Bag O' Diversions

"Use It!"
Yet another use for re-usable grocery totes:
* fill tote with as many smallish, safe toys as you can fit/find -- at our house, these can be found covering floor of playroom
* sit tote in front passenger seat of car as you prepare to drive five plus hours with two small children on your own
* toss one toy at a time to needy child
* enjoy periods of peaceful diversion ranging from five seconds to five minutes
* refill tote when you stop for snack, diaper, potty breaks

This system kept me from being tempted to engage in the unsafe practice of reaching backward while driving to pick up dropped toys.

Who would wear Roger Rabbit?

"Lose It!"
* one sweaty Titleist hat (hubby's donation)
* two black leather gloves (non-matching)
* one faux fur white scarf thingy (??????)

Hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend. Any spring cleaning to report? What have you been using or losing? I need some inspiration.

Down the drain

"Lose It!"
* many, many hotel sized toiletries, free gift cosmetics, and partially-filled bottles of gunked up lotion, shampoo, sunscreen, and aloe

Tip: don't store toiletries in a cabinet inside a closet that you cannot easily access without waking up one or both of your sleeping children

Oink, oink, your time is up.

"Lose It!"
* cracked carcass of Bub's piggy bank -- the piggy bank did not survive (at least, did not survive intact) a recent drop. Its sentimental and monetary value does not warrant attempting to glue the pieces together again. However, it's faceless self has just been resting on top of our china cupboard for about ten days now. I am trying to be better about not overlooking these kinds of the things. Tonight, I am going to transfer the money (and q tips?) from pork belly to ziploc bag. Heck, I might even lose those q tips, or maybe dust my keyboard with them first.

Anyone know where to get an inexpensive replacement pink piggy bank? Bub is clear that the pig must be pink.

Windbroken

"Lose It!"
* two more books -- no desire to reread The Taming of the Shrew or Oedipus the King anytime soon and maybe never again unless Bub or Little Bit need some future homework help, but was reluctant to get rid of these two books because they were new (purchased for tutoring two years ago and then not needed)

* hubby's old windbreaker

Rainy Day Calories

"Use It!"
* Betty Crocker Cookbook, Bridal Edition -- used to make Chocolate Chip Cookies (actually, used the alternative directions for cookie bars).

Cookbook Challenge: 11 down/42 to go

Caffeine Free Free

"Lose It!"
* 21 cans of a 24 pack of Caffeine Free Diet Coke purchased, with best intentions, when I discovered I was pregnant with Little Bit -- I just don't like it, never drank it, and apparently never offered it to my guests. Now, it's been expired for over a year (did you know soda expired? we usually drink it so promptly that it's never been an issue). I just feel sad when I see a can of Caffeine Free Diet Coke, similar to the disappointment I feel when I see the Pepsi logo.

In penance for my wastefulness, I will be emptying each can to ensure proper recycling.

Do you have to let it linger?

"Lose It!"
* the four books featured in this photo -- two of them are from The Lingerers, that group of books I've been carting around for years without feeling inclined to read. I told myself I would use or lose them by year's end. I've decided to go ahead and lose Cloud Chamber by Michael Dorris and Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott, but not before telling you how highly I recommend Michael Dorris's A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and Anne Lamott's Crooked Little Heart. Please read those two books.

All of my "Lose It!" books are in one big box in the basement for now. So please, if you are interested in any of the titles, email me at mep at nottobrag dot net, and I can figure out how to get you the title that interests you.

Mirror, Mirror in the wall

"Use It!"
In our main room, we have a built-in set of three, deep glass shelves surrounded by and trimmed with mirrors. There's a light at the top of the built-in. I would not consider this built-in to be a selling point of our home, except for buyers who think it is still 1987. When we first moved in, I used these shelves to display pictures. It was not ideal because the shelves are a bit too deep and because the combination of the glass, the mirror, and the light made the fact that I don't dust my picture frames all that regularly VERY apparent.

Now, we use these shelves for storage and (attempts at) organization. The top shelf houses stuff that I need to keep out of Bub's reach like Desitin, scissors, Sharpies, postage stamps . . . just to name a few items. The bottom two shelves are filled with cardboard magazine holders that I use to store stuff like mail, catalogues, information related to Bub's school, Bub's coloring books, and other stuff that I think I might need but don't have another place to store.

I'm getting bored even describing these shelves so I'll wrap this up by showing you that I used my full-sheet labels from Staples to print free clip art from Dover Designs, which I then used to cover the ugly cardboard magazine holders. The result is some fancy magazine holders more worthy of the "beautiful" mirrored shelves.

Here are some photos.


Please note how the mirrors surrounding the shelves create the illusion of even more magazine holders than there are. Wow.

Receipts, Y'all

"Use It!"

I used my Charleston Party Receipts cookbook to make a Pineapple Pecan cheese ball. I can't give a verdict on it because I was too busy to really dig in. I will say that the two bricks of cream cheese called for made for quite a large ball of cheese, perhaps a bit too large to be aesthetically pleasing.

Cookbook Challenge Stats: 10 down/43 to go

Chick, Chicken, and Chick Peas: Part II

"Use It!"
* chicken -- grilled and consumed

* chick peas -- used to make Crispy Cinnamon Garbanzos. They were okay, but I think they would have been better if baked for five or so minutes less and if the sugar would have stuck to them better. I'd try them again with a shorter cook time and more sugar.

Chick, Chicken, and Chick Peas

"Use It!" (Almost)

You know how women's magazines and lifestyle experts give helpful tips about using just a "couple" of hours on Sunday to get your healthy meals all lined up for the week? With the best of intentions, I just did the following in just a couple of minutes:

* threw some frozen chicken breasts into a ziploc to defrost in the fridge -- took about two minutes, but this is a task that I rarely muster the motivation to initiate.

* rinsed two cups of chick peas and put them in cold water to soak overnight -- have two different recipes that involve chick peas that I have been meaning to try, and purchased said chick peas about three months ago with these recipes in mind.

Check back to see how this chick fares with the chick peas and the chicken.