a month's worth of organization

As you know I've gotten pretty good at planning meals a week in advance--coming up with a menu and grocery list on Mondays, doing the shopping, and then doing the whole process again the next week. I like having everything on hand to do all the cooking for the week and while I usually have to do one random trip to a store later in the week for something I forgot, it's worked pretty well. I don't feel like our food budget is any smaller though, by doing this planning, and I think it's because I can't really shop sales and store anything. It's cheaper buying some things in bulk, and it's cheaper buying a couple of a much-used item when they are on sale, but I had no where to store anything, so I couldn't do that. Until this week =)

Thanks to my spurt of organizational energy on Tuesday, I was able to create enough "pantry space" to allow this to happen. I decided to put in some time Tuesday night and create a menu for the next 4 weeks, from now until we leave for Christmas break. Then I made a grocery list for the month--one section was stuff I was going to use several times that I could buy at Costco (shredded cheese--which freezes pretty well in plastic baggies by the way, chicken breasts, ground beef, tortillas--which also freeze if you defrost them in the fridge before you use them etc). One section of the list was stuff I would buy at a normal grocery store because I only needed a couple of each item, not a costco sized amount, but they were things I could buy all at once so I wouldn't have to go back each week. And then I made a smaller grocery list for each week of perishables. I figured out what produce my recipes for that week would call for and put them under that week's heading. So yesterday I borrowed the Costco card that Fuller has available to students and went to see what I could find. I did great--didn't buy anything that wasn't on my original list and managed to get all the staples I needed for a month's worth of meals for $120. A quick trip to Albertsons on the way home where I spent another $20 on some canned staples and my kitchen is now stocked with everything I need for the next month! I am VERY proud of myself for doing so much advanced planning and am super excited to see how this works out. I'll have to replace things like milk, lunch meat, and produce each week, but at our local farmer's market I can do all that for about $15 a week.

One of the things I did was choose a few main recipes that I'll repeat thorughout the month because that way I could buy the ingredients all at once and know that I'll go through them. So for instance, this next month we're doing Chili twice, Chicken Azteca twice, Enchilada Casserole twice, and a pesto chicken pasta twice. Then each week I'll substitute in a couple different homemade salad recipes for variety. I was talking with a friend about how it really is cheaper if you have a set repertoire of meals that you remake a lot, so you can buy ingredients in bulk, but I was saying that I couldn't commit to that quite yet, I'm enjoying experimenting and playing too much! So I at least figured that I could commit to a set of meals for a month, and then next month will pick a few other meals to make my "staples" for that month so I still have enough variety to keep me interested in cooking but will re-make the recipes to help with the grocery budget :) I spent part of my time at Megan's last weekend copying recipes out of her amazing salad recipe book, a HUGE book of all salads and homemade dressings, so I am VERY excited to mix some of those in with our staple meals--especially because produce is so cheap for us!

I'll keep ya posted to see how it goes, but I am pretty darn proud of myself this week :)

Mom would be proud!

So I realized something today. When we moved in back in March, we only had a couple days before classes started, so we unpacked so quickly, not really thinking through where everything was going, just getting stuff put in cupboards and getting boxes out of the apartment. Which meant that pretty much nothing has been organized for the last 8 months. And for some reason I woke up this morning and decided I had had it. It was time to re-do the apartment cupboards. So my day started with a trip to the Container Store (a dangerous place!) where I bought some shelf expanders, baskets, bins, and a wrapping paper container for all the gift wrapping supplies that were EVERYWHERE! As embarrassed as I am about the previous state of my cupboards I even took before and after photos and am quite proud of my full day's work! Chuck loves the transformation (although was probably a bit concerned when I started pulling everything off every shelf in the house!). And I realized we have WAY more space than I thought and things feel much less cluttered and cramped in our little home!

See, Mom, you would be proud :)

Before:
Cupboard #1--yes that shelf does have a VERY random assortment of well...mismatched stuff on it...

The broom cupboard...no idea why there is a pile of grocery bags in here, or random rolls of wrapping paper...our vacuum didn't even fit in here, it sat in the hallway for the last 8 months.Why yes, that is a box of wine glasses from our wedding that we had no place for in the kitchen, an ice bucket and our extra towels and blankets all on one shelf--thanks for asking! And it totally makes sense to have a board game on the same shelf as bath towels...right?And cupboard #4, yes that is a huge pile of light bulbs on the top shelf and nothing but a table runner on the bottom shelf. Logical, I know.The other problem is that our kitchen cupboards are such strange sizes that we had zero food storage. This was literally the only food storage we had. Which meant I had to go to the grocery store a bunch and couldn't buy several cans of something when they were on sale because I had no where to store anything.Our broom closet afterwards...the vacuum now has a home! And all our gift wrapping supplies are now in a tub under our bed consolidated into one location.The light bulb cupboard turned into our game cupboardCupboard #1, after--I even managed to create TWO different pantry shelves which totally opened up our kitchen cupboardsCupboard #2 after--another pantry shelf, all our cleaning supplies organized into bins, and our tool shelf looking much better!What used to be our food cupboard now houses our wine glasses that were still in their box.My favorite purchase of the day was a spice rack with empty spice jars which we filled. When we got married we realized we had two of many spices, all about 1/2 full, but we never took the time to consolidate them. Chuck helped with this project and we now have a beautiful, alphabetized, labeled spice rack which makes me SO happy!Hooray for a day of productivity!

heaven on earth

I know most of you have already seen my pictures from this weekend's trip back east on facebook, but in case you hadn't (or in case you needed to see them again, because they are SO precious!) here is our weekend in a nutshell :)

I absolutely fell in love with my niece. Lily is perfect, absolutely perfect, the most precious baby I have ever met. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I don't think so...:) It was pretty crazy meeting her, knowing that this is probably the only baby I've ever held that I am guaranteed to get to be a part of her life forever. I'll get to be at her baptism in February, her graduations, her wedding, holidays, hopefully some birthdays. It was SO cool knowing that I am not in her life just for a season, but that she really is part of us. She was wide awake one night at 4 in the morning and I was up with her and we were rocking in the glider chatting. I was telling her how incredibly beautiful she was, how she was created absolutely perfectly, and how when she is 14, I will still tell her that but she won't believe me...but that's okay because I'll keep telling her that until she does believe me again one day. And I got to pray over her in the wee hours of the morning as the rest of the world slept. As tired as I was, when I would hear her start to fuss at 3 in the morning and got up to get her, I couldn't be angry. She is so little, and so helpless, and such a little bundle of sweetness that picking her up and watching her snuggle down into my arms and calm down was incredible. I get to see her again on December 23 and I'm already counting down the days!

Our first meeting, she was very enthusiastic, clearly!See my mittens! They don't stay on very well because I move too much but they keep my fingers warm while they are on!This is what we did all weekend, we bounced on the ball with Taylor (the puppy) underfoot. Lily LOVES the bouncing!Bath time!The Backman zoo--Anna, Dorothy and Taylor. Don't get out of your chair, you'll loose it!Hanging out with mommy and TaylorWhat she looked like when we took her out of the baby carrier I had her in on our walk. Sleeping, limp baby!My favorite moment of the weekend, she slept like this on top of me for 2.5 hours Sunday night, it was amazing!

College & Young Adult Camping Trip

This past weekend we headed down to San Clemente State Beach for an overnight camping trip with about 13 other young adults in the church. It was a very relaxing time of walking on the beach, playing games around a campfire, reading, journaling, and just hanging out :) It was absolutely gorgeous, the perfect camping weather--cool in the morning and evening and warm in the afternoons.

Setting up campChecking out the beach from the cliffs aboveHeading down the trail to the almost deserted beach!Plenty of space for reading and journaling aloneRoasting hot dogs over the fire for dinner

Menu Planning Monday!

Monday: Dinner with friends to celebrate Jenn's new job!

Tuesday: Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Wednesday: Dinner with the youth--parent meeting & pizza party, so free dinner :)

Thursday: Crock Pot Lasagna

Friday: I'm flying off to Providence! Chuck's on his own...he's requested ingredients to make his signature chicken, pasta, veggie, pesto dish while I'm gone so between that and the left over lasagna, he will be fed :)

Be back late Monday night!

7 Quick Takes Friday

Happy November everyone! It is tough to believe that Thanksgiving is already around the corner and I'm starting to think about Christmas presents! Here's the latest from the life of Sarah :)

**1**
Chuck survived his crazy week--he had a big paper due on Thursday and he had a big family systems paper due on Monday, and he managed to get both finished and turned in so I know he is grateful for that. He was definitely in a great mood Wednesday night after he printed that final paper!

**2**
After youth group Wed. night we watched Bridge to Terabithia, a movie based on one of my very favorite children's novels. I've loved the book since 4th grade and I still do :) The movie was pretty good, of course as all book lovers are practically required to say, "it wasn't as good as the book!" Chuck had never heard of the book and he said he enjoyed the story. It definitely sparks the imagination!

**3**
We're heading out with the college and young adult group from church in a couple hours to head down to San Clemente for an overnight camping trip. We'll be coming back tomorrow evening and are hoping for a relaxing time of hiking, reading, hanging out and of course, since it is a beach camping trip, the boys are ready for some surfing...

**4**
Next Friday I will be on an airplane headed to Rhode Island! I can't wait to be there, to hold Lily, and to help Megan out a bit with some of the night shifts. I think they're doing 1 bottle of overnight so someone else can feed Lily and Megan can sleep for a little longer stretch of time. So I know my mom was doing the middle of the night feeding while she was there. She left on Wednesday after being there for 3 weeks, and I know she's glad to be home but said it's tough too, wanting to be there to help.

**5**
and I know this is lame, but you only get those 4 today...I gotta get moving and well, I can't think of anything else that happened this week off the top of my head :)

kitchen tip of the century!

So if you are like me, then you LOVE pomegranate seeds. I do. I really really do--its one of my favorite fall flavors. BUT, seeding a pomegranate is an absolute mess, and very time consuming, so I rarely take the time to buy one and seed it. But the farmers market next to us had them for $.80 which really can't be beat, so I bought one and then sat and thought about how to make this a much less messy process. Google came to my rescue and what I learned (and then tested myself) was way too good not to share! SO, if you want to seed a pomegranate without staining everything in your kitchen follow these four super easy steps.

1. Put a small incision in the pomegranate.
2. Fill a mixing bowl full of cold water and submerge the pomegranate. Use your fingers (or a knife) to pull the pomegranate apart.
3. Use your hands to remove the seeds and let them settle on the bottom of the bowl. Because the pomegranate is under water, no juice will squirt anywhere.
4. When the pomegranate is seeded, pour the bowl of water with seeds through a strainer and voila! A strainer full of clean, ready to eat pomegranate seeds with NO mess!