20 Days to Orgnaize Day 2

Day 2 was quite easy for me since I had just deep cleaned in there a couple weeks ago. So I dusted, changed the sheets, made the bed...I did vacuum the mattress and the ceiling fan.

 

 

Before

 

After

Yes that's my giant pregnancy pillow :-)

20 Days to Organize-Day 1

I started about a week ago this 20 Days to Organize that I found on another blog.

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/organising/20-days-to-organise-and-clean-your-home-challenge-pre-challenge-task-1/



 I'm 8 months pregnant and have been nesting so I figured I should use it to my advantage!

It's going quite well!

Day 1 started out in the kitchen. I had to buy a lot of cleaning supplies to get me started but it was worth it.

 

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

So our counters were pretty cluttered with things we didn't use everyday, like coffee and cappuccino makers, so that all went down below.

 

 

Underneath the kitchen sink has always been a waste of space, I've never used it except to throw things that didn't really have a place. But that has all changed.

 

 

 

It was about time to wipe down the cabinet doors too. There was a significant amount of dust collected on the bottom corners of the trim. It wasn't easy to get the corners, I had to use a toothpick, ugh.

 

 

 

 

Day 1 complete! It feels good to accomplish such a big project in one day, now I just have to keep it up.

 

 

Fall Fun

Spent the day with my friend Heather's kids. Her daughter Elise and I had fun putting baby Joshua in a pumpkin. He is a fantastic little model.

Vacation

Home Sweet Home! Just got home from a vacation in Virginia to visit family, and it was fantastic! 

We stayed with Matt's Brother Seth and his wife Melissa for a few days and then with Matt's sister Sarah and her Husband Matt.

This was really our first vacation together ever! Can you believe that?? We don't vacation well, we even came home early from our honeymoon because we missed our family that came into town for our wedding. 

But, it was the perfect vacation. 

It was an awful over night plane ride out from California, and within hours of arriving at Seth and Melissa's, Seth (and his son Carter) took us flying, which was a BLAST by the way. You see my brother-in-law is a PILOT and has a little 4 seater plane, which I'm sure I'll get flack for for not knowing the name :-p, but it was so fun, if only i didn't feel so queasy from our red eye flight and two hour drive earlier that day!

(Carter)

That night Seth and Melissa took us to a fancy shmancy sushi place at an outdoor mall and the kids probably ate more then me, they loved it! It was pretty darn good. And we had tempura avocado! 

Melissa made the BEST apple pie while we were out flying. The best I think I've ever had.

It was so yummy that I'm going to try to steal her recipe.

Then Sunday we went to church, and then Outback Steak house, so yummy! Best raspberry cheesecake ever. They have a waitress that they use whenever they go, and she was super awesome too.

Being at Seth and Melissa's was such a blast, we stayed up hanging out and talking and didnt get to bed until about 2 am. We were all so tired that next day...

 

(Seth and super cuddly Hallie)

Melissa's house is super neat, everything looks like it just belongs. She also had all these neat decorative pumpkins strategically placed all over.

 

There was also a gorgeous couch that she had recently reupholstered with the help of her mom, which has really inspired me to do the same, so stay tuned!

Soon our time with Seth, Melissa, Carter, and Hallie was over and we went on to Matt and Sarah's.

 (Ester, Matt (wearing Bethlin's hat), and Sarah)

Tuesday I spent all day with Sarah waiting for kids, and spending time with Bethlin and Ester when they had gaps in their classes. They go to a Co-Op school with home-schooled kids.

  

 

(Bethlin)

Wednesday the kids did their school work in the morning and then we walked all around their property, and the kids climbed the trees like little monkeys. They basically live in the WOODS, and they've made little trails all around. The weather was so perfect, and just so incredibly pretty. 

(Here is the oldest of Matt and Sarah's kids: Juliet)

These are Ester's goats. They love her and follow her all around and come when she calls.

 

Later that evening when my brother-in-law Matt got home from work, Sarah and I got ready and the four of us went on a double date to Olive Garden. Can you believe that Matt and Sarah had NEVER been on a double date before?! Isn't that just criminal?? 

We had such a blast just talking and being silly.

 

The next day was Thursday, and Matt took the day off work, and the kids took the day off from school. Matt, Matt, and Levi went around to some gun stores, while us girls went to Goodwill and Ross.

When we came home we began preparing for dinner. We made sushi rolls and had a yummy salad with goat cheese, raisins, candied pecans, and lettuce of course.

Then sadly it was time to come home.

Crazy End to a Great Week

Man today has been quite a day so far! I guess I'll talk about the fun stuff first though.

 I made some more jam, lots of jam. I think it's coming out of my ears. 

Thursday I went to a women's bible study that I attend every week. We're going through the book 'Magnificent Obsession' by Anne Graham Lotz, and this week was two peoples' birthdays, my friends' Bonnie and Jessica. 

So we wanted to surprise both of them and told them we would be having a birthday celebration for the other one, not saying anything about their own birthdays. 

It was fun and sneaky but got more complicated as Jessica now baby sits 2 girls and can't fit the car seat in her backseat so she needed a ride to church, which was fine, I was going to drop off her cake and then come back for her. Well, the mom of the 2 girls forgot to leave the car seats and I had to go get those first, then Jessica and I didn't have any time to drop off the cake. So i wrapped it in tin foil and had Jessica basically holding her own cake, thinking it's for Bonnie!

So run around run around run around, and we get to church and are secretly passing cards to write in one to Bonnie and one to Jessica. While that's going on we're putting presents on the table, and they both add their presents for each other to the stack. 

Then we reveal our scheme and show them each their cakes and presents. Both were so surprised, as least they're good at faking it! 

Here's the two cakes

Heather made the chocolate one for Bonnie, because chocolate is DELICIOUS, and I made the "fruit" cake for Jessica because she's allergic to flour.

The cake base is watermelon and i decorated it with strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi. 

Super easy, and really delicious.

Now for today, I went to church this morning and my friend Sarah had brought me some pallets they had because I want to make a swing, (maybe you'll see in the future).

So I decided I'm going to pile them into my convertible with the top down, and it worked beautifully.

Well I pull into our cul-de-sac, decide i'm going to back the car into the drive way, and I put the car into reverse and I hear POP!!! and the car wouldn't move. So I put it in park and check the tires and it's touching the car on the front left. 

So I pretty much just broke the frame on my car, although my personal mechanic is going to check it out, and I know for sure the power steering line broke.

So...yea...good bye car. Thank the Lord it didn't happen while I was driving! That would have been really bad. 

Hope everyone else had a better day!

California Rolls

 Last night my husband and I had a small group bible study, led by a friend of ours, in our house. Seven other couples besides ourselves come over and we dig into the sermon preached by our Pastor on Sunday morning. Its great because sometimes you hear a message and go 'what?!' so this is the chance to break down the sermon and ask questions and connect with others in our congregation. 

The sermon was based on Romans 1:5-7. We talked about sin, that it is disobeying God and that we are commanded to repent. He doesn't just tell us to do this for His own benefit, but for our own good. 

There was more, lots more, but I won't type it all out for you.

Last night was the second group and we had our friends Teddy(leading the group) and Debbie over early for dinner and I made some California Rolls!

Wanna learn how?

Supplies

Bamboo mat

rice spoon(optional)

chopsticks(optional)

rice cooker (unless your totally awesome and can make rice without one)

We got these from World Market, it was like 3 bucks for a set

Ingredients

to make sushi rice:

1 cup rice
1 cup water

1 tbs sugar

1.777 tbs rice vinegar (use your best judgement)

.33 tsp salt (again best judgment)

This amount of rice will make 2 rolls

Outside is a seaweed wrap - about 3 bucks at Winco or World Market

Insides:
1 package of imitation crab (doesn't take much at all)

1 cucumber

1 avocado 

(substitute for carrot if you don't like avocados)

Optional:

my brother likes to add a hot sauce called siracha to the imitation crab to make a spicy roll

Wash your rice and put it along with the other rice ingredients in your rice cooker, set to cook, and let it sit till it sets to warm. (Why I LOVE rice cookers)

It looks dirty but it's from the rice vinegar. Be sure to mix it all up.

While its cooking slice your cucumber, cutting out the seeds.  Slice the avocado, and shred the imitation crab.

The rice will be very sticky so get a bowl or cup of water that you can use to dip your fingers in before grabbing the rice, and your knife to slice your california rolls

Wrap your bamboo mat in plastic wrap to keep it clean. Just a way to avoid extra clean up

 

 Wait for your rice to cool so you can touch it without burning yourself, and scoop a good amount onto your seaweed wrap, it's best to have your seaweed on the bamboo mat already so you don't have to pick it up and move it.

Now start pressing your rice into the wrap. Press quite hard so that it is smashed tightly together, fill the whole wrap with rice this way. you can do a thick layer of rice or a thin layer. It just depends on how thick you want your rice to be around. 

Turn the wrap over (the rice should not fall off as you turn it over, if it does you didn't push it down hard enough) and get the sliced avocado, cucumber, and imitation crab and layer it on the green side of the wrap. Use as much as you want, just keep in mind how big your roll will get.

This is where it takes practice...

Roll your mat over so it wraps the rice around your inside ingredients...

try to wrap tightly but not too tight or you'll squeeze the avocado out the sides.

Once you've rolled it all up press around the outside with the bamboo mat to shape it to be round, or you might have a california square instead of a california roll!

 

Get the knife and dip it in the water along with your fingers to hold the roll. You'll need to dip your knife and fingers after every slice cut.

Once you've sliced the roll, add your favorite sauce and enjoy!

If you find that the rice is falling off the roll, or if falls apart when you pick it up then you didn't smash the rice enough to the seaweed wrap. (it took me a couple times to realize just how mashed the rice needs to be)

Here's an example, Its falling apart because the rice wasn't smashed enough.

 

This is a great, simple way to enjoy sushi. WAY cheaper then going out for sushi. I wouldn't recommend making this for the first time when you're having guests over, give yourself some needed practice to prefect the process.

You can also substitute what goes inside your own sushi roll. I tried smoked salmon, jalapeno, cucumber and avocado and it was great. So be creative and appeal to your taste buds.

Bon Appétit!