Trimmed and Bleached

Did you think I meant my hair when you saw the title? Did you think I'd have a bleach blonde bob? Nope, nothing quite that exciting.  

 

 Although, looking at these before photos of our crab apple tree and the horrible algae on the front of our house and now seeing that it is so much cleaner that may be better than a haircut! I removed the algae with some bleach and water and a scrubby sponge... it was that simple!

  So glad you popped in for the second day of One Picture Week!  

   

It's like Ice-Cream...

Today marks the start of... drum roll, please...  

 

I've decided to do short, manageable blog posts this week to encourage myself not to spend as much time in front of the computer and more time tackling the projects I want to do. 90% of the projects I blog about are done during nap time or when AJ give me a project break so I need manageable little little projects especially now that nap time doesn't mean I necessarily have 2-3 hours to myself anymore...

 

Drew started our family on a Greek yogurt kick and I started brainstorming delicious ways to improve the bland (and somewhat icky) taste of the plain Greek yogurt. Do you know the sugar content of plain versus the vanilla flavor is about 5g vs. 26g (depending on the brand)? It's ridiculous. Here is what I came up with... and yes, I do realize there is sugar in the chocolate chips but I don't put tons in. :)

 

We use either whole or low-fat Cabot Greek yogurt, Sunbelt All-Natural Granola and semi-sweet chocolate chips.   Try it, trust me, you won't be disappointed.    

We are Insulated!

AJ found out about a program called MassSave where you can get an energy assessment done to your home and then recommendations will be made to make your home more efficient. Half of our house was obviously very inefficient with windows where you can literally feel the breeze on cold nights and no insulation. After having nearly every light bulb in the house replaced by energy efficient ones, for free, we got an estimate for the cost to insulate the living room, Drew and Elle's room and the attic. It wasn't bad considering we only needed to pay for 25% of the cost of the job... the rest was covered by the MassSave program.

 

 

We decided to get the insulation blown in before replacing the drywall because we didn't know when we would have the time to completely redo the rooms and we didn't want to face another winter without insulation. So, for $600 all of those spaces are now insulated and we will drywall over the existing walls and make it even more insulated!

 

 

I make it sound like it's an easy process that went off without a hitch... no... we had a little glitch:

 

 

See the tear in the wallpaper?

 

The kids had just fallen asleep so I let myself sit down on the couch and I was going to see if Friends was on when all of a sudden I hear this loud burst above my head and gray insulation started coming into the living room like a fire hose was spraying it. You know those moments when you are just in shock and you have no idea what to do? That was me. I ran towards the kitchen to try to find some cardboard in the recycling to plug the hole. Then I doubted myself and ran back into the living room (I have no idea why) and then I ran back to the kitchen and found an old piece of cardboard from a pizza friends brought us a few nights previously. So I put that grease stained piece of cardboard over where the insulation was fiercly coming through the wall and then instantly the insulation was diverted down below so no matter where I moved the box insulation got around it. I probably should have been more serious about the situation but I couldn't stop laughing. Gray insulation was probably two inches thick on the back of the couch and it was quickly covering the rest of the room. Once I realized I couldn't do anything about the situation I sprinted out the side yard and screamed at the crew leader "the insulation is coming in the house!!!" and immediately the hose was turned off and he came in to see the damage.

 

I wish I had a picture for you and I debated many times taking one but the crew leader was pretty upset and I didn't want him to fear that I was going to report him. AJ was out for a run and he didn't even get to see the mess before the crew tackled the living room with their shop vac. It was one of the funniest moments of my life to see that insulation flying in and trying to stop it with the pizza box and having the gray matter just flying everywhere around me... it was like a scene out of a movie. 

 

All that to say... our house is insulated and check out programs in your area for energy efficiency studies! :)

Starting on Monday join me for:

more details then. :)

...

 

 A DAY IN THE LIFE

Drew, Elle and I went to Endicott Park in Danvers with my mom yesterday because Drew wanted to see a pig... I captured a couple fun shots.

 

looking at the sheep and horses

giving my Mom and me a "toe wave"

taken on the grounds of Glen Magna Farms

 

at dinner last night at the Lobster Pool in Rockport...