This is Thing One. Our oldest. At eight going on 17, she’s the current leader of the under 5 foot tall brigade in our home.  She’s also the absolute picture of a mother hen. Clucking around the boys trying to keep them in line, convince them where they should be and what they should be doing and taken care of them if Mr W or I are more than say…six feet away.

There are times it drives us a bit crazy, but deep down we also recognize the amazing caregiver capacity in her. The desire to take care of the people she loves and the desire to be responsible. My mom laughs whenever she sees this in action, telling me Thing One is the absolute picture of who I was at her age.

But that’s part of what makes me love that side of her so dearly. I’m a caretaker, a woman born to be an Italian grandmother. I feed the people I love and I feed them a lot…and this is one of the things we are seeing pop up in Thing One’s every day life. She wants to join in on the “feeding people” thing.

It started about a month back with breakfast.

Our standard morning routine is to wake up, make sure the kids are up and getting dressed and then for me to pack lunches while Mr W gets the kids breakfast.

Then one morning we awoke to find three kids sitting at the dining room table eating toasted bagels with cream cheese and drinking orange juice.

“I cut the bagels with a butter knife and [Thing Two] climbed up on the counter to put them in the toaster! Then I used a chair to get the cream cheese out of the fridge and since the orange juice was only a half gallon, it was light enough for me to pour it, so I made breakfast!” she explained in a breathless rush of exuberance.

You could just SEE the pride beaming from her grin.

And yay for her! We were both impressed and appreciative. (Especially since it had been one of those nights where neither of us had slept and we were dragging…)

Of course she’s no stranger to the kitchen…she often perches on the bar in the test kitchen while helping me bake things.

So it was no surprise when the next words out of her mouth were “can I do it again tomorrow??”

We told her as long as she didn’t use the stove or a sharp knife and as long as she didn’t make a mess, she could. What followed was a second day of bagels, a day of cereal and a milk and then a morning where she realized we were out of bagels.

So she laid out flour tortillas, shredded cheese, deli ham and grapes and made them breakfast wraps “with fruit…because fruit makes it healthier.”

How do you argue with that?

For the most part, she’s made breakfast each morning since then. Mr W or I step in about once a week to take care of things if she’s slept in or if the kids are running behind. In general though, she wants to make breakfast and she revels in taking care of her brothers.

This morning however, they informed me they no longer wanted to eat cereal for breakfast.

“We don’t really like cereal.”

“It’s not as healthy as other stuff.”

“We don’t need cereal any more.”

“What else can we eat?”

Honestly? It’s hard to argue with that one either. Even though we generally buy the “healthier” cereals like Life and Frosted Mini Wheats, there’s still no arguing that cereal sits pretty low on the nutritious breakfast scale. Especially when our kids are already taking a multi-vitamin and eat an average of 5-8 servings of fruits and veggies per day.

So I’ve started building out a new pinboard for Thing One and I to work from. It’s full of make ahead breakfast ideas and kid friendly morning options that will help keep her from getting board. We’ve found some delicious looking homemade granola recipes, some amazingly low cost recipes for making homemade bagels and english muffins, (the latter of which can be turned into breakfast sandwiches) and freezer friendly “just warm it up” ideas. We even found a few ideas for microwave friendly meals like scrambled eggs in a mug and a pancake in a mug option.

You can follow the new pinboard over on my Pinterest account if you’d like to piggyback off of what we find. You can also leave your own suggestions in the comments of what makes for a great make ahead or “easy for a kid to prepare” breakfast options. We’re going to try to take one or two days a month to sit down and plan out the next month’s worth of options. We’ll of course share any wonderful recipes or ideas we find during our testing.

The post A Budding Cook…and a New Pinboard appeared first on A Flexible Life.

In general, I’m not a big fan of fish. There’s no particular reason why other than perhaps a few bad experiences with improperly cooked fish. Sure I’ll throw together some tilapia tacos or some beer battered perch now and then, but for the most part, I shy away from experimenting with fish.

That said, the Saturday nights when Mr W and I are home and our kids are with their other parents, I like to make dinners that are a bit more “grown-up” than our standard weeknight fare. It’s my chance to experiment and to be quite honest, play around with some more expensive cuts of meat that I don’t necessarily want to “waste” on the still under developed taste buds of our kids.

Don’t judge me…like you don’t have a few special treats you don’t share with your kids? Uh huh. Thought so.

A week or so back when I was planning out our menu I was hoping to make Bang Bang Shrimp for our kid free Saturday. The problem was, I had no shrimp in the freezer. Not a big deal as I was planning a Trader Joe’s run that week.

Wouldn’t you know, Trader Joe’s was completely out of frozen shrimp? (Unless I wanted the baby ones, which I did not.)

So I found myself browsing through the frozen fish in the bin next to the shrimp. They had the standards, salmon (yuck), tuna steaks (ew), Tilapia (BTDT) and…Dover Sole. I’d heard of sole, but I wasn’t familiar with it. A quick Google search turned up the promise that it would be a mild fish, much like Tilapia or Mahi Mahi. The price wasn’t bad either, $6 for two very nice size filets, more than enough for four servings.

I brought it home and spent some time looking for recipes. I found quite a few pan fried ones, but I was looking for something I could put together and toss in the oven. That’s when I found a few options for stuffed and baked sole. Most were rice or stuffing based and none of them looked all that appealing. That’s the nice thing about recipes though, they give you something to work with. Once I knew a rice based stuffing was a possibility and roughly how long to bake it, it was a simple matter of rummaging through the fridge.

Here’s what I ran across that sounded like it might be tasty with fish: leftover jasmine rice, a small container of steamed broccoli, a red onion, some bacon, various types of cheese, fresh parsley, butter and a lemon. Mixing it all together and rolling the fish around it seemed like a plan. I ended up with tons of stuffing leftover though, so I tossed it in the pan and spread it around the fish.

As it turns out, this was smart, because to be honest, the stuffing alone was worth making this recipe for. I have no doubt I’ll throw it together again and bake it as a rice casserole…it was that good.

But in the fish, it was just lovely. I made four servings along with about a pound and a half of sauteed asparagus and a pound of pan fried brussels sprouts. After devouring his fish and veggies, Mr W actually went back for not one, but two more pieces. There wasn’t so much as a scrap left in the pan to save.

Quick and Easy Stuffed Dover Sole

• 2 6-8oz Dover Sole Filets, cut in half to form two hand size filets
• 1.5-2 cups cooked jasmine or basmati rice
• 1/4 c chopped cooked broccoli
• 1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 T finely chopped red onion
• 2 T bacon pieces
• 1 T grated romano or parmesean cheese
• 1 T melted butter
• 1 t chopped fresh parsley
• 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13″ baking dish. In a large bowl combine rice, broccoli, onion, cheeses, bacon and parsley. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze as much juice as you can with your hands over rice mixture. (Do not use a juicer.) Stir rice mixture until well mixed. Lay a sole filet into the baking dish then spoon as much rice mixture as you can onto one end before lifting the other end up and over, causing the sole to wrap around the filling. Repeat with other filets.  Spoon any remaining rice mixture into the middle of the pan and spread out evenly. Slice up the lemon halves and place a lemon slice on top of each filet, then drizzle melted butter on top. Bake, uncovered for 25-30 minutes, until fish flakes easily with a fork.

This is a company worthy dish, though if you’re dealing with men, you might want to plan on two servings for each of them rather than one. It will most definitely make it into our “at home Saturday date night” rotation as soon as I can get back to Trader Joe’s for more dover sole.

The post Stuffed Dover Sole Recipe appeared first on A Flexible Life.

When I was planning our wedding, one of the things that always struck me was the absolutely gorgeous pictures of wedding tables repleat with beautiful center pieces, charming little favors, beautiful place settings and gorgeous linens. After all, with the exception of the dance floor, there’s no place your guests will spend more time during your wedding reception than at their table.

It seems like such a simple thing really…tablecloth + centerpieces + place settings = done. Right?

Ha. Cause anything about putting together a wedding is ever simple.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, we were running on a budget for this weeding. $100 guests, $10,000. Less if we could swing it. That meant spending $2000 on centerpieces was out.

So here’s how the process went…

Our “picnic style” backyard BBQ wedding had quickly transformed into an “elegant but casual” affair when I came home with a full length wedding dress instead of a cocktail dress and Mr W promptly pronounced that if I got to wear a wedding dress, he got to have a tux.

Paper tablecloths wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

Linen rental wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t out of the question. Real ivory linen tableclothes were going to run us about $9 each from the rental company with table runners coming in at an additional $3. Since we had sixteen six foot tables to cover, that number was adding up fast.

That’s when I ran noticed how many women were reselling their wedding supplies on sites like Wedding Bee and Craigslist after the event was over. Curious, I started hunting online retailers who sold linens and came across TableClothsFactory.com. They were selling seamless, heavy-duty 72″x120″ ivory tablecloths for $9.89 each. That was the perfect size for my guest tables. They even had “to the floor” tablecloths for $14.69.

Oh yes, you noticed that right. I could buy them for about $1 more each than I could rent them. Better yet, I found organza table runners (in my colors) for $1.50 each. Half the price I’d been quoted for rental!

Since it was cheaper to buy than rent, and since I knew there was the chance I could resell at least some of them, I put in an order for a few dozen ivory, chocolate and apple green tablecloths and runners to use on my guest and food tables.  They arrived and I was pleased to see the quality was outstanding and the colors were exactly as shown on the web site.

Of course even with my plans to buy and resell my tablecloths, if I added in any amount of budget for centerpieces and I was in trouble.

That’s when I started running across centerpieces focused on apples rather than flowers. After all, we WERE getting married in September, on a farm.

A few phone calls to some local farms told me that green Pippen or Granny Smith apples would run me about $20 per bushel in late September. A stop into Michael’s craft store revealed some super cute rust colored fluted pie plates at a mere $1 each.  Add in a bushel and a half of apples and a single $3 bouquet of baby’s breath from the local grocery store and we were able to put together 16 pretty beautiful center pieces for less than $3 each.

That covered me on the centerpiece side of things, but it still made for a pretty bare table.

Then I noticed a display of glass votive holders in the clearance section as I was walking back to the front of the store. Since we had some concerns about tent lighting, and since candles are pretty cheap, I picked up 120 votives at a mere twenty-five cents each. Toward the front of the store I found a sale on white votive candles as well. Twenty-five count boxes for $5.32 each. I picked up six boxes of those, giving me all the votives I needed to put one at each place setting PLUS have plenty leftover for food and drink tables. That put me at $62 for votives, or roughly $3.87 per guest table in costs.

It honestly seemed like such a little thing when I got them, but once the sun set and it got darker, the mood lighting provided by the votives was simply incredible!

My final call toward dressing up the tables without spending a ton was to go ahead and put the place settings and plates on the table. I actually went against my caterer on this one as she felt the plates looked nicer set up along the food stations and that people don’t feel as “fancy” when they have to carry their plate from their seat to the food lines.

I countered with the logic that we were using food stations and thus, we weren’t sure where anyone would head first. So unless we wanted to pay to rent lots and lots of extra plates, it would actually be cheaper to put one plate per setting and have some extras in the back with the caterer in case something happened.

This turned out to be a good call because having the place setting on the table helped fill in what would have otherwise looked fairly lonely. Our caterers offered beautiful white square plates for only a few cents more than the traditional round plates, so we upgraded to those and added green cloth napkins (also purchased from TableClothsFactory.com) for a pop of color.

Of course having the table settings laid out also gave us the perfect place to add a splash of fun with our guest book cards and our menus.

Right under the napkin, we placed a flow-chart card designed to remind (and motivate) people to get up, visit the photo booth and then fill out their greeting or advice on the reverse side of the card to add to our guest book.

Under the photo booth card was the menu, letting people know what food options they would find at different stations. What I liked about the menu card was that even though we really didn’t have THAT many food choices, the way we laid them out and the way we presented it made it look like we’d be feasting the entire night. (It must have worked because people absolutely raved about the food the entire night.)

All in all, while the look was simple, it was elegant. Especially when you paired the table colors with the colors that existed on the farm around us.

Cost wise, we did pretty well for ourselves too. It wasn’t even a full month after the wedding before I’d managed to sell over half of the tablecloths, all of the table runners, the votives and the fluted pie plates. The rest of the tablecloths simply got added to my own party collection, turned into an outdoor movie screen, or given to family members who could use them.

The apples? Well those turned into gallons and gallons of amazingly yummy homemade applesauce and frozen. We ate wedding applesauce for nearly eight months after the event was done.

My net cost for my linens, candles, centerpieces and so on?

Linen Purchases: $358
Votive Candles: $62
Center Pieces: $48Printed Items: $4 (cardstock)
————————————–
Total costs: $472

However….after the wedding I was able to sell most of the linens at fairly close to cost. I sold about $265 worth of items.

Total cost after sale recovery: $207 for sixteen guest tables (plus eight food tables and the sweetheart table.)

The post Putting Together a Beautiful Wedding Table on a Budget appeared first on A Flexible Life.

As a woman, I can’t say enough nice things about Birchbox. As a woman on a budget who has given up many of the things she loves in life (including the freedom to shop when I want), I can’t say enough about the happiness factor brought out by my monthly Birchbox shipments. Why? Because I’m a girl and I love surprises. Birchbox does an excellent job of delivering on both the girly factor and the surprise factor.

If you aren’t familiar with the service, it’s basically a personal care company that sells a monthly subscription to a sample box. For $10 a month, I get a small box filled with 4-5 high end make up and personal care items to sample and review. The contents are based on a survey you fill out at the site sharing your likes and preferences and based on the other Birchbox pictures I see online have quite a bit of variety each month depending on who is receiving them.

For the most part, every single box I’ve received has had more than $10 worth of goodies inside. In fact, on more than one occasion my box has included a full size item valued at nearly double the $10 I paid for that month’s subscription. In addition, you receive 10 points at Birchbox for each item you review. Earn 100 points and you can cash it in for a $10 Birchbox credit. With five items shipping per month, that means you can earn $5 in credit from each $10 box. Not a bad deal on that one.

Especially when you consider the fun factor of receiving a box full of surprises each month. If you are like me and travel a lot, there’s also no denying the value of having really wonderful travel size/sample items to pack for your trips. Whether it’s lotion, shampoo, eye shadow, perfume or lipsticks… my Birchbox gives me a little slice of girly spoiling in a world where I’ve had to put those things on the backburner for awhile.

(Want to join the fun? Just head over to Birchbox and sign up for the waiting list. It usually only takes a month or so to get your invitation and to start receiving boxes.)

Nick Chavez Beverly Hills Color-Saver Sulfate-Free Shampoo

The timing on this sample was excellent as I’ve only just given up on pretending my grey doesn’t exist and have made the switch to fully coloring my hair instead of simply throwing highlights in there now and then. I’ve tested my fair share of color protecting shampoos and while I like many of them, a lot of them tend to leave my hair either too dry or too greasy.

This one actually does a very nice job. It has a nice lather and a little bit went a long way. That’s saying something when you have hair as thick as mine. I haven’t been able to use it long enough to be able to testify how well it helps me hold my color, but I do know the texture of my hair was shiny and soft and that even on the third day it was neither greasy nor dry. At $22 for a full size 8oz bottle, it’s not cheap, but it’s also not outrageous given the fact that a penny size dollop seemed to be enough to get a good lather going.

Will I buy it? Perhaps. If I was in a salon and saw it on sale, I’d probably be happy to pick some up. At full sticker price though, it’s still on the higher end of what I’d consider buying. Interested in checking it out? You’ll find Nick Chavez Color-Saver Shampoo over at Birchbox.

Make Face Primer and Eye Shadow

There’s no denying it, Birchbox LOVES to send out primers and face creams. There’s barely been a month that’s gone by that hasn’t included at least one of these products. Personally, this makes me happy as it’s a great chance to try out some different brands and it gives me a never ending supply of travel size items to take when I’m on the road for work.

I both like and dislike this product all at the same time. I like it because there is simply no denying how soft and smooth my skin feels when I use it. It is truely impressive. On the other hand, there’s also no denying how fast the bottle empties. This is not a thick and lustrous cream that goes far. It’s thin and it does NOT spread. Based on how fast I have used the sample, I anticipate I’d need to buy a bottle a month and at $30 a pop, that’s just not something that fits into my budget.

I don’t generally use a full face primer anyway as I go pretty minimalist on the foundation side of things, but I do LOVE a good eye makeup primer. This one fits the bill, but doesn’t perform nearly as well as the Put a Lid on it eye shadow primer from the Balm.

Want to check out it out for yourself? You can order Make Face Primer for $30 for a 1 oz bottle at the Birchbox site.

Eye shadow wise, I’m a fan. Everything from the teeny tiny, purse friendly size to the shade to the application, this was a GREAT eye shadow.  The Birchbox team sent me the color “Bentonite Clay,” which works as a wonderful base color for mixing with some of my other pallets. Taking a look at what’s available on Birchbox, I also see some potential in the “Granite” and “Great Lakes” shades.  (There are also some other colors available in the matte finish option.)

The shadow went on smooth and had a nice sheen to it with a tiny bit of sparkle. It lasted the entire day and blended very nicely with the Lancome shades I ended up mixing it with. My only complaint would be the lack of a pallet option. I love it when I can buy a set of several shades in one container as I’m simply not the best at naturally knowing which colors go well together. That said, I would most definitely consider purchasing the full size version of the Make Satin Eye Shadow down the road.

Whish Blueberry Shave Cream

I’m actually very impressed with this shave cream! That’s not something I thought I would say. I’m a hard core fan of Coochie…it doesn’t leave bumps, it lasts forever and it’s very moisturizing. This is the first product I’ve ever used that rivals it on each of those three fronts. The only down side I’ve found with it is that because it’s foam based, it simply doesn’t go as far. That means that ultimately, it’s going to cost more to use it. In my opinion, that’s balanced out by the fact that it’s paraben and sulfate free.

I’m still in a quandry over whether or not I’d buy it over Coochie. The fact is, I still have two bottles of Coochie in my stock pile, so it’s going to be nearly a year before I need to buy anything anyway. If I had run out though? There’s a very good chance I’d be using my Birchbox dollars to buy this product.

Check out Whish Shave Cream at Birchbox, it’s $20 for a 5oz bottle.

Madewell for Birchbox Emery Board

I’m not sure what to say here…it’s an emery board. It’s pretty and all and it works well…but it’s your standard issue semi-pliable emery board. I can pick one up at the drug store for $1. I didn’t mind receiving it, but I can’t figure why I’d spend $5 for one.

That said, if you’re simply dying for a pretty emery board, you can pick up the Madewell Emery Board at Birchbox for $5.

The post March 2013 Birchbox Review appeared first on A Flexible Life.

Every now and then I find myself getting a little bit obsessed with a flavor combination. Maybe it’s cranberries and goat cheese turned into every variation of salad and appetizer or rosemary and garlic being baked into various types of bread. Lately, I’ve been having a bit of a love affair with crispy sage butter. There’s just something amazing about the smell of sage sizzling in butter and the texture of the leaves after they’ve crisped up in golden shimmery butter.

Combine that with my ongoing love affair with all things gnocchi and it turns out you’ve got something amazing. Now I’m no stranger to sage, butter and gnocchi, but in the past I’ve always used it as a sauce for homemade sweet potato gnocchi. Whether homemade or store bought, my standard MO for gnocchi is to boil it then top it with a sauce. As it turns out, I’ve been missing the boat on something awesome.

Pan fried gnocchi.

Like everyone else, I’ve seen it go flying by on Pinterest a few times. Claims of crispy gnocchi with a gourmet mac n cheese sauce are usually at the front of the “let’s pan fry it instead of boiling it” fan club. Honestly? Gnocchi mac and cheese holds no interest for me. If anything, it sounds kind of…stomach churning. My stomach would be full (and ill) for a week!

Still…the idea of pan fried gnocchi intrigued me.

And you know what? It should have. As it turns out, pan fried gnocchi is the adult gourmet’s answer to tater tots. Crispy on the outside, warm and pillowy on the inside. They have a chewyness to them that is welcome and comforting.

This recipe actually came about as a last minute entree on a night I didn’t feel like cooking. Mr W and I had gone out to lunch after a business meeting and weren’t particularly hungry and the kids had requested spaghetti and salad. I was up for the salad, but plain old spaghetti has never been super high on my list. I noticed a package of gnocchi in the pantry next to the pasta and pulled it out figuring I might as well give this pan frying thing a try.

A little searching around in the fridge turned up some fresh sage from a recipe earlier in the week. A quick glance in the cheese tray turned up a chunk of Asiago sitting next to a package of bacon pieces. So out they came and to the stove I headed. This entire recipe took about 15 minutes to whip up and was absolutely fabulous.

Pan Fried Sage Butter Gnocchi with Bacon & Asiago Cheese

• 1 package of gnocchi
• 1 bunch, fresh sage
• 2 T butter
• 2-3 T bacon pieces
• Asiago Cheese
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Strip leaves from sage stems and toss into butter. Stir and toss until leaves are turning slightly crispy and butter smells strongly of sage. (Be careful not to burn or brown the butter!) Carefully add gnocchi and toss to coat with butter. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes before adding bacon pieces. Toss to mix and cook another 3-5 minutes or until gnocchi are slightly puffy with a bit of browning on them. Remove from pan, pouring excess butter over top of them. Grate as much or as little fresh Asiago cheese over the top of the gnocchi and serve warm.

I’ll be honest and say that now that I’ve had pan fried gnocchi, it may be tough to go back to the alternative. I see a lot of potential flavor combinations worth trying here…especially with spring and fresh herbs coming into view. Fresh basil, red onion and balsamic would be a good one, or rosemary and lemon butter.

Give it a go, and don’t be afraid to sub in some other herbs, cheeses or extras. A friend tried it with rosemary rather than sage and reported excellent results as well.

The post Pan Fried Sage Butter Gnocchi with Bacon & Asiago Cheese Recipe appeared first on A Flexible Life.

Growing up in a small town in Northeast Ohio, I never had a dog or a cat. I didn’t have a gerbil or a hamster or a rabbit. No…we had chickens. We lived right there in the middle of the city on a residential street with a fenced in backyard and a small little coop my father had built and a we had chickens.

It was thirty years ago…and my parents probably had no idea how popular backyard chickens would eventually become. Dad just didn’t like animals in the house and mom liked having eggs. So instead of playing fetch with a dog, I had a chicken that jumped for grapes. Instead of buying dog biscuits, mom made hot oatmeal in the cold winter months and I trudged out through the snow to deliver it.

And instead of crisp white eggs from the local grocery store, I grew up with beautiful, orange yolked brown eggs from our backyard.

At various points in time, we had several different types of chicken, but the last breed and the one we had the longest (ELEVEN years…seriously…ELEVEN!) was a beautiful Barred Rock named Fluffy.

So it didn’t take long after I moved from a townhouse in Canton, Ohio to Mr W’s 22 acre mini farm in Western Pennsylvania before I started requesting a chicken coop and a backyard flock of our own. After all, this was once a working farm and it’s still replete with acres of hay, pasture land, a stream and a few barns.

We built our coop last fall, a project I’ve yet to share here on the blog, but that I’ll chronicle before too long. We’d planned on ordering chicks for delivery in March or April, but when I went to check on order dates a few weeks back, I realized the hatchery I planned to use was already sold out for most of those dates. Faced with the prospect of ordering for the end of January or waiting until May, we figured why not and shot off an order to Meyer Hatchery in Polk, Ohio.

We’d built our coop to hold 26-30 birds, but wanted to start off with around half as many until we got the hang of things. We also knew we wanted brown egg layers with a docile personality and who were on the larger size range. No roosters in our flock, just layers.

We settled on 3 each of Barred Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Red Laced Blue Wyandotte, White Jersey Giants, Black Australorps and Buff Orphingons. For the most part, I was able to get the breeds I wanted, though I would have loved to have had both Buckeye and Golden Laced Wyandottes in the mix. Hopefully they can join our flock somewhere down the road.  Unfortunately, Meyer Hatchery called on Monday to say they hadn’t had any Jersey Giants hatch out and we’d need to substitute. I was in a rush and didn’t have time to look up the breeds they offered, so I went with the Easter Eggers, thinking the kids would enjoy the mix of blue eggs in with the brown.

Fast forward to this morning at 7:30am and me being woken by a phone call from the local post office. Our chickens had just arrived and I could pick them up any time after 8. Of course these past two days have been among the coldest of the year, so I wanted to get them quickly and get them settled into our warm and cozy brooder. To top things off, the kids were on a two hour delay and were still sound asleep in bed.

I headed over to the post office and was told by the fellow at the desk that the delivery driver had actually driven the whole way with the box on the front seat next to him wrapped in Express mail bags because he was worried about them staying warm. (three cheers for the post office!)

Turns out we had nothing to worry about. Meyer Hatchery had done a wonderful job packing them. They were nestled into a cozy straw liner with a heating pad underneath it and every last one made the trip safe and sound. One had a mild case of pasty butt that we cleaned up easily with a warm wet washcloth and Mr W made the transfer of each chick into the brooder box, dipping their beaks into the water and then the food bin before letting them down.

They spent the first fifteen minutes or so clustered up under the heat lamp getting warm. We hadn’t expected them until later in the day, so we hadn’t had a chance to get the box warmed up and it was only at about 80 when we first settled them.

Before long they were bustling about all over the place, checking out the food, drinking the water, stepping on each other’s faces and bodies and generally entertaining every last one of us.

The kids had each claimed a breed of their own to name and claim. Thing One had planned on claiming the White Jersey Giants, but ended up being even happier when she found out the little chipmunk colored Easter Eggers were not only hers, but were going to lay blue eggs. Thing Two has laid claim to the Buff Orphingtons and has tried to convince the rest of us that he has the “regular” chickens and we all have the “funny colored ones.” Thing Three had wanted the Black Australorps to be “his” and based on their speed demon nature, I think it will be a good fit.

We spent a good two hours this morning watching them run around like drunken little maniacs.

Apart from the guessing the Australorps are going to be the bullies based on their propensity to peck at the others and step on their heads, the only problem we’ve noticed is one of our Easter Eggers that seems to have a broken toe.

After running some searches, the consensus seems to be that if they’re walking fine, we likely don’t need to worry but that taping it straight won’t hurt anything, we decided to tape it for a few days to see if it helps. After a few minutes of gingerly attempting to wrap her toe without hurting her, we finally got the “cast” in place and sent her back to join the others.

It makes me a little sad to know they’ll only be this soft and cute for a week or so, but I imagine that’s just a good excuse to spend more time next to the brooder box and less time watching TV or reading this week.

Speaking of…I think it’s time to head off for a little more fuzzball therapy before writing up another post.

The post Our First Batch of Backyard Chickens appeared first on A Flexible Life.

Just received the December 2012 Birchbox in the mail today and feeling full of holiday cheer. This is my third box, and it’s easily the best yet. There are some great products in here and for the first time, I think I received a box where I’ll actually use every last item.

I signed up for Birchbox over the summer when I discovered them while doing some research for my Pinterest book. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, it’s a monthly subscription service where you pay $10 to receive a box of high end personal care, makeup and lifestyle samples each month based on a customer profile you fill out.

While I’m not a total makeup and fashion snob…actually, I barely even qualify as an aficionado… I do like to use nice things when I’m able. That generally meant things like stopping by the Clinique counter a few times a year or picking up a favorite fragrance like Be Delicious or Tommy Hilfiger for women when I saw them on sale or they had a gift with purchase while I was shopping the Macy’s clearance racks.

When we radically changed our lifestyle to have Mr W join my business and we cut our household income in half, we both made the choice to give up pretty much every single “luxury” item in our budget.  When I discovered the Birchbox concept, Mr W and I agreed that the $10 a month the service cost was well worth it for the happy thrill I get each month in a box of goodies and treats just for me.

My first box came in September and was so-so. My November box was much better and included several products I’ve loved, including a full size mascara with a built in mirror and fibers in the mascara itself that made my lashes look incredible! At $28 for a full size mascara, the inclusion of the item alone more than made the cost of the box worth it.

So when my December box showed up today, I was pretty excited…even more so as I started reading over the list of what was included.

Two things caught my eye on the list…the atomizer and the dry shampoo.

Up first, the atomizer…

Looking like a shiny silver bullet, the atomizer caught my eye as soon as I opened up the package. I expected it to be a lipstick or a collapsing brush to be honest. Pulling off the top reveals a small spritzer. Unscrewing the bottom of the container reveals a small container with a sort of funnel opening for adding in your favorite scent.

This is a brilliant idea…but I have to be honest…I can’t understand why I would want to go buy the full size version. There’s no world in which I use so much perfume on one trip away from my house that I need anything larger than the 3″ tall atomizer they gave me as a sample.  Plus it will fit perfectly into the small cosmetic bag I keep in my purse.

The next thing I took a look at was the Klorane Dry Shampoo.

It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that washing, drying and styling my hair is a 2-3 hour process. (I swear to you, I have enough hair for five adult women…when I was a kid, it took THREE perm solutions and a piggyback rolled perm to get my curls. As an adult, it takes well over an hour just to apply my highlights.) So in general, I only wash my hair twice a week.

Thankfully, I am blessed with hair that is not oily and not dry. For the most part, if I’ve straightened it or curled it, I can go four days EASILY with it looking wonderful. The problem rolls in when I fail to plan properly and find myself having to squeak out a fifth day. My roots get a little oily looking and my volume vanishes, causing the weight of my hair to drag it down and make it look…well…blah.

I learned the baby powder trick back in college and to this day, keep a bottle of it in my bathroom for emergency fix-ups. When I first heard about dry shampoo, I picked a bottle up at my salon. I loved how it worked, but to be honest, they’re so expensive I just can’t justify it. The great thing about this one is it’s travel size. That means I can throw it in my travel bag and use it for emergency fixes on the road. (Who hasn’t accidentally slept too late while on the road?) This bottle will probably last me a full year.

Up next? The sample size bottle of Harvey Prince’s Hello.

I LOVE perfume…which is kind of funny because I don’t wear it that often. It’s one of those things I get on kicks about. I’ll wear it every day for a month and then forget about it for another month. That said, I love sample size packs because it gives me a chance to try things out beyond a little spritz in the store.

The kicker on this sample is two-fold. One, it’s not just the little wet wipe or even the little glass tube of liquid. It’s got a spritzer on the end of it. Woot! That makes it perfect for using to apply the right amount. It also makes it great for tucking into my purse. The other kicker is the scent.

I LOVE this scent. It’s fresh, light and mildly fruity without being too sweet. It doesn’t smell like a fancy date perfume…but it does smell like a great “we’re headed out to a picnic or to browse the shops in a small seaside town kind of scent. I gave it a try and had Mr W and Thing Three check it out and they declared it “WONDERFUL!”

Next up was “Hot Mama” from theBalm.

I adore good packaging and this sample has it in spades. It’s about the size of a matchbox and opens up like a book to reveal the shade inside. A small magnet embedded in the lid keeps it closed until/unless you decide to open it.

I’ll admit, it took me a second or two to figure out what the heck it even was. With a name like “the Balm” and puckery little lips on it, I assumed it was a lipstick. But when I opened it up, it looked more like eye shadow. A quick double check of the description card told me it was actually blush.

Doh. Silly me, as I’d already given it a go as eye shadow.

It was initially a little pink for my tastes, but it blended in VERY nicely with a brush and looked pretty good. While I get that it’s supposed to be blush, I’m pretty darn pale and the color is just too intense for my cheeks…so as far as I’m concerned, it’s staying in the eye shadow bin to be mixed up with some other colors I like. I don’t think I’d purchase this one again, but that’s mostly because it’s a $20 blush and I would never spend that much on a single eye shadow color.

Last up was an eye cream from it’s potent! (just to note…I’m not THAT excited…the ! is part of the name…)

I’ll be honest, I’m always a little skeptical of eye creams. They’re insanely expensive, they come in thimble size packaging and I’ve only stumbled across one or two that even do a portion of what they claim to.  (Clinique’s All About Eyes roller Serum is about the only one I can think of that’s worthwhile and to be honest, I pick up the sample sizes a few times a year as part of my Clinique bonus and that’s enough to keep me supplied.)

The packaging on this is adorable…but that’s probably because I’m a sucker for anything reproduced in tiny size. That said, I figured I’d give it a go this morning. The cream is thick and lustrous…which is good, because that means you barely need any. And by barely any, I mean I literally touched the top of the cream with my fingertip and came away with more than enough for both eyes. This tiny little sample would probably last me 3-4 weeks’ worth of daily usage.

I put it on about an hour ago before tossing on a mineral powder and a bit of eye liner and I have to admit, the dark circles that perpetually plague my eyes look far lighter than usual. Would I drop $32 on the full size container of it? Probably not…but that’s more because I’m cheap (err…fiscally responsible) than anything else. If you’re the type who does use good eye cream on a daily basis, this one is probably worth checking out.

There was also a $50 gift card included for Rent the Runway. Which, assuming they’d let me use alongside their $50 off a first rental discount would pretty much get me my first rental for free. Probably not something I’d use, but I might pass it along to Hair or her sister to see if they want to check out the service.

Overall, this was absolutely the best Birchbox I’ve received yet.

The box’s contents were ALL something I’ll use and enjoy and the cost of the items far surpassed the $10 I’d spent on the box. And with a new box showing up each month, I feel a little bit like I did back in the day when we had the money for me to spoil myself a bit now and then.

Know someone else who would enjoy a Birchbox? You can gift memberships. At $10 a month, you could easily do a 3, 6 or 12 month membership depending on how much you like someone. Thinking about signing yourself up? There’s no commitment, you can literally cancel your boxes at any time…so it’s easy enough for just try it out for a month or two and see what you think of the service. There’s a wait list though, so expect to wait a month or two before you get in.

The post December 2012 Birchbox review appeared first on A Flexible Life.

This is a short week for me…I’m headed to Las Vegas early Wednesday morning to speak at a conference and won’t be home until late Thursday evening. Now the truth is, Mr W is amazingly capable of feeding the kids just fine while I’m gone…but I’d rather he not have to worry about it, so I’ve planned the schedule to leave him plenty of leftovers while I’m gone.

Monday

Since last weekend got a little shaken up on me due to the last minute decision to drive into the city for a Saturday night dinner and show with the kids, I didn’t actually get to make last week’s crockpot cube steak until Sunday. On top of that, Hair and her Mr Amazing decided to come hang with us Sunday evening. Since the crock pot cube steak wasn’t enough for all of us, I put it in the fridge to use for Monday’s dinner and got to work making Chicken n Dumplings instead.

As it turns out, Mr W and I actually have a date tonight. We have our annual meeting for church and had to get a babysitter for that, plus Tuesday marks the 2 year anniversary of our first date, so we decided to head out early Monday to hit up a local Hibachi place to celebrate two years of being together.

That means you all get a recipe from my “Tried and True” Pinterest folder.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
Fresh fruit
Potstickers

Tuesday

Tuesday will mark a busy day for me. Last minute packing, wrapping up some projects before two days out of the office, plus a meeting with my kids’ principal to discuss a new program we’re bringing to the school. Since she’s out on sick leave following surgery, I’m also taking dinner over for her and her family. That’s the perfect excuse to use up more chicken and make a boatload of my favorite crespelle manicotti with shredded chicken added to the filling.

Crespelle Manicotti
Brussels Sprouts
Tossed Salad

Wednesday

Mr W and the crew will likely be running on leftovers at this point. There should be plenty of manicotti, chicken n dumplings and probably even some crock pot cube steak leftover. If that fails, there’s also some leftover Taco fixings in the fridge to keep them going. On the other hand, Mr W doesn’t mind cooking and if he does, there’s a good chance it will be a pasta we love like this one:

Salerno Style Pasta
Tossed Salad
Steamed Broccoli

Thursday

I’ll be headed home on Thursday after spending less than 24 hours in Vegas. (My kind of Vegas trip!) I’ll be home around dinner time, but chances are I won’t feel like cooking much. We’ll probably go with a super quick weeknight option like this:

Frozen Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Cilantro-Lime Rice
Sweet Peas

Friday

We’ll be on the road Friday evening taking the kids to Columbus. There’s a good chance Hair might be riding over with me so we can stay the night and hang out with her sister before doing a little Christmas shopping and heading home on Monday. Since Hair’s sister doesn’t cook much, I’ll probably throw together a late night dinner for her. We’ll probably stick with the pasta and shrimp theme that has been ruling the week.

Pasta with Shrimp Scampi
Fresh Salad

Saturday

Chances are high that I won’t actually be around on Saturday evening either. (Mr W is going to have a LOT of time to work on his own projects this week…) I’ve got an event with the women of my church that evening and will probably leave Mr W to leftovers again. I may cook lunch though and since he’s been craving soup, it will probably be something warm and hearty like Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Sourdough Bread

Sunday

If I haven’t collapsed by Sunday, I’ll get around to putting something in the crockpot.  I have some beef ribs in the freezer from the Amish raised grass-fed side of beef we bought over the summer. Seems like as good a time as any to break that out and cook something low and slow…

Beef Short Ribs
Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Carrots and Onions

The post Weekly Menu – December 3rd, 2012 appeared first on A Flexible Life.

I absolutely adore Christmas. I can’t say I like putting up all the decorations very much, but once they’re up, I love being cozy in our living room by the fire with the mantle covered in pine and the tree softly glowing in the corner. The thing I like best about Christmas though is the excuse to give gifts.

There are few things that get me like a really special and personalized Christmas gift, you know…the kind that you generally can’t pick up at Walmart or Macy’s.

One of the strongest ways I give love is through gifts, a trait we see popping up pretty heavily in Thing One these days as well. I generally start my Christmas shopping around the end of summer as it takes me that long to narrow my choices down to just the right thing. This often means a lot of time pouring though Pinterest, Etsy and specialty retailers online looking for something people never even knew they’d love.

That’s part of why I was SO excited to be able to see one of the best Christmas presents ever be gifted from someone I dearly love to someone else I dearly love over Thanksgiving.

Regular readers know Hair is my best friend. We’re talking soul mate best friend. For 18 years, she’s been there for every major up and down of my life. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know…she’s simply put: awesome. Because she’s been so integral to my life, my parents know her extremely well too and view her as another daughter. In fact, years and years after Hair and I became close, her father ended up becoming very good friends with mine. God has an amazing way of extending family.

Last year when Hair’s grandmother passed away, her father showed up at my mom’s house with bags of old fabric. Hair’s grandmother had spent most of her life making clothes for herself and her family and sewing curtains, pillowcases and whatever else they needed. As they were cleaning everything up, they ran across tons of leftover fabric. Not wanting it to go to waste, Hair’s dad brought it to my mom, hoping she’d have some use for it.

Boy did she ever.

For the last year, she’s been quietly working away on not one, but TWO gorgeous patchwork quilts large enough to fit a queen size bed and hang down the sides. (You see, Hair has a sister whom we also love and adore…so there simply HAD to be two quilts.) Using the fabric her grandmother sewed curtains, pinafores, shirts and skirts with…my mother hand crafted two beautiful comforting quilts…right down to hand stitching the seam holding the backing to the quilt.

The results are beautiful.

So the weekend of Thanksgiving while my parents were here, we invited Hair over to hang out and visit one night. After we’d had dinner, my mom asked her to come join her in the living room because she had something to show her. As the two of them sat down on the couch, mom started to unwrap a sheet from around a large bundle.

She explained to Hair that about a year ago, her dad had shown up with a large bag of fabric pieces from her grandmother. Then she started to tell her that she wanted Hair and her sister to have something to remember their grandmother by and so she’d started looking at the fabric to figure out what she could make. As she was telling the story, she showed her the label she’d hand stitched into the back of the quilt saying who the quilt was for, who it was made by and where the fabric came from.

Then she started to unfold the quilt so you could begin to see the pattern and the fabric. This was the point at which Hair lost the ability to talk…

As mom kept talking, telling her how she had to cut out ALL the fabric for both quilts and then piece them together a few blocks at a time, going back and forth between the two to make sure both quilts were finished at the same time, I think everyone started to lose the ability to talk.

Soon we were unfolding the entire quilt and spreading it out across the floor, looking at the pattern and listening to mom talk about how she found it and decided on this design.

Mom had given Hair’s sister her quilt a few days before while they were all visiting with Hair’s dad and said her aunt had been there as well and recognized several of the fabrics. She told us that several of them had been used to make pinafores for her and her sisters when they were little girls and how much she loved seeing them now in the quilt.

All in all, it was one of those evenings filled with the good kind of tears and tons and tons of hugs.

And THAT my friends is what I love most about Christmas. Giving someone something from the heart…something that doesn’t have value for it’s price tag, but for the time, thought and effort that went into making or finding something that will really MEAN something to the person who receives it.

So as you gear up for Christmas shopping season, please remember to look beyond the latest hot gadgets and the millions of sweaters, ties and appliances that everyone else will be giving for Christmas this year. Look to sites like Etsy and Pinterest for hand crafted items that are one of a kind and for ideas of what you can put together yourself.

As a family, we’ve decreased our Christmas spending to about 1/3 of what it used to be each year and to be totally honest, I don’t think ANYONE has missed it. In fact, it’s taken Christmas to a new level of awesomeness because the focus becomes about the chance to show someone who much you care instead of how much you can spend.

The post Christmas Gifts From the Heart… appeared first on A Flexible Life.

After taking a week off for the insanity of Thanksgiving, I’m back to relying on my weekly menu planner to get dinner on the table each night. Of course we’re also post Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas, so that means lots of freezer powered and budget friendly meals here on the farm.

Monday

The truth is, we were still eating leftovers on Monday. Mr W had been working in the basement all day on the new bathroom we’re putting in and I’d been recording training videos all day with no chance to get in the kitchen. Thing One and Thing Two weren’t coming back until late that evening and Thing Three was still with his mom for a few more days, so leftovers it was…

So I’ll share a recipe from last week that’s new but didn’t make it into the meal plan. It’s for a potato corn chowder I saw on Pinterest and thought I’d try out. We added a package of chicken sausages with mozzarella and basil in them, and I subbed in greek yogurt for the sour cream. Beyond that, I made it as directed by the recipe. It wasn’t bad, in fact…it was pretty good. That said, I’d still sub in chicken stock for the veggie stock if I ever make it again.

Potato Corn Chowder
One Hour Dinner Rolls

Tuesday

While the kids will be home and back in school and we’ll be starting to get back in the swing of things, Mr W is heading out this evening for a guy’s night with his best friend to see Skyfall. That means I’ll be on my own with the kids once dinner wraps up, which also means I want minimal cleanup. (Mr W usually handles the dishes…) Since we’re also working through freezer/pantry/on hand stashes until Friday..it means raiding the freezer. Turns out I had two different bags with one or two pieces of frozen chicken breast, so I pull those out and hunted Pinterest for a new crock pot recipe to try. We’ll see how this one goes…

Pineapple Soy Crockpot Chicken
Brown Basmati Rice
Steamed Broccoli

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we’ll finally have all three kids back in the house for the first time in a week.  If there’s one thing every kid and adult can agree on in this family, it’s how much we love pasta. In fact, I could literally toss pasta, olive oil and a tiny bit of cheese together and they’d all be satisfied. I’ve also got some fresh mozzerella and fresh tomatoes to use up, so I’ll throw together a caprese salad to keep Mr W and I happy. The kids will make do with a simple romaine salad.

Parmesan & Garlic Linguine
Caprese Salad
Sweet Peas

Thursday

Since Thursday is family night and we missed it last week, we’ll probably aim to make this a fun night.  That might mean we break out the Kinnect instead of playing board games. That means dinner needs to be something easy, but it’s also ideally something the kids love so we can eat and get away from the dinner table pretty quickly. Since I still have TONS of ground beef in the freezer from when we bought a side of local beef and since I found taco seasoning at Trader Joe’s with ZERO additives or perservatives…it seems like a great night to use up the tortillas sitting in our bread drawer.

Beef soft tacos
Cilantro-Lime Rice
Fresh Fruit

Friday

When all the kids are here on a Friday, it’s fairly standard operating procedure to have some type of pizza or kid friendly food and watch a movie downstairs in the theater. I have a TON of string cheese in the fridge leftover from sending food on an outreach project with our church a few weeks back. Seems like the perfect chance to try the baked cheese sticks that have been floating around Pinterest. I’ll also probably hit the grocery store that morning, so we’ll have tons of fresh fruits and veggies to go with them.

Oven Baked Cheese Sticks with Marinara Sauce
Apple & Clementine Slices
Carrots, Celery, Cucumbers and Black Olives

Saturday

The standard Saturday fare around here these days is to have a bunch of kids hanging out for the day. Thing One will probably be having a sleepover and Things Two and Three will likely have some friend over for the day. That means I’ll probably be feeding a crowd. Since it’s starting to get cold, I’m hoping to find time to get in to the kitchen with a few whole chickens to make my absolute favorite chicken n dumplings recipe. It comes from the Mitford Cookbook, a companion to the absolutely wonderful Mitford series. My kids adore this recipe and while it’s time consuming to make, in my opinion it’s unsurpassed in terms of taste.

Puny’s Chicken n Dumplings
Green Beans
Tossed Salad

Sunday

I’m thinking Sunday seems like another great crockpot day. I like the idea of mixing something up in the morning before we head to church and leaving it to simmer all day. It must be something about moving into winter that’s doing this to me, as I am not normally a crockpot cooker…either way, I spotted a recipe this week for BBQ pot roast over cheddar ranch grits. I can’t even tell you how amazing that sounds in my head. I’ll report back next week on whether it lives up to expectations.

BBQ Pot Roast w/Cheddar Ranch Grits
Sauteed Asparagus
Tossed Salad

The post Weekly Menu – November 26th, 2012 appeared first on A Flexible Life.