Home Fires

 

My parents are getting divorced.

 

Now, before I go any further, I’m not looking to throw myself a pity party here. I mean, I’m twenty-three. I had a relatively drama-free, two-parent childhood. I have functional relationships, and very few lasting scars. It could be so, so much worse.

 

Still, they’re my parents. It doesn’t tickle. And it’s messed with my understanding of what my family is, of where I come from. My concept of home is shifting, and the idea of the holidays creeping closer fills me with a kind of discomfort I’ve never experienced.

 

The best I have been able to do is remember that my tribe extends way beyond the four people in the photograph on my desk, that even when I feel like I’m losing my footing I have built myself a web, Charlotte-style, to catch me on the way down: there are friends from high school who have loved me through innumerable bad clothing choices and all manner of adolescent meanness, and soul sisters from college who are scattered across the country but rooted deeply in my spine. The Lost Boys I lived with after I left the dorms never fail to make me smile, nor do the giggling girls from every job I’ve ever had. And of course there is Leprechaun’s family, the huge hollering clan of them, who write and call and send boxes full of Minute Rice and mayonnaise, because you never know when you’re going to run out of things like that.

 

As the fall creeps in—as it gets darker and crisper and the boats start to disappear from the harbor—I want to gather them around me. I want to bake them pies. I want to start traditions of my own so that the next time something shakes me like this (and something will shake me; that’s the nature of somethings) I’ll be ready.

 

Here’s how I’m building my home—and my web—this season:

 

1. Cranking up the oven. I wasn’t kidding about the pies. For me, nothing says autumn like comfort food, and I’m looking to keep my kitchen smelling delicious. On the agenda are pumpkin bread, all manner of roasts, and maybe a casserole or two. I’m trying to keep our food supply as local as possible, so I’ll keep hunting the farmer’s market until it shuts down at the end of November.

 

2. Opening my doors. We had a constant stream of visitors for much of the summer—the roof deck makes for easy entertaining. Now that it’s getting too cold to use it, I’m looking for some creative alternatives. I’m a huge fan of potlucks, and I’ve got some ideas for a Halloween costume party, as well as a sort of alternative Thanksgiving—more on that as we get closer.

 

3. Getting out of town. Frankly, nothing makes me want to throw my energy into cultivating my home like leaving it for awhile. I’ve got plans to see friends all over the place this autumn, trips to Philadelphia and New York and Michigan, if I’m lucky. Leprechaun and I have a vacation in the works, too, and I can already tell this season is going to fly.

 

4. Making a clean sweep. Before I go ahead and batten down the hatches, it’s important to me that I’m only sharing this space with stuff I absolutely can’t live without. I’ll be going through my summer clothes before I store them, selling off some old books, and generally giving this place a good scrub.

 

So that’s what’s cooking around here for the next few weeks. What’s on your agenda for the fall?

Menu Plan Monday

Leprechaun might head home to his family for part of this week to help his little brother with an Eagle Scout project (I know, I KNOW), so this is subject to change—my culinary aspirations tend to skew toward “stick spoon in peanut butter” when I’m the only one in the house.

 

Anyway, here we go!

 

Monday: I’m out and about, so Leprechaun’s on his own

Tuesday: Chicken tacos with all the fixings

Wednesday: Cream of pumpkin soup (never quite happened last week)

Thursday: Pasta Bolognese with peppers and onions

What are you guys eating this week?

Sunday Night Wrapup

Reading: This month’s O. What up, free trial subscription? Nice to meet you.

Listening: Still on Top: The Greatest Hits, by Van Morrison.  

Making: A mess, probably. We’ve got a clog in the bathroom sink, and I’m going to try something chemical-free before I reach for the Drano. Wish me luck.

Cooking: Pierogis! And by cooking, I mean removing from box and boiling.

What’s next: Nights in Rodanthe with my friend J, and a long soak in the tub.

Happy Sunday, everybody!

Five Good Things: Happy Fall Edition

1. My dad being in town for the weekend, thus guaranteeing me dessert at least twice a day
2. Tomato, basil, and mozzarella with oil and vinegar
3. “The Whole World Should Revolve Around Me” by Little Jackie: I grin every time I hear this song. Seriously. Every dang time.
4. This recipe for applesauce from Mary at Owlhaven, which was so easy and great and made my whole house smell like autumn, not to mention that I have been eating said applesauce on everything all week, and it is delicious
5. When the wind comes in from the harbor and my whole neighborhood smells like ocean

 So what’s good with you guys?

Care Packages on the Cheap

My sister’s at college in New York. She’s an Education major with a cute apartment and a cute roommate, and generally spends her days being excellent and saving the world.

 

Every now and then I like to show my love with material goods by sending her a care package, but the first couple of times I did it, stocking the thing cost a ton—around twenty bucks to put together something nice. Not so long out of college myself, I couldn’t drop that kind of money too frequently.

 

Once I started playing the CVS game, though, it occurred to me that I could actually put together something totally great for a fraction of the cost if I gave it some time and thought. I found a box and filled it slowly over the course of a few weeks, depending on what was super cheap at Stop & Shop and CVS, and was actually sort of thrilled with the contents by the time I was done. I sent the package out yesterday, and it contained:

 

Covergirl Outlast lipgloss (free at CVS)

A bag of Chex mix (free at CVS)

3 SoyJoys (free at CVS: I know, I KNOW, I just posted about how totally foul they were, but I’m hoping she’ll like them more than I did)

A pack of Orbit gum (Leprechaun’s mom sent us a crate not too long ago)

A package of Kotex liners (.49 at CVS)

A box of Barilla Piccolini (.25 at Stop & Shop)

A little bag of Cacade PowerPacks (free sample)

A really excellent notepad pre-printed with Pro/Con lists (weirdly, I got two of these as gifts last year)

A 4-pack of Soleil disposable razors (2.49 at CVS)

A completely fantastic mix CD (if I do say so myself)

 

I had a blast doing it, and for a grand total of $3.25 I can start another one right away. Care packages for everyone, yo.

 

Now, my question for you all is this: the box still wound up costing like eight bucks to send. Any ideas for saving money on shipping?

Everything We Love Can Be Saved

 

I got this quilt from Anthropologie when I was in high school—we’d just moved, and I think my mom felt like she needed to buy me something expensive to make up for the trauma. Anyway, my cat promptly ripped a giant hole in the delicate fabric, and then I melted a caramel on it by mistake, and then…well. In the years since, my beloved quilt has been a beach towel, a futon cover, a fort, and probably a tissue on more than one occasion, and by now it’s basically ripped to shreds in a thoroughly unfixable (and kind of disgusting) way.

Still, it is beautiful, and it reminds me of home and makes me all warm and fuzzy and Linus-like, so I needed to find a way to salvage it somehow. Enter the sale on poster frames at Michael’s:

It took me about an hour to rip all the seams out—I’ll probably use what’s left (there’s a ton of it) to make some pillows. I tossed the batting, since it was kind of gray and questionable. But overall I’m really pleased with how it came out—it adds a really nice punch of color to the bedroom. And, you know, my heart.

Works for Me Wednesday: Not Fighting It

This is so small and silly that I’m almost embarrassed to post it. But it goes to show that sometimes it really is the little things that make a difference, and it’s nothing if not a lesson in battle-picking.

 

We had a towel bar in the bathroom. We had a lot of towels in the bathroom. In the four months we’ve lived in this apartment, said towels made it onto said towel bar maybe three times. Instead, they were slung over open doors, heaped on the toilet seat, left in sodden puddles on the bathroom floor.

 

We’d never had this problem in the other apartment (where there were hooks on the back of the bathroom door) and it seemed absurd to me that the simple act of folding a wet towel and sliding it over the flippin’ bar could be such a deal breaker.

 

So I fought it. I picked up towel after soggy towel, folding and grumbling and letting the resentment grow, until the other day—literally, the other day, after four months of taking this stupid towel bar as my lot in life—it occurred to me that I could go buy some hooks and replace the blasted thing.

 

So I did.

 

Know what?

 

It worked.

 

There’s a lesson here somewhere about the inanity of being annoyed about something without taking steps to change it, about the futility of constantly swimming against the tide. I could probably apply it to other areas of my life—I’ll probably try to—but for now, I’m just happy not to be climbing over a mountain of soggy terry cloth to get to the sink.

 

And that works for me. 

PSA

Five free SoyJoys at CVS are not a deal if said SoyJoys turn out to be made of poison. 

 

Thank you.

City Love

 

Not too long ago, one of Leprechaun’s buddies and his fiancée stayed with us for a night on their way to New Hampshire—they live about an hour outside of Dayton, OH. The four of us were sitting on our roof with some snacks when the topic of how much it costs to live here came up.

 

“Um, that’s more than our mortgage,” Buddy said, when he heard what our monthly rent is. “And we have a pool.”

 

Well.

 

Leprechaun and I have always been city kids, and overall we’re really happy with the decision to spend our twenties in an urban area. We’re surrounded by people our age, there’s a ton to do, and the noise and bustle of a city is a great remedy for the post-college isolation I sometimes feel. But it’s a trade off. Because we’ve made the decision to live where we live, everything–rent, food, a night out–costs a lot more than it might were we living in rural Ohio.

 

Also, we do not have a pool. We do, however, have a large puddle of standing water at the top of the stairs to the roof.

 

Still, I’m not about to let location deter me when it comes to streamlining my expenses—and my life. Even in a city, there are a ton of ways to save money and still live well. Here are a few that have been working for me:

 

1. Public transportation: I can’t say this enough. If you’re trying to reduce your transportation costs—and your carbon footprint—there’s no easier way to do it than by taking the train or the bus. There are months when Leprechaun pays more in parking tickets than I do for my 30-day pass. To make the most of the time it takes for me to get to work, I got some audiobooks from the library and put them on my iPod.

 

2. Dirt cheap produce: I think I mentioned last week that by switching farmer’s markets, I slashed my fruit-and-veggie budget by half. The nice thing about living here is that I do have the option to shop around, with the added bonus of a variety of international markets, as well—you’d be surprised by how much cheaper spices are when you’re not buying them at Stop & Shop.

 

3. Free entertainment: When I was in college and lived in a dorm on one of the busiest streets in town, we used to throw our windows open at 2am when all the bars let out and watch the show. Talk about low-budget entertainment. Short of taking pleasure in other people’s drunken shenanigans, however, your average city offers a plethora of free activities every night of the week, from wine tastings to movies to soccer games. Leprechaun and I have made a date night out of strolling through art galleries, or simply walking down to the beach near our house.

 

4. Crowd control: Because our apartment is not at all huge—about 700 square feet—we have to be extra-careful about what we bring home. As a result, we’re cautious about purchases big and small—if it’s not beautiful or multifunctional, it doesn’t make the cut. I try to get rid of something for every item I bring in, because if I’m not vigilant about selling or Freecycling the excess, it piles up real fast.

 

Yes, there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts tempting me on every corner. Yes, a glass of house wine can cost eight bucks. Yes, I could probably trade my puddle in for a pool if I was willing to pack up and move elsewhere. But I bring my own coffee in the morning, a I’d rather crack a beer at home with some friends than drink overpriced pinot noir at a badly-lit bar.

 

As for the pool—well, yeah, I’d like a pool. But I can wait.

 

I think I’ve mentioned before that living simply and frugally is about more for me than just saving money. It’s about getting the most out of my life as it is now, and hopefully squirreling a bit away for the future. At this point, the benefits of city-living outweigh the cost. And that’s the way it should be.

 

So what about you all? Is there something you do to save money that is specific to the place where you live? 

Menu Plan Monday

Okay, I’m a little early, but this is my first MPM post–hey there, to anybody who got here through orgjunkie.

I’ve been meal planning for a little over a year now without realizing there was a whole community of ladies (and gentlemen) doing it right along with me. I love sitting around on a Sunday morning with a grocery flier and a week’s worth of dinners to figure out. Everything is delicious at that point, you know?

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week:

Monday: Pumpkin Soup with giant croutons

Tuesday: Crockpot Beef Stew (I’m using a new recipe here, so I’ll let you know how it goes)

Wednesday: I’m sitting, so Leprechaun will probably order

Thursday: Ina’s parmesan chicken with rice and roasted grape tomatoes (this one’s the favorite. Like most of the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes, it’s a total knockout).

 

So what are you guys eating this week?