Sunday photo.

Yesterday, mu cousin Beth asked me about going "paper free" at home. I consider us as going "paper-light", using less, but not completley free. After typing my response I realized it was pretty good info - why not share? So here it is...


Ok, going paper-free. (Glad to hear of others doing it as well!)

First of all, I don't notice much in the way of laundry increase. Really, it's just another towel or two, and some napkins in a load - not enough to even notice. So...here's a quick rundown:

1. Napkins - I made my own. I used a bunch of scrap fabric, so nothing really matches. But who cares? I cut the fabric onto 12" squares, then sew small hems around the outside. They aren't that absorbent at first, but once they've been washed a few times they are great. Also, if they aren't too dirty we'll re-use them throughout the day.

2. Paper Towels - I did buy a few bunches of microfiber towels at Menards. They are wonderful. So absorbent, and they catch dust like nobody's business. Otherwise I just use old towels/rags. We have a "rag drawer" and the girls automatically head for the rag drawer if we have a mess to clean up. Usually in a day I have a dishcloth, hand towel, and then another "bar mop" rag or towel that I use to wipe my hands while cooking. The bar mop goes in the wash each day, the others hang around for a few days. I do have paper towel. Stick it out of sight for a while, you'll quickly learn to reach for a rag before you take the easy way out and grab for paper. Also, I still use paper towel to clean the outside of the toilet. I can't bring myself to use a rag on the toilet and then wash it with out clothes. Silly, but it grosses me out!

3. Paper plates -  I haven't bought them in well over a year. I have two sets of Tupperware luncheon plates. They are paper plate sized and really lightweight. Nice for when we're eating outside, or for family movie/pizza night. They take the place of when you need a plate, but don't want to haul around our regular dishes. I also use regular plates for get-together's, birthday parties etc. We have plenty of dishes when you combine our daily dishes with our "good dishes", so what's the point of buying disposables when you can easily rise them and toss them in the dishwasher? Save a buck too.

4. Girly Stuff - This is where it might get weird and maybe too personal, {GUYS...YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS ONE} however, that's never stopped me before. Recently I switched to a Diva cup and washable flannel pads instead of tampons and paper pads. The cup takes about a day to get used to, but it's wonderful. (Disappointed I never tried it before.) After kids I could go through a big-daddy tampon in less than an hour, but with the cup I only have to rinse it out twice a day on heavy days. Best of all, no more messes. It's great! I bought 5 flannel pads on etsy and use those as backup over night. It's been really nice.

5. Toilet Paper - Kidding. Sorry, there is no way this paper product is leaving my life. Won't do it.

So, a LONG answer to a short question. (So much for "quick run down") Going paper-free (or more like paper-light) is pretty easy. I suggest baby steps, napkins, then fewer paper towel etc. You'll be using fewer trees in no time!

XO - Lisa

RECIPE: Quinoa with Spinach

 It seems like we've had a lot of rice or beans in the past few weeks, so Tuesday I decided to make Quinoa instead to go along with some fish I baked. I usually make Quinoa pretty plain, just following the directions on the package, but this time I decided to mix things up a bit. Made this way, it went from a boring side dish to something I'd eat as a meal – so very, very tasty (and healthy to boot!) And if anyone is worried about kids not liking it, ours sure did! They ate every last bit!

RECIPE: Quinoa with Spinach

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup white wine
1-3/4 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 handfuls of fresh spinach, torn
salt and pepper

Directions
Sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until soft.  Add quinoa and stir until well blended. Pour in the wine and stir until the wine is dissolved. Add the broth, vinegar and thyme. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, toss in the torn spinach leaves. Cover again and let it sit for a few minutes until the spinach leaves have wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

NOTE: For those of you who've never tired it, quinoa is really delicious – and very good for you. It's a complete protein, full of amino acids, fiber and iron. And, for those watching their wheat, it's gluten-free.

Ballet at home.

Josie and Ellie were giving a "ballet performance" the other day. Josie seemed to take over the dance floor at one point, so Ellie decided to sit on the sidelines and pout. Looking at these pictures, Eleanor looks a little more like a rodeo clown than a ballerina. A cute one though.

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On a side note, I woke up Tuesday morning with a head-cold. When I told Ellie "Hey kiddo, I think I caught your cold." She looked at me, shook her head and said "No mama. I still have it!" The kids seemed to have kicked it faster than me. Day three of a runny nose, headache and no energy. Add to the mix a particular three-year-old that lives here has been waking up at night around 3am to hang out, play toys and visit with Mommy and Daddy. Needless to say, I'm beat. (I need to get better before tomorrow when I see my favorite one-year-old niece!) Netti pot, tea with lemon and chicken noodle soup are in the agenda for this Thursday!

Front and center.

We got a number of calls, emails and Facebook messages yesterday informing us that Josie was on the front cover of the Ludington Daily News...

 

I didn't realize until a few friends told me, and I read the article for myself, but another of my pictures took first (plants category). It was the photo of the sun, snow and smoke blowing through our bare Flowering Hawthorne tree in the back yard. Kind of an exciting day for me yesterday  – and very, very unexpected!

"Looking In"

A month or so ago, Kyle's Uncle Stewart emailed me a link to a photo contest in Ludington (about 30 miles north of here). After a week or so, he emailed me again, and successfully convinced me to enter a photo or two. I did. Then I kind of forgot about the contest.

Last night, Uncle Stew emailed me to say "Congratulations!" One of the photo categories was "People". The picture of took of Josie looking in the window won first place. What a cool and unexpected surprise!

If you'd like to see the winners, visit the Ludington Area Center for the Arts Photo Contest page.

A HAPPY LITTLE GIVEAWAY – And the winner is...

#15 - Allison! Email me (link is in the left column) with your address, and I'll get your bag out this week.

Probably not today – no mail for President's Day, but also a ridiculous amount of snow fell last night. I came downstairs and laughed when I saw my driveway. It's going to be a cozy day at home for all of us, no one in and no one out!

Sunday photo.

Thinking spring.

Frugal-Lisa Friday: sticking to the budget.

My unspoken resolution on January 1st was to seriously stick to our family budget. In years past, I'll build our budget, then as soon as there's a bump in the road, fly off track and never quite make it back on the straight and narrow. More like just driving down the bumpy path next to the road – I can see the budget, but clumsily making my way off the real path.

I'm happy to say that I'm ten days away from two months of on-budget living under my belt. (Maybe speaking too soon? I guess there's a lot that can happen in ten days!) One of the biggest accomplishments is my grocery budget. I always set myself an amount, then never stick with it. Considering what I really need to buy at the store, there is no reason I can't stay under what I've allotted for groceries. We have all the meat we need, fruit canned, jams and sauces frozen. I can make a loaf of bread instead of buying one. The budget I set for monthly groceries...$300. (I have $37 left to get me through until March 1st.)

There have been a few things that have kept me on track the past two months. Without them I would have blown through the $300 the first two weeks. They are:

1. Cash. The first day of the month I put the $300 in a special section of my wallet. The money is for groceries only. No pulling out the debit card. I've noticed a big difference in the way I shop. When I realize I'll have to fork over the cash, the nonsense I add to my cart is cut back considerably.
2. Plan ahead. Really...plan ahead! The first Sunday and the second Sunday I sit down with the grocery ads, my cookbook, the computer and a cup of coffee and plan two weeks worth of meals. (Here's a link to the menu planner I use.)  It takes me about an hour, but the time I save wondering "what's for dinner?" throughout the week is totally worth it.
3. Look in the pantry. While making your menu, don't just jot down the ingredients willy-nilly. Get up, walk to the cupboard or the pantry and really look for what you need. You'll be surprised.

So, that's it. My Frugal Friday tip. Give it a try this weekend. Even if you just do the meal planning, I promise it will make evenings a little less stressful. (And possible save you a buck or two!)

A HAPPY LITTLE GIVEAWAY!

Who doesn't like a new tote bag? I enjoyed making the grocery bags so much, that over the weekend I dug out this fabric and made a larger-sized tote bag. It's made with the brown floral cotton, a teal-swirled cotton lining, with a heavy brown cotton (with a soft wool feel) for the pocket and handle. I also used a stiff interfacing throughout and placed stabilizer in the bottom so it will stand up on it's own.

It's cute. It's practical. It's yours if I draw your name Monday morning! Just leave a comment...about what? Oh, surprise me!

Poor Buzz.

This is what happens to toys when they are played with by two little girls.

I wonder if Disney would be interested in a screenplay about Buzz, the cross-dressing space commander?

(Digging the carpet in my office. It's pretty awful when shown in such detail!)

Annual Valentine dinner.

Sunday evening Kyle brought home his Valentine to me – lobster tails. So, last night we enjoyed a quiet night at home. While he was outside grilling, the girls and I put together a salad and made garlic bread. Going out to dinner is so over-rated, especially when you have scenery like this...two little girls sitting with their Daddy by candlelight. A very sweet (and delicious!) Valentines evening.

Grocery Bags

I only have a second (busy Monday!), but wanted to share a picture of the grocery bags I made. I still have one more to make – using the white floral that's on the bed in Friday's post. This pattern is really, really simple. So simple in fact that I made another bag this weekend. A really cute bag with a longer handle, more tote-style. Mmmm...maybe you should stop by later in the week. Just in case I don't want to keep it for myself.  :)

Sunday photo.

Looking in.

Tablecloth to Tunic.

Well, it never really was a tablecloth – just good intentions on my part.

I stayed up a little later than usual last night to make a dress that I won't wear until the snow melts. I could always wear it around the house. (The colors make me smile.)

Photo courtesy of the resident 5-year-old. And yes, that's Josie on the right, mopping. Hey...how do you think I get all this sewing done? Give the kids "fun" projects like mopping the floors and dusting.   :)

This afternoon? Grocery bags. A bunch of them.

Sea of color – and an ocean of projects.

Josie and I have spent the morning making big sewing plans for the weekend. Now that my knee is at a point where I can use the sewing machine comfortably, I'm anxious to dig into a few projects.

While going through my fabric stash, I found quite a bit of unused fabric that I've picked up since spring. I had purchased three yards of a great Amy Butler print that I had intended to make a table cloth out of, as well as a few yards of a really pretty bird motif. They will be fabric stacks no more!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this pattern for grocery bags – it's simple and really, really cute (the bird motif will be great for a few of these.)  Using this pattern from SisBoom, and the Amy Butler fabric I think I can make a great rendition of this Tunic from Boden  (I've been admiring it for weeks.) Ahh...sewing heaven...

Yet another snow post.

Are you sick of them yet? (Or just the snow?) Hopefully the answer is "no". I get the feeling there are many, many more outdoor photos in my future this winter.

Tuesday afternoon the neighbor kids got off the bus here. Ellie and Josie were waiting all day, and were so excited to see Brooke and Zack. After playing inside for a bit, the four of them bundled up and headed to the snowy backyard – and the log cabin on top of the "mountain" (AKA swing set). Little imaginations are great.

Zack pulling Josie back to the "cabin".

Brooke and Ellie waiting for Josie's return.

Zack - this is such a cute, mischievous, little smile.

One of my favorites! She was the only one
brave enough to head down the slide.

An idea of how much snow we have. This is the
view onto our deck. The kids pushed the snow down
in front of the screen, but you can see from where
they stand that we have a lot of the white stuff!

Payne's Horseshoeing Website (and a proud big sister)

My little brother Phil (term "little" used loosely...he's a foot taller than I am) stopped by yesterday to show me his new website. Check it out if you have a minute. And if you're in need of a Farrier – give him a call!

By the way, I remember rocking him and reading to him as a baby. Yep. I'm getting older...

FREE Valentine Dowload.

Valentines are one of those things that I like to make by hand. Back in the days before kids I'd create elaborate cards to give Kyle. For our first Valentines day together I made a tiny box out of black and white pictures of fans at a drag race, inside was a small magnet I'd made from the picture of a '55 Chevy he admired in a magazine. (It's still on our fridge to this day.) With two kids, those days are long gone. Instead, I spend a few minutes designing something that I can easily print out. Like this...

If you'd like to save a few dollars and print your own, click here for the PDF. The file is set up so you can either print it out (as is) on white cardstock, then cut into quarters, or print on white paper and trim the pink sections out before gluing to colored cardstock (as shown above). I also taped a little lollipop to the end. Perfect, easy, pretty inexpensive.

Weekend stuff.

A couple silly things from our quiet weekend:

First, this picture of Eleanor. We've been reading a chapter book about a girl named Kate who like pirates. Yesterday afternoon she asked for some tape. A few minutes later she was walking around like this. Funny.

Second, we drove past my friend Amy who was out for an afternoon run. Josie was in the backseat. I said out loud "I sure wish I could go for a run." She sighed, and piped up from the backseat with: "Oh yeah? Well I sure wish I had a pet dog." I laughed. A lot.

Sunday photo.

Eleanor, our niece Natalie, and Josephine.

RECIPE: Spinach Balls

Last night was our meeting of The Dam Book Group. Our book was The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Some of us loved it, others found it depressing (which it is, but still a great read!).  Nothing like discussing the Chicago slaughterhouses in the early 1900's to get you in the mood for snacks and wine. Stomach-turning topic, but that didn't stop us. Trust me.

My contribution was Spinach Balls. I found the base recipe online, but after reading the reviews I made a number of adjustments. They turned out really, really delicious. I say they'd make a great Super Bowl snack!

Recipe: Spinach Balls

Ingredients
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 (10 oz) packages of frozen spinach – thawed and squeezed dry
1 (6 oz) package of stuffing mix
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup melted butter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Optional: marinara sauce and/or ranch dressing for dipping

Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚. Saute the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent and slightly browned. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sauteed onions and garlic as well as the all the other ingredients except the 1 cup of shredded Parmesan. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Dump the 1 cup of shredded Parmesan into a shallow bowl. By hand, roll the mixture into 1-1/2" balls, then roll each ball in the shredded Parmesan. Place the balls on the cookie sheet (Don't worry about placing them far apart, pack the suckers on there. As long as they're not touching, they'll be fine.) Bake for 30 minutes. This recipe makes quite a few, you could easily freeze half of the balls and use them another time.

Finally...a Key West post.

I don't know why it's taken me so long to type this post. Yes, I've been really busy since returning home Monday night, but more than that I think I've been savoring it. I've had many people ask "How was Key West?" and I keep answering "Great!!" with really no more detail.

To get the basics out of the way,  the hotel was fantastic, the weather great (compared to home) and the food (read: shrimp) was beyond delicious. Kyle joked one night that we were going to order a shrimp appetizer with a shrimp main course and shrimp for desert. We ate a lot of shrimp.

Thursday night we went directly to Half Shell Raw Bar for dinner. Our hotel was 1/2 block from the start of the historic boat docks, and each night we'd walk the docks to dinner – we found that our favorite restaurants were the ones off the dock.

Friday was spent walking Duval Street, walking the docks again, and hanging out at the Warf Bar. We sat at the bar, and later shared a table with locals. As usual, it's always more fun when you get to hang out with those that make the area their home – lots of "insider" tips.

Saturday we rented a scooter and explored the rest of the island in the morning, sat on the deck overlooking the ocean in the afternoon. I really can't think of something I enjoy more than sitting on a lounge chair, with a good book, in the sun, listening to the waves while someone brings you cold drinks. (One of the "souveniers" we brought back for the girls was a stack of brightly colored bendy straws. We paid $8/straw...but they came with free Pina Coladas!)

Sunday we chartered a boat and went deep sea fishing. Our Captain and Mate were two young men in their early 20's – they were so energetic and fun to be with that afternoon. Really, what more would a 20-something want than to spend their day fishing in Key West for money? The highlight of Sunday was the 30 minutes we spent trying to catch a 9-10' hammerhead shark. It would come up to the bait, then swim away. We'd circle back around, it would come back towards us. Eventually it decided that it wasn't interested in the half of a bloody fish stump we were taunting it with and swam away. I totally see how fishing can be excting! The last hour or so of our trip we gave up on fishing Sail Fish (our goal for the day) and caught a few Barracuda.

Overall, we had a really wonderful time. My favorite part of the entire weekend was the conversations Kyle and I were able to have. I've kind of forgotten how much fun we have together and how much we make each other laugh. Five days of carefree living really brings that back. It was wonderful.

Oh...one last thing...I did find one problem with going on vacation alone: we don't have ONE - SINGLE - PICTURE of the two of us together!

The view from our balcony. Not bad for a free room!

One of the many pictures I took while walking Duval.

Kyle was called up to "assist" a performer in Mallory Square.
I was pretty impressed with his handstand!

Yes...the kid was juggling flaming torches while
standing on Kyle's shoulders.

My fish! (That's our Mate, Tom...really he did most of
the work. I just reeled it in.)

Our last Sunset in the Keys.

We ventured outside for an hour or so yesterday – bundled and cozy warm in our bulky outdoor gear. It took a good 15 minutes to crawl from the front of the house to the backyard, and another 40 to shovel our way to the shop and wood stove. (Nice thing about winter...shoveling is a great workout!)

What a smile! (Temporary...that
left front tooth is about to fall out.)

Sitting on a snowbank.

Daddy - hard at work, keeping our house warm.

"Help!"

Trudging her way to the backyard

Josie, snack break.

Snowed in.

Snowed in. An understatement. We're so buried, our neighbor got stuck in his driveway (in his plow truck), there's a car firmly planted at the end of the road, and I can't see anything outside except foot upon foot of snow.

So far this morning we've made pumpkin pancakes, enjoyed a quiet morning as a house-bound family and baked chocolate cookies. As I type the girls are dancing in the kitchen to the soundtrack to The Sound of Music – my favorite movie of all time. (I wanted to share the movie with Ellie and Josie, but realized I don't own it on DVD...crazy!) I'm planning tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch and we have a venison roast in the crock pot for dinner. Lots of warm comfort foods.


Anyway, I loved snow days as a child. Even though I have a pile of design work knee-high, and house work even higher, I'm going to enjoy every last second of this grown-up snow day too.

The weather man says more snow? Bring it on...

We're Home!

I wanted to take a second to check in and let everyone know we made it home. Thankfully our flights were all on schedule yesterday and we're not sitting in the mess that the snow has made for the airports today.

I'll share more tomorrow. Back to work!