Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken w/Black Beans

These are red "Super Chilis" from our garden (referenced in recipe below).

It's been nearly 2 years since I've posted here, and though I've always intended to return today is a bit earlier than anticipated. Mostly this came out of the need to easily share a recipe with friends and family. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures to accompany this recipe. Ms. S fail. Please understand this is because I wasn't actually intending to post yet - particularly a recipe.

Green Peppers from our garden

I was perusing Pinterest for slow cooker recipes in preparation for fall and baby 2. There were two intriguing recipes that ended up posted to my slow cooker board: Iowa Girl Eats Crock Pot Chicken Tacos (which are SO simple) and Gina's Skinny Taste Slow Cooker Chicken Black Bean Tacos (I was drawn in by the beans). The problem I ran into was not having everything for either recipe. Additionally, I harvested some peppers from the garden this morning and wanted to use them up. What you have below is adapted from both ladies' tried and true methods.

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken w/Black Beans
adapted from Gina's Skinny Taste and Iowa Girl Eats

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
Two 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
Two 15 oz cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 large green pepper, seeded & minced (or more if you really like green peppers)
3 "Super Chilis," seeded & minced (small red peppers - we're growing these this year, but you could substitute any hot pepper of your choice)
1 medium onion, sliced thin or chopped
2 tsp Taco Seasoning, divided (I use this spice mix from Iowa Girl Eats)
Zest of 1/2 a lime + juice of 1 whole lime

Directions:
1. If your chicken breasts aren't already halved, start by doing so. Place your chicken in the bottom of your crockpot and sprinkle 1/4 tsp Taco Seasoning on each breast (or more or less depending on your taste).

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, beans, peppers, and onion. Add remaining 1 tsp Taco Seasoning, lime zest, and lime juice. Once well mixed, pour into the crockpot over your chicken.

3. Cook on high for 4-6 hours (mine was done in a little over 4). Shred chicken with 2 forks and mix all contents of your crockpot. Serve as *tacos or over rice.

*If serving as tacos, we enjoyed two avacados mashed with lime juice and a little lime zest as a topping.

Enjoy!
~ Ms. S

"Super Chilis" up-close and personal

Our little bundle

Picture property of Ms. S

...arrived on August 24th and has been keeping this mama busy ever since. Not that I'm complaining. He's really quite precious, and I absolutely love being little Pumpkin's mama.

Since Pumpkin arrived, some things have changed around the house. At least two loads of laundry are done everyday, for example (cloth diapers). Dishes are done more regularly - sometimes by me!! Mr. S is thrilled. I don't get the chance everyday, as often just when I'm about to start someone wakes up from his nap. Oh well. The bathroom is now usually cleaned in stages. One day, the shower will get cleaned. The next day (or the day after that) the toilet will get cleaned. And finally, the sink will get cleaned. Sometime. And that's ok...mostly because it has to be ok. A child quickly teaches you to roll with the punches. And the rest of the house is in a general state of disarray. We pick up when we have the chance. Ok, more like when company is coming over.

Bottom line is this: we're having so much fun.

Photos of the projects going on...

Bedroom/Nursery before getting a new color on the walls....

My mom's hard work! We're SO pleased with how it turned out.

With the curtains hanging...

And with (some) of the furniture...

Still need to put the cradle and changing table in there. But the cradle is still in Iowa with my parents or grandmother, and Mr. S hasn't had the chance to work on the changing table yet. We still have a few months.

Gearing up for another set of curtains. Note my new workspace! Mr. S made us a fabulous desk out of an old door.

To add some color to the walls, as well as help me better organize my thread stash.

The new workspace in all its glory. Isn't my husband amazing?

The newest set of curtains was for this space. You're looking at the before - an awkward three panel set up that was driving me CRAZY! We weren't maximizing our natural light because that middle panel refused to move anywhere out of the way. Refused, I tell you! And then it would get stuck on the rod. Bah! It had to go.

To be replaced by something brighter, more cheerful, and more easily mobile. Just two panels here that slide like grease along the rod, and actually move completely to either side so we can maximize our daylight. Love!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! We've been busy over here and have more projects coming up we'll be able to share. :)

~Ms. S

There's a baby on the way!

And that, my friends, is why I have been absent for...3 months? Has it really been that long?! Well, let's just say my energy was completely zapped by the bean-sized embryo taking charge of my belly. All for a good cause, of course. However, this means a host of fun projects to share! Including the most recently completed project - curtains for the nursery! (Did I mention we moved since the last time I think I posted?) We have a nursery, and the curtains were the first step.

I'm pretty proud of myself, because I didn't use a pattern and am happy with the result. And they were easy, to boot! Not to say I wouldn't change some things next time around, but overall, they're exactly what the room needed - a bit of what I'll call 'inspired cuteness.' I found an adorable print by Kokka at Crafty Planet with different fairy tales on it - Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Thumbelina, The Musicans of Bremmen, and Puss in Boots. We're not finding out the sex of the baby beforehand, so it was important to find something that would work for either. This print fit what we were looking for.


Materials needed:
Fabric (I used 3 yards)
Coordinating thread
Grommets (mine came from Joanne's)
Scissors
Iron
Measuring tool for seams

The windows in this room already had curtains, so I measured the curtains that were already there to determine how much fabric I needed. And by measured, I mean I took the 1/8 of a yard sample and counted how many of those I would need to get my yardage. There are easier ways. Like a yard stick. Which I don't have.

Moving on! I washed and dried my fabric to pre-shrink it. How many times do you wash your curtains? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too, but when I DO want to wash curtains I certainly don't want my seams to pucker due to shrinkage.

Then ironing! Secretly, I find ironing to be quite relaxing. We actually couldn't find our iron for the longest time after moving here, but it turned up in the one box we hadn't actually opened up. Imagine that. I pressed the wrong side of the fabric (the side really doesn't matter) using high heat with steam since the fabric is cotton. The steam really helps ease those creases out of the material.

Once the fabric was pressed, I folded it in half and cut down the middle to get my two curtains. The pattern I used was printed differently than most are, so if you decide to do this yourself, you should make sure when measuring for your fabric that you're measuring the way you want the pattern to appear (hopefully that makes sense). Then I spread my material out on my table and placed the curtain I was using as a pattern over top to determine how large my seams could be.

Next I measured and ironed my seams. On the bottom and top, I folded the fabric up 1/4 inch and ironed in place, and folded over again - this time 1/2 inch. Once the seams were marked, I went to the sewing machine and sewed a 1/4 inch seam...afterward realizing another go-round would ensure my seams were secure and laid flat. So I sewed another seam - approximately 5/8 this time (you'll see in the picture).


Repeat process for side seams. Although for the sides, I folded up 1/2 inch, ironed, and folded up another 1/2 inch. Sewed the double seams...but this time there were corners to contend with. How to make corners look decent? My method is one I made up, so if you're an experienced sewer, use whatever works for you. If you're looking for tips, here's what I did:

1. Fold up and press your first 1/2 inch; open

2. Fold in one corner until it meets the crease you just created; press

3. Keeping corner tucked in, fold up and press the second 1/2 inch

Voila! Sew your double seams. In addition to sewing the length of the fabric, I sewed the corners shut, too. Maybe that was overkill, but I didn't want those corners moving.

Then for the finishing touches. I pressed the curtains again, this time on the right side of the fabric, and placed one on my table to prep for grommets. I got these grommets at Joanne's and they were super easy to use. Four for each curtain. I placed the ones on the ends first and worked my way in following the instructions on the back of the package. Cut out my circles, placed my grommets in the circles and snapped them into place. All done! Word of the wise: place your end grommets within an inch and a half of the edges. My table wasn't big enough to not have some fabric hanging over the sides of the work area - so even though I placed them an inch and a half in, there were 2.5 more inches hanging off both sides of the table. Oops! Not a huge deal, and I could bring in the side seams (particularly the ones in the middle) a little more. For now, they're fine.

The rod that's in the nursery right now is one that wraps around at the corners. It works, but I'd like to get a straight rod that matches the grommets as I think the curtains would hang just a little bit more nicely. I'm pretty happy with the end result though! Easy curtains for the home.

We're moving!

The list I posted at the end of the last post IS coming, I promise. We're just in the middle of packing up our apartment to move into a lovely new place on Friday. That, coupled with an exceptionally busy previous week, means I haven't had time to write up anything worth reading and neither has Mr. S. But fear not! We'll be back after our move. And thank you in advance to family and friends for their help in this endeavor - we greatly appreciate it! :)

~Ms. S

Welcoming in 2011

How were your holidays? Ours were delightfully spent with family and friends. Christmas was split between Iowa and Minnesota (which was wonderful, but exhausting), and New Years was spent with our potluck crew - probably the most fun Husband and I have had on New Years Eve. Now that the holidays are past, I can finally share some of my crafty projects with you!

First up, Christmas stockings! Admittedly, there is no reason why these couldn't have been shared earlier. This lady was just busy, busy, busy and very tired. Anyway...I think they turned out perfectly!

Here they are under our tree. I didn't get a picture of them hanging before Mr. S packed them away.

After reading an article last year about different ways to decorate for Christmas (I cannot for the life of me remember what magazine this was in - Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, or Martha Stewart Living), Mr. S and I had a conversation about what color we wanted to emphasize in our decorating. The article mentioned how there is usually a large focus on red, but there are so many other ways to decorate for Christmas that incorporate some red without letting that color take over everything. So we decided on green, a color both of us like a lot.

I knew I wanted to make our stockings, so made a trip to my local Joanne's and found a McCall's pattern I liked that looked easy enough. The hard part was finding the fabric. I've mentioned Crafty Planet before - they're my favorite fabric store in the Twin Cities. Without a doubt, I wanted to get the fabric for our stockings there, but it took a lot of patience and multiple trips before I found what I wanted. Nice, Christmasy greens were hard to find, so I decided on a slivery gray for the main body that would allow me to easily accent with green. The final result was so satisfying! The only problem - I only made two. Here's hoping Crafty Planet stocks the same fabrics around Christmas time next year so I can make two more for future children. However, I'm open to kids' stockings being slightly different from ours. We'll just have to see.

Next up: Secret Santa gift! We did a Secret Santa/Snowman exchange at work in December. Being in a crafty mood, I decided to make the first gift for my gift recipient. This clutch was made using two matching quilting remnants I'd picked up from Joanne's a few years ago. I sewed a simple rectangle, tacked up one half, sewed the sides, and added a button from my button box. Needing a little extra touch, I found some pretty green yarn from my stash and two extra ornaments to add a bit of flair. Inside, my recipient found some dark Lindt chocolate with a hint of orange and almonds (SO yummy!) and a Christmas cd of an artist she enjoys.

"A little music to make the mood merry,
A little chocolate to make your day bright!"
Secret Santa

Now Christmas is over and presents have been given. Not to worry, though! The need to craft isn't gone. In fact, we'll be moving to a new place at the end of the month and I already have plans for curtains, place mats, table cloths, maybe a shower curtain, and such. Oh, and did I mention we'll be within walking distance of Crafty Planet? Mr. S is (understandably) concerned about the effect that will have on our pocketbook. I, however, am not! :)

Things to look forward to in the coming weeks:
1) Pictures of the monstrous snow storm we had the weekend before Christmas
2) Guest post (maybe two!) from Mr. S
3) Organizing and cleaning tips for moving
4) How to be creative with living spaces
5) A little surprise! :)

Keep coming back! I've missed this place.

~Ms. S

Change is in the air

I have intentionally left this place for a while in order to give some serious thought to what I want this space to be and how I want it to function. After reading a guest post on a friend's blog a while back about starting a blog, I decided it would be beneficial to:
1. Think about my subject and decide whether or not that was the direction I wanted to go
2. Think about my audience
3. Revisit how often I post
4. Start my new job and evaluate how much energy I would have at the end of the day to create posts

There are some changes in the air for this little space of mine. In thinking about my subject matter, it occurred to me that I still really dislike cleaning, and that this blog hasn't really inspired me back into the neat-freak I happened to be when I met my husband. What has happened since starting this blog is a growth in my craft projects. And I enjoy sharing them here because I'm proud of the work I do, and like sharing pretty things with you. But...I don't want to simply focus on my projects because that's not me, and because I'm also proud of some of the home fix-it, cleaning, and organizing tasks I accomplish. I'll get to what this means for the blog in a minute - after addressing numbers 2-4 above.

Thinking about my audience was the hardest part for me. Who reads my blog now? Who do I want to read my blog? How do I get those people to follow my blog? Those are big questions to answer, and my (albeit short) experience working at a branding firm reiterates the importance of answering those questions. As far as I know, friends and family are the only people who read this regularly, but I don't actually know that since visitors rarely comment (I don't hold that against anyone, by the way, though comments always make my day). And I could say that I want people who enjoy Martha Stewart, Design*Sponge, Amy Butler, Hygge & West, etc to find my blog. But I started this blog for myself, and if this place isn't about me first and what I feel compelled to share, I will quickly lose motivation to update it. So...I blog for me. Is that a bad thing?

Three and four kind of go hand-in-hand. I have traditionally been posting when motivated and when I had the energy. My new job doesn't leave me nearly as exhausted at the end of the day as was the case last year. So having the energy to whip out a post is quite likely and completely reasonable. I will be starting classes this spring, but I don't anticipate that being so overwhelming I can't maintain this space.

So what does this mean? It means I will be sharing home organizing/cleaning/and fix-it stories and tips as I see fit - reviewing things I try, sharing my (often creative) steps to fixing certain items, and sharing solutions to issues I find helpful and useful. In trying to get away from the monotony of telling you about how many dishes I had to wash, or how, yet again, I failed to stick to my 'chores' schedule, or how the bathroom really needs to be cleaned, I've decided it would be a welcome break for me to be able to focus more on sharing my sewing and craft projects. With the Holidays coming up, you can expect to see more crafty things here. :) I still plan on only promising one post/week. Mostly because weekends are when I have the most time to work on my projects. But that's not to say I'll hold back if I have more to share.

Hopefully these changes will be just what's needed for a fresh start here. With snow on the ground here, I'm off to finish and begin some Christmas projects...and dig out our Christmas music (inspiration never hurts, you know)! Enjoy your Sunday.

~ Ms. S

Finally!

Some good news to share. As of Friday, I am officially employed! Yay!! The life of Ms. S will get infinitely more interesting on Tuesday when I start said job. I am hoping it will mean more motivation for projects around the apartment, and therefore more posts, too.

Yesterday I tackled a task I've been avoiding for, mmm, forever. Cleaning out my closet and dresser. It was surprisingly less scary than I anticipated. I knew I had a lot of clothes and that I never wore half of them. I didn't know I had four grocery bags full of unwanted clothes and one bag of shoes!! Whoa!

The inspiration for finally doing this project: a paycheck and the need for more work appropriate clothes. Not wanting to go shopping until I knew what I had (or didn't have), and until I had made room for new clothes, I decided I could no longer avoid my closet. And since I haven't really been clothes shopping since before I got married, I was kinda excited about the prospect of finally getting to do so. *This is the first time in our marriage that both of us are employed to our full potential, with full salaries and benefits.*

I started by taking all my clothes out of the dresser drawers and sorting them into piles: keep, maybe, give away. When all the drawers were done, I emptied out the closet (and remembered the clothes stored under the bed). Once all my clothes were in one of the piles, I looked at everything in my 'maybe' pile and determined if it would be kept or given away, and did one final look-through of my keep pile just to be sure. My give away piles went into brown paper grocery bags - four of them! I figured while I was at it I might as well do my shoes, too. One bag of shoes joined the bags of clothes.

Then!!! Mr. S and I went shoe shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I adore shoes. A lot. And have rarely stepped into a shoe store for about 4 years because we didn't have the money for me to indulge. Don't get me wrong - we didn't go crazy. Remember the last post about our cash budget? Yeah, we're still doing that (I managed $51.60 today!!), and are still intending to save - more aggressively now than we thought we'd be able to. But we both needed a pair of new shoes: Mr. S a pair of loafers, Ms. S a pair of brown dress shoes for work. My shoes are super cute brown suede wedges by Me Too. I'll take a special picture Tuesday - my first day of real work since August, 2008 - with my shoes so you can see them, too.

In the mean time, enjoy your weekend! We've certainly been enjoying ours.

~ Ms. S

Cash Budget

In yesterday's post, I mentioned having something more about grocery shopping later. Well, here it is!

Money is a little tight around here lately, so Mr. S and I have been examining our budget to determine what we can cut and where we can trim. I do most of the grocery shopping for our house (mostly because I can get in and out of the store more quickly than Husband most days), but both of us are pretty bad about spending more than we planned at the store. We love food, we love good food, and we both enjoy cooking. Needless to say, we both have ideas and upon entering the grocery store are totally enchanted by some of the things we see. All this to say, the grocery budget could definitely be trimmed.

We decided to put a couple systems in place. We've never been meal planners - that is to say, we rarely sit down once per week and figure out what we're going to eat everyday for dinner. This meant a lot of forgotten leftovers in the back of the fridge that had to be tossed, and remaining unaware of things already in the pantry to be used for that week's meals. Obviously, this needed to stop. I sat down yesterday and planned out our meals for the week, including space for consuming leftovers.

A lot of people go grocery shopping with a list. My mother, Husband's mother and sister, many of our friends. For whatever reason, we've never been list people. Even on days we tried to be good and go with a list, we'd end up with quite a few items in our cart that weren't on the list. (I did tell you the grocery store is an enchanted place for us. I wasn't lying.) Now our rule is you must make a list before setting foot in the grocery store, and you must stick to it!

The final system we put in place is a cash budget. As we thought about different ways to trim the grocery budget, we both knew if we pulled a certain amount of cash out of the bank each week and said, "That's all we have for groceries," our chances of actually trimming the budget might succeed. So, we now have an envelope on our fridge with our grocery money. On the front of the envelope we wrote: Week of: October 2-8, etc and a place to write down how much was spent that week. We've budgeted $50/week for groceries. For this first time around, we pulled two week's worth of cash for the envelope - nothing worse than getting to the checkout and needing an extra 4 dollars or something as you try out the system.

Alright, so we put these systems in place and I tried it out for the first time yesterday. I planned out this week's meals with our pantry in mind. We have lots of rice, pasta, and potatoes on hand, some fruit and veggies in the fridge...so I wanted to only pick up ingredients from the store that would round out our pantry for the week. I made my list and grabbed our envelope. During my shopping trip, I paid close attention to the cost/ounce or pound of the items I purchased, wanting to get the best value. Only one extraneous item made it into my cart - sweet potatoes because they were on a good sale this week. How did I fare? $55.13 for my first time out. Not too shabby! "But it's over your budget," you say. That is true, but some of the items like milk and cereal will last us for two weeks. Also, it was my first time using this system and most of my grocery trips were at least $70 or $80. I'm pretty proud of myself and Mr. S is proud of me, too. Mostly, I'm proud of us for finding a practical solution to this problem.

How do you budget for groceries? Do you have any systems in place?

Uninspired

Apologies for the lack of updates lately. The stress level in our house has been unusually high. People keep telling us, "You'll get through this." We're aware and appreciative of the insight, but it doesn't really help us right now. Most of my energy lately has gone into finding full-time employment. Therefore, my attention hasn't really been here. I'm hoping I find something amazing in the next few weeks and can refocus my energies to our Castle.

That's the other thing. Our apartment has been significantly more messy than usual due to our stress level. I know, I know. The mess = contributing to stress. Believe me, I know. So here's my assignment for tomorrow:

1. Dishes
2. Meal planning for the week
3. Grocery shopping (we have a new budget for this...I'm saving to post about later this week)
4. Clean our bedroom

It's a very doable list. And I'm keeping it doable because I need to feel like I'm accomplishing things. I'm also going to start a new sewing project so I have something to focus on besides staring at the computer conducting a job search/waiting longingly for an email reply or phone call.

How do you cope with stress? What do you do to stay sane?

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry for my lack of posts in the past two weeks. Life has been throwing us curve balls, and we've been scrambling to keep up. Do you ever experience those times where you feel like life couldn't possibly get more hectic, crazy, stressful? I'm not so good at dealing with it when it all comes all at once.

I finished filing our paper work from the past 4 years! Woo-hoo!! Thank goodness that's done. There are a couple things left before the project is complete, though. As you can see, I have two very full brown paper bags - one for recycling and one to be shredded. And I still have to figure out an in/out system for mail. Those are certainly small tasks in comparison to all the filing! Admittedly, when I finally sat down and did it, even with 4 years worth of paper it only took me an hour and a half to find the correct place for everything. That's not so bad.

I wanted to be sure to share the final results with you, and just recommend this system again. You can read about it here!

Happy weekend, all!

~ Ms. S

Sometimes this lady feels like a fool

Today I was reading a post over on Freya's blog at Brit Chick Runs laughing at her funny/random searches she found in her stats, and wondering how I could view stats on MY blog. Um....how 'bout by clicking on the huge 'Stats' tab, Ms. S!! Oh dear. So now I'm wondering: is this tab new or have I really just always overlooked it? Maybe I'm actually happier not knowing the answer to that question.

Having discovered this new-to-me tab, though, I'm blown away by the page that shows me where my readers are! Ok, first of all - I have readers!!! Who knew?! I was very much under the impression that my friends and a few family members were the only ones who trekked this way. But no. From Canada, to the UK, to Demark, Germany, Austria, Latvia, China, South Korea, and South Africa! Wow!! [Side note: Latvia stands out to me because my brother in-law spent a year there as an exchange student and loved it; and I actually studied in Austria for the month of January my sophomore year in college - gorgeous!] This is one of those times where logically I tell myself that when I post something on the world wide web, it can of course be viewed world wide, but continue to pinch myself nonetheless.

It's probably a good thing I discovered this tab. Knowing there are more readers out there than I thought provides excellent motivation to update more frequently. Though it should be noted: I love comments! It's how I know you come to my space and read the words I write. I'm a friendly person, I promise, and enjoy 'meeting' new people. So don't be shy! Let me know you visited!

In other news, I've decided with this much time on my hands I should learn how to do some basic redesign for the blog. Really, I decided this yesterday and spent hours trying to download GIMP with no success because X11 isn't on our computer. And the installation disc is at home in Iowa. Download it from Apple's website, you say? Oh no! After I'd spent a good number of hours trying to get it to download properly, Husband took a stab at it with no more luck than me. *sigh* I guess I'm just going to have to wait a little bit, but I am very excited to get to work. Mostly, I have plans for the header. Maybe if that's successful I'll venture into other things.

And finally, my project for tonight. Filing. Honestly, it's going to be a tedious task - we have stuff from 2006 all the way up to today that needs a home. I've had this project ready to go since last year a really long time ago, but have put it off because looking at the stack of papers makes me want to fly in the other direction. Of course, that just means the papers keep piling up.

I was inspired yesterday to tackle something bigger today after reading this blog post from Real Simple that seemed to be written just for me. In her post, Erin Doland talks about common excuses used for putting off home organizing and cleaning tasks. I'm guilty of using the first two: I'm messy and I don't have time. But here's the thing. I, Ms. S, am prone to messiness - my family (husband and myself) is not, as Mr. S is quite tidy. And not having time? Yeah, being mostly unemployed I have plenty of time.

This morning I had to go through our files to find some information for a job application. Rather than putting everything back where it has been, I decided to leave it out to put it away properly tonight. What does 'properly' mean in this instance? An excellent question.

My sister in-law provided me with an article last summer about creating an easy home organizing system after she used it and liked it. The article is from the April 2009 Better Homes and Gardens magazine called 'Paper Trail' by Joanna Smith. I tried searching for the article online, but didn't find it. It's a 5 step process, so it's easy to follow. And what I like most is that reader Bobbie Ambuske, who shared this system with BHG, recommends using 12 pocket accordion files for your permanent storage. Here's what I like about this system: it keeps all important items from one year in a single, compact place, and once you enter into your eighth year (it's recommended to keep up to 7 years on file), you can easily reuse the accordion folders - all you have to do is change the year the folder is labeled. So simple! I've filed all of our paper work from 2009 using this method and really love it - I've just been bad about keeping up with 2010 and moving all the paper work prior to 2009.

Here's how I make it work for me. The categories I file are: Income - pay stubs; Investments - 401-K, IRAs; Giving - all charitable giving; Insurance - car, home; Medical - bills & statements; Taxes - once completed; Banking - statements once reconciled (yes, it's a good idea to print them off); Receipts - big items or returns only; Utilties - water, electric, gas; Paid Bills - internet, phone, Netflix, etc; Credit; Loans. You should only use categories that make sense for you. This is the part I'm good at - determining what categories work best for us and then filing appropriately (and shredding whatever is unnecessary to be filed). Additionally, we keep the article at the front of the folder for the current year, just so be sure both Mr. S and I are clear on how it all works. But there is another component to this system that I have yet to implement successfully.

The article recommends having two trays or baskets - one for receipts, the other for bills to pay - and placing them in a spot that's easily accessible and visible. The idea is to "follow the "touch it once" rule for receipts and mail." In other words, upon receiving and opening mail, you place it in its appropriate place: basket, recycling bin, or shredder. Brilliant, right? Following this would lead to a life of significantly less paper clutter. I just haven't hit on the implementation of this system that works well for me, and therefore works well for Husband.


Do you have any suggestions for such a seemingly simple task? Are you good about immediately filing paper work at home, or do you let it pile up? What kind of a system do you use?


~ Ms. S

Check out Iowa Girl Eats!!

Ack! My guest post appeared on Iowa Girl Eats today and of course I haven't been here to write in a week! Silly me. Well, as Kristin and Ben travel in Italy, she has been posting others' favorite vacations. I wrote about our recent trip to the Oregon Coast, but you will also find two other amazing vacations - a trek across Europe and a honeymoon to Italy! Go check it out! Her readers have been just about everywhere, it seems.

Alright, quick update. The house (ok, apartment) is a disaster as Husband and I have been out of two many weekends in a row and have been bad about unpacking upon getting home. For example, we finally put the camping gear away from a weekend away literally right before leaving for a weekend in Iowa. Now all the laundry I did at home (in Iowa) is still sitting in the laundry baskets in the living room. So this weekend we will be purging a bit. Because it's become a sty! *and no pictures were taken because they'd be way too embarrassing...even though you've seen my underwear drawer.*

Here's to a lovely evening. And cheering on the Vikings!!!

~Ms. S

"What's wrong with kids these days?"

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to call today's post. Probably because there are a million thoughts running through my head (like last time) and I haven't actually decided what to write about yet. Does that ever happen to you? Too many thoughts to focus in on just one? It happens to me more often than I'd like.

Still no luck on the job front, though I have landed two very part time gigs and one of them actually involves cleaning! A friend of a friend from church just had a baby via C-section about two weeks ago, and she also has a 13 month old son. Needless to say, she needs some help with household chores for the next month, as well as with her oldest child since she's restricted in how much she can lift and bend over. She is also legally blind - she and her family moved into a new townhouse literally three days before she gave birth, so she hasn't yet completed learning her new home. So far I've helped her sweep, mop, clean the bathroom, and vacuum. But I've also gotten to play with her oldest son and feed him breakfast. Truly a lovely woman with two adorable boys.

My other job is helping out with an after school program working specifically with preschoolers. I know. Haven't I been trying to avoid that? Well, let's just say that it's not my ideal job, but I love working with this age and it's such a short amount of time and not in a classroom setting that it's all good.

Today, though, I think I want to address something I overheard on my way to work today. As I was waiting for the Light Rail train to take me to the after school program, I heard two ladies talking and couldn't help but over hear part of a conversation about Christmas gifts. One of them was telling a story about an expensive gift she'd gotten for a nephew who'd "always been a brat." He didn't like the particular gift she'd given him, so she told him not to expect anymore Christmas cards (which I assume also meant gifts) from her. She was disgusted and went on to say that her other brothers kids were always grateful for whatever they received. The woman she was talking to just shook her head and said, "What's wrong with kids these days?"

They didn't ask me, so I kept my mouth shut, but the beauty of this space is that I can open it and answer them anyway. :)

I don't understand this particular reaction from people, because in reference to this specific story there are plenty of examples of children from hundreds of years ago who weren't thankful for a gift they received. So what is so different about this situation that makes all kids today thankless, as the question implies? The context is different, perhaps, and people tend to have many more gadgets, possessions, and 'things,' but all of those together only illustrate how surroundings are different.

Having heard something during this story about buckskins that had been in the family for years, I put some pieces together for myself (not sure if they're correct). Did the woman telling this story gift a buckskin to this "always been a brat" nephew? Let's pretend this is the case. Part of being a good gift-giver is doing your best to give something you think the recipient will like and/or want. That can definitely be challenging sometimes, but you know, there's nothing wrong with asking if there's something that someone wants if you're a little stumped. It may not be quite as much fun, but you can be sure your recipient will be thrilled. Whereas, getting them something you would want without thinking about their interests....well, no one can really blame them if they aren't interested. Ok, so the buckskins were clearly important and of value to this lady, but they might not have been to her nephew (understandable, in my opinion. What in the world do you do with buckskins?!). Does his lack of interest in this gift really warrant a grand sweep of something being wrong with all kids these days?

Maybe this kid really is thankless and has been for a long time, but maybe he just thinks his aunt is really weird and that her gifts are a bit strange. I wouldn't blame him. But I also wouldn't lay the blame on him if has "always been" the "brat" his aunt claims he has been. In my experience, most bratty kids are the way they are because of parenting choices made by those raising them. *Please note, I said "most." There are certainly exceptions.* Kids are by and large a product of their surroundings. Manners and grace are learned qualities and different from culture to culture, society to society. Was this nephew ever taught to how to gracefully accept gifts - even those he was less excited about? Did his parents teach him to write thank you notes for gifts he received? Maybe not, and if so that's hardly his own fault. Did his parents talk about the 'crazy' gifts they always received from someone? If so, and if he heard that from a young age, it's no wonder he came across as thankless.

I'm would never call myself an etiquette snob, though I am a stickler for manners. Comments like "What's wrong with kids these days?" just irritate me because it implies superiority to all young people in the person who said it. In my experience, those who choose to make such a comment are rarely justified in their superiority.

Thank you for letting me rant just a little.

~Ms. S

Hodge-Podge

This will be a mishmash of a post, mostly because there are a number of very unrelated thoughts going on in my head at the moment. So consider yourself warned.

First up, two fix-it projects. Remember the under-the-counter lighting Mr. S installed a while back that he was so proud of? Well, one of the brackets that holds the cord up underneath the cabinets kept falling out. We'd stick it back up only to have it fall out again in a matter of days or hours. Mr. S assured me he was going to make a trip to the hardware store and pick up items to fix it...but then a week passed, and another one, and I got impatient. I also got creative.

To fix this problem (it is rather annoying to have an electric cord hanging down on your counter, after all), I grabbed a twist tie, a thumb tack, and a hammer. I folded the twist tie in half around the cord and twisted a few times to make a slightly loose loop. Then I put the two ends of the twist tie together, and twisted them to make another, smaller loop - smaller than the base of the thumb tack. I lifted the whole contraption up, moved the twist tie along the cord under the cabinet until it was in a spot to hold the cord up and off the counter. I placed the thumb tack into the middle of the empty loop and hammered that baby into place under the kitchen cabinets. Fixed in less than 5 minutes and didn't cost a dime!

The second fix-it project (I don't have pictures of - sorry!) involved the door handle on our bathroom door, which decided to fall off and not go back on. After at least a month and a half of 'just dealing with it,' Husband asked me to call our landlord to come fix it (and in the same breath mentioned it was likely something he could do himself, but what good is a landlord if you don't put him to use?). Personally, I'd rather do it myself if I can. So I did. We have a door that closes off the main living area from the hallway to the bathroom and bedroom. I noticed on the back of that door there was an 'extra' handle that matched the one on our bathroom door (but, oddly enough, not the one on the other side of the door it was originally on). I took the handle off the back of the hallway door and put it on the bathroom door instead, then took the old knob from the bathroom door and put it on the back of the door we rarely use. Genius!! Problem solved.

Alright now for something totally unrelated. Who wants to talk about chickens?

Source: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What? Yes, chickens. Husband been talking for some time now about wanting to raise chickens once we have a house. With a yard. To be perfectly honest, minus a few reservations I was mostly on board with the idea. I like knowing where my food comes from, how it was raised, and that it's healthy. Additionally, I enjoy animals and think the prospect of going out into my own back yard to get eggs for our home is pretty sweet. I'm slightly worried about bothering neighbors, and raccoons bothering a hen house. But then I read this post yesterday by Rachel from Memories of Mine to Thine and decided my hang-ups were way lame. You really should read her post - not only has she given significantly more thought to the subject (and done more research), she owns a brood of hens! After reading her post and watching the video she included, raising our own chickens is a no-brainer. But what to do in the meantime (because we don't have our own house, let alone a back yard yet)?

Rachel mentions some good options: checking out farmer's markets and building a relationship with the farmers there, Googling the brands carried at your grocery store to find out more about the source and ultimately finding a safe one. There was one she didn't mention, though, and that's Co-Ops. Here in MN, at least, farmer's markets are seasonal, but many of those very same farmers source eggs at the Co-Ops in town. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Seward Co-Op has a great page explaining what a food cooperative is and how it works.) We aren't yet members of Co-Op, but there are a number close-by from which to choose.

For now, we'll be frequenting our neighborhood Co-Ops more regularly and purchasing all our eggs and meat there. It's a bit more expensive than our grocery store, but we don't buy that much meat. And more importantly, I'd rather pay more to support farming practices I agree with and have a better idea of where my food is coming from than continuing to overlook the problem. What do you think? Would you raise chickens?


I don't remember the last thing I was going to write about. I know it had something to do with another blog I'd read yesterday... Yeah. Not coming to me. So you're saved from one more random thing being added to this post. Has it cooled down where you are? It sure has here, and I'm enjoying the fall-like weather. I hope you are, too.

~ Ms. S

A little procrastination

Right now, I'm supposed to be working on a cover letter for Mr. S to proof-read tonight. The body is done with revisions made, but I have yet to write the intro and conclusion and reached a bit of a wall. So I decided to procrastinate a little bit and update you on life since my last post (which was only two days ago, you'll notice!).

Cleaning duties listed, whose turn it is to do dishes (color coordinated), and events for the week.

Let's take a little time to visit the Cleaning and Job Schedules. I haven't been great about keeping up with the daily cleaning. Part of this is because Monday's task is to clean the kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table. It was Husband's turn to do dishes on Monday and they didn't get done (note: this is merely a statement of fact rather than a passing of judgement), which meant our limited counter space and the sink were full of dishes. I determined these tasks could be lumped into another day this week thinking it would be yesterday when it was my turn to do dishes. For whatever reason, it didn't occur to me to do this yesterday, so instead I did a small load of dishes this morning and cleaned our dish drainer! 

The dish drainer project was long overdue. I filled our sink with hot water, some dish soap, and a couple splashes of bleach (probably about 1-2 Tb). Once the sink was full, in went the rack, the utensils holder, and the plastic tray. I let them soak for ~ 1 hour (mostly because I was working on other things and forgot about them), then scrubbed them with a rag until they were clean, and dried them before putting them back.

Sparkling clean and ready to dry some more dishes!

However, the dining room table DID get cleaned on Monday - mostly because that's where I've been conducting my great job search. Please note the sarcasm in the word 'great.' See last post if you're at all confused.


Yesterday was laundry day. Here's the deal with laundry in our building. You have to sign up for time slots. In theory it sounds excellent - you're guaranteed four hours of available wash and dry time/week. In practice it sucks. We used to be signed up for a two hour slot on two different days. Two hours was never enough time to get our laundry done, and our Saturday time was inconvenient. So we are now signed up for two back-to-back slots on Tuesdays from 6-10. Better, but not perfect.

Still damp and drying while spread over some chairs.

Last night, for instance, I had a church committee meeting at 7 (these meetings always last too long), and knew that pretty much shot my laundry time. So I took advantage of being of 'housewife' for the time being and did our laundry during the day when no one is signed up. I have to be honest - I did not wash the load of clothes that need cleaning (and have needed cleaning since our vacation for too long). Nope. Instead I washed our comforter which was starting to look...well...not white anymore. Out it came fresh and clean to join our new white sheets which were on sale at Target. :)

Now I have to tell the truth about another thing - the job schedule. While it worked fabulously on Monday - I spent ~ 30 minutes looking for jobs, put together a spreadsheet of jobs needing app materials, prioritized which ones needed to get done and when, and even managed to write a cover letter and get it sent off with my resume for one of the four jobs - I was an utter failure on Tuesday. This is the problem when you're the kind of person who is most productive when you're busy: when you don't have a job, there is no momentum to keep you going. And frankly, when you want a job as badly as I'd like one, it's easier to spend all day checking email endlessly hoping you'll have some news - any kind of news! So yesterday, Ms. S did not rock the house like Monday.

Today, as you can see, I've been mildly and comfortably productive. And am hoping that this post will help with my writers block for my cover letters. Especially since finishing the one I'm currently working on means I get to reward myself by painting my nails. A little self-pampering never hurt anyone!

~ Ms. S

Cleaning Schedule

Alright, dear friends. Sometime ago I mentioned putting together a cleaning schedule to try out. Well, after much procrastination, I finally did it and will be putting it into effect this week. Before showing you precisely what the schedule is, let me share a little bit of my thought process that went into the making of 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

My natural tendency when it comes to cleaning is to wait for things to pile up and do everything at once. Generally, I think it's fair to say that 'deep cleaning' is what comes most easily. However, I've found that this approach to maintaining even our lovely little apartment just doesn't work. There's always something that needs to be done, and waiting for it to pile up for a purging session makes cleaning an incredibly daunting task. So I'm taking a que from my mother.

My mom stayed at home with my sister and I growing up, and in doing so, came up with a fairly regimented schedule that she still sticks to today. She did 'deep cleans' every-so-often, but they never took very long because she had a daily schedule of smaller things that helped keep tasks reasonable. Since I'm currently unemployed, I figured now would be the perfect time to get into the habit of doing things on a daily basis to continue even when I am employed. Without any further ado, here's 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

Mondays: Scrub kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table, and disinfect the dish rack
Tuesdays: Laundry
Wednesdays: Sweep and mop apartment (we have wood floors or tile throughout)
Thursdays: Clean bathroom
Fridays: Pick up clutter and file papers
Saturdays: Dust
Sundays: to be filled with whatever needs to be done, even if that's nothing
And most importantly: dishes every other day (with Husband taking the days opposite me)

I implemented the dishes schedule two weeks ago and it has been working quite well, though I've done most of the dishes this week - including everything from the potluck we hosted on Thursday. Not that I'm keeping track, or anything. :) But I'm quite excited for the rest of the schedule, too, as I'm hoping it helps us maintain a semblance of order without going crazy. My problem is, at least while I have lots of time on my hands, I'm much better at creating messes than getting rid of them.
Anyone else have that problem? It's terrible, let me tell you.

Do you have any kind of a cleaning/organizing schedule? 


~ Ms. S

Cleaning Cloths

Memorial Day weekend was spent down in Nashville, TN with my aunts. As reading for the flight down, I picked up (among other things) Real Simple's book, 'Cleaning.' In it they suggest purchasing a set of microfiber cloths for the bathroom and a separate set for the kitchen, as it minimizes the spread of certain bacteria from one place to another. Made perfect sense to me! So when I came across this brightly colored kitchen set, I immediately put it in my basket. They are now hanging inside the door of the cabinet where our trash can is with the color code hanging up behind it. Mr. S would like to find another place for them, but for now they have a functional home.

~ Ms. S

Dishes, dishes everywhere

Last week (maybe two weeks ago), we had some friends over for a semi-potluck dinner. It was quite delightful as these are friends we live close to, but our busy schedules tend to keep us apart for longer stretches than we like. Here was our menu:

Course 1: Cesar salad with homemade dressing
Course 2: Homemade veggie lasagna and red wine
Course 3: (brought by our dear friends) Homemade brownies with Izzy's ice cream and white wine

Everything was delicious! And I'll take this time to tell you my darling friend's brilliant idea for pre-portioning brownies. She used her muffin tin (standard size). Duh, right?! Brownies don't rise like muffins do, so you just fill each cup about 1/3 full, bake monitoring the brownies carefully (don't want 'em to burn), and let cool before removing from the tin.

Once our friends left, however, a rather horrifying stack of dishes appeared. *Knowing how much I hate doing dishes, I will never ever ever ask company to assist in doing the dishes. So anyone how comes (or has come) to my house, don't feel bad. That said, I'm happy to assist others if they request help with dishes while I am enjoying their kitchen.* It was late and we were tired so we called it a night and went to bed. Normally, this doesn't bother me. I'm very comfortable leaving dishes for the following day Carl to take care of later. :) But this time....whoa. However, it gives me the perfect opportunity to show you how I like to organize my dishes when I DO decide to tackle the task.

1. Before I even begin to fill the sink, I arrange/organize my dishes according to their shape and size, as this dictates the order in which they'll be cleaned. For example, all the big plates go into one stack, small plates in another, cereal bowls in another, and tupperware is stacked according to shape and size. Not only does this let me see how much of everything I have to wash, I can maximize our counter space (we generally have a pot still on the stove, our pull-out cutting board out and full, and/or a few dishes still on the table). 
2. This next step might be different for some of you, but we have one giant sink (never again!). So we have a plastic tub that sits in our sink that we fill to wash dishes. After sorting the dishes, I put all the silverware in the tub, throw in some dish soap, and start the water.
3. As the tub is filling up, I wash the silverware and place it in the drying rack.
4. Next come big and flat items - biggest plates first, smallest plates second.
5. Then soup/salad bowls, followed by cereal bowls.
6. Small tupperware containers and their lids.
7. Big mixing bowls, baking pans, pots, etc.
8. Glasses. 

This system allows me to maximize and creatively fill the space of our drying rack. If my drying rack is full and I still have a number of dishes left, I'll let my first round dry and put them away, coming back later to do another round. Now, if you were to talk to Mr. S, he'd tell you a completely different method for washing dishes (cleanest to dirtiest). There isn't a right or a wrong, simply a different.

How do you tackle dishes? Do you spend any time sorting and organizing before you start, or do you just dig right in? 

~Ms. S

Please let it not be as hard as it looks

So I may have gotten myself into quite a mess while perusing my favorite fabric/craft store. You see, I got myself this Amy Butler mini dress, tunic, & tops pattern (plus fabric to make three of them). They will be amazingly cute once put together and I'm excited about that. But, once I got home I read the pattern. Yeesh! I think my mom may be getting a lot of phone calls to get me through this one. And you'll be reading updates of all my mishaps. You're welcome.

~Ms. S