The Sewing Mom

I think we began recycling when we lived in Houston about 15 years ago. The city offered curbside pick up which made it very easy to recycle cans, plastic bottles, glass, newspaper, etc. When we moved to Connecticut we had to take our own recycling which I did. Newspapers, magazines and glass I would take to the dump and place them in the appropriate bins. We had curbside trash pickup but they didn’t pick up recycling. Pop cans and pop bottles my daughter and I would take to the machines that crushed them and gave us cash for turning them in. That was pretty cool! In Illinois we were back to having curbside pickup. My bins were always overflowing and I was so happy the day they switched fromt those small bins to the big ones on wheels.

Now we’re in Texas and we do have curbside pickup with the big wheeled bins. Not too long after we got here I went to the Village of Parker and asked them if it was possible for me to get a second recycling bin as I was always overfilling the one I had. That afternoon a second bin was delivered. My typical Wednesday morning is me pushing one tash bin to the curb with usually one, possibly two bags of trash in it, and 1-2 full recycle bins to the curb. I feel good that I recycle more than I throw away.

With all the talk of going green, I wondered how I’m doing. I do recycle, I do try not to drive unneccesarily and we’ve been replacing light bulbs with the new, more energy efficient bulbs. I decided to take a GreenIQ quiz and see how I’m doing. I got a score of 45 which means I can do much better. GreenIQ also give tips on increasing how green you are. They even have green gift ideas for holiday shopping needs!  My score reflects that I am aware of the issues and am doing things to help but that I can do more.  How are you doing?

I keep forgetting to do this meme, but it’s fun and easy, so here goes, Four Foods on Friday by Valmg.

#1. Bagels. What’s your favorite kind of bagel and how do you like to eat them? I’m not a big bagel eater, but I like plain, blueberry, both with cream cheese, and cinnamon raisin with butter.

#2. Mashed potatoes. How do you like them? Lumps - love em or leave em? I can eat lumpy mashed potatoes but I prefer a creamier texture. My husband is the expert masher in our house.

#3. Mac and cheese. How do you make it? Boxed or from scratch? Add anything? We make it both ways, but usually from the box. My daughter’s favorite is Stouffer’s frozen mac-n-cheese.

#4. Grapes. Cold, frozen or room temperature? Do you prefer red or green? Why? I prefer my grapes room-temperature or slightly cooled. It’s funny because on our way to the hospital to deliver our daughter I made my husband stop at the grocery to get me a bunch of grapes! I just had to have them!

When my husband and I decided to relocate to Texas this past spring due so that he could take on a new job it meant selling a home and buying another one. Anyone who is bought and sold a home knows that this is no cake walk, there is a ton of work involved prepping the house for sale and searching for a new home. All those little repair issues that you know exist in your home and put off because they’re not the priority, well, all those things have to be fixed to sell the house. Then, when you’re purchasing your new home, you’re hoping that the seller has done all those same things, fixing things that are broken or not working.

My husband and I are both, admittedly, not handy. In fact, I tell anyone who cares that we only own a couple of tools, a hammer, a screwdriver and a drill so that I can hang blinds and curtains! I will patch holes in drywall and paint the walls, but other than that, I try to leave repairs up to professionals. For us, it is just safer that way!

When we found this house, we fell in love with it. Now, it may have been due to the fact that it was our third straight day of looking at houses and we were becoming depressed over what we were seeing. My husband had all ready started his job, we had all ready sold our home in Illinois and we needed a place to move to, desperately. Since moving into this house we’ve discovered all the damage that the previous owner did to the house. They were complete experts at covering up everything to make the house show like a dream. Within the first week of moving in I thought we were going to have to get professionals with Power Team Hydraulic Equipment to come in a start with doing repairs. We could have had them bring shop presses and all sorts of things just to repair our swimming pool and get it running properly, the pool pumps and filters had all been held together with duct tape!

This house is only 7 years old and it amazes me how abused it is. I truly believe that they allowed their kids to play hockey in the house, with real hockey pucks! I’ve even found puck marks on the walls and in the garage there are holes in the drywall the exact shape and size of a puck. We’ve found pucks in the bushes outside too. It’s really a shame because it’s going to be a long time before I can get it back in shape. Whenever I paint a room, I also have to paint all the wainscoting and trim work. Most of the doors need repainting as well. It’s just difficult for me to imagine anyone beating up something of such value.

I am slowly making progress, and if my plumber ever calls me back, I’ll be getting my daughter’s bathroom up and running again. There is no cold water in the bathtub/shower because the previous owners had screwed with the mixer valve in the plumbing. It just seems that anything they touched went bad. They should’ve been calling the professionals!

Technorati Tags: Power Team Hydraulic Equipment, shop presses

Do you put lights up outside your home?  We don’t do a lot, but we did put colored lights around the front railings and in the two tall bushes by the front door.  I wouldn’t mind having some to outline the top of the house, but I don’t like to climb up on the roof, so don’t see that happening!

Last night I happened to open the front door to verify all our lights were still working and I heard Christmas music.  I stepped out a little further to try to figure out which neighbor was playing music when I saw it.  Across the road was a house with all styles of lights flashing in time to music!  Oh my, it was something to see!  It actually might have been cool had they used consistent lighting, but they had some of everything and it was so random!  It’s the first time of seen someone do that other than seeing it on T.V.

What do people in your neighborhood do?