Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Five things I've learned recently

1. Headphones are heartier than they seem.

To my delight, I turns out that you actually can machine wash your iPhone headphones - with a double rinse, no less - and they will still work.

Also, having nothing to do with headphones, I've been considering making my own laundry soap. I know I don't have lots of time, but it looks pretty easy. Is this ridiculous?

2. Butter is delicious.

You know how you remember that things tasted better in childhood? It's because they did. I cook Jordan's eggs in butter. I slather butter on his toast. Until recently he was drinking whole milk. Put on weight! Grow, grow!

And then you get older and more moderate/insanely restrictive about your fat intake. All that fat just tastes good.

3. Nick will never, ever relent on the office koi pond.

Which is too bad, because it's ever more inviting. It's not even the heat of summer. It just looks so smooth and cool and delightful.

4. Jordan's favorite color is pink. Really.

I got to his daycare yesterday and they were all running around with sheer scarves, waving them to "Let's Go Fly a Kite." Jordan didn't know I was there, and so I watched silently. He had a green scarf, and he said to the teacher, "I need yours. It's my favorite color."

"What's your favorite color?"

"Pink!"

I relayed this to Nick, who got a look on his face and asked, "What color was the scarf?"

"Pink." I was all ready to accuse him of being sexist...when he said, "Oh, good. I was worried it was blue and he didn't know the difference."

5. Any smidgen of ability I ever had to maintain a poker face has gone out the window.

Apparently it's abundantly clear to everyone that I have no tolerance for much of anything anymore.

Oops.

21 comments:

  1. Lesson 4 made me laugh, but Lesson 2 is oh so true. I love butter. I really should stop putting it in stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't believe I went so many years not knowing about the magic of butter. It's like bacon. It makes everything 500 times more delicious.

      Delete
  2. Butter, my friend, is good for the soul!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jordan gets the pink thing from Nick's British genes. Few American men would be caught dead in a pink button-down. Now a British bloke...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love men who wear pink nicely. Also lilac. British men do such a great job wearing colors and patterns. It's delicious.

      Delete
  4. I too would like to hear about your readers' opinions on making laundry soap. A while back I sent away for all the ingredients to make it, but then I never got around to it. I keep thinking it will stink up the house and make my eyes water and stuff.

    Also, I think we would maybe all like details on #5. If not too, um, touchy a subject.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love to hear from more people as well. So, I've googled a bunch of recipes...I was thinking about making dry detergent, which seems so much easier than liquid - which I find very daunting. I just haven't been bold enough to try.

      No. Apparently it's just apparent to EVERYONE that I am so over it and while I'm normally very agreeable and gentle (at work, anyway) I have been cutting to the chase. And my face shows it all before it comes out my mouth.

      Delete
    2. I'm on this! I make both dry and liquid. I make the liquid for delicates with a bar of Ivory soap, washing soda and water. For more cleaning power (baseball uniforms especially), I make a liquid and powder using Fels Naptha soap, washing soda and borax.

      I started doing this when I was out of work and no one noticed the difference. I'll keep doing it for the savings and to keep some of the chemicals out of our house.

      The liquid soap is easier to make than I thought. Have you watched the videos on youtube of how to make it? Those helped me visualize better than just reading the recipes.

      Here's a tip when making powder - before grating the bar soap, freeze it or chill it in the fridge and it will grate into a finer powder.

      Delete
  5. Real men wear pink. Case closed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have two words for you...soap nuts.

    I use them semi exclusively, the only exception being every once in a while when I want to bleach the whites, or when one od the step gids has some form of gooey/disgusting incident

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just googled. Interesting. Very interesting!

      Delete
  7. i wholeheartedly agree with number two. i eat butter on waffles (the waffles are healthy-ish) every morning and it's definitely my favorite part of the day. and i follow this recipe for homemade laundry detergent and highly recommend it: http://cleangreensimple.com/2011/02/gew-laundry/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jordan and Betty have a lot of waffles, and I've been slathering both with butter. It's just sooo delicious!

      She looks like she uses Dr. Bronner's. It's kind of crazy how many things you can use that for!

      Delete
  8. Nick is funny x

    Glad he set his colour blindness worries to rest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Funny, that didn't occur to me. I was about to get all bent out of shape at Jordan not picking a more "masculine" color!

      Delete
  9. If you like butter, make sure to try Kerry Gold. I bought some last week to bring into the office with the Irish soda bread I'd made and it was amazing. It runs about $10/lb, but it is so worth it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohhh! My parents' old neighbors used to give us homemade Irish soda bread! So delicious! Will check out Kerry Gold. I've never paid attention to butter (seriously, we get ours at Costco), but I did notice that it was particularly delicious in France. So there are clearly differences!

      Delete
  10. New Zealand Butter is sooo good. I sometimes make my own butter its so easy to make. I make my own laundry powder and kitchen and bathroom cleaners. The only trouble is I seem to be having trouble getting hold of borax lately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS the buttermilk from making butter makes devine scones.
      Pancakes or waffles too.

      Delete

Tell me about it.