Never-ending Laundry

I had to explain to JG the other day the quote, "A mother's work is never done."  Laundry is one of the reasons behind that saying!  I've attempted numerous methods to stay on top of the never-ending laundry in my home.  I've tried doing laundry ALL on one day which meant about 7 loads, and it was almost certain one or more loads would be left crumpled in a hamper waiting to be folded (for days...or in the washer or dryer...washer being the worst of the three...you know what I mean).  I've tried designating days for which type of load.  Yeah, that didn't work at all because life gets in the way.  I've tried doing one load a day, but I am too OCD about "properly" sorting laundry to just throw all the day's clothes/towels in one load. I've tried doing laundry on just two days, but some piles weren't big enough to do; and it just got too confusing.  Frustrating.  I've also never liked having to get three different hampers and take them to one central place to sort the loads and have it all overtake my laundry room.  Annoying.

SOLUTION!  Yes, I have found one that works really well for our family and might be worth trying for yours.  A solution that does not take up mountains of floor space, tells me when which load needs to be done, AND one that my kids and Hubz can consistently help with.  Woo hoo!  Walmart has laundry hampers that are tall, thin, and white.  Simple and organized looking.  I purchased three of them (approx $18 total) to place at the top of our stairs where we have a little landing area.  They come with stickers: whites, colors, and darks.  I put two "whites" stickers on either side of the whites hamper and so on with the colors and darks.  (I REALLY wish I had room for four baskets as I am a whites, lights, brights, and darks gal... but I will take the room I can get and compromise for now!)  This spot is very central to the bedrooms in our home, so my kids and Hubz can immediately (or when reminded to) take their dirty clothing to the hampers and sort them.  This means no dirty clothes littering the bedroom floor or bathrooms.  It also means teaching them how to sort laundry.  And it means that at a glance, I can see which load must be done -- each hamper is a great size for one load of laundry.  Hamper full?  Slide that baby into the laundry room (or have a kid do it!), throw it all in the washer, start it up, return hamper.  DONE.  No gathering hampers.  No sorting into piles.  No random hampers taking up space in bedrooms or laundry room with dirty clothes waiting to be washed.  No panic that this load was not done on this day.  No zillion loads in one day.  Wash, dry, fold.  It is RARE that I have to do two loads a day.  I think this method is wonderful because it is more relaxed and flexible... and it runs me rather than me trying to control it.  If that makes sense.  :-)

(Towels are a different story -- I have one hamper in the laundry room for those.)

I.  AM.  IN.  LOVE.

Think Outside the Bag

Just a quick tip to think outside the norm when you're in search of something.  I have had the same small plastic Mary Kay bag for years to hold my make-up.  I've never really had lots of make-up, so I don't need much to hold it all.  But the bag has never fit properly in the drawer it needs to be in, nor does it keep it's contents upright or organized (which annoys this efficient-ista).  I had to get some new eye shadow today since one of my little sets has reached the point of crumbling to bits in the sink when I swipe my brush over it.  :-P  Extra tip from my Hubz: instead of having to buy a whole new trio, buy individual eye shadows to replace what is gone and keep the remaining eye shadow in the set (i.e. Almay for brown eyes trio always runs out of tan and purple shadow with PLENTY of dark brown left...).  So while I was on the task of buying make-up, I decided to "splurge" $8 and get a new container for my make-up.  Unfortunately, the store I was at was severely lacking in variety and seemed to cater to a certain group/style.  But it is SO rare I get to go shopping alone with a very loose time frame, so I didn't want to walk out empty handed.  Think, think, think!  After visiting the purses, luggage, Rubbermaid type storage, etc, I ended up in the office aisle.  And found the PERFECT solution!  A nice sturdy, compartmentalized black mesh desk organizer that slides perfectly into place in our vanity.  It has compartments for lips, mascara/liner, trios, blush, individual eye shadows, brushes, foundations, and a drawer that holds my loose powder perfectly.  All it took was a little bit of thinking outside the make-up bag!

What are some things you have used in unconventional ways?  Please share!

A Pinteresting and Cute Gift Idea

Oh how I like Pinterest!!  It has so many good ideas and is a wealth of information.  If you aren't on Pinterest and you want to be just ask and Dawn or I will be happy to invite you.  Though, as Dawn said in her post about it, it can be a time consumer.

So, I have been really trying some of the things I've seen on Pinterest.  Some things have worked great, like compact packing so you only have to take a rolling carry-on on the plane.  Some haven't worked, like the "No-poo" method of washing hair.  One of my endeavors was a gift for my sweet little granddaughter, Snickers, second birthday.  She is a sweet, charming, active bundle of joy and all girl.  She "painted" her toe nails with white board marker, how girly is that!  :)  Anyway, what little girly girl doesn't need a tutu???  Pinterest to the rescue.  There are oodles of tutorials out in the land of the Internet, so I don't want to add to the oodle.  Do a search and find one that is easy for you!  But I do want to show you the finished product.  This is an easy and pretty inexpensive project.  I think it would make cute birthday/Christmas presents for little girls.  The other thing I found as I was looking at different tutorials was how creative you can get with these.  Mine is pretty basic.

Finished and ready to send to Snickers!

The Birthday Fairy (chasing her two older brothers...)

A New Friend

I'm starting to hear more and more about Bar Keepers Friend, a cleaning product.  I finally remembered to look for it at Lowes when we were there last (ok, I didn't remember... we just happened to be walking down the cleaning aisle to a different area when I realized I could look for it).  The main reason I was interested is because I saw on Pinterest that it can be used to get gray silverware marks off of white dishes.  Well, I have a whole set of marked-up white dishes!!  It did wonders, I tell you.  See for yourself!  Now I can make them sparkle like nearly-new anytime I want rather than ho-humming about white dishes that look over used.  All you do is get a damp cloth, squirt some Bar Keepers Friend on the cloth or dish, use some elbow grease to rub the marks off, rinse, and wash the dish.

Ps - Remember those knives at I bought at BJs in April and raved about how great they were though it seemed like a too-good-to-be-true deal?  Well, I hate to say it, but some of them are getting rust spots.  ARGH!  I've tried to contact the guy who sold them but to no avail.  I still love the look, feel, and quality edge of the knives.  And now, I have my new Friend to get rid of the rust spots.  Easy peasy!

Bowls - After & Before

Plates - Before & After

A Great Time Saver From Pinterest

Shredding Chicken
Kathie's Tip

Ah, Pinterest, the website that I enjoy.... too much.  It is loaded with such great ideas, some of which seem a little wacky.  Well call me wacky!!  I tried something today that I thought was crazy.  I shredded my chicken breast, for chicken salad, with my mixer.  Now I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer so I don't know if you could do this with a hand mixer or not but WOW.  (I will never hand shred chicken again.  I wonder if you could do this with beef...)  I was concerned that the chicken would wrap around the paddle but it didn't.  I used two chicken breast halves.  (Side note: you know how a chicken breast looks a little bit like the African continent?  Well, did you know that is actually half a chicken breast?  A whole chicken breast is two African continent shaped pieces of meat, joined together by some cartilage.)  So, I cooked a whole chicken breast, let it cool a little, then put it in the mixing bowl and let it go.  :)  Seriously, only about 20 or 30 seconds later.... shredded chicken.  Here are the pictures to show you how it came out.

Before

After!

Poaching Chicken
Dawn's Tip

If you have a recipe you need cooked chicken for, I suggest poaching it.  If you boil chicken in water until it's done, say 10-15 minutes, it will usually be a bit dry.  You've overcooked the chicken!  I saw once on a cooking show that you can actually poach chicken.  It turns out perfectly done and moist rather than dry.  Place your chicken in a pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat.  Let sit 15 minutes.  Check for white centers just to be sure it's done.  Enjoy!

Floral Frugality

Flowers. I love them.  If I could, I would have fresh flowers on my dining room table all the time.  It is a special treat when my Honey brings me flowers.  I will confess that when he first started bringing me "grocery store" flowers instead of "flower shop" flowers, I was offended.  I'm such a silly woman!  I have discovered I like arranging flowers; and it is so much less expensive to get some grocery store flowers and arrange them yourself, especially if you have a small stash of old vases.  Now flowers are *always* more expensive around Mother's Day, so the cost quoted here is higher than normal.  I know at my grocery store you can usually get a bouquet of flowers for around $10.

The day before Mother's Day, my Honey came home with two large beautiful bouquets -- from the grocery store.  :)  Because I knew I was going to turn this into a blog post, I asked if he minded if I knew how much he spent.  He said it was around $34.  Readers, I got two arrangements out of these flowers!  So I have a large bouquet on my dining room table and a bouquet in my kitchen.  I'm going to put pictures of what I see as comparable bouquets from the Telaflora website so you can compare the "flower shop" bouquets to the "grocery store" bouquets.

Two Grocery Bouquets and a Vase

The first bouquet-at-home, short 'n sweet and full...

A comparable "flower shop" bouquet at $39.95 -- more than both grocery bouquets together!

The second bouquet-at-home, simple and elegant.

The comparable "flower shop" bouquet at a whopping $44!

My youngest daughter is living with my middle daughter for a month this summer.  As a tradition, I usually have flowers waiting for my girls when they come for a visit.  So my middle daughter did that for her sister.  She can't find her camera at present, but she bought a grocery bouquet of multi-colored roses for $15, arranged them in a short modern vase, and put a pretty pink fabric ribbon around the middle.

The comparable "flower shop" bouquet at $59.95!

I personally like my bouquets better than the floral shop bouquets, and it was a total difference of $49.95.  If you'll notice, my lily bouquet has a lot more lilies waiting to bloom than are in the floral shop bouquet.  So the lesson here?  Don't be a flower snob like I was; and be grateful that you can get, for yourself or someone you want to cheer, flowers from the grocery store!

Ps - The only way this might not work is if you want someone out-of-state to have flowers.  :-)

A Different Way to Look at Eating

At the end of January I began a journey.  I say it is a journey because as with anything new it is best to take baby steps.  I began a new eating plan.  It is called the Maximized Living plan (ML).  It goes very much against conventional wisdom of low-fat, high carbohydrate diet plans.  I am using the word diet to reflect a lifestyle of eating, not a weight loss program.  Everyone is on a "diet" -- it simply refers to the intake of food, although I think most of us relate it to the way we eat to lose weight.

Maximized Living has two different styles.  One for people who want to eat better (remember this isn't conventional here) and one for people who have a lot of health issues and do want to lose weight.  They are called the "Core plan" and the "Advanced Plan".  There is no way I can explain it all in a blog post, and I'm not sure that would be appropriate.  But I will give you the basics for now that are pretty easy to follow once you give it some thought.

*DON'T eat refined foods(read sugar laden, processed foods)
*DO eat high quality carbohydrates, a moderate amount of good protein and a moderate amount of good fats... this includes saturated fats, like butter
*DO eat organic fruits and vegetables; organic/raw dairy products; and grass fed, naturally raised meats.  I will say to eat organic is more expensive, and I don't eat everything organic.  I do buy organic milk and half & half, some veggies, and the grass fed beef.
*The ML plan recommends certain supplements and is often in followed in conjunction with chiropractic care (which I don't believe is necessary physically and can be impossible financially).
*DO exercise!  The DVD the plan provides, which I use, is 12 minute interval training.  It is hard, and you'll hurt.  But it's only 12 minutes.  I am feeling stronger and more toned in only 4 weeks (3 days per week).

I began the ML plan with baby steps.  The first thing I did was get off sugar and grains (reduction in grains is part of the Advanced plan).  I did really well for the first 6-8 weeks.  I had an emotional melt down at that point, and guess what... I'm an emotional eater.  :-P  I'm wanting to get back off sugar, but it is hard!  I'm not sure why.  I feel so energetic when I don't have it in my body.  It's funny I am writing this today, since I"m really committed to get off sugar starting today.  :-)  In the 6-8 weeks I was faithful to this plan, I lost 17 pounds -- WITHOUT any exercising!  As mentioned, I have started exercising now; and I think it his helping me maintain my weight loss.

Some of the things that *really* go against conventional wisdom (that I had to get over) were:

*DO use full fat dairy
*DON'T eat pasta, not even whole wheat (part of the Advanced plan; allowed in the Core plan)
*DON'T eat by the clock.  Eat when you are truly hungry, not because it is "time to eat."  This was hard for me.

Now you may be concerned about using full fat dairy, I understand.  What you need to know is that using full fat dairy will keep you full and satisfied longer.  When companies make low/non fat food they are taking out the element that has a lot of the flavor, so they have to replace it.  What do they replace it with? Sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup or corn sugar as they are beginning to call it.  These things are just not good for your body.  And if you give it some thought, it has been since "low-fat" dieting has been the norm that we have begun to see so much about the obesity/diabetic epidemic in the USA.  So that should tell you something about sugar, right?  You may find yourself needing to teach yourself it is okay to eat full fat dairy if you are interested in this way of eating.  It honestly didn't take me long.  It is so yummy, mouth-satisfying, and helps you eat less in the long run by keeping you full!  (Example: My daughter tried this way of eating for only a couple of days.  The day before she started, she had eaten 3 regular meals and 4 snacks because she usually feels hungry every couple hours.  The very day she started eating the basic ML diet, she had 3 regular meals of smaller portions and only 1 snack.  Less food, more full!)

A quick example of what I ate one day this week which was all very satisfying:

9am - a blueberry/baby greens smoothie (I promise you don't taste the greens)
1pm - a granny smith apple with some white cheddar cheese
5pm - a wonderful tuna salad (made by my Honey) over baby greens
8pm - a Lara bar (a food bar with nutritional, clean ingredients) and a glass of whole milk.

I think that is about it in a nutshell.  I feel so much better, have more energy and am losing/maintaining my weight without spending hours obsessing over food and exercising.  It is a good fit for me!

Here is a link to the main ML page for those who may want more information (and so I am above reproach as far as copy write laws!).