Fat Tuesday!

I am a Southern Bell, trapped in the snow drifts of Eastern Washington. This day has always been a Holiday for me! 

FAT TUESDAY!

MARDI GRAS!

CARNIVAL!

I am not Catholic, so Ash Wednesday or Lint have anything to do with it.

This is MY FAVORITE this about February.

The only problem is NO ONE up NORTH knows what is it all about!

Maybe it is just that Southern blood, just just makes me want to PARTY today!

So, take today and have a PARTY. Any party will do! Just be sure to have some FUN!!

P.S. Fly Lady Day 15: Make your bed! Check! B is the best! He always makes the bed! Even if I am still in it!!!

Fly Lady...

Yup, I am not a very good daily poster. I have am reasons. But I do want to fill you in on my Fly Lady journey!

Day One: Shine your sink!

I shined it, see the post here.

Day Two: Get Dressed to the Nines!

I need to work on getting dressed after my workout... I usually workout, fix breakfast, and then take some personal time before getting ready for the day... around noon usually...

Day Three: Join the Group!

I joined this, and I was getting inundated with emails. I think for me, the once a week email to remind me to check in is perfect!

Day Four: Post it!

Write your self little notes to remind you what to do... Not a big fan of post it notes all over my house...

Day Five: Negative Nancy?

Do you have a Negative voice in you head? Write it down and get it out! I love doing this! I know I promised a post about what I hate... It is coming! I promise!

Day Six: Hot Spot!

A hot spot is a place(s) that is a clutter magnet! For us it is our table! This is what is often looks like...

YIKES!

This is what two minutes did:

Well... Actually four... It took minutes to put away the keyboard...

Day Seven: Bedtime Routine!

We all have some sort of bedtime routine. Mine includes, washing my face, brushing and water flossing (braces are awful!) and thinking about what I am going to wear tomorrow. Fly Lady wants us to take it one step farther, actually setting out those clothes. It really helps, because if something is dirty, you aren't rushing in the morning to find something else!

Day Eight: One WEEK!

Today, along with everything else, you are to add writing everything down. Write the morning routine and the evening routine down. I wasn't a huge fan a first up helpful. I am working out the kinks to get a really cute printable for you!

Day Nine: 5 Minutes to Clutter Free!

Take 5 minutes to 'rescue' a room. Doing this every day, makes a HUGE difference! I picked my office. Five minutes everyday, I spend doing nothing but cleaning, and organizing. It is almost done. I will post some before and afters then!

Day Ten: 15 Minutes!

Ready! Set! Clean! Take 15 minutes to take out all the trash you can in 15 minutes? Seriously, you could turn this into a game for kids! Afterwards take 15 minutes to put your feet up and relax!

Day Eleven: Inspiration!

Take some time and write those inspirational thoughts and phrases down. Here are some of mine:

You can do anything, if you work at it for 15 minutes a day.

Don't worry about what other people say behind your back. They're the ones who find faults in your life instead of fixing their own!"-Unknown

You can't organize clutter, you can only get rid of it!-FlyLady

Day Twelve: Delete!

Delete all those emails form Fly Lady! She will write you again! --Phew! That felt great!

Day Thirteen: Your mission, should you chose to accept it...

I organized my closet floor yesterday. I even put some shoes in the thrift store box!

Day Fourteen: Calendars!

I am all caught up! Today is reading about using your calendar! It is a great little essay on how to use and organize your calendar. I LOVE mine, always have. Now I love it a little more!

I know this was long, and I am going to try and be a little better. I hope you all can de-clutter and clean your homes too!

Day Three and Four:Just Keep Moving Forward

This is hard! I don't want to clean my house, who really wants to spend their day doing that anyway? I keep telling my self that life was way harder when I was taking 18 credits, working part-time, and trying have a social life (I was dating B at a time like that in my college career). The ONLY thing I have to do is go to work! If i wanted I could let the house go into a deep never ending despair of filth. I could stop working out. It there really anything we have to do?

That is a questions I seem to ask my self often. I don't have a maid, or anyone who would pay for my groceries, or go get them and cook for me, so

  YES I DO HAVE STUFF TO DO! EVERY DAY!!!

I am not a perfect, and honestly right now my sink is not shinny and my kitchen is a mess. I also feel like my house will never be clean all the time, because people live here!

So what does this have to do with the 31 Baby Steps? 

Well, Day Three, is to join FlyLady's bigtent group and to read the messages. By the way these steps compound... You are start with one, then the next day you do one and two, day three: one, two, and three! So I need to be shining my sink, getting dresses, and reading the messages on the group... Now I am already apart of a few groups online. I have also told my self two hours in front of the computer a day. I don't need to be sitting there all day, reading and 'surfing the web'. So in short I don't read the messages, I look through and see if any catch my eye. Today one did, it was Friday Tip of the Day: Clean out your PURSE! Boy does mine need it!

Day Four, is to start a Control Journal! I have a few notebooks use for things. One for knitting projects, one for grocery shopping, and and list of what I need to do when I leave the house. I love lists!

Day Five, for Saturday is stop listening you your negative voices, and I will be talking you about those things that just drive me mad!

Day Two: Getting up and dressed to the Nines!

Ok well not really to the nines...
My morning routine looks something like this:
6.30 alarms start going off and B and I cuddle until the next alarm
6.35-6.40 I get up throw on my workout clothes and start the kettle for some Tea (juice in the summer!)
6.45-7.00 I check my emails, drink my tea, and read my scriptures.
7.15 - At the latest I am down in the basement working my bum off to that days JM workout.
8.00 -Shower and dress
8.30 Breakfast and get ready to leave for work or work on the day's project if I don't have work until noon.
Monday's and Tuesday's, work is at noon. I usually get something done on those days.
Wednesday and Thursday's I work at 9. I have Friday's off and try to get things done!

So, how does the FlyLady's day two work into today?

Well, after I guess I mostly do this. Some Fridays it takes me awhile to change from workout to day...

Day One: Shine Your Sink

Today, was not the best day... I woke with one of the worse allergy attack in a long time. So after calling in sick to work, and after taking some benadryl and sleeping for 5 hours, I am feeling mostly alive.

The sink! 

You probably spend the same amount of time in front of your stove as you do in front of your sink.


This is what my kitchen looks like on a regular basis... It isn't that I don't clean, it is that I really don't like to clean...

But with my shiny sink I don't feel like that much of a lazy bum who doesn't clean...

Here is the link to the very well written directions to shinning your sink. I wrote out them and have it on my fridge, that way they are there in the kitchen and I don't have to memorize them.

Here are some before, during and after pictures. (Don't mind my cheap camera shots... One day I will have a nice one!)

Grimy sink! 

After the bleach water soak.

After shinning!

Now I can not just shine the sink and ignore everything else! So I cleaned the counters around the sink, not anything else... I hope to get to that tomorrow!

So clean!

 At least, what you can see is clean! I did make a cute little sign to put next to the sink, hopefully B will notice it! And my sink will stay shiny!!

Here it is for you print for your sink!

Day two, is to get dressed from head to toe first thing in the morning, sounds easy enough! Now go shine your sink!

Monday...

Well, it is Monday, a new week and new day! From last weeks yeast experiment, I want to take some time to talk about something not necessarily in your kitchen...

I am talking about the WHOLE HOUSE!

Have you heard of the FLY LADY?

She has an AMAZING website dedicated to YOU getting your house DE-CLUTTERED!

This is from her website:

I know that you have become overwhelmed by your home and the chaos that you have been living in. We are here to help you, and it doesn’t cost you a dime. Keep in mind that your home did not get this way overnight, and it is not going to get clean in a day. We are going to teach you how to take BabySteps and establish little routines for getting rid of your clutter and maintaining your home. This system will work for anyone; it doesn’t matter if you work outside of your home, stay home with children, are retired, or work at home. You can do this; you have just need someone to pat you on the back and give you a great big hug to get you started.
The voices that you hear in your head keep telling you that you are behind and you have to get it all done now. We are going to quiet those negative voices that are beating you up constantly and replace them with a loving, gentle voice that tells you that you are not behind and you can do this one BabyStep at a time!
Please do not get impatient with the process. Everything we do is going to help you replace those voices that put you down. We are here to lift you up and celebrate every little accomplishment.
Your very first BabyStep is to go shine your sink. Don’t listen to those voices that tell you that it not going to help your messy house. This is exactly where I started, and this little habit has changed my life! Take this BabyStep in faith and go do it. 

I have shined my sink a couple of times and well, honestly haven't moved past Baby Step One! So, for the next 31 days I am going to talk about doing EACH and EVERY one of those 31 steps!

Starting tomorrow, my house is going to go from rooms looking like:

to rooms that sparkle!

The Yeast Experiment!

To finish up our week about yeast, lets do an experiment. I picked up 4 different packages of yeast at my local grocery store. I looked and asked about fresh yeast, and no one knew what I was talking about! I am going to keep looking, last I knew there was a bakery where my in-laws live. I am going to going to go over and see if it is still there this next week and see if I can get some there!

For the experiment I have set up the parameters, have a control, and even a yeast substitute I found online.

Which is the best?

Hypothesis: There is no difference between yeasts.
Experiment: Make the Copy-Cat Olive Garden Bread Sticks and see which yeast rises the dough the 

most, and has the best taste.

Experimental Procedure:

Step One: Follow the recipe directions, SIX TIMES!
Step Two: Regret starting this at 8 pm....
Step Three: Eat yummy bread sticks!

Results:

Control: For the control I added NO YEAST. I know a little about wild yeast, but wasn’t expecting much.

Yeast Substitute: Um... No does not work. Plus the dough smelled funny...

I even let these 'rise' over night... NOTHING. The substitute turned a funny green color... 

Yeast #1: (Hodgson Mill ): This was a larger package than the others, so I expected more rise (volume), got it.

Yeast #2: (Red Star Active Dry): This is what I normally use. I like it. It preformed well. Nice doubling in the rises.

Yeast #3: (Red Star Instant): Unexpected rise volume, tied with Yeast #4

Yeast #4: (Bakipan): Same as the Yeast #3.

In the taste test, B said, there was no real difference in the breads. He did though like the texture of Yeast #4 the best, and asked for me to start using it in his sandwich bread.


Overall, I really don't think I am going to change yeast. Maybe another experiment off of this would be a way to quantify the second rise height.

Dry Yeast

Dry yeast, this is the most common yeast. It is the only type of yeast I have used, except for levain. (Friendship bread uses a levain.)

Here are some basic facts about dry yeast:

• It is all natural! 
• Has been used for GENERATIONS.
• It can be kept at room temp, or frozen for long term storage.

There are different types of dry yeast.

Instant: This type is yeast is smaller than regular Active Dry Yeast, but has a higher percentage of ‘live yeast cells’. This type is slightly more perishable.

Rapid-Rise: Like the name, this is a type of yeast produces a fast rise, due to a high carbon dioxide production. Rapid-rise also has a even smaller grain size. This type is usually marketed for use in bread machines.

Here is a GREAT website with information about all the types of yeast.

Wet Yeast

Wet yeast is had to find. It is used more in commercial baking than that of the home baker. I am going to touch briefly on it, and then Thursday we will talk about the differences between dry instant and dry active.

Wet yeast has many names: Cake Yeast, Fresh Yeast, or Compressed Yeast. This type of yeast is extremely hard to find. ( I am looking for it as I want to include it in our experiment on Friday!)

Joyofbaking.com has a GREAT article on yeast. In which they touched briefly on wet yeast. This is what they said 

Fresh yeast is ivory colored with a yellowish hue and is soft and moist and should easily crumble. Make sure it is fresh smelling and there are no dark or dried places on the yeast. It is mainly used by professionals as it is highly perishable and must be used within a short time of opening. It is sold is .06 ounce foil packages and must be refrigerated. Compressed yeast contains about 70% moisture. It needs to be proofed before using and should have a pleasant yeasty smell and be foamy. 

I have never used wet yeast before, but hope to find it so I can try it!

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/Yeast.html#ixzz1lB5m3Vdl