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No, I’m not in the family way again.

Re-Nest is one of my favorite “green” blogs. They always have such awesome finds and thought provoking options. One of their most latest posts as got me thinking about our water usage. This is Arizona after all and we need to be more conscious of how we use it.

We have a gravel backyard but I hate it. The whole thing is dirt and rock. This means massive amounts of gravel through my vacuum and dirt bunnies form on every surface within 20 feet of the back door. While we save a ton of water by not having a lawn, part of me still really wants a soft surface in the backyard. I think it would be a place that we all spend more time.

• Wildflower Farm has drought tolerant wildflower mixes, as well as Eco-Lawn which seems like it could be well-suited for even the driest climate.
• Zoysia Farms has a zoysia grass that is also supposed to be able to survive Arizona heat, but needs far less water than conventional grass.

We also still dream of having a pool someday. Not only do they require a large amount of water to begin with, but the evaporation rate is super high here and repairs can lead to draining it often.

• So, I have my eye on one of these swimming “ponds”
• Aren’t they awesome? I don’t know if they would cut the use of water, but at least we wouldn’t be swimming in chlorine or dumping it into the retention basins.

We typically wash our dishes by hand, but that’s mainly because Declan could wash our dishes and get them cleaner than our “inexpensive” old dishwasher can. There have been studies that show that using a dishwasher is more efficient than washing by hand, but not just any dishwasher. It also seems hard to believe that a dishwasher uses less energy and water than a water-conscious manual washer. The only problem is we use a high volume of water handwashing because Declan insists on helping.

Another one of our biggest water wasters is well, Matt. Most of the men in my life have been quick shower-ers. I’m talking like 5 minutes or so. Not Matt. Somehow it takes him 30 minutes to wash the 2 inches of hair on his head. Somedays he takes 2 and 3 showers a day! Even with the 2.5 gpm shower heads, that’s 75 gallons a shower times 3. What I really need is a way to convince everyone to stop using so much water. (Though here I am talking about a swimming pond.)

Anyway, any other water conserving ideas or studies out there?

So the camera is not a fan of anything that moves. Keep that in mind.

Mr Rowan is just growing right along. He’s a little over 3 months old and getting big. We weighed him at home and he seems to be just over 12 pounds. Here he is trying to sit up!

Click for a larger version

He’s just full of smiles and little coos and is finally getting to the point where I can put him down for longer then 30 seconds without squalling his head off.

Unfortunately the boys seem to be catching something from my daycare boy. Because of some stupid doctor we recently took Declan to, Matt doesn’t want me giving Declan anything but Vitamins. That doctor said that Vitamin C will just makes things worse. How bogus is that?

I’m trying to get some nice pictures of Declan. We’ll see how that goes.

To be honest, I’m not even sure what Hominy is. To me it’s kinda like corn but more of a grain. It was hard to try and explain it to Matt. Actually I just looked it up and it is corn, it’s just been treated in a certain fashion. Check it out. It actually sounds kinda… scary?

Anyway I made this up tonight and it’s got a few of my favorite things, such as cilantro and hominy. The Cumin is really what makes it though. Matt would like me to try it with chicken but I think pork is part of the magic and it goes much better with Cumin. We served it tonight along with my Light Oat Bread which came out lighter and fluffier than normal - must be because of the cold humid air tonight. Either way, they were both delicious.
Matt states that I may add it to the rotation.

(more…)

Okay, so there’s not much to say about this recipe. There’s not much you can say because well, your mouth fills up with drool too quickly.

My mom got an awesome deal on a huge pork shoulder so we decided to cook it up on her birthday weekend. We used an 8 pound roast and doubled this recipe. Sadly there was little to no leftovers. Again, no pictures. I’m getting really frustrated with the loaner camera I have borrowed hence the lack of pictures. Sorry Guys. I should start a donation fund for a new camera, huh? (more…)

I’ve been needing a new purse for a long time. Nothing in the stores really catches my attention, and the purses that do - a la Etsy - are expensive, though so worth it. I see so many cute designs and think to myself I could make that!

Since money has been tight I pushed those thoughts away for the time being. Last week I was hemming some Ikea curtains, including a set whose fabric pattern I just absolutely love. I should have bought like more sets before they were discontinued. Then I came along this cute and super easy pattern by Lula Louise. I knew then that I was going to make me a purse.

I started to put the pattern together and realized that it made a very large bag, so scaled it down to 50%. For me a larger bag means more unnecessary stuff to tote around. I did keep the original strap length though.

Once I figured out the pattern and got some spare time it took about 2 hours, taking frequent breaks to quiet the sleeping newborn fussing in my front carrier. It’ll be super quick to make any additinal bags.

Because I scaled it down so much some of the topstitching was very difficult to reach but the size ended up being perfect.

Happy Crafting!