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!

"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.

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!

 

Giving Back | Linked

First and foremost, for those of you who are new to my blog: my husband  I have been married 8 years and have 2 wonderful children, a first grader and an almost 3 year old. After working for 15 years, I quit my job in 2012 to put my energy fully into going back to school for my RN- we lost half of our income with this decision, and while it's been challenging and (quite frankly) terrifying, I know we made the best decision for our family and we try to make the best of it as well as we can and count our blessings often.

Another year has come and gone, another set of resolutions unmet. As my regular readers may remember, I was resolved to blogging more in 2013. That resolution gave way to finishing my novel and preparing to enter nursing school.  A few weeks ago I received an email from my Mom and step-sister-in-law, Melissa, about doing linked blogs once a month- I took that as a sign that will help keep me motivated and accountable for actually completing the blogs I want to write.

This month's blog is about giving back.


We are a family of many Christmases, 6 to be exact.  This past weekend my Dad was in town for his Christmas with us. In one of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts we've ever received, he surprised me by taking me to the store where he bought a little over a week's worth of groceries for us. You can only imagine how thrilled I was!

Earlier in the month we were able to spend time visiting my husband's grandmother as she recovered from a hospital stay at a long-term care facility. Not only did Grandma enjoy talking and spending time with my husband and watching our youngest being on the go non-stop, but quite a few of the other residents enjoyed watching the baby travel up and down the halls past the recreation areas and their rooms. More than once I caught sight of faces brightening as we passed and heard comments of "Oh, such a sweet little girl!" and "The baby's all dressed up for Christmas" (we dressed her in her Christmas outfit for Grandma).

And finally... Just after Christmas, a friend brought her kids over for a play-date and as we discussed the two of us being done having kids, she asked if I had any of my maternity stuff I'd be willing to part with for a friend of hers who was paying outlandish amounts of money for maternity clothing where she's currently living over seas. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be able to get the maternity clothes out of my closet! In addition, she took the pack-n-play which opened up some extra space in our house.  There were a few additional maternity items I knew I had and in the massive "sort and organize" that took place that afternoon we were able to put together 5 boxes and a bag of children and infant clothing that we took to Goodwill. I was thrilled that we were getting it out of our house and to a place where thrifty shoppers would be able to get use out of it!


For more inspiration on ways to give back, you can view my Mom's blog and Melissa's blog.

One Last Smile

I encourage you to read through to the end of this post- there is a special announcement you won't want to miss!

One year ago today, my uncle lost his battle with cancer. While it has been a difficult and heartbreaking transition for our entire family, we have been able to find some comfort in knowing he is no longer suffering as he was towards the end. Each day I think about him, my aunt & my cousins at least once. I miss him terribly.

The week before Lee passed, I was visiting him & our family in Des Moines. I had an essay that was due the following week, so in the wee hours of the morning, I found inspiration from being there with him and my family. Here is that essay:

"The first night of English 102 I had to inform my instructor that I would be missing class the night this first paper was due because we would be on a trip to visit my ill uncle in Iowa.  We agreed that the paper could be submitted electronically and he also offered a suggestion: come back with a story that I didn't already know, just to keep as a personal, special memory of him.  I smiled and remarked what a good idea that was.

As I contemplated which topic to choose for this paper I found it difficult to be completely satisfied with the two I had narrowed my selection down to.  My husband liked “what's the fascination with zombies" while I thought "why couldn't the keyboard have been alphabetized" sounded fun.  I put off and procrastinated this paper for over a week and still could not settle myself into a satisfactory topic... until 12:35 this morning.  It was at that moment I found resolution to a question that has been burning in my mind, and no doubt a number of other people's heads, for quite some time... why does God allow us to suffer and endure the loss of loved ones with seemingly nothing to gain in return?

Growing up, we spent a lot of time with my Uncle Lee.  Between family golf outings, reunions and various carpentry projects he completed with the help of my Dad, there was a lot of time spent together, especially at Lee's house in Des Moines.  Lee has always been quick witted and clever, but my favorite thing about him is his smile.  It is never just his mouth that smiles, it's his whole face; his mouth, eyes, even his ears take part in that contagious smile of his!  You just can't help feeling good when you see him smiling.

Life was good, until he was diagnosed with lung cancer last fall.  For a year Lee has battled.  After what seemed to be a successful round of chemotherapy last year, he bounced back and was almost his old self again at our annual "Larsen Soup-er Saturday" in November and he continued to smile.  This spring they discovered that the cancer had spread to his brain.  In order to combat the new tumors they attempted a more aggressive chemotherapy treatment which didn't work.  They then used radiation, which was successful but also had the unfortunate side effect of memory loss.  Once radiation treatment was complete, a full-body scan was conducted to verify the remission of his cancer.  It was at this time they discovered that it had spread practically everywhere; his body is extensively riddled with cancerous cells.  A decision had to be made: either try a new, even more aggressive treatment that had potentially devastating side effects, or place his life in God's hands and let His plan unfold.  Lee’s care was placed with God.

Lee has continued to smile, until this point.  When I spoke with my Dad Sunday morning, the hospice nurses were giving him a month to live, and that was being generous.  Monday evening they were saying 24 hours.  I made the 5.5 hour drive in just under 5 hours.  I spent the majority of those 5 hours wondering if I was doing the right thing by leaving my family at home to make this trip, wondering if I was just being selfish to want the peace of knowing I was able to see and spend time with him one last time, and wondering if it would be too late by the time I arrived.  At 12:20 a.m. this morning I pulled into their driveway.  The first thing I did was visit Lee.

As I looked upon him lying so weak, feverish and medicated in his bed I couldn't help but think "Why? Why is God allowing him to suffer in such pain? Why are his wife and daughters being put through the torture of watching him degrade from the once social and very capable person he once was to hardly being able to keep his eyes open or recognize those who were closest to him? Why wouldn't God have mercy and give him peace?"

As my Aunt Laura rubbed his arm and spoke to him in an attempt to rouse him from his sleep she told me how the hallucinations had become the norm the past few days and recognition had deteriorated to near non-existence. Although it was the middle of the night, he opened his eyes ever so slightly and with much effort.  Laura told him "Liz is here. Liz drove all this way to see you."  He turned to look at me, grinned that wonderful smile of his and whispered "hi" before closing his eyes again.  Laura said "That is the most recognition we've had in a while."  It was 12:35 a.m.

It was that moment that I realized that even though we may feel small and insignificant, our actions or even just our being means something to someone.  In that one smile I found reassurance, love and a sense of meaning I had not previously known existed.  In that one smile I found resolution to all of the questions that had flown through my mind just a moment earlier: we all have something to learn from these experiences.

My Grandma Forshee passed away three days before she turned 78; we buried her on her birthday, which was just two days before mine.  From her passing I learned the importance of taking advantage of the opportunity for that "one last time".  18 months later Grandpa Forshee passed.  I learned two things: 1) we can find opportunity in loss.  I'd spent most of my childhood being close with the Forshees, now was my chance to bond and grow closer to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen; 2) sometimes you just have to let go.  Grandpa was ready to go be with his wife, but he held on for 18 long months because the rest of us were not ready to let him go.  We finally realized that we were not able to begin healing until he was able to be at peace.  When we finally let him go, the transition was peaceful and full of love and understanding that he would be in a better place and would be reunited with his true love.  In 2011, on our anniversary, my husband's Aunt passed suddenly.  The loss of Auntie Bevie taught me that everyone is to be cherished, because you really never know when time will be up.

As I write this, it is 4 a.m. Tuesday, September 18^th, 2012.  I know I should sleep, but I won't, I can't.  I know this may be the last sunrise Lee sees in this world, and although I am saddened by this, I am also inspired.  I mattered to Lee in a way and for a reason I will likely never fully know or understand, and he mattered to me more than he ever knew.  So while I may not be bringing back a memorable story, I'm bringing back something even more cherished and special, something I will carry with me to the end of my days... a smile.

Leroy Morris Larsen passed away on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at approximately 3:15 p.m."

As you may or may not know, I am a Tupperware consultant/manager. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Tupperware has come out with a number of great "pink" items!  From now through November 1st, I will be donating 100% of my profits from all of my Tupperware sales (pink or not) to Stand Up 2 Cancer in memory of Lee. Please join me in supporting cancer research and treatment. Together we can make a difference!

Shop online at www.my.tupperware.com/ERACHE or contact me to order.

My Summer Bucket

I'm new at this... the whole "being home instead of working" thing.  And lets face it, this takes some getting use to and adjustment to make it work properly.  So I've come up with a short "summer bucket list" to help keep my sanity and the kids entertained.  Let's see how much of this is accomplished at the end of summer.

1.) Get out of the house with the kids at least once a week. (Brookfield Zoo, Phillips Park, Naperville Riverwalk, downtown Yorkville, the pool, etc)

2.) Work with Morgan on becoming better acquainted with her potty seat.

3.) Get some "adult" time.  (Monday evenings at Suzy's watching Amanda's sand volleyball team will be a good start!, but I want to get a "Moms night" once every few weeks for us neighborhood moms to get together & have some wine.)

and, last but certainly not least

4.) WORK ON MY NOVEL!  My goal is to have it 90-100% complete before fall semester begins.  Considering I've written 2 chapters in the last 2 days and come up with a great twist, I have no excuse not to meet this goal, unless (God forbid) I hit writers block- in which case someone will need to come kick me square in the derriere!

Cheers!

Meet "Basketball"

There's a very special someone I'd like to introduce you to.  Her name is Basketball.

Why I named her that 25 years ago, I have no idea, but the name stuck.  My Grandma Larsen made her for me- she was my first CPK and she got lots of playtime when I was younger.

This weekend I was going through a few tubs of my old Barbies & stuffed animals and re-discovered my Cabbage Patch collection... so did Morgan.  She claimed the toys she wanted in this manner:

Yes, she made it clear that those are "Nine!" (mine) and yes, that tub is half full of Barbie clothes- she "hid" the actual Barbies on my recliner so she could sit in the tub with "Nine!" toys.

I think it is safe to say that today, on Morgan's 2nd birthday, Basketball has a new owner.  And while it saddens me a little to think of just how old Basketball is, I am thrilled that Morgan has adopted her and I'm sure she will be loved for a long time.