No morn? Not if you’re up all night, nope. No such thing.
No proper time of day? That’s IT! EXACTLY! Oh, it’s day? Oh. Okay . . .
That’s what that distant blue is, isn’t it. Hmm.
Here in these four walls,
connected by two halls,
no matter nature calls,
or if the toddler falls,
or if the baby bawls,
or carburetor stalls,
or dog the mathbook mauls:
Mom to the table crawls
And has her lunchtime!
Spending my daytime often solo, I have devised the plan I love:
Cook a decent supper, and then reheat for lunch the next day.
Our supper last night was sublime. If I do say so, I cannot help it. I just had to try this combo. I could not stop myself.
The results?
A few swai filets, breaded in egg, almond meal, and course black pepper, sautéed in olive oil, served over a bed of hot morrow squash, al dente, in a sauce of winter onions braised in butter and sour cream, with swai pan glazings and a skif of cayenne stirred in.
We nearly foundered.
But “nearly” only counts in hand grenades and horse shoes.
I got my reward, very carefully warmed over, today, with a cuppajo, or should I say, a very aromatic mug of Arkansas’ own Biff’s coffee, from which I receive no remuneration save the golden drink, itself.
Laundry is hung to dry above an Italian street. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ve known for ages that the older ways were kinder on clothing, on the environment, and on the utilities bill, but I just recently found the exact dollar amount.
They say, if I dry my laundry the old-fashioned way, I save about $100.00 every year. I’ve been doing this for many, many years. It’s more like $4,300, really. And it takes only a few moments per day, really hardly any longer than just loading the dryer.
But that’s not all.
No, if we dry our clothes on a line or rack, we extend the life of the clothing about 50%. Of course, we may not make good use of the savings if we are enslaved to the changing of the styles, but for many of us, that represents another huge saving.
But that’s not all.
Clothing dried on a rack come “out of the dryer” pre-folded! How cool is that? I literally take towels and wash cloths off the rack and put them away, as is. T-shirts require only one more fold. Everything is already smoothed, stacks better, and just is twice as easy to put away.
Drying clothes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But that’s not all.
How would you like to add to last Wednesday’s health tricks? Drying laundry indoors humidifies the air in the winter, causing the body to fight off upper respiratory problems more efficiently. The result is fewer colds. That’s what they say, and I think I can tell that is happening for us. We’re “weller” without the cost or the mess of a humidifier.
But that’s not all.
Quality of life seems to skyrocket. Towels are more absorbent when they are not gummed up with fabric softener. A rack-dried towel, fresh from the closet, gives a marvelous back-scratching. Cotton t-shirts feel more honestly real when you put them on, and smell better, too, especially if they’ve been line-dried outdoors. We never encounter static cling.
But that’s not all.
If you have never gone to bed between freshly laundered, line-dried sheets, you just come on over to my house, dear, and let me introduce you to some real sleep. Sheets that you can feel, that stay tucked in, and that smell like angel wings — you won’t know what hit you ’til mornin’ honey!
I’ve been writing about saving money (saving resources, saving the ecology, etc.) for years, but all that work is scattered around on this site, and rather hard to find amidst over 700 posts.
Now I’ve been invited to help a fellow blogger create a “carnival” which is basically a collections of bloggers using the same topic. Rather than rewrite so much content, I am creating this list as my entry in her project.
Saving resources in a sort of do-by-self way has been the theme of our great country for many centuries. We were not always motivated by the same exact ethic when we scraped and made do, but we always just could never feel right throwing away perfectly good stuff.
I guess it came too hard. My mom always reminded me of all the starving people in some far-away place. Many of them have since moved here, but still, how cruel to throw away that last bite of food on the plate, when they would do almost anything to obtain it for themselves! Ahem — except work, that is.
Well, and then there are the ones who have managed to get the food off our plates, but that’s another subject.
The facts remain, though. If you own a patch of dirt and some seed, you can eat. If you bother with putting food up in jars, you can save our tin resources. If you eat leftovers you save food. If you grow your own, you save money on groceries.
In other words, whether you save out of poverty, stubbornness, habit, frugality, guilt, or greed, DO join in this grand, centuries-old fad and $AVE something!
Now, enjoy the list, and don’t forget, several others are contributing on other sites you can find here.
Joi and her husband were poor. He was a sacker in a small grocery while she raised their four children in a two-bedroom house and they both worked on college degrees at the same time.
Although we were good friends, Joi was a constant source of inadequacy in me. Her scratch cooking, home canning, crocheted doilies, and hand-sewn quilts, all worked on my sense of accomplishment. She would even blend soy beans in her blender for soy milk.
And then turned it into ice cream.
How did she always fill the gaps among their possessions with cheer? How did she know all about healthful eating before the age of computers? How did she know about herbal healing before the herbal renaissance? How play piano beautifully? I would never catch up!
The day came when Joi and her husband completed their degrees and moved to the land of employment. I lost touch with her, but not exactly; I still can feel Joi’s cheer in my life.
One time, for my birthday, she brought me a huge surprise. Simple and cherishable, just like Joi, the gift brought me happiness, that day. Enveloped in kitchen linens was an enormous steaming loaf of bread. You’ve never seen one that big. I was so excited. With it was a bag of spinach from her own garden, immaculately cleaned.
What fun we had loving that sweet gift to pieces, literally! These delicious additions to my birthday supper may seem like an odd gift to you, but Joi knew what it would mean to us, and we saw the love in it.
If I had washed and washed a big bag of spinach and then given it away I’d be missing it. But Joi just smiled her cheery best. If I’d had the aromas of homemade bread floating through my house, for naught, if I’d known that bread was going to someone else’s house, I’d have handed it over very longingly, not cheerily like Joi.
P.S. I know I have not found all the recipes I’ve posted at Home’s Cool, and need to search for more. They’re tucked into all sorts of places, kinda like at my house. If you find one somewhere, here, and it’s not on the new page, let me know, please. I’ll send you a yum recipe of your choice from my private stash as a reward.
At the Reception for Our Youngest and His New Bride I am his and he is mine.
I am as tired as I look, here, but after two weeks of no rest, yet, I am beginning to feel better.
So much going on.
Bathroom repair necessitating my painting two walls.
Special events at church.
Taking a few short video courses.
Internet flailing. I think that must be an epidemic, as WordPress AND Social Triggers both have also played into my lateness, here, due to malfunctions. Ah, well.
Several large pieces of furniture vanishing when the last two left the nest, and needing replacements.
Empty rooms to spring clean. I know; it’s autumn.
And — drumroll, here — with moderate rains arriving, the blessings of mowing chores.
Still, this photo just gives me a glow. I seldom look this good, so I guess he brings out the best in me.
Home's Cool! 