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!

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.

Men's T-shirts are NOT meant for girls!

When I was little I was a gymnast. I was on the team and we went to a lot of gymnastic meets. At every one my parents would buy me a t-shirt. And they were great for the gym. I wore them all the time to gymnastics practice (which was a substantial amount of time: 4 nights a week for 3 hours). When I got to be a teenager big, baggy t-shirts were no longer my thing. And they still aren't. I like a fitted t-shirt - a girl's t-shirt.

Unfortunately, I still have some regular t-shirts. I've gotten them from conferences, from friends or family from vacations, or I've picked them up because they were the only kind of t-shirt available where I was and wanted a souvenir. With my addiction to Pinterest I've seen lots of ideas of how to transform those baggy men's t-shirts into something I might actually wear.

Since I happen to have 2 of these t-shirts I decided to try out the method I found here by Mrs. Dotson. It's a no-sew so I didn't have to fish my sewing machine out of the mess that is my den right now.

Here's the t-shirt I decided to experiment with

I turned the red t-shirt inside out. Then I brought out one of my favorite shirts and laid it on top of the t-shirt I was modifying. Since I was going to be tying knots with the fabric I drew chalk lines about an inch and a half larger than my favorite shirt.

Then I cut along the chalk lines, as well as along the bottom of the red t-shirt to make it shorter.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with the sleeves. They are kind of long and way too wide but I really didn't want to hem them so I didn't want to cut them. I decided to continue the cut of the curve into the sleeve and just make the shirt have sleeves that reached my elbows.

Here's what it looks like after it's all cut up:

At this point you could just sew a hem all along the cuts. That's what I'm planning to do with the other shirt I have like this. For the no-sew method though out come the scissors.

Make small cuts all the way up the cut sides continuing on to the sleeves as well. Once all of the cuts are made comes the tedious task of knotting each pair of cut fringe.

I suppose you could put the fringe on the outside of the shirt but I liked the way Mrs. Dotson's looked being on the inside. I don't quite think I could pull off the exposed fringe. :)

In the end, I'm pretty happy. I definitely would like to use the sewing machine next time but for now this works. I like to wear a tank under my t-shirts anyway so the little holes are not a problem. I also really like the length of the sleeves.

Now it almost looks like a girls shirt on the hangar too!

Finally a Local 77 t-shirt that looks like it was made for a girl! Think I'll wear it to the Hall on Friday.

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!

New Project: Conquer Kitchen Counter Mess!

Like I'm sure many of you can sympathize with, our kitchen counter top is a catchall for all kinds of stuff: mail, kids binders, newspapers, keys, dishes, food, etc. It seems like no matter what we do we cannot keep stuff off that counter!

While thinking creatively about my kitchen and pantry re-organization I decided to tackle this as well. We have this blank wall next to the back door where I used to have a little chalkboard hung up. We never used it and the little shelf it had was just a dust collector. So down it went. I was at Marshall's one day and found a wall hanging for office organization that immediately gave me inspiration for this space. So I bought it, brought it home and hung it on the wall.

It fit perfect and it fits over the phone outlet nicely so that once filled, you will not see that ugly thing anymore.

On the same shopping trip with Tonya and Heather, Tonya found these super cute frames at Kohl's that have a magnetic space on them. I decided I would get one to go with each of the baskets and add pictures of us. A little bit decorative but still useful - I love it!

My handy hubby was nice enough to install them for me so that they would be securely fastened to the wall.

Look! He even has the construction worker shirt!

It was looking so good. I debated about what kind of system I wanted for the baskets and decided that file folders would be the most functional for us and they fit right into the baskets. So I ran to Staple's since I knew they carried pretty file folders. I had a hard time finding semi-boyish folders for Logan but I managed to find one with blue polka dots and one with little sunbursts.

Next, I had to put my graphic design skills to work to finish up the project and make everything look pretty. I created labels to put on the file folders. I decided that the kids would have 2 folders, 1 labeled "School", and the other "To-Do". In the school folder I added 2" fasteners and attached their syllabi's, their lunch number information, and any other notes from the school. Any homework papers, project descriptions or other papers that will be vacating the folder in the next couple weeks are loose in the folder. The categories I used for Brandon and I are: New Mail, Ready to File, Bills, and Miscellaneous.

I also purchased a planner to keep in our basket with the family calendar. We always have a hard time remembering what's going on, especially with my sometimes crazy schedule. Also, I was tired of the calendar inside the cabinet door. The planner calendar allows us to look at the month at a glance and then if there is something that requires more explanation we can write it in the daily pages that follow the monthly calendar

For the final touches I had to create the labels for the front of the baskets. I kept it with the same theme as the labels I made for the folder labels.

WaLa! I'm proud of myself for finishing a project and I LOVE the way it looks. So far we've been good about using the system and our counter top (with the exception of the work we've been doing on the science project) has been clear!

My next additions to this piece of the wall are chore sheets for the kids magnetic boards and an important number list to have near the phone. Soon!

Kitchen Renno, part deaux

Though we are still not finished (no thanks to Home Depot and their flooring that is out of stock), the kitchen renno is coming along nicely.

I am so proud of Brandon for working so hard on this day in and day out. I know it's easy to get sucked into the couch after having lunch and wasting the rest of the day away. I appreciate you Babe, even if I don't always show it.

Here is an updated photo after the cabinet hinges came and the doors were hung.

It is so much brighter and cheery in the kitchen now. Although I was a little skeptical about the hinges, they look great. (The hinges on these doors are pretty specific and didn't come in black so we had to order oil brushed bronze.)

There are still some pieces of the cabinets that need some touch up and then Brandon will get the knobs and pulls installed. We went with a cup pull for the drawers.

And an extra large knob for the doors - to help keep finger prints off the white cabinets.

The past few days Brandon has been working on the new tile backsplash. We chose a gray tile and we both liked them cut larger with the subway tile look. Fortunately we agree on a lot, and it's really turning out great.

Laying the first tiles

Had some trouble with some of the cuts around the outlets but got it all up

Completed tile with grout. Just waiting for it to harden before do the final sponge-off.

It's looks really good. Not the full remodel we would've like to have been able to afford, but still updates the place a TON! There's still plenty of work to be done. In addition to the cabinet painting, new tile, new wall paint, hinges/pulls/knobs, and (eventually) new floors, it's forced us to pull everything out of the cabinets. I'm getting rid of stuff we never use, reorganizing where to place some things and developing a strategy for kitchen organization. We need to re-do the shelves in our pantry because it's a weird shape so hopefully we can accomplish that as well.

Happy Changing!

Kitchen Renno, Part 1

The story of how we found our house, and subsequently the story of the purchase, is a good one. But that is for another time. Right now we are addressing the incredibly poor taste of the previous owners.

When we first moved in there was this ancient oven-wave (that's slang for an all-in-one-unit oven/microwave) that I can only imagine emerged from the 1978 Woolworth's catalog. It was hideous! Besides that, every.....and I mean every cabinet in our house is oak. The bathroom fixtures are oak. The hallway lights were oak mounted. The freaking toilet seats were oak. And not some nice, modern design using oak for its durability and strength, oh no, these are the awful 1980's oak. I hate them. And so does Brandon. Since we've lived here we've changed out the powder room sink unit to a pedestal sink and removed all the oak fixtures. Just last year we FINALLY got rid of the frosted, frilly glass hallway lights that were mounted on oak. Unfortunately, we hadn't quite gotten around to much of the rest.

Here is what our kitchen looks like (at least part of it):

My mom thinks the cabinets are fine. I personally cannot stand them. And so we decided to do a low cost remodel and paint the kitchen. I left this past weekend to go with Tonya on her little girl's birthday party extravaganza. When we were on our way home I got this text:

Bud: How far out are you?
Nik: half hour or so
Bud: Why not longer?
Nik: Because we left? I don't know.
Bud: You should go out to lunch
Nik: I'm tired, I want to come home
Bud: Don't you need to go to the store for a few hours?
Nik: No, I will swing by the store for milk but then I'm coming home

This is what I walked in to:

I'm so proud of my hubby for working on this project. Neither of us like to paint so I know it's no picnic.

Tonight I ordered the drawer pulls, hinges, knobs and the tile for the backsplash. I can't wait until it all comes together!

My Newest (Old) Project

It started snowing here on January 14th. Over the course of 6 days approximately 24 inches of snow fell at our house. As of Tuesday at 4:30pm I have been at home....with the kids....and the hubs. Now, granted I had to work on contract language and I was answering questions from my Union brothers and sisters about OT, but other than that, I didn't do ANYTHING. I seriously wonder what it would be like if I wasn't normally so busy. I think I would turn into a couch potato. It's not that I was was watching TV the whole time - we played in the snow, we played legos, we played on the computer, we Skyped Murmur, we taught the kids how to play Hearts, and Spades, we played Euchre, and Sorry, we made cookies, and I did clean up the house. But the week was wrought with organization possibilities that now, on Sunday Eve, are blown. By this afternoon I was so mad at myself I had to kick my butt into gear and decide to do something. So I'm tackling a project that's been ongoing for years.

I am a magazine article keeper. Somehow I've justified to myself that if I just pull out the stuff that I'm going to look at again, or do, or cook, it will be much more space saving than keeping all those "whole" magazines. (And really, it is! I've been tearing these out for years and this is what I've got!) Unfortunately, with the exception of a few things over the years that I've remembered and searched through all of this to find, most of it has just sat in this pile. I think this is like the paper form of Pinterest...

Tonight, however, I decided to once and for all organize all of these into some useful reference guides. I bought binders for all of these years ago. And some of them I have actually filed away. But as I tear out more and more the pile just grows. The plan: to organize into similar categories, slide into page covers, label binders accordingly and actually be able to use them!

Here's where I started:

I spent the evening sorting them into categories and getting rid of the things that I can't figure out why I kept. Then, I slid them into page protectors and put them into binders. Next, I will label them all and create my self a reference guide of ideas. I will post a picture of the final product when I'm done.

As you can imagine, many of these are recipes. What I have done, and will continue to do - only in a little more organized fashion - is tear out new recipes I think we should try. Then, after I've made the meal once, the family votes on whether or not it's a keeper. If it's not, it goes in the trash. If it is, I transfer the recipe to a recipe card and file it in the box. The problem is I don't get them written down all that quickly a lot of the time. My cookbook cupboard is then overflowing with random loose papers and pieces of magazine articles.

In an effort to make it more organized I am instead going to create The Reedy Family Cookbook. I am going to design a template to enter all of our favorite recipes into, print, slide into sheet protectors and put in a binder that will serve as our central cookbook. No more trying to explain to Brandon when I'm running late what kind of paper the recipe is on, where I stashed it, or what kind of stain is on it! (Believe me, I've run late before and he's had to cook unexpectedly and we've spent a half hour on the phone while he runs from pile to pile looking for a recipe. He LOVES that.)

As a bonus to creating the cookbook and having all of our favorites in one place, I have had it in the back of my mind for years to write down all of the kids favorites (along with the family standbys) and make them a cookbook for when they move out. I remember in college making Stuffed Peppers out of the Betty Crocker cookbook (a rare, yummy, home cooked dinner in college that did not come out of a bag with Chinese writing on the side) and after taking one bite thinking, "this does NOT taste like Mom's!" When I called her to ask what I did wrong? "Oh honey, I don't make it like that. I changed some things. Here's what I do...." I figure if I start now I won't be scrambling to type and print recipe pages as she packs her final bags to leave. And this way, she'll know the crazy things I do to recipes to make them "mine."

So that's on my agenda; on the short term list. Getting my pile of magazine articles out has renewed my energy and my mood. I'm just no good at sitting around! More to come on this one...