If you read my blog (thanks, my two faithful blog readers!) then you know that, like everyone else, I'm a busy person. I don't have much spare time, and when I do have it I'd much rather be curled up with a book than cleaning my apartment. At the same time, I hate having a messy apartment. Shane says it looks "lived in", but it's really just messy. (There's a lot of evidence that men don't see the small things, like the carpet stains and the dust, so I try to be a little understanding when he asks, "What mess?".) In my efforts to de-clutter, clean, and organize I prioritize doing it quickly. Because of this, it's actually been a long process because I focus on one thing for a few minutes at a time. By the time I have more time to focus on cleaning/organizing, some regular maintenance thing (like vacuuming) needs to be done again. In addition, somehow we always seem to aquire more stuff. Getting wedding presents did not help with that in the least, but they are each treasured and most of them were in the category of "more than wants, less than needs". (We didn't need a saucier, but now that we have one we us it all the time.)
Anyway, I've been slowly filling bags with stuff to give away (like the underskirt for my wedding dress-I didn't end up wearing it that day, so what on earth would I do with it now?) and slowly taking them to the homeless shelter or Value Village, depending on the item. The super cute jacket which was given to me years ago, but which I never wear anymore? Gone! New, clean socks which a friend bought and left at our place (he stayed with us over the wedding weekend) because he never wore them? Gone!
We've even gotten rid of all of our "duplicate" items. A lot of the stuff we got for our wedding filled gaps in what we wanted but didn't have, but some of it replaced old stuff that was still serviceable. We didn't need our old, chipped collection of dishes (we had 2 1/2 different sets!) or the accompanying mugs. Our knives (gleaned from Value Village and incredibly dull) were replaced and needing a new home, and we had several pots/bowls that also needed to go, and a couple of pots which were now just taking up space. I put up a notice on Facebook and within 10 minutes we had a friend reply that her ex-girlfriend (yes, you read that right) needed pretty much everything for her new place. Score! We got rid of our excess and helped someone in need at the same time. That is guaranteed to put a smile on my face!
I think we've finally cleared out most of the extra Stuff. Now we just need to deal with the clutter. Boxes (and accompanying packing material--ick) and things like that need to go to the recycling center on campus or to my office, since we mail a lot of books, a few more loads to Value Village, and Shane's going to try to sell a couple of things on Craigslist. (Like our TV, which we never watch.) We have some stuff leftover from decorating the wedding (candles, a wreath-thingy) that I'm not sure what to do with yet. But I'm feeling pretty good about the progress we've made. Hooray for simplifying!
I found this article recently about testing different methods of spring cleaning for a busy lifestyle. It might be worth trying to figure out what style suits you best. Are you a room by room cleaner/organizer? Or a speed cleaner?
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday total
So, how did we do about sticking to our budget this week? Actually, we made it in just under the line at $120! Part of that is because I needed to buy more wheat flour. I don't buy it in 50 lb bags like white flour because it goes rancid faster (there are more oils in it) but I buy lovely 10 lb sacks of organic flour. I bought 2 that will last us a few weeks.
The thing I'm most happy about, though, is how much was bought not at the grocery store, which is about half of it. The flour and milk were bought at the feed store, and almost all of the meat (except the pepperoni) was from HG Market.
The dog got a haircut yesterday and seems much happier for it. She was being bratty for a while because she was so uncomfortable, and this should help. I understand how she feels, though. It's been almost a year since I last got a haircut and my hair is driving me nuts! Should I cut it myself? (I did that once, in college, and most people commented on how straight I did it.)
This morning I made these cinnamon rolls for breakfast, along with some spicy moose sausage and tea. Next time I make the baking mix, though, I'm going to use baking powder instead of baking soda, which left a bitter aftertaste. If you're doing that, you need to eliminate the cream of tartar since baking powder is a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar. I'm also going to increase the butter/sugar/cinnamon mix since that flavor didn't come out very strongly in these. But it seems to be a recipe worth keeping, so far. Very easy to put together, and she says that the baking mix can be used in anything you'd normally put Bisquick into so it has a variety of uses. Be sure to store it in the fridge or freezer, though, because otherwise the oil/shortening will go bad fast.
The thing I'm most happy about, though, is how much was bought not at the grocery store, which is about half of it. The flour and milk were bought at the feed store, and almost all of the meat (except the pepperoni) was from HG Market.
The dog got a haircut yesterday and seems much happier for it. She was being bratty for a while because she was so uncomfortable, and this should help. I understand how she feels, though. It's been almost a year since I last got a haircut and my hair is driving me nuts! Should I cut it myself? (I did that once, in college, and most people commented on how straight I did it.)
This morning I made these cinnamon rolls for breakfast, along with some spicy moose sausage and tea. Next time I make the baking mix, though, I'm going to use baking powder instead of baking soda, which left a bitter aftertaste. If you're doing that, you need to eliminate the cream of tartar since baking powder is a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar. I'm also going to increase the butter/sugar/cinnamon mix since that flavor didn't come out very strongly in these. But it seems to be a recipe worth keeping, so far. Very easy to put together, and she says that the baking mix can be used in anything you'd normally put Bisquick into so it has a variety of uses. Be sure to store it in the fridge or freezer, though, because otherwise the oil/shortening will go bad fast.
Friday, November 4, 2011
When food is blue
No, I don't mean my food is sad. I mean I actually made a dish the other night which Shane and I are still giggling about. I used the blue potatoes I grew over the summer (the last of them, unfortunately!) to make some mashed potatoes for a yummy dish my mom and I make. Most people have never seen a blue potato, so I thought I'd show you:
I had a friend over for dinner a while ago and when I cut open the potatoes she asked, "Are they supposed to look like that?" Yep, they're blue all the way through. Neat, huh? A lot of times the inner pigment disappears, like when I put them in chicken soup. The peels stay blue, but the rest becomes whitish.
I've never made mashed potatoes out of just blue potatoes before. All right, all right, the one white potato I managed to grow this summer went in there too. But everything else was blue! And it turns out, boiling them for a while doesn't take away the blue tint. Although it did turn the water green. Instead, when you make mashed potatoes out of blue potatoes, you get this:
Shane got a nice laugh out of it when I gave him his plate. All I could think was how cool it will be when we have kids and I get to make blue dinners for them. Plus, it made really good mashed potatoes. That might have been because of all the butter I added, though....
We'll have to get more potatoes from my mother-in-law when we go to the Peninsula for Thanksgiving. Before TV shows and political "news" commentators started talking about school lunches and how kids these days don't know what real vegetables look like, my mother-in-law (who works for the school district) has been letting kids go to her garden every year to plant and then dig up potatoes so that they learn about science, gardening, and where food comes from. The kids get to plant red, white, and blue potatoes just for fun. But my in-laws end up with way more potatoes than they could ever eat (and yes, they do give some to the food bank) and that's where all of our potatoes come from. Whatever we have left at the beginning of planting season gets used as my seed potatoes. This is actually the first year I've managed to grow more than a few small blue potatoes. Usually the red and white ones dominate.
I once had a friend tell me that a report they'd read said that it's not financially worth it to grow your own potatoes. They're so cheap at the store, why bother? This report was based on the assumption that you'd be buying new seed potatoes every year, rather than saving old potatoes the way most farmers/growers will. What bothered me the most, though, was that this report doesn't take into account the cool varieties that you can grow but which you'll never find in the grocery store. For me, growing a few potatoes every year is well worth it for the fun of having different and colorful varieties. They're also the easiest food crop I've grown. The only attention they really need is to be hilled every once in a while--the dirt needs to be built up around them so that the potatoes will grow bigger, which is why a lot of home gardeners grow them in old tires or other stackable structures. They grow in pretty much any type of soil, and I've forgotten to water them for several weeks in mid-summer before but they don't care. I know a lot of people say that if you have any space at all and want to grow something, it should be herbs. But if you have access to even the smallest patch of ground where you could stack some tires, I say grow potatoes.
It's very hard to type with a cat in front of the screen.
I had a friend over for dinner a while ago and when I cut open the potatoes she asked, "Are they supposed to look like that?" Yep, they're blue all the way through. Neat, huh? A lot of times the inner pigment disappears, like when I put them in chicken soup. The peels stay blue, but the rest becomes whitish.
I've never made mashed potatoes out of just blue potatoes before. All right, all right, the one white potato I managed to grow this summer went in there too. But everything else was blue! And it turns out, boiling them for a while doesn't take away the blue tint. Although it did turn the water green. Instead, when you make mashed potatoes out of blue potatoes, you get this:
Shane got a nice laugh out of it when I gave him his plate. All I could think was how cool it will be when we have kids and I get to make blue dinners for them. Plus, it made really good mashed potatoes. That might have been because of all the butter I added, though....
We'll have to get more potatoes from my mother-in-law when we go to the Peninsula for Thanksgiving. Before TV shows and political "news" commentators started talking about school lunches and how kids these days don't know what real vegetables look like, my mother-in-law (who works for the school district) has been letting kids go to her garden every year to plant and then dig up potatoes so that they learn about science, gardening, and where food comes from. The kids get to plant red, white, and blue potatoes just for fun. But my in-laws end up with way more potatoes than they could ever eat (and yes, they do give some to the food bank) and that's where all of our potatoes come from. Whatever we have left at the beginning of planting season gets used as my seed potatoes. This is actually the first year I've managed to grow more than a few small blue potatoes. Usually the red and white ones dominate.
I once had a friend tell me that a report they'd read said that it's not financially worth it to grow your own potatoes. They're so cheap at the store, why bother? This report was based on the assumption that you'd be buying new seed potatoes every year, rather than saving old potatoes the way most farmers/growers will. What bothered me the most, though, was that this report doesn't take into account the cool varieties that you can grow but which you'll never find in the grocery store. For me, growing a few potatoes every year is well worth it for the fun of having different and colorful varieties. They're also the easiest food crop I've grown. The only attention they really need is to be hilled every once in a while--the dirt needs to be built up around them so that the potatoes will grow bigger, which is why a lot of home gardeners grow them in old tires or other stackable structures. They grow in pretty much any type of soil, and I've forgotten to water them for several weeks in mid-summer before but they don't care. I know a lot of people say that if you have any space at all and want to grow something, it should be herbs. But if you have access to even the smallest patch of ground where you could stack some tires, I say grow potatoes.
It's very hard to type with a cat in front of the screen.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
My husband is, quite possibly, a genius
I realize that's a very grandiose statement. Even, possibly, a little self-aggrandizing. (He's all mine, ladies and gents!) But I don't think it's off the mark. Shane and I might disagree sometimes about core values and how to implement them (as in, I prefer organic and he doesn't care) but when it comes to thriftiness, I am very willing to admit that he's often the better half. Do I have examples? Better. I have a picture that clearly sums up my dear husband's "make-do" attitude.
Yes, that's part of an old wire hanger keeping the metal disc on the handle. See how resourceful he is? My creativity tends to be more abstract (writing, music) while his is the more concrete, how can I make this work type of creativity. So naturally, when our cheap pizza cutter broke a while ago, instead of spending the money to get a new one, he fixed it. And didn't tell me that he'd fixed it, so the next time I saw it I laughed. But it works! And we didn't have to buy a new one!
Until, that is, our mothers came for his graduation. Apparently scandalized at the idea that we'd have to use a less-than-perfect pizza cutting implement, they went out and bought us a new one without asking if we wanted one. It's very silly to me. Had they asked, I would have said that we were just fine with the mended one, and that I'd rather they save their money so that they could visit us more often! It's a delicate subject to bring up, though, and one that I've been pondering a lot lately.
I love Shane's mom, but she does have a tendency to send us...less than useful items. An old-lady-ish snowman sweater, clover earrings for St. Patrick's Day, and, well, this sort of thing:
Please note that they are for fun and safety.
How do I (gently and lovingly) inform my (new) mother-in-law that I don't really want this stuff?
These earrings will be going to Value Village on my next trip there.
Yes, that's part of an old wire hanger keeping the metal disc on the handle. See how resourceful he is? My creativity tends to be more abstract (writing, music) while his is the more concrete, how can I make this work type of creativity. So naturally, when our cheap pizza cutter broke a while ago, instead of spending the money to get a new one, he fixed it. And didn't tell me that he'd fixed it, so the next time I saw it I laughed. But it works! And we didn't have to buy a new one!
Until, that is, our mothers came for his graduation. Apparently scandalized at the idea that we'd have to use a less-than-perfect pizza cutting implement, they went out and bought us a new one without asking if we wanted one. It's very silly to me. Had they asked, I would have said that we were just fine with the mended one, and that I'd rather they save their money so that they could visit us more often! It's a delicate subject to bring up, though, and one that I've been pondering a lot lately.
I love Shane's mom, but she does have a tendency to send us...less than useful items. An old-lady-ish snowman sweater, clover earrings for St. Patrick's Day, and, well, this sort of thing:
Please note that they are for fun and safety.
How do I (gently and lovingly) inform my (new) mother-in-law that I don't really want this stuff?
These earrings will be going to Value Village on my next trip there.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wasting food?
I didn't realize this, but apparently most people don't actually eat the food in their freezers. Unless it's a pre-cooked, microwavable "meal" that is. How bizarre to suddenly realize that my entire family has this freakish habit of actually eating the food we buy and store. I admit, it takes me and Shane a good long while to get through our supply of salmon and halibut. (I haven't seen the bottom of the chest freezer since we got it, really.) But we make quite a few inroads before the next summer comes around and we get more fish. (Thanks, Spencer and John!) And no, things don't always last. Sometimes the vacuum seal breaks or something just gets freezer burned. But instead of throwing that away, we cook it up for the dog. She loves it when we clean out the freezer, by the way. Anyone surprised? Because if you are, then clearly I need to post a picture of her. I'll give you a hint: she's not a skinny dog.
Anyway, it really surprises me that people end up buying and throwing away so much food that's perfectly good! People who claim to be frugal have mentioned on other sites that their freezer is more like "the pit-stop food makes on its way to the garbage." !!! I'm sorry, but that is neither a frugal nor an environmental practice. If you're never going to eat frozen foods, or rarely, get a small dorm-style refrigerator so that you're not tempted to buy more than you'll really eat! You'll also save electricity and your home energy bills. Ta-da!
I find solutions because I'm awesome.
We're still doing really well about eating from our pantry and freezer, although this week we've actually bought some meat. (Chicken, sausage, and pepperoni.) Next week we'll eat more fish, but we needed a break from it. And we do have moose sausage, but we're saving our last pack for a different meal later this week.
Just because I needed to brag, here's a picture I took when walking home yesterday:
Fairbanks looks awesome blanketed in ice fog. It was thin yesterday, and the camera wasn't able to capture how it made the air glitter, but it's still quite pretty.
Anyway, it really surprises me that people end up buying and throwing away so much food that's perfectly good! People who claim to be frugal have mentioned on other sites that their freezer is more like "the pit-stop food makes on its way to the garbage." !!! I'm sorry, but that is neither a frugal nor an environmental practice. If you're never going to eat frozen foods, or rarely, get a small dorm-style refrigerator so that you're not tempted to buy more than you'll really eat! You'll also save electricity and your home energy bills. Ta-da!
I find solutions because I'm awesome.
We're still doing really well about eating from our pantry and freezer, although this week we've actually bought some meat. (Chicken, sausage, and pepperoni.) Next week we'll eat more fish, but we needed a break from it. And we do have moose sausage, but we're saving our last pack for a different meal later this week.
Just because I needed to brag, here's a picture I took when walking home yesterday:
Sundry items
There's an excellent post on the Zero Waste Home blog about heirloom guilt. I think the author, Bea, worded it very well. She makes the point that everyone needs to find what works for them--you don't have to be completely cold-hearted and unsentimental and get rid of everything that's been passed down to you--but that we need to get rid of the guilt associated with heirlooms. If you don't use it, why keep it? Your ancestors didn't pass things down to you to clutter up your home or make you feel guilty. This is exactly how I feel! It drives me nuts that people have "good" things which they never, ever use. What's the point?! I admit that I'm starting to get a few heirlooms, but I'm being careful about the things I ask for or keep. It's hard to get rid of the items from your loved ones because you want to keep them close after they've died. But I don't think it does their memory any justice if all you do is box up their stuff, leave it in the garage or attic, and then feel guilty for even the thought of getting rid of it. Keeping a few well-chosen items which you'll actually use is a much better reminder of that person and your relationship with them.
A trend that I've noticed lately is that every group which is trying to portray a "green" attitude gives away those reusable bags. This seems sort of funny and counter-intuitive to me, since they're just creating yet another thing that most people won't use. So what we've started doing at the library is bringing them in for others to use. When a patron checks out a lot of books which would be either hard to carry or hard to put in their backpack, we loan out one of these bags. They usually make their way back to us and it's a nice, communal way of using what otherwise would be a silly freebie giveaway. I wonder how many of those bags actually get used again?
Also, if you need newspapers, just ask your local library. We only keep ours for two weeks before they get discarded. We keep the recycle bin public and it's amazing how many people come in and ask us if they can take some of the old newspapers. I've even taken a few myself, for household cleaning and such. (Cleaning the windows with newspaper really does work well.)
Trying to get in shape again after being sick for so long sucks by the way. So sore!
And I think I need to adjust how I store things in our "root cellar". Fairbanks is super dry in the winter (I wish you could see my chapped hands!) and some of the things I was trying to store ended up drying out really fast. The turnips didn't last, and neither did the parsnips. I tend to eat those fast enough, though, that I'll probably just go back to storing them in the fridge. The potatoes are fine, but just to be safe I put a damp cloth over the sweet potatoes. I don't want to plug in a humidifier because a)I'd have to buy one and b)it would cost electricity. But my experiences of storing sweet potatoes in the past makes me think that they'll be all right for a while yet. Hopefully.
Finally, my dog is seriously upset with me for being gone so much, and she's being very melodramatic about it. I'm trying to win her over again with walks, but every time Shane pets her she stares at me like, "See? He loves me. He's a good parent." This attitude is spreading to the cat, who comes over to rub against me but flees yowling if I reach down to pet him. How demoralizing is that? My own pets don't love me right now.
A trend that I've noticed lately is that every group which is trying to portray a "green" attitude gives away those reusable bags. This seems sort of funny and counter-intuitive to me, since they're just creating yet another thing that most people won't use. So what we've started doing at the library is bringing them in for others to use. When a patron checks out a lot of books which would be either hard to carry or hard to put in their backpack, we loan out one of these bags. They usually make their way back to us and it's a nice, communal way of using what otherwise would be a silly freebie giveaway. I wonder how many of those bags actually get used again?
Also, if you need newspapers, just ask your local library. We only keep ours for two weeks before they get discarded. We keep the recycle bin public and it's amazing how many people come in and ask us if they can take some of the old newspapers. I've even taken a few myself, for household cleaning and such. (Cleaning the windows with newspaper really does work well.)
Trying to get in shape again after being sick for so long sucks by the way. So sore!
And I think I need to adjust how I store things in our "root cellar". Fairbanks is super dry in the winter (I wish you could see my chapped hands!) and some of the things I was trying to store ended up drying out really fast. The turnips didn't last, and neither did the parsnips. I tend to eat those fast enough, though, that I'll probably just go back to storing them in the fridge. The potatoes are fine, but just to be safe I put a damp cloth over the sweet potatoes. I don't want to plug in a humidifier because a)I'd have to buy one and b)it would cost electricity. But my experiences of storing sweet potatoes in the past makes me think that they'll be all right for a while yet. Hopefully.
Finally, my dog is seriously upset with me for being gone so much, and she's being very melodramatic about it. I'm trying to win her over again with walks, but every time Shane pets her she stares at me like, "See? He loves me. He's a good parent." This attitude is spreading to the cat, who comes over to rub against me but flees yowling if I reach down to pet him. How demoralizing is that? My own pets don't love me right now.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
First of the year
Yesterday I pulled out my long underwear. This morning I finally succumbed to the cold and brought out my winter coat. (Until now I've been wearing a warm, lined sweatshirt/jacket thing that I love.) I'm glad I did, too, since it was the first morning I've walked to work in below-zero. Until it hits that mark for the first time each year, I can sort of fool myself into thinking that it's still autumn and not really winter. I mean, there might be snow on the ground but it's not actually cold. And really, making it to November 1st before getting below zero isn't a bad mark. I did have to wrap my scarf around my face since my nose went numb, and it was consequently also the first day my eyelashes froze. (The cloth pushes my moist, warm breath up my face and it freezes my eyelashes.)
Now it's a balmy 3 degrees F.
And yet, my cherry tomatoes are still producing. I got a nice plump one yesterday and there are at least five more which will be ripe by the end of the week. We don't have any salads planned with dinners (and no lettuce) this week, but they're fun to just eat raw, pop in your mouth, and squish. I'm not a huge fan of uncooked tomatoes (which I'm trying to fix) but even I enjoy that tremendously.
I've been doing something kind of funky as an experiment, too. Gardeners (especially organic ones) will often talk about things like fertilizer tea, manure tea, compost tea, etc. I don't have any of those things. But I do have actual tea. Instead of fertilizing the tomatoes, I've been adding the dregs of my teapot (and with the hard water at the U, there's always an odd portion at the end covered in some sort of glossy film that I don't like) to the watering pot and fertilizing with that. It's been working so well that I've started doing it at home, too! Apparently my plants love tea as much as I do. Not only are the plants thriving (I had to cut them back last week) the tomatoes seem bigger than they were when I was using commercial fertilizer. Now, not only am I not spending any money to make my fruit a bit better (after all, it's the leftover portion of my tea which would be there anyway), but I'm also using something that would otherwise go to waste.
Maybe I should ask Shane about adding his leftover coffee....
Now it's a balmy 3 degrees F.
And yet, my cherry tomatoes are still producing. I got a nice plump one yesterday and there are at least five more which will be ripe by the end of the week. We don't have any salads planned with dinners (and no lettuce) this week, but they're fun to just eat raw, pop in your mouth, and squish. I'm not a huge fan of uncooked tomatoes (which I'm trying to fix) but even I enjoy that tremendously.
I've been doing something kind of funky as an experiment, too. Gardeners (especially organic ones) will often talk about things like fertilizer tea, manure tea, compost tea, etc. I don't have any of those things. But I do have actual tea. Instead of fertilizing the tomatoes, I've been adding the dregs of my teapot (and with the hard water at the U, there's always an odd portion at the end covered in some sort of glossy film that I don't like) to the watering pot and fertilizing with that. It's been working so well that I've started doing it at home, too! Apparently my plants love tea as much as I do. Not only are the plants thriving (I had to cut them back last week) the tomatoes seem bigger than they were when I was using commercial fertilizer. Now, not only am I not spending any money to make my fruit a bit better (after all, it's the leftover portion of my tea which would be there anyway), but I'm also using something that would otherwise go to waste.
Maybe I should ask Shane about adding his leftover coffee....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)