helpful hints | window cleaner + post-it trick

Well, hello!

Yes, it's been awhile. The last few weeks have been crazy busy.

• We took our annual trip to Northern California to visit the grands. It was a perfect trip.
• Ella started first grade--woo hoo! I'm missing the simplicity of summer, but starting to enjoy the routine.
• We sent Kate (daughter) and Madi (granddaughter) off to their new home in Idaho (sniff, sniff), so of course we spent every last minute with them before their departure. (Kate just sent me a photo of her new house and it's darling!) 
• Super Saturday is coming up quickly, so I've been working on all sorts of fun project plans with the girls. Can't wait to show you!

And this weekend, we actually crossed two items off our projects list. Oh yah.

PROJECT 1: WINDOWS
I seriously LOVE clean windows. I called two different companies to come clean the outside of our windows and one cancelled on me three times and the other never called me back. We tried a "formula" from Pinterest, because it said we could spray, wipe, spray and it wouldn't leave any streaks, etc. (and we wouldn't have to get the ladder out). Didn't work for us--grrr.

Went back to our tried and true recipe, good old stinky vinegar and water. It's the BEST window cleaner ever. The smell doesn't bother me, but Ella goes nuts. :)

One part water + one part vinegar = perfectly clean windows, mirrors, glass doors and tabletops with no streaks. 

So simple. My friend, Sarah, said her grandmother always used the formula and had an article written in the newspaper about her "celestial" windows.

PROJECT 2: LABEL HOLDERS
I have some small drawers above the "sewing area" in my craft studio that needed handles. (I'll share the rest of the room when I'm done re-organizing.)

I found these label holders on-line at Pottery Barn. Love them! We are not DIY-ers, but decided attaching them couldn't be too difficult.

I made a template by tracing the front of a drawer, placed a label holder where I wanted it (just slightly higher than centered) and marked the holes. Then I poked holes in the template and marked my drawers.

Lynn drilled the top holes, then we measured to make sure the label was level before tightening the screws. (We tried a level, but the top of the label holders aren't straight.) I love this little trick he used. It's a folded post-it that captured the little shavings from the drill.

Nice--and tidy.

It took us hours to complete the project. Partially because we wanted to make sure everything was lined up really well, and partially because the drill wasn't totally charged and we had to keep waiting for it to work again--lesson learned. 

Have a great week.
Kim

checklist | five simple tips to living a healthy lifestyle

We have a great chiropractor, Dr. Paul Jensen. We've been going to him for many, many years. I get a massage and adjustment every month--just for maintenance--and more often if I need it. If I go beyond a month, my body reminds me it's time. :)

I've learned a lot from Dr. Jensen about living a healthy lifestyle. He takes a very holistic approach to healthy living which makes total sense to me. One of the most useful things he's taught me is the five factors for living a healthy lifestyle:

water
diet
sleep
exercise
stress reduction

water
Aim to drink 64 ounces a day.

It used to be difficult for me to drink that much water. I keep track with a 24 oz. insulated cup with a straw and have no problem.

I love lemon water, which is great for boosting your metabolism and detoxing. I juice half a lemon and add it right to my first cup of water in the morning. It'll wake you up quick.

diet
Food is such a personal thing. I've really had to experiment with what works best for my body. I need protein in the morning, so it's eggs or yogurt every day. I've learned I have to eat grains in moderation and when I do, it's whole wheat. I try to stay away from the white stuff--flour, sugar, potatoes and rice.

These cherub tomatoes are the only ones I buy--so sweet!

And I try to eat a lot of good fats--olive oil, avocados, salmon, and whole milk products--along with fruits and veggies. I also take fish oil every day to help with a lack of seratonin. It really helps.

I feel like I eat pretty healthy, but on the flip side, I also have a major sweet tooth. More specifically I've recently realized, a fat tooth. I've gone off sugar multiple times for about four to six weeks (mostly just to say I could and take off a few pounds), but interestingly, the last time I did it, I ended up gaining three pounds! Really? I realized I had just substituted other carbs for the sugar. In reality, a carb--even if it's whole wheat--is still a carb.

Prepare juicing ingredients ahead of time for a quick pick me up.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do a simple detox/cleanse, because I was so tired all the time. I ate all fruits and veggies for two days, then added in some protein (mostly nuts and chicken) the rest of the week. I stayed completely away from all milk products and grains. I felt pretty good, and ended up losing four pounds. And I found the best new juice combo from my latest issue of Whole Living magazine.

Grapefruit and Carrot Juice
Press 2 chopped grapefruits (peel and pith removed), 5 chopped carrots, and 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped, through a juice extractor. Stir and serve immediately.

I want to lose a few more pounds, and after looking into and actually trying some diet plans, am now using My Fitness Pal to track what I eat. It's a free on-line calorie counter and has a major database of foods to search and add. It even has Cafe Rio. I can also add more calories to my count, depending on how long I exercise each day. It's simple to use and a great way to build awareness. (I was way overdoing the nuts. I love almonds and pecans.)

sleep
I am the one on a girls' weekend away, that always heads to bed first. I am NOT a night owl. I know, every party needs a pooper, and I'm the pooper. :) If I don't get enough sleep, not only do I not function well, I gain weight because I eat more sugar to stay "up." Seven to eight hours is absolutely necessary. It helps with regeneration and healing too. 

exercise
Personally, I stick with walking/jogging and weights. I need to pick up on the weights. I slacked on my walks this summer, mostly because Ella is not a morning person and it gets too hot during the day. I've started hitting the next best option--the treadmill in the air conditioned basement family room. My energy level has picked up tremendously.

stress reduction
This is the BIG one. Keeping stress levels in check is critical to healthy living. For me, it's a lot of little things that help me relax and unwind from the every day stressors--shopping therapy (with no littles), date night, massages, afternoon Netflix (an episode of Vampire Diaries or Downton Abbey--I'm SO hooked!), or just running across the street to visit with a friend.

Simplifying life, reduces stress. This is one of the biggest reasons I strive to keep my life as simple as possible. Chaos and craziness are stressful! So are some relationships and friendships.

For the biggies, it's important to find someone to talk to. Someone who can give you a new perspective and teach you new ways of dealing with stressful situations. Yes, I'm a strong believer that everyone can benefit from seeing a therapist at one time or another in their lives. 

Natalie's challenge
At the beginning of the year, my friend Natalie sent an announcement on our neighborhood Google Group, that she was issuing a twelve week challenge and invited anyone who wanted to join. It was great motivation. Because it was a challenge, and not a competition, we had a large group. Natalie's checklist included the following:

5 Fruits and Vegetables
64 oz. of Water
No Sweets (or less sugar)
Exercise
Sleep
Scriptures
Personal (Anything you want to work on personally. For me, some days it was simply change out of my jammies or sweats. :))

We received one point for each item each day. At the end of each week, we added our points to a master sheet. My goal was progress, not perfection.

It's simple to get five fruits/veggies a day with salads like this!

Pear Salad with Walnuts and Feta recipe. (A new fave!)
More salad recipes on my Pinterest board: fruits and salads.

If I've learned anything about healthy living, it's:
1. In order for habits stick, you have to take it one step at a time. Trying to make huge changes all at once is a sure deal breaker.
2. Small and simple things make a big difference.
3. It's easy to fall back into destructive habits. Find ways to keep good habits and get back on track when necessary.

I'd love to hear what one thing you'd like to work on to create a more healthy lifestyle.

Kim

P.S. I'm taking a little time off for some stress reduction. :) I'll be back around August 13th with some fun stuff to share.

food storage made simple

The new simplified approach to food storage suggests we gradually build a three month supply of the foods that are part of our normal, daily diet. Instead of randomly purchasing food, I've developed a method that makes sense and simplifies the process for me. Here's what I'm doing:

Step 1: Choose seven to nine of your family's favorite recipes.
This is one of the reasons I was so excited to get my Family Favorites Recipe Book project completed. My recipes are all compiled in one spot for easy access and meal preparation.

Step 2: Choose one recipe at a time and purchase the ingredients for three months worth of that meal.
I started with my Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. If I fix it once a week for three months, that would be 12 meals. So then, I multiply each ingredient times twelve. The recipes calls for one can of diced green chiles, so I need 12 cans. The ingredients include three cans of chicken broth, so I need 36 cans for twelve meals. Simple, huh?

I was trying to wait for my food storage items to go on sale, but I found I wasn't getting anything done. Now I just go to the Walmart around the corner or Costco and purchase what I need. I still shop the sales, but I want to work faster.

Step 3: Store it all together in one place.
I have shelves in my food/cold storage rooms, so I'll put each meal on one shelf and label it. That way, I can "shop" for my items and they're all in one spot.

By storing specific family favorite meals, it's easy to rotate my storage because we eat them often. I have items like dehydrated onions and spices in bulk for multiple recipes. Of course I'm also purchasing things like cereal and peanut butter, etc. for other meals. For Ella, we store Grape Nuts. She eats them for every meal and snacks. She even named the stuffed cat we got her after surgery a couple of years ago, Grape Nuts. :)

We had a yard sale awhile back and made $600 (wow!). We decided to use it for food storage. We also allocate $50 of our grocery budget each month specifically for food storage. 

Just keepin' it simple. :)

three things thursday

Today's three items are very random, but they're favorites.

One: Sometimes you just need a little bit of sweetness and these chocolate delights hit the spot. I love them. Dark chocolate has antioxidants, so you don't have to feel guilty about eating them. :) The key is to freeze them. (My sister-in-law hides them in the freezer in an empty box of something her family doesn't like.) They're not the same just out of the bag. I eat two or three every day. They're a little pricey, but I stock up when they go on sale at Target for $3.00 a bag.

Two: When I used to travel for business a lot, I would look to see if the city I was going to had a Container Store. I love all kinds of containers and I love these in the kitchen. They're the Ziploc brand Twist 'n Loc rounds. They have a screw on lid instead of the pop on kind and they're heavier weight than others on the market. They also come in different sizes. The medium ones are three cups and the small ones are one and a half cups. Even though I don't microwave in plastic, they are BPA free.

I use these containers a lot to freeze in. I purchase the big bag of Tillamook cheese at Costco and divide it up into both size containers. They stack great in the freezer. I also pre-cut peppers and onions for fajitas and freeze them and veggies for cream of chicken noodle soup. The medium is a great size for freezing leftovers too--unless you have a large family--then you could just use multiples.

These come in packages of two most of the time, but often you'll find them packaged with two medium and a bonus small one. They have them at Walmart right now in new lid colors for $2.00. (They rang up at $2.50, so I took my receipt to the service desk and got an adjustment.)

Three: This is actually the random item. This little piggy arrived for Ella's birthday. It rolls around on the ground and laughs hysterically. It came from Ella's grandparents. (Yes, I told them they were wicked! :)) So Ella is thoroughly impressed by the pig (and laughs hysterically right along with it), while I was thoroughly impressed by how it came packaged. The box was packed with these long bags (I'm assuming newspaper bags), filled with paper from the shredder. We're working on being more "green" in our home, so I thought the idea was genius. I usually end up using plastic grocery bags to pack items for shipping, but then I deplete my supply for the small wastebaskets in the house. Such a simple idea. I love it.