The Butt Apple

We've had two apple trees for years, like 7 or 8.   And they haven't given us a single apple.

Until this one.

This is the only apple of the three that grew, that didn't get invaded by some little critter, much to my children's delight....

The Read What You Own Challenge

So I made a challenge.  To stop buying books and read the ones I already own that I haven't yet.  And also to not reread a book for a good while.


I would totally love a funky library like this.



Anyway, as a giant book nerd I end up buying a fair amount of books.  But then inevitably, I don't read them.  Usually I buy them from secondhand stores, but not always.  And new books can add up.

Here is the pile of books that I am telling myself I need to read before I can buy a new book.

I collect these books from Penguin.  And this is a pile of the ones that I haven't read, minus Homer's The Odyssey, which I am currently reading right now.

The books are:
1. Les Miserables
2. The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint
3. Cranford
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray
5. Bleak House
6. Lady Chatterly's Lover
7. Inferno
8. The Woman in White

Truthfully, I am a little unsure if I will read Shakespeare's The Sonnet's and A Lover's Complaint.  I am not a huge fan of poetry, even if it is by the world's best poet ever.  I am also a little nervous about Les Miserables, because it is ginormous, and while I liked the musical, I don't know how I will feel about the book.

At the very least, I have 6 fairly serious books to partake of.  Several of them have movies and while I am tempted to watch the movie and bow out using the "Cliffs notes" idea, I won't.  Although I may watch the movie afterward!

Bulletproof Coffee (My Version)

Have you heard of it?  Probably, but since I am always, always late to the game, I have only known about it for a couple of weeks.

It's coffee with butter in it.  (And other stuff too)  Weird and slightly gross sounding, huh?


This is totally true.

Anyway, here is a link to what the health benefits of putting butter and coconut oil in your coffee will do for you.  It's actually pretty interesting.

But I'll tell you a secret.  I don't care how good it is for you, I just care that my coffee tastes good. And I am the kind of person who drinks coffee as a vehicle for the stuff that you add to coffee.

Here is my recipe:

Jess' Totally Trashed Bulletproof Coffee Recipe

1 T.fractionated coconut oil
1/2-1 T. butter
dash of vanilla (I just fill up the cap)
2 tsp. sugar
2 T. milk
1 c. coffee (made in my french press- best invention for coffee ever)

*Mix in blender.  Drink

Here's the deal on how I totally trashed it.  I used fractionated coconut oil with no coconut taste.  I am pretty sure all the serious bulletproof coffee drinkers are dying right now.  But I tried it with my organic coconut oil I use for the kids' hair and I didn't like it.

I also use the butter that I buy from walmart, not grass fed.  And I add sugar.  Sorry, I have to add sugar it's in my blood.  (Probably literally)

Truthfully, there are probably zero health benefits when you make it my way.  But it tastes amazing.  Like literally you bought it from the best coffee house in the world.

And just like the caption up above, I am never going back.  Okay, maybe that's not totally true.  I will drink coffee with regular creamer, but this is hands-down my favorite way.

And it is so much cheaper than if I went and bought coffee anywhere else.  Amazing taste plus way cheaper, you just can't go wrong here!  (although I still think it sounds gross to admit that I add butter to my coffee!)

12 Passenger Van

Or the end of life as we know it, according to Ava.  Who told me I was ruining her life.

The left side of the car.  Of course it's white.  What other color do you ever see?

The right side actually makes it look less "creepy white van" because of the black horizontal line where the door opens.  Or at least that's what I tell myself.  I drove into my brother's uber nice neighborhood and you should have seen the look one of the women gave me as I passed by her yard.  I think she was already getting ready to call the cops on the scary van.

Confession:  I love it.  I love being up high and I love that all my kids can fit in it without sitting next to, or touching the other.  I love that I can go to IKEA and always have room for what I want to buy.

I don't love the gas mileage, or the fact that it doesn't fit into the garage.  But for all the pros I will deal with these cons.  

Chic Beret

I've never been a fan of hats, but this fall am obsessed with berets.  I mean how chic are these ladies?

  

Plus I think it will work well in Ireland.  Just add hat and don't worry about the hair.  Perfect.

I was in a Bass outlet yesterday and they had a bunch of winter stuff on sale.  And I found this white one.  I may have to go back and see if they have red.  And black.

And the best thing is, it's cold here like half the year, so I can use this baby a lot.

Vanilla Extract DIY

Years ago, Chris and I took a cruise that stopped off in Mexico.  Everyone, and I mean literally everyone, had 2 or 3 bottles of something in their arms.  We couldn't figure it out.  I think one of us eventually asked and they said vanilla.

 

We were totally nonplussed about it, mostly because I wasn't that great of a cook at that point.  Move forward years later to now where I would rather be as natural and DIY as possible, and I now totally understand why they were hoarding great vanilla at amazing prices.

Enter pinterest, which has basically become my search engine.  And wouldn't you know it, there were DIY vanilla extract recipes.  They are all basically the same:

DIY Vanilla Extract

80 proof Vodka, 1 liter
Vanilla beans (6-7 per quart, so 14 for 1 liter of vodka)

Pour half of vodka into quart jar.  Slice open beans, spread apart, cut in half.  Drop into vodka.  Shake.  Shake daily for first week, a couple times a week for the next two or three, and then whenever you remember for the next 2-6 months.

Here they are sitting in my laundry room.  A place I unfortunately am in every day so I remember to shake the bottles.

Two months is the minimum amount of time to let it sit before using it.  You could keep the beans in there indefinitely if you wanted, but I will strain them out since I am giving them as Christmas presents.  This extract will essentially keep forever since it's made with vodka.

Some people just put 14 beans into the giant container of vodka rather than splitting it up, and you can certainly do this, but I saw a few people who said due to the bigger volume, it had to sit longer to get the flavor finished.  I suppose you could be extra-aggressive with your shaking to counteract that.

I buy my vanilla beans from Mountain Rose Herbs.  Love that store.  They have all sorts of herbs and good stuff.  Check it out.

And if you are going to make these for Christmas presents, get cracking!  Time is short and the water rises.  (That's my dad's saying!)

Terrible But True

What else is there to say?

Wet Clothes Left In a Dryer

Chris left a load of wet clothes in the dryer for 5 days when we were gone and he was in Canada. You can pretty much guess what that smelled like.  Death.


And this picture has nothing to do with dryers, but it is in a laundry room plus it's funny.  I'd have to be real tired to fall asleep on that.

Anyway, we just got home from almost three weeks away and I had a ton of clothes to wash, and a nasty dryer to clean first.  I was going to use vinegar/water to clean it, but I don't really like the smell of vinegar and it just seemed like a lot of work.

So instead I grabbed a towel, got it soaked and wrang it out, and then put my Purification oil from Young Living (you can use whatever brand of oil you want, they almost all have a Purification blend of some type)all over the towel, probably a total of 20 or so drops, popped it into the dryer and ran it for a full cycle.

And it totally got rid of the smell.  I was a happy, happy camper.  I've also used the oil to get rid of the pee smell in the kidlets room after unfortunate night incidents.  I also use Purification when Chris cooks fish and I want to get rid of the smell real fast.

Here are a couple of Purification oil options:

Native American Nutritionals: Purify  $17  The cheapest but I don't like this smell the best.

Young Living: Purification  $25  What I used

doTerra: Purify  $24  another option

I Bought 74 lbs. of Apples....

So I bought 74 pounds of apples for $20.  What a steal.  And pinterest is filled with amazing apple recipes.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Can I just say bring them all on?


German Apple Pancake


Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips


Country Apple Fritter Bread


Cinnamon Applesauce


Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Creating a New Wardrobe

I went crazy the other night and got rid of at least half, if not more, of my clothes.  I sort of snapped.



But it's all okay because I am loving moving towards minimalism.  I cleaned out the little 3 kidlets clothes getting ready for fall and got rid of four garbage bags of stuff.  I am a little ashamed to admit it.

Anyway, back to my decimated closet.  I think I can go further with it because I have 4 white tshirts, 3 black tank tops, 2 black sleeve long tshirts.  And how many of them do you really need? Plus I am thinking that if I have way less clothes, I will keep up with laundry better simply because I will have to if I want any clean clothes.

This lady went down to 30 pieces.



I'm not sure I could do it.  But it is very enticing.  A little hard for someone who lives in a climate with 4 seasons, but maybe I could make a few (very few) additions.

I'm currently still trying to decide what all to part with.  It gets a little tricky and hard to let go...

Polish Frizzle

Isn't this awesome?!  All thanks to a genetic mutation.



I'm wondering if I can convince my brother to get a couple of these for his farm...

September

It kicks off fall in my book.  Bring out the boots!