Tales From a “GREEN” Minivan

When I told my husband I was going to be writing about his t-shirts he was less than enthused.  I then reminded him that I wrote about my underwear not that long ago and he relented a little.

I spent the day doing some crisis cleaning.  I invited Peter Walsh and his Clutter Bugs over, but they were no-shows. I girl can dream right? I find the only way I get stuff accomplished around the house lately is if I’m under pressure.  Tomorrow we have an energy advisor coming in to do  an assessment of our house to find out how we can make improvements to make our home more energy efficient.

Andrew took the boys out for the afternoon so I could work distraction free.  I am happy to say for the first time in about 4 years, my laundry is completely caught up!  In completing this milestone I also discovered that perhaps we have too many clothes.  It was tough to close the boys’ dresser drawers.  Mackenzie ran out of hangers and was complaining and when I walked into our closet I was faced with this:

One of my favourite features in our house is the walk-in closet and built-ins in it. One thing I don’t like is not being able to find a sweater or shirt when you’re looking for it, so I decided to take out the shirts and organize them.  It was a fairly easy job, I purged some things of mine I hadn’t worn for quite some time.  Then it came time to organize Andrews T-SHIRTS. I re-folded most of them and put them back neatly on the shelves.

In the end I counted up Andrew’s t-shirts and I counted 88 (EIGHTY-EIGHT!!!)  Please tell me this is not the norm?!  You see Andrew has collected these up over the years, some have come from concerts, conventions, places he’s visited and even some from his days spent in the Navy.  I will admit on occasion I’ve gone a little “Kate Gosselin” on him and ordered him to change into something a little more appropriate or into something that still fits. Here’s a few of the more unique ones I came across:

Obviously from his Bachelor Days, I don’t think this one would go over well at Parent Teacher.

From the “Star Trek”Convention he attended many years ago. Yes he’s an eternal geek.

This one fit much better in his “University/Navy Days“

So I’m wondering do your significant others have “collections“  or “memorabilia“?  How do you handle them if the get out of control, yet not seem overbearing when it’s time to purge a little?

Well the time has come to start doing some renovations on our 19 year old house.  We moved into our little uptown house in September of 2002 and it was completely move-in ready.  There was a few things that I wanted to change right away, but 3 little boys kind of got in the way of that. :)  It’s seems so long ago when Andrew, Mackenzie and I decorated her adorable little ladybug room while I was expecting Liam.

So almost 7 years have passed and one of the things that I wanted to replace right away is still lingering…the dreaded dusty rose wall to wall carpets on the second story of the house.  They are just horrible, and why anyone would choose that colour is beyond me.  The plan is to replace them with bamboo hardwood floors. Bamboo is a great eco-friendly choice as it’s considered a renewable resource as bamboo plants take only 5 - 6 years to reach maturity.  It’s also very durable and can be refinished up to 3 times.

The next project and it’s a major one is our roof. I lucked out the other day, as our nextdoor neighbours who happen to be very involved in home renos were having their roof done as well. I yelled up to their roof and they came over later to give me a quote. I’ve already called a couple of companies to get some quotes, but feel much more comfortable using this company as I know my neighbours do their homework when it comes to contractors. My neighbour is a carpenter by trade as well.

Project 3 is replacing windows.  Our house has a LOT of windows!  I love all of the natural light that we get, from our 23 windows and huge skylight, but it’s going to cost a bundle to replace all of them!  I think we may do the front of the house first, then perhaps next year start replacing some more. They are all wood-framed windows, which in our climate here of constant summer fog is not a good choice for longevity.  We will definitely be going with a vinyl framed windows.  When the contractor arrived he also filled us in on a grant we may be able to take advantage of the ecoEnergy Retrofit Program if our house qualifies.  We should know in a couple of weeks and we also taking advantage of  Efficiency NB’s -Existing Homes Energy Efficiency Upgrades Program They will subsidize the cost of an Energy Audit of your home and from the results of the Audit you may be able to take advantage of grants offered as well as interest free loans to complete the recommendations within 18 months.  This coupled with the Canadian Government’s HRTC (Home Renovation Tax Credit) it seems like 2009 is the right time to be renovating!

Here’s a shot of our place in the fall, I’m not going to risk my life trying to get a new shot from the snowbanks across the street. Yes we still have a ton of snow!  Oh and if time and money permit, we may also paint the exterior as well.  I’d like to do a totally different colour.  Many of our neighbours have chosen bright vivid colours in recent years, and I’d like to follow suite. We’re looking for colour suggestions!

During our testing  for CPO’s Slow Cooker Club I decided to make the Mother Hubbard’s Favourite Shepherds Pie recipe.  We really enjoyed it, although I kept thinking that I could modify the recipe a bit to create a similar dish with a Thai flare.

In Mother Hubbards pie it’s got a ground Chicken base with a few spices, tomato paste, corn then topped with a Squash Puree.  I kept thinking that it would taste good with a yellow Thai curry paste instead of the tomato paste.

My first step was to start getting the squash and sweet potato topping prepared .  I took one med buttercup squash,  sliced it down the centre, removed the seeds and placed it face down in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes.  I then steamed 2 medium size sweet potatoes.

Last week while out shopping at Sobey’s I noticed a small jar of Yellow Thai curry paste made by Thai Kitchen in the international foods aisle.

I took about 2 tablespoons of the curry paste and mixed it with half of a can of coconut milk.  Once the ground chicken had been sauted I added the paste mixture to it. Next a added a couple of pinches of ginger over the top then added 1.5 cups of corn niblets.

Next I combined the squash and sweet potatoes and used my stand mixer to mash them into a puree.

I then added the puree on top of the ground chicken in the Slow Cooker insert.  I then refrigerated it over night.

I cooked this on low for 7 hours, (it was finished much sooner though) and I really enjoyed it!  I think I may not have drained the ground chicken quite enough, as there was a lot of liquid, but it may also have been from the squash, as it was a really WET squash (I prefer dry ones as they are sweeter).

I think I’ll definitely make it again, and next time add some more veggies, perhaps some broccoli and carrots along with the corn.

Here’s the end result!

If you have any questions let me know!  Sorry about the quality of the photos, my iPhone was not liking the lighting in the kitchen!

Last week was Liam & Mackenzie’s March Break.  We don’t normally travel too far from home during our breaks as it’s early in March.  I wanted to do something that had a “GREEN” element to it, but also have a short getaway and see some sites.  After doing a little research I decided on Boston.  Wait a minute…Boston is an 8 hour drive or a airplane ride away!  Luckily we border the State of Maine, that has decided that passenger rail travel is still a priority!  You see here in Saint John, NB we do not have a passenger rail link.  The closest station is in Moncton, NB and there is limited places we can travel to.  So we drove to Maine and caught the Amtrak Downeaster to North Station in Boston.

For the drive down to Maine we used our new GPS, and I have to admit I’m kicking myself for not buying one sooner!  If you want to end all bickering between you and your co-pilot the GPS is the answer!   Definitely get one that way say the street names, it’s extremely helpful!

The train ride was fairly uneventful, I noticed as we got closer to Boston there were more and more people sporting Bruins attire, sure enough there was a B’s game that evening! We had to pack light as we knew we’d have a day that we’d have to carry our bags with us.  So I managed to pack everything into one backpack for the six of us! Pretty impressive and I didn’t forget anything either!

Here’s some photos from the weekend!

The boys on the Downeaster Train.

Just outside North Station

Dining at Durgin Park- Yes Ciaran is pluggin his nose, he didn’t like the smell.

Kenz, Finn and I outside Cheers!

The boys getting new Sox hats at Yawkey way.  (Their old ones got left in Florida! )

All 4 boys in their matching hats outside Fenway Park

Papa, Nanny & the Boys at the Aquarium, while Mackenzie Finn and I headed out to Natick to go to American Girl!  What a great store!

Now that I’m home I can’t wait to go back and stay even longer. Andrew and I decided that this trip would be our “trial run”for a longer stay this summer!  Even though the boys were a little under the weather, I still think it was a very successful trip!