My Pantry is so Tumblr....

Inspiration strikes at some of the funniest times, places and circumstances. There are times when you are searching for something in particular; something that will fulfill a need you have – whatever that need might be. And sometimes you’re just stupidly wandering when you’re smacked in the face with an idea.

As I wandered around World Market on Christmas Eve (so that Mikey could grab something in Target I couldn’t see) I came upon this wire rack that hung on the wall. I saw it from across the other side of the store. I was drawn to it. I wanted it. I didn’t know what for. And I do that enough to know that I CANNOT buy something because I think I MIGHT have a use for it. (Incidentally, these are all the really cool things other people end up scoring from me on the BuyNothing site when I finally decide to get rid of them. Sorry Buy Nothing folks, I’m trying to reign myself in.) I walked away. And then I thought of something I could do with it. I have unused space in my pantry! I could put it there, rearrange my kitchen, put all my food in the pantry instead of having it in the cupboards, it would free up space to have easy access to my small kitchen appliances, oh my goodness it would look really cute too….aaaaaannnnnnd, Mikey showed up, “time to go!” And there ended my spiraling idea reel. I said a silent goodbye as I got one last glimpse at the rack….

I COULD NOT stop thinking about it. And, after Christmas, I had EVEN MORE new small kitchen appliances! (As a side note I have made two more meals – one with the InstantPot and one with the zoodler – and both were Ah-mazing.) I told Mikey about my idea. And here’s the thing I love about him: He instantly started asking questions. Where do you want to put it? What will you use it for? How will that help you organize in the kitchen? I had answers to all of those. And so he said, “Well, let’s go look at it.”

After a couple of hours at the thrift store fulfilling our recent book obsession, we ended up at the World Market in Woodinville. At first, I couldn’t find it. But then, hiding in the back corner of the store, was this jewel; this space saving, Tumblr worthy (that’s a term Lil uses – I only pretend to know what it means), fix all my kitchen woes, rack.

Him: (he picks it up and makes a face) “It’s kind of chintzy.”

Me: (in my head) Ugh.

Him: “$129.99! What the fuck?!?!”

Me: (Dreams dashed just a little bit more) “Really, you think it’s chintzy? I like it.”

Him: “I’m sorry sweetheart, I just think it’s overpriced and not well built.”

Me: (in my head) Damn.

And so we meandered back to the front of the store. My pantry wall was doomed to be ugly, bare and useless.

One more stop before we hit home to settle down with a nice charcuterie plate for a quiet New Year’s night. All we wanted at Costco was a package of assorted meats. But my mom had just bought this cat tree, and I thought we should look at them. Maybe that would keep the bastards from clawing up my stair rail. (More on the feline idiots later.) As we walked back to the refrigerated food section we passed by some metal baskets. I picked one up.

Me: “This isn’t chintzy. It’s actually pretty nice. Do you think it would work?”

Him: “These are pretty nice. And they’re less expensive than that chintzy rack.”

Me: “What do you think? They come in pairs…..6?”

Him: “I think we could fit 8. I could definitely affix them to the wall for you.”
Me: “Are you sure? They’re kind of heavy. And I want to put a bunch of food in them.”

Him” “I’m sure. Let’s get them.”

Me: (in my head) YES! Damn I love this man. Pantry bliss is on it’s way!

Who rearranges their kitchen after living in a house for 11 years? I DO! I was so excited to see them going up. I could barely wait for him to have them all installed. I was already pulling everything out of the cupboards and envisioning how I would carefully group everything.

It only took about an hour for Mikey to have it all up and ready to go. He sauntered off to the office to write. I spent the next 2 hours pulling everything out of drawers and cabinets, throwing old stuff away (Seriously? I knew no one ever drank that mixable lemonade but I didn’t know it expired in 2011!), and cleaning out said drawers and cabinets for new kitchen appliance homes (because no one likes moving into a dirty home!)

I can’t thank Mikey enough for not letting me buy the rack from World Market. These baskets hold more, look nicer, are well made and look amazing. Now my pantry’s mission in life is fulfilled: complete usable space. And I get to drink my coffee every morning looking at my Tumblr pantry.

The Holy Grail....I Think I Found It!

Me and my big ideas. I’m always searching. Always on the lookout for something awesome that could make a difference in my world. Sometimes because I’m just curious, and sometimes out of necessity.

My Crock Pot has been something of a monkey on my back since I got it. First, I wanted a programmable Crock Pot, and I got one. Except it isn’t programmable on the front end, only in its cook time (start in the morning when you leave and then it holds your food on warm until you turn it off). Second, it cooks FAR hotter than I believe a Crock Pot should cook on low heat. Third, the handle slowly started to crumble – not a huge functional issue, but a pain none the less. Fourth, I must’ve slammed it down on the counter a little too hard one time as one of the legs is dented in so that I must put a kitchen towel underneath so that she stays level during use. Mostly, I just needed a new one.

A shot of the handle on my ghetto Crock Pot with the gangsta lean

In spending some time searching for the Crock Pot of my dreams some other appliances passed through the Google indexes – some of which I had noticed before only briefly, and some that I had never heard of. I was looking for a number of things in a slow cooker:

1. A machine that would take whatever I dumped into it in the morning and make it into a delectable meal by the time I got home from work.
2. A machine that was programmable…ON THE FRONT END! I want to put my food in the pot, and if it only takes 4 hours to cook, and I’m leaving at 8am, and returning at 4pm, it will not start cooking until noon.
3. A machine big enough to cook a roast that is several pounds.

And then I noticed the Instant Pot. I quickly scrolled through article after article on Pinterest. I searched through recipes, through what to do if you’re a beginner, I Googled what it would cook, how it could be used, how big it was, what you could put in it, how easy it was to figure everything out. And when I was done with my research, I KNEW that the Instant Pot was what I wanted. I quickly added it to my Wish List (something I’ll write about another time).

The battle ensued between Mikey and my Momma as to who was going to present this culinary treasure to me on Christmas. My Momma emerged the victor – though Mikey will likely reap most of the spoils. My parents got me the Instant Pot, a lid, and a cookbook to help me start making delicious, healthy meals.

I pulled it out of the box on New Year’s Day and read the entire manual. (Yes, I’m THAT person.) After reading the manual, and a few articles from Pinterest on how to start out, I cooked myself some water – a first step in preparing the machine for other gastronomic magic.

In our house we try to eat healthy – as healthy as possible. And we love to snack on hard boiled eggs. Side note: Did you know hard boiled eggs provide good fats, are naturally high in protein, contain good amounts of vitamin A & D, and is only 80 calories? When I found a recipe to cook hard boiled eggs in 5 minutes – YES PLEASE! Incidentally, being a pressure cooker, the Instant Pot should help us keep out of restaurants so much. To demonstrate how much time it saves: It will cook dry beans in under an hour!

I followed the very simple instructions on how to cook the eggs: 1 cup of water in the pot, add steamer tray, place eggs in, close lid and set timer. That’s it. The recipe promised perfectly cooked eggs, with shells that peel off easily. And it did not disappoint! No more ugly deviled eggs!

I haven’t had a chance to cook anything else in my Instant Pot yet (spent the following day zoodling (more on that later) but I’m ready to roll. I seriously can’t wait to put my ol’ Crock Pot on the Buy Nothing site….and maybe my rice cooker too!

My form of schizophrenia

I do not claim to know what it's like to have schizophrenia. I have studied schizophrenia when I was working on my psychology degree and I understand the way it supposedly works. I can't imagine actually having to deal with the disease every day, all day. I have friends who have ADHD, and others who have children that are diagnosed with it. I've known people who have bipolar disorder and when they were manic it was kind of crazy. Again, I can read what these things can do to a person but I don't REALLY know what it's like.  I do, however, often call what I DO have, which is clinically undiagnosed, my own sort of schizophrenia/ADD/mania.

I don't turn off. My mind is always going. I have a hard time devoting full focus to one thing. As I type this I am watching a TV show, checking my phone and thinking about the information I need to pass on to my replacement at work while I'm gone. I know that "they" say that women are naturally better multi-taskers, but this is ridiculous. When I lay down at night I literally MUST read. It's the only thing that distracts my attention away from the thoughts that spin and swirl through my mind enough to try to induce sleep. When I'm awake, I'm constantly writing lists. Metaphorically it feels like if I write it down on paper I can remove it from my mind. And it does help.....until I start thinking about making lists on how to organize my lists. I have formal lists that I've typed up and I have scraps of paper/napkins/receipts with random things scribbled on them. I'm obsessed with buying cute notepads that are meant for lists - grocery, to-do, to buy, etc. - but I'm just as happy to write a list on the side of a gum wrapper.


I purposely left this blurry. I'm willing to admit my problem, you don't need to see the specifics :)

Seriously, these are just the ones I had laying around right by me that I could quick take a snapshot of. These are everywhere. And now that I have a more demanding job, with much more to keep track of, they've increased exponentially.

I'm writing about this right now because it's been at the forefront of my mind since I've been planning for this long trip I'm taking. I have so much to do; so much to get prepared for. I've created SO many lists. Sleeping has been rough. Reading hasn't been doing to the trick. Even texting myself the stuff on my mind in the middle of the night isn't always working (when I was in college they called this "brain-dumping").

The hubs has no idea what this affliction is like. (And subsequently I have no idea what it's like to get in bed, turn off the light, and fall asleep. Period. Like no time between head hitting the pillow and dreamland. What is up with that?) We talked the other night about what it would be like to be able to spend time in someone else's body - like "Being John Malcovich" - so we could see what it's like to be the other person. I don't know if I'd really want to know. Perhaps it would make me even more jealous?

So I have some form of schizophrenia. Or ADHD. And OCD. I don't know. I guess I will just keep doing what works for me until I get sent to the insane asylum.

Does anyone else share my affliction?

The Allowance Dilemma

From the time my kids were pretty small the hubs and I were discussing what we would do for allowance. Would we give the kids money for nothing? Would we make them earn it by doing chores? Would they earn more if they did extra chores? Would we take it away if they were misbehaving? How much do we give them? How early do we start? What can we teach by giving an allowance?

I have to tell you I have googled A LOT about this subject. I've read experts opinions, I've read other parents opinions, I've read blogs about how families have adapted some mixture of all the suggestions from the first two together. There are so many ideas, so many different takes on the subject, I was left reeling trying to consider all of the possibilities.

Initially we floated the idea of allowance to the kids when Lil was about 6 years old, making Logan only about 4 at the time. I didn't feel like I could leave him out so we implemented for both of the kids. I think I recall giving them like $1.50/week and they had to save at least $0.50 of that. The problem was they didn't really get it, didn't really care about receiving it and I was really bad about having the cash on hand to present to them every Friday. I think it may have lasted about 3 weeks at the most. They forgot to ask, I forgot to provide and so it went by the wayside.

Now that they are older we decided that it was time to implement allowance again. Several things prompted the beginning of this new allowance system.

1. Their wants are getting increasingly more expensive. With technology becoming more innovative and cool they want the latest gizmo and gadget. While we could probably get them some, if not all of it, if we really wanted to, we feel like they don't have any understanding of how valuable the item is. Someone hands you an iPod and it's like, "Great! Woohoo!" There is no concept of the fact that the little piece of technological parts you're holding in your hand cost that someone a pretty penny.
2. They value money. They are both at an age now where getting cash & gift cards is one of their favorite things. They like to know that they can buy something, with their own money, when we go to the store.
3. We want to teach them what it's like to be responsible with money. Not only are far too many of us up to our eyeballs in credit card debt these days, there aren't many of us that are on board with the "save up until you can afford it" mentality. Our society is so full of "needs" that are really just wants -  and damnit we need these things RIGHT NOW! The idea of waiting to get something you want is nearly lost on my generation and, if it's possible, is only getting worse for my children's generation.

As I researched what was working for other families and what the experts recommended I thought about the constraints we would face with regards to allowance. Here's what I knew some of our limitations would be: 1) I would not have cash for them every week on Friday. I never carry cash and I know I wouldn't stop on Friday after work to get it for them; 2) They will probably forget to bring their money with them to the store OR they might not know that we were going to stop at the store and thus not bring their money; 3) They had to have easy access to whatever system we implemented. Otherwise they'd just ditch the whole idea, money or not; 4) It had to be something that was visible. They will need to be able to see what's happened with their allowance.

In taking all of this into account I developed our own system. It's definitely a hybrid of all of those other cool ideas I've seen on other people's blogs, but it is customized for the way that we live.

First, we discussed how much money per week to give the kids. Many of the things I read suggested an amount equal to their age either per week or per month. For us, $10 and $8 per month seemed a little low considering the cost of consumer items these days but we were also unwilling to shell out that amount per week. In addition, because we have two children who are constantly arguing about what is fair, we knew it had to be the same amount for each of them. We settled on $5 each per week.

Second, the earn for chores or just be given the money question. While we like the idea of earning your money (that's how we get our money, right?), we didn't want them to think that they should get paid for helping out around the house. We don't get extra money for doing laundry, or picking up dog poop, why should they? We felt like it was more important for them to realize that they had an obligation to lend a hand because they are a part of our family and they live here, rather than pay them for chores.

Third, do we take money away if they are misbehaving? While this is tempting we felt like the main reason why we were giving them an allowance is to teach them the value of money and to learn how to be responsible with it. It is not part of a reward/punishment system and so we have chosen not to use it in that way.

Fourth, I read that many people made their kids split their money into different banks: spending, saving, and donation. We decided we also thought it was important for the kids to see what it was like to save their money and so we came up with a hybrid spending/saving plan. Of their $5 per week they are required to put at least 30% of that amount into a Spendable Savings Account (SSA). It is a savings account, but it is money that they will be able to spend. The caveat is that they will only be able to spend this money on a big purchase that they save up to buy. This stemmed from a goal Lilly had to buy herself an iPod. She had saved up $140 (the one she wanted was $200) and over the course of a few weeks piddled her money away on junk with nothing to show for it. The money in the SSA can only be withdrawn at $50 or higher. Also, for every four weeks they have $50 in their SSA they earn $2.50 interest. And that is compounded so if they have $100 for four weeks they earn $5.00 and so on.

Now that we had answered the important questions we had to figure out how to implement. Knowing that their allowance would not be my top priority I set up automatic transfers from our checking account to their savings accounts at the bank. This way their money would always be available and designated for them. I decided that the best way for them to keep track of their earnings, savings and spending was on a form that looks like a check register. I created these folders to hold their registers for both their regular spending account and their spendable savings account.

I created the registers to look and work exactly like the check registers of the days of yore. I say that because I haven't kept a check register in ages - I just use a debit card - but I do know how to use a check register if I have to and it's as good a tool as any to teach the kids how to manage their money.

I wanted to make sure they knew the regulations of the Bank of Mom & Dad up front so each of them have a copy of them in the back of their folders. These are the regulations:
 

·       Paydays are weekly on Friday.

·       You must save at least 30% of your allowance for a long term goal.

·       You must keep all purchases up to date in your register.

·       You are allowed to spend your allowance at any time, on anything you wish to purchase.  However, the items you buy can and will be regulated by the parents. For example, you can choose to buy candy but the parents have the right to deny access to any item that you buy, at any time, for any reason.

 

·       You ARE allowed to deposit more than 30% of your allowance into your spendable savings account.

 

·       There is a minimum $50 withdrawal amount from your spendable savings account. In other words, you cannot withdraw an amount less than $50. Any amount over $50 is ok.

 

·       Money in your spendable savings account will earn an additional $2.50 per month for every $50 in your account

I initially included a regulation that required that they add their money into their registers each week but upon further reflection decided not to. While I wanted them to think that getting their "paycheck" was important, I remembered that I get my paycheck whether I remember to pick it up or not. I complied with the regulations set in order to get my paycheck and the company I work for cannot then say since I didn't pick up my check ON payday that I don't get to have it. Since the goal is to prepare them for how money works in the real world I left that regulation out.

I also thought about letting them get themselves into a situation where their account could potentially go negative and setting regulations as to what fees would be charged - just like the actual bank. But I decided to hold off on that for now until they start to get a better grasp as to how this all works.

The kids have a pretty good memory of how much money they have in their accounts at any given time and I usually watch them when they add their paychecks in so I have an idea as well. This way they don't have to bring their wallets with them everywhere (where they get lost or stolen) and if we make an impromptu stop at the store they have their money available to them. We simply pay for their items separately and they take the reciept home and log it into their register. This way they pay the sales tax, they get whatever discount might be going on, etc. We haven't run into a time where they've gotten into the negative yet. If and when we do I will have to revisit my ideas about adding regulations on that subject.

We started this at the beginning of November and it has been going quite well. It is interesting to watch the differences between the two kids in the way they save and spend money. They are definitely both very different.

 

Logan began putting a little more than the required $1.65 into his spendable savings account ($2.00), but he is quick to spend his money. He is also the one who always remembers to add his Friday paycheck into his register.

Lilly hasn't spent much of her allowance at all. I think she may have bought TicTacs one day. But she designates a much larger amount to savings. She really wants to start earning the interest and building that savings account up because she wants an iPad REALLY bad.

 

 

 

Do your kids get an allowance? What system do you have in place?

 

If anyone is interested in getting the templates for my register, folder cover, a copy of my regulations or otherwise please let me know and I will post links to them as free printables.

New Project: Chalkboard Cabinet Door

In my opinion coming home from work only to try to figure out what to make for dinner is one of the worst things ever. Your brain is fried, you're tired and no one can decide what they want. The only way that I can prevent this from happening is to plan a menu, buy groceries according to the menu (so that we have everything we need) and post it so that Brandon can see what we'll be having for the next two weeks.

The problem is I write my menu on my grocery list. And my grocery list goes in my purse.....or in my pocket.....or in my coupon holder. And it almost never gets posted right away. In a morning rush this is the conversation between myself and the hubs:

Him: "What should I take out for dinner tonight?"
Me: "I don't know."
Him: "Well what's on the list?"
Me: "I can't remember.
Him: "Well, where is it?"
Me: "Ummm, I'm not sure right now."

SO, in order to avoid all of this, and since I have this newly painted kitchen which I am organizing and prettying, I decided to paint the inside of one of our cupboards with chalkboard paint. I can write out the menu after I have it done and there will be no question as to where it is. Also, we can cross off the ones we've already had so we don't end up having the same thing twice in one week (it's happened).

First Brandon had to sand down the inside of the door. Then I wanted to tape off a border for two reasons;, 1) for decorative purposes, and 2) so that I didn't have to worry about the screw from the knob or the hinges. First, I measured two inches in all the way around and made small marks to make sure the tape was straight.

Next I taped off the border:

Then, in order to prevent those nasty paint leaks under the tape, I painted the tape line with a clear acrylic. This is the kind we had at home already:

As soon as the clear acrylic was dry I got to start painting the chalkboard. After the first coat it was clear a few more were needed.

After the third coat was dry I pulled the tape off and low and behold there was a beautiful new chalkboard!

After you paint the chalkboard you have to wait three days before you apply any chalk so today I got to condition it and start using it. You condition the chalkboard by rubbing a white piece of chalk all over the board and then wiping it off with the eraser. This preps the board so that it erases easier in the future. Finally, I got to write my menu on the board!

Since we often also have a handful of recipes from magazines and we have another cabinet right next door that will fully open when the menu door is fully open, I had Brandon attach a clip so that the new recipes (as well as the old ones) would all be in one place and ready to use. As a bonus, we often do our prepping on this part of the counter so we can actually just put the current recipe in the front of the pile and work off it while it hangs from the clip.

So excited to have another organizing project done! Having a routine and a specific place for stuff makes me very happy!

A Gift to My Daughter, Part 1

I can't believe that 10 years ago tomorrow I went into labor with Lilly. (P.S. her birthday is Friday if that gives you any idea what my first experience having a baby was like!) What a rollercoaster that year had been - pulled a 180 leaving Europe and the Peace Corp behind and instead starting a family. At the time it was everything I didn't want. Now, I can't imagine it any other way.

For her birthday we agreed to update her room into a "more sophisticated, grown up-like room." Her main objective (I think): just moving things around so it's fresh and new. (She wanted a new paint job but I frankly just didn't feel like it.) My main objective: teach the girl some organization and a love for being clean and tidy!

She's been complaining about her desk being under the window for a while now, it's just never had another place to live. Since she's so old now we've cleared her room of little kid toys like her Barbie house and her dress up clothes so that we have some room to work. The other day when we were boxing up things to either go to the garage sale box or her memory box I was reminded of the scene in Toy Story when they show the montage of Andy going from little boy to teenager. I'm excited for her and sad for me. Every day a new toy becomes passe, and she's asking me to put deoderant on the shopping list.

Consequently, Brandon and I have been shopping, building and painting to get her room in shape for the big 1-0. Thanks to one of my favorite blogs: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ Brandon didn't have to build the shelving unit we had designed. By some miraculous twist of fate Jen put up a post about a desk she was designing using some items from IKEA that looked almost EXACTLY like what Brandon had sketched. Off to IKEA we went. Her original desk had a stained finish so I told her I would paint it to match the rest of her new stuff. That's what I've been doing this weekend (among massive cleaning in the den while the primer dried). Here's a picture of her desk and room before:

Total mess....as usual

It sometimes amazes me that she can be so messy. I'm almost sure I've been talking to her about the importance of being neat and organized since she was born. And yet, it seems all of my OCD was transferred to my son. Luckily these things can change and I am trying my best to help get her organized and then teach her how to stay that way!

Here's what I did this weekend:

Gil is always around to help....until the sander turns on :)

post sanding

primed

Tonight I got the legs painted, but we're waiting to do the top until we have a foam roller. That will be the next step tomorrow. Maybe I will lecture Lilly some more on the importance of organization and doing things right while we apply a second coat...

Unreal Expectations but pretty good results

I always have grand plans for my days off. Just like the myriad of things I’d like to get done during the course of the year, I do the same for my days. I try to wake up early, sit and have my coffee, and make good use of a day that I don’t have to go to work. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. On any given day I probably get more done than the average bear but I still lay down in bed at night regretting the things that I didn’t accomplish. Rationally I know that it is unreasonable to think I could possibly accomplish the 19 goals I set for myself in one day, but my nature sure pushes me to try.

Today I wanted to get out with Lilly to look at a few things for her room which means a total lack of productivity at home for most of the day. Once you have to leave your house at least part of the day is shot. Especially when you live out in the country and it takes 20 minutes to get anywhere! We found some good stuff and we made it home in time to make quite a bit of progress on her room. She is thrilled with the results – which alone makes me happy – and I think it’s going to look great.  It already looks better and is far more functional than it was.

Unfortunately for me and my lofty goals I did NOT get anything done in the den. It has returned to its original state of chaos (see my post last year of Monica’s closet) and desperately needs some attention. If I’m going to achieve my other goal of getting up and working out I’ve GOT to get the den cleaned up so that I can set up the treadmill. Ahhh, if it’s not one thing it’s another…

So I woke up with a backache, and I am ending the day with a backache, but I accomplished something and I guess that will have to be good enough.

Monica's Closet

I have a dirty little secret.

I know I've quoted and chatted about 'Friends', my favorite TV show of all time, before. I watched it religiously when it first ran when I was in high school and I faithfully watch re-runs now. I just can't get enough. For whatever reason it just never gets old! Anyway, if you've watched 'Friends' you may know that Monica is OCD; she can't handle anything out of place and is fanatical about it. On one episode one of the friends exposes her secret: a messy closet full of junk!

In the first years that we met, as well as the first year or so of our marriage Brandon constantly called me Monica. Just for background I acquired my OCD from my mother who is worse than I am. Thankfully (because really who can be like that forever....other than my mom) I have relaxed, a little, and can accept that being a full time mom, having a full time job, running my own business and doing all the other things I do that sometimes things will be out of place.

If you stop by my house on any given day you'll probably find it pretty tidy. I try, I really do, to keep it kept up. Unfortunately there is one room that has become Monica's closet. Everyone has something like this, right? A drawer, a closet, a room? I know you do! Are you ready? Here is mine:

Now, you have to realize, I took 8 large bins of stuff out of it yesterday so this is better than sometimes. I know, sad right?

There are a number of reasons why this room exists this way:

1. I need at least one place to "throw" stuff when people are coming over unexpectedly
2. We have not sat down and created an actual plan for the office and transformed it into a working, functional space (please help HGTV!)
3. It was just Christmas and it's easy to hide stuff in here (Good luck finding your gift amongst everything else kids!)
4. I don't have enough time...

And so with our finishing projects this year hopefully many of the things that get thrown in this room will have a place to live in our shed and I can finally create a functional, workable space that won't have to be a secret anymore.