Photo Challenge: Day 28

It Lives!!!

During the time the previous occupants moved out of our house and the time we moved in, was about 3 weeks or so. It was also when the weather was hitting 100 degree days for the first time in 2012. Between moving, contractors, and building materials - paired with no one living here at night - the lawn died. It turned pretty yellow and dry just before we moved in. We did cut the back grass on an unusually cool day, in the evening, but in the month or so since, it hasn't grown any - it's pretty dead. If it isn't dead, it's gone dormant, VERY dormant. We've been watering it according to experts I've read online and even in our Sunday paper, which says to water in the evening about every 3 days.

I kill every plant I come in contact with. I'm the only one in many generations that can't grow stuff. Jordan on the other hand, has a way of saving mostly dead plants and making them flourish beautifully. Lawn care was supposed to be Logan's job, but since he's usually gone after sunset, Jordan's been taking over the watering job. Oddly enough, we noticed a wee patch of green on the front lawn last week - she's doing it! - she may actually be saving the lawn! Yesterday when we came home, we saw the green patch was larger, and a new green patch is starting a few feet away from the other one. She's amazing. I guess we'll just leave it up to her and hope for the best.

PS: This fall, we'll aerate the soil, re-seed, and re-grow a new lawn. It's just too hard to expect it to grow in the hottest part of the year. Especially since the monsoon rains haven't come yet - just the dry dust storms.

Photo Challenge: Day 27

No real blogging on this, just the photo. Monsoon season's sunset, created by dust clouds. Sometimes it's deep red, or bright orange, and if we're really lucky, we'll have a tropical-looking sunset in purples and blues. It's different every time and they're the prettiest sunsets of the year.

Photo Challenge: Day 26

Monsoon Season has begun! Here in the Valley of the Sun we have monsoon season. It's when our humidity goes up from single digits to double digits (like today, it's 110 degrees and the humidity is at 15%) but the real factor is the DEW POINT. When the dew point gets up to 55 degrees for 3 days in a row. It usually starts just after the 4th of July - average start is July 7th. It lasts through about mid-September. There's usually about 56 days of the monsoon season, and it's when we get the most rain we've seen for months. We get over 2 1/2 inches of rain during monsoon season. I know many other places get that in just one rainy day, but we often go more than 2, 3, even 4 months without seeing rain here - so it's nice for us. Kids go out to play in the rain here and it's a welcomed event.

In addition to getting some rain - which cools off that evening by 25 degrees or more - I love the clouds. Usually we get a dust storm ahead of the rain clouds, everything turns a strange pinkish orange color. Often you can actually see the dust cloud as it approaches. It gets very windy, but only for a few minutes. If we're lucky, it'll be followed by rain, then the sun comes out again to set. Oddly enough, we always seem to have the dust storms & rain just before sunset, during the evening commute or just a little after. Most of the rain that eventually does happen here, happens at night, so a lot of times, we miss seeing it.

Photo Challenge: Day 25

Another advantage we get from our friends who are traveling is that we get to use their pool while they're away! They live just a bit too far to go there more than a couple times a week, but we're so thankful for the use of the pool. We miss having one right outside our front door like we had in our condo - but at least swimming is still an option for us. We really do love the water. My kids don't enjoy swimming in lakes - they say they're too dirty. My kids? Really?! I grew up swimming in everything from icy New England ocean, to green pre-season pools, to mucky ponds & lakes, to fast rivers with slippery rock bottoms. I think they got spoiled with the pool at the condo.

Photo Challenge: Day 24

This is Jordan's BLT lunch. The rest of us don't eat pork - just her & Tim these days. I posted this to remind me to tell you something funny I came across this week:

Did you realize that if you say "beer can" with a British accent, you're also saying "Bacon" with a Jamaican accent?

Try it...see?...isn't that so funny?!!!

Photo Challenge: Day 23

Summer Time Vegetarian...well, almost.

In the summer, it's hot in the Phoenix area. In fact, the past 2 weeks have been between 107 and 112, every day. When we get those couple of weeks of extreme heat, no one feels like cooking, nor eating a heavy meal. Summertime is when we (almost) become vegetarians. We eat lots of fresh fruits that are in season - the berries, peaches, and nectarines, the peppers, summer squash & zucchini, fennel, and more! Meat becomes something we still eat, but it's more of an ingredient in something else rather than a big hunk taking up 1/3 of the plate. Take this picture for example...

I made a great stir-fry the other day. I tried to get in every color of the food spectrum for the most nutrients. I had red peppers, carrots, yellow squash, bok choy, fennel, purple cabbage, celery, and zucchini. I made it with sesame oil, ginger, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos (like a healthier soy sauce). I did add chicken to it, but only very small cubes that had been marinaded in teriyaki sauce, fried til they were cooked, then broiled for that crisp edge. I made a huge wok full of this stir fry and it was so good! I enjoyed eating it for lunch for 2 days afterwards.

Other summer lighter ideas are tuna in cucumber boats or cups, salads topped with chicken, tuna or egg salad, salads with berries & nuts, and lots of fruit salads - with and without yogurt.

Once the heat is back under 100 degrees, we'll change our eating habits to what's in season then, but for the summer - we're (almost) vegetarians.

Photo Challenge: Day 22

This is Sammy. He belongs to our friends that are traveling east for a month. He's been babied and spoiled and now he's spending a month with us. Jordan's asked for a dog for the past 5 years, so I figured this would be the best way to see if the novelty of a dog wears off soon, and if she'll really be responsible for all it takes to have a dog. We've had Sammy for a full week as of today. He's been great. He doesn't bark a lot, never even thinks about making a mess in the house, he doesn't scratch doors or anything (he waits patiently by the door to go in or out), and he sleeps by my feet almost the entire day. I guess I really couldn't have asked for a better experience babysitting a dog. He's not a puppy, he's actually pretty old, so we knew he wouldn't be hyperactive or anything. The first night he jumped up at every unfamiliar noise, but now he's fine - even when Adam gets up for work from 2:30 to 3:30am. Not only does Jordan get to "have" a dog for most of her summer break, but our friends were generous enough to pay us for watching Sammy and guess what?...it was enough to purchase all of next year's curriculum for Logan & Jordan! Perfect timing. Great dog. Good experience.

Photo Challenge: Day 21

TARPING - the one thing that distinguishes between driving a flatbed or driving a box truck.

Tim chose driving a flatbed instead of a box truck because of a few reasons:
1. It pays a bonus of $11 - $22 to tarp/untarp loads he'd be transporting.
2. The per mile amount is higher overall if you drive a flatbed.
3. The best company that fit our needs doesn't have a box truck division in Phoenix yet.

So Tim has had to learn the art of tarping & untarping his loads. It's not something they really teach you in truck driving school. They give you guidelines based on general sizes, or weights, or materials the load consists of - but nothing too definitive. Most of what he's had to do comes from over-the-road experience and asking other drivers. He's had everything from hay bales, to steel tubes, to oversized-load fans, to spools of copper, bags of salt, and so much more. I had no idea there was so much to it. Between straps, bungee cords, and tarps, there's got to be hundreds of combinations!

Father's Day, Tim had to head back out on the road after church, so we went to take him to his truck where he had to put 2 tarps over his load before he could leave. Logan agreed to help him so it could be done in half the time. The biggest challenges: The tarps weight as much as Tim now that he's down to just 150 lbs, if the company forgot to put the tarps on the load with their forklift, he'd have to climb up a ladder dragging it, then on top of the load, dragging it. Also it was about 110 degrees that day and the trucks in a cement parking lot. Strapping dozens of cords & straps would take 2 hours or more by himself.

Logan did a great job, the company did remember to put the tarps on top for him, and they got done in only an hour. In heat like that, I was so glad Logan is such a hard worker and good helper.

Photo Challenge: Day 20

The Father's Day cake that Logan made...

Logan: "Mom, the cake came out uneven because the oven's on a hill. What do I do?"
Me: (assuming he used actual CAKE pans)..."Take it out of the pan and trim off the part that sticks up. Then flip it over and frost the smooth bottom of it."

Logan: "It fell apart and the entire middle of the cake is still in the pan, stuck."

I got up to see how bad it really was. He tried to flip the whole 9" x 11" cake out of the glass baking dish onto a paper towel, to make it easier to flip back into the dish later, he said. When it stuck, he put the stuck part in the hole on the paper towel. THEN he called me in. Too late to fix it now. He just covered the whole thing with the entire can of frosting, which was white but he added flavorings & color to it.

It was an honest try. It still tasted good, and was a nice gesture on his part for Tim on Father's Day. I didn't want to make him feel bad, so I simply said, "Logan, you and I cook. Jordan bakes."

Photo Challenge: Day 19

FREE! It's my favorite word, especially when it comes from smartly hunting out grocery bargains and matching them to coupons. In this picture, everything in it was free! The bath tissue, the deodorant, air fresheners, toothpaste, toothbrushes, all of it! And that's just from one week.
Other weeks, I've gotten free relish, yogurt, dish detergent, salad dressings, mints, and more!

I love seeing the savings to my family every week, and I really enjoy teaching others how to do the same. I'm so thankful for my new friend, Kara Rozendaal, who showed me how to maximize them. If you've ever said:

- I only buy store brands so they won't work for me.
- I don't have hours on end to cutting, gathering, and organizing a binder full of coupons.
- They're really only good on baby products & pet stuff, so we don't need them.
- I'm a good "by the unit price" shopper, so I save more than that 15 cents coupon on the name brand.

That's where I was. I said all those same things. Truth was, I shopped store brands, dollar stores, clearance racks, and I did save, but I also had to be willing to sacrifice quality. Most things were watered down or didn't perform as well as the national brands. All I looked at was that I saved more on the store brand than a coupon's face value on a non-sale item. There's so much more to it!

Now I buy $4 mayo for under $2. I never pay as much as $1 for cereal or pasta. I get coconut and almond milk for about the same price as store brand regular milk, yogurts are usually half price (off the sale price) or better when I get done. And I consistently pay a lot less for turkey sausage, kielbasa, and Lloyd's shredded beef & chicken than most people.

If you'd like to know how to save on everyday items, from snacks, to food, to personal care & paper items, let me know. I'd be happy to show you how.