The Appliances are Conspiring...

Sunday night our dryer stopped working. My washer and dryer seem to have an arrangement: only one of them is allowed to break at a time. However, the washer typically breaks when I'm down to three clean diapers and no back-up disposables. The dryer breaks when it's raining, snowing, or both. Yesterday being a somewhat nice day in late February (39 degrees and windy), I did the obvious and hung one load of clothes on the line. It took six hours, but hey, it was free and the job got done.

Today is also 39 degrees but pouring down rain with the threat of snow later in the day. While my youngest is decently attired thanks to yesterday, my oldest has no pants.

Never one to back away from a challenge, I scoffed at the concept of lugging my wet clothes to a laundromat and sitting there for an hour while they tumbled dry. Too complicated and too obvious. Instead, I went on Pinterest and found a tutorial on making a drying rack from an old baby gate.

Wait, thought I. We have an old 6 foot baby gate that has been gathering dust for the past three years! Problem was, it wouldn't stay extended vertically. Thankfully, with our house being in such disrepair, I'm always finding random aftermarket pieces of our house that don't seem to belong. There is one such giant hole in our ceiling with a railing around it. I hooked the lip of the baby gate into the rail and extended it to the floor.

I think I can fix our dryer with a $20 part and a screwdriver but in the meantime, it's good to have this completely free solution.

In case you were wondering, I dug into my oldest child's summer stuff and paired some things up with tights and jackets to get her through the next few days. And yes, I did wash more diapers just in case. Don't want to cut it too close again.

My top 5 gluten free products

While I'm a cheapskate who likes to make most things from scratch, there are certain products it's well worth the cost to keep in my pantry at all times. Here are the top 5 that I can't live without:

5. Trader Joe's granola. I think this is too sweet for breakfast cereal but it's great mixed into a little plain or vanilla yogurt.

4. Trader Joe's corn pasta. Okay, I admit I have a thing for Trader Joe's. At my store, spaghetti and penne are only pennies more per package than regular old wheat spaghetti. Plus, with a good sauce I can't tell the difference. The rice is okay but it gets slimy quickly if you get distracted, say by your 4 year old and 7 month old at dinner time. Not that that ever happens at my house.

3. Okay, one more Trader Joe's post then I'll call it quits. It's a tie between these:

 and these:

I know cookies aren't a necessity of life but these sure beat making your own or doing without and watching everyone else at a potluck gobbling delicious treats. What makes the snickerdoodles even better is they are free of the top 8 allergens. When we get together with a certain group of friends, we represent five different allergies between us. It's almost like planning a military campaign to make sure the wrong people don't end up with the wrong food. These are a no-brainer.

2. This one's a little strange. Most other products I like because I can't tell the difference between regular and gluten free. This just tastes unique. Sort of chewy, full of spices, it might not be everyone's cup of tea. It doesn't taste like pizza crust as most people know it. It's an original and doesn't try to be a sub-par copycat.

And finally...

1. Pamela's baking mix. I don't know if Pamela is a real person or a fictional character like Betty Crocker but she deserves the Nobel Prize. This obviously helps Sunday night pancake dinner make a comeback in our house but it also makes great biscuits and is a good flour mix to use for those recipes that call for something like two tablespoons of flour for thickening.

There you have the five products I'm willing to pay someone else to make for me.

All photos from amazon.com and ebay.com