The Laundry Crisis of 2015

I've declared my house is in a state of Laundry Crisis.  It has been absolutely ridiculous.  Mostly the clothes would end up in our room.  On our bed.  At bedtime.  Ugh.  So, we would sort them into the kid's baskets that we have  (almost permanently) in our room.  Morning comes, and all the kids (yes there are 5 of them) are in our room tearing through their respective laundry basket and throwing dirty clothes into the mix.  It.  Is.  A.  Crisis.  And, I'm sick of it.  

Solution:  The Andersons.  They have decided to do a Health Challenge and have invited Brandon and I to compete against them.  In all honesty, we don't have a chance.  The Andersons are simply healthier than us.  And that is OK.  But, I like a good challenge and have changed the 'weight' aspect of the challenge to conquer the Laundry Crisis of 2015.  Yes, I get 1 point in our Health Challenge every day if I do 1 (ONE) load of laundry in its entirety everyday.  That means no residual clean laundry on the floor in front of the dryer.  That means no clean laundry left on my bed.  And that definitely means no laundry in baskets in my room for the kids to rummage through to find clean clothes for the day.  

I have been awarded 2 points so far.  And it feels amazing.  I had no idea how good this would feel.  It is soooo refreshing!  Here's my plan:

1.  This was a crucial step for me.  Get the dirty laundry bins OUT of the kids rooms.  Their bins are now directly outside of their bedroom doors.  And, it has been amazing.  No more trying to decide what is clean and dirty on the floor.  Dirty clothes go OUT!  

2.  I do ONE (1) load of laundry each day.  I put it in the washer in the morning.  In the afternoon, I move it to the dryer.  

3.  In the morning, I take the clean clothes out of the dryer from the day before.  I sort them by kid and then fold them and put them away.  I do plan to have my kids do the folding and putting away part...but to get back on track, I needed a reset.  This has also been a genius step for me.  Usually I'm trying to put clean laundry away or sort it at the END of the day.  By the END of the day, I am toast.  My best work has always been done in the MORNING, at the BEGINNING of the day.

For me, it works.  It really works.  If solving The Laundry Crisis of 2015 is the only thing that the Anderson's Health Challenge accomplishes, it will be a success. 

Happy Easter!

 

 

 

My Gators

is 3.

And, I can't believe he was out in public in that outfit. Yikes!

And...here the kiddos (minus Torah) are sporting their 'Wadebot' shirts I made for Wade's big day!

Gluten-Free Goodness

Many of you know that I don't eat gluten anymore. And, somewhat recently we've taken gluten out of Wade's diet to see if it resolves some...issues. Anyway, I have had a really hard time baking my own gluten-free bread. It just doesn't ever seem to come out right. In all honesty, I haven't spent a lot of time trying to bake bread because of the failures I've had. Why try to make something you used to love and then have something come out of the oven that doesn't even come close to resembling it? Sometimes, you just can't imitate the real thing. Bread was one of those things for me. But, I decided to try again today because I made shredded bbq pork and wanted to put it on a bun. I remembered seeing this recipe around Thanksgiving time, but hadn't tried it. So...I decided to try it today. The result was fabulous! I think I'll be making bread again (rolls specifically).

To anyone out there looking into gluten free eating/living, you've got to try the flour blends from Gluten Free Mama. I admit the name is lame, but her flour blend is awesome. You can buy it on Amazon with subscribe and save making it something like $18 for 2 4lb packs of flour, which really is a good price if you've looked into making or buying other gluten-free flour blends. So, seriously...give it a try. I've used it in many of my other gluten-free recipes from other people and the end product is always better than I've experienced with other blends. I have her first cookbook (which I don't actually recommend...except for her pizza recipe). But, if you're looking for an amazing (and decently priced) flour blend...this one is it! And...the rolls were amazing. I think I've eaten like 20...ok maybe not!

Spoiled

Christmas was absolutely wonderful. And by Christmas, I mean from Black Friday to New Years Eve. We had SOOO much fun, but most of all, we were spoiled by having Myriah here. Myriah is....simply awesome.

She got the girls to pose on these posts:

And to do push-ups (butt-ups) on the Morro Bay boardwalk:

And she even stood near the stinky swings:

But most of all, we all wish she would come back to California forever. We miss her!...this much!

And this is how it makes us feel:

Can you guess...

what we did for FHE?

1st tooth!

Before:

After:

The blood.

Elle choose Boxing Day to lose her first tooth. She had been wiggling that thing like crazy and reserved the honor for Grandpa. He did some crazy magician trick that left us all wondering if he had actually pulled out the tooth. Turns out he did! And Elle couldn't be happier!