Food Review! Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter and Udi's Plain Bagels

When The Hubs and I first decided to go gluten free, one of my first sad goodbyes were to bagels. I've always been in love with bagels. My absolute favourite breakfast is a hot bagels smeared with slightly melty cream cheese. So, imagine my joy when I found gf bagels at Trader Joe's a couple of days ago!

The  pack of four bagels was 4$ at TJ's, and 6$ on Udi's site. The site claims their bagels are "soft, chewy, and yummy," and honestly, they aren't lying. I have heard absolute horror stories about gf baked goods. They taste nothing like bread, they're dry as saw dust, they're super hard, in a nutshell, nothing you would want to eat. These bagels gave me faith that gf eating will be anything but horrible. I normally toast my bagels, but seeing as our toaster disappeared in The Move, I had to try these in their natural state. I pulled one out of the bag, and gave it a good look over before taking my first nervous bite. My fear quickly melted into joy. They looked, felt, smelled, and tasted like a normal bagel. My only complaint is that they are a bit dryer than a regular bagel. This, however was fairly easily fixed by applying a healthy layer of TJ's pumpkin butter.

The pumpkin butter was a bit of an impulse buy. I'm mildly addicted to pumpkin, and will buy just about anything with pumpkin on the label. The Hubs was initially weary of the pumpkin butter due to his negative feelings about apple butter. Upon reading the ingredients, though, he quickly changed his tune. The ingredients are literally pumpkin, sugar, honey, lemon juice concentrate, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger! With the exception of the lemon, it's like pumpkin pie in a jar! I am not the biggest fan of lemon, and so I think the lemon could be toned down a bit. However, even with it being a little more lemony than I would like, it's still fantastic. It tastes like heaven and probably wouldn't be too hard to make. Although, at 2.29$ a jar, I don't feel too bad about buying it. I definitely see this becoming a staple in our home.

So, all in all, these two products thoroughly impressed me! The bagel's slight dryness is easily fixed with a spread and the pumpkin butter is fall in a jar. I don't think my first gf food adventure could have gone much better!

The Joys of a New Home

We very recently bought our first home, and it was a lovely hassle, what with all the inspections that were done to ensure that the house was in working condition before we bought it. Someone must have overlooked the plumbing.

The problem we've been having is that not only were the pipes under the sink leaking, water kept backing up into the sink whenever we would run the dishwasher or garbage disposal. It would then take forever to drain.

We just had the plumber leave, and learned that whoever did the piping in this house was apparently out of their mind. He says that the pipes are the wrong size, the wrong fittings were used, and the pipes are set up in a wavy pattern, which is causing a lot of problems. So now we have the plumber coming back tomorrow to fix all of the piping goodness. Another day of eating out to prevent dishes, and a fee of almost 600$. Yay.

In the end, I understand that this is an old house, and things will need fixing. What annoys me is that in order to get our VA loan things had to practically be perfect with this house. We weren't going to be given the loan unless the seller fixed some superficial termite damage on the shed in the back yard. They were going to refuse to give us the loan because some decorative siding had fallen off at the back of the house. These were things that were incredibly silly and superficial. Yet, no one seemed to care about the plumbing issues or even felt like we needed to be told about them. I would have preferred it if the seller had to have the pipes fixed instead of having to fix the shed.

That's life, but it really makes me appreciate having had a landlord who had to deal with these issues for us.

Getting Down to Business

So, like I said, my main focus right now is getting this new house in order and getting back into the habit of keeping my home organized. Now that everything is unpacked (Yay!!) and all that is left is R's room and hanging decor, I'm getting back on track with taking care of my home.

I try doing this in little ways. I make a list of meals I plan to make this week so I can shop efficiently and cut down on last minute trips to the closest fast food place. I work on a home journal that houses all the different chores I want to do on each day. I keep a calendar with all the things going on through out the month, and then transplant them onto a mini calendar each week so I can see what is planned for that particular week. I keep a running list of things we need so that I can grab them as I run errands on a set day. I have all these little things that I try to make myself do so that my life can be easier and everything gets done.

There's a problem, though, I am truly terrible at keeping up with most of this. Life happens and everything else goes out the window. I remember doing really well with all of this for a while, then I started college again. Between a 30-60 minute commute depending on traffic, 7 classes a week, hours of homework, and infertility treatments, I was too tired to take care of anything. All of the work I had put into getting a solid system in place kind of disintegrated. Then I found out I was pregnant and the Hubs and I decided I would take a break from school to focus on preparing for R and then taking care of R. Since I wasn't going to school I figured I could really get back into the swing of things and get everything under control by simply reimplementing all the things that had worked in the past. By that point, our house was a disaster and I had underestimated how exhausted and sick I would feel in the first trimester. By the time I had energy again, we were looking to buy a house and dealing with that level of disaster felt pointless and daunting at the same time.

Well, now we've moved and I've had time to really evaluate where I've gone wrong in the past. I don't do well with paper. I don't do well with big giant jobs every day. I don't do well with opening that big binder because I know when I do I am going to get completely overwhelmed. I've learned that what works well for me is simple tasks that cover several areas instead of completely scouring one area. I work well with my phone because it reminds me to do my jobs and attend my meetings. My meal planning works pretty well as long as I'm not being lazy, which, let's be honest, I can be. So, I'm going to begin truly playing into my strengths.

On my phone I've downloaded the Google Tasks app, which incorporates both a to-do list and a calendar. I love that the tasks and appointments I put in can be repeated in different intervals. I have simply programmed in the little things I need to get done each day and set reminders for different times. I also love it for the calendar because, like the lists, I never think to look at the darn thing. With this I program appointments, dates, and events as soon as I learn about them. I enter the time, place, date, and set a reminder. So, my poor habits aren't as disastrous.

One of the big things that has helped me has been the Motivated Moms program. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a PDF (or app if you have an Isomething, which I don't) that has a separate page for each week. On that page daily chores are listed for each day along with several tasks for each day. Based on everything I have said previously, this sounds like the last thing that would work for me. However, it works perfectly for me. The chores are so intuitive and the tasks are so simple! Literally, the daily chores include things like make the bed, feed the pets, run the dishes, wash laundry if it needs it, etc. Very simple. The tasks are even more simple. The real tasks take place Monday through Friday, with tiny tasks on the weekend. For example, every Sunday the tasks are Cut/Sort/File Coupons, Make a shopping list, and Pamper yourself. The particular Monday I am looking at says to Change dishcloth/towel, Change hand towels in bathrooms, Clean middle shelf of refrigerator, Inventory refrigerator contents and plan meals around leftovers, Vacuum main/public rooms or 1st floor, Vacuum furniture in family/living room, Clean toilets, Replenish stock of toilet paper in bathrooms. It looks like a long list, but it's all small things. I love that you aren't focusing on an entire room or area. I would be much more likely to clean a single shelf in the refrigerator than the entire thing. Also, it's not the end of the world if a task doesn't get finished, because it'll pop up again at some point. All in all, I can finish everything I need to do within about an hour. Being a stay-at-home wife and soon to be mom, I can plow through everything right after I get up. It's a solid hour of working, and then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. With the tasks being so small, they're easily broken up, so a working mom or wife can also easily get everything done. I can't express how much I love this program!

Once I fully have this implemented, I'll be able to really start doing a lot of the things I miss and want to do. I'll have time to crochet more, read more, focus on R when he gets here. All in all, I think it'll be really nice. What I want to start doing is posting my jobs for the day, how long it takes, and just keep myself accounted for. :) Wish me luck!

Homemaker's Challenge

Updates

Well, we aren't off to a great start, are we? I've learned that if I don't stick to the schedule I've given myself, even the tiny one I have now, I get very much off track. For instance, two days ago my to-do list popped up saying I needed to fold the laundry. I was in the middle of something, probably an episode of Supernatural and crocheting, and I told myself I would fold as soon as I finished... Like I said, that was two days ago and the clothes are still in the dryer. I tell myself that I'll improve at things like this as soon as xyz happens, and inevitably xyz does happen while I continue to not improve. Currently xyz is unpacking this house... When I finish unpacking I'll follow my to-do list better, I'll add more things to the to-do list, I'll cook more, I'll craft more, I'll blog and vlog more, I'll blah blah blah. I need to stop putting things off until some future event occurs, and start getting down to business.

Speaking of unpacking, I have made a ton of progress! It feels like I haven't gotten anything done, but slowly it is coming together. :) I've gotten the vast majority done, and the rest I really just need the Hubs to help with. The problem is that I am on the brink of becoming a hoarder. Hubs knows this, and has said that he wants us to really get rid of some stuff instead of just putting it in the attic. I am willing to do this, I just need him to provide a helping hand. He tests for Staff Sergeant on Monday, and so he has been studying since we've moved in. It's only been two weeks, but this is why I am still not finished unpacking. As soon as the test is over, Operation Super Unpack shall commence! Wish us luck!

Now, I'm going to post a recipe, start dinner, and then fold that laundry... Maybe...