Small Victories

Do you want to feel amazing about your weekend? Find some small victories to win in your home. A small victory is a task that has just been bugging you with its existence. You just can't seem to get it done and it's odious and (this is very important) it probably takes less than 15 minutes to complete.

Take that sleepy hour after you wake up on a Saturday and before you get dressed, make a cup of coffee, and tackle a small victory which will make you feel like you just moved mountains.

My small victories from this weekend:

I cleaned my ceiling fan blades. You did not want to see these fan blades before. When I lay in my bed, I could see the solid masses of dust and grime (and probably tiny little creatures…ewwww) and could only imagine how they flung around the room and found their merry ways into my throat and lungs. I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't cleaned my ceiling fan blades since I moved in two years ago. Um, I'm 5'1"… is that a reasonable excuse? Probably not. Bad homemaker. Well imagine my feeling of triumph when I did clean the blades, and it took less than 15 minutes.

How to clean your ceiling fan blades without ruining your day:

1. Spread out a sheet underneath. My ceiling fan is above my bed, so I put a drop cloth over my bed. Put on a hat because stuff will be falling on you.

2. Fill a spray bottle with half vinegar and half water. Get a pillowcase that you don't care about. Also, grab a cleaning rag.

3. Find a way to reach your ceiling fan. I used a large step ladder on top of my bed. I don't recommend it, since I almost fell several times. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

4. Generously spray your first blade with the vinegar mixture. Slide the pillowcase over it, and wipe on both sides of the blade, moving down until the pillowcase is off. Then spray the blade again with vinegar and go over with the cleaning rag.

5. Move onto the next blade. You can use the same pillowcase, just rotate it to a clean spot. Don't even worry about that too much, since the pillowcase functions to get the big gunk off, and then you'll get the rest off with the rag and the second vinegar spray.

No joke, my room looked brighter after I did this. And I felt like a hero.


I cleaned out my freezer

If you have roommates, it's likely that there's stuff in the freezer that doesn't really belong to anybody anymore, because no one knows who bought it. I spent ten minutes throwing out unclaimed or expired items (um, edamame that had been in there since I moved in? ) and ran the trash bag down to the dumpster. There is now so much more room in our freezer, which will come in handy when I start making slow-cooker recipes in advance. TRIUMPH!

Organizing your pantry is also a nice little victory.


Here's some other ideas:

1. Paint your nails.
2. Vacuum your house
3. Organize your paperwork
4. Make an annoying phone call (insurance company, bank, etc.)
5. Clean your toilet
6. Launder your rugs
7. Clean your stove
8. Dust one room
9. Sort the pile of clothes in the corner of your bedroom into "clean" and "dirty." Put away the clean ones.
10. Replace blown out lightbulbs.

The key is that the task be something that has been nagging you, something you don't really feel like doing, and something that takes no more than 15 minutes of hands on time. I promise, you will feel amazing afterward.

Eating More Fruits and Vegetables

Cooking for one or two can be challenging, especially when health and fresh produce are priorities. I'm guilty of throwing up my hands more often than is wise and just calling up someone to go out rather than face the logistical problems of making a balanced meal. But homemaking requires that we make the home the main location of our food preparation. It saves money, helps bring focus to the home, brings us a deeper awareness of what we're consuming, and is fun and delicious.
But you know that. I know that. I know I should cook at home, but I've had to make a conscious decision to do so. Like I described in the Money Saving post, there's noting wrong with going out, but a part of my homemaking education involves learning more about cooking and getting into the habit of creating healthy meals in my own home.

So I decided to attack these specific challenges to cooking before you have a family (cooking for one or two):

1. You know you're supposed to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, but being one person, it's likely that buying more than one kind of vegetable at the store will result in some going bad before you can eat it.

2. Despite that fact, you don't feel like going to the grocery store every single day to buy infinitesimal amounts of a variety of produce.

2. You are tired at the end of the day and don't always feel like whipping up a serious meal.

My own solutions make sense for me, but of course other people will tackle these challenges differently. All of this may be completely obvious to you, or you may not face these challenges at all. But here's what I came up with:

Eating More Vegetables



My solution to this is roasting. By roasting a variety of vegetables in a larger quantity than you would eat for one dinner, and by adding several different types, you get the benefit of a variety of vitamins and micronutrients rather than just eating broccoli leftovers for four days because a whole head is too much for one dinner. Roasted vegetables keep for several days and are easy to heat up at the end of a long work day.

My Recipe:
Wash and halve a pint or so of grape tomatoes. Drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread out on a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper, and put in an oven preheated to 350F, and cook until dried/browned (about 40 minutes). While they're drying out in the oven, take whatever veggies you have handy and wash, chop, oil, salt, and pepper them. I used halved brussels sprouts, broccoli, and the white part of a leek. Spread these out on another cookie sheet, and roast for about 30 minutes alongside the tomatoes. Take out of the oven and toss all together. A delicious side that keeps for several days and is easy to heat up in the microwave.


Eating More Fruits



Apples and oranges will keep for a long time and are easy to keep around as snacks. But I have a hard time eating strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, kiwis, and raspberries before they go bad. We all know that freezing is a good option for fruits, but I'm guilty of forgetting about them in the back of the freezer, so I wanted to get in the habit of using them for breakfast.

My Recipe:
This is now my quick, high protein, high fiber breakfast that I make every day. It takes less time than brewing a pot of coffee. I put about half a cup of Greek yogurt and a handful of frozen mixed fruit in a blender. Since I don't love the texture of still-frozen fruit, I blend it until completely smooth. Yum!

DIY Deodorant

We all have our dealbreakers when it comes to DIY. Kristin and I recently talked about how, try as we might, we will never love "natural" shampoos and conditioners (Hard-to-find L'Oreal Vive inspires me to seek out a Rite Aid in a city conspicuously devoid of them, but that's neither here nor there…). I will always use store-bought toothpaste and it won't be Tom's of Maine, y'all. Until recently, I assumed deodorant fell into that always-buy-never-DIY category. But the recipes I found online sounded easy enough, and I already had all of the ingredients. I figured it was worth a try.

And I'm telling you, I'm converted. This deodorant is so much cheaper than buying, contains no aluminum, and it works as well or better than store-bought antiperspirants I've tried.

So here's the recipe:

8 tbs coconut oil (hard to find at Giant/Publix. Easy to find at Whole Foods/Yes.)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup baking soda
10-20 drops of essential oil (I used eucalyptus because it's what I had on hand)

The essential oil is optional, but I like a scent.

Mix together all the ingredients in a container that has a lid. Put the lid on it. You're done. To use, rub a pea-sized amount between your fingers and then rub on your armpit. The coconut oil is a solid that turns liquid at the slightest change from room temperature (like body temperature). I was initially worried that oil would stain my clothes, but this has not happened.

I've smelled good and stayed dry since I started using this about six weeks ago, and I don't always shower in between going for a run and going to work (don't judge me…). Also, I've used maybe 1/8 of the supply I made from that one recipe.