April 19, 2011

Mother’s Day Donation Drive

Filed under: Moxie Girl in the News,Who are the Moxie Girls? — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 8:23 pm

As the nation’s largest domestic violence shelter, Sojourner Center helps women and children overcome the impact of domestic violence, one life at a time.

For Mother’s Day, Moxie Girl Household Assistants and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce will be collecting items for the women staying at Sojourner Center.

 Requested items are:

  • Hair dryers
  • Full-size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash
  • Curling and flat irons
  • Make-up (new in package).

 If your business can be a collection site, or if you would like to make an individual donation, please contact Amanda Thomas at Amanda@moxie-girl.com or 602-633-GIRL(4475).

 Final collection will be Friday, May 6th.

 

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March 22, 2011

If it looks too good to be true….

Filed under: Party Hosting,Stress Free Living,Who are the Moxie Girls? — Tags: — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 9:04 pm

Somebody's faking it...

So I’m working at one of my favorite coffee shops and I just saw this piece for sale. I had to laugh a little, because my husband and I had friends over last weekend. To prepare, we ran around like crazy people ALL day Saturday trying to get the house in order. What would they think if they came to the Original Moxie Girl’s house and it wasn’t perfect?!?!

After a couple glasses of wine, though, I took everyone on the tour of the whole house. While our closet may have made people a little self-concious (That is one of the areas that my husband and I are

Our flawed wall

both super-OCD about keeping organized), it was our upstairs that has been half-painted for almost a year that made people feel at home.

The truth is, none of us are perfect, and pretending to be is stressful and exhausting. People want to see the flawed parts of our lives because they can relate. I’m not saying to bring your friends into your house when it is a disaster (no one is comfortable looking at your dirty laudry and trash while having dinner), but relax and let them see your flaws. After all, if they don’t like you just because your baseboards are dusty, you might want to reconsider your friendship.

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March 15, 2011

Epic Kitchen Fail….

Filed under: Meal Planning,Who are the Moxie Girls? — Tags: , , — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 5:10 pm

Making homemade ravioli, and a mess

 This weekend I was feeling adventurous in the kitchen. I wanted to make homemade ravioli, but didn’t want to take the time to make the pasta dough from scratch. Instead, I grabbed a box of pie crust mix that had been in our pantry for longer than I would like to admit, and mixed it up. I rolled it out super thin, cut circles, and filled them with a homemade pumpkin and ricotta filling. All was going well until I tried to cook them.

This was when I discovered that, if you put pie dough in boiling water, it will not cook – It will completely disintegrate. When I realized that the mushy, foamy blobs would not be edible, I thought maybe baking them would be the answer. This created something closer to an empanada than ravioli. I probably should have stopped while I was ahead and announced we were having these “appetizers” as dinner, but I was determined to have made ravioli, so I smothered them in marinara sauce.

It was not pretty, and it certainly didn’t tasted good, but it did help me learn a couple lessons. First, it’s important to know your dough. Second, it’s ok to improvise and even better to quit while you are ahead if your plans take a nasty turn. Finally, I have the best husband ever because (bless his heart), he ate an entire plateful, and with a pained look on his face, even told me they “weren’t that bad.”

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February 15, 2011

Tuna and Noodles Casserole Memories

Filed under: Meal Planning,Who are the Moxie Girls? — Tags: , , , — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 8:20 pm

My love of cooking goes back many years. I still remember being in 5th grade and surprising my friends with homemade Tuna and Noodle Casserole. I thank my childhood in South Dakota for giving me an extensive repertoire of dishes that can be made with a can of Cream of Chicken Soup….

Now that I am older and more comfortable in the kitchen, I love branching out and trying new things even more. Every once in a while we play Iron Chef and improvise, but for the most part we follow recipes we find online. If you are thinking of starting your own family dinner routine, or are just looking to spice it up a little (pun intended), here are a few of our favorite easy dishes from www.Food.com:

Ratatouille - This is one of our favorite dishes to make in the crock pot. 15 minutes chopping in the morning, and you get to come home to a complete veggie and sausage dish.

Chickpea Curry - A very quick meal that costs about $3 for the whole thing. If you like yellow curry, this can’t be beat!

Chicken Tenders with Lemon-Spinach Rice - Sounds and looks fancy. No one needs to know it only takes 10 minutes to prep!

Goulash - Our “old reliable” for ground beef. Mmmmm

Let me know if you try any of these, or if you have a different favorite you would like to share.
Bon Appetit!

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February 9, 2011

When a Good Wife Goes Godzilla

Filed under: Stress Free Living,Who are the Moxie Girls? — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 5:38 pm

This past weekend was not my proudest moment as a wife. Though it started with me showing off my domestic skills around my own house, it almost ended with me in tears and reduced to the emotional level of a three year old….

I spent almost the entire day of Saturday in the kitchen. I made omelets for breakfast, green curry stir-fry for lunch, lentil and veggie stew for dinner, AND two dozen crème-filled cupcakes for a Super Bowl party. All this time, my husband was working on the computer or on the couch reading. This isn’t uncommon for a weekend, but as I continued through my day of domesticity, I started to grow resentful toward him. I couldn’t help but thinking that, if it weren’t for me, we would have starved and had to bring store purchased pastries (forbid!) to the party on Sunday.

After dinner, my husband looked at the crockpot that was still “Keeping Warm” our stew, and asked, “Are you going to leave this on all night?” That one simple question lead to what can only be described as a temper tantrum, meltdown, or psycho-wife moment. After all, it showed that he was expecting me to do EVERYTHING around the house, right?!?

In my rational mind, I know this is not true, but I had inhaled a lot of powdered sugar and was slightly out of my mind. So, after an hour of noisily cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom (yes, my temper tantrums even involve me cleaning…), I finally sat down and told my husband how rude and uncaring his comment was. I will let you imagine the conversation that happened after that.

Through all of this, I (re)learned an important lesson:

My husband cannot read my mind. My day would have been much easier if I would have simply prompted my husband to tell me, “Thank you,” and asked him to help me clean up the kitchen. Yes, it would have been ideal for him to do that on his own, but he had no idea the resentment that was building up inside me all day until I told him.

At the end of the day, I realized that if he can forgive me for acting like a preschooler, I suppose I can forgive him for not having super powers.

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October 25, 2010

Why Cleaning the Floors is a Major Score

Filed under: Cleaning,Who are the Moxie Girls? — Miss Moxie @ 11:33 pm

I use to dread cleaning the floors. Images of Cinderella came to mind, and thoughts of spending hours on my hands and knees did not sound pleasing.  As a parallel, one of the first things I learned with Moxie Girl was that a properly cleaned floors can make or break a living space. If you skimp on vacuuming or mopping, the room will always look sloppy and, quite frankly, sad. This left me questioning my own floors–I hadn’t vacuumed or mopped since moving in last August. What I found was alarming, to say the least–upon close observation, my carpet was covered with hair (my roommate at the time and I both have thick, long manes). Immediately grossed out, I borrowed a neighbor’s vacuum.

Most of my Moxie clients possess this space-age floor-cleaning contraption, something that looked as familiar as a space ship to me the first time I was expected to use it. From the detachable hose to the hundreds of buttons, I had no idea what I was doing. It took a good tutorial before I was confident enough to let myself lose with the appliance in another’s home. In all actuality, the vacuum itself is relatively easy to operate once you identify the various parts. Some benefits include the bag-less filter and breezily easy navigation. I don’t think I’m ever going back! Check Dyson out for yourself here.

My lesson of the week may seem overtly simple, but it’s a single-girl-in-the-city’s basic: cleaning the floor is a score. Never again will I go two months without a good vacuum, and never again will I question the importance of clean and shiny floors in the home of a client or friend–I’m starting the Clean Floors Movement. :)

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October 11, 2010

Whoever Doesn’t Cook, Cleans

Filed under: Meal Planning,Stress Free Living,Who are the Moxie Girls? — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 5:13 am

When my husband and I started dating, he always cooked for me. Sometimes it was the romantic, courting type of cooking, but more often than not, it was just a normal dinner. If he didn’t feel like cooking, he would announce we were going out for dinner. One night, about a year into our relationship, I invited him to my house and cooked him a gourmet, 4-course dinner. When we sat down to eat, he looked at me with a blank stare and said, “You can cook?” I simply smiled and replied, “You never asked.”

Now that we have been married almost 4 years, the dynamic in our kitchen has changed slightly. My husband still cooks occasionally, but for the most part I do the cooking. I am the first to admit that I am not the most coordinated chef (I have been known to flick sautéed vegetables across the stove, fling tomato sauce up the cabinets, and dump a whole cup of couscous on the floor), so some days I really feel bad while I watch Jon clean up after me. Then I remind myself that it took 45 minutes to cook dinner, so the 20 he spends cleaning up is totally fair.

Before you start thinking we are one of those couples who happily divvied up the household chores, I should tell you that our “Whoever doesn’t cook, cleans” rule came out of a huge fight which included a major melt-down by yours truly. From this I learned:

Marriage lesson #1: Men are NOT mind readers. If I want my husband to do more around the house, I have to ask.
Marriage lesson #2: Men quickly learn that doing the dishes makes a wife happy. And a happy wife makes a happy husband (wink, wink).

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September 21, 2010

Continuous Learning

Filed under: Who are the Moxie Girls? — Miss Moxie @ 9:02 pm

Hello World! I am Moxie Girl Sylvia! I’m so excited to join the blogging world with Moxie Girl and really look forward to passing on any knowledge that I have to all of our readers. Having been raised in a 5-member family with a hard working farmer father and a stay-at-home mother, I’m glad to bring more to the table when it comes to alleviating stress in my client’s homes. It’s true that I have little fear in attacking today’s household stresses and am excited to share some tips I have gained and been passed on from my wonderful mother. I never realized this knowledge would be useful in the world, the phrase “you’ll thank me for this someday” is indefinitely true. Without a doubt I have admitted to my mother, “you were right” when it comes to household assisting.

There is a joy I find in sharing my secrets with clients, helping to make something easier in their life, one task at a time. As I begin joining in blogging on a regular basis, I look forward to sharing my wisdom as I continue to learn more. Just last week I had fear of ruining my favorite pair of jeans. Now, my own mother would have said “go get another,” but to my surprise I was given a tip from the Moxie Queen of Clean! It hadn’t “dawned” on me to use Dawn dish soap for oil stains. When I realized the stains were also in my carpet I was peeved, but luckily I had gotten the advice to scrub and rinse to get the stains out. Sure enough, they were gone! I am proud to see the spotless carpet and my favorite pair of jeans ready to be worn again!

Needless to say, I am not perfect, but am happy to know that with the help from my Moxie family and my parents, I gain knowledge everyday and am happy to make it useful in your homes!

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September 17, 2010

Home Sweet Moxie

Filed under: Who are the Moxie Girls? — Miss Moxie @ 8:30 pm

Hello, Moxie readers! I couldn’t be more excited about my new place in the Moxie family.

Beth - the Domestically Curious Moxie

As a recently independent single girl, the lessons I learn as the newest Moxie are boundless–I would by lying if I said I haven’t made mistakes that my mother would cringe at. As I report these experiences, you’ll get to witness the embarrassing (I prefer to call them charmingly innocent) household blunders and domestic mysteries I experience as a girl on her own. For instance…

  • As a shopaholic, most of my wardrobe is “hand wash” or “dry clean only”–what does that really mean? How can I keep my clothes looking like the first time I wore them?
  • Just how long does milk last? (I learned that one the hard way.)
  • If the toilet won’t flush, does that warrant calling a plumber? (Clue: the answer is probably not.)

The beauty of witnessing my domestic faux pas is that you’ll learn how to avoid them. Through my commentary, research, and “learning experiences”, I will shed light on the simple household duties that no one likes to admit they really don’t know how to deal with. I learn, you learn–it’s a win/win situation! I’m not ashamed to say I’m far from a Domestic Goddess…but I think I have a few years to get that under control :)

If you’re interested in the toilet-repair dramas, laundry-induced meltdowns, or sour milk shenanigans of a young girl conquering the world one toilet at a time, stay tuned!

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Welcome to our new writers!

Filed under: Who are the Moxie Girls? — OMG - The Original Moxie Girl @ 5:15 am

Attention world! I would like to introduce you to our newest voices of Moxie Girl. World, meet Beth and Sylvia. Beth and Sylvia, meet the world.

Sylvia - The Princess of Clean

Sylvia is no stranger to keeping house. Moxie Girl would actually like to take this opportunity to thank Sylvia’s mother for making her clean the house so much as a child. Seriously, Sylvia’s Mom, THANK YOU. We have seen Sylvia attack moldy showers and crusty toilets like no other Moxie Girl before her. She is fearless and tenacious when it comes to removing grime from homes, and we are excited for her to share her wisdom with our readers.

Beth - the Domestically Curious Moxie

Beth will be bringing another point of view to our blog. Living on her own for the first time, Beth could be described as our Domestically Curious Moxie Girl. We admit, she’s our entertainment right now. We hover around her like a bunch of momma birds teaching a baby bird to fly. We see the potential, and are excited for her to develop her own style in keeping homes elegantly organized. In the meantime, we may laugh at her mistakes (like learning the hard way that, when living alone, milk may go bad before it gets finished…), but we hope that her experiences can help us all become better domestic divas!

We look forward to bringing these new voices to the Moxie Girl team. As always, we welcome your questions, comments, and your forwarding our information to your domestic diva and domestically challenged friends!

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