It never ceases to amaze me how we’ll push simple cleaning projects back on our lists over and over. It’s not that they’re big, just that they’re undesirable.
Today’s tip: Just Do It
This morning I spent about 10 minutes cleaning my microwave. It wasn’t hard and it looks so much better! Two cleaning tools that I’d die without in my kitchen are my scratch free-scouring scrub brush with soap filled handle and disposable disinfectant wipes. The brush makes short work of scrubbing on all my kitchen surfaces with the aid of just the right amount of dish soap and the wipes are the perfect finisher. Both are great in the kitchen because both cut grease and we all know how fun grease is to clean up. *frown*
I’ve put off cleaning the microwave for several weeks and every time I’d open it I’d groan. I’ve probably cleaned the darn thing 100 times in my head! It only took once and it took less than 10 minutes but man it sure feels good. The payback of satisfaction and motivation far outweigh my procrastination reasons. There’s power in just doing things that need done.
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Homemaker Sharing Housework Balance Blogging
We had a busy weekend at my house. We spent most of Saturday in the yard. It was time to harvest the winter garden and replant, and the palm trees were ready for another trim too. I wanted to share pictures, but by the time we were in it I was far too muddy and messy to grab the camera let alone use it. But I have some before and after shots of some garden spots:
The three rows of produce you can see in the first photo included carrots, spinach and green onions. The half row of green onion filled two gallon bags when cleaned and cut. While I’m sure I’ll never get through them all, I’m sure some neighbors will be happy to receive some spoils. *wink* The spinach was wonderful to enjoy fresh while it lasted and these two rows of carrots gave us 6 gallons of work to pull, top, peel and slice. I couldn’t have done it without the family’s help. My son (who is still calling days ‘weeks’) exclaimed happily while we were washing and topping the pile, “This is a GREAT week!” Which translated, roughly means “I’m having a great time today!” I had to agree as to me there is nothing better than spending quality time working or playing together as a family. There is still the final phase of storage waiting for me with the carrots, but the hard part is done.
My little garden spot is finally getting to the point where something can grow in this harsh Arizona ground. It’s a lot of work! And it gives me greater appreciation for my pioneer ancestors who had to put so much into the development of land to grow things and become productive. Within a few more plantings I expect things will be almost right as roots continue to break up the hard soil underneath and I continue to feed the top soil with needed nutrients and fertilizer. But work is good and I’m grateful for the lessons it’s helping me teach my family.
Blake toiled long and hard with a volunteer palm that decided to take root right next to the corner of the house. It was growing so quickly that we had to cut it down. Hats off to him doing it the old fashioned way with nothing more than a handsaw. That was hard work! The middle section has popped up in the past couple of days which we’re speculating may be because the outside is drying so much faster but we really have no idea.
And here’s the last of the pictures I have to share of my small flower bed behind the house. The pictures are only about 4 weeks or so apart. I love this time of year when so much is in bloom here and so pretty to look at.
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Family Gardening Homemaker Motherhood Success Blogging
I had great hopes of getting work done both outside and inside yesterday. Somehow, the hours seem to shorten when you get into a project and consequently the entire day for me yesterday was spent in my yard. I’m not sad though. It’s always a wonderful feeling to get your hands busy and see the fruits of your labors at the end of the day.
Pictures never do justice to the amount of sweat and work that go into so many things in our lives. And it never ceases to amaze me how something that looks like such a small amount of work is so deceiving. When I began in my yard, the goal was to get the garden bordered with flowers, some of the workable bed tilled and ready for new seed and above all get the weeds under control.
I stopped for flowers on the drive home from taking my son to school. Then finished the one online project that had to be done and went outside. In the hour and a half I had before returning to pick him up I managed to get through the weeds in the front of the garden and a few of the flowers planted. In fact, the picture at the start of this article was taken just as I left to pick him up. After lunch it was harder to keep going because it was getting hot. But he had a friend come over to play and that kept me outside and going. I made it through the rest of the garden, planted the planter boxes and even got through the rose bed. I hate weeds.
Although it may not look like much, it was the product of many sore muscles and a very good night’s sleep. All in all, a healthy day’s work. *smile*
Today I’m hoping for a quieter inside day and some time to catch up on weekend blog reading and computer projects. They’re easier on the hands and back.
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Gardening Homemaker Sharing
I just took a crash course in refrigeration and thought I’d share. Maybe it will be helpful to someone else or at the very least the notes will help me next time! As a disclaimer, I’m about to bare the level of my ignorance and naivety here so if you’re laughing I don’t want to know. *wink*
A few weeks ago our automatic ice maker stopped making ice. The fridge is less than 2 years old and as I never a had a problem with the earlier make and model in my previous house over the course of 5 years I was puzzled. I did some simple research online and found a lot of common problems to be freezing elements of the unit and even read handy tips like using a blow dryer to defrost it. I even pulled the fridge out to see if I could detect a frozen line or anything but I couldn’t as as the water was coming out fine from the dispenser I determined it must be an ice maker issue. Well, lifting what I could and looking around I couldn’t find any frozen elements or pieces of ice anywhere, nor could I see any pieces that I could remove to reveal anything else. And you certainly don’t want to go around pulling on plastic pieces these days as you’re bound to end up with a handful of broken pieces that will cost you a small fortune to replace on special order. Further research in the manual and online indicated that by the color and timing sequence of the indicator light flashing that it was a faulty sensor issue which would clearly be out of our league. So we made the call on our warranty to have a service call made. It was worth it for what I just learned.
1) You can remove the ice maker door quite easily but with care pulling out on these two tabs that release the door:
2) The filter is at the far right with the black tube - both the tube and the capture box below were frozen solid:
As I’d read, he asked for a blow dryer and held it on the black piece until it melted enough around the outside to drop out a nice little ice cycle which he was quite impressed with for its size. He actually removed the rest of the tray and put it under the tap to remove the block of ice in the small box under the filter.
3) He explained that when a RO (reverse osmosis) system is hooked up to a fridge it increases freezing problems because the lack of pressure causes a flap not to close so it continues to drip water which freezes. Who knew? To compensate for the this he said simply turn the ice maker off for 30 minutes or so after a big drain (like filling a pitcher or pot with the water from the RO spout) while the system tank refills. This will give it time to rebuild pressure and prevent the dripping. Good to know. It’s actually amazing that it made it nearly 2 years because with a water softening system I use the RO water for all my cooking as well as replacing water in the fish tank so it’s had plenty of water pitcher drains in that time. Now the trick will be remembering to turn it back on but at least I know how to prevent the problem now.
4) He was surprised that the RO line was a 1/4 inch. He said they should have at least used the 1/2 inch tubing. This picture shows both - the smaller one used is under my fingers and the larger one is just to the right. So if you plan on installing a reverse osmosis system and hooking it up to your fridge you should make sure to use at least a 1/2 inch tube to help compensate for the pressure loss; another good note for future reference.
5) If you have a Whirlpool fridge (which I was reminded my Kitchen Aid is) you can actually remove the water filter to help reduce one more slowing process for water pressure. When I commented that I didn’t even know where it was or that it could be removed he said some systems you can’t just remove it but Whirlpool systems will; another good note. So he took mine out as it’s not necessary with the RO already doing the filtering. The filter change indicator light will still come on but can be easily reset.
6) I asked him about temperature control as every now and then I find a gallon of milk at the back to have some ice in it and the sales person assured me this fridge didn’t do that. He said that in his experience Whirlpool does have the best record for compressor issues that affect this and then proceeded to check the temperature inside. He said the optimal temperature is 37 degrees and mine was running about 35 so he took it up a notch; another good note. Then he showed me how the cooling doors work. This one is at the top left and is where the cold air comes in.
This one is above the crisper and is where the air goes back into the freezer.
This means if you want something kept really cold in your fridge you should place it up by that top vent and further you should be careful not to put anything that could block it or impede it’s delivery of air flow. It also means that I should be aware of the same issue on the freezer side in reverse.
7) The freezer control doesn’t control temperature. It controls the door to the vents. The one to watch and set for that optimal 37 degrees is the fridge control. For reference he set mine to just under 3, which from this picture you can see is circled as the default or suggested setting.
So there’s my homemaker skills 101 course share for the day. I’ll take the little annoyances any day of the week to enjoy the blessing of refrigeration! Besides that, my morning was still 100% better than my hubby’s as he’s getting a root canal.
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Homemaker Sharing
I’ve gotten most of the Christmas projects done, thanks to the push of the mailing packages time line. But I still had a few ideas for simple food items in mind to finish off the neighbor gifts. I was going to do some small bags of half dipped chocolate pretzels, maybe a jar of homemade jam or syrup, or a few simple baked goodies to go with the personalized soap pumps for neighbors but somehow the energy really starts to drizzle at this point in the game for me. And then I had two unexpected and simple successes yesterday.
The First: Class Gift Bags
He wanted to do something for his classmates, all 17 of them. I needed simplicity as well as an activity that would keep him busy. So I stopped on the way home from school yesterday to get some pretzels for the half dip. He also picked out some tissue paper for wrapping. When we got home I showed him how to dip half the pretzel in the melted chocolate and then he sprinkled them with red sugar crystals. He loved it and did it all by himself.
Then he cut out plain strips of tissue paper and crinkled it up to go inside some little snack bags.
He counted out some Santa chocolates and put 4 pretzels in small sucker bags to stuff all the bags.
He sat on my lap and typed in a Christmas greeting and picked out a picture. Then he helped me tape on ribbon to each and we stapled them to the bags.
He was so pleased with himself and loved handing them out today being sure to tell all his classmates how special they were because he made them all himself! It was the perfect activity for a 5 year old including dipping, cutting, counting, typing and taping. Better yet was the whole thing took less than an hour. Happy kid, happy mom.
The Second: Happy Homemade Solution
As the energy dwindles for doing anything more, I thought about what I really wanted to learn how to make - English Toffee. I love the stuff. I thought earlier in the year I’d tackle more homemade chocolates but that was when talk was easy and ideas sounded simple. So yesterday I sat down and Googled “homemade toffee” and clicked on this link: Awesome Homemade Toffee. I read the following and thought surely it couldn’t be THAT simple:
1 pound butter
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
16 ounces milk chocolate chips
But it was! I already had all the ingredients (by the way, the milk chocolate chips were perfect for melting and dipping too!) My first ever batch turned out wonderful. As I looked at my pretty glass jars I saw the perfect solution - putting the toffee in the jars. Voila! One batch made 10 jars!
I think I just came up with a new Christmas gift tradition/solution for years to come. *wink*
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Homemaker Sharing Success Holidays
I love Kohl’s. Don’t get me wrong, I hate shopping but I love saving money. A few weeks ago my husband and I braved the store for some shopping. With all their 40-60% off sales we not only got more than we had planned but kept shaking our heads walking out the door at how little it cost and how in one stop we’d done nearly all our shopping. From that trip I got $30 toward my next purchase at their store and a 20% off coupon in the mail to boot. So yesterday I forced myself to go out again so as not to waste the $30.00 which expires today or the extra 20% off coupon which expires Monday.
The kids are getting their toys for Christmas and this year my hubby and I are getting a dining room table - a nice one. It’s being delivered on Monday. My daughter is so excited to use my wedding china for our Christmas dinner and on a new table to boot. So I was thinking a great place to put the $30 was toward a nice table cloth/setting for our Christmas dinner. Well at first I was intimated because our table is huge and the size table cloth I’d need was $49.99 by itself. Then I saw the 60% off signs everywhere. So I got all this (over $100 of price tags) for…..drum roll please……
….a whopping $13.40! Now that’s my kind of Christmas surprise.
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Shopping Homemaker Holidays Blogging
I get so many questions and comments this time of year about my gingerbread houses and cookies. It seemed appropriate to share what I do here for anyone interested!
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It’s that time of year again when I’m in holiday mode. I was just reviewing some of the things I’ve done and shared here as gift ideas on my site and realized the only files I’ve gotten up there are Christmas related. I guess we know how well that goal of getting files uploaded is going! I only have a few up but they’re easy and fun.
This year I’m keeping my kids busy with homemade goodies we’re working on all month long for gift bundles. I’m doing a relaxation one with homemade soap, bath salts and candles, a food one with homemade jam or syrup, dipped chocolates, toffee and gingerbread cookie trees, and a personalized/family one with personalized liquid hand soap pumps, big multi-colored crayons, books my kids write and anything else that hits our fancy this year. I’m as excited as they are to work on our craft projects this month.
I wanted to do the 12 Days of Christmas again for my sweetheart, but with last month getting lost in a time warp I just ran out of time to get it started this month. I suppose there’s still a little time but we’ll have to see how organized I can get everything else first!
I hope to find time to share some holiday traditions and memories because I love that sort of stuff! Anyone else have some great ideas or shares of what you’re doing this year?
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Homemaker Sharing Organizing Food Holidays
Yesterday was a happy kitchen success day for me. Today I decided to write it down so I can duplicate it another day! I’m just wishing I’d taken a picture of it. Maybe next time I’ll remember that. I made a tasty crusted citrus salmon with citrus salsa, asparagus and seasoned potato wedges.
We’ve been focusing on healthy but tasty meals at my house. I’m a picky cook. I grew up on food where the purpose was to fill your stomach. Since I’ve been married I’ve discovered the joy of really great tasting dishes at some fantastic restaurants. This has been great, but also a hindrance to me because I want to be able to duplicate these types of fantastic dishes at home and often end up disappointed. Yesterday, however was an exception so I thought I’d share.
A recent trip to Sprouts yielded some good salmon fillets. But I didn’t want to do the typical grilled, baked or broiled variations I’ve done in the past. I opened the cupboard to see what spices I had. The citrus grill spices caught my attention (I purchased this seasoning in bulk size at a recent Sam’s trip.) After reading the ingredients of lemon peel, dill and garlic I got to thinking about what I could do with it. I wondered what toppings could be made in the order of a sauce with similar ingredients. Fueled by success with my corn salsa creations, I thought about trying a variation of that with citrus. I browsed online to see what might come up for citrus salsas to get a frame of reference and came up with this:
2 1/2 C navel orange pieces (peeled and cut over the bowl to capture the juice)
1/4 C lime juice
3 T finely chopped red onion
1/4 C chopped red pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1 t hot pepper blend (black & red chili)
1-2 T parsley
I mixed this and put it in the fridge. Then I crusted the salmon on both sides (removing the skin) with the citrus grill spices by coating both sides with the mixture and browning for a few minutes in a skillet with butter. I put the fillet in a glass baking dish and poured the remaining butter and citrus spices over a separate baking dish with asparagus spears.
Although I’ve done seasoned potato wedges from scratch before, this time I used some frozen ones purchased at the same store. They were red potatoes with olive oil, parmesan and garlic. I spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with foil.
Because I had to leave for about 45 minutes I placed all the items (covered both baking dishes with foil) in the oven together at 325 degrees. When I got home everything was perfectly cooked.
My husband reminded me of something I’d said a few days ago about if I could cook like a gourmet chef I’d enjoy eating in more and out less. Then he said “I think you nailed it today.” Yay!
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Homemaker Sharing Food Success
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