A Little Home Maintenance

I am one of those people that gets and idea and thinks I must execute it right now, or it doesn't tend to happen. That would be why I was scrubbing my washing machine at 5 am this morning. (Obviously, I'm feeling better from the flu, altho I sound pretty bad).

When I took a load of laundry out of the dryer last night there were grease looking spots on nearly every piece of clothing. This has happened over the years, and sometimes I thought it was the laundry soap, other times the dryer, sometimes I blamed the washing machine.  I looked in my washing machine and around the rim was pretty gunky looking. I decided to clean the machine.  I have a top loading washing machine, and have no advice for a front loader.

To do this I do the following: 

1. Run the hottest longest biggest cycle with just water and 1 quart of bleach.  Leave the lid open so it doesn't rinse and let it set for about 2 hours, or in my case over night.

2. I put on gloves then use the bleach water and a magic eraser to scrub a dub all the areas I can.

3. close the lid and let it finish the wash/rinse cycle

Next I repeat these step except I use vinegar instead of bleach with the hottest, longest, biggest load cycle and I used a gallon of vinegar, but really a quart will do. I took apart my fabric softener dispenser from the agitator and let it soak down in the water once it was done agitating as well. 

Again, let it sit for a couple hours.   I then went in with blue scratch pad and scrubbed all the areas.  

Then let it finish out the cycle. 

While the washing machine was finishing the rinse cycle I took the opportunity to use the rag soaked with vinegar water to wipe down the outside of my washing machine and dryer.  

While wiping down the dryer I thought about how it isn't drying as well any longer, and figure I need to clean out the lint trap.

So I took the dryer apart and used a dryer lint brush (I don't know what it's really called) and went to town cleaning out the door.

That is the brush next to the pile of lint from the door.

Seriously, all that was in the door.  I would like to add I clean my lint filter after every single load. 

After putting all that in the trash. I vacuumed out any little bits of lint, then put the front panel back on my dryer. 

While doing all this cleaning I decided I should go ahead and wash the lint trap filter. 

Did you know fabric softener will build up on it making a film that will hold water.  It wasn't too bad but it did hold some water. I used dishsoap and a soft brush to scrub a dub it, rinsed it well then dried it off with a paper towel. 

Water didn't stand after its washing. Which also means air will flow thru it better. 

I did take a look at the dryer vent hose and think I'll be having my hubs change that out. We have clear hose and it is looking pretty full of lint.  I am not interested in a dryer fire, so this is an important step.  

It didn't take long or much effort to any of this, maybe 30 minutes to clean out the dryer, altho I have done this several times, I do think the first time takes a bit longer.  

Cleaning the washing machine should take care of the spots that have been happening, and hopefully the dryer will be more efficient.  

Just a little bit of time to make things work better and last longer. 

I'm gonna go rest now!  ha ha !

Have a blessed day!

Influenza

I have the flu, so it's going to be a few days of rest for me.

As soon as I am feeling up to it, I will be grinding my wheat berries and making bread.

Guess I'm getting an extended lesson in patience, and some forced rest.

Have a blessed day!

Chocolate chip cookies

I made up a batch of chocolate chip barley cookies. I ground fresh barley for the flour. They are soft and delicious. I actually didn't have enough chocolate chips so I added some dairy free butterscotch chips as well.

They obviously are not exactly like your usually chocolate chip cookie, but so good.

Have a blessed day!

Being Patient

If you know me at all, you would know that when I decide to make a change, or start something new I go all in immediately. I do mean IMMEDIATELY! This is going to sound sad, particularly for people (like my husband) who research and deliberate on the decisions around something new for a long long time, but I am super proud of myself that I have made it a whole week without ordering a grain mill.  I have spent hours watching and reading reviews, and for the first time in my life I can't decide which one I want, although I want one right now!  To ease this "I need it now so I can make our family healthier" desire I have, I am super thankful my in-laws had an electric mill in their basement. It's a Magic Mill, and while it is not one of the mills I'm looking into purchasing, it will grind wheat and let me get started. Well, as soon as I get my hands on some wheat berries.

If you are curious about learning more about grinding your own wheat, I was recommended The Bread Beckers and they have testimonials, and videos and lots of information.  They even do classes, which they have recorded. I love that! I am glad this website was recommended to me.  I have also read and watched lots of other information from other places as well.

I don't know if this mill will do this, but the 2 mills I'm looking at, the wondermill and the nutrimill both will grind wheat, but also rice, beans, corn, and other grains as well.  Also, you can grind popcorn into cornmeal. I think this is fantastic. I know first hand how delicious fresh ground cornmeal is, and I'm excited to try that out.  I just used the last of my cornmeal last week.

If I'm being super honest, I wanted to take off on a short road trip Friday and get my wheat berries so I could get started, but there were things around my home that needed attending too, and it was snowing and the roads were slick, so I searched online for a good deal and will have some wheat berries arriving today. I picked up small bags of three different wheat berries, hard red wheat, hard white wheat, and soft white wheat. Hard wheats are required for yeast breads and soft wheat for pastries, cakes, and biscuits.

I am super excited. For me this is being super patient. I really want to go all in right now, but we have some food we need to use up (no reason to waste my money), and there will be a learning curve I'm sure before I'm making all our bread, even though bread making is not new for me.

I will need to find a local food pantry to donate some things too, like the boxes of pasta I bought as sam's club.  We really don't eat a lot of pasta and even before deciding on this change I was thinking of donating it. This just will let me get it done.



Have a blessed day!

Scripture of the Week

Psalm 119:11

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.


Have a blessed day!

A look at our allergies and intolerances

Allergies have plagued us for years, and not just seasonal allergies, but food allergies as well.  This is our story.

Jon (the hubs) was tested for food allergies after a lemon freeze sent him into a short of breath wheezy mess. He tested allergic to every single thing they tested him for, except dairy (go figure) some greater than others, with the worst being brewer’s yeast, garlic, and lemon. Since he reacted to every food, we have adapted our eating to keep him safe.  So we avoid lemon, garlic, and peanuts. He also was pretty allergic to corn, and if the airborne allergies are high, he will sometimes meet his thresh hold and have a reaction to corn. That one is kind of touch and go. The peanut reaction was one of the lesser reactions; however, since peanut can become life threatening quickly we just avoid it.

Brooke (that’s me) is allergic to dairy. No I’m not lactose intolerant, I am allergic to the proteins. Well, let’s be real I probably am lactose intolerant, but it’s the milk proteins (whey and casein) that cause me shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing.  I also have several food intolerances that cause gut issues. Onion (I can use a little bit of onion powder in recipes), garlic, eggs (I cannot eat them boiled, fried, scrambled, you know just as an egg –they are ok as an ingredient in baked items), pork from the regular store (I have no issue with pork raised with organic feed and antibiotic free which clearly states it isn't the pork that is the problem) broccoli and cauliflower (ok these bother a lot of people, but it is really uncomfortable for me when I eat these), and black beans–other beans seem to be fine.

Rebecca (the teenage girl) has a dairy intolerance. When she was in second grade she complained of a belly ache every single day! EVERY DAY! After awhile I remembered growing up I had a belly ache quite frequently. The hubs and I talked and decided to try her dairy free. Within 3 days she stopped complaining of belly aches, and the whole next year only had 3 total. The belly aches have been few and far between since and that was 6 years ago.

Ryan (the tween boy) also has a dairy issue. He had eczema all over his body. After some research linking dairy to eczema we made him dairy free as well. After about a week, all the eczema patches were gone. When he eats any dairy (because sometimes he sneaks it) I can tell because the eczema comes back. He also gets a tingly tongue and throat when he eats raw banana, however has had banana cooked in breads and such without any issue. When he was 3 or so he also reacted to red dye. It made him uber hyper.  He has grown out of that really, but does get a little boisterous with too much sugar.

We have multiple dietary issues, dairy really being the biggest. We all avoid peanut to protect J, and everything I make is dairy free with the exception of separate dishes of the same items for J since he can have dairy, but we only use nondairy milk.

Now you may be wondering why on earth I would want to add to our restrictions. That is simple. I believe we will be healthier for it.  This year I will be a documenting how our diet effects these issues. It will also be a place for the wins and losses of recipes.

Current issues we are having, not listed by person, and some of these things overlap people. This is going to make us sound like we are falling apart! ha ha!

Fatigue, brain fog, warts, gut issues--constipation/diarrhea, bloating, headaches, migraines, joint pain, bumps on the arms, acne, muscle knots, chronic nasal congestion.

Thanks for joining our journey.

have a blessed day!

It's a new year and we are starting a new journey

Well hello friends!  It's been a bit, but life has changed and situations have changed, so why not start fresh this year with a new journey.  We are going to begin a journey in our home of going gluten free, well not completely gluten free, but store bought gluten free.  I will be grinding our own flour and making anything we would use flour in, and then we will have alternatives for things like pasta that will be gluten free from the store, or maybe we will make zoodles (zucchini noodles) and spaghetti squash. We have several allergies, I'll put together a post out lining that. We are not “allergic” to gluten; however, after quite a bit of research, and friends and family testimonials I believe we will feel better without the heavily processed gluten in our lives.  I’m going to try to document the changes good and bad (if there are any) as we embark on this journey, so I can have a record of how these changes effect our health.  It will also serve as a reminder (as long as things are going well) when we get discouraged to keep it up.

My thoughts on how this will go, will probably change, but here it is none the less. I plan to log the general issues of each of us at the beginning of this journey, and track weekly the changes in those issues. I’m referring to a variety of things such as joint pain, brain fog, warts, skin issues, etc.  I will be trying out some new recipes, as well as tweaking old recipes to accommodate our new dietary plan. They will mostly be dairy free as well, with the exception of making something for my hubs that has cheese in it.  I may as well share my successes and failures here. I have worked for years at perfecting dairy free options for our family, and I plan to do the same using fresh ground flour and being otherwise gluten free. I would like to make some other dietary changes in our home, but this one has everyone a little stressed, so I’m just going to start here.

If you are curious about the other changes. I would like to get rid of white sugar. This one is even a little stressful for me, as I love love love candy. LOVE IT!!! I do believe all things in moderation (aside from things we are allergic too obviously) is a good plan so there has to be grace when we are away from home, or dining with others, etc. To be completely honest, we were going to go completely gluten free, but in my effort to try that, the increase in rice and rice products caused a less than favorable reaction in my gut. The health benefits of grinding your own flour for those who are not actually allergic to gluten seem to be similar, so we are starting here. Should we decide to go completely gluten free I can use my grain mill to grind my own gluten free flours.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our journey. I'm currently researching grain mills as this is an investment. What I decide will be forth coming.

Have a blessed day!

Peasant Bread

Peasant Bread (No knead bread) ($0.28 for the entire recipe approx)


2 1/4 tsp. yeast

2 cup warm water (divided)

4 cups flour

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar



1. dissolve yeast is 1 cup of water


2. in a lg. bowl combine flour, salt, and sugar

3. add yeast mixture and additional cup of water and stir til

combined

4. cover and let rise til doubled (about an hour)

5. stir dough down and divide in half

6. place each half in an oiled 1 qt. round casserole dish

 (this doesn't have to be exact. I have a 1 1/2 qt dish and a 1 

qt and I just toss a little extra in the bigger dish)

7. let rise til doubled in size (30 minutes)

8. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

9. remove from pans to cool

Well Hello Mid March

March is flying by as most months do.  The last couple of weeks have been just status quo I'd say.

I went to the school to get Rebecca because my hubby had something in the evening. He doesn't take many pictures with me, but I was waiting to talk to him, so I sneaked a pic.

 I decided my wreath needed a spring update. I found the greenery out in the garage. I bought it at least a year ago if not longer, but hadn't used it. I got the flowers at the dollar tree. I think it needs a bow, and I need to clean my siding.  There are marks where in the heavy wind the wreath scrapes the wall. Heavy wind kind of like we are having today.

 You may or may not know that I do not eat orange, yellow, or green candy (except banana runts). It was quite the disappointment when I opened this bag of chewy spree.  There were 2 red and 4 purple. I ate them before the photo. I was sad.

 I received this lovely bouquet this week. Totally made my day. It was a thank you bouquet from one of the other directors at the school for helping with some stuff.

I had a sick kiddo this week. The kids have loft beds, that is not conducive to a quick exit for vomiting, so we carried his mattress into the living room. He thought it was cool, and it was a good idea that we hopefully will not need to implement often. He's all better by the way.

Ok so this just cracked me up. I laughed way too hard at this, and mostly because I was planning when to have squirrel next just before I saw this. It's photoshopped obviously, but no less funny.

That's about all I have. Next week my mister and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. That is amazing. The time as gone so fast, yet doesn't feel like it's been that long.  

Have a blessed day.

I can't believe it's March

So the last couple of weeks didn't go as planned. We lost a great man this week. Grandpa Gene went home to be with Jesus Feb. 28th.  This week has been filled with family time, and funeral prep. He was an amazing, humble, kind, loving, gentle man who loved his family more than anything. He will be greatly missed.

On another note, I have some updates from my last blog post. My sourdough starter became moldy. It had a purple fuzzy mold on it, so I had to throw it out. It's been busy so I haven't restarted that process.

I did make friendship bread though. It was good, but not good enough to warrant making it again.

I started lettuce in a bowl of water from the left over bottom. It's a green leaf lettuce, and it's pretty cool.

February 16

February 25

March 4

We've been having issues with static electricity. I read that wool dryer balls would help. They sell for about $3-5 each on etsy. I went to Goodwill and bought a wool sweater, cut it into strips and felted it. I got 6 out of half the sweater. I paid $3.99 for the sweater and plan to make more so that will be about 12 dryer balls for $4. That's a much better deal. And they do work. No more static!

before felting

I used panty hose to keep them from unraveling in during the felting process

Right after felting

How they look now. No dye has come off on anything either. 

Ryan had Regional science fair. A boy from his school is going onto state, but Ryan had a good time.

The percussion ensemble did there first and only performance at competition. They did a great job. It was a neat experience.


My father in law is a wood carver. My mom found some of my grandma's old thread on wooden spools. So I asked him to carve me a santa. It is amazing.  It makes the spool twice as special.

I also made blueberry muffins from scratch. They were amazing!

Oh and there were maple donuts too. They are easy and so good.

That pretty much sums up the last couple weeks.

Have a blessed day

Well Hello, this one might be a touch long.

It's been a minute since I've blogged.  Life got busy, I wasn't inspired to share here. Mostly uninspired because I didn't know what my blog should be about; Just my life in general (that's pretty boring ha!), crafty things (cause I dabble in about a 100 different things and could probably share a lot), homemaking (or lack there of ha!), homemade food, dairy free food, or anything related to food, homemade anything (which looks a lot like crafting), diy (again, kinda like crafting), beauty stuff (cause I love me some beauty products). You see the list in endless, except that I did just end it, but you know what I mean. What I have determined is my blog isn't a platform, it could be, but that's not me.  I go to my recipe section instead of hunting through my cookbooks sometimes. I go to the cards for inspiration sometimes. So I think my blog is going to be what blogs were meant to be from the beginning, an online journal.  If you read it, that's ok, but it's also ok if you don't. My grammar may be sketchy at times. You'll just need to get over that. I am bad about hanging prepositions.


So a little of what's been going on recently. (let's be honest you don't really care about the whole last year).

So I started a sourdough starter, it was easier than I thought. Funny story, I don't really like sourdough foods.  Why did I make a starter you ask. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

and I made a Amish Friendship bread starter in a 2 quart jar instead of the gallon ziploc bag.  Glass jars are more eco-friendly, and I'm certain there is no plastic leaching anything into my food. My hubby asked if I remembered this bread, so I did a search for the recipe and made the starter. I am making it dairy free, so I'll report back on how it turns out. (At least I think I will ha!)

I made granola bars, because these are a staple at our house. These are smore granola bars, and even though I just made these, we are out again. I'll make more soon, like probably today.

Crackers, they were a little thicker than I thought, and not quite as crunchy as I wanted, but the flavor was fantastic. You can get the recipe from here. I will certainly be making these again. Practice makes progress, and eventually as close to perfect as you can get.

I made lotion because it's cold and dry, and my homemade lotion does such a better job than anything store bought, and it smells nice. It lasts too. I wash my hands a ton, and even after washing my hands they feel moisturized. There are only 4 ingredients, and it's maybe 10 minutes to make max!

and homemade chicken noodle soup because we've been sick around here, and nothing is better than homemade chicken noodle soup.  I plan on sharing this recipe soon because my recipe is written on the back of  a blue piece of paper, that originally was a shopping list. Writing on random pieces of paper is a problem I have. =)

I have done a bit of reading.

This book is fantastic. Particularly if you want to learn to make things from scratch. Become more self sustainable, or just wish you were a pioneer.  The book is also filled with scripture, and inspirational stories. It was an easy read, but I find my self referencing it for recipes because I love trying a new recipe of something I already make, and I also love just making things I've never made before. Melissa has a great website. I highly recommend checking it out if you think you might at all be like me.


I had a friend tell me last week, "You do know you're an 80 year old Amish woman reincarnated right".  I had someone else ask me  "are you a prepper?"  Got called "crunchy"  None of these are offensive to me. I am certain I don't believe in reincarnation ha!  I am not a prepper, even though my pantry is nicely stocked and I may have purchased 6 cases of green beans (they were a great deal, and we eat a lot of green beans), I am "crunchy" in some regards, but not completely crunchy. I do care about the earth and my impact on it, but I may have thrown something away that could've been recycled because I was sick and the 10 steps to the recycling bin seems like 10 miles. I use natural soap, but conventional shampoo and conditioner (it just works better).  I use natural cleaners, but I also keep a little dawn dishsoap handy because sometimes it just works better. I bounce between store bought laundry soap, natural laundry soap, and homemade laundry soap. I like to crochet, and knit, and sew. I really want to make a quilt, but I'm kind of intimidated by the idea. I love paper crafting, but I really don't care about scrapbooking. I used to, but not because I loved it, but because I felt like I was doing my family an injustice if I didn't.  (that was marketing at it's best there). Most of the things I do just to say that I can. Not to the world, but just to me. I like to know I have the knowledge to do things if I should need to do them, or the knowledge to know it's not something I want to do.

On a different note,  I have a lot of stuff, but kind of wish I could be a minimalist, but I love thrift store shopping, which makes me want more stuff. It's a vicious cycle. HA!

Well, if you made it this far, bless your heart!

I'm thinking right now, that a weekly update is going to be my plan for now. There may be more, there may be less. It remains to be seen.

Either way, have a blessed day!

Lest you think I've forgotten my blog...

Some things came up with family. Prayers would be appreciated. The outcome looks hopeful. Yet still things came up. No time to create, no time to blog. Well, maybe there is time, but my mind is elsewhere right now. And to top it off I'm redoing our family room.

Hope you have a Joyful week.

Over the last week or so...

 I've been hanging out at my craft table. Some days I simply sit and look at my stuff and reorganize and some days I get crafty. I have been wanting to art journal for a long time, but as sometimes happens, I felt I didn't have the right supplies. (this is where everyone should laugh heartily). The fact that I thought I needed to have the right stuff in order to art journal almost completely goes against the process entirely.
I decided instead of buying stuff I may or may not use again, I would make do and see that I enjoyed art journaling before investing more money into supplies.  Turns out I did enjoy it; however, I didn't need anything at all in order to do it.  This is my first art journal spread.

I have been making cards for all kinds of occasions recently. I decided I wanted to send my kiddos some cards. They love to get mail, so I made them each a card and sent it to them. I didn't actually put them in the mail, but I have a stamp set that has postage on it, and I used those on the envelopes. They looked like they had come in the mail.

In lieu of the art journal supplies, I decided to spend some birthday money on something I've wanted for a long time, but never purchased. Copic markers. I thought my purchase out, and have finally started my collection. I have to say I do enjoy coloring with them, and I am anxious to add to my collection.

 I started with 14 thanks to a sale at Michael's. I am pleased with my choices so far.  This sunflower was my first go at coloring with the copics. I love how it turned out.

This morning I stamped this wreath, and once again pulled out my copics. I love how they blend.

I wanted to try out stamping in a circle. So I was just playing around here, but thought it was cute. 

I needed a birthday card for my great niece. I embossed the ice cream cone on vellum, then colored the back with copics. Hope she liked it.

 Made my hubby a valentine card, then decided it didn't say anything about valentine's on it, so I wrote him a note and made it just because.  It is a 4 x 8.5 card. Kind of a fun size to make.

I bought some Simon Says Stamp goodies with more of my bday money, and tested out the supplies on this Valentine card and matching envelope.

This was my recent purchase. I got the sending & wishing bundle with the dies, and the tiny hearts stencil. I love this set and can see a ton of ways to use it.

This was my free gift with purchase. Such cute goodies, and so generous.

Then Simon says stamp had a blog hop (where you go to one blog then another etc). At each stop you could leave a comment for a chance to win a prize package.  Much to my delight I won! These are the goodies I received. I love it all.

Hope you are having a JOY filled week.