Bread

For a few months now, we have been making homemade bread instead of buying it from the store.  We got an amazing bread machine for our wedding and I am so happy to be able to use it.  Although it is a bit different from store bought bread, it is so delicious!  It makes amazing toast (and grilled cheese!).

Too impatient to wait for it to actually toast all the way, but still delish!

Up until lately, we have been using the white bread recipe out of the cookbook that came with the machine.  Josh just brought home some whole wheat flour so I am hoping to experiment with that a little soon.

If you don't have a bread machine, I recommend getting one!  Ask for your birthday, Christmas, anniversary, or check a thrift store (I have heard you can get a GREAT deal!).  It is a bit of an adjustment, but totally worth knowing exactly what you are eating.  Plus, there is NOTHING like the taste of freshly baked bread.

New House

We have officially moved!  It feels so good to be in the new place.  Unfortunately, we are still waiting for our furniture to be delivered.  We also recently found out that we will not be able to put our brown couch downstairs since it won't fit past the pillars down there.  Some setbacks, but we are looking forward to being a little more settled and having somewhere to sit.

Fun fact: just because your house is "finished" when you move in, doesn't mean there isn't tons to do to make it your own!  This week is spring break at work, so I have had a little free time to take a look at my inspiration boards on pinterest and put together a list of things I want to do to settle in a bit more.  Some of them are LOOOOOOOOONG term goals, but I am going to try to get a few things done each month.  First up, hanging our gallery frames on the wall going down the stairs and mounting cork board in our kitchen cabinets to hang stuff since we have a stainless fridge and can no longer hang on it.

Avery's latest preferred perch

On another note, we are starting a modified version of the Dave Ramsey financial method. We are going to meet with our bank in the next few weeks to see if refinancing our car loan is worth it.  We are also starting a modified envelope system and debt snowball method as well.  Money has always made me nervous, but this helps me feel like we have a plan which is great!  I will try to keep updated on the progress of this.

Living Room Inspiration

Our move is fast approaching.  I can't believe our closing date is just over a week away!  We have been working away packing for the move and purchasing some necessities (and some fun things too!).  As Josh likes to say, this house is my pinterest dream house, so I want to make sure we are very intentional about what we have inside of it. I have been obsessing over cream couches for a while now.  I switched over to grey for awhile, thinking that cream wasn't practical.  However, I read an article once that said you should have a cream couch while you still can before you have kids.  Well... now is that time for us! Combined with the great warranty JC Penney offers, we pulled the trigger to purchase this sofa and a matching chairs in time to take advantage of the President's Day sales.

Our sofa in a slightly darker color

I am really trying to focus on purchasing high quality products that will last us a long time, knowing that it will take us longer to finish the space.  Here is some inspiration for our main level living room.

I love some farmhouse/cottage style, which is part of the reason I love our new house so much.  I love the cream and natural wood combination in this.

I found the plans to build this table and a matching coffee table and console table and I love them!  I think they will really go with the look we are going for.  Now just to decide to keep it more natural color or to give it a whitewash finish.

I love the blue and white in this, and the wicker basket in the corner, and the flowers in a pitcher.

I think this photo is my ultimate inspiration.  I am hoping to eventually create a look similar to this.

So here's to hoping our sofa is a good start.  And that I can stand to be patient with all of this.  We all know how I do with patience...

p.s. Avery got her hair cut a few weeks ago.  Looking good, and already needing another bath from this slushy weather we have been having!

Focus on the Now

Doesn't it seem like we are always looking ahead?  While I think it is great to have things to  look forward to, we shouldn't forget to appreciate today and everything it holds.  I have so much coming up in my life, it is easy to forget this.  I can't wait to move at the end of the month and get in our dream home.  I can't wait for my birthday in March.  I can't wait for summer (especially with the frigid temps we have had lately).

Snow Dog

All of these are fabulous things to look forward to, but it's important to live in today.  Take a day (or two) off from frantically packing.  Spend the time playing with your puppy (or baby).  Play a game with a friend.  Stop putting things off until that big moment happens.  Right now, I am trying to continue to see my friends instead of following my instinct to do nothing but pack until we move.  We are doing our taxes (super fun!) and getting Avery groomed this weekend.  Hopefully her haircut is awesome!

Obsessions

Is anyone else an obsessor?  I don't think that's a real thing, but as a great co-worker once told me, you get to make up words once acquiring your Master's degree. So ha, obsessor is a word ;)

I think Josh and Avery can vouch for the fact that I really get into things. FAST.  Latest obsessions: DIY/Money saving ideas, apartment searching, car searching, dog searching, house searching, house remodeling idea searching.

If you followed my last blog, you were witness to my DIY/$ saving phase.  Don't get me wrong, plenty of good comes from my obsessing.  I learned so much in my money saving phase.  Much of it we still practice (although not quite as stringently).  We also found a pretty awesome place to live, got to take Avery home, got a good deal on the Jetta, and have had a successful house search.  Not bad overall.

I think I have an obsessing gene.  My mom, bless her heart, is kind of the same way.  Maybe obsessing is a way to deal with the anxious gene we both VERY MUCH inherited.

However, I realized something the other day.  After having a breakdown (typical) mid-house search, I realized that sometimes you just need to take a step back.  After almost giving up after my breakdown, I took a night off.  I let my parents help search a little, and we found an amazing house!  We are all set to close on February 28th. I will post some more soon.

Homemade Body Wash

Another project I had been putting off for a while was homemade body wash.  A while back, we made homemade laundry soap.  I loved the soap and it worked really well, but grating the soap was a bit of work.  Around the same time, I found a six pack of Olay bar soap on super clearance at Target.  Well, I also found this post.  Problem solved.  Grate-free body wash!

I only used 2 bars of soap and 4 cups of water, and it was  beyond easy to make! All you have to do is boil 2 cups of water per bar of soap.  Once the water has come to a boil, turn the heat down to medium.  In a microwave safe container, heat the bar of soap for about 90 seconds.  Add the hot, melted soap to the hot water.  Only microwave one bar of soap at a time.  Stir the soap and water mixture to make sure that all of the soap is dissolved in the water.  Let the soap mixture cool, and pour it into containers.  I used a few old bodywash containers.

Here they are hanging out of my stove with my new tea kettle!

 I did notice that it started to separate a bit as it cooled, but I just gave it a little shake and it mixed back together.  The two bars of soap and 4 cups of water almost filled both of these containers.

It has been a while now and I have a little feedback.  This was very watery.  I'm not sure if it is from the soap I used or that I used too much water.  If I was making this again with this soap, I would use less water.  It still works and lathers surprisingly well though, and smells delish!  I would recommend trying this project with a small batch first, but it is totally worth it.

Veggie Cleanse Update

We have officially been on the veggie cleanse for 5 days.  As much as I hate to be a quitter, I think we might be done with it.  Honestly, I do not feel good on this diet. I really didn't think it would be that big of a difference since we eat so many vegetables normally, but something is very different.  I will have to do a bit of testing to see what it actually is.

Things that were easy
-Eating veggies
-Not eating as much meat (I thought I would struggle more with only 6 oz. per day)

Things that were challenging
-Giving up carbs (I do not crave sweets, I crave carbs)
-Eating Greek yogurt everyday

It was really hard the first day or to to feel satisfied with our food because we are used to eating food with so much flavor.  Eventually we got a little creative and that made things easier.

Skip ahead  if you don't want WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION...
This diet made me extremely, uncomfortably gassy.  Last night I took the maximum dose of Gas-X and that didn't even alleviate the problem.  And I'm talk visibly noticeable bloated belly gassy.  Very uncomfortable.  I had been struggling with more minor occurrences of this all week, but nothing as bad as last night.  This was my breaking point.  I think that this is either from the protein powder or the flaxseed, because that is really the only major difference from my normal diet. However, the "situation" never kicks in until evening and I have the smoothie in the morning. Hmmm...

Josh and I talked about it last night, and I think we are going to move on.  But we also did decide that we will be taking some of these lessons forward.  Most specifically the meat portions.

Lesson learned: I am a much better "everything in moderation" person than restrictive diet person.

Our supplies for the week