Last weekend we took a trip to the Bandelier National Monument outside of Los Alamos, NM.  We usually spend our weekends doing work on the house and hanging out with the family.

Mr. Petrie recently read that taking a few short vacations increases happiness more than a long, expensive vacation.

I think that enjoying the outdoors is going to be more cost-effective for our family and will provide our girls with a love of the environment.

We’re utilizing my Sunset subscription to find ideas for day and overnight trips.  We’re looking forward to our next mini vacation!

I am embarrased to admit that I usually throw our old stuff in the car and drop it off at the Goodwill I’m closest to that day.  But no more: I’ve decided to try selling stuff on Craig’s List.  So far, I’ve posted three things and sold two.

I’ve sold some baby clothes…

and diapers…

so we can fund stuff like this…

I’m going to try to sell one or two things a week.  This will help us clear out our garage and make a little extra money.  I’ll let you know how this little side business does.

Have a productive week!

We have wood laminate flooring.  When we installed it we really thought it would be super easy to keep clean, but it’s actually kind of a pain.  Anything that gets onto the floor is really visible.  I sweep the floor daily, but between 3 dogs and 2 kids, the floor can look dingy.

One day I was at Macy’s and I saw a steam mop.  I mentioned to my mom that I was thinking of buying one and she said she’d send me one for Mother’s Day.  I used it yesterday and it is awesome!  First of all, the steam kills off floor germs with just water.  There were no messy mopping puddles and all I did was replace the cloth pads a couple of times so I wouldn’t spread dirt around.  I was finished with our great room, hallway and restroom in about 15 minutes.  The floor looked smooth and the steam was able to remove any crusty goodness from the floor.

When Miss Petrie Deux is ready, I’ll have a clean place for her to crawl.  This is a huge relief to me!

Have a relaxing weekend.

I have a confession to make: I am not a breakfast eater.  I know how bad it is to skip that first meal, but I haven’t craved breakfast since I was kid.  However, I know that when I eat breakfast I feel more alert and less hungry for the rest of the day.

I truly believe that kids do as you do, not as you say, so I need to set a good example by eating something in the morning.  And since I don’t want my girls eating Pop Tarts for breakfast, I have to make more nutritious choices for our family.

So today I looked through my pantry and saw a big container of old-fashioned oats.  I made oatmeal bars and applesauce oatmeal muffins.  The ingredients were things we had around the house.  Both recipes were easy to make, particularly the muffins.

The bar recipe had no cooking temperature or time, so I cooked the bars at 300 for an hour.  Yum!  I’ve enjoyed them all weekend.  And I’ve had breakfast, even if it wasn’t muffins!

Here’s to eating breakfast.  Cheers!

Last week I finished Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants.  The book is told from the point of view of an old man remembering his life as a circus veterinarian during the Great Depression.  The end of the book surprised me and helped me appreciate the animal characters in the novel.  But let me warn you that I am a TOTALLY gullible reader.  I live in the characters’ moments.  I suspend disbelief while I am reading which is probably why I enjoy paranormal fiction.

I keep trying to start the fourth book in a series I am reading, but keep falling asleep before I can open the first page.  Miss Petrie Deux is already teething and has been sleeping poorly the past week.

The Miss Petries are so cute I can hardly be annoyed.

Have a relaxing weekend.

This week I taught myself to use the Picnik editing program that comes with our Flickr account.  I usually ask Mr. Petrie to Photoshop pictures for me, but I really needed to be able to do it myself.  Here are the results of my experimentation.

Original photo of Miss Petrie Deux

I cropped this photo, used a cross process color and added text.

I used color correct, square crop, and added a text bubble and text.

I cropped this photo to a 5x8, added crytallization and made the color sepia.

I cropped this photo, made it black and white, added a frame and text.

Original photo of Miss Petrie. Why did we take a picture near the garbage can??

I cropped this photo, used saturation and temperature to warm up the color, added a matte, rounded the edges, used a heart sticker and added text.

What did you learn this week?

Mr. Petrie bought me a subscription to Sunset magazine, which I love.  I always think the recipes look incredible, but I had yet to try one.  Well, I tried one and it was awesome.

Asian Peanut Slaw with Pork

(Picture and recipe from the March 2010 issue of Sunset.)

Preparation

1. Preheat broiler. In a small bowl, mix oil, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, and chile flakes. Put pork in a medium bowl and coat with 3 tbsp. dressing.

2. Broil pork chops, turning once, until done the way you like, 7 minutes for medium. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing 1/4 in. thick.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine cabbages, cilantro, bell pepper, and green onions. Add remaining dressing and peanuts to slaw mixture and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide slaw among 4 plates and top with pork.

We all loved this recipe and it was such a great mix of flavors.  I don’t know why I hesitated to try a recipe for so long.  I received my April issue a few days ago and I’m trying to decide what we should try.  Mr. Petrie thinks we should make everything and I might just agree!

Happy eating, friends.

In my quest to push myself beyond my comfort zone, I am reading a book from a different genre this week.  As you may know, I’m a BIG fan of paranormal fiction.  If a book has vampires, weres, fae, witches, warlocks, demons, angels, time travel or alternate realities, I am a fan.

I am reading

Normally, I read about 300 pages a day, but I’m unable to do that right now, so it will probably take me 1-2 weeks to read this book.  I’m enjoying it so far and I’ll let you know what I think when I finish it.

I was reading Woman’s Day magazine yesterday and saw an article about spring cleaning.  There were instructions on placing a duvet in a duvet cover in less than 1 minute.  Strangely, I thought to myself, “Even though it takes me several minutes to do this chore, I don’t want to learn how to do this more efficiently because I don’t feel like learning something new.”  For the rest of the day, I kept thinking to myself,

“Why don’t I want to learn something new that might help me?  Am I holding myself back because I’m complacent about certain aspects of my life?”

I just had a baby, I don’t want to change my life drastically because my life did just change radically!  But I do want to challenge myself to do things more efficiently and maybe learn something new.

So, in the next few weeks, I’m going to try something new once per week: a recipe, a new cleaning tip, a different genre of literature.  Some weeks, when I have time, I’ll do something more time-consuming, other weeks, I’ll do something quick and dirty.

Hmm…what can I do this week that I’ve been reluctant to do?