bring on springtime

I bought these lovely flowers at Cub Foods last Thursday night as my own personal reminder that springtime will come. Last week was really cold and we were going a little crazy in this house. So on Thursday night we went to one of the hotels in town and paid five dollars a person to swim and hot tub for the night. It was money very well spent and felt like a little mini vacation.

And then I came home and made my favorite treat as of late: super pulpy grapefruit and orange juice. I got a little hand squeezer thing for a few bucks and love it so much.

We had the place to ourselves and the pool was warm as a bath. Ivar wasn't interested in getting in though. And we didn't push it. Elsie was in a great mood (I even brought her exersaucer so she could be self contained and happy) and Rory and I sat in the hot tub until I felt hot. What a great feeling!

Pinterest Fail and Prevail/ Microwave Cleaning

I'm in a season of Pinterest addiction. It's sort of my unwind time. My get-my-mind-on-other-things time. I would consider the amount of time I spend browsing to be my FAIL if I wasn't finding such handy little ideas...

Like a post about microwave cleaning. PREVAIL!

You're looking at my microwave above, after the wipe down.  I am not going to be showing you the before picture because I have my pride, you know. But it was bad. Really bad.

I put a cup of hot water and a cup of white vinegar in this pyrex, set the cook time for 10 minutes and watched the water and vinegar boil and steam the whole microwave. Then I took a towel and wiped the baby down and everything came off like some glorious infomercial. It was so easy! (and boiling hot...be careful!)

Click here for more clever household helps.

home tour: little house on the grovestead

Oh goodness. A while back I said I would do a home tour. And I've heard from a few friends saying they've been waiting for that post.

This is a good blogging lesson. Never announce you're going to do a post like this before you get it put together. Because it sort of turns the post into uninspired homework. Like I assigned work to myself. Gross. But because I'm a great student, I will follow through. E for Effort.

A few things before we begin the home tour:
1. I'm trying not to post any pics of the outside of our house.
2. I'm not a stellar photographer.
3. When we first moved in, we got a few things on the walls, bought some curtains and then I ran out of steam in the decorating. And I haven't touched a thing in months. I have hopes and dreams to bedazzle it up a bit, but for now, the downstairs is pretty empty (though full of toys).

We'll begin with our bedroom. It's the smallest in the house, and is the walk through to the nursery. It fits our bed and a hemnes secretary desk and two dressers. It is tight. And when it's not picked up, if feels quite cozy. But it works. That heart on the wall is a favorite. It reads: Together is such a nice place to be. And it is.

We make our bedroom work because we wanted Ivar to have the big room so that it could double as the playroom. Eventually he'll be joined by siblings and there is plenty of room for that. I love Ivar's room. In the afternoon it is full of sunshine and we spend a lot of time playing on the carpet.

Elsie's room can be seen here. But I did want to point out that Elsie's window is the best one to watch the garbage man every Tuesday morning, a highlight of our day, and sometimes our week.

When we first saw this house I was thrilled about all of the carpet and the side by side living rooms. In the day of hard wood floors, this is sort of funny to admit. But I love our carpet so much.

The staircase is the only woodwork original to the house. It is beautiful. The railing is super short...like really super short, but it is perfect for Ivar. And notice the door at the bottom of the stairs. That door at the bottom of the stairs used to be the front door to the house, but the lane was moved when this farmland was subdivided, and then the garage was built on the backside of the house, which is now the front side. Confused? So are we. We have real troubles saying, "in the backyard" or "in the front yard" It's not so clear with our house...

Lately when I am in this room I believe I can hear the walls saying, "paint me! paint me!" So we'll add that to the list of when-the-spirit-moves projects.

Pictured below is sort of a second living room. We think it might have been where the original kitchen was, before the addition. We first used it to house Rory's office, then it held our Christmas tree. Now I use it as a crafting space, but we are super excited to be adding a huge picture window to this room (on the couch side) and front door to our house. Currently everyone enters through our garage. Even the UPS guy. Even the Jehovah's Witness.

There are a few pictures of the kitchen here from the day my aunts came to visit. And this post is omitting the bathrooms and the laundry room because, well, they're what you'd expect.

This concludes the home tour. I appreciate it when bloggers I follow let me into their home...sort of helps set the setting for all of their storytelling. But if you thought this totally self indulgent and weird, it probably was that too.

Have a happy Monday. :)

happy weekending

We are getting some good snow here today. Planning to lay low. And go to a fish fry for supper!
Happy Weekend!

quick meal idea

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I have some struggles with suppertime. I've gone through seasons of making up meal menu's, choosing 'kitchen table' as my one little word to focus on for the year of 2012, and in general had issues with planning enough in advance so that everything isn't still in a frozen state when it's time to start prepping the meal.

So when I find a quick meal that is healthy too, I sort of feel obligated to share the love. Because you've seen me through some mealtime highs (Sunday night grocery shopping is the new kick I'm on. I've also blogged enthusiastically about Once a Month Meal Making, which lasted for exactly one month...) even if they're short lived.

But this recipe is a winner. And it's easy. And the following can all be purchased at a Target that is not even Super. Heh. (Like the Targets that have the mini grocery stores in them...)

We've got four ingredients here: Turkey Kielbasa, Purple Onion, Sugar Peas and Sweet Peppers.

I cut everything up, put it in the electric skillet, adding no seasonings or sauces and waited until everything got a bit browned. We ate it with rice that I made with chicken broth and it was a huge hit. And so easy.

Enjoy!