3 Updates

As you all know, I am not writing my posts from the realm of a completed and organized house. We are figuring things out as we go. Kind of like life, huh? So I have a few updates to some previous posts.

1. The Great Bread Experiment: Whole Wheat Bread #1
  When we tried this bread fresh out of the oven, we really liked it. It was soft and had a good whole wheat flavor. J ate it a couple of times and then started asking for "store bread" instead of the "new bread" for his sandwiches for lunch. Hmmm...I tried it (about four days post baking) and, while the flavor was still okay, it had gone stale. I had stored it the same way I had stored the white bread. Is this a wheat bread thing?
  I also realized that I usually buy Honey wheat bread for J's sandwiches, so that may have been a factor as well. Next time, I think I'll try a Honey Wheat. There's not a recipe for Honey Wheat in my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book but I saw one in Betty Crocker.

2. My Home Management Binder
  When I first decided to make this binder, I had purchased a pretty binder. It had a black and white filigree down one side of the front and turquoise and chartreuse down the other. Then, as I started putting it together, I found that all of my tabs were sticking out the side and would soon break off. Apparently, all pretty binders are only one inch binders and all one inch binders are not made wide enough to cover tabbed dividers when you put them in sheet protectors.
  Luckily, I found the turquoise one that is featured in the post. Plain but wide enough and a pretty color which just happened to match my original folder. I know, none of this really matters. Except that pretty things, especially coordinated pretty things make me happy. Really happy. Yes I'm a dork. I've been aware of that for quite some time now.
  Anyway, when I put my Home Management Binder together, I only had five dividers, so I combined my contacts lists with the calendar. I figured that they were both just reference and I had most of the info in my phone anyway. Then I started thinking and I wasn't really happy with that. I also realized that, if I use my "Goals & Projects" section as much as I think I will, it's going to take over the notebook. Solution? I took that section and gave it it's own whole notebook which just happens to match my big binder! This has worked out extremely well given all of the projects I'm currently working on or planning for the future. I don't have to lug my big notebook everywhere and when I put them away (once I've organized their space), won't they look nice together?

3. A Smarter Kitchen
  This one is a small thing. In the pictures for this post, I have some of our cereal in some nice, sleek, space saving tupperware. There's one slight problem with that. To pour the cereal, you have to take the entire lid off. We have been trying to give J more responsibility, particularly for his own things. A six year old can NOT coordinate well enough to tip the container with one hand and use the other to keep all of he extra cereal from spilling everywhere. He just can't. Clean up in aisle four!
  I do have a couple of containers with a flap at one end, but they are wide- enough to be difficult for him to control well when pouring. So, Mom and I went to Walmart today and found a $3 Walmart brand cereal container that is a manageable width for J and has the smaller flap he can open at one end to control flow. We got two to try out. If they work well, I might get a couple more.

Tomorrow I will be posting about some of the projects I have been busy with this week and hopefully we'll get a chance to make that Honey Wheat bread recipe I saw.

As always, let me know if you have any ideas that have helped you!