72-hour kit activity

I took on the daunting task of planning out a 72-hour kit activity for our Relief Society. Tonight was the activity, and I think it was very successful! I had a lot of people come to me and say how much they appreciated it.

We only did the food for the kits. Here is the food for one kit (which all fits into a gallon-sized ziploc bag):

3 oatmeal packets

3 chicken/tuna salad and crackers packets

6 granola bars

3 fruit snacks packages

3 Lipton instant soup packets (chicken noodle)

6 spoons

9 individually wrapped sanitizing wipes

The kits ended up costing about $8 each. It's pretty simple and it's not exactly gourmet living, but it would keep you alive in an emergency.

We got most of the supplies from Sam's Club. Emily, one of the committee members, found out that you can order things from Sam's Club and then pick it up the next day, so she and Chelsey, another committee member, were able to pick it up and load it into Chelsey's van without having to get six carts to buy it all. The soup packets were on Amazon.com. We were planning to do a sleeve of Ritz crackers, a can of chicken, and some mayonnaise packets, but then today Emily found out that the chicken and tuna salad with crackers packets went on sale and she decided to drive to several different stores to buy them and save some money and space. Amazing. I was so grateful for Chelsey and Emily's help with the shopping and set-up, because I certainly could not have done it alone!

At the beginning of the activity we had a short discussion about other items to put in the kits and how to prepare for emergencies. I made a handout that was largely copied from here. We put all the food onto three long tables and then people went through and put together their own kits. It was a lot of food! I feel like it went really well and was helpful for a lot of people. What a relief to have it all done--and to have our 72-hour kit again!

This was a week of learning to deal with the new normal. Now that Kevin can climb and get into more things, there are a lot more challenges. I've learned a lot this week. At the beginning of the week I read something about how important it is for parents to not let children control them. For example, I once heard a story of a little girl who would always cry when their family went out to eat, because she knew that if she acted like that she would usually get a treat in an effort to calm her down. So I started off the week with that in the back of my head and feeling like I couldn't let Kevin control me. Except after a couple of days I realized that I don't really have that problem. I don't generally let him get away with things just because he throws a tantrum. Then I realized that what I had been doing was trying to control Kevin, not prevent him from controlling me. So this week I learned that while it is true that I need to avoid letting Kevin control me, it is also true that I cannot control him because he has his agency. And if he's acting wild and getting into all sorts of things he shouldn't have, that does not mean that I'm not doing my job as a mom, because that's his choice and also part of his personality. So how many times do I have to learn this lesson before it sticks?

One evening this week when I was feeling very discouraged, I called my mom to vent. She made a lot of suggestions, but one thing that she suggested was to use music. I realized that the hardest time of the day is after Kevin's "nap" (more on that situation later), so I've started playing hymns or primary songs during that time when Kevin is awake but Ryan isn't home yet. It seems like I have felt much more peaceful and relaxed on the evenings when I have tried that, and Kevin seems to be a little calmer too.

Kevin continues to climb out of his crib when I put him down for a nap. He is actually climbing, not just diving out of the crib, so I think at this point we're going to stick with the crib a little longer--partly because he's familiar with it and likes it, and partly to prevent him from falling out of bed at night, because he's a pretty wild sleeper. He does usually stay in and go to sleep at night, so that's nice. For nap time, I've settled on at least having quiet time if he won't take a nap. I switched the lock around on his door, and if he doesn't go to sleep then he's free to climb out of his crib and play with toys, but he has to stay in his room for quiet time. I know it sounds mean to lock a child in his room (I felt quite guilty about it at first), but it actually seems to be working. Now he usually plays for a little while and then goes to sleep. Sometimes that's on the floor (and then we move him to his crib), but he's getting a pretty good nap, so I think it worked. One of the things I've learned about Kevin is that sometimes he needs to be left to do things himself, and sleep is one of those things that he needs to do himself.

After going crazy with Kevin going into the kitchen, Ryan thought of using one of our cabinet door locks to lock the gate. It doesn't work if we're going in and out of the kitchen, but if we're staying in or out of the kitchen for a while it works. Kevin also figured out this morning that he's strong enough to open the fridge. For the answering machine phone, we tried moving it out to the living room and putting it on the piano, but that idea didn't last long since we spent the rest of the day pulling Kevin off the piano. So we put the phone in a corner in Kevin's room and used his dresser and a bookshelf to conceal it, but he found it the next day. I found him during naptime sitting in the small space in that corner surrounded by cords. So Ryan turned the bookshelf around and put the phone and all the other apparatus on it, then pinned the bookshelf backwards against the wall with Kevin's dresser. We have a voip phone system that works through the internet, so we just need the phone and the voip box to stay plugged in so we can use the other phones in other places throughout the house. (We have two other places where we can connect to the internet, but we need one for our computer and the other one is behind the piano, which, as I mentioned before, didn't work out too well.) This solution seems to be working. He knows the phone is there, but he can't move the shelf. Sometimes I can't believe how smart this kid is.

This week we had occasion for both Kevin and Heidi to be weighed and measured. I was so frazzled from chasing Kevin around with a baby in tow that I can't remember the numbers, but they have doctor appointments this week, so I'll get a second chance. The person who did it said of Kevin, "His weight falls right on this curve in the 50th percentile, which is perfectly normal. On the other hand, his height is not normal at all. He's well over the 90th percentile. He's as tall as a three-year-old." So that's why people always seem to think he's three years old even though he just turned two.

This evening Kevin went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time. I could kind of tell he needed to go, so I suggested that he sit on the toilet. I think this helped him make the connection between sitting on the toilet and what's supposed to go in the toilet. So that was pretty exciting for him.

School started this week. I have one class every day and Heidi usually needs to eat while I'm gone, so I left a bottle at home with Ryan. I wasn't too worried because she had been doing a lot better with taking a bottle, but when I got home from class on the first day Ryan handed her to me and said she was starving but refused to eat from the bottle. By Thursday Ryan got her to drink from a bottle, but only after she had screamed for a long time and then was exhausted enough that she drank from it but kept gagging. So I guess we have to keep working on it. Fortunately, I'm only gone for a few hours each time, so it's not like she's going without food for a whole day. She'll learn.

Heidi slept for eleven hours one night this week. I appreciated the consolidated sleep, but when I woke up I was in a lot of pain because she hadn't nursed for so long. Generally it seems like she settles down for the night at about 10:00, and then wakes up at 4:00 to eat. Then Kevin wakes me up in the morning at about 7:00 by knocking on his door. Her naps during the day have become more consolidated. She continues to be a sweet and happy baby who only strongly objects to hunger, bottles, and diapers that are even slightly wet.

Classes went well. My teachers seem to be friendly and reasonable. I was nervous about Chem 102 since it's been a while since I took Chem. 101 and 105 at BYU, but it's all coming back for the most part, even the stoichiometry. Physics 116 looks like it will be fun. I signed up for a section where the lab is incorporated into the lecture, so there is a lot more hands-on learning instead of lecturing. On Friday we did a lab where we learned how to use vernier calipers (simply put, fancy rulers). It's hard to find time at home to do the readings and the homework, so that's stressful, and I'm still not sure how that will work out. But I'm at least happy that going to class will be a pleasant experience and that my teachers are approachable people. Yesterday one of the homework problems I worked on involved calculating how much of Archimedes' bathwater is in a can of soda (about 10^6 water molecules).

Yesterday I cut and froze some peaches. I also made about six cups of cherry pie filling, which was a first for me. It didn't taste anything like the store-bought stuff, but that's probably a good thing.

This week we experienced our first earthquake and our first hurricane. The earthquake was last Tuesday. Ryan was teaching a lab where lots of noise and vibrating was already happening, so he didn't even feel it, but we felt it at home. To me it just felt like some vibrating, and the potted plant on our computer desk shook and rattled. It took a while for me to even decide that it really was an earthquake. Later on there was an aftershock while Ryan was home, so he got to feel one too. Then Hurricane Irene hit the coast yesterday. We were far enough inland that we got rain and some heavy wind, but we've experienced worse storms here that weren't hurricane related.

Cooking Beans Part 4: refried beans

Part 1: rinsing and soaking
Part 2: boiling
Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time
Part 4: refried beans

One of our favorite recipes is refried beans. They are great for making burritos and also make a very yummy chip dip.

Start by making a batch of pinto beans (or other beans would probably work). When the beans are soft, drain the beans, reserving the bean water in a bowl.

Use a potato masher, blender, mixer, or food processor to mash up the beans. I like to mash the beans up a few cups at a time and gradually add more. Add bean water as needed to get the consistency you like.

On the stove, heat 1 tbsp. of oil and saute 2-3 cloves of minced garlic for a couple of minutes. Gradually mix the mashed beans with the garlic. If the beans get too dry, you can add some bean water. If you add too much bean water, you can just cook it until some evaporates.

You can add lots of different spices depending on what you like. Cumin, chili powder, and taco seasoning are all spices that work well. I usually just go with the garlic. I also like to add some salsa.

When you're satisfied with the taste and the bean mush is as thick or thin as you like it, you're done. Now you have refried beans.

You can make big batches of refried beans and freeze them in meal-sized portions, just like with regular beans. They are easy to reheat by microwaving them for 1-2 minutes.

As a side note, it is also possible to grind up beans in a mill (check the owner's manual of your mill to make sure!) and use the bean flour as instant refried beans. I have tried it this way and didn't like it as much because I like the more chunky texture of mashed beans.

To make burritos, spoon some refried beans onto one side of a large burrito-sized tortilla that has been heated in the microwave long enough to soften it. Don't put too much on the burrito because you need room to roll it up.

You can add other toppings to the burrito, such as avocado, peppers, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, cheese, rice, or meat.

Now you roll it up. (I hope that between my instructions and the pictures you can figure it out, because it's kind of hard to explain.) Start by folding up the edge closest to you.

Next fold in the sides.

Starting at the end where the beans and toppings are, roll up the burrito towards the empty end.

If the beans and tortilla are warm, you can eat it now, or you can microwave the burrito for about one minute to heat it up.

Burritos are a nice alternative to sandwiches for lunch. I don't know what's in frozen burritos, but homemade burritos just have beans, a tortilla, and whatever toppings you add, so they are cheap and very healthy.

Cooking Beans Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time

Part 1: rinsing and soaking
Part 2: boiling
Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time
Part 4: refried beans

I was aware of the low cost and the health benefits of beans long before I became comfortable with cooking them from scratch, but one of the main reasons I didn't cook them very much was because of how long it took for them to be ready. Even though most of the time you don't actually have to be paying attention to the beans, it still takes planning ahead so that you can have beans ready for a meal. It didn't really seem worth it to me to spend the whole day cooking beans for just one meal, and I didn't want to be eating leftover beans for the next several days either. I think this is why a lot of people don't cook beans very often.

One solution is to buy canned beans. You can also can beans yourself in a pressure cooker (use the Ball canning book or another tested recipe to make sure they are processed correctly so you don't grow a bacteria colony in your jar). Since you can reuse mason jars and the ring part of the lid, the main costs you would have to consider are the cost of the beans and the cost of the part of the lid that seals to the jar. If that is less than the cost of canned beans from the store, and if you feel that you will get enough uses out of the mason jar, then it's worth it to can your own beans. The disadvantages to canned beans are that they will not last for years and years like dry beans will, the cost is greater, and they also take up more space. The advantages are that you can have beans for dinner without a lot of preparation, and in a situation where you don't have a lot of water or the available water isn't fit to drink you can still eat your beans since they're already cooked.

One other option is to freeze your cooked beans. When I make beans I cook a large batch and then store the beans in 1-cup-sized plastic Glad containers, which I put in the freezer. I don't add any extra water. When I want to use my beans I pull out the amount that I need and either let the beans thaw in a bowl of water or let them heat up in whatever I'm cooking. This works well for soups and casseroles. I don't like it as much for putting the beans on salads.

Is it worth it to bake your own bread?

Bread in the store is quite expensive. I guess you can get airbread for something like $1.00 a loaf, or sometimes cheaper, but there's a reason it's that cheap. But the better-tasting bread that actually has some nutritional value can cost several dollars.

Many people turn to making homemade bread in an effort to save money on bread. A lot of people insist it saves them money, even if they've never calculated how much it actually costs. But I have also started to see comments from people who say, "I thought I would try to save money by making my own bread, but then after buying all the ingredients I realized that I had already spent a lot more than if I had just bought it." And then you also have to consider if it's worth it to you to spend the time to make it.

Now, one thing that is important to remember is that a very valuable aspect of making homemade bread is that you know exactly what is in your bread. Every single one of the ingredients you put in is something that you can pronounce. And there are a lot of health and taste benefits to making homemade bread. For many people, this is enough, even if it's more expensive to make it than to buy it.

But cost is still a consideration.

So I decided to do some research and calculating and see how much it costs to make one of my recipes for whole wheat bread. This is the recipe:

Crunchy Wheat and Honey Bread

1 1/4 cups water

3 tbsp. honey

2 tbsp. margarine or butter, softened

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. yeast

I just throw all of these into my bread machine, and let it run through the dough cycle. Then I shape it into a loaf and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes in my oven.

Wheat
Several places on the internet say 1 cup wheat kernels yields about 1 1/2 cups flour. That's approximately what I usually get when I grind just enough for the recipe I'm making.
There are 56 cups of white wheat in a 25 lb. bag (based on what I measured myself).
White wheat from the cannery costs $11.45 for a 25 lb. bag. (See the order form at providentliving.org.)
A little calculating:
(56 cups wheat kernels) X [(1.5 cups wheat flour)/(1 cup wheat kernels)]=84 cups wheat flour from a 25 lb. bag of wheat
The price per cup of whole wheat flour from the cannery is $11.45/84=$0.14 for one cup of flour.

Now that I've calculated that, below is a spreadsheet that shows the price of a 1 lb. loaf of bread using ingredients exclusively purchased at Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Costco, respectively. Costco doesn't have whole wheat flour here, so I used the price of whole wheat flour at Kroger for that table. The last table calculates the price of making this recipe if I use wheat from the cannery and the rest of the ingredients from whichever store has it for the best price per unit.

I should note that prices for many foods are going up or will go up soon, so these calculations might not be accurate in a couple of months, but I thought I would post this anyway, and then after prices have changed I can do this again and it will be interesting to see what effect it has had.



Explanation of columns in the table:

• Ingredient: I think this is self-explanatory. I am assuming the price of the water is negligible, which it probably is, and the price would be difficult to calculate anyway.
• Price and Amount: These give the price of a bag or box of that ingredient, and the amount of the ingredient in the bag or box.
• Price/unit: This is the number in Price divided by the number in Amount, rounded to three decimal places.
• Unit/measurement: This is copied straight from the table at the top of the spreadsheet. I found these values from the website shown below the conversions. The website converts amounts of various kitchen ingredients between different units of measurement. Since most ingredients are sold by the pound or ounce, I needed these to convert the numbers to cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.
• Amount required for recipe: copied straight from the recipe, although fractions were converted to decimals.
• Price for recipe: This is the product of price/unit, unit/measurement, and amount required for recipe. It is the amount the you are paying for that particular ingredient every time you make bread.
• The total price to make a 1 lb. loaf of bread is in bold beneath each table.
• Below that is the total price of all the ingredients except whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.

Observations:

• If you use the least expensive ingredients and cannery wheat, a loaf of this bread costs 50 cents.
• Cannery wheat actually isn't much cheaper than store-bought wheat right now, although normally wheat costs about half of what it does right now. Right now the savings are less than a cent per loaf.
• Yeast from the grocery store is a lot more expensive than if you buy it in bulk at Costco. At Kroger and Harris Teeter, the total price of all ingredients except the flours is nearly half the price of the entire loaf, and this is largely because the yeast costs so much. So just buying yeast at Costco decreases a good portion of the cost per loaf.
• Before I did this spreadsheet I had been assuming that all the ingredients except the flour were pretty negligible and would only account for a few cents. But even using the least expensive ingredients, that was still 14 cents per loaf. It's still not very much, but it's more than I expected.
• Flour is a little less expensive at Kroger than Costco. I had been assuming that Costco's all-purpose flour must be the cheapest, but then again the price of flour at Costco has risen a little bit recently.
• All-purpose flour is less expensive than whole wheat flour, even if you grind it yourself, although when wheat kernels are less expensive the price is probably fairly similar.

So if you only take into account the price of the ingredients, it is probably cheaper to make your own whole wheat bread. You do also have to consider if the time is worth it to you, as well as what equipment you are planning to use. If you are grinding your own wheat, you will also need a wheat grinder, or you'll need to factor in the time spent using a mortar and pestle. If you don't want to mix the bread by hand, you will need a bread maker or a mixer. A mixer and a wheat grinder could cost about $600, so you would need to consider how much use you get out of those before they break down, and if you would save enough money making your own bread to justify the cost of those.

Note: I added a new table to the spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take for an appliance to "pay for itself" in the amount of money you would save by using it. The first column tries various prices for one loaf of bread bought at the store, and the second shows how much you would save by making your own with my recipe. The rest of the columns show how many loaves of bread you would have to make before you would save as much money as you have paid for the mixer or wheat grinder. So if you think about which bread you buy from the store, how often you would make bread instead, and how much bread you make each time, then that can give you an idea of how long it would take to pay for that appliance in savings.

Some more thoughts: Another thing to keep in mind is that homemade bread seems to disappear faster than storebought bread. That's partly because everyone is so excited about the warm bread that it disappears in the first hour, and partly because it's hard to slice it as thin and each slice is more dense than the store's airbread. But that could be a good thing because your family is consuming lots of nutritious and delicious bread. I also find that homemade bread makes me feel full faster and helps me feel full longer than storebought bread. I guess for me, I've stopped wondering if I'm saving money or not by making homemade bread, because I love the taste and the nutritional benefits enough that it doesn't matter to me. You have to make that decision for yourself.

this week

This week I finished my finals. At times I didn't think I would make it. This semester has been tougher than I expected. I'm glad it's over and that I can have some time to get ready for the baby and do some projects and spend time with Kevin and Ryan.

In my Surface Processes class, there is a sweet lady who is probably about my mom's age and going back to school. At the beginning of the semester I started sitting in the row in front of her, and we started talking and became friends. She is one of the kindest people I've ever met and was very supportive of me having a family and finishing my education. The day of the final, she pulled out an old cookbook with favorite Mormon recipes in it and gave it to me. I had told her about my church and she remembered that she still had that cookbook and thought I would like it. I thought it was a really thoughtful thing to do. I wish we had exchanged email addresses. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.

My mom sent me a copy of Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother's Soul. I started it after finals were over and I'm already halfway through. It was just the sort of thing I needed. I needed heartwarming and funny stories about pregnancy and babies.

Yesterday we went and picked strawberries. Ryan and I ended up taking turns picking berries because Kevin just wanted to eat them, but we still had a good time. Since it's still early in the season, we only had to go a few yards along the row to get all the berries we needed. I was also surprised that it wasn't as uncomfortable as I had expected to pick berries at eight months pregnant. A man said to me, "They're not going to make you pick berries, are they?" and I replied, "Oh, it's not too bad, because I have a built-in pillow to lean forward on." We got over 20 pounds to make jam and eat. It was fun to hear other pickers around us exclaiming, "Oh, wow! Look at these berries! They look so good! This is so amazing!" You don't get berries like that in the store, so I guess most people aren't used to seeing what real strawberries look and taste like. We are fortunate to have several pick-your-own berry patches nearby. It brought back memories of going to pick strawberries with my grandma and my sisters in Idaho. I loved the feeling of being in a field full of plants.

I need to make a trip to the store tomorrow to get some pectin because the pectin I bought calls for twice as much sugar as berries, so I'm going to try to find the Ball Freezer Jam pectin that I used two years ago, which calls for much less sugar. I'm teaching a Relief Society class about canning in a couple of weeks, so I'm glad this happened because now I realize that not all pectin is the same and I can talk about that in the class. Isn't it nice to live in a time when we can just buy pectin instead of standing over a spattering pot of berries waiting for the fruit's natural pectin to cause the jam to gel while all the flavor and nutrients boil away?

a little guessing game

Guess how much I spent for all of this food.

Yes, that's Ryan's head in the top left hand corner. He thought it would be funny to jump into the picture.

I've been getting a little disenchanted with couponing lately. It's not so much that I don't like clipping the coupons and making the list. I still enjoy seeing how much I've saved. I do feel like it has made a difference in our budget and that it helps us have more money to spend on things like produce. It's just that it's getting harder to find a good time to go grocery shopping. A grocery trip usually takes a couple of hours, whether I clipped coupons or not. That's time that could be spent doing homework or getting dinner ready on time or spending quality time with my friends or with Ryan and Kevin. If I go during the day, Kevin has to come, and that's a pretty long time for him (for those moms who do it with three kids or even more, I really admire you). And it's hard to find a good time to get my list and my coupons ready. If I can just get some uninterrupted time, it doesn't take very long, but if Kevin is underfoot then it's really stressful because he will reach up and take/crumple/scatter everything. Lately I've been getting groceries late at night because Ryan is home and Kevin is in bed, but I don't like to go out in the dark or lose my evening with Ryan. Plus, at night the grocery stores generally just have the self-checkout lines open, which I think is a pain, especially when I'm buying enough stuff that there's not enough room for it in the bagging area, and if you try to move things the computer tells you to put it all back. I ended up doing two transactions because I knew it would never all fit.

So anyway, because of all those things I've found myself skipping grocery shopping lately even if there are some good sales, because I just don't feel like going. But today I decided to make my grocery trip anyway, and when I walked out I realized I had gotten a ton of stuff and hadn't even spent very much. So I guess I'm going to keep watching sales and matching my coupons after all.

My total spent was $18.93. How much would you have guessed?

on working really hard without having much to show for it

Written yesterday:

I accomplished a lot today. But for some reason I just feel discouraged. I had a lot of things I needed to do today. I had my mineralogy class this morning, which was fun, and then I had an appointment half an hour away in Hillsborough, after which I wanted to go to the library, see if there was anything good at the PTA thrift shop, get some money out of my bank account, get some things that were on sale at Kroger and Harris Teeter, and then try to catch up on my Calculus and make some bread before bedtime. We got to Hillsborough, the library, the bank, and Harris Teeter, but by the time we were done at Harris Teeter I knew we had to come home. Kevin was bored to tears and kept throwing the frozen vegetables on the floor, and he screamed much of the way home. At the library he was throwing books everywhere, faster than I could put them away, and in my head I was feeling like such a hypocrite because I was a library aide in fifth grade and eighth grade and I hated it when people just stuffed books wherever instead of putting them where they belong or at least giving them to a librarian to reshelf. That's how books disappear. At least they were still on the right shelf, right? And all of that was for me to pick up one book on CD to listen to in the car. At the bank he kept trying to run out the doors. It's kind of odd, because normally I know better than to try to get that much done when I've brought Kevin with me. For some reason I just planned out the whole trip and figured all the little stops wouldn't make much difference, but of course they did. Before Kevin was born I could do that. I could stop at the PTA thrift shop, then Goodwill, then Kroger, then the library, then the bank, and so on. And then when he was born I would very carefully plan my grocery shopping trips. I knew that I had to get everything planned and packed and ready while he was napping so that I could feed him as soon as he woke up and then go straight to the store, and I knew that I had about an hour to get it all done before he couldn't stand it anymore. It's better now because he can be awake for longer than that, but now the problem is that he won't hold still because he's bored. I may have to start getting groceries late at night after Ryan gets home and we have dinner so that I don't have to bring Kevin, but I don't want to because it's dark and it's late and I'd rather be with Ryan and all the good deals are out of stock.

I came home and felt like complaining that I didn't get anything done today.

It makes me think of something a friend of mine blogged about recently. She talked about how the best things are not convenient. Being a mother isn't terribly convenient, but it's still worth the effort and the challenges.

Continued today:

One of the reasons I was so disappointed that I didn't get everything done was because I had been planning to buy milk at Kroger (oh, and also Butterfingers). We've been going without milk for four or five days because I didn't have time to go grocery shopping between conference and Sunday and having class all afternoon on Monday. It was a lesson for us about what we would do in an emergency where we couldn't go to the store for a while, and it kind of makes me think that maybe we should try to get used to drinking powdered milk so that eating cold cereal with powdered milk will be possible (which it isn't right now, at least not for me).

So this morning I woke up and realized that we had no milk, so we couldn't have cereal for breakfast, and we had no bread because we finished it off yesterday and I didn't have time to make more because of the other errands. So I made muffins, and they were yummy. It made me feel good because muffins require milk and eggs, and yet I didn't have to use a single perishable item to make the muffins. Everyday emergencies happen. Store powdered milk and powdered eggs.

I had no measuring cups except a 1/3 cup and a 1/4 cup to use to make the muffins. But fortunately, I am somewhat advanced in math and I know how to make 2 1/2 cups from 1/3 and 1/4 cups.

To my credit, we did a lot of baking this weekend and the measuring cups were all in the dishwasher, but the dishwasher wasn't quite full yet so we hadn't started it. So we actually are doing something right. But I do generally feel that for some reason I just can't keep up with the dishes, and the scarier the pile is, the harder it is to bring myself to attack it. Even if I just cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom yesterday, there always seems to be a pile of dishes waiting to be washed. Those dishes are my mortal enemy that won't die. Maybe they're slowly working on me, getting me tireder and tireder so that one day they can attack and easily defeat me.

Well, this morning I finished up those muffins and popped them in the oven, and then I turned and stared at that pile in the sink, and I thought, "Okay, this is just wrong. I just used that bowl for popcorn, so why did I let it sit there and get filled with spaghetti sauce water?" This is a perfect example of a little word that I learned from Don Aslett: "procrustination." [sic] [or sick] It would have taken me ten seconds to wash that bowl, but because I decided that it could wait, I ended up have to spend much longer and use much more soap because it was so procrustinated. [sic/sick] So, as I often do when situations like this arise, I attacked those dishes with a vengeance, and by the time the muffins had cooked, I had managed to get them to retreat. Maybe what those dishes need is to be beaten into submission.

I often think that it would be a very good idea to make a rule for myself that the dishes must be washed or else in the dishwasher ready to be washed before I go to bed at night. Think of the freedom I would experience every morning if I woke up to an empty sink.

You probably fall into one of two groups of people. The first group is rolling their eyes and can't believe how silly I am. The second group is secretly thinking, "I can totally relate." The first group may be thinking that also. I hope both are still my friends.

In my defense, sometimes it's hard to get to the dishes when you know that if you focus on the dishes the rest of the house will be trashed while you're up to your elbows in soapy water. Sometimes I find myself washing dishes while Kevin is strewing all the clean dishes from the lower cupboards all over the floor. Seems a little counterproductive . . . which is an interesting word for me to use in this context since I'm being productive at the level of the counter while Kevin is making a mess at the ground level.

a couple of recipes

Buttermilk Coffee Cake
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour--it was great!)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cups buttermilk or sour milk (or mix 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk added to make 1 1/3 cups of milk; let this mixture sit for 5 minutes before adding)
1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 13x9X2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside 1/2 cup. Stir baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg into remaining crumb mixture.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs and buttermilk. Add eg mixture all at once to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Stir together reserved crumb mixture and nuts; sprinkle over batter.
3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool slightly; serve warm.


From the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Minestrone Soup
1. In a large saucepan, brown 1 large, chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of fat (from the sausage).
2. Add 1/2 lb. sausage, browned and drained; 8 cups beef stock or broth; 2 cups cooked, drained kidney beans; 1 teaspoon oregano; 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt; 1 bay leaf; 2 tablespoons parsley flakes (or 1/3 cup fresh, chopped); 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste); and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
3. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add 1 cup zucchini, celery, or carrots, or a  combination, coarsely chopped; 2 cups coarsely chopped spinach, swiss chard, or any other vegetables in season; and 1 1/2 cup uncooked noodles.
5. Cook 10 minutes longer or just until vegetables are cooked.
6. Serve hot. Sprinkle with grated cheese, if desired.
8-10 servings

From Deseret Recipes

Cinnamon Muffins

Today I tried this recipe with half whole wheat flour, and it occurred to me that this would be a great recipe to use if you're just getting started using wheat. I think the cinnamon and brown sugar help to mask the whole wheat a little bit so that the wheaty taste isn't too overbearing. I couldn't really tell that I had added whole wheat.

Mix together:
1 cup sifted flour (or 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt

In a separate bowl combine:
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar (I actually only used 1/4 cup today, and they still tasted great)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together with a spoon. The batter will be a little lumpy. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray and spoon the batter into the pan. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. This recipe makes about 9 muffins.

You could also add chopped fruit. Apples or peaches would be very good.

a birthday week

Our ward has been having a Park Day every week during the summer. I normally haven't been coming because I don't like Kevin to miss his morning nap and I didn't think he'd have much fun at the park anyway, but I decided to go this week because I've been needing some contact with other moms. We had a really good time, and I think we're going to start going regularly. It's worth it to me to get some time with my friends and to get out of the house. Kevin had a good time on the swings. He laughed and laughed and clapped his hands because he was so excited. While at the park I did learn a couple of things:

• Bring lunch to the park so that when you go home you don't have feed everyone when you're exhausted.
• Put the kids in shoes. I didn't have any shoes for K at the time and I wasn't terribly excited about him being in the bark barefoot, but he just had to get down and play.
• If it's rained recently, bring a towel for the slides. Kids can slide down the slides sitting on the towel without getting all wet.
• You can put two babies back-to-back in the baby swings so that they stabilize each other.

On Thursday I started making a can rotator out of a cardboard box. At first it was really overwhelming, but once I got going making it, it was pretty easy. (Here is where I found the instructions.) I'm going to make a few more so that I can have a better system for rotating through our food and so that I can use the space a little more efficiently. I can fit a lot more cans on my shelves this way than if I have them in rows, and I don't have to reorganize it all every time I buy a new can. Fortunately, I have an endless supply of free cardboard boxes because there are a ton of people who live in our apartment complex who think it's okay to leave enormous piles of boxes by the recycling bins rather than flattening them and putting them through the slot where they belong. (How's that for having a positive attitude about something that drives me nuts?)

On Friday K and I went to a big kids' consignment sale. I had a list of what I wanted to get for him, mainly toys, and I found almost everything I wanted. I was hoping to get a bunch of size 2T clothes for Kevin (yes, that's probably the size he will be wearing this winter), but we were too tired by the time we had found all the other things we wanted, so I gave up and got in line, although I did pick up a few size 2T clothes that people abandoned while they were waiting in the long line. While we waited in line, K had a great time playing with one of the toys I had picked out for him--it was great to have some reassurance that it was something he would have fun with!

Saturday was Kevin's birthday. The three of us got up early and went to the farmers' market. We found peaches, potatoes, and cantaloupes for really good prices. After we were finished there, we went back to the consignment sale because it was nearby. We got plenty of clothes for Kevin, and we also found three pairs of shoes that are really cute. It was really nice to have RT there with me this time. Let me just say, I am a huge fan of consignment sales now. We have saved a ton of money by buying K's things at these sales. I'm grateful for all the people I have met in this ward who have taught me so much about how to save money.

Kevin had a nice birthday. He got some fun new toys and he got to eat a chocolate brownie and lots of peaches.

You may also notice our new outlet covers in the previous picture. A friend hired me to clean her family's apartment for them after they moved, and they left their outlet covers as well as a couple of those wire keys that you can use to unlock the doors that have a hole (make sense?). I'm often amazed at how observant Kevin is. I often notice him staring at the keys above the door frames (which you can barely see poking over the edge), and he went straight for the outlets the first time he saw that they were different. That was when we discovered how cheap the faceplates are. They're really flimsy/bendy, they only have one screw in the center to attach it to the wall, and they never actually got glued to the wall. As soon as K noticed the new outlet covers, he went straight for the nearest plugs, dug his fingers behind the faceplate so that it bent, and pulled enough that the top outlet cover came off, and then he promptly put the outlet cover in his mouth. We were really impressed with how smart he is, but not too excited at the prospect of our kid getting his fingers into all the wires and things behind the faceplate, and we couldn't stop him from doing it over and over again! The outlet covers are great--they fit quite snugly, and Kevin can't get them off. It's the faceplates that are the problem. So we superglued them to the wall. Problem solved, apparently.

 I was debating about whether or not to get a toy like this because I knew he would love it, but I was worried that it would only be used for a short amount of time before he starting walking. But I'm glad I got it. He thinks it's an awesome toy. It also folds down so that it's one of those little bikes that they can scoot with their feet, and I think he'll also be able to use it when he's a little older to do role-playing games, like mowing the lawn or going to the gas station.

 


K is a good kid. I'm starting to learn to be content with him being a little crazy during church, and I'm learning new ways to keep him occupied so I can get something out of the talks and lessons. He is a very fast crawler and has figured out how to get into rooms even if they are closed.


K's top teeth are growing in, and it's cute. Sometimes we catch him grinding his top and bottom teeth together. Apparently he likes the sound and the way it feels. It's kind of unnerving, but it still makes me laugh. I don't think it will become a habit as long as we don't make a big fuss every time he does it.

What's wrong with this picture?

I'll give you a hint:

This is why we bought him new sleepers at the consignment sale.

Eating spaghetti:

Standing on his stool by the window:

Dancing to La Vida Loca on the keyboard. I think he is so cute when he dances. He's having so much fun.

Guess what I just bought!

This is my new Nutrimill, aka wheat grinder. I started saving up for a mill several months ago, and then a few days ago I randomly got on Craigslist, not even looking for anything in particular, and I clicked something and this was the second thing on the page. It was $150, and these normally sell for $240. I was quite excited, because this is the kind of mill I had been planning to buy anyway. I can't wait to try it out!

sprouted lentils

A few months ago, I did a Relief Society class about beans. I've been working on perfecting my notes from the class so that I can share them with the sisters in my ward--it's been a slow process because Calculus kept me so busy, but I'm almost done. Well, one person asked about sprouting beans, so I read a little bit about it and figured maybe I should try it out. So, I went through the process of sprouting them, and here's what I ended up with:

Lo and behold, it worked. This was originally a half cup of lentils, and I had to pry them out of the jar with a spoon to get them out today. I let the sprouts grow a little longer than I was supposed to (you're supposed to wait until the sprout is as long as the bean), but I didn't know what to do with them, so I kept rinsing them and letting them sprout for another day or so.

So now the question is, what do I do with my sprouts?

using powdered milk in everyday cooking

RT and I have been talking lately about how lots of people think of food storage as weird food that nobody would normally eat--like pickled watermelon rinds. My parents have always been good at using long-term food storage that normal people eat, so I guess I missed out on this misconception. I remember once when I was a teenager I was in Relief Society for some reason and a sister made an announcement about doing some dry-pack canning. She passed around a plastic bag with some weird brown crusty stuff in it. I will never know what it was, but it was not normal food. Someone in the room made a comment about how frustrating it was to have to throw away and replace your year's supply every year. I was so confused. Why would you store food you don't eat? Like I said, my parents just rotated through their food storage and used what they bought, so that was what I thought food storage was. (I was right, by the way.)

With that in mind, I would like to share with you how you can use powdered milk in everyday cooking. Where I live, milk is expensive, and using powdered milk has saved us some money (at least a dollar per gallon). It's very simple: when you have a recipe that calls for regular milk, use powdered milk. When I'm baking, I add the powder to the dry ingredients and the water to the wet ingredients. When I'm making a cream-based soup, I make several cups of powdered milk and use that instead of my store-bought milk. When I make a white sauce for macaroni and cheese or tuna noodle casserole, I use powdered milk. It's not a lot of work, and the food tastes just the same. We don't drink powdered milk or pour it on our cereal because we prefer store-bought milk for that. My point is, we're making normal food that we like, and we're still using our powdered milk. So if we need to get by using just powdered milk for a while, we may not be able to do everything with milk like we normally do--a lot of normal foods aren't going to work in an emergency--but we can still have many of our favorite recipes with milk. Doesn't that sound better than pulling out cans of weird brown crusty stuff?

cooking with wheat

Wheat grinders are really great for using wheat, but you can still use wheat if you don't have one. Recently I have been experimenting with cooking wheat and then using it in my recipes. Here's how to cook it (similar to boiling rice):

1. Measure some whole wheat kernels into a large pot (I usually do 1-2 cups). It helps if it has a transparent lid so you can see without lifting the lid.
   
2. Cover the wheat with water--I add about 4 cups of water for every cup of wheat.
3. At this point you can add spices if you want. I have added chicken bouillon (about 1/2 tsp. or one cube) and thought it was really good. Most of the time I just add 1 tsp. salt and spice it later depending on how I'm using it.
   
4. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer it until the water is absorbed and the wheat is soft. You can add more water if it looks like you're going to run out of water before it's soft enough. The wheat kernels will burst a little. This takes quite a while (as in, a few hours).
   

I hear you can also cook wheat in your crockpot. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it works. I would just put the wheat, water, and salt/spices in and cook it till it's done.

After the wheat is cooked, you can store it in your fridge in tupperware containers until you want to use it. Two cups of wheat yields a lot of cooked wheat.

Here are some ways I have used cooked wheat:

• I made meatloaf and added some wheat to the mixture before baking. It was great. RT liked it too.
• I spooned some into chicken soup in the last few minutes of cooking.
• I add milk, brown sugar, and maybe cinnamon, then microwave it for one minute, and eat it like that for breakfast or lunch (kind of like oatmeal). You could also add fruit to this, and I think that would be very good.
  
• I put it in the microwave for one minute (possibly with a little water), then eat it plain with a little more salt, or with spices (a sprinkle of onion powder is very good).

There are lots of other things you can add cooked wheat to, such as stir-fry, many different soups, breads and quick breads, and chili. The other day I even sampled something from Costco that had cooked wheat in it.

Cooked wheat does have kind of a different texture. I think it's a good idea to take it slowly so you can get used to it and learn to like it. Adding it to dishes like soup and stir fry helps because there are a lot of different colors and textures already in those, so you won't notice the wheat as much.

I love this idea because it's a way to get the nutrients of grains into your diet while still having a variety of foods, and it doesn't take a lot of work to toss a half cup of already-cooked wheat into something you're already making. Plus, wheat is very inexpensive. At the cannery, a 25 lb. bag of red wheat costs $6.35 and a 25 lb. bag of white wheat costs $5.80 (you can find LDS canneries, also known as home storage centers, here, and download the order form here). 25 lbs. of wheat can go pretty far, and for that same price you can only buy a few boxes of cereal (although coupons do help a lot for cereal).

If this sounds complicated, I dare you to try it anyway, and I think you will see that it's pretty easy. Try the crockpot method--that's pretty simple.

In other news . . .

We finished our classes for the semester. I think RT might have a little more grading to do, but we're done with all of our exams and such. I am so relieved to be finished for the semester. It's been good to take a class, and I'm so glad I did it, but I was very ready to be done. The exam for my class was in essay form, and I was really struggling to have things to say for the last few questions. We were supposed to talk about the themes that were demonstrated by certain terms or quotes from the books and poems, and I just didn't think there were any themes, or even anything especially interesting, related to the last few questions that I answered, so I wrote a bunch of stuff, and don't ask me what it was. What else could I do? I'll probably get away with it too--that's the nature of literature classes, I've found. I was the last person to finish the test (that's how it always is), and as I gave my test to the teacher, he thanked me for taking his class and told me he had enjoyed having me in the class. I could tell he meant it, and that made me feel good. It really was a good class--but I'm definitely going to keep majoring in a science field.

RT's department had a Christmas party, and K and I went too. All the people RT knows were excited to meet K. One of the department secretaries introduced K to a ten-month old girl holding a piece of equipment called a banana plug--you have to start them early so that they'll get on the right path, you know. And yes, K was very interested in playing with it. They gave us tickets for a drawing as we came in. The drawing started while I was somewhere changing K's diaper, and as I came back in I heard them repeating the same number because they couldn't find the person with that ticket. I checked my ticket and realized it was my number! So we came home with a nice poinsettia, which looks very pretty on our table when it is cleared off. It was fun to meet the people RT works with, and we also got some nice food.

We also had a ward trip to the cannery, which I arranged because I am on the Emergency Preparedness Committee. We had a great time. It was interesting to be part of the process of canning the food--fill up the cans, pat them to let the air out so the contents will settle ( often making room for another cup or so of food!), add an oxygen absorber, put on the lid, use the canning machine (which I got to try--it's pretty cool), and put on a label. We are so blessed to have these canneries as a resource, because they have some great long-term food storage for a very low price, and a great way to make the food last. I came home with three bags of wheat, two bags of beans, and a can of potato flakes (which I hear are good in bread). The entire time we were working, one of the people who works there (it is a mission call) was telling us all sorts of things about what we need to store and how we can store it. Just before we left, he told us he had a Christmas present for us, and we followed him out to his suburban, which had the two back seats taken out to make room for a bunch of used five-gallon water jugs (the blue ones that you see in dentist offices and such) that he had gotten for free from the Dollar Store. We each came home with one--wasn't that a thoughtful thing to do? I'm also excited to have learned about a way to get water storage containers.

On Sunday we had our ward Christmas program (we have it very early because half of our ward leaves once finals are over). A friend and I played the piano, just like we did last year. I felt the spirit so strongly at times, especially when the entire congregation sang together. I thought about how exciting it must have been for those who had been waiting for Christ to know that He was finally here to fulfill His mission on the earth. I felt grateful for our Savior's great love for us and for all He was so willing to do to bring about our salvation and exaltation. I remember tears came to my eyes as we sang "Gloria" from Angels We Have Heard on High. It was a reminder to me of the glory of Christ and also the glory that can be ours through Him.

It has suddenly gotten a lot colder. Winter is coming.

my problem

Recently I have been dealing with a problem: I discovered that I'm sick of store-bought bread. Throughout my pregnancy I was making home made bread (that was when I had a lot more time on my hands). I didn't buy bread until after K was born--at that point I felt that I was so busy that I couldn't make it myself anymore. But I guess I am spoiled because now when lunch time comes around all I can think about is how nice it would be to just eat several slices of fresh, real bread. I'm also tired of spending the money for store-bought bread--RT will eat the air bread that costs $0.50 a loaf because he just needs something to spread the peanut butter on (his words, not mine), but I only like certain kinds of whole wheat (home made white bread is still good to me), and those are more expensive. I've also been wishing I had bread to snack on, and store bought bread just doesn't work for snacking for me. (By the way, on my side of the family, we get boughten bread, not store bought bread.)

So I've decided I'm going to try making home made bread again. I am starting to feel like I have time to do it again. However, I am trying out a new trick: making bread mixes. I got the idea from everydayfoodstorage.net (the link is on my blog roll now, because I read her stuff all the time).

Before I explain how I do it, here is the recipe I used today (from the T family cookbook).

Delicious Grain Bread (Bread Machine)

1-1/8 cups water

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup crushed bran cereal (1 cup whole flakes)

2 Tb. cracked wheat

2 Tb. dry milk

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. yeast

2 Tb. margarine

2 Tb. honey

Mix in order required by your bread machine. Pull out after dough cycle and raise and bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until brown and crisp (or bake in the machine). You can use raisin bran for the cereal.

I just make it by hand because I don't have a bread machine.

To make the mixes, I put all of the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag (one mix per bag). I have some wonderful margarine powder in my food storage that I bought from Walton Feed, so I put that in the mixes too. So next time I make bread, I will just have to mix the yeast, water, and honey, add the mix, and then continue as normal for the rest. For me, mixing, kneading, and shaping takes the most time, and that part isn't eliminated, but I think it will save me time and make me feel a little more willing to bake bread if I have these mixes made, since I won't have to get out all the ingredients and do all the measuring. I made my first mixes today, so I hope this works out well!

This won't work for all bread recipes--some recipes that I have used are just water, flour, oil, honey, yeast, and salt. But I think this will really help me for most of my breadmaking. I may also try it for biscuits and muffins, which we make all the time.

I have also been trying something new for shaping my loaves. Instead of using my hands to shape the dough, I put a little flour (it really doesn't take that much!) all over the ball of dough, roll it out flat with my rolling pin, then roll it like cinnamon rolls. After that I can just pinch the ends under and pinch the bottom a little bit, and then I have a beautiful loaf. At first I thought it would be way too much work, but I actually like it because it makes it so that I don't have to use as much flour to make the dough manageable (which means my bread is more moist), shaping my loaves doesn't take as long, and the finished product looks really nice.

Here's my finished product:


While I took the bread out of the oven, K was loafing around in a bath towel and a diaper.

beans in the crockpot

I will probably be excommunicated for saying this, but I don't love my crockpot. (gasp!) I've told Ryan several times that I'm probably the only Mormon who doesn't rave about how amazing her crockpot is. It's nice to have sometimes, especially if I want my roasts to be tender, but there are so many things that are inconvenient about it. You still have to get a bunch of dishes dirty as you prepare the food to put in, and even if you don't get a bunch of other dishes dirty you still have a huge, heavy pot (even the smallest ones are pretty big) that will only come clean after extensive soaking (yes, cooking spray does help a little bit). A dirty crockpot soaking in my sink makes me depressed. And living in an apartment, I tend to resent all the counter space the crockpot takes up. I guess those are my main complaints--having to clean burned food off and the size. Maybe in a few years when our family is bigger I will appreciate it a little more, because you really can make a lot of food in a crockpot. When you are only cooking for two, it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a crockpot full of food. Plus, it will be really convenient when I have little munchkins begging me to take them outside while dinner's cooking.

Anyway, yesterday I tried cooking a big batch of beans in my crockpot. I like to cook a lot of beans and then freeze them in meal-size portions so that if I decide one day that I want beans for dinner I don't have to spend all day cooking beans. Generally I thaw them out in a bowl of warm water. I used the quick-soak method because I didn't decide to cook beans until yesterday morning--I rinsed and sorted the beans, covered them with lots of water, brought it to a boil on the stove, and then turned off the burner. I just let them sit in there until I remembered them a couple of hours later. Then I drained them, rinsed them with my hands for a few minutes, and put them in the crockpot with lots of water. I added salt (1 tsp. per cup of dry beans) and oil (1 tbsp. per cup of dry beans). After about 6 hours they were tender and tasted very good! Next time I think I will cook twice as many beans because there was still plenty of room in the crockpot.

We'll see if I use the crockpot again to cook beans. I liked that I could cook a lot of beans--I do have a pretty big pot that I can use on the stove, but the crockpot would hold a lot more, and since it takes about the same amount of total time to cook 1 cup of beans as 4 cups of beans, I might as well cook lots of beans at once. The fact that I didn't have to babysit the food didn't make much of a difference to me since I was home all day anyway, but I guess if I wanted to cook beans one day but also wanted to go run some errands, it would be nice to be able to use the crock pot, because there's no way I would leave a pot of beans cooking on the stove while I was gone. On the other hand, it only takes an hour or two for the beans to cook in a pot on the stove. I liked that the crockpot wasn't that messy afterwards! There was only a small ring that was quite easy to wash off.

I used to be a little intimidated by beans, but after cooking them a few times it has become really easy.

No trick--I think lentils are a treat!

Legumes
I have been learning how to cook with legumes (that means dried beans, lentils, dried split peas, and other things). They're actually pretty easy to cook once you've done it a few times. After using dried beans for several weeks, I opened up a can of kidney beans that I still had and thought the canned beans weren't as good. Pinto beans are pretty much my favorite--I will stand over the pot and just eat them. I've also tried cooking with lentils a couple of times. I always had the impression that they weren't very good, maybe because I associated them with Lent. But I had never tried them and thought maybe I ought to before I passed a final judgment. The family cookbook has a recipe for barley lentil soup, and I have tried it twice now. It was so good! Lentils are easy because you just have to rinse them and then cook them in water--no soaking. And combined with the barley you get a complete protein without adding any meat.

Here is the recipe:

1 Tb. vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 cups stock
2 cups water
1 cup lentils
1/4 cup barley
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (optional)
1 Tb. fresh parsley, minced (optional)

In a large soup pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, carrot, celery, thyme, marjoram and pepper until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Add stock, water, lentils and barley to the pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until barley and lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley before serving. Top each serving with yogurt or sour cream and parsley.

My Cynical Thoughts about Halloween
I was kind of looking forward to having trick or treaters come this year (this was the first time I'd had trick or treaters come to my door), but it wasn't quite as fun as I expected. Trunk or treat parties started to happen at the church a few years before I felt like I was too old to go trick or treating, so I got to go a few times. Before that, we went trick-or-treating to a few people who lived in the same apartment complex as my grammy and spent some time talking to Grammy. Then we would go visit the Rosenbaums, who always had a variety of popcorn balls and sometimes other treats (they also had really cool Halloween decorations), and we would sit and visit them for quite a while too. Things were simpler then. I wish more people had that kind of experience for Halloween. We had fun dressing up and showing off our costumes and didn't worry about how much candy we could get. I don't think it's like that for most people--it felt like candy-collecting. The kids and the parents really were gracious this year. I guess it was just an eye opener for me. I may have to put some thought into what I want Halloween to be for my family. Maybe we'll add some kind of service project to make me feel better about it.

I am afraid I'm getting too cynical.

I'm going to try to end on a more positive note.

Of course, some gushing about K.
K is trying really hard to roll from his back to his tummy. I wouldn't be surprised if he did it any day now. He just hasn't figured out how to get past that arm. I think he gets pretty frustrated that he can't quite make it yet.

Missionaries
We fed the missionaries again last night. They are great young men (I feel a little odd phrasing it that way because I'm actually not that much older than them). I don't know why I used to be so nervous about inviting them to come. One of the things that was mentioned at the adult session of the last stake conference was that having the missionaries in your home is a great influence on your children. I felt good about that comment and I'm planning to invite them often so that our family can be influenced by their examples. I love the messages they share and the things they try to do to help us be member missionaries. The spiritual thought they shared last night was very timely for me. The elders also got K to laugh. I was very impressed.

Some pictures and thoughts

First I want to show off the projects I finished before K came:


In some emails that my sisters-in-law exchanged before one of my nephews was born, Tiffany wrote about how nice it was to have lots of washable changing pads to use everywhere. I don't think this is quite what she meant, but that gave me the idea to make these. They're basically changing pad sized baby quilts. I thought they would be nice to have to put in my diaper bag so I don't have to change my baby on a dirty floor or a germy changing table. I have three, and I also have the fabric for one more, but the day I was going to get started on it I ended up getting induced instead. They have come in pretty handy, and I had fun trying some different things. The one on the left has hearts (I know, not very masculine--but it had to be something simple) that I made by cutting out a heart on paper and then stitching around it with the sewing machine. For the one on the right I cut out some of the dinosaurs from the extra fabric, turned under the edges using an iron, and stitched them onto the back using a zigzag stitch.



I can can. Three days after K's due date, we went to the farmer's market and bought a bushel of peaches to can. I figured if I wasn't going to have a baby any time soon, I might as well get something done. It also occurred to me that taking on something big might be just the thing to get the baby to come (preventing me from finishing what I started). I kept thinking it was crazy to do this when I was already past the due date, but the urge was pretty irresistible. I did seven quarts a day, three days (skipping Sunday), which means I got a total of 21 quarts, plus several extra peaches that we enjoyed eating after Kevin was born. I did the last batch the day before I was induced, so I finished just in time! I was excited about how easy it was to can. I found a Ball canning kit for sale on Amazon.com, and it was a really good price, so I bought it--it had a big pot, six pint-sized jars with the lids, a rack, a jar lifter, a magnetic jar lid lifter, a bubble remover, a funnel, a Ball Blue Book, and some very useful coupons for some of the other things you might need to have for canning. There are great directions and recipes in the Ball Blue Book (including a recipe for canning squirrels--tempting with all the squirrels that are on the UNC campus, but I don't think I'm going to try that one). All of my jars sealed. I was so pleased. One of the people who wrote a review of the kit said that canning is kind of addictive once you get started, and I can see what she meant--already I keep wondering if I could manage to can something else this year even though I have a new baby and I'm taking two classes starting in a couple of weeks (don't worry--that thought never lasts too long!). I'm excited to try again next year.

And here are some pictures we have taken of K in the last couple of weeks:





I thought this video was so cute:

We are starting a new family business. No discounts if he's crying. (Thanks, Mom, for this cute onesie.)

I wanted to have a video of K when he's just being normal, so that's what this is (the background music wasn't on purpose--it just happened to be playing on RT's computer when he did the video).

About K:

• He likes to snuggle. Unfortunately he tends to get that urge just when I want to eat or go back to sleep, but I'm still trying to treasure those times when he just wants to be held and kept secure and warm. I love to hold this sweet, tiny child close to me and show him in that small way that I love him. Wonderful, brilliant RT quickly discovered that he likes to be held against your chest where he can hear your heartbeat, and that discovery has saved me from listening to hours of inconsolable crying.
  
• I'm trying to take advantage of our snuggle time to sing Primary songs to him. Once I read a quote by someone who talked about how wonderful it is to be in your mother's arms while she is singing to you, and since then I've always thought I wanted to be sure to sing often to my children. I feel like it's one of the few things I can already do to teach him about the gospel. I love the thoughtful look he gets on his face when I sing those songs.
  
• He likes baths! I've been amazed at how calmly he handles the water, and even the short cold part between being in the water and getting wrapped in the towel.
• He has such cute expressions--like the "Come on, Mom, do it right" look he makes sometimes when I'm trying to feed him, the crooked smiles when he's half asleep, the "I'm thinking about something very serious" face (he looks so much like my dad when he does that), and the way he stretches his neck and closes his eyes.
• He has fabulous eyes that are such a shiny, dark blue you can barely see the pupils (it will be interesting to see what they end up looking like as he gets older).
• He's taken to what I think would be best described as spluttering when he's just starting to get frustrated.