Updates on Re-purposing

It's another wet and chilly day here in North Dakota. I did make potato soup out of the potato water and left over potatoes that I'd stashed in the freezer, and we had it for leftovers tonight. You can read about that here. It was delicious! (I can boldly say that my soup was delicious because my children said so, unprompted, and ate it!!!!)

Here is the recipe I used for my soup. The only modifications I made is that I cooked the bacon first and used that for cooking the onions in instead of using butter. I also added carrots, garlic and frozen broccoli to make the soup a little healthier and heartier. I keep the bacon aside, and don't add it back into the soup. We add "bacon sprinkles" at the table. Anyway, here it is:

<<Chunky Potato Soup

3 medium red potatoes
2 cups water
1 small onion
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
   Crushed red pepper flakes
   Ground black pepper
3 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup cubed ham or 1/2 cup bacon

Peel Potatoes and cube. Boil potatoes in water until tender. Drain while reserving potato liquid. Set potatoes and water aside. (If you have less than 1 cup potato water, add water.)

Cook onion and butter in saucepan over medium heat. (I cooked mine in the bacon grease instead of butter. I also added carrots and garlic here.) Cook until onion is translucent, but not brown. Add flour and season with pepper flakes and black pepper to taste. Cook 3 to 4 minutes.

Gradually add potatoes, reserved 1 cup potato water, milk, and sugar to onion mixture; stir well.
Add cheese, and ham or bacon. (Like I said, I didn't add the bacon here. But I added frozen broccoli.) Simmer over low heat 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Store leftovers, covered in fridge.--Taken from "Grandma's Kitchens, Treasured Family Recipes" collection>>

Yum!

Also, on a different note, remember how I said on Saturday that my compost pile wouldn't be going in due to weather? Well, even though it has been windy and or wet here the last three days, my hubby and girls surprised me by putting it in for me on Saturday. I took a picture of them from my deck because I didn't feel like getting super muddy. Isn't my clan awesome?

Cutie Pies Making My Compost Pile in the Mud

Lydia keeps asking me, "When is it gonna turn to dirt?" I keep telling her, I'm not sure. Hopefully it'll be a good science lesson for my cuties, as we add to it and watch it turn into wonderful soil/fertilizer for my garden and plants. Praise the Lord! I just need some fish heads to bury under my garden next!

Thanks for reading my post today! Please try the soup soon! It's yummy! Let me know what you think when you do make it. My houstonian friends, you may have to wait a few months to feel like eating soup, but when you do make it, I hope you enjoy!

Love, Amber

A Tribute to Re-purposing

I fell in love with re-purposing thanks to my parents and grandparents.

My maternal grandma, Lillian Daiber, grew up and lived on a farm in Illinois her whole life, so you know she is used to making due with what is available to her. When my mom was growing up, she made a lot of the family's clothes and cooked everything from scratch. She is the one who taught my mom, who then taught me, to substitute applesauce for oil as a healthy alternative in baking.

Grandma Daiber, this year, celebrating 80 years!

Is she not the most beautiful 80-year-old woman you've ever seen?

My Dad's parents lived during the Great Depression in the 1930's.  (Grandma Daiber was born in 1934, so she lived through several years of the depression too.) My grandma, Juanita Mitchell was born in 1920, and my grandpa, Raymond, was born in '21. I attribute the Great Depression to my grandparents frugality and re-purposing efforts, but I don't know for sure. I just remember my paternal grandparents saving "everything". Grandma Mitchell always had a very neat and tidy home, but she also didn't throw anything away that she thought she could re-purpose. She kept the plastic bags that bread comes in, and reused them for various things. I also specifically remember my Grandma Mitchell cleaning the styrofoam plates that meat is packaged and sold on. She kept a stack of them in her cupboard. She let me use them for painting my artwork in her basement and other crafty things.

One of my Grandma Mitchell's favorite things to re-purpose in her later years of life were pheasant feathers and sea shells. She acquired the feathers from hunters and made beautiful wreaths and Christmas ornaments with them. I still have the pheasant feather ornament she made for me, and it still goes on our family tree year after year. She even sold the ornaments in a boutique in the Topeka mall for a while. Isn't that cool? I love the entrepreneurial spirit!

My Grandparents would often snowbird in Corpus Christi in the years that my Grandpa was retired, and my Grandma still lived. While there, Grandma loved to collect shells, and also made crafts and wreaths out of the shells. I had a huge, beautiful wreath that has unfortunately deteriorated through multiple moves, but what I do have intact, are two small boxes of some of the shells she collected and organized.

One of the Two Boxes

Labeled, Dated and Organized

Just One More

Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell

As you can tell, that last picture is picture within a picture. Grandma passed away 12.5 years ago, and I don't have a lot of digital pictures of her.

Grandpa is all bundled

Here is a picture of my Grandpa from last fall. He's all bundled up, because it was a chilly evening in Topeka. And, also because he is almost 93 years old in this picture. I wish I could jump on a plane and visit him, and my family in Illinois right now. I also wish my Grandma Mitchell would have stuck around on this earth for a few more years. I'm so thankful, though, for the time I've had with them.

--And, Grandma Daiber, hopefully soon, I'll acquire more tips and re-purposing ideas from you! I can't wait!

Thanks for reading. Love, Amber

Re-purposing FAIL

So, like anything else managed by a human, I sometimes fail in my re-purposing attempts. I would like to share some of those attempts with you today. :)

About 2 weeks ago, I planned to talk with you all about re-purposing potato water. I still believe that reusing potato water is awesome, but the recipe I planned to show didn't come out at all!!!!

Here is a picture of the recipe I took from the classifieds in our new home town of Dickinson:

 According to the recipe, you should take the potato water and use it as a sourdough starter. I thought this was a great idea! However, the recipe didn't fully explain all the steps to making the recipe, and my sourdough biscuits turned out more like rock biscuits. I wish I would have been less embarrassed and taken a picture of them. They were seriously a hilarious sight to behold.

potato water

After boiling, I put the potatoes in a freezer bag and placed them in the freezer. We were planning to go out of town that evening, and I didn't really need the potatoes for anything, but I wanted the water for making the sourdough starter and for sharing a re-purposing idea with my blog readers. I also would have liked to bring some of the biscuits along and throw some of them in the freezer for when we came home...but I ended up just throwing the majority of them out....

However, to look on the bright side, I still have those potatoes, and perhaps I will get them out of the freezer, reheat them and make potato soup or mashed potatoes with them tonight. I also saved the leftover potato water in the freezer, so the soup idea is actually very plausible. Especially because it is chilly and rainy today. Which brings me to my next fail....

Due to the weather, we probably won't be getting our compost pile made today. Our yard consistency is actually very soupy. Hopefully tomorrow though.

>>Other fails:

Once I used my peanut butter (nothing but peanuts that were ground) in a recipe that called for organic peanut butter. I was supposed to heat the pb in the microwave until it was smooth. I kept heating mine up, waiting for it to be smooth, but I'm pretty sure I just burnt it instead. Those granola bars were not well received or well eaten around here.

When I was a bank teller in highschool, pantyhose were mandatory. I really tried to salvage the ones that were ripped with clear nail polish. However, that never worked to stop the run. But, it did work in gluing the pantyhose to my leg.

I've also tried way too many times to repair things with super glue. It is not a magic, fix-all, people. (As I'm sure you know.) It does not do well at repairing wooden picture frames, barbies, or most things that will be regularly used. At least, that's my experience. Actually most glues have failed me often.

Once, when we lived in Houston, our van froze over due to freezing rain. I was in a HUGE rush to meet a real estate client, and had no de-icing gear (because I lived in Houston). So, in my haste, I remembered that when I lived in Northern states, some people used credit cards to scrape ice. However, this ice was thick and didn't feel like budging. I shredded my most used credit card. Stink!<<


Well, that sourdough biscuit recipe and I aren't through yet. And once I figure out the missing parts to the recipe, please know that I'll post it here for you all to read about.

Thanks for reading. Please share your re-purposing fails with me soon!

Blessings, Amber

Re-purposing and Gardening

I wanted to let you all know how the little veggies I re-purposed are doing. I wrote about the veggies here. This is a picture of the before. On the left is my romaine, and on the right is the stalk of celery I am growing.

 

And below is a picture of my veggies after being planted for one week.

From Left to Right: Romaine, Celery, and a Row of Green Onions

Can you see the row of scallions? They are growing great! I am wondering if I should pull them up and replant them, or just cut off the tops once they're grown. Hmmmm...

Speaking of gardening, I am finally entering the world of composting. Almost since we moved into this house, I've been collecting egg shells, veggie and fruit pieces, weeds (we don't have grass clippings because we don't have grass yet) and coffee grinds. The research I did on the compost piles also said that adding cardboard is appropriate. So, I have thrown all these goodies into a box that can go straight into the compost pile...that we don't have yet. 

Yes, that's right, even though we didn't have a specified place for a compost pile, I have been saving all these leftovers to add to it. But finally, tonight, Dave and I bought some stakes and plan to build  a compost pile tomorrow. While I love the idea of composting, (because it's re-purposing at it's finest) I also need any tips you all can give me! Do any of you have a compost pile? Have you put cardboard in it? I also read the ratio of food to cardboard/grass clippings should be 1 to 1. Is that correct? 

I will be keeping you updated on how our compost goes, and how the veggies are growing. So far, though, they are doing so well that I already have another romaine stub and celery stalk stub in water, waiting to be added to the garden! Yahoo!

Please let me know if you have any tips for composting, or any success re-purposing any fruits or veggies. (Evidently you can plant a pineapple top and grow it into a pineapple plant in much the same fashion that I have replanted my vegetables.) I'd love to see what it is you all are re-purposing!

Thanks so much for reading! -Amber

Re-purposing Baby Powder

One thing I love to keep with me at all times is baby powder. I haven't needed it much here in Dickinson, but in Houston, it was much more appropriate. Did you know that baby powder is great for removing dry sand off of your person?

When you live in Houston, trips to Galveston or Matagorda are a must. And, the only bad part a day of play on the beach is coming home with a vehicle full of sand (even dry sand doesn't brush off easily). But, if you have baby powder along, you can get the sand almost completely off. It still takes a little work, but it works!

Throw Back Thusday- At Port O'Connor

Baby Behinds. Love!

However, baby powder still applies to people up North, if you have a sand box for kiddos to romp in. I really despise finding sand in my house just by walking through my house and feeling the grit on my bare feet. So, getting sand off of the kids with baby powder before they enter the house makes clean up a lot better!

So, if you have a sand box, or a beach nearby. Keep some baby powder in the car. You never know when you might have a little one covered in sand!

Blessings, Amber

Traveling and Re-purposing

When we travel, I always try to bring along a few essentials:

• pillow pets/lovies and blankies
• snacks/drinks/treats
• an extra cooler
• extra wipes and kleenex
• paper plates and napkins
• backpacks for each kiddo with coloring books, markers, a few toys and reading books
• slip on shoes for getting in and out of the car at rest stops
• motion sickness tablets
• books on cd
• my camera, my laptop, dvds and other technological devices
• and, our little potty chair and toilet paper...

The last one is one I've learned to bring from many experiences, because no matter how hard they try, kids don't tell you they need to go until they NEED TO GOOOOO! So, you know the little potty, you use for training your toddler to go on the toilet? (Side note: Saige went potty in the toity for the first time today and earned herself a chocolate chip.) We bring that training potty along and have used it on the side of the road more than once. We don't keep the pee and poo with us or anything, we throw it on the side of the road, but it makes the going easier. (Yes, we've had to stop on the side of the road for a kid to dooky.-- Thank the Lord we had the necessary items along.) Because, I don't know about your kids, but when you stop to let a kid go on the side of the road, there has been a time or two where their little bowels and bladders have stage fright. But, the toddler potty helps with that. Plus, there is less of a possibility that your kids will get yuck on their clothes.

So, that's one of the things we do. It's not always fun, but it helps a ton when you're driving in the middle of nowhere!

What do you bring on your road trips? Ours are always adventurous! Are yours?

The Herd of Buffalo was Behind Us

See some of their stuff?

Love, Amber

Re-purposing in Yellowstone National Park

Well, we are back from a whirl-wind trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was a beautiful experience! And, I have to say, that except for the falsified video of a bear surprising you by trying to get your lunch out of your car, it was everything I expected it would be.

We drove on mountains, saw tons of wildlife, stayed in a cabin, and watched Old Faithful gush. I am exhausted today, and my goal to do laundry and grocery shop have fallen by the wayside, but at least our family has a new set of memories to behold.

waterfalls from melting snow

Snow in June

 The mountains still had snow! We drove right up the side of many mountains. I was so thankful that I didn't get motion sick. The mountains were a little unnerving to travel through but gloriously beautiful and breathtaking.

Frozen tushies in the snow

 The temperature on the top of the mountain was a cool 47 degrees. The valleys temperatures were in the 60's, though.

 We saw an awesome waterfall, and decided to make a quick stop to see it. It was gushing and gorgeous and sounded wonderful.

The First Waterfall

Blowing Dandelions by the Waterfall

This Big 'Ole Turkey Loved our Van--He Snuggled Right Up to It

 The turkey was outside the park. Once we entered the park, we saw tons of buffalo and then after a little while, we saw a mama bear and her cubs.

Mama Bear and Her Three Black Bear Cubs

 Dave told me before we go back to Yellowstone, that he will get me a zoom lens. Yay!!--Sorry you can't see the bears better.

Can You See the Grizzly? He's in the Middle of the Shot

 Like I said, I need a zoom...

The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Me and the Girls

Hiking to the bottom of the Falls to Get a Better Look

Family Pic

 Even though we hiked down quite a ways, we were still really high, and there is not a good fence around the edge of the "cliff". I only freaked out twice when I thought the girls were going to topple off the side. (Confession: I'm a little afraid of heights and quite spastic when my children are near them.)

Julia's Freakishly Long Arm

 The girls were exhausted from traveling and going crazy because of sleepy sillies. It was about 9:00 p.m. when I took this picture. (Even though it looks like it was the middle of the day.) We were sitting on these benches while waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. In order to kill some time and keep from driving everyone around us mad, I had the girls take some pics.

Same Picture, Arms Slightly Moved

Old Faithful

 Amazing!

 We got to bed every night at about 11, including the girls. So we are pretty tired, but when you are at Yellowstone, you want to fit in as many animals as possible. So, we got up early to head back home and fit in as many animals and sights as possible. (But we still didn't get back until around midnight.) Besides seeing a turkey up close and personally, we got to see an up-close bull elk, and this huge herd of buffalo. There were tons of calves in the herd, and they were all over the road, weaving in and out of cars. The Rangers were there (they were everywhere the animals were) trying to keep the herd moving so cars could pass and buffaloes wouldn't be injured.

Lots of Calves.

My Baby LOVES "Buff-a-yo"

I Love this Pic

 Saige is looking through the "minoculas" at the hot springs, Lydia is excited about a spotted bird, and I am taking pictures.... Julia was behind me.

Grazing Pronghorn on Our Way Out of the Park

We also saw a woodchuck, a bull snake, antelope, deer, a distant herd of elk being chased by a grizzly, a young beaver, a crane, a cow elk and her baby, a black wolf through our binoculars, a coyote, a red squirrel, a chipmunk and tons birds and loads of beautiful scenery!

The whole reason we went to Yellowstone (besides the fact that it was on our bucket list) was because we were tagging along on a work trip for Dave in Billings, MT. And, while traveling, I re-purpose a lot. One thing I love to re-purpose are the little cups that they give you in the hotel.  I like to hang on to them for distributing snacks or crayons while we are on the open road. I usually bring along chex mix or pretzels, and I dislike passing around a huge bag of food for the girls to help themselves. Putting the snacks in cups helps keep a few crumbs off the floor boards, and a few less disgusting surprises in car seat cubbies. But, just a few.

I'd love to share some more of my traveling re-purposing tips with you over this next week. Please stay tuned! And, please let me know what tips you have for traveling! I love trying new things!

Thanks for reading! Happy Monday! See you soon, Amber

Re-purposing Shoe bags

Since we moved to North Dakota, Dave and I have been looking for a church to attend. We met some nice people at a small church we tried called Freedom Baptist church. One of the ladies at the church invited me over to have coffee at her house, and I realized we had the same ideas for organizing. We both had shoe bags in our pantries! 

I love having a shoe bag in my pantry because it provides me so much more space, and it helps keep small things from getting lost in the back of my pantry. I keep garlic, plastic-ware, tea bags, small applesauce containers, shish kabob sticks, and the like. I only wish there was one more column of bags!

Thanks for reading! -Amber

Re-purposing Card board boxes

I saw a really cool link on pinterest not too long ago, and they had all kinds of ideas for re-purposing card board boxes. Since our garage is currently full of boxes from our last move, I decided it would be a good idea to make something out of our available cardboard. Since I have three girls, I cut, and cut, and cut some large boxes until what I'd made resembled a little play house. My girls were assigned to painting it, but they didn't get super far in that venture. They all three love to play in the house though, and I hope to put my older girls on painting duty again soon. (This duty is mostly just to keep them occupied during Saige's nap-time.)

The girls designated the area on the left as the bathroom area.

 Both Lydia and Julia expressed their desire to have the door specifically like the one I cut. I guess it was more princess-y this way.

The girls plan for me to tape an addition to the house. I had to take a break, though, on the day I cut the boxes because with my dull razor and the hour of cutting I'd already done my poor thumb was getting soar.

Of course, the website I found on pinterest had much more professional looking cardboard work, but what I made will do just fine. After all, all I wanted was for my girls to have an extra place to play and for us to have fun memories of making something together. Maybe we'll make a castle next....

What could you make with boxes? I saw a really neat train set made out of boxes recently....the sky's the limit!

Have fun building! -Amber

Re-purposing Bedding Bags

I know I'm not the only one to reuse bedding bags, but don't they come in so darn handy? I save sheet bags and bedding bags and use them for organizing and traveling all the time. Do you do that too?


Just last weekend, my family went on a work trip with my husband. We traveled to a small town in Montana and I put our swim suits (and I will add swim towels next time) into a bedding bag.

Above is a pic of our crumpled swim suits in the bedding bag. Below are some pics of my girls from the trip. I wanted to add it because I mentioned the trip, and my girls are cute. :) 

Baby at the park

Crazy Girl

Crazy Girl #2

 I have decided to keep our swim suits in the bag all the time from now on. I threw our sunscreen in the bag too. So, this way, when we are going out of town or running to our local rec center, I can grab the bag of suits all at once. That beats searching in everyone's drawers for suits any day! 

Also, the bags are great because they are clear, so you can see what you are grabbing. What do you put in bedding bags? Do you save them too?

Other ideas for them:

-When we lived near the beach, I used them for beach toys.
-I pack shoes in them when we travel. I don't want to get dirt all over clean clothes.
-They would be great to keep extra diapers in in the car.
-I keep one in the car just in case some kids clothes get wet or soiled.
- If you move a lot, like we have, they are great for storing spices or drippy things, like almond or vanilla extract.

Do I sound like a hoarder yet?
Thanks for reading, Amber

Dryer Lint Re-purposing.

When my hubby was growing up, he was in Boy Scouts for a few years. Nearly every time we set off on a family adventure (i.e. camping, hiking, exploring, fishing, going to Cabela's), he shares a recollection with me or my girls about an experience he had in Boy Scouts. The stories are usually interesting, and sometimes provide me with good re-purposing ideas.

Several years ago, when Dave and I still lived in Oklahoma, I remember him telling me about how dryer lint is good for starting fires. I found this information silly because there are lots of good fire starters readily available...newspaper works, dry leaves work... But, just in case, I started saving dryer lint anyway. It was sort of a "I'm listening" sort of a gesture. I saved the lint, and when he barbequed or burned leaves in the backyard, he would use the lint to start fires, and that was that.

However, if you read my blog, you may have seen that we have gone camping and been outside starting fires quite a lot in our short two months in North Dakota. Because I knew camping would be happening frequently with our family, I started saving our lint again in our new house. And, on our last camping trip, I brought some lint along.

Dave was so pleased. (I think I won some points.)

Shoe box full of dryer lint

The good stuff

The cool part is, though, that as we built the multiple fires on that chilly evening, I realized why lint works better than the newspaper I also brought along and the dried leaves we put on the fire. While those items burn quickly and disintegrate, dryer lint burns slowly and is more likely to catch the sticks and logs on fire before it burns up.

So, I'm thankful I tried something from Dave's childhood, and that I won some points doing it. I am also thankful to be able to find a new item to re-purpose. Because, I don't throw things away much around here. :)

I'd love to hear your camping tips or tricks! Tootles, Amber