For What It's Worth...

Worth. What an important idea. An undeniably vital concept in all societies. No one wants something that is worthless. The value of all things has fluctuated over time based on our level of luxury. The more luxury we have the more we value things that are, ultimately, worthless.

 Entertainment. You may recall that in reference to most forms of visual media my dads response has been "Well, if you want to fill your head with garbage..." As I get older I'm becoming more aware that entertainment is garbage, it's worthless!

Last night I realized that the point of that comment was that I am filling my own head with garbage. My parents did not fill it for me. They left my head pretty darn free of garbage and I started filling it up on my own until its so full of garbage that "sin sensors" are undeniably dull. I've been watching The Adventures of Merlin lately and on an episode I watched recently one character, Morgana, was the cause of a lot of trouble, ie, the king dying. In order to stop the trouble, Merlin had to kill her. And he did, he poisoned a bag of water with Hemlock and tricked her into drinking it. He used his good reputation, the trust that Morgana had for himself to murder someone. And I was rooting for him! She had to die for the conflict to resolve, obviously it was the only solution! Murder. Merlin stood there and watched Morgana's breathing begin to fail. This is one of the most family friendly shows I know. I glossed over it until I forced myself to ponder his actions. 

Unfortunately for the entertainment industry, it's not friendly enough for my family. Recent studies have shown that children have a difficult time differentiating between fact and fiction until a certain age. Am I really going to teach Anastasia that it is okay to murder someone if the situation calls for it? (To be clear, I WILL teach her that self defense is acceptable.) Of course not! So why would I allow a TV show to teach her that while she is young and her mind is defenseless?

It is not my right to fill Ana's head with garbage. I shudder to think of standing before my Lord and confessing that I allowed Anastasia to be taught by the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry that murder, lying, stealing, using God's name in vain, and any other number of sins are "okay". What a terrifying thought. 

All these musing last night led me to the fact that entertainment is worthless. And better yet, entertainment is boring! We are so entertained that entertainment isn't enough anymore! A friend of mine plays video games with his laptop right next to him, playing Netflix, and his phone in his hand for texting or YouTube or whatever else can amuse him between game loads. 

So here I sit, night after night, mindlessly watching TV while I simultaneously check Facebook on my phone and my house is in disarray. I feed my husband sandwiches for lunch instead of preparing a meal the night before, because I obviously didn't have time to do it while filling my head with garbage. 

As of today, I'm going on an entertainment fast. I will be blogging still and emailing, so feel free to contact me at emilyskilesfields@gmail.com or just keep up here!

I plan to be doing much more meaningful things in the coming days. 

 P.S. Please allow me to explain what I mean by "worthless". Basically, if the zombie apocalypse began now, would that thing/skill/episode help save my life or my family? (Or would anyone care about it?) Is it doing anything to better my life or my family's life? Is it beneficial in any way? If not..... It's worthless. 

The Big Bad K

Yesterday I did something terrifying...

I ate kale. 

Oh you delicious leafy green vegetable! Why was I so afraid of you??

I want to start juicing and kale is something that everyone says you MUST put in your juices. Well, I didn't want to just juice it in and ruin a whole quart of juice with a single leaf so I figured I'd better taste it first. 

As I was shopping with my sister three days ago, I noticed that kale was on sale! Being the adventurous eater I am, I decided to buy a whole stalk. It cost me one hard-earned nickel, folks.  That's right $0.05!! You might be wondering "Gee, what could you do with a single stalk of kale?"

Chips. 

Yupp! I washed my kale and tossed it in coconut oil, then ground a teensy bit of salt and pepper over them.  I baked them on my stone for a few minutes and sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese when they came out. I was nervous to taste the first one but once I did, I ate all of them and wished for more! I over did the salt a bit, next time I think I'll mix the salt into the oil before I toss the kale in. What? Next time?? YES! They were that good!

-----------------------------

Crunchy Kale Chips

2 T. Coconut oil, room temperature (ie, liquid)

1/8 t. Salt

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 T. Parmesan "dust" (ie, shelf stable Parmesan)

1/2 lb. kale

Wash kale and remove the leaves from the ribs. Tear leaves into "chip sized" pieces if necessary. In a medium bowl, stir salt into coconut oil. Add kale and gently toss until evenly coated with the salty oil. Place leaves on a baking sheet and grind fresh pepper over them. Bake 7 minute, then turn and bake another 7 minutes. Allow to cool and top with Parmesan cheese. Try to share. Yum!

Sleeping Is Hard Work

It is 4:57 am. 

This is what we're doing. 

Ugh. 

Ever since our first night home with Anastasia I have been a hardcore we-do-not-play-at-night mom. Tonight, Anastasia woke up around 2:30 am (coincidentally this is also the time her dad came to bed... I'm just saying). So for about 1 hour we lay in bed listening to her blabber, wondering when it would stop. Around 3:30 ish, blabber turns into WAAAHHH so I get up, change her diaper and rock her to sleep. Success! Lay her down in her crib. Still asleep! Success! Raise the side of the crib and leave her room. STILL ASLEEP! TOTAL SUCCESS! 

Folks, I lay in bed for a blissful 8 minutes before she woke up again. Blissful, I tell you. I got up to rescue my weeping baby and she started laughing because she was so thrilled to see me. Rascal. Well, I tried to calm her without picking her up, which was fruitless, so I picked her up and cradled her to rock her back to sleep. No such luck. 40 minutes later, mommy gives up. 

Anastasia, you win this time. Just please take a nap before we have to leave for breakfast. Please!

Diligent and Industrious

I was born stubborn. As a kid, no matter how many times I got in trouble for the same thing, I kept doing it. My mom likes to tell a story about my first night in a toddler bed. When she put me to bed she told me that if I got out, she would spank me. Of course I got out. We both knew I was being disobedient and she spanked me like she had warned. Back in bed, moments after she closed my bedroom door for the second time, I opened it to find her waiting for me in the hallway. She knew I was stubborn. She spanked me 43 times that night before I learned to stay in my bed! 

As an adult, I have learned that stubbornness is just symptom of a larger problem. Depravity. Due to the fall, we are sinful, wicked people from the start. This week, Ana's stubborn side has come out swinging and my prayer life just got a LOT more serious. Nap time is a nightmare! All of my fail-safe sleeping baby techniques have failed! No matter what I do, her eyes stay wide open. 

Thankfully, my parents turned my stubbornness into something useful and beneficial: diligence. They are similar things, just with different purpose. Stubbornness is a determination to get things done MY WAY. Diligence is a determination to GET THINGS DONE. I'm so grateful that my parents saw my strong will and helped me grow to make it a good thing. 

My prayer for Ana has quickly become that I will help her to become a diligent, industrious person. 

Side note! My name actually means Industrious or Diligent! How appropriate :)

24 Things I Love About My Husband

Sunday was my husbands birthday and I know I don't tell him often enough what I really appreciate about him. So I want to tell him  (Hi, Gary!) and I also want to tell everyone else in the world. So, without further ado (omg, someone actually spelled that right?? Yeah, I'm homeschooled.), 24 things that I love about my husband. (in no particular order!)

1. His Zeal. When my husband gets interested in something, there is no stopping him! Whether it's a new instrument or a new game, his passion is checked only by our bank account. (And me demanding he come to bed now!!) He learns everything there is to know about that thing. This also includes doctrine and theology, his passion for learning is inspiring. When I encouraged him to take the shortest route ("Baby, it's a 5 page paper, you're on the 5th page, it's done!"), he absolutely never took that route. ("But I'm only finished with the introduction! I still have 4 more points to make!")
2. His incredible love for family. This is not just Anastasia and me, but also his parents and siblings, his grandparents, his cousins, everyone! He loves his family. It's almost physically painful for him to leave Ana when he has to go to work. He is such a devoted and patient father that he unknowingly reminds me to be a better mom.
3. He knows me better than I know myself. When we started dating and I said "I hate jazz!" he didn't even answer! But when we had an opportunity to go to a jazz show with some friends, he jumped on it and dragged me along. And he quickly taught me that jazz is AWESOME!
4. He is generous. When we realized that we didn't have enough money to go on our annual anniversary trip to Myrtle Beach, he volunteered the gift money he had received from graduation so we could still go. And we had a blast!
5. He is varied. He isn't strictly a nerd (though believe me, he is!), nor is he strictly an outdoors guy, or a bassist, or a video-gamer, or any one thing. He loves a lot of stuff and (like I said in #1) he loves it A LOT. He loves to camp, He loves the mountains, He (almost...) loves the beach, he loves hot weather and snow, it doesn't matter. He loves it!
6. He is laid back. Sometimes this also bugs me, but most of the time laid back is great!
7. He loves absolutely anything I cook. Seriously. Or at least he doesn't tell me if he hates it. But I'm pretty sure he loves it.
8. He thinks I'm awesome. For real, he still makes me blush because he thinks I'm way more awesome than I am. (Not that I mind :D)
9. He lets me do all my weird crunchy things without question. (I just smashed some pinkeye that Ana caught with a couple doses of breastmilk and he didn't even second guess it!)
10. He loves wearing Anastasia! And not just wearing her, he loves wrapping her! That's kinda a big deal.
11. He is a master of thrift-shop finds. Some of his scores include a $100 wireless router for $10 and a whole plethora of board games ranging from $25-$85 for a mere $0.99. Most recently he found an awesome marble track for Ana to play with!
12. If he wants something, he makes sure it happens. He knew he wanted to take his family camping so before we even got engaged, he bought a tent for us. It was a great investment!
13. He takes pride in taking care of his family. I know this because he has worked hard at his job in order to make himself a valuable employee. I know he was out of his comfort zone when he first began but that makes him even more amazing to me! 
14. He wants to adopt. This is something we have very casually talked about doing in the future and it makes me so happy. I have always wanted to foster or adopt and I'm so grateful that God placed the same desire in my husbands heart!
15. He lights up every time he sees Ana and me walk through the door to visit him at work.
16. He is incredibly forgiving when I make mistakes, whether with our finances or our lunch. He doesn't even being it up again.
17. When I do crazy stuff, he just kind of takes it in stride. Blue hair? No problem. Water Birth? Go for it. Cloth Diapers? Sure thing. Tandem Bungee Jumping? Well.... lets just say I'm not even up for that!
18. He is a secret artist. He painted the most wonderful Ratatouille painting for me for my kitchen.
19. He is usually willing to try out the things I like. Take cooking for example. I really love to cook and since we got married he has learned to cook like a pro.
20. One of my very favorite things about my husband is his sense of humor! Granted he can be amused by some of the (cough*in my opinion*cough) dumbest stuff, but when he makes a joke, it makes me laugh out loud every single time! He is the funniest person I know.
 21. He brags about me. This sounds vain, but it's really nice to know that your husband things you're great at something. And not just great, but great enough to tell people about it!
22. He loves to learn. He is always learning something!
23. My husband is a fantastic iPhone photographer! He always surprises me with the precious pictures he gets of Ana. This is clearly related to his level of patience!
24. He is open to improvement. Many people refuse to be told about their own short comings. My husband listens when I suggest something and takes steps to fix the problem. 

There are many more things I love about Gary, but this is already a long post. Thanks for being my husband. I've loved the 4 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days we've spent together.

The day he asked me to be his girlfriend!

First Fields Family Camping Trip

How To Grow Your PayPal Tree

 I found this image here.

In the blissful world of Crunchy, money in your PayPal is twice as good as money in your hand.As much as I wish my funds were limitless, they are no where near that! However, I have found some creative ways to nourish my PayPal Tree and coax it into blooming some cash for me. If you want to help your PayPal Tree grow a bit too, here are some ways!

1. Surveys 
 I have worked with two survey companies: MindField and Pinecone Research. I much prefer Pinecone to MindField. Pinecone pays $3 per survey and each survey takes about 10-20 minutes. You'll be filling out questions about potential products and possibly testing them. I've never tested anything for Pinecone, but MindField is the same premise and I have tested many items for them, some of which are on the market now! (Pepsi Next and Round Saltine Crackers. Yummm.) However, you get paid less for MindField, sometimes only a dollar for a survey that takes 20 minutes, so if you have free time or really want to test new products, go for it! I have earned about $45 with Pinecone in 6 months-ish and $30 with MindField.

2. Ibotta
Ibotta ( http://ibotta.com/r/txseg )  is hands down my favorite way to grow my PayPal Tree! I have this in "app" form on my iphone and it is also available in the Android app store. Essentially, you purchase groceries from their featured list and receive a "coupon" for that item, anywhere from $.50-$5.00. But this coupon doesn't give you a discount off your total, instead it puts money into your PayPal account! You can also receive bonuses for the number of friends you refer. This month I earned $25 and I've earned $60.75 since I downloaded it in March. And even better, you get $10 right away just for signing up! I will mention that some of the stuff is..... not food I would buy. But, there is still some natural whole foods that you can buy, right now they have lettuce, eggs, and raspberries featured. And they're definitely moving towards natural, organic foods too. Yay! (It's not just foods, it's also hygiene products, medicine, DVD's, etc)

3. Buying Co-Op's
This is a new one for me and you have to have some money up front. I'm part of a Co-Op on Facebook that buys lots of baby stuff (cloth diapers, baby legs, amber necklaces, etc) and the last time I bought diapers I ended up getting more than I needed. So I posted them for sale on a Buy/Sell/Trade page at the "going rate" and was able to make back some of the money that I had spent on them. Actually, I spent $72 on 15 diapers and I sold 4 of them for $43, so that's pretty good. If I were to sell all of them at this rate, I would make (minus shipping) about $50-$70 profit.

4. Mystery Shopping
This one also requires a little money up front. I work with two companies to do mystery shops. It's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. I've bought pizza, I've gone shopping at Hot Topic, I've browsed at Maui Nix, I've used a valet, and so on. It's random stuff, they ask a lot of questions, and sometimes you don't get paid to buy something. (You get paid for your time, usually $10 a shop, but not reimbursed if you make a purchase) It's not just easy and fun, BUT it is money! And they put it right into your PayPal! If you're interested in mystery shopping, leave a comment or email me and I'll share the companies with you.

So, there you have it. Four ways to grow your PayPal Tree so you can buy more diapers and wraps and sweet little wooden teethers and soap nuts and essential oils and whatever else your crunchy little heart desires. Go forth! Make money!

(This is a good time to tell you that I'll probably make $1 if you sign up with Ibotta or MindField via the links above. And I would appreciate it too. I'll write you a personal thank you note. Pinecone offers no incentive, but it's still great!)

Food Waste Friday: Dessert

My food waste this week:

1/3 of a pan of peanut butter dessert. I feel kinda bad about wasting this, but I would feel worse if I sat down and ate it all. So.... Lesser of two guilts. Also, 2 cups of White Chicken Chili (sans chicken). Gary doesn't like chicken in his chicken chili, so this is a super cheap no-prep dish that I always have the ingredients for. Yay! The biggest problem is that I always try to add dairy (this time it was sour cream) and it ALWAYS curdles. Not like "ew, I can't eat this" curdle, just a general "this stuff won't mix in, oh duh, because its curdled" curdle. Rats. 

Waste-O-Meter

$1.00 - peanut butter dessert

$0.25? - Soup

+____

$1.25 total waste

Clearly my best week! I'm thrilled to say I bought a head of lettuce and ate it before it went bad this week! Not just any lettuce either, hydroponic butter lettuce. I know. Amazing. I also bought a squash and I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I'm thinking slice it into chips, bread it, and fry it. Yummy!

I also have a bag of spinach and some cooked chicken that i need to use up!

Also, an update on Get Real, we did awesome! My goal was to eat all REAL good while we were at home this week and we did with the exception if one item, fresh made sushi from Harris Teeter. It went well with our hydroponic butter lettuce salad. One thing I LOVED about this challenger was eating homemade bread all week! 

My breakfast almost every morning consisted of fried eggs, buttered (homemade!) toast and homemade peach jam. (And coffee, of course..) Real food is so great!

Project Get Real

I'm on a mission this week to make all our at-home meals 100% from scratch. NO PREMADE STUFF! This is because I want to eat real food; thus the blog title! Yesterday we had spicy blackened yellowfin tuna steaks with corn and rice on the side. It was awesome! I didn't take any pictures because we ate it too fast, but I promise it was pretty and delicious! All I got for you was a shot of the empty skillet!

Today, I made chicken Parmesan sandwiches, a recipe I got out of Kraft's Food & Family magazine. I started by thawing some chicken breasts. I also have a side quest to not use the microwave anymore, but I got a little pressed for time (I thought Gary worked at 3 instead of 2. Oops!) so I nuked them a bit to thaw them. While those thawed, I started on "The Hard Part."

The Hard Part

Nothing premade means me making  our bread. These sandwiches use rolls, something I've never made before, but I figured how hard can it be??

Not hard at all, it turns out! 

I did use one "premade" thing for this, spaghetti sauce. But, it was spaghetti made by my mother in law with ingredients straight out of her garden, so I'm not counting that. The point of this is to know what I'm feeding my family! And I know what's in that, so there ya go. 

Yumm! Gary approved!

Food Waste Friday (a bit late!)

This is my waste this week. Three wrinkly apples, half a cantaloupe, some moldy carrots, and about a quart of homemade yogurt. 

The apples came from a bag that was about $5/10 apples. They been in the fridge for, like.... 6 weeks. The cantaloupe was $3.50, and the carrots.... Probably $2? And this is about a 5th if a bag. I'm chalking the yogurt up to a learning curve. It was my first time making it and it turned out a bit soft. I made A gallon, though, and used most of it! 

This is some kombucha that has been sitting into fridge for about 2 months. My hubby discovered it and opened the bottle (it was REALLY bubbly!) and we remembered "This stuff is delicious!!" And quickly finished the bottle. So we have another batch fermenting now!

$1.50 - apples

$1.75 - cantaloupe 

$0.80 - carrots 

$1.10? - yogurt

+_____

$5.15 wasted this week. 

I'm bummed that I let this much produce go bad. 

I cleaned out my fridge, pantry, and cabinets this week, so next week should be great!!

Please, No More Stuffies!

It amazes me that Ana is a scant 5 months old and she already has two OVERFLOWING toy bins! She has only been playing with toys for about 2 months now, so most of those toys sat untouched for 4-5 months between my showers and her developing curiosity. I was wary of getting rid of them before she started playing because who am I to predict what my baby will want to play with??

Now that she has been playing for a little while and I have a better idea of what she is interested in, I plan on whittling down her pile of toys to something much more managable. I don't want her to have a pile of toys that she has never touched, and I don't want her to be overwhelmed by the amount of toys she has to play with, so this seems like the best choice. 

Some high-quality toys Ana is currently crazy about!

My criteria for Ana's toys has always been creativity. I want everything she plays with to spark curiosity and encourage imagination.The very first toy Gary and I bought for Ana was Discovery Kids "Build and Play" construction set, so she can build her own forts! (She's getting that for Christmas.) I don't want her to have toys for funs sake, I want her to have toys for educations sake. There is no reason she can't link learning and fun! (Duh, it's called homeschool!!) I'm also a firm believer in letting them play without toys.


Right now, her #1 toy is an activity center that my in-laws gave her. It plays music when she touches different parts of it and she is so curious about all the different knobs and buttons. I plan to steer away from plastic toys as she gets older, but for this age it is perfect. She plays with it and rolls around under it and sits up to touch things, it has really improved her balance because she wants to sit up so she can play! Ax

With Christmas less than 6 months away (Shoot me, I'm a planner.), I've already started making a Christmas list for Ana that I am very excited about! Wooden blocks are definitely at the top, along with a tin tea set, a trip to Disney, and Sophie the Giraffe. (Sophie is a teether made of natural rubber, if you didn't know!) I plan on asking each person or family to limit themselves to giving ONE toy to Ana for Christmas for a couple reasons. The first reason is that the toys on her list are high quality and thus on the pricey end of things. The second reason is that I don't want her to end up with a bazillion toys that I'm going to donate (and feel guilty about it!) because she doesn't need that many.

Meaningful stuffies we bought for some dear kids in our life!

I also employ this mindset when I buy toys for the kids I know! I buy toys that I know they will love and that are high quality and I also limit myself to one toy and one stocking stuffer (see the stuffies on your right!) per kid because Lord knows I want to buy them a million things! I just remind myself that I don't want a bazillion toys and their mommies probably don't either! (Of course, you can never have too many good books!)

What to do with your baby, part 2

As Anastasia gets older, we're discovering there is a lot more we can do together and it's so much fun! 

 Yesterday, we finger painted! Anastasia is 19 weeks old this week and is great at grabbing for things that interest her, so I was really hoping this would go well. I started off by making some "edible" paint out of cornstarch, water, salt, and coloring. (I use the term edible to mean you can eat it and you won't DIE. It was probably gross!)

I taped out the word "DAD" and then plopped a couple blobs on this canvas and let her smear!  And of course my phone died at this point, so there are no more smearing pictures. 

How about some messy pictures??

I finally wiped off her hands and face here because I really didn't want her ingesting TOO much of the paint. It was a lot of salt!

 Okay, enough baby spam! Here's the finished piece. 

For her first time, I think she did a great job!! Gary was totally thrilled with his new piece if art :)

Food Waste Friday

I think this week was better than last week. 

This week I let a cucumber mold (okay, it's been about 3 weeks honestly...), we lost a half package of Greek yogurt (I think Gary started it and didnt finish it), about 1/4 of a bottle of orange juice, and (heartbreakingly) about 2 cups of husband-made hummus. 

$0.75 - 1/4 bottle OJ 

$1.00 - Greek yogurt

$0.50 - Cucumber 

$2.00 - hummus (that's a guess...)

+____

$4.25 - grand total of waste. Added to last week's total, that puts me at about $25 of wasted food this month. 

The orange juice separated. Two reasons: 1. I let it sit out for a day. 2. It's about 5 weeks old. Gross! The hummus (clearly) molded. I let this happen because the only thing I eat hummus with is chips. I've got to work on that! Come to think of it, that cucumber would have been really yummy with the hummus. Rats!

I focused this week on using up perishable things in my fridge and purposely planned my meals around them. We had chicken and pasta  with sautéed mushrooms and onions one day and I knew I still had half an onion sitting in the fridge, so the next day we had fajitas (and added mushrooms, which are very unfajita-ey) so that I could use up the rest of my produce! I also found an almost gone lime lurking in the fridge so I tossed that into the fajitas while they cooked to add some delicious flavor. Yum! And then I used up all my lemons on lemonade to go with the meal, but some of that is still in the fridge. I'm gonna get on it fast so I don't have to report it to you next week!

I took another anti food waste measure this week..... Bone broth!

After lunch Sunday I had a chicken carcass and some leftover snap peas. I put all of that into my crockpot, along with some vinegar, peppercorns, and a gallon of water and let it sit for over two days on low and now I have some rich delicious bone broth! 

I'm not sure if I should count the leftover cooked bones as food waste. What do you think? How did you do this week?

What I've Learned From My Daddy

When I was growing up, my dad was a little harsh at times. As a kid, I thought he didn't know anything and that his actions were always globally unfair. And, like almost every kid, I grew up and realized my dad is a genius and has so much life experience that I can't help but ask "What would dad do?" for many situations. Like most kids, I spent more time with my mom than my dad, so he spent less time directly teaching me things. This list is going to be shorter than the one I made for mom, but there will be more explanation behind the ideas. So, here is a brief summary of the things my dad taught me.

1. "Why do you want to fill your head with garbage?" <--This has been my dad's classic answer when we wanted to see a movie or show that he didn't approve of. It drove me CRAZY as a teenager and now suddenly I'm realizing that I filled my head with a lot of garbage that I can't get out of it.
2. Math is possible, if you sit at the table long enough.
3. You don't want dad to be the one to spank you!
4. People who only do what benefits themselves are communists.
   
5.  "Don't be a communist." <-- This was often said in respect to stepping over a sock instead of picking up the sock. My response was usually "But, daddy, it's not my sock!"
6. Men support their families.
7. It's okay to ask people weird questions! For example, "How do you convince the bees to only take honey from wildflowers?"
8. The best time to read your Bible is early in the morning with a cup of coffee. If your family joins you, even better, read aloud!
9. You don't need every light in the house on! Or every light in a room, for that matter.
10. If you're hot, open a window or take a layer of clothing off. The AC is a LAST resort!
11. You don't have to GO places to have a good time as a family. Dinner and conversation is a very dear memory of mine.
12. Coffee is stinkin' expensive! Don't waste it, reheat it the next day!
13. There is no reason to date until you're old enough to get married. <-- I wasn't allowed to date until I was 18 and I HATED it. Now, I realize that my parents protected me from a whole world of horrible things that teens can easily get into when they're dating. Seriously, if you meet a guy in 6th grade, are you seriously going to stay together for 6-7 years until you can get married? And if you do, are you seriously NOT going to have sex that entire time?? Not likely.
14. You don't need makeup and jewelry to be pretty.
15. Long hair is beautiful. <--It was really hard for me to readjust my thinking here when I married Gary because he prefers short hair.
    
16. There is absolutely NO need for a kid to have screen time. TV, iPhone, video games, internet, honestly. Okay, that's not true. We took typing lessons at dad's request and learned a lifelong skill.
17. "If you cared about it, it wouldn't be on the floor." <-- This lesson was hard for me to learn, and honestly I'm still working on it sometimes! This was usually said after I stepped on my glasses or..... well, read the next one.
18. It's okay to take a kids toys away because "If you cared about it, it wouldn't be on the floor." I cannot tell you how many times my dad offered to clean our bedrooms for us by taking a shovel and a garbage bag to the situation. I think it would have done me some good!
19. Authoritative does not mean authoritarian. My dad was authoritative and that's okay! Men should be in control of their families!
20. Being mischievous is a good thing.
21. Curiosity is a very good thing!
22. If you sit on the floor long enough, you can find out where the ants are coming in and block every darn hole.
23. "You can wash off." <-- The most memorable time I learned this was when my class ring fell down the bathtub drain. We then learned that there was a hole in the pipe that led to our sewage tank that bubbled up just outside our house. At this point, my dad made me dig around to see if I could find my class ring. GROSS! But, he was right, I washed off. And now I'm a lot more willing to do disgusting things with the knowledge, I CAN WASH OFF!
24. Girls can do boy stuff. Fishing, tracking deer, driving trucks, shooting guns, climbing trees, changing tires, working on engines, plumbing (that's Sophie's story), MATH AND SCIENCE, there's nothing wrong with girls doing boy stuff!
25. It's okay to question the government.

Thanks, Daddy! This stuff has had an impact on me. Even if you thought we didn't learn the stuff, we did!

BONUS ROUND!  

Two more things daddy taught me

1. Tool names. THIS is invaluable. When someone asks me for a ratchet and a 3/16 socket, I can actually give it to them. When someone asks me if I have an adjustable wrench, I KNOW! (and for the record, no, I don't have one.)
2. Real men drink their coffee black. <--I once dated a guy merely because he drank his coffee black. It didn't last long.

Food Waste Friday

In order to get my food waste under control, I'm going to start posting pictures of it here for you all to see and give me a hard time about. I got this idea from my very favorite blogger "The Frugal Girl" so here goes. 

This is breast milk (I know, I hate me too), Moravian chicken pie, and formerly frozen yogurt that I made. 

This is a totally untouched bag of lettuce, a half eaten container of baby spinach, and the two peaches actual symbolize, like... 6 peaches. I already threw the others away before I decided to do this. Also, I wasted a tomato which isn't pictured. 

1 oz. breast milk - $5 (if I were buying it. No lie.)

1/4 chicken pie - $3.25

Frozen Yogurt - $1.50

Spring Mix - $2.88

1/2 container of spinach - $2.50

Peaches - $4

Tomato - $1.50

+_______________

$20.63 in the trash.

Just. This. Week.

What To Do With Your Baby*

*not an exhaustive list, hehe.

In case you have been wondering what Ana and I do all day long, here it is! This is our typical schedule on a day that Gary works.

Ana = Rooster and thus wakes up at 6:30 every morning. Luckily, Emily = Old Rooster and thus wakes up at 7 every morning, so 6:30 isn't much of a sacrifice for me. We get up and play in her room on the floor and read books for about 60-90 minutes, or until she starts falling apart. This is when I get my COFFEEE. Usually around 8, she goes back to sleep for her first nap. If it's going to be a great day, she sleeps until 10 ish and during this time mommy gets delicious breakfast and usually finishes her up of cold coffee. I'm also starting a new Bible study and this is when I'll be doing that!

After my Gummy Bear wakes up, she usually spends some time playing by herself on the floor. This is a relatively new phase of life for us, she has generally required my attention EVERY DARN SECOND so I'm enjoying her 4-month-old independence. (Until she asks me for the car keys, at least!) This is chore time for me! Dishes, kitchen cleaning, and lunch prep are right here. Ana still isn't super independent so she will lay on the floor in the hall and play and we can see each other most of the time. Her favorite toy right now is her "magic wand". Its a baton I found at Target that is filled with water and glitter and she is crazy about it!


After lunch, usually around 12:30-1, Ana starts falling apart again so she decides its time for a nap again. On a normal day, Gary is getting ready for work around this time so Ana and I will take a nap together once he leaves. I do this for three reasons. A) I love baby cuddles :) B) Ana sleeps longer when I'm next to her and I'm trying to train her to take a long afternoon nap and C) I'm tired from waking up at 6:30!! This is almost always a 3-4 hour nap for Ana. This leaves about 2 hours between nap and bedtime for us to hang out with Sophie! That could be going for a walk, stopping into Target, having dinner, going swimming, or just playing at the house.

At 7, Ana goes back to bed and sleeps until 6:30 and then we start all over again!

So, in summary, what to do with you baby: Life! When Ana was first born I thought I had do do specific stuff with her and entertain her and I was totally sure that I was boring her to death because I didn't know what to do. FINALLY, at 4 months, I realized that you just do life! Sure, life now includes more playtime than it used to, but that's fun too :)

Contentment

“Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.”

― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Being content has never been my strong point. I'm a planner and a doer and "enjoying the moment" is often ruined by planning the next moment. I am working hard to become better at living each moment as it happens and part of that is laying down my iPhone, shutting off the computer, and getting out of the house. 

There is one place where this isn't a problem for me. 

On my parents front porch. 

So many dear memories have happened here. Few of them are specific, most are just the knowledge that we sat out here as a family and listened to the swamp at night and talked. Or that I listened toy dad read the bible aloud while we drank coffee and enjoyed the sunrise. 

Life is made up of moments, ones we have to teach ourselves to enjoy. This weekend, make a point to unplug yourself from distraction and acknowledge your moments.  

Teenage Emily

This is an excerpt from a journal I wrote when I was 15. (punctuation, capitalization, grammer, etc are all original)

100 Favorite Things

1. Hugs from Abby
2. Playing in a pool
3. Popcorn popping
4. Laying in deer-beds
5. People that accept me for me
6. Doing my Bible studies
7. Picking berries with kids
8. Playing with Katie and Sarah
9. Making cookies and frosting them
10. The smell of daddy's shop
11. The smell of a field dressed deer
12. Being taught by daddy and understanding what he says
13. Watching movies with Eric
14. Finding something cool in the ocean
15. Going snorkeling
16. Watching a fire
17. Listening to Charlotte Church
18. Taking a VERY hot Bubble Bath
19. Finding a new way to do your makeup
20. Having someone Play with my hair
21. A cat sitting on you, purring
22. Taking your hair down after it's been up ALL DAY!
23. Hearing a good sermon
24. Rolling on the floor laughing and crying so hard you pee your pants [Ew. What was I thinking??]
25. Pulling a good trick!
26. Having someone put on a concert just for you [Uh, no one ever did this for me until I met Gary.]
27. Earrings
28. Perfectly applying nail Polish
29. Hearing someone laugh
30. A Freshly made bed
31. Looking back and seeing what you've accomplished [I really really love this.]
32. A bear hug
33. Seeing a couple so deeply in love that they GLOW
34. A really good conversation
35. The warm, fuzzy, feeling you get when you know someone really cares about YOU
36. Midnite snacks with your best friend [Didn't really have a best friend at this point in my life...]
37. When you look perfect AND have somewhere to go!
38. A perfect day at the beach with friends
39. Finishing a really good book
40. Finding the perfect outfit in the perfect size for the perfect price!
41. Remembering the perfect phrase at the perfect time
42. Getting something you worked for
43. Getting something you don't deserve [okay, I just liked getting stuff]
44. Finding an instant friend [Kristin, darling, I believe this was you!]
45. Getting a new CD
46. Toe-socks
47. Fresh notebooks
48. Some-one flirting with you first [insert blushy face.]
49. A friend who will listena dn listen and listena nd listen to every last Detail!!
50. Hills that 'get your tummy'
51. Getting a long etter via snail mail (hand-written)
52. Being trusted with a secret [Actually, I hate this. Keep your drama to yourself, please.]
53. Hearing someone type really fast [Like I'm doing right now. Totally fulfilling myself. Lol]
54. Winning a game of chess
55. Finishing a hard job [College! Holla!]
56. Going hunting
57. Getting something in the mail (A Gift) [lol, toldja I just like getting stuff!]
58. The sound of leaves crunch under your feet [wow, that sentence is not right...]
59. Freshly fallen snow
60. A green meadow [Obviously. No one likes brown meadows. Duh.]
61. RollerCoasters
62. Cool Posters
63. Spelling a hard word correctly!
64. Un-planned Partys that are Perfect
65. Finding something you lost
66. The smell of a new car [cliche much?]
67. Reading poems
68. Sun Tea
69. Sunsets
70. Comfy clothes
71. Coffee Brewing
72. Watching a Good Movie with your Girlfriends
73. Listening to my music
74. Hearing mom read
75. Talking to Miss Lisa
76. Learning something new
77. Being able to go to God at night and cry
78. Reading a really good poem that tugs at your heart strings [omg, the cliche is KILLING ME. Literally. Okay, figuratively.]
79. Tom's messages
80. Watching football
81. Superbowl commercials
82. Writing a poem that is actually good [Apparently I was on a poetry kick?]
83. Getting a massage
84. Drawing all over my body [Well that sounds... provocative. It was around this time that we learned that highlighters glow under blacklight, so we did a lot of decorating.]
85. Recieving forgiveness especially when it's a big mistake
86. Hanging out w/ AF staff guys [more blushy face...]
87. Good Perfume/ ColoGne [Why did I capitalize that G???]
88. A freshly made bed and lots of pilows
89. A clean house and a messy bedroom [that makes it a not clean house. Am I right?]
90. Reading the comics
91. Making something cool
92. Cooking dinner for your family
93. Getting an A on that tough assignment [I had just started taking classes at Polk Community and was freakin' THRILLED to be getting grades! lol]
94. Using big words + shocking people
95. Loving your Job [Thanks, Billy!]
96. Moose tracks Ice Cream
97. A spur-of-the-moment snowball fight [Never been in one. I hate snow. It sounded romantic. I was delusional.]
98. Recieving praise
99. A good conversation online [As opposed to a good conversation in real life, which didn't even make my list.]
100. Completing a whole notebook [ This list was written on pages 1-5 of a brand new notebook.]

This entry was followed by a painfully embarrassing attempt at poetry. 

Maybe someday I'll write a revised version.

Struggling with Weight

Like virtually every other woman in a Western Nation, I'm not thrilled with my weight and appearance. I was discussing this with my sweet baby sister (Hi, Sophie....) and she commented "You know what we should do? A competition!" Um. Duh. She went on the say something along the lines of "Accountability doesn't work cause it's like 'Oh, I ate a dozen cookies today...' 'Great! I'm gonna go finish off my carton of ice cream!' " Um. Yeah.

Have you ever had an accountability relationship like that? I've had about 1000 of them! We screw up and "confess our sin" to our partner who SHOULD reprimand us and encourage us to do better and instead our partners response is more like "Oh, thank God, I'm gonna go eat butter and sugar by the spoonful." And believe me, I'm not being down on "everyone else", I've been that partner PLENTY of times! Accountability, for the most part, doesn't work. If you don't have self control, then others controlling you won't work either.

You know what works? A good, old fashion, healthy competition. As soon as she started talking about it, I started scheming how I  was going to be the winner! This is not a "Oh, everyone wins because we're all losing weight smiley face/rainbow/hearts/unicorn/fuzzywarmthoughts" competition, I'm talking a competition with a prize. Clothing.

C'mon, clothing is your best excuse for not losing weight. "Well, gosh, if I lost 50 pounds, I'd have to go buy all new clothes and I don't have the money for that, so I guess I'll have to wait..." Hehe. No. In this competition, every loser buys the winner an article of clothing in their new size.


Here are the rules!

1. Competition runs from June 1st -December 31st (YES, even through the Holidays!)
2. Each participant must join the FB group I made (Except Sophie, she deleted her FB) and PM me their starting weight. Feel free to post "before" pictures too!
1. The group is "secret" so you can't find it. No one can see that you join, or see anything that is posted in the group. Just ask me to add you!
3. Each participant must agree to send a piece of clothing for the winner. I'm not gonna hunt you down and force you, this is honor based. Item can be from the mall, thrift shop, whatever! Just make sure it's in great condition, no holes, stains, whatever.
1. If you don't want to pass out your address, I can receive all the clothing and mail/deliver it to you!

I hope you join the fun!