HBO Binge

The holidays were busy and fun as usual.  I am sad to have them over, but I can't complain too much since the weather has been (mostly) gorgeous and makes me think of spring.

Had a tour of General Mills over the holiday break

Josh got in a fight with Comcast over a snafu on our contract.  A few days later, they called to apologize and offer us free HBO for 6 months.  We are taking full advantage and binge-watching some HBO specials.  I finally got to see the Veronica Mars movie.  It was good, but unsatisfying.  I have also been watching Girls.  There is something about it.  I honestly can't say that I like the show, but it is addicting.  I can't stop watching.  I was trying to explain it to Josh and I don't think he quite understood what I was saying.  One day, he came home while I was watching and couldn't look away.  In that moment, he knew what I meant.

I do highly recommend Game of Thrones.  Josh and I have been watching this together.  It is quite graphic (both sexually and violent), but if you move on from that, the story is great.  The quality of the production is outstanding.  If you get HBO, you should be watching this.  If you don't get HBO, call your service provider and pick a fight ;)

Book Review: Committed: A Love Story

Josh has wanted to go back to school to get his MBA since the moment he threw his cap in the air at Concordia.  He patiently waited his turn while I went back to school, while we bought a dog, while we bought a house...  Well guess what?  It's finally his turn!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Last month, he went to an information session.  When reporting back, he let me know that the families of MBA students are called MBA orphans.  After laughing at how silly (and kind of offensive) that is, he turned to me completely serious, "You are going to read so many books."

In fact, I had started one a friend gave me FOREVER ago that very night, Committed: A Love Story by Elizabeth Gilbert.  She is the author of Eat, Pray, Love.  This book is completely different.  It is the story of a personal journey to come to terms with marriage so she and her longtime love could stay together.  She does a lot of reporting on research.  Quite technical.

It is an interesting read, something I would recommend if you wanted to learn more about the history or marriage in a more accessible way than a text book.  It is absolutely not a light, beach read.  It was good, but it did take me over a month to read.

New Favorite: Mulled Wine

We had our second annual Christmas wine tasting party last night.  To supplement the tasting, we wanted to have some other drinks as well.  Josh picked out his beer and I went searching for something else.  I discovered mulled wine on Pinterest. This is the recipe I adapted, and it is super simple.

Crock Pot Mulled Wine
1 bottle of red wine
4 cups of apple cider
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup Archer Farms mulling spices
1 orange sliced

Put everything on the crock pot and heat on high until hot.  We heated ours for about 2 hours before the party started and it was nice and warm.

We left all the spices in and as the party went on, it got nice and spicy.  I would say the sweet spot for the spices was at the 4-5 hour mark, but I LOVE Christmas-y spices.  You can filter out the spices when you feel it is done (if it lasts that long).

This is basically warm, Christmas sangria.  Yum!

Family Room Console Table DIY

When we moved into our house, we had an ugly problem in the family room.  The city water meter was just hanging out, in the open.  Yuck.

At about the same time, behind the couch console tables (or shelves) were all the rage on Pinterest.  I showed Josh my idea to cover the meter and he agreed that he liked it.  Fast forward 8 months and we finally started working on it.

We didn't follow a plan at all, just built a top, two legs, and supports.  Except for some minor engineering help from me, Josh made this on his own.  It only took a few hours with staining time.  Super easy, looks nice, and covers the meter.  Win!

Wool Dryer Balls

When I purchased my microfiber cloths, I also purchased two other things.  Sticking with my saving money and being green trend, I purchased wool dryer balls and reusable produce bags.

Puppy cuddles

After getting used to the initial shock of the balls rumbling around in the dryer, I really like what they do.  They do seem to make everything dry faster and more efficiently.  I have heard of people adding essential oils to the dryer balls to give a nice scent.  I only have lemon essential oil, so I will have to invest in another scent to try that one.

If you are looking for a way to improve drying efficiency and time, I would recommend testing these out.  I believe you can get them from Target and some other stores as well as Amazon.  Verdict is still out on the produce bags.  Our meal plan this week only required us to buy cheese and lettuce.  Hooray for pantry shopping!

Hiatus and Budget Cleaning

I have taken a bit of a hiatus lately.  I wasn't having a great time at work and thought that any posts would be a bit of a downer, so decided to just skip it.  A lot has happened since my last post.  We have been doing some projects around the house, attended a few weddings, went on a trip to Hawaii, and my Dad has had coronary bypass surgery.  Whew!

We won the ticket lottery to see Book of Mormon

Things are going to be changing around here.  Josh has always wanted to go back to school to get his MBA, and he is taking the first step towards that this month.  He will start his GMAT prep course in a few weeks and is also attending an information session at Carlson School of Business.  With oodles more debt looming in our future, we are looking for some ways to cut the budget.

Happy ready to support her Uncle Chase

I have been tossing around the idea of making our own cleaning products for a while, but we have had a HUGE stockpile of cleaning products since moving out of our apartment in St. Paul.  While we are working on that, I am doing some research on things I would like to try.

Shave ice in Hawaii

One thing I do know is that we will go back to making our own laundry detergent.  We tried it a while back and loved it.  It is super easy, cost effective, and smells good.  This is the recipe we used last time and will use it again.  We already have all the ingredients and I liked the results.

Cutie pie

Something else I have been considering for a while is not using paper towels for cleaning.  I have been trying to cut back on our paper towel use.  First of all, they are expensive.  Second of all, throwing away all that waste is not good for the environment.  When we got married, we registered for cloth napkins.  We were really good about using them, but since we moved, have fallen off.  I am going to add some cloth napkins to my Christmas list to bulk up our supply and try to get back to using them.

Wedding

Also, after being invited to a Norwex party but not being willing to spend that much money on something, I ordered some microfiber cloths from Amazon.  So far, I have used them one time and like what I have seen.  I like that you don't need to use cleaning solutions and that once you make the initial investment, there isn't much more to spend.

Puppy love

I will keep update with how this is going.  Let me know if you have any secret tips for cleaning on a budget.

August Goals Update

1. Fix dining room table.

2. Paint dining room table.

3. Recover dining room chairs.

4. Get budget back on track.

5. Start additional retirement savings.

This month was a bit of a bust!  We did get our budget back on track, but everything else needs to wait until we can borrow some tools.  Hoping to get them this weekend, and then we will work on the table!  Hopefully we will have better luck in September.