This is my kitchen and dining area. Huge, huh? =) Well considering our whole condo is 900 sq ft, we're pretty satisfied with the kitchen. We've always had small kitchens and in the past I would have never considered using up valuable kitchen space to store "food storage". Well, I bet you'll be surprised to know that between these two spaces I have 32 #10 cans and 37 pantry cans stored (I was curious so I counted), 7 gallons of water, and 2 6 gal. buckets of wheat and flour. And look, no cans in sight! (Someone validate me, please! This is good, right?) I am not a super organizer. I don't have any clever ideas. I've just found that it's a lot easier to make room for food that I actually use instead of just store. So let's begin the tour, shall we?

First, let me say that I love the pantry size can. It's perfect for things like sour cream, butter, shortening, and eggs. I can just refill these from the #10 cans. I already had baking stuff in this cupboard so just consolidated a bit to make room for a few cans. If you don't want to buy the pantry cans you can always use your own smaller containers (just remember Shelf Reliance can't guarantee the shelf life of other containers).

This cupboard with the bread was a mess to begin with. I threw away a lot of moldy ends. Plus, I transferred boxed items to ziplocs to eliminate the bulky boxes. I'm tellin' ya -nothing special. But I did manage to make space for my pancake mix and some other items I use a lot like freeze-dried onions and my fruits.

The narrow little cupboard is awkward to begin with, so I've always stored kind of random stuff in there. I had a huge thing of Ramen that we never eat so I put that in a closet and did a little more transferring from boxes to ziplocs. I still have growing room in this little space.

And this is the butcher block by the table that used to have kid art supplies, along with a big bulky plastic table cloth and some packaging supplies. Those items found new homes in bedroom closets. And I couldn't be happier with the new tenants.

And next we have our everything closet. It's actually the only closet we have besides the bedroom closets. I just added a stackable shelf to use up some of the height in the closet. Because it's less accessible, this is where I store less used cans, or #10's that I use to refill pantry cans. I have a similar shelf on the floor of the closet that has my 6 gal. buckets on top, which gives me a little extra storage underneath where I store my "party" supplies.

And that about does it for the tour. I hope you're not too disappointed but I did warn you before hand that I didn't have any amazing tricks to share. For me, the solution has been to buy food that has a long sealed and open shelf life and tastes good enough to use in my everyday cooking. It's easier to find space for food you WANT in the kitchen. I definitely don't replace everything with my Thrive foods (except for the onions. I don't buy onions anymore), but I do turn to them often when I don't want to run to the store or when I have to throw a last minute dinner together. I know we have a long way to go, but it does is comforting to know we have SOMETHING. So, no matter the space, it is possible to start NOW.

*I posted this on my Shelf Reliance blog, eatingoutofcans.com.

Why? Why? Why?

So today was going really well. The house stayed relatively clean over the weekend (due to the fact that I spent all day Saturday cleaning it and managed to stay out of it all day yesterday). So it was nice to wake up Monday morning and not feel overwhelmed by a to do list a mile long. The boys and I do puzzles for while. Then we turn on some kid songs and dance. After that they play in their room while I finish up some laundry and get dressed. It's great! Next we go to the library and read books then go in for story time. We run into friends at story time and have lunch with them at Chick-fil-a. So far so good, right? We get home and Fin goes down for nap while Duncan plays on the computer. I set the timer for 30 minutes (yes....it's about to go downhill). Sure enough as soon as that timer goes off so does Duncan. He cries. He tries to reset the timer. He kicks me. Seriously? All that fun stuff and good old mommy time completely irrelevant now. I am now the worst mommy and he hates me. I have to physically put him in my room and on my bed for a time out (this is after he's had several chances to calm down and pick a library book for me to read to him). He's on my bed now and as I'm trying to hold him down to keep him on the bed he screams in my face. We all have our limits. I roll him over on his tummy and spank him. I'm not sorry. I spank because sometimes that's the only way to get his attention. And it works. He stops trying to get off the bed. He continues to cry so I leave him to wallow in his misery and after a few minutes there is silence. After a while I go in and he's laying there calmly on the bed. I say I'm sorry I had to spank him and explain why I did it. He tells me sorry. We cuddle for a bit and then it's over. I would love to say that this is a rare occasion around here but it's not. It doesn't happen every day but should it happen at all? That's the reason for all the "why's". I just don't get why it has to be this way or if it even does? So I thought this picture Duncan took of himself was appropriate for this post. It shows his scary side.

I Like My Pregnant Body...Did I Really Just Say That?

Yes I did and I'm sorry. I just read Jaimie's post and almost reconsidered writing this tonight but clearly I'm feeling the need to make some enemies. Let me first explain myself and maybe you'll come back to my blog someday.

During pregnancy is the only time in my life when I've been called "tiny" or "cute". And don't start rolling your eyes thinking I'm going to complain about being fat because I in no way think I'm fat. I have a pretty healthy body image but despite that I think I'll always consider myself as "big". Probably because I really was "big". I basically did most of my growing between ages 10-13. At 11 I was already 5'5" and over 100lbs. Looking back I can see I was tall and "skinny" but when you're at lest 20 lbs heavier than the other girls your age you don't feel skinny. I distinctly remember sitting at the lunch table in 5th grade and all these "little" girls saying how much they weighed. They weighed liked 80lbs.. By 7th grade I was full size, 5'8". I'm not complaining about being tall as a kid and sometimes I wish I hadn't stopped growing so early on, but it's definitely the reason I'll always consider myself as "big".

Anyway, it turns out this long torso is good for something -hiding babies. It doesn't hide them quite like it used to but I can't complain (although from time to time you might hear me doing just that). So yes, I like my pregnant body because it makes me feel "small". I swear the belly makes my hips and legs look smaller -if not to anyone else, at least to me.

Yes my back hurts, my organs are jumbled up, my digestive system is wacked, I can't sleep, I spend 1/4 of my waking minutes in the bathroom (I intend to get the real numbers on this one. I'll let you know what I find), I have a future UFC fighter in my uterus, my husband stinks, nothing tastes as good and I have varicose veins in unmentionable locations (not sure why I felt the need for FULL disclosure, sorry). BUT, sometimes people call me "tiny" and my belly "cute", and that's nice.

*Duncan kissing Finlay, taken by Sabrina

*Green sweater -Jimmy ordered this green J.Crew sweater for me as surprise for Valentine's Day one year. You'll notice I'm also wearing it in our out of date family pictures. He did well.