Eating Crow (and it tastes like chicken)

July 20, 2011 at 1:58 pm (Frugality, Simple Living)

Some of you might remember a post of mine about firing the maid and doing my own cleaning.  I was young and idealistic, looking forward to rolling up my sleaves and giving my floors some elbow grease and home made cleaners to get the job done in a cost-effective manner.  Not sure how many months its been, but I’m crying uncle.  Cleaning service will be starting again next week. Sigh.

I admit it.  I couldn’t keep up.  If I can’t make it happen when I’m at home with the baby, I have no shot of keeping it up later.  Might as well throw in the towel and have a cleaner place to live while I’m at home, right? 

In other news:

Popsicles: I just made raspberry popsicles!  I put a pint of raspberries, a couple of tablespoons of sugar, lime juice, and a little water in the food processor.  Then I put it through a strainer and then into popsicle molds.  It’s freezing now.  I’ll see if Max wants to partake tonight. (I’ll add pictures if he does)

Fruit Leather:  My friend Emily came over last night with a batch of pureed apricots from her tree.  We put it on parchment paper in my food dehydrator and it’s looking promising — though it’s taking much longer than the 5-10 hour estimate in her recipe.  Thanks, Emily for participating in my homemade mishugas! (that’s yiddish for craziness)

Now, I know aspects of this post seem silly.  I caved and hired a cleaning service, which is objectively expensive, but I consider my victories to be pospicles and fruit leather — which, in actuality, save very little money in the family budget.   Maybe it comes down to the commitment aspect of it.  If I go 6 more months and don’t make another popsicle, no one will notice or care. (well, maybe Max would care).  But if I go 6 months without addressing the cleaning situation, then Child Protective Services gets called.  What I’m really saying is, someone please tell me it’s ok!!!