HJ Waxing Moon

Our new schedule, as I mentioned a few days ago, included needed to re-arrange our chore schedule. I'm sure I could have sat down and worked it out myself, but part of being a team means it's important that we are BOTH included in the work that shapes our lives. It's important to both of us that even if we do each have skills and responsibilities consistent with traditional gender roles, we are making our choices together and mindfully. It's one thing to have me typing up our decisions that we make together and helping him stick to them; it's another thing altogether for me to make decisions for him when they primarily impact his schedule and responsibilities as if he has no information or opinion to contribute. It was a perfect opportunity to discuss as well what parts of our current/now-previous system were in need of improvement, and what new habits or skills we want to be incorporating. For example, we've had a bad habit of going grocery shopping and leavi...

It's been... a minute or two since I last posted. As I was telling my family on vacation, there's a lot going on, but none of it is terribly exciting to talk about and even less exciting to hear about. I got into coloring in like actual legit adult coloring books. It's a lot of fun, and definitely some nice stress relief. After June's failed attempt at the candida cleanse, we left it until after our vacation. And then I decided I needed a few days to recuperate before risking too much shock to my body. So, we're getting back at it tomorrow. In reviewing the rules, I discovered that it's a little less restrictive than I'd previously understood it to be. As in, it's not NO NUTS, it's no peanuts, cashews or pistachios but almonds, pecans, and walnuts are fine. It's not quite NO GRAINS, buckwheat and quinoa are still okay in moderation. That makes it quite a bit easier to manage, all things considered. Though what I did discover is that the r...

The Challenge: Northwest Edible Life has a yearly Eat from the Larder challenge in April. I only read about it on April 1, but it had been a half-assed goal of ours anyway so I jumped onboard. Their rules are a ZERO dollar food budget and no intentional stocking up ahead. Of course without any forewarning I couldn't possibly have intentionally stocked up ahead, but I'm not interested in a $0 grocery budget--just cleaning out some of our excess pantry storage and being a little creative. We're having an issue with our freezer & fridge that requires us to minimize our perishable food stock before fixing it, besides the excessive collection of condiments and pickles in there. Our Rules: No purchasing non-perishable food items.  Minimal purchase of perishable items.  No opening of new condiments if they can be avoided (until after the fridge is fixed, whether that's in two weeks or May).  Be creative!  Keep it simple, right? Bonus goals: Use ever...

Mr. Moon is the first to admit that he's scatterbrained and unfocused. And he'll be the first to tell you that if he doesn't have a list, it doesn't get done. However, making lists isn't exactly his strong suit. Thankfully, he married a woman who lives by her love of lists & structure. The hard part is struggling with falling into stuffy old gender roles. Ultimately though, we have to do what's best for each of us and our partnership, utilizing our strengths and working around our weaknesses, even if they're the ones we learned through a society that taught them to us based on our perceived genders. Recognizing where they came from doesn't negate their existence and the reality is that I'm both a lot more organized than him, and have a lot more time to BE organized. With the wedding out of the way and staring down the moving target of daily parenthood, we had a long discussion about priorities and what we want the rest of our lives to look like...

Whew! Our first week back from weddings & vacation, and we're heading right back into the swing of things. We do much better when there's a bit of routine, a bit of organization to our lives, so we're right back to our checklists & menu planning. One thing that concerns me is the new(ish) system we're trying. We have had this sheet for a couple months now, and it got us through the crunch of final wedding planning, but frankly we were ignoring most of our chores by that point and we weren't menu planning at all for most of this year. This system allowed for that, so I'm not sure it's sustainable long-term. But we're going to try it. Because having the things that are the same every day written out for each day made it harder to see what was different about "today." We're cracking down on chores timing. 20 minutes for the "weekly" chores, and no more (not including laundry, of course). Whatever gets done in that tim...

We have been using outdated checklists since we moved into our new place, just because everything has been so dysfunctional in our lives. I think there is a point at which routine & organizing is impossible, and then a point at which routine & organizing will help you get the rest of the way to where you want to be. There's definitely a tipping point, just as there is with menu planning. I think we've finally hit that tipping point. Finally today I've got our checklists updated and ready to be printed. One of the nice things about living in a place before updating the lists is that we can see what's been missed and make sure to get it on the list. So that's helpful. Bright side, right? I have to tell you though, don't skip getting the shopping list white board up on the wall as soon as you move in. Forgetting that rice vinegar was on the list for over a month was torture when I kept re-discovering for three whole weeks that I was out. Or the day we f...

So at my favorite chinese restaurant, they have an amazing delicious vinegar on the table, used as a condiment. I've asked a couple times what it is, and they look at me as if I have three heads and say it's vinegar. When asked what kind, they say, "Vinegar." I haven't gotten up the nerve to ask to see the bottle. And ultimately that's probably going to have to be my next step. But in search of this delightful condiment, I purchased a bottle of Black Vinegar. I was hoping against hope that it would be what I was looking for. While it is delicious, and the right color, it is not the same stuff. The stuff on the table is light, roasty, malty, but much richer than a standard malt vinegar. The stuff in this bottle tastes like worchestershire sauce as a vinegar rather than a salty-sauce. Good, flavorful, and has come in very handy in my stir fry adventures, but ultimately not what I'm looking for. What's unclear is whether Black Vinegar and Black Rice V...

I'd like to start with a little announcement... Mr. Moon and I are getting married!! He popped the question at my birthday party and of course, I said yes. Now we're in the whirlwind process of wedding planning. Which brought me to finally having a reason to buy the book that started one of my favorite blogs, Offbeat Bride . So the book is $13.30 on Amazon with prime, 2-day free shipping. Or I could get it "used" but really new for $9-10 including shipping, but I'd have to wait longer. But let's check out the local book store? There's one I like a lot in town where they have a restaurant in the bookstore and a pub downstairs. But according to their website, they don't have the book in stock and it says it ships in 1-5 days. Plus I have to pay $17. Plus I have to put on pants, leave my house, talk to people, and I will probably buy a coffee or a beer while I'm there. Financially, for me, it makes sense to buy it online, even if I pay the ext...

Mr. Moon has finished unpacking the kitchen, though there are already some rearrangements I want to make when we have the rest of the boxes unpacked. The dining room is still not done, and yes I realize they're the same "room" but for our sanity we needed to check something off. Having the kitchen done means no more eating takeout, which is obviously the financially responsible decision. We're still eating some packaged foods that I would typically make from scratch, but I'm hoping we can wean ourselves off them next month. Right now, we're just being gentle with ourselves and honest about our capabilities. Since Mr. Moon finally caught up on the backlog of dishes, that's been our main focus aside from unpacking: keeping up with the habit of emptying the sink every single night and putting away the dry dishes first thing in the morning. The bedroom is our next priority, since we have a new mattress coming in on Wednesday and must have a path cleared to ...

The Living Room - 0% done -  View from the door View from that hallway doorway  Damage on the door from previous tenant. :( Damage in the carpet from previous tenant :( The nice thing about this living room is that it is BIG. South-facing windows let in a lot of natural light, but also a lot of heat. I will be surprised if we ever have to turn the heat on in here or the kitchen. That doorway you can see on the left of the top picture is the hall that leads to the bedroom and bathroom and closets. The doorway at the right of the bottom picture is toward the kitchen and dining room. To Do: EVERYTHING--This room has all the boxes, and most of the furniture. It will be the last thing finished. But that's OK! The Kitchen/Dining room - 60% done -   Dining room   Kitchen with gross-orange-wood cabinets.  Aren't these liners just to DIE for?   At least the cabinets don't waste any space. All the headsp...

Mr. Moon and I had a fabulous time on vacation! We got to see four beautiful souls get married, reacquainted with some old friends, met some new ones, exhausted ourselves, ate too much junk food, and all-in-all had a marvelous time. Before moving down here, we spent two months driving back and forth, 3 hours at a trip, multiple times a week. It was a wonderful time to reconnect, discuss our goals and dreams and giggles and hopes and sorrows and concerns about anything that came to mind. It was helpful, because it gave us both time to process and strategize. Even the next two months we had plenty of time in the car together, with his job a half-hour or more commute each way. Lately our car trips have become shorter as have our tempers. Our time with just the two of us for company and no chores to be doing has become less frequent, and less time on each trip. I noticed it slipping away and thought it was a blessing, more time to Be Productive. But productivity is not the end-all, be-...

A couple years ago it must be now, I realized I could use wet and dry erase markers on glass. I saw a suggestion somewhere to put pretty fabric in a frame and use it like a white board. An idea was born. Months later, I found myself building a home office, and I needed a dry erase board to keep track of my project list for the business. I went to the thrift store and bought a frame, but since there were three more to match it, I bought them all in case I wanted more space for some reason. Boy, am I glad I did! This blog has featured my white board A LOT. I've wanted to upgrade to something nicer, but without a safe space to hang something with glass in it (since the white board lives on the pantry door), I hadn't done it yet. This week we moved our To Do list into our bedroom, right next to Mr. Moon's side of the bed. The 'Rents weren't using it, it allows more space for the menu AND for each day, and it allowed me to put some more personal notations on it that ...

A nice, updated list after the first quarter of the year has gone by. I highlighted our highest priorities in red , the things we are working on now or will be in the next few weeks. Everywhere, first step: Get before pictures! Front Yard: Replant container bed by front door. Remove the rose bush that is creeping into the walkway. Re-edge the existing beds, and refill with wood chips as needed--not buying more though! Prune roses. All the roses. Possibly use the pruned bits to grow roots on new plants, potentially even to replace the existing ones that aren't in the best shape.  Fill the beds with flowers. What we have now leaves most of the yard bare most of the time, I'd like to landscape in such a way as to have something blooming most of the time and not ever have to look at a bunch of rotting yuck.  Back Yard: Plant the toilet planter or get rid of it. (Half done.) Prune the roses along the shed, re-trellis them, or get rid of them. Remove the tree by...

Between my vacation and the subsequent recovery, somehow it is February. I never got new "before" pictures of the house and yard, and I never made a new To Do list that I just realized hasn't even been updated since SEPTEMBER! This is the perfect opportunity for me to make excuses or beat myself up about not meeting my goals. But I'm in a really good place today, so I'm just going to acknowledge both the fact that this is the situation as well as my feelings of surprise at this being where we are now, and move onto accomplishing the goals I set out to begin with. So without further ado, a fun little list of ideas of what we want to accomplish in the coming year, sorted by area of the homestead. Everywhere, first step: Get before pictures! Front Yard: Replant container bed by front door. Remove the rose bush that is creeping into the walkway. Re-edge the existing beds, and refill with wood chips as needed--not buying more though! Prune roses. All the...

Each year I make some sets of goals and resolutions with varying degrees of specificity. It helps that since my birthday is just three weeks after New Year's, these goals come at a time of reflection in a multitude of ways. Of course, I make goals throughout the year as well, and don't feel as if I need to tie myself to New Year's resolutions if I find they're not working for me (especially if I've made them too specific).  Many New Year's resolutions pertain to bettering one's health and being better people. Always good projects! And having them start at a certain point in the year regularly certainly helps make them measurable, and to remind you to check back with your goals from year to year. The important thing is to forgive yourself for the ones you haven't accomplished; let go of the ones that needed to be changed after you made them; and congratulate yourself for any and all progress you've made on the rest, both those accomplished compl...

They say life is all about the little things. The small decisions we make every day that suddenly become a lifestyle. The little looks, kisses, the seemingly meaningless conversations that add up to a relationship. The choices and actions we make every day that define who we are. But then they say "don't sweat the small stuff." They say that your kids will remember you spending time with them, not how messy the house looked. That your partner remembers the big gestures more than the small ones. That where you live, how you live, what you wear doesn't define who you are. These theories are not simply incompatible, they're directly contradictory. Sometimes I get stuck thinking I can strike a balance in the middle. That I can somehow maximize the daily small stuff and balance that with the grand life gestures. Then I think I should choose one or the other as a philosophy and stick to it. It's like trying to balance the lessons from the past, hopes for the fut...

Five things we accomplished in September that are really kind of big: We got on a schedule of chores, and even managed to stick to it in this very busy week.  We had fun on some cheap dates, and got to spend more time with friends than we have any other time since we moved down here. We pinpointed some trouble areas with the housekeeping and started making strides to combat them in a manageable way.  We dove down the rabbit hole with gusto, starting on such projects are sourdough pancakes, waffles, yogurt, mozzarella, and possibly soon into sourdough bread. We managed to keep the sideboard in the dining room CLEAN and clear of clutter for the better part of a month, and still going!  It wasn't entirely intentional, but we spent the month working on building good housekeeping habits. If October has a theme project, I think it needs to be the garage. We got behind on cleaning that out and missed both of our self-imposed deadlines, or we will because the second o...

Do you remember how excited I was to set Laundry Day as a leisurely, TV-time activity? How we were going to PAUSE and switch laundry and FOLD while we WATCHED? Do you remember in that post how we were getting into a nice routine with chores (do we call these daily or weekly?) on a schedule? Let me tell you a little story about this pile of clothes... while Mr. Moon vacuums the carpets two days late. So, the basket in front is a pile of clean laundry that needs to be folded and put away. Behind it is a box of candle/decor stuff that I needed out because I'm running out of candles and we need the scrap wax bucket to make fire starters. On top of that box is a trash bag of clothes that no longer fit and need to be put into storage for the time being (until we even determine what's wrong with me, I'm not willing to give up perfectly good clothes that I might fit back into soon--but there is a date with a donation center next year if no progress has been made). Behind THA...

Mr. Moon and I are getting more accustomed to daily chores. Tuesday when I woke up, it was to the sound of vacuuming in the hallway--Tuesday's assigned chore day is deep vacuuming, which means getting under the lounge chairs and the dining room table. Light vacuuming is over the weekend, and it's just the main walkways. So I woke up proud of him and pleased, definitely sets the tone for a good morning. Then I discovered that again of his own volition he had emptied, refilled and run the dishwasher, as we've gotten behind on dishes again. And to top it off, I was greeted with a clean kitchen so I could prepare us a steak and eggs breakfast. Now tonight is just picking up our bedroom a bit, which means clearing off the desk and the shelves at the foot of the bed. Those shelves were just a few inches wider than the bed itself, which resulted in Mr. Moon rubbing a hole into the back of his work shorts by getting squished between shelves and the wall on his way by. We reorgani...

When I was a kid, laundry day was whenever someone ran out of underwear, or the laundry pile in the hallway got so bad that it was difficult getting to the bathroom. Whichever came first. So suffice it to say that while DOING the laundry was something I learned young, keeping up on the laundry wasn't a skill I was taught. As a result, I've struggled most of my adult life with this task. I have tried the "load a day" thing. Only really possible when you have laundry on-site. Mostly I found that doing so I tend to forget I've put something in the washer and it gets nasty before I get back to it. I've tried the "laundry day" thing, where one day a week I devote to laundry--mostly this has been more successful, especially when I could go to the laundry mat and do any number of loads at once: no matter how many loads I had, it took 3 hours. This was certainly successful, but I hated having to carve out 3 hours as a block in my week. And also, laundry ...