Executive Decision

Executive Decision, we decided it was time to sell this couch.

Sure, it's a great couch. Beautiful couch. However, with the barnwood going on the wall behind it we needed a couch with some color. Turquoise color, that is! The couch was sold to a good home. Actually, the gal is a friend and she had her eyes on this couch before we snagged it without knowing. Crazy the way this couch went full circle on us. 

We had been couch shopping all the way to LA and combed every furniture shop in SLC. We had been snubbed by many hoity toity high class wannabes too. Makes me snarl to think of Mr. Italian leather too good guy from the (say in a high voice while shaking your head side to side) "Light Spot great and powerful." Your couches weren't even comfortable.  Go back to the Italy drawing board dude!
I digress.
Where was I--right, we could not find a couch we were looking for--the couch that fit like a pair of jeans (previous post)

1) We needed a comfortable couch

2) A couch we could both fit on if we were to watch a movie

3) A couch I could put my feet up on at the end of the day

We found it at Lofgren's in SLC.  We had been to this furniture shop early on, but we didn't think to revisit it when we were on the hunt. We're dumb like that. We walked in to the furniture shop and hallelujah, beam of light after 5 min of entering the store.  The sales lady was astonished at our quickness.  She stopped in the middle of typing up the order and asked, "Have you guys always made decisions this fast?" Mat and I looked at each other and grinned knowing each other all too well, "Why, yes we have," laughing. We don't spend a whole lot of time debating and wasting time about the obvious.  We know pretty quickly if it is going to work or not. We bought our house in 3 days, decided baby names within minutes of birth, bought cars in less than a week, what's for dinner?--already had it at 4PM.... :)

Now, picture turquoise and up against 70 year old barnwood.  Now, clap really fast (or don't party pooper), but this couch works.

It has all of the above, I can lounge, it's comfy, we both fit and BONUS we can fit more people on it with is't slight curve.  This couch will go exactly opposite of what it is pictured.Brain teaser! It takes 10wks to make, which will probably be done just in time for the remodel to be done considering the rate it's going. I'm excited to find some fun pillows to go on it.

Remodel Update

The update is there is no update.  After a few phone calls, I realized that there was a bunch of miscommunication with engineering, cabinets, contractor and me (well, mostly engineering).  It took one phone call and everything was back on track. Engineering thought I hadn't sent them our cabinet plans, I had, contractor was waiting on engineering equalling a major roadblock domino effect. We finally have our plan submitted to the city and they said it will be about next week.  Not sure if we'll be knocking out walls next week, but I'll have my goggles on and sledge hammer in hand just in case.

tip #143 when you say you're going to start in January, it really means you'll start in March.

Good news is that we have our barstools! They came Friday afternoon and required a signature, so I was patiently waiting to begin my day.



This gigantic box arrived and I was so glad to have our double wide doors down in the lab.

The box was also very well packaged.  It was like emptying out a clowns handkerchief pocket. The brown packaging paper never ended.







Windows should be started next week too. I believe it was our single pane windows that started this chain reaction of a remodel, so it is only right that they get done first.

Sunday baking?

My dear sister-in-law ( I should really minus the in-law and just call her sister) --sent me two recipes to try out and I was excited to try them.  Sometimes having a healthy to go to snack waiting for you in the fridge can be life saving. Especially, since I claim to Mat that I'm hypoglycemic and I'm about to die after my expired 3hrs of famished hunger---(sometimes it's less than 2hrs if I'm on a road trip.)

Mounds

2 T. Coconut Flour

1 cup walnut pieces, ground into meal

10 dates, chopped

1 T. chia seeds

2 scoops vegan chocolate protein powder (46 grams)

1 T. carob powder--I used cocoa

2 T. coconut oil

honey to moisten, approx ¼ cup

Form into 1” balls, store in refrigerator

MACA BALLS

1 cup peanut butter

¼ cup Maca powder

½ cup honey

½ c. fresh ground almond meal

pinch sea salt

1 scoop cookies and cream or vanilla protein powder (35 grams)

1 T. chia seeds

Form into 1” balls, store in refrigerator

What's maca? I had to do a little research. So, I hit reply to Dannielle's email and asked what in the heck of the world was maca? Reply: Maca is a root vegetable that is grown in Peru.  It is considered a superfood.  It is very nutritious and high in protein.  It has a nutty flavor. If you need more--

Here’s a quick list of the potential benefits of Maca root for you:

•    balances mood
•    strengthens the skin
•    increases energy
•    increases libido and fertility
•    better sleep
•    helps your body adapt to stress
•    increases memory and brain power
•    anti-aging properties
•    anti-acne properties
•    increases endurance and stamina
•    reduces symptoms of PMS and menopause
•    helps to reduce aches and pains
•    strengthens hair and reduces hair loss (BONUS for my hair at age 36)

My opinion: Maca has a deep root, nutty flavor.  It's different, but good. This baking spree required a trip to Whole Foods to find maca root powder, coconut flour and quinoa flour for the next recipe below. Of course, when the kids are out of school it requires me taking 3 loud, yet creative kids, to the store. Whole Foods luckily has a treat for them at the cash register, but it doesn't save me from this:

They had a good time making turns in their train line while I tried to quickly scan the shelves for the most unusual, rare flours and powders.

Here are the quinoa cookies I want to try. Don't know if they're good or not, but they're from the chocolate covered Katie website.

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

Category: Healthy Cookie Recipes

• 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp quinoa flour (52g)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 packed tbsp brown sugar or coconut sugar (22g)
• 2 tbsp white sugar or xylitol (20g)
• 2-4 tbsp chocolate chips, optional
• up to 2 tbsp milk of choice, as needed
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp vegetable or coconut oil (15g)

Quinoa Cookies: (Makes 6-8 quinoa cookies, so feel free to double the recipe!) Preheat oven to 310 F, and lightly grease a cookie tray. In a mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all liquid ingredients (starting with 1 tbsp milk of choice). Pour wet into dry to form a dough, then add the extra milk of choice if needed. If dough becomes a little too gooey, just freeze 20 minutes or until firm enough to shape into balls. Shape balls, then flatten if a flat cookie is desired. (I did not flatten the ones in the photos.) Bake 8-9 minutes in the middle rack. (As it states on my Recipe Troubleshooting page, you should always bake in the middle rack with my recipes, unless otherwise stated.) The cookies should look undercooked when you take them out, which is completely okay: they will continue cooking as they cool. Don’t try to remove them from the tray for another 15-20 minutes.

Down and clean out

Gretchen woke up with a stomach bug Monday morning. I just knew I should have gone downstairs and grabbed her a bowl to puke in. Instead, I ignored it, too tired to move at midnight.  I heard Mat tell her to go to the bathroom if she was feeling sick. When does that ever happen? When does an 8 year old think, "Hmmm, I'm feeling sick, I should get up now and go to the bathroom?" It ended up all over the bedding and carpet. I don't know why it takes me so long to learn my lesson, but I'm sure I'll do the same thing the next time it happens. I canceled everything for the day and Gretchen rested. I had this same bug over Christmas and I knew exactly what to expect. 24hrs of nothing.

 The upside, I needed a reason for lockdown in my house. I did loads of laundry, prepped the pantries for the great wall knock out and I put back the basement after the carpet had been replaced last week. It was so quiet and clean in my basement that I pulled up a kid chair and just sat. I just absorbed it all getting lost in my thoughts. It was so peaceful and the sunlight shining through the windows made me sigh.