My life is about to get busy. Super busy. Super super busy. So busy that I won't be blogging most of September. Starting a new job is NUTS. Especially when you have a million kids on your caseload.
TTFN - Ta ta for now. :)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Time to Minimize!
I hate being an adult. And I hate being an indecisive person. Both Dan and I are that way. We have been trying to figure out the best way to live life and reach our goals as a married couple and it's hard. We both want the same things, but we seem to be in disagreement as to when we want them. We had a nice discussion though about things yesterday (he had the day off, whee!) and we got a lot of things figured out.
Such as this house. We want out. We do. But at nearly 1200 square feet, you know what?? It's not the worst and it's not the smallest thing in the world. It's not the most ideal environment for entertainment or having large groups of people over (we're dying for a house that would allow us to actually host a holiday part with family, for once), but it's not bad for another couple to come visit, I suppose. I look at other bloggers, starting families, either by choice, or "whoops!" and they live in apartments, duplexes, teeny spaces. And somehow make it work.
I don't know, I guess my point is that we have decided (for the week), that we want to take longer to save up for a house downpayment then into next year. Our biggest project is paying down debt, and we don't want to move into a new house just for the sake of moving into a bigger house, for instance. We want a house that we can call our forever house. Something we can make work the rest of our lives, or at least a vast majority of it. Our kids (did I say kids>>), our retirement.
We live in a society of instant gratification and having to wait another possible 2 years to make sure this house is ready to sell and to make sure we have the money for our "dream" home (we still have to figure out what that even means!)....It feels frustrating and suffocating. Our small house feels smaller and smaller by the minute when I have those suffocating moments, you know!?!?
We come to the agreement, that should we be in this house for 2 more years...We may be starting a family HERE. In the house that most of the time feels so tiny to me. Where in the world would we put baby stuff!?!?
- - -
I guess I need to try a minimalistic approach around here. At one point, I started reading "The Joy of Less" and I think I will be tackling that reading again. It's time to make a lot of changes in our house! We already starting with the kitchen yesterday with Dan off of work. Going through and getting rid of a lot of doubles, triples, et. Who needs 3-4 ladles? Or 2 can openers when we really only use ONE of them because the other one is hard to use. Granted it has a bottle open on it, but guess what? We found a smaller one in the drawer. Bingo.
I think as an occupational therapist, I have an innate need to collect things that may eventually be useful to me. And I need to get out of that mindset and only have a certain designated space for that stuff (such as work supplies). Once that space/box becomes full I must then rotate things out if I want to bring things in.
And here comes those overwhelming feelings again...It will be a work in progress, for sure...
Such as this house. We want out. We do. But at nearly 1200 square feet, you know what?? It's not the worst and it's not the smallest thing in the world. It's not the most ideal environment for entertainment or having large groups of people over (we're dying for a house that would allow us to actually host a holiday part with family, for once), but it's not bad for another couple to come visit, I suppose. I look at other bloggers, starting families, either by choice, or "whoops!" and they live in apartments, duplexes, teeny spaces. And somehow make it work.
I don't know, I guess my point is that we have decided (for the week), that we want to take longer to save up for a house downpayment then into next year. Our biggest project is paying down debt, and we don't want to move into a new house just for the sake of moving into a bigger house, for instance. We want a house that we can call our forever house. Something we can make work the rest of our lives, or at least a vast majority of it. Our kids (did I say kids>>), our retirement.
We live in a society of instant gratification and having to wait another possible 2 years to make sure this house is ready to sell and to make sure we have the money for our "dream" home (we still have to figure out what that even means!)....It feels frustrating and suffocating. Our small house feels smaller and smaller by the minute when I have those suffocating moments, you know!?!?
We come to the agreement, that should we be in this house for 2 more years...We may be starting a family HERE. In the house that most of the time feels so tiny to me. Where in the world would we put baby stuff!?!?
- - -
I guess I need to try a minimalistic approach around here. At one point, I started reading "The Joy of Less" and I think I will be tackling that reading again. It's time to make a lot of changes in our house! We already starting with the kitchen yesterday with Dan off of work. Going through and getting rid of a lot of doubles, triples, et. Who needs 3-4 ladles? Or 2 can openers when we really only use ONE of them because the other one is hard to use. Granted it has a bottle open on it, but guess what? We found a smaller one in the drawer. Bingo.
I think as an occupational therapist, I have an innate need to collect things that may eventually be useful to me. And I need to get out of that mindset and only have a certain designated space for that stuff (such as work supplies). Once that space/box becomes full I must then rotate things out if I want to bring things in.
And here comes those overwhelming feelings again...It will be a work in progress, for sure...
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Let's talk about babies.
Oh, good lord. When did I start saying I wanted to talk about babies??? Why would I ever say that!? Didn't I go on a rant not long ago about remaining childless on purpose?? HA! Well, things are changing around here, folks. My head is changing.
In fact, for about a month now, I have been thinking quite seriously about having kids. Dan and I have started talking about it and now we're starting sentences like "When we have kids..." "If we have a daughter she will never wear an outfit like THAT out of our house." Etc Etc. Etc. Like, totally naturally rolling off the tongue. We both seem excited and nervous about the prospect of actually starting a FAMILY. So much so that we have stopped thinking about how to make our small house work for the two of us for the rest of our lives and have started making serious plans about the next year and how to get into a bigger house.
1A. Knock out credit card debt. I'm mostly the guilty party dealing with THAT mess. :p It will take a couple of years to get it gone COMPLETELY, but by this time next year, that will be significantly CHOPPED by 75%. I want to wipe out the majority before we start making the extra steps in the housing search. (But not all, because they look badly on you if you don't have SOME credit card debt sitting out there, which makes no sense, OMG).
1B. I made point 1 a two parter because..well....the credit card debt. All in thanks to my bad money management skills before meeting Dan. And paying a lot of our wedding and recent trip to Hawaii with it. Which is one thing and both are paid for, but then you have this girl right here who has had issues with shopping. So....I'm pretty much not allowed to shop for anything until next summer. The only things I'm allowed to purchase: underwear, socks, and 2 sweaters. Ok, the sweaters part makes no sense, I know, but Dan watched me get rid of a TON of my winter clothes to good will. So he said I could replace 2 of the 12 gazillion I dumped. I STILL have way too many clothes.
You see, I have this issue with likely to shop when I'm down and out, pissed off, anxious and depressed, etc etc. I have the false sense of security and feel BETTER when I shop. So I'm working on this horrible addiction. (I wanted to go run to Old Navy today because I got this great outfit idea on pinterest with a red sweater and red patent ballet flats and OMG, they have both of those....)
What was I saying?? OH YES. I'm an addict. MUST STOP. I really am thinking of talking to a shrink about this addiction. To get down to the bottom of it. But do people GO to shrinks for this sort of addiction? I know they do for drugs and alcohol, but this is shopping for goodness sake.
(No more talk of money. It's embarrassing. But I'm glad to get that embarrassment off my chest for the time being.)
2. Sell the house. Somehow someway, we are getting out of this house next year. Even if it means that we have to rent an apartment for 3-6 while saving up for a bigger house or are building. We are GETTING OUT OF THIS SMALL HOUSE. And we have dedicated ourselves to getting rid of it first BEFORE landing onto a new mortgage -- we simply can't afford to pay both. Even when our credit card crap is GONE, I can't imagine having 2 mortgages to deal with. I have student loans to worry about. Technically a 2nd mortgage anyway.
3. Stop taking birth control and get my cycles all regulated. AH. The joys of talking woman details. I won't go further, because if I DO have any dudes reading this, they are likely to feel almost as embarrassed as I am about the credit card/shopping addiction issues. :p
- - -
So anyway, babies. I finally feel like I'm grown up enough to clean up my life in order to have a little one. I don't want to start trying until we have a lot of this accomplished. I know, I'm getting older and there's no guarantees as I get older. I was told this not long ago by a friend, and while this friend is right...there's no guarantees on anything...I'm not willing to start trying until I no longer feel completely PANICKED at the thought of trying to raise a kid while I'm trying to fix my life. (Granted, I may always feel anxious and panicked about bring a human being into the world....BUT!!! I don't want to have credit card debt sitting over my head. Once that gets cleaned up, I will feel a million times better about having a baby!!).
If we get pregnant before we're ready?? Well, that's life, isn't it? And I trust that God will help me feel ready at that time. But unless it's meant to be before we're ready to start trying....I'm not going to try and make myself a mess. :)
AH! Finally being open and honest about the next steps in our life...Makes me feel like I finally have blog content to discuss again. Hmm....
In fact, for about a month now, I have been thinking quite seriously about having kids. Dan and I have started talking about it and now we're starting sentences like "When we have kids..." "If we have a daughter she will never wear an outfit like THAT out of our house." Etc Etc. Etc. Like, totally naturally rolling off the tongue. We both seem excited and nervous about the prospect of actually starting a FAMILY. So much so that we have stopped thinking about how to make our small house work for the two of us for the rest of our lives and have started making serious plans about the next year and how to get into a bigger house.
1A. Knock out credit card debt. I'm mostly the guilty party dealing with THAT mess. :p It will take a couple of years to get it gone COMPLETELY, but by this time next year, that will be significantly CHOPPED by 75%. I want to wipe out the majority before we start making the extra steps in the housing search. (But not all, because they look badly on you if you don't have SOME credit card debt sitting out there, which makes no sense, OMG).
1B. I made point 1 a two parter because..well....the credit card debt. All in thanks to my bad money management skills before meeting Dan. And paying a lot of our wedding and recent trip to Hawaii with it. Which is one thing and both are paid for, but then you have this girl right here who has had issues with shopping. So....I'm pretty much not allowed to shop for anything until next summer. The only things I'm allowed to purchase: underwear, socks, and 2 sweaters. Ok, the sweaters part makes no sense, I know, but Dan watched me get rid of a TON of my winter clothes to good will. So he said I could replace 2 of the 12 gazillion I dumped. I STILL have way too many clothes.
You see, I have this issue with likely to shop when I'm down and out, pissed off, anxious and depressed, etc etc. I have the false sense of security and feel BETTER when I shop. So I'm working on this horrible addiction. (I wanted to go run to Old Navy today because I got this great outfit idea on pinterest with a red sweater and red patent ballet flats and OMG, they have both of those....)
What was I saying?? OH YES. I'm an addict. MUST STOP. I really am thinking of talking to a shrink about this addiction. To get down to the bottom of it. But do people GO to shrinks for this sort of addiction? I know they do for drugs and alcohol, but this is shopping for goodness sake.
(No more talk of money. It's embarrassing. But I'm glad to get that embarrassment off my chest for the time being.)
2. Sell the house. Somehow someway, we are getting out of this house next year. Even if it means that we have to rent an apartment for 3-6 while saving up for a bigger house or are building. We are GETTING OUT OF THIS SMALL HOUSE. And we have dedicated ourselves to getting rid of it first BEFORE landing onto a new mortgage -- we simply can't afford to pay both. Even when our credit card crap is GONE, I can't imagine having 2 mortgages to deal with. I have student loans to worry about. Technically a 2nd mortgage anyway.
3. Stop taking birth control and get my cycles all regulated. AH. The joys of talking woman details. I won't go further, because if I DO have any dudes reading this, they are likely to feel almost as embarrassed as I am about the credit card/shopping addiction issues. :p
- - -
So anyway, babies. I finally feel like I'm grown up enough to clean up my life in order to have a little one. I don't want to start trying until we have a lot of this accomplished. I know, I'm getting older and there's no guarantees as I get older. I was told this not long ago by a friend, and while this friend is right...there's no guarantees on anything...I'm not willing to start trying until I no longer feel completely PANICKED at the thought of trying to raise a kid while I'm trying to fix my life. (Granted, I may always feel anxious and panicked about bring a human being into the world....BUT!!! I don't want to have credit card debt sitting over my head. Once that gets cleaned up, I will feel a million times better about having a baby!!).
If we get pregnant before we're ready?? Well, that's life, isn't it? And I trust that God will help me feel ready at that time. But unless it's meant to be before we're ready to start trying....I'm not going to try and make myself a mess. :)
AH! Finally being open and honest about the next steps in our life...Makes me feel like I finally have blog content to discuss again. Hmm....
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
That time I forgot about my blog.
I have issues keeping a blog this year so far. I get so caught up in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...I have lots of great social interaction! So I forget about blogging. I don't really feel like I get a ton of readers here half the time, so why I bother??
Oh, right. Because when I do remember, I love it.
What I don't love right now. The crazy hip pain I'm still experiencing. I did the elliptical this morning and I'm not in PAIN per se....Just uncomfortable as all HELL. My PT said told me it would take around a month to stop feeling uncomfortable all together. And as long as I don't HURT, I don't have to take breaks. But I need to take it easy. It didn't hurt WHILE I was at the gym on the elliptical. It just hurts now. 4 hours after ward. BOO.
I suck at taking it easy. I have little patience for much of anything, especially taking it easy.
In other news, we continue to eat from our Clean Eating "E-Meals" plan. AND I LOVE IT. It doesn't make groceries cheaper, unfortunately, but we eat almost all meals unprocessed. We. ROCK. They just launched a Lunch Plan. And I just signed up for it. Planning our dinners? Has made us a lot healthier. So I can't WAIT to start planning our lunches when I'm back to work!
I promise to blog more from now on. :)
Oh, right. Because when I do remember, I love it.
What I don't love right now. The crazy hip pain I'm still experiencing. I did the elliptical this morning and I'm not in PAIN per se....Just uncomfortable as all HELL. My PT said told me it would take around a month to stop feeling uncomfortable all together. And as long as I don't HURT, I don't have to take breaks. But I need to take it easy. It didn't hurt WHILE I was at the gym on the elliptical. It just hurts now. 4 hours after ward. BOO.
I suck at taking it easy. I have little patience for much of anything, especially taking it easy.
In other news, we continue to eat from our Clean Eating "E-Meals" plan. AND I LOVE IT. It doesn't make groceries cheaper, unfortunately, but we eat almost all meals unprocessed. We. ROCK. They just launched a Lunch Plan. And I just signed up for it. Planning our dinners? Has made us a lot healthier. So I can't WAIT to start planning our lunches when I'm back to work!
I promise to blog more from now on. :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Recipe! Fattoush!
I love fattoush. LOVE. I also love falafel and tabouleh and pita. Nom...But my most favorite out of any of those choices will always be fattoush. I almost always get it from Schwarma King here in Kalamazoo, but it often has almost too much dressing on it!
I decided I wanted to make my own to bypass this. And found the perfect recipe:
Fattoush Salad with Grilled Chicken and Pita Chips (FOR 2 PEOPLE)
- 1 pita, torn into pieces
- 3T + 1t olive oil, divided
- 1 boneless chicken breast, cut into strips (I cut it into smaller pieces than that -- I only cut it AFTER it was grilled).
- 1 cup romaine lettuce, torn into pieces
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (I quartered them!)
- 1 small cucumber seeded and chopped
- 1/4 purple onion, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup garbanzo beans (about 1/2 of a 15 oz can, drained and rinsed)
- 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
- 2 T lemon juice
- 1 t white wine vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove crushed
Heat oven to 400F. Sprinkle pita with 1t of olive oil. Tear into pieces. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until crisp.
Heat grill to medium. Toss chicken with 1 T olive oil (and we ended up putting seasonings on the chicken!). Grill chicken about 6 minutes per side.
Toss romaine with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, garbanzo beans, and mint leaves. Whisk lemon juice, vinegar, garlic and 2 T olive oil. Toss with salad. Top with grilled chicken and pita "chips".
ENJOY!
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