Category: Homemaking

Today was another tired day – as soon as my oldest daughter saw me this morning, she asked, “Mommy, are you tired?”  She never asked me that before.  It made me wonder what I looked like – usually a shower is enough to wash away any tiredness I’m feeling but today it didn’t work.  Then she looked down at the baby and said, “Is he tired also?  He has the same look on his face as you!”  LOL – there was a reason for that – we spent lots of time the entire night long bonding instead of sleeping!

But – it’s amazing how attitude makes all the difference!  I told you that yesterday started off with me feeling uptight and antsy about everything.  Today should have been the same or worse, if it was just the stuff going on that causes someone to be upset. But the truth is, it’s always our thoughts about something that are the source of our problems. 

The people from the city came out and told me that they aren’t responsible for our sewage problem, and I thought how good it was that they came at 10am instead of later in the day.  So that gave me time to call a plumber to take care of it (he’s here now – it’s 10 pm).  Then I was late for the appointment I made with my oldest son’s principal, and being late is something I hate.  But I just called, told him I’d be there 15 minutes later, and didn’t get uptight about it.  I was given more opportunities to work on letting go of things I can’t control during the drive there, since I hit every possible stop light, road work delays, and then had to wait for an 18 wheeler to pull into a tiny driveway (which blocked traffic on both sides until he finished).  And I thought how lucky I was to have more time to relax in the car myself, listening to music I don’t usually listen to when the kids are around. 

As far as the appointment with the principal – that deserves a post of its own.  I’ll just say in short, that a parent has to be willing to advocate for their child, because your child may be your first priority, but never is someone else’s top priority – no matter how nice they are.  I’ll try to share more about this later on today – I’m trying to catch up here since I’ve hardly had time all week without a baby in my arms to write. 

I got home from the appointment, delighted that my baby was still sleeping.  I don’t like to leave him awake for my older girls to take care of, because I want them to have the time to use the way they want or need.  My oldest daughter hurt her hand yesterday, and told me when I got back that it was really hurting.  She’s not one to complain, so I called her pediatrician and got an appointment for 40 minutes later.  I always end up waiting a very, very long time, so I took a book and my 5 year old, so I could read with him while we waited.  Amazingly enough, my closest friend in town who I’ve been leaving messages for in response to her messages – had the appointment right before me.  And so we had a chance to connect for 15 or 20 minutes while my daughter went into see the doc.  

The arm isn’t broken, which is all I wanted to check for.  I was concerned about a fracture, but it seems it’s okay.  She iced it after she hurt it yesterday, then I wrapped it up to compress it, and gave her arnica (a homeopathic remedy I keep in my purse because it’s so good for bumps, bruising, traumas, and aches).   The doctor gave a good little memory device to remember how to deal with things like this: RICE – R- rest; I – ice; C – compression; E – elevation.  She commended my daughter on doing all the right things – but my daughter didn’t tell her about the arnica.  🙂

We dealt with the sewer problem by not doing anything to make it worse – no laundry, dishes, toilet flushing (unless absolutely necessary) – and all of the water subsided and drained back away.  But yes, my kitchen is a huge mess and when the plumber finishes, I’m going to have a lot of cleaning up to do before I can get to sleep.  It’s amazing how many dishes a family our size uses, even when we’re keeping it simple. It’s really noticeable when they aren’t done in a timely way!  When the plumber came, he told me it will be $500 to fix it.   I had to take a deep breath at that, since I wasn’t expecting it to be nearly that much.  But he’ll clean up all the stuff from when it overflowed and everything will be nice and sanitary.  And for that price, my 9 year old son gets some nighttime entertainment, as he’s been watching it all and finding it very fascinating!

So was it a day of exhaustion, overflowing sewage, doctor visits, a messy house, and expensive home repairs or not??  Like I said, it’s all in the attitude!

Avivah

Yesterday I woke up tense and the day just kept going from there in that vein.   I started getting breakfast ready, and noticed someone in a government car taking a picture of my back yard.  She zoomed off before I could ask her what she was doing, then my son saw her taking a picture of the front.  I couldn’t imagine why she was taking pictures, but thinking about it was getting me nervous.  I was outside when she zoomed by again so I flagged her down to find out what was going on.  She told me we were in violation of some code because we had two small kitchen cabinets leaning against our garage.  I pointed out that bulk trash pick up was scheduled for the next morning, but she said they shouldn’t be out until 6 am the next morning.  I think she realized how pathetic that sounded because she then said we had piles of debris all over the yard.  I was like, what are you talking about?? since we did a major clean up of the yard a couple of weeks ago and it looks pretty good.  I asked her to specifically tell me what was a problem, and she claimed we had piles of boards on our deck and it was a breeding ground for rats.  Turns out we had one 2×4 and one piece of countertop (which we were in the process of moving to the garage)- not quite a rat’s breeding ground, but the government will get their money from the fine so they’re happy.  The irony is that the house across the alley has a huge pile of boards leaning against their house, but she didn’t stop to fine them.  I wasn’t going to point that out and get someone else fined, but it’s a truism that I sometimes tell my kids – life isn’t fair so you have to get used to it. 

Then my kids tell me there’s water leaking from the big freezer – turns out to be a sewer backup.   Then we see stuff coming up from the basement bathroom.  Ah, delightful.  I call the city and they tell me they’ll be out within 24 hours.  24 hours is a long time when there’s raw sewage flooding the basement.  And I do mean flooding. 

When I took my husband to the train, I was grumbling about the nonsensical rules and random enforcement of rules by our city government.  Then told him how fed up I was of having to stay on top of everyone all the time for things to get done.  He asked me if that was always a problem, so I told him, ‘No, I’m in a lousy mood and overtired and everything is bugging me.”  As soon as I said that, I realized I had a serious need to reframe my attitude, and suddenly remembered something I got just a couple of weeks ago. 

It is a piece of card stock folded in six, each sixth with an inspiring message on it.  The one I thought of is called, Acceptance, and I find this incredibly powerful to read out loud.  It’s taken from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, but has been printed up in many other venues.  I pulled it out and read it out loud to myself at the next traffic light.  I find this so powerful and helpful that I want to share it with you:

‘Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.  When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation – some fact of my life unacceptable to me and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.  Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy.  I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.’

Isn’t that wonderful?  I just love those concepts, and it immediately snapped me out of my funk.  Hope it helps you, too!

Avivah

I had a busy day out today as it was time to restock on raw milk.  This means a two hour drive in each direction, but today was the fastest trip so far.  Often when I get there they don’t have enough gallons already bottled for the amount I need and I wait for them to fill up more for me.  But today they had 20 available and I only needed 18 so I was in and out in a jiffy. 

Then I stopped off in a grocery store a mile or so away.  Last time I went, I got three cases of organic plain yogurt for $6 a case (50 cents for a quart size container).  That was super great for me since I’ve been using lots more yogurt now that I soak my grains and flours.  (More details about that another time.)   At that time they were overstocked on the yogurt and wanted to move it quickly before it got to the expiration date, and even though I knew it wasn’t likely I’d find the same deal again, I figured it was worth it to quickly pop in and see if there were any bargains, especially since it wasn’t out of my way a bit.  I also noticed last time that they have some of the bulk grains that I usually get at a different bulk foods store an hour away – so I figured, if I could save myself extra driving, all the better.

They did actually have a super sale on plain yogurt, but not a brand I used.  But I noticed they had cherries on sale for $1.19 a pound.  Who sees prices like that?  I never do.  So I figured I would buy some.  Then I noticed there were cases of cherries next to the display of loose cherries – each marked with a 6.  I couldn’t imagine that could be a price, so I checked with someone working there.  She told me it was – I couldn’t believe it – $6 for 11 pounds of cherries!?!  How was that possible?  Same situation – there was an overstock at a large grocery and they passed it on to this small grocery, who passed it on to customers at these ridiculous prices to get it sold before they can’t be sold. 

So there was no way I could walk out without a couple of cases.  I would have bought more but I don’t have a cherry pitter (which would make it possible to pit them and freeze them) and I don’t think something ends up being a bargain if it rots before you can use it.  They are fantastic – hardly any with soft spots, sweet and crunchy.  Mmm….

I filled the rest of my cart with a 50 lb bag of potatoes, 30 lb of whole wheat flour (as backup for times that I don’t have time to grind wheat), 10 lb. steel cut oats, 10 lb popcorn, 3 or 4 lb. slivered almonds, and 15 lb. cornmeal.  It was $60 for everything.  Definitely a productive shopping trip.  🙂

Avivah

Our kitchen has been coming along nicely.  My husband ended up being unable to take a day off this past week, which meant that he didn’t have that block of time to get work done that I originally was counting on when I set my ambitious goal of having it all done within 5 days.  And of course when you start a project like this, you end up running into unplanned things that need to be dealt with (like the range hood that we decided to vent outside instead of having all the air recirculate as happens with unvented hoods). 

But by Friday, all the cabinets were in, the double oven and cooktop were installed, and even the sink was in.  The sink was in, but the pipes weren’t attached….but still, all in all, a very impressive show of accomplishment from my husband, who was working with very limited time.

 So late Friday afternoon, I was warming up some food on high and managed to burn the brand new countertop.  Yes, less than two hours after the installation of the cooktop was finished.  I couldn’t believe it.  I wanted to run out Saturday night and just buy entirely new countertops, but my husband wasn’t excited about that.  He reminded me that we said we would keep this as low budget as possible and one burn mark wasn’t a justifiable reason to go buy another 26 feet of countertop.  So I reluctantly agreed, since my argument ‘once we’re doing all that work, it should look really good’ didn’t really hold up to the cost argument.

But today dh was measuring to fit the corner and realized that the amount of countertop we bought won’t be enough due to how they needed to be cut.  That was enough to get me started on ‘let’s go buy all new countertops’, which he still wasn’t thrilled about.  But I wasn’t willing to lose countertop space by changing the original plan.  It just seemed to me penny wise and pound foolish to have spent all that money for everything, and then to limit the effectiveness of the layout because of the additional cost.  I’m fortunate that my husband isn’t the kind of person who makes a decision and then sticks to it no matter what – he’s very open to discussion and ended up agreeing that we should just buy new countertops.  So off I went to Home Depot (which sometimes feels like my home away from home.)

They had four kinds of countertops there, and surprisingly, one of the patterns displayed was identical to what I bought at the building salvage supply place!  I couldn’t believe it.  Even though I would like to buy one of the other patterns more, out of respect to my husband’s concern about the cost, I’ve decided to stick with the current countertop design so that the replacement costs will be limited.  As much as I like asthetics, I value my husband and his feelings more, even if he wouldn’t insist on it.  And it will end up looking very nice, anyway.

So what we will do is this: replace the burnt counter with the second counter we bought, which doesn’t have a backspash – which is what we should have used in the first place and then we wouldn’t have had a problem with burning the backsplash.   And dh told me when he installed the sink (which is on the same length of countertop) that it would have been much easier if we had used the countertop without a backsplash.  You live and you learn….. 

 Then we’ll only need to spend another $150 – $170 on the remaining countertops from HD.  Then everything will match and I won’t have to look at that burn mark anymore.  Yeah, that’s money, but before we were thinking all the money we spent on the first set of countertops was totally wasted plus we would have to spend another $300 or so for new ones.  It actually ends up that it was really good that we bought the first set of countertops, since Home Depot only sells countertops with backsplashes, unless you custom order.  So our mistake will only cost us about $30, it’s not a big loss like it could have been.

Avivah

What do ski pants and self respect have to do with each other?  I’ll tell you what happened today and then you’ll know!

My son told me last week that his high school is having a ski trip. A $60 trip, which isn’t cheap.  I really don’t like all the extracurricular expenses – after all, I’m already paying for private school tuition.  Anyway, the principal called him over to speak to him and told him that because he’s made such a great transition to high school from homeschooling, academically as well as socially, the school is going to pay for his ski trip as a way to acknowledge his effort.  My son was really appreciative and it was nice for him to know that the administration has noticed his effort. 

So he’s going skiing tomorrow. And my eleven year old daughter has a snow tubing trip planned for this Sunday, with her Girl Scout troop.  That’s being paid for by funds from cookie sales, which is nice, since the girls worked really hard to sell cookies as a troop. Their hard work built this fund that will now pay for some fun troop outings.  Anyway, both of them have grown out of their snow pants/snowbibs (you’d be amazed how someone is always growing out of something here – it could be a part time job just keeping everyone appropriately clothed).  So off I went to the thrift store today to see if I would have any luck finding a couple of pairs.

While I was there, I bought some other things, and finally got to the checkout.  While the cashier was ringing up my order, I had been holding the store credit I was planning to use for part of the costs, and when she told me the total, handed it to her along with my debit card.  Instead of taking it, she angrily turned around, grabbed her head, and started muttering unpleasantly before turning back to me and angrily telling me that I can only use store credit if it’s given before the order is rung up.

I smiled at her and said, “You know, you can tell me nicely if there’s something different I need to do.  I shop here all the time so it’s no problem for me to use the credit next time I come in. There’s nothing posted about how to use store credit, and the only way I can know is if you tell me.  But yelling at me isn’t going to help.” 

Then the woman looked at me and when she realized that I wasn’t being nasty, that I was being nice to her even though she overreacted, she quieted down really fast.  And then she apologized sincerely, and told me she shouldn’t have gotten so upset and she was really sorry about it.  Then she explained that she thought she was going to have to cancel my entire order and re-ring it up.  

There have been plenty of times when I’ve encountered irate people, like all of us have.  And some of the time, I take it personally.  Most of the time, I don’t respond to the negativity but try my best to be respectful of the person I’m interacting with regardless.  But I’ve come to realize that I need to respect myself as much as I try to respect others to create.  And respecting myself  means appropriately letting others what standards I find acceptable to interact with me, including cashiers! 

Avivah

Today the electrician came to wire the kitchen for the electric oven (we had gas until now).  It’s been a while since I wrote about my last experience with this company, but I’ll just say that though the electricians who came were both pleasant, I wasn’t happy with their work.  Because it didn’t work properly.  Plus they made a big mistake that cost me an extra $300 in labor costs, and then it still wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. 

But I like the owner of the company, and he took care of the problems and took responsibility for it, so I decided to continue using him.  Today they sent a different electrician who was just wonderful.  He was an older man who has been an electrician for over 50 years, and three years ago decided to work for this man so that he didn’t have to deal with paperwork anymore.  He knew what to do, he did everything quickly and efficiently, and he was really pleasant in general.  AND – he straighted out the mess they made of the wiring in the attic and now it all works properly. 

When he left, I told him how much I appreciated his work, and said that we’ll be requesting that they send him next time we need work done (which will be fairly soon – I didn’t want to do it all today because of the time and expense).  But after he left, I felt that just saying thank you to him wasn’t enough.  So I sent an email to the owner of the company, telling him all the things I just told you.  Why shouldn’t they hear how great their employee is?  And why shouldn’t he benefit by having his employers know that he gave excellent service?

Taking the time to say thank you is such a small investment, but it makes a big difference. 

Avivah

Yesterday things were chaotic around here.  We had taken down some cabinets and emptied them of everything in them, but hadn’t yet put up new ones to replace them.  Every kitchen surface was covered, the dining room table was full, the living room was filled with cabinets and appliances not yet installed.  After breakfast, no one ate until dinner because there was literally no way to prepare any food.  Dirty dishes couldn’t be washed, because clean dishes couldn’t be put away, so there was no place to put the freshly washed dishes to dry.

But today is a different story!  Though there’s still lots to be done, it already is looking good.  All of the wall and base cabinets are in place on one side of the kitchen, leaving the other side to work on tomorrow afternoon.  We were able to put away most of the stuff that was out into the cabinets that are up now.  When we finish putting all the new cabinets in, we’re really going to feel like we have lots of storage space.  Two base cabinets and three wall cabinets aren’t yet in (still in the living room, along with a washing machine, double oven, and two cooktops ), and what we have in so far is comparable to what we’ve had until now with the old setup.  Meaning squishy but manageable.

One of the top cabinets was a microwave cabinet – it has a closed shelf above and an open shelf where the microwave is supposed to go.  It probably won’t surprise you that I don’t use microwaves, because of the health concerns regarding what it does to food.  Since it was deeper than a typical wall cabinet (because it needed to accomodate the microwave), I asked dh to cut it down to match the others.  Now I’m using the open shelf for all my jars of fermented veggies, and the closed shelf above for the empty jars that aren’t in use.  It looks so nice!

Two weeks ago when I asked dh about buying this set of cabinets, he told me he didn’t want to start a project like this.  Today, he thanked me for taking it on since it’s so rewarding and empowering to do something like this.  I’m very appreciative to my husband for taking this on with such a great attitude.  He commented that especially since we’re doing it as a family project, it builds a nice sense of comaraderie and accomplishment.  The kids are just as excited, if not more excited, as I am to watch it all coming together!  They’re also looking forward to seeing the reaction of their grandparents on Saturday night, when they usually stop in, who were here a week and a half ago and have no idea we’re doing this.  We’re anticipating that they’ll be more than a little surprised when they pop by.  🙂

Avivah

My husband came home this morning from Home Depot with two new power tools – a hammer drill and a jigsaw drill.  He had planned to rent a hammer drill (since one wall we’re attaching cabinetes to is concrete), but then they told him it was $24 to rent it for four hours.  $34 for the day.  And the cost to buy one?  $60.  Since we’re going to need this again for when we vent the hood to the outside brick wall, it made sense to just buy it instead of renting it for two days and paying $72 plus tax. 

While he was at it, he picked up a jigsaw to cut the countertop with.  Well, not to cut the countertops, but to cut the spaces for the sink and cooktop in the countertop.  This is one of the prices you pay for doing your own home improvements – an ever growing collection of power tools.  🙂

It’s pretty amazing when I think that until we bought this house a year and a half ago, we had never done any renovating or remodeling.  My husband could fix a hinge or screw in some blinds, but never did much more than that.  I’m very appreciative to him for agreeing to be involved in all my home improvement schemes.  He’s very busy and wouldn’t choose to spend time or money on these things if it weren’t for me. 

 And me – I didn’t know how to do anything!  I never even used a drill.  Actually, even when we were doing the first projects that I decided on, I was the one telling my dh and son how to do it (because I read the books and studied the situation).  But I still didn’t know how to use a drill myself until after some of kids learned.  Now it’s funny to me how easy so many of these things are to do.  A friend was here a few days ago, and when she heard we were redoing the kitchen, said, “Oh, you know how to do all of that stuff.”  As if I was some kind of long term expert.

It’s also been another fun area to apply my frugal genius to. 🙂