August | 2018 | | Lou Learns to Adult

Cleaning out My Closet- Part One

The whole family is gone for several days, and after an entire day of watching the Rugby World Cup Sevens and eating as much as I could, I decided it was time to clean out my closet, and allow it to live up to its name, “walk in” closet.

Day 1: This is really going to surprise The Man. He’ll probably ask me again if we’re moving. I am not a clean freak. There are better things to do than clean. But every few years I’ll get the energy to clean something. This year will be our closet. Luckily, we moved here just over three years ago, so there is just over three years of mess to work on.

When I do clean, I like to make sections to help me get organized. There is a spot for anything that can be recycled (I may be a slob at home, but I still want a clean planet), things that need to be thrown out (toiletry items that expired in 2001), things that need to be given away (the bright yellow banana clip for hair that I purchased at the Goodwill last year, hoping to relive my glory days) and for things that should be in another room (why is there a drawer from the spare fridge in here).

Continue reading “Cleaning out My Closet- Part One”

Change the Air Filters in your Home

I live in the desert. The desert is dusty. So very dusty. And all of that dust ends up in my house. We have to change the air filters in the HVAC system quite often. They can be changed every month or two, depending on how dusty it gets where you live. Sadly, I’m not sure if I can remember when these were changed last.

Today was my turn to change them, because I called “NOT IT” last. I guess this is another chance to learn how to do some adulting.

The first step to changing them is to vacuum all the dust from the cover grate. You do this so you don’t get a face full of dust when you open the cover. This should probably be done whenever the vacuum comes out to clean the floors, but to be honest, I only bring the vacuum out when we have people coming over to visit, and it’s been a quiet couple months. Oh, and that whole “I’m really lazy” thing, too.

Continue reading “Change the Air Filters in your Home”

Making Spaghetti Sauce

I think that a sign of a successful adult is the ability to make your own spaghetti sauce. Okay, maybe not the biggest sign, but it’s on the list. Anyone can open a jar of sauce, pour it into a dish and heat it up in the microwave. Or if you’re feeling extra fancy, you can put it in a pot on the stove. But you make your own spaghetti sauce and you are a superstar.

How do you make your own spaghetti sauce? Not to worry, I got your back. This recipe was invented by my dear Mother-in-law, Ann. And then I tweaked it a tiny bit. Just to make it my own. But mostly because there were a few icky things in it. Here are the ingredients, the directions will follow.

Here’s my attempt at my first video.

CAUTION: There are levels of awkwardness in this video that have never been seen before. The Boy has PTSD from having to watch it repeatedly while editing it. Watch at your own risk…..

Continue reading “Making Spaghetti Sauce”

Etiquette

Here are a few things that I think you should do to be a good human. If you’re happy with being a horrible person, move along, this isn’t for you. And while you’re at it, keep moving until you’re far away from the rest of us.

Etiquette, or Eh-tee-qwah-tay as The Boy likes to call it, is something that seems to have been thrown by the wayside by a good percentage of people. Not all of you, settle down. Instead of trying to figure out why some people are not nice, let’s focus on things that nice people do so we can hopefully pass it on down.

Where do we start? Empathy. What exactly is empathy? I Googled it, and found that it’s putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Not just wearing their shoes, but really feeling what it’s like to have those shoes on. Whether they feel good or they pinch your toes a little, or you need to get them off immediately because they’re suddenly two sizes too small (or basically, me wearing high heels).

As someone who is extremely empathetic, let me tell you, it is hard work. But so worth it. Next time you have to deal with someone, give it a try, and see what happens.

Continue reading “Etiquette”

Be Healthy

My kids harass me constantly, about me harassing them, to eat right and be healthy. So, as I’m sitting here eating a small dish of dark chocolate chips, I’m going to give you my take on all that is “being healthy”.

Water is an easy place to start. Drink enough water. Every time we leave the house, we have our little rainbow cooler bag filled with two bottles of water for each person. It started when we moved to Arizona and I became terrified of our car breaking down in this heat and dying from lack of water. Yes, we use plastic water bottles. I know this is frowned upon, but they’re just so much easier. Does it help that we recycle them when they’re empty? We really tried to drink water in a reusable bottle, but we just can’t get over the taste of the water here. My kids will go back to Oregon and ask for “a delicious glass of Oregon water” wherever we go.

Continue reading “Be Healthy”

BBQ Chicken in the Crock Pot

I usually start trying to decide what to make for dinner when The Man texts me at 4:00 pm asking what’s for dinner. But grown-ups aren’t supposed to do that so I’m working on it.

The other day, we had two extra kids. They’re old neighbors from Oregon and they were at our house for a week. If you ask anyone, I am a Dino Nugget connoisseur, so the extra kids assumed we would be having those all week. I’m a little stubborn, so I had to make sure we had other food. Don’t get me wrong, we had chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs, but not every day. I mean, look at them, they’re delicious.

Continue reading “BBQ Chicken in the Crock Pot”