Dear Dr Techno :: Netflix Update

Dear Dr Techno,

I recently decided that instead of cord cutting, for now, we are cord propagating.  It's kind of a roundabout story.

I've been thinking lately that it's in my family's best interest to install a land line, mostly for my son Tucker's sake.  I want him to be able to have a back up way to contact help in case of an emergency.  He knows how to use our cell phones... but... I feel safer knowing there is a more reliable way to reach grandparents or 911.  I contacted our ISP, and got a bundled package of phone, internet and cable.  The way the package worked out, it's like getting the landline for free.  It's not unlimited... only 250 minutes per month.  But, it will easy to monitor and I figure Tucker would enjoy having a phone to call his grandparents whenever he wants, pretty much.  With the package, we got 2 new DVR's and an unexpected bonus is that it came with On Demand viewing.  This completely replaces my need to watch tv via Netflix or Hulu, really.  So, just wanted to update you on our entertainment technology situation.  

Thanks for being my guru of things that plug in.  You make me look like I know more than I actually do about science, technology and the internet.

Love, 

IDO  

Dear IDO,

When other kids will start bragging about their phones, Tucker can be a hipster and brag about his land line.

Cheers, 

Dr Techno

Two Years Later

Apparently, In Decent Order has been on the internets for two years.  A few stats  ::

• First post was on February 23, 2010.
• There are 175 published posts.
• There are 15 posts that I never published.
• Most of the 500-something comments are from friends I know in real life.  (Thanks, guys!)
• Blogger claims that in July 2009, I had 286 page views.  Weird, since IDO wasn't in existence then.
• A lot of my Google hits are from searches involving paint colors I have used.
• The most number of times I have posted in a month is 16 (November 2010, and July 2011).
• Weirdest search terms today "disaster bathroom."  Awesome!

In honor of two years blogging about home and organizing, I'd like to present a conversation from Friends (source)  ::

[Scene: Phoebe's apartment. She is packing a few tings into boxes.]

Phoebe: (looking at Monica entering) Hey!

Monica: Hey, you wanna go to see a movie?

Phoebe: Well, I told you I had to spend all the day clearing out stuff, so Mike could move in.

Monica: Oh, right.

Phoebe: Yeah.

Monica: Oh, well. Now that I'm here I might as well help you with the cleaning and organizing! Just happen to have my label maker!

I am Monica.  That is all.

Kitchen Wipes :: How To

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how I needed to replace some old kitchen wipes, which serve as an alternative to paper towels.  Since then, my 6 yards of flannel came in the mail, I washed and dried it, and decided to take some photos for a tutorial!  Wheee!

1.  Decide you don't want to be in the basement sewing alone.

2.  Turn on American Idol and haul cutting mat, scissors, ruler, rotary cutter, and fabric up to the living room.

I don't really recommend cutting through 4+ layers of fabric while the mat is on carpet.    But, whatever, I did it.

3.  Cut 9 inch strips out of your flannel.  I had three yards of two different flannels, to create two-layer wipes.  I prefer two layers because they clean better than one, and they stack nicer.

4.  Cut your strips into squares.  Again, 9 inches all the way around.  

5.  Stack your squares while watching Parenthood.  I just love making stacks of fabric.  

6.  As I said, I cut out squares from two different flannels, because I like it that way.   So, yeah, stack your other pile.  Because you like to make stacks, too, right?

7.  Now, stack your layers together so they are ready to pick up and sew.  

8.  The next day, decide that it's too pretty of a day to be in the basement and set your serger or sewing machine up where you can enjoy a 73 degree February day in Alabama.  (Okay, really, it doesn't have to be the next day.  Obviously.  But these days I usually can't accomplish an "extra" task like this in one sitting, due to the daily grind.  So for me, it took two days to make these.)

Yes, this is the kids' table on my deck.  What.

9.  Start serging your edges, unless you are using a sewing machine, which means you can zig zag over the edges.  

10.  Serge the first side until you are maybe an inch and a half away from the corner and then turn the fabric so you that you round off the corner.  (I prefer this method because it is faster than serging all four sides of the wipe separately to preserve the square shape.)

11.  Repeat all the way around.  And serge the edge off the machine.  I don't do anything with the tails, but if you don't want them there, you can tuck them into the line of stitching by hand with a large needle.  

12.  Repeat with all your wipes and start stacking your finished products!  That's it.

Well, I said "that's it" but I didn't really mean it.  A few final notes  ::

• I did not iron my flannel after washing.  Kind of a sewing no-no, because when you cut, you could get some uneven edges from cutting over wrinkles.  But, since I knew I'd be serging the edges off, I decided to forgo the ironing and take my chances. The photo below shows a jagged edge that was then zipped right off by the serger's knives.  

• I used a total of 6 yards of flannel... three each of a print and a solid.  I ended up with 45 wipes total, though I realized that if I had done some basic math, I could have gotten a few more out of it, or I could have made the wipes about half an inch bigger all the way around.  I would have ended up with less waste.  Oh well.

• I personally love a large-scale print.  And I love elephants.  But, if it bothers you that each wipe will not be the same, maybe use a smaller print.  I kind of think it's sweet that some wipes will have a whole elephant...

...or just an elephant tooshy.

• The mark of a great serging day  ::

• More stacks to love... wipes ready for a dirty face, or a spill on the counter.  

I Thought It Was Cute At First

A bird taken up as sentry of my dining room window.  She has been flapping, pecking, clawing at the window from 6:15 a.m. until the sun has set at night.  Every day.  For a week.  I can only guess she has a nest on the roof or in the bush just below the window and she is trying to protect some eggs.

But, it has now gotten past the ridiculous point.  I feel like I am living in Alfred Hitchcock land.  The bird torments me everyday.  "What's knocking around in the washer?  Oh, it's just the Bird."  "What is loose in the dishwasher?  Right, it's Bird."  "Who is knocking at the door at this weird time of day?  Bird."  

I am *so* that lady.

Truly, this happens every... single... day.  I hear the clawing and for a split second I wonder what is going on.  Until I remember.

Today, I decided to provide a... ahhh... deterrent.

It worked for but a moment.  Bird was back as soon as I left my post.  

I wonder when she'll exhaust herself and stop tormenting me.  Her beak and feet have got to be damaged at this point.  Bird has even left shmears of something on the windows.  

Bird.  I beg you.  Leave your reflection alone.  

PS.  Birds seem to be attracted to my house.

Bush Whacked

Last year when we had our new deck built, Dave moved several bushes from a hedge near the house and replanted them in a couple of different areas.  Three of them are now near a rocky firepit area of the backyard.  Dave planted them under duress (I think it was raining and they really had to be planted immediately), so he didn't pay much attention to their orientation.  Because they had been cut in a hedge before, they all were sort of squared off, like a typical hedge.  But, in their new place, they faced all different angles and looked wonky.  They were also sort of random in the yard.

After staring at them and being mocked by them for nearly a year now, I took our loppers to them yesterday, in a bit of an experiment.  Because I am awesome, I have no "before" shot.

I pruned each of the three bushes to varying degrees.  Dave, forgive me.  (He is very conservative when it comes to pruning.  He doesn't believe me that a harsh pruning is sometimes needed to propagate better growth and restore a plant's natural shape.)  I am really, really anti hedge and anti "meatball shrub" beacause of how unnatural it looks.  So, my hope is that these bushes will have wonderful new growth that will look more natural, and help create a screen, which will fit in nicely to the landscape design that my friend Sarah came up with.

So, the point of this post is to document if this experiment will work.  I hope to update in a couple of months, though really I should see new growth fairly soon, since it's almost March and winter never really arrived here in Alabama anyhow.

Here are my three bushes, post pruning  :

I know they are hard to see... I am doing my best here with my camera.  It will get better someday.  Maybe.

Here is CB for size reference :

Close ups, first of the massively pruned bush :

The medium pruned bush, where I cut off a foot or so all the way around, trying to keep it from being too unnaturally shaped  :

And the last bush, where I pruned off just the top several inches, again trying to take off the squared edges   :

See how the one above is really "leggy?"  (I have no idea if that is a real gardening term.)  There are no leaves in the middle... all the growth is towards the end of each branch.  I really hate how that looks.  I don't have high hopes that this one will look awesome... I think it needs more pruning to encourage it to fill in and become bushier.... but, hey, this is an experiment and if it proves that harsh pruning works best, I will probably end up cutting this one back some day, too.


And now, for gratuitous cuteness and silliness, since my sweet baby was my helper while I took photos  :

His hair.... I want to die.

Valentines Cop Out?

I'll probably get slaughtered by all my crafty Pinterest friends for saying this, but I guess I must consider Valentines Day one of the "Lesser Holidays."  The reason I say "I guess" is because I noticed how much I *haven't* done in preparation for tomorrow.  I didn't buy Valentines for my son's kindergarten class, I didn't plan sweet little cookies and I didn't pack a surprise card in my travelling-husband's suitcase.  Oops?

I love, I mean LOVE, pretty things, making pretty things, giving pretty things.  But, as I have discussed ad nauseum, I find that getting into the swing of the school habits is hard.  And that includes giving away Valentines cards.

So, whatever, last night it occurred to me that it would be very sad indeed if Tucker went to school and had nothing to give his classmates.  He is a generous giver.  But, he's not old enough to be responsible for his own Valentines Day stuff.

In order to avoid an extra errand to buy easy fill-in-the-blank cards, which FYI I would 100% endorse and do myself if I had planned ahead, I decided to quickly cut out hearts from pretty two-sided paper I had on hand.  On the front I wrote "To:" and on the back scribbled out "Happy Valentines Day! " (Tucker will fill in his friends' names and sign his own name this afternoon, in theory).  It was so, so easy, took about 15 minutes, cost nothing beyond what I had already spent on the paper, and turned out marginally cute.  I feel that even a bare minimum effort looks so much better when there is pretty paper, or some sort of embellishment.  Even plain white card stock hearts decorated with a small border of black-sharpie-pen polka dots would have been sweet.  "Pretty" is in the details, right?

Part of my goal with the blog here is to talk about how doing something "Okay" really is okay.  [My name is Tara, and I am a recovering perfectionist.]  And I feel like this post is important to me (well, I mean, this isn't life changing or anything) because in the age of Pinterest (which I love dearly), it is easy to get into that guilty mommy mode where you think that every kids' mom is making these and you are the only one who sucks and doesn't love your kid enough and isn't dedicated enough to his educational and social experiences.

Besides, let's be real.... these Valentines are going into the trash on February 15.  Oh wait, you all do that too, right?  Sneak stuff into the trash and hidden paper recyling area while your kid is at school, right?

Listen, if I have to tell myself and tell you, my sweet reader-friend, 100 times a day, I will do it.... Ditch the mommy guilt!  It is pointless and a lie and you are a good mom.  I am pretty sure.  Okay, go hug yourself and eat a cookie.  Smooch!

PS.  For the record, I do not throw away the uber-thoughtful Valentines cards that my brother's wife sends to the kids each year.  Last year, I kept them on our  mantle for weeks and weeks.  They were so sweet, had unusual art and just meant a lot that she made that kind of effort.  I later put them in my kids' "to keep" boxes.  And that is saying a lot, as I am ruthless with the paper stuff that I *don't* keep.  Her cards for this year are ready and waiting to be opened, on the mantle.  

Wipe On, Wipe Off

I really don't know how to share this post without sounding prissy and clever.  I don't think that I am prissy and clever, but it's just hard to figure out how to write about helpful things around the house without coming off like a self-righteous housekeeper.  So, I'm going to say sorry in advance for possibly coming off like a know-it-all.

Much to the irritation of my mother, I don't keep paper towels on the counter top in my kitchen.  About five years ago, I started using flannel wipes to clean my kid up after meals and I liked them better than using  paper towels... they cleaned more thoroughly, and they didn't really create more laundry because I could add them to a load of towels.  And, they paid for themselves after awhile.  My mother uses paper towels for ev-ery-thing in the kitchen... including drying her hands after washing.  She blows through the rolls of paper towels like crazy, but whatever, she likes her system and doesn't mind buying huge packs of paper towels frequently.

I'm currently on my second set of kitchen wipes (the first set looks great and is still in rotation in the kids' bathroom for wiping down counters, floors, etc. when I do my regular cleaning). This current set is starting to look pretty bad.  Very stained, and getting pilled.  (I've used them for a little over two years.)  Plus, I really don't have enough of them.  I might have about twenty, which means I do have to wash load of towels/wipes before the load is full because I have run out of wipes in the kitchen.  

I like two layers of flannel because they are sturdier, stack nicer and wipe better than one layer.  Once they come out of the wash, I stack them ...

...and put them in an under-shelf wire basket in an upper cabinet near the sink.  In my old kitchen that had tons of storage space, the wipes had their own very small drawer next to the sink.  

To make the wipes, I cut 9-inch square pieces of flannel, put two pieces together and serged around the edges (you could totally do a zig zag stitch on your regular sewing machine).  I rounded the corners so that I can get one wipe done without having to remove the wipe from the machine 4 times to do all 4 straight sides.  To people with sergers, that sentence makes sense, right?  To other people, just ignore that part about rounding the corners.

I do actually keep a roll of paper towels in the kitchen, for those big messes that just need to get tossed in the trash and not get washed with my towels.  They are above the sink with my cook books.  And when my mom visits, I get them down for her and leave them on the counter.

See them hiding to the right of the cook books?  Here's where I feel compelled to explain why they are brown.  It's because I took my annual trip to Whole Foods in Birmingham [annual because it's far from me and let's face it, very expensive] and I couldn't resist them.  You know me, sometimes I have to be a rebel and be different so I went berserk and bought a huge roll of recycled brown paper towels for $2.  Normally, I get plain white Publix brand or whatever is cheapest.  I love some crunchy things, but I do not have I-only-use-crunchy-brown-paper-towels-from-Whole-Foods righteousness.  I promise.  I think.

And because this blog is about "decent" order, you should know that when I took these photos, this is what was in my sink  ::

Oooh, how about a bonus orderly tip for the day?  See the green kids' Nalgene in the dirty sink?  I put painter's tape on it and write Calvin's name with a Sharpie.  It's basically free.  I know it's not as cute as some of those imprinted bands, but whatever.  It also lasts through the dishwasher for months on end, so you don't have to keep replacing it.  

Okay, any of my more astute writing friends have some advice for me on how to share helpful things without sound like an overzealous jerk?  I mean, I really hate that know-it-all tone, but it's hard to know if I'm writing in it.  Ha!  

Peace, everyone, it's Friday!

P.S.  Here is the flannel I ordered for my new set of kitchen wipes.  I can't wait for it to arrive, it's so fun and happy.  And if you followed me on Pinterest, you'd already know about this flannel.  :)  Click on the red "follow me on Pinterest" button on the right sidebar!

Still Working on the New Game Called School

In November, I wrote about trying to figure out our new life as a family with a school-aged child.  I feel like I am still getting my feet under myself regarding the school routine.

It feels good, though, fumbling toward figuring it out.  I started walking Tucker to school in the last few weeks, which has been good in every single way.  It's a little over a mile away, which is totally doable for Tucker and it gives me nearly 2.5 miles to get a little workout on.  I am convinced I have to get in shape.... I am so very weak.  To the point that it's hard to be a mother and lift and swing and hold.

I also think the walk is good for my high-energy little boy.  I wonder what a few miles a week will do for him.  Will it impact his attention span?  Will it calm him down?  Will it make him a better reader? Or artist?  It might.

The walk is good for our relationship, too, I think.  It's an extra 45 minutes in the morning where we can interact.  (That's roughly 30 minutes walking, plus 15 minutes longer at home versus catching the bus.) That's a lot of time, considering that when he rides the bus, he's gone for 8 hours a day.   That means that the walk is 10% less time that he's at school.  The afternoons and evenings go by in a blur, usually, which even further makes those 45 morning minutes important to me.

The only problem with the walk is the final .2 miles.... there are no sidewalks into the school.  Thankfully, there is a police officer who stops traffic for us to cross a big country road, but, man, entering the school property is high stakes.  Drivers don't expect a walker.... I have not seen a single person walk their kid to school there, even though there are several neighborhoods close by.  I can only assume that people don't want to risk fighting the traffic as a pedestrian.

Leaving the school, Calvin in stroller, Razor scooter and helmet in basket.

But, it's worth it.

Somehow, it's also made me feel more involved in school,  though I don't even enter the building. I am glad to have the visual of Tucker dart off to his class, and I have even seen Calvin's teacher from his Mom's Day Out, as she drops her daughter off.  I love that!  It's nice to feel a little more community-minded, especially since I live in the least community-minded community in the whole Birmingham area.  At least, that's how it seems to me.

Oh, one more little thing about the walk...   Tucker has complained that riding his Razor scooter that far makes him tired.  He needs a lot of breaks, and he usually gives me some lip when I tell him that it's a Walking Day (maybe 3 times a week).  I don't think he's being defiant, I think that his 6:00 a.m. bowl of Cheerios isn't sticking with him.  I don't love the idea (yet) of getting up extra early to make a big breakfast, so I had the idea of boiling some eggs tonight.  I'll peel them and put them in a Tucker-accessable dish in the fridge so he can help himself to an egg or two, in addition to his cereal.  I can't decide if this is genius or lazy.  Might be both.

So, we're adding walking and eggs to the routine.  I hope to stick with the walking, for sure.  As for the eggs, we'll see how if it makes a difference.  It can't hurt.