Cleaning Up My Act- Fridge Style

If you were fortunate enough to be off work for Marthin Luther King, Jr. Day then I hope you enjoyed it!  For those of you that had to work, I'm sorry. :(  But I hope your day at work was productive! :)

On my day off, I caught up on a few household things that needed to be taken care of.  One of the things that needed to be done was to get the fridge cleaned out.  If you remember in my New Year's Resolution post found HERE, I said that I have wanted to cook supper at least 5 nights out of the week.  I have found a meal plan, which I will be writing about soon, that I believe will help keep me on track and save us lots of money!  But before I go grocery shopping and get us all stocked up, I had to face my fridge.  This guy has been neglected since we have been eating out.  He was in bad shape.  Here are some befores.

Looks pretty packed huh?  I bet we could get a lot of meals out of that....not.  I cleaned out all of the items that were out of date.  That turned out to be.....about 75% of our food.  Here it is with all the bad food tossed out!

Yep, it was a lot.  Next, I emptied everything else out onto the counters so I could give the inside of the fridge a REALLY good scrub down.

:::::Angels singing::::::

So much better!  Finally, I loaded everything back in, but this time I came up with a little bit of organization.  Not that there was much to organize. :)  Here is the after!

Not much left!  That jar on the top is an old spaghetti jar.  I save sauces that we don't use from fast food places, so I put them in there.  Adam doesn't understand it, but he will thank me when we come home from Taco Bell, and they left out the mild sauce!

This is what's in the top drawer.  Deli meat and cheese.

Nothing in the bottom drawers!  That's where the fresh produce should be...

Now for the door of the fridge.

Butter.  We don't use margarine.  I don't like the taste of it, and I don't want clogged arteries.  Butter in moderation. :)

Right below the butter is dressing and sandwich condiments.  Can you tell how many times we have attempted to eat salad?

Milk.  We like it skim. 

These are marinades and sauces.

Jams and Apple Butter.  Our staples. :)

I'm so glad that project is finished!  Now we can head to the store and stock up on food that we will actually eat!  Be sure to check back, and I will show you our fridge full of food and neatly organized to make meal time more efficient.  Thanks for reading!

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Yesterday I was doing some cleaning up around the kitchen and realized that I was about out of my homemade cleaner.  I have been using this cleaner for over a year and have only bought 1 other cleaner since I started using it.  (That one other cleaner was a Clorox foaming cleaner for our nasty tub.  I don't recommend the foaming kind by the way; it wasn't very helpful.)  I found this recipe on Dr. Oz's website, so yes, it's doctor approved!  It's great because there are no toxic chemicals, which means it's ok to breathe into your throat and lungs.  Also, since you aren't buying a million bottles of different types of cleaners, it reduces waste.  Sounds pretty good, huh?  Here's what you will need.

1 empty spray bottle (I found mine in the dollar section at Ace Hardware last year.  I'm sure you can find them at the Dollar Tree, Walmart, etc), 2 Tbsp of Borax, 6 Tbsp of white vinegar, 4 cups of water, 2 Tbsp of dish soap (I use Ajax cause it's the cheapest at my grocery store), and 2 drops of essential oil (optional, for fragrance if you don't want it to smell like vinegar.  Peppermint essential oil would be a good, clean scent.) Not pictured: funnel.

I acually cheated a little bit on the essential oil part.  This is what I use for $1.00 from Dollar General.  It's not technically essential oil, but it's an oil that's scented. :)  You can make several batches of cleaner from this tiny bottle.



They have different scents.  The one I am using is called Ocean Breeze.  If you are trying to find Borax, it looks like this and can be found at Ace Hardware and other home improvement stores.  I would say you could also find it at Walmart.

Using a funnel, measure and pour the ingredients into the empty spray bottle.  Make sure you use a funnel, otherwise this is going to make a big mess and most of the products won't go into the spray bottle.

Make sure you put the products into the bottle in the order that they are listed in the ingredients above.  If you put the dish soap in before the water, then you will have a big bubbly mess when you put the water in. :)  After all of the ingredients are in, screw the lid on and give it a good shake.  Now you're ready to clean!

Don't forget to label your bottle.  I just put some clear tape on the bottle and wrote "All-Purpose Cleaner."  That way everyone in the house knows what it is and what it is for (basically anything).  I use this cleaner for daily kitchen cleaning, daily bathroom cleaning, etc.  If you need something more heavy duty if the tubs get bad or if someone has been really sick, then I would go for something with bleach in it to get all the nastiness out. 

Happy cleaning!

Homemade Laundry Soap

This has been a long awaited post by many of my friends!  Today I mixed up some of my homemade laundry soap.  I got this recipe from a friend as a wedding gift, complete with all of the supplies.  (If you are wondering what to get someone who is about to get married, this is a very thoughtful/useful gift!)  This laundry soap lasts us several months, probably about 5-6 months, and it only costs $0.02 per load (depending on the type of soap you use.  This price is for the Fels-Naptha). I think everyone has a slightly different version of how to make homemade laundry soap.  I'm sure there are a bunch of ways, but this is how I make mine.  Here is what you will need!

You will need: 1 bar of soap (see of good soaps to use below), 1 cup of Borax, 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, about 4 gallons of water.  Not pictured: grater, pan, 5 gallon bucket, measuring cups.



This is Dr. Bonner's Peppermint soap.  I picked this up at Walgreen's since I was already in there.  This is the first time I will be trying this particular soap.  I usually use Fels-Naptha, which you can find at places like Ace Hardware, Home Depot, etc.   

I have also heard of people using Ivory soap or a brand called Zote.  It's really just whatever is your preference.  I can tell you that the Fels-Naptha smells sooooo good!  It almost has a fruity scent to me, fruity but very clean.  I really like it. 

The type of soap you choose will determine the consistency of your laundry soap (detergent).  After making this recipe with Dr. Bonner's soap, I found that the consistency is a little more watery than if you make it with the Fels-Naptha.  It all works the same though.  Either way you make it, it will turn out slightly clumpy.  Doesn't change how well it works though.  If the clumps bother you, give it a good stir.  Dr. Bonner's soap makes a less clumpy mixture than the Fels-Naptha soap.

In case you have never used Borax or Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and aren't sure what to look for, here is what it looks like.

Now we're ready to get started!  To set up, go ahead and put your pan on the stove and set it to medium heat.  Then go ahead and fill your 5 gallon bucket with 2 gallons of hot water.  You can use an old milk jug to measure.

To shred my soap, I used a grater attachment for my KitchenAid.  If you don't have a grater attachment, a regular grater will work just fine.  You want to have a fine shred so that the soap will melt quickly and evenly. 

This is how much soap it turns out to be when it's all grated.  This is very fine, if yours isn't as fine, it's ok.

Make sure your pan is nice and hot. 

Pour the grated soap into the pan and then pour in just enough water to cover it.  When you do this, it will clump like so.  That's ok.  Just continuously stir until the soap is completely melted.

After the soap is completed melted in the pain, pour it into the bucket. 

Then stir, stir, stir until it's as smooth as you can get it.

All stirred up.

You can see that it's bubbly at the top and that there are just a few clumps in it.  This is fine.

Lastly, add 2 more gallons of hot water and stir.  Put the lid on to store.  Make sure you keep the lid on it tight, otherwise the water will evaporate.  You will notice once it sits, the consistency may turn gel-like on the top.  That's fine, you can just stir it up.  Some recipes say you need to let it sit over night and then stir it the next day, others say you can use it right away.  I usually don't wait overnight and all is well.  

This recipe is a HUGE money saver at 0.02 cents/load. (This price is for the Fels-Naptha soap.)  For a regular load of clothes, use 1 cup of the laundry soap.  (For more heavily soiled loads you can use up to 2 cups.)  If you really wanna see how much you are saving, look at this price comparison borrowed from NaturallyThriftyMom.

Planet- 0.44 cents per load

Deft- 0.43cents per load

Seventh Generation- 0.36 cents per load

Tide Pure Essentials- 0.35 cents per load

Tide Free- 0.26 cents per load

Cheer- 0.25 cents per load

Gain- 0.23 cents per load

Homemade- 0.02 cents per load!!!!!!!!!!

So....if you do 30 loads per month (1 load per day), you will be spending .60 cents a month on homemade detergent compared to up to $13.20 if you use the other brands!  Putting that into perspective over the course of a year, you will spend $7.30 on homemade detergent, as opposed to $160.60 on the fancy stuff!  That is crazy!  I'm not sure why anyone would pay that much.  I hope this recipe was helpful and will save you lots of moolah this year.  Thanks for reading!

Getting Crafty: DIY Initial Plate

I am thoroughly enjoying my 3 day weekend!  Thank you, Martin Luther King, Jr! Adam and I started things off with some breakfast at IHOP this morning.  We haven't been there in a while.

 It was fun to get out and enjoy such a pretty day with him.  After we had some breakfast, we went to my FAVORITE local shop (The United Gift Shop) and did some browsing.  Adam and I love to go in there and look around at all the vintage and antique things.  It's obviously not something he would do in his own spare time, but we always have a good time together just talking and walking around.  While we were there, I came across this little plate that I loved.  It had a verse on it that is very near to mine and Adam's hearts right now. 

So we picked it up for $4.00.  Normally I would only pay $2.00 at most for a smaller sized plate, but with the verse I was willing to pay more.  The center of the plate is blank, but I had a plan for it!  I have been looking for a plate that I could put mine and Adam's initials on.  I saw a project on Pinterest that I have been dying to try found HERE.

To do this, I used one of the napkins from our wedding. The groom's napkins were black with white initals, and the bride's napkins were white with black initials.  I had 2 different fonts in the bride napkins since there was an error by the printing company who ordered them.  They ordered the wrong font (the block font), so they had to re-order it in the cursive font.  We got all of the block font napkins for free.

I decided to go with the cursive fancy font because it is bigger and would take up more of the blank space on the plate.  To do this project, here are the materials I used.

Plate, small craft brush, decopauge, scissors, and an inital napkin. 

First, I hand washed the plate so I could make sure that I had a clean, smooth surface to work with.  Next, I unfolded the napkin out like so.

Then, I peeled back the top layer of the napkin that had the monogram ink on it.

Don't rush when you are peeling back the napkin, otherwise it will tear.  When you're done, you will be left with this.  I just cut out the square of the top layer.

Next, I cut as closely as possible around our initials.

Then, I was ready to decopauge it to the center of the plate.

I should really get a manicure.....j/k.  That's my lovely hubby assistant. :)  I was going to let him hold it down while I started decoupaging, but I decided it would be better to spread the decopauge on the back first, then lay it down and decopauge over it.  So that's what I did. Here it is wet.  You can't tell that much that the napkin is whiter than the plate.  The plate was really more of a cream or off-white.

And here it is all dry!  I need to get a small plate stand for it.  It's going to go in the kitchen I believe.

I really like it!  Since I already had all of the supplies on hand, this project only cost me $4.00.  (Thank you to my parents who bought the napkins for the wedding!)  I'm sure you could do this same project using Word on your computer and then print off your initals in whatever font you would like.  It would also look good with a plain plate, or you could decorate your plate how you like.  I'll let you see it when I have it on the stand in its home.  Thanks for reading!

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie Recipe

The other night I had the worst craving for a peanut butter and banana smoothie.  I've never actually made one, but with my heartburn, it sounded really good! 

All you need to make this quick recipe is a sliced, frozen banana (or 2 depending on how much you want to make...I think I used 2), peanut butter, ice cubes, a bit of water, and a blender from the 70's. Well, your blender can be from the 2000's if you want it to. But a blender from the 70's just makes life more fun. :)

Here's what you have to do:

1.) Slice the banana and then stick it in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.  Slice and then freeze.  In that order.  Have you ever tried to slice a frozen banana?  I haven't, but it sounds hard.

2.) Put the frozen banana slices, 2-3 Tbsp peanut butter, about 5-6 ice cubes, and a splash of water into the blender.  Set the blender to crush the ice first, and then blend smooth.  You may have to play with the consistency/taste to get it to your liking.  I just kept adding a bit of this and a bit of that til I got it like I wanted it.

3.)  Pour into a glass and serve!  Mine made 2 servings, or 1 big one if you are super hungry.  This smoothie is really filling, so it would be great for breakfast.  Enjoy!

23 and 24 Weeks Pregnant!

Man, I am getting bad about doing these pregnancy updates on time!  I blame my husband.  He got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas, which I LOVE!    So it seems like such a hassle now to get my laptop out since I have that convenient little thing.  I would just update from my Kindle, but unfortunately Blogger doesn't really work on the Kindle Fire.  Not sure why.  I hope that will be fixed in the near future. 

I have had some new symptoms in the past couple weeks.  They have not been fun AT ALL.  These new symptoms have been the least welcomed so far.  I began getting heartburn a couple weeks ago.  Just short bursts of it here and there.  The other night I had it really bad.  I chugged milk, downed 3-4 Tums, sat up instead of laying down, slept with a million pillows to keep myself propped up, and nothing was helping.  It was misery.  Since that night, I have had more of it.  So not fun.  But, it must mean that our little boy has a head full of hair!  That's what I hear anyway.

Second new symptom is leg cramps.  Oh my goodness.  Wow.  I have been awakened a few times in the past couple weeks to one of my legs starting to cramp up.  I can usually move it a certain way and get the cramp to hold off.  But not last night.  Last night I woke up to a full blown calf muscle cramp. I was screaming.  It was the most horrible pain.  Adam tried to massage it, but it only hurt worse.  I had to get up and put my weight on it and try to walk it out.  It was so sore this morning that I could barely walk.  I thought I was going to have to call into work because I just couldn't get there.  I eventually made it though.  That calf muscle is still sore.  I have had many facebook friends who have told me that they had this same issue when they were pregnant.  I have actually been eating bananas lately, maybe I just need to eat more of them?  I have also been doing really well on my water intake.  I have never been good at drinking water, but I have just been so thirsty the past several weeks that drinking water hasn't been a problem. 

Our little boy has been kicking a lot lately!  I know I say that every time, but it just keeps getting to be more and more!  He has been doing some really big movements lately.  I used to only be able to feel him when I was sitting or laying down.  Now I can feel him moving even when I'm standing or walking.  It's crazy!  Adam and I will just sit and watch my stomach.  The baby has also given Adam some really good kicks to the hand.  We can't believe how hard he can kick already!  This boy is gonna be strong!

Here are some belly pictures.  I look ginormous in my 23 weeks picture.  It's amazing how much I have grown lately.  I have figured out that I feel better if I'm wearing black.   I feel like it's more slimming....even though I'm pregnant.  Haha. 

23 weeks pregnant.  Remember this shirt?  I wore it in my 13 weeks picture found HERE.

24 weeks pregnant.  Picture taken at work :)

Here is the latest about what's going on with our little man!

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

And here is what's going on with me!

In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball.  Most women have a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between now and 28 weeks. This test checks for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related high-blood-sugar condition. Untreated diabetes increases your risk of having a difficult vaginal delivery or needing a cesarean section because it causes your baby to grow too large, especially in his upper body. It also raises your baby's odds for other complications like low blood sugar right after birth. A positive result on your GCT doesn't mean you have gestational diabetes, but it does mean that you'll need to take the glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out for sure.

Thanks Baby Center!

Well, tomorrow is Friday.  We are having a bit of snow here tonight.  I think the main concern is black ice since the roads are wet.  We will see what happens with school!  Have a great evening!

My 2012 New Year's Resolutions

Yeah, exactly!  Just kidding.  I really do like making resolutions.  It's keeping them that is the hard part!  However, I do think it's important for everyone to set goals.  Call them resolutions or whatever you would like, but I think we should all be working toward something, whether it be small or big.  I have a few goals that I would like to accomplish this year. 



1.) Read the Bible all the way through.  I have actually already started this!  My husband and I are doing it together.  I've actually never read the Bible all the way through, and I'm really excited to finally do it!  We are following a reading plan.  It doesn't go in the traditional order of the Bible.  It's more chronological, which is great because I think it will tie everything in together better for me.  Also, for example, in Genesis when it talks about creation, the very next thing you read are the Psalms written praising God about His creation.  So it's really cool.  If you would like know which plan it is, you can purchase it off of Amazon HERE.  It is called Reading God's Story: A Chronological Daily Bible. Adam downloaded it onto his Kindle.  I am using my new Bible that I got a couple days ago.  It's basically the same Bible I have always had, but a newer version.  My Bible fell apart.  I wish I could say it was from reading it so much, but I think it's from going from the car to my school bag to the house to my purse, etc.  I really love my Bible.  It's for women and has GREAT articles in it.  It's called The Women's Study Bible (NKJV).  The only thing I don't like about it is that the words of Christ aren't in red.  But other than that, it is great!  You can find it off of Amazon HERE.

2.) Cook supper at least 5 nights out of the week.  I have a REALLY bad habit of not cooking dinner often.  I am just so exhausted when I get home from work.  I really want to change this because we are both so tired of fast food, and I know our bank account is getting drained because of it.  I would like to say I will cook 6 nights out of the week, but we did that last year and were able to keep it up for about a month and a half.  It's kind of extreme for us and our busy lifestyle.  I am going to come up with a system for planning meals and organizing our groceries so I can make this process as efficient/easy as possible!  I will be sure to let you know what I come up with!

I was cooking the first meal I ever made us as a married couple!  It was actually Taco Soup.  Great stuff in the winter time, but I made it in the middle of summer.  Haha.  It was the only thing I knew how to make! :)

3.) Get organized.  Disorganization really stresses me out.  It stresses my husband out too.  I am usually really good at coming up with organization systems for different parts of our house, but the real issue is maintaining the organization.  This is something I am going to work on, and you are welcome to follow along!  I am hoping to accomplish one organization project each week.  We will see how it goes! 

Source: bhg.com via Amanda on Pinterest

4.) Simplify.  This kind of goes along with organization.  Since cleaning out the office/nursery (read about that HERE), I have found that we have a lot of stuff that we just don't use or need.  I think extra stuff can make life so much more complicated than it has to be.  I am planning to simplify our lives by getting rid of clothing we don't wear (I recently got rid of 8 bags of clothing....yep, that's bad), makeup I don't need, books we don't read or already have read, purses I never carry, etc.  I would like to live a very streamlined lifestyle because I believe it will be the most simple.  I plan to get the clutter down to a bare minimum!

Do you set goals/make resolutions at the beginning of the year?  If so, what are they?  What plans are you making to achieve them?  I hope your new year is off to a good start!  Check back to see my progress with my New Year's goals!