What lovely wonderful fall weather we are getting! Such a huge blessing! The mornings and evenings are cool enough we need to turn the heat on, but by midday it's in the 70s. Last night the kids were outside playing in the dark while their daddy was burning some trash-cool out, but not cold.
For us autumn doesn't really feel real until late October and November. I know in more northern states it might even start in September. We're still getting summer heat then!
Last week I bought some fresh fall veggies and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. Well, boy did I come up with a winner of a recipe! I don't really just love butternut squash and sweet potatoes, but when I cooked them this time I LOVED it. This is what I did:
I cubed 1/2 a medium peeled butternut squash (my veggie peeler was sharp enough to get the strong hide off it), 2 medium sweet potatoes, 2 green apples and 1 large onion. I tossed them in a large baking dish and seasoned them with dried rosemary, dried thyme, a sprinkle of cayenne, a sprinkle of nutmeg and ginger, garlic powder, salt and pepper and olive oil. I had a whole chicken that I nestled in the middle and covered the chicken with the same spices and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. THEN, I poured about 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar and 2/3c real apple cider of all of it and roasted it.
WOW!! I served it with some saffron flavored rice (yeah from a package). The veggies got slightly blackened around the edges, so I turned the temp. from 425 to 350. I cooked them for a total of about 45 minutes-1 hour. It was so good I wished I would have made it for my mom's birthday party. Which, by the way, went very well, I was just too busy to take any pictures. I made the chocolate layer cake and the girls decorated it with candy corn, candy pumpkins and 'halloween' sprinkles. (orange black and purple)
I have the rest of the squash and a sweet potato left this week, so I will either make it into a smooth and creamy soup or baby food :)
Organization
I mentioned I was working on a new binder. I will take pictures of it in a bit. I just bought a little skinny one and built like the control journals on the Fly Lady website. Basically all I have in there now are my daily routines, a weekly plan, a few things about cleaning and my girls' daily routines and my menu plans/master grocery list.
It's helped me out a lot.
The Weekly Plan is like this:
Monday- some cleaning (vacuum, dust, sweep and mop) and laundry (clothes from the weekend, sheets if I can manage it) Plus just regain the house from the crazy weekend.
Tuesday- Projects, towel laundry and whatever else needs washing. Today I have lots of towels and I MUST wash my clothes. A project would be sewing, decluttering something, decorating something, deep cleaning...Today I plan to cut out some fleece into a cape/poncho for Leiah. Should be quick to sew, and she needs a jacket!
Wednesday- Errands/shopping; wash diapers
you know, groceries, library etc. However tomorrow is the pumpkin patch field trip with the girls' school, so I'm going to that and will try to do my grocery shopping tonight.
Thursday- food preps : baking bread and granola and whatever else, soaking beans, grains etc., culturing kefir and kombucha, maybe cooking some meat for the freezer, washing produce....and possibly clean something in the kitchen like the microwave, bleach the sinke etc. (since it's white)
Friday- more cleaning and laundry- windex screens and mirrors, bathrooms, change trash, febreeze furniture and finish up the laundry for the week. (except more diapers on Saturday)
Yesterday I was able to do all my day's tasks and my routines pretty well, without feeling overwhelmed and overworked and my head wasn't spinning with all that needed doing. I didn't have to worry about baking because that is scheduled on Thursday and if I need something before then, then I have license to buy it :)
Of course I will rearrange things as needed, but it really helps me a lot to have a set day for certain things. It's not so jumbled up in my head. Also, my daily routines aren't set in stone. For example, in the morning this is on my list of things to do:
make bed and tidy room
wipe down bathroom
(get dressed of course)
begin laundry
unload dishwasher
make breakfast and lunches
However, this morning went something like this: Matt wakes me up telling me it's 7 am (Samantha got way off schedule yesterday and woke up at 3:30 to eat and then stayed awake awhile). I get out of bed, barely conscious and make lunches. Then I fix the girls' hair, make a pot of coffee, make Samantha's bottle (must stay on schedule today!) and feed her. Then I change her diaper, tidy up a bit, make myself some breakfast and sit down at the computer. My bed is not made, my room is not tidied, the washing machine isn't going yet and I am not dressed! As long as I get to it by 11am, that's still considered morning :)
I have an afternoon routine in which I put away laundry, make sure the dishwasher is started so I can unload it for dinner, make snacks, check the girls' folders when they get home, start dinner and clean up etc.
My before bed routine includes tidying the house, finishing dishes and cleaning the sink, prepping for breakfast and next day's dinner, prepare bottles and set out clothes, take bath/shower etc.
Last night I forgot to turn the dishwasher on, and there were a few things not put away or bottles made (dh needed some quality time with me, so those got put aside) but overall I did everything else. And the main thing, it wasn't HARD! I don't know about you all, but the time between dinner and girls' bedtime can be a real challenge. My energy is lower, the baby is usually a little cranky, the kids needs baths and to clean up their messes and they're tired and don't want to. My husband is usually wiped out too, yet we both gotta keep going. Hopefully this will change soon as I create chore charts for the girls' so they can keep track of what needs doing and if they get stickers for doing it, they'll be excited! I also learned something new about boosting energy for us that I'll blog about soon.
So, things are coming together a bit better. Samantha is adorable is you can see on the video, but I still get a bit stressed about the feedings. I'm going to keep her on the medication until her well baby check up next week. Hopefully the doctor will listen to me then and we can figure out if she even needs the medicine.
Time to go and do what I'm talking about :)
your recipe sounds like a winner, im gonna try it. ive been trying to keep on schedual myself, sometimes it looks so overwhelming that its painful to try and start, but once i do, it really takes a short while. ive been trying to time myself, especially with silly things like picking up the toys, it looks much worse than it actually turns out to be. i looked at the laundry pile today and almost cried, as ive been sick w/ a nasty cold, and havent done anything but the basics. but i guess the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, lol, so i must forge on!
ReplyDeleteOh, is it fall? We had a few cold days, but other than that, we're still running the A/C. In fact, it just now cut off, LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt was in the mid 90s yesterday, and today it's in the high 80s. Coming off of 110+ degree summer days, so I guess it is cooling down. :-)