Scattered Sundays and Meal Plan
Breaking news! THREE days of snow this week! That is what is known as a Seattle Shutdown my friends. Everything grinds to a halt and people act like idiots. It was supposed to snow 1-3 inches on Friday afternoon (we barely got a dusting) so they went ahead and preemptively canceled school and announced it on Thursday.
It’s like when we lived in Los Angeles and it rained. Pure chaos.
But we did get about 1.5 inches on Wednesday night and had fun playing in it on Thursday morning. It was gone by that afternoon.
There was also a power outage on Sunday due to high winds during snow. And then we had a few straight days of freezing cold weather with the bluest skies you have ever seen. I mean we were all over the map this week and I loved it.
A power outage is God’s way of saying “eat the Tillamook before it melts”.
Troy and I had a pretty epic date this week. That is what you call cleaning out the shed and building firewood storage, right? I mean, how would you classify that?
A few years ago we received a free garden shed. We used it to store the mower and other odds and ends. When we got the woodstove we also used it to store firewood. Over the winter the piles have gotten haphazard and a bit dangerous and I told Troy we shouldn’t get any more wood until that shit was organized with an actual firewood rack.
Before (I had already taken some of the wood out before taking this picture)
Bennett and I unloaded all the wood from the shed while Troy built the racks. He put together two simple racks using cinder blocks, some 2x4s, and a few screws.
After!
It was about 30 degrees the whole time and we kept moving to stay warm. Toddlers are insanely helpful with home improvement projects. Who else would sweep the walls?
Can I ask you a personal question? Too soon you say! I know it’s early and you’re probably still snuggling up with your first cup of coffee. But I am curious like a cat…how often do you wash your bath/shower towel?
Before you x out of this post, remember, we’re buds. I’m not here to judge or question. Unless of course, your answer is like “once a month” and then we’re going to have issues.
I used to work with someone who had a family of five and they only used their towels once before she would wash them. ONCE. That seems like so much laundry. And, I mean, aren’t you using it to dry off a clean body?
We tend to wash them after three to four days. Bathroom hand towels get swapped out after 24-36 hours because they’re in constant use, unlike the bath towels.
Are we still friends? Can we discuss this like adults?
Speaking of adult-like topics, guess where I was last night? The Seattle live show of My Dad Wrote a Porno, one of my absolute favorite podcasts!
I went with my sister-in-law Amy who is my fellow Belinker (it’s a thing) after I pressured her into listening to it almost a year ago. We bought the tickets before Christmas and have been looking forward to it for months.
IT WAS SO FUN! I feel like I rarely get to do fun grown-up things (like going to fake porn podcast shows, obvs) and to go to something so silly and fun was a breath of fresh air. And then I went to bed super late and got up early for church this morning. Church seems like the natural next step after an event about terrible father-written porn.
I got a Facebook message this week from a reader asking for info about bat houses. Apparently, a neighbor’s past-its-prime pool breeds a buttload of mosquitoes, and this reader wants to build a bat house to help cut down on the skeeter population. I don’t have any experience with bat houses or mosquitoes (not really a Seattle problem), so I thought I would ask the smartest people I know – you people! Anyone have any insight into this process?
Jack started baseball this week even though it is technically still basketball season. His coach is quite gung-ho and excited to start playing. The number of practices we have scheduled so far is pretty intense. It was so cold this week when they had practice that Jack and a few other kids were crying. Yeesh.
Yep, ice on the field. This seems like appropriate baseball weather for 8-year-olds.
I do hope the excitement of it wears down for our enthusiastic coach after a few weeks and we don’t all imminently start hating baseball. I applaud anyone who is willing to dedicate so much time to help with kid’s sports. But I’m not just not stoked for freezing my ass off six nights a week until June.
I published two other posts this week and both were things I have been eating for lunches all week. I love them!
How to Make Encurtido – Honduran Pickled Vegetables (or “yummy pickled shit” as my mother-in-law called it). I adore these veggies and eat them at least twice a day.
Chicken Salad With Greek Yogurt and Dill – not your traditional chicken salad but a delicious and fun play on a classic. And one that doesn’t require mayo because my thoughts on that subject are quite clear. Quite.clear.
It is well known that creative types never wear pants while photographing chicken salad with an old phone.
Meal plan time!
Monday:: Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli from Smith Brother’s and roasted veggies.
Tuesday:: Tortilla Soup and garlic bread. I had some tortilla soup at a restaurant last week and it had ingredients in there I had never put in tortilla soup before. It was delicious. I want to try my hand at making it at home.
Wednesday:: Chef’s salads and biscuits. Baseball and basketball night.
Thursday:: Wraps and veggie sticks. Baseball and basketball night. Blah.
Friday:: Instant Pot Baked Potato Soup and salad. Yes, this was on the menu last week but um, someone forgot to buy potatoes. :whistles and tiptoes out of the post:
Saturday:: Popcorn, leftovers, and movie night. Normally on Fridays but we have baseball practice. On Friday night. Yep.
Sunday:: Family dinner
Smith Brother’s Farms: $21.30
Want to sign up for Smith Brother’s home delivery and get a $10 credit on your first order? Simply click this link enter “Sarah Cook” in the “How Did You Hear About Us” field and then enter “FRIEND” in the promo code field on the payment page and you’ll be credited $10! For full disclosure, they would also credit my account as well.
Fred Meyer: $37.43. Jack had a four-day weekend and it was strange for him to also go grocery shopping with Bennett and I. I realized that Bennett is a much better shopper without an older brother around.
Costco: $62.13 Hey, so Costco has organic cashews now! Who knew? You? Show off.
I have an awesome cashew-based recipe hopefully coming up this week and I can’t wait to share it with you all.
Also, in an epic gardening shame spiral, I ran out of homegrown garlic. In February!
What are you having this week?
Towels. I think I never had a real plan until I had kids… Hand towels of course gets exchanged every day. But for everything else once a week…..we bathe the boys every Sunday (we shower them during the week when there is the need to). On Sunday they get the whole thing, tub full, boats, all the time they want. Which usually results in a tub overflow. So every Sunday I clean the entire bathroom while I watch them, and then all the towels we had during that week are used to whipe up all the water that they spill and tossed wet into the laundry
😉 Which I find awesome: Happy tired kids, bathroom clean, towel duty done.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only Mom who uses tub time to clean the bathroom! They are a captive audience and you might as well take advantage of it.
We typically wash our towels about once a week, more often if we took a late shower the night before and they’re still damp (for example). Â But it’s pretty darn dry here where I live, and we have a bathroom fan and a window in our master bathroom that we open sometimes to ventilate the room. Â We also hang the towels up each day on separate hooks to dry. Â Our towels seem to last pretty well and they never smell mildewy but again, it’s a dry climate out here!
Score one for the dry climate!
Towels are a process in our house! We are fortunate in that our shower has a towel bar directly over the heat/AC vent, so they dry quickly. I wash our towels once a week, in HOT water and detergent, then run them through another quick cycle using a cup of white vinegar instead of detergent. This keeps them sweet smelling, and un-crunchy forever. We also cycle through our selection of towels — what is being washed is replaced with towels from the closet, etc.
I do this with kitchen towels, and hand towels and washclothes too. Colors get the hot water and vinegar only; whites get washed with bleach or hydrogen peroxide.
I’m a towel perfectionist, I admit. Is there a 12-step program for that?
I love the new blog design — I have been a reader for a long time, and I wasn’t sure I wanted you to change, but I really love it! Thanks for all your good advice, and for letting us into your life!
Susan, do you have a dispenser for fabric softener in your washer? I use vinegar in there from time to time. That may work instead of a separate wash with vinegar. Worth a shot!
I delivered Bennett at a birthing center that only used white towels. My midwife said they use hydrogen peroxide and bleach on them too. I have used it for spot removal but never in a whole load. How clever!
I think there are worse things to be in this life than a towel perfectionist. 🙂
Thanks so much for being a long-time reader and for the feedback. I wanted this space to be for you all so I’m stoked to hear it is working for most people.
I found that with colored towels, we weren’t able to go more than one or two showers before having to change out the towels. Apparently our bathroom doesn’t have sufficient ventilation (or maybe it has something to do with how they are washed), because they wouldn’t sufficiently dry out and would begin to smell a little sour. So we switched to white towels. These fare a little better but I still have to keep an eye on my husband’s towel and just toss it in the wash for him. Suffice it to say that he will wait until it takes on sort of an off-white hue. *puke*
How interesting. What do you think it is with the colored vs white towels that causes odors? Our bathroom also has poor ventilation despite having a decent fan installed in the ceiling.
Troy doesn’t get a choice; I wash all the towels at the same time. He would never notice or care and my sense of smell is too strong for that!
I think the fact that we bleach our white towels gives them a little longer “shelf life” versus detergent alone.
Got it!
When I was a kid living in the country at the tail end of a family of seven, towels were washed once a week, if that. We were on tank water and to be honest. weren’t encouraged to shower any more frequently than this. Now that I’m an adult living with just my partner in a city where water magically comes out of the tap no matter what weather we’re having (and I have have a better understanding of microbiology) I’m washing the towels twice a week, or more, if I need more pieces to justify putting a load on. And myself every day, in case you were wondering.
I think twice a week works for us too, and daily for ourselves. 🙂
With all those kids and country living, did your family also have a farm?
You know what boys do to towels, right??!!  I was cleaning my closet one day and had a clear view of what my husband does to a towel, any towel, every time he walked by. I was traumatized and will never, ever reuse a towel if he has access to it. I know that isn’t eco friendly however I would rather scrap my skin dry than use a desecrated butt towel.Â
Lol, so gross and funny! Why are boys so disgusting?!
Cart Porn lol!  Giddy about seeing other people’s shopping carts…thanks for posting pics! Need to snag a few things at Costco today too! Love your new logo and site!Â
I love looking at people’s carts too. I feel like you can get a little glimpse into their psyche.
Thanks, I’m loving the site and logo. Very proud of it!
We used to live Nextdoor to someone with a Bat house. We still had a ton of mosquitos, but maybe we would have had more without it? The neighbors were not the original bat house builders, but the person that sold them the house told them it took a long time to get it built and get them established, so they shouldn’t tear it down. We used to see lots of bats flying around and once even had one get in our house, which our cat thought was the coolest day ever!Â
We ended up buying a Mega Catch mosquito machine that I think is the best mosquito control we’ve used. It’s expensive up front but then doesn’t cost much to keep it up.Â
All this skeeter talk is so foreign to me, but a mosquito machine sounds powerful and hardcore!