Attack of the Killer Yellow Squash

If I had to grow my own food to survive, I would starve to death. I am the type of person that causes fake plants wilt when I walk past them. Fortunately, my husband's thumb is a bit on the green side. Almost every year we have attempted a garden. If the planets are aligned just so and we cross our toes, we can usually eek out a small amount of produce. This year Mars and Jupiter must have had a tiff because only half of our garden came in. However, this year we seem to have a mutant yellow (summer) squash plant that is a producing machine.

I have given some of it away and have lined up more victims...er....friends to take some off my hands. A couple of days ago I did a quick saute with some fresh herbs (the only thing I seem to be able to con into living). Last night I found a recipe at allrecipes.com. It was actually for zucchini but it also called for goat cheese, shallots, chicken broth and fresh basil - all of which I just happened to have (a very rare occurrence around here). It was very good. Next up I am thinking about a squash and potato gratin I found over at smitten kitchen (love her site but eat before going there or you'll end up raiding the kitchen).

For about the same price as a little cellophane bag of fresh herbs from the grocery store, you can buy an actual plant. Just re-pot it into something that has a drainage hole (try garage sale or thrift stores if you don't have something already). Potting soil isn't too expensive or you could see if one of your green-thumbed friends would be willing to give you a few handfuls. Fresh herbs make an amazing difference especially when paired with fresh produce.

Trying to Fly with the FlyLady

If you are a net denizen who has searched for help in getting your house whipped into shape, there's a good chance that you have ran across Marla Cilley aka "FlyLady". She encourages baby steps and routines while reminding her followers (or "flybabies") that their houses didn't fall into such chaos overnight.

I came across her several years ago, signed up for her daily emails and did what she told me to do (with a tweak here and there). It worked. But then I got seriously sidetracked. Oh, I tried signing up again but the emails just sat in my inbox mocking me as piles of clutter grew bigger so I unsubscribed and claimed defeat. Not too long ago, my daughter and I were watching one of those programs where they go into a family's home, haul out mountains of who knows what from some of the rooms and then totally redecorate and organize the rooms. My daughter turned to me and said that we needed to call the program and have them come to our house. Nuff said.

A few days ago, I found out that FlyLady was on Facebook . I could go back to baby steps without violating my new "don't you dare subscribe to another email list" rule. This week is bathroom and guest room week. We don't have a guest room but I do have an office that would rival any of those rooms on one of those cleaning shows. I had just stripped down my bathroom to the bare basics about a week ago as part of my 2+ years venture in trying to redecorate it (that's a whole other post) so I was able to jump in and throw my rugs and shower curtain liner into the wash. While they were doing their thing, I gave the floor and counter a good cleaning and hung up clean towels. It actually looks presentable. Now if I could just say the same about my office.

Info Overload Undone

A couple of days ago a nasty storm came through. The TV satellite went out and I had to shut down my computer in case we lost power. Within five minutes I was having withdrawals and not quite sure what to do with myself despite the million and one projects that were screaming for my attention.

Over the years I have subscribed to more things on the interenet than I care to admit. Business, health, money, motivation plus countless other topics. My bookmark list for sites is as long as War and Peace. I've watched countless shows on decluttering, decorating, home improvements, etc. Yet you wouldn't know that I had access to all this info if you saw me and my house.

A couple of weeks ago I started unsubscribing to all of the newsletters, updates, coupon offers, etc. I am still unsubscribing (actually I am down to ones that are only sent out once a month or so). I thought that by freeing up the time spent on email, that I would would have more time to implement some of those ideas. I forgot one important thing - it would actually require me to do something other than sit in a chair and stare at a screen. Drats.

So I decided to combine my internet addiction with a way to(hopefully)keep myself accountable. We'll see if this works.