Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The One DON'T In My Housekeeping List

Takin' Time on Tuesdays with Joni

I often hear women say, "I don't cook." I always think in my head, "I didn't know I was given the option." When I got married, I started cooking. At first I wasn't very good, but now I can whip out a meal quickly and some of them are even really good. The one thing I do say I don't do is, "I don't iron." I really don't. My iron comes out a couple times a year when something is too wrinkly to get away with. Other than that, I don't iron. My sister Stalee irons her husband's shirt every day before he goes to work. I have been at her house and watched her do this. It amazes me that something that is a daily part of her life is non existent in my life. How do I get away with it? Well, my husband works in construction so his dress code is nice casual. All of this can be worn without an iron. His sunday shirts are wrinkle free so if I pull them quickly from the dryer and shake them, they don't have any wrinkles. I know that we might look nicer if I ironed our clothes. It just doesn't seem worth it to me. My complaint is when I have worked hard to iron something, it quickly becomes wrinkled and then it seems like a waste of time.

I once heard a story of a young mother many years ago. She talked about how much she ironed. She would bring the clothes in off of the line and would iron everything. She ironed sheets, pillowcases, napkins, pajamas, dish towels, EVERYTHING! She said as soon as her daughters were old enough, she had them iron the small things. I thought it was interesting that she ironed everything and I iron nothing. Then I learned why. Two weeks ago I was going to bed and I smelt a burning smell. I ran to my dryer, which had a load of towels drying, and realized that it was overheating. I turned it off and got my husband. He turned it back on and it would only blow out cold air. It was broken. I had so much laundry to do that the next day I washed everything and hung it around my apartment. It looked like a laundry bomb had gone off. Two weeks later I still don't have a dryer, but not from lack of trying. My husband has put in at least 7 hours into trying to fix this thing, without any success. Because all of our clothes have been hanging to dry, I have learned why the dryer is important. It makes clothes soft. Without it, they are stiff and scratchy. The towels are the worst. After they have dried, I put them in the cold dryer for 30 minutes to tumble and this does help. I now see why in days gone by they ironed everything. It made their clothes softer. I told my husband that if he doesn't fix the dryer soon, we need to get a clothes line out in the yard and I will have to become someone who irons everything. Lets hope the dryer just gets fixed! I have a baby coming in two months and we all know how much laundry a little baby brings! And I don't want to give up the one thing I won't do, IRON!

Recipe of the week: Strawberry Creamy Popsicles (Gluten Free)

Since we are all pretending that summer is here in Northern Utah, it is the season of popsicles. My kids love making their own popsicles, so here is a fun recipe to make one at home.

Ingredients:
Strawberries
plain or vanilla yogurt (yoplait has gluten free yogurt)
milk
sugar
ice

Instructions:
I throw into the blender a large handful of cut up strawberries, about 2 cups. Then I add about a half a cup to one cup of yogurt, I pour in milk and add a couple of spoon fulls of sugar. I add a few ice cubes and blend it up real good. I taste it. If it isn't very flavorful, add strawberries. If it isn't too sweet, add a little more sugar. Once it is tasty, add it to popsicle molds or paper cups. If using paper cups, put a popsicle stick in the middle. Put it in the freezer and leave until frozen. If using paper cups, you can just rip off the cup from the popsicle. If you are using the popsicle molds, put the bottom in hot water for about 10-30 seconds and it will come out nicely. Enjoy under the shade of a tree. Yummy!

(I got these popsicle molds at Walmart for a dollar or two. We have loved them.)
(Don't my kids look like they love it. I love Vienna's eyes!)

5 comments:

Rindi said...

I cannot believe you can get away with NEVER ironing? You never have a skirt that needs ironing? or a little boys church shirt? or Jaron's dress pants? Or anything? Maybe you are better at quickly folding your dry laundry than I am! :) I hope you can get your dryer fixed soon. ANd the popsicles look delicious!
Love and miss you, Rindi

Millie said...

Ha ha ha, Rindi, no offense but I could guess that most people fold and put away laundry faster than you! (no one's perfect at everything) I hardly ever iron too, it seems like a lot of work for a little time. You iron a shirt, wear it, kid spills something on it and it goes right back in the dirty cloths and it starts again. So much work!

Jaron, Joni, and Family said...

Rindi, I am really bad at folding and putting away clothes, so no, I am not better than you. I am great at keeping my clothes washed, but there is usually a large pile in my bedroom that needs to be folded. Jaron says they need to invent a dryer that the clothes come out folded. Then, I would keep up on laundry. I don't know how I get away without ironing. I do iron church clothes, but only rarely. Other than that, we probably just look wrinkly!

Anonymous said...

Joni, very funny post! I know that it is hard to iron when you have to get the ironing board out every time. I love having a laundry room that fits my board.

Some day when you have teenagers and maybe if Jaron gets a job that he has to wear shirts like Clint you will join the rest of the us.
But for your sake, I hope not.
Love, Mom

jsfeatherstone said...

Joni I lOVED this post.....infact, I love all your posts. They just make me laugh out loud even if no one is around. I think that's why I ALWAYS loved hanging out with my cousin Joni. You have the best sense of humor and always great stories to tell. I'm glad I can now read them because sleepovers like the good ole days just aren't so practical! By the way I sent an email to you today about a gluten-free website. www.rhi-created.com

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