Episode 2, KonMari: Books

KonMari simplified:  This week SORT THROUGH ALL YOUR BOOKS.

These were the very full shelves in my front room.

Longer version for people who like anecdotal motivation:

The second step in the konmari method is to organize your books. This is a tough one for me. I own tons of books. TONS!

My personal collection beside my bed (might I recommend "1491" for a great look at pre-Columbian Americas).

And so does my husband.

My husband's bedside collection (I totally recommend "Challenger Deep" for an exploration of childhood mental illness).

And so do my kids.

My son's room (I don't know what's on this shelf, and half the titles are in Spanish).

My other son's room (books AND instruction manuals for LEGO kits).

My daughter's room (everyone should own C.S. Lewis' entire works).

And the floor (I loved "The House of the Scorpion").

We read a LOT. I definitely struggle getting rid of books because I feel like they have this inherent value that can't be replaced. What if the internet goes down in the middle of the zombie apocalypse? We're going to want that handbook of battlefield first aid for sure. And what if I have grand-kids one day who come to visit and have never heard of Anne of Green Gables. I'm definitely going to need to have the entire collection available at a moment's notice. So thinking about giving away books is a little bit paralyzing for me.

Here's where the konmari method can help. She recommends, that just like your clothes, you gather all your books into one place. That way you can really see what you have.  this took me many, many heavy trips to gather up books from all around our house. Next, you must pick up each book one at a time and decide if it belongs on your shelf, or if it's time to let it go.  If you bought it years ago and never read it, you probably never will. Let it go. If you have already read it, you probably won't read it again. Let it go.

You get the picture. Basically let them all go.

Ha!
Yeah right!
Not a chance.


This is so hard right?

She suggests thinking about creating a book "hall of fame."  This is a small collection of your most treasured books. And then let the rest go.

Now in my house, a small collection just isn't going to cut it. I LOVE the look of a full book shelf. So the best I could do was to seriously cut back on the hoards I do have.

Giving away books is not easy for me. Luckily I had two big opportunities to ease the pain.
First we have a used book store that will buy back old books and give you credit to buy new books. So packing up a box to trade at the bookstore feels pretty good because I know it means I'll be getting new books! Okay, so it's a tad counterproductive, but it does shrink my pile a bit since it takes several book donations to equal a single new book purchase.
My second great cheat is to donate to my husband's classroom library. He teaches sixth grade English, so any of the young adult books I have can be put in his classroom. Now they are out of my house and serving a worthy purpose, but I don't have to feel like I've given them up.

All boxed up and ready to head to their new home.

In the end I had four big boxes to sell back to the book store and another two bigger boxes to donate to my husband's class. Not bad right?  And I got all of my books to fit in one room instead of filling up a bookcase in every single room of my house (I even had three bookcases of books hiding at my mother-in-law's house!).

Here are my shelves now. Yes they are still full, but not as full as they were before, AND they now hold ALL the books from my other rooms too. And a full book shelf really does make me so HAPPY!

Good luck friends!

Marcia

P.S. Confessions of Failure:  Not only did I not get rid of as many books as I should have, but I actually got rid of less than I thought. When I was done boxing up all the books I thought we didn't need anymore, I let my husband have a quick peak in case there were any he felt he still needed. It turns out he "needed" them all. We negotiated a bit, and in the end he put about half of the books back on the shelf! So instead of getting rid of six boxes, we only got rid of four. But hey, it's a start.

Fixing a Garbage Disposal that Won't Start

Sometime I turn my garbage disposal on and nothing happens.  I can hear a quiet hum that tells me electricity is reaching the motor, but the blades aren't turning.  There is a super simple fix for this.


First find this tool.  It came with your garbage disposal and is either taped to the side or just lying around under your sink.  If you can't find it, use a set of Allen wrenches instead.

Next, make sure you turn off the garbage disposal.

Then, make sure everyone around you knows NOT TO TURN ON the garbage disposal.  See the next step for why...

Reach down into the sink and make sure there is nothing stuck in there.  It might be kind of gross in there.  Sorry.  Spin the blades around with your hand to make sure they can turn freely.

Now get under your sink.  Feel around the bottom of your disposal for a little tiny hole.

 Grab your Allen wrench.

 

Fit the tip of the wrench up into the bottom of the disposal.  Give it a little turn.  Just a little.

 

This will magically reset your disposal.  I don't know why (and I'm too lazy to google it and find out), but it works.

Good luck!


Marcia

Making a Better Sleeve from a Manly Tee

 

Man Sleeves.  They affect all of us.  We all have a closet full of almost cute shirts from various events that we might be tempted to wear if they just didn't have such manly sleeves.  Fortunately, there is a super easy fix.  In about ten minutes I can turn a pair of man sleeves into a relatively feminine shirt with my minimal sewing abilities.

 

What we're basically going to do here is shrink the sleeve.  The top and bottom remain the same, but we fold the middle up and remove it.  It's hard to explain, but easy to do.  Fold the sleeve inside of itself so that the sleeve is as short as you want it.  I like to make the bottom almost non-existent and the top about two inches wide.  Now fold the end of the sleeve back out so that just the hem is showing, and pin it.  A couple of pins at the top and a couple near the arm pit.  You want the cuff of the sleeve to remain, you are just shortening the middle part.  Once it's pinned, you can sew it in place.  Sew it right side out because your stitches will be showing.  I always start sewing at the seam in the pit.  Sew around the sleeve connecting your fold just below the original cuff.

 

After you've circled the sleeve once, sew a second seem even closer to the cuff. 

 

The inside of your sleeve will look like this. Once you have stitched it twice around, you can cut off the extra piece inside the shirt.

(That's the new sleeve compared to the old sleeve)

  

This shows the short sleeve compared to the man sleeve. (Same shirt, different lighting is all).

Cute Sleeve

Man Sleeve

Totally easy! You can do it!

Angie's Favorite Casserole

I had my sister's kids over for the weekend which meant cooking for ten kids. I needed something quick and easy that would satisfy a lot of different tastes.  So we whipped up a favorite that my family has been eating for years.  It is not super popular with grown ups because it's pretty plain (although I love it), but it's easy to make and kids can't get enough of it. In our house we call it "Angie's Favorite Casserole."

Start with a bag of noodles. Egg noodles are best, but any noodle will work. Cook them and drain them.

 Now add a can of tomato soup (or a can of pizza/spaghetti sauce if your kids actually enjoy flavor).

 Chop up a bunch of ham. Whole ham or sliced lunch meat will work.

 Add a pound of cheese.

 

Mix it all up and pour into a baking dish.

*I swear I took a picture of this all in a baking dish, but I can't find the picture, so you will just have to imagine it*

Bake for a while (let's say 30 minutes at 400 degrees), or until the sauce is warm and the cheese melts.


That's it. Super simple and very kid friendly.

And if you don't eat it all (or if you double the batch) you can pour the extra into a giant ziplock bag an freeze it for later.

Everything looks less appetizing in a bag....

Marcia

Dorito Taco Salad

Here is one of my favorite (super easy!) recipes:

Bag of Chips
Head of Lettuce
Pound of Taco Meat (beef, chicken, or turkey, precooked and seasoned)
Tomato or two
Cheese, Olives, or Green Onions if you feel like it
And some Thousand Island Dressing


Chop it, Crush it, and Mix it all together.  Eat right away.
It's totally that simple.

Shall we go over that one more time?

Get a bag of Doritos.

Crush them up in a bowl.

Chop up a head of lettuce (or use bagged salad).

Put the lettuce in the bowl with the chips.

Chop up a tomato (or green onion, or cheese, or olives, or whatever).

Dump it in the bowl.

Warm up some pre-cooked taco meat (you should be precooking all your meat so that meal times go faster).

Time Out!  Still using a package mix for taco seasoning?  Checkout Kate's awesome copy cat recipe for Lawry's Taco seasoning here!

Toss the meat onto the salad.

Get a bottle of 1000 Island dressing.

Pour a cup or so onto the salad and mix. Mix, mix, mix.

That's it. Enjoy!


Marcia

Homemade Gardening Gloves for Kids

I saw a friend of mine make these last spring and thought they were adorable!

So I had to try it myself.  You will need one old sweatshirt (and a sewing machine, and thread, etc.).

Turn the shirt insideout and lay your child's hand down on an edge. If the sleeve is wide enough you can use it so that the shirt cuff makes the perfect wrist band of the glove. If the sleeve is too small, use the bottom hem of the sweatshirt so that the wasit band becomes the wrist band.

Now trace around your child's hand (nice and big!). If you are feeling brave, trace all the fingers. If you aren't ready for that kind of pressure, just trace it like a mitten (little hands can still do big things with mittens).

Now pin the two pieces together, then carefully cut them out.

Sew your two halves together making sure to use a strong, tight stitch setting.

Ta da!


If you are making gloves for bigger kids (or for yourself) who are going to be touching pricklier plants, you can line your gloves with an extra layer of fabric. The bottom end of a pant leg would make a nice, thick layer of protection for your fingers.

Sounds simple right, so here is my attempt.  (note: I couldn't get my pictures to load in order, so you'll have to think of this as a fun puzzle to figure out as you try to look at the pictures in order!)

6. Inside and outside of gloves cut out.

7. Turn the sleeve in-side-out and stitch them together.

2. Two beautiful hands side by side.

1. I decided to add an extra layer of jean protection. So I traced a hand on an old cut off pant leg. I used my own hand knowing that things get smaller when you sew them, so I figured my own hand would turn into a toddler hand in the end.

3. Use an old sweatshirt sleeve as the cuff of your glove.

4. I found this old beauty in my garage (and yes, those are shoulder pads in it! This sweatshirt deserved to die).

5. Lay your glove template (or your hand, or in this case the inside layer of denim) at the cuff of the sleeve and trace around it.

8. Ta da!  Okay, so they are a little ugly. I can admit that. The palm is huge and the fingers are itty bitty.  But that works for little kids right?

So cute! I love 'em!

Well, almost. I hoped they would be cute. I wanted to love them. But a few things went wrong. So let me point out my mistakes to that you may learn from them.

Pay attention to your fabric. I cut two hands out of denim at the same time without checking to see if the bottom layer was even whole. It wasn't. You can see my wonky cut hand in picture number 2.

Start small. I tried to do gloves WITH a lining before I had even seen if I could handle making a pare of simple gloves.  I would recommend making mittens first, then gloves, then lined gloves.

Fat fingers! My fingers were way too skinny, so by the time all the layers were stitched together and turned back right-side-out, they were so narrow and short it was ridiculous! Fingers that should have fit me, actually fit my six year old.

I guess that's all I did wrong. Bad fabric, over zealous pattern, and misshapen hands. That's it. Just three tiny mistakes.  In my defense, the gloves are still completely useable. They fit my youngest child, and he was totally happy with them.

So will they win any awards? No. But they work, and that is all that matters.

Marcia

Recipe Time: Leftover Easter Ham

Originally posted in April 2014

Raise your hand if you made ham for Easter and now have some (or most) of it sitting in the fridge?  "Leftovers" often has such an ugly ring to it, but with so many delicious ways to use that ham, your family will be begging you to make extra ham next time, just so you can make one of these great dinners later!

A quick thrifty tip: I bought the ham when it was on sale at Christmas time, and froze it.  As a matter of fact, they were so cheap, I bought ten of them.  We love ham.  I should have bought more.

We love ham so much, this is my last one. :(

HAM FRIED RICE
3 boxes of Fried Rice flavor Rice-A-Roni
3-5 c leftover ham
3 T butter

Chop ham into bite-sized pieces.  Heat butter in large skillet, then fry ham in butter.  When ham is sizzling and browned in spots and smells like bacon, pour 3 packages of Rice-A-Roni into skillet and follow directions.

BREAKFAST BURRITOS
3 c leftover ham
15 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
1-2 green peppers, chopped
1/2 onion, diced

Chop ham into small pieces and fry in butter.  Add green peppers and onions, and cook for just a couple of minutes, til the green peppers turn brighter green.  Crack eggs into medium bowl, whisk just to combine and then add milk.  Pour eggs/milk mixture into skillet with ham and cook scramble-style.  When eggs are done, pour cheese over top, allow to melt, then stir to coat.
Heat tortillas and fill with eggs.



Marcia's leftover ham (ready to be made into dinner tonight!)

HAM AND CHEESY POTATOES
7 medium potatoes
12 oz sour cream
1 T dried minced onions
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 c milk
2 c grated cheddar cheese
2-3 c leftover ham, chopped

Cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces, leaving skins on.  Boil until soft.  Meanwhile, mix all other ingredients in medium bowl.  When potatoes are soft, drain and spread in 9x13 pyrex baking dish.  Pour cheese/sour cream mixture over potatoes - do not stir.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Kate's leftover ham (we like it a little almost-burned on the outside)

My Husband's Favorite: RELIVING EASTER DINNER
Wrap ham in foil and heat in 300 degree oven.
Make instant mashed potatoes, heat a can or two of vegetables, find some rolls, reheat gravy.
Essentially eat Easter Dinner all over again.


What's your favorite leftover ham recipe?

Kate