day in the life of the happy housewife

by admin - June 23, 2009

Catching up on Reader’s Questions

I am cleaning out my inbox and trying to answer some reader questions that have been asked over the past year… yes, some of these questions are a year old, and I am sorry for that. Things are busy here and I am terrible at responding to emails.

From Pam: I haven’t frozen pancakes before. How do you re-heat them? I would’ve thought they would be too “rubbery”. Any tips??

Pam, I have found that if I add more liquid to the mix when I make them they reheat better. These pancakes end up being a little thinner than normal, but they still taste good. Also don’t over cook them when you reheat. Sometimes a pancake can be heated in the microwave in 20 seconds. You can also reheat in the toaster oven. It also helps to slightly under cook the pancakes, only as much as the outside color is light brown rather than dark brown.

From Melissa: Do you have a good recipe for biscuits using fresh ground flour? Which grain do you use? I use Kamut, Spelt, and Soft White Wheat for my bread and it is very light, but I have not had very good results with biscuits.

Melissa, for my biscuits I use either soft white or prairie gold. I usually have good results but every once in a while the biscuits flop for no reason. Here is my recipe:

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 stick butter
3/4 to 1 cup or so of kefir milk or buttermilk or regular milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a deep mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in the butter using a dough knife or forks until the butter is smaller than the size of a pea, but not as small as cornmeal. Add milk until you get a consistency similar to bread dough. Roll out about one inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter or drinking glass. Bake for about 15 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

From Rebecca: I would greatly appreciate a referral to any blogs your aware of that focus on only children or boys in general.

Okay readers, help me out on this one. Do you know of any blogs that focus on only children or boys? If so, please leave a link the comment section.

From Rachel: Where do you live that you can buy clothing at thrift stores with prices like that?

I shop at the Village Thrift Store in Laurel, MD. You’ll recognize me from the picture on my header. 😉

From Lisa: Would filling a crockpot onSaturday nite and putting it on low right away on Sunday morning help eleviate your concern for your noon meal?

Lisa, yes it probably would. I just need to remember to plan to do it!

From Kelly: I am curious. Do you get up super early on the weekend to write your posts? My struggle would be that the weekend is when we have family time and whatnot and how would I need to arrange my Saturdays to block off blog writing time.

Kelly, this is a struggle for me as well. Right now I don’t get up super early unless Cora wants to get up super early. I usually sleep in on Saturdays, meaning 8 to 8:30. I try and write in the afternoon while our toddler is napping because we tend to be home during those hours anyway. Sometimes I will write Saturday night. I am currently writing this post at 5:59 on Saturday evening. We had a late lunch so no one is hungry for dinner yet…

From Julie: I would LOVE to know what you did to get away from credit cards.

Julie, I cut them up and threw them away. It worked really well because a few days later the trash men came and I never saw them again. Seriously, I have a few posts in my archives about our cash budget, but I am working on a new one as well. I hope to publish it in the next few weeks.

To Serenity’s husband who left the following snarky comment: I must admit, I have given Serenity a little bit of a hard time about her fascination with your site. But lately I have noticed how many tips and techniques she gets from visiting on a regular basis, and have found myself visiting from time to time. Now, thanks to that expert POP-TART tutorial, we can all rest assured that when Saturday morning comes, the kids and I will be well taken care of. Let no one disrespect the POP-TART ever again. Who knew it could be SO easy?

Serenity’s husband: I am glad I was finally able to expand my reach with this POP-TART tutorial. I know many men are turned off by the pink background and oodles of baby pictures on my site. I had been looking for something that could help me reach across the aisle and engage my three male readers. I considered having my husband write a guest post about hunting or fishing but I didn’t want to lose my female readers. Finally, I realized that the POP-TART would appeal to both male and female readers, since everyone loves POP-TARTS. I am glad your Saturday mornings are now filled with the sweet smelling aroma of cinnamon and brown sugar cooking in the toaster.

That’s it for today. I’ll try to get to more questions next week!

by admin - March 27, 2009

A Day in the Life of The Happy Housewife ~ Schedules and Real Life

In my last post I discussed my daily schedule. While I try to stick close to my schedule there are times when it isn’t going to happen. Those of you who have read my blog for a while and who know me in real life know that a few years ago my husband suffered an injury during a deployment that left him unable to drive. For about 16 months I took him to work, doctor’s appointments, therapy, and anywhere else he had to go. I was also homeschooling my kids, and taking care of my husband because many of the medications he was on left him unable to get out of bed for days at a time.

Needless to say during that time in our lives my schedule looked a lot different. Many times I was unable to plan because we would be waiting to hear from a specialist for a last minute appointment. It was almost impossible to plan for anything. Most people are not dealing with extreme situations, they are dealing with sickness, piano lessons, unexpected company, a new baby, deployments, or a struggling child. Many times these issues are temporary, but they can still take us off course very quickly if we aren’t prepared.

My advice when life happens is to prioritize. Throughout my husband’s ordeal I had two priorities, helping him and the kids. We still homeschooled but we only covered the basics. I stopped using curriculum that was teacher focused and started using books that were easier for the kids to do on their own. I still checked their work and helped them, but I tried to find materials that were easy to do in the car, at the hospital, or without me.

Some areas will have to be sacrificed. Before everything happened with my husband I was doing a great job feeding my family healthy, economical meals. When I began spending much of my week in the car or at appointments I realized that having one or two meals a week that were not so healthy were necessary for me to keep my sanity. We used a lot of paper plates that year and my kids learned to like frozen pizza.

Try to get up at the same time every day. Even though I was tired and emotionally drained I got up early and went to the gym during this time. I would listen to sermons on my iPod and it was a great stress reliever. Getting up early also allowed me to be dressed and ready to go before the rest of the house woke up. I was prepared for the day, no matter what happened.

I relied on technology to help me with the kids. There were days that I would spend four hours in waiting rooms with most of my children. (That did not include the 45 minute drive each way) Four hours is a long time for a 3 or a 5 year old to sit with nothing to do. We would have backpacks with crayons, books and other small toys, but a waiting room is still a waiting room. I finally realized that is was okay to bring the laptop and let them play a game on the computer or watch a dvd. I have never been a big fan of using the television as a baby sitter, but I realized that if your kids don’t watch it, when you do need it, it keeps them spellbound for hours.

Stop focusing on what you are not doing and find the good. Usually when we find ourselves out of routine it is for two reasons, one we are lazy or two we are dealing with outside circumstances. If you are lazy, shape up… but if you are dealing with outside circumstances realize that you cannot do everything. Focus on one thing you would like to accomplish each day. Perhaps it is making one meal from scratch, making sure everyone has clean underwear, reading a book to your preschooler, getting through math with your fourth grader, paying the bills, vacuuming the family room, or making it to all your appointments. Set small goals for each day.

If things are really tough, ask for help. If people offer to bring a meal or help with the kids accept the help! Life is not a contest to see who had it the worst and who handled it the best. By saying no and not accepting help you are preventing people from serving your family in a time of need.

Realize that in most cases the situation is temporary. If it is not temporary you will need to redefine normal, but most of the time a sick child will get better, the deployment will end, the baby will start sleeping, or the company will come and go. I tend to think about it in terms of how will my current situation affect me in five years? Most of the time I realize I will probably laugh about it, or feel thankful that I had the opportunity to learn from the experience. When things seem crazy take a step back from the situation and find perspective.

I realize this post discusses big interruptions in schedules, for little interruptions I would encourage you to keep going with your day. Sometimes we get so worked up with our distractions we forget to just do the next thing. Take each interruption as it happens and then move on with your day.

Coming up next… What my kids do all day.