Don't throw away the toilet paper rolls!!!!

 

Would you believe that I made this out of 2 old toilet paper rolls?? I did! I just googled ways to re-use tp rolls (b/c I'm pretty much reusing everything we have.... and we have lots of toilet paper). I saw a picture of flowers, made of out toilet paper or paper towel rolls, so I decided to try for myself.

You just cut it into little circles and glue them together how ever you want, after I put the glue on I put paper clips on to hold it together.  I squeezed some of them to make it look a little more like leaves and left some rounded to look like a flower.

I put it on my closet door.... and I just really really love it and the way the shadows come off of it. It's so whimsical.  Even Lee loves it... he keeps making comments about it. maybe just because he know I like it and am proud of it... but either way he likes it.
I'm going to try to think up a way to make one for his closet... that's not flowers. maybe just like swirls...

and here's a look into our dinner the other night.

Chick-Fil-A style chicken nuggets, homemade french fries and onion rings.

unhealthy, maybe... but tastes sooooo good.  I like to make things like restaurants b/c we will hardly ever go out to eat here...

To make the chicken you cut it up into nugget sized pieces or strips or whatever you want and soak it in heavy cream and egg for about a half hour. I just used the boxed milk that we get b/c it is a little sweeter and thicker than regular milk.... or you can use regular milk, I have before. but the very very (and probably most fattening) time was when I used the cream.
and I've found that if the chicken is still a little frozen then it cuts into chunks really nicely and doesn't feel as gross to touch.
so then you mix the batter, which is flour, powdered sugar, salt, and pepper.   I don't measure really, but I use more flour than the sugar... it just depends on how sweet you want it to taste. Lee loves it sweet.

and I double dip... from the wet mix, into the dry, back to the wet, back to the dry, and then into the pan. at home I would deep fry it, but we don't have that luxury here, just one small frying pan.

I even used my pot to cook the french fries... didn't go over so well, they stuck to the bottom a lot, so they were kinda chopped up, but still tasted really really good. Lee said they tasted exactly like Swiss Chalet, for those of you Canadians who know that restaurant.

a tip about homemade french fries that I learned on the food network once, is to let them soak in ice water after you cut them up, it makes them crispier! 

and at last minute I decided to make onion rings using the same recipe as the chicken (separate bowls of course) and the were the BEST onion rings ever...

 

adventures in laundry...

I am very very blessed to have a laundry room close to our apartment, and even more so that it is free to use! but it doesn't make it any less of an experience...

this was taken my front door, takes about 10 steps to get there.

relatively nice washer and dryer...

but they are aaaalways sitting in water! everytime I hit the button to turn the dryer on I fear for my life.










and I have to use powder detergent, which I had never used before... so I googled how to use it best, and turns out that if you dissolve it in hot hot water before you put it in the washer it works pretty well....
so I can usually be seen carrying a bowl of detergent with me to the washer...
and we don't have a laundry basket, so the dirty clothes go in a duffel bag.
but hey we always have clean clothes... and I haven't lost any of Lee's socks so far.

new

I decided to create another blog... separate from my "Grenada" blog to talk about being a housewife... because today I realized that's what I am, and I am actually loving it.  I love to make my husband happy... and I don't feel less of an empowered woman because of it. I don't feel bound by my new role.... I feel privileged to have the opportunity to do so.  I've heard lots of people say how delicate the first year of marriage is, and thankfully our first 5 months has gone much much much better than I could have ever hoped for, but if there is something that I can do to further nurture this relationship, then that sounds good to me.

True, I still hate and despise doing dishes...I am doing them, and multiple times a day because we only have 4 plates, bowls, spoons etc... but this morning I woke up at 9 and Lee had already left for lab at 8, I realized that there weren't any clean bowls because we had used them all the night before and I didn't do dishes after dinner.... and so there wasn't a clean bowl for Lee to have cereal this morning. and I genuinely felt bad.  This poor boy has been working and studying 8am-11pm basically everyday since we got here, and he couldn't even have cereal this morning b/c there wasn't a clean bowl...
could he have washed a bowl out himself? well yes... but still, I really feel like it's my job right now to not add any additional stress to his life.  is a dirty bowl stress? YES. there are people in his classes crying about the workload... people have already dropped out... a friend of Lee's is paying me to go to the grocery for him because he doesn't have time to get his own food!
medical school is pure madness.
and if I can make it the tiniest bit easier on Lee by making sure he has a clean cereal bowl in the morning.... then that's what I'm going to do.
because I love him...
and lets face it. he'll pay me back someday =)