Wedding Card Envelopes

I had been saving my wedding card envelopes because I liked looking through them and seeing Mr and Mrs on them and having that apply to me. I decided to cut out all the titles (they vary between just our first names, Mr and Mrs, our full names, etc) and I creatively glued them into our guest book. (Our guest book had lots of extra room). I also glued in one of our invitations, our newspaper engagement announcement, and our church bulletin wedding announcement. I think it's a cute way to keep everything together. I have held onto these things for this long with a plan to scrapbook or something with them. I didn't see the point in buying a new book though when our guest book had about 4 pages out of 40 used. So now they're all together in one place. Things too big for the book (like our programs) got slide into our photo album instead. Have any of you guys done anything creative with your wedding memorabilia?

Ramen Noodles

Because ramen is so cheap, we have a lot of it in our pantry from when we used to eat it all the time. Of course now we realize there are much better things out there (with much less sodium too). However, I have to use these up somehow so I looked for recipes that use them. After much browsing, I sort of came up with my own thing.
Ingredients:

• shrimp (about 3oz a person)
• ramen noodles, any variety (one block serves two people)
• vegetable broth (4 cups per block of ramen)
• ginger, to taste (I used about a tablespoon and a half)
• garlic, to taste (I used about two tablespoons)
• vegetables (I used an entire frozen bag of broccoli and cauliflower and then half a bag of mixed vegetables but you can use whatever vegetables you want. Just make sure you have at least 2 cups)

Note: I don't measure anything, especially spices, when I cook so it's hard to determine how much of something I used.

Directions: While boiling broth, cook vegetables in microwave. When broth boils, add noodles and cook for 3 minutes. Then stir in vegetables, shrimp, and spices and cook for another 2 (ish) minutes (you want everything to be the same temp). Voila. You're done.

I did use one package of seasoning and I had two packs of ramen but I thought even that was too salty so I might take it out next time. Use your best judgment. You know what tastes good. By the end of this, I didn't have that much broth left but it still felt like a soup to me. Of course, you're welcome to use more broth but I thought this was fine. Let me know in the comments what you thought if you end up making it!

Prayer Blankets

Yesterday, I went to help tie prayer blankets at my church. They meet about once a month but this was my first time. I was the youngest person there by about 50 years or more but they made me feel very welcome and everyone was really nice. The quilts get made ahead of time but we stitch and tie so the quilt attaches to the batting and the backing. It actually goes pretty fast when you have enough people working on it. Then people take these home and cut off the extra batting and backing and then bind them. That's why they meet so infrequently, because of all the work done outside the meetings. It was really fun and made me think about starting to quilt but my mother in law quilts and I can already see it is a big job. Plus, the start up is kind of expensive (fabric, tools, space to work, etc) and I wouldn't know what to do with the quilts I make because we already have so many from her. I love having hobbies but I don't like the kind of hobbies where you have no use for the product or you end up with 100 of the same thing (even if the patterns and designs are different). So back to the blankets. After the blankets are finished, we send them off to people who need prayers. When placed on your lap (they're about that size) you are "covered" with the prayers people are sending your way. I think it's a really nice idea. They get sent to parishioners, nursing homes, and in some cases, people in foreign countries. I do wonder what people do with the blankets after they are out of crisis, like do they give them back? Do they keep them for the future? Pass them on? I'm sure I'll learn as I keep attending meetings.

Blind Date With a Book

Some libraries (unfortunately, not mine) are starting this program called blind date with a book. It's exactly what it sounds like. We are all guilty of judging a book by its cover (literally) so in an effort to branch out on your reading, libraries are starting to cover some of their books (like the ones on display, not the entire library) with blank covers and then on these covers they write a little blurb about the book or even just some genre, generic words (just enough to catch your attention). I think this is a GREAT idea! I do find myself saying no to some books because of the author of the cover art and I think this is a way to branch out to other genres or books I might not otherwise consider. On the same note, I feel bad for the books that are placed on the bottom shelf because I feel like people read these less often due to the shelf location. Who ever looks on the bottom shelf? You practically have to sit on the floor or bend completely in half just to read their titles!

One last rant: Can anyone explain the library of congress way of classifying books? To me, it makes absolutely NO sense. I grew up with the dewey decimal system and that doesn't really make sense to me either but it seems much more consistent and easier to find things.

Mud Room

For the past several months, we have had our chest freezer in the place where a normal house would have a kitchen table while we worked in the mud room (attached to the laundry room, off the kitchen). This weekend, we were finally able to sand and then paint where the freezer and cabinets go! It looks REALLY nice and it's the first time we've painted since fall. Then we put up the cabinets and moved the freezer into place. We took our kitchen table out of storage room upstairs (where everything that doesn't have a home yet currently lives) and put it in the kitchen like a real house! Our house is getting somewhere! It's so nice to see plus our downstairs bathroom, dining room, and living room just need a little more plaster then sanding and painting too! I love progress!

Taxes

This is my first year doing my own taxes because my parents have always helped me in the past. In 2012, I graduated college, got married, worked in Wisconsin and Minnesota, bought a house...it's a lot for taxes. I had to fill out several special forms and they took about 12 hours to complete because I had to file taxes for federal, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The sad part is, even though I am now a housewife, I will have to do this every year because my husband works in Minnesota but we live in Wisconsin. It sure is frustrating and I thank my in laws profusely for helping us figure it all out. I'm just excited to have them done! I know a lot of people get them done professionally or they buy the software to help them do it but I really don't think that it's necessary. Yes, it's a lot of work but none of it is very hard. I feel like I am a good example of someone with complicated taxes and I was able to figure it out. If you can afford to have someone do it for you, that's fine but I do think it should be something you know how to do for yourself. There are so many sources out there to help you and sometimes e-filing is free or you can get the forms for free from the library. This is just one example of how lazy people have gotten since the inventions of technology. We really need to learn to be more independent.

Gnocchi

Hey everyone, sorry I've been gone a couple days. We were having internet issues here. So anyway, a few nights ago I made potato gnocchi. It's two pounds of potatoes, half a cup of flour, two egg yolks, and a pinch of salt. I would give you the recipe (and you can ask for it if you want in the comments) but it didn't turn out how I expected. I've never had gnocchi before (and even have trouble pronouncing it right) but I was told to serve it with pasta sauce. It tasted like mashed potatoes with tomato sauce. It was good but...not really what I was looking for. There is a chance I had too much potato and had the flour ratio wrong then because then measure the potatoes in pounds and I don't have a food scale. But is it supposed to taste like that? Any opinions or suggestions for me? Thanks!