domestic
March 13, 2008
my mom wishes this would've happened YEARS ago
I've become one of those people who has to have the bed made. For years this was not the case, as one might gather from the title, but it's finally happened, and this gives me hope that maybe one day I'll be one of those people who always hangs up/puts away their clothes, too. This is a fairly new realization, though. I was running late on Monday, so I didn't stop to make the bed like I've been making an effort to do since the beginning of the year. At the time it bothered me, leaving the house with the bed unmade, and it REALLY bothered me after I got home as soon I went upstairs and saw the messy bed. Even with all the clutter on the floor by my side of the bed, the room looks somewhat put together as long as the bed is made, but with the sheets and quilts all rumpled and the pillows tossed on it haphazardly, it was a very disquieting picture, and that's when I realized that I never want to leave the house with the bed unmade again. Too bad this didn't occur to me when I was a teenager.
Posted by oracle at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2008
Valentine's Day - 2008
Mike and I decided to keep Valentine's Day pretty low-key this year - no big presents for each other, just cards or something along those lines (although he did give me a early in the morning). The rest of the day was spent napping, sitting in waiting rooms, crocheting, talking to doctors, picking up kidlets, and taking a quiz. As a result I have three new prescriptions, the go-ahead on the mostly-vegetarian eating plan I'm thinking about, a slightly skewed sleep schedule, the warm feeling I've been getting lately when all of our family is together under one roof, and an 85 on that damn quiz. Oh, and a handful of these:
I found the pattern yesterday morning, and I immediately grabbed a crochet hook and some yarn so I could try it out. The trial heart turned out so well I went ahead and made one for each of the kids for Valentine's Day, and now I'm trying to figure out which project I want to use them in first: on cards or as embellishments for a cardigan for H.
Posted by oracle at 4:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2008
a tiny choice
I've been thinking a lot about finances lately, and being environmentally conscious seems to be an issue that often goes hand in hand with living frugally. One of the green sites I've been reading recently is Tiny Choices. The idea of making changes little by little is much easier for me to get behind than the idea of changing how I do everything, so I've been mulling over how I do things and ways I could make tiny choices to change. The first tiny choice I'm consciously making is my decision to hang-dry all of my clothes except for my jeans. Right now this means I'm putting all my clothes on hangers to dry, but as the weather gets nicer, I'm thinking about talking to Mike about putting up a removable clothesline on our deck. Our HOA won't let us keep one up there all the time, which I understand - they can be kind of tacky sometimes, so I'm thinking about a set-up that would let me put the line up when I need to hang clothes on it and take it down when I'm done. Until then, however, laundry days at our house will see my clothes hanging in doorways to dry.
Posted by oracle at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2007
a cooking flurry
Things I will be making today:
a batch of chicken broth
prepping bread for stuffing (tearing it up and putting it in bags to be toasted tomorrow)
a pan of baked mac'n'cheese with ham (that is now the preferred method of serving mac and cheese in this house. It's not the same if the ham is served on the side - it must be mixed in before baking)
homemade bean soup with ham and carrots
biscuits to go with the bean soup
a batch of sloppy joe filling
a vat of tomato sauce
a tray of lasagna
a tray of stuffed shells
layered jello (for our Christmas Day dinner)
cranberry sauce (also for the Christmas Day dinner)
iced tea
things I will be doing today:
wrapping presents for the kids (I was saving this for tomorrow, but we might be getting them tonight, and if we do, I'd like to not have their presents laying around the living room)
wrapping presents for other family members
dealing with a metric fuckton of laundry (sheets, towels, pillowcases, whites, lights, and puppy linens - these are the fruits of my sloth this week)
a metric fuckton of dishes (the fruits of my cooking flurry mentioned above)
wrestling with puppies to get their nails trimmed down from "razor-sharp death-dealing talons" to just "damn, those are some long nails"
possibly giving said puppies a bath, depending on how sliced up I am after the nail trimming
Posted by oracle at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
September 7, 2007
the saddest little man
I dropped Jordan off at the vet this morning so he could have his teeth cleaned, and he was the most pitiful thing you have ever seen. After he got through sniffing everything within reach in the vestibule he wanted to be picked up, so while I was filling out the paperwork (of which there was more than I anticipated, btw. I naively thought I would just walk in and drop him off, which, no) I held him while he looked around and quivered. Then the vet tech came out to take him back, and he wanted nothing to do with her. He tucked his tail between his legs, crouched as low to the ground as he could get, and pressed himself against my legs. When I stepped away so the tech could get him, he hid between, then behind, my legs, trying to stay as close to me as possible. I ended up holding him while she put their leash on him, but he still didn't want to go with her. He dug his little paws into the floor and wouldn't budge, and since it was a leash/slip-collar combined, she could only pull so much before it would start choking him, so she was trying to get him to go with her without strangling him. That's the picture I saw as I left him there - my little rescue puppy who took so long to completely warm up to us, not wanting me to leave him there with the nice, but strange (to him), people who're going to do bloodwork, give him anesthesia, clip his nails while he's asleep and can't fight about it, and then clean the hell out of his teeth. I'm sure I was more upset about it than he was, but I'm still going to give him extra snuggles and fuss over him more than usual this evening. Hopefully he'll have much nicer breath when we pick him up.
Posted by oracle at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
August 31, 2007
Cleaning Armaggedon - day seven
Refilled the q-tip jar in our bathroom, did laundry (can't remember what, specifically, though, which is not a good sign), cleared up the dirty dishes, and that's it. I felt like crap again today, so that's all I had the energy for.
Posted by oracle at 8:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2007
Cleaning Armaggedon - day six
Today was much more productive than yesterday. To wit: I loaded and ran the dishwasher, did laundry (washed a "delicate" rug, folded the new beach towels, started lights - part one, put away darks - part two), scrubbed more tile/grout in our shower, emptied the dishwasher, loaded the dirty dishes (still need to wash those wineglasses, blah), cleaned my small stoneware pan, cleaned the tub in H's bathroom (the scene of the oven rack scouring), maintained the puppies' litter box and cleaned up the front yard, wiped down the laundry room floor, put the newspaper in the recycling bag, brought my new stamps upstairs (they're not put away yet, but at least they're not downstairs creating an eyesore anymore), refilled the napkin holder on the table, and cleaned out some of the old items in the fridge.
Posted by oracle at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2007
Cleaning Armageddon - day five
Did laundry (put towels - part two in the dryer, washed and put away a load of delicates [a crocheted afghan, etc.] and washed the new beach towels [<3 Land's End]), took the trash out for trash day, maintained the puppies' litter box, and wiped the baking soda residue out of the top oven. I wasn't feeling too good today, so that's all I did, even though I had big plans to finish the top oven and wipe out the rest of the laundry. Maybe I'll get more done tomorrow.
Posted by oracle at 9:28 PM | Comments (2)
August 28, 2007
Cleaning Armageddon - day four
Loaded the dishwasher, threw a load of laundry in the dryer (darks - part two), scrubbed more of the tile/grout in our shower, folded/hung-up and put away laundry from earlier in the morning (darks - part one), put a load of towels in the washer, cleaned out the coffee maker, changed out the puppies' litter box, cleaned up the front yard (such as it is), and did some more work on the oven racks (what a pain in the ass).
Need to: do more laundry (fold and put away darks - part two, put the towels in the dryer, and put lights - part one in the washer), handwash and put away wineglasses, clean and put away my small stoneware pan, and finish up the top oven (the sides are immaculate, but the back has some splatters still, and the bottom has a big black spot that needs to be scoured), and start on the bottom oven (it's nowhere near as bad as the top one, but it is in need of a good cleaning too).
Posted by oracle at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
Cleaning Armaggedon - day three
Worked more on the top oven (I am NEVER letting it get that bad again. Cleaning it all out like this is a tremendous [and unnecessary] pain in the ass), scrubbed the tile/grout in our shower, did more laundry (moved towels - part one out of the dryer into a basket, started darks - part one), maintained the puppies' litter box, put away my clutter from the kitchen table, and started on the oven racks (also a huge pain in the ass).
Posted by oracle at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
Cleaning Armaggedon - day two
Started working on the top oven (I started off using a toothbrush and a baking soda paste, but Mike pointed out that using one of those green scratchy pads might be quicker, so I put that on hold until we went to Target later in the afternoon and got some - he's right, using them is MUCH easier), made the bed (yes, this is something I had let lapse. My mother would be HORRIFIED to hear that), did laundry, maintained the kitchen, cleaned up the front yard, gathered the newspaper for recycling, and worked more on the top oven.
Posted by oracle at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)
Cleaning Armaggedon - day one
Began cleaning the kitchen: put bowls of ammonia in both ovens (I read that it will help loosen some of the cooked-on gunk, but this is the first time I've tried it...we'll see how it works), put the oven racks in a tub of hot water with some dish detergent (also to help loosen gunk, also previously untried), wiped down the stovetop, wiped down all of the counters, ran the dishwasher THREE TIMES in one day(this is a record for when it's just me and Mike in the house), put away a fuckton of dishes (thank you, Mike and Tyler for helping me dry the last load), and took out the trash a couple of times. Also washed the sheets, made the bed back up, did more laundry (washed, folded, and put away a load of whites and put towels - part one in the washer), cleaned out the puppies' litter box, and tidied up the laundry room a little bit.
Posted by oracle at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2007
I like themes
Mike and I have planned Movie Nights for tonight and tomorrow, and given the current Harry Potter events (last book, new movie), both nights are going to be Harry Potter-themed. We're going to watch the first two Harry Potter movies tonight, and tomorrow we'll watch the third and fourth movies. I polled the kids to find out what their favorite "movie theater" candy, drinks, and snacks were so we can have a "concession stand" both nights (I'm going to see if I can pick up some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans too), and on Saturday we're going to have a "movie theater dinner" with hot dogs and nachos in between the two movies. After we're all caught up on the Harry Potter timeline, we're going to surprise the kids on Sunday and take them to the theater to see the fifth movie.
Posted by oracle at 9:09 AM | Comments (2)