Pinterest WIN!

All over the internet we can see the famous "Pinterest Fails," but today I want to post a Pinterest WIN! A huge shout out to Haeyley at Design Improvised for this one (http://www.designimprovised.com/2013/08/file-cabinet-makeover.html). I had seen some cute filing cabinets online that had frames glued on to create depth, but after my husband and I picked up our filing cabinet at the Habitat Restore, I realized that wouldn't be an option for ours; the hardware was too low to be able to frame the drawers. Thus I began a search on my faithful idea friend, Pinterest. I found Haeyley's idea and thought it sounded like a fun one. Besides, I already had paintbrushes, chalkboard paint, and little paint samples that my husband and I had acquired as we decided what color to paint the office, so I was all set minus the metal primer. It was an easy, although slightly time consuming process as I had to paint during nap time, so it took a few days. However, I am really pleased with the end product and can't wait to see it in our newly redone office/craft room. Now if we could just get the carpet done I could start arranging the furniture! So excited!

Really late follow up--carpet is in and our office is starting to look like an office! Filing cabinet is now in its place, my hubby and I have decided on how we want to organize everything and now I begin the chore (okay, I secretly love this type of thing) of organizing all of our paperwork, shredding what we don't need and of course labeling things!

Yes, believe it or not it is the same filing cabinet. We shall see how long the paint lasts...

Homesteading in the Suburbs

-->

Today I feel like a mini-homesteader, not just because my homestead is mini, but because I know that what I did is so miniscule to what homesteaders had to do to SURVIVE! Actually, what is smaller than mini because you can’t even classify my somewhat suburban yard as a farm. Still, I felt a tinge of pride this evening as I headed to bed. 

What did I do today? Well, besides keeping our daughter alive and aiding in her development by reading to her and playing with her (my husband makes sure I list this as an accomplishment every day because it is an oft forgot accomplishment in the world of moms), I picked tomatoes, kale and cucumbers from our garden. The kale and tomatoes went into salad for dinner and the cucumbers were added to the collection for pickles. I called up my mom and exchanged two over-sized zucchinis she can feed to her chickens, for mustard seed (the missing ingredient for my pickles). There is something very homesteaderish (is that a word) about bartering, even if all of it really benefited me. Then I spent the evening of this 100+ degree day making zucchini bread from zucchini out of our garden and pickles with our cucumbers. Somehow I timed it all correctly too, which is always amazing for me...my tendency would be to somehow have the zucchini bread needing to come out of the oven at exactly the same time that the pickles need to be hot packed. Nope. Tonight I got the zucchini bread in while the water was still waiting to boil and the cucumbers were sitting in salt. I even watered the garden between all of that.

Granted, I am now in an air conditioned house which makes canning pickles and having the oven on (at 9 o’clock at night) not nearly as bad as when we were in our other house. And I was working over a nice gas stove (still amazed at how quickly the temperature in my pan changes on a gas stove). And I have running water in my house and lots of other conveniences that homesteaders never had. Still, there is something about canning and baking and watering and eating produce straight from the garden that bring me life. I can’t really explain it.

As I washed my dishes by hand, I thought of what I had accomplished today and felt, well, accomplished. Why by hand you ask? Well the second time we used our fancy dancy dishwasher with a million little baskets to hold different things and lots of fold down/fold up options (still trying to figure this out as well), it leaked all over the kitchen floor, so it is currently just a drying rack for my hand washing. Ah, life as a home-owner.

P.S. I don’t want to give into the hype of convection ovens too quickly, but I will say that the two loaves of bread I made tonight are the most even colored I have pulled out of the oven in a long time. Just saying…

Fancy Appliances

-->

Okay folks, after a lunch of a cheese and tomato (fresh from my garden people!!! the tomato, not the cheese) sandwich, I sat down to write and I have a confession. I am a simple girl. I grew up in a simple family. I don’t come from money. I think growing up it was often, “if it works, why replace it?” If my husband were to ask if we should get the $500 fridge or the $2000 fridge, I would respond with the former because I wouldn’t exactly understand why we should spend an extra $1500 if the $500 one works and will keep our food cold. My more immediate question would be, is it big enough to hold the food I want to keep on hand?

We bought a house with fancy appliances. I opted out of offering them more for the fancy washer and dryer because I was intimidated by the shiny stainless steel, the many different buttons, and the digital read outs on the front. I'm used to dials on my washing machine. But that did not save me from the learning curve of fancy appliances.

I have a confession to make—I don’t know how to use my kitchen appliances…or I should say, I don’t know what all the drawers are for in my fridge! Did anyone else have this problem when they upgraded at some point in their lives?

Let me tell you about my fridge. For one, I am super excited about the pull out drawer freezer. It is so much bigger than my little freezer I had before. I thought we should add a stand-up freezer to our freezing arsenal (we already have a small chest freezer) because with my brother raising chickens, I quickly run out of space after butchering day. However, we might be able to hold off a little while longer because I feel like I just doubled my freezer capacity on my fridge.

The fridge part though; that is a mystery to me. First, it is rigged up to plop ice into my drinks and shoot cold water into my glass. This is a fun little convenience. However, this comes with strange noises that make me jump as everything crackles and spits. Be careful with the water dispenser as well, it is like a power-washing hose. We have discovered that short glasses are a hazard. The water goes in and comes right back out due to the amount of pressure behind it.

Second, what are all of these fancy shelves and spots on the doors? The down-side to up-grading is that the fancier something is, the more specific it gets. Too bad my family isn’t a soda drinking family because one whole door is devoted to individualized soda can holders (it took me a minute to figure out what these were). I am still trying to figure out if I can store anything else in these perfectly soda-can sized holders.

Third, today the fridge started beeping at me. Apparently there is a door alarm. So, when I was trying to rearrange the freezer space because I had just brought our frozen foods over, I took too long and the fridge started beeping at me. I have no idea how to make it stop, so I had to push the freezer drawer in, wait a second or two, and then start my job over again. I'm sure this is super helpful if someone doesn't quite get the door closed all the way, but it is startling when you are simply rearranging food.

Apparently fancy people are also not clutter people. All this fancy stainless steel also means that we can’t stick anything on our refrigerator doors. Where is the kid art supposed to go? Where am I supposed to hang my shopping list? How am I supposed to clutter up my kitchen???

Oh, and if you want to freak me out, just empty the ice out of the ice dispenser because the loud clunking of a new tray of ice dropping down into the dispenser will make me jump out of my skin!

It also took me a bit to figure out the dishwasher, but I won't bore you with any more of my learning to live fancy. 

Becoming a Homeowner

I first wrote this on a paper towel while sitting on a floor cushion in an empty family room; my new family room (we bought a house! Woohoo!). My hubby and I decided we would move in slowly since we could and today I brought a load over between feedings and nap times for my little one. But then my baby was fussy and I gave in and fed her after only 1.5 hours, because, well, she was acting hungry and I didn’t think she really ate that much at the last feeding, and well…I just did. And she fell asleep. And stayed asleep. And I realized I was stuck at the new house with boxes of board games, kitchen dishes and a garden that needs to be weeded.

After an hour of work weeding I needed some water and a break so here I am!

Oh the garden! The previous owners were nice enough to plant a garden even though they knew they were moving out. As my husband says, we are just like the Israelites..."When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). However, as I would have done, they have spent the last several weeks packing instead of weeding the garden, so what I inherited looks like this:

I am not discouraged. There are cucumbers, tomatoes, corn and zucchini waiting behind all that grass. Come to me sweet veggies!

Plan: 1 bed a day. So sleeping child= corn patch.

Look at the cute volunteer tomatoes and the green bean in the back I didn’t know was there. About the time I am covered with dirt and literally dripping sweat, I remember I am slightly allergic to grass and I was going to go to the store after this (not to mention a baby will want to nurse when she wakes up!). Now I am not only wearing the same clothes as yesterday without a shower (hey, comfort clothes when you are moving), I now have a new plastered hairdo and red bumps up and down my arms. But my one bed was almost done, so I finished and headed in for some water and a slight rest before tackling an indoor job and the reassurance that I have a roll of paper towels and a sink to make myself presentable.

Side note: I can see why so many stay-at-home moms blog. When stuck at home all day it is your chance to pretend to have grown up conversations, get feedback and have a chance to be witty. The dilemma is time---when the child is napping, do you blog or do the dishes. I can see myself saying to my husband, “Sorry honey, there isn’t any dinner cause I was busy trying to establish some self-worth on social media.”