Things to Remember

After just over a year, our dishwasher died.  It took over two weeks for the technician to come out and tell us this, then we had to wait for the reimbursement, then another three weeks for our new unit to be installed.  The day finally arrived, and we were all excited!  Mostly my poor, dry, hands.

The new unit quite possibly has the highest capacity of any machine we've ever owned.  My biggest complaint is the lack of time estimate.  At least on the old units it was a turn dial, so you could see if a cycle was almost done, but not on this one.  Between the repair man recommending dishwashing liquid, and then seeing a video of someone who had to spend a chunk of change for a plumber when their pods failed to fully dissolve, I decided to use a bottle of liquid detergent in between each box of dishwasher pods.  

The liquid* is actually the perfect viscosity!  It flows easily, but isn't messy or drippy.  I've been happy, so far.

Cynthia, Chelsea's mom, sent me a very cool German book that I've been enjoying, whenever I have an occasion to wait.  The first pages reminded me of Christin! <3

Billy is replacing each computer, as each birthday arrives.  So far he's built himself a new one (with William inheriting his old one) and Emily.  The twins should be getting theirs this month, depending on how quickly the motherboard comes in.  Our old computers were built in 2017, so it was time for a new round.

A new shiny machine!

Billy was a big fan of the cooling fan.  Really.  He was very excited to get it and test it out. lol.

Sadly, while Billy was fighting one of the components in the computer, on the table, he did not use delicate pressure on our ailing dining table, and managed to break off not one, but two of the legs.  = (  He ordered some parts and got it repaired before our Murder Mystery party, but it was an awkward week of eating dinners in the kitchen.  The repaired table is much sturdier though, and I don't have to push in the legs after every meal now. lol.

Grace loved the hats from Kristy!  She and Juliet each got two coordinating hats from her get rid of stack!

Alice's parent teacher conferences took place early in the day, so the twins ended up tagging along, and sat on the stairs (so that I could see them from each station) entertaining themselves while Alice accompanied me to each meeting.

Grace and Juliet got matching frames, they are different colors, but the same shape.  They decided to dress the same for picture day, and omg, do they look alike!  In this picture it's Juliet left and Grace right.

I volunteered to help at the second hand bookfair.  It was so well done!  A few weeks before, the librarian sent out a request for gently used book donations.   The books were spread out on tables and displayed on shelves.  Paperbacks were 50c, most hardcovers $1, and a few select books were a couple of bucks more, but nothing was over $5!  The librarian also put out bookmarks, pencils, stuffed animals, and a few other novelty items.  The kids loved it, and some of them left with a pile of  'new to them' books!

The bookfair always does best when parents are able to come in with their adult money, so on the next reading night, I've volunteered to help again, since there were so many books left over!  

If I have to be awake in the cold and dark, at least I get to hear some good music.

Another set of pictures of the progression of the new school building! 

The twins picked out a tiny crockpot at the thrift store.  I offered to buy it for them as a Christmas gift, but they wanted it immediately, so they spent their own money on it. lol.  They have gotten quite a bit of use from it so far though!  They intend to bring it to their birthday party, at the bounce house, so we'll see how that goes.

In addition to chocolate, it also does cheese! So, one night after we had enchiladas, I fried up the remaining corn tortillas and we had nachos for dinner.  It was a big hit!

Grace found some Hello Kitty Boba tea at five below.  She bought it, and liked the tea part, but was not a fan of the slimy boba balls.

The twins 'raced' to see who could put together the puzzle the fastest. I don't know who won.

Billy found a Cajun-Japanese seafood place that he wanted to try out.  I am not a big fan of Cajun cuisine, because they season everything, and it's just too spicy for me.  I ended up ordering miso soup and sushi.  The sushi was really good, and the roll size was just right!

One of Grace's friends gave her a hello kitty clip, and of course she wanted to wear it!  I don't think it lasted her the day though, because she had gym that morning.

Alice is driving to pick up Emily (and starting tomorrow, William) from track each day, so it feels really good that she's getting in her hours!  She might not be finished before her birthday, but at least we're making progress!

The warmer temperatures, and return of the sun, have me in a much happier, more hopeful mood. We just came off of spring break, but I am ready for summer break already!

later days

*my first bottle was from Aldi. I don't love the smell, so I'm trying a new brand in the next rotation.  I'll try to remember to report back.

Crafts, Cooking, Creating

In one of my other posts, I'll give a tiny bit more information about some American Girl doll accessories that Haley sent up for the twins, but for now, the important thing to know is that I picked a dress for Molly and a dress for Blaire and embroidered outlines of 'their' favorite characters on them for Christmas.

Using printer paper, I just pin it on, then 'trace' the lines in a dotted pattern, and after removing the paper, go between the dots for a more solid look.  

I was worried about Areil's face looking weird, so she just has hair, but I think it looks close enough. = )

The material on the Hello Kitty dress was a knit, and it was awful to work with!  I'm glad I did Ariel first, because I might have scrapped the project.  Hello kitty is easily recognizable, thankfully, and I don't think their dolls will mind too much. = )

Speaking of clothing, Grace sewed her own skirt (with a zipper) using some fabric I got off of marketplace (thought it was from Natalie, but not earmarked for me necessarily.)

Last week, on a cool September day, Kristy had me over, and we stumbled our way through making cookies in her off-the-grid oven!  It can be heated using catering candles or stick and leaves!  We were using it inside, so we chose the former.

It was only supposed to take 25-30 minutes, so we started slowly closing the vents, and finally, after about an hour, it was finally ready to cook.  

Well, the instructions say to put out the closer of the two heating elements, but it was not working.  Each time we got it out, the other one would reignite it.  Finally, we took out the canister all together.

Sadly, between having the drawer open to get out the canister, and opening the door to drop the temperature down from 400F, it stabilized at 200F, so that's how we cooked the cookies!

They took a looooooooooong time to cook, but were really tasty when finished!

She also put together a loaf of bread, using her bread maker, though I had to leave before it finished.  

I made a banana nut loaf using some of the zucchini flour that I made from the squash that she'd given me.  We had to sub in baking powder, since she had just used her baking soda on a different project, but it turned out okay, despite the sub.  

I also tried to make a loaf, but made the rookie mistake of proofing my yeast in a metal bowl. = (  The loaf didn't cook through, but was definitely done on the outside!  The bit we sampled wasn't bad, but the rest of it went to the chickens.

And, because I didn't get enough baking it, I came home and finished my projects for the day, then whipped up an apple pie from some aging apples that we had.

Alice got to it before I got a picture, but she and Billy are my pie people and both approved.

Emily is really into Steven Universe right now, and as such added merch to her Wishlist.  I found a red tank top and some iron on vinyl at the rummage sale on Friday, so I made her a shirt.  I didn't save it for Christmas, because it's a women's medium, which would be big on her, so we will have to alter it in some way for her to be able to use it. 

After presenting it to her, she told me she would rather be a low key fan and just wear the shirt that he wears in the show.  So I'm on the lookout for a red shirt, if you happen to have one lying around?

One night, Billy saw a video and was in the mood to make bread!  The recipe required lots of sitting time, to the point that Billy didn't want to stay up late to cook it, so we stuck it in the refrigerator overnight.

I got out the bowl to bring it to room temperature, and later in the morning, he formed them into small little loaves!

The rolls came out crispy on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside!

His instructions did not tell him to pretreat the pan, so he ignored my advice.  Hindsight is 20-20.

The last crafty thing is far less fun. When Billy and I got married, my sister and grandmother bought us a set of Navy and White bath towels from Kohl's.  They were good, fluffy towels that we enjoyed, and they looked so good in our bathroom!  A few years after Alice was born (so maybe when Emily or William was a baby?) I read an article about how to keep your house, and one of the suggestions was to only use white towels, because they can be bleached!  Well, that was the only tip in the article that I took to heart, but I said goodbye to our navy towels (which had a few pink bleach splashes on them by this time) and bought white ones, of the same brand to replace them.

Well, those towels lasted us all the way until our Michigan move, and then in the past few years, they started to fail.  So, I bought replacements, but they are awful.  Within 6 months, of normal wear, they develop holes and tears!

I know that I need to switch brands, but it's hard to change after all this time, not to mention expensive.  So, I've been delaying.  Well, the last time I ran a load of whites towels, 4 of our 8 towels had holes.  With Billy's layoff, buying new ones is out of the question, so I cut up some towel rags in an attempt to repair them.

It was a two-sided repair, so each side needed a swatch of rag.

Honestly, the repair is not glaringly obvious when holding up the towel in person (I had trouble finding the repair when showing off my handiwork to my mom) but one of them did unravel on the edge after washing it.  I'll keep an eye on it, but may end up having to quilt it to keep the patch in place.  It was nice to know that the hole shouldn't be growing larger at least!

later days