no.more.white.flour!

Last month we went through an insane amount of flour, most of it white. I tend to make things half white and half wheat, but I've been baking a little too much lately! A couple months ago I discovered how yummy homemade soft pretzels are and homemade bagels... in addition to our usual- bread, tortillas, pizza dough, and sweet treats, I've been making bready goodness a little to much!

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After realizing how many lbs. of white flour we went through last month (too embarrassed to tell you) I went to the market and stocked up on spelt flour, whole wheat, barley flour, rye flour and yummy, healthy additions like wheat germ, oats, and ground flax seed. I have been making the yummiest whole grain breads! The kids love them too! I tend to improvise on the recipe, but next time I will try to write it down and share, because they have been coming out so, so good, I realized I prefer this soft, more dense multi grain bread anyway!!

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So bye, bye white flour, I'll see you on Valentines and then maybe at the next Birthday party, otherwise -your out of here!!

organic sheets on sale:)

Under the Canopy is having a good sale on organic sheets/bedding right now....twin sheet set $19.99 and some super cute duvet covers. I'm resisting, so I thought I would pass it on:)

22 new bareroot babies...

10 of them are strawberries

10 are asparagus

and 2 little blueberries

and so it begins...

What better thing to do at 5:30am then to obsess over seed catalogs? We just got our Seeds of Change catalog, which I look forward to every year!! The planning begins! In a couple weeks I'll order seeds!! Our garden is a mess and needs sooooo much love and care to get ready for this very ambitious year!! I can't wait!

Our cover crops are going wild!

happy garlic and onions

lofty goals for 2010

Ok, so I have New Years Resolutions, for the most part your basic, typical resolution's ...lose weight, save money, organize...but this time I actually wrote it down and wrote down steps/mini goals for each month to hopefully get me where I need to be by the end of the year. So here are my goals-



Stay within budget/no unnecessary spending-

-only spend money on necessary things

-for all extras, find a way to pay for them outside of normal income such as:

sell on ebay for birthday and clothing money

tax return will be our garden and outside budget

-stay within grocery budget (this is a big one and our main area to cut back)




Organize the house...'a place for everything and everything in it's place'

-each month I will have a different area to focus on, broken down into weekly tasks





Start a new habit monthly-

-little habits that will make my life better/easier

For January I will write out our daily plan (meals, to do list, and activities...anything I don't get done will go onto the next day)





Save money for the first time ever!

-First goal save $1000 emergency fund

- save for a bathroom remodel to start 2011!!!



*I have a secret goal* , one I haven't mentioned to my husband because it may be unrealistic, but I also am hoping to save enough to pay our midwife so we can perhaps have another child in 2011...we'll see, it's quite a chunk of money and our insurance reimburses us for half of it after the birth. We have pretty much agreed on having a third child, just not sure when...



Lose weight and live healthier-hmmm, I think this one starts next month...


To try and actually do these things I'm going to post about them once a month or so... what my goals are for the month and what I did/did not due, what I learned, etc...

WIP Wednesday!! (on thursday, again)

work-on-progress Wednesday

...late again, wed has proved to be a hard day to post, it's Geoffs Friday and homemade pizza and ice cream night...and often a little wine and music, so I don't usually get online:)

Thick slipper socks...a Valentine present for Geoff:)

Kylan had a naked doll and wanted clothing for it, it is actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, even without a pattern. The pants are made from an old sweater cut up and hand stitched, very simple. The doll on the left had a button on his sweater that already fell off while K was playing with him.

When I was done with Kylans doll, Everest handed me his doll and said 'knit', so I'm working on his:) K has already requested doll PJ's so maybe that will be next:) I am still dreaming of these lovely Waldorf dolls for them...

gifts from etsy

This year I bought the boys a few special gifts from etsy. There are soooo many beautiful handmade toys, it was hard to decide which to get!! These are from Green Mountain Wee Woolies a lovely shop with unique handmade gifts at great prices (in my opinion at least). We have veered away from plastic toys, except for outside toys, and try to get 'natural' toys and more open ended things. I LOVE what we picked out and the boys seem to really enjoy them!

Kylan got a wooden toy barn for his birthday, so the pigs and chickens are a good addition!

Quotable Sunday

(please excuse the spacing of this poem, for some reason I couldn't change it, so there are a couple rows between lines??)

The Song Of The Shepherd's Purse Fairy

Cicely Mark Barker

Though I'm poor to human eyes

Really I am rich and wise.

Every tiny flower I shed

Leaves a heart-shaped purse instead.

In each purse is wealth indeed-
Every coin a living seed
Sow the seed upon the earth-

Living plants shall spring to birth.

Silly people's purses hold

Lifeless silver, clinking gold;

But you cannot grow a pound

From a farthing in the ground.

Money may become a curse:
Give me then my Shepherd's Purse.

Boys, dolls, and vacuumes

For Christmas my dad (aka Opa) sent the boys little rechargable battery vacuums for Christmas. Kylan had been asking for one since his last one broke a while ago, he LOVED using it!!! So it is our new ritual to clean up and vacuum before dinner. They have been having so much fun helping! Today Kylan declared that it was his dolls Birthday and played with it a lot. His doll wanted to help him vacuum, so of coarse Everest has to do what his brother is doing, so the two of them ran around vacuuming with dolls in hand. It was so cute! I really couldn't get a good picture, but I thought I'd share anyway!

hehe:)

Our Christmas

I haven't posted much lately, between the holidays and family in town, my time on the computer has been limited! Now, with things slowly shifting back to 'normal', I wanted to share a few pictures from Christmas day-

Kylan at 6am waiting to open presents!

Everest is wearing his new pirate-pig apron, Kylan got a dragon apron, I'll have to get a picture with them both wearing it...

Everest opening his rainbow gnomes from Green Mountain Wee Wollies on etsy.


Hand knit froggy blankets made by my mommy (Oma) in the background-

A blurry picture of our Christmas morning-

Kylans socks, he asked me to make them for Christmas, so even though they were done a couple months ago, he wrapped them and put them under the tree and did not open them until Christmas:)
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After the morning festivities, we headed down to the coast to Wilder Ranch ( I love, love, love that place). The boys gave there bikes a try, followed buy a long walk and a picnic-

Ok, he does look girly with this hair, but I just can't cut it!!

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Hope you had a memorable holiday!