Wii have finally joined a cult

After a lot of unholy technological lusting, wii have finally joined the wii club. Using money saved from my 29th birthday, along with some cash from my 30th, I was able to scrape together exactly enough to purchase a Wii.

Why a Wii? Why not a PS3? Well, for one, the PS3 was more expensive. The real reason though was that a Wii seems like a more family-friendly gaming platform that will allow me to play games with Lisa and Ian. And you know what? I was right.

Ian has already latched onto baseball and bowling; however, I have real fears that he might take out our TV while playing. :)



As a side note, we are acquiring games for our Wii via Goozex.com. Goozex is a fantastic video game trading site where you can unload games that you don't play anymore in order to earn points towards other games. For example, I listed 3 Playstation games on Goozex and was able to get enough points to get The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and I'm on a waiting list for Mario Kart. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle...it works for video games too!

Meet Mukaddas

Mukaddas and her husband raise cattle in Tajikistan in order to provide for themselves and their four children. We're currently helping to provide an interest-free loan in order to make it possible for them to expand their business and provide a better life for their children.

You might be wondering how we got into the business of lending money for cattle farms in Tajikistan. Well, the answer is actually quite simple. We learned about Mukaddas (and others) through the microfinance non-profit organization, Kiva (www. kiva.org).

Kiva works with agencies around the world to provide zero-interest loans to businesses in developing countries. Basically, you deposit money with Kiva, choose someone to lend it to, and then wait for them to repay the loan. Once the loan is repaid, you can either (a) withdraw the money for your own use, (b) loan it to someone else, or (c) donate it to Kiva to help cover their operating expenses.

As with any loan, the borrower may default. You also do not earn any interest on your money. What you do get out of the deal is the opportunity to help someone, somewhere, improve their quality of life. From a Christian perspective, organizations like Kiva are a way for us to better love our neighbors...even the ones who live in Tajikistan.

30 minutes to Cheap Laundry Detergent

Is anyone else amazed at how much it costs just to keep your house and clothes clean these days? I mean, we have our dish cleaners and laundry cleaners and floor cleaners and sink cleaners and toilet cleaners and carpet cleaners and window cleaners, not to mention all the gadgets that go with them (mops, dusters, brushes, etc.). Up until a few months ago, I was probably spending somewhere between $250 and $300 a year on laundry care alone with detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets.

But last winter, my friend Allison had a wonderful idea: homemade laundry detergent! She figured out that it cost her about 75 cents for 2 gallons. The idea intrigued me, but I didn't try it out right away -- I had a full bottle of detergent that I'd just bought and wanted to use it up first. Then when it ran out, I just didn't have the time that week to commit to making some myself (or so I thought), so I bought another big bottle. The next time I went to buy some, Meijer had raised the price on my favorite brand, and I was going to be paying 50 cents more for a bottle. By that time I'd had enough. It was time for me to give it a shot. So I bought the "ingredients" that Allison's recipe suggested, and took another baby step.

The recipe calls for a bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap (*NOTE:  I now use Castille soap. I found this next to other bar soaps and hand soaps in the household products portion of Meijer's grocery section.)  It also calls for Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and Borax, both of which are in the laundry section of the grocery store.

To make the detergent, you first grate 1/3 of the Fels-Naptha bar (saving the rest for other batches) into a large stainless steel or aluminum pot, like this:

Then you add 6 cups of water and heat over moderate heat until the soap is dissolved. Next, add 1/2 cup of the super washing soda and 1/2 cup of Borax and cook for about 15 minutes, or until it's the consistency of honey.
Stir occasionally to keep the soap from sticking to the side of the pan. Smile and enjoy the lightly soapy scent wafting through your house!
Put the soap mixture into a bucket and add 5 1/2 quarts of water (that's 22 cups), and stir until well-blended. Here, I added a few drops of lavender extract for extra scent. Using a funnel, pour the mixture into a gallon jug or old laundry detergent bottle. It makes about 1 1/2 gallons of detergent, so I have to use two different bottles. Here, I used an old vinegar bottle (I'm sure I'll blog about my new love affair with vinegar sometime, as well):
When you do laundry, shake the bottle well, and use about 1/2 cup for a regular-sized load.

As it turns out, it only took about 30 minutes to make, and my first batch lasted me 2 months! That batch did only cost about 75-80 cents, so it was definitely economically friendly. Plus, it reduces the waste going out of my house since the ingredients make so many batches (I've only used 1 cup each of the soda and Borax, so there's a lot left!) and I can reuse old laundry detergent bottles. Then the boxes from the soda and Borax can be recycled. I haven't researched yet as to the environmental-friendliness of the detergent itself, but both the Super Washing Soda and the Borax claim to be natural. And the Fels-Naptha soap is such an old product, I'm thinking it's probably not too processed. At the very least, I'm saving on containers by reducing, reusing, and recycling, while saving money at the same time! Double score!

For an extra bonus, you may be interested to know that we've been very happy with the performance of this detergent and have noticed that it possibly even cleans better than the stuff we were previously using (Purex Natural Elements). I've even formulated my own stain fighter using an old Spray'n'Wash spray bottle filled with a solution of the detergent and some more water (so it doesn't get stuck in the sprayer). So happy and so cheap!

So what kinds of things is your family doing to save money?

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Look what we grew....

Tri-color beans from seeds given to us by our friend Cary. Aren't they pretty? I can't wait to blanche and saute them with some almonds!

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A Collaborative Effort

Did you know we have a garden this summer? It's not at our house, but on some unused land that we (and some other faculty and staff) are borrowing from Bethel just a few blocks away. For some odd reason, I planted four large mounds of zucchini plants. Yeah, we're overloaded with zucchini right now. I've already made 4 loaves of zucchini bread and a huge batch of zucchini-filled enchiladas, and as of Sunday, I still had a stack of zucchini in my fridge. So in addition to shredding and chopping some up, then freezing it in zip-lock baggies for more bread and enchilada fillings later, I made a soup out of about three pounds of it (recipe to follow).

As I was making my menu and grocery list on Sunday night, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to serve with the zucchini soup I was planning on making. Thank goodness, my ever-thoughtful and creative husband came up with the idea of grilled tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. Yum!

Whole-wheat bread, Roma tomatoes, sliced button mushrooms, and fresh mozzarella were the orginal ingredients planned for our summery sandwiches. But it felt like something was missing. Enter an arugula pesto with herbs from the little herb garden outside our kitchen window. Fantastissimo! And so easy, too!

While Eric expertly grilled the sandwiches out on the deck, I finished assembling the soup inside. A recipe from this month's Food and Wine magazine, this chilled zucchini soup is simple and fresh. Although, next time I make it, I'm going to use less water than the recipe originally called for; it was a little too thin for my taste. The flavor, on the other hand, was exactly what I expected: fresh, herby, and summery. Perfect with the hot grilled sandwiches.

Chilled Zucchini Soup (with modifications)
from Food & Wine Magazine, August 2009

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
8 small zucchini (or 3 pounds), thinly sliced
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 c. water
2 T. finely shredded basil
2 c. baby arugula
1 c. ice

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil; add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat until translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the thyme and bay leaf and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the zucchini, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat; discard the bay leaf and stir in the basil and arugula. Puree the soup until very smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and add the ice. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until thoroughly chilled.


Grilled Tomato Sandwiches

10 slices whole wheat bread
15 Roma tomato slices
5-6 button mushrooms, sliced
fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 cup baby arugula
1 tsp. each of fresh basil, sage, thyme, and chives
3-4 T. chopped walnuts or pine nuts
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
2-3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
more olive oil for drizzling on bread

Prepare bread, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese. To make the pesto, combine arugula, herbs, nuts, garlic, crushed red pepper, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a food chopper or small processor, and puree until as smooth as possible. Brush one side of each piece of bread with olive oil. Spread about 2 tsp. of pesto on the other side of 5 slices of bread. Place mushroom slices, tomato slices, and cheese on top of the pesto. Grill the sandwiches open-faced, until the cheese is melted and the grill sides of the bread are golden. Place the tops on the sandwiches and serve immediately.

Blueberries!

At the beginning of the summer, I had this goal of visiting several U-pick farms in the area and loading up my deep freezer with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cherries to snack on and cook with all winter long. Well, last week, I realized that I somehow completely missed strawberry season here in northern Indiana! Not about to allow myself to be complete failure, I vowed to go blueberry picking this week. So that's what we did this morning, bright and early.

At the recommendation of several of my Facebook friends, we went to the Blueberry Ranch nearby, an organic farm that grows five different varieties of blueberries for the community to pick. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day -- both in terms of weather and the ripeness of the blueberries. The sky was a bright, clear blue, a heavy blanket of dew was covering the blueberry fields, and thanks to this chilly summer we're having, it was so cool we hardly broke a sweat. And forget about those minuscule, bitter, shriveled berries you can buy in your local mega-mart for a premium price: in an hour and a half, we picked over 30 pounds of plump, succulent, candy-like fruit for a mere $1.50/pound!

Of course, Ian ate waaaaay more blueberries than he actually placed in his little bucket, even though we tried to deter him by playing counting games with the berries, but he had a blast. One of his favorite parts (according to him during our nightly "What was your favorite thing today" game) was riding on the tractor to and from the field where we were assigned our bushes. On the way back, though, he and Eric initially missed getting on the trailer before the tractor started moving with me on it, and had to chase it down a bit. This was a little traumatizing for Ian. I'd like to think he was worried that the tractor was taking me away, but it's probably more realistic that he was upset at the thought of not getting to ride on it himself!

We all made it safely back to the barn, though, where we paid for our loot and were enticed by all sorts of organic blueberry yumminess: blueberry jam, blueberry blossom honey, blueberry BBQ sauce, and blueberry salsa.

I think we're going to try to go back later this week for another 10 pounds or so, just to make sure we have enough to last us through all the cobbler, pie, sorbet, ice cream, pancakes, and muffins I'm going to be making, let alone the frozen blueberry snacks! Yum!

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Wedding in a Midwest Paradise

I love weddings. Not just because I'm a sappy girl who gets teary-eyed at anything romantic, but mostly because marriage in general can be a picture of our relationship to God and the beautiful love that is possible with Him. The wedding we went to this weekend exuded love: the kind of love that God instills in us and created us to share with one another, even though we don't always realize it.

Our friends Carley and Stefan got married during a small ceremony of close friends and family at a rented beach house on the east shore of Lake Michigan. Eric and I took the liberty of camping out on the beach for three nights (we bought ear plugs after the first night of stuffing t-shirts over our heads to muffle the crashing waves), and we just generally hung out with our friends who treated us like family. We ate a lot, read a lot, laughed a lot, and watched a lot of sunsets. We celebrated Eric's 30th birthday in our own style: chillin' at the beach, then driving home for dinner and an Ian-exchange with my parents, followed by cake and ice cream with his parents. The next day, we went back to the beach and were able to catch up with Carley and Stef on a sailboat sunset cruise, during which Ian declared that the sun was "swimming." Today, we returned home for good, back to our normal lives.

I'm not typically a big fan of going somewhere on vacation to "get away" -- mostly because my life is just so good I don't usually feel the need to leave it. But this past weekend was truly a breath of fresh air to my soul. The setting was beautiful, the company enjoyable, and the experience all-around pleasant.

Our tent, the stairs, and some mini-orchids on the side of the dune


Stef & Carley


Eric kayaking


Sunset watching from the lake house


Sunset from the sailboat

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Summer T-shirts

You know how pretty much every summer you have that one t-shirt that you absolutely love and wear practically everywhere, to the point that it almost defines the summer for that year? And then later, you see yourself in that shirt in all sorts of summer photos: out with friends for lunch, at a 4th of July party, standing in front of some random statue on your random vacation, bumming around at the beach. All the while wearing your fav T. For me, last summer's T was a stretchy brown one from Old Navy with all sorts of white road signs on it, except instead of the road signs saying their normal things, they say things like "GO" and "Right Way" and "Speed on Ahead" and "Hurry" and "Do Not Hesitate." A shirt with a positive attitude. Love it. And those of you who spend a lot of time with me are currently nodding your heads because you've seen me wear that shirt, like, a thousand times. It's my Summer of 2008 Shirt.

My Summer of 2009 Shirt is super cool, too. It was given to me by my good friend Sheri for my birthday...a few months late (love ya, Cheryl!), but it's here nonetheless. It rocks. Take a look.

What is cooler than Audrey Hepburn??? She was the epitome of grace and chic-ness. I obviously love her; I even named my car after her (see my post on March 6th). And I'm going to be wearing this shirt all summer. Look out, world.

And here's a close-up of Eric's fav T for this summer. It always makes me giggle.


So what's your Summer of 2009 Shirt?

PS: Lots to blog about, but we're having so much fun this summer, we just haven't taken the time to do it. Here's a sneak preview into what we plan on filling you all in on sometime soon:

• Nick, our house guest for the summer
• Making granola from scratch - Yum!
  
• The never-ending project of painting the outside of our house
  
• Ian walking with a cane, "Just like Papa"
  
• Concocting homemade laundry detergent
  
• Discovering Kiva
  

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Lisa the Yogi

A couple weeks ago, I did something I thought I'd never do in a million years: I joined a gym. Influenced by peer pressure, I paid actual money to sweat and make myself hurt all over.

Ok, so that's not the full story, but it's what it boils down to in some sense. See, about six months ago, our pastor and his wife joined this same gym and started taking a power yoga class there. Since Elizabeth and I hang out at all sorts of moms events through church, I heard all about the horrid pain they were put through twice a week and how great it was making them feel. Mark even started mentioning his experiences with yoga in his sermons on Sunday mornings. Now, I've done yoga at home by myself for five or six years now, and just recently started dabbling in the group experience through a class offered by the occupational therapist of a college acquaintance, and I've come to really enjoy the benefits of working out in a group: comeraderie, support, empathy in the midst of pain, etc. So, when my friend Andrea called me to ask me to join her in attending the same class as Mark and Elizabeth, she hit me at just the right time, and I caved.

So I signed up for the promotional 3-day-a-week deal at this local gym called ICE. (No idea why they capitalize all the letters or what it's supposed to mean, but it sure sounds tough -- like by going to this gym, my body is going to be a hard as ice....able to be smashed into a million pieces with a hammer or ground up in a blender. Fun.) On my first day, last week on Tuesday, I got a grand tour of the state-of-the-art facilities, received a cool key ring swipe card (like what you use at Kroger to get good deals on your groceries), and was shown where the yoga class takes place. Walking in, feeling a bit trepidatious about what I was getting myself into, I was greeted by familiar faces from church, namely my friends Elizabeth, Mark, Andrea, and Chelsea, and settled in on my blue sticky mat to do some warmup stretches. The instructor -- a chic, strong, and serious looking girl named Abby who also looked strangely familiar (see picture to the left) -- walked in, plugged in her microphone, turned on some soothing yet rockin' music, and began our class with some breathing exercises. She then proceeded to kick our butts for the next 70 minutes until we were all shaking and sweating buckets. I'd never felt so alive and dead at the same time.

As I was walking out of the class, feeling like I was going to need a serious nap when I got home, I suddenly saw a picture of Abby in my head in a white shirt and an Olive Garden tie -- ah yes! that's where I knew her from! Eric and I had worked with her at O.G. back in our Bethel undergrad and first year of marriage days. Feeling a bit embarrassed at her seeing me all red-faced and sweaty while she looked like she hadn't moved a muscle the whole time, I nevertheless re-introduced myself and shared some laughs with her over our server experiences. I went home feeling empowered and strong.

And the next day, I could hardly sit down or stand up without groaning. Thank goodness, on Thursday, we worked our arms instead of our legs and I couldn't lift anything without groaning on Friday. Then yesterday, my abs hurt so much from this Tuesday's workout that I could hardly do either one without groaning. Oh, it's all so much fun!

I'm really enjoying this experience, though. I doubt I'll be able to do it much longer than two months due to budget issues, but I'm going to soak up everything I'm learning and make every workout count until then.

Here's Ian and I doing "oga" at home together. He loves the downward dog and plank poses.

Blogs I Read: Part 6 -- the final installment

Blog #6: Hoosiers Insider
I grew up with my dad being a huge Purdue fan, especially in basketball, the royal sport. Sadly, I didn't watch as much sports with him as I now wish I had, but they were certainly a part of our family life. So I was, by default, a Purdue fan as well.

Then I met this guy named Eric. Who LOVED IU (Indiana University, for you non-sports people out there -- and Purdue's biggest rival). I fell in love with said guy. I began to realize that Eric's love for IU and my disdain for it, especially that yucky Bob Knight guy, could really start to come between us if I weren't careful. So, I crossed enemy lines and joined their team, all in the name of peace.

And now I'm an IU fan.

There, I said it. It's out there in print.

Well, honestly, it's no surprise to anyone that knows me now. I don my IU wardrobe pretty much any time we view either a football or basketball game. I've allowed us to spend hundreds of dollars over the course of six years in Bloomington on season tickets to both sports. I schedule my TV watching time around IU sports events...even baseball this past week. I know the difference between nickel and dime defenses. I know what a spread offense is. I know that the same signal is used for a travel in basketball and a false start in football. I know players' names, jersey numbers, and even sometimes their hometown. I know some of their stories, and I have my list of favorites (A.J. Moye, you'll always be at the top). I've sat in the pouring rain, completely miserable, while stupid Ohio State fans chant their stupid O-H-I-O cheer all around me....in OUR stadium, mind you. I've teared up at several events, including one where our underdog football team (who are always the underdogs because we kind of suck) played my former favorite Purdue in the last game of the season and won it to get the chance to play in a bowl game for the first time in eons.

I'm an IU fan.

And one person who has helped me in all of this is Terry Hutchens of the Indy Star. My appreciation of him began before he had a blog, when I would read his reports of various games and IU situations online. He had an online newsletter, basically, called "Ask the Expert" where he would answer questions sent in by fans. When I was a new IU fan, this particular venue filled me in on all kinds of IU lore and history and kind of got me up to speed. Now, "Ask the Expert" has morphed into Hutchen's blog entitled "the Hoosier Insider," where he writes about things that don't get into his news stories. He also recently put up a fairly comprehensive IU basketball database, with stats dating all the way back to 1901, which is available to the general public in an easy format. In short, he's one of the best places to brush up on one's IU knowledge. You may just find yourself becoming a fan.