You can always identify a Pacific Northwesterner by how much we talk about the weather. Especially when that weather is a glorious and brilliant full sun day near eighty degrees on back to back days in March after a ridiculously cold and snowy February. If you’re sick about me talking about the weather so much these past few months, I’m sorry but I can’t help myself when we’re breaking records in both extremes.
The only downside to this extreme weather right now (we’ve broken the record for both warmest day in March period, as well as the warmest overnight low – including April and October). This means they’re already worrying about an early fire season.
While there’s no definite causation between climate change and these specific weather events, we can definitely expect to see more extreme weather going forward. Compared to many parts of the world, the Pacific Northwest is looking to have much lesser natural impacts (though with an expectation of climate refugees), so the extra beautiful weather can come with an undercurrent that isn’t so positive. For this week though, I’m trying just to appreciate the extra sun.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day, so we made corned beef and cabbage and some Irish soda bread like we do every year. It is such a cheap, easy meal and so freaking tasty. Unfortunately, like I feel about Thanksgiving and turkey, my husband really only appreciates this meal once a year. And to be fair, Irish soda bread is too dang tasty to devour it like we did more often than that.
Of course, this is a meal that is easily shared, so we picked up a four and a half pound roast and invited some people over, three of whom were vegetarian or vegan. Our big crock pot had the regular meat meal, and then the smaller one was just the vegetables for them, and my friend made a spiced up seitan for vegetable protein (and then went the extra mile and made a vegan soda bread that was absolutely delicious as well).
When we received a small crock pot as a present from my aunt many years ago, I debated keeping it since we already had a larger one, but we use the two at the same time way more often than I would have expected. We have quite a few friends with different dietary restrictions, so the dual crock pots make it easy to split meal prep and make allergen friendly alternatives without almost any extra effort.
We ended up with eleven adults and eight kids (plus four dogs under foot), including Felicity, Purple and her partner, and a few neighbors, and between all of us we went through all of the food made, including some snacks earlier in the afternoon and a second corned beef brought up by one of the neighbors.
For what we could have easily spent on a meal out for just us, we were able to feed close to twenty people and we had plenty of time to linger and chat, and in a setting where those of us who are hard of hearing don’t have to strain all night long. I enjoy a good meal out as much as the next person, but my favorite meals are the leisurely ones done at home.
2. Thanks to the absolutely fabulous weather this week, I was able to hang dry our laundry outside for the first time since last fall. It might seem a bit silly, but I was thrilled to get to finally pull out our laundry lines again. It really is my favorite chore, hands down. I think perhaps because it is time spent outside in warm weather and it’s both good for the environment and my financial bottom line.
Plus, clothing lasts much longer when it is line dried instead of put through the washing machine, so I can protect the quality of my clothes and extend out my clothing ban just a bit longer.
3. My husband’s truck was made back in 1996, so some of its parts are getting a bit worn after more than twenty years. He had replaced the headlights with LEDs a while ago, but since the covers themselves were pretty opaque with age, the lights still left a lot to be desired. He bought a headlight polishing kit this past week and spent a little bit of time using it to clean up the truck’s headlights.
The kit was less than twenty dollars, but it has made a huge difference in the brightness of the headlights. Not a long amount of time or a lot of effort, but I’m certain it saved a significant amount over taking it to an auto shop to do.
On the flip side, he and I just haven’t gotten around to looking at the charging ports in my car that haven’t worked forever, and I just had my regular mechanic look at them when I had it in for an oil change and ended up paying for the fuse replacements. Not the most expensive fix, but definitely more than had we done it ourselves. We only have so much time and bandwidth for these DIY fixes, and so sometimes it’s just worth paying to have someone get it done.
4. I dropped my car off for said oil change and electrical work on Monday afternoon and then ran to my son’s preschool from there, where my husband met us and drove us home. The next morning we carpooled in to preschool and after he dropped us off we had our every so often routine of coffee/hot chocolate and doughnuts before I drop the kiddo off at preschool.
Those mornings are lovely and slow and we both love them, but I have to be very mindful to make them every so often (versus every preschool day) in order to keep them special. That, and I have to be careful not to backslide into grabbing coffee and a pastry at every possible opportunity because they are definitely a weakness of mine.
After dropping him off for the day, I walked the just short of three miles to to office. And then I walked back up the hill the half hour to the shop to pick up my car in the afternoon. Between the three trips, I saved $8.25 in bus fares, and I got outside for some nice walks and run in the sunshine. I’m all for the bus, but I would rather walk.
5. We spent some time walking around downtown Woodinville on Saturday and ended up in Barnes and Noble to look for a birthday gift. It turned out that we arrived just ten minutes before story time, so we stuck around. They had cookies and read a couple of fun St. Patrick’s Day books, and the kiddo really enjoyed himself.
Story time at libraries is almost always on weekday mornings, so it was awesome to stumble upon one that was at a time we could actually attend. Kudos to Barnes and Noble for having activities that work around the realities of families with two working parents (or families where the working parent wants to be involved in the fun stuff as well).
Exercise Update
Instead of the ten minutes I’ve been managing on the elliptical on Fridays, this past week I squeezed in double that. Still not my favorite exercise, but quick and easy and doable in normal clothes. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so we spent a ton time outside and walked around quite a bit, so I ended the day north of 20,000 steps without thinking about it. Sunday was another hike through the woods, but also a lot of sitting and chatting, so I didn’t quite hit that 20,000 number on back to back days.
Monday was outside in the sunshine again, this time on a run by myself. Tuesday, as I mentioned above, was a lot of walking around while my car was in the shop, but I came up just short of that 20,000 step number. Wednesday was another run outside and then a walk to dinner with my family. It’s clear that spring is here because my step count has gone up pretty dramatically, especially when I consider the fact that I haven’t had to manufacture any step counts this week by pacing around my house.
Has spring arrived in your neck of the woods? We’re in false spring mode here, so it will likely be back to the rain soon.
Levi’s CEO said – never wash your jeans. I think I’ll try that and see what happens. 🙂
It’s been really beautiful these past week. What a change. I enjoy it, but now I have to take allergy meds again. Oh well… At least it’s warmer. February was freezing this year.
Too bad—since you’re a guy, you can’t use my magical seasonal allergy cure: getting pregnant! I used to have the WORST hay fever. But since my first pregnancy, I’ve been mysteriously cured. Every year, I fear the magic will wear off and my allergies will return… but so far, so good!
Pregnancy does some weird, weird things.
Yeah, my husband is on allergy meds year round these days. Thankfully I’ve dodged that bullet so far 🙂
I love sun-dried laundry! It’s what I grew up with, and you’re totally right that hang-drying helps clothing last longer. I hate how the dryer fades and beats the stuffing out of our clothes.
My husband thinks I’m crazy to hang up all the laundry that I do (90% of it—we have a very warm utility room, so I can hang dry laundry all year round!)
But for me, it’s an enjoyable, calming chore, and worth the extra effort!
I really need to find a better indoor space to hang all our laundry, not just key pieces.
Alas, the dust and dirt here in Arizona means no sun-dried clothes. But I should get a laundry rack and see about hanging more of my clothes up to dry. Especially since I tend to buy clothes from thrift stores, which means they’ve already often seen quite a few washes already. Wouldn’t hurt to try to extend their life more with some rack-drying.
I’m jealous of your St Patrick’s Day celebration because I love hanging out with Felicity (we got to hang out a couple of times at FinCon and she’s a blast). And I’d love to meet Purple (and you) at some point too. If I do another trip up to Seattle, I’ll have to try to arrange a meetup of some sort! Alas, I don’t know when I’ll next be up there, but hopefully within the next couple of years.
Well, WE will actually be down in Arizona this spring… DM me on Twitter and let’s chat!!
You and your 20K step days impress me! I’ve been more consistently hitting 12K a day, and OCCASIONALLY I’ll make it to 16K, but generally not 20K. Happy your weather’s been better. 😀
It’s been a process, but 12k is now my daily goal 😉
12/12 for workouts on days i’ve worked this month. i was just talking to my old friend at the wine store yesterday and telling her how great i feel. we just have a hint of spring around here so far but it’s gotten pretty dry so that means better walks in the grassy areas where he can run around off leash without getting ankle deep in mud for both of us. we didn’t have that irish food for st. paddy’s this year. the closest we came was splitting a guinness at home.
Well done!! 12/12 is awesome! And Guinness is gross 😉
I love hang-drying my clothes. Back where I grew up that’s what everybody does. Makes for colorful balconies and backyards. Now I have no yard space so I always turn my clothes inside out before washing, which helps a little bit.
Oh I’d never heard of turning clothes inside out! Thanks for the tip.
23 year old truck – you are walkin the talk!
Ha, apparently so 😉 Why my 2008 still feels like a “new” car.
Great to see you hang out your washing when you can, as we noticed it was an oddity to do that when we were staying in California. Most Aussies hang out our washing as our weather suits it. In fact, we got rid of our drier a couple of years ago cos we rarely ever used it.
Australia had record breaking heat this summer, so I guess we’re sending it your way!! I sure hope you don’t have to deal with fires. Have a great Spring! Blessings. Kerryn
We can only hang outside part of the year, but I take full advantage when the weather is nice enough! And the fires are an absolute; it will just matter how many and how bad they are.
That party sounds absolutely ideal, and you are the most gracious of hostesses. I’m totally purple with envy… and in awe of your normal level of walking. What I wouldn’t give for a neighborhood with more sidewalks.
We don’t have a ton of sidewalks closest to us other than the main roads (if you remember), but plenty of trails and then the neighborhood streets are wide and slow enough to be very comfy walking.