Scattered Sundays

This week found multiple contractors swinging by the house to take a look at the damage left from the washing machine flood. As of now, it should all turn out ok and in some cases, the end result will be much better than what we were starting with.

I mean, I definitely still wish we hadn’t had to deal with this at all, but it’s very much a first-world problem. It will be fine and it is fine.

Troy had a pretty genius idea with the shower that we’re removing in the laundry/bathroom. We’re pulling out the shower, but he suggested we leave the drain in the floor. If the washer ever floods again, the majority of the water will have somewhere to go. Major props to him for coming up with that.

We’ll be putting a storage cabinet where the shower is now, but if whatever we choose doesn’t come with feet to elevate it, we can always add some to make sure the water can make a direct beeline for the drain.

The very janky and very early 80s vanity was considered destroyed (sob…) and will of course be replaced. This is an extra bathroom and laundry room and so we don’t really care about replacing things with “the best”.

We’re batting around the idea of a “floating” vanity (like this one) so that again, the water has somewhere to go that isn’t directly into the vanity. If we catch any flooding early, we’d only need to remove baseboards to dry out the drywall.

And to round out our “let’s never have to replace things again” ideas, we decided to not formally replace the bathroom flooring. The only flooring that is essentially waterproof is tile, but that’s expensive and labor-intense. Everything else has to be pulled up to be replaced to allow the concrete under it to fully dry.

We were driving the other day and I said “if the concrete is the thing that needs to dry out in a flood, let’s just have concrete in the laundry room”. We’re exploring painting, staining, or polishing the existing concrete, once we remove the gross glue leftover from the horrible peel and stick tile that was in there before.

Troy and I were between shows and decided to try The English on Amazon Prime. The show looks very much like a Western and follows a lot of Western formulas, BUT if you don’t like Westerns, this show is still very good.

Unfortunately, it is one of those shows where you cannot multitask. I love to zone out on my phone for 45 minutes while we watch TV at the end of the night, but it is not with this show!

There are multiple accents to track and many little hidden Easter eggs that require your full attention. And the dialog can be very quiet in some of the scenes. A few times we even put closed captioning on to make sure we weren’t missing anything.

Usually, I am able to predict the direction of shows, but this one had me guessing most of the time. There were times we had to pause the show to make sure we hadn’t missed an episode.

It just felt like we were missing important details. But never fear, it all wraps up in the end and you will fully understand the hero’s journey.

Not to mention, the show is visually stunning and Emily Blunt is a gift to the world. Chaske Spencer, who plays the co-lead, Eli, is amazing. More of him in all the shows. Please and thank you.

There are so many scenes where they’re under the blinding sun on the prairie with zero cloud or tree cover. At one point I turned to Troy and said “if I were the star of this show, my sunscreen budget would have been double that of craft services”.

We’re heading out this afternoon to get our Christmas tree. Each year I have a tradition of taking a photo of Jack in my arms at the Christmas tree farm. This year I am still under post-op lifting restrictions, so we’re going to have to get creative!

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, if it weren’t for my kids, I would never decorate for Christmas. I’m not a grinch (maybe…), but I just don’t care about all the pomp and circumstance. It’s not my thing. I’m also the one who is usually left to deep clean the pine needles from the living room once the tree is gone, so there’s that.

And yes, there is no need to inform me that fake trees exist. I knooooooow. By chopping down our own tree each year, we are: 1) supporting a local small business 2) supporting the environmentally-friendly option both for carbon capture while the tree is growing, and not tossing a fake tree in the landfill when it no longer serves our needs 3) guarantees our children one day a year to play with power tools.

Despite our commitment to the real tree, the boys do each have a small fake tree (ignore that carbon capture and landfill stuff up above…) that I found at IKEA during our kitchen remodeling phase. No other photo accurately captures the personality differences between my children than how each decorates their tree.

While decorating is not my jam, I do LOVE the tradition of giving friends and neighbors homemade holiday goodies. Here is a nice little roundup of my favorite goodies to give. Also, humor me, because this is the one time of year y’all let me post dessert recipes:

Old-Fashioned Fudge {Pin this recipe}

My Nana’s famous Almond Roca {Pin this}

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies {Pin this recipe}

Candy Cane Bark {Pin this recipe}

Homemade Honey Marshmallows {Pin this recipe}

S’mores Bark {Pin this recipe}

Vegan Strawberry Truffles {Pin this recipe}

Dehydrated Marshmallows {Pin this tutorial}

Chocolate Pretzel Bark {Pin this recipe}

Gluten-Free Espresso Brownies {Pin this recipe}

Homemade Vanilla Extract {Pin this recipe}

Almond Butter Cups {Pin this recipe}

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO THIS WEEK

A friend of mine recommended the podcast, “If Books Could Kill”. Each week, the two hosts do a deep-dive into a popular “airport” book from the 90s and early 2000s, and absolutely pick it apart. It’s delightful.

If you’re a fan of the podcast, Maintenance Phase, Michael Hobbes is also a cohost of If Books Could Kill. He’s just as fantastic on this show as he is on with Aubrey on Maintenance Phase.

What I’m reading this week

I finished The Ink Black Heart, and of course, I loved it. This whole series is so good. The author is problematic but I ease my guilt by only getting the books from the library. It is not a perfect system at all.

A few readers on Instagram recommended I watch the series on HBO Max and I have been (slowly) enjoying it very much. The actor they cast for Strike is not really how I pictured the character but he’s fine. If you watch The Boys, the actor who plays Butcher is how I picture Strike in my head.

The Kindle version of The Ink Black Heart was 1400 pages, so I wanted a fast and non-dense read for my next book. I turned to an old standby, the literary fast-casual version of books, John Grisham.

I started The Racketeer and spent the whole book thinking “I have read this one before, right…?”, but that’s just Grisham and his formulaic writing style. But hey, I enjoyed it and I knew what I was getting into when I downloaded it from the library.

I’m in the lovely nerdy position of having TEN ebooks from the library downloaded to my ancient kindle. The wi-fi has been turned off and those books aren’t going anywhere!

READER SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Danielle left this nice review on our Roasted Frozen Cauliflower tutorial {Pin this recipe}:

Looking in my freezer, I found two bags of frozen cauliflower…looking at my schedule I found two children’s sports games. So what did that call for in the recesses of my recipe memory? Roasted cauliflower soup! So yes. The cauliflower was roasted perfectly. The cauliflower soup, including bacon…was, chef’s kiss…perfection!

ON SUSTAINABLE COOKS THIS WEEK

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven – Learn how to bake bacon in the oven in this easy tutorial. Make delicious, perfectly crispy bacon each and every time with this simple kitchen hack. {Pin this tutorial}

Homemade Rice Heating Pads – This easy tutorial will teach you how to make homemade rice heating pads that are a perfect project for any beginning sewer. Heat these DIY rice bags for a microwavable heating pad or stick them in the freezer for a homemade ice pack. {Pin this tutorial}

Confessions – everyone’s favorite silly post of the month.