Confessions of a Maxxinista

I love T. J. Maxx.

Most of my clothes and shoes are Maxx finds as are a good amount of household necessities, small furniture pieces, and yes--even snacks (they always have gluten-free goodies!).

My most recent find was exactly what I was looking for and an absolute STEAL at $7.  I got two.  One for my laundry room for kitchen linens, and one for the master bath for lingerie.  It's cute, sturdy, and roomy.

Nerd Girl bliss!

Summer Notebooks

Darling (daughter) and Dearheart (son) need some direction this summer and what I was doing (Random Intermittent Micromanaging) wasn't working, so after blatantly ripping off borrowing inspiration from Pinterest, I created Summer Notebooks for each of the kids.  (And myself.  Evidently my earlier RIM method doesn't work on me either.

Darling loves hers.  I mean is over-the-moon happy about knowing what to do each day and getting to check things off--nirvana!  Dearhart?  Well, he's 15.  Let's leave it at that.  I've made his notebook short and to the point and explained to him that this is the less objectionable way for him to be productive this summer and get to his free time.

For each of the kids, they have 4 categories of tasks.  I labeled them "TAG" (time alone with God), "Grow", "Play", and "Do."

TAG is for their worship time.  Darling is reading through the Psalms (her idea) and listening to The Bible in Living Sound.  Dearhart has a devotional book he's reading and a Bible Study at for his class at church.  They're to journal after they read/listen.  There's a corresponding tab in the same color as that particular task's category marking where their journal begins.  Darling is also keeping a journal of feelings, and I'm keeping a separate prayer journal. 

The other post-it categories are as follows:  "Grow"--Enrichment activities (reading, outside play, practicing instruments), "Play"--free time ideas and limits (screen time limits for computer games and television), and "Do"--tasks and regular chores.

The "Play" post-it is for when all the other three post-it tasks are all done.  And, of course, there are opportunities to earn money doing extra things around the house if they finish up early.

The little arrow tab at the bottom this particular week is a little love letter from God (memory verse promise).  Last week the tab was a reminder that VBS was each night that week.  The arrow gets reused for the whole week.  Some of the post-its can be reused from day to day or week to week if the tasks haven't changed.

To be completely fair, I created a notebook for myself too.  (Darling makes sure I keep up with it, so I can't slack!)  I'm finding I like the cheery colors and and the structure it gives to my day.  I'm also using it to keep up with my food intake and adding a memory text to work on.

One of the things I really like about this system is it's flexibility.  If we're taking a spontaneous vacation day, I can modify the plan easily!

We've been using this system for about 10 days now and it's really improved things.  I'll probably adapt this when school starts and continue using it for myself and Darling; Dearhart will be off at school and he's got structure aplenty built into his day there!

Getting into the Spring of things

So I'm trying to get excited about the warming of the weather.  I'm a winter gal.  I love the absence of ticks, mosquitos, pollen, and venomous wildlife that is the wintertime.  And I was built for cold.   Not heat and sun.  I come from a Nordic, wintry people and we wilt in the heat and humidity.

But I shall look for ways to cope and yeah, even enjoy the coming seasons.

For example, I have actually got seedlings sprouting in neat little trays on top of my frige and hutch.  I shall have tomatoes and snow peas and salad fixings this year.  Home grown.

The herb tray isn't looking as hot.  We shall see.  I planted LOTS of Lavender.  So far, not so graced by their presence yet.

And I shall commence battle against the ticks.  Advantixx for the doggies, and then widespread warfare with Tick Tubes by (and I just love their brand name) Damminix.  

Happy Spring!

Yippie!! Dried black beans to ready in 90 minutes--no pre-soaking!

Myths Shattered:

Adding salt before cooking toughens the skin (it doesn't)

Beans need to soak before being cooked (no they don't!)

I love black beans.  I just don't love trying to talk my blonde-brain into remembering to start the soak the night before, rinse and drain in the morning, then crock-pot cook them all day long!

Googled it, and found some clear instructions here, modified it a bit (I need to rinse dried, bagged stuff before cooking.  It's a thing I have), crossed my fingers and Ta-Dah!  It worked beautifully!

Here's the how-to:

1. Rinse beans (I did 3 cups of the dried)
2. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees
3. Put beans in a medium to large oven-proof pot and add water till 1.5-2 inches over beans.
4. Add 1.5+/- tsp salt and any other spices you like.  I used 1 tsp cumin.
5. Cover and bring to full boil on stove-top.
6. Once beans have reached a boil, put the pot (still covered) into the oven.
7. Bake for 75-85 minutes, checking at the 40 minute mark to make sure there's enough water.  If they look a little dry, add some water.  You can either add boiling water and put the pot right back in the oven, or you can add cold water and bring it back to a boil on the stovetop first, then replace in the oven.

As Fat-Guy says (yeah, that's what his screen-name says--I'm not calling hime names), "Go forth and soak no more!"

Enjoy!

Stuff that brings me joy. And a window that doesn't.

Christmas time is here.  Happiness and Cheer...

Cleaned the Dining Room/Library.  This was several hours of work as it had become, book-sorting central, N1D's play area, a photo-scanning studio, and safe haven for assorted lost items.

Got the tree up!

Decorated my new kitchen light fixture

Sometimes stuff just works.  I found a glass bottle of seltzer water at T. J. Maxx for $1.50.  N1D and I enjoyed experimenting with adding flavors to the water, and then I was just itching to find a use for this simple container.  Light bulb!  I hate how often my kitchen sink soap dispenser runs out of soap (this sink gets a lot of use!).  Maybe, just maybe I could find a pump lid that would fit it.  Crossed my fingers, grabbed the salon-pump top off a recently emptied  large bottle of Suave shampoo (I really spend the $$ of haircare as you can see), and VOILA!  The threads lined up perfectly.

Filled the bottle with Ivory Dishwashing liquid.  Added a few drops of tangerine essential oil.  And set it proudly beside my sink.

Yeah, my sink.  Located just below my leaky leaky window.  We just removed the trim so we could measure the rough in opening in order to order/find a replacement.  Of course it's now been raining for 36+ hours and will continue to rain for the forseeable future.  So my DH set up a press-n-seal-water-slide of sorts.  Now when drips come down from inside of the upper part, they drop onto the plastic wrap and then Wheeeeeee!--they slide down into the sink.

Yeah, the fascination ended sometime yesterday.  Looking forward to getting a new window.  One that doesn't provide so much scope for the imagination.

Felt and Fleece project (or what I did while my sewing machine was in the shop)

So N1D is going to be in our local town's parade.  She and other kids from her school are representing cultures and nationalities from around the world.  We're (she is, anyway) "Norway."  When I looked up the traditional dress, this is what I found:

A little beyond my ability.  Not to mention lacking in warmth.  So I decided to go with an easy cape design, made from soft, extra-thick, velour fleece (1.5 yards, only $9).  Add in some bright "embroidered" flowers and hearts (made of layers of felt stitched together and then pinned on so Noelle can take them off), and blanket stitched the edges.  Voila.

She'll also be wearing brown leggings and these:

Hat from T. J. Maxx (it's wool AND it's lined with fleece--score!) and boots from Old Navy.  I really want a pair of those boots in my size.

Yes, the blanket stitching took approximately forever.  If my pi calculations are correct, it was just over 157 linear inches.  13 feet.  Plus the neckline.  Haven't added in the time on the felt flower and hearts.  Let's just say I had several evenings of watching Frasier and Sports Night on netflix with DH.

Oh and my sewing machine is BA-AACK!  I missed her.  Only $30 to get Miss Viking all fixed up. Smile.

Sad tidings, warm hearts, and a camera strap

Well Miss Viking finally pitched her hissy fit and is off at the sewing machine doctor's office to get patched up.  Wonder how much THAT will set me back.  I miss her.

Camera Strap

Anyway, at least I finished the project I was working on when she hiccuped and then whirred down to silence: a camera strap.  Or make that two camera straps.  The first one demonstrated my inability to mathmaticate correctly and although it's a LOVELY little strap that's padded and comfy and the correct length; the pockets turned out waaaaay too narrow for my lens cap (the initial reason for making said strap) AND the pockets ended up on the same end.  And uneven.  So here's the result my second attempt.  It's reversible too!

And me demonstrating lens cap pocket.  Yeah, I'm easily entertained.

I'll post instructions if anybody wants them.  I initially planned to follow some instructions I found on pinterest, but they were a wee bit confusing, plus needed a serger (which I have, but still need to learn to use!). Basically you measure your strap for length, lens cap for width, add seam allowances, check that you've allowed for seam allowances, and cut out two strips from fabric, two shorter strips for pockets (and if you want it padded, flannel, felt, or crib pad material--what I used) and sew it up.

Heart-Warmers

N1D (Number 1 Daughter) has been begging for me to teacher her how to sew, so I got a project for her (which I stole from somewhere I can't remember now).  Heart-shaped hand warmers.

Craft felt, rice, and embroidery floss (or thread doubled over until you get 8 strands).  We made a pattern from heavy paper, measured to fit in an average pocket with space left for hand to be warmed.  Cut out 2 pieces of felt, pin together, stitch from high point of one side of the heart, down around point and back up to the middle of the other high point, fill with rice, then continue to stitch until closed.  Voila!  (Our research indicated that about 30-40 seconds in the microwave worked nicely for the right amount of heat).

Noelle's making these as Christmas gifts and has put her little heart and soul into them.  (So if you end up with one for Christmas, act surprised!)

Well, after a field trip with N1D's school to the Zoo, Jury rigging a Halloween costume for N1D, two days of N1D being home with a cold, loads and loads of laundry (plus several loads of stuffed babies washed up for our local chapter of Bags of Love), and quite a bit of cleaning and organizing--I'm counting down to the weekend.  Spending time with some girlfriends as the Man of the House will be away camping with a youth group.  Happy Fall, Ya'll!