Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan31

This Week on Pinterest

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My love for Pinterest spans back quite a ways now. Recipes, decorating ideas, projects for kids, DIY ideas, signs, the list of things could go on and on. It definitely plays to the creative side of me.

Here are a few of my favorites this week:

Decorating ideas for our kitchen- I love the table and light fixture
Love these for a boys birthday party! (If you’re in the NC area, check out The Party Booth at partybooth.info for party booth rentals!)

Life sized Operation game to teach the Armor of God

 

Color scheme for the nursery...sort of

 

bananas foster french toast, get in my belly!

 

 
Jan29

Falling behind

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We all do it. It happens to all of us. We plan some goals and WHAM! life happens and throws you off course. That is the tale of the past week. I didn’t get half the things I wanted to accomplish finished. Part of me feels like dirt for not being successful, but the other part of me realizes that life does happen, and to get up, dust myself off, and try again this week. On Saturday, we did manage to get both cars washed, our taxes filed, and take a three mile walk. At least the week ended on a good note.

The month of February is going to be a little more time constrained as I’ll be working longer days a number of times, and working a few more days as well. There are things that HAVE to get accomplished. So for this coming week, I have to focus 100% on getting through things, even if I don’t want to! And there are likely to be more than 10 things to do!

Mini goals for 1/29 through 2/4

Household organization-

(1) Organize tool box and box of tools (yes, they are two different things)

(2) Clean and reorganize master bathroom

(3) Reorganize linen closet – This project was started, but put on hold for another week or two. I finally found reasonably priced baskets that I like, and hope to purchase them over the next few weeks, once the store has them in stock! But…I did manage to get a sketch/outline of my exact plan, so I consider myself pretty successful!

Nursery-

(4) Clean carpet (a big shout out to my friend Jennifer for loaning me her carpet cleaner!)

(5) Order closet components

(6) Have furniture delivered, or contact company to set up a time for delivery

Reading list-

(7) Read Natural Hospital Birth - Started the book and I’m about halfway finished. There wasn’t a great deal of extra time to read this week! And reading before going to sleep at night was pretty pointless for me.

(8) Decide on next book to start reading

Gym/Health-

(9) Workout at least twice this week Was able to walk with my friend Rebekah one day, went to the gym once, and walked with Joe once. 3 times this week!

(10) Drink 4 glasses of water at least 4 days during the week, abstain from chocolate, abstain from surgary foods, limit white carb intake to a minimum

Life in general-

(11)  Continue to limit personal internet time to no more  than 1 1/2 hours per day (M-F).

Studying God’s word-

(12) Read weekly chapter for church each day

(13) Read Bible with Joe 3 nights during the week

Preparing for birth-

(14) Work on breathing, relaxation, and visualization- 3 days, 25 minutes

I do feel as though I’ve accomplished a number of things so far this year. The word I’ve tried to keep focused on is “Intentional”. I’m trying to make the things I do and the way I utilize my time be intentional. Its worked a lot more than I thought it would, but would love to be more intentional with everything I do.

The television has stayed off almost the entire month unless Joe and I are actively watching it together. If he’s not home, I’ve been finding other things to occupy myself with. Since I feel I’m able to do this without having to remind myself of make it a priority, I’m no longer going to put in on my weekly goals list…unless of course I find myself slipping back into the habit. I’ve also read more this month than I did all of last year. I’m making it a priority to read at least most days during the week. My Kindle has definitely helped with that!

Reducing the amount of clutter in the house, doing a deep clean, and complete reorganization is also going fairly well, but would love for it to go even better over the next two months.

Jan25

Mile Markers- 24 weeks

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How far along? 24 weeks, which is a huge marker in my brain. This means Baby L is now a viable baby. We want him to stay inside, growing each and every day for the next 16 or so weeks though!

How big is baby? He’s the length of an ear of corn, weighing a little over one pound.

Best moment recently? More movement. He loves music, so typically when he’s moving a bunch, there is music on!

Name? George. Curious George.

What I’m looking forward to most? We ordered all the furniture last week, so I’m really looking forward to getting it here and put together! I think then it will feel even more “real”

What I’m reading/how we’re preparing? I’m finishing up Bringing Up Boys by Dr. James Dobson. It’s really an informative book and I’m enjoying it much more than the previous book I read on raising boys.

Other? A lot of people have been asking how I’m feeling. I can honestly say that I’m feeling great and can’t find much of anything to complain about. The Lord faithfully answered years of prayer for a child and for that, I am thankful and blessed. They say you eat for two when you’re pregnant, which I don’t feel is accurate. Its more like you pee for two. So sure, I could complain about having to get up two, three, and sometimes four times during the night to go to the bathroom, but if that’s what it takes, bring it on!  I would rather get up countless times and have a baby in my arms in a few months than to not be able to experience this journey!

I’m also fully into nesting mode. We’ve hired a painter to finish painting the foyer, stairwell, and downstairs. I’m ordering a new closet system for the baby next week (so he’ll be able to hang things up himself!). The carpet in the nursery will be cleaned next week too (thanks to my friend Jennifer for loaning me her carpet cleaner!). Our room is almost cleaned up/out so that when the baby comes home, we will be able to set up a pack-n-play in there for the first few weeks.

Two weeks from today is the dreaded glucose test. I/we would greatly appreciate prayers that everything on this will come back clean and I won’t fail it, thus having to take the three-hour test and possibly be diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

Jan24

Meal Planning

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It’s not quite February and I’ve got my meals planned for the entire month! It’s a huge stress reliever for us when I get this accomplished ahead of time. There is nothing that can drive us quickly insane as the back and forth conversation that goes something like this:

Emily: “What do you want to eat for dinner?”

Joe: “I don’t know/care, what do you want?”

Emily: “Doesn’t matter to me. I don’t really care either. There is nothing I really want.”

Joe: “Me either.”

5 minutes later…

Emily: “So what do you want for dinner?”

Joe: “I don’t know/care, what do you want?”

And this can continue on for an hour!

Meal planning isn’t really that hard. Seriously! Grab a notebook and pen and have a seat. Plan on at least an hour or so, but if you’re time constrained, you can easily break this up into smaller segments. Take a few factors into consideration when you’re planning. Here are a few things I have to consider:

  • Sunday dinners have to be simple. We spend a lot of time at church, so there isn’t a ton of prep or cooking time.
  • We go to the gym two nights during the week. We need meals to accommodate our time constrains (crockpot dinners work well for these days)
  • Meetings, on call nights, dinner engagements, etc- Joe has at least one meeting each month where he isn’t home for dinner, so I don’t have to worry about cooking.
  • Relief from cooking- I give myself a few nights a month (avg 1 night a week) where I don’t have a plan. Lets be real, even as much as I enjoy cooking, I also like the break!
  • I need something new! I try to plan at least one or two new recipes each month. Sometimes they are complete failures, sometimes we get keepers! If they are failures, I don’t beat myself up over it. Live, learn, and try again!

For the month of February, I have planned 25 nights worth of dinner even though there are 29 days. Depending on how your brain functions, you can divide your notebook page into different categories. I have a Sunday night section, a Saturday section, a section if I’m going to have to prepare food for others (church dinner, etc), and then a general section.

I start jotting down meals that I cook on a regular/semi-regular basis. Meals like spaghetti and meatballs, which take much more prep work are planned for days/nights I have the time- usually on a Saturday. If I can squeeze two meals out of one, it’s a huge bonus! With spaghetti & meatballs, we can do meatball subs the next night. Perfect! That is super simple to throw together on a Sunday evening.

In my general section, I make sure to have a number of simple meals for those nights we don’t have a ton of extra time. Dinners like tacos, chili, or crockpot meals work beautifully. Crockpot meals can be simple to elaborate in prep. A few things we enjoy are chicken and rice, beef stew, bbq, and chicken & dumplings.

I have my list of 25 different meals. Once February starts up, I’ll actually write what meals are on what day in my planner. Things are always coming up and until a specific week is upon us, I cannot commit to certain meals on certain nights.

A few benefits of meal planning-

  • Sanity! Save the daily stress of having to figure out what you want for dinner.
  • Fewer trips to the grocery store = more time. If I haven’t planned my weekly meals well, I end up at the store more times than I want.
  • Quicker shopping trips. When you have your meals planned out, you can create a shopping list, so you don’t have to go up and down aisles, wandering around trying to figure things out.
  • Opportunity to save more money. If you’re only buying whats on your list, you won’t be spending excess money on extra items. If you’re not running to the grocery store every other day, you’re saving gas money. If you take your master list and try to pick meals for the week based on sale items, items you have coupons for, and items you have already, you’ll end up saving money!

Start small if you want. Lets say by Friday night of this week, have next weeks menu ready to go along with your grocery list (don’t forget to add the other necessities such as breakfast, lunch and household items). On Saturday or Sunday, head to the store with your list in hand. Commit to only purchasing what you have on the paper. Over the course of the next week, stick to your menu plan as much as possible, even if it requires swapping two nights. I promise, not having to figure things out at the last-minute is totally worth this time and effort you put forth early on.

Oh, a few last tips-

  • If you have a random ingredient that you won’t use very often, try to plan at least two meals that week that will use that ingredient. For example, with my jerk chicken tacos, I need cilantro. I love fresh cilantro, but don’t need as much as comes in a bundle. We have another recipe for healthy nachos that uses cilantro. I’ll plan those two items within the same week so that my cilantro doesn’t get wasted…or less of it gets wasted.
  • If you’re preparing two items during a week that call for ground beef, check the prices on the 1lb and the 2lb packages of ground beef. Sometimes I’ve found it much cheaper to buy the two pound and split it. And you can always freeze the second pound if you won’t need it until the following week.
  • If you find ground beef, chicken breasts, etc on sale for really cheap, stock up! When Harris Teeter puts chicken breasts on sale Buy One, Get Two free, I always buy lots! Then I’ll divide them up into smaller portion bags and throw them in the freezer. Most meals, Joe and I can get away with 1 1/2 chicken breasts. One package of three will serve us two meals. This is a time saver and a money saver!
Jan22

Almost There

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Well I wouldn’t completely call this past week a bust, but I didn’t finish everything I had set out to do. Today marks the start of a new week, and a new set of goals. And while the only thing on my goal list from last week that I did not accomplish was getting to the gym Thursday, I still had a few mini goals in my notebook that I wanted to get accomplished. I’m not going to beat myself up though! I did make a number of phone calls, planned a few things, ran a number of errands, did some weekly cleaning, managed to get my menu planned for this week without begging Joe to come up with ideas because I was fresh out, make a master “to do” list, and get the Christmas tree back to the attic (its been bagged for weeks, we’ve just not taken it up there).

I also managed to throw a new green towel in with a white load of clothes, thus turning many many things green. I spent a good chunk of the week trying to get the green out of things. Even with bleach, I think one shirt may have bit the dust.

Mini goals for January 22-28

Nursery-

(1) Find (and hopefully order) a light fixture for the fan

Preparing for natural birth-

(2) Continue relaxation and exercises, 4 days for 25 minutes. This week really make visualization a priority. I only managed to get two quality days in this week.

Decluttering-

(3) Attack the master bedroom & closet

(4) Organize the tool box (crazy, I realize this)

Reading list-

(5) Finish reading Bringing Up Boys and start reading Loving the Little Years

Project list-

(6) Continue looking for curtains or curtain fabric for both the bonus room and the nursery I’ve looked at countless stores, both in person and online, for curtains or fabric to make curtains. I’ve narrowed down a few possibilities, but quite honestly, nothing has made me say “WOW” yet! Or at least nothing in my price range has made me feel that way. I will never purchase fabric that costs $25-50 per yard.  I still have two or three months to get this accomplished, but no time like the present to get started.

God’s Word-

(7) Continue reading weekly chapter for church, read Bible with Joe 3 nights this week

Gym/Health-

(8) Go to the gym Tuesday and Thursday. Thursday failed to happen because of extreme nerve pain in my leg. I couldn’t make up the time before the end of the week. However, Joe and I did manage to take a 3 mile walk on Saturday, so I guess it can make up for the lost time at the gym!

(9) Continue drinking 4 glasses of water per day (M-F), eat no chocolate this week and eat no sugary foods. Total failure this week on all of it. I took about two bites of a chocolate chip cookie one day before Joe commented and it dawned on me that I swore of chocolate until after my glucose test. Friday night we had dinner out with friends. The restaurant we went to (a fav of ours) was serving chocolate creme brulee. Considering that is something I’ve never had or seen on a menu, I splurged and I don’t really regret it. I didn’t get all of my water in on Thursday, but the others days were fine.

Life in General-

(10) Make dinner menu for the first half of February

(11) Continue to keep tv turned off unless I’m actively watching it, and continue to limit personal/free internet time to 1 1/2 hour Monday through Friday. Most days I limited myself, but still not like I wish I could/would. I spent too much time searching for recipes, looking for curtains and/or fabric, and searching for a light fixture.

Jan18

Do You Dream?

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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to finish Quitter by Jon Acuff, which I’ve wanted to read since it came out last May. For those of you not familiar with Acuff, he runs the website Stuff Christians Like. I’ve also read his book Stuff Christians Like (high recommend it for a good laugh). Quitter is a book for everyone who dreams of one day having their dream job, whether that job is as a published author, working in a restaurant, or staying at home.

Acuff was a serial job quitter until one day his dream job finally landed in his lap, working for Dave Ramsey’s team. But it took him 12 years to get to that point, and countless sacrifices and lessons learned. For many years he talked with people who, when asked the question “What do you do?”, would answer “I’m a _____, but really want to be a _____.” So many people dream of doing something other than what they’re currently doing. So how do you get there? Sheer luck? Not exactly. 

Pursuing your dream takes sacrifice,  hard work, sweat and tears. Acuff teaches you from first hand experience, that first you need to fall in like with the job you don’t love. He doesn’t tell you to quit your day job, in fact, tries to talk you out of it for the first 90% of the book. Your current job can be the teaching tool you need to catapult you into your dream job. His message can also be a bit convicting. How?

Imagine that one day you want to be your own boss. After your company grew a little, you would hire a few employees and paid them for their service to you. What if you caught your employee spending an hour surfing the internet when clients needed to be taken care of. Would it upset you that your customers were being given top-notch service at the company you struggled hard to build? More than likely you would be. So whats the difference when we do it to our employers? We’re essentially stealing valuable time away. Acuff felt convicted once this dawned on him and he started viewing his day job as his own company, and started treating it as so. He went from someone who didn’t care to someone who started working really hard at what he did. This was so that when the day he landed his dream job as a full-time author/speaker, he would treat his job and company with more respect.

While Quitter is a very great book on showing you how to fall in like with your day job so that you can fall in love with your dream job, it isn’t a 10 step plan to the perfect job. It’s a very honest approach on how hard, yet rewarding, it can be to pursue your dreams. You’ll also get a few laughs thrown in, thanks to Acuff’s humor.

This book to everyone who wonders if they’re in the right field or contemplates what it would be like to have their dream job. It’s for those graduating school or those that have been in the workforce for 30+ years.

~Emily~

Jan16

Accomplishing things feels good!

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How are your goals going for 2012? I’ve noticed that some people must be sliding backwards. How am I arriving at this conclusion? The gym is emptying out in the evenings! We have more machines to choose from, no need to walk the track because there are no cardio machines. Just remember – it’s never to late to start making goals for this year or to get back on track with the ones you wanted to accomplish! Start with bite sized pieces so the goals don’t seem too overwhelming! Commit to working toward those small goals for a week or two. If you can accomplish those, add another week on…and then another!

I was able to accomplish almost everything on my goals list from last week! The only time I felt overwhelmed was when I couldn’t get the rust (?) off the iron soleplate and ended up having to order special cleaner for my iron (Goggle couldn’t even help me with a home remedy). It took a couple of days to get the cleaner shipped (thankful for 2 day free shipping from Amazon!) before I could get to ironing all the linens!

Turning the tv has been such a blessing in so many ways! Even though I was never really “watching” tv, but more or less using it for background noise, apparently it has caused me to easily get distracted. Much more so than I ever realized! Keeping the tv off was no big challenge. However, the quiet was oddly eye-opening. Having more silence has caused me to focus more on the things I need to accomplish. I think that it partially contributed to me being able to accomplish all that I wanted to! I even managed to make reservations for Joe and I to celebrate Valentine’s Day, add newly approved recipes to my recipe book, and we purchased the baby’s mattress and ordered the crib & dresser this week…none of which were originally on the list to accomplish!

Now its a new week, and time to set new mini-goals for the days ahead!

Mini Goals for January 16-21

Gym & Health -

(1) Go to the gym Thursday and Friday I was a slacker on Thursday. I had so many other things going on, and I failed. Will definitely do better next week!

(2) Eat NO chocolate this week!!! This was tough, thanks to my sister who brought me a big bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups last weekend. But I managed!

(3) Drink 4 glasses of water each day This is only hard on days I’m working. Other days its been fairly easy. However, I spend a lot more time running to the bathroom now!

Put together a nursery -

(4) Clean floors

Preparing for birth -

(5) Practice relaxation techniques & exercises 4 days, 25 minutes

Decluttering -

(6) Overhaul sewing room

Studying God’s Word more -

(7) Continue reading weekly chapter for church, as well as read through the Bible at least 3 nights with Joe

Stocking freezer meals for after birth -

(8) Begin researching meals, start making a plan

Reading list -

(9) Finish reading Crazy Love and Quitter, start new book if time permits (started Bringing Up Boys by Dr. Dobson)

Life in general -

(10) Keep computer turned off except for one hour and a half each day, Monday – Friday (this includes checking email and Facebook on my phone). This is in addition to keeping the tv off if not actively watching. The 1 1/2 hour goal on the computer was a little tougher some days since I wanted to do a lot of research on freezer meals, collect recipes and start making a plan. However, on the days I went over my time limit, I “borrowed” from other days. Over all, I didn’t spend nearly as much time on the internet as I have recently. The tv has remained off too. I’m hoping to continue this as a way of life, especially once Baby L gets here!

(11) Get price quotes on new windows for nursery and painting remainder of foyer/stairwell Apparently its not going to be as simple as I hoped to replace one or two windows. *sigh* Now on to trying to find someone who can do it! But Praise the Lord for a really nice painter that we go to church with! My walls will be finished in February or March! Hooray!

Jan14

Mmm, Mmm Good!

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Do you need some new recipes to add into your rotation? I cooked two new things this past week, both of which are keepers! I originally found both on Pinterest, and have made slight modifications to one of them.

 

Crockpot chicken and dumplings-

The modifications I made are as follows:

-I only used 4 chicken breasts, and that seemed more than enough! In fact, I think 3 would be fine!

-For the cream of chicken soup, I used Campbell’s Cream of Chicken with Herbs to give more flavor

- I had an extra can of chicken broth on hand and used some to thin my mixture out since it was pretty thick towards the end of the initial cooking time.

-I used 5 biscuits, not 4. The ratio of chicken to dumplings was a little off. If you stick with the original amount of chicken breasts, I would go so far as to add a few extra biscuits/dumplings.

-I stirred in a small amount of fresh cracked black pepper in after I put the dumpling in to cook, just for a little added flavor.

-Along with the author of the blog, I cooked my dumplings for an hour, not the original 30 minutes.

 

Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup –  

The modifications I made are as follows:

-I used Italian chicken sausage because that’s what I prefer, and I know exactly where it is in the grocery store

-I only used 1/2 an onion

I passed this recipe along to my friend Melissa, who mentioned that they wouldn’t be able to use the cheese tortellini because of a lactose allergy. She mentioned try a spinach tortellini or meat. I bet the spinach tortellini would be excellent with it!

Jan13

5 Years Ago

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It all started five years ago today when we met for lunch

The waiter (maybe it was a waitress) had to come back multiple times to take our order because we couldn’t stop talking long enough to decide what to eat. We continued to talk when the food came, so much so that we were eating cold food along the way. We kept talking. Eventually though, we had to leave Chili’s.

But we didn’t want things to end there. So we drove across the parking lot to the mall. We walked around the mall twice talking and talking and talking.

It was a beautiful January day, so we decided that maybe we should do something else. We decided on mini golf.

We drove the few miles to Adventure Landing, paid for a round of golf and started to play…and talk some more. The only problem I had was that my purse kept getting in the way. He offered to hold it when it was my turn. At that moment, I knew it was true love. Why? Because my purse was BRIGHT pink!

After our round of mini golf, we still couldn’t stop talking, so we purchased a few drinks and sat outside at a table and talked for probably another half hour to hour. By that time, it was getting a little late and we both had things that needed to be accomplished. We said our goodbyes and agreed to talk soon.

I called someone in my family and told them I had met the man I was going to marry. (It probably took him a bit longer to come to that conclusion)

What started out as just lunch has now become an amazing marriage to my very best friend in the whole world. God has blessed me beyond measure! Maybe I should say that God has blessed us beyond measure.

*If you don’t know the first part of our story though, I should share that too… Back in 2006 I was working nights, which made it difficult to meet people. Joe had recently moved to the area and didn’t really know anyone. eHarmony was how we met. But the crazy thing is- I was working in a hospital where Joe would do his rounds. I worked nights, he was there in the mornings. Opposite times, and opposite ends of the building. The office he was primarily working in at the time was across the street from the hospital. We were always so close, but would have never met otherwise.

We first started communicating through eHarmony the week before Thanksgiving. I was “attracted” to the fact that 1) he was wearing a Dr. Seuss tie in his profile picture and 2) the answer he gave to one of his questions was that he wanted someone who would laugh at his jokes even if they weren’t funny. We communicated off and on for the next few weeks. We both had things going on during the holidays. And it was during this limited communication that we both discovered our birthdays fell within two days of each other.

I was SO nervous the first time I talked with him. I called him on my dinner break at work. I was wondering how he would sound, if he was be down to earth or if he would sound very intellectual. But my nerves were quickly calmed! That night we made a plan to meet on January 13th!

Jan11

Mile Markers – 22 weeks

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BAZINGA!

How far along? 22 weeks

How big is baby? the size of a papaya or a spaghetti squash

Sleep? Sleep is fine. I’ve learned to make no sudden jerks and to turn over slowly so it doesn’t feel like my stomach muscles are ripping apart.

Best moment so far? The kicks are definitely the best feeling, even when I’m getting kicked in the bladder. I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now! And of course hearing his heartbeat this afternoon was pretty special!

Names? Baby Papaya. When he is older, and hopefully has kids of his own, he can be called Papa Papaya. Or maybe we’ll name him Sheldon and he can run around saying “BAZINGA!” all the time (we so need to get that onesie!)

What I’m looking forward to most? I’m looking forward to hitting the 24 week mark because that is considered V-Day – viability day. Most women who have dealt with infertility really look to this day as an important mile marker. And it may be crazy, but I’m already looking forward to our 26 week appointment so I can see him again! I’m also looking forward to putting together a nursery!

What I’m reading/how we’re preparing? I just finished Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way and passed it along to Joe. In the next few weeks I’ll start reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.  I’m working on developing relaxation techniques that work best for me and trying to do my Bradley exercises each day.

Other?  This weekend we’ll be emptying out the guest bedroom furniture and then we can officially call it the nursery. Hopefully the next few weeks will bring furniture purchases and closet makeovers!