The Upcoming Week - List

It's going to be a busy week. Brayden's other babysitter is taking some time off while her kids are on Spring break, so I have DGS 2 yr old Brayden Wed., Thurs., and Friday this week. I also now have my car back (yay!), and the weather is supposed to be reasonably nice all week, with a little rain toward the end of the week. To Do List for the week: Monday - Clean up kitchen - done - Quick clean upstairs bathrooms - Laundry - done - Quilting Tuesday - Errands - hair cut, bank, WallyWorld - Vac downstairs - Change sheets - More quilting Wednesday* - Story hour at library - 10:15 - Car wash - Lunch at McDonald's - Laundry - Collect and take out all trash Thursday* - Yard work - Load dishwasher - Empty dishwasher Friday (rain)* - Sewing - Sweep kitchen - Dust dining room - Windex appliances, patio door * Days when Brayden is here -- I try and do housework that he can help me with. The kid wields a mean bottle of windex and a paper towel, so I set him up to clean my stove, dishwasher and refrigerator! He also loves working out in the yard and has his own wheelbarrow, so we can start Spring cleaning the front gardens if it's warm enough outside. Should be fun, but I know it will be exhausting. Luckily, he takes nice long afternoon naps and "Umpa" will be working from home two days this week.

Spring is in the air

Despite today's temps in the 30's, you can tell here in southwestern Ohio that Spring is just around the corner. I expect within the next two weeks our temps will get up into the 50's and 60's, the buds on the trees will start pushing to open, and my daffodils and tulips will come up in all their glory.

What else does Spring mean? It's almost time to start hanging out my laundry to dry.

My clothesline is one of those multi-line umbrella-type clotheslines and I can actually hang about 4 loads of clothes at a time on the lines. I was lucky enough to find the old style non-spring wooden clothespins at an estate sale, and that's what I use to hang the clothes. And the silly thing is? I love hanging clothes out to dry! I'm very systematic in the way I hang out clothes -- as I put them on the line, for example, I match socks up, so when I take them down I can simply fold them together and drop them in the basket. I hang all kitchen towels together, so when I bring the basket of dryed clothes into the house, I can drop off the kitchen items. I hang jeans upside down with their seams matched up, so they have a nice crease and are wrinkle free. I save a LOT of time by hanging out clothes as well. It often takes my dryer twice as long to dry a load of clothes as it does the washer to wash them, so I often end up waiting to put the next load of clothes in the dryer. With the clothesline I'm able to hang the clothes as soon as the washer is done, without waiting for a load to finish in the dryer.

We notice a dramatic decrease in our electric bill -- about 10% a month -- when I stop using the clothes dryer. That, by itself, makes it worthwhile.

I love how air-dryed clothes smell and feel. Towels are so much more absorbent after they are air-dryed! Sheets have that wonderful "crisp" feeling to them and just smell so good when you climb into bed at night. One of my fondest childhood memories is helping my grandmother bring in the clothes from her clothesline.

I did a little Internet searching and lo and behold, there is actually a web page called "Project Laundry List" and it originates in my home state of New Hampshire! And "National Hanging Out Day" is April 19th!

So almost Happy National Hanging Out Day, everyone. If you live in a situation where you can hang your clothes out to dry, I do hope you'll consider it!

Happy Easter to you and yours.

Let's get a little crafty

I should be grocery shopping, but am waiting for Jeff to [get the lead out] get out of the shower because he wants to go to the library with me. So, I've been cruising around blogs, and found a great tutorial on how to make fabric covered switch plates! This is SO easy and would add a wonderful whimsical touch to any room.

This quick little craft takes just the smallest amount of fabric, and the tutorial shows how to do this without puckers around the middle of the plate. Generously shared by Pink Chalk Studios web site.

I can already see how appropriate this would be in my quilt room! If you try it, post a photo on your blog and let me know and I'll link to you.

Today's To Do List - tomorrow

Today was a bit of a washout. I'd planned on taking Brayden to the library and to the car wash this morning, but he arrived at 7am not feeling so well. I'm not sure if his asthma kicked in or he's starting another round with a cold, but by 8am I had to give him a breathing treatment, which he doesn't like but is super good about doing. That helped him a bit, but not as much as normal, which made me suspect he was actually coming down with another croupy cold. By noon his nose was running a bit. He was fairly quiet all morning and seemed tired, so I fixed lunch early and took him up for his nap at noon. He went right to sleep. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off the phone in the bedroom, and the phone woke him up at 2:30, which may seem like a long time for some, but not for Brayden. As tired as he was, I think he would have slept until 3:30 or even 4:00pm. But he was up and having more problems breathing, so Jeff took him outside. It was a nice day but still cool (high 40's), and cold air will often help Brayden. He seemed to do much better from that point on. So we didn't get to the library or the car wash, so both must now be done tomorrow. Jeff's had my car for the past two months and he never cleans the car out (mumblegrumble), while I'm a near fanatic about having my car clean (I have cleaning wipes in my console so I can clean the inside in case I get stuck sitting at the train crossing or in traffic! LOL!), so I really need to get it to the car wash and get the two months of grime taken out! Today Brayden was playing with his NASCAR race cars, and he asked me what Car #24 was, and I said "That's Jeff [Gordon]". He looked at me and said, "Uncle Jeff!" He's only met his Uncle Jeff once, but we make sure to show him pictures often, so when JJ and Lisa come home he will know that they are family. We are working on him saying "Auntie Lisa"! Tomorrow's To Do List: -- WalMart (quick trip) -- grocery shopping (not WalMart) -- Library -- Car Wash -- Quilting Last Saturday, March 15, was National Quilting Day and I'd planned on spending the day quilting, but didn't. (I can't even remember why...) So I've decided to get up early and get my errands done by 11am (the Library and Car Wash don't open until 10am or I'd be done earlier), then spend the entire afternoon quilting. Ahhhhh... I can't wait. No pictures for this blog today, though I do have pictures of my new ironing board table on my quilting blog and Brayden has new photos on his View from Two blog.

Photo of the Day

Tears in my eyes -- from laughing!

I've mentioned how Cincinnati folks over-react when it snows. One snowflake and it's instant panic on the roads and in the grocery stores. Well, we're having some nasty weather here and granted, many areas are having some major flooding, which is no joke. I'm not going to make light of people actually experiencing major flooding. But c'mon.. take a look at this link (sorry, I can't figure out how to move the picture here), and to Picture #6 in the group -- the one with the boat. Now look down... see the wheels? See the fireman's boots?? The water can't be more than a half inch deep! LOL!!! Do you think it was really necessary to put these people in a boat????

A good (and frugal) recipe

This is a great pilaf-style recipe I use often when I need to use up leftovers. It comes from a book written in the 1990's titled THE COMPLETE TIGHTWAD GAZETTE by Amy Dacyczyn. It's one of those "Pick one from Column A, one from Column B..." type recipes, and you adapt it to whatever you have in your refrigerator, freezer or cupboards at the time. Great way to use up leftover meats and veggies. GROUPS Grains - 1 cup --Uncooked brown or white rice --Bulgur --Couscous --Other favorite grain Fat - 2 tbsp --Olive oil --Butter, margarine --Vegetable oil --Other favorite oil Base Vegetable - 2-3 cloves garlic, minced AND --one small onion, cut up --three shallots --one small leek Liquid - 2 cups -- Vegetable broth -- Chicken broth -- Cooking water from boiled vegetables --Water Meat or Protein - 1/2 to 2/3 cup --Chicken, cut up --Tuna --Cooked white or red beans --White fish --Hamburger --Cheap steak cut into cubes Additional vegetable - 1/2 cup frozen or fresh --Peas --Carrots, cut up --Corn --Green peppers --Celery --and/or any favorite vegetable except leafy or potatoes Seasoning - Whatever works and to taste

Directions:

Heat fat in large cast-iron or non-stick skillet. When hot, add the base vegetables and cook until golden and translucent. Add the meat and brown (unless you're adding tuna -- don't add yet). Add the grain and fry for a minute or so to coat it with fat. Add the liquid and bring to a boil (add tuna now). Add the other vegetable(s), season, stir, return to a boil, simmer, and cover. Check it often. Whole grains will take about 40 mins to cook, white rice about 15 minutes. When the liquid is completely absorbed, it's done. Stir, season to taste, and serve.