I Survived: Part 2

Well I am on day 7 of grad school.  And I have survived.  It's been tricky getting back into the swing of being a student. But its good.  Most days I like it (Some days I question again why am I doing this).  But the positive ones do out number the negative ones.   Here's some things I've learned so far.

Complex analysis is more confusing that real analysis
I am truly an engineer by heart
Colored pencils are not just for elementary school
Grad school - easiest diet (not really planned, just happened)
Back at grad school = college dinners

All in all. School is good. I really enjoy some of my classes, the people I've met are great and helpful.

Here's to a great year!!!!

Here's a sample of what I'm learning! (I get to draw pretty pictures)

I Survived: Part 1

You may call me Professor.  Okay. So I'm not "really" a professor, but my students call me professor. And it feels pretty cool.  I teach 2 undergraduate classes while I'm getting my master's degree. Pretty cool right? I get to practice being a real life professor. (That's one reason I want my Master's).  I did tell my students I was a graduate student, but some still call me professor. And I'm okay with that.  :)   

Here's some things I learned from my first day teaching.

1.  7:30am class is even earlier if you're the instructor and live 30 min from campus
2.  You get a better parking spot if you have a 7:30 am class
3.  I like the husband making breakfast (So sweet of him)
4.  It's a great idea to pack your lunch the night before
5.  Copy extra syllabi. You may run out.
6.  Chalk is yuck! It gets all over your hands. 
7.  College students are just as quite when I teach as my Young Women
8.  Plan more than you expect to teach

All in all it was a good day.  I got a lot prepared and I'm excited for the year!

Naked Peaches

I love peaches! Yummy! They are so tasty.  My favorite peaches are my Grandma's canned peaches.  I can eat an entire jar in one sitting. She's given them to me as birthday presents because I love them so much.  I used to be horrible at sharing, aka I didn't share them AT ALL. But now, well, I still am probably horrible at sharing, but at least sometimes I offer.  Well, now my Grandma lives over 1000 miles away. And trying to get some of her peaches out here is a little tricky.  I decided to try my hand at canning peaches.  So that's what I did.  I bout a bushel of peaches, picked out the best, found a recipe online for non-pressure cooker canning recipe, bought some jar, and made a mess. And what did I end up with. 14 gorgeous looking jars of peaches! I am so excited! I did have two little jars for leftovers that wouldn't fit in the quart sized jars, so we've already eaten some. Even as good as they are, they are still not quite like Grandma's.

I found that canning peaches is easier than freezing corn.  My last bulk project a week ago was buying 8 dozen ears of corn, husking them, blanching them, cutting the corn off the cob and freezing them. And that makes a HUGE mess.  Corn kernels everywhere. But now we have 18 gallon bags of delicious corn to eat all year.  After finishing 2 dozen, I thought to myself "What was I thinking getting 8 dozen?" But I'm glad I did. The fresh corn is so much better than anything I've tasted. And I'm excited to be able to eat it all year long.  And now I have peaches.

What I thought was going to be the worst part of canning was peeling the peaches.  I made peach crisp earlier in the week, and had to peel 10 peaches.  You look a lot pealing them with a knife, or at least I do because I don't get very close.  Luckily, when reading about canning, I found the easiest way to peal peaches.  It's so great I'm going to use it again on Sunday when we make dutch oven peach cobbler. YUM!  Here's the trick.

Heat a large pot of water and bring to a boil.
Fill sink or bucket with ice water.
Place whole peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds (more the higher altitude you are)
Take out peaches from boiling water and place in ice bath for a few minutes (I kept them in there while I put all the peaches in the boiling water until I slice them all)
Skin will rub right off of the peaches.  I suggested cutting the peach in half before pulling all the skin off.  Most of the skin will rub off just by cutting in half.

This was so easy to do, and not that hard.  The weirdest part.... naked peaches.  Sometimes all the skin would come off a whole peach.  Peaches feel weird naked.  Plus my hands were wet and the peach just came out of an ice bath.  But naked peaches are beautiful.  And I'm all for no skin on my peaches.



Here's the link to my instructions I followed for canning my peaches.  I'm sure it works the same for other fruits. (I did light syrup and didn't sprinkle anything on my peaches to prevent them from turning brown, and they didn't)

Happy Canning!

http://www.pickyourown.org/peachescanning.htm

PS. Right after I finished my first batch, I found out 6 jars of my Grandma's peaches were on there way to me via some one moving out our way.  So EXCITED!!!!! So many Yummy Peaches to Eat!

Pinterest Challenge

So I would have thought with no work and no school for two weeks I would have been AMAZING at blogging. I was wrong.  My lazy self took over. But I did do quite a few pinterest projects.  Didn't not succeed in doing one every day (but some days I did two, that counts for something right)  So here's a review of my pinterest challenge.

Day 1: It took my friend and I forever to decide what to do.  This actually occurred most days. Food vs Project was mostly the case.  Since friend and I were having dinner together, we decided to make a dessert, and boy was it scrump-dili-umptious!  We made Chubby Hubby Bars! So yummy.  It's pretty much a cookies with Reese's and pretzels inside with caramel and chocolate on top. SO GOOD and pinterest Success!

Pinterest: 0  Me: 1

Day 1: I also tried to do my hair from a pin earlier that morning. No so much a success. One I was trying to hurry, two, I'm pretty sure my hair is too short and it would call for a lot of bobbypins. So after trying it once, I gave up. Pinterest fail.

Pinterest: 1 Me: 1

Day 2: It was another friend's birthday coming up so I decided to make her something and I used an idea from pinterest.  An owl picture made from buttons.  I probably needed more buttons, but it turned out cute, and actually looked like an owl. Success!

Pinterest: 1 Me: 2

Day 2: Part 2, I wanted to paint my nails. So looked for ideas on pinterest. In my opinion, some are way to hard to do on your own.  So I opted for pink with flowers.  They looked like flowers, but were messy when you go close.  But I'm going to call it a success.

Pinterest: 1 Me: 3

Day 3: Back again to the thinking what to do.  Well, really we went to the store with multiple projects in mind, but Wal-Mart did not have anything that we needed.  So we sat down in the aisle at Wal-Mart searching Pinterest for an idea.  Skirts. We made skirts.  And what is awesome about these skirts, the have POCKETS! So amazing! The skirt was pretty simple to do. And they turned out cute. Sadly, I haven't really liked mine yet. I decided the shapre of the skirt is not what I'm used to, but my friends looks way darling on her.  So definitely a success story all the way.

Pinterest: 1 Me: 4

Day 3:  The yw in my ward came over to make cookies for the court of honor that night. We made these corn flake peanut butter balls (AKA Deliciousness) that I actually pinned awhile ago. They were AWESOME! So Good. Messy, but good. Success!

Pinterest: 1 Me: 5

Day 4: Tub cleaning.  My tub looks dirty and I can't find anything to fix it. I've tried all sorts of cleaning products, lemon oil.... nothing works. So I tried dish soap and baking soda.  Now, it didn't get the dirt out, but it took all the hard water stains off the fixtures.  They look so shiny.  So this is a lose/win situation.

Pinterest: 2 Me: 6

And this is where the challenge went downhill.  My friend and I didn't see each other as much, my lazy side came out and well.... I failed at completeing the challenge.  I still tried to do something every day, but  I didn't make it every day.  Here's some other things I tried.

Day 9: Peach crisp. Total success.  Husband is already asking for more and it's not even gone yet. I did double the crisp part, mostly because it's my favorite!

Pinterest: 2 Me: 7

Day 10: Cookies in a cup. Interesting. Needed ice cream, but it worked.

Pinterest: 2 Me: 8

So all in all, I think my friend and I did pretty good. We didn't manage to do something every day, but what we did do was definitely an accomplishment.  Even the things that didn't turn out so well, still can be attempted again.

And of course, I didn't take a lot of photos. :( But find me on Pinterest and most of the things are Pinned on my completed Board.

Happy Pinning!

Challenge Accepted

Pinterest. I was on the bandwagon. Then I got off.  Decided not to do it. Well then I jumped back on the band wagon. Why did I stop?! So much goodness to look at and pretend that someday I'm going to bake that delicious meal or make that cute sweater.  Well enough with the dreaming.  Since I have now quit my job and finished my first semester of graduate school, I am taking on a challenge.

The Challenge: Every day complete some project (food/craft/organization/fitness/etc) that I have pinned on Pinterest.  Every so often blogging about my experiences (and hopefully not Pinterest Fails)

Timeframe: August 5 - August 16. My 2 weeks with no obligations but to relax and enjoy summer.

Who: Me and occasionally my friend.  She's great. You'd love her.

The Verdict: Challenge Accepted

Homemade At It's Finiest

Think back to a while ago.  July 2 to be exact. When I blogged about eating baby food.  I promised it was for a project and not that I'm weird. (okay, I'm weird) Anywho, I said I would explain why.... well here I am a month later finally explaining.  I made homemade bath stuff for my cousin for her birthday.  Sugar scrub, coconut lotion and bath salts.  And it all was super easy and fun to be able to make her gift for her.

I actually found the recipes from other blogs.  I tried to link to the ones I used, but couldn't remember them exactly.

Sugar Scrub (http://unbailefor5.blogspot.com/2011/05/homemade-sugar-scrub.html)

1 1/2 cups of Sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
A few drops of essential oil (I did balance, it's a calming blend from DoTerra)

Put everything in a bowl. Stir. Put in cute container (aka baby food jar) I tied a ribbon around mine to add some cuteness.

To use the sugar scrub, take a little bit and wash your hands, feet, or use it in the shower.  It's an exfoliating scrub.  You knows that scrubs from bath and body stores that are about $10-$15 each.  This works the same way. Your hands (or feet or arms for that matter) will feel so soft afterwards.  Worried about the olive oil in it. Don't be.  A little bit of oil is good for you. And olive oil is good for your skin. (Read about it here)

Coconut Lotion (Can't remember if this is the correct link - http://www.livingthenourishedlife.com/2012/02/homemade-whipped-coconut-oil-body)

Spoonful of coconut oil (found in baking aisle at grocery store.  It is solid at room temperature)
A few drops of essential oil (I used Wild Orange by DoTerra)

A lot of recipes online also call for vitamin E. You can just squeeze the contents of vitamin E pills into the bowl.

Using a hand mixer whip the coconut oil until it is a creamy texture. Similar to homemade whipped cream.  Put in cute container (aka baby food jar) I tied a ribbon around mine to add some cuteness.   The lotion is harden after letting it sit for a bit.

Because this lotion is based from coconut oil it will feel more oily than normal lotion.  But it nourishes your skin and hydrates it.  Coconut oil is also very healthy to eat and for your skin. (I know cook with it).  A little bit goes a long way with this lotion.  When I was sun burnt I used this so often.  A side note.  Coconut oil goes from a solid to a liquid at about 76* F. So if you keep your house warm or accidentally leave it in the sun like I did, it will melt.  To prevent this from happening you can keep it in the fridge.  If by accident you melt it.  Just re-whip it.  There are multiple recipes for whipped coconut lotion. I chose one with few ingredients.

Bath Salts (http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-US/HolidayandParty/Pages/homemade-bath-salts.aspx)

Epson Salt
A few drops of Food Coloring (I used blue and red = purple)
A few drops of Essential Oil (I used lavendar by DoTerra)

Put all ingredients together in a zip-lock bag. Shake Shake Shake. Shake Shake Shake. Shake you baggie. :)  I then poured mine in a mason jar. Start with fewer drops of essential oil and food coloring than you think.  You  can always add more later.

Grad School Makes You Cry

Remember yesterday's uplifting post all about having faith. (If not, here you go) Well today another Debbie downer  moment happened..... I blame graduate school. It makes you cry.  At least it does for me.

Life's plan got a little rearranged.  I decided that I could finish my masters in 1 year. Yup 1 year. At first this scared me when it was suggested, but then I was totally excited about it! 1 Year!!!! WooHoo! Beats that 4 years I spent on undergraduate work.  Well today I met with my adviser to discuss my new brilliant plan and

WHAM! Down I went.  Okay, that may be a little bit of exaggeration.  But still, I didn't hear everything I wanted too.  Long story short.  I'm waiting for a very important phone call from the graduate school that it in itself will determine how long my graduate degree will take.  Just when I think everything is going my way, something comes up.

Maybe I should go find some dino chicken nuggets.

Thanks for listening to me. Next post I promise will be uplifting.... pinkie promise.

PS On a positive note.... I got a 100% on my final for my summer class :) take that grad school