Some things that have made me happy lately…

I recently replaced the curtains in my family room (that is its own story) because one of the was severely faded. The other one was fine, and it seemed a waste to toss it, especially since I really like these curtains. But what do you do with only one curtain? Unrelated is the fact that our cat’s litter box resides in the linen closet, which means the door needs to stay open all the time, and there is always the risk that the door gets shut and then we have unpleasantness. I’ve been contemplating a solution to this situation for a while. Suddenly, they came together! 

A backyard game of “license plate baseball” broke out randomly. License plate baseball is one of those things that will go down in Dapelo family history. It has only happened a few times, but for some reason it is legendary. We use old license plates as the bases, which is how it got its name.


The joys of Mr. Putter & Tabby live on. Never too old.

This morning, my dad took Micah and I bowling. I got to try out my new bowling ball (a gift from him like 2 years ago) finally. But first, Bonezy got all excited and thought he was going to go bowling too! 



And then we headed into Monroe for the block party. Not quite the same as the parade, which was definitely missed, but I guess this is better than nothing. Layla is thrilled the band is back in action! 


And then we poked around the booths a little and came home with some amazing smelling soaps! 

So what’s been making you happy lately? 



Lessons from my Septic Tank

The joys of homeownership paid us a visit this week.

First, the water dispenser on our fridge decided to stop functioning properly, leak all over the place, and need to be replaced. Thankfully, a few parts and a handy hubby and we are back in business. 

Today, he replaced the brakes on the Subaru because it was making a horrible squealing noise like cars do when they start demanding new brakes…

Yesterday’s situation, however, required a professional. For a couple of weeks, our downstairs toilet has been making a weird gurgly noise after you flush it. We initially thought it had something to do with the new innards Dave had to put in it recently (since it was running and needed the ball float mechanism replaced with a new situation), but that wasn’t the problem. We thought there might be a clog, so tried plunging it and even snaking. Made no difference. 

Then Wednesday, I went outside to look at the garden and got all kinds of heinous whiffs of sewage smell. 

{insert ominous music}

So Dave dug up the rose (and sunflower and weed) garden to expose the septic tank lids. He pulled one off and it became immediately apparent what the problem was. 

So we got the septic guy out. (How’s that for a superhero identity? SepticGuy!!!) 

We had to wait until the next day, and in the meantime, we desisted all unnecessary use of water/drains. No dishes, laundry, long showers, or flushing. That was weird. We employed the “if it’s yellow let it mellow” philosophy for about 24 hours. Do you know how hard it is to just walk out of a bathroom without flushing the toilet??!!

Apparently, this guy has found his calling in life and thoroughly enjoyed servicing, analyzing, and commenting on our septic tank. Even though we had our septic tank pumped last spring, the filter was majorly clogged. We’re not sure why, but oh well. It’s fixed now. Maybe it’s because for the last year and a half, we have all almost 100% pooped at home. Yay covid. 

But we learned some interesting things about ourselves from our septic tank. Yes, I know how thoroughly disgusting this is. Apparently, we eat very healthfully. According to SepticGuy, when you eat mostly natural foods, they break down faster and sink to the bottom quickly. Processed foods take longer to break down and stay near the top and middle. And all that stuff that “passes through” floats to the top. He asked if we are a lot of 12 grain bread. 

😂

And apparently, thanks to our healthy eating habits, we should have our tank pumped every 2 years. Seriously. Can’t make this stuff up. Maybe we should try to save ourselves some money by eating more junk. 

But it’s fixed now. We can flush, thank goodness. 



September Meal Plan (& making peace with my Instant Pot)

Yesterday, “monthly meal plan” came up on my digital to do list. The past month or two, I’ve been operating week to week, which is better than nothing, but monthly is one thousand times better. As usual, I was dissatisfied with available methods/templates for this task, so I whipped up my own. I think I love this. Highlighting weekends is important to just give me a little grounding for where we are in the week. 


You’ll probably notice a lot of instant pot recipes on there in the first half of the month. I’m still in the middle of my tour de instant pot - the end of which will come at whatever time I determine whether or not the beast gets voted off the island. Lots of people gave me lots of suggestions, plus ones I looked up on my own and people said they wanted to try. This has been going on for almost 2 weeks now, and so far only 2 recipes have gone directly into the recycling. 
Here’s what we’ve tried (and liked enough to keep) so far:






The ones we didn’t like were a pork chops with green beans recipe that was fine, just not good enough. And a mac & cheese with chicken and broccoli that Dave and my dad thought was ok, but I couldn’t even finish. 

So we’ve got about half a month left of recipes stacked on my kitchen counter. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

For this month, the only things up in the air still are what Dave and I will do for our anniversary and what my dad wants on his birthday (stroganoff probably), but the rest is dummy-proofed. Hooray! 



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