Village de Noël on the Champs Elysées

An American in Paris

In four days I'll be on my way to Paris. My sis-in-law sent this video to see what we had in store. I'm hoping we'll laugh at what they're calling cold and record snow. We are midwesterners afterall.

Too hot to handle?

I've had my eye on a red knobbed viking range for quite a while, but know I'll have to scrimp other places if we went this high end on the stove. Plus my cooking would be expected to improve a lot I'm afraid. I also want a fancy shmancy hood, but think it would be easy to get the look without spending too much with some clever tweaks. I also love these upper cabinets. The glass on top to store pretties that you don't use everyday is brilliant.

The plans have begun. My father-in-law made a floor plan for the new kitchen and needs measurements for appliances and such. The one thing I'm pretty sure about is the sink. I know I want a farmhouse sink and this one from Ikea seems to fit the budget and I like the size, not too big not too small. Hubby and I are at odds over if it should be single bowl or double. Single please. By the way I read somewhere that the budget for a kitchen should be approximatly 10% of the house's worth. But would this be before or after the remodel? Hmmm...
Oh, and this kitchen was posted by someone with the title Brickmanhouse, my maiden name, so it must be the right choice.

Green it up!

Happy Blog Action Day!

I am far from where I aspire to be in the way of my impact on the earth, but I have slowly adopted new ways to do things that fit well into my lifestyle. I think the hardest part of living a greener lifestyle is convincing those around you that it's worthwhile and then once you've committed to it witnessing others not take up the flag.

Here are some of the things I'm most proud of. The name of this blog hints at my favorite.

1. Hanging laundry out to dry. I love it. It's so relaxing and can be done while my boys big wheel in the driveway. Not to mention the smell it gives the clothes and there's nothing more precious then seeing baby clothes all hung up or cloth diapers that I also used. Of course living in Iowa, I can't do it year round, but when I do the laundry in the winter I make sure to do at least a couple loads at a time to take advantage of the dryers heat and am trying to convince all my men that you can wear things like pants more then once before they're washed.

2. Composting. This is the thorn in my hubby's thumb. He hates my ice cream bucket in the sink with all the food scraps, but he admitted I made some really nice dirt once it had time to culture. Whenever my boys find a worm they run it to the heap since I explained that it's there poop that makes the dirt so good. We even created some funny hybrids of squash we don't recall ever having that just grew out of the pile.

3. Gardening. Okay this is mostly my hubby's domain. I would probably just throw a bunch of seeds out and hope for the best but he is a perfectionist and has perfect rows with everything having divine order. There is nothing better then going out and picking your own supper. And since my boys like there vegetables raw. Snack time is a pick your own party.

4. Water. I try not to ever dump clean water down the sink. I use it to fill the dog bowl or water a plant. I've even taken bath water outside in buckets for the garden. Luckily we have pretty instant hot water, but if you have to wait for the water to heat up save what would otherwise go down the sink for other purposes.

5. Travel. When I used to live in town I'd try to either walk or pop a baby on the back of my bike to run errands. It's one of the things I miss most about being in town, but now I plan my routes and save everything for one day or a certain part of town seeing how little time I can be in the car.

6. Nature. Trying to spend as much time outside as possible. I just started last year running in the dead of winter. I got myself some yak traks after a slip on some ice, but found out seeing my running path in all seasons is such a beauty. I take the boys hiking in all weather and times of day too (the dark + flashlights= spooky fun) and having a sledding hill in the backyard is a godsend. I read somewhere that this generation is so isolated to the indoors that there might not be anyone left to take care of nature in the future. I don't know about that, but instilling an apprecaition for it can't hurt.

These are the things that I'm most proud of and can think of at the moment. It is very satisfying having just one small garbage bag each week to bring to the curb although disturbing that the city supplied garbage can is huge and the recycling bin tiny (I always have to include some of it in an extra box.) I have a lot of things left I can do, but think I'm doing pretty good considering all the eye rolling I'm already recieving. Now that the boys are talking about environmental issues in school I have lots of support and the eyeroller is outnumbered so it gets easier as we go.

Scrambled or Over Easy?

One of my children's chores is to help out the nice gentleman who rents the land behind our house by letting the chickens out of their coop every morning. With racing to get ready for the school bus most mornings, it has become my chore. Well, this morning I saw my first egg! I thought I heard some funny noises last night while the boys were playing in the hay, that must be what a chicken sounds like trying to pass an egg. I congratulated all four of the hens since there's no way to tell who's responsible and told the rooster to be extra nice to his ladies today.

One last hurrah

We are headed to Orlando in tomorrow's early hours and return home one day before school starts. Most of our trip will involve Mickey and the gang, but we are going to spend at least one day at the beach where my boys and I love to gather shells. It's my favorite vacation souvener. My childhood involved many trips to Florida and lots of time spent on the beach. We had a three foot tall glass jar in our living room where we put all our beach finds and I remember rooting around in it to find my favorites all the time.