Cleaning

20% Better–Improving the Way We Approach Food, Community, and Sustainability

It’s no secret that sustainability, “shop local,” and reducing our carbon footprint have been hot topics for a while. Unfortunately, my little corner of Louisiana is the complete anthesis of any of these ideas (except for some trailblazers who I will talk about later). We do not have any recycling program in my city, or composting. The grocery store will not only give you 40 plastic bags, but you will also often see just one item packed per bag (yep, no lie). Most of our stores are big box (with a few exceptions), and the farmers’ market looks a bit anemic compared to what you see on TV. So, let’s just say it’s not the easiest place to explore sustainability.

Some of my Southern upbringing has helped. I’m a fair scratch cook, know how to can the garden produce, and I sure can stretch a meal. My husband maintains the garden, which also contributes when the weather hasn’t wiped it out (seriously? 8 degrees in Louisiana?!? RIP winter garden). But I confess, a few things got me thinking, or should I say re-thinking my current state of homemaking:

  • Walking through the empty grocery store at the height of the pandemic made me realize just how fragile the supply chain is.
  • Losing our city recycling program shone a light on just how MUCH garbage our family produces.
  • Seeing so many small businesses close permanently in recent years.
  • The dumpster fire our environment is becoming.

Because if all of this, I’ve felt the urge to make some improvements, but I needed to be realistic about getting started. First, I knew any changes couldn’t be too impactful on my family’s routine, or they would rebel. Second, I needed to be realistic about what I could really incorporate both in time and budget, since I would be 100% in charge of this endeavor. Third, it would require some research on what is available locally and what I might need explore online.

That’s why I came up with the idea of “20% Better” for our home. If we can just start by doing 20% better in terms of sustainability and shopping locally, well, that’s pretty manageable, right? Here is how it’s going so far:

Food

One of the most significant improvements we’ve made is sourcing about 60% of our meat and dairy locally. Between the farmer’s market and social media searches, I found four local producers for sustainably produced meat (Mahaffey Farms, Sample Farm, Smith Family Farms, and Wooldridge Meat), including one that will deliver to my door for a fee (worth it because the gas to get to their store in the next parish is actually more than the fee). Morell Dairy Farm in the north part of the parish began stocking their products in several area stores, so I am able to access local milk and butter. When I tell you the quality is night and day compared to what I was buying at the Wally-World, I’m not kidding. Is it more expensive? Of course, but honestly not as much as I thought, and the extra expense has me thinking more consciously when I am meal planning to reduce waste. Not only am I getting better products, but I’m also spending my money directly in my community.

Household

In trying to reduce our plastic footprint, I’ve been test-driving two companies: Dropps for laundry detergent and Blueland for household cleaners. While I like Dropps so far, including the compostable packaging, I have to give Blueland a thumbs-down. I just don’t think their products clean as well as what I have been using (and HATE their bottles), so it’s back to the drawing board on that. If you have less-waste household cleaning products that work, let me know because I’m still searching.

One of the biggest impacts to our household waste has been this countertop composter I purchased from Vitamix. When all five of us are home, we have a LOT of food scraps from cooking. If we were to toss it in the compost bin outside, the sheer volume would turn it into a rotten, stinky garbage pile in a week. Our neighbors would not appreciate that whatsoever, and I have enough naughty trash pandas and possums causing mayhem as it is. I use this gadget every other day, if not daily when the boys are home. It reduces my veggie and fruit peels, eggshells, coffee grounds, chicken bones, and other kitchen waste from two liters to about 1/4 cup of dried organic matter ready to go into the compost bin or directly into the garden. This picture is over two weeks of kitchen waste, now reduced, that is about to go out to the garden:

 

The household component of “20% Better” is a work in progress, but I’m hoping to find more ways to cut down waste until such time that the city gets it’s sh$t together and brings back recycling.

Shopping Local

I confess, I am guilty of succumbing to the siren song of Amazon Prime, especially since my options locally are often big box stores with limited inventory. We also only have one big-name bookstore with less-than-ideal selection.  Often, ordering online is the only way to get some things, especially books and specialty ingredients (well, specialty for my corner of Louisiana). However, over the past year, we have also been paying attention to local businesses and artists with the help of social media. We found a local botanical shop (Clean Slate Botanicals) and befriended the owner/maker. His candles smell amazing and last twice as long as Bath & Body Works, and I can return the locally produced ceramic container for discounted refills. We purchased several works from local artists featured at 318 art Co. as we’ve slowly decorated the house, and 20% of our Christmas gifts came from local artists or entrepreneurs. We’ve followed local business pages and are trying to attend more area events to see what else our community has to offer.

So, that’s what’s going on around here. We started the “20% Better” initiative last year, and my goal for this year is to build consistency, expand our efforts gradually and incrementally, and just be more conscious about the whole sha-bang. I know we tend to feel like it’s an “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to change or improvement, but I’m approaching changes one small strp at a time. I think the biggest challenge is simply taking the time, because it does take planning and a little research to make informed decisions and changes. Speaking of shopping local, that reminds me…I need to go pick up a King Cake for the weekend. It’s Mardi Gras Season, Y’all!

**Usual disclaimer: This blog is not monetized or sponsored in any way. The links I provide ARE NOT affiliate links, they are just for your convenience. All reviews are of products I pay for with my own money, and I have no problem telling you the truth about them. If you see an ad on my site, that comes from WordPress, my site host, as the toll of free blogging. I have no control over the targeted ads they display to you**

Totally About to Go All Marie Kondo Up in Here

Do you ever feel like you are a master imitation of a broken record? I finally realized that’s exactly how I sounded when, for the 1000th time, I remarked to a friend this that it’s been a tough year. Scratch that, a tough four-plus years. After losing Dad last year, we went on to lose both our neighbor and good friend, followed shortly thereafter by my uncle. Considering that I already win the award for “Most Unhealthy Ways to Cope with Grief,” I’m not at all surprised that I’ve been operating on semi-toxic fumes for far too long.

But this last week, we took a long-planned family vacation, which was amazing, exhausting, and magical. When we came back to Louisiana, spring was in the air, with the wisteria in full bloom and the grass already filling in the winter-brown lawn. I know the hellfire summer is just around the corner, but something about coming home to a landscape transformed on the tails of a truly epic vacation gave me the kick in the ass I sorely needed. I spent the past couple of days thinking about what needs to change, and as the title suggests, I’m about to go Marie Kondo both literally and figuratively on myself, and my environment. It’s time for some physical, emotional, and spiritual spring cleaning, and part of that is returning to this space and getting back to the things that spark joy, as cheesy as that sounds.

So before I get back to it, let’s take the 50-cent recap of the past months, shall we?

First, I invested in an amazing smoker and subsequently smoked allllll the things, including all my neighbors’ Thanksgiving turkeys, lots of pork butts, bratwurst, and so on. One day, I want to volunteer with Operation BBQ, and help those suffering from disaster or displacement.

Bean joined the Cub Scouts!

She’s having a blast.

I knit a blanket for a special baby and won second place at the State Fair:

We did a winter garden of cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and carrots. (We also planted strawberries in the fall for a late spring/early summer harvest):

And finally, I finished all of the Knitterati 2018 blocks (though I have yet to assemble the blanket and add the border):

Oh, and one more project. Dad’s wife asked me to make pillows from some of his dress shirts:

So, even if I was not at my best this past year, I can say that I kept making. However, I think it’s time to dust off the cobwebs and realize that maybe there’s a bit more nuance between seemingly normal and truly healthy. If anything, at least my house will be cleaner…maybe. Probably.

Definitely maybe.

Coming Out of The Dark…Or “Smack Me Upside The Head If I Mention Moving Anytime In The Next Decade”

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At the beginning of the year, we set a goal to sell our house and purchase a new home that was better for our family. As much as I loved our house, the layout was impractical for our kids (especially with a soon-to-be teenager), and the utility costs of a poorly insulated, 100 year-old home were threatening to sink us. Within a week of New Year’s, we launched “Operation Sell The House 2014.”

I think moving is kind of like child birth in that you tend to block out how horrible and traumatic it was the last time, because if you didn’t, you would never, ever do it again. As my OCD-ish tendencies demanded, I attacked the selling/buying/moving process with an intensity that my husband frustratingly refers to as my “tunnel vision.” We cleaned, packed, and staged like our lives depended on it. While I will spare you the details, I feel like the last four months have been a marathon of work, stress, upheaval, tears, frustration, and ultimately success. We sold our house quickly, and despite the frustrations of just getting to the closing table, came away happy.

Thus began the frantic marathon of house showings to find a new house, and the debates of budget, neighborhood, and deal-breaker priorities. We finally found a great house in a great neighborhood, successfully executed the move, and have slowly been settling in. That’s the tough part about moving though–life doesn’t stop or give you a vacation to get it done. We still had school projects, business trips, and for me, trying to keep my freelance clients happy. Add cranky-pants Bean into the mix and yeah…just yeah. But we got it done, so everything should be awesome.

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However, months of being surrounding by boxes and chaos have taken their toll on me. Instead of being happy and excited in our new house, I’ve felt overwhelmed and unsettled by all of the work still left to do. I am so ready for everything to be “done” already! When you are already neurotic and high-strung, feeling like everything is in a state of chaos is alternately depressing and paralyzing. First, we had a couple of unexpected surprises, like a dishwasher that requires immediate replacement because it sounds like an F5 tornado and leaves the dishes looking worse than they were before. Unpacking and organizing seems to progress at a snail’s pace, and we still have a lot of organizing ahead of us before we can declare unpacking complete. My dad reminded me that moving is one of the top four most stressful life experiences, and that it will probably take a year before the house feels like home. So, I get why the frustration lingers. After months of being in “project survival mode,” I am still struggling to get back in to “living normally” mode. Our schedules have changed, as has our neighborhood, and we are adjusting to 1000 changes to all those little routines, from grocery shopping to bill paying. Heck, even my email address had to change, so it’s no wonder I’m a little frayed around the edges.

As unsettled as I have been, I’m still grateful we pulled it off and am looking forward to “normal” day.

Ha! Like anything is ever normal in our house:photo 3

Magic Mom Eye

I just got back from an unexpected trip to Mississippi, and after an extended car ride with Bean, I needed a nap and a drink…and maybe some chocolate.

Though my trip was last-minute, I wasn’t too concerned about leaving during the school week, because my husband is always on top of things when it comes to the kids. Half the time, they don’t even realize I’m gone, because Dad gets everything done while also spoiling them rotten.

Even though I wasn’t worried, I still wondered what condition I would find the house in when I returned. Given that I left in the middle of a busy work/school week, I knew that dinner and homework would keep the guys busy enough. I was pleasantly surprised to find the dishes done, clutter put away, beds made, and overall, a relatively clean house.

But, unfortunately for my kids, my “magic mom eye” sees all and knows all. When they got home from school, I asked them, “Did Dad let you eat dinner in the living room?” To which they replied, “How did you KNOW?”

Then I asked, “Was someone eating icing cookies at the computer instead of the table?” G-Man’s sheepish, guilty grin confirmed what I already knew. The Heathens were amazed that I knew their secrets, and I reminded them that my “magic mom eye” is better than Sherlock Holmes or Gil Grissom. They can’t fool me.

In case you were wondering, I’ll be spending my morning cleaning greasy fingerprints off the coffee table and vacuuming smeared icing crumbs off the floor and office chair. The difference between clean and “Mom Clean” is always a dead giveaway.

Hooray for Monday—Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom

I confess that, as a stay-at-home mom, Monday has turned into my favorite day of the week. See this picture of Bean? This is kind of what my house looks like after my husband and boys have been home all weekend. Unexplainably messy and more than a little gross.

Don’t get me wrong, I love having my guys home…I really do. However, after a couple of days of “fun,” our home is overtaken by clutter, sticky floors, and bathrooms that should be declared hazmat zones. I’ve tried keeping up with all the housework on the weekends, but it never works out. I swear I could scrub down my whole kitchen on Saturday morning, walk out for less than thirty seconds, and by the time I return, several dirty dishes will have mysteriously appeared on the counters. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you. Keeping my house reasonably clean on the weekends is an exercise in futility.

Come Monday, I gladly usher my peeps off to school and work, and go about the not so inconsiderable job of cleaning and disinfecting our house. Just relocating all the misplaced shoes, belts, dirty clothes, laundry, homework papers, Legos and batteries takes me nearly an hour. Then I have sheets to wash, floors to clean, dust bunnies to slay, and bathrooms to sanitize. It’s a lot of work, but because it’s Monday, I get to revel in the fact that the things I clean will actually stay clean longer than five minutes at a time.

As you can see, sanity is thin on the ground around here.