Pantry Challenge Update

It's been a little over a week since I started my pantry challenge and I've noticed a few things.

I *still* suck at menu planning. 

I need a garden. 

I need chickens. 

I need to use up the dried beans/lentils/peas I have in a gazillion jars in my cabinet. 

It's really hard to stay out of the grocery store! 

I need to start making 2 batches of homemade bread a week. 

I need to learn to can something other than jelly and preserves.

The idea of canning meat both interests me and skeeves me out. 

Maybe my zombie apocalypse plan isn't as well thought out as I'd thought. 

These have been just a few things I've discovered in the last week.

Do you ever have those days where you're scouring the pantry and think, "We have NO FOOD!"
Yeah, that's been my way of thinking quite a bit and it's a lie. I HAVE food. I have quite a bit of food. But it's not pre-fab food. It's like the food IKEA. There's all these parts that just need to be constructed into meals and some days I just want to be like a scene in one of those manly movies. You know the ones where you toss an explosive device in there and walk away in slow-motion to some modernized Zeppelin riff. That's what food IKEA does to me. And some days I can make June Cleaver look like one lazy, bon-bon munching, well-dressed couch potato. There is no medium. I need a medium.

I've done pretty well on grocery shopping (I think). I plan on going once a week for staple items: milk, bread, eggs, apples, and other produce. So I've done well on that.

I've also been listening to podcasts and reading blog posts on pantry challenges for inspiration. On this podcast I heard something that really struck me. Maybe this is a "Duh" for y'all, but it made a lot of sense to me. We really cook or purchase to eat things that we want rather than what we have. This really hit close to home with me because as I look through my pantry, I see things that I've said, "Meh, I don't really feel like making that today." or "I don't really want to eat that." That's not a cardinal sin or anything, I'm just saying, if you're buying this stuff and then never making it, you just wasted your money. That's something I'm going to work on, cooking what we have and not just what we want to eat. Now this doesn't mean I'm going to sit the whole family down and force them to choke down things I know they don't like.

Seriously. That would NOT happen. There's only one of them left that's smaller than I am and they can all pick me up, so NO WAY, NO HOW!

My plan for this is to make a menu plan and stick to it. **Enter rage face here**

While I'm getting better at menu planning, I am no expert. Some people get all excited about menu planning. They love it. They're great at it. It makes them smile. I am not that person. I'm the type of person who gets itchy middle fingers when you mention menu planning. There may be a slight urge to punch the mentioner in the face and then run around in circles in the kitchen throwing the California Howdy all over the place. (If you don't know what the California Howdy is, go watch The Beverly Hillbillies movie.) But this is what it's going to take. Not just the writing the meals down on assigned days and then not going by it. ACTUALLY DO THIS STUFF. I'm going to have to call Shia LaBeouf in to encourage me.

My thanks to The Google for this pic. 

So my goals for this week: Use up the dried black beans, black-eyed peas, and start making a dent in the quinoa. I cooked a giant ham last week and I still have some left over. So I'll make black-eyed peas with ham in the next few days.

I've also invested in some giant mason jars for storage so things I want to keep for a while stay fresh. I got some half-gallons and some pint and a half jars. The half-gallons are to store things and the pint and a halves are to make jelly in later this year.

I've also been reading up on gardening, mentally planning out my plots, and mentally prepping where I'm going to put things up and how we will do our beds. We do have plans for a good fence that the evil cows can't get in and eat all of my tomatoes. That happened once and my heart still has a hole in it. You don't mess with a girl's maters.

I'm also figuring out how often I'll have to bat my eyes and look cute so I can get some chickens. We need eggs. The amount of eggs we use a month is obscene. I'll need 5,000 chickens to keep up with the egg consumption.

I'm not giving up. I shall prevail!! Who's with me? Anybody else doing a pantry challenge?

2016 Bullet Journal So Far

Being a fan of new beginnings, January ushered in a new year, as well as a new notebook for all my bullet journaling awesomeness. Yes, I still had a few pages left in my 2015 Moleskine, but I couldn't just use a handful of pages for an entire new year! Please tell me I'm not crazy! Please!!

This month has been so hectic that pretty layouts haven't really happened, it's all about the functional, baby. Jot that stuff down and check some boxes!! BOOYAH!!!

I AM really kicking myself for assigning a specific area for my lists. 

Why? 

Because I've already filled up most of it. #bujoproblems. 

You know what they say, listers gotta list. I seem to list like a dog sheds hair. 

*makes mental note to make a list of dogs that shed* 

I, of course, had to start this new BuJo off with a bang, and by bang I mean, mistakes. If I sat down and asked myself, "Hmmm... How can I jack up as many things as possible?" Then made a list of all the things I wanted to mess up and tediously checked off said mess ups, I don't think I would have made as many mistakes as I did just flying by the seat of my ... paper. 

Boo-boos hidden with scrapbooking paper and
Project Life knock-offs.

More "Hide the Mistakes.

BUT that's one of those things. That's life. Things happen, so you just go with the flow. I will say I did feel a few new gray hairs pop up because of it, but I told myself to be like Taylor Swift and shake it off. I'm doing pretty well with that. I only toss some deuces to those pages once a week or so. I mean, dude, who messes up the Birthday and Anniversary pages, for Pete's sake? That would be me. *bows*


I'm using a soft-cover Moleskine this year instead of a hardcover like I did last year and I made the jump to dot grid instead of regular grid paper. I wasn't really sure how I'd feel about either, but really, I'm liking the dots and I don't hate the soft-cover. I do think I prefer the hardcover due to the ease of jotting things down without a table, but it's not bothering me enough to drop it all together and start over. 

I don't have a set in stone layout, especially for my dailies, those change with my mood for the day, but I do like to have a monthly view that looks like a calendar. My mind doesn't work with the linear look, I need boxes or it isn't "real." 

January's monthly view is taped in because I did not do well with drawing it out. I haven't decided if I'll print off another calendar or try to draw out February's. 

My dailies are usually just my personal to-dos that are more detailed than what I put in my planner. Checking off boxes makes me happy and boxes just make my planner look too cluttery, I think.

Now for the lists. 

Right now I have Favorites, which is just podcasts at the moment. 

Then I have the KonMari Checklist so I can work on getting mi casa under control. 

Then my FlyLady Zone Cleaning lists for all that domestic merriment.

A couple of Money Saving Challenges because it makes me feel like a grown-up.

Books to Read, which is 3 pages right now and will probably grow.

Blog Post Ideas. Sorry, but I can't show y'all that. ;) 

More Day-to-Day routines.

My Miracle Morning tracker.

And favorite quotes.

I WAS going to include capsule wardrobe info in the back, buuuuuut I wasn't satisfied with the number of pages left back there, soooooo... I made a journal for clothing/capsule wardrobe stuff only.

And that's the set-up I have going right now. I'm sure it will change because I like to keep things fun.

What's your set-up looking like?

Friday Favorites: Podcasts

Always being one of the first people to jump onto new things...

Ok... not so much. Seeing as we didn't get the Internet at this house until 2008, I didn't get a Facebook account until 2009, and I just got my 1st smartphone last May, I might be a 90+-year-old person inside who is semi-afraid of change.

I have discovered podcasts in the last few months. Well, that's not 100% true, I had ONE podcast that I listened to every time a new episode came out, but that was all of my knowledge on them. But now I'm fast on the road to podcast addiction.

I started out listening to The Simple Show. I always loved that podcast, even when it had another name. Tsh Oxenrider is a person I'd love to sit down with and pick her brain. She has all these fascinating thoughts on things. When she had Megan Tietz on her podcast and they were talking about Megan's new podcast, Sorta Awesome, I moseyed over there and checked it out.

HOLY MOLY. I fell in love. These ladies were like having my besties in my earbuds! I live in a house of dudes and needed some NOT dude noise and this was PERFECT. I'm even more excited for Friday to come now because I get to listen to my peeps! Even though I blame them totally for my addiction to Gilmore Girls. You wouldn't believe how the laundry gets done when I'm watching Gilmore Girls.

From Sorta Awesome, I heard about The Lively Show. This podcast is amazing. It covers all sorts of topics I'm interested in... bettering your blog, bettering yourself, capsule wardrobes (a whole blog post in itself), entrepreneurship, living the best life you can, being positive... It's just a cornucopia of awesomeness.

I've also found some super inspiring and motivational podcasts to help me learn skills to build my businesses...

Hal Elrod has a great one for reaching your goals. If you're reading The Miracle Morning books, this goes hand in hand with them.

School of Greatness always makes me feel like I'm about to go out on a football field and fierce it up.

Working Woman Entrepreneur is great to learn about having your own business, grab inspiration, and see how all these other moms do this adulting thing with success.

The Ziglar Show  and This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt  are new additions to my ever-growing list. I plan to check them out thoroughly very soon.



These I think of as my "guilty pleasure" podcasts...


Lore. Sweet fancy Moses, I love love LOVE this podcast! So fascinating, so creepy, so fantastic! Think of legends you've heard about your whole life - vampires, werewolves, elves, ghosts, wendigo - but hear history about them and decide what your stance is yourself. The worst part about these episodes is that they are shorter than I'd like and they only come out bi-monthly. I do not have this kind of patience. I need my Lore fix. Even my kids love it. Now I DO pre-screen the episodes before they listen because some are pretty disturbing, but this is one we listen to in the car regularly, even over and over.

The History Chicks. If you wanted to know more about historical women, this is the podcast for you. VERY interesting topics and the hosts crack me up with their banter.

The Slow Home is about how to live a meaningful life, simplify things, and take control of your life instead of life holding the reins. The hosts, Brooke and Ben McAlary, have a great chemistry and they're Australian, so you get to listen to some pretty great accents.

Pioneering Today. I'm always looking for new tips on homesteading and self-sufficiency and Melissa has some great and easy ideas to incorporate.

These are the podcasts I obsess over listen to regularly. So are you a podcast-aholic too or a newbie looking for something amazing to plug your ears into? I'd love it if you shared some of your favorites.

The Great Pantry Challenge of 2016

I'm embarking on something that excites as well as scares me. A pantry cooking challenge.

So what does that consist of?

Basically, it's taking an inventory of what food you have in your house, use it for meals, and purchase absolutely as little as you possibly can.

My psychic senses tell me that you're wondering why I have enough food in my house to pull this off. One reason is location. We live in the middle of Bovineville, which is 20 miles away from the nearest town, so grocery shopping is kind of an ordeal. That's just simple staple items. If we actually want to have more than one option (i.e. better prices, larger selection, more than one store), then we have to drive 50 miles into the "Big City" for shopping. That's where I hit up Sam's Club, Walmart, Aldi, Big Lots, etc. I usually plan one large shopping trip a month there, sometimes two.

Another reason is saving money. It's the beginning of the year, the holidays are just over, and most wallets aren't quite as padded as they were a few weeks ago. It's always nice to get out of the overspend mode and back to normalcy.

I'm also a big believer in challenging myself. "It'll be fun! You'll learn new recipes! It'll be a growing experience! You'll save money and no wasting what you already have! Psh, embrace your Laura Ingalls Wilder a little more!" See what I have to live with?

A crazy reason is the convenience of having things on hand. Going back to the fact that we live 20 miles from the nearest town, you don't really want to have only a week's worth of food in your house for various reasons.

* Sickness - If you and your whole family get sick, it's nice to have some easy, reliable backup meals on hand. Even pre-prepped freezer meals are wonderful. This is a wonderful way to be your own BFF.

* Drop-in company - This is the South, so southern hospitality is a must, whether you were expecting these folks or not. And while you might "bless their hearts" in your mind, you're smiling while setting them a place at your table and not freaking out about having enough food for guests. Just brew that sweet tea and smile because your pantry is badass.

* Weather - Again, this is the South and Mother Nature seems to enjoy playing roulette with the weather. 70* one day, 25* and several inches of snow the next. Seriously. I am also not a fan of shopping the day before or the day of a weather change. It's all, "Hide yo bread, hide yo milk! They be flurryin' err-whurr out here!" I don't want to have to lay anyone out in the aisle over the last loaf of bread. Orange is not my color.

*Emergencies - This is the major knock-on-wood section. Having a well-stocked pantry is handy because you have a backup in case of lay-offs, unexpected time off work, or heaven forbid, something worse. If you're depending on a paycheck to buy your food weekly and then the paycheck is gone, do you have a backup plan? It's a good thing to think about.

*Zombies - Yo, I am not going to eat canned dog food from someone else's pantry because my life depends on it. "Where's Carl?" He's probably out scavenging for something lame because he didn't have a pantry stock. And "zombies" is probably the quickest explanation if you have someone asking you why you're buying so much. Or just wearing your cross-bow and leg holsters to the store actually eliminates question asking altogether. So I hear. Don't judge me.


I'm trying to avoid going to the store for anything except milk, bread, eggs, and basic produce for the rest of the month. I've already got a plan outlined, menus written down, now to stick to it. If you want to join me in this challenge, let me know!! I'd love to have some backup.

Here's a peek at my meal ideas and menu plan for the rest of this week.

**All memes found on Google Search. 

Stylin' - A Peek at our Homeschool Style

We have homeschooled for quite some time now and sometimes I feel like we've done ALL THE THINGS!!

If you're a homeschooler, you know that some curriculums or methods work like magic and some...well, not so much. Sometimes you just say, "It's time for school!" and you get this reaction.

Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's the kids, but the Ugly Cry face happens. 

Some books are perfect for some families and then I find they make MY kids want to tuck tail and haul hiney in the opposite direction. That's when *I* Ugly Cry. All my rainbow-coated dreams of perfection just went down the tubes with scrawled on worksheets. Sometimes even little doodles with speech bubbles containing "Mutiny" tucked in the margins. 

Learning doesn't have to be a painful experience. Thankfully that's something I've learned on this journey. If it doesn't work and it's causing stress in your home, you have the freedom to change it. And change it we have over the last few years. 

Some of my favorite things we're using this year:

**Disclaimer: I am not affliated with any of these sites or companies. The following are my personal opinions expressed to you because I like to share things that make my life easier.** 

Teaching Textbooks

Holy cow, these babies are a lifesaver. It's a software that teaches the lecture, tracks the completed lessons, and grades them for you. Shhhh. If you're quiet, you can hear the songs of praise from ecstatic homeschool mamas everywhere. 

Khan Academy

Khan has been talked about for a while now, but if you haven't checked it out yet, do so. It's set up where students earn badges as they learn, moves them along, and has several subjects to choose from: Math, Science, Economics, Arts and Humanities, Coding... Best of all, it's FREE! F to the R to the E, E, E!! I added an extra E for Excitement. Or maybe out of excitement. 

Brain POP

This is an excellent supplemental website. It has videos, printable worksheets for the video lesson, online quizzes, and it covers a myriad of topics. There are some free options available, but for all access to the site, you'd have to buy a yearly membership.

Mystery Science

This is a complete science curriculum for 2nd-5th grades. It's so cool! It's all laid out for you, so no need to put everything together unless you're wanting to add to it. AND it's also FREE right now until the end of the school year, so if you want to give it a try without committing, it's a great time.

Some other amazing sites we use quite a bit...

Pinterest.

OMG I have oodles and gobs of boards for homeschooling (and other things). I'm loving being able to pin something, try it out, and if it doesn't work, it gets deleted. If it does, then it graduates to my bookmarks on my computer.

TeachersPayTeachers

I have only downloaded freebies from this site, but I have prowled through quite a bit and was wowed. There are so many things that teachers are using in their classrooms and they've made them available! Awesome ideas that are just a download away!

CurrClick 

Very similar to TPT, but offer a lot more freebies. You can also subscribe to their emails about freebies so you're in the know.

I could go on and on about all the things we use, but this post would wind up wrapping around the world 3 times. Go check these out and see if they can help you! :)

Decide That You Can

reallygoodstuff.com

The new year has me all jacked up on motivation. I had totally intended to write something else today, but I was listening to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts and one line hit me in the face like a sledgehammer.

DECIDE THAT YOU CAN.

Whoa. I don't know if you felt it like I did, but I hope so.

I've had to become a motivational speaker for myself the last few years, so please excuse the soapbox moment.

How many times are our dreams thwarted because we're so mired in the sludge of "I can't"?

The Can'ts. That dark place that sucks the light out of your goals.

The Can'ts. The fear tinged air that poisons the smell of happiness you want.

The Can'ts. The parasite that makes you too heavy and hesitant to even consider taking that first step toward where you want to be.

The Can'ts are a disease. They infect your life, shadowing the hope that you can accomplish your goals.

But shine some light out in that darkness. Even if YOU think you can't, decide that you can!

Think about why you're scared. 

Is it because you're afraid of what people will think?

Ask yourself: How do your decisions affect them? Do they live in your house? Will your decisions harm them in any way? If they don't live under your roof and you're only worried about what they say, then put that fear aside. Their opinions don't pay your bills. Their opinions are stifling you. Their opinions are just that... their opinions. Not YOUR opinions. Don't forget the fun of proving people wrong. They say, "You can't." You just tell them, "Oh yeah? Watch me." 

shannahatfield.files.wordpress.com

Are you afraid of failure?

Are you afraid of success?

Yeah, that last one is legit, as crazy as it sounds. Some people are afraid for good things to happen because they think they aren't worthy. Let me tell you something. YOU ARE WORTHY. You are a fantastic creature who brings something to this world, something that would be missed. You are just as worthy as anyone. 

Now, fear of failure. That's something I think we all have. BUT think about this... if you don't even TRY, you've already failed. You've given in to The Can'ts! You let them win! You can't do that!

And honestly, what's the worst thing that can happen if you DO TRY? Yeah, it might not work, but you can TRY AGAIN! There's not a try quota. Failure isn't a bad thing. It's a learning process. You just learned something that doesn't work, but there are other ways to go about it. There are a lot more letters than just A in the alphabet. If Plan A doesn't work, move on to Plan B. Or C. Or X.

DECIDE THAT YOU CAN!!

It is absolutely crazy how a change in mindset can fuel your fire to get out there and make stuff happen. And it's contagious. It's like a plague. A plague of positivity, which is the best kind of plague, if you ask me. You're going to see that you approach things differently. You're going to smile more. You're going to make others smile more. You're going to wind up being an encouragement to others. You're going to grow as a person in ways you never even thought about. 

Where have The Can'ts infiltrated your life? 

Find the knot hole where they crept in and plug it up. Don't let them in. Now turn on the trusty flashlight you have called "What If." Shine that dude around.

What if I just did a little bit?

What if I researched the first steps to what I need to do?

What if I just started the business anyway?

What if I worked out just one day to see if I liked it?

What if we started saving money so we can buy that new car or house on this small income?

What if it worked???

"What if" will soon evolve into Hope. Hope will grow into Excitement. Excitement will spur on the Work. And Work will bring you Success.

It's that easy.

DECIDE THAT YOU CAN.

One little change of thought can change your whole world. Can. 

picturequotes.com

You CAN. And you know what, you WILL.

But it all boils down to that first decision. So... what will you decide? 

My Secret Plan (AKA Scheduling)

Ok, so it's not actually a secret. But it might be if you haven't heard me yammering on

and on...

and on...

and on about it, it's probably a secret to you. Seriously, it's a wonder I still have any friends.

"Shhhhhh!!! Don't ask the crazy lady anything about schedules! Or planners!"

I often get asked, "How do you do everything?"

Well, I don't do EVERYTHING, but I do like to lay out a schedule to "assign" duties to specific times. It's kind of like an Easter egg hunt for free time.

The really funny thing about this is how I used to ward off a schedule like a priest during an exorcism. I even bought a cross and some holy water.

Ok, so it's a piece of home decor and some Ozarka, but intention is everything, right?

This year, as I have mentioned, is the year of goals. The "get-er-done" time. The year of AWESOMENESS!! So I have to have a super awesome plan to punch this year in the face ala Mike Tyson. Which is where the mega schedule comes in.

It's okay, Mike. I'll explain.

Here it is... the Schedule of Doom, the Roadmap of the Ages, the Manifesto of Do Stuff...

Now before you tear up and start trying to have me committed, let me lay it all out for you. This consists of my personal schedule, my work schedule, and our homeschool schedule. And this is also has 23426 coinciding alarms on my iPod. Hard-core nerdiness, yo.

I started a 30 day Miracle Morning challenge today, so I had to figure out a way to fit that in. I already got up at 4:30 and occasionally 4:00, so I thought, "What the heck?" and we'll just leave that there. I wake up early because it's the only time outside of Pinteresting in the bathroom in 5 minute intervals I get to myself ALL. DAY. LONG.

I love my morning time. I kinda feel like I'm the only person in the world that's awake, I enjoy watching the sunrise, and I get to THINK without being constantly interrupted by something about Minecraft, someone screaming they have no pants because they didn't put them away, or having to yell over some sort of fart war because, hello! Boys! It's just me, my mind, and my BuJo getting ready to check boxes and make the day happen.

I have to admit, before I started thinking about schedules, I had just stopped reading for myself. If it wasn't cookbooks or schoolbooks, it wasn't happening. I didn't realize I had time. I DID have time, it was just dripping through my fingers. So now my Reading portion consists of entrepreneur books in the morning and I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while I do chores. Multi-tasking like a boss. Now that I see I have time to read, my book list is growing every day.

My motto: You never stop learning until you're dead. After that, I'm not sure. I hate to assume, cuz you know what they say about assuming.


I'm putting this into play tomorrow, so we will see how it goes. I'm both excited and scared. Maybe it will save me some gray hair. I sure wouldn't have my feelings hurt. I've got plenty as it is.

Ok, crazy lady out!

**Memes borrowed from Google Search.
**Crazy schedule and crazy lady pic straight outta my camera.