Doodle Acres

Yesterday we had a fun afternoon picking over-priced apples (3 bushels worth) to make lots of homemade applesauce.  Yum!!!

Peter helping Dad with the first batch of applesauce…

Who doesn’t enjoy a nice meal at dinner time?  I can’t think of anyone!!!  I’ve rediscovered my crock-pot recently.  Getting dinner on the table had become a real chore of late.  I was bored with my menus and uninspired to change things up.  Then I stumbled onto Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker.  My family and I have been enjoying the recipes and I have been loving the freedom that the crock-pot affords me!!! Why not rediscover your crock-pot and check this wonderful cookbook out at the library!!!

OK, I admit it.  The last couple of months have been a wonderfully crazy blur, full of many blessed events (hence the reason that I have been blogging so infrequently and also the reason that I encouraged you to add me to your Blogreader —Bloglines is my personal favorite).  While wonderful, these last few months have left me feeling a bit out of sorts with our lack of a real daily schedule and our overstuffed house, which never seems to stay picked up for more than 5 minutes!!!  In fact I feel as if my head has been spinning and in danger of falling off altogether!!!

Needless to say, I really needed this vacation!!!  Vermont is always a place where I find inspiration and peace.  Being here in God’s beautiful nature show always makes me long for simplicity and order in my life and the life of my family.  Being among the trees and on the lake seem to give me clarity of vision that I can lose at home, if I’m not careful.

Having just recently finished Shopping for Time, I have been enjoying “sitting at Jesus’ feet” these last three or four mornings before my family has arisen from their blessed slumber.  This has meant getting up at 6 a.m. while on vacation (I know, I know, I can hear you groaning!!!).  I consider this preparation for when I get home and push up my wake up time to 5 a.m. (Now I hear you really moaning!!!).  This time away and my early mornings spent at Jesus’ feet have made my path clear to me.

Like it or not, 5 a.m. is a necessary evil.  It is the only way that I can have my quiet time, get my housework back on track, and still find time for exercise which is a must for getting off / reducing my blood pressure medication.  These are all things that I used to do thanks to Flylady but have lost sight of in the recent past.  I am grateful for the Control Journal that I put together a while back which makes it easier to get back on the straight and narrow. 

I have spent a couple of hours over the last few days working on a schedule to fulfill all my goals.  I know it will need some tweaking and I will need some patience as I put the plan into action.  Something that I have been learning over these last several months is that when I stumble, I need to just brush myself off and begin again.  Sometimes this means asking the Lord’s forgiveness and forgiving myself.  But when all is said and done, I need to get up and try again (preferably without beating myself up too severely).  So in this spirit I continue this blessed journey.  Now without further adieu, here it is:

Morning Routine 

5 am     Get up

            Make bed

            Go to bathroom

            Vitamins/Medication

            SITTING AT JESUS’ FEET

5:45     Brush teeth

            Apply moisturizer

            Dress

            Hair

            Make-up

6:00     Empty dishwasher, if necessary

            Breakfast, newspaper

            Diet Center food planning

            Daily planning, check calendar, update “to do” list, plan day/errands/goals

            Menu planning, grocery shopping planning

            Puzzles, clip for later

7:00     Defrost meat for dinner, dinner prep

            Breakfast prep for children (CHILDREN”S BREAKFAST at 7:30)

            Put out hotspots

            Wash breakfast dishes

            Shine sink

            27 Fling Boogie, time permitting

7:30     Walk, while children have Breakfast

8:00     Heather & children: Daily jobs

Monday: Change sheets, vacuum and dust bedrooms

Tuesday:  Dust downstairs, vacuum upstairs hallway, vacuum thoroughly downstairs

Wednesday:  Blue bathroom

Thursday:  Upstairs bathroom

Friday:  Kitchen

Daily: 27 Fling Boogie and Zone work, time permitting

8:30     Children’s Individual Chores while I check email, read, blog, correspondence

9:30     Rosary & Beginner’s Bible

10:00   Basic School plan with children

12 pm  Lunch prep

12:30   Lunch

I ask for your prayers as I put this into action next week. 

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One of my favorite parts of being on vacation in Vermont, as I am now, is that I get a chance to read, read, read!!!  Well this morning I just finished a wonderful book called Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw.  It is an easy read and yet very thought provoking.  I have just come through a period of two months of running, running, running and this book is very timely for me as I seek to find balance in my life.  There are so many good things to do, so many good opportunities but what are the best choices for my family and me.  This book has helped me by reminding me that all my days need to be started by ”sitting at Jesus’ feet.”  It’s been a while since I’ve done that!!! And I know from personal experience what peace that can bring to my life.  Shopping for Time offers practical solutions and ideas for finding the time to sit at Jesus’ feet and to live a proactive lifestyle rather than a reactive one, and much more.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!

P.S. The authors (a mother and her daughters) have a blog called GirlTalk…

We found a great recipe at Heavenlyhomemakers.com for Onion rings made with Whole Wheat flour.  We have made them twice and they were a big hit in our household.  The recipe is simple and very tasty.  Thank you Laura!!!

I’ll admit it.  I have never much liked cooking.  My signature dish has always been my famous Chocolate Chip cookies.  That being said, over the last six months, I have been trying to expand my dinner repetoire.  My foray into more “cooking from scratch” was born mostly out of my desire to lower my grocery bill.  After I got comfortable with that, I started trying to improve the quality of my meals - more fruits and veggies, more whole grains.

Well recently, I started watching “30 Minute Meals” with Rachael Ray.  Her can-do attitude has inspired me to become more creative and adventureous with my cooking.  So today for lunch (hubby is on vacation), I made Artichoke bites (which can best be described as muffin shaped artichoke quiches) to go along with Chicken salad on homemade whole wheat bread and carrot sticks.  Boy, were they yummy!!! The crushed red pepper added a surprising kick to them and everyone except Peter(3), who is objecting to everything these days, enjoyed them.

So here’s the link to the recipe which I got from FoodNetwork.com:  Recipe for Artichoke Bites (by the way, I doubled the recipe).  Enjoy!!!

P.S. I know that I have been a very inconsistent blogger of late.  I hope to remedy that.  However I would suggest subscribing to my RSS feed through a blog reader like Bloglines or Google Reader so that you won’t have to check back to Doodle Acres until the reader tells you I have updated my content.  Just a suggestion!!! ;) 

Well I did indeed have a busy day in the kitchen. 

1-  I ground my own whole wheat flour (this is new to us - I just purchased a Nutrimill from the Country Baker).  It is amazing how much better the freshly ground flour tastes in my homemade bread - which leads to #2

2-  Homemade bread in our bread machine

3-  Four dozen whole wheat pumpkin ginger muffins

4-  Sweet potato puree made from at least 10 lbs. of sweet potatoes - I’m a huge fan of Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious.  I freeze the puree in ice cube trays so that adding the puree is very easy and convenient.  Two cubes equal approximately 1/4 cup.  It is a painless way to add veggies to our meals - which leads to #5 

5-  A big, big pot of chili for dinner and to freeze - I added carrot and red and green pepper puree.  This was a new recipe that I played with a bit and I found that the addition of apple cider vinegar really added a lot of flavor. 

Well it was a busy day in the kitchen but a yummy one!!!

Everyone has been saying what a warm winter we had.  Well with the price of heating oil, we have kept the thermostat set to 63 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night.  When Hope teaches a sewing class at home, we turn it up to 65 degrees (and we all feel like we’re on a tropical vacation!!!).  So from where I sit, it was a cold winter and I can’t wait until the real spring weather makes its appearance to stay!!!  If I sound bitter, I’m really not.  I am just finding that my resolve is wearing thin and I’m truly ready for warmer (if not greener) pastures!!!

In my continuing journey through How Did I Get So Busy?: The 28-day Plan to Free Your Time, Reclaim Your Schedule, and Reconnect with What Matters Most , I was asked to write down my 5 most important priorities.  These priorities are meant to guide me as I evaluate my activities as well as the items I put on my “To Do List”.  Here is my list in no particular order:

• Educating my children
• Spiritual growth of my family and I
• Clean yet friendly home for my family
• Strong marriage
• Living a financially responsible life

Please pray for me as I attempt to align my life with my priorities!!! 

I have been reading many posts lately about not sacrificing nutrition in the name of frugality.  As I have mentioned before, my family has never eaten better since I undertook the task of bringing our grocery expenses under control.  Menu planning and cooking from scratch are the solid foundation on which my savings have been built - NOT on eating low quality, low cost foods. 

In an attempt to continue our journey towards better nutrition, I have been trying to eliminate many of the convenience foods that have a list of unknown, unpronounceable ingredients.  Here are some of the changes that I am working on over the next month or so:

• No more breakfast cereal.  Weekday breakfasts are largely self-service at our home so this is a bit of a sacrifice for me.  It means making oatmeal, homemade pancakes and waffles, and eggs on mornings when I’d rather be checking my email.  In the past, I have proposed this change; but I find that as long as I have cereal or PB and crackers around, I tend to rely on these lower quality breakfast choices.  So I’m not going to buy any more cereal!!!
• No more crackers.  Ritz crackers have truly become a staple in our home.  They say that they have no trans-fats yet they list partially hydrogenated oil in their ingredient list.  They are also high in calories given the nutritional value (I believe 5 crackers are 2 pts. in the Weight Watcher system - the equivalent of a slice of Whole Wheat bread.  And I certainly find whole wheat bread to be more healthful and filling than Ritz crackers!!!)  So we will be buying and making more Whole Wheat bread.
• Home-made salad dressing - this will be the hardest adjustment as I begin to try some simple recipes.  Any suggestions???

I am determined not to make any other major changes until we have fully incorporated these three.  I tend to backslide when I bite off more than I can chew!!!