Keep Calm and Carry On

If you'll notice, I have a new 'bling' on the side of my blog. It's a common saying these days, and I've been saying it to myself when things seem to be whirling out of control. It seems like my nerves just aren't what they were 10 years ago. The other night I couldn't even watch a surgery scene from the 60's mystery series Columbo. (where they didn't even show anything gruesome, just implied it!) Anyhow, the history of this saying is quite fascinating. I'll try to post the video here, but if it doesn't post, it'll send the link to YouTube and you can watch the video. You might also just find yourself saying to yourself (and perhaps encouraging others also), to just "keep calm and carry on!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI

Blast from the Past

Ever think you're stepping back in time? Well, these days I see far too many reminders of the 80's. And most of those who are wearing those clothes were just babies or not even born back then. Well, I never thought I'd see it in my own house. At least not this soon!


















Last Sunday our daughter got herself ready for church , and though I had picked the shirt and skirt, she accessorized herself. Striped teal tights (ok, that's early 90's), so some flashy blue socks (on upside down so the heels were bunched up on top) and white classy shoes on the wrong feet. The shirt then fell down with her 2 year old unladylike behavior, leaving the signature "bare shoulder" the 80's was famous for. She did have a Flashdance style headband on earlier too, but we couldn't find it for the picture (thankfully!)

She was pretty cute, despite the all-too-familiar reminders of childhood fashion faux pas that I'd rather forget!

Our very own mystery

Who...what...why...how? Who, what, where, when, why, how?











In our house, Busytown Mysteries is a favorite show, when the kids get a chance to watch it. They love helping Huckle Cat, Sally Cat, Lowly Worm and the others solve different mysteries in Busytown. (as you recall the two middle kids had a Busytown cake for their birthday last year)

So, yesterday we encountered our own mystery while grocery shopping in WinCo. The case of the missing shopping list. (when we were only half done the trip, akk!) So, I set my sleuths to work. Huckle (Luke) had had the list last. Sally (James) got on the search, looking for clues. Hilda Hippo (Elise) called out orders. We were in the bulk section, when we discovered it missing. I asked the questions: "when did you have it last?" "do you remember setting it down?" "where did you set it down?" trying to get clues. The sleuths scoured the area and the half full cart trying to recall the details. Huckle remembered setting it down, and then later remembered that he had clipped it to the cart with the pen that it was attached to. But alas, no list. When we got to the question "where was the cart when you clipped it on?" he showed me where we had been. I recalled that there had been an elderly lady there while we were there and I had been helping her read the labels that she couldn't see. I realized that we had been there a while, and perhaps the list had mistakenly gotten attached to her cart instead.

We then had to find the lady (and remember what she looked like since there was plenty of them in the store that day). Thankfully she was right over at a different area of the bulk section and sure enough the list was sitting there clipped to the side of her cart. My Huckle was too shy to go over and explain what happened, so Mother Cat took care of it.

Mystery solved and the crew saved the day!!

**Side note: One day on an episode they used the word "brainwave" to describe something. Greg tells me, "that is a word I've only heard you use. Must be a Canadian show." And it is. I never knew that it was a word that was exclusive to us Canucks, but so it is! It means "bright idea", if you can't figure it out on your own.

Eating Out with a Family

So this would be part two of menu planning (or maybe it's the "lack of planning" part) that I didn't include the other day. We all love to eat out, but with 4 kids, how does one do it cheaply? First of all, having a baby helps you to NOT eat out. How much fun is it to spend $30-40 on a meal and all the while you are wolfing it down while jiggling a fussy baby. Or you and your husband are taking turns with him (while dancing around your table, or in the lobby or the car (been there, done that)) all in the name of "going out to dinner". Not fun!

What we've learned in our few parenting years is in one word: Breakfast. We love to go out for breakfast, and it works well for these reasons: kids are well rested and thus well behaved, less noise=less fussiness in babies, less money (depending on what you order), more normal food=less picky kids, you also usually can skip lunch if you eat a restaurant breakfast. With our 3 eating kids, we can order 2 entrees and split it 5 ways equaling a pretty good deal. We drink water most of the time or the kids bring their own milk cups. (toddlers can get by with that stuff, a 6 year old not so much!)

So, when we do occasionally eat non-home food, this is how we do it. We call it the $10 special limit. We have 3 local options.
1) Papa Murphy's take'n bake pizza (whatever is on sale for less than $10). Other company's pizzas may be cheaper but we've found they aren't as filling, so everyone wants more than that.
2) Nacho plate at a Mexican restaurant. Let the kids eat lots of chips and salsa, and you're set!
3) House special at our local Chinese restaurant. We love the House Lo Mein at the Lucky Dragon and we order it as take-out and eat at home with our own added stir fry veggies. There's even enough for Greg's lunch too. Score!

I did try making Chinese food at home from scratch, and used up every dish in my kitchen (or close to it). For the time and energy put into it, I vowed not to do that again anytime soon! Usually lunch specials are even cheaper than dinner ones, which we do sometimes on our way home from church for lunch.

And of course, water to drink all around. We only eat out when there is leftover grocery money, which also helps us to not go out very often, because, umm....that rarely happens! It is also motivation to stick within budget so that we can go out now and then. We also quit going out for supper when we had a date, as I was always making food for the babysitter and our kids anyhow. We usually eat at home and then grab a coffee or dessert instead, which is much cheaper.

Menu planning and budgeteering

My friend at the orangerie blog recently wrote about their food planning and budgeting ways, and it motivated me to do it also. I have been meaning to do this for eons, but never actually sat down to write it out. I recently had a motivating session at my house with 7 other ladies where we shared ideas and it was very encouraging. It seems like such a rut I get into, so keeping positive in that area was much needed and appreciated. I feel that what we are doing is working for now, although I'd like to expand in a few areas that will have to wait for later this year. So, here's what we do:

I make a menu plan, consisting of 5 meals (supper, double volume for 2 weeks). I then add our staples for breakfast and lunch and then shop accordingly. Our menu looks something like this at present:

Breakfast: weekdays- fried eggs and wholegrain toast, "warm" cereal (which could be cream of wheat, oatmeal, Mighty Tasty, etc), yogurt with granola and frozen berries. Greg eats pb&j sandwiches for breakfast every day, with a cup of yogurt for snack. Weekends- pancakes or pannukakku or boiled eggs. Muffins and scones occasionally.

Lunch: usually a sandwich (egg salad, tuna, pb&j, crackers & cheese) with raw veggies on the side, Greg takes leftovers from supper the night before

Supper: usually one dish casserole/soup that is either made in the Dutch oven or slow cooker. I only make 5 per week as we often have leftovers to use up or we do waffles Sunday evening.

Snacks: fruit, homemade trail mix, chips & salsa. We rarely make desserts 'cause (a) I eat it all (b) just more messes to clean up

I plan my meals out by looking through my cookbooks (I actually only use 2 these days, my own of cumulative recipes I've collected and my mom's family cookbook which is amazing) and this only takes a few minutes. I've tried going without recipes and winging it, but seem to either wreck what I'm making (burning and over-spicing seem to be the common thread of failure) or panic because I can't think of anything. (which results in pancakes or baked scrambled eggs again since we live too far to get takeout on a moment's notice) I am the kind of cook that thinks "if a little is good, alot will be better" which is rarely the case! We also experience different diet restrictions which makes some foods off limits at different times, and I run out of ideas regularly of things to eat, so it works better to see ingredient lists in front of me.

Since we're going on 9 years of marriage this year, I've tried many different plans. Each one has worked for different situations, but what we're doing has been working for us well right now. With baby #4, I've noticed that we actually have less dishes (big hand washing dishes) than we've ever had. This is because I've simplified menu planning even more by trying to cook everything in one pot. But...this required having a pot big enough. When my mom and mother-in-law came last fall when Isaac was born, they both encouraged me to cook bigger amounts and then reheat. I didn't have big enough pots to do that effectively (I still picture our family as Greg, me and a baby in my minds eye). So, I had to start thinking big. I bought a 11 qt. stock pot (stainless steel with heavy bottom) at IKEA for a steal (my dear husband found it in the As-Is section), and then he got me my 6 qt. Dutch oven for Christmas. These have been incredibly liberating in the food preparing aspect of my life!!

What I do is cook double of supper, then freeze 1/2 for supper the next week. I've found this works well for our family, because we (me mostly) tend to tire if we have to eat too many of the same meals in a row. Then I don't want to make it again for a year, thus running out of ideas to make for supper. If I do it this way, then I can make the same thing again in a month or so without too much boredom. I usually always then have something in the freezer for those days when I'm in town all day and don't have time to cook, or baby is fussy and I can't put him down.

As for budget, I think we're doing well. I made out a master grocery list on Excel last summer (when I was big and pregnant and couldn't do much else) that is categorized by aisles in WinCo (where 95% of my grocery shopping takes place). If I stick to that list (with occasional add ons), we don't overspend nor buy junk that we can't afford/don't need (except for ice cream once in a while!) I've bought the same things over and over so many times, the budget comes out pretty close every time, if I shop on the same day of the week. I am moving towards shopping every week, although am still doing a bigger trip every 2 weeks and a smaller trip on the other weeks these days. It seems we run out of the same things around the same time each time, so I haven't found a way to work it differently yet. Bringing Greg along for shopping is ideal, but this can't/doesn't always happen (rarely it does). I have trained the kids to put away the groceries though, and that is a huge help because usually I'm exhausted by the time we get home from town and also have a fussy baby to boot. We also buy 1/2 beef every couple years which is spendy, but we feel is worth the money to get a quality product and at the same time support our local farmers.

Before:

















After shopping:















Menu from last week:













A few years ago we checked out going to Birch Community Services for food, which is down in Portland. They are a great service for anyone with a tight grocery budget that needs a bit of help. At that time (2006), the lady there said that $100 per person per month, budgetwise is a good goal. It's likely gone up a bit since then, but we try to keep it below there since our kids are pretty little yet. The Master's Diet says that the more nourishing food you eat, the less you have to spend on groceries. He says that what you lack in quality, you have to make up for in quantity, and I know that to be true. He says that our ancestors ate 2 meals per day, and worked much harder than most of us do now. The difference was they ate much (50%) lacto-fermented/sourdough/sprouted food, as well as quality oils, meats and raw veggies (full of digestive enzymes). Their food was maybe not of higher quality, but was better utilized by their body through the breaking down processes used to prepare the food due to lack of refrigeration mostly.

So there it is, in a typewritten nutshell.

The Aversion To Egg Salad

From the time I was a young child, I've had trouble with egg salad. Considering it's not something you run into every day, this usually wasn't a problem. I'm not a picky eater, it was just that the texture of the stuff always made me gag. My only memories of egg salad were when there was a funeral, my mom would make oodles of sandwiches and off they'd go. I don't recall ever eating those ones. Then when I was older, I stayed with an uncle and aunt, and my aunt made them for lunch almost every day. And because my parents raised me to eat whatever was in front of me, I'd gag them down.

So, when we had our own chickens, I started revisiting the dilemma. Egg salad is super easy, cheap and filling. But, it took me 2 years to even get the nerve to try it. I tried recall what had made them so disgusting, and then not go in that direction! Here's what I found:

Texture: my memories were of this gluey, gummy stuff that stuck to the roof of your mouth as you tried to swallow. That squashed between 2 slabs of white bread, and you are destined to choke. That is, if it gets that far.

















Flavor: absolutely bor-ring. (too much mayo, just salt and pepper for taste)

So, finally this winter I got up the nerve to try making it. And what I found is fabulous.

Here's what we do: Boil eggs 11 minutes (this was recommended in Reader's Digest as the perfect time for hard boiled eggs). Rinse under cold water (or make enough from something else and store in the fridge until you're ready to use them and they'll already be cold). We usually make hard boiled eggs for breakfast on Sunday mornings, so I do extra for Monday lunch. Have kids peel the eggs. Slice coarsely a couple times with a pastry blender (not a fork, as you get mush). Add spices. We use dry mustard and a special blend called Wobbie's to taste (a type of seasoning salt with fresh dried herbs made by a friend of a friend who is a chef, but Lawry's works too). Add a small amount of mayo, just so that it slightly sticks together. It should be fluffy, not gummy/soupy. We then put it in crusty pita pockets, and voila! Lunch! The kids love it, I love it and Greg loves it. Yay! We usually eat our veggies on the side, but you could throw some in, like in the picture if you want.














**If you have trouble peeling the eggs, cracking them while you're cooling them in the cold water helps. The cold water gets in between that membrane and the shell and makes them easier to peel.

Sometimes those childhood "hurdles" are harder to get over than we anticipate. Now for riding a horse...we'll leave that to another day...or year...or decade!

Sunny Day

Today I feel refreshed and revitalized. Earlier this week I was ready to throw in the towel, so to speak, as the winter blahs or blues or whatever it was was getting me down. I think alot of it has to do with how much sleep I get, but it's easier to just blame something like weather.

I awoke to the sun shining, and the birds chirping (and we filled the bird feeder to keep them coming) and started the day out beautifully. I had made breakfast last night (steel-cut oats in the slow cooker), so it was ready when we got up. We ate, and I made coffee and then we got in our exercise garb and went down to the high school track in town to meet up with our homeschooling group to run a few laps. The kids in our group are going to do The President's Fitness Challenge this summer, so this was our first attempt. Luke has to run 1/2 mile, so James wanted to as well. I didn't run, but instead walked the track with Isaac in the stroller and Elise walking with me. Getting out and getting exercise without the fear of getting hit by a log truck was exhilarating, especially in the sunshine. Luke said, "feels like an Arizona day", and I had to agree! We had barely got home and some of our friends started showing up for a play date/ladies group.

We had lunch and there was quite a few of us to discuss the topic of meal planning/menu making. I was encouraged to keep on the path I'm on, but I need to set aside a specific day every week for grocery shopping. I've been doing it every 2 weeks, but then the job is gigantic that it requires marathon endurance to accomplish it. And I hate running to town more often than that. My usual town day has always been Friday, but now that Greg has Fridays off, I don't feel like spending it grocery shopping is a good use of our family time. So, I'll keep experimenting until I find a day that works. Maybe I should try in the evening, as some women do, so then the kids could stay with Dad (except that baby does best at home in the evenings, and isn't big enough to leave yet). Or super early in the morning seems to work (then it's kids-in-pj's and pb&j sandwiches for breakfast in the car 'cause otherwise we can't seem to get out the door), so we can get home before noon (when my energy dwindles down to nil). I still don't know how it takes that long! I have recruited the kids to put most of the groceries away, since baby usually needs feeding right when we get home, and that has helped immensely. They are such good helpers.

I feel like our budget is doing well though, even though we now have extra expenses with the food allergies. We are planning on getting a milk goat in the near future (need a fence first), so that will cost more, but will also require staying home more...exciting stuff! We're also experimenting with The Maker's Diet, as listed in my previous post. It is not more expensive nor complicated (unless you go totally organic, which isn't doable for us right now), just takes more thought. (Encourages you to always be preparing 2 meals in advance) for soaking, sprouting, etc. We're just starting small and trying to move towards more whole foods as our goal, and I think we're on our way. I'll let you know how it goes!

To end the day, my husband got home and announced that a coworker may want to buy our camper and was coming over in a few minutes to look at it. Now, we love our camper, but just haven't been able to use it as much as we'd hoped. It just seems like this stage of our life we should rent a cabin if we want to camp. We haven't had that many memorable times, and the last trip was pretty much a write off. And this summer we'll have a 10->12 month old who may or may not be walking, which should be even funner in a campground or camper with very little space. Greg's parents have a bigger trailer now, so we can *hopefully* camp with them when they come this summer, and I'm sure there are other camping-like options out there. And...get this...instead of paying us for it, he wants to give us a few cords of precut firewood. Now, that sounds like a good deal to me. We've been praying for a firewood option, as our former source is gone. (I'm trying not to get too excited in case they decide they don't want it. He took pics and was going to discuss it with his wife.)

Anyhow, it's always refreshing to get both encouragement as well as new ideas to try, and I think today I got a good deal of both (and sunshine).