Working In The Kitchen

This last week I made:

* Baked oatmeal with blueberries, walnuts and bananas.  The next time I make this I'm omitting the chocolate...too sweet.  But I've frozen half of it to munch on for breakfasts.
* Two batches of pancakes. We froze them for quick breakfasts.
* A quiche lorraine with the addition of spinach.
* Yogurt spiced pound cake
* A roast, with paper thin crispy roasted potatoes, gravy, roasted carrots and salad galore (this is what we ate all weekend while exhausted).
* Sliced up french bread that I spread with a compound butter I made (butter, sea salt, herbes de provence), that I froze for a later meal.
* 5-6 quarts of beef stock, made from the beef bones I got as part of our cow. Took 10 hours, I thought I was losing my mind.
* Beef tallow (from the top of the stock once cooled) to use in baking.
* Homemade refried beans using lard from our pig that I used to make a dozen bean and cheese burritos to freeze for quick meals.
* Salsa, mostly to freeze to go with the burritos.

I did all of that while dealing with a 3 1/2 month old whose teething kept us up until 6:30 and 5 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  It seems a bit insane, but it felt good to be that productive.  My biggest accomplishment was not in just making everything (and everything except the quiche and oatmeal was made from Friday-Sunday), but that I cleaned as I went, so Sunday morning with the stock cooling in containers, the dishes were done and I could go to bed without a disastrous kitchen. 

Now I'm off to finish making breakfast burritos.  I already cooked the sausage and sauteed the onion and red pepper, so now I just have to cook the eggs and spinach and roll them up to freeze.  I'm also planning to cook some taco meat this week to freeze, and maybe a meat loaf or two.  I feel like I'm nesting, but it's working out well!

Delighting in Progress

I have had one of those long days. Picked up a coupon for $10 off at Bed, Bath and Beyond from a freecycler. Squeezed in lunch. Ran to Target where I got an extra laundry basket, and in the baby section came across an online return of a Naturepedic crib mattress protector pad for half off. Picked up thinning shears to trim up Audrey. Ran around to 2 different stores for a steam mop. (Was planning on buying a simple one, saw the one with different heads and pads was on clearance for cheaper, so went to hunt down.) And finally ran to the grocery store and picked up things for me to munch on and for tea tomorrow.  I took a nap and now I'm off and running again.

7 muffin spots full of pesto (sans pine nuts that will be added later)

But I'm delighting in the progress I've been able to make.  And because I like snapping photos, here are photos from the other day's work.

Nectarine Tartin (a little one)

 

I love when it comes out perfectly formed!

I think it's good for me to keep track of everything I've done.  Because sometimes you can work hard all afternoon and not see miracle progress.  Slow but steady I'll have this place whipped into shape!

Finding Discipline

As we drove through the Lancaster countryside, having bought eggs from a girl who was raking gravel (still haven't quite figured that one out), I commented to my friend that if G ever went on deployment again I was going to pack up the kids and take them to live on an Amish farm.  She kind of laughed until she realized I was serious.  I explained that I think their discipline of getting everything done is incredible.  It's a skill I'd like to acquire.

Being a stay at home wife has bred laziness.  Too often I would be hurt by G's lack of help (reading The 5 Love Languages we've figured out that mine clearly is Acts of Service), so I would make excuses for why I hadn't done things.  And as I've warned friends before who suddenly have a lot of time off from work... don't put things off.  You'll feel like you have all the time in the world because technically you do, but it will slowly become overwhelming.

I like a nice and tidy house, where everything has a place.  I'm slightly ocd (my maman tells me my kitchen organization is like the movie Sleeping With The Enemy), and I can be demanding.  But I'm also human and fail to get things done more often than I accomplish them.  I literally have a list of projects to do that is several pages long.

Saturday felt amazing.  All of my extremities hurt the next day, like I got in a workout.  But I felt proud of everything I managed to accomplish.  Sunday morning, walking into my kitchen and seeing less mess than I'd seen in months I smiled.  It was good to know I had quiche in the fridge and some nectarine tartin.  I didn't accomplish everything, because I simply ran out of time, but I didn't get discouraged, I simply added those things to the list of what to do the next day.

We're each finding discipline in getting things done so that our home will become one where the upkeep is minimal (daily dishes and sweeping), and we can relax with one another.  It has helped our marriage to discover that not only am I ocd, but I see love by things that are done.  It's why I cook and bake for G, and sew his things, and clean.  I don't make the excuse that I'm naturally a cluttered person, because those are simply habits I can change.  

So I'm changing them.  And tomorrow I'll be discussing how I am learning to find contentment in keeping house, seeing it as a gift to my family.

Staying On Task

I've decided that it would be best to make this week all about homemaking/homekeeping because it's what I've been doing this weekend and will be continuing to do for the rest of this month.  I already have other posts written, and hopefully what I have to say might help someone else.

I am naturally 2 things: ocd about tidyness... and cluttered.  I'm usually that person where the pile of stuff on a desk looks messy, but I know where everything is and don't you dare touch it... but I also dream of a clutter free workspace and like to obsessively straighten things.

My problem lies in the fact that I am extremely detail oriented.  When I get going, I really get going, but it might be random things.  I have been known to disassemble something to clean all it's little bits.  But I might not get to something bigger.  I also might be nearly done cleaning one room, but get distracted on a project in another, and nothing get finished right.  It drives me crazy!

So this week I've made myself basically stay on task.  The kitchen is the first thing I'm tackling with laundry thrown in (because I sort of suck at keeping up with that and need clean clothes).  I'm forcing myself to stay on task.  Even though whenever I take breaks and sit on the sofa to read or whatnot, and see something messy, I'm not letting myself deal with it, because I have the kitchen to clean.  I tell myself that the next thing on the list is the living room, so to just remain patient.

I'm not a natural homemaker, and I'll explain more why tomorrow.  But I'm learning that these are things I want to train my daughter to do, so I better teach myself first!

Do you have any suggestions for staying on task?