Weekly Menu

I have a confession. Husband and I eat out too much. Like, way too much. I always begin the week with good intentions, but usually by Wednesday, I'm so wiped out from work and school that take-out rules our household for the rest of the week. And my waistline is certainly showing that. Enter Pinterest (seriously, how did anyone come up with any kind of creative idea before Pinterest?).

Source

Source

The idea is that by having the visual reminder of what's for dinner each night, we curb the "It's a quarter til 7 and we just got home and we still have to walk the dog and what's for dinner?" So last week, I hit up Hobby Lobby to gather supplies (cork board and fabric) and spent a Saturday morning crafting.

I covered the cork board with fabric, hot glued thumb tacks to the clothes pins and meal envelopes (made from scrapbooking scraps), and cut/hot glued the days circles. I decided to do only 6 days because 1) That's all the room my board had and 2) If we can stick to meals during the week, I'd be OK with cheating on weekends.

I went through our recipe binder and wrote down almost all of the recipes (didn't do sides or desserts because I'm lazy and didn't have enough strips). I also made strips for standards that don't need recipes (like spaghetti and porkchops).

Rearranging the magnets and a command hook on the fridge later, you have this:

I know, I'm a terrible tutorialist, but since my inspiration came from tutorials, I figure you can just follow my sources and figure out what to do. Not that it's hard.

I, of course, picked the worst week to try a menu board. Notice I only have meals for Monday and Tuesday. Yeah, that's because Husband has been out of town on business, so I was on my own for 3 dinners. Like I'm cooking for just me. Time will tell if we stick to it, but I have high hopes.

Couple of ideas: I plan on adjusting the strips just a bit. As I was getting the board ready for next week, combing through the ideas was a pain. I'm not quite sure what to do about the overall idea, but I'm planning on making more strips but in different colors. So main dishes would be one color, sides another, maybe even crockpot meals another color. That way if I'm looking for something specific, I can eliminate strips more quickly. The pins will certainly hold more than one strip at a time. I also love the idea of using clothes pins--you could clip a new recipe and after you've tried it, decide to make a strip or let it go.

Also, I like having the shopping list right below. That way, if we have a hankering for something, we can jot it down.

Finally, I think it's a good idea to write where specific recipes can be located on the back. I used card stock for the strips, so Sharpies don't bleed through. Like I mentioned, I wrote the recipes from our binder and usual suspects that don't need a recipe, but I also went through one of our recipe books. We have 3 similar books (Taste of Home from different years), so I'm always confusing which recipe is in which book. I jotted down the book name and year on the back of the strip and I think that will help give even more options.

The strips are the most time-consuming part, but overall, this project was only a couple of hours. And if it helps us get back on track both health- and budget-wise, it's worth it.

Count this as a repin to my "I Actually Did/Made Something from Pinterest!" board

Book Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood

I've always enjoyed reading. I always brought a book with me to restaurants during most of my elementary and middle school years. As an adult, I don't have the time to sit and read nearly as much as I'd like.  That's why I treasure the days we spend in Canada, where there's literally nothing to do but read. This weekend, however, I needed a Facebook break (one too many "announcements" will do that), so I dug into the mountain stack on my nightstand and picked up A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans. I've been a follower of her blog for some time, so I was super excited for her book to be released. I mean, any book that creates "vagina-gate" has to be good, right? Right.

I thought about so many ways to write about this book. Truth is, she's written the things on my heart in such a more thoughtful way than I ever could. I laughed, I read excerpts (and drove Husband crazy, because of course I had to add proper context), and I nodded. A lot. An "amen" or two may have been yelled said.

Most of all, I wished this book existed when I was in tenth grade Bible. I attended a fundamental Christian school and tenth grade was almost enough to ask my parents to let me transfer to public school. Almost. That year, my class was responsible for running off three teachers. And the fourth didn't return the next year. So four. Teacher #1 assigned a paper about any Biblical topic. I don't remember how many pages. Three maybe...a lot by high school standards. Teacher #2 was #1's wife, so they left together. Teacher #3 had to actually grade said papers and a presentation was part of the grade as well. After considering a list of suggested topics, I settled on "women's role in the church." I attended the same Disciples of Christ church my whole life and we're known for being a "liberal" bunch, so I knew my take on women's roles was NOT what anyone else in the class believed. I knew I could get an F on the paper. To make matters worse, I had to give my presentation after the other student writing about women's roles--with a traditional approach. Luckily, my mom was nearing completion of her ordination so she had no shortage of resources to help me defend my position, providing historic context for 1 Timothy. I got an A, by the way. I was sad when he left (which for the record, we didn't actually RUN off. His wife became very ill, so he left to care for her).

Rachel's (like how we're on a first name basis?) book wasn't anything earth shattering. I knew a lot of what she wrote, but she said it so much better. There was still plenty for me to learn and take away, particularly July: Justice.

Again, I struggled with how to respond to her book. There are so many passages I wanted to share. I will simply leave it with her conclusion: [SPOILER ALERT] "The Bible isn't an answer book. It isn't a self-help manual. It isn't a flat, perspicuous list of rules and regulations that we can interpret objectively and apply unilaterally to our lives.
     The Bible is a sacred collection of letters and laws, poetry and proverbs, philosophy and prophecies, written and assembled over thousands of years in cultures and contexts very different from our own, that tells the complex, ever-unfolding story of God's interaction with humanity...
     So after twelve months of "biblical womanhood," I'd arrived at the rather unconventional conclusion that there is no such thing. The Bible does not present us with a single model for womanhood, and the notion that it contains a sort of one-size-fits-all formula for how to be a woman of faith is a myth" (p. 294-295).

She goes on to describe the many things one can support with specific scriptures: slavery, oppression, war, peace, love, outdated texts, etc. Rather than read scriptures with a "what does it say?" mindset, ask yourself first what you're looking for and you'll find it. After all, Jesus himself said it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of A Year of Biblical Womanhood as a Christmas gift. I receive no compensation for my review and all opinions are 100% mine. You are welcome to agree with me or disagree. However, before you disagree, you are required to READ her book, not assume you know what it says. That's the only way to have productive conversation. I reserve the right to delete comments I suspect are simply to stir the pot.

New Year, New Beginnings

I promise I'm not getting sappy. There's enough of "I'm looking forward to the blessings of 2013" or "2013 has to be better than 2012" on Facebook. And I'm under no illusions that I'll actually be a better blogger this year, especially since classes start back in 2 weeks.

The upside? It's my last semester and then I'll graduate with an MA Ed. with Literacy Specialist endorsement. I've spoken with my boss at work and there are plans in the works for me and my degree, so I'll hopefully be able to do what I love and be compensated both in hours and pay. Can't beat that with a stick (What kind of phrase is that?).

Anyway, I like to think of this as not just a decorating blog, though the few posts of late would probably beg to differ. I try to keep this as a "life" blog--yes, decorating our first home, but also the general comings and goings of Husband, myself, and our adorable puppy dog. Though, the puppy dog does a much better job keeping track of that.

In the spirit of life updates, here's a super-brief recap of the end of our year.

We hosted both sides of the family for Thanksgiving, again. Since I'm a glutton for punishment apparently.

Everyone

The table

Waiting for food...or digesting. Who knows.

We celebrated our third Christmas in our house.

(sorry it's blurry)

Mister waited patiently for Santa Paws at my parents' house.

Mister and his cousin, Walt, begged for treats at Husband's grandparent's house for "calendar Christmas"

Mister received twice as many Christmas cards as we did.

And we rang in the new year in style.

See? Super quick. Be sure to watch the Rose Parade today. A local high school (Lafayette) is performing and one of our clients and the child of a tutor are both performing!

Quick DIY Job

In anticipation of the hoodlums Trick-or-Treaters coming by tonight, I had a quick project last week: The doorbell:

That's seriously what it looked like. What caused the middle of the button to bust out like that, I have no idea, but ours is not the only one, so I suspect either a rash of doorbell breakers or it has something to do with the weather...I guess? Anyway, not exactly beckoning. Plus, there's lots of little ones in our neighborhood and I didn't want to traumatize them in these formative years. It didn't do anything like shock you, but still.

So I shut off the power at the breaker (FYI, the breaker for the doorbell apparently fell under "Family Room"...which is the other end of the house. Go figure) and unscrewed the main doorbell and then unhooked the wires.

I ended up with two wires. I hooked those around the screws on the back of the new doorbell and then started cursing. See that little hole where the wires come out? Yeah it's a small hole and the new doorbell had a large extension that needed to fit in the hole. I didn't trust my drilling capabilities with the wires (one wrong move could be very bad), so I went back to Lowes and got a flat backed doorbell. I then repeated the process above and this time, success!

Much better. I turned the power back on and no fires (yet)! I even tested it and Mister kind of lost his mind. We should probably work on that.

Oops, I Did It Again: Another Building Project

I have reclaimed my garage parking spot after my latest building project: a fold-down sewing table, plans courtesy of Ana White.  I've needed this for some time now, mostly because there's not a single pair of pants that enter my home and get put away on my side of the closet or in my dresser that DON'T need alterations. And yes, Stacey and Clinton say alterations are small potatoes (I paraphrase...I'd kind of pay money to hear Stacey or Clinton say that, though) in the grand scheme of investment pieces, when it's a $10 alteration over 8, 9, 10+ pairs...that's a much larger investment! And no, heels don't cut it.

So yes, sewing table.

In case you're too lazy to actually look at the plans, there is essentially a base unit in the middle and fold down leaves on either side. The legs fold under and the weight of the leaves hold them in place.  This picture was taken after I attached the legs on one side, to make sure I did those right!

And the finished product:

                                    

I painted the entire thing with leftovers from our bedroom (Sherwin William's Orient Blue color matched by Valspar). Then, I randomly taped off stripes and painted the same green as the laundry room (the color name escapes me, but it's Valspar) and "Wet Path" by American...something or other. The Hubs actually gets credit for the stripes idea. I was debating paint or stain and his suggestion was paint and "some kind of graphic print, like stripes or checkerboard." I actually debated argyle for a while, but decided that was way too much effort. And for the record, random stripes on a table are much easier than on a bedroom wall.

Just a larger angle:

                                 

My proudest moment with this project (other than actually getting the base unit to be square) is creating the ironing board top. See the paisley on the left?

Close up. You can't tell, but the green background matches the green stripes.

I got the brilliant idea that ironing is a large part of sewing properly. While I don't do sewing projects "properly," I figure I'll be doing more and it will probably eventually necessary. I was browsing Pinterest one day (seriously, I don't know I've had a single original idea since that thing came around) and came across this gem. After a little Googling, since the original pin, nor the source actually describe the process, I discovered all iron board padding really is is batting and fabric. The fabric needs to be 100% cotton, because of the heat from an iron (any kind of blend will scorch eventually). I doubled up the batting (which was actually already done for me in packaging) and bought a yard of fabric (perfect for this project's measurements) and a light duty staple gun, since I was in the craft store already anyway. I started in the middle of one side and worked my way out, pulling the fabric and batting tight and stapling.  Mister supervised.

Then, when all is said and done, the table folds up and rolls out of the way:

One side of storage: the basket holds thread, buttons, and other sewing notions. This is already actually outdated. I started switching baskets around and now have those things in the striped bin seen on the top shelf in the above photo. It was actually generally my inspiration for the stripes.  My extra fabric is on the bottom shelf.

Storage on the other side: Sewing machine manual, extension piece thingy I haven't used, and on the bottom is a canvas drop cloth that will turn into curtains for the master bedroom.

That's what I've been doing, instead of working on a presentation for class.

Laundry sorter

I realized I never fully blogged about one of my favorite projects:

Laundry dresser from Ana White

Ana's original idea was to keep it in the laundry room and essentially have a drawer for each member of the family to keep dirty laundry in. Then, it's easy enough for each person to take his or her own basket to fold and put away laundry. Which is a great idea, one that I will one day replicate.  However, with only 2 laundry-needing members of our household (the other, of course, is the type that "nekkid" means we've taken his collar off :)), that wasn't what we needed.

Finally, I get my brilliant idea...which means I was probably in the shower. It's where all my great ideas seem to happen...you know, where I can't write them down to remember! Anyway, I realized what was so trying about doing laundry was the whole sorting process. Instead of separating out lights, darks, etc., I sort based on what the tag reads. You know, manufacturer's suggestion. If there is no tag, or it's so worn, I can no longer read it, I assume cold. Obviously, this system took FOR-EV-ER to hunt down each tag, even though I knew many pieces without looking.  Why not build my sorter based on sorting?  Genius, right? Yeah, I went to Transy.

So we now have our sorter organized as Hot (whites), Warm, and Cold. I got a wicker basket to set on top for Delicates/Line Dry. Again, we don't worry about colors. Gasp. Reds washed with khaki mixed with black? Guess what. Never had a color run problem. Sometimes I wash new stuff with darker stuff, just in case, but I don't stress about it.  And "doing laundry" simply means removing the basket, washing, drying, folding, and putting away (I try to hide Husband's work shirts so I don't have to iron them, but darn it, he always seems to eventually run out).

The reason it occurred to me to actually describe the system? It's so easy, a husband can follow it! Mister and I went on vacation earlier this week to the family cabin in Canada, while Husband stayed home, having to work. He got productive that weekend and washed a couple of loads. He even commented on how easy it was. Before I left, I did a quick load of things I knew I needed, but I didn't have to hunt through all the other dirty laundry. Easy-peasy!

The biggest compliment to the system is that it works for us. If there's only one thing I take away from all the cleaning/organizing/decorating blogs I read is that if the system doesn't work for your particular household, it's doomed to fail no matter how awesome it sounds. Like I said, when we eventually have kids, the system may change. My parents are planning on building their own version, but adding doors and a back (ours has a back, but I don't think it's in the original plan) so one of their cats doesn't confuse the dirty laundry with her litter box (which has happened before). That's what has to work for them. And that's OK!

One Last Closet Update

Wouldn't it figure that the two rooms I consider "done" aren't really rooms? The laundry room is more of a pass through from the garage into the house and the closet is...well...a closet. I still do have a few little things I'd like to do (over the laundry sorter could use some kind of art-what art works for a closet? And I'd like to get a small bowl or two to put collar stays for Husband's dress shirts in.) Anyway, here's the final projects:

As you walk into the closet, the immediate right. I got the original idea from iHeartOrganizing. I loved the idea of the mix of knobs and made a trip to Hobby Lobby to see what they had.

Then I took some scrap plywood from my laundry sorter project (roughly 1x8) and cut it into 2 1/2 foot lengths. After a coat of white primer and then a semi gloss paint (Sherwin Williams snow-something color matched by Lowe's), I was ready to attach. Oh! And I decided I could use a shelf to store my small, skinny purses that could fall through the slats of our actual closet shelves. A couple of them would look better plumped up like in stores, but I've got a few touch up areas anyway.

Attaching was a little crazy. Of course the exact middle was the only stud my boards had, so I had to drill and put in wall anchors. The bottom one was almost the end of me trying to make sure everything stayed lined up properly.

I also just drilled through the wood to attach the knobs and towel bar (which was repurposed from the "toilet room" area of the bathroom). It wasn't much of a problem.

I also attached these hooks for whatever. They're currently holding bags. See what I mean about some touch ups? The silver screws need to go white and the hooks may get a coat of spray paint...haven't decided just yet.

The thing I like best about these two storage spots is the amount of storage without sacrificing room. As I mentioned in the previous post, I thought about moving my shoe collection to there, but was worried the over all feel would be too small like when I still had the wire shelf there. The shelf doesn't stick out too far (and stays up higher) and everything else stays close to the wall, so there's still plenty of room.

On the other side of the closet, I picked up a couple of shoe shelves from Home Depot (just under $10 each). Sorry about the crazy reflection from my tennis shoes.

I really like them, but could probably use a third unit. The shelves fit all of my shoes, but wouldn't fit any new pairs. And I have to do that alternating thing to actually get them all to fit. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to putting things away, especially my shoes and there's no way I'll maintain that--first rule of organizing: it's pointless if it's not easy to maintain. Luckily, I rearranged a few things hanging above, so a third rack will totally fit. I just have to get by Home Depot.

So there's my closet re-do. One day, if we decide to make this our forever home, I'll change out the lights, but they serve their purpose for now and I have many other projects much higher on my priority list :)