Precious Moments when they think no one is watching

They sat out on the porch watching the moon and stars last night... Jaden had her arm around Morgan's neck... Of course, it didn't last long. Morgan thought that Jaden was trying to straggle her, so she pushed her and screamed, "Jaden, get off!!!" Of course, I am just going to show the precious part. So sweet!

Making Bread

We made 2 batches of Cuban bread yesterday. I don't like it that much, so I am not going to put the recipe here. Stay tuned for a sourdough recipe in a couple of days. For sourdough, you have to make a starter that sits out for a few days. My starter should be ready tomorrow.
Anyway, the girls had fun making the bread. Flour was everywhere, but they learned something new (how to knead bread).

Money Saving Tip #2~ clothesline~ Save $180 or more a year

Depending on your dryer and your usage, you could save even more than $20 a month. To find out how much you could save by hanging your clothes out to dry, instead of using your dryer:
Check your dryer to see how much electricity it uses per hour. You can check your dryer manual to find out how much it uses. If you can not find this, go with the average which is 5 kilowatts per hour. Next, look at your electric bill to find out how much your electric company charges for each kilowatt hour. Assuming we have an average dryer, our cost is 50 cents per hour. I do any where from 11 to 14 loads of laundry per week (at 30 minutes dry time a piece). If I did 14 loads, it would cost me $3.50 per week, or $14 per month, or $182 per year! Some people buy the laundry lines and can pay hundreds of dollars for them. When you do that, while it looks cute, it's not very practical. The first year, you would not save any money (when you factor in the cost of the contraption). Our line might not be pretty, but it cost a total of $15 for 3 lines and some clothespins. Our laundry system will have paid for itself after a month of use.
This is what we did... LeCount bought 2 packages of rope-like clothesline from Home Depot. Then, we tied one end to the front fence and the other end to the back fence. No poles needed! We have a fairly long yard, and we were able to get 3 lines out of those 2 packages of rope. We still have to touch it up because it needs tightening, but we can do that as we go along. In the meantime, I put the clothes as close to the end of the rope as I can (since it is tighter and higher up there).
***Special note, if you are like me, and use your dryer as an iron, you will save even more!!! We should save about $250 a year because I am notorious for not getting the clothes out right when the dryer stops. Then, I tumble the clothes again to get the wrinkles out. I may get into the middle of something and miss that tumble ending, too. Which means, I have to tumble it yet again!!! Very wasteful, but there is good news for me... Our annual savings will be HUGE!!!

Money Saving Tip #1~ Living Amish-like with wheat

Over the next few months and years, I will be adding posts to help people (such as myself) live a simpler, cheaper, but still happy life. I have always been amazed at how the Amish can get by with so few conveniences, and how fun it out be to know that the stuff you are using is stuff that you made yourself. What a sense of accomplishment one would have after building their own house (not mention some sore muscles)!! I have a lot of ideas, some which I have done in the past and others that are new. For my first post, though, I am going to tell you about wheat. For Christmas, we received a mill and 45 pounds of white wheat from my parents. I started grinding this morning, and decided to make a big batch (so that I wouldn't have to do it over and over again. For those of you that have a mill or find yourselves grinding your own wheat, please read below on important information you should know before you get started. If you want to go true Amish style you may not use an electric mill. You will need to get a hand grinder (I bought mine on Ebay a couple years back). It is a lot of work to grind by hand, but if you keep at it, you can also save money on gym membership fees!!!:

Fresh ground whole wheat flour shelf life varies according to the temperature of where it is stored. The whole wheat grain flour is a living food that is perishable. When the grain is ground into flour and its outer layer is no longer protecting it from the elements, including air, it goes rancid from oxidation.

Yes, the wheat germ oil in the flour starts to go bad once exposed to oxygen. This living food starts to degrade like all living foods normally do. Also, the vitamins and minerals within the flour will decrease as time goes by. So just like with all foods, the fresher the food, the higher the nutritional value.

Left on Your Counter - The whole wheat flour shelf life is 3-5 days. After that time frame, the flour will many times start to smell like stinky socks and develop a bitter taste. This fowl odor is nature's way of telling you not to eat it. This rancidity will negatively affect the flavor of the bread or your other baked goods.

Refrigerator - Fresh milled whole wheat flour will be good for 10 days.

Freezer - Fresh milled whole wheat flour will be good for 30 days.
(information taken from: http://www.healthbanquet.com/whole-wheat-flour.html )

Christmas at Uncle Ray and Aunt Sally's

More great pics from Christmas... After Byran and Amy's house, we went to visit with Uncle Ray, Aunt Sally, Patrice and Andrea. The girls enjoyed opening up their gifts including clothes and DVDs. Every year, they have gotten a DVD that matched the outfit or gift. For example, last year, one of them got a Dumbo stuffed elephant and a Dumbo DVD. This year, Morgan got a Fairies DVD and outfit, and Jaden got Sleeping Beauty. Very cool! The girls love watching the movies because they are made by Disney (the Disney movies seem to know how to grab young kids' attention).

Christmas Day at Bryan and Amy's

As promised, more great photos from Christmas day! We went to Uncle Bryan and Aunt Amy's house after we were done opening presents with grandma and grandpa and Uncle Kevin. There was so much to do there!!! Morgan, Jaden and their cousin James did a lot of playing outside with the swing, play house, soccer goal, lawnmowers, trucks and the dog Sandy. The guys (LeCount, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Bryan, and Grandpa Lyale) played football. Aunt Amy is pregnant with a baby girl that they are going to name Paige. When we were on our way to their house, Jaden asked me, "When we get to their house, will the baby be out of Aunt Amy's tummy?" It was funny to me because children at that age don't understand the full concept of time and just how long a pregnancy lasts. She is due in April, but Jaden is already expecting the baby to arrive at any time!

Christmas Early Afternoon

Our first visit of the day on Christmas was a visit from Grandma Leslie, Grandpa Lyale, and Uncle Kevin. Jaden got to give her presents to everyone. She bought ties for the guys and socks for grandma. The ties played Christmas music, and the socks were Christmas themed, too. Grandma and Grandpa had brought over the gifts from the other cousins in California (My brother Jeff, his wife Anne, and their 3 girls Emma, Bridget and Maggie). So, there was a lot of gift unwrapping and gift assembly going on! Emma and Bridget gave Jaden and Morgan a set of doll furniture and accessories that needed to be put together. All of the adults took an item and had it set up in no time. Stay tuned because there was a lot more visiting going on that day that will be mentioned in later posts.

Christmas morning

We had a busy Christmas with lots of visiting and catching up with family. The morning was just the four of us until about 11:00 AM. We got up at 7:00AM (thanks to Jaden). Jaden and Morgan each got a SnuggleKins doll (Jaden got a tiger and Morgan got a cheetah) and a little bed with a mobile for them to sleep in. I, also, got them some of Melissa and Doug's "4 food groups" play food. From Santa, they got a big kitchen with dishes, utensils, a microwave, stove, oven, refridgerator, sink and phone. I hope all of this stuff keeps them busy for a long time, and it won't be like their other toys that they have gotten tired of after a few weeks!