I bought my husband a motorcycle :-)

Well it was a joint decision, but it's in my name for credit reasons. But the payments are low and we decided it would probably be in our best interest with the amount of driving he does on a daily basis (120 miles a day just to work and back) and with gas prices as high as they've been, what we'll be saving in gas will more than pay the payment and insurance (and luckily, the months he can't ride it the payments won't be that high anyway.. HOPEFULLY we can pay the bike off this summer with the savings - that would be awesome!).

So what is it? I think a 1999 Savage. I think. I let him pick it out... it's his bike and his to ride! He's been having fun with it and has been talking about taking me for a ride, however, being pregnant that is not at the top of my list right now!! He said when we pay it off he might want to get a bigger bike (he has a 600 cc or something like that) and he was going to give this bike to me. We'll see. The only thing I really like to ride are horses and I dont' have to shift gears on them while being responsible for staying upright, but I suppose it could grow on me. We'll have to see. I'm in no hurry!

Alexis did find a little kiddie bike at the dealership today that had training wheels and she loved it (she just sat on it). And a kiddie sized 4 wheeler. They were cute! Andrew preferred to sit on the big bikes with daddy!

Today is freezing day..

My hubby bought some ground beef for us in bulk a few days ago and we usually split it into 1 pound blocks and freeze them individually. This time I tried to make life a little easier by cooking and seasoning it using one pound chunks I make some taco meat and some of our most commonly seasoned ground beef that we use in everything. I will freeze some blocks plain and uncooked for the occasional times we stray from our typical ground beef seasoning.

I've also made up two loaves of white bread for my husband, but I am freezing the dough. I like making my own bread, however, it's a bit time consuming when I have two toddlers who like to take the 10 minute span of mommy being busy kneading dough to wreak havoc in some way around the house. Honestly, I don't think I ever have 10 minutes where I can complete something in it's entirety! So I am hoping that by making up a few loaves of white and whole wheat bread and freezing them after the first rise, I can save some "hassle" even though it is going to take much longer for the end result with thawing and the second rise. We'll see! It's an experiment! So while the kids napped today, I went about browning and seasoning beef and making some bread dough. I only have two bread pans, so as soon as the bread in the freezer freezes and I can foodsave them (I love my foodsaver!) and have my pans back, I'll make up some wheat dough.

I figured if I have time today, with my daughters help (she's 3, and loves to help mommy in the kitchen even though her idea of help is to playfully make messes, eat whatever we're trying to make and try to get her hands on every kitchen utensil we have out... which is ok, usually!), I can make up some mac and cheese cheese sauce and freeze that so I have it (I make it from scratch and it usually turns a 20 minute mac and cheese dish into an hour long process, so if I can make the cheese sauce and just thaw it as I cook noodles, it'll save time!). The celery is starting to go limp so I am going to make up a couple batches of cream of celery soup after reviving the celery in a cup of water in the fridge for a while.

I had a total duh moment today. While planting my garlic a while ago, I planted the WHOLE BULB. The whole thing of garlic. I thought I read the directions well, but obviously I missed the obvious. I had 4 garlics that i just popped into some soil into a container in my house, and this morning I noticed that some of them seemed to be exploding from the container. It didn't look right. So, I re-read my instructions and realised I need to seperate the bulb into cloves. DUH! Luckily I don't think I injured any of the roots while seperating (they seperated very easily) but now I have an overload of garlic planted (in containers of course) and my house smells very strongly of garlic. LOL. Oh well, at least my husband will like the way the house smells when he gets home from work!!

I am going to attempt, if I have TIME, to put up all of my stuff on a roll (wax paper, foil, the last of the press and seal (we bought it on clearance to try... it's ok, but I'd rather stay away from things like that... wax paper and foil isn't much better, I know!) up on the wall. My idea is to use those cheap cup hooks and a dowel rod. using my husbands level to make sure everything is going up level, I'd put the roll of whatever on the dowel rod and hang it up on the hooks, and have maybe 3 or 4 hanging under the first, then just use scissors or our envelope opener to cut whatever I'd need from the rolls. I'd just have to make sure the rolls have room to actually spin if I use the cup hooks, as I think it might be a bit too close to the wall. Then again, I could also find two peices of wood, put my cup hooks into the wood, line them up on the wall and screw the wood into the wall, putting less holes in the wall and offering the rolls a bit more lee-way in terms of spinning space between the peices of wood but then I'd need to get my husband involved (we have wood out back, but it needs to be cut). Oh wait, today is Friday! He might actually have time to help me with this during the weekend, when he's done putting a new rotor on our van and tweaking his truck!

I'm off to organize my pantry, deep freeze and fridge/freezer and see what other meals, sauces or parts of meals I can make to freeze and just have ready. Have you ever gone to www.cindysporch.net ? I found her site the other day and she has some great printables on her site for organizing your kitchen pantry, fridge, etc. and also great info and ideas for cleaning. I want to try keeping all the contents of my pantry, fridge, etc. on a list so I KNOW what is in there, stop having food go to waste, save us some money by using the food we've already bought, and I am going to start meal planning - hopefully this weekend - because I always stress about dinner (always home made), when I first wake up wondering "what can we do for dinner? should I start preparing some of it now?" I hate, Hate, HATE putting together a home made meal last minute especially when I realise ifI need a soup or something I would have had to make that earlier, then it spoils my dinner plans OR delays dinner a good bit of time.

I'll try to post pictures of the rack idea I have for hanging my "stuff on a roll" if we get it up this weekend, and hopefully someone else can use that idea too. It'll clear out a drawer that I could use for other things, and make the stuff on a roll much easier for me to get to (the drawer they are in is put together like apuzzle, and it can take some work to get stuff out from the back of the drawer!).

My goal right now is to make our home look nice while simplifying. My husband has decided we will most likely sign another lease at this apartment for another year (hey, our apartment is our HOME!) and we have a third baby coming in August. I know we can make it work, but I want to get the apartment as organized as possible before the baby arrives, and make as much use of all the space around us as I can while being practical and keeping the place looking nice. Life runs so much more smoothly when everything is organized.

Seedlings

My seedlings! This is not all of them either (gulp). Since taking this picture i've added strawberries, garlic and green onions to the mix. I'll be putting carrots, beets, peas, green beans, green peppers and lettuce into large containers or possibly into the ground very soon - once we're out of this freezing cold snap! I love my apartment in that it has it's own private entrance up the back, so my plants can soak in the sun most of the day on the stairs and back porch. It's just a duplex, we're on the upper unit.

Busy day

What is it with little boys and tools? My husband had to re-organize his tools so we could make a few new toolboxes and assign one to each vehicle. My son was totally into helping - he's 18 months and just had a BLAST with the tools. He was hilarious! My son is completely, totally all boy. My daughter was super helpful running things to the trash and putting tools in the boxes and I kept myself busy trying to put my husbands socket sets back together after they had exploded from their cases (eek!). I managed to squeeze in making a couple loaves of wheat bread, a loaf of white and a few smaller sub-sized loaves for my husbands lunches. They all came out wonderful! Soon we will list the growing pile of things I have been setting aside to freecycle, and then it's back to organizing all the misc. paperwork around the house. Yesterday my husband was going to have me tow him and a car of his up to a nearby junk yard (the car no longer runs... the engine seized) as they were going to buy it from him... And I couldn't find the title! What I thought was the title to the car was actually the title to his truck, and I later found the title while organizing but by then the junk yard was closed. They don't open 'till Monday, so I guess I'll drag the car up there on Monday and we'll just wait 'till then to get paid for it! My husband was really hoping to get the extra money this weekend, so I felt bad that I couldn't find the title. I decided that was the final straw, and I was finally going to organize our home once and for all... And with God's help I'll KEEP it organized!!! I always set aside important paperwork that ends up getting lost - I eventually find it (how hard can it be in a 2 bedroom apartment?) but not until after we need it, and by then my husband is flustered and it could have been prevented if only I would have filed it as soon as it was put in my hands! lol.