May Week 1: Flour and Wheat

This week's food storage items are:

May Week 1: Flour - white, wheat, etc. Whole Wheat: white or hard red wheat, Wheat Grinder

Flour includes white and wheat, and any other types of flour that you use. For instance, I use both white and wheat, and I also use Gold Medal Wondra, a super-fine flour used for thickening.

As far as wheat goes, I have my buckets of wheat that I bought several years ago.

Those should be good for 30+ years as long as they were packaged correctly. If you have whole wheat stored, you should really think about having a wheat grinder. Having said that, I'm going to go one step further and say that if the only wheat grinder you have is one that needs electricity, you might want to think about getting a hand grinder. If the power goes out for a prolonged period of time, and you are left with whole wheat and an electric wheat grinder, you might starve. Just saying. If you don't really use your whole wheat, so you don't have an electric grinder, just skip that and buy a hand grinder that you keep somewhere very near your whole wheat containers.

As with some of the other food storage items, I also have wheat and flour that I've canned at the Dry Pack Cannery. For more information on that, and locations, click here.

Whole wheat can keep for 30+ years, if it is stored correctly. Flour that is packaged with oxygen absorber packets can keep for 10+ years. And flour that you buy in the grocery store has an expiration date on the bag, and I stick pretty close to that. I remember years ago that I dipped into an older bag of flour that had weevils in it. Never again. Trust you me. I don't want to go into the sordid details, but suffice it to say, I had to throw out that batch of cinnamon roll dough. Ugh.

So, there you have it. Decide what your family's needs are for flour and wheat, both long term and short term. If it isn't really feasible to try to store the really long term stuff, then just think about this year and what your family might use for the year. Add it to your shopping list, and in the next couple of days, buy the items and get them on your shelves. Done. You can rest for a week.

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.

"New" nightstands

I've been re-doing my sons' room (the one who's coming home from his mission in 11 days). We had to get rid of his old bed. I have an opinion about Ikea furniture that I'm not going to share right now. Ahem. Anyway, we threw out his old bed, and got a new one. Problem is, his old one had a night stand built right into it. I now needed to get my hands on another night stand or two. I didn't want them to be "matchy" with the bed, and wanted something with a vintage touch. So, I looked around the house and found two tables that weren't being used anymore. One was from our living room, which we've changed, and another is one I picked up at a vintage/antique store on our last trip to Logan. The tables were off-white and shabby chic-ish. His new room is more in the black, gray, and blue tones, so off-white wasn't going to work. I didn't want true white, either, because that seemed too different from the rest of the room. So, I checked out my supply of spray paint and found some grays and also some metallic colors. I first sprayed both tables with Kilz as a primer.

After they had dried (which only takes a few minutes), I coated them with gray, and then sprayed them again with the metallic aluminum spray paint.

I gave the old sewing machine cabinet a couple of new knobs, and now they are both in their new home!

I like that the tables are different, but tied together with the same paint treatment. I didn't want the metallic color to be too feminine, so I made sure the lamps were on the masculine side and also that they tied in the black and the metallic color. (Lamps were from Target and were a great deal at $16 each!)

I love the tables in their new home, and I love that it just took a coat of paint to have them work in a different room and with a different purpose. The sewing machine table obviously started out as a sewing machine table, and when I picked it up, it was at a second hand store. I used it as a table in my living room. And now its a night stand. Pretty industrious little table! The very best part of the whole project, is that it was almost free. The only things I bought were the new knobs. The paint was all leftover from other projects and the tables were ones I already had. I LOVE that kind of project!

At some point I may have his room all the way done and I'll share pictures when and if I do!

Amazing Family History Charts

A while back, I did a post on the Genealogy Fan Chart. (Click here for more information on the Fan Chart) It is such a fun way to see your generations fanned out all on one page, and in color!

                          

I've found some other great ways to have fun with family history.

More Charts:

To find some great charts, go to treeseek.com and log in using your LDS login information. After you have selected which family member you'd like your chart to begin with, you can select one of several different options to display your family. All of the information that will come up after you have logged in is information that is already in the Family Search system. You don't have to input any additional names or information. For instance, I logged in and selected Name Cloud. The following is what was automatically generated on my screen. It would be such a fun thing to frame and have somewhere in your home. How cute would it be to have in a baby's room?

You can print the Name Cloud in first names (my name is just between "Heinrich" and "Sarah" top center):

Full names:

Or last names:

You can also show your family 9 generation pedigree chart:

Or a 10 generation pedigree chart:

And all of this fans out from just your login information. It ties it in with Family Search, and the genealogy work that has been done on those records.

How are we related?


Another interesting activity is to instantly find out how or if you are related to friends, and see how your family lines connect.

Go to the following website:

http://www.treeseek.com/mobile/

It is a free app, available for android and apple users, so you can download it on your Ipad. After downloading it, and using your LDS login information, you can see how you are related to either friends or famous people. If you are going to check out your connections to a friend, then they will have to download the app too, so that they can get their three digit code. You will enter their three digit code on your page, and it will give show you if and how you are related, and will also show your common ancestor. My husband and I are 8th cousins... (Keep in mind that the tree digit code is constantly changing, so you'll have to log in and use whatever code is current for you at that time.)

Fun, eh?


So amazing to see what is available for all of us. Its a fun way to get the youth (and adults!) excited about their ancestors and also working on family history!

Happy May Day!

What happy memories I have of May Day! We would wake up early in the morning and deliver flowers and treats to our friends' doorsteps. As little girls, our offerings were always a few token flowers we had picked from my mom's garden, along with a note that said "Happy May Day". But Mom was a bit more serious with her May Day gifts, and I remember leaving a sack or two of See's Chocolates at doorsteps along with a sweet bouquet of fresh-cut flowers from her garden. It was always so exciting to leave the flowers and treats on the doorstep, knowing that when our friends woke up, they'd be delighted with a May Day surprise.

What are you doing to celebrate May Day?

Week-by-Week Food Storage Plan

Since this is essentially the 5th week of April, we get a break from working on food storage for a week. On these occasional weeks that we have "off", I like to organize my food storage room and make sure everything is in it's place.

Also, if you have fallen behind, or skipped a week that you need to go back and do, this is the perfect time to get caught up. Next week will be here before we know it, so enjoy the breather, and we'll start a new item next Tuesday!

If you haven't started yet, this is a good week To start. Get the plan (leave a comment below for copies of the entire plan), and make some space in a closet, then get started. Remember, one of the great things about this plan is that you can start on any given week of the year, and then a year from that date, you'll have your emergency supply. It is truly a simple, do-able plan... even for the busiest moms and dads!

Nesting Again?

I've got a lot swirling around in my head today. The biggest "swirl" is...

Look closely towards the right side of the triangle...

Can you see how many days we have til our boy comes home? 15 days. 15. Can you believe that? He has been on a LDS mission in the California Roseville Mission, and in fourteen days, it will have been a full two years since he left. I can't explain what I'm feeling. I LOVE that he is serving a mission. Our other son served in Singapore five years ago, and my husband served in the Philippines in "the olden days". We have felt so many blessings showered down on our family while he's been gone, and I know its because of the sacrifices he is making to be out there in the mission field. So, we will miss having a missionary in our home. Having said that, I can't wait to have him home again. I need to wrap my arms around him and look him in the eyes and have our heart-to-heart talks with him sitting at the foot of our bed at night. I have been pretty good about not letting myself go down the road of missing him so much it hurts, but now that we're getting close, those feelings are all coming back up to the surface. I know that the little piece of my heart that was left at the Missionary Training Center two years ago (when we dropped him off there) is going to come back as an even bigger piece. This mother thing just  does something to your heart. I feel like our hearts grow and grow with all of the special things we experience with our kids. Sometimes I feel like my heart is going to burst. And don't even get me started on what happens to our hearts as grandmas.

I'm feeling something akin to nesting. Does that surprise you? I was "Grandma Nesting" for the month before our grand baby was born, and now I'm nesting in preparation for my boy to be back "in the nest". I am getting his room all spruced up, and I'm almost done with that. I've just got to paint his dresser, which I'm working on today and tomorrow. Then I should be done, and then I'll put his room all back together. As in the past, I could use a tractor-trailer for all the stuff we're taking to the thrift store. I'm in the "simplify" mode, and trying to get rid of all the junky stuff that is around. Its going to take a lot of time to get to everything, but I've got time. I'm in no rush. I just want to slowly make my way through each room in the house and cleanse.

For now, keep my focus on two weeks from tomorrow. Sweet thought.

Recipe: French Dip Crescent Rolls

I have found a great recipe that is quick and yummy! I use the term "recipe" very loosely, as this doesn't really involve mixing any ingredients together... its more of an assembly process, and a quick one at that. We love french dip sandwiches in our home, but they are only really great if the bread is fresh. This recipe solves that problem.

French Dip Crescent Rolls

-One package of regular Pillsbury crescent rolls

-1/2 to 1 lb of sliced roast beef (depends on how "beefy" you want the rolls)

-8 slices of Provolone cheese

Open the crescent rolls and lay them out on a flat surface. Take a slice of roast beef and a slice of Provolone cheese, and roll it up in a small roll. Place the meet and cheese roll on the thick end of a crescent roll triangle. Begin rolling (thickest end first), wrapping the dough around the meat and cheese. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Serve them warm with au jus. My favorite is Knorr's. 

It is hands-down the best I've had, and I have tried several different recipes and brands. 

I like to serve these little french dip rolls with sweet potato fries and a salad. Its one of those simple meals that everyone loves!