Lots to do...

There are so many things on the to-do list right now I am not quite sure where to start. Robert worked on bread today. He makes a double batch, creating four loaves at once. This lasts 2 1/2 to 4 weeks depending on how much toast we have for breakfast or if we just use it for his lunch sandwiches.

I am so glad that he enjoys doing things like this. I think the two of us could be happy living many different types of lifestyles but it is enjoyable to us right now to work together to save money by doing things like baking our own bread, cooking from scratch and gardening. We make quite a good team and I’m glad Robert doesn’t think I’m nuts for wanting to do these kinds of things!

On Friday I finally found my sewing scissors and rotary cutter. I jumped in and started sewing right away. One of the first things I did was make a pillowcase for Robert. He is a volunteer firefighter and the station he is a part of has a schedule which requires the guys to stay over at least one night per week. Currently he stays two nights per week to take up some slack. Anyway, I had this great firetruck fabric and knew it would make a perfect pillowcase to take to the firehouse. I think he liked it a lot, so I was pretty happy. It was relatively simple to make as well, so even better. I may have to make a few for my nephew for Christmas. They are doing some actual attempts at decortating at the fire station and since Robert doesn’t have any type of fire memorabilia to take down there, he asked if I might make some curtains (after seeing the way cool fire truck fabric). I of course, said yes. We just need to measure the windows and find some equally cool fabric as the pillowcase fabric is several years old already.

We went to the library yesterday and got library cards which was kind of fun - for me at least. I wandered the stacks for quite awhile before Robert came to get me and ask if I was done yet.

Today I made a short trip to the grocery store to get apples for applesauce while they were still on sale for 88 cents per pound. I got about 25 pounds. I also got some ginger to go with some of the pear recipes. I just remembered that I forgot to b uy lemon juice. Oh well, I still have to go to Walmart ot buy more pectin so I will get it then I suppose.

I also spent some time cleaning out my car today. It was in rather rough shape after the school year and soccer season and such. Hopefully this evneing we can drive it a bit and see if it needs more work done or if I can finally drive it.

I think now, I will go sew some more. Or read some of my library books!

Score!

Too much to write and no time to do it.

My freecycle posts have paid off. I am getting a lot of canning jars tomorrow and Tuesday and, a few bushels (potentially) of pears. My Aunt is coming over Wednesday and we will make pear stuff and applesauce and all that. She is bringing herself to work and her tools.. apple peeler/corer/slicer thingie, food processor, etc. Also, she loves pears. Robert doesn’t so I will limit the amount of pear stuff I keep but, having her here will help me get the apple stuff all done so it’s all good.

More news, and photos, later.

Where am I and what happened to the heat?

Living in Texas for the past three and a half years I have gotten somewhat used to the seemingly unending heat. It’s just always hot here, or, it seems that way compared to where I grew up in Indiana with nice Lake Michigan breezes.

But lately…

I have had the windows open constantly. The air conditioning hasn’t been on since sometime last week. It IS like Indiana in the fall. Woo! The only unfortunately part is that Robert’s allergies are bad enough thatw e do have to close everything up when we go to bed. But, it still stays cool enough that we don’t need the air on. Awesomeness! I really get excited when we can save big chunks of electricity.

I am doing pretty well on posting this week and actually beginning to get my income on target for the budget that I would like to have. That is definitely a good feeling. And I think in my last post I mentioned that I would tell you my motivational secret this time around. It’s a bit odd I guess and probably won’t work for everyone, or even a lot of people.

My husband is my motivation. Not in the way you might think either. There is no pressure to make tons of money or anything coming from him. There are some clear targets that need to be hit as far as contributing to bills and all that but honestly, they aren’t all that high. So, the motivation comes from him in a different way.

I was sitting at home one day last week, not feeling like doing much of anything at all. Then I thought about Robert and how much he would love to have the job I have. And then, I thought about him actually having a job like mine. And how he would be going 90 mph with his hair on fire to do the very best (and make the very most) that he could. And I realized how truly lucky I am that I have the opportunity to do this. And that I have him to support me (not in the financial sense, but in the emtional sense). I expressed an interest in this opportunity and did some of the ground work and he has been behind me 100% the whole time.

What an awesome gift. Why on earth would I waste it? Motivating? To me it was.

In other news… I made some amazing muffins this evening. I got the recipe over at Owlhaven for these Baked Apple Donuts. I didn’t have any apples on hand, but I had two pears, which was just the right amount. I didn’t bother chopping them, I just ran them over the cheese grater, peel and all. They are seriously good.

I think next time I will substitute applesauce for the butter in the actual batter and then just brush some melted butter over the tops instead of dipping them in butter (eek!) before dipping them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

At the same time, I baked some brown rice in the oven. It came out pretty well, same as when I make it on the stovetop, but, it was easy and got accomplished while the muffins were baking so that was nice. We had the brown rice with left over proteins from the week - chicken in sun dried tomato sauce and bbq brisket.

I’m really looking forward to the weekend. It will be nice to spend some time with my husband. It’s been a really long week for him (starting on September 8th since he hasn’t had a day off since then!) so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend with him. I’m not complaining… it will just be nice to have some good quality time together. And, he has Monday off. Yay!

Keeping busy

Do laundry Make hay while the sun shines… I was wondering when I would get laundry done this week as we had several days of rain predicted, following Ike. I wasn’t going to complain too much as we always need rain here in Texas. But today, the predicted rain didn’t come. So I did laundry!

Why was a non-rainy day important? So I could use my clothesline of course. I love the clothesline we have. In the picture it has four loads on it. I have since put one more out. It could hold 6 or 7 I think, but I don’t have that many clothespins. And really, it never needs to hold that much. Usually a load is dry by the time I go out to hang up the next one. I have just felt lazy today about bringing clothes in and putting them away. I’m kind of hoping I can snag my husband for some help on that once he gets home from work.

It was another very quiet day with him at work all day. I hope he gets to have a day off soon, or at least can work from home once or twice this week to make up for working almost 40 hours over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Mostly I did laundry and worked on posts for Green Daily. I spent so much time grocery shopping and repackaging things on Friday that I did not do as much posting as I wanted to. So, I made up for it today. I think next I will go dig through some boxes of clothes I moved here from my apartment that have yet to be unpacked. Someday, the house will be clean again…

I was able to open all the windows and let some fresh air in today as well. It is in the mid 70s I’d say, with a bit of a breeze blowing. It’s probably 80 in the house but with the breeze and the ceiling fans on it really doesn’t feel too bad. I am enjoying my low energy usage day between the clothesline and turning off the air conditioner!

A rainy, quiet day

Not to much to report here tody. It’s been very quiet with my husband off at work since about 5:30 am dealing with Hurricane Ike. I miss him. A lot. He’s been really busy lately and tired when he comes home. I’ll be happy when hurricane season is over, that’s for sure. I think I’ll have to convince him we need to snuggle when he comes home. Not that that should be difficult to do! I think it’s just the cool, gray day.

I am baking some bread for our dinner, but it didn’t rise the way I expected so I hope it will be good. I may have put everything into it too cold. Not really sure.

Here’s a portion of my pantry. It’s really quite nice as pantries go. I like it a lot. And now that it’s organized, even better! It could use a few more shelves and maybe some baskets to catch some of the various little packets of this and that but otherwise, it’s just right. Not only is my husband wonderful, he came with a pantry! I’m a seriously lucky girl, I know.

I have other things to write about but the rain is causing me to feel like I need to go snuggle up with a good book. And since my other snuggling option is not home from work yet, I think I might just do that.

Late night thoughts

I recently (like 30 minutes ago) made some hot chocolate. It was definitely NOT from a paper envelope. My hot chocolate was memories, thoughts, and awesomeness. You see, The chocolate itself was real, and real 77% cocoa from Amsterdam. My husband brought it home from a business trip. He always brings home chocolates from Europe. I told you he was a good man! The base of my hot chocolate was some organic milk. I’ve recently discovered that while I do not care for “regular” milk from one of those cardboard containers, the organic stuff is pretty decent. I’d prefer glass but can’t find it for the most part. Not glass AND organic.

To the milk and the chocolate I added a touch of sugar, a bit of Texas honey (gotta keep it local!) and some super yummy and amazing vanilla that I bought at a market in Mexico. I served it up in my recently acquired Donald Duck mug. My husband brought it back from his Dad’s house. I found it in a box in the closet and brought it out. I asked if it was ok if I used it. Of course he says. I say good, cause I LOVE Donald Duck! Oh, wow, so did my Dad my husband says to me. There are a lot of people I can do without in this world. I wish I had had the opportunity to know my father in law. To even talk to him once. Or for him to even know we were getting married. He died the month before we got engaged. I’m not sure why it gets me teary eyed and really sad to think about. I just wish I had known him. His kids are the coolest ever.

Well anyway. Lots was done today. I went on a grocery binge. I, um, don’t think I’ll be needing anything next week. So when I came home I decided I was tired of shuffling things around in the pantry and hauled them out, cleaned it up and organized it. Poor husband won’t be able to find anything, even though I feel like it logical (the veggies are together, beans are together, flours are all lined up, etc.). It was no small feat. I am blessed, oh so blessed, with a pantry that makes other women jealous. I could not get a good photo this evening. I will try again tomorrow.

We have filled up the gas cans. We have groceries galore. We’ve brought in all the small things from the yard. We’ve battened down the hatches so to speak. We’ll see what the morning brings with hurricane Ike not so far away from us. We are supposed to get winds in the 60mph range and a lot of rain. My biggest concerns are keeping the packed freezer cold enough if the power goes out and that my tiny baby plant sprouts survive it all ok. Oh, and that my poor husband makes it through the day at work tomorrow (and Sunday probably).

Let’s pray it turns out more like Gustav and less like Katrina. And paray especially hard for anyone who did not evacuate Galveston. I hope they all did. Because it could take a direct hit.

Tired and hungry

So, I didn’t realize the cleaning lady was coming today. I was awakened by the doorbell when she arrived. Oops. And before you think I’m spoiled, it’s something my husband wants and she only comes every other week for stuff like mopping and cleaning the bathrooms. Anyway, it got me going earlier than normal this morning but also off to a bit of a disjointed start.

I think I forgot to eat breakfast. I had some coffee and started working on posts for Green Daily and Download Squad. I actually got a lot of work done today. I was working and taking breaks to stand up and walk around and declutter small areas, like my nightstand, or the coffee table. It went pretty well. I got a few areas cleaned up nicely.

I forgot to eat lunch until my tummy rumbled at me around 2:30. I had a small lunch since Robert and I had talked about going out to dinner tonight.

After lunch I went outside to take some photos.

People are frequently jealous of my view when they come to visit. Though I live on the fringes of suburbia, I have a horse pasture across the street. It’s nice. We enjoy sitting out on the front porch on nice evenings and watching the horses or listening to the crickets.

In my tour around the yard I saw that all the seed varieties I planted last weekend have sprouted already. Must be the very warm and moist conditions. I hope the 4-6 inches of rain predicted for this weekend doesn’t drown the little ones.

I worked more after my break on both decluttering and blogging. I found a few items to post on eBay and/or Etsy.

I’ve had this bedspread since I lived in Iowa in early 2000, 2001. It’s really pretty and in excellent shape. Really excellent shape. I looked at it. I thought about putting it into the guest room. But, I have already started that room in Americana/Texas decorating. I thought about saving it should I ever have a little girl. But, then I thought about all the stuff we have and saw how much things like this were going for. Cash that could go towards paying off my ankle surgery, building up our emergency fund, etc. So, I put it up for sale. We’ll see how it goes.

And now, my husband tells me it’s time to go get some dinner. Phew! I’m starved! And we’re having wings! Yahoo!

Another busy day

I feel like I haven’t accomplished much yet today, even though I’ve been going at it all day. I started the morning trying to catch up on reading in my feed reader. I use it to find post ideas for some of my paid blogging gigs, so if I get too far behind, I miss too much. I always end up clicking to read one story, and clicking a link within that and on and on, I’m down in a rabbit hole. Throughout all that today, I ended up find the Money Saving Mom website. It has a lot of coupon deals and such like that. Normally, I don’t get too much into that because we don’t get the Sunday paper and most of meals are cooked from scratch or close to it and you just don’t find coupons for things like flour and carrots and pot roast and such.
There were a few things that peaked my interest though and I ended up printing out some coupons from Kashi and heading over to Target to spend some money. Or rather save some money.

When you first register with the Kashi website you have the opportunity to print two coupons worth $2 off 1 item. I registered two email addresses and got four coupons. Target has two specials going this week. 15% off Kashi products and receive a $5 Target gift card if you purchase four Kashi items. Now, I love waffles, blueberry waffles especially. And waffles for breakfast are something I just am not going to do from scratch each day mainly because I never have much success with waffles and, I am just not a morning person.

So, I took my coupons to Target. The waffles were $1.58 per box. I had $2 off coupons, so each box was free. And since I got four items I got a $5 Target card too. Rather nifty I thought. And I avoided buying anything else in the store, so that was equally good.

So, the other excitment today was our new rain barrels. Yay! They are only 60 gallons each, but it is a start. I know once they start having a positive impact on the water bill and such we will get more. They are from Catch the Rain, located not too far from us, so we lucked out and got free delivery a few hours after I called! We’ll get them all set up tomorrow. We should get some residual rain from Hurricane Ike this weekend so they will probably be full by Monday. I’m pretty excited about it actually.

We’ve been getting just a little rain each day for the past few and temps in the 80s and low 90s so it should be really good for my seeds to start sprouting. I really hope we get a good garden going. I think the key is going to be starting earlier in the spring so we harvest some things before it gets so dreadfully hot in July and early August and then starting another set of stuff in August and September. I also read something about someone using shade cloths for their garden in central Texas so maybe that is something we need to do as well.

I also think with our container gardening that we started with Our soil did not retain the moisture that it needed to as the summer got warmer. Of course, me having ankle surgery for the 4th of July didn’t help either as I didn’t go outside much at all for about two weeks after that. So right as the hottest weather started, the plants got rather ignored.

We’ll do better next year. It’s a learning process that’s for sure. And my parents had a garden when I was very little (just ask my Mom about me crying in the onions sometime…) but I don’t remember the ins and outs of that. Plus midwestern gardening and Texas gardening are very different. Ah well. We have been enjoying the herbs! And the few tomatoes we got. And the hot peppers. And it looks like we might get some cucumbers and maybe a melon or two and some squash. All is not lost! I think we might just have a late harvest. I’m hopeful for a bumper crop of green beans.

I have a tote bag and a tshirt, both from the Life is Good line of clothing. And all I can really say lately, is, Life is really really good for me right now. I feel so blessed. I have always known I wanted to be a wife and mother. And thought I am not a mother yet, I am so happy being a wife. I love to work on making our house a home in everything from cooking delicious meals, to putting up curtains or saving some money at the grocery store. I always knew I would be good at this if I found the right guy. And wow, did I ever! I feel like a little bird feathering her nest. And my husband tells me thank and how much he appreciates what I do. And he’ll even come and look at curtains or whatever. I am truly blessed in so many ways.

...when I found the one my heart loves I held him and would not let him go... Song of Songs 3:4

Rain and a thrifty makeover

I was quite happy for the rain today. All my new seeds can use a good, long drink. And, when that drink doesn’t add to the water bill, it’s always a good thing. I just wish we had our rain barrels, but, it’s one of those capital expenses that’s in the future budget. We just haven’t gotten there yet. Being green and saving money takes a bit of an upfront investment at times!

My other project was a repurposing of some old curtains. When my parents came to my wedding in June they packed up their camper with lots of my old stuff. So, I have been going through it slowly, getting rid of what I no longer needed, enjoying finding things I hadn’t seen in awhile and all that. One thing that arrived was some curtains I had made for my bedroom back home sometime in late high school or early college, I think.

There are currently blinds on all the windows in our house and no curtains anywhere. I hated to throw away such large pieces of fabric but I couldn’t think of any fabulous uses of them if I cut them up either. And, the hems and whatnot for curtains were already sewn. I asked my husband what he thought of the curtains for the guest bedroom, which is painted light blue and being slowly decorated in a Texas/Americana theme. We both thought they seemed a little too light colored . And, that room gets first morning sun so it needs something a bit more light blocking.

So, while I was at Michael’s today doing something for a Christmas present in the works, I picked up some Navy Blue Rit Dye.

The curtains dyed very well and stayed a dark navy, which surprised me. I was expecting them to wash out a bit but, I guess things actually work when you follow the directions! I hung the curtains up with clothespins in the guest room to see how they looked.

I think I will leave them up for a few days to see how it feels in the room, see it in different lights, etc. I also think the two curtains are large enough that I can cut each in half and have a set of curtains on each window (instead of just one per window). The window area at my parents house was three large windows across I think. So, that will be another thing to consider.

The curtains are a little bit darker than this picture shows but I was happy with the way the design came out. It is printed on the curtains in a sort of rubbery raised up design so I thought it would come through the dyeing process ok.

I discovered this morning if I split one of my homemade muffins in half, it fits into the toaster. Or rather Robert did and made sure to tell me about it before he left for work. Blackberry muffins. Yum! I used the Joy of Cooking basic muffin recipe and added some frozen blackberries. I have found the Joy of Cooking to be a great reference for basic recipes or ideas on how long to cook something and all of that. It’s really good for basics.

So, my dish cloth came out kind of rectangular instead of square but since it’s the first one, I’m not too worried. I need to learn to make my stitches more even and find a pattern that I like. I got some more cotton yarn today so I can get right to work on another one. I also got some tabs to work on making a homemade planner. And since my husband is at the fire station tonight for meeting until who knows when, I might actually have time to get a good portion of it done.

I always try to spend time with him when he is home since there are several nights a week when he is not. I’m sure he would let me work on whatever I wanted any night of the week. But, it’s important to both of us to spend quality time together. I at least attempt to get most of my work and play done before he comes home so the evening can be for us. It’s nice!

My very busy weekend

I can’t believe I haven’t written anything since Tuesday. I’ve been pretty busy. I’ll stick to the past few days since those are the easiest to remember.

On Friday my Uncle Dave came over to build some garden boxes for me. They are a 4 foot by 4 foot square and about 18 inches tall. He was going to bring me a load of free compost from the city he lives in (residents can get one truckload per month for free) but the compost wasn’t ready yet. So, all we could do was build the boxes. Once those were done and he went home, I used a gift card we had received for the wedding to buy a LOT of dirt. I guess we could’ve waited a few weeks and tried again for free compost but, now is the time to plant the second round of things like green beans and such. So, I felt the need to strike while the iron was hot so to speak. My husband would probably tell you this happens to me a lot. I get an idea and I go about 90 miles per hour into it without a lot of planning. But, this is a good idea. More fresh, home grown produce awaits us at the end of this idea. And, even if we don’t get great yields we can replant the boxes in the spring. Or, if we decide we hate gardening we can turn them into sand boxes once we have kids or something. So, by Friday evening one box was filled with dirt and we had figured out how much more we needed to buy.

After the sun went down I came in to make up a batch of “plump pea dumplings” from 101 Cookbooks. Basically you put fresh or frozen cooked peas, ricotta, Parmesan and lemon zest into a food processor. Once it’s pretty pureed you wrap teaspoons of it into wonton skins and make little dumplings. I made about 50 and then I was out of wonton wrappers. (Robert brought home more today so I can finish them). They fry up into yummy little bits of goodness and, once you wrap the filling in the wonton, you can freeze them individually and it makes a great quick bite later on. We really like them a lot and I was in the mood to make up a big batch. I will probably finish up the filling on Monday.

Saturday morning I got up early (by my standards at least) because I had a crafting day ahead. I made lunches for myself and my Aunt Patti and headed towards her town for the “crop til you drop” event my friend Darla had planned. She is hoping to do this the first Saturday of every month. I have ALL of my wedding photos and some amazing and wonderful fairytale paper to work with so I was quite happy to work on my wedding album for the whole day.

Saturday evening I was supposed to go to my friend, Julie’s bachelorette party. Due to some craziness and then some phone tag, I didn’t end up meeting up with her at all. I feel badly that I didn’t make it. I’m sure she had a blast without me though. It was quite a party that was planned in her honor.

My husband spent Saturday doing a multitude of things around the house. He got the rest of the dirt we needed, washed and hung several loads of laundry on the clothesline, ran the dishwasher and just generally made my life easier. He’s good like that… I feel very blessed to have him. I used to be very frustrated at still being single in my late 20s and when I hit 30, but, now I understand. He was SO worth the wait (and not because he does laundry).

Anyway, when it became apparent I wasn’t going anywhere, we put the rest of the dirt into the garden boxes, planted/transplanted a few things and put in some seeds. We are growing three kinds of chard, four kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, basil, spinach, cilantro and green onions for our second round of gardening.

So, anyway… Today was a really packed day. I got up and started cleaning the kitchen while I made a pot of coffee. After I relaxed with a cup of coffee I got started on our dinner since it was supposed to cook in the crock pot all day. I made stuffed peppers with coconut rice and mangoes. It was SO good!

While I was working on putting dinner together, Robert came in and started working on lunch. We had delicious reuben sandwiches and a spinach salad. I love reubens and they are so easy to make at home. Now if I can just get Mom and Dad’s sauerkraut making tools down here to Texas and Robert can find a good rye recipe, and we can grow some monster cabbages, we’ll be all set!

In the afternoon I continued the laundry parade we have every weekend and got things out on the line and actually put away when they came into the house. I also cleaned the kitchen yet again (it’s neverending when we get into cooking). Robert had to go to the fire station for the monthly equipment check. It’s my least favorite fire department time… Sundays when he has equipment check AND he stays over. It takes away a big chunk of our weekend time together. But, it is important to him and I am proud of him for being a firefighter so, it’s bearable.

Anyway, while he was gone I pulled out some cookbooks to find a loaf of bread I could make to go with our supper. I found a spinach Parmesan “bloomer” in the bread machine book that I could finish in time for dinner. So, I got to work on that. It mixed and did it’s first rising in the bread machine so that makes the process a little less work (and mess) intensive. While that was working I dug into the archives of the Down to Earth blog which I am finding VERY interesting.

I also moved some things out of the dining room so we can finally put the table back where it belongs. I made my first batch of mint suntea. I’ve been making mint tea for a few weeks for a nice, refreshing iced tea drink on the stovetop. I thought it would be great to work on making it like I used to make sun tea when I was a kid. It worked pretty well, though it wasn’t as minty as my stovetop batches were. I am wondering if I make a mint simple syrup in a big batch to add to the sun tea as I make each batch if that would help. I will keep experiementing and once I have the “perfect” batch I’ll post up some instructions. So, plant your mint now so you will be ready!

Robert came home eventually and was tired out so he took a brief nap while I was finishing up dinner. I left the bread outside on the back of the truck to do it’s final rise. I figured it would be a nice warm place… the loaf got quite large. Unfortunately when I slashed it as the recipe called for, it fell quite a bit. I guess the knife wasn’t sharp enough or I did it wrong or something. Anyway, right before I got ready to preheat the oven I thought, if I was going to run it anyway I should probably fill it up. So, I pulled out the cookbook again and whipped up some blackberry muffins with some frozen blackberries. The batter made 12 regular size muffins and 9 mini muffins. All of that went into the oven and I cleaned up the kitchen one more time and sat down to relax a bit.

I woke Robert up once it was all finished and we had a really good supper of the stuffed peppers and spinach bread. And, he didn’t even mind that it was a meatless supper. We’ve been doing that about once a week now.

After supper we had a few minutes to relax together before Robert had to go back to the fire station for the night. He filled up the dishwasher for me while I got all the leftovers put away. We kept half of the spinach loaf out for eating this week and put the other half in the freezer for later.

After Robert left I worked on bringing in laundry and watering the various pots, troughs, and now boxes we have for our garden. I put the soaker hose through the new boxes and found a way to keep the water flowing between the two boxes with one soaker hose.

Finally, when I really wanted to sit down and just veg out in front of the tv, I pushed myself a bit longer to go into the hobby room and clean off my sewing table. I got that done and sat down with two mending projects. I couldn't find my good scissors OR my rotary cutter so after I reattached the handle to my LaPorte County Library tote bag and fixed the sleeve seam in Robert’s tshirt I was done sewing. Bummer since I was really looking forward to doing some sewing.

Since I couldn’t sew, I dug into some boxes and found my knitting book and the one dishcloth I started ages ago. I looked at the stitches and my hands almost immediately remembered what to do. So, I turned on the tv and knitted a good portion of the dishcloth while watching tv. I made it much too wide when I first started it so it may be more like a placemat or small towel, but, that’s ok. I can work with that too.

Now, finally, I am getting ready for bed. I really wanted to post before the weekend was over. I didn’t make it officially since it is after midnight but, at least I got my activities down. I’ll have to recap some of my thoughts and ideas tomorrow.

Gustav, the GOP and life at home

So, first of all, hurricane Gustav is keeping my husband insanely busy. He has been on the phone and on email since Saturday evening preparing. He is in the business continuity and emergency preparedness business, so, this is his thing. But, I have never been right here when it happened. Last summer was light on hurricanes and I was preparing for school, volleyball and everything else and was working 12+ hours a day myself. Now, I am at home, keeping things going while he works those hours.
The good news is that in a situation like this, after he puts in his 12 hours, he can come home and turn off his phone and get away for a bit. Usually, his phone is on 24/7 and he has to answer it. In a situation like this it is the only way he can get a break.
I think I did good today. I tried really hard to not place any demands on him when he got home. Dinner was ready as I knew he would be hungry. Other than that, he needed his kiss bank filled up and his back rubbed and he was content to relax on the couch. Hopefully it only goes on for a few days because I think after that I will require more brain power of him and he just won’t be able to give it.
In other big news headlines, I was just reading the Governor Palin, (Alaska), recently announced as John McCain’s running mate, has announced that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. This was to apparently combat rumors that Palin’s son, Trig, born in April, was actually her grandson. No. It’s really the governor’s child.
All I can say is… really? You have a four month old son and a pregnant teenage daughter and you’re going to even think about being the vice president of the United States? I’m all for advancement of women and such but first of all, if you are a woman and a governor, you should be on birth control. Governor and pregnant/mother of an infant are two things that do not go together.
It just seems like with an infant and a pregnant teenage daughter AND being the vice president (or the governor for that matter) you’re only going to have time to do half the job of either thing. That’s just too much for any person, especially a mother. Of course, that’s just my opinion. And take it for what it’s worth as I am someone who really wants to be a stay at home Mom. I think the Planned Parenthood people should visit the Palin’s though. Really.
At home, well, the kitchen is a mess (though only half as messy as before as I cleaned some) and the to-do list didn’t get much crossed off today.
I am feeling a tad nervous about hanging my laundry out to dry after seeing the snake on the back porch the other day. So, I didn’t do laundry yet. I really want to start my compost bin but I feel rather unsure about that whole process as well, so I didn’t do that either. I did however, go out and prepare some space for growing lettuce or whatever and pull some more weeds out of the flower beds.
I made some really good soup for dinner, by just pulling stuff out of the pantry. I used a can of corn, about 5 diced potatoes, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of green chile sauce, a can of navy beans and a can of beef broth. It made a really nice Mexican soup. And, it thickened up nicely while it was cooling so I think it will be a nice stew tomorrow. Maybe I can make some cheesy bread or some tostadas to go with it tomorrow. I made it in the crock pot, which was great. The kitchen didn’t get all heated up like it does when I use the stove, so that was nice.
I made another batch of mint tea as well. I have been going out and cutting a handful of mint leaves from the garden and boiling them with a pinch of loose tea and some sugar. Then putting it in the fridge. It is really good and refreshing. Minty but not overwhelmingly. I really like it as an alternative to just plain water which I normally drink.
I have a lot more to write about from the weekend but I think I will save it for another post.. when I am more awake and can include links and such to information. Right now I’m sleepy so it’s making me rather lazy.

Looking back

I was just reading a post over at The Simple Dollar. Trent was talking about a summer spent with his grandfather, working in the garden and all the things he learned, and remembers, from that time.
It made me think of my grandma, all in a rush. Not the grandma I just saw on Saturday, but my Grandma Jacobs, who passed away while I was in college. I’ve never sat down and thought about what I learned from her but I think there was a lot.
First of all, she always encouraged me to read. I loved to go to Grandma’s house where we would both sit with our noses buried in books, eating M&Ms, for hours. I was a quiet, bookish kiddo and Grandma never made me go out and play when there were books to be read.
She let my imagination go crazy. When the restaurant in the store my Grandpa worked in was going out of business, he brought home menus, order pads, swizzle sticks and table tents. Grandma quite patiently ordered the same food over and over and pretended to be excited over it when I brought it with my waitress flourish. She also had no problem letting me cover the living room floor with magazines and building blocks to create a town. My creations were never in the way.
She was always interested in my life. I remember telling her countless things about anything and everything. And she always listened and was interested in them. I try and keep that in mind when listening to my 6 year old nephew tell me something, that to my adult ears, seems silly. In his life, it’s important, so, I should listen.
She wrote me letters. I still write letters now. Not to everyone, all the time, but I know how good it feels to get a letter in the mail. Of course, she also used to send me “snack money” so that made the letters extra nice in college. And now that I’ve thought of it, I need to write a letter to my Grandpa, her husband. I miss him.
Grandma was always in my corner. She celebrated my victories and cursed my enemies with me. She agreed that my Dad was stubborn, kids at school were stupid and sometimes life was crap without all that stuff about me being only a kid and I would look back and laugh. She was empathetic to my teenage angst.
We also never bought new books together. We always went to Remarkable Books where Ken had a stack saved for her. She’d trade in what she had read and get some new ones. I’d get to pick a few as well. I learned that you don’t have to buy brand new books to enjoy reading them.
I feel very sad to know she wasn’t alive to share the victories with me when I became a journalist (a dream I’d had since I was about 8), when I graduated from college, and when I got married. She would really like my husband. And I’m sure she’d still tell us both that the snack drawer was ready if we got hungry.

Making it work

We planted a garden in the spring and though we tried hard we did not get nearly the yields I had hoped for. Some of it was that we just didn’t plant things properly, some of it was that we were rather consumed with wedding stuff, some if it was being gone, me having surgery, etc. Our garden has certainly had some neglect issues this summer.

We have still managed to do a little bit of our own preserving though not of things we have grown ourselves. We bought a 25 lb. box of peaches and canned peach slices and froze peach cobbler filling and peach sorbet. We got some good deals on cherries and made several batches of cherry pie filling and also just plain cherries that we froze. We made some Triple Berry freezer jam (blueberries, blackberries and strawberries). We made some delicious berry popsicles.I got a good deal on zucchini and canned a batch of zucchini relish.

But, it is certainly not the rows and rows of beautifully preserved fruits and veggies I had hoped to see in the pantry at the end of the summer. So, now I am looking for ways to gain some more raw materials to work with. I’ve posted on freecycle (and replied to someone with a shopping bag full of peppers - I really hope I get that!) asking for garden leftovers or permission to pick fruit trees/bushes. I’ve posted the same on craigslist. Green beans are about $1 a pound right now and I am tempted to buy a whole bunch and can them. I mean, I canned peaches while on crutches so it shouldn’t be as difficult now.

I guess I will see if I get any bites on the things I’ve posted. It would be really great to find some good sources to can and freeze.I just hope it’s not too late in the season for it all.

No recycling?

Lately we have been generating a lot of trash at home. I guess between things getting used up, various gifts/stuff in the mail, loads of cooking and all, we have just created a lot of waste. We do not have curbside recycling. You might think it’s the norm these days but our small, local trash removal company doesn’t do it. So, we’ve been searching for places to drop off the recycling. We are in an unincorporated portion of a city which does offer curbside recycling. So, said city doesn’t have drop off locations for recyclables.

I dug around on the web and found two options. Our county does offer drop off bins in several of the smaller towns, one of which is about 5 miles away, so that is doable. Also, my husband learned that as a volunteer firefighter for a local municipality (not the one we livein ) he can have access to the recycling bins behind that town hall, earmarked for their recycling. The bonus about this is that he goes to the fire station a few times a week (scheduled) so we can send recycling at those time without making an extra trip.

Next to decide is how we want to store/sort the recyclables. We can drop them off unsorted, so that is nice. I have currently repurposed the box the kitchenaide mixer came in (it was a birthday present my husband received recently). It will do for now. I looked on Amazon for some ideas and found some bags to sort things into. The bags velcro to each other at the top with tabs which keeps them upright. They have a water resistant fabric on the inside.

I like this option for several reasons. The bags are machine washable. Since we have to transport our recyclables further than just to the end of the driveway it’s nice to have them already in bags. If we find we need fewer bags, storing those we aren’t using won’t take up much space. And, if, at a later time curbside recycling becomes available and we are given a bin, these bags can be repurposed into something else. Washed I can see them useful as clothes hampers or toy receptacles for our future children, holding sports equipment or camping equipment in the closet, even carrying wood for camping trips and stuff.

So, the husband got online and ordered 2 sets (6 bags). That should be plenty. We plan to save our newsprint type paper for composting.

Between the composting and the recycling I’d like to get us down to only one or two bags of trash per week. We currently produce at least four or five which seems enormous for two people but a lot of it ends up being cardboard boxes from deliveries and such and all that which are bulky.

I need to also find out if the cleaners the husband goes to recycles wire hangers since we have tons and usually they get thrown away.

I am looking forward to the day when we have this stuff figured out and a system in place so it’s not so much work to get going. Currently I’m trying to get on top of some of the mess that has built up in the house since the wedding, moving in of my stuff and all of that. And also reducing the amount of stuff we both have. Yikes. There is a lot of stuff. Anyone need any books?!

Small Steps

My husband and I are working on being more green at home. It’s a slow process as old habits die hard and we’re still trying to integrate our daily lives into a normal pattern (since the wedding).

We recently discussed vastly reducing the number of paper towels that we use. We have a cleaning lady that comes bi-weekly who will not give up the paper towels but if we can reduce our dependence, we can save money and reduce our trash output.

Today, we were at Costco and found a 36-pack of microfiber “automotive towels” for $14.99. Through a batch of mega cooking/vacuum sealing this evening, I used 2. One to wipe up messes and one to dry clean things like bowls I washed and reused or my hands. So, one “clean” one “dirty”. It worked pretty well. We have already been using the cheap white dishcloths for things like cleaning off the George Foreman grill.

Paper towels overall are not something that will make or break our budget. But, if we can reduce some of the small things it will have a big impact overall - on our budget AND the planet. And I’m all about that.

What small steps are you taking to fatten your wallet and thin your trash pile?