SHEs Organized

QUESTION for our very wise SHEs: Not sure any of you might run into this problem. But, any spices (at least most of them) left in here over the winter often cake and I have to buy new jars. Just bought what I thought was going to be a small jar of season-all and it ends up it's a very large jar. Hate to think of it just caking and be unusable by Spring. Does anyone know of ways to keep these from caking? Did think about the things that are often in meds to prevent moisture. Think they would be ok to use in these bottles of spices?

Dee try Rice in the spices to absorb moisture.

blessedw2 wrote:
don't throw anything at me... ....I am tempted to start setting up outside Christmas lights before the major cold starts.

The first year we did 3 months of travel with the kids, we had one month away from Sept - October and were going away for at least a week in November.

I normally do a major Halloween display but debated putting up all the Christmas decorations and playing Christmas music instead of my haunted house sounds. I figured it would spook the parents if not the kids!

(We used to put up the Christmas decorations immediately after Halloween, often while taking in the last of the Halloween items and reusing extension cords and ladders. Just because it wasn't too cold yet. Nothing was lit until Advent 1 or December 1 (whichever was earlier.)

DeeClutter wrote: Did think about the things that are often in meds to prevent moisture. Think they would be ok to use in these bottles of spices?

They work very well. (Source: Personal Experience)

Not an extremely busy day today.Finishing up the towel /underwear laundry with dh. Keep telling myself, “He’s not REALLY as bad as Sheldon… “

Did afternoon pick up if dgrands, and kept them a few hours. Took them home after supper.

Scheduled service call for dmom to get her refrigerator repaired.

Oh — and yesterday, I finished my book. It was sooo good!

A less productive day but stuff did get accomplished.

Weekly kitchen chores were done after chatting with with dh, chatted with the grands, putting on nail polish since I knew I'd be sitting at the desk for a while, and had a nice dinner inspired by the bruschetta that their Nonna was making while we were on the call with her.

I spent too long online this evening but also picked up the mail, took a short 2 block walk to get out of the apartment (I didn't leave yesterday at all) and put up a hook for my oven mitt. It used to hang on lower cupboard door by the oven, but it was on an over the door metal hanger that sticks out right at dgs1.5's eye level. So that is gone for now, and I have a new hook on the wall.

As I said, as I'm working around, I'm busy moving things up or away, out of dgs1.5's reach.

Did I tell you about the antique china cabinet?

I had a small, pine, antique, glass fronted china cabinet that came from the cellar of my maternal grandmother's. I used to explore while there and fell in love with a number of things that had been tucked away in the cellar or the attic. They came to me when the house was shut down because I could give my parents exact instructions on where to find things and no-one else knew about them so didn't think to ask for them. This cabinet was being used to store my grandmother's art supplies.

It was ugly brown/black and when it was moved to Ontario, my dad taught teenage-me how to refinish it (and my sea chest.) It has been in my kitchen for decades containing odds and sods of china and glass that get used regularly but are not part of my daily dish set.

Dh had squatted down, putting things in the fridge and I handed him something from too far behind him, he went off balance reaching for it, started to fall back, I put out my arm to rebalance him, failed, and he crashed back into the antique glass front, with it shattering all around him.

Thanks to Flylady, we both had shoes on, but I had to haul him straight up from half inside the cabinet because he couldn't put his hands on the floor to push himself up due to all the glass. I got out the dust pan and brush and started brushing the shards of glass off him and out of his hair. He thought his shirt would be ripped to shreds. It was fine.

It was only as I was rinsing down the drain the tiny bit of glass off the dust pan that I realized I was bleeding. It was the back of my arm that took the brunt of the fall, cushioning him, but the glass cutting me up badly. Not stitches badly, but I ended up with many long cuts and have new scars on my arm. Most upsetting was despite me rinsing the cuts I could see, I couldn't see the one on the back of my upper arm and dh was completely oblivious to it as well until I found fresh blood dripping despite paper towel catching the blood from the cuts I knew about. Plus I had to talk him through all the first aid. In an emergency if I can't speak, he will not be much good to me, he is too easily confused, none of that is second nature.

Dh did a lot of the cleanup, I did more after because I was still finding tiny shards (he had used vacuum with the beater brush sending them flying all over the floor.) And we had to wash everything in the cabinet, glass was everywhere inside things. He felt absolutely terrible breaking something so precious to me. Nothing of great sentimental value inside was broken so that was lucky.

That week he found a piece of plexiglass in the remainder pile at HD which worked perfectly as the new glass.

Neither of us expected it would be him to break the glass, we expected it either to be me, or worse, one of the grandkids. Both of us could imagine either of the younger two banging on it with a toy.

On Saturday, I heard banging, and sure enough, dgs1.5 was hitting it with a toy truck. But that has now been childproofed so I let dh know his work was being appreciated! And that's why I continue to tweak the apartment to help make the rest of it safer too.