Category Archives: Life

I Love Doing Laundry

by

Boy, does that sound obnoxious! But I do love to do our laundry. I find it therapeutic. Odd, I know.

I typically do two loads of laundry a day. And I refrain myself because I could do more. I usually throw a load in first thing in the morning and will have 2 loads washed by 8am. And I hang most all of our laundry to dry.

I quit using the dryer for every load about 6 years ago. It started because I didn’t want to put jeans in the dryer because who needs tighter denim? Little else makes you feel fatter than a tight pair of jeans. And then I purchase some nice pants that I did not want worn down in the dryer. That was followed by some nice shirts. And then ……. do you see the progression here? It was all working so well that I figured I could save some money on our electric bill if I harnessed an alternative energy source. You see, I live in Florida, a.k.a. The Sunshine State, a few items on hangers, a drying rack and a dollar store package of wooden clothes pins do the job. I do not have a line in my backyard, but I do place pants on the chairs on our deck. imageThis all works marvelously! On a hot day it all dries within a couple of hours. If I do laundry later in the day or if it is rainy, I place the items in our family room and between the ceiling fan and the a/c it works for me. In six years I have only had to rewash laundry twice because it got rained on.
image
The beauty of hanging your items up to dry is that you do not get as many wrinkles, your shirts are already hung and ready to get put away, and everything else folds up quickly instead of a big hot chewed-up mess coming out of the dryer.

I love doing laundry so much that I have even resorted to making my own detergent and finding alternatives to commercial stain removers! I’ll save both of those for another post. Ahhhh – I think I’ll go do some more laundry!

How about you? Any other laundry lovers out there? Or does everyone else loath the task? I would love to hear from you.

Rosa

Missing in Action

by

Yes, that is what I have been up to – Missing in Action. There has been plenty of action, which has kept me super busy, and I haven’t posted. 😦 I wish I could say it has been an exciting absence, but, no, it has been the busyness of life that has kept me from posting. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to. Oh well, such is life.

Here is a picture of my pumpkin and me! Not the best quality photo, we snapped it at church this past weekend.
image

We’ve Gone to the Dogs

by

We have gone to the dogs. Yes, we have. When I was a child we had a German Shepherd who lived in the back yard. She was a great dog. Dogs inside the house just was not something I was use to. Now my husband’s family, they had dogs. Though, he said they were mostly outside dogs, also.

Our son kept asking for a dog, as most children do. After resisting for several years I told my husband that I had some specifics regarding the possible pet: no inside dog, no little dog and no yappy dog.

So in 2010 a friend of ours needed to get rid of her Jack Russell Terrier. His pictures where so cute that we ran over and picked up this little (well that adjective is questionable), inside dog that yaps. Funny how the things we say no to seem to come in to laugh in our faces. He was 1  1/2 at the time. Our son renamed him Jack Jack, a tribute to The Incredibles movie he had just finished rewatching. And well the love affair began.

Jack Jack
Who knew this cute overweight short haired dog sheds, or had skin issues, or anxiety. But after dealing with the hair and spending big bucks at the vet to get the skin issue under control, we won’t talk about the anxiety, this dog is quite the loyal 4 legged child. He is so loving – to us. He is very smart and seems to be a great judge of character. He loves our son and will go lay next to him in bed in the mornings until our son wakes up.

Our second 4 legged child came to us in a much funnier way. You see we go to the fair every year. And every year the county animal care and control office has a booth with animals that need a home. Do you see where this is going? Well, instead of coming home with a stuffed animal from the fair we brought home a real animal. A 6 month old (we think) Jack Russell Beagle Mix our son named Dash (as in The Incredibles oldest son, Dash). Little did we know at the time, Dash is very fast! As in careful he “Dashed” out the door when you opened it. Dash is a funny little dog that loves the swimming pool, loves tug a war and howls like a Beagle.

20130117-034229.jpg
Just when we thought we were done, we went shopping for pet food, and the store had a cute dog wearing a harness that read “Adopt Me.” So we did. We needed a “Violet,” the third child – a girl- from The Incredibles movie, but this dog was a boy. A 2 year old Norfolk Terrier with teddy bear eyes that we named Rigby. He is active and sweet. He likes to follow me around and lay in warm laps.

20130117-205326.jpg
These 3 children are much loved members of our family. And hence we have gone to the dogs!

20130117-205822.jpg

I Struggle Making Dinner

by

I do. There it is. I struggle. It’s not that I don’t like to cook; I really enjoy making a nice meal for my family. And God knows that I love to bake:

20130116-200858.jpg
I have never understood people who don’t like desserts, but that’s altogether an entirely different post. It is just that – I struggle. I like to eat out. Example dinner tonight:

20130116-202742.jpg

20130116-202616.jpg

Think about it: you are seated, choose what you want, it is brought to you while you enjoy conversation with people at your table, your drink is refilled and your food is brought to you without any effort on your part. When you are done someone picks up the table, boxes the leftovers, and does the dishes. Who doesn’t like that? Unfortunately, this habit is expensive and restaurant calories are usually much higher than homemade meals.

Maybe I need a schedule. I do a much better job of cooking dinners when I plan our meals in advance. It seems like such a chore to me. I’ve seen so many lovely blogs where ladies plan their weekly and monthly menus and actually stick to their plan. I do good for a week or so and then I get tired. How do you keep from getting tired or bored or just sick of cooking? Maybe I am missing the daily cooking gene. Most admirable, I think, are those who can whip up an entire meal without much thought or planning – every night!

You know what I don’t mind – laundry. I can do laundry everyday! Or even cleaning! Toilets – No Problem! But cooking, now that’s a chore!

I am going to resolve to do better. Honestly, not because I really want to cook more (hey, I said I was being honest), but because I want to save on the budget. All that extra laziness missing the daily cooking gene is taking a toll on the wallet. So I am going to take a stab at it. Any suggestions or recipes for me? They will all be much appreciated.

Rosa