Now that's classy!

So, my kitchen is still a mess...My summer online class isn't helping any. (And for the record, my instructor is a total jerk.)

I've lost power to half my kitchen. I have a friend who is a pro. I've sent him pictures, and we've exchanged calls and emails. It seems like the previous occupant put a breaker that was much too large in for the wire that was coming to it. Makes sense right, less likely to "blow a fuse" from over loading it if you have a larger breaker running it. WRONG. Apparently, it probably blew the line running into it, and is a potential fire hazard. My husband thinks he can fix it...I'd like to have professional do it, since I'm the one who sleeps here at night (he sleeps during the day when I'm up and could wake him when the house starts on fire).

I need to be SO VERY grateful that this was not the fuse that ran the dishwasher. But it did run the garbage disposal, the over the sink light, 2 wall outlets and...my microwave. I use it more than I thought. I mean, how else can you cook hotdogs? So, I have an extension cord running out from the cabinet (where we ran a new outlet specifically for the microwave from the outlet right below it when we did the kitchen remodel), to another spot further along the wall. I can't close the cabinet. It looks super ghetto!

Now, if I need to run the disposal...I have to plug it in to an extension cord and run it to yet another outlet. The extension cord keeps disappearing. My husband doesn't want to pay a professional. He seems to think he can do it. Yet when I explained to him what we believed the problem to be, and how to fix it....he didn't understand. So, I might be sneaking around my husband's back with an electrician! Not doing anything that would get me excommunicated or anything...just getting my kitchen back. Part of me feels I have to at least hide my mess...that's why I haven't done it yet.

Know how hard it is to sneak another man into your house when your husband is there? I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do it. It's hard enough trying to figure out when I can wash the sheets w/o having to be up till 2 am waiting for them to dry!

Let's hope its a quick, easy and cheap fix (yeah, right)!

Be Prepared

I've been TRYING to clean and get everything ready. I'm getting my gallbladder out, so my mom is coming for a week. I'd hoped to have everything clean--or cleaner--so she could spend more time with the kids. But nothing ever gets done around here. Or stays done to be more accurate.

I'm a huge fan of the cook once, eat twice method. It's been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. I started this when Alex and I were first married. When you make a 9 by 13 inch pan of Lasagna, and there are only 2 people, you really should have more than lunch the next day! So I started buying square aluminum pans from the dollar store. I'd make half in a glass pan for cooking that night, then the other half went into an aluminum pan for the freezer. I've since upgraded to Glad Ovenware. Those things are awesome. In fact, I love mine so much, I have to make separate freezer meals for others in the aluminum pans. I know I'm never getting my Glad Ovenware back, since they seem so much like the disposable plastic ware containers. I'm selfish, and they're not that cheap! They go from freezer to oven to table...and you can put them in the dishwasher, but I think that wears them out faster. I abhor hand washing dishes, so that's huge for me! It is starting to get a little tighter on feeding 6 people out of an 8 X 8 freezer container, but we could all use a few more vegetables!


So, I've got 8 meals in the freezer, plus a few bags of meatballs. I'm going to make rice tonight. I chose meals for our menu that Alex could prepare, and my mom will be here all week. I'm hoping not to have to use a meal until Alex goes back to work in two weeks!


I'm told the surgery isn't that bad. I'm actually looking forward to it! It's going to be like a vacation! I'm just going to make bows and do homework. And maybe the taxes...

So, to make and freeze rice so that it still tastes good when you defrost it depends on one key step. You have to put it in the freezer when it's still hot. I wish I could give the blog I got the tip from credit, but I didn't mark it (and it's been months). I was buying the things of rice in the freezer section. I have a rice steamer, but sometimes it was just too much to remember to start it an hour before eating. I tried setting the timer on the rice steamer, but on days when I've been out later than planned and wasn't prepared, having these packets to toss in the microwave was such a relief! I steam 2 cups of dry rice, which makes about 5 cups of cooked rice. When it's fully cooked, I take a cup out and put it in the middle of a square of plastic wrap. I fold the sides in like an envelope and then turn it over into another square and fold it up again. This ensures that I don't have a lot of rice falling out of the spots that don't seal up. I place it on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them so they're flat. Then I stick all 5 packets into a zipper plastic bag (and you can reuse that bag, I haven't bothered with the plastic wrap).
To reheat it...leave it out so you can peel open all the layers of plastic wrap. If I remember I put it in the fridge a few hours before. If not I put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Put the brick of rice in a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle a little water on it, probably about a TBSP per cup of rice. Then microwave it for 3 to 4 minutes at half power. Fluff with a fork! It's so much cheaper than the store bought kind, and it works well with jasmine and brown rice (that's all I've tried).
I'd take pictures and document the whole process, but then you'd see how dirty my kitchen is right now! And instead of cleaning it, I'm playing on the computer! Naughty me!

Dirty Secrets...

Clean is overwhelming in my house...well everything is overwhelming in my house...Nothing is ever clean. You know that poem "Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait till tomorrow" meets the lyrics "...And if tomorrow never comes", that's my house!

I'd love to have a clean home all the time, but I can't afford a maid. So between the toddlers, my lazy slob self, and the lazy slob I married, it's never clean.

I do try, a little. I just keep getting interrupted, or I'm tired, or there is something else I'd rather be doing. I've tried the Fly Lady method, I just can't keep up!

I have discovered a few things. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming that this will keep your house clean all the time, or that mine is...it's just a little better...

I've always cleaned everything the same way. I start in the NE that one counter top was about the only thing to ever get cleaned after Little Red was born. I always had to stop and take care of a kid, or was too tired, or lazy...whatever. The SW corner counter top would just get worse and worse (as would the floors), until it was just so bad, I couldn't even look at it. I'd rather clean the bathroom!!

How simple is this: Change your routine. Seriously. I started in the opposite corner. And when I didn't get to finish that night, I started on the other side the next night. I may not ever have it all clean at once, but I'm starting to feel a little more control. I started in the middle tonight! Once, I even mopped my floors when the counter tops weren't clean! That's crazy, since once you clean your counters you risk wiping all that crap onto the floor that you just cleaned! Well, chances are I wasn't going to get the counters clean that night anyway. And I have 4 tots, so it would be dirty again in a few hours! But I was just a little bit more in control...I'm not winning the war, just working on the individual battles!

I also have mini cleaning marathons. Seriously, 15 minutes of hardcore cleaning followed by whatever you want as a reward. Sometimes it backfires and I want to keep cleaning...but not very often! I've also hired a baby sitter to come over so I could clean (okay, I didn't pay her, I just have some really good friends). Sometimes it's the only way I ever get anything done!

Now, there are a few dirty secrets for you...