Friday, January 31, 2014

January RAK & Giving Back | Linked

I told my Mom I wasn't sure what I was going to write about this time. We haven't been in a financial state to necessarily "do" RAKs. Shoot, I've barely have enough in the house until today to round out our own meals let alone baking something for neighbors, etc... so this might be pretty short.

Some nice things we've been able to do:
1. Exchange daycare while I'm at school for providing daycare so my friend can hit the gym.
(She got an AMAZING deal on her membership, we can't let that go to waste, can we?)

2. Helped friends of ours control the chaos at their son's "at home" birthday party.
(Let's face it, having eleven 6- & 7-year olds running around your house with Nerf guns is enough to make anyone question their sanity; so we were happy they asked us to hang around & help out.)

3. My husband accompanied his brother to the emergency room earlier last week.
(Long story short- 19yo not driving for the conditions swerves & rear-ends him. Whiplash.)

4. After one of the snow storms earlier this month, my husband helped one of the neighbors that was stuck in their own driveway shovel one car out & then loaned them one of our shovels so they could finish their driveway.
(Yeah, let's just say that won't be happening again. You live in the Midwest yet you don't even own a shovel, or a pair of gloves for that matter? And then when a neighbor helps you & loans you the equipment, you don't even bother to finish your driveway or sidewalks? Yeah, no. You can stay stuck next time. [Yes, I know that's not very nice, but I don't tolerate feeling "used" too well... but that's a topic for a whole other blog.])

Some nice things we've been blessed with:
1. Unfailing friendship from Heather & RJ.
2. Continued opportunities to bond & grow closer to our new friends Shannon & Chris.
3. Reconnecting with & finding new connections with our old re-enacting friend Jenny.
4. Reacquiring our friend Shanna back into the gaming fold. (Hopefully before she moves in May, we'll have her so addicted that she'll Skype in every weekend she's available & bring Beth with her!)

For more ideas on random acts of kindness, you can view my Mom's blog at: The D's and the Dogs 
and Melissa's blog at: Growing Like Weeds.

Friday, January 24, 2014

No Longer My Baby


Do you see this?

"No, what am I suppose to be seeing?"

Here's a close up... take a good look... what do you see?


Now...?
Nothing. The answer is a "nothing".
This is an empty space much like many others. So what's so special about this empty space?
Only moments before I took these pictures, this space was occupied by an item that's been a part of our family for almost seven years.
A crib.

In a way, this empty space signifies an ending of an era; the ending of a significant stage in our lives. The boy used the crib from day one and only fell out twice when we converted it to a toddler bed after moving into our house. He moved into his "big boy" twin bed the Christmas before the baby arrived, at which time she laid claim to the crib. She used the crib up until last October, when she decided it was no longer good enough for her and she moved herself into her twin bed. The crib has remained in her room ever since, unoccupied.
While we've decided we're done consciously attempting to add little ones to our family, banishing the crib to the basement made it feel so... well, final.

I find some consolation in the idea that in a few months the crib will gain new life as we are gifting it to family members.

The realization that my baby is no longer that is a difficult pill to swallow. As we approach her 3rd birthday with the boy's 7th birthday just a couple weeks after, I'm finding the necessity to accept my baby is now my "little girl" more and more unavoidable. Some days she flat-out surprises me with the complexity and maturity of things she says and does.

So while the absence of the crib has created an empty space, I'm enjoying the prospect of playtime, adventures and imaginative creativity that will occupy this space in the years to come.
And I know that no matter how big she may grow and how mature she may be...
She will always be my baby girl.


Sunday, January 19, 2014

Details, details...

I apologize.
It's not often I write a rant for a blog, but I just have to do this... so please- buckle up & hold on!
Have you ever found yourself on a page or reading a physical article that looked to be highly promising only to end up disappointed by the lack of care the author put into the little details of their blog or article?  
What little details?
Spelling and grammar.

I don't know about you, but when someone doesn't care enough to take the time to spell words correctly or to use proper grammar, it's difficult for me to take them seriously. I'm talking when I expect a bit of professionalism.

I find it hard to justify my heeding the author's advice, taking their challenge, trying their idea or sharing their thoughts if they can't be bothered to make sure their article or blog is polished before publication.

I'm very entertained by George Takei on Facebook and his posts and comments about grammar and spelling. I'm amazed at the number of people who end up looking foolish trying to justify excessive misspellings and horrendous grammar.  Don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of auto-correct mishaps, but I go back to edit and correct the error, because I know better! Most people write/type how they speak because this is how the brain works; but I find it extremely hard to think highly of someone who can't differentiate between:
through, thru and threw
their, they're and there
your and you're
know and no
...
...there's a number of others I've seen in excess the past few weeks.  But the final straw came today as I was reading a blog trying to give people budget advice. The blogger starts with an "ad" for people to follow their Facebook page that "over 25,000" already like. The author then goes into the main point, excluding a multitude of helpful information. About halfway through the article, the author misspells three words in a two-sentence span. Not only had they not gone back to correct the error, but the fact that the misspellings were so blatantly obvious (examples listed above) made it clear to me that the blogger just didn't care. It really made me feel like the blogger had their "high traffic volume" and was only trying to build a larger following, so they didn't feel the need to keep up with a semi-professional standard of actually reviewing the post. It was abundantly clear where their priorities sat.

I understand that blogs are peoples way to get ideas out there, that very few who blog are professional writers, that not everyone has had the same level of education, and most certainly not a great number of people find pride in the attention to this kind of detail to even care that these errors can discredit a writer's reputation... but really? Having that many regular readers, how do people not feel the need to take their blogging to the next level of casual professionalism? I find it disappointing and disrespectful that people who have such a large following and are peddling advice don't have the common sense to even edit their posts before clicking the "publish" button, or to go back and review their posts for that matter.
Is it seriously all about people getting their fifteen minutes of fame and not caring about reputation?
What ever happened to taking pride in one's work?
What ever happened to doing a job right?

Now for a bit of humor...

If you've made it here, to the end, I appreciate you letting me get this off my chest.
I have a very small following... but I truly appreciate all five of you. (haha)
Every now and then we need to put things out there that really bother us, even if we know no one (or very few) will read them, so we don't have to think about them anymore.
Thanks!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Goals | Linked

That's right- GOALS, NOT "resolutions"!
Personally, I can not stand the phrase "making a resolution". Why?
There are such negative connotations with the word. For example:
In a few months when momentum has subsided, will power gone by the wayside, life has gotten in the way and you have nothing to show for your "resolution", what does that say? That you lost resolve? That you failed? That you're a wimp who couldn't hack it?
No thank you- I am NOT a loser!

I love goals! Goals are specific, attainable and most importantly- goals can be modified and adjusted! If you don't happen to fulfill your goal, you did not lose, "wimp out", or fail. You simply take stock of where you are currently at, congratulate yourself on the progress you've made thus-far, reevaluate your goal, and then revamp and restate it accordingly.
If you want more info on better ways to set goals, check out this blog post by Jordan at "Fun, Cheap or Free"- I absolutely LOVE her blog. (If you're not a subscriber to her blog, you should be!)

So, to get this party started, I made some goals for myself and my family for this year- and let me tell you, these are SO much better than any "plan" or "resolution" we've made in past years!

1. Obtain a more finite handle on finances. 
While my husband gets paid every other week, I get paid 3 times a year... when spring financial aid hits, when the tax returns come in, and when fall financial aid posts. (Ok, so it's not really getting paid, but you get the idea of where we're at right now.)
Instead of being ruled by, and playing the "we just have to get by until financial aid comes in" game, we're taking charge and using tools like Mint.com and dividing up finances into several accounts instead of the single account we currently use. Again, I can thank Jordan for these tidbits. You can read more about Jordan's "multiple account method" here.

2. Complete the "Christmas Savings" Challenge.
We originally started the year off doing the "52 Week Challenge", but let's face it, there will come a time when the weekly amount gets to be too much for us to take out of our budget & set aside. The regular weekly savings is a much more consistent and attainable method for us.
(If you'd like to take the challenge, you can find great info here at the Creative Savings blog.)

3. Treat myself better.
No, this is not committing to a fad or insanity diet or spending hours upon hours at the gym.
Being a full-time nursing student with two kids, a husband, a dog and a house to take care of means...
(In case you missed it, this lady gained immediate fame for her statement in 2012 after evacuating her apartment during a fire. Story here.)
Back to the goal... this simply means taking time to be better about food and portions (a subject in which my talents grew drastically the last few months of 2013), finding time to move around other than being on my feet non-stop during clinical days, spending more time playing/rough-housing with the kids (because we all love the chaos and insanity that ensues from physical play) and last, but not least, and certainly the most important by far... stop being so darn mean to myself! For Pete's sake!- Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 and she was sexy! Why the heck do I need to be stick-thin, no curves, make-up caked and starving to be attractive? What a load of bologna!
My husband thinks I'm sexy and I know who he comes home to each night. As long as I'm trying to be better for my health, that's good enough... for now.

4. Find humor in the little things.
This was something I was working on the last few months of 2013 as well.  Evidence? Didn't you see what I did in goal #3? I can see the look on your face right now...

Or you're doing this...

Anywho... enough of that.

5. Continue busting my hump in school. (Do I really have to define this one?)

6. Ignore the crap people do that I have no control over.  They want to treat me second-class, judge me or exclude me while they do for everyone BUT me when they don't know who I am or what's going on in my life... they can go ahead and waste their energy. I have better things to spend myself on.

And finally... #7
IF I HEAR A FAMILIAR METAL GRINDING SOUND ACCOMPANIED BY THE APPEARANCE OF POLICE BOX AND A MAN WITH A SONIC SCREWDRIVER STEPS OUT, I'M OUTTA HERE! (...with the contingency that when we're done traveling through out all space and time, he returns me to exactly 1 minute after I left so as to not disrupt my current timeline.)



That's right... if you don't know what a fan I am, then you don't know me well at all and you REALLY need to educate yourself on wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey stuff here.

For more ideas on goals, you can view my Mom's blog at: The D's and the Dogs 
and Melissa's blog at: Growing Like Weeds.

Happy New Year!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

"Crappy" Baking Tutorial

Tuesday night Brian informs me that he signed up to bring dessert for their pot luck Friday.
Thanks for the notice.

He wants to take my Keebler Cookie Salad; of course he wants to take the one dish I have absolutely NOTHING in the house to make.
How about some cupcakes? I have everything I need to make those. (uh huh, sure you do!)

I decided to make salted caramel cupcakes and devil's food cupcakes topped with cookie dough frosting. You can find links for the recipes for both here.
This is where the fun began.

I begin making the salted caramel cupcakes. I always cream the butter, add brown sugar, then all of the liquid ingredients, then all of the dry.  I get to the bottom of my liquid list... CRAP! I don't have buttermilk!
Quickly look up buttermilk substitutes and congratulate myself on having plain vanilla yogurt and milk to make an acceptable substitute.
Complete recipe, dig out pans... CRAP! Do I have enough cupcake papers?
Wheew- 1 (and only 1) package in the cabinet.
Load up two pans and throw them in the oven. Start the chocolate cupcakes. Measure, dump, mix... "this looks really dark, and smells really rich... what did I do?"
CRAP!- I neglected the prime ingredient in any good devil's food recipe- sour cream!
Dig out the sour cream and add it to the bowl... much better!
Prep & load pans, finish just as the timer for the caramel batch sounds.
Switch out pans and let caramel cupcakes cool as I start mixing the frosting.  As the butter is creaming, I dig out my container of powdered sugar. 
Wait, how much does it say I need? CRAP- there is NOT 8 cups of powdered sugar in here!
Frantically rummage and find a new bag of powdered sugar.  Woo-hoo, 32 oz!
Simultaneously realize I just used the last of the brown sugar in the container for the cupcakes and I need more for the cookie dough frosting. CRAP!
Rummage round 2. Find 2 new packages of brown sugar- score!
Caramel frosting is made, cupcakes are cool. Time to frost!
CRAP- I don't have any pastry bags!
Attempt to make a bag out of waxed paper, which is a flop. CRAP!
Try using a sandwich baggie with the corner cut, seam busts. Double CRAP!
It's at this point I realize the frosting is holding whatever shape I dump it out of... 
Begin rolling frosting into balls and press onto cupcakes- genius!
Complete caramel cupcakes and take picture just before timer for chocolate cupcakes goes off.
As the chocolate cupcakes cool, I mix the cookie dough frosting.
Remember a second time that I have no pastry bags- CRAP!
Decide to use the "dollop" method. Finish chocolate cupcakes and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Take picture.
Realize I have 24 cupcakes that look nice and professional and 24 cupcakes that look like my almost 3-year old decorated them.
Oh well. It's just for the hubby and the 10 people at their branch... I think these'll do. 
So there you have it: the 9 "CRAP" method of baking.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The HCHC

What's HCHC you ask? It's quite simple really.
"Holy Crap Holiday Clean-up"

Every year at this time we look around and say "boy do we need to go through things".  This thought results in a massive clean-out and organization of practically every square inch of our house. This year's progression into the HCHC was more subconscious than ever before... here's how it happened:

1. Pinterest. Need I say more? Ok, I might, just a bit. I came across a post that gave a daily breakdown for each week of things to do to keep your house clean- super simple and easy to complete- will easily become habits.  I added one or two things to the list and printed it.
You can find the original at the Gaddis Family Adventure blog

  2. This morning I got up and decided that everyone who says they're going to "start it Monday" never does... so I decided to the plunge!  

3. Completed my three morning tasks. Yay!

4. Felt a sudden spur of excitement thinking "since we've been tossing the idea around... how excited would Brian be if he got home & I had the kids dressers switched?!"

5. Needless to say, the boy had yet to perform disaster recovery from the tornado that had clearly struck his room. He was charged with getting all of the "stuff" out from in front of the dresser and out of the path I would need to get it to the door and emptying the drawers.

6. After much pushing, shoving and groaning, I single-handedly had the dressers switched. 
Woo-hoo!
But it didn't stop there...

7. Seeing an opportunity to give the boy even more space to play, I suggested we move his bed before repositioning his toy box back into his room. Motion approved!

8. Now that the bed was moved, we still had that pile of clothes he had taken out of his drawers. *Light bulb clicks on above my head*

9. Taught the boy how to check sizes and had him try on questionable items. 
About halfway through his fashion show I realized it had happened. I had officially initiated our family's "Holy Crap Holiday Clean-up". 
Mental cheer for motivation!

10. "Good" clothes folded and put away in their new home, the boy continued his work on the disaster that was his closet.

11. Lather, rinse, repeat in the baby's room, adding to the donation pile that was steadily growing in the loft.

12. Discovered I had an audience...
 
13. The boy shows off the immaculate work he did in his room. I'm impressed!

14. Vacuum his room.
 
15. Eat lunch.

16. Loaded the kids' "Sacrament Keepsake" boxes with the baptismal and hospital items previously hidden in the "hidden drawer" on each of their dressers.

17. Here's about where we lost steam for the day... with both kids' dressers full, the loft teeming with donation items, and a feeling of accomplishment... the baby decides it's time for her daily "potty training marathon"- meaning we end up "sitting on the potty" 6 times in an hour. *sigh* 

2pm - momentum officially lost.
3pm - after a good long snuggle, the  baby crashes and finally goes down for a nap.
After the baby goes down, I start a load of laundry and empty, reload and run the dishwasher.
4pm - answer emails, check Facebook and peruse Pinterest (it's an addiction, I admit it.)

Brian is "rewarding" us (well, more like the boy for the awesome work he did in his room) with McD's for dinner.

On the docket for tomorrow:
Family room, living room, finishing touches on the kitchen and dining room.
Our reward: dinner at a friend's house.
We can't wait!