It's been awhile since I've done a Friday the 13th post.  Getting this one in just under the wire.

Thirteen pretentious hipster things we do:

1. have milk delivered to the house in glass bottles

It might be more expensive than regular milk from the grocery store, but not a lot more expensive and they bring it to my door, ya'll!  It is so much better than grocery store milk. Plus, I get to tell stories at work about my milkman who sends me Christmas card. It is quaint and awesome to live here in 1950.

2. make pretty much all the bar soap we use in the house from scratch. Or actually, The KoH made several dozen bars a couple years ago and we haven't bought a bar of soap since.  It's not as drying as store soap and smells better.

3. buy loose leaf herbal teas from one of those tea stores and then have to find something to steep them in because they don't come with tea bags.  It's more expensive, but it's also more trouble.  Actually, I just like the options for varieties because Lipton tea sucks.

4. buy shampoo at one of those made by hand with no preservatives stores.  It smells better and doesn't make me sneeze.

5. grow and dry most of our own herbs.  I have become a much better cook since we had an herb garden, because now I use them in everything I cook to make it worthwhile to have and maintain this thing.

6. concern ourselves too much about privacy in the bathroom.  It's not like we all run around practicing for the nude beach or anything, but we're never made a huge deal about seeing each other somewhat-less-than-fully-clothed and have always been rather matter-of-fact about it and basic anatomy.  This probably is due more to our laziness and propensity to forget to close the door in the bathroom than it was any conscious effort in parenting, but The Dormouse and I had a discussion the other day about the process of changing in the locker room for gym which she started doing this semester in school and her outlook is remarkably healthy and nonchalant for something that a lot of people remember as nearly traumatizing.  Sometimes even blind squirrels find nuts.

7. The KingofHearts' latest favorite hobby is black smithing and he has two forges in the back yard.  That seems loud and ridiculous since we have no horses. Until you learn that he can make me stuff like this.


8. Speaking of odd hobbies, my Christmas present from him was a class in glass blowing -  vases, to be specific.  I made a lot of misshapen stuff so far, but this one is my favorite.


9.  this new house has a three-sided fireplace and we've used it almost every day of the winter so far. I remembered a long time ago my parents bought some sort of chemical you could throw in the fire to make the flames different colors.  So we went to our personal shopper Amazon and found that they not only still sell it, but that some can be on it's way to you too with the click of a button. It's kind of awesome.


11. take our kids to classical music concerts.  I'm pretty sure we haven't been to one yet where some fuddy duddy didn't give us the sideways glance for bringing kids to a concert, but screw you, snobby people.  They are at least as well-behaved as that guy in the front row whose face is always lit up blue because he's playing farmville on his phone through the whole concert.

  12.  each month, we go to a facility where we assemble and pack frozen dinners for the month.  Yeah, we could just make stuff from the grocery store, but both the Shortlings learned how to follow a recipe and measure this way.  And it's better than nachos and mac and cheese, which is probably what I would make if left to my own devices.

 13.  handmade Sheepskin slippers.  It's like sticking your foot inside a cloud.