty comments about how she just doesn't understand. You need that large tote of wire hangers! 
4. Find a friend that you can tell your goal and they will hold you accountable. For me, I know that my husband is not a good fit. We both are hoarders (we like to call it frugal!) by nature and we always find some kind of reason to keep everything. Also, I often get very offended when he wants me to get rid of my treasures. (He just doesn't understand. I NEED 73 pair of flip flops!)
5. Carry out your plan. It will hurt but if you made a realistic plan, it will feel better - not worse.
6. Remember! Remember that you are going to help your friend in turn go through their clutter. Make sure you treated them how you want to be treated because its their turn to be nasty about their plastic plate collection to you! (We NEED 27 plastic plates. We might have GUESTS!)

All the "conversations" above are just a couple of the crazy pack-rat comments that I come up with. All have been said by me at one time or another. This summer, we decided to get serious about getting rid of our clutter. We get rid of about 30% of our stuff in the downstairs. People have walked into our house and asked if we've been robbed. 

We still have a lot of stuff but we have drastically cut down. 

If I can do it, anyone can do it. It was painful. I wanted to cry. However, it was so worth it. I can clean my house faster and there are many less toys to fight with my children to pick up. We can find and LOVE the things we have even more. 

When I think of clutter and STUFF, I think of a zap to me. It zaps my energy, I have to clean. It zaps my joy because I am continually harping for people to clean up. It zaps my time. I have more time to spend loving on my children and doing fun things with them. 

Getting rid of the clutter has really brought more peace and joy into my life. Have I "arrived"? No way. I am still on the journey to rid our house of unnecessary things but I am trying and making progress. 

How about you? Do you struggle with the clutter and stuff that is all around you? Or do you have a good system to rid your home of clutter?

Chicken!

We are now home from vacation and we're ready to embark on a new journey! Without too much being said, we are entering a time of life in which we need to start minding our financial "Ps and Qs" even more.

I am quickly finding just how much growing boys can eat. With a husband, three growing boys and God-willing more in the future, I really need to learn how to stretch our food budget all the while trying to obtain good nourishment!

This week I am going to issue a challenge for myself. I have a family pack of split chicken breasts that has been in the freezer for a while. I am going to challenge myself to make as many nutritious meals out of that chicken as possible.

Photo Credit

Now I know that some would say, "Cook it and refreeze it so you won't get burnt out on chicken." but I'm not one of those types. If it goes in the deep freeze, it stays until we clean it out. As hard as I try, I just cannot keep up with what I have in that big ol' thing.

Enter...

Operation 5 1/4 lbs. Chicken Breast Challenge

I used to just bake the chicken with some seasonings and call it dinner, however I need to learn how to stretch it further and bring more vegetables onto our plates.

I will begin the challenge Sunday night. I will be putting chicken into a slow cooker with vegetables and allow the chicken to slow cook - I will be saving the vegetables to make bone broth.

Monday: 2 cups chopped chicken - no broth
Chicken Enchiladas  - with re fried beans and salsa

Tuesday: 4 cups chopped chicken - 4 cups of broth or broth from cooking chicken
White Chicken Chili - with salad and bread (This while make enough for several lunches and LOs)

Wednesday: 1/2 cup chopped chicken - no broth
Chicken Alfredo - with salad

*I will be making the chicken stock out of the bones and vegetables for other meals*

Thursday: 2 cups chopped chicken - 4 cups of chicken stock
Chicken Gnocchi sou- with garlic bread and salad

Friday: 1 cup of chopped chicken - no stock
BBQ Chicken Pizza - fruit and veggie tray

Saturday: 1 cup of chopped chicken - no stock
Chicken Quesadillas - with Spanish rice and chips and salsa

Sunday: 2 quarts chicken stock
CP Baked Potato Soup - with sandwiches

Monday: 1 cup shredded chicken and remaining chicken stock
Chicken and Noodles  - with green beans and mashed potatoes

Tuesday: 1 cup of shredded chicken
Buffalo Chicken Dip - with tortillas, chips and salsa

As I look through these meals, it's really going to be a stretch to get all these meals out of 5.36 lbs of chicken but we're going to give it a whirl! :) If I get all of these meals out of that chicken, I will be stretching one chicken into NINE meals!

Wanna take the challenge with me? Go ahead, try it! :)

Strawberries Galore!

I feel so blessed to live in the location in which I do. Sometimes I whine that I cannot wait to get out of the city but I am truly blessed and need to remember that from time to time!

About fifteen minutes out of town there is a large farm and they have a farm market. It's not quite a "farmer's market" like many think of when they hear the term but it does us well (next time I will snap a few shots!).

A couple of days ago I decided to take a drive "north" and see what they had. Strawberries were in full bounty! It was beautiful. I was so excited! The boys and I purchased a large passel of strawberries and headed home.

 

With all these strawberries, I have spent the past couple days making strawberry jam and dehydrating strawberries.  Wanna know the simple process I use to make jam? I'm sure glad you asked because I am excited to tell somebody! :)

Of course the first step in the jam making process is to wash the strawberries thoroughly. After washed, I go through strawberry by strawberry and cut of the stem and leaves as well as cut out all of the bad spots.

This may come as a shock to you but here it goes... I am weird. I do not like the texture of strawberries. The taste is alright but the mushy weird feeling just does not work for me. Keeping that in mind, as I cut the strawberries, I throw them into a blender.

If using the blender method, I would recommend leaving a little juice in the bottom. It makes the blending process go a lot smoother. However, make sure to put the lid back on. It makes a disastrous mess with more liquid in the bottom to begin with.

I have been talking to a lot of mothers who, myself included, are just not happy with the amount of sugar a lot of recipes call for when making jam. While at the store the other day, I found Ball Naturals pectin. With this pectin, you only use 1 cup of apple or white grape juice. No other sugar necessary (Please read the five star review. It explains the product very well and I have had no problem with mine.) Using this pectin, you use four cups of prepared strawberries and 1 cup juice to one box.

Continually stir. Using stainless steel pots, my jam cooked quickly and began sticking to the bottom. Bring to a rolling boil and take off of burner or heat source. I skimmed the foam off of the top and then ladled the jam into pint jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Before putting lids on, be sure to wipe rim of jar. Often the jam gets on the rim and makes sealing impossible.

Place jars in pot in which there is enough room to cover with water. Keep in mind you will be bringing water to a rolling boil when you are looking for a usable pot. Bring water to rolling boil for 10 minutes. Take off of heat and allow to sit for five minutes.

 Carefully, pull jars from water and place on a soft surface. Allow to sit, undisturbed, for twelve hours. Jam should be "set" and sealed. If you see that a jar is not sealing withing a couple of hours, you can reprocess or you can refrigerate.

Isn't this just the most beautiful colored jam you've ever seen? I stand in awe of the wonderfully vibrant colors the Lord saw fit to make strawberries. He's truly amazing!

Next up I will be showing the dehydrating process. Come on back!

Cutting Ties

Lately, I have been convicted. I am dedicated to trying to get my family back to the "simple life". However, my actions and the steps I am taking just don't show that importance.

I was reading this blog post the other day about making permanent lifestyle changes and it spoke to me. There are MANY habits I need to change. I just need to "bite the bullet" - "take the plunge" and cut ties.

There are many "necessities" that aren't really necessities being used around here. Therefore, I have compiled a goal list of where I want to be and when. You know I love lists and you can never have too many! :)


Friday May 27 - Cutting ties with shampoo for myself first and then possibly others. I will be embracing the "no poo" method.
Friday June 3 - Cutting ties with the clothes dryer. We have been slowly moving towards this but inevitably we get behind or lazy and revert to using it.
Friday June 10 - Cutting ties with store bought bread. I always get in good habits doing this and once again I get lazy or something happens.
Friday June 17 - Cutting ties with the dishwasher.
Friday June 24 - Cutting ties with disposable diapers. Lincoln WILL be toilet trained or we will go back to using cloth for him.
Friday July 1 - Cutting ties with grocery stores. We will be planning ahead enough to get what we need from the produce delivery, farm or co-op. Other than that, no stores.

On major cutting ties area that will just be for a short time but will need a lot of preparation will be a spending freeze from December to February. The only spending we will be taking part in is fresh milk and eggs from the farm.

That means:

1. We will need to be working diligently to ensure enough food is put up for the winter months.
2. We will need to make sure gift ideas are began and finished by December for Christmas.
3. We will need to have an idea for Kristian's first birthday and have the materials on hand.

With cutting ties with the stores and with the spending freeze, I am hoping to wean my family away from even more "processed" foods. An example is spaghetti noodles. I know spaghetti noodles are not "processed" food per say but they must go through some kind of process in a plant or warehouse from I don't know where with I don't know who/what touching my food. 

How about you? Any ties you want to cut with "necessities" in your home? Have you? What's holding you?

Garden Journal - Monday, May 30

We had a great and productive weekend here around the Davis' house!

I am so relieved to announce that we have all our garden(s) in!

My favorite part of gardening is definently NOT planting. I love to weed, take care of, harvest and preserve but getting the seeds in the ground stresses me out. I think it comes from my OCD/perfectionist side. All rows must be straight and with equal distance apart. My poor husband. It is quite an interesting time putting a garden in with me. But now, all I have to do is the "work" I enjoy.

Here are some pictures for the garden journal:

My container tomato plant. Doing quite well in spite of the winds this past week.

 With the constant rain, the little sun we had caused my tomato plants to thrive. I really think they are enjoying the extremely HOT weather as well!

Hard to tell with all the green but a closer picture.

  Excited for the fruits this plant with bear!

 Side view

  side garden view

 snow peas

 shell peas

 spinach slowly growing

 kale

 cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage trying to survive the squirrels

 beautiful cabbage plant

 beautiful broccoli plant

 more cabbage and peppers awaiting planting

 delicious lettuce needing to be cut for eating

 yummy lettuce blend!

 This brand of lettuce is having a harder time getting going but has such a sweet taste. Lincoln just stands and eats it out of the container!

 Andy worked so hard to get our "new to us" tiller to run. Thanks so much hunny <3!

 Bed of garlic - almost time for harvesting! I will be drying it and dehydrating it as well as using it fresh!

 Before - bed number 2 - I am not very good about cleaning out and preparing beds for the next season in the fall. This is one area that I want to be researching and working on this year.

planting carrots and getting sun burnt! :)

  Trying to make the "perfect" row and spacing!

 Bed number 2 - after - raised bed of carrots!

 Our longer garden that you look out the kitchen sink window and see. I cannot wait to look out and see all the fruits of our labor!

 Loves that even though it's not his favorite, Andy still helps and supports me when I garden! :)

 Seeds planted in order from fence to back door (right to left)

Fence: Watermelons and Melons

(from left to right in row)

7 Crimson Sweet Watermelon

2 Golden Honey Dew

2 Escondido Gold Melon

3 Amish Melon

Row 2: Squash and Zucchini

(from left to right in row)

9 Burgess Butternut Squash 

9 Black Beauty Zucchini

Row 3: Pumpkins

(from left to right in row)

4 Connecticut Field

6 Big Max

6 Galeux d'Eysines

Row 4-5: Beets

Detroit Red

Row 6-7: Cucumbers

Double Yield

Row 8-9: Onions

Yellow of Parma

Row 10-24: Green Beans

(from left to right in row)
11 rows of Blue Lake
1 row of Blue Contender
2 rows of Ideal Market

Getting our marigolds ready to be planted in between rows and plants

 

This year, I am just jumping in (trying to plan ahead a little) but really trying new things and trying to find things that work for us. I'm not sure how some things will turn out but you never know until you give it a try!

How about you? How does your garden grow?

Looking Ahead to June

Are there any seriously dependent list makers out there like me? I cannot live without my lists. I tried and seriously came unraveled.

One thing that I'd like to begin doing on my blog is making goals for the month ahead. That would bring us to June.

In June....

My goals in the kitchen are:

• be more diligent in taking care of my water kefir, dairy kefir and sourdough starter. I need to feed them properly and actually use them. 
• tackle the area of breakfast. Breakfast is usually just thrown together. I am terrible at actually planning ahead and soaking and preparing for it. I will be adding breakfast to my menu plans.
• to begin making my own granola. My family LOVES granola in our yoghurt. This would be an exciting treat for my kids. I will be scouring the Internet for good granola recipes.. Know of any?

My homemaking goals are:

• to begin a cleaning routine.
• to have a specific baking/preparing day.

My frugality goals are:

• to be more intentional about my time. Making the most of it and not just wandering from one thing to another. Do things that matter and have a positive affect on my family, me and those around me.
• stop eating out.

 My gardening goals are:

• to take pictures and be more diligent in documenting on journey. I am notorious for coming up with good ideas, them working and then the next year totally forgetting what I did.

Books I will be reading:

• Real Food Has Curves: How to Get Off Processed Food, Lose Weight, and Love What You Eat 
• The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden

How about you? Any intentional ideas for next month?

MPM: #3 and An Outlook for the Week

This is the last week before school starts for Dylan. I am hoping this is a week where I can get a lot done and good "end of the summer" memories can be made. Here is the menu plan and a "wish list" of things to get done around the humble abode. I am only going to be listing what we will be having for dinner because when I try to get a lot accomplished, I tend to just grab and throw together. I don't think that "grab and throw together" on a menu plan really helps... :)

Monday:
Sloppy Joes, oven fries, green beans

Tuesday:
Chicken quesadillas, chips, salsa

Wednesday:
Pizza

Thursday:
Slow cooker cream cheese chicken, noodles, broccoli

Friday:
Reruns

Saturday:
Potato soup and sandwiches

*For more menu plans- Organized Junkie is the place to find them!*
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So as I said above, this is a week that I really want to get things together. I feel like the beginning of a school year is the beginning of the year, not January 1st. I don't know why, the school year just brings I new schedule, slate and routine. Just call me crazy...

We have worked really hard around here and have gotten our house cleaned out, taken the clutter to Goodwill and now we just need to maintain. Maintain... That would be the issue. I am not a good maintainer.. So this week around my home is dedicated to maintaining and getting things back in order around here.

Shouldn't be too hard... Just. Need. To. Find. The. Energy... That is the difficult issue....

How about you? What does your week have in store? What is going to be on your dinner table?! Whatever it is or your week brings, I praying that it is blessed!

A Rant on Food

Ok... As you read this, please keep in mind that I am NOT losing my mind, I am just a bit overwhelmed with life and please, please, please don't throw tomatoes at me or stop reading my blog. PLEASE. Also, if you haven't had a chance, take a look and please take part in my 300th giveaway!

Here I go... I am very interested in all the things and opinions on food and nutrition. I have really taken to the whole foods, traditional foods, Weston A. Price, Nourishing Traditions type philosophy about food.

There are so many awesome resources and ideas and blogs out there that deal with foods. Now I have got to be honest, I am struggling when it comes to whole foods the whole time.

I get very overwhelmed if I am busy that morning, look up at the clock and it is lunch time. What am I going to feed my kids?! I know most of you might be saying.. "Peanut butter and jelly, you idiot!" but it's just not that easy for me. My kids have different food allergies and honestly, I get overwhelmed and I shut down. The "simple" answer is often lost to me.

Therefore, I get into this horrible pattern. It goes a little something like this... (This is the conversation in my mind..) "I have NO idea what I am going to make the kids for lunch. It's already past lunch time!" --> "I live a block from 14 different resteraunts, let's just go grab something quick." --> "Tomorrow will be different. I will figure something out tomorrow." I get home, get the kids sat down and we eat the food. I hate how it tastes, but at this point I am so emotionally, metally and physically tired that I just sit in blessed "I didn't have to make lunch" solitude. After a while, it hits me. It hits me that I took part in the dreaded what it takes out and puts in cycle. I took valuable money OUT of my purse and spent our valuable money on putting IN crappy foods in our body. I then begin mentally beating myself down. Do I not care about my heath, my family's health, my wanting a baby? Do I care more about not cooking and being tired more than my family?

On and on it goes... Let me tell you my friends... I am done. I am done with this  vicious cycle of being stressed and overwhelmed about our foods.

I. am. done.!

 I am not going to stress over wheat gluten or not being able to get pregnant due to eating bread (which I was this morning! stressing, totally stressing like crazy over it!).

I am not going to stress over whether my children can eat a peice of cake made from a box for their birthday.

I am not going to stress over feeding them chicken nuggets from a bag or hot dogs once in  a great while (it's got to better than running to a resteraunt for Pete's sake!).

I am not stressing over this anymore. I am going to continue to put the best foods and most natural, whole and nutritional foods into my family but I am not stressing anymore.

I can tell you one thing... If this keeps up, my husband won't have to worry about what he and the kids are eating, he's going to have to worry about finding another wife because I tell you, I am going to have a stroke from high blood pressure due to worrying about what we are eating!

Ok. I am done. Please don't hate me and please don't send hate mail and hate comments. I hope y'all still love me and my crazy psychoness! :)

More ideas of what works for more sane people than me.. click here!

Preparing to Prepare

Preparing to prepare... Sounds a little crazy doesn't it?

Well it is a little crazy... because... I'm a little crazy!

First things first...

I always look into buying seeds and plants first thing. I have got to be comepletely honest with you... It took me a LONG time to be able to grow plants which actually lived and produced fruits... A. Really. Long. Time.

So here are a few questions/suggestions when preparing to buy seeds or plants:

• What kind of climate is your garden going to be in? Is it sunny or maybe shady? Is the area where you are going to put your garden the collector of rain water and will flood out? Where is the best part of your yard to garden or plant?
• Are you a lot like me and really wanted to start plants from seeds but they always died? I wasted a TON of money on seed before I realized that I just needed to master on type of seed at a time. I wasn't a "green thumb" so I had to recognize and not overwhelm or set myself up for failing.
• What kind of seeds do you want? For our family, non-GMO seeds are VERY important to us. We like to know that our food is in it's most natural state. We buy our seeds from Baker's seeds.
• How much do you have budget for gardening? Every year, I do a gardening budget. I like to make sure that growing our own food isn't going to break the bank. It is also nice to see how much you spent compared to how much you saved. It is also important to remember how nice it is in the winter time when you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to because food is already available. So keep track of what you spend in seeds and time.
• READ, READ, READ! There are tons of reviews and sources our there. Read up on plants and planting times.
• Finally, how much time and attention are the plants going to take? If you are a busy person who works a ton of hours and barely has time to take a shower, you are probably not going to want a big garden. Maybe look into container gardening or raised bed gardening.

The challenge for this week is to think about and research what size and type of garden you want and if you want to try and start plants from seeds. Then, look into what seeds you are interested in. Come back Wednesday for the next step I take in preparing to prepare!