Domestic Goals

The past few months I finally got ALL of my energy back. Yes it has been eight months since I had Adalyn, but I was nursing and that also takes energy. When she was about six months I REALLY felt good, I had a routine, and my brain was back. (amazing how much those sweet little ones take out of you). Or then again maybe it was the move and buying a house that took a lot out of me...hmmm... I guess I will never know, but either way my energy came back! So I decided to start setting some goals (more than just "make dinner tonight", that SERIOUSLY was my only goal the first few months it was what kept me going). Most of my goals revolved around homemaking skills with the exception of learning the piano that one was my attempt at fixing my biggest regret from my childhood. Thanks to Pinterest(are we all tired of hearing about that site yet? Honestly I sort of am, but it is SO helpful so I keep using it even if it is ALL over blogland) and talking with a few friends I began a list of things that I wanted to try. But instead of trying to do them ALL at once I broke them down and only focused on one a month. Because as much as all of us women want to be *perfect* at everything we really can only have one or two goals at a time. When I start to get jealous of others because I see how well they are doing at something I remind myself that that is what they are focusing on right now.

I started out with updating our 72 hour kits (added diapers). I have had this intense desire to get prepared for emergencies. I don't always do everything that I should but it is definitely always in the back of my mind. We are always striving to build up our food storage. With some of our tax money we bought beans, rice, and oats in bulk. We eventually want to have enough of the basics for each person that we could "survive" for a year. Surprisingly that is a TON of food. I can't remember exact figures but this website breaks it down per person and even gives you some basic meal ideas to use the food storage with.

Another month I focused on our computer stuff like pictures and videos. I would be DEVASTATED if I lost all of our pictures that are stored on our computer. Adalyn grows too quickly and I already LOVE looking at pictures from when she was a newborn, so precious. Unfortunately I didn't completely finish this project... All I have done is backed up all of our important files onto an external hard drive that I got McKay for Christmas a few years ago on Black Friday. To finish it up (maybe this post will motivate me)I want to put all of the really important pictures and documents on a jump drive to give to my mom or another close relative to keep at their house in case we have a house fire and loose everything. I also want another jump drive with all of the same information in our 72 hour kits to take with us in an emergency. What do you think too paranoid? Probably, but that is ok.

Next on the agenda was creating menu plans. In the beginning I planned to just make two months worth of menus complete with grocery lists and rotate those back and forth. We did that for a couple months and I honestly LOVED it. I have no idea why I didn't do it sooner! Crazy that this is such a novel concept for me :) It was wonderful to be able to just grab my list and go to the store and I had meals for a whole month. (no planning for hours before) Some months I would even buy extras of the shelf ingredients so on the tighter months I didn't have to spend as much money. Today we still use those two menus but i think that I am going to make a few more to give even more variety. I have found so many yummy dinners on Pinterest and blogs so it is fun to try those out. One of my favorite recipe blogs is Six Sisters Stuff (yummy and most of them are fairly easy, we especially love the enchilada pasta)

Last month I focused on making homemade whole wheat bread. I love that it is more filling, less expensive, and tastes better than store bought. It wouldn't be worth it to everyone to make it every week because it is A LOT of work and honestly before this point it wasn't worth it to me but right now is a good time in our lives to make it a habit. I have the time and I really like saving the money. The recipe is my mom's and she definitely still makes it better than me, but I have high hopes that it will eventually be as good as hers. McKay just said today that he could live off of my homemade bread so I hope that is a good sign that I am figuring it out.

This month I made homemade black beans in the crock pot. It was really easy and is healthier and cheaper than the ones out of the cans. You just cook them and freeze them. I got the recipe from here (this lady used her crock pot every day for a whole year!). I will definitely be doing this again!

Next month I am planning on making that homemade laundry soap that everyone is going crazy over. It sounds SUPER easy and I have only heard good reviews about it. We already have to use All free and clear liquid soap because I have really sensitive skin (and it is better for a baby to not have perfumes) so it will be nice to have a cheaper version that still doesn't have all the perfumes and dyes. Here is one tutorial of it, but there are tons everywhere and I think they are all pretty similar.

Later I will hopefully try freezer jam (somebody clue me in on when strawberries go on sale!) Homemade bread will taste even better with homemade jam! Well that is all for now. If anyone has any other cool domestic tricks or things (I am still very new at all of this stuff) that you think I should try I am all ears! Have a wonderful night/week!