Monthly Archives: March 2009

To Do Lists

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Ryan has made me a list person. It’s all his fault. In case you were wondering.

I’ve even gotten to the point where I have lots of random things flying around in my head & i feel overwhelmed & ‘stressed’ until I finally write them down & realize, “oh, that’s not too bad…” or at the very least, not PRESSING.

Part of the issue is the fact that all the little things that have to be done everyday (like housework & cooking), not to mention the joy of having fun with the kids (i can easily get ‘into’ housework & cooking & forget we should probably…oh I don’t know…PLAY sometimes??)…anything ‘extra’ wigs me out if it’s not in writing.  To the point that I ignore the voice that tells me i have a ‘mental list’ and watch tv or read during ‘free time’.   Sigh.  I’m a work in progress.

Today I finally typed up the current “extras” list:

TO DO:

  • iron patches onto mine & asher’s pants (asher currently owns 2 pair of pants w/o holes)
  • choose some dinners from fix freeze feast
  • plan april dinner calendar
  • re-do weekly schedule
  • plan breakfasts & lunches (? optional…i hate meal planning)
  • Go through craft book & choose activites/ add to calendar what days to do them (or i’ll never get around to it).

    • There ya go. Another nugget to file under “wow, Jenn is so super cool & hip”. I AM that 30-something minivan mom. Sigh.

    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-23

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    Bit of Encouragment

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    I’m looking forward to blogging about my ‘internet fast’, which has really amounted to “email during (most of) the day and forums fast”. However when I first started, I went through and cleared out my feed reader. Trimmed the ‘fat’ if you will (actually, given my opinion on fat, i’ll change that to ‘trimmed the refined carbs’, ha). I’ll stop there otherwise I’ll have precious little to talk about when it’s “time”.

    Anyhow, it has been AMAZING to only be reading blogs that are really important to me, whether that be because they are written by dear friends, a breath of fresh, funny air, or spiritual encouragement. The other day the ‘encouragers’ over at Girl Talk provided the latter. It was not JUST mommy encouragement (which I apparently ‘needed’ due to my response to the short post), but a reminder and encouragement of the ultimate purpose in my ‘mommying’. To teach them “the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ”.

    Besides, it’s always nice to hear from someone “on the other side” let me know that the toddler stage (while fun and adorable, and so sweet) IS exhausting. I easily get to thinking there’s something wrong with me that a four year old and two year old can take so much out of me….and my kids are pretty laid back in the scheme of things!

    I do want to note though, I’m NOT complaining about their stage….yes, there’s hard days/moments (weeks?), and there’s moments where I ‘can’t wait’ till they’re more self-sufficient, but at the same time, I KNOW I’ll pine in many ways once we pass this stage. There will be plenty to miss, so I also try to keep that view in mind as well as we press on and celebrate growth – to ‘enjoy them now’ as much as possible. Always that tension isn’t there? “Enjoy them now, but remember you’re training them for LIFE.”

    Not that those two things need to be mutually exclusive. But that’s another thought entirely, and I need to unload the dishwasher.

    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-22

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    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-21

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    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-20

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    Kefir Bread

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    Another “Necessity is the mother of Invention” post. Though admittedly I’ll have to post whether or not it’s any GOOD, as I haven’t cooked it yet, ha.

    While I still haven’t settled on a sandwich bread recipe for us since coming back to gluteny-grains (I found one but it’s admittedly a PIA from a mental energy perspective and requires i mix and knead dough at night….i’m hard pressed to get dinner cleaned up at night so baking….ugh…), but I have been using recipes from the book, “Artisan Bread in 5min/day” for other things (& might have now found an easy way to appropriately ‘tweak’ the whole wheat sandwich bread recipe for my desire to limit phytates). Anyhow, I use the olive oil dough recipe for our weekly pizza, of course ‘tweaked’ to accommodate whole wheat flour vs. white. The basic gist is you mix up the ingredients rather quickly into a bowl (or in my case bucket), let it do an initial rise, then stick it in the fridge for a few hours up to a couple weeks depending on the recipe. I like this because though it might not be a perfect or ideal way to reduce phytates in the grains, it is a long ferment (if i remember to do it far enough ahead) and thus better than nothing. Not to mention EASY!! No knead, no mixer, just a wooden spoon, bucket & about 5min, literally.

    Ok, so yesterday I was mixing up the dough for today’s pizza (ideally I like to do this monday or tuesday but hasn’t been happening lately), and after i had things already in the works, I remembered I had no yeast. Ugh. NOT up for yet another unplanned grocery store trip (we’ve stinkin’ made 3 this week!), I decided to experiment with my proliferating milk kefir grains (the grains are a “symbiotic yeast/bacteria culture”). I mixed up the water, kefir (as a dough conditioner since i’m doing whole wheat w/a white flour recipe instead of 2 3/4 water I do 2 cups water, 1 cup kefir), sugar, and a teaspoon of powdered ginger (feeds yeast). Then I added one little baby kefir grain (it was just slightly smaller than a pea). I let this mixture sit for 20min. Then I mixed in the rest of the ingredients, covered loosely & hoped for the best. I put it in the oven w/the pilot light on for an hour or so and then turned off the light, and promptly forgot about it altogether (thankfully dinner didn’t require the oven or I would’ve baked the plastic bucket, whew).

    Last night I was lying in bed wired from having been chatting with women at Bible study, unable to sleep. Suddenly I remembered the dough. Fully expecting no movement, I pulled it out of the oven & lo & behold it HAD risen….only veeery slightly. So, I just left it on the counter overnight. This morning I woke up and sure enough it had doubled. I’ve put it in the fridge and we’ll see how it goes tonight.

    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-19

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    Ryan’s Tweets for 2009-03-18

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