The Usable Reusable Bag

Green living. Earth-friendly. Eco-conscious.

There's no doubt that there is a lot of hype these days about one's carbon footprint, and a growing number products and practices that help people reduce their environmental impact. Whether or not you desire to "go green," some of these products can be quite helpful. Reusable bags come in all shapes and sizes, in all colors and patterns, and are beneficial in more ways than the obvious. Here are just a few non-grocery store uses.

• Big-Box Stores/Aldi - Yes, it's still related to shopping, but when you shop at Sams, BJs, or Aldi, they don't provide bags for your groceries. Bringing your own bags can aleviate the frustration of moving your groceries one-by-one from the buggy into your car.
  
• Gift bags - Most people I know reuse gift bags. That same "Santa holding a Coke bottle" bag has been present under the Christmas tree for at least five years now. But Santa has also shown up holding Father's Day presents and "just because" gifts. Today, I gave Santa (filled with health & beauty supplies) to some church friends who lost their house in a tornado on Friday. Now if the bag had been red or striped, I wouldn't have felt so weird as I did giving Santa in June. If the bag had been cloth, I wouldn't have had to add yet another layer of tape to the edges to hold it together. Yes, it worked, but a reusable shopping bag would have worked better.
• Errand tote - Library books to return, envelopes to drop off at the post office, and birthday invitations to pass out at the play-date. Toss things into the bag as you think of them, then next time you go out to run errands, just take the tote and go. No more searching under the beds for overdue books, no more rummaging through files for the phone bill, and no invitations discovered in the bottom of the diaper bag a week after your son's birthday party!
• Beach bag - Stuff in a few towels and sunscreen, and you're ready to head to the pool or the beach. Much more stylish than a plastic grocery bag, and easier to clean than your duffle.
• Travel back-up bag - Keep one or two (most of them fold pretty small) in your suitcase when you travel. If you pick up extra souvenirs, you won't have to worry about how to fit them into your suitcase.
• Mall bag - Instead of carrying 15 bags with rope handles, each of which contains only 3 items, bag all of your items into the same over-the-shoulder bag and save your wrist and your sanity!
• Organize your trunk - We've all got stuff we like to keep on hand in the trunk, but piling your groceries on top of your emergency supplies is probably not the wisest decision. Use a reusable bag or two to store your items together so that you can easily get to them if needed. You can even color-code, with emergency supplies in a red bag, and baby/toddler supplies in a blue bag!

You don't have to get the dull, boring bags found near the check-out at your local grocery store. Be creative and make your own original creation using one of these 35 patterns from Tipnut, or check out the amazing selection of stylish reusable bags, bottles, and more at reusablebags.com.

Sock Mop

As I folded the laundry, I noticed yet another of DH's socks with a hole. I added it to the pile of holey socks, now nearly as big as the pile of those intact. I realized I was either going to have to find a good sale on socks or learn to... darn? I don't even know the sewing technique for mending socks! So the socks went into the "repair" basket. Fortunately, I found a sale and stocked up, leaving me with a basket of socks to trash.

That evening, however, I was mopping with a back ache. Mopping is my least favorite chore in the whole house. Thinking that there HAD to be a better way, I vaguely recalled someone mentioning that they mopped by sliding across the floor in their socks. I have socks! But I wanted something strong for those sticky spots (remember, we've got two dogs, two kids, and two parents in our house). Then... brilliance. I put my tennis shoes on, then I put DH's holey socks on over my shoes. Yes, my feet looked quite amusing. They kind of reminded me of that last month of pregnancy. The boys kept coming over and looking at my feet, afraid to touch them. Then I got out the floor cleaner, sprayed a small section, and carefully "skated" over it in my sock mops. It was great, and the floor looked better than it did after my usual mopping. It's easier on the back, and a good workout for your legs! What more could you ask?

Do you have any tips or tricks for making a household chore easier? Please share it! If not, what is your least favorite chore? Maybe someone else has an idea to make it less unpleasant. I'm always looking for good ideas, and I'm sure others would appreciate it, too.

Fire Drills

Stressful situations will always come up, but what about the ones that are preventable?

- In the process of taking out a colander, DH knocks over the precarious tower of tupperware. Lids and bowls (thousands of them?) clatter onto the floor, and before we are able to gather them, the children and the dogs (lured by the noise) run through, scattering them hither and yon. Looks like we're washing more dishes.

- DS asks to watch a different Veggie Tales DVD. I search through the "Children's DVD" bin to no avail. With trepidation, I glance at the less-than-steady stack of loose DVDs, CDs, computer back-ups, and blank CDs. I attempt to divert him, "How about Mickey Mouse?" But his heart is set on Jr. Asparagus. I carefully flip through the stack, hoping to find the DVD before all the disks end up on the floor. Meanwhile, little brother has taken the dogs' water into the laundry room and soaked the clothes in the "clean" basket. Yes, the basket has been sitting there for several days, and we've been digging through it to find socks and kitchen towels, but now I was going to have to wash it all over again.

- I go to Kroger to take advantage of the Mega Sale. Coupon binder, sale paper, shopping list, price list, and pen in hand, I go in knowing I'm prepared. Without kids, I am able to make the most of my time and money. Eighty-three dollars later, I head out to to my car with my over-flowing buggy. I open my trunk and freeze. My trunk is already full! I can't fit a cart-load of groceries in there with the booster seat, unused shopping bags, emergency blankets and clothes, the extra diaper bag and snacks, the "out and about" toy bag, the Easter baskets that mom bought for the boys... I won't go on, but it just wasn't happening. I had to load the groceries (a good bit of it was raw meat) into the back seat and into the boys' carseats. Ugh. Thankfully, nothing leaked!

- I open the fridge to get out a tortilla. We keep the opened packages in a bin with the cheese and lunchmeat. I couldn't see any, so I pulled out the bin and put it on the counter top. As I started removing bread, jelly, and grapes, I realized why I couldn't see the tortillas. Eventually, I found 3, yes THREE, open packages of tortillas. And I had been about to open another since I couldn't find any.

Kitchen cabinets, entertainment center, laundry room, car, fridge - these, along with several other areas, are on my weekly list of "hot spots." I'm the type of person who forgets to take care of things until the situation is desperate. Six years ago, a friend pointed me to FlyLady, and it has helped me so much. Though I'm not an active FlyBaby anymore, I still continue to use some of her methods. I have a list of daily, weekly, and monthly "chores" posted on my fridge. I use the timer for most everything, including my frequent organizational "fire drills". I try to make sure that my sink and counter tops, if not shiny, are at least free of dirty dishes and dish towels. Using a list helps me stay on top of things so that I don't have stressful, preventable situations come up... at least, not very often. I don't always get to everything (the four examples from the top all happened in the last week!) but every bit helps. What are your "hot spots"? How do they interrupt your life, your time with your family, and your relationship with God? What would it take to turn your hot spots into useable areas of peace?

A Breath of Fresh Air

I don't know about you, but we've been having some springtime weather around here. The birds are singing, the flowers blooming, and the trees are budding. It's beautiful outside... and stuffy inside. When DH told me that he had turned the air conditioner on for a few hours, I asked why he didn't just open the windows. Then I realized that the more pertinent question is why haven't I opened the windows? Here I am trying to keep our house feeling like a home, a place where you can feel at peace, a place where love grows, but I've ignored one of the basics: the air we breathe. When I raised the blinds and let the sunshine in, we all smiled a little brighter. When I opened the windows, and the sounds of the birds in the trees drifted in with the cool morning air, the sounds of the boys playing grew sweeter.

Then I began brainstorming about other ways to "open the windows." Today, I'll be pulling out some of my favorite CDs (Stephen Curtis Chapman, Rich Mullins, Creed, etc.) to put back into the rotation. Yes, "Toddler Tunes" is great, but who's to say the boys and I wouldn't enjoy "King of the Jungle" too? I can check out some new devotionals, books, movies, or CDs at the library. Or maybe we could have a swap with some friends and share. And the board games that we put away when our eldest began to crawl... who says we can't come up with some toddler-friendly, educational version of scrabble? Let's mix it up a bit, try something new, and find a greater joy in the gifts God has bestowed upon us.

The 17th Century Dishwasher

Dishwasher, be not proud, though some have called thee
Useful and helpful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou "washest", though water dost flow,
Are washed not, poore saucers, still besmirched with debris.

I can't take it anymore! We are renting a house, and though it's been a wonderful place for us, the ancient appliances are less than satisfactory. We finally discussed it with our landlord, who is letting us replace one appliance at a time. We are taking a portion of our rent money to buy the replacements, so he has upgrades on his property, but is still making some money, and we have better appliances to use, but don't have to shell out a ton of extra money.

Though DH wanted the oven/stove to be replaced first, I insisted that the dishwasher was more important. (We have a toaster oven and microwave as alternatives to the oven, but only the sink as a substitute for the dishwasher!) I'm usually the one emptying out the dishwasher, thus I've been rewashing the dishes that didn't quite get clean. Finally, DH agreed that the dishwasher could be first. We ordered it on President's Day (appliance sales!) but it's not supposed to be delivered for another week or so. I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and DH was banging around in the kitchen like he was angry. I went in to see what was wrong, and he was standing at the sink washing the dishes as he took them from the dishwasher, barely holding in his temper. "I'm having to wash all of the dishes again! The dishwasher isn't even cleaning them!" Yep. Glad it's not just me!

So now we're using paper plates (leftover from Christmas 2003) whenever we're eating anything that is remotely messy. We're trying to remember to rinse our dishes with hot water... but not run the water long because that's money down the drain! It's hard to not eat out when you don't want to deal with the clean-up! We're trying to wait patiently until our new, working dishwasher is delivered.

A mother is slave to washer, dryer, vacuum, freezer,
And does with husband, pets, and children dwell,
And sickness, or fears keep her from sleepe as well,
All more vital far, than thee; why dost thou tease her?
One short week more, thy last cycle run,
And soiled dishes shall be no more;
Dishwasher, thou shalt be gone.

I thought I WAS cooking!

I never learned to cook growing up. By the time I was old enough to pay attention, mom was going to school and working and she didn't have time to devote to much cooking. Breakfast was cereal or pop-tarts. Lunch on the weekends was opening a can of Vienna sausages and slicing off a hunk of cheddar cheese. Supper was often catch-as-catch-can, with our busy schedules interfering with a family supper. After ruining Thanksgiving AND Christmas dinner one year (what's the difference between preheat and bake, anyway?) I was no longer allowed in the kitchen to help prepare meals.

Fast-forward to my first year of marriage. We had our own kitchen, and DH is an excellent cook. On the few occasions where I had to cook, we had Stouffer's lasagna, Tyson chicken-kiev, Velveeta Mac-n-cheese, Banquet Crock-Pot Classics, and Digorno Pizza. Yes, I burned the food occasionally, even after we got the timer, and I sometimes forgot to turn the oven off until bedtime, but I was cooking.

Six years later, DH and I were contemplating the possibility of my staying home with our 17-month-old son and the one on the way. We wouldn't be making much money after paying for daycare for two, and as often as I had to take off work to stay at home with one sick child, I didn't want to think about how many days I'd miss with two children in daycare! So, DH decided that I could stay home with the children on one condition: I had to learn to cook.

Huh? So what had I been doing the past six years? I thought I WAS cooking! Apparently I'm still just some loser in the kitchen who can't handle a nice dinner. Yeah. Okay. Fine. I'll cook.

So with a bitter heart, I scanned cookbooks, registered on cooking websites, and found a few recipes that looked easy enough for me to do. I got the ingredients and... continued "cooking" what I was comfortable with... when I couldn't convince DH to cook. Knowing I was a failure in the kitchen, I made a conscious decision to avoid showing it off. For two years, I may have tried out a recipe once a month, but mostly stuck with my usual menu.

As I reevaluate my God-given roll as a wife, mother, and homemaker, I've realized that my "cooking" was destroying our budget, low on nutrition, and high in unsavory additives. My selfish, childish behavior was harmful to our family. Through meal planning, I've been able to add new things in bit-by-bit. Yes, it's been a process, but with God on one side and my DH chef on the other, I know I will succeed. Next step... cooking rice (and not the kind in a microwavable pouch!)