What We Ate: 6/2 – 6/8

This week was fun because we had so much going on. My birthday was the 5th and Brian’s mom came over on Wednesday to take us out for dinner and spend the night and then my parents came over on Friday night so Brian and I could celebrate my birthday by going out by ourselves. It’s not often that we get to go out twice in one week!

Sunday
Lunch: Cheese ravioli, garlic bread, broccoli
Dinner: Ice cream, string cheese, (K) Spring Onion noodle soup from Trader Joe’s

Monday
Lunch: Black bean quesadillas
Dinner: Chuck roast in the crock pot with potatoes, carrots, and onion

Tuesday
Lunch: (B) BBQ chicken sandwich with leftover BBQ chicken, (K) leftover roast
Dinner: Baked chicken fajitas (these were awesome!)

Wednesday
Lunch: Panera (broccoli cheese soup)
Dinner: On The Border (carne asada with cilantro lime rice and veggies)

Thursday
Lunch: Leftover chicken fajitas
Dinner: Roasted asparagus, goat cheese and honey on wheat crackers, and popcorn

Friday
Lunch: A doughnut each (National Doughnut Day!), (B) Black bean quesadilla, (K) Black bean and sweet red pepper quesadilla
Dinner: Date Night! Local Italian place Mangiamo. It’s in a giant, old Victorian mansion. Brian ordered Parmesan crusted chicken with creamy red sauce and linguine and I picked slow roasted beef shoulder with mashed potatoes, broccolini, and shaved root vegetables.

Saturday
Lunch: Cousin’s son’s first birthday party (brats, wonderful baked beans, potato salad)
Dinner: (B) Tacos from my On The Border carne asada, (K) Leftover beef shoulder

What We Ate: 5/26 – 6/1

One of the things I’d like to do on this blog is record what we ate each week to make myself more aware of how I’m feeding my family. I’ve attempted making meal plans at the beginning of the week in the past but have never been able to fully commit. Maybe listing our meals after the fact will be a baby step in that direction?

In our house, breakfast is on our own since we get up at different times. The exception would be special occasions, holidays, and sometimes Sundays when I might make pancakes or oatmeal. I make Brian’s lunch about half of the time so he doesn’t have to take more time off of work during his lunch break. I also gladly trade making his lunch if he feeds Ben! Dinner is always a family activity and is becoming more so as Ben grows. We don’t usually eat at the table like real adults yet but we’re closer than we were last year!

Sunday: Reenacting

Monday
Lunch: Reenacting
Dinner: Leftover pizza and the last package of frozen cinnamon breadsticks

Tuesday
Lunch: (B) Sandwich, (K) Salad leftovers from weekend
Dinner: Homemade mac & cheese

Wednesday
Lunch: (B) Sandwich, (K) Mac & cheese leftovers
Dinner: Bean soup with ham and beer bread

Thursday
Lunch: (B) Mach & cheese leftovers, (K) Grilled sharp cheddar and spinach on sourdough
Dinner: (Friends for dinner) BBQ chicken legs and thighs, steamed green beans, Supreme pasta salad

Friday
Lunch: Leftover bean soup
Dinner: Clean out the fridge night

Saturday
Lunch: McDonalds (treat we promised ourselves if we got up early and did yard work)
Dinner: Clean out the fridge night

Washing Cloth Diapers in a Whirlpool Duet Steam

We started using cloth diapers 2 weeks after Ben was born and immediately liked them better than disposables. They contained messes better, didn’t leak, and looked fluffy and adorable on his little bum! We used prefolds and covers (PUL, fleece, and wool) exclusively for 4 weeks and started mixing in our BumGenius 4.0 diapers when Ben was 6 weeks old. We’ve been using the 4.0s ever since but have also bought 5 BumGenius All-in-Ones, which I love. Maybe I’ll get into the hows and whys of our cloth diaper routine in another post.

When we started our cloth adventure, I had an old top loading washing machine that we had gotten with the house. It worked well but wasn’t very water efficient so we knew we wanted to upgrade eventually. I found a great deal on a Whirlpool Duet Steam washer on Black Friday/Cyber Monday and couldn’t wait for it to be delivered! My washing machine is almost like another member of the family and I know it will get to be more so as our family grows.

I have always heard that you have to be careful washing cloth diapers in a high efficiency front loader because they don’t always use enough water to fully rinse out the diapers. We have been using this same series of steps to wash the diapers since we got the machine in December and haven’t had a problem with smell yet!

1. Load the diapers into wash. Set the washer to Rinse/Drain and Spin and change spin speed to low. Add 1 c. vinegar to the main wash section of the soap drawer OR 2 Tbs of Funk Rock (once a month) into the drum with the diapers. Make sure temp is set to cold (should automatically be set to cold). Timer should be set to 30 minutes. Start!

2. Set the washer to Normal/Casual. Set temp to hot, spin to high, soil level to heavy, push the buttons for presoak and extra rinse. The timer should be set to around 2 hours and 8 minutes after all the options are selected. Add an almost full scoop of Charlie’s soap OR 1.5 Tbs of Classic Rock to main wash section of soap drawer. DO NOT ADD FABRIC SOFTENER!

3. Unsnap all inserts and unfold burp cloths. Dry on heavy duty (high heat) all inserts, prefolds, burp cloths, and fitted diapers. All pocket diapers, covers and the wet bag are line dried. If the weather is warm and sunny, I bring the inserts, All-in-Ones, and pocket diapers to the back patio along with the drying rack and let them dry outside. I keep hoping that we’ll get a retractable clothes line (like this one) installed this summer.

Questions? Comments? Feel like cloth diapers are more trouble than they’re worth?

Welcome

I thought it time that I finally act on my idea of starting a blog to record some of the happenings around the Richards residence as well as share some of the things I’ve learned about running the house and family.

I’ve always been interested in the skills people attribute to homemakers. I’ve been sewing, washing laundry, cooking, crocheting, cleaning (yuck), and ordering people around for a long time. I remember being frustrated during my freshman year of college when I had to declare a major because I already knew that all I wanted from life was to be a mom and take care of my family. It took a few years to find the right guy who supported that life goal and a few years beyond that for me to be able to quit my day job but I love what I do today.

Things I am good at: Telling people what to do, remembering where things are kept, finding recipes my family will enjoy, loving my boys

Things I don’t do well: Dust the house, deal with bugs or spiders, part with any sentimental object, take out the trash in a timely manner.

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be posting here but I’m excited to start!