Our Week ~ The Bathroom Debacle, Baseball and Going Green

We had a good week, but a complicated week. It didn't go as I had planned, but life rarely does. I am in the final stages of planning our next school year. We have two weeks to go before we start, so I better hurry up. I also need to write transcripts for three more courses the kids completed. 

Our latest Universal Yum box arrived. It was Taiwan and we didn't like the snacks very much. They were all pretty weird. We did have a delightful time daring each other to try different bites and combinations. I liked the bubble tea popcorn. Everyone else thought I was crazy and let me have the whole bag.

I am continuing to try to live a more green and chemical-free lifestyle. We are taking baby steps. If it isn't easy, I know that once the school year gets underway all could be lost in the business of life. However, these are small steps. We gave up plastic straws last month and changed over to paper straws (for when we are out on the road and stop for a sweet tea). These are very unpopular with the kids, so I am going to order metal straws soon. We also switched to waxpaper lunch bags or Tupperware for dear husband and adult son's lunch. That is going great. Lastly, as our supplies run out, I am switching each item to a product that is more natural. I am keeping Chlorox wipes, as well as Tide for really dirty clothes, but otherwise, we are going natural. A few weeks ago, I ran out of dishwasher powder. I made a baking soda and salt mix. You add a few drops of dish soap to the mix as you start the machine. I am pleased with it so far but may try more complicated mixes when this one runs out.

Dishwasher detergent

We had our dear friend, Josephine, over for two more days this week. These three teens are just delightful together. They really enjoyed playing checkers at a downtown store. They played for about an hour while I relaxed in a rocking chair. Then we all picked out a few pieces of candy from the barrels. This is a treat that my kids adore.

We also went to a local minor league baseball game, since it was Goodwill night. We each brought three pieces of gently used clothing to donate and then each got a free ticket to the game. It wasn't the best game and our team lost, but everyone had tons of fun talking, watching the game, sharing snacks, watching the bats fly across the full moon overhead and eating french fries. The kids even caught one of the freebies (a bag of muffins) that was shot from the cannons. 

We went mall walking and tried rolled ice cream. I bought just one cup so everyone could try a small taste. They loved it and want to try another flavor next time.

The bathroom debacle happened Sunday night. It started with the soap dish falling off the wall. We noticed that the wall behind was wet and spongy. So we ripped off more tiles with  our bare hands (they were that loose) and started ripping out the wall and wet insulation behind it. We think the grout had worn out and caused moisture to get behind the tile. This shouldn't be a big surprise, considering the bathroom hasn't been renovated since the sixties. I thought we were going to have to take it all down and replace all of the tile and wall, which would have cost a small fortune and ruined my travel dreams for the coming school year. Mind you, I hate that yellow tile, but not enough to give up our hope of traveling to a new state or two. We started thinking how to repair the wall instead. I scrubbed all of the grout off of the tiles and cleaned them up and my husband and Dean cleaned up the area and bought new waterproof wall board and tile grout. However, by the end of the week, my husband decided that this was over his head and we called in my Mom's handyman. He will do the rest of the job for $100, using our supplies in the next week or two. For now, we are washing our hair in the sink and taking very shallow baths.

Last but not least ~ Rosie is growing bigger all the time and is turning into a sweet cat. She loves all kinds of balls and is very partial to my wool dryer ball.

Blessings, Dawn