At some point yesterday, I decided that the house was just not exactly set up the way it should be, and we decided to rearrange it.

Jared is getting a lot more work and needs to be in a space that he can make phone calls without a baby in the background. We decided that we would move his office back into our back bedroom (what was our living room) and that we would move my sewing stuff our here.

That leaves Jared with a nice office that he can close the door to so that he does not get disturbed by the baby when he does not want to be.

We are both very happy about this arrangement. My office and sewing stuff is in the living room as well as the TV and the rocking chair. My office moved to where Jared’s office was.

Jared had a bathroom and a couch and the library in his office and it actually looks quite wonderful.

This is going to work out perfectly.

Daphne really, really likes animals, and she really loves the dog.

Anytime we go somewhere outside, she looks for the dog, and will spend some time playing with him if she can find him.

If she can’t find him, she says, “Bwaff,” in ever increasing volume until we either direct her to her dog or distract her thoroughly. I love how smart she is getting and how well she is learning to communicate.

I would like to get back into knitting diaper covers. Look at how cute these are.

I went to Bob’s Red Mill with Julie earlier in the week, and we got some grains for the pantry.

I got some wheat berries and some oats and some corn. I now have the raw grains that I need to be able to make practically any meal. That is nice. I will have to do some hand grinding until I am able to get an electric mill, but that doesn’t really bother me right now.

I spent a good deal of time reorganizing the pantry and everything in it, and I am happy to say that it looks wonderful. We got some plastic tubs to store the grains in, and they are now securely safe from little critters, which is nice for me.

We also rearranged everything so that the Daphne monster will no be able to get into the things on the shelves. If I keep the door closed, I will be able to eliminate a fair amount of cleaning up after the little monster that she is.

My strategy is to buy in bulk. We almost don’t have to to go the store anymore. The only thing that we really need to buy is some of the cheeses that I can’t make right now (cheddar) and eggs. The cheese problem will all be handled when we get a cheese press and the cheese is able to age for a while, and the eggs will be handled in about 6 weeks when my 8 little laying hens will be producing eggs.

That brings our grocery bill down to about $100 per month for other random stuff, mostly produce until the garden starts to give me veggies.

I am proud of what I have been able to do with our food budget with just a few small changes.

I have been a little slow on blogging here because I have been doing some intensive blogging for school every day. The Blog 365 rules say you just have to post on A blog not the same blog every day. I have back dated a post or two here or there so that there is a continuous running showing that I have blogged here every day, but it is all within the rules because I have been blogging somewhere at least!

School has got me going a little nuts. I am taking 14 credits because I have no other choice. I usually take 12, and those extra 2 credits are really getting to me. You see, one of my classes is a 6 credit class, unlike the regular 4 credit classes. Because for my financial aid I have to have at least 12 credits taken, I ended up having to do the 2 extra this semester leaving me at 16.

The good news is that either 1 semester in Greece or two more semesters at PSU and I will offically be a graduate. I like the sound of that.

Speaking of Greece and going to school. I really do dream of it, but I just don’t see it happening. It all works out in terms of taking my family with me and doing the classes that I need to do. The only problem really comes down to money and the stupid economy. You see, it costs about $10,000 or more to go to school, which is 3-4 thousand more than it was when I was attending before. Even with financial aid, it brings it down to 5 or 6 thousand still left to make to be able to pull it off.

This would all be fine if we were not swimming in $46,000 worth of credit card debt that needs to be handled. As so, I will forego doing my last semester in Greece, I guess, to pay off our debt.

It makes me kind of sad in one way, but I am happy to know that I am not draining the money that we would be using to pay down a nice big chunk of the debt to do something that isn’t totally necessary.

And so, with 2 semesters left to do of school, the world is looking a little more bright.

Daphne is not so much picking up on words now as she is actions. I know that she understands some of the words that are being said to her, but she really is starting to pick up on mimicking the things that we do.

The other day, I was watching a TV show on my computer. At the end of it, a couple was talking about kissing. After they kissed, Daphne looked up at me and gave me a nice big kiss on the cheek. It was pretty sweat of her.

Like mother, like daughter. At least that is how the saying goes, and I really am starting to believe it.

In conjunction with the spring-like weather, I have wanted to be outside for some time. The winter seemed long to me because most of it was spent indoors or trying to do indoor activities. The rain wasn’t always nice to play in. However, now the weather is starting to cooperate a little more, and it is starting to be time to play outside–and I have.

I have been outside moving dirt and putting together a garden. We have been building animal cages and working on other things in the yard. I recently mowed the lawn for the first time and even broke out the weed eater. The yard actually looks really nice. And you guessed it, Daphne was with me the whole time.

I take her outside and she likes to run around and explore as much as possible. It has been nice that she has wanted to go outside a lot because it has allowed me to do the things that I need/want to do.

Now, however, she wants to go outside all the time. She stands in the window sill and knocks on the window trying to get it to open. She rushes for any open door and tries to get out. I literally had to jump up from the party we were at yesterday several times as people were leaving. One time, she even made it to the parking lot before I could catch up with her.

Now, in the morning, she insists when she is getting dressed that I put on her shoes and socks. She knows that if I put those on that she has a really good chance of going outside.

What a silly baby.

Now, however, she begs to go outside.

I have been watching the “Good Eats” that we have on DVD every night while I put Daphne to bed. I think that it is a wonderful show because it has taught me how to cook a lot of things myself, which is my ultimate goal.

I was watching the chocolate show, and he made some chocolate muffins that I just had to try. Daphne and I made them (she licked the spatula) and they came out wonderfully chocolaty with a cake-like top and a gooey fudgey inside. What a wonderful combination.

Sadly, I am losing my taste for desserts for now, so I think I will be moving on in the food world.

The muffins will be good while they last though.

Daphne has taken to standing in the window sill to look outside. It is actually one of her favorite activities.

I think it all started one day when the neighbors got some dirt delivered in a dump truck. She was amazed and fascinated, and she stood in the window sill with me behind her watching them dump the dirt. She was hooked. Now, she climbs up on the couch and stands in the window sill to watch me put the chickens away at night, and most recently, she has started standing in the window sill to watch the garden grow.

She often knocks on the window to try to get it open, but to my knowledge, that hasn’t worked yet.

The other day, I was eating brownies with my friend Julie.

Daphne came over and wanted to be picked up. When she saw what I was eating, she wanted to eat the same thing, and so she tried to take a bite.

Somehow, she managed to get a hold of the brownie. There was only a little bit of brownie left, so I made an attempt to try to eat it all before she could take another bite.

She caught on to what I was doing, and she made the same attempt. She managed to cram the whole whole thing into her mouth and eat it before I could do anything else.

It was very funny to watch her reaction to possibly not getting the brownie because I was going to eat it all. She thought really fast on her feet and managed to beat me out.