Cinnamon rolls

Wow, looks like it has been awhile since I posted! Well the most exciting news I have is that I made a first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls, and they turned out super! I will never again buy one of those prepackaged refrigerated dough rolls from the store!

On that note, isn't it interesting how people have become so busy that they buy everything pre made and ready to go. I used to work at a grocery store, and I was so surprised at how much product they would throw away on a daily basis. Not only is all that food going to waste, but all the resources that went into making and packaging and delivering that product to the store were wasted. I think that we have a serious problem in this country in that we want everything done for us. We want to be able to come home from working all day and have something ready to pop into the microwave and eat it mere minutes later. And so as time goes by, we are conditioned to think that the stuff that we buy pre-made is actually food. But let me tell you something people, it is not. I am constantly amazed every time I make something from scratch at home. I cannot believe how different, and how DELICIOUS it tastes when I make it myself. My husband has recently been in charge of making all the bread we eat in our house, and it is far superior to the prepackaged "fluffy white bread" that we would otherwise buy at the store. How is it that we have become so obsessed with convenience? It doesn't take that much effort to fix a delicious meal from scratch. My family has slowly been changing from a family that would eat ramon noodles weekly (Josh and I in the Army) to nearly everyday home cooked meals. On the laziest of days we will order a pizza, but let me tell you something, my homemade pizza will rock that delivery pizza any day!! And it is cheaper! Sis, I know you are the only reader I have, and so I am preaching to the choir. But boy howdy, I think I finally get it!!

Sadness

I usually write about how nice the weather is and how much I want to be outside doing something. That really is still the case, and I sincerely hope that come late summer I will be posting about my wonderful tomatoes and such. But for today I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about sadness. Some things just make me sad. This morning I was puttering around the house doing small chores like laundry and such, and I glanced at my ever growing pile of recyclables. I have gotten my family trained to separate those items that recycle from the trash and now we are having a hard time throwing them away. I personally have noticed an increase in our trash by not recycling, and I think it is double the amount of trash now. This makes me sad. I don't want to throw these things in the garbage. I don't want to contribute to the filling of our landfill. So what are my options? The same landfill that takes our garbage offer LIMITED recycling. They don't take plastic or glass. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! There was another article in the newpaper about the troubles of the recycle place. The city wants to talk about their rent now because they had made a deal offering them the use of the place for no rent last year. Now they want their money again. I feel as though the city is OBLIGATED to the citizens to offer recycling. It might not be the case, but I think that it should be!

So what am I going to do now? I guess I hope to start reducing my own intake of these items. I don't want to be a bigger part of the problem. I want to start canning my own foods to use glass jars that I can use over and over. And I also use reusable grocery bags. I just hope that the recycle place is able to open again soon!

Beautiful day

Today I have caught up in some blog reading and have found some inspiring words in them. I really admire my sister and think she is super cool. She is the reason that I use cloth diapers (most of the time) and she has inspired me to even think about sewing projects (none of which I have completed yet). As life goes, I am the parent in my family that has the full time job right now. So this leaves me with more plans to do projects than actual projects.

Because today is earth day, I would like to lay out my plan to live as sustainably as possible. I am super discouraged right now that I cannnot recycle as I was before, but I have faith that the recycle place will open again. All the things I do right now to reduce my waste include not using plastic water bottles(unless it is emergency like traveling), using reusable grocery bags (am doing much better now), buying in bulk as much as possible to reduce packaging, and overall reducing my packaging by making more things at home. I would love to continue finding doable ways to reduce my and my family's impact. I am stuck in a small town, and some things are limited. But what I can do personally is make sure that I live as sustainably as possible.

Harney County Spring

Today is yet another beautiful day. We have had our fair share of nice days in the past week or so. The funny thing about this place is that it will go from winter one day to summer the next. We will wake up one morning to find snow on the ground, and have it reach into the 70s that very same day. My problem with this is that I never know when to plant things. I feel like I should have some tomato plants ready to go when it is 80 outside, like today. But the good thing is that I know that I have to wait. I peeked at the weather for this weekend and what do ya know, there is snow again in the forcast! I love living in this place, but jeez, what am I supposed to think when we skip spring altogether!

Another spring day

The thing that sucks the worst about my new job is that I am away from my boys for so long. The second suckiest thing is that now that spring might have sprung, I am forced to sit inside looking out instead of enjoying the beautiful weather we are having. After such a long cold winter, it is downright cruel to be forced to sit inside while the sun is shining and the birds are singing. But a small consolation is that the weekend will be nice, and I can once again claim to work in the garden. I have big plans, like every other weekend, but soon I will need to start planting! It will be worth it this summer to have a lot of fresh produce and things to can that I grew personally.

Cheesecake, YUM!

So, on Monday night I was given the task of cooking dinner. We had cream of mushroom soup that was really chunky mushroom soup, and cheesecake. While we didn't actually get to eat the cheesecake until the next day, we did get to look at it and salivate for that whole time. I will post pictures when I finally get them off the camera. Delish

Easter

Easter happened to be yesterday, and with that came the easter bunny. I remember when I was a child and easter was something to look forward to. We would get a basket with See's candy that I would devour the same day. There was usually a ham or something, but what I remember the most was that candy. As a mother, I don't want my boys to remember candy for any holiday. I would rather make it someting fun we do as a family rather than scoring big on the sugar front. So for this year the boys got some toys, which were a huge hit. Josh did a great job picking out toys that the boys love. Eli got a transformer that is a hit. Noah got a bus toy that he is able to manipulate himself. I promise to get some pictures for the blog, they are the greatest kids and I love taking their pictures.

We also had a bbq at Uncle Louies house on easter. Eli dressed up in his good shirt and tie. Such a cutie. Once again I will include pics when I get them from the camera. It was a good time. My dad was quite drunk and I wonder how he is feeling this morning. Other than that it was fine. Awesome salsa!!!! More later...

And it is almost Easter

Here it is, another grey day in normally sunny eastern Oregon. Hopefully this weekend will be beautiful, both because I would love to work some more in my garden and because I like it when children hunt easter eggs in warmth! So here is to wishing everyone a good easter sunday!

Grey day

Just kidding. While the morning was pretty dull, as soon as I returned from work the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. I am a huge fan of winter, I love snow and cold weather. But I also love the way spring feels after many months of indoor activities. The earth smells divine when it thaws and I almost can't wait for that first smell of fresh cut lawn. But alas, that signals a long summer of mowing..... Something to look forward to!

Food and stuff

I am such a huge fan of people's food blogs. I can't get enough recipes and ideas from various food blogs. So it seems unfair that I don't really post my own food adventures. First of all, let me tell you what a wonderful cook my husband is. Since I have been working full time, Josh has become chief cook along with his already designated bottle washer job. I think that we have slightly different cooking styles. I will slather everything in butter or a sauce, but Josh does such a wonderful job of cooking things without the excess. I really appreciate everything he does at home.

Let me outline his wonderful cooking by describing last night's dinner. He came up with the idea to have a shrimp filled pastry pocket, and they were delicious. It had shrimp, bell peppers, onions bread crumbs and avocado (and probably numerous other tasties that I haven't mentioned). All this was wrapped in a pastry puff shell and baked. So good!! For desert we had fruit cups with strawberry and blueberry and white chocolate in a ramakin with a puff pastry top. Them puppies were so good!!! Once again, Josh is a gourmet chef in my eyes!!!

One other culinary adventure was the purchase of a food dehydrator. I wanted to make jerky and so last week I conned Josh into getting one. I had high hopes for the jerky. I started with some bananas and apples just to "get my feet wet". I am not sure what happened there, but it took FOREVER for them to dry. So I was a little apprehensive about trying the jerky. It had marinated in the Good Eats recipe for about 2 days (longer than recommended) so I figured that we had better get to processing that batch. The jerky dried in about 5 hours, so 2 days shorter than the fruit. That stuff is like crack. I can't get enough. Note to the blogging world, make your own jerky, it is worth it!

Compost

So now that the weather has turned poopy again, I am thinking that I need to build a compost bin for my new garden. So just today I printed plans and hopefully I can get this project completed soon. I had such big plans to get my fence built around my garden and get my raised beds set, but so far I have half of the beds done and one out of ten fence posts dug. Progress is slow, but I have great intentions. There is no way I will fail myself in the garden area this year after so much effort already and also after purchasing many materials ie fencing and posts.

Hopefully by planting time, so about another month or so, I will have everything completed and ready to go.

Happy monday

Here it is, another weekend bites the dust. While I had tremendous plans for the weekend, not a whole lot of production took place. We did get the posts for my garden fence bought. They were on sale so that was important. I got one and a half holes dug, on post is in a hole but not concreted in yet. So really I have a post in a hole. I did get on of the raised beds set, so only 3 more to do. And at least my lack of production was not from laziness, just extenuating circumstances.

Josh was busy this weekend as well. He did a wonderful job, with Eli's help that is, building a window box in my kitchen. It is a bench for seating and a storage devise. I absolutely love it!! Now we just need to figure out a cushion situation for comfort. That shouldn't be a big deal though. So while my weekend kinda sucked, I love this new addition! This only means one thing, I can now buy more kitchen gadgets!

Friday

Here we are once again to friday. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday, so happy birthday dad! It is such a freakin cold day here today that I can't believe the weather forcast when it says that tomorrow will be sunny and 50, then sunday will be sunny and 60. But I sincerely hope that is the case!! Here's to hopin everyone has a great weekend!!

Noah's new trick

Noah is such a cutie. I think I need to preface every comment I make on him with that statement. Anyways, lately he has been doing so many firsts, like first walk along the couch, when I am at work. Because I have mostly been home when these things happen, it really sucks that now I work full time and am missing these moments. But today when I was home for lunch, Noah figured out how to feed himself finger foods. Yay!! So now we can put him at the table and put out some cheerios, and as long as someone is close by he will feed himself! Exciting times in the ward household!!!

My darling niece....

Ok, so while I am blessed with two beautiful boys, my sister has a darling girl named Daphne. Daphne is 2 years and some change and her mother is a wonderful photographer. Here are some very cute recent photos of my darling niece.

On another note, Daphne has a nickname when she visits auntie's house. We fondly have named her hurricane Daphne. She has an uncanny knack to find those things in my house that are better left alone. And any order that there is at the beginning of the visit is quickly destroyed in the span of a few seconds. Don't get me wrong, I love for my sis and her baby to visit. Nothing is cooler than having them come. And Eli also loves his cousin and looks forward to visits. So please Auntie, come and visit!!

Funny boys

Here are a few pictures of my boys being typical boys. Eli is such a cutie, but has decided that he doesn't want to be in pictures as much anymore. And Noah is a riot. Enough said.....

Bathroom wall-COMPLETE!!

So even though this project has been in the works for awhile, we really did most of the work 2 weekends ago. Yesterday Josh finished assembling the shelf and so I will say this in now complete. I really think it looks great. The only thing left is to use the shelf and the pegs. Let me know what you think.