Spring Clean Day 2

My spring clean for the body ended on Sunday night like this:

Kale + quinoa, avocado, and turkey burger

Better luck next season! It wasn't a bad cleanse, I really wasn't hungry, I just had a raging headache by 7pm and couldn't stomach spending 3 days of my spring break feeling that way. So, I gladly caved (there's even a Coke Zero off camera) and moved on to the bigger and better elements of spring cleaning: the house!

Here's the big, bold list I made on Sunday. I crossed off the items we have taken care of so far:

Spring clean

All over
Dust shelves, blinds, vents, moldings, light fixtures -- anything that collects dust and you usually ignore.
clean window treatments (including your shower curtain)
Wash windows

Living room
Clean out cabinet
Broken drop ceiling tile
clean behind couch
Vacuum cushions

Bedroom
Organize drawers
Dust chandelier
Burnt out bulbs 
Broken drop ceiling tile
Flip mattress
Change winter bedding to spring
Change clothes from warm to cool and pack away seasonal clothes
Donate/sell unwanted clothes 

Dining room
Paint chairs I've given up on this idea for now
Broken drop ceiling tiles
Check smoke detector batteries

Vacuum rug
Kitchen
Clean out fridge
Clean behind fridge
Fix broken drawer given up on this as well 
Organize paperwork: alphabetize and eliminate
Spray paint file cabinet Monday

Bathroom
Clean out chest
Clean out medicine cabinet and makeup bag

Laundry room
Vacuum
Spray paint lamp not happening  

Outside
Compost
Buy herbs

Plant herbs 

As you can see, we've made some good head way. I saved all the cleaning, cleaning for today. And by Wednesday when the family gets here for Easter, we'll be breathing easy in a super clean, and organized house! We took our clothes to Buffalo Exchange and traded them for store credit. They didn't take much, but we got $50 to spend in the store! The rest we took to Goodwill. Here are some pics of what's been going on so far:

sweaters ready to be stored for summer

Clothes to be traded and donated

Buffalo Exchange loot,  C also got a pair of jeans for $11!

Finally rehung this mirror, which fell off the wall during Isaac! 

This year we're going small with the garden, since every other year has been a fail in our low light back yard, check out last year's here. We planted basil, cilantro, parsley, and oregano. The big plant is a schefflera that I rooted from my own plant, which was rooted from my mom's, which was at my grandpa's funeral in 1990. Rooting for these plants is simple and involves cutting off a branch and putting it in water. The new addition is for Cynthia (hopefully we can keep this a secret until Sunday). 

Readying for Fall

I think I've said this before, but the second thing I miss most about Kentucky is fall. The way the leaves change and fall, the crispness of the air, sleeping with open windows, and sitting around fires outdoors.

Fall in Ky courtesy of gosoutheast.com

Although fall doesn't look the same here is Nola, it comes with the perk of Fall Break; four days of  glorious freedom. What will I do? So many options. Yesterday was the first day of this four day weekend and I spent it readying the house and yard for the season change. We never made it out back to clean up after Isaac, so that was first on my list. I pulled two garbage bags full of weeds, dumped all the pots with dead plants in them into the compost, raked a whole lot of leaves, and moved the grills and boil pot to the side. The basil is still holding on strong as well as the mint, and I just didn't have the strength heart to pull it out. Maybe it will come back? I had tomatoes do that in Ky once.

Pardon my lack of a before picture, but take my word for it; it looks much better.

While I was cleaning up the largest butterfly I have ever seen flew into my yard (see the significance of butterflies to Westendorf's here). The photo is bad because he was a fast moving sucker, but I hope the perspective of the giant pot shows you how huge he was.

I have to say they show up all the time. Here's another one that stayed with us for a really long time when we were rock climbing in Slovenia.

On the inside of the house, I cleaned out my closet (to get ready for the Naked Ladies Clothing Swap on Sunday) and unpacked some of my winter clothes. This is the time of year is New Orleans where you want to have your winter and summer clothes on hand for the next couple of months. The temperature has been fluctuating 30+ degrees from day to day. After that I cleaned the whole house and then walked Vera up to the quarter, which is my favorite thing but it's really hard to get home in time when I'm working. Today my friend Sophie and I are heading to the North Shore for some hiking in Fountainebleau State Park, more on that later. Here's a preview of what it looks like up there:

Courtesy of fountainbleau.com

Homemade Hot Sauce

Remember that habanero tree given to us by a friend who was moving (see the post here)? I used the ripe habaneros to make hot sauce. This process takes about a week and because I went back to work this week it took me almost two. Here's how it began, and the finished product:
I got the recipe from Bon Appetite, see it here.

I really should have used gloves and worn a face mask for destemming the habaneros. It ended up being okay because I washed my hands like crazy afterwards. However, my throat was burning the whole time!

I did not have kosher salt, so I subbed equal parts table salt and sea salt

 Day 1:

I left the jar sitting in my kitchen for 10 days, the recipe recommends 7. 

 Day 10:

As you can see my mini food processor was leaking the molten juice all over the counter!

Sieve inside of a funnel 

The recipe does not call for this, but I saved the habanero chili paste to use in recipes. 

The recipe says that the sauce can last in the refrigerator for up to 4 months. 

Almost a Graduate by Lauren

On Monday I hand in the final component to my teaching certification, a 40 page portfolio that is finally complete. I have been through observations, student surveys, principle surveys, and 81 hours of seminar sessions, four Praxiss tests, and the final step is to turn in my portfolio and receive a passing grade. I won't find out if I passed until July, but if I do I will receive a level one teacher's certification in Special Education and English (the same certification a graduate of a four year undergrad program receives). 

Here are some highlights from my second year teaching:

Prom chaperones 2012

 Advisory community service project: gardening at S.J. Green's Edible School Yard

Student letter I received yesterday: made my day!

Planting the Seeds

After 2 months of growing in the makeshift greenhouse, our sprouts were ready to plant. We bought some burlap from the hardware store to use as a barrier between the city soil and our hummus + fertilizer mix. This is yet another year we have resisted the seemingly mountainous project of building raised bed boxes. We're probably making it a bigger deal than it is, but maybe if these plants take we'll be ready to build raised beds by the fall for some year round vegetable growth.

Burlap is cut, placed over the bed and the bed is covered first with hummus (compost soil) and then with fertilizer. 

            Hummus collected from the compost and the sprouts, ready to leave the greenhouse.  We planted sunflowers in each bed because they are said to pull heavy metals out of the soil. Urban gardens are notorious for lead (not a good mix for an edible garden)

The mint that lasted all winter; it has really taken off in the last few weeks, pictured a month ago here 

tomatoes, cucumbers, and sunflowers 

rainbow bell peppers, jalapenos, and sunflowers

herbs: parsley and basil (the only seedlings that took)

I really hope all these plants take. Once I got them into the ground, they looked much weaker than they had in their incubator. I'll keep you posted.

What's left to do:

1. Plant some bee attracting flowers.
2. More herbs

Dreams for the near future:

1. A year round garden
2. A bee hive
3. Chickens 

The Sprout and the third try

I have always been interested in gardening; my mom and I spent every Mother's Day when I lived at home planting her garden and this is my fourth winter attempting to sprout my own seeds. The first three attempts were to fails. I have outlined them below:

#1. Planted seeds in a green house box of sorts in my house, nursed them for four months, grow light and all. After putting all the sprouts in the ground I proudly headed off to work. I later called Christian all excited like, and he said everything was gone!

#2. Planted seeds in Nola last season, everything was going well until one weekend away. I came home and everything was a wilted memory of a plant.

2011: I drilled holes in a plastic moving box and flipped in upside down to use as a greenhouse.

#3. Things I am doing differently this year:

• I started earlier
• I am watering less
• I planted more
• I checked out this awesome site for lots of advise on Urban gardening, most of the tutorials on this site would be relevant in any city in the States.

Here are the results two weeks after planting:

The mint that has survived since last summer

The box this year has a lid to trap in more heat 

Sprouts already sprouting

More signs of Spring