Todays Adventure of The Stay At Home Mom

I'm Pretty Sure That's Poop.

I Don't Want to Know How It Got There.

My children seem to find it more worth their energy spending to do everything in their powers to NOT do what mom tells them to do!
Flushing the toilet, and washing your hands would save you SOOO much more time. I'm not sure how long it takes you to do what ever you do to avoid it but really, trust me. I DO know best sometimes.

How Is It May 20

And The Coat Closet Is Still FULL

of COATS, Hats, Gloves, and Snow Pants?

I have really enjoyed the rain this year!
For me, it can not rain enough. I should live in Washington or Oregon.
Don't think we don't look often!
Our drawers are overflowing at this time. Between the few pairs of shorts I had to get out for the handful of warm days, and the Long Sleeve shirts, and the Short Sleeve shirts, and the Pants we are STILL wearing (although, by the looks of all of those pants, we seem to be a family of capri believers); I have NO more room in the kids drawers and laundry is completely out of control!

I hate packing away the seasons and sizes not in use.
BUT I am so grateful to have boxes of hand-me-downs to go through when needed.

"Use It Up"

Our swing set was on it's last leg.
The poles were rusted, weak, and compromised.
We put off many expenditures in hopes of saving for a new swing set.

D looked into buying fence posts to replace the old posts but they cost $20 each, so after buying 6 we would be better off just buying a new set. Until last week!

We found this bigger stronger frame. . .practically in the dumpster and added our old components to it!

One more summer of outside fun!

Chicken Update

Remember how little they were?

They are getting so big now -

but still not quite laying.

Oh, and to ad to the original 6
(Jump, Jackson, Dallas, Denver, Justy, and Mac)... We got 5 more!
Scarlet, Ruby,
Buffy, Toppy, and
Mrs Dorothy.

Inspirational Food Storage

I DO have a hobby or two, although I seem to forget it at times!

I am a food storage junkie, as you may well come to know.

Tonight we had a Relief Society activity with a guest speaker on Food Storage.

She talked about how she started her food storage and the method she was inspired to take.

I sat through the entire meeting nodding my head in 100% agreement.

If I were to write my experiences with food storage and the method I use it would be her EXACT SAME method.

I didn't get my method from a book. I got it from the Lord.
She didn't get hers from a book, she got it from the Lord.

I'm not saying it's the only way, but I am saying it's a good way, and a truly inspirational approach to it.

Out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses...

Teacher Appreciation (part 2)

Remember THIS?

Well, this is what became of it for my Teacher Appreciation Gift.
I was going to use the clips on the frame for notes HOWEVER, my amazing husband made the frame so well, out of such a sturdy strong wood, that the tacks I was using wouldn't penetrate to hold the clips in place!!!!

Our PTA sends out a "Teachers Wish List" a week or two before Teacher Appreciation. It's a list of things the teacher would like to get, that is why I gave her googly eyes and glue sticks!

Mother's Day

I love a good Table-scape. My husband got me these adorable pictures for center pieces!

I sure love my Family!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers I know!

Bread Experiment

White Wheat Bread/Red Wheat Bread

Perhaps I'm clairvoyant.

Perhaps Its just coincidental.

Perhaps I'm just a wee bit insane.

It seems like lately when I do something, within an day or two I find the rest of the blogging world had the same idea.

A few months ago I was on a quest for the perfect chewy choc chip cookie recipe. I spent all day making cookies and altering recipe for perfection and then taking photo after photo to blog about my findings.

Then to my surprise, as I sat down to blog, I found several people had the same idea that week.

Lately I've been making my own bread, have been documenting the different loaves and outcome so that I can blog about the perfect bread. I get online and suddenly everyone is making their own bread now. Even members of my fam are baking bread.

I HAVE noticed that everyone has been adding wheat gluten, and dough enhancers to their recipes. This is the reason their breads have turned out so fabulous. I HAVE NOT BEEN.

The reason I am making my own bread is because I want to know what goes into my food. I am on a quest for the best recipe with clean and pure ingredients.

One of the best breads I have ever tasted has nothing but wheat, water, honey, yeast, salt.

Here is the recipe I have been experimenting with:

Combine and dissolve:

2T water and 1T yeast

Ad to the dissolved yeast:

1 1/3 c Water or Milk

1/3 c Honey

1t Salt

1/4 c Oil

3 3/4 c Freshly ground wheat

(I have used RED or WHITE- they both are fabulous)

Knead for 10-15 minutes

until the dough comes clean from the bowl.

Rise until double.

Squish and knead the ever-living-love out of the dough.

Squash it like you have never squished anything before!

Press it out and roll it up into a log tighter than a mummy bag.

Make it into a very tight loaf size ball of dough.

Place in a greased pan.

Let rise 'til at least double in size

(Once I let it rise in the fridge and got the best texture EVER!)

And I don't know why!

Bake for 35 minutes at 375 deg.

Remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

Other tips:

I originally tried it without oil and the crumb is very big - oil makes a more even texture with a smaller crumb.

I have tried adding an egg - egg makes the crumb moist but it is still big and crumbly.

I substitute 1/4c of the flour with 1/4 rolled grains or cracked grains - yummy, makes it a bit chewier.

I have added raw sunflower seeds. Yummy.

Bee

This was what a frame looked like before we added bees to the box.

BEFORE This is the frame as the bees have built up the wax cells in prep for eggs and honey.

AFTER

The light part is where the honey comb has been added.

Here is the Queen Mother:

Click to enlarge image

And here are disgusting larva that I hate looking at but mean that the hive is progressing.
Click to enlarge image

(Intriguing)Strog'noff!

The ONE thing that takes the longest in this recipe is

WAITING FOR THE NOODLES TO COOK!

Seriously.

Once you finish putting the sauce together,

you stand around and wait and wait for the noodles to be done! Ingredients:

Egg Noodles

1 Jar Canned Ground Beef (or 1 lb Frozen Ground Beef )

8oz Mushrooms

1 Small Onion

1can Cream of Mushroom soup

Salt/Pepper

Sour Cream

1.Start Boiling water for you noodles.

Once you ad the noodles to the water start the sauce as follows:

2.Dump the Canned Beef, Chopped Onion and Mushrooms and heat through.

(Cover with a lid - in THIS recipe, you don't want to loose the broth and juice to evaporation).

If using frozen beef, brown it first with the onions, then ad the mushrooms.

3. Ad Cream of Mushroom Soup to the meat mixture and mix well.

4.Once your noodles are cooked, drain them.

5.Pour the drained noodles into the sauce.

6.Stir it together.

7. Ad about 8oz of sour cream.

8. Stir it up and serve!

Hints: If your canned meat has salt added, you may not have to salt and pepper it much.
Be sure your noodle water has plenty of salt.
Be sure you season your sauce BEFORE adding the noodles and sour cream.
Make sure it has plenty of salt, adding the noodles will wash out some of the flavor.

Bit of a Bee Quandary

Last week D emptied the queens into their hives along with the 2 1/2 lbs of bees they each came with.
As he was putting the 3rd queen in, he realized she wasn't in the queen box. Somehow, she had escaped (because the cork was loose). After 3 days he went back to check the hives and see if the queen had perhaps fallen into the box or if she flew to a safe place.

FRAMES BEFORE

He found that in Hive 1 and 2 the bees were building out the frames and prepping it for egg laying.

In Hive 3, he found - AN EMPTY BOX!

That's right. NO QUeEN and NO 2 1/2lb of bees she came with.

All Gone.

Until he moved the hive and found all of the bees huddled UNDER the hive!

He dumped them back into the hive box again and waited until the next day to see if the queen was in the swarm

She was not. All of her bees have joined the other hives.

:(

It's okay though. It was a waste of money, yes, BUT we can wait a few more days and split hive 1 or 2 and the bees will make a 3rd queen for #3 again.

"When the Bees Come Down!"

No.

It's NOT the Tin Man! To ad to our chickens,

we have also aquired BEEs!
3 QUEENS

3 Hives

Lots of Honey to come.

Bok Bok Ba-Gok!

Isn't my husbands handy work SO adorable!! The boys helped paint. Move-in day! They are stoked to be outside!

New Addition (s)

We are on our way! The Dad took the boys over to pick out chickens yesterday, 6 to be exact! The kids have 2 each and they have named them:

Mar's are Dallas and Denver

ManZ's are Mack and Justy

J's are Jump and Jackson

Oh, and wait till you see the coop!

My husband is amazing . . .I think I've said THAT before!

Teacher Appreciation

I know the clearance price tag

SAYS

that these were

$1.25 and $2.50 BUT Oh!!

NO!!!

They were in fact only $.15 each. I snatched them up and the only thing I can think to do with it is make a padded bulletin/message board for the teachers. I would use the thumb tacks to secure the ribbons at each crossing and then mount the binder clips around the edges and randomly about? Do you have any greater ideas for these MANY thumb tacks and binder clips?

Exploring a Hobbie

I have no hobbies.

I know, it's hard to believe, but really. It's true.

Well, I guess it isn't true - Food is a hobbie of mine; cooking, eating, creating, spending way too much time there, just like a hobbie, right?

AND I do write. No I don't go to writing classes and seminars on becoming a writer, but I have always been a good writer.

So other than FOOD and writing, I have no hobbie.

HMMMM. What's the difference between a hobbie and a talent?

Anyway; Some people read, some sew, some quilt, some garden.

I can do all of those things and many more things but I don't LOVE doing it nor look forward to accomplishing projects in the name of "relaxing time away productively" in other words - Hobbie.

I blame my mother.

haha!

I blame my upbringing.

I was not taught to do things. We were not encouraged to try things. We couldn't afford to try things. We just had to deal with what we had and do what we could without structure or teaching or tools.

I didn't do little league, we didn't take classes, we didn't do things in our spare time. I did do piano for less than a year.

I never thought it would matter, that I didn't have hobbies.

It never does matter until I am a stay at home mom.

My life has been busy with work. If I had spare time, it was spent sitting, thinking, watching tv, sleeping, EATING, chatting,etc (as if there were more to it, but there really isn't.). And if I was bored I got a job, because, ahgmgm [clearing my throat] money solves ALL dilemmas.

In fact, I can also blame my hobbilessness on money as well.

Hobbies are very costly.

I can't really think of a free hobbie . . . okay, weeding a garden is free, but who enjoys just weeding the garden beds? The joy of that hobbie comes in the planting flowers and beautifying . . .plants and seeds cost money.

When I decide I would like to try something, you can bet the one thing that discourages me and changes my mind first is THE COST.

Now that I am a SAHM I want to be home with my children and for my children but there is at times, time to be filled.

So thus it is, the sneak peek at my trial hobbie

So far I have spent $15 on the beginning, and yet . . .I have only just after 3 days of working on it, figured out how to make it work. I haven't even started purchasing the supplies - and it will far exceed $15.00.

I have no books, I have no patterns, and not a whole lot of money to spend on it (but my family may starve for a while, I'll deal with it when that time comes). Just my creative mind, Minimal tools, My Husbands creative mind (which many times exceeds my own), and my husbands mathematical, practical, and artistic GENIUS ingenuity. he really is brilliant.

Tune in next time!

Canning Ground Beef

A few years back I came home to find the freezer door had been left open for several hours after my children had helped themselves to ice cream sandwiches. It forced me to can meat, just in case my children ever left the door open again! I learned that I could always be just a little more prepared. So every General Conference Saturday, Kent's Market has a big sale. They mark down their 93/7 ground beef and chicken breasts to unreasonable prices.

When I had first heard of it years ago, you could get the burger $.99/lb!

SO, now on the Fall General Conference, I buy 50 lbs to freeze.

At Spring General Conference, I can a few pounds for the shelf!

I've read various Do's and Don'ts of home canning meats, there are varying opinions that I respect.

This is just how I do it based on my own research.

You may have other techniques that work for you. To can meat, it really should be the best quality meat, with low fat content.

When I can chicken and pork, I raw pack.

For ground beef, I cook it until the pink is gone.

Pack it into jars. Fill it full, then press it down. Fill it to the top and pack it in as firm as you can. Each jar holds barely under 1 lb of browned ground beef. Some jars end up with more "juices"

Just top off with broth OR I just use water. Leave your head room.

Load the pressure canner!

Meat HAS TO be pressure canned!

Process according to your altitude.

Pressure canning takes a bit of time

(60 minutes to heat up, 90 minutes to process, 60 minutes to depressurize)

so It's a great thing to do while I listen to General Conference on Saturday.

As you can see, in the end, some end up with more fat than others. What I like about canning meat is that you can have nearly fat-less meat. Much of the fat seeps out of the jars and is left in the processing pan, and what is left in the jar coagulates enough so that if I want to, I can scoop off the fat before using it!

Recipes for canned meat to come!