Home Management

a bombhitit

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my mom used to declare, “your room looks like a bomb hit it!” so often, that i actually thought a “bombhitit” was a noun used to describe a very messy room.

well, mom, don’t come to our trailer, because it looks like a bombhitit.

the alsberries have been experiencing extreme discipline issues. our house is a mess, which i’ve allowed for far too long. it started a year ago when i was all like, “i can’t work three jobs and keep the house clean.” that was actually pretty true, but now i’ve had just one job for over four months, and i’m still not cooking or cleaning like i know i could be. somehow, i keep convincing myself that maybe we can live in our own filth, for just a little while longer. wouldn’t that be nice?

really, the problem is at this point that i’ve gotten into such strong cleaning habits, it’s proving hard to break them. especially because these cleaning habits i speak of are mainly the ones where i throw all of our crap into the rooms i can shut the doors on and hide from. seriously, it’s sick.

BUT, there is hope. because i read these two quotes that are going to forever heal me of poor housekeeping habits.

i am the problem.

i am the problem. but i am also the solution.

baddabingbaddaboom. i’m a brand new person people!

okay but seriously, when is my house going to get clean again?

well, i’ve finally started working on it. last week, i took my first two 18-gal totes of stuff to the local consignment shop along with a treasure chest-type thing. i swapped clothes at my church’s clothing swap and i took the rest of the clothes i never wear to goodwill. we’re in the process of getting rid of everything we don’t use or don’t need. and it feels good.

after that, i hope to start deep cleaning, because our house could really use it. and my husband and i would both probably function better if it was clean and tidy.

all in all, if it’s any encouragement, i still stink at this “homemaker” thing and i’ve been married for 2.5 years.

we’ve had a good run, netflix

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netflix-logo

well, i thought i’d step up on the proverbial soapbox and give my piece about the topic you’ve undoubtedly heard something about: netflix is raising their prices.

as i’m writing this, i wonder if it’s even blog-worthy, but hey, i’m not one to hold back.

the price increase came at a great time for us. we loved netflix instant streaming for watching older television series’ such as x-files. we loved getting not-good-enough-to-see-in-theatre new releases delivered right to our mailbox. and we thought the price was fair for how much we used it.

for myself more than bryan, i haven’t watched something that i actually wanted to see on netflix instant for a few months now. i just watched disney channel shows on netflix because they were there, not because i woke up those many days and thought, i really want to see what happens to teddy on “good luck, charlie.”

bryan enjoyed a lot of the crazy misunderstood movies that netflix offers. but even he was complacent to netflix when i proposed we cancel.

we cancelled out netflix subscription as a result of the price increases, but more as an effort to simplify our lives. while we really enjoyed having such convenient tv & movies for a year and a half, we decided we’ll be better off with it.

thank you family video, for staying in business these past few years. i know it’s been rough, but you’re about to get a lot more business from us!

baby bunnies!!!

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so, we’ve had this big planting pot that I stole from my mom when we moved to iowa city. bryan informed me that the bunnies that live under our trailer had been nibbling on the weed that grows in said planting pot. well, we now know that it was actually a mama bunny scouting out a good place to birth her next litter.

so cute! we left our house around 2:30pm this afternoon and got back around 5pm and the bunnies were born! they quickly burrowed in the dirt to get warm after we got there but here is a video of them right as they were burrowing.

it’s like they write it just for me!

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even though i’m not pregnant, sometimes my intense food cravings make me think i am. for the last few months that i haven’t been pregnant, i’ve been craving eggs. all the freaking time. i’ve been eating at least 1/2 dozen eggs a week, all by myself. and this has been going on for months! i blame it on the switch to organic eggs, those things are so darn good!

other things i’ve been intensely craving are tuna, yogurt, bananas and weird vegetables like kale. what can i say, i’m on a healthy food craving kick!

well, once again, real simple has tapped into my mind, and said, “let’s write another magazine just for lisagrace.”

in this months issue, they had a whole TEN ideas for eggs! it’s a beautiful two pages in the magazine.

i’m trying out their recipe for spaghetti with herbs, chilies, and eggs [sorry, it’s not on their website, email me for it or pick up the april issue of the mag], and their awesome egg in a hole idea.

oh how i love you, real simple.

2011 Tools [Budget]

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In 2011, our main financial goal is to pay cash for Bryan’s last year [YAY!!!!!!!] of college. This semester is paid for, thanks to a whopping scholarship, bryan’s awesome grandparents and some savings.

We were blessed to start out the new year with over $1,000 in our emergency fund [thanks mom and dad alsbury!], a completely fixed car [we had some non-emergency things to fix totalling about $600], and one months of expenses in our checking account. i love starting the year out right.

We have also revamped our budget a little bit this year, which I’m very excited about. We’re focusing on our sinking funds, so that all those little things we have to pay for throughout the year don’t catch us by surprise and drain our emergency fund.

i thought that some of you would appreciate seeing what our budget looks like, for either the purpose of being nosy or the purpose of knowing how to start your own. [either way is fine with me, but i do hope you have your own budget or will be inspired to start your own!]

budget2011

between my three jobs and bryan’s plasma money, we make about $2,350 before taxes. our taxes are about $350, so this budget is based off of $2,000 in income each month.

let me know if you have any questions!

2011 Tools [Menu Planner]

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I recently “splurged” on myself with a one year subscription to real simple magazine. [ok, so it wasn’t really a splurge considering I ordered it on Amazon.com for $10 which I paid for with free giftcards from swagbucks.]

anyway…

I received the issue for january a while back and it contained the above page in it. When I saw it, I thought, this is my kind-of menu planner. [you can download the pdf here]

no more forgetting that one ingredient.

no more prancing around the different sections of the grocery store because my list is all jumbled.

no more running out of room on my piece of scratch paper that my list is on.

and on top of that, it’s cute!

2011 Tools [Bible Read Thru Plan]

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Although I didn’t complete this last year, I LOVED this Bible Read-thru plan and will be doing it again this year. Thanks, Paige!

Some things I love about it are:

  • Each month only has 25 reading days, so if you miss a day, you automatically have “catch-up days.” Amazing.
  • You’re in the gospels ALL year. Talk about getting to know Jesus a little better.
  • For some reason it’s that type of reading plan that really make me want to read ahead, which is a good thing!

Enjoy!

PS: Comment if you want me to email the PDF to you!

proud to be a homeowner

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I woke up this morning and all I wanted to do was shovel. Shovel my deck, shovel my sidewalk, and shovel my driveway.

For the sake of context, I’ll tell you that I grew up with four brothers. Four brothers that did most if not all of the shoveling growing up. I was required to shovel maybe once every couple years, and when I was required to shovel, I hated it.

So why the sudden change of heart? I don’t know. Call it homeownership, I guess. But it sure was satisfying to be responsible for my own home.

It will probably get old by tomorrow.

My Decision to Line Dry

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Here’s another little-known fact about the writer of this blog: The power of suggestion is ten trillion times stronger for her. It’s what makes her so agreeable!

I’m going to stop talking in the third person now.

You cannot suggest something to me (even indirectly) without expecting that I do exactly what you suggest. Please, don’t use this against me. : )

For this reason, I pretty much only read one blog (other than friends and family). And even on that blog, I pretty much only read one author’s posts.

And, to my admission, I pretty much do everything she suggests.

So, anyway, this is about my decision to line dry. Which basically means this is about Tsh’s suggestion to Line Dry.

In all seriousness, I have loved line drying my clothes. Here are my reasons:

The smell! Oh, the smell!
Seriously, I would rather have a freshly line dried shirt than a bouquet of flowers. Not even kidding you. When I walk outside to pick our clothes off the clothes-line, I breathe deep. I think I love the smell even more because we’ve been using soap nuts to wash our clothes naturally. Because it’s natural, there’s no smell, which is a good thing. But there’s something about smell that convinces us of cleanliness, you know?

Energy Savings
I actually do care about the environment, but I probably care more about our budget. And we definitely save some dough by not using our dryer. Enough said.

Laundry has a little more life to it.
Knowing that it might rain that evening is good motivation to get our clean clothes off the line. Motivation is something that I need, considering I tend to leave our clothes in the dryer or unfolded until my husband decides to do something about it. With line drying, I have to deal with the laundry today.

I love being outside, and I don’t get nearly enough of it. Therefore, if the only reason I go outside on any given day is to get my wonderful smelling laundry, I’m okay with that.

Finally, I have one warning for you. You may end up looking down at this at the end of the day:

Gas Leak!

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I’ve promised some stories, and I’m not about to let July get away before I share them.

One of the many things I love about our new home is that I have a gas-burning stove to cook our food on. I’ve never had a gas-burning stove and I’m definitely enjoying the difference it makes, albeit small.
The one thing about a gas burning stove is that it’s actually directly connected to a gas line (I know, who would have thought?) thus increasing the risk of a gas leak.
About a week after we moved in to our new home something fell behind our oven. Bryan went on a quest to retrieve said item and pulled out our stove slightly. He was able to retrieve the item, but in the process, he saw this little gem:


How could we possibly pass up a darling little porcelain cow that doubles as a salt shaker?

Bryan made the obvious decision to pull the stove out further, so he could in turn fit his entire self behind the oven and retrieve the precious item.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Yep, he ripped our gas hose.
As I could smell the gas from across our trailer in another room, I became worried at the amount of gas that was pouring in our atmosphere. Bryan thought quickly to turn the gas off as I opened the windows.
The next morning, we called Mid-American Energy to come and replace our hose and all was well. But our trailer smelled of those glorious gas fumes for a least a few days.
The joys of owning a trailer!
The best part of all of that, is that we received an adorable little cow salt shaker for the price of about $40 to replace our gas hose.
You may ask, was it worth it?
And I say, is that even a question? Look at that cow! : )