Life with Ólöf

Started my first Sourdough Starter

January 14, 2019November 25, 2019 Olof

I made bread for Christmas Eve like I tend to do and finished the rest of my instant yeast and it made me wonder how people in the past used to make bread. Did they have yeast starters that they would pass around or was there somehow else that they made their bread. If you have read through my blog or Instagram you have seen that I have made quite a bit of bread. I have most of the major tools to make it but until now I have always used the instant yeast that you can buy at the store. So here is my story of falling down the rabbit hole of learning about how bread used to be made.

I started by using dear old google learning a lot of things about natural yeast. I’m not foreign to fermentation. Husband uses to make his own beer, we have made home made wine and I used to also make homemade water kefir, with water kefir crystals, which I love but haven’t been consistent enough in keeping alive and free of other contaminants. I’m bad at keeping it healthy and unlike sourdough it isn’t something you can just throw out and start over with what you have at home.

I learned that sourdough is actually easier on our digestive systems. The wild yeast and lactobacillus in the leaven neutralise the phytic acid as the bread proves through the acidification of the dough. This prevents the effects of the phytic acid and makes the bread easier for us to digest. These phytic acid molecules bind with other minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, which make these important nutrients unavailable to us. Long slow fermentation of wheat can reduce phytates by up to 90%. This process means that it does take longer to make sourdough bread because the yeast and the bacteria take longer to break down the phylic acid BUT you end up with a bread that doesn’t make your belly wish you had never even looked at that delicious morsel of bread. Great thing is that you can even make a large batch of dough and keep it in your fridge only to cut some off and make fresh bread every morning OR you can make many different loafs at once.

Sourdough is made from the natural yeast that is all around us and in the grain itself. All you need is four and water and use your hands to mix the starter together. If you are in a hurry you can add a whole grain of some sort which will have more strains of yeast in it. I added just a teaspoon of wheat bran to the starter because I didn’t have any whole grain in the house and because I am all about seizing the day and not waiting because then it won’t happen because I have lost interest already I didn’t wait. I just used what I had on hand which was organic unbleached flour and organic wheat bran and water.

Here are the things you need to start your starter

1 glass or plastic container

1 measuring cup

3/4 cup organic unbleached wheat (preferably whole wheat)

2/3 cup water

one small ORGANIC apple grated with the skin but staying clear of the core.

The next day I fed it the exact same measurements BUT only white flour this time and water. Yep, fed it. Yeast is alive and hungry all the time. It needs to be fed and for sourdough you need to feed it white flour and water. It is recommended that you do this every day or two, throwing out half or using it in recipes that call for starter throw outs, until day 5 or 7, depending how warm your house is and if you had whole grains and used your hands or not. You are looking for a good bubble and nice active reaction within 2-3 hours of feeding, but like the instant gratification person I am I could only wait until day 4 to try it out the first time and it wasn’t showing much of a rise because of my cold house. I had nice bubbles going on in the started and all so we will see what happens. Update: the first bread was a dense flop and I threw it out. After 2 days I tried again and had a little better results but it wasn’t great. Both loaves where super heavy. Both the ugliest loaves of bread I have ever made.

We keep our house pretty cool during the winter because we have a pretty big house that is expensive to heat and so that our kids keep clothes on. Our 3 year old thought that pants were optional before winter hit and keeping the house cool makes him want to put pants on. Anyway, this makes for slow fermentation in our house. Because of our cool house my starter was having a really hard time getting going. I would get a few bubbles but no rise. I did some trouble shooting searching and they recommended a seed starting heating mat, which I already had in the garage and boom my starter took off like gangbusters.

When I had finally gotten the nice bubbly rise out of my starter on the mat I tried again and Boom! I got amazing bread with great rise. I am so glad that I stuck with it and kept trying and troubleshooting. Key is to have the starter in a warm place where it stays at least 70F otherwise starting from scratch is a bit difficult. I’m told that mature starters are a little hardier.

If you are not brave enough to make your own starter then here is one that Amazon will deliver to your door with instructions on how to keep it alive.

Anyway, sourdough starters can be used in so many recipes in stead of instant yeast. I look forward to the nutritious things I will be able to make for my family with this fun starter and it is very easy to put these guys to sleep. You can keep your starter in the fridge to slow down their rumbling tummies, but you still need to feed them once a week, OR you can dry some of your starter out and put in a Ziploc baggy and keep them in the freezer for a long while then start them up again by re-hydrating and feeding them. That I can get behind also starting a new one isn’t that hard if you end up sadly killing your first from starvation. Makes for a win-win science experiment in the kitchen.

Stay tuned for my concoctions made with this magic starter. I see a lot of fun in my future.

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Mine Slippers Review

January 11, 2019February 17, 2020 Olof

I purchased the Mine Slipper pattern by Faye Kennington at the end of December of 2018 after I had run across her Instagram where I saw them and I really wanted to make myself a pair. I have made several of these lovelies myself and others so far and I’m sure I will make quite a few more in the future as quick gifts.

The pattern is well written with a lot of explanations and options. Faye also manages to fit the pattern all on just 2 sides of a paper which I appreciate when I print out patterns or purchase them already printed. The pattern is easy to memorize after knitting a pair. I only have to refer to it now when I am making different sizes so I know what to leave out since I have giant feet and made the biggest size for myself. Size 11 USA and 42 in European sizes.

I chose to make the left a mirror of the right but I don’t think that is a must, it would look fine either way. I used Thick and Quick yarn by Lion Brand Yarn, which makes this a very economical project and a US size 6 double pointed needles and each pair only took me about an evening to do. I’m a quick knitter so the average knitter should be able to manage around one in an evening.

On the first pair I made I missed a line in the pattern and forgot to knit 4 rows after the picked up stitches on the sides of the cables. I loved the way they looked. I tried knitting another pair following the pattern exactly and I was not a big fan because I felt they came up too far on the ankle and where just a little too loose. I thought they were more fitted and slipper like without the 4 knit rows. My mess up slippers were so popular with my friends that I had several ask me if I could make them some. Of course there were a few that deserved a pair and since it only takes me an evening, and I still enjoy making them, I obliged.

These were for a mom friend that spends a lot of her time helping out at my kids’ school and leads M’s Bear Den at Cub Scouts. Because of her my kids’ lives are more enriched. The least I could do was knock out a pair for her, especially since she brought her own yarn.

In conclusion, these are a joy to make. I really love a quick project that is also functional. It always makes me feel so accomplished and proud of myself. Especially when I have been working on big projects or I have gotten out of the knitting groove. I wear these every day at the moment, especially when I am getting out of bed or lounging around in my PJs. I think they are just pleasing to the eye too.

What is your go to quick knit for gifts that everyone enjoys?

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Free Hat Pattern

December 31, 2018November 25, 2019 Olof

Spent some time recovering from a procedure that left me sitting more than usual and after spending some time on Instagram I was inspired to pick up the needles again. I had some yarn that had been sitting for a few years gathering dust that I started using first but realized that the yarn that the people on Instagram was on sale at Micheal’s so I made a trip and got a few skeins. After spending years being a yarn snob I was quite surprised with the feeling of Thick and Quick by Lion Brand Yarn. It is soft but doesn’t feel like the cheap stuff I had found in craft stores in the past. It has a blend of wool and synthetic fibers but it feels warm and comforting to the touch. I linked to Amazon where you can get it but I got it at Michael’s for only $6 a skein plus Oklahoma tax.

I made quite a few hats. Often getting 3 done in a day. I have 3 sizes, adult, kid and little kid.

This is a loose quick pattern that I just made up as I went along. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments so that others can see the answer when I answer you.

Here is what I used to make the hats:

Size 10 (8mm) double pointed needle

Thick and Quick by Lion Brand yarns in whatever color combos you wish. You will only need part of a skein even if you don’t do any color work.

Tapestry needle to weave in ends

Cardboard to make a pompom maker but you can purchase them on amazon too.

Small scissors to cut the yarn

Stitch markers

The Pattern

Cast on 10(12,14) stitches on each of 4 needles 40(48,52 stitches total) with your contrasting color if you plan on doing color work

k1,p1 for 6 (8,8) rows

Knit with main color for a full row

knit 1 with main color, knit one with contrasting color,* knit 3 with main color and knit one with contrasting color* repeat last 4 stitches until you reach the stitch marker.

Knit with the main color for a full row

Knit 3 with main color then one stitch of contrasting color and repeat that until you hit the stitch marker.

Repeat the last 4 rows for 4 (5,6) times or it measures the height of the persons crown that you are making it for.

Next row, with the main color, you knit 2 together and then knit one and repeat that until the end of the row

Then knit a row

Repeat the last 2 rows until there are fewer than 10 stitches left, end with a decrease row, cut a 6 inch tail, put it on a tapestry needle and pull the yarn through the remaining stitches and then weave in the ends

Next make a pom pom in whatever color you chose OR you can purchase the fake animal fur ones on amazon here. I just use cardboard. Here is a link to a video on how to make pom poms.

Attach the pom poms how ever you see fit. Some people like to put 2 like bear ears or like me I just add one to the very top.

Hope 2019 treats you well! Happy New Year!

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Time to Write

November 18, 2017November 25, 2019 Olof

Things are changing. They are always changing. Every moment when I get into the rhythm of “I got this” life happens and I have to learn to dance to a different beet and sometimes life doesn’t even provide me with the music to dance to and I sort of have to be super creative. Now is one of those moments where there is music but it the station keeps getting changed a lot and I have learned to just roll with it. Funny thing is that it keeps mixing my favorite hip hop station with my least favorite techno station and I have NO idea how to dance to techno. But even my favorite Hip Hop station is throwing me curve balls that I can manage and they are not horrible but throw me off beet. Thankfully there is more Hip Hop than Techno.

So here it is. Remember when we purchased the house the summer of 2016? The 1978 monster of a house that was frozen in time in 1978. There was shag carpet everywhere. Even in the bathrooms. There was carpet in the kitchen. Yep you read that right. IN THE KITCHEN!!! We knew that was not going to fly with 4 young boys, a dog and 2 cats. So we ripped out ALL the carpet except in the formal living and dining room which looked newer than the rest. But Ya’ll the carpet in there is cream colored and that is where I have the boys fenced off when I need to finish dishes, laundry, cook dinner or what have you and the dining room is the play room at the moment and the formal living is the game room with the ugliest pealing pleather couch that you could think of. We stalled out of updating the house about 7 months ago. Getting all of this done with 4 kids, a dog and 2 cats in tow on top of homework, school pick up, mountains of laundry, all the meals and all the normal stuff we have going on just wasn’t happening. One of our investments did well and we suddenly had the money to pay someone else to do the work and it was like a light shown down from the heavens. This is where I spend most of my time. In this house and we have had nasty concrete floors for over a year. The toilets and everything in the bathrooms is an ugly beige that makes me want to stab myself in the eye. But we have a great friend that does AMAZING work and was willing to take us on as clients and I am so excited to see what he will do for our house. Hopefully by the end of February I will have the house of my dreams. Before then we ran into some snags.

We found bats in the attic Bye Bye $1170 for removal and clean up

We hired a structural engineer because of some uneven floors and wanted the foundation to be fixed before we put new hardwood floors on. We need piers and foam to stabilize the foundation. Bye Bye $10,000

We needed some trees trimmed and removed from our property and the rental property. Bye Bye $2400

This all before we even start on the whole house remodel. The new appliances needed and the furniture that we need after that is done. We never fully moved into this house because it was never finished. The attic above the garage (that doesn’t have bats) is still full of our stuff that I never moved in because we had so much left to do. Also we moved from a 1500 sq ft house to a 3390 sq ft house. We still have whole rooms that we don’t use at all because they really aren’t usable because there is just subflooring.

As I was dealing with all the contractors (I’ve already been stood up 2 times and we haven’t even started on real renovations) I get a call from my 3rd boy’s principle. It is that call that no parent wants to hear. “You need to come pick up your preKer because he has been violent towards another child and has left marks on him.” I was in complete shock and disbelief. He is stubborn and sneaky and a hand full at home but never would I have imagined that he would be violent towards another child on purpose. I left a note on the door that I would be back in a few minutes for the contractors and speed off to school. Ashamed of my sons behavior. When I asked him why he did it he told me that he wanted to come home and this is the only way he gets to go home. It was one of my few days where I get to get stuff done without having small children under foot. My youngest (who is almost 2 and throws the greatest tantrums ever at the moment) was at his little preschool and I was trying to pack as much into my window as I could. Alex, my #3, got suspended for the rest of the week. He thought he won the lottery and got to stay home. I took away screens, I took away games, but honestly there is little I could do to make staying home with me less great. He hates school. Says his teacher doesn’t like him and even though I have asked for a change, written emails and showed up to meetings and other things nothing but a Behavioral plan has been done for him. The child that hasn’t done anything like this before is suddenly labeled a psychopath by his teacher because he is trying everything in his power to get out of there. What really makes me sad is he begged to go to “big kids school” for almost a year before he started. He had been dreaming of it for so long and I remember sitting down with the teacher at the beginning of school and thinking “oh no” that she was not a good fit for him and this might not go so well. I thought he would be unruly for her but NEVER violent. I can’t change things for him at school. I can just be a loving place for him at home. Make sure he talks about his choices at school and try to move on. This part of parenting sucks. When they have to learn to be outside of your zone. If they never really learn this the rest of life will be hard. I don’t want that for him.

As all of this is going down, the endless estimates and contractors and Alex making himself seen in our large busy family, I am also planning a trip to Iceland to see my family for Christmas. We won’t be there for long so I’m trying to introduce my boys to all of the different families on a one on one basis. This takes planning. I also have to make sure that I have all the outdoor clothing we will need for all 4 of them. Good shoes for all kinds of weather and that I make time for friends and us too with out hurting too many feelings.

Like I said at the beginning of the post, most of my music is good music that I love to dance to, finally getting the house done the way I like it and money not really hindering that, but I find myself stumbling through the techno noise and feeling like I am failing in ways along the way, when I am navigating the parenting outside of my control zone, watching my child not thrive and knowing that he needs to learn to be without me and I will not always be able to pick and chose his caretakers or bosses along the way. I hate that he is learning this so early. He is only 5. But also sheltering him even longer might not be helpful either.

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Week 1 of the Elimination Diet

January 7, 2017November 25, 2019 Olof

OK I have decided to share with you my journey in the search to healing my body. 6 months ago I was really sick. I was in so much all over pain that I needed pain medicine to function for my family. I hated it and tried not to take it because I did not want to turn into a narcotics statistic but then my family suffered. My joints hurt so badly that I was having a hard time getting around. Then my body just started hurting all over. I went to the Dr to have blood work done and everything came back normal. He sent me to a rheumatolorgist and even though I had inflammation he couldn’t place it so he just gave me the umbrella diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and sent me home with a medication that I should just take. I read the side effects and was not OK with it.

I had the Mirena IUD placed 4 months post partum because of abnormal bleeding, which ended up only making the bleeding worse, and the Dr still kept talking me out of having it removed again and my symptoms had been getting worse since then so I decided that I was ready to heal my body. Not cover up symptoms. Clearly my abnormal bleeding was a clue that things were not in balance and I needed to have the Mirena removed to know really what was going on. I scheduled an appointment to have it removed and the PA that was removing it for me tried to talk me out of it again and told me that there was no way that it could be the Mirena that was causing me any of my symptoms. A week later My joint pain was almost gone and I had started running again.

I made an appointment with a holistic Dr to help me get rid of some symptoms I had had for years now which included brain fog, dry brittle nails and hair, dry skin, hard time focusing, sugar and processed food cravings, poor quality of sleep, seasonal allergies, my cycle was short why my periods where long and heavy and excess weight. This lead to blood tests that tested both my genetics for how I process vitamins, blood count, state of my nutrition and so on. I learned that I have genetics that make it hard for me to process B vitamins and folates so I need to be sure to supplement those and that I was low on CoQ10 and Omega 3s. Just starting to take these suppliments changed so much for me. I was functioning again. I quit hurting. My skin got a little better. But I wanted to tackle the rest of my skin issues, the rest of my brain fog, my short attention span, my sugar cravings that were still going strong and my weight.

I was seen by another holistic Dr and she told me that it was probably my gut that was wreaking havoc on my system. So she prescribed an elimination diet with supplements and antifungals. Warning me that I was likely to feel much worse on the diet before I got better so to wait until after the holidays to do it. She believes I have something called Leaky Gut Syndrome. So pieces of my food are actually penetrating my bowl and leaking into my bloodstream causing inflammation and all my issues. The 4 week plan will hopefully help my gut heal and then I can slowly introduce some of these foods again.

An Elimination diet means that I would not be eating eggs, wheat, corn, Soy, sugar, shellfish, beef, pork, alcohol or coffee (when she said this I told her she went too far LOL). She did hand me a long list of things I could eat. Including rice and oats so that was something.

I decided that Jan 1st was a good a day as any to start and it gave me time to wean myself off of coffee and switch to green tea which I could have. The Dr had sent me a meal plan and a grocery list and like the ADD person that I am I waited until the first day of the diet to fill my prescriptions and go grocery shopping. That trip to the grocery store was a $300 trip. A lot of the items I will be able to use a gain nest week because it is a 4 week plan so this weeks trip will be less expensive. I ended up going to 3 pharmacies to fill my prescriptions because the anti fungal that I needed at those places had simple syrup added to them which I couldn’t have. I’m on day 7 now and still haven’t gotten that yet because of pharmacy transfers and other issues but hopefully Monday will be a better day.

I have cooked sooooo much this week and it was all new to me recipes. Most of them were very good and we had fish 2 times this week which was nice. I haven’t been good enough at cooking fish and that is the reason for my Omega 3 efficiency.

Day one I felt good and was doing fine. My older kids were still at their grandparents so I was still getting to sleep in with the 1 year old. Day 2 wasn’t that bad either, the kids came home that day and I went for a run that night. Day 3 I hurt all over and the brain fog hit me to the max. I was always full because the meal plan leaves no availability to go hungry but I was dragging. Day 4 I was dragging even more. Day 5 I was still in a funk but still sticking to it but missing coffee and Day 6 was hard. It was Family night which means pizza and a movie on the couch with the kids. Husband, being the good husband he is, brought home the pizza and handed it to me while he changed out of his work clothes so that I could pass the pizza out to the troops. That was the first time I really wanted to break the diet. Handling and smelling the pepperoni pizza. I didn’t want to cook so I ate leftover beans and rice and made my self a bad smoothie. Day 7 and I am a little bit peppier. Good husband let me sleep in since I was up and down all night with the one year old and have been all week getting around 4 hours of sleep on average a night. This does not help me heal but it is the way things are at the moment.

I’ve been doing my research and apparently the trifecta of getting rid of sugar, gluten and dairy + antifungals (the one I have) and probiotics is causing a storm in my gut flora and the nutrients I am getting from my food. So my Dr was spot on about things feeling much worse before they get better. I’m just hoping that by the middle of next week I will start to get the ability to think back. I seriously could just stare at a wall and I wouldn’t get bored because I just can’t think at the moment. Writing this post was hard. But I know I am doing this for a reason and hope that since the antifungals have done their job and I no longer crave sweets all the time that I will be able to keep it up after I quit this diet. I will be incorporating some of these meals into our normal meal plan because the fish we had was really good and so was some of the chicken. The smoothies have not been good at all.

I am also happy to announce that 12 lbs have been shed since we purchased this house. 2 during this week. If I lose 2 lbs a week for the next 3 weeks I will be very happy and this will have been worth it. I’m more than tired of my gut and my double chin. If I could just stop being so tired all the time that would help too.

If you read this all the way through then thank you for reading. Have you done the whole 30 or an elimination diet? Is it something that you need to do but have been putting off? Tell me about how it went. Did you have withdraws? Anybody have any recipes they want to share with me?

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So Much Change!

November 2, 2016November 25, 2019 Olof

OK since the last time I posted a lot has happened and since I am suffering a bad cold at the moment and stuck on the couch I thought I would update everyone. You know because having a 4th kid wasn’t enough. A) we got a puppy! and B) we bought another house!

I know I’m crazy and my body is completely telling me how crazy I am but that is a whole other blog post.

This is Freyja! She is a mess of a Beagle Pug mix. Shortly after mom died I had a dream. My mother visited me in the dream, held my then 3 boys, and told me “Olof give the boys their puppy and everything will fall into place.” At the time I just took it as a grief dream and I didn’t give it much thought. Almost 3 years later I suddenly needed to get a dog. Husband wanted (and still doesn’t) nothing to do with this dog. She is a mess. She can’t be trusted with the kids but she is now only 8 months and getting better every day.

Shortly after adding a dog to our, already large and busy, family, I suddenly needed to move. It was like an urge that I just had to fill NOW. My children needed a better school and we needed more room. I used to daydream of a beautiful colonial home and drive though a neighborhood here in Tulsa that has these BEAUTIFUL colonial homes. I knew that a house like that was not in the cards. Especially not in that neighborhood. I also was wanting a home in a neighborhood where my kids could go outside and ride their bikes. I had a tall order for a house on a limited budget. We wanted to stay under $200K and at least 2000 sq.ft. We needed at least 4 bedrooms because I was not going to move again before the boys move out unless we are moving out of state or out of the country and then I would just sell everything and not bother with moving all of it.

I started looking at Zillow and texting my awesome Realtor to start looking at houses. We had looked at a colonial in a good school district but the people that owned it wanted more than we were willing to pay for it and the kitchen was small. We looked at so many houses. The only ones I really liked were under contract before I could even make an offer. We were looking for something that we wouldn’t need to do anything to. Yeeeaaah…….. The ones that were within our budget were too small when it came to bedrooms for the boys. I had looked at our current house on Zillow. Loved the exterior, the space, the school, and the neighborhood BUT the interior was horrendous. It was stuck in the 70’s with original shag carpets, wood paneling and all.There was carpet in the kitchen and the bathrooms! I looked on Zillow but did not want to do all the work so I did not want to go see it in person. Then I started getting really frustrated. I needed to move! It was like I was being pushed and pulled to move by something. I finally went to looked at this house with my realtor and husband and kids. I saw the potential but knew that it was going to be a process. This house is more than double the size of our last house that was 1500 sq. ft. At 3392 sq. ft. 4 bedrooms, 2 and a half bathrooms and a bonus room over the garage, it is a monster of a house. I still have to pinch myself that we actually have a house this big and in such a great neighborhood. I couldn’t believe that I had squirreled away enough money to pay for a down payment on a house like this without selling our other house.

The closing was a mess of papers and the move was a sweaty mess with 4 kids in tow. We were moving during the hottest time of the year here in Tulsa, Oklahoma but we needed to be moved before the boys started school. We were so lucky that my in laws, my brother, and several friends were an amazing help. Both moving and with renovations.

We have only gotten flooring on a small portion of it. We started by tearing all the carpet, except in 2 rooms, out. Scheduled a large trash pick up by the city and got all of the carpet on the curb. We had to wear masks. It was Soooooo gross. But it got the smell out of the house that was stuck in it.

Then we got all the doors off, even the cabinets. They were all a dark wood. Making the house really dark on the inside. We painted them all white. It was a great face lift for the kitchen. We have managed to put floors in 2 of the bedrooms and 2 of the 3 bathrooms. We have amazing dreams for this house but it will be slow going since we have now used up all of our extra money. All gone! What is left is our emergency fund and that is for emergencies. But slow and steady the paint is getting done and flooring is getting put down. We don’t want any carpet.

Every time one more thing gets done I feel a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Because, you know, taking care of feeding and keeping 4 kids clean and a 11 month old safe from himself leaves me plenty of time to paint and keep working on the house. My health issues have not helped either but I’m hoping that I will start seeing the end of the tunnel soon.

What did we do with our other house, you may ask, since we didn’t sell it? You guessed it, we are now landlords. Friends of ours offered to paint, repair and clean the old house and in return they will be saving $1500 over the next year on rent. I thought it was a great trade and I knew that they would be amazing tenants.

I’ve had to make some changes since moving. HOA laws say that we can’t have chickens so my chickens went to a wonderful home at my amazing in laws. They are treated much better there than I was able to with everything else on my plate and they are about to take my bees too. My plate is more than full at the moment and these beings deserve being taken better care of than I can at the moment. I was so thankful I could get them somewhere they are really cared for and that I can visit. One day I may get back into bee keeping but right now I am going to focus on making this house our home. Less than half of our house is being used at the moment. There is so much left to be done. I will slowly make this house a home my children will hopefully love to come home to and my friends and family will love to come visit. Having plenty of room for visitors. I will get into my plans for this house in a different post. I hope I start blogging more often and share my story again.

What are you up too? Any advice for our renovations?

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Bullet Journal Winner

April 6, 2016November 25, 2019 Olof

We have a winner! Sara who said that until now she has been keeping track with sticky notes and her phone which wasn’t working that well for her with 3 young children. Hopefully this will help.

Remember there is no wrong way to use a bullet journal and you can modify it to your needs.

Here are a few pages I added to my bullet journal this last month.

How do you use your planner/bullet journal?

IMG_20160321_222140 — A great way to track how many eggs I am getting from my hens and yes I know exactly who played which egg.

IMG_20160321_174816 — Loosing the baby weight has not been easy but I’m hoping some prizes will help keep me motivated.

journaling, Uncategorized

Journaling To Forgiveness.

March 23, 2016November 25, 2019 Olof

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Today, I give thanks to all the people that have been in my life so far. Good, or bad, they have all touched my life in some way to shape me into the person I am today. They have all helped in the process of making me me. A mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, professional, homeowner, world traveler, career surfer (did this in my teens and early 20s), crafter, blogger, gardener wannabe, designer, thrifter, and mentor.

I love being in my 30s and having the maturity to be able to look back even on the people that treated me poorly and just be proud of myself for getting out of their way and keep them out of my life. Life is too short to let other people make it difficult but I also learned from these people how not to treat others. Then to be able to step back and forgive them for their trespasses. That is the most freeing of experiences. To just let it go. But I hold fast to the saying “Fool me once shame on you but fool me twice shame on me.” I have gotten very good at letting go most of the time. Sometimes I have to talk my self out of thinking poorly of couple of people. To stop breath and send them a prayer of goodwill and move on.

I’m thankful for every teacher I have had good and bad to show me how to be a good educator and how not to act while teaching. I plan on one day being an educator of some sort when I get older so I´m hoping that these experiences will help me help others learn. To be firm but fair.

Then there are those people that I have met in my lifetime that are amazing and I am really thankful for having gotten to know them and learn new ways of being awesome. Those people that shortly after you meet them you just know that there is something special about them and you just REALLY want to be their friend or just get to know them better. To maybe get to learn just what it is that makes them so great and maybe learn how to wield that for yourself.

These people all make up my world. They all helped me put together the building blocks that make me who I am. I have borrowed things I say or a way to do something from some person or another and by doing so made a unique me. As a life coach I have seen how getting stuck on how someone treated us can have a profound effect on how we move on in life. I’m not saying that it is that easy just to forgive and forget. It all has a process to it. But there is a quote out there somewhere that hate is like a poison you drink yourself and hope that the other person dies.

When have you felt that feeling of just having to get to know a person?

Have a story of learning from a relationship with someone but now being able to look back not with hurt but gratitude?

If you want to dive deeper into how to forgive others or yourself grab a notebook and start writing. Write everything that comes to mind. Even if it is really “nuts”. It is your brain trying to make sense of a situation that is hard to make sense of. When mom died and I had run out of words I sat and scribbled in my journal. I had to regress to a time where I still did not have words because the pain of losing her was so immense that there were no words but there was feeling and energy and it all flowed through the scribbles. So just let it all flow on to the page no matter what it is that comes out. Write until you feel empty and nothing comes out. Keep it up until you no longer feel ill will towards whomever it is that you can not forgive. It will not all happen in one session. It will take time and you will need to do this over and over again. But one day you will realize that you did not have those uncomfortable feeling towards the person.

healthy eating., homemade, Recipe, Uncategorized

How to Make Chia Drinks at Home

March 20, 2016November 25, 2019 Olof

I don’t know about you but I love these drinks but at over $4 a 10 oz bottle that is a little over my budget so I set out to harness the goodness of the chia seed on my own with out that high price tag. Chia seeds are high in OMEGA-3, fiber, antioxidants, minerals, and protein. This seed is really a super food and the antioxidants help keep the oils in the seed from going bad for a long time. What I am most interested in is the study that shows that after taking in chia people had less inflammation in the body and a steadier blood sugar. So I plan on making a chia drink every day for the next 30 days and see if I see a difference at all in my allergies and joint pain.

Let me share my recipe

What you will need:

1 cup water

2.5 table spoons Chia Seed

1 cup of your favorite juice

a 16 oz jar that you don’t mind drinking out of.

Before bed, blend warm filtered water with the Chia Seed in the jar and stir well so that the seeds separate well. Then put the lid on and set in fridge overnight. When you get up the seeds and water should be in a gel state. Add the juice and stir well. If you don’t finish the drink straight away then store it in the fridge. I like juices with pulp in it but you can use whatever juice you really enjoy.

Do you use chia in your diet? How?

Bullet Journal, giveaway, journaling, Uncategorized

My New BulletJournal and Giveaway

March 17, 2016November 25, 2019 Olof

Good day!

As I have noted in the past I need my Inner Guide Planner and a Ta-Da List/Gratitude journal every work day to keep everything straight with my big family and keep my home and myself from falling into chaos. Or, what the Fly lady calls it, Can’t Have Anybody Over Syndrome (CHAOS).

I’ve sort of been playing with the Bullet Journal lay out in my Gratitude Journal but it was a real mess. I had used it for all kinds of things and let my kids draw in it to keep them good when out and about and I was ready to commit.

IMG_20160316_165118 — New Bullet Journal

What is a Bullet Journal you ask? It is any notebook that is set up in a certain layout. The first page has your name and contact information so that if it gets lost then it can be returned to you. Then comes the index page where you will be able to write where you can find things in your journal.

Then there is the Key page where you show how you will be using the bullets in your journal.

Then you have the Full year or full month page. I went with month so that you have an overview of what the month will look like. Then your personal and if you have professional goals for the month on the page opposite the monthly overview.

And after that you start your journal.

I use erasable pens and erasable markers in my journal because I like things neat and tend to make typos or not like the way something looks so I like to be able to erase and redo things. If you are starting out and don’t want to put that much money into it then you can use a pencil or your favorite pen. When starting out be frugal and use what you have so that you know you like the process of Bullet Journaling. Most people have a spare notebook laying around. If you like it then you can start getting fancy with it and get all the bells and whistles.

After looking at all the cool pics on Instagram of bullet journals and how you can adjust it to your own needs I was hooked. I had to get my own. I will be developing my own Bullet Journal style over the next few months and will be updating you on the way. I want to introduce you to the Bullet Journal now and what the basics are and then give some idea of how it can be modified to your needs. Most of the people I follow on Instagram are students that do not have a house to run or kids to take care of. So far I haven’t found a nice Bullet Journaler that does have kids and ALL the stuff that comes with that. This helps me stay focused on my goals and keep me mindful of how much I do everyday.

I also add that day’s weather forecast so that I know what to expect.

My 3 oldest boys went to their grandparents for spring break and it shows in my activity level logged on FitBit that I have not been running all over town and constantly keeping a 3 year old from putting himself and others in harms way. To keep me mindful of keeping up with my steps I just add a bullet in my journal reminding me to meet my 6K steps that day and as I check in with my journal through the day to see what is left to do I can be reminded to stay on top of my steps.

I will be adding pages to help me with tracking my weigh loss and the prizes I will reward myself with when hitting my milestones and tracking how we are doing in paying down our debt. These will all be in future posts. I will have monthly budget pages which will be directly following my mostly goals and also lists of books I plan on reading. Blog posts I plan on writing and so on and so forth. You guys get my gist.

Now to the fun part. I bought myself a Moleskin bullet journal in a wonderful Teal color. I am going to do a giveaway to a lucky reader of a Bullet Journal of their own. A Moleskine Notebook that I will send you directly from Amazon to your house. This is open to the whole world. You will be able to enter to win your journal from today March 16 2016 until March 31st of 2016 11:59pm I will announce the winner on April 1st.

Just use this Entry -Form to enter the giveaway.