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Busy in the Burbs

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Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 13-18

26 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Home

≈ Comments Off on Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 13-18

Tags

30daychallenge, 30daygetchucked, Declutter, minimalist challenge

The process continues.  The volume is down this batch, but the clutter clean-out continues!

Day 13:

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Recycle: As I was going through my dresser for the clothing review, I found 11 pages of notes (from multiple years) re the kids Christmas presents.

Fabric Recycling: During the same activity I found two headbands that were over the hill.

Day 14:

IMG_8270

Trash:  I went back to the stash closet for ten random party items, including one bag of moldy homemade playdough that had been sent home from preschool.  Yuck!

Recycling: I also found one old goody bag and three sets of toy instructions.

This closet still has a long way to go, but the kids are home for April vacation so I’ll need to switch gears for a week or so.

Day 15:

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Donate:  The three shirts on the left are in great shape, they just don’t fit me correctly anymore.

Fabric Recycling: The red shirt has stains; if you look closely you can see them in the picture.  The swimsuit’s elastic is shot.  The sock lost its mate to a hole.

Trash: I finally got around to entering a big batch of Pampers’ points so nine bags can go.

Day 16:

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Recycle: The kids are not going to care if I part with their school worksheets.  So, 16 of them went in the recycling.

Day 17:

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Recycle: Seventeen more papers joined the pile.

Day 18:

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Recycle: The kids cleaned their rooms today.  I didn’t expect them to want to part with much, but they did add a bunch of scrap paper, as well as the box and tube on the right to the collection.

Fabric Recycling: I’ve had the replacement pillowcase for a while as this one had split open.

Trash:  There is a plastic circle the boys found, an old gift card, and a pack of fabric swatches that we never did end up buying furniture with.

Links to the beginning of the challenge:
Days 1-6
Days 7-12

The Week in Review – Week 16, 2018

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Family, Home

≈ Comments Off on The Week in Review – Week 16, 2018

Soccer season is in full swing and baseball is just getting started.  As I’ve gone to these various fields, I feel a bit like an urban explorer finding long lost equipment.

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It was vacation week so things were a bit more relaxed.  But we had two sick kiddos so we didn’t do much extra either.

So, in total, the kids had:

  • Two baseball practices
  • Three baseball games
  • Four soccer practices
  • Four soccer games
  • One birthday party
  • Haircuts for all the boys
  • Math morning for the 4th graders

I continue to make good progress towards my goals of decluttering 465 items and evaluating my clothing.  As of now I’m on track towards the 465 and halfway through the clothing (though for various reasons the second half should be faster).

As part of the 465 I sold a few more things.  The process has also made a real dent in my piles of previous years school papers.

I also finished the signup process for baseball camp this summer.  That pretty much takes care of our July & early August schedules.

Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 7-12

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

30daychallenge, 30daygetchucked, Declutter, minimalist challenge

I’m still going strong in week 2, to the point where I’ve already thought about doing this again in June (the next 30 day month).  Obviously it would be nice to part with things quickly, as they become available, but that’s not always possible.  I have clothing that will be kept until the end of the season and then let go, school papers that will be kept until the end of the year, things that have to disappear quickly to escape the interest of the children, etc.

Day 7:

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Donate: The five pairs of pants and one sports bra that are in excellent condition, just not right for me.

Fabric recycling: One sock had a hole.

Trash: I have nicer toy cars than this one from a party favor bag.

Day 8:

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Gift: One child was invited to a twin birthday party so I used two toys that were in my “rainy day” stash instead of buying something.  They are entirely new in box and age appropriate.  I’ve had them for a long time and the time never seemed right to break them out so this was a better use.

Donate: The tank top no longer fits.

Fabric recycling: The jeans have a continuously failing closure and its been repaired at least three times so the material in that area is getting questionable.  The pillowcase has worn through.

Trash: Three old Hello Kitty Happy Meal Toys that nobody actually needs.

Day 9:

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Sold: I sold one bicycle that we no longer need as we have four in this size and only one child at a time should ever fit.

Returned: I returned the small item in the bag to Lowes.

Fabric recycling:  I had a big pile going before starting this challenge.  So, I bundled all that up and called it one item.

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Recycling: I found five magazines from 2017.

Day 10:

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Donate: The camo pajama pants never quite fit correctly.

Fabric recycling: All three pairs of pajama pants have large holes in the knees.  The three pillow covers are frayed at the corners.  And, yes, I do have new covers for those pillows, but I bought them months ago and just never let go of the old covers.

Trash: The two pairs of batting gloves have been replaced (first by the other and then by the current pair).  I inputted the balance of the gift card into Amazon so I no longer need the physical card.

Day 11:

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I finally had a day when the kids were not home so I could get into my collection of things I had stashed from them.

Recycle: The bag and coupon are from this past Christmas.  The party hat is from I don’t know when.

Trash: I found five party favors that may or may not have come from the same party, one marble (we don’t need any), and two Chick-fil-A kids meal toys.

Day 12:

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I had another day without the kids so I went back to the same stash.  Party favors generally aren’t large, but they definitely fit the definition of clutter!

Recycle: I found one party favor bag, an ad that was inside a toy that had been a Christmas present, and some fake party favor money.

Trash: The “balloon” had is from a doctor trying to entertain the littlest one during my appointment and I pulled out eight party favors.

Link to the start of the challenge: Days 1-6

 

Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 1-6

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

30daychallenge, 30daygetchucked, Declutter, minimalist challenge

I decided to take Spring Cleaning more literally this year and actually clean out, vs clean up.  A friend had read Marie Kondo’s book and was aiming to put her ideas into practice.  I don’t know that much about her method, but from what little I do know I didn’t think it would work for me, right now, with many small kids.  Too much gathering and looking at large collections of items over many months; not enough quick decisions and hiding formerly treasured items!

So, I’m going for cleaning out the number of items of the date, for each day in April.  Since April has 30 days, I decided to break this up into 5 posts, each with 6 days.  The goal here is to move 465 (the sum of the days in April) out of our house before the end of the month by any means: trash, recycling, donating, selling, gifting, etc.

So far, I’m off to a good start.  Admittedly, the beginning is the easy part – low numbers and probably low hanging fruit to grab and move along.  You’ll see a bunch of fabric recycling.  There are bins and each of the schools which get money from the organization for each pound that goes in.

Since I decided to start this when I wrote my goals for the month on Tuesday, April 3, I actually started with 6 (1+2+3) items.

Days 1-3:

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Trash: The little “laser” guns no longer work.  The artillery piece is broken.  I finally (two years later) broke the new insurance card out of its plastic card and put it with the other insurance cards; the rest of the plastic card is trash.

Recycle: The birthday card is months old.

Donate: The shirt is in excellent condition.  It just never fit me properly.

Day 4:

IMG_8202

Trash: The power cord is very frayed, though technically still working.

Fabric Recycling:  The sheet (upper left) has a giant hole in the middle.  The buckle on the overalls came apart.  If you look closely you can see a small metal piece.  I think that could be glued back in, but these are baby overalls and I would not want a baby to chew on the buckle and have this piece come off again.  The yellow shirt has a hole in it.

Day 5:

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Trash: Two pieces of a stand for a toy we no longer have.  A broken watch.  A cord for a toy that no longer works.

Recycle: The box the Christmas cards came in was only holding stamps and address labels.  Those can go elsewhere so the box gets recycled.

Sold: I sold the Pack ‘N’ Play Sport.  It’s great for summer so this was the right time of year to find a buyer.

Day 6:

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Trash/Recycle: I found six abandoned Valentine’s / Birthday party gift bags.  I sorted the contents into trash (white bag in the picture below) vs recycling and admit to keeping a few things.  We’ll use the pencils and stickers. The stuffed animals are NWT so I’m not sure where they’ll go yet (so they’re not being counted here) as we don’t need them.

IMG_8219

The Week in Review – Week 11, 2018

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Family, Home

≈ Comments Off on The Week in Review – Week 11, 2018

This week’s post could almost be a carbon copy of last week’s.  Two more snow days (bringing our total to 7 before the next storm hits tomorrow) washed out swimming lessons, postponed kindergarten registration, and postponed the 1st grade concert for the second time!

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But, Mother Nature will not win.  We did get that concert in last night.

Ironically we’ve had substantially less snow this year than in 2015, when we had a total of 5 snow days.  I think the timing must just be worse.  We keep having snow days in pairs this year because the storm doesn’t leave until the morning hours.

This was from one storm.  And look how the wind brought it into the porch.

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IMG_7759

Scheduled items that happened:

  • Gym class for the youngest
  • Kindergarten orientation meeting for me (and I got his registration done this morning)
  • Two rounds of baseball lessons
  • Math morning & Before school sports for the 4th graders
  • Poetry night for the 6th grader

The oldest and youngest boys had time off school for professional days over the last week making things feel even more choppy.

We got the gutters cleaned (professionally as one side is over 3 stories off the ground).  It was the first time in this house and we weren’t sure how much was actually up there.  Now we’ll have to see how much impact it had.  There was snow on the roof, but that didn’t seem to keep him from accessing the gutters.

I got a few house things done.

  • I finally got everything put away after our trip.
  • I threw out many socks (10+, I lost count) and one pair of pants with holes in them.
  • I repaired a book.
  • I took care of a few of the lingering electronics setup items.
  • I got one of the sets of birthday party thank you notes mailed.  One more set to do.

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge – March 2018 Update

16 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

freezer challenge

No post yesterday.  I really have a hard time getting anything done when the kids are here.  After two snow days last week, Tuesday & Wednesday were snow days this week and then yesterday they had a planned half day.  Fingers crossed that next week’s Nor’Easter doesn’t materialize so we can all get back on track!

Some background on the freezer challenge:

  • I kicked it off in November and updated the status in January.
  • The goal was not to stop shopping, but to use up things that had been in the freezer for a while.  I’m allowed to make new purchases and buy things to complement what I’m using up.

Items on original meat list left after January update:

  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
  • 8 5 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings (These are probably waiting for summer smoking.)
  • 3 1 3-lb chuck roasts (We need two for a meal so I’m hoping this goes on sale one more time before summer so I can grab one more to use this up.)
  • 4 salmon fillets
  • 4 lbs of tilapia fillets
  • 5 lbs 1 lb of ground turkey (We always use 2 lbs so I’ll purchase another 3 lb pack from BJ’s to use this up.  Then everything will be fresh.)

New meat that has appeared since January:

  • 5 salmon fillets (I purchased a new bulk bag because there wasn’t enough for us in the old one.  But, I plan to use these this weekend so the salmon will stay freshly turned over.
  • 4 lbs pork loin chunks cut for stew
  • 1 pork tenderloin
  • 1 bag of beef bones for stock
  • 1 package of chicken nuggets
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As you can see the picture on the left is pretty organized, but the freezer on the right is where the remaining trouble is!

Obviously we still have a bunch of chicken to eat up.  I’ll supplement this with other proteins.

Ingredients left after the January update:

  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts (I have used some of these, but there’s still about half a bag left.)
  • 7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Clearly I used next to nothing in this category, probably because we were sick for most of February.  A lot of these will be used for desserts which don’t make the top of the list when you’re sick.

Miscellaneous items left after the January update:

  • ½ box of popsicles (these are waiting for summer)
  • 13 7 loaves of banana bread
  • 18 17 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot.  These will be lunches for me.) I did eat a few, but I obviously didn’t count them all because there are still this many left!
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread

I did slightly better here, but most all of these need to go before summer as they won’t get eaten then.  Obviously the popsicles can wait.  And, a few of the butternut squash ravioli would be fine.  But nothing here will age really well.

I’ll do a final update in June before we switch to the summer diet.  I better be done with all the meat (except maybe the wings) and all of the miscellaneous (with the few exceptions mentioned) by then!

Next week I’ll update the pantry situation, although nothing there is nearly as critical as the freezer was.

Catching up and Some February Randomness

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Nora in Home

≈ Comments Off on Catching up and Some February Randomness

Apologies for the missing post yesterday.  The Nor’easter brought us heavy snow that knocked out our power from 2 am to 6 pm.  I had planned the lower part of the post yesterday and then starting on the travel posts today, but those will have to wait until next week.

We have propane so we did have a fireplace and stove available to us.  No oven, or I would have been baking all day!  The fireplace kept the temperature very reasonable though it did drop slowly throughout the day.  Outside was nicely at refrigerator temperature so I kept the in-process milk outside to prevent opening the fridge unnecessarily.

There was no school yesterday for the snow, which fell almost entirely overnight.  No school again today because of power outages and downed trees preventing the buses from driving all of their routes.  I can’t see any restoration work, but I can hear the chainsaw chorus this morning.  Many people are still without power throughout the Metro area, including some who lost power in last week’s Nor’easter so the tree services/power companies/electricians/insurance companies/etc. have their hands full.

In the random thoughts category, I saw this building last month.  Note that I know nothing about it, it just happened to be in front of me when I visited a grocery store I rarely go to.

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I finally decided that I don’t think the porch is falling off.  I’m not sure who thought to put the siding and windows on an angle to match the roof.  But, I’m assuming behind that siding is a horizontal floor.  Not sure, of course; it definitely looks odd.

My second, less random thought, is that these folks don’t actually want to give me $10 back.  We moved about 18 months ago and this clearly says it is related to our “payoff statement.”  But, it was mailed to our previous address.  The only reason I got it is because I know the new occupants; we’re past the post office’s forwarding period.

I don’t know how many people still occupy the same address after a “payoff,” but I know that the bank knows were we are living now.  In the end, I got (and cashed) the check and will leave it at that with the bank, but I wonder how many of these they send out that never reach their intended recipient.

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Instant Pot Review – Large Family Edition

09 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by Nora in Home, Product Reviews

≈ Comments Off on Instant Pot Review – Large Family Edition

All opinions here are my own.  I gain nothing from them and purchased the units myself.

Second, I know there are about a million Instant Pot reviews out there.  And, I was reluctant to add to that list.  But, it is a thing and as such I get asked about it a lot.  But, I’m going to take a rather strictly large family take on it vs covering all the ins and outs.

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So why did I buy one in the first place?  I bought the first Instant Pot about a year ago after my (very inexpensive) rice cooker died.  The rice cooker itself had been an experiment.  We don’t eat a ton of rice, but I’d grown tired of monitoring the pot so it didn’t boil over when we did.  In that sense the cheap rice cooker experiment was a success because it proved that a least decent rice could be had with much less mess.

But, when it died I knew I needed to upgrade at least to a nicer rice cooker.  At this point the Instant Pot had been out for a while and gained a fair amount of traction.  I asked a few folks about theirs and everybody raved.  Plus, I don’t own a slow cooker or pressure cooker so this thing was going to theoretically cover a lot of bases.

All that being said, we don’t eat much yogurt and there are a lot of us so I went with a less common model – the 8Q LUX.  I’ll go into more detail below, but suffice it to say that I was able to do many things quite successfully.  However, I realized that I was stuck with either the entree or the boil over threats (potatoes/rice) in the Instant Pot.  So, about a year after I bought the first I added a 6Q LUX.  You see both above with Korean spare ribs in the 8Q on the left and rice in the 6Q on the right.

We eat a lot of soup/stew type items which easily translate to the Instant Pot.  We also eat a lot of mashed potatoes which the unit does well.  Most Instant Pot recipes are written for a 6Q version, but can be made in the 8Q version.  I find I really need the 8Q if I do larger meat pieces like pot roast or spare ribs.  I just cannot fit enough in the 6Q.  Mashed potatoes for us is pushing the limits of the 6Q, but very doable.  Rice is definitely fine in the 6Q.

I assume that the 8Q unit takes longer to come to pressure.  Frankly that is the thing I am still trying to wrap my head around.  Instant Pot recipes will tell you to cook an item for 15 minutes, while not acknowledging that there are significant pressurization and depressurization times.  I find most recipes take twice their stated length start to finish, even when a natural release time is indicated.  I’m not sure about the argument about it making the dinner process faster.  Maybe technically yes, but not by nearly as much as you think.

In my mind the best attribute is the relative lack of mess.  Especially if you rely on natural release, clean-up is pretty easy.  And, there’s no risk of boil over.  I do run them on the stovetop so the hood can catch the steam.  There are many suggestions online not to do this because the base can melt if a burner is accidentally turned on.  But, the first time I used it I put it on the counter and it released far more steam than I was comfortable with on my ceiling.

Also, like many plug in kitchen appliances, an Instant Pot is safer than a pot on the stove for little kids.  Again, there are warnings online about the burning steam during a release.  And, it is so easy to release the pressure that any child could do it.  But, unless your child is on the counter or you put the device on the floor, the steam will be nowhere near your child.  You really should flip the vent with an oven mitt and keep your face out of the way though.

In summary, I do like the Instant Pot.  Do I rave about it like some reviews you see online?  No.  But, for those of us trying to put dinner on the table while managing so much more it offers less mess, set-it-and-forget-it convenience, and a relatively kid-safe cooking experience.

The Week in Review – Week 2, 2018

16 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Family, Home

≈ Comments Off on The Week in Review – Week 2, 2018

To say not much got done last week is not exactly correct.  But, going to the grocery store so many times really did eat into my ability to do much of anything else.  I’ll have to turn that around this week.

We were able to get into a more typical winter weekly schedule though.

  • Our oldest had two sports conditioning session plus three baseball sessions.
  • The youngest had gym class.
  • Our twins had their first ski lessons of the winter after last week was postponed due to snow.
  • Our oldest went tubing on a school half day.
  • We continued enjoying / setting up Christmas presents.  The younger boys have loved the space pod so far; hopefully it will last despite being made of cardboard.
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  • We had a few very warm rainy days that washed away almost all the snow.  So, we used that opportunity to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations.
  • We put away both the indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations.
  • I added a few candles bought on Christmas sales to a candle holder we already had for the top shelf in the living room.  It had been looking a bit bare, but I think this fills it in nicely.

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  • I’ve been working my way through the kids clothes, moving pretty much everyone to the next size shirts and tossing items with holes.  I’ve also used some post Christmas sales to add a few necessary pieces.  The older four are done, just have to finish up the younger two.

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge Update

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home

≈ Comments Off on Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge Update

Tags

freezer challenge

When I kicked this off in November, I mentioned that my goal was to use things up but not necessarily stop shopping.  I’m attempting to meal plan around what I already have first and purchase what might be necessary to flesh this out.

So, how are we doing?

Meat:

  • 2 packages of breakfast sausage (1 meal for us)
  • 1 package of bacon
  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
  • 11 8 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings
  • 1 pork butt
  • 1 package of pork tenderloin (thawing as I write for dinner this weekend)
  • 3 3-lb chuck roasts
  • 6 NY strip steaks – plain (we ate these with pesto last week)
  • 1 package (6-8 per pk) 4 of salmon filets
  • 4 lbs of tilapia filets
  • 7 5 lbs of ground turkey

This freezer does look better.

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I’d say meat went pretty well as roughly half of it got used up.  Considering it was the holiday season with special meals that don’t necessarily come from the freezer, this is not too bad.  The other categories didn’t go as well.

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of puff pastry This went with the salmon.
  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts
  • 7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 1 cup diced red pepper I made a batch of sous vide eggs with these.
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Miscellaneous:

  • ½ box of popsicles (not sure what is going to happen to this given that its about 20° outside now)
  • 8 13 loaves of banana bread (since counting I thawed 2 and sent them as school snacks) Yes, I did use some as school snacks.  But, I also got a container of yogurt for a Friday Freebie and this is my best use for yogurt.  So, I made some more!
  • 1 pan of sausage stuffing (was eaten for Thanksgiving)
  • 18 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot.  These will be lunches for me.) I did eat a few, but I obviously didn’t count them all because there are still this many left!
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread
  • 1 package of fudge

I’m going to continue chipping away at this list, and like the pantry will provide another update in March before spring sports kick off.

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About Me

Welcome! I’m Nora. We have 5 boys and 1 girl. I write about the practical stuff that we call life – managing school, sports, and all things suburban. I get everyone where they need to be, with their stuff, when they need to be there and write about how that all gets done.

Recent Posts

  • October 2019 Grocery Review November 25, 2019
  • September 2019 Grocery Review November 18, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 36, 2019 September 24, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 35, 2019 September 23, 2019
  • August 2019 Grocery Review September 17, 2019

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