Quiet Time

About a month ago, someone (Hi Katy!) suggested we start quiet time. We’d done it years ago, when Annabelle was born, but haven’t done it since then. It’s great for when your kids are a little older and have dropped napping, but you still need that little break in the day.

Here’s how it works for us:

• The big two kids have a smart white noise machine.

• I programmed them to change to RED at a certain time, which indicates that quiet time is starting.

• An hour later, the light switches to YELLOW, which indicates that quiet time is over and they can start screen time.

• Then when the GREEN light pops up, screen time is over, and they can come out of their rooms. (Their doors are almost always open during this whole time, so I can check in throughout.)

• For Charlie? He has a lamp in his room, and we got a smart light bulb that I programmed the same way! He comes out a lot, but some days, he actually stays in his room for the whole quiet time!

• Since he’s 4, he will often come out and watch Sesame Street or Miss Rachel on the big TV with me. He’s been really into the Ice Age movies lately, though - he watches them a little at a time until he finishes, then he just moves to the next one or rewatches the same one.

  I’m writing this newsletter today, Friday, during the kids’ quiet time (Bea is outside with Cam)!

Books and movies

1. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King) - I finished it. GREAT BOOK.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (the movie). I finally watched it, for the first time. Did you know it’s the number 1 movie of all time, according to imdb? It was great, and it was VERY close to the book, which made me happy. There were a few differences, so SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE/READ THE BOOK… one big difference was the very end. In the book, Red is talking and says, “I hope Andy is down there. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” THE END. But in the movie, he says that stuff and then he walks onto a beach and actually sees Andy! I was not expecting that! So I’m glad to know they found each other and that Andy’s doing well!

3. The Woman in the Yard (Peacock) - This looked SO great in the teasers for it. And it started off strong, but there were too many gaps in the story for me, so I give it a 3/5. Essentially, a woman is on crutches after surviving a car crash in which her husband died. She’s now raising their two children on her own in a fixer-upper farmhouse. One day, the power goes out, and in the yard, she sees a woman, sitting down, covered in a black cloth of some sort (so that her face is covered). Weird things start happening around the house, and you eventually find out who/what the woman is/represents. I won’t spoil the ending!! The very last few seconds are up for interpretation - I had a nice chat with someone on IG who had a good theory about it, and it’s the one I’m going with.

Have you seen or read anything worthwhile lately? Let me know!!

Beach Day

We really would like to go to the ocean in the fall, but for the time being, we visited a local beach. Is it called a beach if the water is just a lake? I’m not really sure. This is called Cypress Black Bayou, and it’s actually where I did my open water training for that triathlon I did.

The water is murky, and you can’t see anything when you put your face in, but it’s nice. It doesn’t feel dirty, just very sandy. The water is quite warm, and the kids had a lot of fun. It was Beatrix’s first time in any sort of water that’s not a pool, and she loved it.

Cameron is one of those dads who gets out there and tosses the kids around and plays water games, while I just sit near the shore and let the little ones put sand all over me. We’ve struck a nice balance. 😀 

I did put on some goggles and swim around for about 10 minutes, which felt really nice! The only problem is that all the rest of the day (and today too!) I’ve got some shoulder pain. I’d forgotten that my shoulder acts up when I swim; I had to do some shoulder exercises during my tri training! I’m taking a few days off of working out, just to let my shoulder rest.

Some funny folks

Oh, before I forget, SHOUT OUT to Becky for buying me a coffee last week!! Much appreciated! ❤️ 

There are two funny folks I’m suggesting this week!

• One thing that’s been trending is the Justin Bieber song Baby (yes, the old one with Ludacris), but people will do a transition at certain points in the song. They’re one of my favorites to watch right now! There’s one creator on TikTok who does these outfit versions except that they start normal and end up being ridiculous. Her pants are always oversized, and she’s always going “formal fishing” or something silly. Here’s one of her recent ones!

• NORTH VALLEY GROUP is one of my faaaavorite accounts of all time. This dad and his grown kids (plus one son-in-law) make these silly videos, usually about parenting. These guys are on Insta and TikTok (I linked 2 different videos FYI!).

Make Sauce!

My note for this is “learn to make a sauce; it transformed my cooking.”

Back when I wasn’t much of a cook (like, I couldn’t make bacon and eggs without somehow ruining it), I would not have been able to follow a recipe if I were missing any single ingredient.

Over the years, I got more and more confident. And at some point, about 5 years ago, I learned how to make a gravy for something and it changed the way I cook.

Once you realize how easy it is to make a gravy, you can make a sauce or gravy for everything, and it really elevates any meal! It’s one of my biggest tips for someone getting more comfortable in the kitchen.

Chicken and vegetables, FINE.
Chicken and vegetables with creamy sauce? Add pasta! AMAZING.
Chicken and vegetables with teriyaki sauce? Add rice! YUM!

The sauce can just make it a whole new thing.

One short version of making a sauce is this:

• Cook your meat and veggies and remove them but don’t clean out the pan.

• Add some butter or oil. Let’s say ¼ cup.

• Add the same amount of flour (so ¼ cup).

• Whisk and cook on low until it’s pasty. If you let it cook longer, it will be a darker sauce, that’s all. Don’t let it burn (it’s hard to do that, honestly, unless you ignore it completely or cook it too hot!).

• Once it’s nice and toasty, add some broth (or water). Start with about 1 cup. Whisk and simmer. It will thicken pretty quickly!

• Add another 1 cup of liquid. Whisk and simmer.

• Continue to add liquid until you’ve reached the quantity you want!

You can add seasoning at any point… You can use milk or cream along with the broth if you want a cream sauce. Add soy sauce, fish sauce, and some brown sugar if you want something like teriyaki. But the base can be just as simple as I wrote above!

A few more things!

We got some new baby chicks - 13 to be exact! I’ll post some pictures as they get older.

Cameron and I are building a new chicken coop. It’s going to be off the ground so that we can clean it easier, and the run will be smaller since ours mostly free range. It’s coming along nicely and quickly! (That picture is our old chicken coop when we first moved here 8 years ago, before we fixed it up.)

I wanted to say THANKS to all of you. I’ve got a growing list of specifics, but basically, over the years, I’ve learned so many things from my IG followers and through email responses. Sometimes getting too much advice - too many voices - is overwhelming, and that’s often when I take a break from social media. But in general, when you put a bunch of minds together, you get a lot of great ideas. And I’m literally smarter and wiser and more interesting BECAUSE of you!! So thank you for that, for anyone who has ever responded and sent me an idea or a thought or a suggestion or even a criticism!!

That’s it for the week, and I’ll see ya next time. RESPOND if you wanna!! I read them all!

❤️ Bethany