It’s always a hopeful season. I’m energized by the warm, sunny days, with all the plants and flowers in bloom. Earlier in the week, my husband and I piled blankets and pillows on our back porch after the kids went to bed, and laughed and talked under the moon and stars until midnight. The night air was so warm, breezy, and sweet-smelling that we just didn’t want to go inside. Soon, we’ll celebrate the 13th anniversary of our first official date, but even after all this time, he is still the person I love most to be with. No matter what we do, we always have fun, which is why we prefer to do everything together. Not everyone understands this – they think we’re too “dependent” on each other – but we don’t spend all our time together because we have to, or need to. We CHOOSE to, because we’re very close, and very much in love. We think this is how it should be.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24 ESV

The beautiful weather has been very motivating for me. I’ve been hanging laundry on the clothesline, and I’ve tackled some spring cleaning projects. I’ve been organizing and decluttering in every room, and yesterday I even degreased the range hood!

I know…try not to be TOO jealous of my glamorous life.

This time of year is also very busy for us, with all the end-of-school-year activities. Bee tried out for the 5th grade variety show and got a spot. She’ll be doing her ballet routine for this year’s spring dance recital, but the routine was too long for the variety show. I had to find her music on Amazon, download it, edit it, fade out the ending, and then burn it onto a CD for her to take to the auditions. I found this great free software called Audacity, which helped me accomplish this, and it felt good to try something new and actually succeed at it! Also, my husband has been helping Cakes build an elephant habitat out of a cardboard box for her class zoo project, so our evenings have been very busy.

DJ is now potty-trained, though he does still have the occasional accident, usually when he’s playing and distracted. I’m so proud of him! He wears regular underwear all day, every day, and loves them. I bought him Spiderman and Batman ones, but I can’t seem to get out of the habit of referring to them as “panties.” He corrects me every time (“They’re BIG BOY PANTS, Mom.”) but I can’t help it…I was a Mom of girls only for many years before he came along!  We still put him in a diaper at night, but he usually wakes up dry, and to reward him for filling his whole potty chart with stickers, I took him to the dollar store and let him pick out a toy. He was pretty pleased with himself.

I’m so relieved. This means that he can, in fact, start preschool in the fall!

I’ve really been enjoying watching my children over the last month. Cakes, who is very enthused about her newfound reading and writing skills, and loves to practice them whenever possible, has started making suggestions on the grocery list.

In case you were wondering, she wants me to get chocolate syrup and baby carrots. The Chef's Cupboard thing is my husband's doing. It's part of a long-running joke which is impossible to explain.

The girls, though they have separate bedrooms now, are still heartwarmingly close,

and they all love to play together.

Bee and DJ are also very close, and she’s so sweetly indulgent with him. For example, she didn’t shove all of his cars off the coffee table when she needed to do her homework (which is what Cakes would have done). She carefully moved them just enough to fit her book on the table.

I also took this cute and funny video of them playing with a toy laptop that we bought for DJ at a garage sale. Bee would start singing, and DJ would stop the music and cut her off. He thought this was just the most hilarious thing ever! (Note: There’s a tiny reveal in this video. Awhile ago, I said “Maybe someday.” Well, here you go!)

Mother's Day, 2013. I'm framing this one.

]]> http://wantingwhatyouhave.com/2013/05/springtime.html/feed 11 http://wantingwhatyouhave.com/2013/05/news-digest-week-of-5313.html http://wantingwhatyouhave.com/2013/05/news-digest-week-of-5313.html#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 15:23:27 +0000 Heather http://wantingwhatyouhave.com/?p=5595

* First, I want to thank all of you who’ve emailed me to share support or encouragement in response to my last post. I appreciate it very much. I wish that I could pinpoint exactly what’s getting me down, but I don’t think it’s any one thing. Life is just challenging right now, and this is a season of big change and adjustment. In recent months, I’ve purposely distanced myself from some people who’ve hurt me very badly, and this has been difficult for me, (but it’s also a huge relief. It’s hard to explain). Also, I’m going to be 40 this year, and I’d be lying if I said this didn’t give me pause. Not that I’m having a mid-life crisis (though maybe I am? I don’t know), but I have been thinking about the next phase of my life. In 2 more years, all 3 of my kids will be in school full-time, and I’ll need to figure out what to do with myself. It’s daunting and overwhelming, and this crappy weather does nothing to improve my general mood. 34 degrees in May? Freezing rain? Bi-polar weather is nothing new in our neck of the woods, but this is pretty ridiculous. It was 80 degrees on Wednesday, and 40 degrees yesterday, so I’m constantly stuck in a weird limbo. The kids have a combination of shorts and sweaters in their dresser drawers, and I washed the winter coats and put them away, only to get them back out again yesterday.

* Last week, I became a registered eBay trading assistant. Those who’ve been reading here for a long time know that my husband and I have been selling on eBay since 2000, and we were among the first eBay Power Sellers. After my last round of auctions, I again reached Power Seller status, and was designated as a “Top Rated Seller” for consistently meeting eBay’s quality standards. Shortly after that, a friend asked me to sell something for her on eBay, and I felt like maybe God was nudging me in a direction that could help us bring in more money, which we really need right now. This decision seemed like a no-brainer, because this is something I already know how to do, and have a lot of experience with.

* The appraisal business? REALLY not for me. I just don’t think I can stick with it for the long-term. My husband loves appraisal work and finds it challenging, like a puzzle, but I need work that allows me to be creative, so I find it rather dull. I love working with him, though. Who wouldn’t want to work with their best friend?

* The last month has been filled with the usual end-of-school-year activities; preschool open house for DJ, DARE graduation for Bee, preparation for the spring dance recital, and later in the month, the school variety show and Cakie’s “kindergarten zoo.” As part of their positive behavior recognition program, the school also had world champion juggler, Doug Sayers, perform as a reward for the kids. They’d been learning about juggling in P.E., so they were very excited, and this guy was awesome!

If you have time to watch it, this is his long program from the 2010 World Juggling Federation competition. It’s pretty cool.

Image courtesy of www.childavenue.com

He gets a sticker every time he uses the potty, and I told him that when he fills the entire train track with stickers, I’ll buy him a Hot Wheels car. This has motivated him more than anything else we’ve tried.

* Garage sale season is underway, and I’ve already snagged some great deals. My favorites, so far, are this tin of assorted cupcake picks for 50 cents,

a Greek Orthodox church cookbook full of authentic Greek and Lebanese recipes (also 50 cents):

and this collection of greeting cards from the 40s and 50s for $1.00. I just LOVE them, but I love all things vintage. I’m a throwback.

* Our new dryer developed a weird problem this week. It still works, but when the cycle completes, the drum continues to spin even though it’s not heating anymore. The only way to stop it is to open the door, or unplug it. Of course, the warranty was up in August of last year, but I e-mailed LG and explained that the dryer is less than two years old, and it’s ridiculous that it would malfunction already. They agreed to give us a one-time extended warranty repair, which will save hundreds in parts and labor. I’m still pretty mad though. This was an expensive dryer, and now I’m worried that we’re going to be plagued by problems with it. It’s a shame. Up until now, I really loved it.

* Yesterday, I got caught up on housework, including bathroom cleaning (urgh), and today I need to get my office cleaned up, and finish deskwork and filing. I’m taking the kids for their summer haircuts after school, so I’d better get busy! Have a great weekend, everybody!

“Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so.” ~ William Shakespeare

For me, there is a great deal of truth in this statement, for I’m too much of a thinker. In the last week, I’ve spent far too much time ruminating about problems, and far too little time actually doing something about them. When I get down, I tend to withdraw from everyone and everything, and retreat inside my own head, which isn’t always a very fun place to be. I spent most of last week there, as we were plagued by cold, relentless rain every single day, and I was facing a veritable laundry list of problems. I don’t wish to elaborate on what they were, but I’ll just say that too much introspection leads to what I refer to as “doom-saying,” and what PR reps might call “negative spin.” What this means is that over-thinking changes the way we perceive reality, and turns even minor setbacks into major depression…..and when you’re depressed the good becomes bad, and the bad becomes complete disaster. I know this, and yet I do it anyway.

I’ve made no secret on this blog that I’ve suffered from depression many times in my life, and I’m especially vulnerable to it when I’m overwhelmed by too many things to do. Some people thrive on ultra-busy-ness, but I am not one of them. Lack of downtime takes a very negative toll on me, and inevitably leads to depression. I also dislike too much socializing, because I’m a person who needs quiet and solitude. Last week, I had too little of both, and the result was a conclusion in my head that life sucks.

It doesn’t, of course. Or at least it doesn’t have to.

When your emotional state is causing you to put a negative spin on everything, how do you get yourself out of that spiral? Well, I’m no psychiatrist, but I’ll tell you what helps me – action. The only way to break the cycle of over-thinking is to quit thinking, and start doing. The way I start is by doing a “brain spill.” This is my term for sitting down with a spiral notebook and thinking about everything I need or want to do. I write every single thing down -even the small tasks that seem like no big deal. My reason for this is because having too many things floating around in my brain is exhausting, and as I’ve mentioned, when things are in my head they have a tendency to evolve from tiny molehills into mountains I cannot scale. Having them on paper makes them seem more doable and less scary. When I cannot think of another thing that I need to do, I start tackling stuff. I usually do the small, easy things first, because that gives me a sense of achievement, and builds momentum. I find that when I stop wallowing and start working, I immediately begin to feel better. Lighter. Less burdened.

So I began my day today with the prayerful thing – I asked God to help me break out of my depression and start viewing the world with a positive spin again. Now I’m going to do the practical thing, and take action to solve my problems.

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ” ~William James

In my 5 years of writing this blog (5 years!), I’ve mentioned my $2/pound rule for meat purchases several times. What this means is that I don’t purchase any protein that costs more than $2 per pound, with the exception of beef. It’s become very difficult, though not impossible, to buy most cuts of beef at such a low price, and because we love it, we keep costs down by purchasing a quarter of beef from a local farmer each fall. The cost per pound, on average, is around $4, but this includes both economical ground beef and stew meat, and expensive cuts like rib-eye, sirloin, and New York strip steaks, and the meat is SO much better than anything you can buy at the store. I’m very spoiled now.

In recent years, some readers have questioned whether I can still buy any meats for less than $2/pound, and the answer is a resounding YES! We don’t even eat pork, which is generally the least expensive meat, but we still have no trouble finding affordable, quality sources of protein. I still routinely purchase large quantities (20-25 pounds) of bone-in, split chicken breasts for 99 cents/pound when they go on sale, usually every 3 months or so. I also regularly purchase whole turkey breasts when they go on sale for $1.69/pound or less (I have 3 in my freezer right now).

In my post, Turkey – It’s Not Just for Thanksgiving Anymore, I discussed our tendency in the U.S. to relegate economical and delicious roast turkey to Thanksgiving only, which is weird because turkey is one of the most popular proteins eaten here (but mainly in the form of lunch meat). I’ve noticed that most women’s magazines, when offering recipes and menu plans, don’t often include turkey recipes, probably because turkeys are very large, and people don’t always know what to do with the leftovers. Also, cooking them in the traditional way is somewhat labor-intensive, so while pork, beef, and chicken recipes are quite common, most people just don’t think to roast a turkey for a regular weeknight meal. With this post, I’m hoping to offer a new way of thinking about roast turkey – it’s not just a Thanksgiving meal, it can be an anytime meal. If you’re a carnivore, you’ll enjoy making it a regular part of your diet because it’s a lean, healthy source of protein, and a year-round bargain. If you cook the breast only, as I do, it’s quite easy to prepare using a kitchen appliance that most of us have – a slow cooker. Slow cooking produces the moistest, juiciest, most flavorful turkey breast meat you’ll ever eat (it does NOT, however, produce crispy skin, but we don’t care about this because the skin is unhealthy, and we don’t eat it).

This is the brand of turkey breast I usually purchase,

Whole turkeys are even cheaper, but we don't like dark meat, and also they won't fit in the slow cooker!

and here’s what you’ll need to make a delicious roast turkey breast in your slow cooker:

An 8-9 pound whole, bone-in turkey breast (fresh or completely thawed)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Coarse salt (I prefer kosher)
Black pepper
Herbs and seasonings of your choice (I use my roast chicken seasoning)
One large onion, cut into chunks
2 cups chicken broth (or 2 bouillon cubes, plus 2 cups hot water)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Most turkey breasts are fairly big – between 7 and 10 pounds is typical – and you need a large slow cooker to accommodate one. I have a 6-quart, oval-shaped slow cooker, and it can handle most turkey breasts, but this particular one was too tall for me to get the lid on, so I cut it in half by running my sharpest kitchen knife along one side of the breast bone, beginning at the tail end. This takes some muscle, and if you aren’t interested in attempting it, be sure to measure your slow cooker before you head to the store, or buy the smallest turkey breast you can find and hope for the best.

Even if you don’t plan to eat the skin, don’t discard it! Simply use a sharp knife or kitchen shears to loosen it from the meat. Pull it back, but don’t detach it completely, because it will help keep the meat moist during the cooking process. Brush the breast with melted butter,

and sprinkle it generously with roast chicken seasoning (or whichever seasoning you prefer), plus salt and pepper to taste.

Pull the skin over the seasoned meat, and place onion chunks in the cavity of the breast. Put the turkey in the slow cooker, and if you have leftover melted butter, just pour it over the top. It will make your gravy taste really good!

Next, mix together the chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce. I make my own chicken broth whenever I cook a whole chicken, but if I don’t have any on hand I use this delicious chicken broth powder, which I buy from an Amish bulk grocery store. I teaspoon, plus one cup of hot water makes very flavorful broth, and the powder keeps for a long time in the fridge. If you can’t find this, you can also use chicken bouillon, but it’s just not quite the same.

Pour broth mixture over turkey,

then cover and set the slow cooker for 6 hours on low.  This is just a guideline – always, ALWAYS test the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast with an instant-read meat thermometer before serving. It should be at least 170 degrees to kill harmful bacteria.

When the turkey is done, I put it on a platter and cover it with foil to keep warm while I make the gravy. I strain all the liquid left in the slow cooker through a fine sieve, and then pour it into my fat separator. There’s nothing worse than oily gravy, and the fat separator allows me to strain off the meat juices, leaving the majority of the fat behind.

The meat juices are in the Pyrex cup, and all the fat is left behind in the separator. This makes a rich, creamy gravy that isn't greasy.

I like to serve the turkey and gravy with “company rice” (brown rice browned in butter with minced onion, then cooked in chicken broth), and green beans sauteed with dried cranberries and chopped almonds.

After dinner, be sure to remove all the little bits of meat from the bones, for future meals. We usually get at least 3-4 meals from one turkey breast.

So much meat left!

Tomorrow for lunch, I’ll make turkey reubens, and for dinner tomorrow night, turkey pot pie. Any remaining meat will be diced and frozen in meal-sized portions. It thaws quickly, and is a lifesaver on those days when I’m exceptionally tired, or forget to take something out of the freezer to thaw for supper.

If you give slow cooker turkey a try, I hope you’ll let me know what you think!

Many months ago, I mentioned that I was revamping my cleaning system, and several readers have asked me about it recently. I had several reasons for doing this:

1) I wanted a reminder system for tasks that need to be done on a quarterly, semi-annual, and annual basis, because I noticed that these things were often going undone simply because we never set aside a particular time to do them.
2) I wanted a simple way to delegate chores to my husband and kids.
3) My husband and I are both easily overwhelmed by long and seemingly endless to-do lists, and I wanted a cleaning system that would break up necessary work into small tasks that I could focus on, one at a time, without getting overwhelmed.
4) I was over the Zone Cleaning method and wanted a change.

Last summer, I found a home organizing book from the early 1980′s at a garage sale, and the basic premise was that a card file cleaning system could transform a lazy slob into an organized goddess (or some such nonsense). However, to be perfectly honest and forthcoming, I must tell you that I thought this book was so cheesy, dumb, and poorly written that I had trouble completely understanding it even (I can’t remember what it was called now either – I took it to the consignment store immediately after I read it). **Update – several readers recognized this book as Sidetracked Home Executives (S.H.E.) and they’re right. This is the book, only I had the first edition of it, with the hilarious, early 80s hair and outfits.**

Even so, the basic organizational principal is a good one, so I decided to attempt my own version of it. However, I’ve been waiting to share this system with you because I wanted to test it first, and work out the kinks. It basically consists of a series of index cards, each with a specific task written on it. I used both white index cards, and colored index cards, and I used the Cleaning and Schedules sections of my HMG to remember everything I need to do.  It looks like this:

If you would like to make one like it, you’ll need the following:

A 3 1/2 x 5 card file
A package of white 3 1/2 x 5 index cards
A package of colored 3 1/2 x 5 index cards (4 colors)
20 dividers, or sticky flags to make your own
A list of all the chores that need to be done, and when. If you’ve made an HMG, you probably already have this. If not, feel free to use my lists under the Inside the Guide tab in the navigation bar above.

You know that I will never advocate going out and unnecessarily spending money on cutesy matchy organizational supplies, because I care more about how functional a system is than how it looks, but if you want to and can afford to do that, go right ahead. I just used stuff I already had on hand, which is why I have one set of store-bought dividers, and one set of homemade. You will need:

1 divider labeled “Daily”
7 dividers labeled with the days of the week
12 dividers labeled with the months of the year

Here’s what my system looks like. Feel free to copy it, or use it as a starting point to create your own.

Daily (white cards)
You probably won’t refer to these cards often, because these things are done so often they’re pretty much second-nature. They will be useful though in the event of illness or other circumstances where someone else will need to take over the operation of your household.

decide on supper menu and do advanced food preps
make bed and straighten master bedroom
laundry according to schedule (I have my laundry schedule written on this card)
unload/reload dishwasher as needed
straighten up
wipe down kitchen sink, counters, table, and stove
sweep kitchen floor
feed and water cat

A daily card example

Weekly tasks (also white cards) are assigned to specific days:

Monday (Kitchen)
scrub kitchen sink
clean out fridge
straighten and organize pantry and cabinets
wipe down cabinets and counters
clean microwave and other small appliances

Tuesday
vacuum upstairs rugs
sweep and mop all hard floors
empty all trash cans
clean out van

Wednesday (Bathrooms)
clean sinks and counters
clean toilets
clean tubs and showers
straighten cabinets
replenish supplies
clean all mirrors

Thursday
strip and remake all beds
wash and put away sheets
dust and polish furniture in all upstairs rooms
clean switchplates

Friday
desk work and filing
make grocery list
run errands

Saturday (H means that my husband does this chore)
mowing in spring and summer (H)
sweep porches
vacuum downstairs
dust downstairs
tidy laundry room
supervise girls’ room cleaning
change cat litter (H)
clean basement bathroom (H)

Sunday
relax

In addition, I have the following monthly tasks on pink cards, and I just move them along from month to month as I complete them. So for example, if I get to the end of April and there’s still a pink card behind the April divider, I know that I didn’t get that task done.

An example of a monthly card

Monthly (pink cards)
vacuum baseboards
clean coffeemaker
vacuum blinds and lampshades
vacuum vents
change furnace filters
wash and sanitize garbage cans
spot clean windows
clean out cutlery drawer, and wash silverware divider

I’ve assigned quarterly, semi-annual, and annual tasks to specific months, based on when it makes the most sense to do them, and I’ve filed them accordingly.

Quarterly (Green cards)
January/April/July/October
dust ceiling fans
straighten and organize kitchen drawers
dust ceiling corners for cobwebs
put yeast in septic tank

Semi-Annual (Orange cards)
January /June
clean light fixtures
clean stove hood, light, and filter

February / July
clean oven and under sink
vacuum fridge coils

March / August
vacuum and flip mattresses.
move furniture and appliances and clean behind/underneath

April / September
clean out garage
wash mattress pads and comforters

May / October
wash windows
clean out closets

June / November
wash curtains
dust inside china cabinet

July / December
change smoke detector batteries.

For annual tasks, I just write the year on the card after the task has been done, so I have a record.

Annual (Yellow cards)
January
clean out files

April
clean siding

May
check and reapply caulk as needed

September
wash interior walls

An example of an annual card

The advantages of this system are:
1. It takes up very little room on the counter, or wherever you decide to keep it.
2. It’s orderly and contained.
3. It ensures that all necessary work is scheduled, and completed (provided you actually DO all the tasks on the cards).
4. Work is spread out evenly throughout the year.
5. You can pull out one card at a time, so you stay focused, and don’t get overwhelmed.
6. It’s easy to delegate work to others – just pull out a card and say, “Do this please.”
7. It’s inexpensive. Index cards go on sale routinely at back-to-school time for 25-50 cents a package.
8. It’s easy to add to or modify. If something isn’t working, just rip up the card and make a new one.
9. It helps you see how often you really need to do things. For example, if you repeatedly skip a quarterly chore because it just doesn’t seem necessary, you can confidently change it to a semi-annual, or even an annual chore instead. We all have different acceptable standards of cleanliness that work for us, and remember – if it’s not dirty, don’t clean it!
10. It’s fun to make. There, I said it.

I know that for some people, this kind of system may seem unnecessary or extreme, but I’m a person who really is happier in a clean home. It reduces my stress-level significantly, and I think that children thrive in an orderly environment. Also the home is, for most, the biggest asset, and regular cleaning and maintenance is important to protect your investment. I offer this system as a way to keep on top of everything you need to do, and still find time to have fun and enjoy your life.

One day each year, I keep my camera with me and document the day’s happenings. I do this because it’s not the big events, but the minutiae, the everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill things that really make up our lives. It’s fun to look back and see how the children’s appearances and interests have changed, and I love knowing that someday, when they’re grown up and on their own, they’ll be able to read these posts and remember life at home with their Mom and Dad. You’ll notice a few changes this year, now that I’m working part-time with my husband in his basement office, but my days are still filled with the same activities – plus a few new ones!

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

My day typically begins around 7:00 A.M., but on this particular day I was up a little bit earlier, simply because I had a bad cold that kept me from sleeping well.

As always, the first thing I did was wander out to the kitchen in search of coffee, which my husband makes every morning because he gets up around 6:00 to do his Bible study.

I like to plant a little kiss on the back of his neck when I walk into the kitchen.

Around 7:00, I heard the girls talking downstairs, and before long they came bounding up the steps to the kitchen for breakfast.

Cakes wanted to pose like "a fashion girl."

DJ heard us talking, and started calling for me, so I went to his room. He’d decided that he was going to be a kitty, so he crawled behind me down the hall, meowing. This was cute at first, but after 15 minutes of him mewing and pawing at my leg while I tried to make breakfast, I suggested that maybe it was time for him to turn back into a little boy.

He has a great imagination, I'll give him that. He's awfully cute, too.

To distract him from his kitty obsession, my husband let him walk on the ceiling, which DJ loves and thinks is hilarious.

I started breakfast,

A fried egg on toast with a slice of American cheese is one of my favorite breakfasts. It keeps me full until lunch.

and when I finished eating I made our bed, and quickly folded a load of towels that had been sitting in a basket on the floor since Monday. When the girls finished eating, they came in for a few minutes of girl talk.

At 7:40, I sent them to brush their hair and teeth, and get their stuff together so they could catch the bus at 7:55.

I always stand at the sliding door and watch for them to get on the bus, which picks them up at the bottom of the hill.

After the girls got on the bus, DJ and I went to his room to make his bed, and pick out clothes for the day.

This shirt is a hand-me-down, about 3 sizes too big, but he loves it and insists on wearing it anyway because it has Thomas the Tank Engine on the front.

When DJ was dressed, he decided to play in his room with his Hot Wheels cars,

while I got myself dressed and ready for the day. My morning routine is very simple – I just wash my face, brush my teeth, and put on jeans and a t-shirt. I’m a pretty low-maintenance kind of girl, and I don’t wear makeup on a daily basis, but I do use and love my Olay Pro-X Advanced Cleansing System. It gives my face a healthy glow.

After I got dressed, I drank another cup of coffee and briefly checked my email and the headlines. The news depresses me, and I never read the newspaper, but I don’t like to be completely oblivious to what’s going on in the world, so once or twice a week I skim the CNN web site. This is more than enough news for me.

After I put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, I took inventory of my pantry and freezer stock. I decided to make pizza casserole and a green salad for supper, so I took a package of turkey sausage out of the freezer to defrost.

With my supper menu decided, I took DJ downstairs and got him settled in the family room with his trains, and an episode of Bob the Builder on Netflix. Wednesday is DJ’s laundry day (see this post for my laundry schedule), so I transferred the clean laundry I’d done the night before to the dryer, and got DJ’s clothes going in the washer.

Then it was time for me to go to work. How long I work depends on what else I have going on, and on this particular day I only worked for a couple of hours because I needed to get our tax return finished and e-filed.

When it was time for me to go back upstairs to work in my other office, I first made sure that DJ was occupied in the living room with his Legos.

I had the tax return basically completed, but I’d been having several issues with the TurboTax software (which I ordinarily have really good luck with), and hadn’t gotten the bugs worked out until just the night before (after many hours – literally hours – of online chatting with several customer service representatives. They gave me free state e-filing for my trouble). Our tax return is somewhat involved because we operate a business in our home, and I HATE doing it, but self-preparation saves nearly $400! So every year, I push on through.

After I e-filed the return, which only takes about 5 minutes, I printed and filed a copy for our records,

and then I had to organize and box up the huge mess of business records, receipts, and tax-related papers scattered all over my desk, and every other flat surface in my office. When I was finally finished, I took the 2012 record box out to the storage shed and put it on the shelf with all the others. We keep these records for seven years, and then destroy them.

I did some filing and bill paying to get my desk completely cleared, and I reviewed our budget and made a few changes. Then it was time for lunch.

I'm one of those people who's made weirdly happy by a clean desk.

I made chef salads, and since I was already chopping veggies, I washed and cut up enough for our supper salad as well, to save time.

After lunch, my husband put the lunch dishes in the dishwasher, while I got DJ cleaned up and ready for his nap. I’m always so exhausted at night that I can’t stay awake long enough to read him a book, so I try to always read him at least one story at naptime. As you might expect, he chose Thomas’ Milkshake Muddle, which we bought for him at a garage sale. I’ve read it many, MANY times now.

Another goofball face for the camera.

When he was all settled in I decided to rest for a little while too, because my cold was getting me down.

I dozed fitfully on the couch for about a half hour, but I couldn’t get comfortable because I was so cold! I decided to turn on the fireplace, and then I parked myself in a chair next to it, and folded the girls’ laundry, which I’d washed the day before. They will put it away themselves.

I also did a quick wipe-down in the hall bathroom. Now that I have less time for housework, it’s necessary to work small cleaning sessions in whenever I can.

At this point, DJ was still zonked out, so I started preparing the casserole for supper. I like to get food preps done early on Wednesdays and Thursdays, because the girls have dance class, and I’m pressed for time.

Ready to go in the oven

Just as I was finishing up, the girls came up the hill from the bus stop. As always they were starving, so I cut up some apples and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar – a favorite after-school snack here.

They took their snack outside,

and shortly after, DJ woke up and joined them.

He looks grumpy - I don't think he was quite ready to get up.

Pumpkin never likes to be left out, so we let him come outside, too. He loves to sun himself on the deck.

Pumpkin now weighs more than 16 pounds, and is starting to resemble an ACTUAL pumpkin. He's on a diet, which he's very unhappy about.

The girls decided to take their radio out onto the deck, which they were pretending was a stage. Their dancing was quite entertaining!

I love these pictures of them!

They didn’t have very much time to play though, because at 4:15 we had to take Bee to ballet.

She's a very graceful and accomplished dancer. It's really fun to watch her.

We got home around 5:15, and the kids went back outside. I put the casserole in the oven, and while it was cooking I cleaned out, wiped down, and organized a couple of cabinets. I don’t have time for a big spring cleaning marathon, so I’ve been working on small, 15-minute projects whenever I can.

Around 6:00, I called the kids in to wash their hands, and we sat down to eat.

After they cleared their dishes, the kids went downstairs to play in the family room, while we loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen. Our kitchen floor was badly in need of mopping, so my husband moved the table, and gave it a really thorough cleaning with the steam mop. I was so grateful – I hate mopping!

I LOVE a clean, orderly kitchen. It would be nice if it stayed this way for more than 15 minutes.

I focused my attention on the disastrous living room. I can’t stand going to bed with it like this – it’s not fun to wake up to in the morning.

When I was vacuuming, I noticed that there was a lot of junk under the couch, so I asked my husband to help me move it so I could clean underneath. What a mess!

At 7:15, my husband went downstairs and took DJ into the shower with him, and I called Cakes upstairs to take her shower in our bathroom. The hall bathtub is out of commission because the epoxy around the drain was chipping away (remember our tub painting nightmare during the remodel of this bathroom?) My husband scraped away the loose paint, sanded the area, and mixed up a small batch of epoxy to re-coat it, but it needs a second coat which he hasn’t had time to do yet.

When Cakes finished her shower, I clipped her nails and detangled her hair, while my husband got DJ into his pajamas, and tucked him in.

DJ isn't ready to give up his binky (or bee-bee, as he calls it), so we made a rule that he can only have it at bedtime.

Then we went downstairs to put the Cakester to bed.

My husband prays with each of the kids before bed, and he also tells the girls really elaborate princess stories, which he just makes up as he goes along. My personal favorite was about Princess Heather from Want What You Have

Bee came downstairs after her shower and teeth-brushing, and we tucked her in too. She still likes to be tucked in, even though she’ll be 11 this fall, but I told her that as long as she lives here, I will happily tuck her in every night, no matter how old she is.

Bee hates drying her hair, so she just puts a towel on her pillow at night, which is why her hair is always crazy in the morning.

When the kids were all down for the night, it was my turn to hit the shower. While I was relaxing under the soothing spray of hot water, my husband sweetly made a store run to get me some much-needed Mucinex.

After all these years of doing nothing for my skin (except washing it, of course), I decided that since I’ll be 40 (!!!) this year, I should maybe use some sort of night cream. I’ll admit that I was skeptical about whether this was really necessary, but these RoC retinol products have made a big difference in my skin after only a few weeks. I just wish they weren’t scented, because I hate perfumes. This is why I love Cerave facial cleanser and lotion so much – no scent whatsoever!

The steroid ointment is for eczema, which plagues me every winter. Also, I have an obsession with flossing. I can't even sleep if I don't floss, because I lay awake and think about bacteria eating away my tooth enamel.

When I was all scrubbed and brushed and moisturized, and wearing my comfy pajamas, my husband and I settled down to watch a little TV. We usually have a snack too, but I didn’t feel well enough to eat anything, so I had water and Mucinex instead. Very appetizing.

We just started watching Mad Men on Netflix, and we're completely hooked on it.

By 10:15, I was feeling really tired and headachy, so I went to bed to read my Bible for awhile. I rarely have time to get into the Word during the day anymore, but I find that it’s very comforting bedtime reading. Scripture is good dream-making material.

By 10:45, it was lights out for me!

These typical day posts always remind me of how fortunate I am. I’m married to, and still passionately in love with a man who is not only a wonderful husband, but also a loving and involved father. I have 3 happy, healthy kids, a comfortable home, and the freedom to work from home while still caring for my children. I’m busy, I’m loved, and I’m very blessed.

Now, if I could just get rid of this cold. C’mon spring! Any time now would be fine.

We had such a nice Easter weekend together. My husband and I actually enjoyed some time alone, which is rare, because the weather was nice enough that the kids played in the backyard for several hours on Saturday. It’s still too cold to really feel like spring (in shady areas there’s still snow on the ground!) but in the Midwest, if the temperature gets above 40, we all say “Ooooh, it’s so warm out!” and open our windows. It’s not unusual to see people in shorts and t-shirts too, which I personally think is crazy.

Anyway, on Saturday we had Resurrection Rolls for breakfast, and dyed eggs with the kids (see yesterday’s post for the recipe, and an easy egg-boiling method), and my husband did some laundry and cleaning while I cooked. In the last few years, we’ve developed a routine that works very well with our church schedule. We always have our big Easter dinner on Saturday night, so we can have a leisurely Sunday breakfast, the kids can enjoy their Easter baskets, and I don’t have to spend 3 hours of my holiday in the kitchen. We go to church at 11:15 on Sunday, so everyone is usually starving by the time we get home at 1:30, and it’s nice to just be able to heat up delicious Easter leftovers. It works for us.

As a rule, we do not eat pork because my husband and I decided that it was in our family’s best interest to follow God’s blueprint for health as defined in the book of Leviticus (after all, God created our bodies, so we believe he knows what’s best for us). This is really very easy for us, and we all feel better now that unclean meats are no longer a regular part of our diet, but we do make one exception to this general rule for ham balls. These were a holiday tradition in my husband’s family, and he enjoys them, so we decided that from now on, on Easter Sunday, we’ll have them for dinner. I believe, as with all things that I consider to be less than healthy, that moderation is the key, and eating pork once a year is an acceptable indulgence.

Over the years, I’ve developed my own recipe, and if you’d like to give ham balls a try, you will need:

3 1/2 pounds ham loaf mix (this is a blend of finely ground ham and ground pork. Ask for it at the meat counter)
1 1/3 cups cracker crumbs (I use saltines because they’re inexpensive)
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

GLAZE:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon ground mustard
1/4 cup crushed pineapple

In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients until just mixed. Using a quarter cup measure (I use an ice cream scoop), shape ham loaf mixture into balls. (I flatten mine slightly, so they’re more egg-shaped). Place in a single layer on a well-greased, or foil-lined 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with a lip. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine glaze ingredients; cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Spoon over ham balls. Cover and bake at 325° for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15-20 minutes more, or until ham balls are just beginning to brown. Gently toss in glaze. Serve warm. Yield: About (30) 1/4 cup ham balls.

In addition to the glazed ham balls, we had my prize-winning hash brown casserole. I say prize-winning because it won 1st place in a newspaper recipe contest back in the 60s, and I discovered it, clipped and stashed in my husband’s Grandma’s recipe file after she passed away. I’ve modified the recipe because it originally called for crushed cornflakes and a crap-ton of butter, but it’s still fantastic. Every time I take it to a potluck, it’s the first dish emptied.  We also had roasted asparagus, strawberry spinach salad, the kids’ favorite chocolate peanut buster pie, and of course, sparkling grape juice.

DJ was happy because we gave him a fancy glass for his sparkling grape juice, so he could "do clinks" with us (this is what he calls making a toast).

On Sunday morning, the kids had fun searching for the eggs my husband hid all over the house. We always hide a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy or money, for each kid – pink for Bee, purple for Cakes, and blue for DJ – and my husband purposely makes DJ’s eggs really easy to find, and Bee’s eggs harder to find, since she’s almost 11 and needs more of a challenge. This time, he made them SO hard to find that we still haven’t located one of them. The kids also enjoyed their Easter baskets before getting ready for church. I gave each of them a DVD, a chocolate bunny, a Build-a-Bear gift card, and a couple small toys.

The girls were excited to wear these cute little Easter bows, sent to them by my sweet, generous reader and friend, Jessica, all the way from Louisiana.

When they were all dressed, I attempted to get a picture of them together in their Easter finery.

Getting decent pictures is a challenge these days, because DJ is going through his awkward and impossibly difficult picture-taking phase, and either refuses to look at the camera,

or he DOES look at the camera, but he makes a really weird face like this one.

Such a goofball!

Fortunately, the girls always have beautiful smiles, and that helps alleviate some of my holiday photography frustration.

We enjoyed a wonderful church service, with a performance by the children’s choir,

and our pastor gave a sermon about the victory we have in Jesus when we surrender our lives to him. We were each given a white flag, with a blank line where we could write down what we need to surrender to Christ, in order to be free. I wrote “my worry, fear, and insecurities,” because I seem to have a lot of those lately. We waved our flags in the air as we sang Chris Tomlin’s White Flag,

I feel so incredibly fortunate to attend a church where I’m continually encouraged, lifted up, and nurtured to grow in my faith.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend! We enjoyed some much-needed time together as a family, and it was wonderful. I’ll get a recap posted tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to share some favorite Easter recipes.

On Friday night, I made Resurrection Rolls for Saturday breakfast with some Rhodes frozen dinner rolls that I had in the freezer from Christmas. If you’re not familiar with this recipe, it’s quite simple to make. You will need:

12 Rhodes white dinner rolls (each frozen dough ball is about 1.3 ounces, if you want to use homemade dough)
12 large marshmallows
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Flatten each dough ball into a 5-inch circle.

Dip a marshmallow in melted butter, and place in the center. Fold up the sides of the dough, pinching edges together to seal.

Dip each dough-covered marshmallow in melted butter, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place on a well-greased baking sheet (or better yet, use a Silpat), cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. The marshmallows will melt, and mix with the cinnamon, sugar, and butter to make a delicious caramel,

and the rolls are empty inside like Christ’s tomb on the 3rd day. Plus, they’re delicious! They taste very much like cinnamon rolls.

On Friday night I also cooked eggs, to be dyed the next morning, using my slow cooker. I boiled 10 eggs, but you can make as many as you can fit in a single layer.

Add enough water to cover the eggs by one inch. In my slow cooker, this is about 8 cups. Add one teaspoon of salt (this helps the boiled eggs peel easier).

In my slow cooker, 3 1/2 hours on low is sufficient, but you may need more or less time, depending on your appliance, so a test batch is a good idea.

When the eggs are done cooking, immediately plunge them into an icewater bath, to stop the cooking process.

I like this method, because I don’t have to hover over a boiling pot of water, worrying about cracked eggs, and this is an easy way to boil large quantities for dyeing.

After Easter, when you’re ready to make egg salad or deviled eggs, gently tap each egg on the counter until the shell is covered with tiny cracks. Then hold the egg in a bowl of warm water, and begin peeling at the large end. The shell will slip off easily.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, you might also want to make this chubby little lamb cake. It requires no special mold or decorating tools, and kids love it.

Just don’t give yours a wandering eye, like mine.

This is the best way I can think of to describe life right now, because I wake up in the morning with no real, clear picture of how my day is going to go, or what exactly it is that I’m going to achieve (which, actually, is really not that different from life as a SAHM, I guess). DJ interrupts me approximately 147 times an hour (a conservative estimate), so I spend a lot of time spinning my wheels. I told my husband this morning that I fail to see how I can help him bring in more income when I can only work for 5-minute periods, punctuated by detours to fetch snacks and drinks, put something on TV, or put new batteries in a toy. It’s all just one big exercise in frustration!

We spent all of spring break working, and I felt bad that we didn’t spend any time with the kids, so on Saturday we decided to just take off and do something fun. We called it “the mystery tour,” because we didn’t tell them where we were going. Our first stop was a historic German village where they were having an indoor community garage sale fundraiser (we all have garage sale itch, as often happens this time of year). For a dollar, I bought two  Alvin and the Chipmunks books from 1983, which I’m hoping to sell for a profit on eBay if I ever find time to list them. Other than that the sale was a dud, so we took the kids to one of the many German restaurants for lunch.

We had sauerbraten, with sides served "family style."

I explained to the girls that because their heritage is primarily German, they should be adventurous and try all the classic German fare, like pickled beets, sauerkraut, and potato dumplings, but they weren’t on board with that idea, and neither was DJ. He ordered a “cheese sammich, please.”

After lunch, we browsed in some of the shops, and were surprised that one store was selling actual hard-boiled eggs, dyed for Easter. This just seems like an accident waiting to happen. I think I must’ve said, “Don’t touch!” to DJ at least 1000 times, but he touched anyway. A lot.

That's a whole lot of egg salad right there.

Bee bought some rock candy in the old-fashioned candy store.

The kids really liked this painted wood chicken outside the restaurant. I don’t know what the deal is with them and chickens lately.

When we were sufficiently sticker-shocked by the outrageous prices, we drove to a nearby hotel with a waterpark. We got half-price passes because there were only two hours left of the public session (the evening hours are reserved for guests when the hotel is full, as it was that night). I didn’t get any pictures there because I was worried about my camera getting wet, but a good time was had by all. I was feeling somewhat adventurous (for me, anyway), and I went down the big tube slide. I swallowed what seemed like gallons of water, and banged up both my tailbone and elbow, but it was worth it because the kids were so excited to see Mommy act like a kid.

We were all ravenous by the time we left, so I introduced the family to my favorite college pizza place. The kids thought it was cool to watch these guys make pizza in an assembly line fashion, while wearing their little paper hats and white uniforms.

DJ was getting tired and grumpy.

My husband wanted Bee to take a picture of us, but my hair was all weird from the pool, and I was totally without make-up.

On Sunday it snowed (again), so we stayed all cozy inside, and I made this delicious Greek chicken with cilantro-lemon rice and roasted asparagus for dinner,

with cherry streusel pizza for dessert. It was soooo GOOD!

It was a nice break, especially since this week I have to finish our tax return, which I despise. I see more desserts, and probably alcoholic beverages of some sort, in my future.

Big news!

I’m no longer a stay-at-home mom. Yesterday, I officially became a work-at-home mom (though technically I already was, because raising kids and managing a household is a full-time job in itself!) when I went “back to work” doing all the research and administrative work for my husband’s appraisal business. I guess I should now call it our appraisal business, but I haven’t gotten to that point in my mind yet.

I was not planning to do this until DJ went to kindergarten, and I really thought we could make it until then, but last week I opened a letter from our health insurance company, and learned that our premium will be going up $126 a month, beginning on April 1st. Because we’re self-employed, we don’t have the cost-sharing benefits of an employer-subsidized group plan, so we must buy individual insurance. It’s quite costly, especially because my husband is 55, and in an expensive rating pool. According to the representative we spoke to, my husband’s age, and the very high, and constantly rising cost of care is what drove the premiums up, and there’s nothing we can do to bring them down. Premiums have gone up every year for the last 10 years, and we’ve already raised the deductible as high as it can go. We have the least expensive HSA plan offered, so we’re out of options. Our health insurance now eats up 13% of our gross income. It’s as expensive as a mortgage payment would be, so I can’t imagine how we’d get by if we had both.

I considered going back to work full-time outside the home, in the hope of getting health benefits, but then I would have to pay for daycare for DJ. I don’t want to do that. Childcare is expensive, and money is already tight for us, but the main reason is that I want to take care of my son myself. When we got married, we decided that if we had children, I would stay at home with them. I did that for the girls, and DJ is my baby boy. I want to give him those years at home with his Mom, just like I did for his sisters. It’s very, very important to me, and I will gladly do whatever it takes to make it happen.

So, to that end, we cleaned and organized my husband’s office in the basement over the weekend, and moved my old desktop computer, and one of my scrapbook tables (which was no longer being used) in, so that I would have a place to work. Our hope is that with me working part-time, doing the research and busy work, my husband will be able to complete more appraisal reports, and we’ll be able to cover the additional cost of health insurance. My goal is to work 4 hours a day. At first I thought it would be from 8:30-12:30, but now I’ve decided that it’s impossible to predict what will happen on any given day, so I just start whenever I manage to eat breakfast and get DJ settled, and go from there. In the afternoons, I work on housework and laundry, and get the girls to activities.

I’ve only worked for two days, but so far it seems to be going OK. DJ interrupts a lot, and spends a lot of time chattering to me and running his Hot Wheels along my desk, so today I printed some coloring pages and preschool worksheets, and tonight I’m going to set up the card table in the office so he can play with play dough. We also outfitted the basement family room with DJ’s train table and an assortment of his toys, and a shelf for snacks, wipes, and other supplies, so I don’t have to run up and down the stairs 25 times a day. We’re definitely in what I would call a “period of adjustment,” but my husband and I do enjoy working together, and it’s nice because I see him a lot more now. The girls are helping by folding and putting away laundry, getting snacks and drinks for DJ, and keeping an eye on him. Bee will be 11 this fall, so we’ve been slowly giving her more responsibility. We’re pulling together as a family to make this work.

I have a lot to learn, and my brain feels overloaded most of the time, but much less than it would be if I had to juggle a job outside the home with everything else. Fortunately, I have a very understanding and exceptionally forgiving boss.