Blog Posts

Houseplants for your Apartment

It’s a great time to bring some greenery in your apartment. Check out today’s Arrive Eden Prairie Blog post for suggested houseplants that will look great in your space. Have a great month here in Eden Prairie, MN! Snake Plant Able to withstand weeks of neglect, snake plants are one of the most tolerant plants you will find. Even under conditions of neglect, they won’t lose their shape or color. They thrive in environments with very little light and water. If you are new to having plants or worried about forgetting to care for your plants, give one of these a try first. Snake plants also naturally remove toxins from the air. Flowering Maple The beautiful flowering maple blooms in salmon, red, white, or yellow. Keep these plants where they’ll get lots of sunlight. Let them stay outside when it’s warm and indoors as the temperatures drop. Enjoy these pretty blooms in your space! Spider Plant “These tough plants tolerate lots of abuse, making them excellent candidates for newbie gardeners or those without a green thumb. Provide them with well-drained soil and bright, indirect light and they will flourish. Water them well but do not allow the plants to become too soggy, which can lead to root rot.” Learn more at the link above. Peace Lilies A classic houseplant, the Peace Lily is known to be great for living and thriving indoor. Learn to watch for the signs of being thirsty and the signs of overwatering in order to keep it happy. Fertilize the Peace Lily during summer to help it bloom. Chenille Plant We can’t get over how pretty and unique the Chenille plant is. Here’s some information about it: “The foliage of the chenille plant is unremarkable, but whoa, those fuzzy red flowers! The anatomy of the flower itself is just a row of pistils, but the fuzzy catkins provide tactile enjoyment for all ages. Flowers can look like plump fuzz balls, eventually turning downright pendulous, with lengths of 18 inches not unheard of.”

An Alternative to Cleaning Products

Welcome back to our Arrive Eden Prairie blog! We recently read over an interesting study about cleaning products. Released by the Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the study revealed some staggering results about the relationship between cleaning and lung function decline. Following over 6,000 individuals over 20 years, the study revealed that people suffered significant health problems after extended or long-term use of cleaning sprays. These health problems deal with lung function decline and the damage could be compared to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for a period of 10 to 20 years. Now, we’re not trying to scare our residents out of cleaning their apartments in Eden Prairie, MN. Quite frankly, we hear about things like this all the time. This study did, however, open our thinking about alternative cleaning products that are healthier than what we might usually use on a daily or weekly basis. We found a great article from Greatist that offers some cleaning alternative solutions. Check them out and let us know what you think in the comments below! Baking Soda “Baking soda is a pantry staple with proven virus-killing abilities that also effectively cleans, deodorizes, brightens, and cuts through grease and grime.” Lemon Juice “Natural lemon juice annihilates mildew and mold, cuts through grease, and shines hard surfaces (It also smells awesome.).” Essential Oils “Essential oils have gained popularity thanks to aromatherapy, but these naturally occurring plant compounds also make great scent additions to homemade cleaning products (particularly if you’re not into the smell of vinegar). Essential oils are generally considered safe, but these extracts can trigger allergies—so keep this in mind when choosing scents.” Disinfectant “Skip the bleach and make a homemade germ-killer instead. Just mix 2 cups of water, 3 tablespoons of liquid soap, and 20-30 drops of tea tree oil.” Thanks for reading. We hope you have a great month in your Arrive Eden Prairie apartment.

Delicious Recipes. Take Your Pick

This month, get reacquainted with your apartment kitchen in Arrive Eden Prairie. We’ve got a selection of delicious recipes, like watermelon soup, a peach omelet, and something filled with a healthy serving of chocolate and raspberry. Don’t miss out on making April a month to remember in Eden Prairie, MN. Your apartment just got a little better and more flavorful. Enjoy! These recipes and their descriptions come from Allrecipes.com. Peach Omelet "This omelet smells and tastes great. My friends beg me to fix it after I've bought a basket of peaches at the farmer's market." Watermelon Soup "What could be better on a hot summer day than a cool soup made with fresh watermelon and mint?" Okay, it’s not quite summer yet… but who cares? This looks incredible! Catfish Cakes "If you like Maryland Crab Cakes you'll love these. Plus, catfish is cheaper than crabmeat." Mustard Chicken "Chicken breasts coated with mustard and French fried onions, then baked. So simple, so 'magnifique'! You can vary the type of mustard to get different flavors. This goes great with rice or potatoes." Chocolate Raspberry Cloud "This pie won First Place in the Pie for the New Millennium Category at the American Pie Council's 2000 National Pie Championship. Emily chose this recipe because it is quick, easy, and impressive for special occasions, just right for the busy lifestyles of the new millennium. To make this recipe even quicker, use a store bought chocolate cookie crust. When ready to serve, drizzle raspberry syrup on each plate." Spumoni Chocolate Chip Cookies "This is an Italian-inspired twist on an American tradition. My family loves spumoni ice cream, so I decided I'd try to alter my chocolate chip recipe to fancy them. In this creation, cherries and pistachios liven up already delicious chocolate chip cookies." Have any of your own favorite recipes? Let us know your favorites in the comments below!

Read a Book

It’s easy to get bogged down by all of life’s stresses and drama. That’s why we’re inviting residents of our Arrive Eden Prairie apartment community to sit back and pick up a book this month. Head to your local library here in Eden Prairie, MN for a good read this month. You can check out one of our recommendations in today’s post or ask your local librarian for a recommendation. Goodreads is also a great resource for reviews and book recommendations. Light in August by William Faulkner “Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, enigmatic drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry.” A Farewell to Arms: The Hemingway Library Edition by Ernest Hemingway “Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, [semi-autobiographical] work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.” The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas “Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration.” What’s your favorite book? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Magical Life Lessons from Harry Potter

If you’ve read the famous Harry Potter book series, then you’re aware of the many spells and enchantments used by witches and wizards. Some spells like Scourgify (which is used to clean something), Reparo (used to repair broken or damaged objects), Lumos (used to turn the tip of a witch’s or wizard’s wand into a flashlight), and Alohomora (used to unlock most doors) sound like they can make life in Eden Prairie, MN even better than it already is. But unfortunately for us, we don’t all have access to a magic wand that can clean up something with a simple wave of our hand. In addition to introducing us to a world of magical spells, enchantments, and creatures, Harry Potter touched on a lot of ideas and themes we can learn from. Even though Arrive Eden Prairie is no Hogwarts, you can still benefit from a few of these life lessons that are downright magical. Don’t believe everything you read. 2017 is infamous for so much drama concerning fake news. This year, move forward with the intention to not instantly believe something the moment you read it. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter is marked as Undesirable No. 1 , “a criminally-wanted wizard by the Ministry of Magic.” Let’s just say that many wizards and witches believed the rumors floating around and thought Harry was a threat when in reality he was not at fault for the claims against him. Take courage in both easy and difficult situations. One of our favorite lines from the Harry Potter books is spoken by Albus Dumbledore: “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” There may be times in life when your close friends make decisions that might be harmful to both you and them. This year, have the courage to stand up and be that friend who says something that needs to be said. It can be easy to stand with those we are close to, but a true measure of courage can be seen when you might just have to stand alone. What you want most is often on the other side of fear. Ron Weasley faced his fears in the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in order to get information that he needed. And no, this was not an easy task — who on earth would want to walk through a dark forest while spiders the size of trash can lids surrounded you by the hundreds, if not thousands? Sometimes in life, we’d prefer to stay in our apartments, drink hot cocoa, and listen to music rather than face the world. But life always has a way of throwing curve balls at us, requiring us to pop our bubbles for reasons we might not expect. When situations arise when you are afraid, smile knowing that what you want or need is often past those few steps of fear. As said in the 2011 movie We Bought A Zoo , “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.” We hope that these few life lessons bring a spark of magic into your life as you move forward in 2018. Sure, you might not have a magic wand to cast cool spells, but your apartment here is much better than living in a broom cupboard. And you can take that to the bank (unfortunately, not Gringotts!).

Write All About It

This month, we’re highlighting the benefits of writing every day. Writing might be the last thing you want to do — it can be hard to find the time, it’s not always exciting, and you’d probably rather be doing other things — but writing has surprising benefits. We’ll go over a few of those benefits and a few apps to help you start writing in your Arrive Eden Prairie apartment. Writing in a journal has many benefits. The University of Rochester Medical Center has a list of the emotional benefits of daily writing. According to the University of Rochester, writing daily can help you manage your emotions and deal with mental stress. Writing is also useful in “helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns.” Writing has many more benefits. It’s an easy way to keep track of your goals, remember your dreams, and change bad habits. Lifehacker says that writing can help you “harness your creativity.” Problem is, you might not know where to start. Choose a topic and begin to write about it in a journal or a word document without judgment. Just letting the words flow, is an easy way to get past your writer’s block and let yourself get to what you really want to say. Of course, just keeping a record of your life can be important and rewarding. In the Atlantic article “The Value of Remembering Ordinary Moments” Cody C. Delistraty writes that “...the moments that tend to be the most meaningful are rarely the ones we expect.” Remember to record your memories before you forget them. Apps are an easy way to keep a journal. The Lifestream Blog has a whole list of journaling apps to help you get started. We think that the Penzu app and the Day One app sound like great options for beginning journalers. Do you keep a journal or have any journaling tips for us? Are you looking forward to any events in Eden Prairie, MN this month? Leave us a comment, and let us know.