Non-spinach greens for smoothie

We did a taste test of non-spinach greens for our smoothies and here are the results.

green chard - mild
lacinato kale - bitter
kale - slightly bitter
red boar - bitter
red chard - salty

So I need to remember to mix chard with kale and not all kale.

Phoenix childrens museum

The girls are having a great time exploring the metal tunnels

Phx childrens museum 1st floor

Next project: put away all my junk

Now that the dining table is cleared of books, I need to take care of the other stuff from the den: notebooks, papers, office supplies, misc. junk and buckets of stuff for good will. Since we have guests coming Sunday I want this done today so I can spend the rest of the time cleaning and painting.

All my mom books are organized!

I can't believe how few books I have when I put them on the shelf! This was 7 laundry baskets overflowing.  I love the way they look in the book shelf at the end of the hall. (Which is actually a linen closet with the doors taken off.)

Organizing my Ideas; Econtalk on SSDI

This week's Econtalk podcast (at econtalk.org) is "Autor on Disability".  David Autor explains the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).  It was so enlightening!  If you want to learn about how SSDI works, and some ideas to make it work better, listen.  According to Autor, the SSDI will go bankrupt in 5 years.

Quotes from the transcript
"At present more than half of all awards are for mental disorders and musculoskeletal disorders."

"So, currently there are 8.6 million disabled adults receiving SSDI benefits, about 4.7% of all adults aged 25-64 in the United States  So, it's roughly 1 in 20, a substantial number."

"And the cost of the program is also very substantial. So, approximately $130 billion a year in cash payments are made through SSDI, and then the Medicare component adds another $70 billion to that."

"So if you even just divide that by the number of U.S. households, it's over $1500 in expenditure per U.S. household; if you think about it, that's ultimately coming from taxpayers."

"from 1999 to 2011 there was a more than doubling of applications"

"So in 1981, let's say, about 2.2%, 2.3% of adults ages 25-64 were receiving SSDI. So the fraction of the population receiving it has doubled."

"The SSA is bound by law--again, this is Congress's decision in 1984--to give sort of first weight to the evidence provided by the disability claimant's own medical counsel. So, if the SSA does contract with what's called a consultative examination for each applicant, it is required by law to take seriously the evidence provided by a claimant more than by its own consultants. And only in cases where it has reason to believe the applicant is distorting the information can it have the right to ignore it."

"So, there's a very powerful kind of for-profit advocacy component to getting people onto SSDI. So, there are many law firms that specialize just in this practice."

"And finally, they changed the rules regarding continuing disability reviews (CDR). So, previously a CDR was essentially a de novo evaluation of the case. In other words, you start from scratch and try to reach a new decision or not. Congress said: Well, now, CDR, to terminate someone based on a disability review you must prove that they have recovered from whatever state they were in at the time they were given benefits. So, if they were given benefits by mistake, that's not sufficient. They have to have recovered from whatever that state was to lose benefits."

Organizing my books

Due to reorganizing the storage in the den, I have had baskets of books all over the place.  Finally I am taking care of it.  I sorted them into categories.

Homeschool - they move to the play room
Mom's biographies & history
Mom's homeschool reference & kid training
Mom's philosophy/current events/economics
Mom's nutrition/health
Mom's fiction
Bible & Bible study

Today I will put them all away! And I'll show you what it looks like when it is done.

Finally, Curtains!

We have needed curtains on this window for 3 years since we took down the blinds.  Since I had jobs I didn't want to do, I finally had time to do it.  It took 1 hour and left over white sheets.

Before curtains and before doing dishes

After

Cold Storage Pre-Organized

We had our second fridge die on us and we tried to make due with just one and I couldn't do it!  There are so many things I buy in bulk when it is on sale (mostly fruit and eggs) so we went ahead and replaced our full fridge with a freezer/fridge.   Now I have to organize it.  I am posting this to push me to organize.

New Fridge/Freezer

New and Shiny

Messy Door

The messy inside

Our commercial full fridge/full freezer

Freezer Side

Freezer Door

Fridge side

Fridge Door