Magic Egg Tip

Well, I still haven't had time for crafting (something I'm entirely not happy about...can a girl just get a little "me" time? geez...), but I did have time to take some pictures of something I do when I clean out my fridge.

I learned this trick from a friend's mom (via the friend) for checking eggs to see if they're still good. Eggs are often good beyond their expiration date, but you have to be careful about using them. Here's what you can do to check:

1. Grab a big bowl and fill it with water.

2. GENTLY drop your eggs in the bowl.

If the eggs sink and lay on their side, they're good, fresh eggs you can use freely. (Bad blogger, I didn't get a picture of this.)

If the eggs sink, but stand on end, you need to use them very soon because they're still usable (i.e. - won't make you sick) but on their way out.

See how it's standing up on end? Still good, but I need to use it soon.

If they float, chuck 'em. The sooner the better. They are no longer good and will make you sick.

Bobbing to the top? It's time to egg-xit stage right! ;) Yes, I know that's a lot of eggs gone bad. Overstocked...I won't make that mistake again!

Inspiration Point

These items are inspiration for a new project I'm working on. Can you guess what the pink thing is? I'll be sharing the outcome soon. (Just as soon as my pinched nerve resolves itself and I can do heavy lifting...hehe.) 

What do you find inspiration in?

Happy Saturday!

Hey, hey! I'm finally back on the horse and feeling much better about things. How is everything going with you guys? What are you up to this Saturday?

Just a couple of things (for now...I'm going to be working on the blog and getting a few things sorted out in the coming week or so):

1. The wise and awesome Haley has started a blog! Please go and check her out. :)
http://thedistractedblogger.wordpress.com/

2. Much to my chagrin, pro-football season is starting soon and that means that my husband will be consumed with Redskins football on Sunday afternoons. I was thinking of maybe starting a chat n' craft on the Facebook page for all of those football widows like me out there. Would anyone be interested?

Back soon. Let me know! I'm feeling excited about blogging again so be prepared for a flurry of stuff. :) Thanks for being patient as I dealt with all this. I'm really excited to start slowly making this a fun housewife hang out.

My Followers are Brilliant

So after my "update" last week a couple of you left encouraging words and for that I can't thank you enough. One stuck out:

"I hope the festivities of the holiday helped. I know things like that can help me stop for a moment and take a breath. A few things you can do is make a list of everything you haven't gotten done and play the "what is the worst that can happen" game. Puts things into perspective. Then make a list of all your blessings, including your favorite physical and personal traits. Maybe even have your husband make one too and share together. Hopefully this can give you the little boost you need."


Haley, you are brilliant! I love this idea. If you get or have a blog, girl let me know and I'll feature you. What a simple way to gain some perspective and remind yourself of all the good things! I'm going to do this! I might even share it with y'all. 


The best part for me is the "What is the worst that can happen?" game. I always have a list, but I never look at it from that perspective. 


And to answer you, yes, the holiday weekend helped some. I even got brave and delegated some of the work (trust me when I say it is super hard for me to delegate - am I alone in that?) to The Hubs and thanks to him, I feel back in control of the chore list. He was so awesome to take on more of the chores on his holiday weekend. 


And to anyone else out there feeling overwhelmed...you are not alone, and you helped me remember that I'm not either. We may not be Stepford Wives, but we're darn good ones!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you and yours have a Happy and Safe Independence Day! :) 

(I found this image at The Graphics Fairy...you should check out her blog!)

An Update of Sorts

So I've been MIA for awhile. I really want to blog. I'm just stuck in a slump.

Let me say this so I am clear. I love that my primary job in life is housewifing. No really. I do love it. Actually the idea of taking on a full time job again any time soon gives me the heebie-jeebies. And lately, with summer vacation the prospect of having to take on a "real" full time job is a real one. My tutoring schedule has been greatly reduced and so has my income. If things don't pick up, me having to work is a real possibility. One I'm not really excited about.

Add to that a serious bout of self-doubt and self-pity on my part and you have the major reason I haven't updated since June 3rd.

I love housewifing, but I'm burned out and depressed. I have this tendency to want everything "just so" and in turn I make everything into a J.O.B. I pretty much do nothing if it's not productive. I feel guilty relaxing and struggle with it. (Those who know me in real life, know I've always been that way. I honestly don't know how to relax.) Even the things I used to do for enjoyment have become a chore. 

I read blogs like Thrifty Decor Chick, The Pioneer Woman and others and they seem so together. It all just seems to elude me. I haven't been keeping all of the balls I'm juggling in the air lately and it has really just shut me down completely. I know it's not right to compare myself to others but I do. All the time.

For awhile, I had everything on a schedule. I was menu planning and cooking. The house was clean and run efficiently. But one thing in my schedule changes and I'm thrown for a loop. For the last couple of months I have struggled to keep it all together. The Hubs helps. He cooks dinner and helps with the dog and the cleaning...when I let him. I tend to be a control freak (though I think I'm getting better about that). Last weekend he even bought me roses and a special dessert and cooked me a wonderful steak dinner. He wants to help, I just don't know what to tell him to do.

I look in the mirror and wonder who the overweight person is looking back at me in that yoga pants and over-sized t-shirt uniform. I haven't had a hair cut since Labor Day (you think I'm kidding). My eyebrows are...let's just not speak of it. And I try. I really do. I just don't understand how some people look so put together all the time and I feel lucky if I get out of the house with my hair in a ponytail and some lip gloss on.

Compounding the problem is that we've outgrown our apartment and it's becoming painfully evident. I have reorganized, ruthlessly purged, gotten a storage unit. We want to move, but The Hubs' project is up in early 2012 so we really didn't want to move and then have to turn around and move again 6 months later. So we signed another lease. I'm not happy about it but it's the best we could do at the moment.

I realize that there are people out there in much worse situations than I am. I am very, very blessed that we are healthy; that I don't have to work, that my husband is as successful as he is and provides well for us (we ain't rich, but we don't want for necessities and entertainment). This is just where I am right now. Stuck and trying to figure things out. So I'm sorry that I haven't blogged. I didn't want it to turn into me whining all the time and being so "woe is me". I'm not even thrilled I divulged this much, but it had to come out.

I do have lots of things, happy, fun things to share with you all. If you're even still reading? I hope so. I've wanted to share about my veggie garden so badly, but the words just wouldn't come. I'm working on it though. Slowly. I just needed some time to get my words back.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I will try my hardest to post again in the next few days and share my garden with you. I've been so excited seeing the veggies pop up. It's been one of the few things making me smile lately. Back soon, promise.

Quick Kitchen Tip

This week our AC has been out completely (they are here now working on it) and so I haven't really wanted to be productive at all. And cooking was out. I was not going to heat up the apartment for dinner for nothin'. So today when the temperature dropped down into the 80's finally and it was tolerable I decided to get busy. Here's a quick tip:

We like to stockpile good deals when we can, but produce is a bit harder. So this week when sweet corn went on sale 10 for $2.00 I stocked up with 12 ears. Since it's just the two of us, I didn't want it to go to waste so I did a little research and discovered that you can blanch it and then vacuum pack it and it's just fine for freezing on the cob. We have a FoodSaver so I knew I wanted to try it. The only problem? No ice. Ice is kind of essential when blanching. We took out the ice bucket and turned off the ice maker on our freezer so we could pile in our stockpile of meat. So I got creative:

Yep, that's right. I used Otter Pops. The best part? When they melted they didn't add to the water level in the bowl and I just stuck em back in the freezer to refreeze when I was done!

Got a cool cooking tip? This housewife wants to know! Either post it in the comments below or email me at thescrappyhousewife(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll share it with the rest of my readers in a special Tips from Commenters post. :)