Provident Living

At the end of 2010, Blake and I set some goals for the new year. One of them was to become more self-sufficient and use the guidelines found on the provident living website. Before this, we had a very meager supply of food storage. Being college students living in an apartment and then a smaller home made it hard to really have much more than a few boxes stuffed under our bed. Now that we bought our new home last October, we've made it a priority to increase our food storage, live debt free, and find ways to be prepared in case of an emergency. It's no secret that teachers and police officers don't make millions (even though they should!) so these things we are trying to do are helping us in other ways as well. I've been so proud of Blake as he has made our food storage goal is #1 priority. He's the one who makes the monthly appointment to visit the food cannery. He's the one who has been keeping track of what we need and how much of it we need. We've been trying to get a year's supply of food for a family of 4. And 6 months into 2011 we are almost there! We have a year's supply of wheat, rice, dry milk, beans, quick oats, and potato flakes. We have a 3 month supply of pancake mix, onion flakes, dried carrots, macaroni and spaghetti. We're still working on getting sugar and some other things, but hopefully one more trip to the cannery next month should take care of it. We are also trying to stock up when a grocery store has a caselot sale on things like canned fruit, tuna fish, tomato sauces, juices, toilet paper and other needs.

We finished a storage room off of our garage so we would have enough space to hold it all. The wooden shelves on the right are where we keep the things from the caselot sale.

The biggest thing we are trying to remember is that we need to cook using our food storage. Not only does this help us save money, but it keeps the food from going bad. The last thing I want is to open up one of our cans and think "I'd rather starve than eat that!" So, this past Saturday I was brave and made some whole-wheat bread for the first time! Bread has always been intimidating to me. I was waiting for my MIL to come over and help me when I just decided to go for it! And really, it wasn't as hard as I thought, just a little time consuming. I don't think I did too bad for my first time, either!

I used our hand-grinder (A christmas present from at least 6 years ago that we had never opened until now) to grind our own wheat...I know, I'm turning into Little House on the Prairie

I also have to note that although the hand grinder wasn't terrible, today I went over to my MIL's to grind the rest of the can using her electric grinder. SO NICE!

I made a "honey-oatmeal wheat bread"

Yay! It's rising!

The finished product: the recipe made two loaves. It didn't rise as much as I wanted it to the second time, but I'm ready to try again!

Other things we've been doing: planted our garden. We have peas coming up and also corn and tomatoes.

put some grape vines on our lattice we built earlier this spring. This plant actually looks a lot bigger and healthier now than it does in this picture

And last, but not least we planted 3 fruit trees on the side of our yard. 2 apple and 1 apricot. Some of you may think we are going overboard with this food storage thing, but these 3 trees was AFTER I talked Blake out of planting SEVEN!

Next on our list is to get a sun oven so I can cook outdoors using solar energy. Can't wait!

PS- I'm aware that many of you will probably think Blake and I have lost our minds :) But if it's a good thing, why not do it?

My Joy

Isn't it funny how I posted a week ago about my frustrations with Brooke and now I am going to post about how much I love this sweet little girl? I think part of my frustration last week was that Blake was gone the entire week for a training. Now that he's home, it's been a lot better. When Blake comes home from work his famaliar greeting is "How are my girls doing?" Sometimes I say good other times I say "The girls needs a break from each other" And by the end of last week, being on my own, by the time he got back into town it was definitely the latter!

Tomorrow is the last day of school and so it's also the last day of Brooke being with her sitter. She grown up and learned so much this year! I cannot express how thankful I am that I found H. and how good she has been to Brooke and to us this year. H. measured all of her kids in September and then measured them again just a week ago and Brooke grew 5 inches! She also knows the shapes: star, heart, circle and sometimes triangle and square. She knows the names of all the colors, but has a hard time when you ask her "what color is it?" So now she goes around asking us what color everything is.

Brooke is also our comedic relief. On Saturday Blake and I were having a kind of serious and intense discussion and out of the corner of my eye I could see something bright run by. I looked over and immediately burst out laughing. Brooke had completely changed her clothes into this outfit of her creation:

Yep, those are PJ bottoms on her head

On Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a drive up the canyon. Everything was so green and beautiful. And since it was such a nice day, after so many days of rain, we decided to get out and look around. I have to mention that we hadn't thought at all that we'd be getting out of the car, so Blake and I were both dressed in our pajamas (our usual Sunday outfits if we think we won't be seeing anyone).Brooke loved looking at the water rushing under the bridge and all the "bubbles".We went for a little walk...But then Brooke got cold (we didn't bring a jacket) so we headed back to the car.Brooke loved throwing sticks and rocks into the riverYesterday when we came home we had a suprise waiting for us on the front porch--a sweet carepackage for Brooke. She loved everything & we really appreciated it. It came with a little pinwheel (which she calls her flower), a bunny stuffed animal, stickers, a little bag, and a bug catching kit. Some perfect things for our little explorer who loves to be outside!Brooke helping me to water (drown) our flowers.

Happy Summer everyone!

Easier yet Harder

It's funny how as Brooke gets older she gets easier yet harder at the same time. Easier because she can communicate more and we can reason with her a little bit. Easier because she is better at independent play and is more interactive when we play together.

Brooke loves play "nap-time or sleep-time" She is obsessed with putting her baby down for a nap and made a bed in the middle of the kitchenBrooke doing sign language and animal sounds for the camera

Harder because she still can't quite communicate all that she wants to say and gets easily frustrated. Harder because she has become so independent. She is queen of "I do it!" She wants to dress herself: wear dresses even when it's rainy and cold outside--wear underwear all the time (even though she not fully potty trained--I am holding out until next week when I get out of school but boy is she ready!).

Brooke took off her regular clothes and came down wearing her church tights (one of her loves) and this dress.

Harder because she is the queen of throwing fits like you couldn't believe! Did/does anybody else's child go through this? And I am not talking the regular on the ground kicking and thrashing fits. This is ten times worse. When Brooke gets frustrated or upset she will purposely try to hurt herself. She will pull at her hair, rip at her clothes. If we put her in time out she will bang her head against the wall or floor until she cries. If she bangs her head once and that wasn't hard enough she will keep doing it! She acts like a child possessed! What is going on with my sweet girl? Last night we were at my MIL's house and it was time to go and Brooke didn't want to. She started throwing a fit and she threw her head into the corner of my MIL's kitchen cabinet. It left a nasty goose egg and Brooke was sobbing hysterically because it hurt so bad. Usually I try to stay calm and try to help her through it, other times I just send her to time out. Always I try to to stop it before it gets to the point of her hurting herself but last night was terrible! This picture isn't very good, but the big dent in Brooke's forehead is where she hit.

Maybe I need to read a good parenting book....

The End is Near

Testing is over with (thank goodness) and with only a week and a half left of school, things are starting to get pretty crazy around here. Especially when all the teachers got an email a few days about about having "checkout interviews" with the administrators. We'll review our students' test results and then we, as teachers, have to give evidence of all the ways we've helped the kids reach their potential and helped support our school's goals. Not that I don't do that, but I don't necessarily have physical "evidence" and pretty much neither does any teacher, so we are all scrambling around to try and find something to present. Also, one of our school goals is to help all students with their math facts to help our math test scores improve. I'm sorry, when did it become the Language Arts teacher's job to review math? And not that I'm not willing (I did some extra credit math facts at the end of my spelling tests), BUT how are parents being excused from the education process? When is it their turn to sit down and be held accountable for their child's math facts? Okay, enough about that, I'm all sorts of riled up.

Anyway, instead of getting upset, I want to laugh. And thankfully my students make me laugh almost everyday. I love my job and I love the kids I teach. Thankfully, we do a lot of laughing together. So here are some of my "finer"moments as a teacher this year:

1. I accidentally said a four letter word in front of my entire class. We were reading "A Christmas Carol" and I was reading aloud. The word I was supposed to say was "fit" well...something that rhymes with fit came out instead. I was mortified! All of my students just sat there in a stunned silence for a minute and then everyone burst out laughing. My face got bright red and I started laughing too. It took us several minutes to get back under control.

2. I have a projector in my room that is hooked up to my computer. If the projector is on, whatever is on my computer screen shows up on the big screen. There is a "freeze" button I can push that will will freeze the screen showing and then allows me to enter attendance or grades on my compute without everyon seeing it too. Well, I had a student who had gotten suspended from fighting. He came back early and I was wondering why. I wanted to type an email to my principal asking if this student really was supposed to be back at school. My students were working on an assignment using the projector so I *thought* I hit the freeze button and proceeded to to type my email. It was deadly silent in the classroom. Finally I look around and realize my email was displayed on the big screen for everyone to see! I said "why didn't you tell me that happened" they replied "we wanted to see your email!" (The fight was a hot topic at the school.) I was mortified! Especially because the kid I sent the email about was RIGHT THERE in the room with me. Now I double check to make sure the screen really is frozen before I do that!

I could go on for a while about some of my "finer" teaching moments, but I won't. Instead, I'll share some random pictures of Brooke I've taken recently

At the park on Saturday:

taking a break and eating some fruit snacks. Brooke loves laying on the blanket. She likes it when we lay down together and pretent to sleep.Before church on SundayAnd so far my flowers haven't died, even with this crazy weather! Yay! Aren't they gorgeous? (I never knew I would become such a flower nerd, but oh well)

Because I like Lists...

....and because I was very dissapointed in the last two chick flicks I watched : How Do You Know and Morning Glory (both were dumb, don't waste your time)

Best Chick-Flicks I could watch over and over again (in no particular order):
1. The Holiday
2. The Devil Wears Prada
3. Serendipity
4. 13 Going on 30
5. Sweet Home Alabama
6. Mona Lisa Smile
7. Confessions of a Shopaholic
8. Maid in Manhatten
9. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
10. Just Like Heaven

I've read lots of books I liked, but there are only a few I could not put down. I always know I've read a keeper when Blake has to hide my book from me in order for us to spend time together
Books I've Devoured Recently:
1. The Help
2. These Is My Words
3. The Other Boelyn Girl (if you saw the movie, don't judge this book. The movie was awful!)
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns
5. The Outlander Series (there are 8 and they are huge books, so plan on devoting some time to it)
6. Water for Elephants (I'm way excited for the movie to come out!)

Best Young Adult Series I've read (although I wasn't technically a YA when I read these):
1. Twilight (of course, also books I've devoured)
2. Harry Potter Series
3.Hunger Games Trilogy
4. A Great and Terrible Beauty Trilogy
5. Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants series
6. Fablehaven Series

I've noticed that I like to read sci-fi/fantasy when it's in the YA category, but not so much if it's an adult book. I like more historical fiction for my adult reads.

Favorite YA books of all time:
1. The Outsiders
2. To Kill A Mockingbird

Up Next on my adult reading list:
1. 8th Outlander Book (except I think I still have a few years before this one gets published)
2. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Up Next on my YA reading list: I have all these books that I order from Scholastic Book orders for my classroom and then I get interested in reading them too.
2. Immortal Instruments Series (Stephenie Meyer wrote a good review for these books, and SM's review of the Hunger Games is how I started reading those, so I'm thinking this series might be good)
3. The Maze Runner & it's upcoming sequel
4. The Beyonders (Brandon Mull's latest)
5. Beautiful Darkness (Sequel to Beautiful Creatures)
6. Crossed (sequel to Matched)
6. Forever (final installment of the Shiver & Linger Trilogy)
7. The Forest of Hands and Teeth Series

I'm sure there are others that I am missing, but this is all I can think of right now. Also let me say that everyone should choose books at their own risk. I am not saying my picks are for everyone!

And I am always on the lookout for good books/movies to read/watch so any recommendations would be awesome!

Wonderful Weekend

Blake had a three days weekend, which is always nice. It's also nice when his weekends match up with mine, so we can actually spend some time together. Friday Blake and his mom floated the Green River again. The dam people (whoever they are) are releasing tons of water so the flow is really high and fast. I guess it was a wild ride and both of them got wet going through rapids.Saturday was spent doing yard work. Sounds boring, but I loved it! The weekend was beautiful! The sun was shining (we all got a little pink on the back of our necks), and we wore shorts and tshirts all day. For my mother's day Blake took me on a flower shopping spree. I've been itching to get some bright colors planted in our yard.
This is by our mailbox. It was full of crab grass that I had to pull out. The neighbor kids were out riding their bikes and saw me doing it so they all came over and offered to help. I said sure, so we pulled it all out. I'm not sure they did a very good job (i.e. getting the roots out) but it sure looks better than it did. I still want to add more flowers to this spot. The island around our tree. I planted some aisian lillies, daffodils, hyacinth and daisies. I couldn't decide what I wanted, they all looked so beautiful at the greenhouse, so I just got some of each!And my personal favorite: The Gerber Daisy! I planted these up by our front doorSo Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous, but Monday and today have been rainy and on the cooler side. I've been obsessing over my flowers that I just planted (stupidly thinking that summer was here to stay). I really hope they don't die!

Saturday night we had a BBQ with Blake's brother, his kids, and parents. Zac took this pic with his phone: all of us enjoying some time around the fire. It was so nice to be outside and eating and socializing. That is what summer is all about!
I have to tell a hilarious story about Blake (he will probably kill me for sharing this) but don't we all have a slip up that is just too funny to share? So, during dinner the other family was eating with us and we were talking about how we get our kids to eat and not be picky eaters, but also being aware of overeating and eating lots of junk food. Anyway, so Blake says "Yeah, there is a problem with children and beastiality. (I think he meant obsesity) But the coversation just stopped and we all looked at each other and burst out laughing. Sorry, babe, but it was too funny! That became a laughing point all night!

Sunday morning, Blake got up with Brooke so I could sleep in. He also made french toast and was good to get Brooke ready for church all by himself. There were no cries of "We need a Mommy!" that I usually hear. That night, we had another family get together at our house--the kids played and Blake grilled.

Sunday in nursery, the leaders took a picture of all the kids and emailed it to the moms for mother's day. I guess this is the best "Happy Mother's Day" face Brooke could muster:
Brooke showing me how she loves her dollyThen yesterday, Brooke was downstairs watching the "Horsey Movie" (aka Tangled) and she says" Look at my gloves, Mama!" Down to the final 2 1/2 weeks of school to go! YIPEE!

Pretty Princess

Brooke is really into dressing up right now. She wants to wear a dress all the time. When she gets one on she'll say "Oh, that's cute!" She is also really good about getting her hair done (although you can't tell most of the time because her hair is a disaster) but every morning she stands patiently on her stool in the bathroom while I brush her hair and (when I'm feeling adventurous) decide to actually try and style it.

Brooke found this dress in a box that we got from her cousins and she is in love with it. No other dress can compare to it and since I only let her wear it around the house, when we come home she immediately takes off her other clothes and wants to put this dress on. When bedtime came she was in tears, sobbing because she didn't want to take this dress off. I've actually hidden it, so we can have a break from this dress for a few days.And isn't this the cutest face ever! I have been wanting to write this story down for a while, but keep forgetting: Over Easter weekend Brooke and Blake were outside and Blake heard a rustling sound in the bushes. Blake says "What's that?....Oh it's just the stupid cat!" Brooke now thinks the cat's name is "Stupid Cat" She says "Where's the stupid cat?" or "Come here stupid cat!" We have been trying to break her of this habit and now call it the "brown cat".

This morning I went to get Brooke out of her crib and she had taken all of her blankets and laid them over the sides, covering up the slots in the crib. She'd created her own little fortress and was laying down hiding from me--giggling.