Yummy Eggless Cookies

My friend Pei Lin sent me the link for this eggless cookie recipe. The first time I made them I misread the recipe and put in 1/4 cup instead of 1/4 teaspoon of molasses (blackstrap) and they tasted very strongly of molasses (But they were edible in my opinion and I figured they would help to boost my hemoglobin!). After Pei Lin figured out my mistake I tried the recipe again and found them quite yummy. I followed the recipe using all whole wheat flour and then I add some coconut as well. If you are out of eggs, or allergic to eggs or want to eat a Vegan diet these cookies will fill the bill.

Living with less Waste

Recently I enjoyed reading the article "Put you life on a diet" by Misty M. Lees. She talks about the American dream and how it has changed over the years and how we need to re-think the modern concept of the "American dream" where everything revolves around how much stuff we have. Though I don't agree with everything she said 100% I did really enjoy the article and think you might as well. I encourage you to read it.

In her article she had a section called: "Trimming your waste line: 50 ways to use less, waste less" This is something that is pretty important to me as well. I have brought the list over here and I took out the things in the list that we don't do (not that they are bad, it just isn't a part of our life - I encourage you to read the article to check them out) and then added some more in (in green) so that the list contains 50 things that our household does to create less waste. Here they are:

PLASTICS, PETROCHEMICALS, AND PACKAGING
Learn to love your unique looks without cosmetics— others will too.
Use less laundry detergent. Are your clothes really that dirty?
Borrow books, CDs, DVDs, and video games from the library, rental store, or friends.
Use fewer household cleaners. Try soap and water, baking soda, or vinegar instead.
Make your own safer laundry detergent.
Use less dishwasher soap.

FOOD AND LAND
Skip prepared and frozen food. Make dinners from scratch; make lunches from leftovers.
Buy produce from local farms, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), or co-ops.
Grow a vegetable garden and eat from it.

GASOLINE
Carpool, walk, bike, or ride a bus to work and on errands when possible.
Use a push mower and trim bushes by hand.
Shop online or by phone rather than drive around.
Enjoy staying home.

BUILDING MATERIALS
Clean out your garage, basement, and closets rather than buy a home with more space.
Try to find ways to use up every scrap and cut down waste.

STUFF
Avoid shopping for fun.
Rent a truck, power tools, and camping equipment when the need arises from a rental company.
Limit your holiday gift giving and make personal gifts like homemade bread.
Shop at garage sales and thrift stores.
Re-make your old stuff into new stuff.

CREATE LESS TRASH
Learn to do your own repairs rather than throw things away.
Swap and recycle anything and everything you can; join Freecycle.org.
Use raked leaves and cut grass as mulch.
Throw vegetable and fruit scraps into compost.
Use every scrap such as making scrap quilts and using scraps in scrapbooking and card making.

ALUMINUM
Use recyclable containers when possible.
Put a cookie sheet instead of foil on the bottom oven rack to catch drips.
Wash and reuse the aluminum foil that does get used in your house.

WATER
Reuse bath water for plants.
Wash clothes after two wearings instead of one (hang them inside-out after one use).
Flush less often.
Wash your car less—and do it yourself with a bucket. (we don't do the bucket thing much but we don't wash our vehicle much either. But that is from to cold of weather and lack of time mostly.)
Work at taking shorter showers.

PAPER (wood)
Borrow books from the library.
Use the back side of copy paper.
Give gently used books and magazines to a nursing home, hospital library, or literacy group.
Share magazine subscriptions with friends.
Print coupons and other things on scrap paper.
Use catalogs, magazines, boxes, etc. for craft projects.
Store files on your computer rather than printing it out.

ELECTRICITY
Turn out the lights when you leave a room.
Use lower wattage bulbs or unscrew one from a too-bright fixture.
Use compact fluorescent bulbs.
Chose not to have lots of gadgets and toys that run on electricity.
Put lids on pots to help stuff cook more efficiently.
Plan your baking time so you can make full use of the oven when it is on.

CLOTHING AND MATERIAL
Give clothing you don’t wear to charity.
Learn how to mend clothes.
Save dingy towels, holey T-shirts, and old sheets for cleaning rags and dropcloths.
Recycle old denims or wool suits to make a woven or braided rag rug.
Use clothing that you would otherwise discard to make into new clothing.

There are some things on this list that I questioned about saying we do (like cleaning out your home and garage rather than buying a bigger one with more space) as I am not sure that our intent is the same as the writers but I decided to leave them as they are fairly accurate anyway.

I would love to hear what you do to create less waste!!
For more Thrifty Green Thursday tips go here.

WFMW ~ Keeping my stationary organized

I have heard many people that say they don't send letters because they never can find everything they need (stamp, address, envelope, etc. ) at the same time. Though I am not always the best letter writer (it depends on how busy I am!) I don't have the excuse of not knowing where things are.

For my highschool graduation I received this fabric folder with stationary included. I have used it ever since. It is nice because I always have stationary, stamps (in a special pocket), my address book, envelopes and usually some paper and stickers for the kids to use all ready to use. I also keep in this folder the letters that I want to reply to so that I won't forget. This has been very handy for me.

I also like to make and use homemade cards. Though I do enjoy making special cards for a special occasion I also like to have a bunch ready for the spur of the moment. We also enjoy making envelopes from calenders and like to have a bunch ready to go whenever. I use these two little tubs to hold the cards and envelopes that I have ready. I also keep labels in with the envelopes. All of my stationary stuff then goes in my desk, though if I am going somewhere that I will be waiting around the folder is quite easy to grab and then I can write letters while I am waiting.

Having everything ready to go and in the same place really works for me! For more tips visit Rocks in my Dryer.

Oofda I'm tired!

This week I decided that it would be fun to see if I could get everything done on my scheduled list each day. It's part of my whole plan to eventually be this super organized woman. :-) Anyway yesterday went great we got lots done and had the evening to relax and do whatever we wanted. Schoolwork was done, laundry was all done folded and put away, floors mopped, violin lessons taught, you get the idea. The kids also did everything on their lists and we ate supper according to our menu. We felt quite productive.

Today however... I didn't have as much on my to do list so I figured it wouldn't be to hard to do it plus spend the morning in town (from dropping off a friend at 9:30 to after my chiropractor appt. at 12:30) running a few errands and then doing some shopping for supplies for the new church building and sanding some boards at the new church building. I also had a bridal consultation at 3. Well we got everything done (though I still have my stretches to do and Mara did put off dusting 'til tomorrow) but I am tired!! I am now multi-tasking by having an ice pack tied around my neck (per chiropractors instructions to ice) and blogging to relax. I think I am pretty ready for bed! (after my stretching of course. )

How did your day go?

Mastermind

The mastermind at work! :-)
The other day Ken and Jonathan got out a game that Ken and I had purchased on one of our anniversary trips. We hadn't played it for a while but it is quite a fun game for 2 people and it also really aids in learning to think logically. It is for ages 8 and up. Jonathan is 7 and had trouble understanding it at first but after a bunch of coaching from Ken and I he did seem to catch on and enjoyed it a lot. After helping Jonathan I thought Ken and I better have a match up too. He won because I made an error at one point that made me take a penalty of 3 points! Oh well, at least my brain was stretched.

Who is she?

Early on in December Megan decided to cut her hair. She did a pretty thorough job on her right side and it really didn't look very good. She also cut some very short right in the middle of the front.

I had thought that I should do some cutting as well to try to make it better but was rather at a loss for how to do it. Well on Christmas my sisters Anna and Keren were here and thought they had figured out a plan and so I gave them the go ahead. We thought some length should come off (as it was quite thin on one side.) but I wasn't thinking quite as much as did. Oh well, she looked really strange at first but it is growing on me.

As a result of her haircut she has really been reminding us of other people. I took some pictures and I thought I would see what you thought. Here are some of our ideas:



Ramona Quimby from the book "Ramona the pest" by Beverly Clearly. (I really didn't get a picture that looks as much like that as she does a fair amount of the time!)

Maria from the "Sound of Music".

Children from the early 1900's. Also the little Jewish refuge children from the World War 2. (It reminds me of a lot of the documentary photos that I have seen.)

She also reminds us of D.W. from the Arthur books (though she isn't an animal so she does look a bit different!). She really likes D.W. and likes to quote her regularly and I think relates very well to her mischievous ways.

She also looks quite a lot like the conductor of our local Orchestra.

What do you think?