Need Help in Time Management

So...

 

"No TV Monday! :)"

Wish Us Luck!  :) See what we accomplished the first night of No TV Monday here

I'll Never Buy Microwave Popcorn Again!

I am so excited over my tiny accomplishment of popcorn making.  (It's the little things in life.)
I have been eyeballing popcorn makers for quite some time now.  I heard long ago that microwave popcorn bags are bad for you, but I have an addiction.  I love popcorn!  With a birthday last week, I started to think, "Hey, that's a great gift from the husband."

As I read The Zero Waste Home blog this week, I am determined to minimize the clutter in my house, and minimize the clutter that will come in contact with my house.  Plus, popcorn machines are typically made of plastic, which I am learning is the arch enemy of eco-conscious humans.  So I Googled (my answer to everything as you will see) "making popcorn on the stovetop," and would like to give a big THANK YOU! to Elise (that's my middle name!) who posted this recipe onto Simplyrecipes.com   Here's the delicious result of my experiment:

It's so easy and cheap, I'm wondering why poisonous microwave popcorn was even invented?
For those who still feel the need to make popcorn in the microwave, you can also put popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag.  I feel that this is still wasting a bag and tape, but it's much healthier and cheaper than buying the microwave popcorn from the store.

Learning to make popcorn (I know, it's the simplest thing, but I said before I'm a terrible unmotivated cook, so I have to start small!) I am:

• Saving money.  The 32oz bag of popcorn (and you only use 1/3 cup at a time) is about $1.60, where as a 6 bag box of my favorite microwave popcorn is around $3.50 (of course buying canola oil, butter and salt cost money, but I always have that in the house anyway)
• Also saving money from buying a popcorn maker.
• Eating healthier.  This popcorn had minimal butter and salt, yet still tastes delicious (as I am not a dietitian, I cannot calculate the actual fat and calorie savings, but I do know it's less).
• Don't forget about all those chemicals I'm not putting in my and the baby's body!
• Not adding unnessessary appliances and clutter to the kitchen.
• Not creating more eventual waste from the plastic and other parts of buying the popcorn maker.  Plus the plastic wrapping and and probabaly styrofoam cushion and cardboard box.
• I should however look into buying canola oil and butter not in plastic containers.  One step at a time.  The bag of popcorn I bough is also wrapped in plastic, as I could not get myself to buy the 3x more expensive brand just for the glass jar.  Maybe in the future.
• Having fun.  It's fun to see popcorn shoot out of the top when you take the lid off, and I think my future child will have fun with the process too.  I had fun making it when I was a kid.

In other awesome baby step accomplishments of yesterday, I reached my other two goals for the day:

• Remember to bring my cloth bags to work (I work in a retail store where I usually buy lunch and shop after work).
• Do not buy a drink at work (I have an aweful addiciton to vending machines, not bringing my cup, and soft drinks).

Added bonus: I refused the plastic bag Subway puts sandwiches in, and resisted the urge to use a disposable cup for water when I left my cup in car earlier that day.  Hooray!

 Now I must work on another goal: cleaning!  Nothing like the possibility of your husband's grandparents (who I am sure June Cleaver learned a lot from- his grandmother is amazing at everything!) to motivate you to get your house in order!  Wish me luck!

I am Finally Doing This

There is something about being pregnant that has finally motivated me to start doing the things I have always wanted, and changing for the better.  I am becoming a mom! I do not want Addy (my future daughter  due June 7) to grow up the way I did (not that it was all bad), nor end up learning/changing things at 27 like me.  I want her to grow up with good habits in place.

I understand that this is probably hormones :), and may not last past month 6 (I am 22 weeks this Thursday).  I am still thankful that it's happening at all. :)

This blog started due to my homemade laundry detergent (another post about this in the future), and the amount of feedback from Facebook friends and a co-worker who suggest the blog.  After posting
the link to The Zero Waste Home on Facebook, a discussion among friends led to me telling them I am in the process of making my own reusable flannel wipes (again, another post on this in the future) for my baby. Which led to this comment: "Jenny--keep me updated as to things you are making to keep me motivated!"  This made my day.  Sealing the deal that a blog is appropriate for the journey I'm embarking on.


I have so many things I want to try to save money and/or become more environmentally friendly such as:

• quit using the dryer so much (if at all) (This will be difficult as I recently learned a clothesline is agianst the HOA here)
• becoming a better cook
• de-cluttering the house
• getting rid of my car
• cloth diapering
• no more paper towels
• greener cleaning (DIY cleaners I imagine) 
• start a garden (next year, not this year as I can't see myself raising a newborn and newborn carrots and tomatoes)
• living with less (modeling most of what Bea and her family from the Zero Waste Home does)
• etc. etc. etc. 

I also need to learn the "basics" of being a stay at home mom:

• cleaning (I'm terrible at this, simply terrible.)
• cooking (not motivated in the kitchen at all, but hopefully this will change)
• taking care of a baby
• less procrastination (the reason all the above as never been done)
• sticking to a schedule
• sticking to a budget (I am determined to do what I have to do to stay at home with the baby at the least the first couple of years, and am willing to sacrifice a lot to do this)
• juggling a husband, baby, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 tanks (one with three turtles, one with the only fish the turtles didn't eat), and my dad whom we live with
• becoming more patient
• etc etc etc.

This list will get longer, and I intend on writing about each of these goals, what works, what doesn't, my personal adventures in these matters, etc. I hope others read this to help encourage and inform me, and possibly be inspired too.