More Adventures in Baking and Potted Tomato Plants...

I recently hosted book club at my house.  So instead of doing what I normally do, which is buy baked goods at Sam's Club, I decided to save some money and make a dessert myself.  Someone for a bridal shower gift gave me a book called, "500 Cupcakes:  The Only Cupcake Compendium You'll Ever Need."  This person obviously didn't know me at all.  I HATE BAKING!  And this most recent baking adventure didn't do much to change my mind on the topic.  Nevertheless, here are the ingredients, instructions and a photo of the finished product.  It actually turned out well and was a delicious little treat. :)

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Ingredients:
For Cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
10 crushed cream-filled chocolate cookies

For Frosting
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
Pinch of salt
10 chopped cream-filled chocolate cookies

Baking Instructions
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).  Place 18 foil or paper baking cups in muffin pans
- Combine all the cupcake ingredients, except the cookies, in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and pale (about 2-3 minutes)
-Stir in the cookies
- Spoon the batter into the cups.  Bake for 20 minutes.
-Remove pans from oven and cool for 5 minutes
- Remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack
-To make the frosting, beat the confectioners' sugar, butter and salt using a mixer
- Spread frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle the chopped cookies on top

The cupcakes can be stored unfrosted in airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.  Makes 1 1/2 dozen

A photo of the finished product. 

In other news:

We had a mini winter here in the middle of September and we had to cover our outside garden with tarps and blankets to save the growing vegetables.  We brought our potted tomato plants inside and they became very spoiled.  More about our adventures in gardening will be in my next post, but for now I leave you with photos of our potted tomato plants hanging out inside during our mini winter.  

Our potted tomato plants hanging out in the corner of our dining room

Our potted tomato plants hanging out in front of one of the windows in our dining room

You can see three small tomatoes growing on our potted tomato plants. :)

Getting Involved in Church Stuff

The church program year has started here at Fairfield Lutheran Parish.  From September through the end of May, I give up my husband several nights a week and we go back to having family day on Friday and part of Saturday.  We still have lunch and dinner together most days unless he is not in town.  But it is far more routine than the summer schedule, which is nice with a two year old.  The more routine things are for my son the better.

I feel like I turn into a single mom most days.  Jason sometimes takes Preston to the office with him so I can get a break in the morning to exercise and do a few things for myself.  But most days, I am on my own for several hours.  So I don't end up depressed and pissed off about all of this, I have found myself throwing myself into getting involved in church stuff to give myself something to do for me.  Since there is not much else to do in town, getting involved in church has been a way for me to do somethings for myself and others.  I have become the token church volunteer, which gives me a sense of purpose outside of my family.

To begin with, last year, I volunteered to help out as a secondary leader for the parish youth group.  I also helped lead a Bible study at the church in town and I filled-in as a helper for confirmation on Wednesday nights as needed.  This year I am assisting with the Bible study in town, not leading it.  I still fill-in for confirmation when I need to.

One thing is different this year though.  I will be leading a Sunday afternoon Bible study for the parish youth group.  I am getting more involved in activities and the formation of faith of the youth in the group.  I am impressed by the kids in the youth group and am excited to see how they grow in their faith.  I am excited to be a part of that process.  I went from being the secondary youth group leader to the main youth group leader.  The other leader will be more involved in planning the group activities.  Once a month we have a fun group activity.  In September, we had a bonfire and games afternoon.  In October, we will be having a Halloween movie night.  The rest of the Sundays in the month we will meet and have Bible study and play games.  We'll see how it goes, but so far I am optimistic that it will work out well.

I also help out with putting the monthly newsletter together when I can and every once in a while, I help serve coffee for fellowship time.  When I can I help out and I am far more involved in church stuff than I intended to be when we first moved here, which to be honest, has been such a blessing.  Because of my token volunteer church lady status, I have met some of the most amazing people, the most amazing kids and have found a larger purpose in my life than just getting by in a place that I have a love/hate relationship with.  I am truly blessed with such an amazing family and friends who are near and far.  Through God's grace and love, I am able to share my blessings with others and hopefully, they too will grow in their faith as I have in the past 3+ years.

Bye-Bye Lonelies, Sometimes....

This blog post is in conjunction with a previous post that VB wrote.

Sometimes I get a massive case of the lonelies.  In truth, I am hardly ever alone.  Between my two year old son, who I stay at home with, my husband and the revolving door that was our house, I don't get much alone time.  So my loneliness is a different kind of loneliness.  My loneliness comes from a lack of friends that I can call up and say, "Hey, if I can find a babysitter to watch my son, do you want to meet up for coffee or go see a movie or both?"  My loneliness comes from the isolation of where I live.  The nearest place that has anything resembling culture is Great Falls, and most days it's just not worth the drive or the gas it takes to get there.

I do have one thing going for me though.  I have, after 3 years of living here, found a friend my own age that has kids around my sons age.  We have library time every Wednesday and then a play date afterwards until lunch time.  Sometimes, we even get together on other days and let the kids play and we just talk about our kids and other things going on in our lives.  For privacy reasons I will not tell you their names, but I can say this about our new friends, they have saved my life here.  I had given up on making friends that I can talk to about anything here and not be judged because I am the pastor's wife.  And then all of a sudden enter these wonderful people and everything has changed.  The power of consistent and badgering prayer folks.

I still find that most days, unless there is something really pressing that I just have to do, I don't leave the house.  Having our garden this year has alleviated some of my hermitage behavior, in that I have to go outside every day and inspect, water, prune and pick vegetables that are ready to be picked.

I can call or skype with my best friends that don't live here, but sometimes all I want to do is see them and give them big hugs and listen to them talk about their lives and share what is going on with mine.  Sometimes, I find myself day-dreaming about taking my son to the Como Zoo in St. Paul and meeting up with friends and just making a day of it.  Or I get flashes of walking around Lake Calhoun with friends and talking and exercising at the same time on a lovely late-spring, summer or early-fall day.  Basically, I find myself missing some of what my life used to be and I get the lonelies.

But nothing stays the same.  Even if Jason and I end up moving back to Minnesota someday, everything will be different.  I will have kids, when before I didn't.  I may or may not be working, or I may work out of my home.  I may have a more traditional job, or I may find something unconventional to do with myself.  Jason will continue to be a pastor.  And not all of my best friends live in Minnesota anymore.  VB lives in St. Johns Newfoundland, others live out East and others live out in the Northwest.  Again, thinking about all of this makes me feel lonely.

Thankfully, facebook exists, texting exists, skype exists, email exists and with money, planes, trains and automobiles exists to whisk me away to see my people.

I will look back on my time here, however long it may be, and tell stories about how I made a good friend in my small town and survived the lonelies.  Until then, I'm just going to keep on keeping on and try to stay positive about what the future may hold.

Projects I am Working on in My Non-Existent Free Time....

Free time around here only exists during nap time, which doesn't happen everyday now that my son has reached his toddler stage in life.

I am the type of person who needs to have something to do.  I like to call them "projects" because when I actually complete a task, I feel better about life.  I feel like I'm not wasting my life away because I don't have a j.o.b. and am not contributing financially to my family.  But I wrote about that situation in my previous post, so I will not dwell on that here.

I have several "projects" in the works these days and work on them when I have time to do so.  I have a lot of project ideas for the future too that I am excited about and am going to share some of them with you now.  They involve crocheting, reading, writing, paper crafts, amateur landscape photography and getting some of my papers published.

As far as crafting, I had the idea a while back to start doing paper crafts, like making my own cards and antiquing paper and making journals or cards with it.  I haven't started learning how to do that yet, because of the time crunch of being a stay-at-home mom of a 2 year old, very active little boy.  I am still very interested in learning about and doing paper crafting though, so it is on my list of projects to do in the future.

I have been doing a lot of crocheting lately and am getting better and better at it.  I still only know how to do one stitch and am not ready to learn another until I get better at the one I know.  I have made a throw blanket, two rugs and am currently working on a scarf.  All of these are gifts I have and will be giving to people.  It is something I enjoy doing and giving to others.  I had aspirations at one point to try and make some money by selling my completed projects, but I am far too slow and can only work for short periods of time before I start to have an allergic reaction to the yarn.  I tend to work on my crocheting projects during the afternoon when my son is napping and I don't have to do anything but stream tv shows and crochet.

I find that when I don't read for a while, I get cranky and actually depressed about life.  Reading allows me to use my brain and learn new things, even reading fiction.  I just finished reading Twelve Years a Slave, which everyone should read and am starting to re-read Life After Life, a fiction novel that is one of the best books I read last year, for book club.  My life is so dull without a good book in it.  I don't have much time to read during the day, so I do most of my reading before I go to bed at night.  I'll read a chapter or most of a chapter of a book or several articles from my Time Magazine before going to bed.  Reading my Time magazine during the day is easier because I can easily put it down and pick it back up again throughout the day.

And with my new-found commitment to reading, I am starting to write again too.  I am writing in a journal and blogging a couple times a week.  Writing, for me, cures the soul.  It is easier for me to blog because it is a shorter time commitment than say, writing a chapter of a novel or a non-fiction book.  So I plan to blog twice a week and would like to journal several times a week, if I have the time.  I have a great idea for a novel and several ideas for histories as far as future writing projects, but those, I shall keep to myself until I am ready to reveal them.

I have recently gotten the bug up my butt to research publishers both magazine and book publishers.  I have several papers that I would like to try and get published in an academic or some kind of magazine.  I also have two graduate theses that I would like to do something with so I am researching book publishers too.  I have found several online and am trying to figure out the best way to submit my work and have it be successfully published.  I have submitted one of my papers to a publisher already but haven't heard back.  They were quite explicit on their website that if I didn't hear back from them almost right way, I wouldn't be hearing back at all.  But that's okay, there are many more publishers to try.  My last resort would be to try doing self-publishing online.  I'm just not convinced that is the best way for me to go at this time, at least with my non-fiction work.

And just for fun, I am continuing to dabble in amateur landscape photography.  This town might be boring but the landscape around here is amazing.  I am thinking about ways to make some money by selling postcards or prints of my photographs to people.  I am having trouble figuring out copyright so no one can steal my images.  I don't want to have to start a company, but it might be worth it someday if I become more than an amateur landscape photographer.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of "projects" in the works and ideas for the future.  I find I can be overly ambitious sometimes, but when I do find the time to complete a project, it just makes life that much more awesome!  :)

Living Frugally with Thousands in Student Loan Debt on 1 Income....

I am both grateful and frustrated with being a stay-at-home mom.  I am grateful because I am the one raising my son along with my husband and not someone else.  I get to watch him grow into a smart, compassionate person.  I have been able to watch him crawl and walk for the first time and teach him the alphabet and numbers.  Being home with my son has been one of the greatest adventures of my life so far.

But...yes there is a but.

Between my husband and myself, we have many thousands of dollars in student loan debt.  With my husband being the only one with a steady income, I find myself frustrated that I am not directly contributing to paying down our loans.  I know I am contributing financially in other ways.  Daycare is expensive and essentially I am free daycare.  I am the one who balances our checkbook and keeps us on the straight and narrow as far as spending goes.  Despite this I have the occasional freak out moment, probably once a month and my gracious husband talks be down from the ledge.  We talk about our situation often, and have come up with 6 ways to alleviate any anxiety about money that help for the most part (except for my once a month freak out.)

The Pollington/Pratola Household Money System:

1) Create a year long budget on an excel spreadsheet and stick to it.  This is harder than it might seem but with living frugally in mind, it can be done.

2) Create a monthly budget using and excel spreadsheet.  This tends to be more detailed than the year long budget and includes how much money we can spend on food, gas, miscellaneous...  We currently have a $350 food budget each month which includes going out to eat.  Being that we live in a town with only two restaurants and one has very strange hours, we don't go out to eat much.  Like VB stated in one of her recent posts, eating at home saves a lot of money and is healthier too. :)

3) We have a savings account, but right now we are using it as a savings for our quarterly taxes.  Yes, we pay our taxes quarterly and since we only have one income, we put the money we need for them into our savings and then transfer the money over when we have to pay them.  So right now, we don't have a savings that we don't touch and let the money accrue.  We are working on figuring that one out still and it will probably take a while.  But we do have a savings account for when we are actually able to start saving money.  Many people don't even have that, so I think we are heading in the right direction.

4) Weekly checkbook balancing.  I balance our checkbook once a week so then we always know what we have in our account.  Not only does it ease my mind that we aren't spending more than we have, but it makes me an active participant in our finances.

5) If we use our credit card, we pay it off right away.  We use our credit card for things that Jason can be reimbursed for through the church so once we get the reimbursement money, we pay our credit card off right away.  It just makes sense and makes both of us feel better about life.

6) Breathe and be grateful for what we do have, which unfortunately is a lot more than many people have these days.  We might not have a lot of money, we might not have all the new gadgets or the newest vehicles, but we have a warm place to live, clothes on our backs, good healthcare, food in our bellies and wonderful family and friends.

So yeah, I still freak out about our student loan debt and our small household income from time to time, but these 6 things, especially the last one have been extremely helpful for us, our marriage and our family.  I hope they help you too.

Child Organization, Box Gardens and More....

My son Preston likes to organize things.  It doesn't matter what it is either.  If the refrigerator is open, he'll take out all of the bottles on the bottom door shelf and either organize them on the kitchen floor, or put them back on the shelf where he thinks they should go.  He does this with his toy animals

bowls, his books, and pots and strainers.  Basically anything he can get his hands on, he will organize it.  It is hilarious.  It is fascinating to watch him think it through and put something exactly where he wants it.

So we finally got our acts together this year and bought a small box garden kit.  We then bought a seed started kit and started seeds inside for tomatoes, egg plant, and various peppers.

All of the tomato seeds, most of the egg plant and only two of the pepper seeds survived.  In our box garden we decided to plant this year: peas, cucumber, yellow and green zucchini squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, egg plant, the two various pepper seeds and tomatoes.

Note to self, get a second box garden kit dedicated to squash.  And maybe cut down on how many peas and tomatoes we plant too.  Craziness is abounding here folks.

It has been fun to watch our small garden take off and go crazy.  I hope we get a bit of everything this year, but as you can see above, the squash plants are taking away sun from the cucumber, egg plant and peppers, so we'll see what ends up being able to grow.  We got a late start this summer, planting our garden, but hopefully more things will begin to produce before we have to start covering the garden at night to protect the plants and produce from the chilly nights.

My son keeps me on my toes all day long except when he is napping.  During nap time, I crochet while streaming netflix, journal, nap myself, work on revising my theses so then someday I can maybe find someone to publish them (fingers crossed), blog, speed walk on the treadmill when I can for exercise, check facebook once a day or every other day depending on what is going on around here and play in the garden.  I clean house every once in a while but only when I can't put it off anymore.  These are things I do to pass the time and fight the occasional feelings of loneliness.  I tell myself, that this too shall pass, and pass it does.

Family Fun Summer Adventures...

(There are a lot of photos in this post, but not as many as I think there should be. :) )
Where did the summer go?!  Wasn't yesterday Memorial Day?!  Labor Day is coming up in a few weeks?!  WTF hommies!

We have had a lot of family summer adventures this year.  Here is the litany of traveling, adventures and daily living we have done since Memorial Day and some photos to go along with each adventure.

Over Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota to celebrate our nephew Grayson's high school graduation.  It was a packed weekend.

Between Memorial Day and our next traveling adventure, we had Vacation Bible School, which was a blast, but a very busy week.  The Monday after VBS finished, we got on a 6am 1-stop flight to Boston to spend the week in New Hampshire visiting my sister and her family.  We stayed with my parents in a one bedroom condo in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire.  We were there from June 23rd-June 30th.  We traveled around the White Mountain region and took side day trips to the beach in Maine and Boston.  It was an awesome trip!!  It was hard to come back to Fairfield after that.

After we returned from New Hampshire, etc... we had two days to do laundry and repack to go spend the 4th of July with Jason's family at Fresno Reservoir.  I went up a day later because I wasn't up for going on Thursday.  I drove up on my own on the 4th and we left on the 5th because Jason had to be back to preach in church on Sunday.

After the 4th of July, we actually had a couple of weeks where we just hung out at home and got back into our normal routine.  July 17th-20th was Fairfield's annual town celebration, Swim Days.  It was a busy weekend but we didn't do any traveling, just stayed in town and participated in some of the activities that weekend.

The following weekend, July 25th and 26th we traveled to Bozeman, MT for a wedding Jason officiated over.  Bozeman is about 3-3.5 hrs away from Fairfield.  After the wedding on Saturday we had to head back so Jason could preach on Sunday.  It was a very quick trip and the wedding was lovely.

We had one day to do laundry and clean the house before my parental units and brother arrived for the week.  They were here from July 28th - August 4th.  While they were here, we went fishing in the mountains on the Sun River and also at Pishkun Reservoir.  We also drove down to a place called The Gates of the Mountains and traveled up the Missouri River on a tour boat.  During that time we celebrated Preston's 2nd Birthday too.  A lot happened that week, a lot!  Lucky for you, blogger isn't allowing me to post any more photos, because I would have posted a lot more.  Anyway....

My family left us on the 4th of August and the next day we headed up to Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp from August 5th-8th.  It was so much fun.  Now, here I wish I could post more pictures because I have the cutest picture of Preston with his friends Hannah and Harper.  Boo blogger...BOO!!!

Now we are home for a while.  I am traveling to Minnesota by myself on the train at the end of the month for 6 days.  It is the only time I will be able to get there for the rest of the year, so Jason and I made it happen.  My mother-in-law is staying with us during the week while she does her radiation treatments in Great Falls and she goes home on the weekends.  I have a lot of cleaning to do before she gets back on Monday.

I guess I answered my initial question, Where did the summer go?!  It flew by while we were traveling, adventuring and living daily life.  It went away in the blink of an eye, brilliantly away.

Fighting the Lonelies

In my mind this should be a Berenstain Bears story: 'The Berenstain Bears Fight the Lonelies'. Megs and I have been battling this foe for over a year now...the lonelies...

After my very blue, longer then expected winter suckfest, I spent a lot of time reflecting on solutions to fight the lonelies. I still can't say I have any friends here. I know a few people. I have some acquaintances. But I don't think there is anyone I can call up and invite to do something or call when I am having a rough day.

So...I decided a few things I would do to try to meet people. I took a French class, and plan to sign up again in the fall. I started volunteering to teach English as a Second Language classes a couple times a month. And, very recently I found a group of older folks to play string quartets with.

I still am on the hunt for some friends, but for now at least I have increased my social circle, get out of the house, fill my days a little and am getting exposed to new people and places regularly.

I also am trying to fill my day with gardening, yoga, some cooking when motivated and too much internet browsing. I putz with my creative hobbies now and then too. I just made a neat vest out of two thrifted scarves. I think it's pretty neat but still need to wear it out of the house to see how people react.

Any tips for fighting the lonelies? We'd love to hear them in the comments! 

10 Tips for Winning at Being Frugal

"Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind." - Youngbloodz

Yup, I just quoted old school rap lyrics. That's how we roll around here. Anyway...my last post was a long winded essay on why budgeting is worth your time. I thought since we've been at it for over half a year now, I'd share with you some of our best tips for being frugal and making your money work for you. The art of telling every penny where to go (in my pocket of course..."find a penny, pick it up, then all day you'll have good luck" and an extra penny!).

1. Generic brand food actually tastes the same on the majority of products. Try it, you'll be surprised and save a bunch of money on your grocery bill. I avoid generic tuna, am picky about hotdogs, prefer real maple syrup (or at least some large % mix) and have a couple of brand name cereals I really like (because I make a serious midday meal out of cereal...I need it to stick to my bones longer...and I'm picky). That said, we buy pretty much everything else generic. In fact, we are lucky to live near a store that sells SOOO many products in bulk bins, we save a ton of money shopping there and just store in our own containers.

2. Math is your friend. When you are shopping always compare price per unit of measurement. You are looking for the best ratio of most unit of measurement for lowest price. Some stores post this on the labels on the shelves. If they don't, do a rough estimate in your head. Does math hurt? Use a calculator (your phone probably has one).

3. Sell anything you can part with and you really don't need. When you start evaluating things, how often you use them, if you use them, if you are tired of them, if they are valuable, if you can easily replace them etc. you will start to realize you can live without a lot of the stuff you've been dragging around for years. My husband and I are constantly selling stuff. It is really satisfying to get a little money for something that is no longer useful to you and taking up space. Especially in a small apartment with no storage. Have a yard sale, list in the online classifieds. Post it on your facebook. Easy! We just made $150 at a yard sale this weekend and still have lots of stuff left to sell. Use this money to pay off debt! Good way to get the snowball rolling.

4. Cook! Making meals at home will save you so much money. It's also healthier and a good way to have some family time without everyone realizing that's what's going on :) . We go out to eat maybe once or twice a month. It comes out of our regular food budget and means that we get to buy that much less in groceries if we eat out. Also, bringing your own food for lunch is a huge way to save money! Leftovers reheat really well, cut down on waste, and are an easy way to have a healthy, filling lunch.

5. Look for free entertainment. We save so much on entertainment by looking for things that are going on for free. Our local art museum offers a free admission night once a week. Many museums do; check out their websites. Summer is a great time for free music and outside festivals. We have been going to as many of these as possible. We also try to get out and just enjoy the small things more too. An outing to feed the ducks? Sitting outside at the local coffee shop people watching?

6. Volunteer. You may be surprised that volunteering will actually save you money. It is entertaining, it is social, it feels good. And in some instances, if you volunteer for an event, for example a music festival, you can get free admission. My husband and I volunteered for the local folk festival. I will be doing site cleanup and he will be bartending and we will save $100 on the event!

7. Follow your budget. Don't cheat yourself. Once you have spent your valuable time, energy and brain cells on planning a budget, stick to it. This seems obvious, but it can be harder than it sounds. Don't forget to budget in some blow money for yourself. It helps. We each get $25 a month to spend on anything we want, no questions asked. My husband has a hard time limiting himself on this, but I feel like I am doing really well and sometimes have extra money left at the end of the month to roll into the next month.

8. Use envelopes with cash to manage things like food, entertainment, gas and your blow funds. We have noticed a huge difference in the months we used the envelope/cash system vs. the months we used debit. We let $1000 walk away one month using debit because we told ourselves "oh we're fine, there is plenty in the bank account." Sure there is plenty in the bank account, but on our digital budget spreadsheet, that money is actually being saved for things like the dentist, medicine and gifts. In a sense, we were stealing from our own savings. Sad.

9. Talk about money! Many people we know with money problems and debt hate money. They are angry about it, they don't want to talk about it. Once you allow yourself to get past that, and openly talk about it with your partner, your family, your friends, whomever. It is a lot easier to feel in control of your money, your expenses, your debt and your savings. Yes, we still argue about money, but I will say our conversations are much more productive and we are mostly on the same page.

10. Shop thrift shops and yard sales. This is a frugal, budget conscience person's best friend. In many instances "gently used will do". We buy as much as we can second hand right now. Of course we'd love to buy new, but on our just above poverty line income, we can't afford new on most things. I find name brand, designer clothing all the time. Watch for holes/snags/stains/general wear and tear but otherwise you can often win at thrift shops for clothes. We also buy a lot of kitchen items at thrift shops - dishes mostly. Pots and pans we buy new because the non-stick stuff does wear out. It is amazing what soap and water can do. Facebook has lots of local buy/sell groups. Search for your town name & buy/sell/yard sale/garage sale etc. Also shop online classifieds like craigslist. Plug your nose, dive in and you will be surprised and impressed at the treasures you will find. I have found Coach, Bottega Veneta and Gucci among other brands at thrift shops. Treasures people and more pennies in your pocket!   

Have some more tips not mentioned here? We would love to hear them. Please share in the comments! 

Revisiting Budgeting and Surviving (and Succeeding) Just Above the Poverty Line

A few months ago I mentioned I had been starting to follow the Dave Ramsey budgeting and financial planning method. I am pleased to report it is working really well! I traveled in February and March and my husband and I couldn't figure out how to keep up with the budget we had started in January. We noticed a difference. Money walked away...about $1000 wandered off into stupid, unplanned for purchases. That money could've been used towards paying off my car loan.

Lesson learned. We need a budget! Not only do we need a budget, through trial and error trying to find or rhythm with this program, we found we need the envelope system. The good, old fashioned, "there are $500 for food this month, $500 goes into the food & household envelope at the beginning of the month and when it's empty, it's empty" method. We run the following budget line items off of the cash only envelope system: food & household, gas, bus, entertainment, VB blow money, and my husband's blow money. The rest is debit and we reconcile the books at the end of the month (cuz I am too lazy/distracted to reconcile as we go).

Facts: my husband and I are living on 1 full time income (I just this month picked up some part time work that will cover 1 bill/month). We are living at only a few thousand dollars a year over the federal poverty line. But, with this considered, we have successfully paid off $5000 in debt since January. We have no credit card debt, and we are nearly finished paying off a car loan (on a 2012 I bought in 2013!) and after that will follow Dave Ramsey's "debt snowball" concept and apply all of the car loan money towards the student loan to pay that down too! That means within the next 12 months we will be 100% debt free and can start saving for a down payment on a home and retirement!

This has been challenging, it has caused arguments. But now after 7 months, I can say we have a really good system in place. Our finances are in check and we even have extra money every month to throw at debt. This is after we have put money towards saving for gifts, saving for travel, saving for French class tuition, saving for car repairs, saving for dental, saving for medications, saving for clothes. You get the idea. I highly recommend you give this method a try if you are having trouble managing your finances or if you find yourself with a lot of debt.

Even if you aren't much of a reader, Dave Ramsey's radio show is broadcast for free from his website. It's not a bad listen (if you can ignore the 3% of the time he spends on his extreme right politics) and you can learn a lot about winning at money. Here's his website. "The Total Money Makeover" and the workbook were what we used and found it to be enough information.

Edible Gardening

I have been filling my spring with growing things. It is very satisfying, except when the neighbor's naughty cat does her business in my garden box and destroys the entire crop of spinach...jerkface. I am ever tempted with the idea of sustainable living in which I grow as much of the produce that I can that we consume. I think I should probably own a place with a more substantial yard. Someday.

Meanwhile, the landlord has allowed us to put in a 3' x 6' planter box. I've got 4 strawberry plants, several heads of garlic, some lavender, some bergamot, some chives and the evil cat ruined the spinach patch. Also, immediately outside our door, we have a 5' x 10' green space that I have lots of pots of other stuff in. Also, put some sunflowers in around the border for fun and hopefully seeds.

I am growing only edibles, less the pansies I bought to dress up the stoop when my parents came. (My mom always has flowers on the front steps...have to keep up the expectations ;). I have several herbs and LOVE cooking with fresh herbs whenever possible. I'm also drying and preserving some as the season progresses.

Edible plants list includes:
-strawberries
-chives
-garlic
-bergamot (for tea)
-mint
-basil
-cinnamon basil
-oregano
-cilantro
-dill
-sunflower
-lavender
-chamomile (for tea)

Earlier this spring (in a month I consider summer). I experimented with dandelions. I made battered dandelion blossoms, dandelion jelly, dandelion cookies, dandelion syrup (best kind was infused with oranges!) and roasted dandelion root for tea. Here are several good sources for dandelion recipes. I was very satisfied with all of the yield and happy to have such an abundant free ingredient!
http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/dandelion-flower-cookies
http://www.almanac.com/recipe/dandelion-jelly-0
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fried-dandelions-appalachian-style/detail.aspx

Here is a tour of my garden for the curious:

Drying oregano, mint & dill for winter (on a vintage tie rack)

Non edibles, pansies and some wild violets I found in the weeds in the back yard. Just stormed so leaves everywhere

Lavender, chamomile, bergamot, the tea herbs

Cinnamon basil, basil, mint & oregano, the sauce herbs

Mini sunflowers that came in a $1 kit at Target-boutique, next year I will plant jumbos!

I started lots of herbs in pots in the window when I thought it should be spring already, I am gradually transplanting some of them into larger pots and soil as I see fit. Leaving some here too as they are quite sweet! 

Dill bolted recently, going to bloom soon, I will harvest the seeds for pickling. 

Strawberries! I've pulled about 20 berries or more off these plants so far. Tart first year growth but should be good next year.

Free garden box planter. This is a junky particle board book shelf a neighbor was throwing away. It won't last forever of course but is good enough for now. Frugal gardeners unite! The other half has garlic, lavender, chives, bergamot and 1 surviving spinach plant.

1 of many spiders in the garden. I like them. They eat mosquitoes and other jerks. 

Some of the yield from my dandelion experiments. Dark large jar is syrup, smaller jars jelly, and brown stuff is roasted dandelion root. 

Chamomile blooms I have picked and am drying for tea. I think I may have enough for 1 cup. Le sigh.

Fresh chives I have freeze dried for later. 

Checking in...after a LOONGG Hiatus

Well folks, I survived the never ending winter. The trees did not leaf out until very late June/early July...eek. Very late spring for my taste and compared to what I am accustomed to. Summer is finally here, the weather has been perfect, my parents came to visit, I picked up some part-time internet based work and I have finally had enough with my excess cushioning and am trying a new fitness routine.

A horrible bout of the blues kept me from...everything for too many months. I have been wanting to run away from my life. Many days I have searched for the cheapest airline fares from this city to any other city in the world that sparked my interest in that moment. I don't have the money to purchase one of those tickets, but I can dream.

The 20-minute walk project fizzled out very quickly once I realized winter refused to end. From there I did nothing. I tried to rollerblade once the snow melted, an activity I used to love, but found I have lost so much muscle I felt too unstable on the rollerblades and was afraid I would hurt myself. So then I did nothing for a while again.

In the last month or so I have been extremely lucky to pick up some part-time, work from home computer work. After each block of time I complete I am doing a session on my yoga videos. It helps the posture and pain issues I am feeling from sitting at the laptop for several hours, and it is helping build muscle...with the goal of burning off some of this squish I and my pants disdain.

So new goal is to maintain the daily yoga practice, contribute to this blog more regularly and generally feel like I am accomplishing more than I had been before. Game on!

Surviving this Weather....

Okay, so the last time I posted I talked about "acquaintance" friends I have made in the small town we live in.  Now, I can write about having actually made a friend here.  I mean an actual friend, who I am comfortable around and can share things with and our kids like to play together friend.  I had to share this because it has been a long time coming.  We've lived in Fairfield for almost 3 years and before this I was very lonely and bitter about not having any friends.  Now I have a friend, who I very much enjoy hanging out with even if we don't see eye to eye on everything.

I'll give you her name, so I don't have to keep writing friend all the time.  Her name is Ashley, her husband's name is Casey and they have a 22 month old boy and a 5 week old boy.  Preston has play dates with the older boy.  They are super nice people and just moved here from Nevada.  For those who do not believe in the power of prayer, I poo-poo that.  I have been praying since we moved here for either Jason to find a new call as soon as humanly possible, or for us to make some friends that will make our time here less lonely and more bearable.  And my prayer has been answered with these new people who have recently entered our lives.  I am just so excited about all this, that I had to share.

Okay, now for the crazy up and down of the weather here.  Yesterday was 70 degrees with light winds, today there was a very chilly wind, but the bank said it was 52 when Preston and I were outside this morning.  Saturday the high is going to be in the 30s.  What gives?!  I just want summer to be here already.  Or at least have the temperature not dip below 50.  And as I am writing this post, I am freezing my ass off in my creative space in the basement.  But I'm too damn stubborn to turn the heat up because it is almost the middle of April and I shouldn't have to.  Yeah, some logic, huh....  I'll survive this crazy weather.  I have every other year thus far and will again in the future.  It doesn't mean I'm not going to bitch about it though.  That's what we in the northern United States do.  We bitch about the weather.  It's too dry, too wet, too hot, too cold, too humid....etc...  We are hardly satisfied, but on the days we are, well, those are the days that I am longing for and the sooner they arrive the better.

Our First Family Birding Outing...

On Saturday we took our first family birding outing with Preston.  Here are some of the highlights:

Snow geese hanging out on one of Freeze Out WMA ponds.

More snow geese and other bird species at Freeze Out WMA

Flock of snow geese taking off to head to the fields in the area to eat.

Flock getting into formation to fly off to the fields

Preston watching the geese got pooped on as the geese flew over head of us.

Over all, a fun family trip birding in the area!!! :)

Other Goings On.....

Finding things to keep myself sane in small town Montana has proved difficult recently.  I have enough time on my hand to do little things like crochet and stream tv shows on netflix and hulu plus, but I don't have enough time to sit down and start working on a writing project that has become fully developed in my head.  I have enough time to write this blog post, but not enough time to write my stories.  That's what happens during the church Lenten season; being just busy enough to not be able to do what I really want to do, but having enough time that I need to find things to fill it up with so I don't go crazy from boredom.

My son, Preston is now 20 months old.  He takes a lot of energy to watch after because he has discovered his climbing abilities, as well as curiosity about everything he sees.  I constantly have to make sure he is not getting into things he shouldn't be getting into.  It's exhausting and fun to see him learn and love learning.  He loves to read and be read to.  He's my miracle child and he's amazing.

So you may be wondering how I even have time to do anything for myself.  It's called nap time.  And he takes long naps.  Lately his naps have been anywhere from 2 1/2 to almost 4 hrs.  So while he is sleeping I have time to myself to do whatever I want to.  You may be wondering why that much time is not enough time to work on my stories, etc.... Well the best explanation is that I get preoccupied with what I am doing and forget about everything else.  So if Preston woke up from his nap in the middle of what I was working on, one of two things would happen: 1) I'd ignore it until I was at a place I felt I could stop and easily pick up where I left off; or 2) I'd go and get him and completely lose my train of thought and end up scrapping what I had been working on and feel like I wasted several hours of my life on crap.  Damn being a perfectionist!

And I've also been very homesick for my friends and family and Minnesota.  Please don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to be anywhere, where my husband and son are not, but sometimes I sit at home and wonder what my life would be like if I lived closer to friends.  Of course, several of my favorite people are not even in Minnesota.  Some are out east, one goes back and forth between MN and Canada (that would be you VB!), one is in Washington state, a few are even in Montana.  Our friends that live the closest to us in Montana are a little over 2 hrs away so it is hard for us to get together very often.  Our other friends who live in Montana are over 4 hrs away, so we hardly ever see each other, except for at synod events.  I've made a few "friends" here in the small town we live in, but they are more acquaintances who I see every once in a while, rather than soul bearing, really love for each other friends.  But this too shall pass and I continually pray for sooner rather than later.

But every once in a while, we find something fun to go do as a family, which is what my next post will be about.  Not everything here is terrible.  The nature here is friggin' amazing as you will see. :)

The Chaotic Season and Brainstorming Ways to Stay Sane...

It is the busiest time of year at our house, Lent.  Jason has two sermons to prepare each week plus all of his usual Pastoral duties.  We still keep mostly to the same routine as far as Preston goes, except now I have to take him to two services a week instead of just service on Sunday.  We have our St. Patrick's Corned Beef and Cabbage Youth Group dinner tonight that I am involved in preparing and making sure it goes as smoothly as possible, along with another adult.

Along with church activities, I still take Preston to MOPS the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month and we have recently started having weekly play dates with a new family in town with a boy Preston's age, on Wednesdays.  On top of all this, we occasionally have my in-laws staying with us when my mother-in-law Sharon has early morning chemo treatments in Great Falls.  It's been an exhausting March so far and there is still a week and a day left.

There have been some really great things going on this month too though.  One I got to participate in and the other, I unfortunately was unable to attend.  It sucks living in a place that doesn't have decently priced and convenient transportation options.  Two of my favorite people in my life got married this month.  Karen was married on March 1st and I was one of her bridesmaids.  Veronica was married on March 14th and I was there in spirit.

Despite all of the ups and downs, the most emotionally, physically and mentally draining part of March has been the weather.  It gets warm, but with the warmth comes the blustering winds so we can't even go outside and enjoy the nice weather.  When it is not warm and windy, it is cold and windy, sometimes with snow too.  I'm just done with this winter.  Onto Spring and Summer please. :P

So two church services a week, play dates, weekly laundry, continuing to slowly work on my creative space, crocheting projects, reading, blogging, texting, skyping and calling friends and family have kept me sane so far during this Lenten season.  All I can say is that I've never looked forward to heading to Chico Hot Springs after Easter that I am this year.

Working on my Creative Space and crocheting....

I have been working on crocheting a throw blanket for a while now and I thought I was on the home stretch.  After looking it over, I realized that some of it was not even, so I'm contemplating undoing a chunk of it and reworking it so it is not so lopsided.  Thankfully, it will be an easy fix, but I was hoping to be done with this throw blanket and move onto another project, probably another throw blanket, but with different colors.  I'll be posting pictures once I'm finally finished.  I'm hoping to have it done before I leave for MN next Wednesday.  It probably won't happen, but that's my goal.

A while ago, I decided that I needed to create a creative space for myself in the house for me to write and do other projects as I desire.  Sitting at the dining room table with my laptop is not my idea of a creative space, so I have commandeered a room in the basement to make my creative space.  I bought a few things to hang on the walls and to decorate the room with and it is coming along slowly.  I will post pictures of different views of the room as I get further along in decorating it.

I am completely failing in the walking outside challenge.  It has either been too windy or too cold to walk outside.  It doesn't help that Fairfield doesn't believe in proper snow removal, so when the weather gets warmer, the roads are basically lakes, occasionally a small pond.  So I've been using our treadmill and finding other ways to work out on a daily basis.  I started doing yoga once a week, but I haven't been able to go the last two weeks, which I'm not thrilled with.  I'm going to make sure I get back into it when I get back from MN in March.

Preston and I are getting better after being sick most of last week, but he is still teething, which is unpleasant for everyone involved.  That's about all that's going on here.  I think today I am going to work on the throw blanket and look up some more healthy snack ideas and recipes on pinterest that Jason and I can make for meals.  I will probably read a bit too.  I only have the time when Preston is napping to do these things so I have to prioritize.  Looks like working on the throw blanket will be the priority today.  :)

Too much Craziness on the Home Front....

Ok, the shortest version of what's been going on around here I can possibly tell you.

My mother-in-law, Sharon, found out she had a cancerous lump in her breast and had it removed.  It did not affect the lymph nodes, but the gene for the cancer is still present in her blood, which makes it very possible for her to get the cancer again.  She will be starting treatments on March 4th; 18 weeks of chemo and 4-6 weeks of radiation after that.  Her treatments will happen in Great Falls.

My father-in-law, Dick, had knee replacement surgery and had complications due to not enough blood in his system after the surgery (note to self, don't go to Great Falls Clinic for surgery) and ended up having vision issues after his release from the hospital.  He was readmitted to the hospital closer to home in Havre where they found out he had had a small stroke at some point in the past and thought his corodit arteries were 60-90% blocked.  He had tests done and it turns out that after 2 units of blood at the hospital his vision returned to normal and after more tests found out one artery was completely clean and the other 40% blocked.  They won't do surgery until the artery is 70% block or more.  Now he is working on recovering from his knee surgery.

About a week after most of the craziness with my in-laws calmed down for the time being, Preston got croup and I was unfortunate enough to get sick from him.  We are both mostly recovered now, thank the Lord.

All of this has taken place in the last 3 weeks, so I haven't had much time to focus on much else.  I'm anxious for my mother-in-law and pray that the chemo and radiation treatments don't have the worst effects on her.  I am anxious about how this is going to affect Jason and little family unit.  I constantly am praying that we all make it through this phase in my mother-in-law getting better as sane as possible, but especially for Sharon because she has to go through the hardest part, the treatment.

I am extremely thankful that Jason, Preston and I will be able to escape from the craziness for a few days.  We will be traveling to Minnesota for one of my soul sister's wedding on Feb. 26- March 2.  I wish we could stay longer, but the following Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and Jason is pretty much required to be around for that.  Some much needed relaxation about too much craziness on the home front.

20 Minute Walk Challenge - Progress Report

Well...I am not succeeding at the daily 20 minute walks right now. I hit a blue patch, the weather has been up and down and colder, and frankly cabin fever has been winning. I'm conquering it a bit indoors by working in my jewelry studio as much as possible and trying to structure my days. But that too is not as successful as I'd like it to be, many days the last few weeks I go back to bed after driving my husband to work and sleep until lunch...oh winter, you are winning.

I am headed home to visit family and attend one of our friend's weddings in March and will use the treadmill in my bedroom there to hopefully jump start my desire to move and feel physically better. Hopefully upon returning here I will be in a more motivated space with the whole "daily movement" mindset. Wish me luck!

In related news, I think I will keep my eyes peeled on the classified sites for an inexpensive treadmill or exercise bike. Winter and I are just not jiving. Also, I did catch a performance of an African dance troupe this weekend, a casual group of varying ages that is looking for more people to join in. I studied West African dance a few semesters in college so contacted them about joining. That will be a fun sweat fest and hopefully takes off!

Free Produce Experiment

Revisiting this train of thought: Veggies & Herbs You Can Regrow from Discarded Scraps I have been experimenting with this...as a result of the 10 lbs of beets fiasco. There are now many strange bits growing in my kitchen window.

Bok Choy, Bok Choy also with garlic scapes, carrot greens and some green onions I just started. 

Swiss Chard, beet greens and in far distance the garlic scapes again.

A foodie friend told me that lots of "regular" produce will likely not regrow because it has to be irradiated. He was surprised the Bok Choy & Swiss Chard & Garlic were doing anything. The carrots were from a local farm, grocery store ones didn't grow. I tried grocery store onions but no luck there either. So on that subject it is hit and miss and worth a try anyway. This is about 3 weeks worth of growth, some are newer than others as I put things in as we use them. I am excited to eventually consume these things!

Also, in recent culinary success, we fermented our own ginger beer and it was good! Here is the recipe we followed. Next time we plan to double the ginger in the first step as we like spicy ginger beer a la Jamaican style. 

New Favorite Thing to Eat for Lunch and Other Activities...

I have not always been a fan of avocados.  They don't taste like much on their own, but it is amazing the things you can make and do with them.  As I have gotten older, I have come to love eating them and using them whenever possible in recipes.  My husband Jason does most of the cooking around here.  Despite my lack of enthusiasm for cooking and baking, I like to go on pinterest and look through cookbooks for healthy recipes and things to eat.  I found an easy to make recipe on pinterest not long ago, when I went searching for pre-diabetic easy to make things for myself and my family.

Here are the ingredients and instructions for making this simple, healthy lunch.

Recipe and instructions:
Take an avocado and remove the seed
Scoop out the inside and put the shell to the side for later use
Take a can of tuna, drain it and put it to the side (add mayo or miracle whip if you want to)
Chop up a tomato, we use Roma tomatoes
Mix avocado, tomato and tuna together in a bowl
Add a little lemon juice and mix it in with other ingredients
Put mixture into shell of avocado
Serve and eat

Super simple and very delicious and healthy for you.

Of course you have to like avocado, tuna and tomato to enjoy this simple treat for lunch.

Yeah, I'm trying new things to keep myself occupied.  I'm hoping to get outside for a short walk today to get some fresh air and take a photo of something I find interesting or inspiring.  This is an exercise, VB came up with, but that I have been failing at miserably.  I'm just not a person who goes outside in cold weather unless I absolutely have to, or if I can't take the cabin fever anymore.

Today, I'll probably do my treadmill walking, hang out with Preston, go to afternoon yoga (just started and go once a week for an hour.  I can really feel it not long after I'm done) and work on crocheting the blanket I've been working on forever.  Yes, crocheting is another thing I've decided to learn to keep myself occupied when Preston is napping.  I usually choose to read, but sometimes I'm too antsy to sit and read, so streaming tv shows on netflix and keeping my hands occupied for a while helps me calm down and be less antsy.  One of these days I'll post of photo of my progress.

One of these days I am also going to start setting up my creative space.  The last week and a half have been really rough, but that story is for another post, another time.  Hopefully things will calm down enough for me to put my new desk together and start decorating the room in the next week or so.  :)

To Die For Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls

I was blessed with my first taste of cardamom cinnamon rolls on National Swedish Cinnamon Roll Day (a real day! Excerpt from Professor wikipedia "In Sweden, the country of its presumed origin, the cinnamon roll takes the name of kanelbulle (literally: "cinnamon bun") and October 4th has more recently started to be promoted as "kanelbullens dag" (Cinnamon Roll Day).") when I was home last. My friend's neighbor left them on her doorstep. AMAZING! Since, I have wanted to try them. Theirs were not as gooey as these but being the doughy, gluten I am, I went for a gooey recipe.

Here it is. Try it! Cinnamon Cardamom Rolls. It calls for pearl sugar, which I had never heard of until this recipe. So of course, Dr. Google to the rescue! Here is a how to for pearl sugar.

Oh and since we are not regular lemon consumers, I've decided I am tired of wasting a whole lemon to just use its zest, so I have dried lemon peel on hand (so cheap from the bulk store). About 1 tbs dried lemon peel = zest of 1 lemon.

Trying an Oldie but Goodie...

In an attempt to have healthy snacks on hand, I have come to realize that I will have to cook occasionally.  Though, I dislike cooking, over the years, I have come to find easy to make recipes that don't take too much effort or time.  This morning, while I am home alone with my son, who is playing with toys with Cat in the Hat Knows Alot About That and Dinosaur Train on in the background, I am going to make "Vegetable Quiche Cups to Go" which is a recipe I got from the South Beach Diet book.

Recipe ingredients and instructions are:

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach
3/4 cup liquid egg substitute (or 6 eggs)
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheese
1/4 cup diced green bell peppers
1/4 cup diced onions
3 drops hot-pepper sauce (optional)

Microwave the spinach for 2 1/2 minutes on high.  Drain the excess liquid.
Line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil baking cups.  Spray the cups with cooking spray.
Combine the egg substitute (eggs), cheese, peppers, onions, and spinach in a bowl.  Mix well.
Divide evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean

Quiche cups can be frozen and reheated in the microwave.  Any combination of appropriate vegetables and reduced-fat cheese may be used

Serves 6

Nutrition at a Glance (Per serving):  77 calories, 9 g protein, 3 g Carbs, 3 g Fat, 2 g saturated fats, 160 mg sodium, 10 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber

So while my kid is hopefully occupying himself, I will be making this for healthy snacks to eat for a few days.  Here's a picture of the completed product.

Once Preston goes down for his nap, I will be cleaning the house from top to bottom because my in-laws will be coming to stay with us for a while starting tomorrow, Sunday.

It's just Preston and I for most of the day.  I'm hoping it is not too windy out today so we can go for a nice walk around town.  The roads might still be slushy, but we'll brave them anyway.  And I'll remember to bring my small camera this time so I can take a picture of something I find interesting or inspirational.  The whole point in buying the heavy duty stroller was because we knew the roads are crappy here.  Better put it to good use.

This is what most of the street corners look like throughout Fairfield

My picture of something interesting and inspirational.  I was inspired to get creative while taking my kid for a walk, since most of the roads are like the picture above.

20 minutes of Walking Outside Inspired by VB

I have been inspired by Virginia in her attempts to walk outside everyday for 20 minutes and take at least one photo of something she sees that inspires her.  There was one day this week, Tuesday, that was nice enough to get out the stroller and go for a walk with my husband and son.  We walked down to the post office to get the mail and then we got some drinks at the Fairfield "mini-mall".  It's actually one of my favorite places to stop by in Fairfield.  It has a coffee shop, a boutique, the state liquor store in back, a tanning bed area and you can get mani/pedis there.  The people who own it are wonderful women, who brighten up what usually is a boring redundant day.

Of course, I forgot to bring my small camera along.  I will not forget the next time I go out though.  Along the way, I saw a couple of things that would have made for a neat photo.  I'll get it next time.  Not much changes around here, so it will be there the next time I get outside for a walk.

Most days I walk on our small treadmill we purchased for $50.  It is not fancy.  I can't incline or decline as some machines do.  I just set the pace and walk for 40 minutes, which is the time it takes to get through 1 General Hospital with fast-forwarding through commercials.  I dvr the episodes.  I do this either in the morning when Jason takes Preston over to the church to have a bigger play area, or in the afternoon when Preston is napping.  I try to get my walking in at least 5 days a week.  Sometimes it is less, sometimes more.  I find that it not only helps me feel better physically, but emotionally and mentally as well.  I get a lot of thought processing done when I'm walking, because it is constant and monotonous with something to look at so I don't die of boredom.  Kind of like meditation but with noise and visual from the tv and constant movement for 40 minutes.  It helps me in mind, body and soul.

The main reason I don't bundle up and go outside for walks, is because the roads here are awful.  There is no snow removal service, so the snow on the crappy roads is around until it melts.  Snow typically melts away within a few days here, unless the temperatures stay cold.  This winter we've had cold temps followed by chinook winds, which gust up to 60+ mph, but bring warmer temps with it.  On Tuesday it was in the high 40s and it might have even gotten into the low 50s.  It still cools down quite a bit at night, but during the day when the sun shows itself, it can be quite toasty outside.  So I walk outside when it is nicer out with wind that won't blow me down the street.  Basically, like it was on Tuesday.  I don't get out much.

So, the whole point of this post is to follow in Virginia's footsteps.  When I can get outside, bring my small camera and take one or maybe two photos of something along the walk that catch my eye and post them here on this blog.  In the meantime, I'm going to get walking on the treadmill before the guys get back.

Oops! What to do with 10lbs of Beets?!

Well against my better judgement while in pursuit of ingredients for a recipe, my husband and I bought a 10 lb bag of beets a month ago (they didn't have single beets or small bunches available...don't get me started on attempting to grocery shop here...one of the banes of my existence). I only needed two...and being the primary beet consumer (he is hit and miss if he will eat them...says they taste like earth) I have been scrambling to come up with recipes. He made me beet chips in the oven a couple weeks ago. Amazing! Will try some of those today I think. I have determined the beet clan is on it's last legs and has reached emergency status. Use it or lose it!

Disclaimer: I tend to use very ripe produce. It doesn't bother me and I hate wasting. I had a wonderful stint working with a produce salvage non-profit that would get edible ripe produce from the distribution markets - that they could no longer sell to grocers and were going to trash anyway - and would then bring it to poor neighborhoods and sell huge bags for $1. It is SHOCKING the amount of edible, fresh food that is throw out in the USA daily!

P.S. I noticed they were sprouting about a week ago and took the two prettiest growths and threw them in pots per this train of thought. 

And now, on to what the *f* I am going to do with the rest of this pile? Dr. Google to the rescue. Recipes I hope to try today include: Beet Sorbet (but I am going to follow instructions for another sorbet that doesn't require an ice cream maker that I don't own)

Beet sorbet. Surprisingly sweet. I don't love or hate it. But will eat it. 

From there I plan to try this pink borscht soup and freeze it as we already have soup on hand this week. (Made amazing curried carrot, apple, ginger soup yesterday. I add ginger to this recipe; a favorite around this joint).

The first step of the recipe. I am going to let it cool and then freeze it. When I thaw it I will finish the recipe but plan to substitute yogurt for the sour cream (we often substitute yogurt...we just love it).

And if I still have beets to "deal" with I think I will do another round of the chips. If stuff comes out pretty I will post photos (of course it will be pretty, beets are one of the prettiest natural found colors out there!).

The beet chips! Yum. Some are darker than others. Some crispier than others. Similar result as the last time. But still very tasty.