Suggestions Please!

I've decided to start a new cooking/home blog with recipes and ideas for making life easier. I can't decide what to call it though! Any ideas for a name?

A Day of Service

Yesterday my church sponsored a "Day of Service" during which hundreds of thousands of volunteers across 11 southern states got together with members of other faiths to do service in our communities. Our local ward was assigned to help clean Bethesda Park, a huge county park not far from my home. Ben and I arrived at the park at 8am, signed in, and were given our assignment. Together with about 12 other people, we had the responsibility of cleaning a cluster of 3 ball fields: picking up litter on and around the fields, cleaning out the dugouts, cleaning the restrooms, and painting the inside of the concession stand. Our team leader asked Ben and I to clean up one of the ball fields, after which we assisted the painters in cleaning up the area they had been painting. It took us about 3 hours to shovel out the sand from both dugouts, sweep them clean, and pick up the trash that littered the entire field. We must have picked up over 200 cigarette butts from around just one baseball field. It was disgusting. By the end of the 3 hours we were hot, sweaty, and sore from the effort of bending and straightening to pick up litter. To be honest, I was surprised I had that much energy. Sometimes I think I'm a really big wimp. I'm sore today though! But I'm grateful that we were able to do this service and give back to the community we live in. Service feels great!

A date

I used to be a creative person, really, I was! There was a time in my life when I could actually write stories, and then there was a time when I could blog and make things sound interesting. I fear that my creativity has taken a sabbatical. I want to be blogging right now about as much as I want to go clean my bathroom ... oh wait ... I did that already yesterday.

This past Saturday Ben and I went on an actual date! We don't get very many dates, with me not getting home until 7pm on Fridays. Ben usually goes to the gym after work so we usually sit down to eat dinner around 8pm. Up until a couple of weeks ago, our Friday routine was to eat dinner, wash the dishes, watch the latest episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, read for a little bit, and go to bed. Terribly exciting, I know! So, it was way past time to get out and do something. Last Saturday I had a CPR class in the morning, and when I was done, Ben and I got ready and went to the temple! The temple was great, but I have to say, the highlight of the day was going to IKEA for the first time ever. I had heard so much about IKEA that I had high expectations. That store is so huge--I could hardly take it all in. We walked around for an hour and a half, that is to say, we started at the very beginning and dutifully followed the arrows to the checkout and it took us an hour and a half to do it. That's only because we didn't stop and look at very many things. We spent about $30 on odds and ends, but I could have spent a fortune, I'm sure. One of the advantages of having a small apartment is that you can only have so much stuff before your apartment is full. But I got a good idea of what is there so that in the future ... if I am needing thing ... I know where to go!

After IKEA we had planned on going to this Mexican cantina to eat, but after being informed that the wait was an hour (no thank you) we turned around and went back to this pizza place that we had driven by on our way to the Mexican restaurant. It was the first time in a couple of months that we'd actually gone to a sit-down restaurant to eat. Man, it is so nice not having to cook! But more than that--it's so nice not to have dishes to do! On the way home we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of grocery items for the week, so by the time we got home it was after 9pm! Busy day, but it was a good day. Hooray for dates!

The beauty of Borax

When I was growing up, 20-mule team Borax served 2 purposes in my house: as a laundry booster, and an ant killer. A couple of months ago we had a soap-making class at church, and they gave us a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. 2 parts 20-Mule Team Borax, 2 parts Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda--this stuff you will find in the laundry detergent aisle), to 1 part Fels Naptha or other commercial bar soap. I finally bought all of the "ingredients" last week, and after hearing that Borax is a fantastic household cleaner, I decided to tackle my stovetop with it. One cup of Borax and one half-hour later, I must say, I was quite pleased with the results. 409 does NOWHERE near the job that the Borax did. My stove positively sparkles!

BEFORE

AFTER

My husband is wonderful

Occasionally I will wake up to things like this:

Enough said!

Songs and chefs

I have kids songs playing in my head. Working at a pre-school (daycare), I hear music all of the time. We have a big CD player that holds about a billion CDs and it plays on the audio system throughout the building ALL DAY LONG. Of course, the classrooms can turn their speakers off, but in the lobby, we leave it running. So, if I'm humming a song, you can pretty much be guaranteed that it's a kids song. I don't even know the name of the one that's stuck in my head right now, nor can I really remember the words, but by golly, I remember that tune and I'm singing it over and over and over and over ... I do have a few favorites among the ones that I hear all the time, especially "Waltzing Matilda". That song makes no sense--that's probably why I like it. If someone can explain to me what Waltzing Matilda is all about, I'd greatly appreciate it. I finally looked up what a "billabong" is--it means "small lake". So there you go.

I get home from work every day at about 7, which makes cooking dinner really difficult. Although I love to cook, at 7pm the last thing I want to do is cook dinner! I just want to stuff something in my face because I'm typically starving by that point! On Wednesday night Ben had Young Men's and so I was cooking dinner while he was there, and waiting for him to get home. I was getting so frustrated because he should have been home by that point and I was really hungry and you just don't mess with a hungry woman! So I texted him and asked him if he was coming home soon, and the answer I got back was "Y". Getting more frustrated I texted him back to tell him that I was really really really hungry! About a minute later he walks in the door with a bunch of lilies that he had stopped and bought for me. So of COURSE I couldn't be frustrated at him anymore. Last night I called and told him that he was in charge of cooking dinner. He enjoys cooking, but he's not done a lot of it in his life. He survived college by eating fast food. Typically he is my "sous chef", so I didn't know what to expect when I got home last night, but he had found a recipe for "Shepherd's Pie" in one of our cookbooks and was busily engaged in making it! I helped with a few finishing touches, and it was just delicious! He doesn't realize what he's gotten himself into. He's definitely going to be cooking a lot more now ...