One for Me, One for You: July Sneak Peek

Incredibly beautiful day today. I was actually in a tank top for part of the day, raking leaves and trying to clean up our backyard. This is the kind of weather we're supposed to have throughout October, but instead we had rain, rain and more rain.

We opened up the house for one last airing out and then spent the day outside - me doing yard work, Mike working on our cars - I just couldn't bring myself to not be outside.

The apples Darcy chose to use on this quilt square fit perfectly with today. A perfect fall day.

WIP Friday: Sparkly

With two deadlines approaching quickly, I should be diligently working. Instead I find myself very distracted by things in real life. Man, despite the pain my fingertips have endured, all I want to do is craft.

I hope to escape into a crafty haven for a bit this weekend.

Cookbook Challenge: How to Eat Supper #12

The Splendid Table's Crisp Cucumber Shrimp in Retro Goddess Dressing

As I'm pushed more and more out of my comfort zone while doing this cookbook challenge, I'm beginning to realize that maybe I am a picky eater.

I try most things. But I prefer comfort in the familiar. So if I don't particularly enjoy my experience with a new food, it is most likely I won't try it again - I'm not saying that I'll never give something a second shot, but the chances are slim or at least far apart.

For example, avocado.

A couple years ago, I made some sort of taco salad from a Martha Stewart publication that featured chunks of avocado. I didn't really enjoy the taste or texture, despite knowing that avocado is like a super fruit or something, so I've held off trying it again. Then came this salad. I was looking a simple dinner that would be fast to make and relatively healthy and I'd had a taste of a green goddess dressing at a local restaurant, so I decided to give it a shot sooner rather than later. Now I don't remember that taste of the green goddess dressing being overly avocado-ey, so I wasn't concerned by the amount of avocado this recipe called for. But the ratio of avocado to creaminess in this dressing was too much for me. It wasn't bad, just not my favorite (though I did love the lettuce interspersed with crisp cucumbers and lemony shrimp). The dressing was too chunky and not dressingy enough, so in the future I would add cream or something to thin it out, make it go over the salad easier, you know, and as a bonus mellow out the avocado taste.

Trying avocado again makes me not a picky eater, right? I mean, the fact that I tried it in the first place makes me not picky, right? A picky eater would put their foot down immediately to trying anything new and instead whip up a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, right?

Gosh, I'd really hate for Mike to be right on this one.

I mean, sure, eggs aren't my favorite but I'll eat them certain ways (scrambles - ok; egg white - ok; hard boiled & warm - ok; runny yolk -not ok; cold - not ok). Crap, that makes me picky, doesn't it?

And just because I don't like pancakes, doesn't make me a picky eater…

I mean, people are allowed to not like certain foods without being considered picky. Just because I don't like cake doesn't mean I'm picky. For heaven's sake, when I was a wee one I would even eat escargot! That's like the opposite of picky especially for the under 5 crowd.

Wow, who knew that one little picture would turn into such a desperate plea for validation! Though it does have me interested now as to how many people would consider themselves picky-eaters. My guess is very few, as it has such a negative connotation.

One for Me, One for You: July Fabrics

My Choice - Heather Ross's West Hill Matryoshka in tan



Darcy's Choice

I can't tell you how surprised I was to find that Heather Ross fabric in a fat quarter stack at Joann's. They rarely ever have the "cool" fabric that all the kids are talking about. Really I the only other time I've seen the good stuff was when the carried a bolt of Alexander Henry's Apples & Pears, like two weeks after I decided to finally order it online.

Though we're getting to the end of this project technically, I have to admit I have fallen behind on my own versions of the squares. I swear I'll catch up on of these days. I'm just not sure it can happen before the holidays.

Oh well, putting together a quilt will be a nice way to jump start my '50 in 2010' count (more likely, seriously cripple any chance of completing 50 projects next year). Despite the fact that it will probably be one crazy ugly quilt, I look forward to finally having it done. I'm kinda getting sick of the fleece blankets, especially the ones we have around. In the winter they are static city. Plus they are dog hair magnets, impossible to get completely clean…and the ones we have really don't match ANY of our decor anymore but I can't justify buying new ones. Plus it will be nice to have like my very own heirloom, especially one that's so special having been created with my best friend.

The Big To Do

Not that this picture has anything to do with this post, but isn't she cute? And two days of text-only posts would be lame.

I'm a big believer in the "to do" list.

I carry a little notebook in my bag and am constantly jotting down things I need to do, want to do, groceries to get, books to read, etc. It helps me focus during the day to the notebook beside me, when I think of something I need to do, I jot it down and then it's not on my mind for the rest of the day.

But you know what. Lately these "to do" lists have been letting me down (and then even more so after we returned from vacation). Though the lists weren't getting any longer - daily they are pretty lengthy to begin with - but I was finding I was having a difficult time tackling any of it, let alone all of it.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the change may have come when I started C25King. My priorities shifted. Well, that's good that I figured that out. But then when we returned from vacation, I found I had very little (ok, zero) motivation to do anything in the household upkeep department. Case in point: the laundry we did the week before leaving on vacation was still sorted and on the chair in our bedroom until a three weekends ago! It sat and I picked out of it for nearly 6 weeks. I know, I know, how does that happen?! All I can say is thank goodness I bought new clothes for vacation because that really helped get through 6 weeks of laundry negligence.

So my motivation for household upkeep kept dipping closer and closer to zero, Mike was trying to pick up the slack, but that's not fair, and that motivation deficit was starting to creep into other areas of life. Case in point: It took me a month and a half to edit all our vacation photos, and therefore nearly two months to post a recap of the vacation on this here blog.

Finally a couple weeks ago, I realized I really needed to swing things around or else I'd become something I really don't want to become. My house would become a sty. I'd eventually lose motivation to exercise. Eating habits would revert, then worsen. And I'd spend a lot of time laying on the couch watching the home shopping network because its what's on.

So I came up with a new system.

Instead of amassing a giant list of things that I need/want to get done each day after work, I decided I needed to pare that down to three things.

My 3 Goals Today.

Three is a manageable number. It helps me make sure the things really count in the grand scheme of things. And it doesn't get me stressed out to see three things on the list, like a list of 10 or 15 would (yes, my lists would include piddly things each night that quickly add up). In addition to the three goals, I also try to come up with some sort of incentive to the goals done, like being able to sit down and watch a favorite tv show or knit. I tell myself if I can get one goal completed and another started then it's ok to sit down for 30 minutes or an hour to laugh or be intrigued in front of the tube.

I've been at this for a few weeks now and it's really helping me get things done (eg: vacation photos - several hundred in 2 days! instead of 2 weeks to get through 1 day's worth). And changing my outlook on a lot of things. Where before I was slipping down an unhealthy, dirty slope, I am now seeing the light of motivation to do a lot of things (new cleaning routines and purging to name a few) and where before I would probably jump right into all these new ideas I had, I am using my 3 Goals Today to manage my enthusiasm so I don't end up burning myself out.

If you're finding you're having a tough time getting things done or you're getting overwhelmed, I recommend giving 3 Goals a shot.

Masochistic Mondays: week 14

The Stats (as of November 2, 2009)
Starting weight: 188 lbs
Current weight: 181.7 lbs

Well, it seems like last Monday was just a bad day. A really bad day. Though I'm not quite sure I want to believe my Wii Fit anymore, it's been really consistent this week (from Wednesday on - I've been doing a daily check) so I'll have to let go of my pessimism. It was just a shock last week that I feel like something must be wrong with it now to get me back to my average. I tried using our digital scale as a comparison, but I had managed to somehow crack the casing and it hasn't been consistent since especially since our bathroom floor isn't even. So I guess I'll have to wait until my annual doctor's visit for an official reading.

Despite some really rainy weather lately, I've still managed to go out on my 3.2 mile course pretty regularly - Wednesday & Saturday last week as it was pouring Monday. I'm getting pretty consistent in my timing, so I've stopped using my Couch to 5K app (I finished the official program a week or so ago, I've just been using it for timing prompts now). I'm now pushing myself to run through a distance landmark. It's tough, especially as the weather cools down because my legs seem to take a longer time to warm up and then tire more easily, but I do like a challenge and most days the challenge of trying to reach my point is enough to keep me going. As of my last run, I was up to running 2.4 miles straight and just shy of 3 miles total - yay.

The thing I really need to do is to actually sign up for the event. November 21 is quickly approaching and those bells aren't going to jungle themselves.

Cookbook Challenge: How to Eat Supper #11

The Splendid Table's Green Apple, Cheese & Chard Oven Omelet

Today begins the annual challenge that thousands of bloggers across the world take on…NaBloPoMo. Attempting to ramp up your blogging and readership by posting every day in the month of November.

I've attempted before (and even it's cousin, A Post A Day In May), but I've never quite made it the whole 30 days (or 31 in the case of May). Yet, here I am again. Giving it another shot. This time of year could easily lend itself to slacking on the blog front and I'm always up for a challenge, so I say "why not?" every year.

So here am I starting off with an easy one. In both sense. I've been sitting on this picture for awhile…and it's an easy dinner to throw together.

I was a bit apprehensive of eggs (as we know, not my favorite) and apples cooked together with a vegetable I had never had before - chard. And despite being a bit heavy on the chard, I didn't want to waste any as I had had a tough time finding it so I may have put a bit more than was called for, this was pretty good. I actually had a tough time being able to pick out a discernible piece of apple once it was all cooked. So there was no weirdness of oh-I'm-eating-eggs-with-my-apple-pie-filling.

That being said, I'm not sure I would ever take the time to hunt down chard again to make this dish. Especially when it's only the two of us. Because, I mean, we ate this thing for breakfast & lunch for at least three days after the initial dinner.