34 Weeks of Clean - Week 6 - Oven and Other Odds and Ends

This week got me working just a little on my recipes.  I straightened up my recipe cards that were sitting out and put them back in the box where they belong.  I left out my recipe for cornbread on the magnetic recipe holder since I use it a lot.  I also took the green sticky note recipe that I had written for my blog down and wrote the blog post I had planned for Taco Soup.


Over last weekend I worked in my garden, taking out the dirt and putting new weed barrier in the bottom of the garden on the left.  The weed barrier was in better shape than I was expecting, so I may not replace it in the other gardens.  Clark (3) helped me move the dirt from the garden into a bucket.  We still need to clean out the garden on the right, but we are closer to being ready to plant when the time comes.

Monday, while I worked on my kitchen counters Clark and Quinn ran around in their capes pretending to be Batman.  The girls were working on finishing cleaning their room from the weekend and Kent was working on his room, too.

counter during

counter before

 Isn't there some kind of unwritten law that when you want to clean your counters you have to make a bigger mess first?  I chose to work on this counter, there are more that still need work.




 I turned the 20# of tomatoes on the counter into sauce and while the sauce was cooking I shelled the cowpeas that were sitting on the counter, from my garden in the fall.  There was about a pound of them.  Then I cleaned more of the counter.  The tomatoes made almost 7 quarts of sauce, which is now in my pantry.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of my clean counter, before I used the kitchen again, but it is much less cluttered now.

Tomato Sauce

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While working on the tomato sauce, I was also trying to help the girls get some organization to their messy room.  They now have a system of checking a set of toys in to get a different set off of their closet shelf.  So far it seems to be working pretty well.  They have their dolls, dress-up, stuffed animals and a few other small odds and ends that are available all the time.



 Here's the "rules" posted on their closet door.

Later in the week I cleaned the oven and stove top.

Click the button to find out the details for next week's cleaning challenge. 

Making a Meal for Science

We have been learning about plants in science and how we eat different parts of the plants.  Last weeks science lab was to plan a menu or salad from six different parts of plants.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi each choose two different parts of plants to represent.  I added an extra seed (pinto beans) to make sure our meal would be enough for everyone at lunch.  Here is the menu that I came up with after everyone gave me their choices and we verified that we had it on hand.

Here is how it looked served up at lunch.

I forgot to put the sunflower seeds on the first couple of plates.  I put them next to the cauliflower.

Taco Soup Recipe

This soup has been a hit with my family every time I make it.  Yes, there are some people who will leave certain ingredients untouched in their bowls, but I usually hear no complaints about it.  Last time I made it I jotted what I do down and thought I would put it on my blog.

Taco Soup

Taco Soup

28 oz diced or crushed tomatos
1 can tomato sauce (I often use 1 pint of homemade)
1 can corn, rinsed
1 can black beans, rinsed
2 cans pinto beans, rinsed
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
~ 1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 - 2 pounds gr. beef, browned
1 1/2 Tblsp. chili powder
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. real salt
2 tsp. cummin
1 Tblsp. dill
1 Tblsp. buttermilk powder
 (Optional:  I often add other veggies like peppers, carrots, zucchini, or peas to fill up the space as we don't care for a lot of broth.)

Mix all ingredients in a large crockpot in the morning and add enough water to make sure everything is just covered.  Cook on low all day (7-12 hours).  You can throw it all together just before dinner and heat it on the stove top, too, but the flavors work through everything when it gets to cook all day.

Serve with: Fritos or corn chips, sour cream, cheese, guacamole and cilantro.  Not everyone likes all those toppings, but I do.  Everyone gets to choose the topping they get on their soup.  Some of my kids would rather eat the chips plain, too.

Quinn's First Hair Cut

Quinn got his first hair cut on January 30th.

Quinn's First Hair Cut

Quinn's First Hair Cut

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 5 - Recipes? or Christmas Trees

This past week I was supposed to work on cleaning up my recipes.  I only took pictures of the before and never got to the after.  I finally got the Christmas trees undecorated and taken down.   I tossed several items in the trash and we put the white Christmas tree out on the curb for the trashmen to collect.  Katy and Kaomi helped me two Saturday mornings ago.  This is before and I didn't take any after pictures, because taking a picture of a toy strewn room and a blank wall didn't seem that interesting.

So far this week I have been working on my garden and working on the tasks for week 5 and 6's loose end tasks.  Click the button below to find out the details for Week 6.

Quinn's 2nd Birthday

Last week we celebrated Quinn's second birthday with him.  He likes dinosaurs, so we had a little bit of a dinosaur theme.   I served bagels for breakfast.   In the morning, we made dinosaur sticker papers.  They adorned the table for the rest of the day as part of his decorations.  After lunch we played outside and drew some dinosaurs on the driveway with chalk.  Jeff came home early and we went to the playground, then came home and had pizza for supper.  Grammy and Riley (the dog) came over for cake and brought a present. 

Quinn is 2.

Special Place Setting

Birthday balloon

Dinosaur cake and some dinosaur papers.

Time for cake

at the playground

Time for presents

34 Weeks of Clean: Week 4 - Fridge, Freezers, and Floors

This week I was excited about this challenge.  I dove in face first last week as soon as I knew what the challenge was.  The freezer in my kitchen fridge was in great shape.  I only keep a few select items in it that are used frequently.  I cleaned my quickly emptying fridge, since I knew I would be going shopping the next day.  I also looked over the front of my fridge and cleaned off old and useless items that went straight into the trash can and wiped off the dusty top.  I also found a few items that hadn't been used and were beyond usable.

Before

Before

Trash :(

After

After

The rest of the week I kept thinking I need to get to the other fridge and straighten up the upright freezer and wash the kitchen floor.  Sadly, I didn't get to it, but we did enjoy a birthday celebration day and had company for dinner one evening.  I also planned to finish taking down the Christmas stuff from week one.  I didn't finish that either, but I did pack up all our Christmas books and put them away in the closet for next year.  One small step in the right direction is better than none.  I usually tackle the upright freezer in the spring when it is warm and I can defrost it before I have my garden providing produce that I want to freeze.  I know I'll get to that.  The garage fridge isn't too bad.  The floors still need washing, since they only usually get spot washed as needed I'm sure they are pretty dirty.  Hopefully I'll do better on next week's challenge.  

34 Weeks of Clean - Week 3: Kitchen Cabinets

Yesterday I had a little time in the afternoon to work on this weeks cleaning project.  The assignment was to clean and purge from the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen.

I didn't work the on drawers because for the most part they are pretty straight.  A few months ago I began to rearrange a few things in my cabinets, but didn't get to finish.  I worked on finishing up what I had previously started.

Previously, I moved all my small plastic storage containers to a deep drawer in which I had been using for some utensils.  Here is the current picture.  There was so much space in the deep drawer that I felt I could make a better use of it.  While we do have to put them in just right it doesn't bother me as much as it does one of my children who is on dish duty.  I like having my dishes all stacked neatly so I can quickly grab the size I want and find the matching lid. 

I hadn't finished rearranging the cabinets after moving the plastics, so this is what I started with yesterday.

My spices were spread out over two cabinets and six shelves.  I moved all may savory/ cooking spices to the cabinet where I wanted them.  And rearranged all my sweet/baking spices to take up a much smaller amount of space.  I threw away several old spices and packages and out of date imitation flavorings that I hadn't used in forever.  I decided I probably wasn't going to use them.  I also cleaned up the counter space by the coffee maker and made the space usable again.

Here are the after pictures of my spice rearranging.

I use baskets to help hold some of my spices.  I've found it helps me keep them neater and I can quickly pull the basket out of the cupboard when I am looking for a spice that I don't use as often.
 I also moved the mugs from the cupboard on the right and put them in the cupboard near the coffee pot.  Then I moved several vases that were on top of the fridge to the shelf above the mugs.  In my cup cupboard I put my measuring cups where the mugs had been.  They were displaced after rearranging the spices.







Next I worked on the cupboard under the counter that I had cleared off.  It's been bothering me for a while at how messy it was and hard to find a paper plate, cup, straw, or a tray.  I found probably 75-100 loose paper napkins in this cupboard, and since I only keep special party napkins in this cupboard I put all the other ones out to be used.  There were several items I tossed into the trash and a few items I set aside to put in my giveaway box, because I probably won't need them.  I keep my plastic ware in re-purposed coffee tins.  This helps keep them neat and easy for anyone to access.  You can't see them well because they are lined up behind the cabinet divider.

I'm looking forward to the challenge for Week 4.  You can visit this blog to see what it is and choose to join the challenge.



 

Missions School

This past weekend we attended the missions conference at our church.  As a follow-up for the kids I thought they would have fun with a little bit of related school.  Their assignments today were to choose a country where they might be interested in going if they were to be a missionary.  They wrote a short paper about the country they chose and why they choose it and how they might be a missionary there.  Then they had to draw a simple map of the country and research and write a few facts they learned about the country of their choice.  Then they had to choose a recipe to try from that country.  Then Kent, Katy, and Kaomi got to write a letter to a missionary in the country they chose and introduce themselves and ask any questions they had about being a missionary in that country.

       So now I have a menu planned for the next few days.  Here are the foods that we will be preparing.  Tomorrow we will be heading to the grocery store to buy any ingredients we don't have on hand.  Each person has their own shopping list.  Since we already had the food that Katy chose she will get to shop for the items needed to make the Indian Fried Rice which Jeff chose.

Monday:  Quiche Lorraine - France - Katy
Tuesday:  Ham and Cheese Empanadas - Argentina - Kaomi
                French Lentil Salad - France - Felicity
                Cucumbers
Wednesday:  Chicken Nuggets - United States of America - Clark
                      Pineapple - Clark
                      Indian Fried Rice - India - Jeff
                      Poffertjes - Netherlands - Suanna

Thursday:  Spanish Chicken w/Olives - Spain - Kent
                  Green Beans

34 Weeks of Clean -Week 2: Pantry

I've been wanting to blog more, but haven't taken the time to do it.  I found this challenge I wanted to work on, so I thought I'd try starting blogging again with this.




Week 1 was putting all the Christmas stuff away.  We've been really busy on our weekends and I haven't done it yet.  This year we only have our Christmas tree and Christmas books out, so it shouldn't take too long.  Maybe I'll tackle it one evening this coming week.

Week 2 was the pantry.  I've been really needing to make my pantry functional again.  Over the last 2 months it seems like all I did was throw things in it, rather than put them away.  I found a few things that we used up and a few things to throw away, like a can of cream soup that's best by date was in 2012, old candy,  and a bunch of onion and garlic skins.  I only worked on it one day this week, but my pantry is almost back to normal, even though I didn't finish going through every shelf.  Over the last couple years I've learned that just doing a little bit can make a big difference even if you know you don't have the time to finish something.

Here are my before and after pictures.

Before

After

Just putting away the stuff that was on the floor made a big difference, because we can now walk into the pantry to get what we want or put away what we are done with.

Week 3 is working on straightening and de-cluttering the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  I started this back in October, but I am looking forward to hopefully finishing some of the ideas I want to implement in my cabinets over the next week.

Out the Window

All the excited children,
Gathered 'round the door,
Peering through the window
Into the dark,
To see the snow flying through the air
And accumulating on the grill.

Kaomi's Birthday -2014

She turned 7 this week.  We took her to pick out a bicycle for her birthday on Labor Day. 

Special Place Setting

Happy 7th Birthday!

She had a bagel with strawberry cream cheese for breakfast.  Then we went outside so she could try riding her bike again.  We had a Frozen themed day.  We made snowmen while listening to the song "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"  Later we designed sparkly/icy necklaces with iridescent and glitter pony beads.  In the afternoon, I got the doll clothes out for their 18" dolls and the girls had fun picking out new outfits and accessories for their dolls to wear.  Then we had a snack of pink princess goldfish crackers.

Snowmen!

After dinner, we had ice cream cake.  She wanted a strawberry cake, but I couldn't find good strawberry ice cream.  It was vanilla ice cream with strawberry filling.  Kaomi said it was good.

After she opened her presents from her brothers and sisters we went to the playground.  Grammy came by while we were there to wish Kaomi "Happy Birthday".  She left a present for Kaomi at the house.  It was a pink cowboy hat that she was very excited to receive.