Drying Your Clothes Outside

As you may know, I do laundry every Monday. I know some people do a little bit each day but I prefer to do it all at once. Yesterday was such a nice day and our backyard was so sunny, it seemed a shame to have to use the dryer to dry everything when the sun could do it for me for free! So I found some old sheets (actually I think they were curtains) and laid them out on the grass and put the clothes on top. After about a half hour, I flipped everything over and the non bulky items (t shirts, underwear, shorts, etc) were all dry! In the same amount of time as the dryer! Some things that jeans and sweatshirts took a little longer but I didn't mind.

Now if I plan on doing this all the time (which I might), we would set up a clothes line or a clothes rack but since we didn't have anything like that, I just laid them on the ground. They still got some wind movement (which helps dry your clothes almost as much as the sun) but if you dry on a line, you wouldn't have to flip them over. I didn't have a problem with birds or animals or even insects. I was a little leery of that at first but they totally just left them alone.

Of course the day I do this is the day there is a surveyor in our back yard (we don't have a back fence and we're right behind the fire station) and a homeowner's guy (long story) came by and took pictures of the front and back of the house. He had to walk around the clothes. How embarrassing! David didn't seem to think it was all that bad but I was kind of mortified.

I do highly recommend drying your clothes outside. Of course you should check with your homeowner's assocation, city, state, etc because a lot of places have laws against it. But assuming you can do it, you totally should. It makes your clothes smell better, they don't get beat up in the dryer (the dryer wears out the elastic in socks and underwear, it makes your clothes worn out (thinner)), it saves money, and it saves electricity. What more could you want?

Some people do complain that their clothes, especially their towels, don't come out as soft but all you have to do is add vinegar to your wash cycle and everything comes out just fine!

Garage Sales, Flea Market, Farmer's Market

This weekend seemed to kick off garage sale season and I couldn't be happier. I love garage sales! Sometimes, you'll find the one that is ALL baby things (which will be nice when I actually want to buy baby things but that's not yet). David and I got a lot of cool stuff this weekend. We broke out the grill and realized we didn't have any grill utensils and we found them at a garage sale last minute. A church near us had a garage sale where everything you could fit in a paper bag was a dollar (for the whole bag). That was REALLY nice. You can't beat those prices. Some garage sales are overpriced but for the most part, they are a great way to get the things you need (or want) at a great deal. Some of it seems brand new!

Garage sales seem like a perfect way to get out and enjoy the weather. But if you walk to one, be sure you can carry whatever you buy home. I will admit that sometimes David and I will take the car because we are going to garage sales on opposite ends of our city but we walk to the close ones.

Our city's flea market is going to open in a few months too and that's definitely fun. I can get books for ten cents each! Plus, with the flea market comes the farmer's market! Well, actually I think the farmer's market comes first but that is also a great place to buy produce. Sometimes it's cheaper than the grocery stores. Sometimes it isn't.

So great weather brings great things! I can't wait to go back out shopping next weekend!

We Can Open the Windows!

The next 5 days are supposed to have highs over 55. We keep our house at 55. That means we can finally open our windows!! (If we close them again at night). This winter has been absolutely endless. It's May in less a week and we're still waiting for all the snow to melt (yes, we still have some). Also, not only is opening the windows exciting because it means it's warm enough outside, but that also means that we can turn off our furnace and start saving money! And even better, it means we get fresh air and can finally get the stale out from winter! David even agreed to help me start Spring cleaning this week! I would bet even Cocoa is excited. Since we got her, she hasn't even seen fresh air before (the drastic temperature changes would put her into shock and kill her, like if we took her from our house to the wintery conditions outside).

I know this blog post seems kind of lame because who cares about opening windows when, like I said, next week is May but this is a HUGE deal to anyone in the Midwest. We know winter is supposed to last like 6 months of the year but this is going on 7 and that's just too much. We've even had a record number of no sunshine days, which means that not only this year did we have snow much longer, more snow and colder weather than last year, but we also have barely seen the sun since September or October!!

Okay. I'm done. I'm going to go bask in the sun by my open window!

Potatoes

I don't think potatoes get enough nutrient credit. Everyone says they don't count as a vegetable. I understand this when they're in the form of fries or potato chips but it's not like we count ketchup as a vegetable or anything like that. I feel like a baked potato could be a very healthy option (depending on what you put on top of it). Potatoes aren't super high in calories but they're filling without any fat. Potatoes keep you full longer too. They have fiber (ensuring you stay regular and keep your cholesterol levels low). They are high in potassium, vitamin c (which usually gets cooked out), B6 (good for heart health), iron, and copper. Basically the only vitamin they are missing is vitamin A. Potatoes are also low in sodium and have a decent amount of protein.

So after all those healthy things in there, and the fact they can be found in the garden, people still don't think they're healthy? I think as long as you bake, not fry, and watch the toppings you put on them, they can be considered a vegetable. It frustrates me that other people, including the food pyramid/plate people, don't see that. I'm going to count them as a vegetable in spite of them.

Plus, they are so versatile. You can top your baked potato with about 150 different things (maybe not all at once) and it will still taste amazing. That's how great potatoes are. Also, they are super easy to grow or store. You can easily enjoy potatoes all year round.

Disinfecting

I have a cleaning schedule that allows me to clean the entire (finished part) house in a week. Because I don't do all my dusting in one day or all my cleaning hard surfaces in one day, I end up doing a lot of deep cleaning every day in specific rooms. A very important part of this is disinfecting. I'm not a clean freak but I understand the importance of cleaning things that are easily forgotten. I take a disinfecting wipe and just swipe it across everything on the list for that day. Then I take other cleaners (usually vinegar and water or some other homemade concoction) and clean everything else. You can find the list of easy to forget places  under the cleaning tab.

However, I don't disinfect countertops or cooking utensils or anything like that. I know the Clorox (or some other popular disinfecting brand) commercials tell you everything you should disinfect and some of them are just sort of crazy to me. I suppose I might be more careful about it once I had kids but even so, some exposure to germs is good. By no means am I saying keep your house dirty so your kids are healthy. I just mean you can go overboard about it.

So head on over to my cleaning tab and see if you are forgetting anything to disinfect!

Donating Blood

I am donating blood this afternoon. It is not my first time. In fact, I've donated almost enough times to have donated a gallon. I've been missing my last couple appointments due to sickness and the like but donating blood is super important. Chances are, some day, you're going to need a unit (or more) of blood. You might as well start paying it back now. There are rules (such as your weight, medications, age) but a lot of people can donate that don't. In fact, most first timers don't even end up going back. It's really not that bad. I'm not afraid of needles but I am super super squeamish. I still donate about as often as I can. You just think about the people you're helping, especially after a tragedy like the Boston marathon. With one donation, you can save up to 3 lives.

I've done it all: thrown up, fainted, had dizzy spells after donating. I STILL donate. That's how important it is to me. One time, for whatever reason, I was only able to fill half a bag. They assured me that my blood would still be used for either an infant or for testing. You really don't need to have any fears about donating. If you used to donate but stopped due to the poor conditions (in the past, they had donation buses that always seemed to be really warm and made people feel sicker after donating), try again. It's not like that anymore (at least that's what my mom has said.)

Let me know if you donate regularly in the comments! If you don't donate, you really really should look into it. Besides, it's an excuse not to do anything strenuous for the rest of the day if nothing else!

More Random Updates

I'm sorry I haven't been very good about posting about specific topics but I've just had a lot of things going on that all seem little so rather than have 10 short posts, it makes sense to me to just combine them all into one.

1. Cocoa is finally old enough to get spayed! We're hoping it'll calm her down a little bit. She's been pretty wild lately. It's also common for female rabbits to pull out their stitches so..I really hope she doesn't do that but it sounds EXACTLY like something she'd do.

2. We installed our living room ceiling fan this weekend. It took close to an hour to put the whole thing in (good thing that box was already wired for a fan or it would've been even more work). We put it all together and then we can't get it to turn on. We took most of it down, rechecked all the wiring, and still nothing. My husband was getting pretty frustrated because we didn't know what was wrong and he was the one who put it all together (although I read him instructions but they aren't always clear). We finally decided to change the remote battery, even though we assumed it was rather new because it came with the fan. Turns out, that was the problem. They gave us an old battery (which may be fairly common if the fan sits on the shelf for a while. This was a more expensive model so they probably sell less). It's also on sale this week and it wasn't when we bought it so we have to go get a price adjustment. At least we get 40 dollars back!

3. We have started to put together our downstairs bathroom vanity. We bought a shelf thing at Goodwill for it but we have to add a back and side panel to make it just a bit bigger (hard to explain) so those are being glued and clamped. Then we have to hook up all the pipes and drill holes for the drain and that. Then install the sink and faucet. They're really fancy. It's a waterfall type faucet, where the water doesn't pour out like a normal one, it trickles down a flat surface. Then our bowl is an above counter one. I'll try to make a picture work when it's done so you guys can see it.

4. I heard that it's supposed to be 70 next weekend but I'm not so sure if that's true. If it is, it'll be amazing and I'll be so excited! Yesterday it came close to 50 and that was really nice, even though it did rain most of the day.

5. I don't know if I ever mentioned that our tomatoes did come up. They're still not as big as our broccoli but they're getting there. However, now we have a problem with our broccoli because they're so tall they hit the cover but if we take the cover off, they get cold and start to die. We've tried to prop up the cover only a little bit so there's more room to grow but they don't get so cold but...it didn't really work. So for now, we have the cover on and we're smushing them. I don't know what to do. Some people get a light to warm them up but that sounds like a lot of electricity and work. I guess we'll have to figure something out, especially since they don't get planted until the middle to end of May.

Sun Dried Tomatoes, Pizza, and Fajitas!

Wow I sure I have a lot of food posts lately but I've been trying to make more wholesome, from scratch meals and they all excite me so much that I can't help but share them all with you!

Last night, I made asparagus shrimp fajitas. I found the recipe online and I tweaked it a little bit. Basically, you saute onion (I used a half yellow but you can use anything), pound of asparagus, and a large red bell pepper. Normally for fajitas, you'd leave these things in strips but for the sake of eating them politely, I chopped everything up. Then you add a splash of lime juice and a sprinkle of chili powder (can you tell I don't measure anything?) to a pound of shrimp (we only had 4 oz but next time I would use more) and add to the vegetables. Cook until heated through and you're done. Minus prep, the whole thing takes about 10 minutes. I put mine in a tortilla shell with tomatoes but David topped his with cheese. There are so many variations of this recipe you could make too. You could also very easily leave out the shrimp or add in something else (chicken, steak, more vegetables).

Then this morning I was going to make sun dried tomatoes (in the oven) because I have a couple left over and I heard that roma tomatoes are perfect for this. Plus, I wanted them to top the pizza I'm making tonight (more on that in a sec). It turns out it takes about 12 hours (you can do it in a dehydrator for like 8 hours or in a car parked in the sun in about two days) but that hardly turned me off. It sounded easy and tasty. Then I realized, you do this with pounds and pounds of tomatoes (like trying to use them up out of the garden) so since I only have two (and I might have one at lunch) I decided it wasn't worth it this time but I definitely plan on doing it in the future, maybe even using the actual sun. (I would use the sun today but we got about 4 inches of snow overnight despite the fact that it's the middle/end of April).

And finally, tonight I am making pizza from scratch. I'm making my own crust and my own sauce (none of that prepackaged stuff for me!). I'm running out of vegetables though so it might just be cheese to top it with. David and I have actually made this recipe before about 2 years ago. It only takes 2 hours for everything. I'm hoping that it won't be a problem that I don't have a rolling pin (that got a little tricky to do the pot pie crust without one) but I really should get one. They can't be that expensive and it's probably worth it.

Miscellaneous Updates

1. We bought an area rug last night for our living room. It matches so nicely and really helps decorate the room. I swear our living room now looks like those fake living rooms in furniture stores. It's so perfect. I wonder if it will last. We do still have some wall decorating to do.

2. We also bought the ceiling fan for the living room (I promise all these updates aren't going to be about the living room). It's not installed yet (but probably will be on Saturday) but according to the box, it uses about half of the watts as any of the other fans there, comes with a remote (I don't know why this excites me so much but it really does), and has LED lighting (not including in the energy savings the box mentioned) so obviously it was a lot of money (so was our rug) but I think it'll be worth it, especially since we don't have air conditioning. Plus the higher air flow will work out nicely because of our big doorways to the dining room and foyer.

3. Cocoa has started to chew on her (metal) cage more. I finally looked it up to see if she was missing a nutrient or something (like when people crave dirt) but no. It said she's either frustrated (like if you lock her in there and she does, she wants out) or she's bored. We rarely lock her in her cage because she has her play area (we pretty much only lock her in if we're cleaning and she gets in the way and even then it's only for like 10 minutes). So she must be bored but I have looked on several different lists of what bunnies should have to keep them entertained and she has ALL of them and then some more! We recently gave her an oatmeal container that she loves to chew but is scared to go in (which is understandable considering we didn't cut off the bottom). Then when we were at the dollar store, we bought her a slinky. She seems so fascinated with it and has fun trying to move it places but it only holds her attention for a few minutes before she moves on (but she does come back to it eventually). So we're not really sure what we can do about her boredom. She has everything she could ever want. She has plenty of space to play. She gets new stuff just about weekly it seems. She comes out a couple times a week and plays with us on the couch (under supervision). So we're out of ideas. The other thought is maybe it is sexual frustration. She's getting to that age (she's just a few weeks shy of being able to be spayed) and they say it can make them more aggressive and stuff so...we'll just have to see I guess.

4. Still no sign of lasting spring weather. It did rain here the past couple days but it's still only like 33 degrees and snow is predicted (maybe just flurries? I'm not sure). I don't mind cooler weather but I definitely want to get out of winter. We still have snow on the ground!

5. Lately I've been getting headaches any time any noise occurs for more than like, two minutes. I've looked up my noise sensitivity and it sounds like chronic migraines. Oh boy. I hope it's not that. But our neighbors had some trees cut down the other day and the chain saw was going for like almost 2 hours and I thought I was going to die. Then (we live behind the fire station) the fire department is remodeling some stuff so the little Cat machine putting stuff in the dumpster sets them off. And just little every day things like this. The headaches get really bad, they last as long as the noise does (sometimes longer), and I get nauseous and everything. I know my dad gets really bad headaches and sometimes stuff like this is genetic so I really hope that's not what it is but it's starting to look that way. Too bad I live in an unfinished house that when it's being worked on, can get really loud (hammering, sawing, drilling,...). I hope it's just a phase.

Pot Pie

Last night I made pot pie. It had lots of vegetables in it (some that the recipe didn't even call for. I was glad it still fit in a pie tin.) It wasn't completely from scratch because I did use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (reduced sodium. That's got to earn me some points) and better than bouillon vegetable broth mix. Next time, I would actually leave out the broth mix but I'm not sure a good substitute for the mushroom soup. I did make the crust from scratch though. That was kind of hard without a rolling pin but I made it work. The thing was SO delicious but I'm glad it was because it took me about 3 hours to make (including prep. A normal person could probably do it in about 2 or 2 and a half.) Good thing David was home late yesterday because normally we eat around 5 and this wasn't done until after 7 (yeah, we eat kind of early. I blame our parents. They always ate early so we're just used to it.) I've never made anything like this before and actually, neither of us have ever had a homemade pot pie before so it was an entirely new experience. I really liked it, especially kneading the dough for the crust so maybe, despite my breadmaker, I'll have to try my hand at making breads from scratch. Or I could just make pies now that I know how to do the crust! I think this has inspired me to try to cook more elaborate things in the future (although David has already requested that I start making this recipe 3 times a week----it was THAT good). I'll be sure to keep you all posted if I make something else really cool. As per my April resolutions, I've been trying to cook things from scratch more but I don't always have the patience for it. I did buy a bag of dried beans instead of a can of beans though to help with this so...we'll just have to see how it goes.

Living Room

Last night David and I put the second coat of paint on the living room and scrubbed the floor. This means we finally got to unwrap our couch!!! This is the most expensive, newest thing in the house right now and it is absolutely perfect! It is so comfy and we couldn't be any more excited about it. We still need trim for the living room but we are behind in trim in every room so it might be a bit. I'm working on coming up with decorating ideas though. I have a lot of fabric so I was thinking of doing those fabric covered canvases but I'm not sure what else. Also, the coffee table we had bought for the living room (on clearance at Target) isn't going to work out because our couch is an L shape with two end recliners so wherever we put it, a recliner will be in the way. We will put it in the library instead so I'm hoping that David will be willing to put it together when he gets home from work today. Our house is really starting to feel like a house. We still need some things (like kitchen table chairs, dining room table and chairs, piano, etc) but it's finally starting to come together. We can see our paint choices actually in the rooms now and they are coming to life with our stuff in them. I know I already posted about how I have a house because our living room and dining room carpet came out and all that but this is so real now. It's worth all the stress and work from the past year (how long I've been working on the house). I love my house!


(sorry no picture but I've had problems posting pictures lately)

Breadmakers!

Back in May or June of last year (before the wedding), David and I bought a breadmaker from Goodwill. It was only 5 dollars (new ones are 60 or more) and we just hoped it worked. It didn't come with a manual but it looked like the same model as the one David's mom has. We FINALLY used it this weekend and wished we had sooner! Breadmakers are SO easy to use. The manuals (available on online) come with recipes and all you have to do is measure out the ingredients, put them in the maker in order, and hit start. It's THAT easy. It does take several hours to make but you don't have to mix the dough yourself, you don't have to wait for the bread to rise (well sort of, since the machine does it), you don't have to knead the bread yourself. You plug it in, hit start, and in about 3 hours you'll have amazing fresh baked bread. I love white bread (and we didn't have wheat flour) so that's what we made. Fresh baked bread is SO much better than store bought plus with the maker, it's so easy. Breadmakers can make other things too like dough for pretzels or bagels or rolls and biscuits. I'm not sure I'm going to stop buying store bread and just use the breadmaker or not. I feel like I eat more bread when it's fresh so I'd have to make some like every other day just to keep up! I will be making it more often though. I still can't get over how easy it is to make! It's almost impossible to mess up. Plus, the clean up of the machine is so easy. It's not dishwasher safe and you shouldn't immerse it in water but if you just take a wet rag, everything comes right out. Plus when you take the bread out, there is hardly any residue left to begin with. I'm looking forward to buying other types of flour and things to make different breads to find out which ones I like the best. I love homemade bread!

Cooking Fish

A while ago, I bought an 11 pound bag of pollock (white fish) because it was a good deal. I had never cooked anything like this before but have since cooked it several different ways. Last week, I made a lemon pepper rub that would've turned out okay if I had forgotten to turn my oven from preheat to bake (I do this all the time and always burn the top of whatever I'm making.) Last night, I adapted a recipe I found online and sauteed my leftover tomato with some onion and added Italian seasoning. Then I spread it out over the fish in a baking pan. This turned out pretty good. No matter what toppings you put on your fish, you always bake it (if you 're cooking it by baking) at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (or until flaky). You can bread it, you can marinade it, you can cook it plain.  You put whatever ingredients you want on top and bake. A homemade, somewhat healthy (depending on what you put on top) meal ready in 20 minutes. I always serve it with a baked potato and a side of vegetables. It couldn't be easier which is why I've been making this a lot for my "no processed food" dinners. I suppose the butter I put on the potato counts as processed and my seasonings are dried so that could count but I'm not going to be that picky.

Today is One Bad Day

It's only 9:30 in the morning (although I've been awake for four hours now) and this day is turning out to be absolutely awful. So warning: Big rant ahead!
Reasons why today just flat out sucks:

1. It's April 11th (basically the middle of April) and it's SNOWING, not just flurries but big big snowflakes coming down at a rate of two inches an hour (literally, google told me so)! It started out as rain last night so this morning when my husband asked if he should work from home because of the conditions, I said no (there was no snow on the ground), that it was just rain. (This will bring me to 2 in a minute). About a half hour after he left, it turned to a mix and now it's just snowing. I guess the upside is we were supposed to get 15 inches and now we're only supposed to get 12 (a full foot). So we get this really nice 40-50 degree weather for about a week and a half but mother nature takes it back. Remind me why I live in the midwest again?

2. When the weather is bad or things like that, David can work at home (it's pretty much if he can't get to the office but he's not on his deathbed either). Well, since I was too stupid to check the weather (other than looking out the window), it took him 3 hours to get to work this morning. Plus, I will jump at every chance I get (although not today apparently) for him to stay home, even if it means he's working all day. It'll probably take him 3 hours to get home either (that isn't even an exaggeration. It normally takes him 50 minutes to an hour and this morning was literally 3 hours. There were a couple other days like that during winter too.)

3. My oatmeal has decided that it can't be cooked with milk, only water so it just overflows in the microwave. If I stop and start it so it won't do it, it messes with the cook time too much and the oatmeal tastes raw. Just another mess to clean, which brings me to 4.

4. I know this is going to sound dumb but I have never figured out the contraption built into our garbage can designed to keep the bag up. This means that it's my husband's job to put a new bag in (he's the one who takes out the garbage anyway). Well, he forgot to put a new bag in this morning (because, see 5) so I don't get to throw anything away today. I cleaned up an oatmeal mess and I have nowhere to put it.

5. We bought a water filter system last night. It attaches to the faucet. We had one before but we couldn't find filters for it so we bought a new one (which is like the same price as a filter anyway). Ignoring the garbage, he saw the filter had to be installed so he installed that. He's normally very  handy around the house and can do pretty much anything but our faucet leaks. If you turn the filter on, it sprays at you. Then, it leaks out the sprayer too so it's just wasting a lot of water and not much makes it into the cup (if you're going to drink it). So I have no water now either unless I go all the way upstairs to the bathroom (our downstairs bathroom sink has been ordered but is not here yet).

6. We gave Cocoa a metal cup (one of those office ones you put pens and pencils in) filled with hay because she needed a new toy and lately has been chewing on her cage a lot (also metal). She dumped all the hay out and has since eaten it but she has discovered that if she flings the cup around, it'll make a *ping* noise (like metal does) every time it hits something. This is her new favorite game. She hits it on everything. Her cage, her fence, boxes,...everything. It's kind of annoying, especially when she plays it in the middle of the night (I woke up at least 3 times last night because of this and we are on a separate floor from her) or for 2 hours straight (like she did this morning. Okay maybe she took a five minute break in there but it was a LONG time.)

So as you see, I have dumb reasons but I am just fed up with April 11th. Too bad I'm too lazy to use this pent up energy to clean or get stuff done around here...(sorry this post got so long).

Our Garden Has Been Started

I know I've been talking about food a lot lately but my crafts are kind of in a stand still, cleaning is the same as always, and the house is progressing but I'm waiting for something to be officially done before I comment on it (for instance, the bathroom tiles are half in, the living room is almost ready to be painted, etc). So about a week ago we started planting our indoor vegetables because some things you can plant right away (in the middle of May, after the last frost) and some you have to start indoors and transplant to the garden in May. We looked through our vegetables and our broccoli and our tomatoes are the only things that need to be planted inside. We bought the little trays with good soil and planted them last Sunday.

Our broccoli started growing about 2 days in and now we have almost 20 plants (a couple seeds per cube, lots of cubes. They may not make it all to the garden or we'll end up freezing LOTS.)! Our tomatoes still haven't started growing yet. I haven't looked anything up but I do wonder if broccoli is easier to grow. We have several gardening books that we will reference when it comes time to plant the other stuff but maybe they'd give me information on tomatoes vs. broccoli too.

Also, our garden area in the yard is small considering how many seeds we bought. We haven't started landscaping the backyard yet (we still need to build our back deck and that) but maybe we'll make our garden bigger than we did last year. When May comes, I'll have to give you all an update on how everything is going in the yard.




Later addition: I did look it up. Since we don't keep our house above 60 degrees, our tomatoes can take up to two weeks to start sprouting (if they were closer to 75, it would still take a week). So I guess they just grow slower.

Make Your Own Bagels

I give my husband a bagel for breakfast every morning. Bagels aren't exactly costly but they aren't exactly healthy either. I have considered waking up earlier so he can eat breakfast at home instead of on the road but we already get up at 5:30 as it is (well, he does. I usually go back to sleep after he leaves but lately I have been trying to stay up so I can get more done in a day.) I wonder if I start making my own bagels if it will make them anymore healthy because I can control what goes in them and I wonder if it would be cheaper. I've heard it's really easy to do and the ingredients are probably fairly common (and cheap. Baking type ingredients go on sale a lot plus aren't that expensive to begin with.) I have found a couple recipes online but people seem to either think they're great or they're just a big awful mess so I may have to do some experimenting on my own. If any of you guys have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them otherwise I'll let you guys know what I figure out!

Black Bean Dip

Today I was really craving something to dip tortilla chips into but I didn't want anything too heavy because I'm having a late lunch at my sister's house. I don't have much in my house in terms of condiments so anything with sour cream or avocado or anything like that was out. However, I browsed the internet looking for a black bean dip recipe and I sort of combined them all into what I had and my personally tastes.

1 can of black beans, rinsed (to help eliminate more sodium)
1/2 cup chunky salsa (the hotness is up to you. I used mild)
2 tablespoons of lime juice (I don't actually measure so just a couple squirts)
1 tablespoon of cumin (again, just guess)

Blend it all up in a blender or food processor. I ate some at room temp but I don't think I'd heat it up (now that the leftovers are in the fridge). It's really good! I'm not sure about the consistency. It sticks to the chip just fine but I expected it to be thicker. Maybe I added too much of my salsa "juice" when I added the salsa or something. I don't think I'd try to change it for next time though. It tastes so good!!

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I came across some ways to save more money. One of them is to make your own laundry detergent. As it is, we don't buy the name brand kind but it still adds up. If you make your own, it can cost less than 5 cents per load! Plus it doesn't have any chemicals in it, it doesn't have plastic waste (like the liquid detergent bottles. The ingredients come in minimal wrapping and cardboard boxes). There are all kinds of recipes for it and they say that if you have very hard water (like we do. We haven't bought a water softener yet) or well water you have to play with the numbers to avoid dingy clothes but in our test load, we haven't had that problem. We used
1 cup of borax (found at Target, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc)
1 cup washing soda (found at Menard's, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc)
2 bars of laundry soap (we used Fels Naptha because that was recommended to us but there are other kinds)

You grate the soap ( using a cheese grater) and mix all the above ingredients well. Then store in an airtight container (we put ours in a glass canister but some people like the mason jar method. We almost filled a 1.5 liter canister with the finished product so you may need several jars.) You only use 2 tablespoons per load. This recipe produces a powder detergent (that is safe to use in HE washers) but there are other recipes out there that produce a liquid detergent.

We did a test load with very dirty rags (that have been washed without stain remover previously and the stains are well set in). It smelled very fresh and no powder clumps were found in the washer. The rags turned out pretty clean. Not perfect but I would say better than our previous detergent.

We are so excited to use this all the time. I recommend it for anyone looking to save some money (they say that depending on how much you go through and what brand of store bought detergent you buy, you could save 300 dollars a year) or just looking for clothes that don't have chemicals (they add chemicals to the liquid ones to keep them the right consistency. I assume they also to the powder but I can't verify that.)

Now we just need nice weather and a clothesline so we can start drying outside!

BLT pasta

Since I don't eat bacon and I used spinach instead, this pasta should really be called FST pasta but that doesn't sound as nice. I've been having a lot of "blt"s lately because tomatoes are finally in season. I was getting tired of having the regular old sandwiches day after day so I started doing wraps instead. That also got old pretty quick but I still had ingredients to use up so I decided to make a pasta dish out of it. I kind of threw it together last minute so my measurements are kind of vague.

1/2 box of pasta (I used multi-grain rotini)
1 hot house tomoato (or any tomato of your choice, just make sure you have enough of it)
2 cups of spinach (I would've used more but it didn't fit in my pan right away)
3 tablespoons mayo something (I actually used light miracle whip)
spices to taste (I used dill and paprika, about a half tablespoon of each)
3 slices of veggie bacon (or whatever bacon you prefer)

Make your pasta according to the directions, rinsing with cold water at the end. In a pan over medium heat, cook your spinach down until it wilty. Chop up your tomato and mix it (especially the juice too) with the mayo and spices. Cook your bacon and cut into pieces. Combine all and eat! This serves about 3 people but you could easily double it.

It definitely is not the same as having a BLT toasted sandwich but it still has all the BLT flavor without the same boring part. It even tastes great cold the next day too (or if you don't want to serve it right away).

OMG I Have a House!!

Last night my in laws came over to help us get the living room farther since the couch is coming tomorrow. It was a lot of work (and we still have some left before we can paint) but it's a lot better. Plus, most of the sanding is done and the dust is vacuumed up so that will save me a huge headache later when we are trying to keep the brand new couch clean. So we ripped up the carpet in the living room (and we had done the dining room carpet a couple days ago). We had left it on to protect the original hardwood floors while we were working. Now that the carpet is gone, our house is  looking amazing! The dining room is basically finished (we have to touch up a couple paint spots, put the vent in, put trim on) and the living room is getting there. We also used to have plastic on our windows to protect them from construction and we didn't want everyone to see the huge mess going on inside. Well, last night we took the plastic off the last window downstairs, which is the HUGE window in the living room. This is what everything looks like now (the plastic is up for sanding purposes and with that in the way, it's hard to get a good view on the living room and I couldn't make it come out in its own picture either. Sorry I'm not the best photographer.)


Look at those wood floors and huge windows! To give you perspective, I am in the kitchen, the blue room is the dining room, and the room you can hardly see is the living room. Aren't those huge windows?? David and I were commenting last night how it feels like we've just moved in because we're starting to have (empty) finished rooms! Of course the picture doesn't do my house justice but it's finally starting to become real. These two rooms used to have the nasty (saturated with dust and grim) carpet, filled with cabinets (that have since gone in the kitchen), tools, plastic on the windows, etc. They looked so small because of how much stuff was in there. They weren't wall boarded. And that was probably 6-8 months ago. Now look! I have a house!

Chaos

So when we bought our couch, we were told that it would be delivered in two to three weeks. We plan to put it in the living room (which isn't done yet). I'm not sure how it happened, but our living room still isn't done. (There were 2 Saturdays in a row where nobody got any work done, especially with Easter so that was a huge set back). We got the call today that our couch is going to be here Friday. That's the day after tomorrow!!! We are trying to figure out if we have time to finish the living room before then if we work really hard but some things you just can't speed up like making plaster dry faster. So...it's not going to get done. Hopefully it'll come in plastic and then we can put it in the dining room because that's essentially done (still needs trim and to shine up the wood floors and that but it's all cosmetic). Sanding is just so messy though (even with plastic up) that I hope our new couch isn't affected.

Second, Cocoa is being a huge menace lately. She has been chewing up our (new) carpet to no end. She finds the strings along the wall and pulls (unraveling several feet of carpet). We think she thinks they're like roots and wants to pull on them and chew on them but...it's our carpet! We cut them off when we see them and try to cover the edge with stuff she can dig on but she finds ways around it. She also chews the little carpet pieces that come up from digging on it and that's not good for her either. In an effort to help this, we hung a towel up by the window (kind of like drapes) and she digs on that (which is allowed) but I can't imagine what she would do if we have real curtains there.

Third, it's almost time to start considering opening our windows, which means that Spring cleaning is almost here! I couldn't be more excited. I just hope I find time to do it because I used to do it on Saturdays but those have since become devoted to working on the house (in terms of construction, not cleaning).

Making a Bag

I am in the middle of a couple projects right now but I wanted to blog about making a bag for my reusable pads. Right now, I am using a ziploc for my dirty pads but that seems to defeat the purpose so I am in the process of making a bag that will be able to hold the dirty pads and have a divider in the middle so I can have some clean ones in there too (and this way they won't touch or get mixed up). I'm pretty excited about it and my mother in law is helping me because she is experienced and I am not at all. This will also be my first zipper! Of course, I will post pictures when I'm done but it's going to be a bit because my next step is to attach the zipper and my sewing machine doesn't have a zipper pedal. I do have the choice to buy one but she (my MIL) already owns on and I would need her help anyway so we will have to find a time to get together. It's gorgeous fabric on the outside (a geometric paisley, colorful) and a pink polyester satin on the inside. The zipper is black. The bag is 8 by 5 and modeled after a bag I already own but has a different purpose. I'm so excited! Once I have my bag, I will be more inclined to make more pads. I only have two so far and of course they're my first ones so they're more prototypes than anything. But I have some ideas for new ones (and can post those too if people are interested). I love sewing!

April Resolutions

With the first day of April here and Spring weather finally starting to arrive, there are some changes we are going to make in our household.

I love to cook but most of the time, I cook with prepackaged foods (canned beans, mac and cheese, condensed soups, etc) and it really skyrockets your sodium, which I've been trying to cut down on lately. Every time we cook with prepackaged foods, we add things and create a complete meal out of it. David and I have resolved to start cooking once a week (just dinner for now) without doing things this way. Eventually we'll incorporate this lifestyle more and more into our lives but slowly so we can maintain it. For the first couple weeks, I think it will be a lot of stir frys until I come up with new ideas (if you guys have any, let me know in the comments!). Because it's Spring, we have started our garden so having those fresh veggies will be really nice for this.

Also, we are cutting out TV one day a week. We have been watching a lot lately when we really should be getting more done around the house. It's our way to unwind and relax after a stressful day but we need to find alternative methods. It should also help our energy bill (every little bit counts!) so we are kind of excited about it.

p.s. Spring cleaning season is almost here! Expect a post about it soon