I had the best morning. It was amazing. I’m riding high from the fun I had.
What did I do? I cleaned my house.
Why was that fun? Because my kids weren’t here.
I hired my niece to watch the kids a few hours a week this summer. It was her first day today. I knew it would be great, but I had no idea how fabulous it would be. After she got her we packed up the stroller and swim gear. They walked to the wading pool. I came inside, loaded up a new playlist and got to work cleaning.
The playlist was created by my best friend from high school. We caught up earlier this year when he was back in our hometown visiting from Australia (where he is a professor at Australia National University). He has always been someone who brings me joy. He is funny and kind and full of great information. He excels at pointing me towards new music. It started with mixed tapes, moved to mixed CDs, and very recently moved to a playlist on Spotify. The playlist is filled with enjoyable songs that made cleaning more enjoyable. It also made me feel hip – my usual cleaning music is Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kenny Rogers.
I’m not a person who enjoys cleaning, but without kids underfoot it becomes cathartic. I have never been so pleased with a clean kitchen floor.
I am sad to report that the floor is no longer spotless. Living with two toddlers and a large dog makes it impossible to keep a floor white for long.
I was so energized from two kid free morning hours I was inspired to create a fun lunch. I hadn’t made English muffin pizzas since college, but we had all of the ingredients in the house. I was reaching in the cheese drawer for some Havarti and discovered a ball of fresh mozzarella I forgot that we had. What resulted is the fanciest English muffin pizzas I’ve ever made.
In addition to getting a lot done and having some kid free time, I’m thrilled that my kids will have lots of time with their cousin.
I’m probably not going to clean every time she watches them. I’m excited to see all that I can get done with that time. What would you do if you were give two hours without responsibilities?
I take my coffee with cream. I drink a lot of coffee. This is a great price on an item I use daily.
Summer is white wine time in my house. It’s great for drinking on the patio. Most of the time I tell myself I’m going to drink a bottle over the course of the week, but I only have two glasses and the I pour the rest down the drain later that week. At $6.99 this wine tastes like a $12 bottle (that is high praise in my book). I still feel bad pouring out wine that has gone bad, but when the whole bottle costs less than a glass when we go out to dinner it doesn’t sting as much.
I could not buy all of my produce at Aldi. The selection changes constantly and they never have all of the produce I am looking for. One thing that is consistently available and always good quality is their cherry tomatoes. I love cherry tomatoes. They are a great snack off the vine, and they are good sliced and added to sandwiches. My favorite way to eat them is to sautee them in some truffle oil with a handful of spinach, then scramble some eggs in with them and top that scramble with goat cheese.
I cook with ginger and garlic a lot. I usually use whole garlic cloves and grate my own ginger. There are times when I don’t have those on hand and I am not able to cook what I want to cook. It’s at those times that I reach for paste. Once opened, they keep for four weeks in your refrigerator. I don’t think these are going to replace fresh ingredients in my kitchen, but they are great to keep on hand for ingredient emergencies.
mildlygranola 