In the kitchen: Banana Bread

I was gonna post the last well, week. But life got busy!! Which made me think of something some one said to me yesterday.
"how to you do everything Rhonda?"
Oh I soooo do not do everything!!
Lots of things I get done happen at night or during nap time. Both are highly important to me!
I've got a mile long to do list. And many things I wish to do.
But well I don't.

The whole past week I was gonna do some more baking and other stuff but it was busy.
Last week's evenings went like this.
Monday - Regan was on call. Solo with the kids.
Tuesday night - As soon as Reg got home I was off to YW. And got home at 8:45 or so. Then did my blog post :)
Wednesday Night I went to a Love and Logic Parenting seminar. Which was good and interesting. Some stuff I really liked, other bits felt a bit.... um degrading to kids. And not at all in line with Gospel teaching. So some good. Some not.
Thursday Family Home Evening Kit Group I am in met together.
Friday Reg was on call again and We went out to dinner with some of my family to Boston Pizza and then I had my niece sleep over so I could go out to a girls night.
Saturday night I went to a dinner and RS broadcast.

Needless to say it was busy :)

Anyway, my point in sharing all this was..... that sometimes life runs away. And I'm not always on top of things. In fact more the opposite most of the time! But I've been asked by people how i get all this stuff done.

I don't watch TV much. As in haven't seen anything for over a week or more. And if I do watch I like to do something while I do. Like make invitations or cards or fold laundry or whatever.

I try and do things while my kids play around me. If they want to be in the backyard, I fold laundry down stairs or read a book in the backyard or make phone calls or whatever I can down there. If they are happy on the deck I load the dishwasher or edit a few pictures. Eli makes all this harder. HE is a lot more high maintenance than either one of my first kids were. (And despite what some people say I do not agree that he is normal. He spent from 3:45 pm to 7pm crying on and off the whole stinking time. And that's a good day lately. That's not normal) I'm still getting used to accomplishing as much as I like to with him around. Perhaps God is teaching me to sit down and enjoy my kids.

Each night I write down my to do list for the next day. I have all kinds of to do lists. To do lists for house projects. Sewing tutorial to do lists. Blog post idea lists. I am a list kinda girl. I love a good list pad :)

I have a crazy calender with all my dates an deadlines and all that written all over it. It is kind of looking crazy for September. crazy fun :) I've started highlighting Regan's on call days too. So I can see at a glance all those when I am planning or scheduling things. I should have taken a picture of it but I didn't know I was even posting about this til I sat down and started to write and now it's too dark out. :)

I think it's funny that women are so comparison driven. The fact is everybody's life is sooo different. And I don't think it's even able to compare vague things like what you get done in a day. It's my opinion that more people get more done than they think, that everyone wastes more time than they realize AND that most people are not as busy as they think they are.

Just a few of my somethings that need to be done....
1. Logos for my brothers' company (need to finish the final draft)
2. a blog header for a friend
3. Preparations for Lucy's B-Day party on Friday
4. a few photo shoots that should have been edited already (right Christine??)
5. bills paid (did that tonight)
6. prep for having a bunch of girls from church over tomorrow night to make hair pretties (which means making my house is kind of clean hahahaha)
7. laundry (did 4 loads today - but still more to do...)
8. Type out a few recipes that I've been asked for by a few people.
9. Actually finish my photography blog photo shoot give away (which I posted about entirely tooo long ago eeekkkk!)
10. Scrapbook. It feels like it has been entirely too long since I did that! (a week or so)

The thing I've been thinking about is a quote I heard the other night at the RS broadcast. Which basically said that a wise person knows how to distinguish between the things that need to be done and the things that don't and then leave some things undone by eliminating the non essentials. Now it sounded much prettier when they said it, but you get my point!

This is an insanely long rambly post.
If you actually read my thoughts then let me hear what you think! :)
And I'll get back to editing those pictures....
And since no post is fun without photos...
here are some of the current editing crop.






And here is the banana bread recipe that was asked for from the last post.

Banana Nut Bread
from Martha Stewart Baking Handbook
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups veggie oil
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3)
1 cup coconut
1 cup walnuts, pecans (or chocolate chips)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Coat two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and oil on medium low until combined. Beat in the flour mixture. Add the vanilla, banana, coconut, nuts (or chocolate!) and buttermilk. Beat just to combine.

Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Bread can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic for up to 1 week or frozen up to 3 months.

Now I am off to bed to rest my foot (i'm currently suffering from Plantar Fasciitis which my handy hubby doctor diagnosed for me but there isn't so much you can do for it except stretch your calves and roll your foot on a frozen bottle of ice (which I am doing right as I type this) and be in pain.)