Flowers and Bread

I spent about 2 hours today in my garden.  It was really nice, though exhausting.  Did you know gardening burns a lot of calories?  I entered the time in sparkpeople's fitness tracker and it said 2 hours of gardening burnt over 700 calories.  Crazy!  I need to do this daily!

But I didn't take pictures, and I have a few "Mother's Day" presents to plant this weekend, so I'm not going to talk about gardening today.  Instead, I'm making today all about bread.  I've been wanting to make some bread for a few weeks now, so I decided to order a dough hook for my KitchenAid mixer.  It arrived today (Love Amazon Prime) and yes, I did put it on my arm, and "Yarrrr" like a pirate.

I really want to replace store bought bread with home made bread.  I really do.  I'm just not sure we could...

Friday is usually confession day, isn't it?  Well here's my confession: My family and I are terrible with food.  We waste a lot food, and while I've worked to make it better, we still end up throwing out food that spoiled before we ate it.  And sadly, while we go through about 2-3 loaves of bread each week, I'm not sure I could ever replace store bought bread.  I've made it before, and it's not the first thing the family grabs when making sandwiches.  It sort of bums me out seeing the last few pieces of bread I've made get thrown out.  I'm not a big bread eater myself, so I can't really dictate which bread to eat.

I have a bubbling jar of sourdough starter going right now.  It's a bit gross...fermenting flour, but it seems to be working pretty well.  I used 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup warm water. I feed it daily with 1/4 cup white water, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup warm water.  Eventually I have to grab a 2 QT jar, because the jar I'm using now is too small.  It should be ready next week sometime, Tuesday hopefully, maybe Wednesday.  I like it sour!

Friday's Confession (a little late, I know...)

Ok, I've already admitted my bad housekeeping skills.  Have I ever told you how lazy I am?

Lately, I don't wear anything but pajama pants around the house.  Now, you might say "Hey, I do that too!" but the real question is "How often are you home?".  I'm home almost 24/7.  So it seems like a bad thing.  Right now?  Totally into my Joe Boxer hot pink penguin, sized one size too big pants.  Oh yeah, so comfortable.

Our Buffalo chute looked like this!!

One of the things I miss about our apartment in Buffalo is the laundry chute.  Let me tell you how awesome a laundry chute is.  Dirty laundry.  Insert into chute.  No dirty laundry on your floor.  No hamper to carry down into the basement.  It's all there waiting for you.  It's so convenient!  Perfect for me, the sloth.

I also have this mental image of me carrying down laundry, tripping and breaking something...usually my neck.  Not a happy image!  When we first moved into the house and stripped the wall paper from the bedroom, there was a square of plaster randomly in a wall.  I became convinced it was a chute once, and there is actually a board on the ceiling of the basement above that spot.  It took a lot of willpower to not start breaking down that plaster.  Maybe I can add it to the list of renovations...until then, I can only dream about that little bit of lazy luxury we had in that apartment in Buffalo.  And continue to carry my laundry incredibly carefully down the basement steps, praying each time that I don't fall and kill myself.

Friday's Confession

I'm a stay at home mom and wife.  And yet...I am a terrible housekeeper.  Alright, that's not true exactly.  I can keep my house sort of clean.  Laundry, Vacuuming, dishes...you know...the basics.  However, I have a terrible time with organization, keeping toys off my floor, beds made, counters uncluttered...

I grew up in a messy household.  Very messy, and I really won't go into details, but let me assure you, it was bad.  If CPS ever saw it, I probably would've grown up in a foster home (actually, CPS WAS called once, and they gave my mom a chance to "clean" up.  She did, and they left it at that.  Good thing they never returned though.)  So I never had a real good role model.

Once on my own, I think I did a pretty good job.  Sure, I got lazy at times, and let's not talk about paper clutter and book clutter.  But my place was always neat.  Now with the kids, I feel like pulling out my hair, and just throwing away everything I own, just to keep it clean.  Now to be fair, right now I still have no place to put things, and Liam is still in this "let's dump all the toys I find on the floor, rip up papers and books, and remove our clothes, piece by piece and leave it in the middle of the floor of each room."  I really do need my shelves up in my living room.  And to make remodel my kitchen.  And organize my bedroom.  I really do need a filing cabinet...

I just seem to lack this ability to understand how people have kids and keep their houses spotless, or even just clean and uncluttered.  I feel like I never have time to clean, and I'm home 24/7.  For awhile, I was in the swing of things, having my own little routine that started with making beds, and ended at the end of the night with a quick pick up of toys, clothes and anything left on the floor.  I haven't gotten back into that routine, and now with both kids rooms being disaster areas...I'll just shake my head.

So there you have it.  I could win the award for worst housewife in the Central NY area.

Friday's Confession

I am not one of those people that can keep their furniture in one spot year after year.  I don't know what it is, but I find it dull and mundane, and I just can't do it.  I've gotten better...sort of.  Instead of moving my furniture around 3-4 times a year like I used to, I only move it once, maybe twice a year.

I'm actually sitting here, right now, in a misplaced chaise lounger.  I moved all my furniture so I could strip wall paper, and scrub the walls.  Worked out well- 90% of the walls on one side of the room are done.  The only part not done are the tops that I can't reach and totally lazed out about.  I'll save them for another day.

So the furniture is all moved and it starts.  That twitch...that...random thought...what would the TV look like over there.  So it begins.  I start moving stuff around.  Usually not even know if it will fit, look good or work.  Like today.  See...our place is so much smaller than the last place we had.  The place we bought quite large furniture for.  Fixtures in the house are place in odd random places.  A heat vent in a corner that would be PERFECT for the chaise lounger.  A protruding wall where the linen closet is on the other side of the wall.  The bottom step of the stairs is larger than the rest of the steps, to give it that open grandiose look...but prevents anything too big from being against that wall.

John finds it funny when I do stuff like this, or so he tells me (I always do it when he's at work, always thinking "Just wait until you get home, buddy!!").  Moving furniture = moving EVERYTHING.  My TV stand is completely empty, the TV, the stereo, the consoles, the cable box...all unplugged, no wires attached, no speakers attached...all sitting in a pile on my sofa awaiting a wipe down and to be organized and put back together (which I usually can't do myself, unsure of what settings and arrangement he likes...)  It gives him a job to do when he gets home, which I guess is sort of mean of me.

So here I am...trying to piece together my living room again, just trying to find that perfect look.  I guess in my head, I hope to find that one look that I could live with for a longer period of time.  A part of me always feels silly for this little impulse thing I do.  A part of me adores it though, welcoming the change. If I get it right, of course.

Have I mentioned that my walls look fantastic by the way?  Despite not being painted, just being some strange beige-pink color, uneven and bare...it's so much better than that wall paper.