Canadian Mom Sub-Urbanite ponders everything from Arisotle to In-laws to New Discoveries to finding Zen!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Goals for 2013
1. I'd like to maintain the level of creativity and art that I've introduced into my life in 2012. We plan to continue our monthly calendar scrapbook night so that will help. I also bought a sewing machine off a friend for $40 so I'm hoping to develop my VERY amateur skills with a few Pinterest inspired projects.
2. This is the year that I develop myself as a writer who finds a way to get paid. While I enjoyed my time learning in Primerica and helping my friends and family, it's just not my passion - passion. Im fairly certain I will maintain my license so that I can continue to help people and ourselves but it's not in me to be the salesperson I need to be. I have to admit that I might not function well without "real" deadlines and pressure. I can work without supervision but I still need parameters. For example, if I have a steady workload with routine deadlines, I don't need anyone checking up on me. But if I have to continually seek out work, well I think my 3 attempts at home business has proven how well that works for me. Very short term success.
That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of not having a steady job and I don't know how well I would adapt to punching a clock everyday. But I love earning money, it really adds to my feeling of self worth. I have some exploring to do!
3. My third and probably most important goal, is to become the mom I really want to be vs the mom I feel like I should be. New mom is loving, patient, kind, fosters learning, fun but also disciple. Wish me luck!
2012 Resolutions
The two resolutions I remember, were:
1. Take more pictures with my camera instead of the iPhone, and
2. Take time to be more creative.
While I did take more pics with the camera, I think i overall took less pictures. So an improvement in one way but a disappointment in others.
I think I did very well with the creative time resolution. I had a dedicated night each month to do a 'calendar scrapbook' with friends that was an awesome addition to my life. The company of people is great (we even did a scrapbook trip to Calgary together in October), and I got my 2012 year scrapbooked while I was at it.
My friend Siân and I both took a "Brave Girls Art Class" online in August/September which I loved! I also has several successful homemade gifts I made for Christmas. I am so proud of how most of them turned out :-)
Next up, what are my goals for 2013?
Monday, December 10, 2012
25 Rules for Moms of Boys
25 Rules for Mothers of Sons
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Been Emotional
Thinking about it now, it could be the holiday season that has me in this frame of mind. I didn't anticipate "being over" the loss, but I had hoped to at least be prego by now so that I could stop feeling the hole so much. There are a few babies in my life that make me ache in different ways. One friend has such a beautiful outlook with her babe, laughing off such hardships as multiple night times wakes, and genuinely bursting with love for her baby. It's that authentic, pure happiness that I am jealous of - especially so as I know even if I had a 'normal' experience with Wentworth that probably wouldn't be me. I'm too sarcastic and tainted. ;-)
My other ache, is a negative one. It stems from my BIL and his baby mama with their new babe. Their (somewhat) innocent display of parent pride makes me furious. A simple Facebook picture post irritates the hell out of me and their delusional outlook of perfection makes me insane. Just now, in this emotional late hour, I cannot fathom spending the holidays with them as they may inadvertently hurt my feelings with a naive comment.
I really don't understand this all. I enjoy emotionally balanced people and I strive to be one. I worked very hard to be more emotionally mature and controlled in my 20s and this feels so out of control and irrational. In this moment, my emotions feel very close to as strong as the first week after losing Wentworth - so fresh! I think I'm going to sign off and search for some answers via google and some message boards.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Plan to Fail
On the plus side, my one week money diet was a success! The force to shop was "strong with this one" but I managed to convince myself it could wait to the end of the week. Suddenly it was Tuesday and I literally said out loud "holy shit you did it". It was good to take a break from shopping and yet to focus on stuff at home. I think I avoided some impulse buys that would have been a waste. So, I might need to implement a once/week shop day. That could help with the impulse buying... But may be a bit of a challenge with Christmas.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Money Diet
I never got over that feeling of "richness" of being able to buy just about anything I wanted, whenever I wanted.
I've been "responsible" about it by always making sure the bills were paid, but that doesn't really mean anything when you're also accumulating debt. Not once, but twice in the last ten years I have racked up a sizable consumer debt obligation. Pretty selfish. Especially since its been Tyler's income that has paid off my mistakes. While we have a fairly comfortable lifestyle, we would be considerable more set-up if I hadn't wasted all that money. If we had put that money onto our mortgage, I can't do the math, but yeah big difference!
I owe it to Tyler, Dexter and myself to get a handle on this. While I have improved the amount I spend, the same impulses are there, so I need to work on the root.
I've also decided to start with a one week fast, if you will, starting today. I'll allow spending for basics like food, fuel, but everything else is a no go until next Tuesday, November 13th. Realistically there are no purchases that need to be made in this timeframe so it shouldn't be a problem. If you're an average person, this probably sounds like a normal week to you! Please don't judge, we all have our personal challenges.
To work on the root, if I find myself wanting to purchase, I plan to take a picture and write down the cost. Be interesting to see how much pretend money I'll have spent. However, the main plan is to stay out of the stores for this week!
Wish me luck!
Cake Class
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
November Ambitions
1. Pick one 'non-routine' chore per day and do it before noon.
2. Do one craft per day/spend 30 minutes a day doing something creative.
3. Focus on eating nutrient rich food for Dexter and I.
Non-Routine Chores
I'm brainstorming a list right now, of chores that aren't daily maintenance but that keep the house clean. It's so easy to get bogged down with sweeping, tidying, and dishes! And I've touched on topic of morning non-productivity so this is a goal to help with both. Some examples of non-routine chores for me (no judging me if you do these daily!):
-clean out and wipe down fridge,
-run a dishwasher cycle of vinegar and then baking soda to wash it,
-wash floors,
-vacuum various rooms,
-clean oven,
-specific dusting areas,
-declutter kitchen counters,
-file paper in office.
A Craft-a-Day/ 30 Minutes Creative Time
With Christmas coming only 55 days away (http://www.xmasclock.com/) I have a few handmade projects I would like to do for presents. However they take time of planning and execution. I also pin lots of ideas on pinterest but don't often check back to make some of them. Thus a goal to work on these presents, projects and ideas! I'm including in this time work on my Heritage Makers photo projects as I'd like some for us as well as possibly family. And I signed up for Part 2 of my art class so I would like to devote some time to that. If I spend more than 30 minutes a day, I'd be really happy with that, but the goal is at least 30.
I'm a much more fulfilled person when I get to be creative so I'm really looking forward to focusing my time this way :-)
Nutrient Dense Food
Unfortunately, I have been eating a lot of junk food and not doing a lot of meal planning pretty much the whole year. I am officially the biggest/heaviest I have every been. The number on the scale is a pretty scary one, and although I'm not super motivated to do anything about it, I am at least interested in eating more nutrient dense foods. Like super foods.
I know I have to lead by example for Dexter and now that he's three, he's really old enough for me to enforce the "this is dinner or have nothing" rule. Teaching my kids to eat for fuel rather than enjoyment/emotion was a goal I had pre-children and it's time to work on that! Dexter deserves to grow up with a healthy food mindset.
Some of my ideas are to incorporate smoothies and to do some veggie puréed in our food. As of now, Dexter eats a very limited selection of food... I'm embarrassed to admit that it's focused on one food group and consists of mostly process foods. His go to foods are: yogurt (happy about that one), fries and Cheerios. Depending on his mood, he's been known to eat strawberries, granola bars, goldfishes, fruit snacks, grapes, KD, grill cheese, meatballs. That's about it. Pretty short list for a 3 year old!
The key to success is going to be table eating together, and enforcement of 'this or nothing'.
Wish me luck! Send me ideas of recipes if you have them.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Confession
Although I am generally a busy and productive person, my mornings are such a huge time waste suckage. This AM for instance, we got up, I turned on the tv. Played some Simpsons app on my phone, checked emails, got dexter breakfast, received two phone calls, more texts, some coffee, pinterest, some breakie... And it's almost noon!
If I could just get a handle on my mornings, be focus and have energy right away, it would make such an improvement on my days. Today for example, I know have 1 hour to get Dexter & I dressed and ready for taking our van to a garage and going to a Playdate. Neither of us is ready for the public and Dexter does so much better when he's not rushed. My house is super messy and I would be so much happier if it was clean when we got back!
Tips for morning energy and focus?
Monday, October 15, 2012
P.S.
No Announcements Yet
I've been craving this one specific liquor beverage since thanksgiving and I first resisted buying it just in case, against the odds I was pregnant. Though it's pretty conclusive that I'm not since I got my period the week leading up to thanksgiving and I got a negative Preg test the day before my period arrived. And although Tyler was home for thanksgiving, we didn't baby dance. So basically, barring immaculate conception (which is of course how I was created) I am not pregnant. However, I still feel weird about drinking alcohol. I've done it, but with guilt that one of these times I will be prego. It's weird. And so Sunday night, I bought the liquors. Propped them on the kitchen counter. And have yet to make that drink. Bizarre.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Trying Again
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Leftover Rice = Rice Pudding!
You need:
Rice
Milk (or cream, rice milk, etc)
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Apples (or other fruit)
I put the rice in a pot on the stove, then poured in the milk just to cover the rice. Then I added brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. I like mine pretty sweet so lots of brown sugar! I brought this to a boil, and then put it on simmer, stirring often.
In the meantime, I chopped my apples, with skin, and put them in a microwaveable bowl. I pre-cooked them in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds and then I poured them into the pot on the stove. Continue cooking the whole mixture until its as thick as you like it.
The whole thing took about 15 - 20 minutes and I'll have breakfast for a couple days :-) Yum.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
August: the month of courses
It's been so long...
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Decluttering Life
When Tyler first took a shift in Fort Mac, I started by organizing some neglected spaces in the house. And honestly I really love organizing & re-working spaces. The payoff however, is a short term high unless I also develop some new habits to KEEP things in order, which in the past I have not done or been successful at. ~Organization is not a state but a behavior.~
I've been slowly immersing myself in organizational culture through podcasts, blogs, tv shows, audio books & actual books. And I'm equally slowly putting the pieces together.
Attempted Change #1: I have a really hard time keeping our bedroom clean. The biggest offense to this is my clothes, both clean and dirty, which end up in different laundry baskets, piled on the floor, left in suitcases etc. As this is a reoccurring problem, I'm trying to look at what the source(s) of it are. My first conclusion is that I have too many clothes lol If my room can get that messy & I can ignore it because i still have clothing options then that is part of the problem. Secondly, I believe that I am resistant to hanging clothes. I don't know why but it seems like tedious work. So on Monday I did a tiny clothing purge & cleaned out two dresser drawers so that about 80% of my clothes are in drawers now (I had dresses I rarely wear & books in my drawers before). I'm also going to work on the habit of putting my clothes in the appropriate areas at the end of each day. My portion of the closet is much more appealing to me now, but it's still a work in progress. Ideally I'd love to purchase a new closet organizer as I feel the space is under utilized but it's not really a budget priority right now.
(Pic 1: I have to share with you, embarrassingly, how dirty my bedroom floor was. I've often said that my house isn't "dirty it's just cluttered" but TV has taught me that dirt hides well under clutter.)
Peter Walsh, a well known organizer from Australia, says that when it comes to organizing a space, you should start with an empty room and a vision for the life you want and the type of room you need to accomplish that vision. Then the space & it's contents are built off that vision.
Unfortunately my life's vision doesn't fit into this house, nor honestly does it fit into my LIFE. Which brings me to my next focus: decluttering my calendar
I have a reputation for being late which is often caused from me under estimating how long it takes to accomplish tasks, etc within my day. Effectively, I am trying to squeeze too much into each day, week, month... My first step was to physically write in "relax" on one day a week (Mondays) and try not to book anything major for those days. Ultimately, "relax" is a bit misleading as I have counted on those days for catch up lol - but it a start! I am also going to limit how much I book per day. In the past I looked at each day as having three parts: morning, afternoon and evening, often booking two sometimes all three segments with major events. I have to remember Gretchen Rubin's mantra (from 'The Happiness Project') " I can do ANYthing, I just can't do EVERYthing". And when i do choose to incorporate something into my life, I need to be giving it my 100% focus when allotted.
I'm pretty much in the middle of this part/focus/project of decluttering right now. I am looking at what I really want out of life, what I value/prioritize and how things are going to fall into place. Its an even larger 'tweak' with Tyler away & me taking on some of his roles in his absence. Part of this process is to look at my relationships (friends, family, acquaintances) and evaluate where I am benefiting. The truth of the matter is that I am clinging to quite a few relationships where it is "hard work" to stay in touch (ie it's all me initiating everything, following up, having to re-schedule umpteen times) and that perhaps we have simply outgrown each other in this stage of our lives [which doesn't mean to say our paths won't re intertwine down the road]. Then I have a few relationships where the good doesn't outweigh the bad and the investment of my time, energy & emotions is not worthwhile.
I really feel I am ready to move forward and see what life has in store for me over this next hill :-) Its going to be fabulous!
An interesting, alternative perspective I heard once that stayed with me is, paraphrasing: to grow closer to our authentic selves we need not add to ourselves but in fact strip away/purge/shed unnecessaries. Hmm, that is coming out very clumsily so hopefully you can get the gist of what I'm saying. Right now I have too much excess in my life (in many different forms) and I am ready to shed those "shackles". Stay tuned!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Commuting
Net Time vs Gross Time
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Freezer Meals, an update
-try pizza spaghetti with pizza sauce
-for Rachel's casserole I will cook the pasta less (more al dente), add more green peppers, and make bigger portions or maybe just more meat to pasta ratio
-for the stirfry, I dont think I'll precook the veggies. They came out a little too soggy for my liking. However, I think I would package my veggies separately, in fry order.
That all I can think of right now.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Party Favours
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Mourning the Loss of My HouseHusband (Again!)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
My First Day of Making Freezer Meals
- 1 package of Extra Lean Ground Beef
- 1 package of Taco Seasoning
- 3/4 cup of water
- 1 small container of tomato paste
- 1 cup of salsa (I used Tostitos Mild)
- Brown hamburger.
- Pour seasoning package over mixture and add water.
- Continue cooking until water evaporates.
- Add tomato paste & salsa.
- Store in freezable ziplock bag. Probably only need a medium size for one batch.
- add to lettuce, shredded cheese, fresh veggies (cucumber, green & red peppers, red onion) and cheesy doritos for a taco salad.
- use with taco shells & fixings for tacos.
- make the 'dorito bake casserole': which uses pillsbury cresent dough for the base, Beef Taco Mix, sour cream layer and then cheese and crushed cheesy doritos on top. Bake at 350F until browned.
- make 'tortilla bake casserole': alternate tortillas (I prefer cheese ones) and Beef Taco Mix. Have one sour cream layer in the middle and cheese on top. Could also have refried bean layer if desired. Bake at 350F until browned.
- 1 Box Premade frozen meatballs (I bought the blue menu italian meatballs from No Frills/Superstore)
- 4 Cups Rice
- 1/2 Cup of Parmesan
- 1 small pkg of Swiss Cheese (270g), grated
- 1 1/2 Cups Milk
- 2 cans Condensed Mushroom Soup
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp all spice
- 3 tsp chopped garlic or 3 cloves
- Cook rice.
- Put a layer of meatballs on the bottom of your dish.
- In a seperate bowl, mix rice with all ingredients except meatballs.
- Pour rice mixture over meatball layer.
- Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes when thawed.
- 1 pkg of Turkey Sausage (bought mine at walmart)
- Fresh Veggies (Green Peppers, Red Peppers, Yellow Onions, Broccol, Carrots Medallions, Fresh Mushrooms)
- 1 Large Can of Spaghetti Sauce or Tomato Sauce
- Bake turkey sausages at 350F for 30-45 minutes. Make sure they are no longer pink inside. Slice into bite sized pieces. Let cool to room temperature.
- Chop fresh veggies as needed into large pieces. I ended up with about 4 cups of fresh veggies.
- Put all ingredients into large freezable ziplock container.
- Future Use: Cook in slow cooker until desired tenderness. Serve over freshly cooked pasta. For leftovers, keep pasta seperate from pasta sauce.
- 1 package of Turkey Sausages (I bought mine at walmart)
- Fresh Broccoli
- Carrot Medallions
- Yellow Onions, sliced
- Green & Red Peppers, sliced
- Fresh Mushrooms, sliced
- Sauce: ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, soya sauce. Mix together to taste. Use only about a tsp of soya sauce and a lot of ketchup to start.
- Bake sausages in oven at 350F for 30-45 minutes. Make sure they are no longer pink inside. Slice into bite sized pieces. Let cool to room temperature.
- You can either keep veggies raw to fry later or fry them now depending how ready you want this meal to be.
- If veggies are cooked, you can store with the sauce. I chose to wait until I use this mix to freshly make sauce and rice.
- Future Use: serve warmed on rice with sauce.
- 1 package of ground meat (I used chicken to have a variety of meats in my recipes)
- Veggies (I used red peppers, green peppers, yellow onions)
- 1 Can of Mushrooms
- 1/2 Package of Spaghettini (or pasta of your choice)
- 1 Large Can of Pasta Sauce, or Tomato Sauce (ALT: maybe even pizza sauce)
- 24 pizza pepperoni slices
- 1 Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
- 1 Cup Mont Jack Cheese, grated
- Brown ground meat.
- Dice veggies. Fry along with mushrooms.
- Boil spaghettinni to desired tenderness. Drain.
- Mix all three of above together along with pasta sauce and let cool to room temperature.[Next time I am going to try it with pizza sauce. When I do, I will refrain from mixing it in, but rather do it as a layer of my casserole]
- Once cool, layer in bottom of dish.
- Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
- Place pepperoni on top of cheese.
- Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes if thawed, 40 - 50 minutes if frozen.
- 1/2 Box of Pasta (I used Scooby Doo Spirals, she recommends egg noodles)
- 1 package of ground meat
- 2 tbsp flour
- Tomato Sauce or Pasta Sauce
- 1/2 Cup of Black Olives, Sliced
- 1/2 Cup of Green Peppers, Chopped
- 1/2 Cup of Green Onions, Chopped (I forgot to buy these)
- 1 Cup of Sour Cream
- 2 Cups of Cottage Cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Directions:
- Cook pasta.
- Brown burger. Once cooked, add tomato sauce and flour and simmer for 10 minutes.
- In a seperate bowl, mix sour cream, cottage cheese, veggies and salt and pepper.
- Once pasta and burger is cool, put it in the bottom of the dish. Pour veggie mixture over pasta. Pour beef mixture over veggie mixture.
- Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
Methods of Madness/Tips
First Things...
- I wanted everything in disposable, freezable things. For things I was going to bake, I wanted freezable & bakeable so I bought tinfoil lasagna sized containers with lids (if they had larger ones with lids I likely would have bought those) as well as Large Ziplock Freezer bags. Both these things I got at No Frills for a decent price, but I noticed the dollar stores carry them too so you may want to shop around for the best price.
- I chose recipes with similar ingredients so that I could multi-task chopping of veggies, re-use pans, etc.
- I did one big shop of all the ingredients (well two because I went to No Frills & Walmart).
- I pre-planned my recipe attack.
- Have lots of bowls and counterspace so that you can keep things seperated but do multi-tasking work, and you'll have to allow everything to cool before completing your freezer process.
- I pulled everything out that I would need that day & set it in one area on my counter.
- I added lots of veggies to my meals to bulk up the recipe size and get my daily dose of veggies in.
- I set up my rice cooker with the rice for Alphine Meatballs, once cooked I put in a big bowl to cool &/or be ready for mixing whenever I had a break in the other meals' prep,
- I put all the turkey sausages in the oven to bake while I used the stove top for other things.
- I started with the Beef Taco mix so that I could fry it up while chopping my veggies for the other recipes.
- I chopped all my veggies at the same time and seperated them into bowls or ziplocks for each recipe, then fried or kept fresh as each recipe needed.
- When frying veggies such broccoli & carrots, I precook them in the microwave to get them tender, then fry them for crispiness.
- Once meat was ready for taco mix, I put it in a bowl to cool while I started browning meat for spaghetti bake. I also put pasta on to bowl and started frying veggies.
- Once spaghetti bake layer one was mixed & cooling, I started browning my meat for rachel's casserole and cooking the pasta. I also started frying the veggies for my stir fry.
- Then I mixed the cottage cheese stuff.
- When I had in between moments I cut up the turkey sausage, assembled the turkey pasta sauce, assembled anything that was cool enough and mixed up the rice mixture for the alphine meatballs.
- I saved all the cheese grating for last.
- We also had a taco salad for supper about 3 hours into my assembly so I had a bit of a break for everything to cool and before I grated cheese.
Ham & Asparagus Strata
Meatloaf (my recipe using Knorr Veggie Mix)
Premade Sloppy Joe Mixture
Premade Shepard's Pie Mixture
Perogy Lasagna
Lazy Potsticker Casserole (my new idea, using potsticker pork recipe and pasta)
Pigs in a Blanket
Bisquits
*Rachel's Casserole:
http://www.oneshetwoshe.com/2010/01/rachels-casserole.html
*Alphine Meatballs:
http://busycooks.about.com/od/precookedmeatballrecipes/r/alpinemeatballs.-8tU.htm
*Pizza Spaghetti Casserole
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pizza-spaghetti-casserole-10000001589396/
Thursday, January 5, 2012
A Choice
This influenced my choice, which is that if I'm looking to work for fulfillment purposes, then I would like to find the time to search for work involving my writing. Something that has come out of my experience with Wentworth is that others, virtual strangers, have complimented my writing skills. This leads me to believe, hopefully not wrongly, that I do have a talent that could be explored. I have always dreamed of writing a book, being published &/or writing for a magazine. I'm not sure how realistic or lucrative this could be, but my plan for 2012 is to explore my options. I'm very excited!
Secondly, for a very long time I've had some interest in money & investing. We have worked with Primerica, as investors, for about 7 years now and for the last 6 months or so I've been considering getting involved as a representative. I enjoy being educated on what my money is doing and also educating others on the best and better alternatives out there versus the traditional banks and routes. My experience with Primerica so far, leads me to believe that they are an ethical business who has their customers best interest as a priority rather than just their bottom line. This weekend and next week I'll be discussing with Jasmine (my representative) the exact qualifications I need and hopefully getting started. I believe she told me that there is a test I need to take in order to become a rep. I'm excited to get started with this too. I'll be happy to be more participatory in our own investments (Tyler & I each have RRSPs and Dexter has RESP, we also had term life insurance through them) and I'm hoping I'll be able to share my education with family and friend's. I'm not sure how lucrative it will be (as money is a very touchy subject with people) but my end goal is to simply help people have the best set of investments and insurance for their needs.