Seriously???

Open mouth, insert foot...my most famous last words were "I don't think we could possibly cut anything else out of our lives."  Well, God laughed so hard he cried...I know that, because it rained (so hard that I wanted to cry)!!!

Remember my gas guzzling tank that died in the middle of car line?  You can go back and read my words, and I quote "Unfortunately, I'm so upside down in my giant gas guzzler, that I'm stuck with it."  The confession...I think I may have been tricking myself into that thought just so I could hold onto something from my former life, even though my whole being wanted to just throw all things of that life to the dogs.  I'm not going to spend too much time dwelling on the fact that any "normal" person may find that statement a little split personality, so we'll just call it spiritual warfare and move on.

Our neighbor had been trying to spare her driveway the pain of holding an extra vehicle and was selling her old minivan.  Whew...that word is still hard for me to say...minivan, minivan...maybe a little easier to write than say.  A little background...for all you Minivan Mamas, I'm that obnoxious girl that has the nerve to swear she wouldn't be caught dead driving a minivan.  I have spent the last six years of motherhood declaring that hell would have to freeze over before I would even consider driving a minivan.  My reasoning...who knows.  Honestly, it's one of those things that could take weeks of soul searching and end up forgetting what in the world it was in the first place that I was searching for anyways.

On with the story...seeing how the hubby had been taking one for the team and sporting his not so desirable, could possibly breakdown tomorrow, replacement for Mr. Smoky, we thought having a "back-up" might keep us from reliving the one car family experience.  So, the minvan made it's way into our garage.  Now, let me tell you about our garage.  It lives a double life.  Like most garages, it houses the necessary outdoor equipment like lawn mowers, grills and rakes.  Then, there's some spill over from inside the house like boxes of Christmas lights, unsold leftovers from garage sales, and such.  By day, it lives the life of a mild-mannered, typical garage.  By night, it looks more like a super warehouse housing lumber, tools, kitchen sinks and more.  Being that the hubby lives in the world of construction, we have to have a place to store all the supplies that are piled in the back of his truck all day.  So, let me tell you, this minivan was so crammed into those four walls, that getting in and out of the house through the garage was quite the task (don't ask why I can't just use the front door...let's just say me and the key had a wrestlin' match, and I won).  Anyways...every morning, with three kids in single file toe (one in front, one behind and one on the hip),  we'd all squeeeeeeze by the minivan and make our way out to the driveway.

Each time I sucked in my gut to barely make my way past my nemesis, I could feel myself warming up to it little by little (or maybe I was just getting heated up from all the stomach exercises).  Until one day...it was like an uncontrollable urge.  I just had to see what was so darn horrible about sitting my pretty, little hiney in the driver's seat of a minivan.  So, I went inside, got the keys and hopped in.  I don't know what I was expecting...maybe, I thought the steering wheel would deliver electric shocks straight to my frontal lobe that would void my mind of all reasoning (as if I hadn't already accomplished that on my own).   Who knows...but, it seriously wasn't that bad.

So...once again, I ate crow and, apparently, hell froze over (missed the headlines on that one didn't you?) or maybe the steering wheel did disable my logic.  Either way, I called up the hubby and delivered the most shocking message he had ever heard (I was beginning to make a habit of this, but this even topped the clothesline call).  I was going to find a new home for my gas guzzler and drive the minivan.    Yep, you heard right...I am a full fledged, card carrying, Minivan Mama!!!!   Apparently, God was going easy on me this time and this adventure killed two birds with one stone.  Whew...one less trial!!  Not only is it a completely stripped down (bye-bye electric anything) minivan, but it's what I call finely aged with 9 years of driving experience...a big experience in humbling for me, AND it comes with great perks...better gas mileage, cheaper insurance and NO CAR PAYMENT!!!!!!!!!  

A Fun Little Gadget to Help Save

 

I am always on the lookout for ways to cut down on energy consumption and save us $$.  Here's an easy way to cut back.  It's called "The Little Gray Box".  It's a water heater timer that you can set to turn your heater on and off up to 3 times a day.

I run my dishwasher in the mornings, and we take showers at night, so we only need hot water in my house from 7-8 am and 7-8 pm.  If the water heater is running during any other time, we're just wasting energy.  To my amazement, in the summer months, the left over hot water from our morning cycle lasted all day.  I seriously thought the timer wasn't working.  Just to test it, I purposely ran the hot water out to see if it would reheat before the next cycle.  So, after running buckets of water back and forth to the plants outside like a crazy person trying not to waste the water I was allowing to gush from the faucet, my conclusion--my husband really did install the water heater timer properly. 

The tank seems to be holding the hot water a little less as we're getting colder, but I am going to try to wrap it with some insulation and see if that helps.  I'll keep you posted on that one.

There has been a fun little side effect too.  We are all a little nervous about getting stuck in the shower outside of heating times, so our showers are getting shorter!!  That was a huge part of the 20% decrease in our water bill.

You can get the timer at Home Depot for around $50.  I didn't check around online, but I bet you might be able to get a good deal using Ebates or Cashbaq somewhere too.

We have PEAS!!

I'm so excited!!!  We got our first round of peas this weekend!!  I'll be cooking them up tomorrow night...I can't wait!!  I'm telling you guys...they are divine...you've got to grow some!!

I got my first lesson in shelling peas.  Just pinch off the end of the pea and peel the dark green edge (stringy thing) off...I'm sure it has a "real" name, but I'm not too versed in the anatomy of a pea pod yet.  One side is a darker green than the other...pull that side...it works better.

 

Then, pull the pod open and you have peas!!  I have to tell you that it does require a little work, but it is so worth it!!!   I will post a recipe later this week.