Baking Day!

Both *B* and I were home today for Easter weekend, so today became grocery and baking day.  Instead of driving the mile to meet our new pediatrician, *B* and I walked into town.  It was very nice to get outside and enjoy time together.  The pediatrician's office seemed really nice, though I didn't have many questions for them yet. 

We had a little extra money in the budget, so we splurged on a small lunch out.  We wandered down to our local garden center and picked up another suet feeder and some celery plants.  I'm really hoping to get celery to live year round just like Shirley did.  We then did a small marketing trip, and lugged the groceries all the way home, with little rest stops for me (we have a lot of big hills in our town).

I still can't really sit still for too long, so I got to baking.  I'm getting around to perfecting the technique of making whole wheat bagels.  They're finally turning out well:

I also tried adapting our wheat bread recipe into a cinnamon raisin swirl bread.  I rolled the dough out as wide as my cutting board.  It was still pretty thick, so that meant that I had very little swirl-action going on.  Next time I'll cut it into the two separate loaves, then roll it out.  I also swapped out sugar for honey.  It wasn't perfect, but it's still pretty tasty:

I'm still keeping up our food tracking and real food experiment.  I can't wait to share the results of our first week on Monday.  It's really been an eye opening experience!

Checking Off the List

I've had a hard time with stress about the baby for the last few weeks.  Finally *B* told me to write a list of all of the things that I worry about not having done.  This list was massive:

• Paint the ceiling in the nursery
• Fix the crack in the wall in the nursery
• Remove non-baby items from nursery
• Stain the deck
• Buy and install blinds
• Buy and install curtains
• Get crib mattress
• Get prefolds
• Stock diaper bag
• Paint baby's dresser
• Pick out homecoming outfit
• Pack hospital bag
• Hang plants in nursery
• Buy new vacuum
• Get hand-me-downs from *B*'s sister
• Fix carpet patches where cats did damage
• Fix doorjambs (not necessary but annoying)
• Paint trim in bathroom where mold had grown before new fan was installed
• Fix dining room chair whose supports had fallen out

So far, we're down to just this:

• Buy and install curtains
• Get crib mattress (we got one from SIL, but it's four inches too small!)
• Paint baby's dresser
• Pack hospital bag
• Hang plants in nursery
• Buy new vacuum
• Fix carpet patches where cats did damage
• Fix doorjamb

 *B* has been amazing about knocking out that list.  He took it on himself to clean, power wash, and stain our deck.  

 

 The deck mid-powerwash.  The left side is (mostly) cleaned and the right side is obviously still grungy.

 

 After the power washing, our deck looked really strange.  It seems the lack of stain for so many years did a lot of damage.

 

 *B* staining the deck.  It already looked better.

All finished!  You can see that the fencing behind the potting bench wasn't done.  *B* ran out of stain.  But it lets you see the difference in color between what the deck used to look like and how it does now!

While *B* did that, my mom and I did most of the nursery work:  painting the ceiling, patching the walls, and hanging blinds.  I mentioned the other day that our diaper bag was just about ready to go. Most of the things left on this list are either optional, or require funding that we don't have at the moment.

Tracking Food for Pantry Optimization

When I've tried to determine what we needed in our pantry in the past, I was never quite sure what to get.  I've never specifically recorded the meals we eat for the purpose of pantry building.  Saturday night, I sat down and wrote out what we've eaten.

I am absolutely ashamed and appalled at how we've eaten in the last month.  Two nights a week, neither *B* nor I are home.  He has school and I work a second job.  We both tend to (separately) grab food out.  In the interest of full disclosure and public shaming into changing my behavior, this is what we've eaten in the month of March to this point according to my calorie tracker:

1             Homemade pizza

2             Coconut-vegetable curry, egg sandwich

3             Dinner out with friends – chicken sandwich, fries, jello

4             Coconut-vegetable curry, cheese bread

5             Dinner out – chicken bol, fudge pretzels, coffee, coffee cake

6             Annie’s mac and cheese, corn, asparagus, ambrosia

7             Peanut butter sandwich, oranges, fudge pretzels, coconut-vegetable curry

8             No dinner recorded

9             Dinner out with Dad – crab cakes, fries, and applesauce

10           Coconut vegetable curry

11           Dinner at friend’s – random finger foods (meatballs, popcorn, cookie, nuts, apple)

12           Dinner out - burger and fries

13           Steak, salad, baked beans

14           Dinner out – burger and fries, greek yogurt

15           Cabbage and kielbasa

16           Ordered in - pizza

17           Burger and baked fries

18           Leftovers – cream chipped beef on a biscuit, soft pretzel, eggs, asparagus

19           Coffee and fruit cup

20           Dinner out – chicken bol

21           Dinner out – burger and fries

22           Fettucine alfredo with broccoli

23           Dinner out with family – seafood portofino (2/3 portion), salad, breadsticks

24           Leftovers - seafood portofino (1/3 portion)
25           Lasagna
26           Peanut butter sandwich, banana, coffee
27           Cube steak, potatoes, and peas
28           Peanut butter sandwich, cashews, cheeseburger, fries, apples
You can absolutely see where Saturday night's epiphany happened.  Tonight was a bit of a blip.  I got a Happy Meal after I ate my packed dinner.  I was starving!  At least I only got a small supplimental meal.  Usually that burger and fries is massive.  But next time (Monday) I'll be more prepared with a bigger home-packed meal.

In the next few months, I want to try something new.  Starting the first of April, I'm going to keep track of all of the groceries that we purchase and use.  That way, I can get a better idea of what foods we like and what foods we don't like.

At the same time, I'm going to limit our food purchases to only real, whole foods.  This idea is not new.  When *B* and I originally read Michael Pollan's books and Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, I was all for responsible food.  We slacked off in the year and some since then, and our monthly menu shows it.  But I found a website, 100 Days of Real Food, that helped me find my way again.  I plan on taking the 10 day pledge starting this Sunday.  I'm really hopeful about this, and I'm really excited!  Good food here we come!

We Have Cloth Diapers!

I'm really paranoid that the baby will come and we don't have anything for him/her.  We figure that if the baby comes soon, we'll need diapers, something to wear, a place for the baby to sleep, and a car seat.  We have three little outfits and a crib without a mattress, and that's it.  So *B* and I bought a pack of prefolds tonight. 

 

A friend let me borrow some newborn covers, so we're started with cloth diapers!  They're in the washer as I type :o)

Garden Progress

Because it's an unseasonably warm March, our garden has exploded much earlier than normal.  We've got more growing now than in April of last year. 

 

The forsythia bushes are gorgeous.

 

Similarly, the helleborus is all in bloom.

 

I have hyacinths that I didn't even know existed just in front of our coldframe.

 My roses have new growth all over the place.

*B* bought me a very little lilac for a bare spot along our fence.  I hope this little guy makes it.

Our clover cover crop has really sprung up.

*B* bought some arugula plants the other day from Southern States.  While I'm not a fan, he will definitely eat them.

The rhubarb is just taking off.  We have two plants this year - I need to find recipes quick!

Even the garlic that I was worried about a few weeks ago has grown much sturdier.

 

I tend to collect mint plants.  Right now we've got peppermint, chocolate mint, variegated mint, and pineapple mint.  I need to repot the chocolate and variegated mints.  I didn't actually expect the peppermint to survive - *B* ripped it out of the front bed last fall.  We threw a couple of roots that we found this spring into a pot, and they're already sending up leaves.  We will have quite the mint harvest this year!

Preparing for a New Career

This pregnancy is flying by faster than I had expected.  I'm already in my third trimester with a little less than three months to go.  I've finally started showing in the last month or so.  I've always been heavy, so for a long time I didn't look that much different from what I was last year.

I've found that I am more domestic than I used to be.  I've fallen back into the routine of making our bed every morning - flat sheet and all - and I love the way it looks and how I feel when I'm done.  In the mornings, I'll find myself a little behind schedule because I'm washing dishes or putting away laundry.

I'm trying to make foods that we like from scratch.  I just tried whole wheat bagels yesterday from a recipe at Home Joys.  They were okay given that I was a little lax on the timing of things (they were a little chewy for my taste), but I am going to try them again - cinnamon raisin next time.  I made stock and wheat bread without hesitation or fuss, as if it were a normal Saturday afternoon activity.  Come to think of it, it is becoming a normal Saturday activity.

I've started an attempt to make liquid laundry soap.  I can only say started because I grated up the soap and got my borax and washing soda together when I realized that I don't have containers to store it in yet.  As soon as my current laundry soap is used up (any day now), I'll be able to finish off that project.  In that vein, I'm researching cleaning methods, tools to maintain my home, and making lists of things that I'd like to do while I'm home next year.

Where I was unimpressed with our garden last year, I'm taking much more care to get our plants started on time and manage our little sprouts.  Rather than feeling guilty about thinning seedlings, I'm pulling them out without much thought because I know we'll get a better yield when the strong ones have room to thrive.

I am scrutinizing our budget and we are watching where every cent goes.  By the middle of April, if all goes as planned, we will have saved all the money we need to live on next year while I'm at home.  That means that our goal is met in half the time we needed, so I might be able to stay home two years if we can save at the same rate.  I do have a small part time job as well that will help us stretch that money out.

With all of these things that I've been doing over the past few weeks, it hit me just this morning that I'm subconsciously preparing for my new career.  I'm falling into a routine and learning how to take care of my home and family.

Beginning of Spring

We've had really strange weather as of late. Last week, the temperatures were in the 70s. Today, it snowed all day. None of it stuck, but it was definitely strange. But even with the weird weather, *B* and I started the garden this past weekend.

We first took a little survey of how things made it through the winter.  When*B* started sheet mulching, everything had died back, so we had to go hunting for daffodils.  None of them have bloomed yet, but they survived suffocation.  Our three little crocus plants survived too, as did the lilies.

 Little daffodils are starting to poke out.

One of our three crocuses - this one is right on the edge of our lawn.

 

 

 Our Alabama crimson honeysuckle flowered really early this year.

 

Our hens-and-chicks survived the mild winter.

 

True to its name, our Lenten rose (hellebores) is flowering.

 

 

 *B* had ripped a rhubarb out of our raised bed last year and threw it behind our shed in an empty space.  That little sucker is coming back strong!

We have some radishes and spinach (I think) coming up in *B*'s cold frame.  That's been his project over the winter.

 *B* planted the tops of some parsnips last fall.  If you look hard on the left, they're starting to sprout.

 

We're growing red clover next to our barren footpaths in the back garden.   They're inoculated, so they'll help fix nitrogen in the soil.

In keeping with the bulbs, we have a garlic problem.  Last year, I planted a ton of garlic because I wanted to make garlic braids.  No matter how long I waited, the bulbs stayed small. So I ended up letting them go over the winter and now they're sprouting again.

The three in the back are still tiny.  Some in the front are a little narrower than the width of my pinky.

This is the biggest garlic we have.  The scape is about the width of a pencil.

While the outside is warming up, we've started some projects inside.  *B* wants to put in a small pond this year, and he's been experimenting with watery plants.  These are the roots of run-of-the-mill grocery store watercress that he's been growing:

 

 I've been lamenting the fact that I can't find grow bulbs at our local stores.  *B* came up with the great idea of using full-spectrum turtle lights to help out our tomatoes.  It works great!

 

 I'm looking forward to the warmer weather to come and getting back outside again.  We've put a lot of thought into the garden this year as it might end up being a significant portion of our diet.  Here's to the beginning of a good gardening year!