Soup's On

Check this out! Soup's on! I know I wanted to post about power bowls. I will I promise! It started to rain here and get cooler. I have been wanting to make a hearty soup. I've been searching and searching. I haven't found the exact one yet. I want a little bit of beef stew and French onion but beef or mushroom barley. It all started with this mushroom barely soup I had. I licked the bowl, it was amazing.

This is a beef and barely soup in the slow cooker. They are instructions for stove top from the link I got this from.

I will say I will be tweaking these steps slightly. The barley needs at least 2 hours to cook. There wasn't clear directions. It said to simmer for 1 hour, so I turned it back on and let it cook for one hour. I tried it and it was still crunchy. We had take out for dinner ha! I put it on high for 2 hours and that did the trick. So if you're going to be putting this in the slow cooker I recommend at hour 5 you put the barely in.

Ingredients

2 pounds stew meat (the more marble the better)
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups of water
3 heaping tablespoons of better than bullion
2 sweet onions chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1 cup barely rinsed
3 carrots shredded (to be put in the last hour)
1 russet potatoe shredded (to be put in the last hour

Instructions

Salt and pepper the stew meat. Add oil to pan and heat at medium high. In small batches (I have a Dutch oven did mine in 2 batches) brown meat in thirds so there isn't crowding. When all the meat is browned put it back in the pot and add 2 cups of water. Bring water to a boil, stir to get all of the delicious browned bits. Pour the beef and water plus the remaining 6 cups into the slow cooker. Add the celery, onions and garlic. Set on low for 8 hours. At hour 6 is when I would put the barley in. At hour 7 add the shredded carrots and potatoes cook for 1 more hour, hopefully this will turn out great! The flavors are so yummy and it smells so wonderful all day long. My husband and I had ad to try some so we had a late night bowl. We had ours with garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Who Would Have Guessed?!?!

Part Montessori/Part Organization/Part Distraction - this actually works to keep Micah away from the electronics behind and helps keep my living room tidy!!

So it turns out that the best way to help me keep my house clean was to have a child!!  I have struggled with keeping all the parts of my house clean, on a daily basis, somewhere around forever.  I have never been able to do it for more than 2 weeks at a time before something falls off the wagon (usually the kitchen), and once one part goes it all seems to go!  Then I'm back to messes everywhere and no willpower to keep it clean! 😶

I definitely struggled with this problem the first 6 months after having Micah, but can you guess what happened to make the change??  He started crawling, and all of a sudden I couldn't ignore the messiness because he was all over it...oh, you don't want me to put all the shoes by the door in my mouth, pull all the laundry off the couch or play with the garbage bag...😫

So, I had no choice but to start cleaning and picking things up on a daily basis (well, almost daily)!!  I also decided I wanted to teach Micah to be tidy and pick up after himself, but it would lack conviction if I didn't practice those skills myself.  The third thing that prompted my tidiness was an introduction to the world of stickers in planners!  I talk all about my new addiction on a different blog Mommy Needs A Plan (created so I don't overload this blog with planner stuff).  I love using my planner and it really helps me get things done!  I may do a post here or there about it, just because I love using it!

I have managed to keep my kitchen and living room clean and keep up with the laundry (washing, folding and putting away) for about a month now.   This might not seem to be that long,  but sadly it's kind of a record for me!  I have found that it is easier for me to do almost all of the cleaning right after I put Micah to bed (dishes, wiping counters, vacuuming, ect).  I do run laundry throughout the day and fold as possible but my helper is not so helpful,  so I do what I can.   I also put all of Micah's toys away with him.   Obviously he doesn't help with that yet either,  but he will hopefully learn that cleaning them up is part of our bedtime routine.

Every night I try to incorporate just a little bit more of the house into my routine.  As each area gets easier to clean on a daily basis it gets faster to finish, giving me more time to clean somewhere else.  Does this mean I have done dishes at 2am?  Yep, but I was determined to keep the kitchen clean and now I don't need more than 30ish minutes to tidy the entire kitchen each night - including the dishes.  My plan is to eventually spend no more than an hour every night to keep my house looking good 😎

Some of you are probably horrified by the thought of staying up just to clean, but I'm a night owl.  If I go to bed before 1am, I'm probably sick lol.  Cleaning before bed actually helps me sleep,  and having an almost 7mo helps too (not as much as you might assume though lol) 😅.  This weird routine actually works great for us.  It leaves me with the majority of my day to spend with Micah, which he demands anyways,  and I don't feel the stress to get housework done all day!! 👍

Here is what my living room looks like this morning...

It's 8:56 am - I swear!

I would show you the kitchen but I don't  want to spoil the surprise...😘  See you next week!

Have a great day!!
Beth

Felicia's Journey

Hi Everyone!

I'm so glad we are back at it again. I've missed blogging and I have been Pinning as if it's going out of style! 

Though we all took a break, life still goes on. I had a huge lifestyle change over the summer. My husband and I decided to talk with a friend who transformed his life and learn what to do.  We did what he said, got a calorie goal number and started off with 500 calories less than that. Just changing our food we have both lost 30 + pounds. I feel really good, of course as I'm still going to keep at this. We have both gave into cravings, which you must do, the point is to get back to eating healthier. What we learned though is that we felt awful after eating our cheat food. Not guilty but down, our bodies were talking to us, making groans. I'm finding it's pretty easy to choose well. My latest obsession is power bowls. Jamie and I have been making them. They are insanely good. I love food, anyone who knows me knows that I love food. Well I hope that with my future post you too will fall in love with healthy food. 

You may wonder how we came to wanting this lifestyle change. We decided to start after our summer cruise. You've heard it before. I'll start on Monday, after the holidays. Well I've had enough I really wanted to start, my husband has even taken a break but I kept on it and I'm so happy I did. I caught up to him. He was over 30 lbs and I wasn't there yet. I know when he recommits he will loose faster than me. I was really worried about being on the cruise and gaining a bunch. I didn't, that ship was so big I walked a lot and maintained. Good to know right. Walking really does help. That is my next step. I feel pretty good, not as tired as before so now I'm ready to get back to the gym and kick this into high gear.

Our trip this summer was one we will never forget. I'm so blessed to have friends that took us, my son still talks about it. I remember my travels with my family that's what I wanted for him too. I never had a passport as a kid, didn't need one to travel to Canada. He does, that just makes me so happy that when we want to we can plan another trip anywhere. We really can now, not much stops us these days. He is down to one therapy. Which is huge! He is an awesome kid, it's amazing how much he knows. I love how he can carry a conversation and his thought process is so great. He comprehends a lot now. I just was thinking about that the other day. I wish he could pass school work by having a conversation instead of writing it down. We are always working on stuff to improve ourselves. This is just one of them.

I can go on and on! I've missed you all. See you next week with a power bowl recipe! Who knows I might post one later I might not wait!

Oh here is a picture of Hubbard Glacier....

Let's Start With the Best Thing Ever

It took me a while to figure out what my first post should be about...there are just so many things I want to write about!!

However,  I'm pretty sure everyone is most excited to hear about Micah 😊 I mean,  who wouldn't want to hear all about the most adorable baby ever...oh wait, that's probably just me 😂 but he is seriously cute!

I have so many pictures with this expression Lol

Micah is already 6 mo + 3 weeks!!  That seems like it flew by 😓.  He was born at 6:50pm on Saturday, March 26th (the day before Easter), after 21-ish hours of labor.  I'll probably do a post about that separately, mostly because if a new mom-to-be is searching for stories about labor I want her to be able to find it 😉.  I read so many and I still had a completely different labor than any I read about.  So anyways, long labor with lots of support from everyone waiting FOREVER!  Things didn't go as planned,  but it was still a positive experience with an awesome ending.  Micah was 8lbs 2ounces and 20" long, and he had an epic amount of hair!!

The first few weeks were tough with a huge learning curve,  the last few months were a lot of work but a lot of fun too!  Seeing Micah grow and learn every day is so neat, and figuring out what works and what doesn't for our family.  Instead of rambling on forever (because I easily could), I made a list of things to share...

10 Things About Micah at 6 Months:

1) He weighed 17.5 lbs and was 27" at his 6 mo check up - and he has definitely grown since then.

Micah and Zoe (She's almost 5 and on the petite side)

2) He is already wearing some 12mo clothes!  Partially because he wears cloth diapers, but also some of his 6 mo clothes are just too tight already.

These are supposed to be 12mo pajamas 😅

3) He loves books.  He likes to look at them, chew on them, pet them and have them read to him.  He will play with them on his own,  especially ones that have pictures of real things.  His favorite book is Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and it has been since I started reading to him around 8 weeks.

This was taken when he was 3 1/2mo's 😍

4) He is a mover.  He has needed to be in motion from the first week, but his favorite thing was to rock (I'm pretty sure crawling is now his favorite).  I have put a lot of miles on my rocking chair, thankfully it is pretty comfortable!  He even moves in his sleep - he waves his arm around when he is sleeping.

Just chillin'

5) He is always working towards learning the next thing.  For example, the same day he officially crawled for the first time (hands and knees, not scooting) - he immediately started trying to walk on his hands and feet.  This kid doesn't take a break 😅 I get exhausted just watching him work so hard at everything! Lol

He loves this dump truck,  and recently figured out how to push and pull it. 

6) He officially started crawling on his 1/2 birthday!!! 😂 He hasn't stopped since!  I'm equally proud and terrified...

Good thing I cleaned back there!

7) His favorite foods so far are zucchini and yogurt.  He has tried bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, egg yolks, carrots, toast with butter and organic teething cookies - and he likes all of it.  We do a modified version of Baby Led Weaning, which I'll do a post about soon.

Not too bad since he did 95% of the work himself (I just put it on the spoon and gave it to him).

8) He hates using a bottle, especially if we are at home.  The only time he takes one without complaint is in the car, if we have been out and he didn't eat.  The best option I've found is a silicon squeeze bottle (This one), it will do liquids or food, and he seems to like it.

I think he likes that he can drink from it without tipping his head back...and he can chew on it 😆

9) He loves singing.  He likes it when I sing to him, but he also really enjoys watching Mother Goose Club on Youtube.  This is a great distraction when I need to fold laundry or start dinner, or he is just having a hard day and we both need a break.  It also really helped when I was sick!

Books and a song about a train...what else do you need?

10) He loves to talk.  He will spend all day babbling.  The one that makes me laugh the most is his 'I'm learning something' cry - seriously he will whine/cry when he's learning something new.  He did this for hours when he was learning to crawl.

He just learned he could crawl between the wall and his high chair and he whined the whole time Lol

So there you go, ten things about Micah!  He is so much fun to hang out with every day, and I am so lucky that it is possible for me to do just that!  

Have a great day! 

Beth

On The Blog Again...

I hope you read that and sang it in Willie Nelson's voice ( you're welcome 😂).

So it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I have posted anything - pregnancy kicked my butt and then I had a new baby...and so on.  Now that Micah is a little over 6 months old, I feel like I can maybe make this happen again on a regular basis.  

After talking with Felicia and Jamie, we decided we all missed blogging and will be contributing as we each can.  I am excited, and isn't it a little convenient that it is just before the holidays?!!  I have so many ideas and projects planned!!  Plus now I have mommy stuff to talk about...

Today, I am just here to say hi...soo...HI 😀😄😆😊😘🤗 We missed you and we're excited to start sharing again!!

Have a great day!

Beth

PS - just in case you didn't get my reference https://youtu.be/bOamLKAb-g8