Ally and her latte moments
The trees are practically empty now and the time has come to rake them up and burn them. I love the smell of the leaves burning in the chill air. I think this is a project for this weekend. I will get the kids out there with me and we will use the leaf blower and rakes to clean up the yard. We shouldn’t have to do much more to the yard throughout the winter after this weekend.
The time has come to do some carpet cleaning. It has been a long while since I have had this done and the carpets are looking ragged. Kids have a tendency to track in everything under the sun and spill everything they hold in their hands. Mine are no different. I try to keep them from doing this with certain rules about removing muddy shoes or no carrying food into other rooms, but we all know how well that works. Pretty much not at all. I am considering cleaning them more often.
My carpets are not that old. I had them put in when I bought this house five years ago and they should last a long time. Keeping them cleaned will help with that. I am also going to have to be firmer with the kids about taking drinks into the living room. I have such a weak spot when it comes to them. I wonder if I should have to couches done as well? That might be a good idea, as they are a couple of spots on them from spills. Although those were not from the kids. Those happened when an outdoor BBQ got rained on and everyone had to move inside. Oh well, I will decide later on that.
I just found some awesome flameless candles with timer on them. I absolutely love that! Now I can turn them on and if I forget to turn them off before I go to bed or fall out on the couch, they will turn themselves off. That makes things so much easier on me for many reasons. First off, it will save me a ton of money on batteries. That is a definite plus. Secondly, as I mentioned before if they turn themselves off there is no worry.
I love candles. I keep them all over the house. I have ones that makes the house smell good and others just for how they look when they are lit. My friends and family tell me that I am a candle fanatic, but that makes things easy on them since they always buy me some sort of candle for holidays and such. I am ordering these new candles asap.
The time has come to winterize the trees here around the house. Sometimes we get really bad ice storms and need to cut back branches that could possibly break and fall on the house or cars. We picked up some arborist supplies a while back for just this occasion. Sometimes, it is necessary to do this in the spring too.
We get really bad spring storms, with high level, straight line winds. They can knock a full grown tree over in a split second. We tend to be very careful about how tall we allow the trees to grow right next to the house, because of it.
If you have never had a home energy audit in new jersey, then you might want to get one soon. It helps tremendously with bringing down your energy bill and saves you a lot of money. They will come out and tell you exactly where your problem areas lie and you can even get assistance with home repairs. I had one done not too long ago and it has saved me a ton of money. You would not believe where leaks can occur, allowing your air to escape.
Weather you are heating or cooling, it can be expensive. One of the worst problems is with insulation. You can get insulation grants in NJ as well. Saving money on energy is one of the best ways to keep your bills down. Many people do not know that they can get help with this, and so don’t ever try. Spread the word about the home energy audits, and the grants so that people can take advantage of this and save money too.
My sister is taking these classes to get bpi training certification. There are a lot of places that are trying to become more energy efficient. Some of them require home energy audits before the sale of a home as well as energy companies who want home owners to bring their houses up to bpi standards. Green Training USA is the company she is going through for her certification. I am considering this myself, as the quest to go green intensifies around the globe.
Professionals in this area are becoming more in demand each year. The BPI building envelope for specialist training and certification can be purchased online. You need only find a center near you and begin your classes. It doesn’t take that long as the class is only four hours long, with one full day of on site, hands on training. The fees include your exam fees as well as the sudy guide.
So I am cleaning the house and doing laundry today. I most of it already done and only a little more to go. Basically, just two loads of laundry to finish drying and fold to put away. I do have to vacuum my bedroom, but I am not in a big hurry for that. I can always do that tomorrow, so I will have something to do. Honestly, my kids are pretty clean around the house, and clean their own rooms. So I am pretty much good to go. I love my life.
Well the old TV the kids had fell and the port for the cable ripped out of the back. We are going to buy them a flat screen TV that can be mounted on the wall and cannot fall. The wall mount for it will be attached to the studs inside the walls and be much more secure for them. I am kind of glad that we are switching to the flat screen as the other TV fell on top of one of the boys and he could have been injured.
Now the stupid toilet is running constantly. There is something wrong on the inside of the tank, that I am going to have to fix soon. It is wasting water more and more each day. I have to make a trip to Home depot sometime this week and purchase what I need to fix it. I know it doesn’t cost all that much. It is just a pain to have to mess with. Ah well, such is life.
I love to cook and creating Kitchen Magic is something my family appreciates. I get tired of eating the same foods all the time, therefore I try to mix it up as much as I can. I try new recipes all the time. Most of the time they work amazingly great. Sometimes however, it is something we just didn’t like even though it came out perfectly. On those days we either choke it down, or end up ordering out. It doesn’t happen often though.
I tried a new breakfast casserole recipe a couple of weeks ago and they absolutely loved it. The Kitchen Magic was definitely their that day. I had to prep it the night before and let it sit in the fridge over night, which was great because all I had to do was pop it into the oven the next morning. I think I will make it again next weekend as well.