Wow this has never happened before

Olivia has a cold but nothing serious. On the way home she fell asleep in the car and I didn't want to wake her but I thought for sure she would wake up as soon as I put her on the floor. She didn't even budge which means I was able to get dinner ready without a munchkin around my knees. I was even able to put together a pizza dough recipe to freeze as my next freezer food experiment. I totally forgot that it was Tuesday so I didn't get to watch the biggest loser but I am happy because I was able to accomplish so much before 8 pm.

I am getting much needed practice kneading dough but it is tiring but luckily for me practice makes perfect. I just have to say that I am so so thankful for all the women that came before my time that cooked everything without electricity. They had to do everything manually. Wow! That must have been exhausting.

I have also been trying to cut back on meat in our diet and replace it with beans. I bought a huge bag of pinto beans from Sam's and I have found an easy way to cook them. I soak them overnight in a crockpot and right before I leave for work I replace the water and turn on the crock pot on low and let it cook for 9-10 hrs. I make a bunch so I can freeze them into smaller portions.

Baking success. Yet to be Determined

So it was quite an ordeal to finally get one loaf of wheat bread. So I bought wheat in 50 lb buckets and not knowing so much about food storage, I didn't realize that I needed a bucket opener so that put a damper on things on Sunday. After visiting two stores I finally found a bucket opener and I pulled out my wheat grinder and I had to grind atleast 2 cups of wheat to discard.

I did half white wheat and red wheat and my grinder was wickedly fast and fairly quiet. I tried the recipe from the Everyday Food Storage blog. I don't have a mixer so my arms were pretty tired afterwards. Lessons learned are I probably didn't let my bread rise long enough. I did 45 minutes when I should have done atleast an hour. I didn't let it rise a second time but I think next time I will let it rise for 30 minutes. I did use dough enhancers i.e. wheat gluten, vinegar, potato flakes. For my first loaf it wasn't too bad. The bread wasn't crumbly due to the dough enhancers and I was able to cut really thin pieces and it held together really well. Another tip I learned from Everyday Food Storage is putting together the dry ingredients for 2-3 batches of bread while my first loaf is rising and I storing them in the fridge for easy assembling for the rest of the month.

I also made goulash and I doubled the recipe and froze half of it last night. Hopefully it will turn out just as yummy.

Building Food Storage

I blogged about this before but for emergency food storage we did dailybread.com. And I was meaning to post for Brenda the cost but now that I am finally to that point I have misplaced my flyer. Mike and I bought the 3 month plan that has 2 meals a day for a family of five and I think that cost us 1499.99. I think that comes out to 1.67 per meal per person. The food would be for 2 adult and 3 kids so for our family it would be 5 months since we only have Olivia. I also bought an extra package of food because they had a great deal which added another month.

For my friend Julie, check out this website: Provident Living It talks about food storage and it is an LDS site but it has a lot of great information.

"Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we can care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

"We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

"We ask that you be wise as you store food and water and build your savings. Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve."
—The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, Feb. 2007, 1

So I have this emergency food storage done and I am trying to build my short term food storage. It is coming slowly but surely and I am only trying to buy things that I am going to use. I went out and bought from Macey's 45 lbs of hard white wheat and 45 lbs of hard red wheat, SAF yeast, honey powder, 201b of sugar, 4 lb of brown sugar. I have found this great blog that I have started following to help me build and cook from our food storage. Here is the site: Everyday Food Storage

I am going to grind some wheat flour this weekend and attempt to make some bread. A little sad I don't have a mixer but that will come eventually. I am putting together a price book that has information on groceries, the regular price, sale price, and a price to die for. Then it will be easy for me to figure out if it is a good deal to stock up. I have wanted to do this for awhile but I have procrastinated but I am hoping this post will light the fire that I need to get this done.

I also ordered this book last fall and it was a pretty good read just in case anyone was interested. Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two-Income Economy

Waffle recipe. Anyone?

Hello all. I made waffles this weekend and they weren't terrible but they weren't great either. And I have looked online and tried several that have had mixed reviews. So if anyone has an awesome waffle recipe please email me at sandydurtschi@yahoo.com.

I have a belgian waffle maker and I prefer to use wheat flour but if it is for white I can always modify it.

Thanks in advance.

Piano Lessons

So I have always wanted to take piano lessons but my family was pretty poor when I was growing up and we didn't own a piano. In middle school I played the saxophone for 2 years and that was a good experience. I have always had big plans to take piano lessons eventually in my adult life but the past few months it has been nagging me. One day I told Mike "I want to take piano lessons." Lo and behold he logs into Facebook and one of his friends who is an amazing piano player has posted that he is teaching group piano lessons on campus. Talk about the Secret totally working for me. Anyway I started last week and it will run through spring semester. Should be interesting...

And I will be making my first attempt at cooking in bulk and making freezer meals with the extras. I also received a grain mill and will be trying that out this month too. I do have pictures to post but I have to retrieve them off our backup and I just don't have the patience to do it right now.

The rewards of parenting

Being a parent is hard and I only have Olivia. When I see acquaintances with 2 or 3 kids I feel envious and frightened all at the same time. Envious because I have been thinking that I would like to have another baby but frightened because I can't imagine how much work it takes. And even though I feel overwhelmed at times it is so worth it when she does something smart, witty or funny. One of the most rewarding feelings I have experienced is feeling like a proud parent. For example when Olivia finishes a song for me or makes her own signs, I think "Wow, that is my baby!!"

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I just feel so overwhelmed in the past couple of days. There are so many things that I want to do and accomplish and so many decisions that need to be made. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly trying to plan and prepare for the future I forget to live in the moment. I have this ridiculous compulsion to research everything before I made my so called educated decision. And when I have a lot of planning and decisions to make that equates to many many hours of research. I think about being spontaneous and to make a decision on the fly but I think that would cause me more stress.

Anyway I don't know if anyone else ever feels like me but right now it stinks.

LoseIt.com

I downloaded this program a few months ago but I am going to start tracking my food intake and exercise. Not because I love it but I need some help with portion control. As an emotional eater I can easily overeat. When I had a trainer I had a food diary and workout log and she always checked it. It helped me stay focused and aware of what I was eating. I just need some help with discipline until the portion control thing becomes a habit.

Blah

So I am totally bailing on trying to lose 15lbs on the hcg diet. I am just not in the mindset to do it. I am a little disappointed because I would love to lose weight but I am also excited not to have to diet anymore. Dieting is quite an ugly cycle and I am happy to never do it again.

I am going to focus on exercising and eating healthy and if I happen to lose a few more pounds that would be great. Since I am not on a limited diet I can finally start lifting again. I have been doing well at waking up and working out but I haven't quite reached my goal of 5:30 AM yet and yoga is still kicking my butt.

Total Money Makeover

1. Create and Live on a Budget

Mike and I created one last spring and stopped in the summer and just started again in December. Long story short, we spent a ton of money that could have been saved. Living on the budget isn't hard but when our money isn't allocated to a specific thing it is so easy to overspend.

2. Live off the envelope/cash system for the budget

Easy on the envelopes. WTH on the cash system. I have done envelopes and have done it casually for certain things we were saving for since Mike and I have been married. Back then it was just envelopes in our underwear drawer. This past spring I made it more formal with plastic accordion coupon holders. I saw a great tutorial on the web and created envelopes to put in my purse so when I pull the money out of our monthly stash I can keep track of the gas, grocery and miscellaneous money instead of having 3 wads in purse and not knowing which is which.

Cash only. It was hard. I love my debit card so convenient but yet so easy to spend money. Plus I never have to run to the bank. Now I make my monthly visit and split it up and once our money is gone it is gone. Sometimes I have to juggle from different categories but you can't juggle what isn't there. And when we want to purchase something we have to start saving from scratch. My biggest thing this spring is limited online shopping. Paypal just makes it so convenient.


We have an envelope for long term items and short term items. And my nifty binder with all my money makeover worksheets with my budget breakdown on the front.


Envelopes I made this weekend. So cute and very easy to do.

Total Money Makeover babystep 1: Get an emergency fund! Done
Total Money Makeover babystep 2: Get out of debt

I didn't totally commit to the Money Makeover mostly because I just wanted to do it my way. Well I have come full circle and decided my way is going to take forever. I revised our budget and our goal is to get out of debt by the end of this year. The only debt we have is my student and Mike's student loan. I am planning on paying the rest of my mine February 1, 2010 and start working on Mike's. His is $12000. It is going to take a lot of sacrifice, sweat and tears but I want to be able to pay that sucker off.

It was really hard for me to decide this because it means spending what we have saved now and future monies to the student loan instead of a new house. I have been dreaming about getting a new house. Reality is it will be better for Mike and I financially to pay this off so we have no debt and being able to dedicate our money solely to an emergency fund and new house fund.

Looking back I wish I would have known about this before Olivia, when I got married or even before I got married. We have earned a lot of money and spend most of it and feel like we don't have much to show for it. Oh well. Live and learn.

New pictures

Happy Thanksgiving from Olivia. She isn't really giving a crusty. She is just trying to miss the flash.


One of the rare family pictures we have.

Olivia is so funny sometimes

Mike wanted me to blog about this so we don't forget. We were at my mom's for dinner and 7:30 rolled around and Olivia went and grabbed her shoes and her coat and was attempting to put them on. I guess that is her way of telling us she is ready to go. I have noticed she is particular about where she sleeps at night. She definitely isn't a sleep where ever kind of girl. She loves her crib and she loves her space.

On a side note I can't believe how observant she is. She is like a sponge. She saw me put the hymn book on the piano and reading the music while I was playing so she did the same on her toy piano. She saw Mike scratching my back so she was scratching my cousin's back just like I was. Just little things like that crack me up. I guess we need to be careful on what we do and say in front of her now.

Olivia is 15 months now. She is getting her I-teeth. The top two have broken through and the bottom two are very close so she will have a total of 16 teeth. She loves to brush her teeth and she even made her own sign for it. I'll try to be better about journaling about Olivia.

Friday night. I know your jealous...

What a way to spend a Friday night. Mike had to work in Bountiful so I was home alone with Olivia. As soon as I put her to bed I knew what I had to do. I wish I could say I had a lovely massage and relaxed but I didn't. I cozied up to what I hate and love at times. My computer and laptop. Mike and I bought a Dell computer back in 2006/2007 and it came with Windows Vista and this is before everyone knew it was terrible. We have suffered with it for the past 3 years but finally Windows 7 came out. We have had problems with the OS for quite a while but I didn't have the time or patience to deal with it. But I couldn't procrastinate any longer because Mike bought a license update and needed it working smoothly for the last semester of school. So I reinstalled Windows Vista, upgraded to Windows 7, installed all the drivers and software.

Mike and I also recently purchased a Macbook Pro and I hope that we can eventually move only to Macs when we can afford it. I bought a basic one and upgraded the harddrive from 120 to 500 GB and the memory from 2 GB to 4 GB. The computer has been on the fritz and a coworker is trying to help me fix it before I call AppleCare. Even though it is small I feel awfully proud of myself. I swapped out the memory all by myself.

Total time spent: 5-6 hours. Reinstalling the OS wasn't as bad as I remembered but it isn't something I wish to do again.

Envelope System

Mike and I are doing the Total Money Makeover plan. We started last spring but totally stopped in the summer and most of fall but we finally started again in December and I have been inspired to really kick butt with our budget. I have been following this blog: Money Saving Mom I've been trying to learn about couponing on her site but I was inspired by her to do baking days and freezing dinners on a whole new level. She also follows the Dave Ramsey plan and her and husband have finally saved enough to purchase a home with 100% down payment. That is so inspiring. I would love to do that but I don't know if I have the patience.

My project for the weekend is to put together an envelope system that I can put in my purse to separate my money. This is what inspired me:



If you are interested in the tutorial, here is the link: http://kelleighratzlaff.com/2009/12/free-envelope-template-and-a-tutorial/

Striving to be an awesome SAHM

I am very thankful that I was able to finish school and the job I have at the university that gives me the ability to provide for my family and put Mike through school. But with that being said I am really looking forward to being a SAHM. I don't know when that will be but I am hoping soon since Mike is graduating this spring. Working outside the home has its pros and cons. Personally I think the cons out weigh the pros.

In lieu of my changing role I have been doing a lot of researching. One reason I love the internet is its ability to disseminate information so quickly. I have really enjoyed reading blogs by SAHM and doing research. My main goals are saving money, being healthy and having a fulfilling experience with my family which are centered around my relationship with God. In the past few months I have started a lot of projects but unfortunately have not finished any. I had too much on my plate and not enough time or motivation. I am hoping by documenting it on my blog it will give me the extra push I need to finish my projects. Plus I would like to share my experience and learn from others.

My biggest obstacle has been time. I work a full time job and every minute I have at home I want to spend with Olivia. After she goes to sleep I have the daily things to do i.e. clean, clean and clean, prepare and pack for the next day and sleep. A day rarely goes by where I think "Wow it is only 8:00 I have so much time on my hands to do my projects." The things I want to accomplish have taken a fair amount of time and I want to do a good job. Here is my first attempt of the things I need to complete:

1. Reread Dave Ramsey's book and revisit our budget.
2. Pricebook for groceries
3. Inventory my short term food storage and refine my goals and plans.
4. Start and be consistent with my baking and freezing of foods.
5. Research and attempt some freezer meals.
6. Learn to knit and actually make something useful
7. Read Parenting with Love and Logic
8. Make a quilt
9. Start a weekly family menu
10. Possible try couponing. Up in the air on this one.

Running Shoes

Mike and I love shoes but we have cut back on that habit significantly since having Olivia. But we still have our moments. We love all types of shoes and we like the nice comfy ones which can also be pricey.

Mike and I ran our first 5K race in October 2007. It was local and it wasn't very big but we did notice than everyone had nice running shoes. We just ran in some old trail running shoes so we decided to buy some running shoes.

I saved my pennies and bought these awesome running shoes. New balance 755. I love them. Plus I am partial to New Balance. Mike bought a pair of Mizuno's and he loved them too.



I finally started running again and I am planning on doing a half marathon which means I will be putting a lot more miles on my shoes so I started looking around. I would have loved to get the same pair but I didn't have any luck finding any in my size. Plus I was trying to get a good deal.

I went and tried some shoes on and like last time it was between a New Balance and Saucony. This time I decided to get a saucony. I searched all over the web and found a great deal on the Saucony Progrid and was actually able to get another pair of cheap running shoes (Saucony Grid Ignition) and it was the same amount it would have been if I bought the shoes at the running store. They arrived on Tuesday. I can't wait to break them in.


Saucony Grid Ignition



Saucony ProGrid

Yoga

When I was 20 I joined Ladies Fitness and the dietitian was a yoga instructor and I took her classes for like 2 months and I loved it. There were only 2-3 students so we got a lot of one on one time and I learned a lot of basics. When I lived in Salt Lake I joined the 24 hour fitness and I took yoga there and it was awesome. I think mostly because the instructor was great and in my opinion the instructor will make or break a group fitness class. In a nutshell, I was young and in shape and flexible so it was fairly easy.

Fast forward and 6 years later, tons of weight gain and post baby. Yoga is killer. I have tried to do it occasionally here and there but it is pretty strenuous on the body. I did prenatal yoga from a DVD but that was pretty easy except in month 8 and 9. I found a couple of yoga podcasts that I downloaded onto my phone and did my first serious session this morning and it felt great. It was a good workout and I was sweating bullets.

Reasons I love yoga. It teaches patience, body awareness, pushing yourself physically and mentally, increases flexibility, relieves stress, increases blood flow, relieves tension especially in the spine, builds my upper body strength, elongates my muscles. I hope I can keep up with it and improve my skills and flexibility.

Schwinn Bike Trailer

I think one of the best Christmas presents I got is our new bike trailer/jogging stroller. It is more like a family present but all I know is I love it and so does Olivia. Mike and I love to spend time outdoors and recently Mike has gotten into cycling. And I have been running and instead of getting a separate jogging stroller and a bike trailer, I thought it would be more cost efficient and space efficient to get one stroller that could convert. I did research for months and months. There are bike trailers that I could buy on Target/Walmart that are cheap but they didn't get the best reviews. Then there are the heavy duty bike trailers that are super spendy i.e. $450 then I would have to buy kits to convert them to stroller and jogging stroller which was usually an addition $50-75 per kit.

I did consider buying a used trailer on ksl but I decided to splurge on this purchase and buy something I really wanted. It is super easy to convert and pull the wheels off. It folds flat for easy storage. The seats are cushioned. It is easy to change the buckles from a single rider to double rider. It rides like a dream when I am running and Olivia seems to like it. Plus I think it looks awesome. Mike thinks it is awfully wide but aren't most double strollers. And on a side note, right now we only have a Olivia but hopefully one day in the future we will be adding to the family so I was also planning ahead.

New Year's resolutions

I am always making goals for myself so it isn't something new but I decided to make some more for this upcoming year. I decided to be overly ambitious and aim high in hopes that even if I don't make my goal I still have accomplished a lot.

1. Run a half marathon - I signed up for the SLC half marathon on April 17.
2. Lost 15 lbs - I am back on the hhcg diet for the month of January.
3. Start waking up at 5:30 AM so I can exercise in the morning. I love to workout in the morning once I get in the habit but I can't say I love to wake up. I have this goal because I won't be able to work out during my lunch break anymore which means I won't be able to work out with Mike. Boo hoo!
4. Start reading my scriptures daily - My plan so far is to read during my lunch break since I won't be able to exercise. Scripture study can be so tedious but in reality my life is so much happier when I do and I seem to have a lot more clarity in my life.

Those are my goals for now. I have a huge list that has been sitting next to my bed for weeks but those are the first ones I am going to tackle. If anyone is still reading my blog, I would love to hear what your new year's resolutions are.

I'm back

I have been terrible with blogging and I have been terrible at taking pictures this holiday. My holiday was great because I did a whole lot of nothing. I showered but I didn't wear makeup or do my hair and lounged in my pajamas. It was nice but I am back to the daily grind. Work is really crazy and my schedule is not as flexible as it use to be and Mike is in his last semester and he will be spending a lot of time at school which means Olivia will be at the sitter's full time. I feel bad about it but I am hoping it is only for 4 more months. I attempted to take her binky away and she did really well when we were at home but once we left it was really hard and after the realization that she would be at the sitter's so much I caved in and decided to give her back her binky for nap time.