Lessons Learned at the Welch House

You know your child is thirsty when she is sucking the condensation off the side of the toilet tank.


You know your child has cabin fever when she dons her swimming suit, life jacket, and goggles on a 10 degree weather day and demands that someone take her swimming.

You know your child needs more supervision in the morning when he leaves for school wearing a polo shirt, gym pants, and no socks, not having combed his hair or brushed his teeth, and then, moments before being dropped off at school, admits that he didn't have breakfast.

You know you are raising tough kids when, having skied once before, they insist on trying the black-diamond runs at Park City. Then, after falling down several times during that attempt, ask to go again.


You know your child should be taking a nap when she falls asleep sitting up in the grocery cart. (However, you also realize this arrangement allows for more peaceful shopping and you plan to go again during nap time.)

You know if your cell phone goes missing for 24 hours or more there are two never-fail places to check: (1) the LEGO bin, or (2) your second grader's backpack. The problem is when you call and your second-grader answers it while at school.

You know your eight-year-old wants more validation for helping watch his youngest sister when he asks you fifteen times in a row if he is my favorite babysitter and could I please pay him. (You also know he's trying to save for a Nintendo DS.)


You know your four-year-old daughter loves her older brother when she will take off her shirt and follow him into the river so she can be just like him.


You know there are too many LEGOs in the house when you keep finding LEGO man heads in your youngest child's dirty diapers.


You know there is hope for your four-year-old tom-boy when she ALWAYS wants to help when mom is making bread.


You know your one-year-old loves you when she bats her beautiful eyes at you and then bites your cheek so hard she leaves marks. (And you also start feeling sympathy for the LEGO heads.)


You know your four-year-old is smarter than she looks (and possibly smarter than her parents) when, after being relocated to Mommy's bed as a punishment, she waits for Mommy to leave and then stuffs the bed with two pillows and covers them with a blanket to look like a sleeping child. Then she sneaks into another room to play.

You know your child is mischievous when even after being told not to, she convinces her two friends to all lock themselves in the bathroom, run both sinks, and flush the toilet. What she didn't understand was the water heater was being replaced downstairs and the water heater repair man is trying to stop the gushing water from getting all over him as well as our wooden floors. Meanwhile, I'm running for towels and promising the repair man that no one is running water because I couldn't hear anything in the bathroom. Moments later I discovered three girls with large yellow cleaning gloves on, all giggling. . . and me begging for forgiveness from the soggy water heater man.



You know you have your hands full when you can come up with so many lessons learned without even trying. It seems like every night, Ben and I just lay in bed laughing at the funny-story-of-the-day. Such chaotic fun.

Fluffy Vs. Fat



You know you are no longer fluffy when you run errands all day and finally you visit the restroom at 7:00 p.m. at night only to discover that you have a rather large hole the runs down the front of you. I started laughing so hard in the bathroom the kids had to find out what was so funny.

I managed to go to Old Navy, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and pick up the kids from school. Where and when the rip happened I do not know. You'd think I'd have felt it, seen it, or at the very least heard it before 7 at night. But that is the evidence that I am no longer fluffy, I am 100% fat with pregnancy. I've had a number of people ask me when my popping date is . . . and I still have 10 weeks to go (yikes!). I can't imagine filling my clothes more than I already do, and yet I just popped another mini doughnut down the old trap. People keep trying to say nice validating things like, "but this is your 4th child", (as if it is okay to let yourself go because it is your 4th child.)

I did just buy the Old Navy's version of a MuuMuu, which is comfy, it makes me giggle just a little bit every time I put it on, sigh, hee he, my very own MuuMuu. Soon I'm going to start wrapping myself in old sheets to be covered. I've got a great collection of safety pins that could make it into an outfit. I'm going to start watching Project Runway to get ideas for my clothing for the next 10 weeks. I kid you not, today (Saturday) a lady in the ward came over at 1:00 in the afternoon and I was still wearing my comfy robe. I almost apologized for not being dressed and then smartened right up. Why should I . . . because it's okay to let myself go -because this is my 4th child!

The winner of the food challenge is . . .


Not me. My sister-in-law took the grand prize, and deservedly so. She was always making stuff from scratch and I was pulling stuff from the freezer, I didn't even have to resort to powdered milk. I did win a great second place prize. $100 bucks. Thanks Mom. Lets do it again in a year from now. It was nice to rotate and get through some of that stuff.

Also, thanks again to all my neighbors who made the bartering fun during the game.

The Wrap Up.

Because the family is coming into town today, I need to do a wrap up on the food challenge and move onto other things, like Wiley's baptism -which is this weekend.

Monday Menu
French toast
Meat and Cheese sandwiches with grapes
Potato bar, cheese from freezer, canned chili, yogurt etc.
Tart Mango ice cream

Tuesday Menu
Smoothies
Mac and Cheese
Frozen Asian style meal from freezer

Wednesday Menu
Oatmeal
Meat and Cheese sandwiches with sliced apples
Sheppard's Pie
Vanilla Ice Cream in cones

Thursday Menu
Cereal and milk
Lean Pockets from Freezer
Homemade Marinara with Noodles and green beans
Root Beer floats

Friday Menu
Oatmeal packets
Meat and Cheese
Smoothies
Pizza

Lessons learned:

One can never have enough of certain items. I am running low on toilet paper, whereas two weeks ago I'd have never thought that I would get through it all. I'm also running low in laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaner. I am down to 5 lbs of flour, of course I have wheat flour if I need it, but still. It is strange to only have 5 lbs left. I also feel like I could never have too much chocolate in the house. I'm also very aware that I didn't have enough diapers or formula in the house for even two weeks. How sad is that. I can do better.

I hate canned veggies, but I can see the value in having a flat on hand for moments like this. We couldn't have survived without green beans, corn, tomatoes, peas, and beans. Not to mention all the bottled pears and peaches that we went through. Wow, we made it through a lot of stuff. My freezer is looking empty. Although, I still have two flats of chicken, freezer jam, frozen fruit, puff pastry, concentrated juice and a few other things.
My pantry shelves have slimmed down and could really use some organization. I am really impressed with how much cereal I have- I still have 5 boxes left. Yeah for me. I still have sugar and oats in abundance as well.

I've also learned that my long term food storage was not put to use as often as my short term food storage. It is nice that the church has re-focused its efforts on a three months supply in addition to the longer term storage.

I've learned that friends and neighbors make it easier. I've learned that variety is essential and no one method of storing food is better; frozen foods, long term, short term and fresh foods all made for better meals. I am also really looking forward to having a deep freeze one day. But that will happen when I actually have a garage.

Thanks for sticking with me through the challenge. The winner is going to be announced soon and I will post that as well.

Meals part two

Thursday meals

Smoothies
Mac n Cheese
Mom's hearty soup (potatoes, carrots, beef etc.)
French bread

I hosted girls night out. I purchased strawberries (stayed in budget). But also managed to serve:

Oatmeal and peanut butter brownies (Ran out of quick oats so I used 9 grain oat mix and crushed it up with my rolling pin, turned out fine and more nutritious)
Triple chocolate cookies
Chocolate dipped strawberries
Apples and fruit dip (dip made of 8 oz cream cheese and 1 cup brown sugar with 1 tsp vanilla)
Smoothies
Except for the fresh strawberries everything else was in the house.

Friday Meals

Cereal and milk
Meat and cheese sandwiches, left over strawberries
Yogurt Parmesan Chicken with rice, green beans, and bottled peaches

Saturday Meals

Smoothies
SPOILER ALERT
I broke the rules for Wiley's b-day party and we served store bought food for lunch once I blog his birthday, you will understand why. But I guess you could count this as our "eating out" meal.
Left over chicken and rice for dinner, with romaine salad

Sunday Meals

Chocolate Waffles
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with bananas
Dinner at in-laws (we are bringing a Waldorf spinach salad to contribute)


Lastly, I wanted to thank all my friends. I would not be surviving this food challenge if it weren't for you. It's almost like I told everyone that I was on a diet and you are all rooting for me to accomplish my weight loss goals. Last night I was in the check-out line at Walmart purchasing stuff for Wiley's party and the bishop and wife saw me and were trying to figure out if they had any of the stuff I was purchasing at home so that I wouldn't have to break the rules. So sweet. Another friend called while she was at the store and asked if I wanted anything, I didn't. Then tonight, just as I was turning out the lights, another friend stop by and gave me two gallons of milk. (I promptly gave her stuff for smoothies and peanut butter, he he)

Friends, thanks for having my back and rooting me on. Just know that you are the perfect friends and neighbors in case of a real crisis. I hope that I will have the chance to help you out when you are in need.

Much love,
S

No big deal

Sunday I called my mom to complain that we had just gotten back into town and there was no way we could do the Food Storage Invitational, (see below for details) but then I went through my cupboards and cook books and picked out recipes for the week that I already had the ingredients for. Easy Peasy.

I got into my long term food storage and was delighted to find everything I thought I might be low on. I refilled all my sugar and flour containers and ground up some whole wheat and promptly made bread. I was feeling so confident in my supplies that I made dinner for friends and invited Aunt Keri to dinner.

Sunday menu
cereal and milk, O.J.
sandwiches and grapes
chicken fajitas (canned black beans, rice, sour cream, bell peppers, fresh mushrooms, flour and corn tortillas and shredded cheese from the freezer)
chocolate chip cookies (Ben made them)
fresh bread with homemade butter and jam (yes we make our butter)

Monday menu
Fruit Shakes and cereal and milk (I have frozen fruit coming out of my ears)
Roman noodles (yes we have to rotate them and it is Rosie's favorite noodle snack)
bottled peaches
Canned soup with homemade bread (we added canned vegetables to beef up the soup)
Ice cream for dessert

Tuesday menu
breakfast in bed for Wiley (yogurt, bananas, favorite cereal, O.J.)
Peanut butter sandwiches, (I have PB coming out of my ears too) and bananas
Chips and Salsa for my cravings
Beef Stroganoff (Sour cream, canned mushrooms, beef, egg noodles, dried onion, cream of mushroom soup)
canned green beans
bread
fruit drink mix
chocolate dipped strawberries (chocolate was in storage, strawberries happened to be an item that carried over from last week)

Wednesday Menu
Instant Oatmeal Packets with fruit and juice
Canned Soup (I have soup coming out of my ears as well)
Mac n cheese for Babysitter and kids. Blue and gold Banquet is feeding us tonight.
a decorated cake for the blue and gold banquet. (yes I have cake and frosting in storage)
Peanut butter bars and Peanut butter cookies need to be made today as well

Admittedly, this has not been hard. I don't feel like we are suffering nor is this very different from our regular meal planning although we almost always eat fresh fruits and veggies. It is just using what you already have. The church's focus on food storage is have a three months supply of the foods you already eat, and we are doing just that. I haven't even had to make powered milk yet. What has been the secret to my success?

Neighbors!!! I have been bartering for the items that I need. I got canned mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup for two jars of PB. I traded my brown rice for clementines and bananas. Then on Monday night my neighbor brought me a lb of ground beef for service that I did for her.

I have more than enough. I have enough to share and really, my feeling is, that if we actually have to use our short term food storage and long term storage I'm sure that we will be asked to share it with others. I feel great that I'm prepared enough that I could do that too. I laugh in the face of this food challenge Moaa hahaaa.

Next week when my butter runs out I may feel differently. (although, I do have powered butter in long term storage, I doubt I will get it out)

Does anyone need peanut butter or canola oil? I'm ready to barter. They need to be used. I have two and a half flats and they expire this summer so they need to be used!! (Because of the oil content in both of those items they can't ever be considered long term storage.) Oil and peanut butter both go rancid, but the smell is never an indicator. So you must rotate them faster than your basic items.

14 day Challenge

Ben and I had just arrived home from a family vacation when we discovered the following e-mail in our in-boxes.

The Dyer Food Storage Invitational

You are invited to participate in a food storage experiment. Should you choose to accept this contest this is the info:

When: Starts Saturday, February 20, 2010 thru Saturday March 6, 2010

What: For the next 14 days, eat only what you have stored in your home

Why: *to determine if we could get along with what we have in our homes if there were a tornado, hurricane or economic crisis

*to assess what items we don’t have that we really need

*to track how much money we save

*to rotate our food storage

*because if we can’t live for 2 weeks on what we have, we are in serious trouble!

(we were going for 3 weeks, but changed our minds!)

Rules:

*May eat out once each week either dinner or lunch (for those who have obligations to fulfill)

*May spend $5.00 each week to help the desperation, medical prescriptions are exempt

*May barter food storage with friends (here’s 4 cups of sugar for 1 can diced green chiles)

*May accept invitation to eat at someone’s home as long as you take something from your home to share.

*Write down what you choose as menus. Share them frequently with everyone to give each other support and ideas.

*Write down what % of your grocery budget you saved each week.

*Diapers are not groceries. I know you all have cloth diapers you could use, but I don’t want the babies to suffer! Other non-food items are to be included as groceries like toothpaste, laundry soap. We want to simulate not knowing when a disaster would strike.

Prizes:

Prizes will be awarded for creativity, resourcefulness, most creative menus, other money saving tips and ideas that you utilize along the way and great recipes using basic items. Prizes will not be food storage!

**Menus and ideas will be judged by Dad, Me, and a third party and results tabulated by the Accounting Firm of Bartig, Bassler and Ray.

**This obviously will take time to plan, organize, and make from scratch so many items, but we think it will be a great learning experiment if only to make us so happy to be able to buy fresh produce when it is over!

Much to Ben's disappointment, I was getting excited for the challenge, he claims, "We know we have good food storage, what is the purpose of this? To prove we can eat canned fruit?" I just laughed at him with my evil laugh, mow-ohhahaa.

I find this challenge interesting. We may be eating the blandest food by the end of two weeks but I'm very interested in trying. I do have four major problems that I'm going to have to figure out. 1) We are taking dinner to friends this week 2) Wiley is supposed to make and decorate a cake with his dad for his first night of Cub Scouts on Wednesday 3) I'm hosting girls night out on Thursday night and 4) Wiley is having his 8th birthday party at our house on Saturday. With those events coming up I'm am feeling very challenged. I can make bread till the cows come home, but really, as I learned in church today, Man cannot live on bread alone. What now?

I want to follow the rules. I was very tempted to go out and buy groceries last night when we got back into town. It felt difficult to just make it through last nights dinner. I'm going to need to get really creative.

I think I shall have to warn all my neighbors that I'm going to be doing some bartering.

Luckily, I quickly assessed the toilet paper situation along with the toothpaste, shampoo, cleaning supplies, etc, and I'm fine in every area, (or so it seems) except the fridge area. I will definitely be using all $5 for the fresh items.

Valentine's Day Leftovers -- Not This Year!

When Wiley and Rosa brought home Valentines from their classmates last year, it was obvious we had not spent enough time on ours. I was genuinely embarrassed. For one thing, we had used leftover Valentines from previous years that I had dug up from storage (some may say I'm cheep, others resourceful). Even worse, we did not provide a treat. Wow, big mistake. As far as a kid is concerned, a Valentine without a treat is like a birthday card with no present attached.

So this year I decided to put some effort into it. This is what we came up with.



In addition to making the nosecone out of a Hershey's Kiss, we made the fuselage (is that what it's called?) from a roll of LifeSavers and the ailerons (can you tell I did some Google-ing?) from little hearts.

I was in Wiley's classroom when he handed the rockets out. Wiley was standing on a chair like an auctioneer from the Wild West, exclaiming, "Who wants my last 'out-of-this-world' rocket?" There was a crowd of kids jumping up trying to get the last one -- sort of like those people on RonCo infomercials trying to get a Flobee or smokeless ashtray.

I'm sure I had an obnoxious smile as I watched him doling out our creations. At least he's not embarrassed this year. Especially when I saw one of the kids flying his Valentine rocket through the air making vroom-vroom noises. (Insert smug grin.)

In addition to the rockets, I also brought a craft for the Valentine's party. I helped the kids make flowers out of tissue paper.



These were a huge hit, and the kids were so proud of themselves. (Isn't it funny that a roomful of seven-year-olds and their adoration for a Valentine's Day craft can launch my ego over the moon?) So, I guess the lesson here is that spending a little extra time on holiday crafts is not only good for the kids but also for my self-esteem.

For the record, the rockets were only 8 cents each, and the flowers were 2 cents each. It turns out I'm resourceful and cheep. Some might even say it's a gift. he he.

Family Favorite - Chocolate Waffles


Sis-in-law Minna found this recipe and introduced it to us two Christmases ago. I finally got the recipe from her in January and we have been making chocolate waffles on any given morning. The recipe is so that you can mix up the power mix ahead of time and then just add the wet ingredients when ready. So easy!

Happy Valentine's Day.

Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix

From Country Living
This recipe has been tested by Country Living

With our easy make-ahead dry-mix recipe, you need only add a few wet ingredients to enjoy fluffy homemade waffles and pancakes any time of the day, any day of the week. Keep it fresh: Label mixes — include recipe and date — and store in a cool, dry place in airtight receptacles; they'll stay fresh for four to six months.

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 cup(s)	flour
1/4 cup(s)	sugar
4 teaspoon(s)	baking powder
2 teaspoon(s)	baking soda
1 teaspoon(s)	salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir, using a whisk, to thoroughly combine. Transfer to a clean, dry canister fitted with an airtight lid. Store for up to 3 months.
2. For pancakes: Heat a griddle over high heat. Place 1 cup mix in a medium mixing bowl. Beat 1 egg, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla together and stir into the dry mix until just combined. Let the mixture rest for 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Lightly brush the griddle with canola oil or butter. Pour 1/3 cup batter for each pancake, leaving 2 inches between each one. Cook until bubbles form on the pancake surface and the underside is golden, about 5 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until golden, about 2 more minutes.
   

   Makes six 4-inch pancakes.

3 cup(s)	flour
3/4 cup(s)	cocoa
4 teaspoon(s)	baking powder
1 teaspoon(s)	baking soda
1 1/2 cup(s)	sugar
1 teaspoon(s)	salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir, using a whisk, to thoroughly combine.
2. See Buttermilk Mix steps for yield, storage, and cooking.

Celebrating 1!

The time has come and gone so quickly. Eva is still the most darling child. I have no complaints, every moment has been lovely with her. Even on hard nights, I have never been angry or remorseful to be up with her. She is my little gift.



Unlike most babies, Eva was not shy about getting down and dirty with her cupcake.

It was a red velvet cake but after the way Eva devoured her cupcake you would have thought it was more like roadkill. Just look at that bloody aftermath.


Rare family moment. Regardless of how many events I bring out the ole camera for, I still hardly ever have the chance to get us all together in one shot, with most of us smiling.


It just makes me want to sing that primary song, Happy Family. I just love my little family.


Here are the happy Grandparents.