The Lawn, The House, or a Life?

As we gear up for the baby to arrive (less than two months to go!) we've been discussing the possibility of getting a yard and house-cleaning service to help us out.

We've realized that neither actually enjoys taking care of the lawn. We love growing veggies and get really excited to plan new landscaping, but can't get motivated to maintain the grass. Parts of our yard are in pretty bad shape. Although I have to say it looks much better today! BIG thanks to mother nature for a dry day and my hubby breaking out the lawn mower. :) It doesn't help that the lawn is completely filled with weeds and moss.  I do try to weed in the front yard, but I've given up on the back.  We both agree we would like to remove most of the grass over time any time so I look the other way as the back yard is taken over by bright yellow flowers and fuzzy orbs all summer long.

In addition to the mowing, neither of us enjoys picking up after the dogs. It's just not a fun chore. So...we have been searching for a lawn mowing and dog clean-up service around Seattle. Along with the lawn, we're also anticipating that house cleaning is going to be low on our list of priorities with a new baby...so I've got a few leads and I'll be meeting with house cleaners in the next month.

I think we both felt a little uneasy with the idea of hiring out these tasks.  I felt like maybe we were giving up--shouldn't we be able to keep our house sparkling clean, grow a beautiful yard, rock full-time jobs, be the best parents ever to our new baby, and maintain an exciting social life?

In the end, I'm pretty happy we're thinking about this now instead of four months from now when it would inevitably be totally overwhelming. Today was a perfect example of why this will be a great use of our money. Seeing and smelling our freshly cut grass put a huge smile on my face, but I would much rather have taken a walk on a sunny evening with my husband and our dogs.

Book Review: "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"

A friend recently saw my "bread fail" post and recommended that I check out this book: "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". The approach is very simple. It consists of making a large batch of bread dough (enough for four loaves) and refrigerating the dough. According to the authors, the dough stays good in the fridge for two weeks.  When you have time to make a loaf of bread, you can just cut some of the dough off the large batch of dough sitting in your fridge and bake it!

The book has a "master" recipe for simple loaves, which I'm starting with, and then a lot of other great sounding bread with nuts, fruit, and herbs added. There is a short video on Amazon.com with the authors showing their basic recipe, which you can watch here if you want to give it a try.

I'll do a follow-up with a picture after I bake some bread!


Success!  Not bad for a first try!!

Safety First!

I picked up a baby gate with a swinging door yesterday and Tony installed it at the top of the stairs last night. Joy!  You might be thinking that we are ridiculously organized and already baby-proofing our entire house. Not the case! The baby room floors are still being refinished..and then we have to paint!

We previously had a regular baby gate in the same spot  to prevent the dogs from getting to the basement (and cat box...which they like to make a mess of).  The other baby gate was working for a while...but I've gotten to "that" point in my pregnancy.  You know, the point where I should probably stop wildly swinging my legs over a three foot high barrier at the top of a steep flight of stairs. Although I'm sure it would be entertaining for anyone who happens to be watching.

Anyhow...we've had it installed for a day, and I'm so inspired I decided to do a blog post :)  But it really has made doing laundry a lot easier!

Rocking Moose?

Sounds sort of strange right? But isn't it the cutest?! I went to IKEA last weekend to get some basic things, curtain rods, scrubbie brushes, etc. but this little guy caught my eye. I resisted because it says it is for babies 18 months and older and I thought perhaps I should be focusing on other items for newborn babies...BUT I keep thinking about him...

Bread Fail

I tried out some bread yesterday and I got a pretty bad result. The bread is edible but it is totally boring, dense, and flavorless.  It was milk bread--which my cookbook told me was "easy". It wasn't difficult but the other recipes don't sound like much more work and  I think my next bread attempt will be something that will give a bigger payoff for my work.  I'm eyeing a rustic french bread recipe.  The issue with these recipes is the multiple rounds of rising time require you to be hanging around the house most of the day.  I'm thinking it might be a good thing to try the next day I work from home because each step takes only a few minutes with hours of waiting in between.

In any case, I got to try out the dough hook on my kitchenaid...and for now I'll try to remember that practice makes perfect. :)

My new kitchen helper...

Look at this guy! Isn't he the cutest? He is a clay brown sugar saver and I have to say he's pretty amazing!  Just soak these sugar savers in water for twenty minutes and then toss them in with your brown sugar and re-seal the bag.  This little guy successfully softened a rock-hard bag of brown sugar in my pantry. Every use of brown sugar in my kitchen since I've had him has been so much more enjoyable!

For under $5 I would say he is well worth it! And really...how could you say no to that face? These are available at most kitchen stores (and they do have other non-gingerbread men savers).  The one I got is also available here on Amazon.

One room at a time...

Tony finished the floors in the living room and we only have one room to go! Work on the last room begins this weekend. That floor is in the best shape of all of the floors Tony has taken on so far so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will be easier.

In order to do the living room floors we had to move in with our friends Stephanie and Blake (or Steak as we like to call them).  They deserve a big shout out because "we" includes Tony, me, AND the dogs. They generously opened their home for several days while Tony applied coats of finish every day with 24 hours of drying time in between.  Also deserving of major kudos are Tony's dad, Terry, and our friend, Mike, who both donated an entire Saturday to assist with removing the black carpet glue that had been slathered onto the wood floor sometime in the 1970's.

This room used to be filled with smelly, wall-to-wall, beige carpet and now we are enjoying shiny wood floors! Thanks to everyone and especially to my husband for all their help with this. It is a huge improvement!

A picture of the living room when we were playing musical rooms. 

Note the nasty carpet...

 A close up of the junk that was covering the floors in the living room.

Some initial work on the hall between the bedrooms.

 Floors in Progress. This is after Tony, Terry, and Mike worked all day!

The finished product!

Mini Me enjoying the new floors from his perch. :)