Why is sewing poop catchers so much fun?

I wonder what kind of weirdo hits I'm going to get on this post title.

Anyway, the last week has been very busy.  I have been sewing a few things, but wanted to wait until I was finished to post a group shot.  We spent Saturday prepping for a barbecue we threw on Sunday, and then used Monday (a local holiday) to recover.  On Tuesday, Jeremy began his year-long stint in the political section.  I admit, I have been spoiled by the predictable hours he worked in the consular section.  On Tuesday he didn't get home until close to midnight, and on Wednesday it was 7 p.m.  Tonight it will be later.  I know I will have to get used to it.

This week we have also had two sick kids - one still down for the count, actually.  So I haven't finished all the sewing I had planned to.  But I did sew these four fitted diapers.  I used a pattern I made myself, which is predictably lacking.  They fit the girls (who both wear mediums) adequately and do the job for which they were intended, but I know I can do better.  So last night I actually bought a pattern and will try that one out for future diapers.

I've now used up all of my absorbent diaper fabric.  I had snagged some hemp jersey and bamboo fleece very cheaply from a WAHM (work-at-home-mom for you not in the know) diaper maker who was going out of business.  So I've ordered more and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.  Sadly, it was not near as cheap, but still better than buying disposables for the next two year.

Fun with Frappes

So, if you keep up with the all the mundane happenings here at Where to Next?, you'll know that Jeremy and I had a difference of opinion about the Magic Bullet on garage sale day.  I won, and we kept it.  I think Jeremy was pretty happy about that this morning when I sent him off to work with a mocha frappe in a lidded plastic cup.

Gotta say, this thing is so convenient.  I have been making frappes every morning this week, something I would never do if all we had was a plain old blender (I've since given that thing away).  With the Magic Bullet, the part that contains the blade is easily removable, and you can even put it in the dishwasher.  I usually just wash by hand because it's so easy to clean.  You can screw on individual plastic mugs, so there's no pouring and just one container to clean.  I'm not a shill for the company, but for making morning frappes or smoothies, this is a great product.

I start by putting sugar (or Splenda) in the mug.  About 1.5 tsps.  If I'm doing a mocha, I'll add cocoa powder here.  You can also just use chocolate syrup and skip the sugar, but this works too.

Then I add very strong coffee.  I broke the French press the other day so this is blech-y instant (though it's not as evident when I frappify it).

Then some ice and milk.

I screw the blade on.

Fit it into the Bullet.

Press down to activate the motor.

And about 20 seconds later, I have frothy, milky, caffeinated goodness.  What a way to start a morning!

The Whistling Teakettle of Doom

Last week, I ruined our teakettle by failing to take it off the stove before all the water had evaporated. So I picked up a new one on Saturday morning during my grocery run. The box promised that it was a whistling kettle (this is important to avoid any future over-boiling incidents). I was a bit upset, then, when it failed to whistle on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings.

And then, today, while I was upstairs tending to Zoia, I heard this:



I guess I can no longer complain that it doesn't whistle. But I'm also not anxious to start each morning to a horror movie soundtrack - especially when it's the part just before someone's head gets chainsawed off.

All set for summer

After a long, cold winter, and snow in April (and nightmares of snow in June - like the one I had last night), I think you really, REALLY appreciate summer.  I am not sure I've ever been as excited about summer as I am this year.

So we are making the most of it.

We're running around outside in our swimsuits and playing with water.

We're picnicking.

We even just got a huge load of wood delivered ...

... so that we can enjoy our new fire pit all summer (and fall).

That the wood isn't quite dry is a problem, but we will power through.

Trash to treasure

I was raised in a frugal household.  With five kids and one salary, you learn the value of a dollar pretty quick.  We packed our lunches, picked out our clothes from the clearance racks at TJ Maxx, went to the mall to walk around rather than to shop, and were taught to finish the food on our plates.  Though, so far, money isn't as tight around these parts as it was when I was in school, I plan to raise my children the same way.

One thing Jeremy learned pretty quickly when we got married is that I only throw away food when it has gone bad.  In my house, leftovers are meant to be eaten, not squirreled away in the back of the fridge, only to be tossed after sprouting a thick coat of fur.  If I put food on my plate, I'm going to finish it, and by golly, he had better do the same.  In the last 3.5 years, he's gotten pretty good at estimating how much he will eat, and only putting that much on his plate.  Adaptable fellow, he is.

It was the duck combined with memories of my beloved Little House on the Prairie books that got me thinking about how to make better use of the stuff I buy at the store.  After using every ounce of that duck to make a meal, rendered duck fat, cracklings and stock, I started thinking about all the vegetable scraps that get tossed every day in my household.  Onion skins.  Cucumber peels.  The little bits of bell peppers that you don't salvage when you cut off the stems.  Etc.  And I started throwing all those little bits into a bag in the freezer. 

Last weekend that bag became full.  So I dumped its contents into a stock pot along with a few quarts of water and a couple of bay leaves.

I simmered for about an hour (I read that cooking vegetables stock longer than that actually hurts the flavor of the stock), then strained and jarred.  I was surprised at how tasty it was.

Voila!  Free, a good use of stuff I would have thrown away, and better for you than MSG-laden bouillion cubes. 

Now I have a gallon of vegetable stock in my freezer.  I think next time I will leave the stock simmering in the pot after I remove the vegetable scraps in order to reduce it down.  Even so, I can fill a freezer bag full of vegetable scraps every couple weeks.  I don't need quite that much stock.