So blessed to have such a handsome little man :)
Author Archives: Ana Blue Mae
Snowpocalypse – Round 2
Here are some pictures of what we’ve been experiencing over the past 5 days. This is fresh snow that fell yesterday morning that piled on top of the 10 or so inches we got last Thursday. Is anyone else wishing it was Spring?
RT
Freezer Cooking
So freezer cooking at 8 months pregnant = no fun. The whole process of planning and picking the recipes, actually going grocery shopping, and then preparing the meals took about 3 days. It would have taken less time but when we went to go shopping on Saturday the shelves were pretty much bare. Who knew that a little snow storm would cause people to freak out and buy out the entire bread section? With that being said, I’m very glad that we have those meals ready for use when we bring Little T home. Which apparently is going to be soon based on my doctor :) So, without further adieu, here’s my process.
I started off by looking for recipes for freezer cooking. Let me say that they all seemed a little repetitive. There was a lot of mexican and italian inspired meals and I struggled to find some that were different. But I eventually did and I put them all on this idea sheet
When I had finished picking out recipes, I wrote them on another sheet that had a space for any notes about the recipe and where it was located, which for me was on Evernote.
After this list, I decided on the prep order and put it on another list. Apparently I love lists :)
After I had everything planned out I made a grocery list.
This one was a little messy so I made another, more organized one
We went to get our groceries and this is what we came up with
And then it was time to put it all together. I didn’t get any pictures of this because once we got started, it would have been hard for me to stop and take pictures every 5 minutes.
Overall, I don’t think I would attempt freezer again. Maybe it was because I’m 8 months pregnant, but it was a lot of work. I know I’ll be grateful when it finally comes time to use them but I don’t think this will become my norm for cooking.
Here is the finished product
Heres to hoping that they actually cook how they should and that they taste great!
RT
Baby Shower
These are just a few pictures I took before our baby shower last weekend. We had so much fun and got almost everything we needed. But more than the gifts, we both enjoyed seeing family that we hadn’t seen in a while. It is such a good feeling knowing that we are bringing our child into this world with such an amazing and loving family. We truly appreciate everything they have done for us over the years.
Valentines Day Supper
Dakota is anxiously awaiting “daddies” arrival back home. Sometimes I do the same thing :)
Well we did our Valentines day supper 2 days early this year because I’m going out-of-town tomorrow morning. I had so much fun preparing this supper for my amazing husband. The cake was so easy and it tasted delicious. We had a nice salad and homemade alfredo, hence the freshly grated parmesan cheese! I also made italian sodas to go with the meal but I lost my light so unfortunately there aren’t any pictures of them. As for the gifts this year, I had a wedding picture printed off and framed for his desk at work and I bought him so new headphones since he goes through them so quickly.
I really do love this man with all my heart. He has seen me at my worst and refused to walk away and now that were going to be adding another member to our family here pretty soon, it just makes me so unbelievably happy. He’s going to be the best father a son could ever ask for. He truly is my everything and I couldn’t be happier to be married to such a wonderful man.
Homesteading Knowledge
I would like to start off by saying that I may or may not be obsessed with homesteading :). I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie with my mom and I instantly became enthralled with their lifestyle. I wanted to wear the dresses and bonnets. I wanted a horse and I wanted to live in a log cabin. While my actual life was nothing like theirs, I nonetheless wanted to be exactly like them. Fast-forward a few years and my mom and I move to central Iowa where there is this wonderful place called Living History Farms. I instantly fell in love. At LHF, you go through a 1700′s Ioway Native American camp, an 1850′s farm, a 1900′s farm, and then a 1870′s town. All of these sites come complete with livestock and real people who are dressed appropriately for their time period and do activities that are appropriate as well.
This reawakened my thirst for homesteading. I started getting my hands on anything that had to do with homesteading; books, pamphlets, hands on experience, you name it, I wanted to look at it or do it. So I started collecting books on homesteading and gardening as well as livestock. Now, by no means do I have an extensive collection. I have the books that I feel work for me and my family. My hope is that someday, we can live on a “homestead” and be able to feed our family and sell the rest at farmers markets. These books will help me achieve my goal. As for now, I’m going to be planting some things in containers and leaving them on my deck. Trying to keep up with a bigger garden with a newborn doesn’t seem like a good idea :) But someday, I hope to blog about how we bought our first chickens or goats and how big our garden has grown…someday :)
RT
Little T’s Room
We’re pretty excited for this little guy to be here. Now if only the end of March would get here sooner, that would be great!
RT
Household Notebook
This is our household notebook. I think every family should have one actually. It’s one central place for all your important documents and you can take it pretty much anywhere.
I felt the need to have a pretty title page :)
I also have cleaning checklists, weekly and daily.
I found an idea on Pinterest about creating your own cleaning list to fit your house specifically so these cleaning checklists will be getting a facelift soon. I also have important internet log ins and email addresses as well as important financial information like bank account numbers, insurance policy numbers, etc.
I have the other household notebook in my shiny new mail sorter that I plan on merging with this one. You can include whatever you want in your household notebook but here are some suggestions if you are stuck for ideas:
- Daily plans
- To-do lists
- Grocery lists
- Monthly calendar
- Cleaning checklists
- A morning and night routine plan
- Home project to-do list
- Outdoor fall cleaning list
- Outdoor spring cleaning list
- Recipes you want to try
- Blogging ideas
As you can see, this list could go on and on. But try to find something that works for you and your family. If you don’t really have any projects to do around the house, don’t waste your time making a list and printing it off. The point of a household notebook is to simplify things so don’t include things that don’t have any impact on your life.
If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to comment and let me know!
RT
What My Homestead Looks Like Today
Well every January around this time I seem to get the gardening/homesteading bug. For the most part I feel it year round, but especially after the holidays have died down, I really get the urge to start planning and making preparations for my garden. I would consider my “homestead” to be very small. I have a small garden and that’s about it. But isn’t that what homesteading is all about, making due with what you have? Thats why I try not to get discouraged about only have a small garden or homestead. I know someday I will be able to have a bigger garden and probably even livestock. I just have to be patient and work hard and it will all work out.
So, in an effort to get outside on a dreary day, I ventured out to take pictures of what my homestead looks like today.
As you can see, it was a very wet and rainy day. So I put my boots on and took the 17 second walk down to my garden.
Here is a look at the garden as a whole.
The left side had carrots, broccoli, bush beans, lettuce, and some herbs.
The right side had parsnips and watermelon.
I also put in 2 sunflower plants in the back corners.
This is whats left of the lettuce.
When it came time to prepare my garden for winter, I was too pregnant to really do anything to it. My back hurt and digging in the garden was one of the last things on my to do list. So this spring before Little T gets here I plan on asking my husband to till it under. This should take all of 30 minutes. After that, planting shouldn’t be too hard :)
What does your garden look like today? Have you started making plans for it yet?
RT
My Adventures in Meal Planning
I figured since I’m trying to organize my life in anticipation of Little T, my meal planning could use some organizing as well. I was looking online to see if I could fine an example that would fit our lifestyle and I came across this from Simple Mom. It is a simple 2 week rotation of meals entered into a google calendar. I started off writing down all the meals that we usually eat and then I wrote down all the ingredients that go with that particular recipe.
I decided to put some of our usual meals onto my calendar and shared it with my husband. You can see what meals I planned here here. I think this will work for us because we like to keep things pretty simple and that is exactly what this method was. I also have a grocery list that you can find here
I’m hoping this inspires you to simplify your meal planning or even give it a try for the first time!!
RT
