The Vaulted Files: Christmas Wreath Storage Solution

Tags

Christmas decorations, holiday clutter, wreath storage

I originally wrote this in early 2014 before my unintended sabbatical from blogging here.  Back to work, now…

So, there I was, packing away all the Christmas décor after Epiphany this year when it dawned on me that I now had sixteen – no, make that seventeen – Christmas wreaths hung in and on my home. I have to admit, I choked a little on the thought of buying enough boxes in which to store them. Where were all the boxes going to go?

One of the things we lucked into when we built our house is a closet in the garage, where Dom decided all of our holiday décor could live. And it just so happens that there is a lot of tall wall space in this closet. I wanted hooks for my wreaths. But, really – seventeen of them?

And that’s when this idea sprang to life. Home Depot, or any home store, has the brackets that hold closet shelves and rods, right? You know – these things…

They cost under $4 each.  And voila! They also hold about three wreaths (four, if you don’t mind smushing them on there.) The hook part that would hold the rod holds one of the wreaths so you can make sure the others don’t come sliding off of the bracket. I bought about six of these and placed them strategically on my wall so the wreaths can hang in the closet and I never have to worry about their bows getting all wonky from storage.

Now, go… be free and hang your wreaths! 😉

 

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On the Ball

Tags

ball, canning accessories, cooking tools, herb sicissors, kitchen organization, kitchen shears, kitchen tools, pantry organization, removable labels, spice labels, spice lids, water infuser

I don’t usually do random product recommendations, but I am so taken with four new things recently, that I just have to share them with you.

You already know that I love to can foods. One of my future projects is to create the perfect Paleo Marinara and can up a ton of it. Tomato season will be arriving soon, so this is moving up on the to-do list. In the meantime, I keep looking at the canning supplies of my local stores. And I must say, Ball has some seriously cool new tools! Four of them top my list of all-time favorite kitchen aids.

Ball dissolvable labels. I can’t tell you how many times I have put leftovers in the fridge, mingled among various similar containers, only to forget what’s in each container, subsequently ignoring said containers and emptying them into the trash ten days later. (As I mumble Oh, yeahhhhh, we DID have pot roast last week. Darn!)

Enter these new labels. Cute as a button, real paper stickers that don’t require any special kind of pen. I label everything. Did you hear me??? EV-RY-THING. I have them in the fridge:

I have them in the pantry:

I have them in the bathroom:

The coolest part of these labels is that they wash right off! (Even accidentally, so don’t get your jar near water if you want to keep the label!) No scrubbing or special solvents to rid your item of stickiness. They wash right off in the dishwasher. Or under the faucet. It’s pretty cool to watch it dissolve off of the container under a stream of running water.  I think it’s safe to say my OCD loves these things!

Ball Five-Blade Herb Scissors. Holy mother of pearl, if you’ve ever spent ten minutes finely chopping herbs for a single meal, you need these scissors!! They have five blades, so you can chop herbs in jig time. I have been a parsley chopping fool for the past five months. I got these scissors three weeks ago, and my life hasn’t been the same since. Snip, snip…oh, look, all my chopping is done. I have time to have a glass of wine while hubby lights the grill!   These seriously rock!! The first time I used them, I freaked out when the parsley stuck all between the blades, leaving me to wonder how in the heck I was ever going to get all those herbs out of those tiny, sharp spaces. And then I looked at the cool plastic sheath that came with the scissors. There’s a corresponding five-blade grid on the end of the sheath that is used to clean out the scissors. Voila!!! No wasted herbs. Why can’t everything be this easy?

 

Ball Herb and Spice Lids. I thought the little quarter-pint jelly jars were too cute when they were sold as a set of four with these regular-size flip-top shaker lids. But now, Ball sells the lids in separate two-packs. I already had a full set of the tiny jars and was using the jar/lid/ring combos for my spices. But fiddling with lids and rings every time I want dried basil or shrimp seasoning gets old. These lids offer four generous holes covered by a secure flip-top. I love their size and color. My spice-cabinet loves their easy stackability.

Ball Mason Jar Infuser. Okay, so this one really isn’t a kitchen tool. It’s a sippy cup for adults. Whatever. I love it. This infuser fits wide-mouth mason jars and supplies a drinking lid and removable infuser compartment. Just fill the infuser with your favorite herbs, fruits, whatever, and fill the jar with water or tea. Moments later, you have a rockin’ flavored beverage. The infuser is dishwasher safe and BPA-free, for the win!

So there it is, folks: my love of all things Ball. Green rocks!

My Wishlist for App Developers

Tags

help me organize my life, phone clutter

OK, the last time I ranted about my information needs I got a pretty good response.  And my previous posts about iPhone apps have gotten decent attention from the developers.  So here is my Issue Du Jour:

I recently upgraded my phone and lost most of my apps in the process.  Not lost as in forever, but lost as in they were no longer staring me in the face upon startup.  I had to go fetch them from the cloud as I needed them.  I hate to say my kids told me so, but they were among the first ones squawking that I had too many apps on my phone and there was no possible way I really used them all.  Five screens of apps, all in folders.  Too much, you say??

I hate to delete an app that actually has potential.  I’ve hung on to financial calculator apps and Christmas shopping organizers, saving my mad delete skillz for the likes of Talking Tom and virtual measuring tapes. (Do those ever really work?)  My argument for the useless apps I keep has always been, “But I emailed that developer and he is going to make this app do exactly what I need it to do, so I have to hang on to it!”  Except that I’ve been an app freak for four years now and those cool features I desire still do not exist.

Listen up, app-mappers.  I have needs.  I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one with these needs.  (Then again, maybe I am. Whatev.)  Essentially, I believe any app’s primary objective should be to make a small, even insignificant, aspect of my life easier.  Otherwise, you’re just cluttering my already crowded phone with more useless stuff and empty promises.  Allow me to be specific:

Reminders/To-Dos with snooze  I love the native Reminders app on the iPhone.  It will remind you of whatever your task is based on your location or time of day.  It’s as customizable as any app I could ask for with one exception.  I can’t snooze a reminder.  Admittedly, Outlook has spoiled me.  I can set any task and customize the reminder.  When the reminder pops up, if I’m in the middle of something uber-important, like facilitating Middle East peace talks, I can snooze the reminder for anywhere from another five minutes to the next day.  ‘Cause seriously, we can’t expect world peace to wait while I pay my Comcast bill, can we?

Product Usage I downloaded a beauty products app that touted it would remind me when to replace my cosmetics.  Except it didn’t.  It gave me a quick run-down on the known shelf-life of each beauty product, which had absolutely nothing to do with how fast I go through a product, or even when I opened it.  So mascara typically lasts three months.  Big whoop.  What if I regularly burn through it in two?  No, what I want is an app that will let me set a date that I open a product, assign my own typical usage period, and generate a list of items I need to replace.  “Hey, Lori, it’s time to add laundry detergent to the grocery list.”  Or, “You’ll run out of moisturizer next month.  Better place an order.”  It doesn’t even need to be that wordy, but you get the gist.  I actually communicated with the lady behind the app I downloaded (which was only for beauty products) and she thought my idea was awesome and she swore she would find a way to implement it.  Two years ago.  Ahem.  Movin’ on…

Recipe Storage Serving Sizer is a recipe organizer that I really liked.  I bought this app only after asking the developers if they would consider making the app calculate nutritional value of each recipe.  They assured me that they had already thought of that and were planning to include it in future updates.  I haven’t seen it yet.  (Three years, but who’s counting?)  But if they’re listening, let me bend their ear on one more matter. I’d really like to see cloud storage on this app so that I can access my recipes from any of my devices, including online via desktop and a simple login to my account. Yes, I know that whole account thing would be new…work it out, guys.  Additionally, I think that the desktop access is important because I also want to be able to upload recipes that I already have stored on my computer.  Inputting recipes into this app is a bit tedious, and an upload feature would seriously rock.

Voice Commands I will not bore Apple with my Siri aggravation, but let’s examine my only two requests of her.  The day after I got my new phone I asked Siri to install my WordPress app.  She informed me that she could not install things for me.  Later, I asked her what time a local business opened and she basically told me to Google it on my own.  I knew before meeting her that she wasn’t going to cook dinner or fold my sheets, but seriously…what good is she?

Gift Card Wallet  Passbook was on the right track, but it doesn’t support everything I have and/or want.  I need a gift card wallet.  You know, an app that will store all my current unused gift card balances and produce a barcode to let me pay with the gift card from my phone.  That way, if I have $2.83 left on a Bass Pro gift card, I don’t have to carry it around with me on the off-chance that I need more camo.  The app needs to operate like Cardstar, with the added feature of showing me a list of available balances.  I mentioned this to a developer friend of mine one day several years ago.  He just shook his head as he muttered something about “one single point of compromise.”  But that was long before the days of wallet apps, so perhaps he’s changed his tune.  Then again, this is the guy who used to chastise me for not changing my passwords every two weeks.  😉

Coupon Wallet  While we’re on this whole wallet idea and offering single-point gateways to our innermost sanctums, could someone do the same thing for coupons, please?  A coupon organizer on my phone – Holy frijoles! – wouldn’t that make me happy?!  I’m not an extreme couponer by any stretch of the imagination, but I would be better at it if I had more than my paper-hoarding accordion file.  I could add coupons to the wallet by scanning the barcode.  Or by downloading them into my app from some huge coupon-making conglomerate’s website.  If anyone is interested in creating this, it would be important to have a select option, much like in a grocery shopping app – click it to put it in a “cart.”  Then at checkout, produce a list of coupons for which I have purchased products.  And location services would be important too!  Add lists of stores where I can use the coupons, and when I arrive at that store, have a notification pop up that tells me I have coupons to use at this location.  Expiration dates will be important – they can delete themselves the day after expiration and immediately after use.  Half my problem with using coupons is that I a) forget I even have them to use, and b) forget to throw them away when they’ve expired.  Admittedly, this is probably the most difficult and least needed item on my list.  Take it for what it’s worth.

Oh, one more thing.  I’m willing to pay fair app prices for those that can make me happy.  I am not willing to pay for apps without the ability to test-drive them first.   So, be sure you have a limited free version for me to try.  I promise, if it impresses me, I will not hesitate to buy the full version.

 

The Busiest Months of Our Lives

They say there are five major stresses in a person’s life:

1. Change in marital status
2. Moving
3. Changing jobs
4. Birth/addition of a child
5. Death of a loved one

In the spring of 1996 I had all but one of those stresses at the same time.  Within the span of six weeks I got married, moved across town, changed jobs and lost my grandmother.   I was a prime candidate for The Crazy House.  The only thing that kept me out of the loony bin was the fact that I was not pregnant at the time.  I’m sure we can all agree: that would have sealed the deal.

And yet 1996 had nothing on this summer that is now winding down.  Building, selling, making home repairs.  Call the builder; call the real estate office; call the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker… I forget who I am most days, and the sticky-notes and phone reminders that I set for myself are little help if I can’t even remember to look in the direction of said reminders.  I need reminders for my reminders for my reminders.  So it struck me as odd, as I stood in my kitchen one morning in July with my builder (yes, at the old house…long story that you can bore yourself with here) when I paused long enough to notice our family calendar on the refrigerator.  It was pretty bare during July, save the lone pen marks of my husband as he counted the days he has been smoke-free.

Dom quit smoking 219 days ago – right as we were gearing up to sell the house and dive head-first into building the new one.  Not the most desirable time to drop a vice cold-turkey, but then again I am of the mindset that NO TIME is a bad time to take control of your health for the better. I am soooooo proud of him!  I’ve wanted to shout it from the rooftops and sky-write congratulatory love notes, but he’s a pretty private person so I had to celebrate in silence.  And I was even tempted to leave the calendar alone and let it speak for itself. But…

Calendars are my diary.  Aside from my blogs, they are the only form of journaling or scrapbooking I do anymore.  I have kept wall calendars since my college days.  Even as I matriculated into electronic calendars (and yes, even as I chastise co-workers for using paper calendars) I always kept one hard copy calendar on the fridge at home.  This is where I mark the random stuff we do – the birthdays, the celebrations, the memories and the milestones.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  It’s all right there, and all I have to do is pull a calendar out of the box and flip through twelve simple pages to relive an entire year in my mind.

My favorite calendar now is Mom’s Family Calendar featuring the lovable critters of Sandra Boynton.  Each person has his or her own column in which to record activities.  Our family of four reserves the fifth column for the pups and any extended family birthdays.  It’s a 17-month calendar, starting in August for the new school year, which is really a great idea, even though I only remember to buy a new one in December when I’m Christmas shopping.  Plus, this calendar always comes with a ton of cute character stickers and a magnetized write-on/wipe-off board for important phone numbers, etc.  Oh, and an interior pocket “for loose $100 bills.”  I love that.  I keep looking in there hoping one or two bills have appeared.  No luck yet.

July and August wound up being perhaps the busiest months of our lives.  In the end, I decided if I didn’t mark it all down I would regret it later.  So I grabbed some Sharpies and a few stickers and “went to town” inscribing our activities for the summer and the milestones, stresses and successes 2012 has brought us so far.

I hope your summer was wonderful!

Day 344: Of Memory and Time

Sorry I’ve been AWOL here.  Bet you thought I fell down the rabbit hole, didn’t you?  Well, after last week’s Pour-Your-Heart-Out post I fully intended to sit down this weekend and update you on positive progress on other fronts.  I have soooo much to share with you all.  But, alas…I did not write the intended posts.  No, instead I got immersed in another project.

Is this just like me, or what?

So, remember two weekends ago when I said that Mom and I would spend our May 14^th day later than May 14^th?  Well, we spent it on Friday the 20^th.  I took a vacation day from work and headed to Mom’s as soon as I dropped the kids at school.  And, Starbucks cups in hand, we began the process of organizing all our historical clutter.

Clarification: Mom began this process much earlier than I did.  I just came in at the tail end of her progress and roped her into all my own clutter issues.

I am now officially de-cluttered.  Thanks, Mom!

And this was no small task, mind you:  MY MOM CLEANED AND ORGANIZED MY ATTICS.  All I was allowed to do was tell her what box(es) went where, and where I thought my historical clutter boxes might be located.  She did all the work.  And it looks completely amazing!!!!!

Historical clutter, for those of you who still believe I am lost too deep in the rabbit hole, is all of our keepsakes.  I spent the entire weekend knee-deep in my own past, organizing the evidence of my life into oversized white envelopes and Rubbermaid boxes.  I re-read cards and letters given to me by grandparents and great-grandparents,  twirled some batons, and reunited with my favorite childhood teddy bear.  I found mementos from countries my grandparents visited, old school photos, and my keychain  collection.  Of course, this weekend was not without its WOW moments:

1. While rummaging through my elementary school keepsakes, I found a mimeographed note from a first-year teacher (or, more likely, a student teacher).  She handwrote sentiments of how much she had enjoyed us as a class, and how she would always think of us as her “first kids.”  I find it odd that I would have kept such a thing, so I must have thought highly of her.  Then I saw the signature, and realized that it is signed by the beautiful lady I thought I only knew as my children’s current school librarian.
2. A box of old books held many novels I remember being “forced” to read for class, and many which I thoroughly enjoyed of my own choosing.  One small book with a plain red cover was once owned by my mother’s cousins, both of whom I met last month at our family reunion.  I loved them instantly, and now, a month later, here I sat in my den with a tiny piece of their childhood in my hands.
3. I found competition medals for honors choir.  ME.  Remember, now…I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.  I am the eternal Band Geek – and with good reason!  God bless the poor souls who had to stand next to me during the singing.  How we ever managed a Superior rating with my mouth contributing sound is far beyond me!
4. Though most of my life has been decidedly normal, 2007 presented for me the largest hurdles I have faced thusfar.  In short, 2007 sucked.  The details too cumbersome to go into here, I will just say that the year held pain, embarrassment, change, and forgiveness.  I travelled to the darkest places and yet managed to emerge in the light – refreshed, renewed, and somehow reborn.  The year held milestones I’d love to remember, and milestones I’d love to forget.  In sorting the memories this weekend, my oversized  envelopes were carefully labeled, each with its own year designation ranging from 1990 to the current year.  By the time I had deposited my cards, letters and keepsakes into the appropriate envelopes and took final stock of my progress I noted that the envelope for 2007 was empty. I was struck still by the coincidence.  And yet, it seems all too appropriate, for I will not hold onto pain and I will not be a prisoner to unpleasantness.  So let the envelope remain empty if it must.  I know who I am.

Three solid days, eleven boxes and six trash bags later, my historical clutter is content to retreat to its attic home. And with Mom’s mad organizational skillz, there is now room for future historical clutter (is that a contradiction?) – all the clutter my little heart desires.  🙂

Day 306: While I Am Out…

I am presently on my way to a family reunion with my parents, leaving behind Dom and the kids to manage our household and care for each other. Before I left this morning, I assigned each person a chore to keep them busy while I’m away.

I told my son that he is responsible for watering my garden each day when the sun is not shining directly on it. “Water it real good so it’s not thirsty,” I told him, knowing that he would appreciate any chore that involves water.

Vic began to get offended that Aaron scored the watering chore, and that’s when I told her that she is responsible for making sure Mason (the older dog) gets his medicine each morning and night and gets his ears cleaned. I know Dom will take care of Mason in my absence, but its easy to forget that he needs the meds when he no longer appears sickly, and I know Vic will supply the proper amount of nagging. 😉

And then I asked Dom to please not let me come home to a houseful of dirty laundry on a Sunday night.

Everyone agreed to their assigned chores and bid me a safe trip before they left for school and work. Please send some positive-energy, you-can-make-it-without-mama vibes their way to get them through the weekend.

I’ll be back on Monday, friends. 🙂

Day 296: Magazine Madness, Managed!

I have always been a fan of Southern Living magazine, for no other reason at first than that I truly believed I would grow up to exemplify Southern hospitality, charm and style.  I believed I would grow tomatoes and hydrangeas equally, and that my decorating and entertaining skills would be unparalleled.  I would cook and clean and mother and love everything and everyone, all while holding down a full-time job, where I would bring coffee and home-baked pastries to all my dear coworkers…daily.

Can you see the giant “S” on my chest?  What was I thinking?!!?  I was setting myself up to be Snow White on steroids. Confession:  I didn’t turn out like I imagined (so you can stop gagging now.)

OK, despite the dream, Dom got me my first subscription to Southern Living as soon as we bought our house.  And he has kept it going for ten years.  I do so enjoy reading all the gardening advice and the recipes.  There are such good ideas in each issue.

Sometime around, oh-I-don’t-know 2001 or so, the feature recipe was a watermelon sorbet.  At the time I decided that the sorbet would be a great dessert to serve at a summer work meeting.  So I dog-eared the page and put the magazine in a pile.  (One of those infamous piles Dom has begged me a thousand times to stop making.) As it turns out, I did not buy a watermelon in 2001. I think I was too busy raising a toddler and growing another embryo.  Life… Go figure.

Fast forward to sometime around 2009 when I finally realized I could stop eagle-eyeing my kids to make sure they didn’t bust their heads open on a table ledge or the brick hearth, and I finally bought a watermelon.  Then I wondered what in the world I was going to do with all that fruit.  I remembered the summer sorbet recipe and immediately went on the hunt for it.  What I found was a stack of Southern Living magazines containing every issue published over the previous nine years.  Great.  Which issue was it, again? 

As I rummaged through about 117 magazines, including the special issues that come out during the summer months (yes, really) I realized I needed to get a grip on my magazine love.  I could not find the sorbet recipe to save my life.  I could sense the watermelon giving up on me.  Sadly, I had just fallen in love with a second magazine, Health, and had begun a collection of about 7 issues.  I could already see the danger ahead.  I would end up on Hoarders by the time I hit 45.

So I gathered my magazines, some post it notes and our recycling bin and began to isolate pages I wanted to keep from any issue that was more than two months old.  I tore them out, sorted them into neat little piles, and tossed the remaining bones of the mags into the recycling bin.  The neat little piles strategically went into a divided file jacket with 5 pockets. 

Mischief managed!

Except that post it notes are cumbersome, and I still had to rifle through the mag to find exactly what I thought I had seen.  So I got this idea: page flags in various colors to signify specific topics.  I found these at WalMart and wrote on the back so I can remember what my categories are. 

Now, as I’m perusing a new mag for the first time, I slap an appropriate page flag on whatever I find appealing.  Recipes get the yellow flag; Blue is for exercise, health and medical issues that I need to be mindful of or blog about; green is for the great outdoors; pink signifies decorating ideas and orange is for specific products that I want to find locally or online.  I will leave the magazine intact for just a couple of months.  But when I see a third mag arrive in the mailbox, then it’s time to disassemble the oldest magazine, saving only the pages with flags on them.  The flagged pages can then go into the appropriate file, like so:

 And voila!  Now anytime I think to myself, “Didn’t I see that in a magazine?”  I can go straight to this file jacket and pull out the article. 

That is, if I deemed it important in the first place.  😉

Day 290: Climbing Back onto the Chuck Wagon

Get ready to stand up.  Yes, that’s right.  Stop whatever you’re doing, stand up and do the happy dance with me.

You do know how to do the happy dance, don’t you? 

It looks like this:

 

And yes, I dance like this frequently.  It makes Victoria giggle.  I love her giggle.

Now, you’re probably wondering why in the heck you would be dancing like a fool.  Well, my friends, you are celebrating with me.  Celebrating THIS:

We have a brand new oven, and once again all the world is right.  (Well, at least the part of the world that I can see and control.  That’s enough for now, don’t ya think?) Dom and my Father-in-law installed my new favorite appliance last Thursday (yes, a week ago…I’ve been a little busy…)  Ignore the missing backsplash – that is another matter for another day.  My issue now is that I realized as soon as the oven was plugged in that I didn’t have any food to cook. 

You heard me.  None.

See, three weeks ago when we ripped out the antiquated hunk-o-metal, I had just been to the store where I purchased plenty of food…but it all had to be cooked. And then we ousted the oven, and I was so discombobulated that I just sat there looking at that huge hole in the wall and cooking nothing.  I borrowed a toaster oven from my mom and didn’t even use it.

Let’s face it, as a provider of meals I was completely useless.  Cereal, anyone?

The uselessness continued as my fresh produce and dairy products wilted and expired.  Then Mason was sick, and he was assigned to eat bland home-cooked meals, which eviscerated my small supply of eggs and frozen chicken-and-rice. (Yes, he’s a dog, but he is a lucky dog!)

So with the new oven installed and looking all fine-as-wine, I HAVE NO FOOD TO COOK!!!! Do you know how ridiculous I feel taking a frozen dinner out of the box and actually considering cooking it for 30 minutes in the oven (rather than for 2½ minutes in the microwave) all for the privilege of using my new appliance?!!  I want to cook something delicious and gourmet, but without proper ingredients I find myself boiling water for the heck of it just so I can play with the stovetop.  Is there a support group for someone like me?

I truly feel that all will be better once I go to the store tomorrow.  I have returned to my former habit of planning two weeks’ worth of meals, and with the menu all set and no more mechanical limitations imposed on me, I am ready to roll.  Pans are clanging, recipes are flying, and that new oven is going to get a workout!!

Happy Dance!!!

Day 281: Finders, Givers

I stayed home today in order to let the plumbers come in and run our gas line to the kitchen area to accommodate our new oven (which arrives on Thursday, people!  Woo-hoooooo!).  I thought I was going to have a TON of time to do a whole slew of chores and tasks I had set before me.  But I got consumed in laundry and organizing the kitchen cabinets.  Well, you know…when I could organize without being underfoot of the people who were getting paid to make my kitchen better. 

The end result is this: 

1)      After thinking that they were going to have to rip out my ceiling and make a complete war zone of my kitchen, the plumbers were able to run requested gas line to the designated area with no destruction necessary, making a smaller mess than Mabel has ever made in her whole 2½ years of Lab-puppy antics.  Score one for the plumbers!

2)      After thinking that I was going to have to store my pots and pans on bookcases in my den because of the under-oven cabinet that had to be ripped out to accommodate a modern oven, I was able to organize and fit every single pot, pan and griddle into a new and cleaner space.  Score one for me!

Will wonders never cease??

I have to give kudos to the plumbers we used.  ParkerPointe Systems in Shreveport saved the day.  When three other plumbing companies WOULDN’T EVEN CALL ME BACK, ParkerPointe was responsive, courteous, and ready to work.  They accomplished the gas-line task in under four hours, despite my antiquated and bass-ackward home; they called in additional help when needed; and they kept me updated through the whole process.  I will use them again without hesitation.  And if you’re in the area and you need a plumber or heating/air service or a tankless water heater, you should use them too!

Now, for the interesting part.  I gotta get rid of some things I found under my cabinets.  Most of the decade-old items went straight to the recycling bin, but there are a few things that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away because I deem them “still useful.”  So I’m offering them to anyone who wants them.  Yes, for free.  If you’re local and you want them, we’ll meet up.  If you’re not local and you want them, we’ll work something out.  Just comment at the bottom and let me know.  You ready for the list?  Don’t laugh. 

1. Cappuccino machine.  Complete with two carafes.  Smallish in size, stands about 10” tall.  Black.  Served me well. 
2. Two Pampered Chef Chillzanne Bowls, with lids.  Never, ever used.  The smaller lid is yellow, though I have no clue why, since it was never used and the larger lid is still white.  Weirdness. 
3. Pampered Chef Chillzanne Platter with divider tray and handle.  Used twice, but for some reason the cover has a crack in it. Otherwise looks good. I soooooo thought I would do more backyard entertaining.  Ha! (If you aren’t familiar with Chillzanne, it is a white, hollow, food-safe plastic with a liquid substance inside that freezes and helps to keep your food cold.  It was a great idea ten years ago.)
4. A plethora of coffee travel mugs, various sizes and shapes.  NO GUARANTEE that they aren’t loaded up with BPA or something equally damaging.  Just sayin’…
5. The Euro Chopper, never used, new in box. A knock-off of the to-die-for Pampered Chef food chopper.  Not sure where it came from or why I have it. 

I think that about sums it up.  Trust me, this is the still-useful stuff.  And even though I know I could fetch a whopping $7 for the lot in a garage sale, I really will give it to you. Really.  What I won’t do is guarantee it or take it back. 😮   How’s that for a deal?

Day 278: All Those Expensive Lessons!

I have spent the past two weeks being a more attentive student of Life.  And I realize, in hindsight of course, that I have learned some rather expensive lessons. 

Shall I?

Lesson #1:  Knee pain can actually be cured with flexing and clenching exercises. 

Yep.  Go figure.  Moderate stretching of the leg muscles wasn’t doing it, and my knee was aching to the point that standing for 15 minutes straight was almost debilitating.  But a very kind and wise orthopedic doctor advised me of a particular exercise to do which involves tensing of the muscle rather than trying to stretch it out.  And whaddaya know…it actually works!  Cost of that lesson: a $40 copay.  Moral of the story:  Use it or lose it.  The bright side: meds and surgery are most often NOT the answer.  Score one for good old exercise.

Lesson #2: Don’t haul a problematic yet necessary appliance to the dump without first formulating a GENUINE AND DO-ABLE PLAN for its replacement.

True, I was ecstatic when The Hubster suggested that we hoist the four-decade-old oven onto a dolly and roll it out the door and down the yellow brick road, but after the oven was gone we had some pretty harrowing conversations, one of which went like this:

Him: “It sure will feel good to get this kitchen re-done!”
Me: “Oh, I’m so ready for that!  We’re gonna have to replace cabinets, so I have been planning and picking some out.”
Him: “How much do cabinets cost? … (Looking at my notes) Holy {expletive deleted}!!!  THAT much?  We can’t do that now!”
Me: “Any new oven is going to have to have a different cabinet configuration to fit.  Ya think maybe we should have thought this through before tossing out the oven we had????”

That particular conversation offered much more in terms of emotion than I am conveying here.  Just trust me…It wasn’t pretty.

Confession:  Though I’m trying to improve this, at my core I am a stubborn, selfish, FLAMING perfectionist who is afraid of making a mistake and having to (heaven forbid) reverse a decision.  These characteristics do not often lend me to proper collaboration with The Hubster, who lives life charmingly led by his own whimsy.  So the fact that I had planned a SEVEN-PHASE REMODEL of our kitchen (complete with color-coded prerequisites) did not score me any points when Dom’s whimsy smartly reminded him that we might have to add a car payment to our budget before this “new kitchen” is paid for, and he put the brakes on my planning.  I argued for what it was worth, but I too realized he was right, and in dramatic and ceremonious fashion TRASHED the seven-phase flowchart. 

Now, with the idea of the kitchen remodel stalled on the runway, we still had the arduous task of selecting a new oven that will likely not fit into the future plan of our “new kitchen.”  Oven selected and gas line to be extended next week, the cost of this lesson is well into the 4-digits.  Moral of the story: A bird in the hand isn’t worth a damn if you have to blow your nose.  The bright side:  New cabinets or not, I am sooooo excited about cooking on a brand new stovetop with Dom by my side. 

Lesson #3: Not all omegas are created equal.

Victoria’s enthusiasm for any new Omega 3 supplement lasts merely a day or two, and then we find ourselves back at Square One wondering how in the heck to get her the omegas her mind and body need.  After I found Mabel absconded with an unconsumed packet of Coromega, Victoria confessed that she could not stand the taste of the orange gel.  (Aaron, however, thinks the gel is great.)  I did some research and found that the same company that makes her organic multi-vitamin also makes an omega supplement in chewable tablet form.  She likes the multis, so this had to be the perfect solution, right? 

Yesterday morning, Day Two of the chewable omegas, Victoria announced after downing the required three tablets that she felt like she had just eaten a whole fish.  She whined about the taste of the tablets for a few seconds before ending with, “I sure hope I don’t burp again today.  I’ll taste fish all over again.” 

I was instantly curious. “Wait, I thought they were cherry flavored.”

“Yeah.  Cherry fish!  It’s disgusting, Mommy.”

Ever-determined to not have my children go through anything I am not personally willing to experience myself, I tried one.

EEEE-GAD!!!!!!!  That has to be the most awful thing I have ever put in my mouth!!!  It was literally ALL I COULD DO to get that thing down my throat.  And Vic was right…it was cherry flavored fish.  Blech!!

Vic now wholeheartedly agrees that the Coromega packets aren’t so bad.  Cost of this lesson: $15.98+tax for the cherry fish tabs.  Moral of the story: Shut up and grill some salmon.  The bright side: At least now she is willing to take the $18 Coromega.

Lesson #4: Thank the good Lord for veterinarians, Bissell, and my parents’ generosity.

Mason, our eleven-year old Lab, has an upset tummy.  A really bad…wretched…awful upset tummy.  The kind of upset tummy that has caused us to clean the carpet twice and the tile twice more in just 24 hours.  The kind of upset tummy that makes my husband yell and curse at 5:00 in the morning, and again at 1:00 in the afternoon.  The kind that eventually sent us to the vet to find out if there might be any END to this terror, no pun intended.

Historical side note: Oddly, about every full moon, Mason pukes.  No rhyme or reason to it, he just starts gagging in the middle of the night and urps on the carpet by the bed.  (Which elicits more cursing from The Hubster.)  Three times I borrowed my mom’s brand new Bissell Green Machine for stain removal, and it worked B-E-A-utifully.  I think the frequency of Mason’s episodes elicited sympathy from my parents, though, because shortly after that third time they presented me with a Green Machine of my very own!

For the current episode, I became acutely aware of how very grateful I was for my own Green Machine.  There is no way on earth I would have borrowed my mom’s cleaner for the project at hand over the last two days.  It was some-kinda-nasty, and I wasn’t sure if my own machine could handle it!  I called mom to tell her once more how much I appreciated the fact that they bought me one.  It made my afternoon of carpet cleaning much easier, and allowed me to worry about more important things…like why my dog is sick. 

Cost of this lesson: 2 hours vacation time and a $116 vet visit.  Moral of the story: Poop sucks, parents rock! The bright side: My two hours of carpet cleaning earned me a heartfelt apology from the cursing hubby, an apology which was heartily accepted!

So now that I’ve learned these costly lessons, does it all mean that life will be perfect from this point forward?  Oh, surely not!  It does mean, however, that I am learning to recognize blessings in the midst of chaos, and hopefully that will translate into my being a little less pig-headed somewhere down the road.