Can we really be altruistic?

Sometimes I think there is no such thing as altruism. Doing some small good for someone else makes me feel just as good if not better.

Lately, I have felt this strong affinity to help out a young unwed mother, whose family (except her mom) are trying to make her give the baby up for adoption.

A good friend asked me why I felt so strongly about this person and this cause in particular. I can't really think of any one super strong reason, though I have several smaller reasons.

For one, I feel that every child deserves to be celebrated and cherished and every mother - especially new mothers deserve to be honored. And I definitely was the lucky recipient of much love and celebration during my pregnancy and after my daughter's birth.

Another is that I was raised in a church that preached very strongly in favor of adoption when a mother is unwed. While I think that is an option that should certainly be open to a woman - I don't think it is something that should be pushed on people - EVER!! There is just too much at stake to let someone else make that decision for you or even influence you in it. Ideally a woman in this situation will have a good sounding board and people who will be straight with her about the consequences of her choices. Each of us has to live with our decisions, so I think we should take full ownership of them for better or worse. Sorry for the soapbox - I was fed the "free agency" thing while being told what to choose for a little too long and now it makes me angry to see that happening to others.

Perhaps the most compelling reason for me right now, is that I feel like my small contribution towards this young mother and child will actually make a big difference in their lives. And how often do we (and by we I mean human beings) get the opportunity to make a concrete difference in someone's life - especially at such a special life meridian. I really feel like I am the lucky one to find someone truly in need so that I can repay a little of the human kindness shown to me in so many ways big and small.

Cool soap site

Ok, I will admit that I have had a few less than favorable run-ins with handmade soap. While I think it is an awfully nice sentiment, I like the creaminess of a bar of dove soap. So this was the one requirement for the dish cloth swap that I wasn't really excited about. It's hard to get excited about giving something you would just as soon not get yourself - KWIM?.

But, I just found the coolest soap site with all kinds of soaps that I am actually excited to give (and to try myself). My spoilee doesn't like lavender or vanilla scents, but there are lots of other good options on here. I think I may go with the green tea soap for her and I may try the lavender or jasmine for me - we shall see. I may get a bar for my mom's bday too - she is one who actually does appreciate handmade soaps.

Bomb Week at Work

This past week the building that I work in had bomb threats MTW and so we have been on lock down and higher security. It was quite crazy. Luckily no one was actually hurt, the bomber did not actually bomb the building and I was able to work from home for several afternoons.

One of the days when we were evacuated, my car was stuck in the garage below the building. I took Ryan's car home and he took the train. The next morning I took the train in and used the opportunity to start on the dish cloth for my secret pal. I am pretty sure she will really like it because it is going to have one of her favorite colors. I can't give any more details because I have not done a very good job of keeping myself anonymous and she could easily find her way to my blog.

Dish Cloth exchange - week 1 question

Now that in some geographic locations the weather is starting to turn cooler, do you change the type of yarn(s) you knit/crochet with? If so, what do you now knit/crochet with instead and why? If not, why do you not switch and what do you knit/crochet with?

As a new knitter, this is my first cooler weather change. I am considering trying to make something wearable - like a sweater, but I think I should have started a bit earlier in the year if I hope to be wearing it by the end of the winter. So instead, I am busy working on some gifts for various people right now. I am also getting really excited about the Charmed Knits book that is coming my way from zooba v. soon.

The changing of seasons is inspiring me to change out my color pallette a little bit. I think I may go to work on some halloween colored discloths for myself. I just have my doubts on how black cotton will look after a few uses.

Dish Cloth Swap Questionnaire

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been doing it?

I have been crocheting on and off since I was about 10 years old, my grandma kay taught me one Christmas and I have been hooked ever since.
Recently (within the last year) I picked up knitting and I love it! I am self-taught, though to be fair to my grandma miller - she taught me one Christmas when I was a teenager, so it was probably easier to reteach myself with Internet tutorials after her kind tutelage.

2. Have you made dischloths before? Do you use them yourself, give them as gifts, or both?

I love dishcloths! I have made several for myself and I have given several away as gifts too. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well received they are.

3. What's your favorite cotton to make cloths from? What cotton would you like to try that you haven't before ?

I love the peaches and cream; sugar and cream is nice too. I would actually really like to try a cotton/linen blend for a cloth or seven.

4. If you knit, do you prefer circular or straight needles? For all, do you prefer wooden, metal, or plastic needles?

I prefer straight needles and I appreciate all types. I am a newbie knitter so I have only tried metal and bamboo.

5. What are your favorite colors? Any colors you don't like much?

I love color. I haven't seen a color yet that doesn't work well as a dishcloth.

6. What do you like best about Autumn?

I love the crisp smell in the air, the fresh apples (and going apple picking), I love the baking and I love wearing sweaters and corduroy again.

7. Pies: Pumpkin? Apple? Pecan? All of em? or No Thanks!

I will take a small bite of each - Pecan then Pumpkin then apple (if I still have room).

8. When you were a kid, were you the one who couldn't wait to get started with school , or the one who overslept on the 1st day?

I was the one who couldn't wait. I am a morning person with a strong aversion to being late, oversleeping is an extremely rare event for me.

9. Do you celebrate Halloween? (The real key here guys is especially knowing if you have an aversion to the holiday or little goodies/decorations associated with it, given the time-frame of the swap)

I love Halloween. I think it is actually my favorite holiday. I already have my daughter's Halloween costume for the year and every year I dress up as a witch to pass out candy out of my black Calderon. It is such fun.

10. If you had to choose just 3 edible 'goodies' to eat for a full year, what 3 would you choose?

Dark Chocolate; Kona Coffee and super dark chocolate!

11. Do you have any pets? Kids? Husbands who seem like kids? ;)

I have a daughter - 2 yo and a husband. No pets - though I really want a fish :)

12. If you were to describe a particular yarn that shares traits of your personality, what would it be and why?

I think Linen is a good yarn to describe me. I can be a little rough around the edges, but quite soft after a few washings :).

13. Do you use your cloths mostly for dishcloths, or as facecloths?

I use them mostly as dishcloths, though my daughter likes to take one to her bath (along with some plastic dishes to clean while she is in there).

14. Favorite Fall Holiday: Halloween or Thanksgiving and why? (Feel free to share another fall memory if you do not celebrate either of these holidays)
I love both fall holidays. But if I were to choose I would say Halloween. I love dressing up and I love giving candy to little kids and having an excuse to dress my child up and I love decorating my house with pumpkins and black accents everywhere. I love Halloween parties and spooky treats and spooky drinks.

15. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should know about?

I don't really like smelly things (heavily perfumed) they tend to give me a headache. I prefer clean/light scents.

Coolest Sweater Ever!!

I found the coolest sweater I have ever seen and I wish I had the skills to make it. If you go to Practical Polly's blog, she has several really good pics of it. I hope she decides to publish the pattern because even though I am sure it would take me awhile to figure out, it would be well worth the effort for this beauty. Knitting is so cool!

In the meantime, I shall continue to knit dishcloths, because dishcloths are really cool and really useful. Perhaps I'll take a picture of all of my beautiful dishcloths someday soon.

Back to work

Being back to work is working well for me. I am really enjoying it. Though I must admit, I don't enjoy it when I have down time at work like I used to (luckily, I am busy enough that I have only had a few moments like that). It is strange though. I feel like I really like working and I feel like I am doing something good for the world in general. But when there is downtime, I wish I was home just being silly with Audrey for 5 or 10 minutes.

The real adjustment has been the hours. I am not used to waking up at 5:15 in the morning and being out the door by 5:50. I get into work at 6:30. I really love doing 4 10 hour days instead of 5 8 hour days, but I really don't have a whole lot of time at home to lounge about during my work week. I really have to be in bed by 9:15 or else I don't feel like a very happy camper. Which means that I am getting ready for bed around 8:45 - it is almost like being a kid again (I had a bedtime all the way through high-school - 9:30).

Audrey is adjusting pretty well to me being gone. We just finished our second full week of Genny being here and Audrey was actually fussier this week than last (for me, she gives G no problems at all). She is also waking up really early too - 6 ish. I am hoping once she adjusts, she will get back to her normal sleep habits - 7:30 ish pm - am. But she still seems to be her happy self.

Walkability

One thing I have always loved about my mom's houses in Seattle is the walkability factor. We walked to the grocery store, the library, the coffee shop, restaurants, parks, etc. As a kid, summertime was wide open because everything was within walking distance - no need to wait for a ride. So I was thrilled to discover a website that rates the walkability of any location - walkscore.com.

My current location got an 11 out of 100 - and I think that score is too high because someone nearby sells nutrition supplements out of their home, so it looks like food is a short walk away, but it really isn't. If you do check it out - please post your walkscore in the comments, I would love to see who lives in the walkiest place.

Housekeeping

Today Ryan and I made a list of all the things that we wanted done in our house - cleaning, organizing, etc. Then I took the things that I felt ownership of (such as cleaning out the fridge, planning the menu, and making a grocery list) and started on those things while Ryan started on the rest of the list. We have done so many things it is fantastic and best of all I have our menu planned for a week +, which for some reason is really the key to me feeling peaceful and happy as a homemaker/mom/wife.

Along the idea of menus/meal tricks for working moms - I know the assembly dinners for the freezer are a big thing out here. I haven't ever been to one and am reluctant to try one (cost/quality issues). The Dinner Diva had an idea that I like (though I probably will use my own recipes). She offers 5 for the freezer menus based on a certain type of meat - like chicken or ground beef. I like this idea because then you can take advantage of loss-leader sales and buy in bulk with a manageable plan. So next time I see a great deal I am going to try it.

My latest food idea is to try to implement a soup night. Soups are generally really healthy, full of veggies and beans and grains, delicious (homemade of course), frugal (you can use lots of leftovers and smaller bits of meat and still have the full wonderful flavors) and best of all they freeze well. So my plan is to make soup once a week as dinner and freeze the leftovers (in portion sized containers) to take in my lunches to work. I figure since I will be doing 10 hour days and I like to eat lots of smaller meals I will need to pack much more than a typical sandwich and fruit if I am going to be a happy camper. I think soup will bridge that gap beautifully.

So tonight we are having a tomato lentil soup. Any fellow soup lovers out there?

Cool things

I just discovered librarything.com. It is fabulous (and free)!

You can put all of your books into it or just some of them and then post the covers on your blog - as you see on mine. I am not quite tricky enough to get rid of the standard headings that they put on the code to copy and paste, but hopefully I will figure it out soon. Even with the headings, I like it much better than my old list - if for no other reason than it automatically pulls up the book covers.

New Magazine subscription

Someone was kind enough to get me a new magazine subscription for my bday that just arrived yesterday - Airstream Life. It is awesome. I nearly read the whole thing before going to bed and dreaming of doing my own tour of America.

Birthday

Since I last posted, I turned 31! And I had a great birthday. My sister, William, was in town for the past couple of weeks and helped Ryan sneekily purchase the most beautiful pair of earrings for me (William and I were shopping earlier in the week and I saw them at a jewelry counter and fell in love, so Ryan had her buy them for me). He also got me a cute pair of light pink crocs (which I have wanted forever) and a movie.

I told Audrey that since it was mama's bday she had to give me lots of kisses all day - and she obliged.

William, aside from flying out to visit me, also painted my bedroom (the cathedral ceilings made it more of an act of kindness than painting alone would have been). I also got a watch, and several new shirts and Ryan's parents got me the Anne of Green Gables DVDs set. Plus, lots of people called, sent cards and emails. It is surprising how much it still means to me (at this old of an age) to hear from people I know and love on my bday.

One of the best parts of the whole celebration was William and I having a bday adventure. Margaret was kind enough to volunteer to watch Audrey so Will and I could do something fun. So we were going to go get mani/pedis, see a movie and go to eat at my favorite Thai restaurant (Thai in Shirlington); but I decided (it is nice to be the sole person in charge on your bday) that we were going to drive 40 miles south to tour Airstream trailers - because I have wanted one forever and I have never even seen the inside of one. We got a little lost and made a couple of wrong turns. That was actually fun.

Warning: tangent - See, I live in what I consider to be the southernmost part of Northern Virginia. Technically, Virginia is Southern. But Northern Virginia, being a Washington, D.C., suburb isn't really "the South". But anything further south than me and you are in fact in "the South". For example my I-95 exit has Ikea, Potomac Mills, Costco etc. The next exit south has Cracker Barrel, Waffle House, etc. There are quite a few places in my general area that I may even say still have a strong Southern influence. We live off a parallel road to I-95 - route 1 or Jefferson-Davis Highway. If you head south about 8 miles, there is a huge (maybe 50-60 ft tall) crucifix (complete with larger than life Jesus attached) on the side of the road all on its own - no church or anything. Ryan and I now use that as a point of reference, e.g. head towards Jesus on Rt 1 or vise versa.

So (back to the point) driving south on I-95 for 40 miles puts you in the South. We pulled up to a gas station to ask for directions and the only spot available was between two trucks - one was a monster truck, the other was an old well-loved truck with some colorful bumper stickers including: Keep Honking, I'm reloading and Redneck. And as we were pulling out of the gas station across Rt 1 was a huge church (they are everywhere) with a mural on the street side advertising the times of services and motorcycles (I never even knew the two were related). So we certainly enjoyed the colorfulness of our detour.

Finally we got to tour Airstream trailers to our hearts content and we both agreed they were awesome and we both want to own one and go camping together. Then it was too late to fit in all of the other stuff, so we headed North into Alexandria for lunch at my favorite restaurant and then ate so much that we had to take our Maggie Moos ice cream to go.

Working Woman

The interview at BP went well - and in fact they offered me the job and flexibility - I am going to work 3 10 hour days in the office, 1 10 hour day from home and have Friday's off. The only point of contention was the start date.

My sister G is going to come and live with us, but she could not be bribed out of her own previous engagements and can't come until mid-August. In the end, I am going to start work on August 13 and Grandma and Ryan will take time off for the first week so that we can get G settled in and Audrey used to her. Then G will be watching Audrey until the end of the year. Then she is going back to school for Winter semester and we are (tentatively) planning on getting an au pair.

Child care is a huge deal for working moms and was almost enough to make me just turn down the offer completely - luckily for both myself and BP they were willing to let me start later.

In the end, I am v. excited to be going back to BP. I am really excited to work with some old colleagues and meet some new ones. I am also excited about doing the work and having a new challenge - the two countries I will be supporting have quite large programs. I am also thrilled that I will only be commuting 3 days a week. Around these parts - the commute is what really sucks the life out of you. Plus working from home one day will let me eat lunch with cute Audrey and make her dinner too.

Jobs

Tomorrow I have an interview at BearingPoint. I worked there for a little over a year about three years ago. It was one of those slightly crazy jobs where people just didn't really believe you when you told them what you did - which was foreign military sales - which is a nice way of saying arms dealing admin.

Part of me would really love to work there again - mainly because of the people. I met and am still good friends with some amazing people there. Some of whom are still there. It would be very nice to work with them again. Plus they have hinted that they would be willing to do some sort of part-time or flex-time arrangement - which is of course dreamy.

Part of me doesn't want to work there again because of the politics of it. It is the type of job that you can and do take home - not necessarily because there is not enough time to do your work, but because there are always so many cooks in the kitchen. I think I would be better at dealing with all of that now than I was then, if only because I know what to expect (more or less). Even so, I still wonder if that is what I want.

My other option, though an interview is still pending is with a small defense agency that I worked at right before having Audrey. They are hiring my old job again and have expressed a great deal of interest.

Again, part of me would love to work there again. The work itself was extremely interesting and the nature of the job made it semi-autonomous, though still part of a team. I also liked that it was not a job that I could bring home at all. I couldn't bring home papers, my computer, nothing. So, when I was done, I was done and that was nice. And they paid well - the philosophy there was, we want to hire and keep the best, so we are willing to compensate accordingly.

The down side - there isn't any possibility for part-time or flex-time arrangements - which I really want. And my good friend and old roommate who worked with me there is no longer there, so the social aspect is greatly reduced.

Latte my way

It is a well established fact that I make the best coffee around. And with the contest going on, I have had to come up with a new lower calorie way to make it just as delicious. My solution has been to make it iced - still using whole milk, raw sugar and a double shot of coffee. Here it is right before I put the ice in and mix it up. I love how beautiful the colors are and the way they blend.

Tightwad Gazette

"The Complete Tightwad Gazette" is one of my favorite books. It is a collection of newsletters over a period of six years. Ryan thinks I am a little crazy for reading it or perusing it as often as I do. But honestly it is a great read.

The whole premise of the newsletter (and therefore the book) is that frugality is a great way of life and can help you achieve your dreams. Amy (the author, who I feel is a kindred spirit and therefore I feel entitled to take the liberty of referring to her by her first name as if we were great friends) loves a challenge and she looks at being frugal as a great way to use her creativity - to fix a household item in need of repair or turn a failed batch of jam into something else useful and edible, etc.

I like Amy's no nonsense approach to life, parenting, decorating, organizing, etc. She is an upbeat person with a sense of personal responsibility - which I like. I also enjoy her sense of humor and her great drawings. Another aspect of tightwadding that I really appreciate is environmental. The whole idea that if you consume less you are causing less waste. I like her approach to recycling more than just bottles and paper - she finds new uses for all kinds of things. And I must say I am jealous that her family eats so well (and on so little). They have a tremendous garden and they can the surplus to use throughout the year. I have a few memories of eating home canned peaches and apricots and I can't remember anything store bought tasting quite as good.

For many years I have been a closet reader of this book with only Mary (I hope she won't mind me outing her) as my fellow tightwadder (I sent her a copy of the book for her birthday as soon as I discovered it - there are several other readers of my blog who almost received the same gift for your weddings, birthdays, xmas, etc.). My hope is that by telling the world that I am a proud tightwadder, perhaps other friends and family will join in the movement - it is really much more fun to be thrifty with friends. I do realize this is not for everyone, so do as Amy suggests and check it out from your local library first.

Good and Tough

Life is both good and tough. I think the hardest thing to figure out is what you really want and what *really* makes you happy.

Recently I have been feeling like I am missing a part of me - like I lost some part of me when I became Audrey's mom. I love being her mom, but I also love being me. I know the two aren't so separate but sometimes I feel like I am only her mom and not me - especially as a SAHM. I feel like this isn't quite coming out exactly how I am feeling it, but I am still going to try to express it - though perhaps rather ineloquently.

I have tried to jump into projects and things that interest me and I have really enjoyed them. Even so, I wonder if I wouldn't be happier working outside the home. I have talked to a couple of good friends who have pointed out how difficult it is for parents who are both working full-time. I agree and I think part-time would be ideal. That would give me something that is just mine and still lots of mommy time.

But then the idea of missing Audrey's cute giggles all day long, her hugs and kisses and tackles (yes she loves to tackle both me and her daddy) kills me. I love reading with her and running back and forth in the house holding hands and playing with the race cars or cuddling up for a movie. Would I *really* be more satisfied with my life if I am missing those moments - even a couple of days a week. I just don't know.

Not to mention the thought of putting her into a stranger's care is somewhat terrifying. And yet I have many friends (with extremely happy, smart, well-adjusted children) who do that and have great experiences with it. I could see Audrey enjoying playing with other children all day long and doing just great or being overwhelmed and just crying for mommy.

So how do you know what really makes you happy in life? What trade-offs are worth it for you and your family? Everyone just says "follow your heart" - but what if your heart wants to lead you down several paths at the same time?

Fitness Contest

Mary, Desiree and I are having a 3 month long fitness contest. I am really excited about this one. Mary and I used to always do contests as a way to motivate ourselves, but recently they just haven't been working out very well. We couldn't really think of anything that was both affordable and motivating. So when Mary called and told me that she and Desiree were trying to come up with a good contest, of course, I was in like Flinn (as they say).

We are blogging our contest at 3FitFriends.blogspot.com, should anyone be interested in following along.

Banana Muffins

Audrey used to love bananas and eat at least one a day. But now the novelty of eating what she has peeled herself has worn off and we have too many bananas. So the other day I decided to make banana muffins. I decided to try a new recipe from my Cooking Light cookbook. They were the best banana muffins I have ever had. The difference was wheat germ - it gives them a fabulous flavor and texture.

Slumber Party Movies

The other day there was a Bring It On Marathon on TV. Ryan was a little surprised to hear my declaration that I consider Bring It On and other movies in this general genre to be "great movies". I think what I really mean is that it is a great slumber party movie and even though I am no longer invited to slumber parties, I can still appreciate the spirit of them in a good movie.

This brings me to a list - great slumber party movies:
*Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
*Bring It On
*Nadia
*Stick It
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail
*Anne of Green Gables
*Clueless
*Much Ado About Nothing

For some reason I thought of a whole lot more earlier in the day - oh well.

Decluttering

I recently started reading a book called "Clutter's Last Stand" which I borrowed from the library. It has had a profound affect on the state of our house. The author points out how when you save everything 'just in case' you end up with so much junk that you can never find the thing when you actually need it and then you end up going out and purchasing the thing anew. He also talks about how much time we waste finding our stuff and then maintaining it. So I have been doing a major decluttering of our house. It has been liberating! I am definitely planning to travel through life a little lighter from now on.

So my project for this week is to actually tackle the office - which has long been the dumping ground for miscellaneous paper, cds, books, electronic equipment, etc. Wish me luck.

First Stitch

I just realized that even though I now knit a little bit almost everyday, I haven't even mentioned how this came to be. It all started earlier this year. You see for Christmas I wanted to make crafty things for people in my life - following my homemade sends love motto. So I made a knitting themed bag for Mary and included some needles, yarn and instructions so that she could learn to knit (as most of you know we have long been avid crocheters with crochet parties that were the stuff of legends).

Getting the knit kit together for Mary, made me want to learn to knit myself - so after I finished William's quilt, I finally took it up. It was actually quite easy to learn off the internet - several sites had great illustrations on various stitches and then with the arrival of the aforementioned knitting book. So... I am hooked.

Here are pics of one of the hand towels that I did for Mother's Day and a wash cloth that I did for my mom as well. There is a close-up of the hand towel so that you can see the neat texture/design of it. The wash cloth is so bright and happy that I actually got it wet - hoping it would bleed - so that I would have an excuse to keep it for myself. It did not bleed, so I sent it off to my Mama with love.

Mason-Dixon Knitting

I recently - several months ago - got a new book from zooba that I absolutely love - Mason Dixon Knitting. It is my first knitting book so I don't know much about the genre, but I must say it is fabulously fun to read. As I am reading it - looking at their projects and stories to go along with them, I can't help but feel like I am among friends (the type who love crazy projects and crocheting parties). I also can't help but want to try to knit everything they show in the book.

As I am a beginning self-taught knitter, I am trying to pace myself. Even so, I have made several hand towels and several dishcloths so far. In fact, I am hoping to be sponge free very soon. My goal is to have a fresh dishcloth for each day so that they never get that funky smell that I can not seem to microwave/dishwash out of my sponges.

For some reason though, perhaps it is the frugal fanny or the closet environmentalist in me, I am drawn to the rag ball rugs. I am desperately trying to think of a place in my house that needs a rug knit from strips of old clothes - unfortunately, nothing comes to mind. Maybe I will just have to make another denim quilt to satisfy my urge to reuse fabric in a useful way.

Seeing Indigo

Every once in awhile, I rediscover my favorite band of all time - The Indigo Girls. This time it was brought on by the title to a friend's blog entry. So I went and hunted down my actual cds and listened to them. It was fabulous. The Indigo Girls are so soul full and have actual substance to their songs. And nothing says cool like old school IG booming from a mini-van.

The Coffee Solution

Since leaving the church, I have rediscovered (I had a two-week rebellion in France as a 13 year old where I had cafe au lait, which was included with our dinner, almost every night) the joy of a good cup o joe in the morning. William says, and I humbly agree, that I make the best cup of coffee she has ever had. In fact, she always tries to talk me into opening my own coffee shop.

William also told me about my mom giving her a taste of her coffee when she was young and how much she didn't like it. So when Audrey asked for some of my drink, which she does with everything I consume, I thought I could give her a spoonful and she would hate it and never ask for it again. Well that backfired - lil' Miss Audrey loved it and kept signing for more.

Obviously, she is far too little to drink coffee, so I have come up with a clever solution. I heat up some milk for her and stir in a spoonful of molasses. That makes it very close to the same color as my latte and Audrey is very happy with flavored milk.

Flossing milestone

This post is probably TMI in a major way - but I finally finished off my first whole container of floss in my life. This is not actually as bad as it sounds. Every year we each get a container of floss in our stockings and so we have quite a few that are started in some way or another. Plus floss is one of those things that you end up buying every time you buy a toothbrush or paste, just to be sure you have some (which I recently realized I have a whole box full).

Until I started FLYlady I was a sporadic flosser at best. Since FLYlady, I have been flossing 2-3 times a week. When William came to visit however, that all changed (she has braces and is a fanatic about dental hygiene these days) - I have been a daily flosser since. She mentioned that she goes through floss rather quickly and I mentioned that I have never gone through floss at all. So here I am proving that I have seen the flossing light!

Project - car in garage

We have a very small one car garage, which until now we have used as storage space. Well this week that changed. I was watching an Oprah on Monday about a family who had Peter Walsh - an organizing guru come and help them get their crazy house in order.

The first thing they tackled was the family's two car garage that didn't have room for any cars. He pointed out that the family's most expensive possessions were their cars and they were storing them outside in the elements while storing a few hundred dollars worth of miscellaneous stuff in their garage. When he said that - I realized how utterly silly it is for me to do the same.

So, today while Audrey was asleep I emptied our garage of all its junk and put the mini-van in it. It is a very snug fit. So snug in fact, that I can not get the sliding door open because of the garbage can. Needless to say, I need to keep decluttering in there so that I can rearrange. (I think I am going to put the food storage stuff in the laundry room and then I should be able to fit all of our painting stuff on the shelf and move the garbage can to where the painting stuff is.)

So my project this week of getting the car in the garage is nearly complete. However, my project for next week of finding a new home for all our stuff is just begun.

Crafty Adventures

I finally gave William the demin quilt that I have been working on for what seems like forever. Luckily she loves it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before she took it home, so nothing to post by way of picture. Hopefully William will take a picture of it and send it to me and then I can post one for all to enjoy.

Thanks for the pic William!

One can dream

I found an intriguing advertisement in the real estate section of the WSJ for a private restored Tuscan estate called Castello di Casole. Now of course, I still really love my Mexican casa idea, but there is something so romantic about a Tuscan Villa that just can't be beat. I may have to put Under the Tuscan Sun on my netflicks list again.

Anne of Green Gables

I borrowed some of the Anne of Green Gables series from my MIL under the auspices of reading them aloud to Audrey. At first I did just that. But truth be told, Audrey is a bit young to listen to a story being read to her without pictures or the like, so she got bored of listening and played while I still read aloud to her. Then I just got into the story too much myself and I just kept reading without her. So I just finished reading Anne of Green Gables for the first time in its entirety. (Prior to this I read an abridged version once.) The real thing was absolutely delightful! I can't wait to read the rest of the series. And I really want to visit Prince Edward Island - which sounds so magical.

Bikram Yoga

William has been raving about Bikram or Hot yoga for a couple of months now. She is completely addicted and goes several times a week. When I first heard about it, I thought she was crazy. It is 90 minutes of yoga in a 105 degree room. Somehow, I gradually found myself wanting to try it too. Yesterday I finally got my chance.

The room was shockingly hot - I guess I didn't realize what 105 felt like. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when an older fellow, our teacher, walked in to start the class in a speedo - but I was. William had warned me to keep myself hydrated so I brought in a big bottle of cold water - which was luke warm half-way through class and down-right hot by the end.

I was pleasantly surprised that I made it through the whole class. When I walked out of the room my whole body felt like jello. But about an hour later, I felt energetic and good in a way I have never felt before and it lasted about half the day. Coincidentally I think it took about that long for my face to return to a normal (non-red) shade. So even though I am good and sore today, I am going to try to do it every weekend.

Reading

Recently someone asked me what I was reading and I was a little embarrassed to tell them I had read three Harry Potter books back to back and was planning to keep going. The truth is my daily reading is almost exclusively the Wall Street Journal. I read at least four or five articles a day and often more over the weekend section - which is my favorite. I rarely read anything that has "hedgefund" or similarly boring stuff in the title. I always read their wine and cocktails articles - because I don't know much about that stuff and would like to learn. I generally read their real estate articles and especially the column talking about who is selling and buying what for how much - v. interesting. I usually read their product review sections - I found the section on affordable suiting very useful as was their review of shaving mirrors. So you could safely say that I am a soft reader of the WSJ - with one exception - I always read articles about companies that my investment club owns or is thinking about buying.

FruFru

Ocasionally I get a bit nostalgic for our old 68 VW poptop camper van - Frufru. I can think of a number of times where we got stranded when Frufru broke down, but I can think of even more times when we had great fun at campouts, road trips, etc. in Frufru.

So it is no surprise to anyone who knows me that I regularly look at VW vans on ebay and dream of owning one again someday.

Harry Potter

Last month, I found out that HP 7 is finally going to come out in July. I am definitely not a fanatic, but I do like Harry Potter quite a bit. I remember when HP 6 came out I hadn't read the first 5 books for several years and I felt like I was forgetting so much history and depth to the characters. So this time I decided I was going to reread all 6 books before I read HP 7. I figured if I read one a month I would be done just in time to get book 7.

I am happy to report that I finished the first two books already and I am really enjoying this. Harry Potter books are just fun and have a way of making you feel like you are in on some secret world - just hiding among the muggles like the other great witches and wizards.

If anyone else would like to join me, it isn't too late...

Project - blinds

This week my project is to put up the valances for the last 4 windows in our house where the valances didn't fit. Sadly this project has been in the works since we bought our house and put up all the blinds in the first place nearly 1 1/2 years ago.

Steps to do:
-Measure the 4 windows
-cut the valances to size
-install the valances

Project - basement door

It is funny how sometimes I can just procrastinate something for no real reason at all. Lately, I have been trying to get to the small and big things that I procrastinate finished one project per week. So this week I put up a paper shade over the window to the basement door. This project took me literally all of 5 minutes - and yet, I have had the supplies to do it for months just sitting in the garage. At least it is done now.

As a side note, I must give credit to Mary Merna for letting me in on the one project a week idea. She found a blog where the lady does that and posts her progress.

Milanya the mini-van

I have been trying to figure out a good name for my beloved car for quite some time. The other day, it just hit me - Milanya the mini-van. I am so happy to finally have a good name.

Sleep Solution

I have felt generally sleep deprived for a while, but recently (two days ago) I decided to take a stand. I decided that for one week, I was going to head up to my bed at 9:00 with the goal of being in bed by 9:30. So far I am already feeling much better.

Gilby Baby Blues

Ryan and I went to a Wizards game today for his 30th bday. It was one of the worst games I have ever seen. The Wizards played like they didn't care and/or had a collective hang-over.

Gilby Baby said he was going to score 50 points this game - he scored 9. He couldn't hit a three point shot to save his life.

I am still a huge Gilby Baby fan, but he really has to just stop buying into his own hype. He is fantastic, but it would be nice if he let his playing do the talking.

Music

Recently I realized that I live in a silent house. We don't have any radio or anything except my ipod and computer. So I went down to the basement and got Ryan's old stereo with a cd player and speakers and brought them upstairs and hooked them up and viola... the stereo only plays AM radio. So today I am going to try to add on an FM antenna and then I am going old school and getting some of my cds out and I am going to listen to music again - yay!

Speaking of going old school - the salvation army near my house has a huge selection of albums (vinyl records) for $1 each. Most of them are pretty random, but the other day I found some of my all time favorite and I just couldn't resist. I came home with the Footloose and Flashdance soundtracks. I am so excited about these albums. There is just one hitch - I don't have a record player... Oh well, I can still work on my record collection sans record player.

I also recently realized that I don't really like most kids music. Poor Audrey - the music that I consider to be kids music "for both of us" is the classical stuff. I went online and found a good list of kids music for adults who don't really like kids music and I added it to Audrey's wish list. I may end up purchasing some of it myself just so we can have some good stuff to enjoy together.

And since this post is becoming a hodge podge, I will also share a little known fact - my favorite musical genre is R&B. Audrey and I listen to R&B almost exclusively on the radio in the car. I think I must have been black in a former life.

Hanging Pictures

For some reason the hammer and nail bug bit me today and I walked around our house hanging up pictures every where I could. Surprisingly we had a lot of framed things - posters, art, pictures, etc., that were just stacked up in corners here and there. I was waiting to find the perfect thing to put in every room and so most of the rooms in my house had bare walls. Well today I just decided something was better than nothing. The difference is amazing. Our living room is still basically bare, but the basement, and the master bedroom look tremendously better.

Hair

I guess I have been feeling like I wanted something new with my hair lately, so when I went to get a trim a couple of weeks ago, I came out with blondish orange highlights - not a good look for me. I went back the next day and they turned the highlights a cherry cola color - and now I love them.

So yesterday I decided to get some hot rollers and try to do my hair with a bit of curl in it - I am hoping it looks as good as I imagined it would.

Chili

I think chili is a great way to use leftovers so that they are actually delicious. Yesterday I made what was perhaps my finest chili ever, and used up all kinds of leftovers in the process. Here are the leftovers (from the freezer) that I used:
-corn
-ground turkey
-ground beef
-marbled steak
-tomato paste
-tomato sauce

Frugal Food endeavors

Last year I started off doing great with the $50/week for food, but then I got quite, how shall we say, flexible, as to what constituted a week. So this year I am trying something new. I am taking out a whole months worth of cash for food ($200) and for non-food items (diapers, shampoo, etc.) ($50) on the first of each month. Then when it is out, I won't spend anything else on food until the next month.

It worked pretty well for January. That is until Ryan and I went to Costco on Sunday with only $11 cash for the rest of the months groceries. I figured this would be just enough for the basics (milk, bananas and bread) and then we wouldn't be tempted to get any extras. I was right, it was enough for the basics, but Ryan talked me into getting one the foods they were sampling, and since we were going to have to write a check anyway...

Ikea

We went to Ikea over the weekend - which is always a crazy idea - that place is a zoo. But we braved it and bought an entertainment center with glass doors that lock so that lil' Miss Audrey can't open the DVD player at will. So we now have our coffee table back and I am very pleased to have a place to rest my dogs again. :)

Yogurt part deux

I love my yogurt maker. My first batch didn't turn out at all - I tried not heating the milk first (the manual says that should work as long as you are using pasteurized milk). The second batch was delicious, but a little thinner than the store bought kinds we are used to. The third batch I added a bit of powdered milk to thicken it up and it turned out perfect. It is so creamy and smooth. I just add a little brown sugar and it is like I am having a brown cow maple yogurt - yum.

I am actually surprised by how easy it is to make. Seriously, you heat the milk to 180, let it cool to 115, add the starter (other yogurt) and any other fixings (powdered milk, fruit, whatever), pour it into the cute little jars and leave it alone for six hours. The hardest part is not disturbing it for six hours. This is a new staple for us - I feel so frugal just thinking about it.

Yogurt

I have wanted a yogurt maker for a long time. I really love yogurt, but I don't really like how sweet or how tart most brands are. The one exception is Brown Cow yogurt. There is nothing better than a little container of Brown Cow Maple whole milk yogurt - seriously a little slice of heaven. But since Brown Cow is expensive and hard to find it is a rare indulgence. I knew there had to be a better way.

As a family (of 3) we spend around $10/week on yogurt (Audrey's Yobaby is $3 for 6, Ryan's Yoplait is $4 for 8 and my Danactive is $2 for 4) and since I try to spend only $50/week total on groceries, this is a significant chunk of our grocery bill. I am so excited to save so much money. The major expense for yogurt is the milk. I figure it takes just under 1/2 gallon to make a batch of 7 6 oz containers and I will probably need to make yogurt twice a week. So I am basically adding one gallon of milk to our grocery budget - which is about $2.50 at Costco. I am feeling so frugal just thinking about it!!

After some research, I decided to order a yogurt maker with my Christmas money. My mom suggested getting one that uses glass jars and I took her advice. I just got the package today and I can hardly wait to make it tomorrow.

VA Holidays in review

It seems that it has been a crazy few weeks since I last updated my blog. We had Christmas first in VA - it was lovely. Audrey is at a really fun age for Christmas. Here is a list of the fun things we did:
1. Went to the National Yule Log/Christmas Tree/Menorrah display in front of the White house. After looking at all this stuff, we had a mini car picnic with hot cocoa, cookies, veggies, and fruit. Then we all headed to the Temple to see the lights. Audrey was out like a light at this point, so we just drove through this year.
2. Stayed over Christmas eve at the in-laws. We had our big dinner and program after visiting the old folks home and passing out candy, while my FIL played the piano (which he does at this home every other Sunday evening and they absolutely love him). Then we watched Muppets Christmas Carol (which is the best rendition around).
3. Opened presents Christmas morning with the family. It was fun to watch Audrey's reactions to everything.
4. Ate Christmas brunch at Westfields Marriot. This is one of my favorite traditions that the in-laws have introduced me to. It is always delicious.
5. Christmas evening when we got to our own home, we opened presents that had been sent to us and that we had for each other. I think we should do this the following day next year because we were all pretty tired at that point.
6. We had a girls night out activity (a broadway play at the Kennedy center) and a boys night out activity (hockey game tickets) a few days later.

Fried Potatoes

Smell is a powerful memory stimulator. This morning I was making fried potatoes (to eat with our eggs) and the smell of the potatoes frying reminded me of my freshman year and particularly of my friend, Mary Merna. She and I would fry potatoes all the time - good food, good times.

Serious Business

Ryan and I decorated our tree again this year, sans Audrey. It is one of my favorite things to do with Ryan because he gets so crazy about it. He has a certain way that trees must be decorated and any deviation from said way, is unthinkable. So of course, I enjoy putting the "balls" (which he says use of the word "balls" instead of "ornaments" should automatically disqualify me from being able to put them up this year) in the wrong spots (big on top, small on the bottom, same colors close together, etc.) just to watch him go crazy about it when he finds them misplaced.

Usually, I move a ball or two into the wrong spot several times throughout the season just to watch Ryan notice them and call out "Oh No! This is all wrong! Amber, did you move this ornament here? It's a good thing I saw this to fix it." or something along those lines. Let the merriment begin.

Homemade

There is something special about homemade things. My sister William made me a couple of coffee mugs that I love and each morning I think about how her perfectly polished little hands formed the handle to be so comfy. We also have a couple of beautiful afgans on our couches from my grandmas. Other than those few exceptions, I think our house is store bought. This is unfortunate, because homemade things have a way of bringing the people you love into your home.

When I was a child, my mom used to ask us to make her something for Christmas, Bday, Mother's Day, etc. I always thought she was a little on the crazy side - nobody wants homemade presents, they are just plain embarrassing. Now I firmly agree with my mom. So, this year, I decided to try to make a gift or two for Christmas. I am not going to say who the "lucky" recipients are (other than Audrey, because I think they read this blog) but it has been (still is) a lot of fun to make their presents. I also want Audrey to know how great homemade presents are, so I am making a scarf for her.

Long story short, if you get a slightly tacky cross-stitch from me in the mail, hang it with pride and please know it was made with love.

Holiday Decorating

I enjoy decorating for the holidays, but only to a certain point. I like a few cute chachkies that are holiday appropriate, but too many feels cluttered. So this year I was surprised to realize that, aside from the tree, my entire holiday decorating took only 30 minutes to complete. I am listing them for my own personal benefit to know what to do next year without having to spend an hour rifling through the boxes to make sure I didn't miss anything (kind of a checklist for the future).

Things I did this year:
-put up our 2 advent calendars (felt trees with mini ornaments) one in the entry and one above the fireplace in the library
-three stockings on the fireplace mantel
-the "Ho Ho Ho" candles that William gave me last year on the right side of the fireplace
-the nutcrackers and the nutcracker book on the left side of the mantel
-the candy dish on the ledge in the kitchen
-the evergreen candle in front of the silver plate in the library
-evergreen garland around the stair rails with a red bow on the end of the banisters
-snowflake candle in entry bathroom with snowflake hand-towels
-got out the Christmas mugs in the cupboard - for hot cocoa
-the fudge container on the book shelf
-wreath on the front door

Things I would like to eventually add to my decorating list:
-Nice wreath over fireplace (I almost bought an actual pine wreath at costco yesterday - but my frugal sensibilities kept me from it)
-Replace 2 advent calendars with one that we actually really love
-Holiday bedding for my bedroom - flannel holiday sheets (or just a solid red or green) and a holiday quilt and pillow shams
-Holiday rug for the entry
-Wreaths for back doors

Sugar-Free Update

I did really well for the first few days (M,T,W) - and I felt really great. Then Thanksgiving came and I had one piece of Pumpkin Pie with whip cream - not too bad. But i repeated that the next day and the next and followed that with some homemade goodies that my sister G and I made while she was here - fudge and sugar cookies. So I fell off the sugar-free wagon and by the end of my days I was feeling lousy again. So I am recommitting.

The key to my success (on the 3 days I was successful) was to eat small healthy snacks often. I never went without food for longer than 3 hours. I ate cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, grapefruit, oatmeal with flax, bananas, apples, green beans, frozen veggies, etc. If I have those things on hand and in mind, I can avoid my (disarmingly strong) urge to eat a sweet treat.

JAS

I am so excited. I am going to attend my first Jane Austen Society meeting next Saturday in DC. I haven't officially joined the Society yet, as I figured I should attend a meeting first and see if it is really my cup of tea or not. It is a luncheon at the Embassy Suites and the speaker's topic is titled: "A Rushing Stream: Reading Beyond Austen". To be honest, I am a little skeptical about how much I will like this topic. I am also a little nervous that I will be the most under-read of all the Janeites there. I mean I have read all of her works at one point, and some of them many times over, but to be honest, I haven't read any Austen since the summer. What if everyone else reads her much more frequently and think I am a bit of poser.

Sugar-Free

Sunday afternoon I had an epiphany. I realized I am addicted to sugar. I use it as a substitute for anything and everything (sleep, medicine, entertainment, etc.). This is not a recent phenomenon for me, back in college my secret cure-all to any ailment was brownies. Subconsciously, I still believe there is nothing a delicious brownie or k.a. cookie can't cure.

Back to Sunday - that afternoon and evening I had a stomach ache. Not a doubled-over-throwing -up-kind-of-stomach-ache, just a dull,-everything-is-not-right-sort-of-stomach-ache. In fact, I realized I have those quite often, so I decided to try an experiment. I have cut out all superfluous sugar. No sugar in my coffee or oatmeal, etc. I am not going extreme, I am planning on having a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and I am still eating things that traditionally hide a little sugar - like bread and spaghetti sauce. I just want to see if I really need all the sugar I eat, or if I just eat it because my blood sugar is spiking up and down. I am also hoping my stomach just overall feels better at the end of the experiment.

The good news is I have been eating less sugar the last two days and while I am dead-dog-tired right now, I haven't felt too bad otherwise.

Book Club

Ryan and I used to have a book club. It was co-ed and made up mainly of co-workers and former roommates. We got together roughly once a month and we alternated between fiction and non-fiction. We rotated who picked the book and hosted the meeting/led the discussion. I actually really miss those book club days.

These are the books we read (in no particular order): Sea Biscuit, Life of Pi, Atonement, The Tipping Point, His Excellency, Into the Wild, Middlesex, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Treasure Trove, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Looking for Class and Bluebeard.

Clearly, we read a wide variety of books.

Janeite

I consider myself a Janeite (lover of all things Jane Austen). My first introduction to Jane Austen was in the movie Clueless (which is an adaptation of Emma). While I loved Clueless, my real conversion did not happen until after I graduated college. (I read Pride and Prejudice one summer during college. I really liked it, but didn't bother to rent any movie versions or read any of her other works. )

Shortly after I got married I was looking for good reading material. We took the metro to and from work everyday and because we lived so close to the metro, we took it quite often for other things as well - so I had lots of good time to read. One auspicious morning I grabbed my old paperback version of P&P to reread on the train. This time I fell in love!! I was actually irritated when the metro ride went off without a hitch because I got less reading time. When I finished it, I read Emma. Within a few months, I read them all, including her unfinished ones. I watched all the movie versions of her books that I could find and I now own almost all of them. (Of course, P&P with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is standard by which all others are measured.)

So now, I am setting my sites a little higher - I really want to go to the Jane Austen Festival in Bath (England). I would love to go with a group of friends who love Jane Austen too. So let me know if you are game.

In the meantime, here is a fun little puzzle for fellow Janeites to enjoy:
http://www.excessivelydiverted.com/Diversions.htm

Healthy Breakfast

As I posted earlier, I have become a real fan of Irish oats. Well, I just found a way to make them even healthier and add a bit of a nutty flavor to them - flax seed meal. I just added a couple of tablespoons of flax seed meal to my Irish oats this morning with my brown sugar and it was delicious. Plus, because flax seed is so healthy (fiber, omegas and lignans) it felt good to eat and helped me stay full a little longer.

A bit down

Lately, I have been feeling a bit down. Strangely, it took me a while to realize it. I noticed that I was lethargic and that recently I haven't come up with any of my usual "good ideas" or wanted to work on any of my "fun projects." I thought maybe I was bored, but then I realized I didn't want to do nothing (except rest) because I was bored, but rather because I am just plain exhausted. I haven't had a good nights sleep in a very long time.

So I am renewing my resolve to take better care of me with going to bed early, eating healthy and doing a little exercise too. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be back to my perky self again.

Life 101

I was the oldest kid in my family, so I kind of had to learn the ropes on my own (and with the help of good friends with older siblings). I tried to pass on a little bit about how life (meaning higher education, getting a job, managing a career, etc.) actually works to my little sister William. To be honest, though, she has a native sense about how to jump through hoops and work a system to her advantage that I just don't have.

I see my other younger sisters really struggling to figure out basic life decisions and it troubles me. One of them seemed to be on her way to graduation (though ever so slowly), until she met her now husband, and then quickly abandoned the education ship altogether. Another just moved to Boston just to get the hell out of dodge - which I can appreciate - but she has no real ambitions towards getting her degree either. Thankfully one sister, F, has some good friends who are all in school and keeping her on track a little bit more.

Even so, I am worried about her job prospects. She is currently working as a waitress to put herself through school. I am very proud of her for working so hard and going it on her own, but I really want her to graduate with a chance to get a real job that she will enjoy when she is finished. I am hoping to steer her towards doing either an internship or a study abroad in her field of study so that she will have some relevant experience and possibly a few good references too.

Bright Idea

Throughout the entire house, almost all of the fixtures, hinges, doorknobs, etc. are brass. Annoying, but not worth fixing - except in the bathrooms where the rest of the fixtures - towel racks, tp holders, faucets, etc. - are all silver-toned. I actually liked the light fixture the builders put in for the powder room, so I decided to just paint it silver and reinstall it. Pretty and Frugal!!

Powder Room Update

Recently we had our one-year drywall fix. The powder room, which was previously painted a dark grey, needed a lot of touch-ups. I was nearly out of paint, so I decided since I had to buy some more paint anyway, that I might as well go two-toned.

I really like the effect, it brightened the space, but still kept a little of the drama that the dark color added.

Irish Oats

I think food can be one of the finer things in life. I love finding a new food, trying a new recipe or rediscovering a forgotten favorite.

So when I saw a show about Irish Oats (also known as Scottish Oats and Steel Cut Oats), I had to try them. Sure enough, these delicious oats are my new favorite breakfast food. They are slow cooking - it takes 30 minutes to boil them to a delicious creamy yet chewy consistency. In fact, they are so good that I hardly put any brown sugar on them at all.

It took me a while to find them, but the search was worth it. For anyone else interested in trying them, Trader Joe's has the best price and selection.

Fall Decorating

I decorated my mantel for fall. I bought three bags of candy corn and filled two matching clear cylinder vases with the candy corn creating three distinct layers (and putting my favorite type - Indian corn - out of my reach). Then I put them on either side of a maple leaf berry swag and added a few mini squash and mini pumpkin scattered in front of the swag. Originally Audrey helped by adding Farmer Bob in with the squash and pumpkins, but he has been MIA for a while now, so I couldn't get a picture of that. I also put the pumpkins for us to carve on the hearth, though the little one has been mistaken for a ball, so it usually sits on the bookshelf.

Northern Exposure

I realized the other day that I missed almost all TV that occurred during my high-school and college years. In high-school I was too busy and in college we didn't have TV. The exception was 'Friends'. I started late on that one, but then when my other roomies and I were hooked, we would go to friends' houses for "Friends" parties or we would go on campus and watch it in some of the auditorium style classrooms.

Anyway, I have decided to catch up on some of those via Netflix. Northern Exposure was one that came to mind, so I watched the first two episodes this week. It was pretty good. And what makes it even better is, there are no commercials and no timing issues. The only bad thing is that watching Northern Exposure makes me want to move to Alaska, it is just so beautiful.

Holiday Planning

Flylady has this thing called the Holiday Cruise, where you are supposed to pretend you are going on a cruise for the first 3 weeks in December and must therefore have all of your holiday stuff done before then.

I decided to give an organized holiday a shot, so today I filled in the list of gifts to purchase from her online control journal. Which gave me a chance to think about what I actually want to get for people. I looked online for some prices and because I am ordering so early, I will be able to do slow boat shipping and still get everything in time. I am really excited about this.

In another part of the holiday control journal you list traditions that your family does and the dates that you will do them this year along with any preparations that need to happen for those traditions. It is really quite brilliant and so much fun to be getting into the holiday spirit in October.

Bring It On Marathon

I just recently realized that they came out with a part 2 to the fabulous "Bring It On" cheerleading movie. So I casually mentioned to Ryan that I was thinking about putting them both on our list to get at the same time so that I could have a "Bring It On" Marathon. For some reason, he was both amused and horrified by my good idea.

Law School

Ryan just started an LSAT study course this week. It made the whole thing seem suddenly real and sort of scary to think of being student poor again and to think that we could be living almost any where at this time next year. To be honest, I really like our house. It is just a townhouse, but it is pretty big and we bought it directly from the builder, so we got to pick out little things like the kitchen cabinets, floors and counters. Plus we have painted so many rooms and Audrey's room looks fabulous! It is the perfect little girl room. So in many ways, I hope Ryan ends up going to a local school.

The $50 challenge

Well, aside from the occasional (read: weekly) eating out, we are doing pretty well on our challenge. In fact, it no longer really feels so much like a challenge at all. I am not implying that I just buy lots of snacky things at the grocery store, but it is safe to say that since I am planning our meals and snacks a little more carefully which results in us eating better food consistently, the challenge seems like a much better lifestyle choice.

Oops

So this past week was a little less frugal. I went over my $50/week goal by $5. Those fresh apples at the farmers market were so tempting that I couldn't resist.

It is actually a bit ironic that this is the week that I went over for the first time. In the past couple of weeks, I have needed to buy big things that were a substantial portion of my allotment (like chicken breasts that were $13/bag). In order to do that, I was making sure I was not buying anything except the things on my list. Last week there was nothing big to buy, so I decided to stock up on some pantry things that I am low on, like some canned goods, etc. I guess my stocking up really added up.

Proclivity for productivity

I recently read an article about how most people are happier when they are productive. And that some people actually find productive hobbies and such to be relaxing.

I thought to myself, that is definitely me. I am productive to a fault!

Then last night after a nice and productive day, I lied down on the couch and just vegged for 2 hours, watching Dancing with the Stars and Justice. To be honest, I didn't feel an ounce like being productive, I was very happy to just do nothing. So perhaps I am not as inclined to be productive as I like to pretend.

Frugalling along

So far the $50/week challenge for groceries has gone really well. (We still end up eating out at least once a week and I am not counting that in the $50.)

I have found that there are two main tricks to eating well on $50. The first is to plan a menu. This actually isn't that hard so far. I am just writing my ideas for meals directly on the calendar in the pantry. Some people spend a day doing this, I just do it whenever I happen to think of something. For example, I was talking to someone about salmon recently and thought how much I would like to eat some, so the next time I was at the pantry, I filled in a salmon day for a weekend dinner because salmon seems kind of fancy to me. So far I am basically ahead by a week or so which has made grocery shopping pretty easy. I also add any missing ingredients to make the meal onto my shopping list right when I write the meal on the calendar, so I won't forget.

The second key is to buy only one big item a week. Today I bought some frozen Alaskan salmon fillets at Costco. Last week, I bought a large bag of frozen chicken breasts.

Tomorrow, I am going to go to the farmer's market to see if I can finally get some decent produce - yum.

To tell the truth, I think we are eating better on $50/week than we did before.

French Bread

Yesterday I tried making baguettes for the first time. It was actually quite simple and I skipped the whole kneading by hand for 6-10 minutes step in favor of my dough hook on my mixer, which made the whole thing about as simple as you can get.

The best part was, it turned out absolutely delicious and my house smelled great!! Plus the part that I don't like about French Bread is the too crusty crust, so I just didn't do the browning step at 450 and just went straight to baking. It was great, still a little crusty, but not rock solid and the bread itself was a little more dense than normal French Bread, but that was perfect for dipping in our lentil soup last night - yum, yum!

Good Eats

I like this dorky show on the Food Network called Good Eats. The guy who runs the show likes to bring out the basic science behind food preparation - which is why I like it. He also explains the best way to use various kitchen tools and why they are used in the way that they are - which is another thing I like about it.

One idea of his that I really liked was his spice cabinet. He has little tins attached to the inside of the cabinet doors with the names of the herbs and spices written on the front. So I decided to create my own version. I found some little tins at the container store and bought some magnets and then I glued them together and viola I have a new spice system on the side of my fridge - which is pretty handy because my stove/oven is just two feet away.

My new spice system is pretty good, but it does have a couple of drawbacks. First, I only bought seven containers and I have more than seven types of spices. I decided to only put sweet spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.) into the new spice containers and that works pretty well, but I am still a few tins short. Second, the tins are 4 oz big. That is pretty big for spices. So I am on the lookout for smaller tins in the future.

I love being able to see my spices without hunting through the cabinet.

New Jersey Tomatoes

I was at a bridal shower in Baltimore, MD last weekend and someone there was from NJ and had brought some fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes were very tasty and everyone there kept raving about the NJ tomatoes.

Apparently I live on the moon because I had no idea NJ was famous for tomatoes.

In all seriousness, I have been thinking about produce a lot lately anyway - mainly because we just don't have anywhere near us to get any decent produce. How is this possible to live in a suburb of the nations capitol and have such terrible food in the grocery store. I even tried to go to a local farmers market. Apparently they just don't bother to have it there anymore because the commuter lot (where it was held) was empty when I arrived at 10 am. What does a girl have to do to get some good food around here.

Next weekend, I think I am going to try Eastern Market.

Journaling

Last night I felt the urge to write in a good old fashioned journal. The only problem is, I don't have one anymore. Luckily (because I am so frugal and they were on sale for back-to-school) I had recently stocked up on spiral notebooks, so I grabbed a new spiral and started to write about my day. It was a busy but ordinary day, yet somehow, all of the ordinary moments seemed to be a little more special when I took the time to write about them. I think there is something magical about recording your life - it seems to make you feel more alive.

Gilby Baby

My favorite basketball player is Gilbert Arenas - or Gilby Baby as he affectionately known in our house. He is cute, well-mannered, well-spoken and a darn good basketball player. Plus he is humble. I get really annoyed by the egos and the entourages of some of the sports personalities.

So you can only imagine how mad I was for him, when he didn't make the American Team for the world championship. That was such a dumb move, Gilby is so cute and nice, everyone loves to watch him play. And when he smiles - forget about it.

Frugal Fanny

A friend of mine a couple of years ago said that his wife budgeted $50/week for groceries and she never went over that. At the time I was thoroughly impressed and wondered if that was even possible (though to be honest, they consistently ate much better than we did, she was a SAHM and cooked all of their meals and we were DINKs who ate out quite a bit - $50/meal was not uncommon).

So in an effort to be prove my frugality, I have decided to take up the challenge and try that myself. I have done it for the last two weeks without a problem (except for when we went out to eat on Friday night). However, I have my freezer and pantry pretty well stocked from less frugal days. The real challenge will be to see if I actually will be able to buy my refills from costco within that budget.

In order to accomplish this, I pulled out a separate wallet to keep the grocery money in and I am only going to deal in cash - $50/week. So far, the only trick is to actually plan our meals and make them. When I actually do plan a menu, we eat so much better, so this may actually be better eats for less money.

If anyone else is feeling up for a challenge, try $50/week for food and let me know how it goes.

Old Friends

Ryan and I went over to his best friend's new house last weekend for dinner. It was lovely to see them and three children (all girls). Audrey loved playing with new people and new toys. It was an interesting dynamic, the boys ended up playing with/watching the children while the women got to tour the new house and chat about future decorating plans, etc. - lots of fun. Hopefully I will be able to get together with his wife to do some fun projects soon, especially if the husbands continue this nice trend.

Hobbies

Lately I have been thinking about what sort of hobbies I have and which ones I would like to have and which hobbies I pretend to have.

I pretend I am a scrapbooker because I would really like to be one. I think I could also say that my house is a hobby of mine because I enjoy coming up with little projects to improve/decorate it.

I used to love to go dancing. Maybe I should take that up again. A tap class would be fun. I also used to love outdoors things like camping, but again, I haven't done that for years, and it really seems like more trouble than it is worth to go camping with a one year old.

I love to read, especially good fiction - Jane Austen is a favorite. I used to like to travel, but now I hate flying more than I like to see new places, so until I own a jet, that one is out.

I used to love to crochet, maybe I will take that up again.

Mommy Moment

Last night at 3:30 am, I had what can only be described as a "mommy moment". I had just fed little Audrey and was taking her back to her bed. Usually she is groggy and has her eyes closed and I just hurry as fast as I can so that I can set her down before she falls all the way asleep. Last night however, she was just looking at me. As our eyes met, I looked into her big blues and started to smile and I whispered, "I love you sweet girl" and she just smiled back at me gently (not her usual fill-her-whole-face-up-smile) as if she knew that already. It was just a tender moment. So I did what any first-time sleep deprived parent would do, I savored it. This time instead of putting her right to bed, I walked around with her and rocked her as we just smiled at each other. It was a fabulous moment (and actually fabulous seems a little weak as a descriptor).

Seeing Clearly

While we were out in Utah for Bud's wedding, my glasses were broken by a friend's children. As glasses are a big pain to replace and fairly expensive I was quite bummed. When I told Ryan about the incident I mentioned that I was tired of having to worry about glasses and I was ready to consider surgery. He was so excited. He has been trying to talk me into considering surgery forever and I just have been too afraid to even think about it.

So I started to read up on what actually happens when you get eye surgery. And I started to get nauseated. I am not kidding just reading about the surgery made me queasy. Now I have a new approach, I am just going to read up on the best doctors and then get an exam to see if I am even a candidate. If I am, then I will read up on the surgery.

I must say, it would be really nice to see clearly without glasses, I just don't know if it would be nice enough to get surgery.

Bergdorf Blonds: book review

Sadly I am reviewing chick lit on my blog. Perhaps even more sadly, I am reading chick lit. And saddest of all, I enjoyed this book immensely.

It took me a while (probably 30 pages) to get into the characters and their non-frugal ways (which I found annoying - don't even bother with the shopaholic series if you are frugal like me) but in the end, I thought the characters were well developed and I really liked the twist at the end.

So if you are looking for a light and easy read, dig right in.

Pink Painting Fiasco

While William was in town, she and I did all kinds of fun house projects. And if we are going to be completely honest, William really did the lion's share of most of them.

One of these projects was to paint the entire main living level. We started with the living room. We painted it green - it looked great. So we moved on to the library - which we also painted green. That was another success story. So aimed with new found color picking confidence, I went bold and picked pink for my kitchen/dining room. We painted that (which was by far the hardest of the three rooms because of the sheer volume of trim work) - and it just didn't look right.

The pink looked rather nice in the dining room portion of the room. I have black furniture in there and it was a really nice contrast. However, in the kitchen portion, it made the cherry cabinets look orange. Orange just doesn't go so well with pink and wasn't what I was hoping for at all. The think that made me decide to repaint however, was the effect the pink room had on the other rooms on the floor. The whole floor is open and with the pink in the middle it made the whole floor look like a cute little girl room in lovely pastels. The strange part about that was that the green on its own was a deep and muted green that didn't look pastelly at all.

I will never be a professional painter, but I certainly learned something. One wrong color can change the whole feel of the house.

We just finished repainting the kitchen today. We painted it beige. Which actually turned out quite nice and my green rooms are back to looking elegant and not little kiddish.

Awkward Moments

I was just thinking of some of my most awkward moments.

One that comes to mind took place at the second law firm that I worked at in DC. I had been there about a month and I was starting to get to know the staff by name. So in an effort to be friendly (and also not forget names too quickly) I said hello to the fellow delivering the mail.

Me: Hey Robert, How's it going? (in a very cheery voice).

Dwight: I'm Dwight! Robert died two weeks ago. (In a very scolding and disgusted way).

Me: Oh. (long awkward pause - I mean really how do you recover from that) Bye (in a much less, cheery and wishing I was invisible voice).

Rearranging

One of my favorite Sunday activities for as long as I have been able to push furniture - has been to rearrange my room - and now with a whole house - to rearrange the house.

Growing up, every Sunday they would give you a program for Sacrament Meeting. I quickly realized that the programs had a great number of uses - from origami, to drawing, to tic-tac-toe. My favorite use was to make a floorplan of my bedroom and then try to fill in the furniture in a new and appealing way. Since I shared a room with my sister, William, she was of course my PIC (partner in crime) in these useful Sunday endeavors.

Well, the habit was so enjoyable and so cemented, that I still wake up on Sunday mornings wanting to do a little something different in my house. I now try to channel that energy into various projects, like sweeping the garage or putting up towel racks, etc. But it is the same drive. I now have two PICs - Ryan and William. Unfortunately, Ryan does not share the same rearranging drive and William is far away, so I can only benefit from her assistance via phone these days.

At William's wise suggestion, I have started a list of house projects that I eventually want to do. I am hoping to get lots of assistance when she comes to visit. Maybe I should start an "improve the room" fund in the meantime.

What's in a name?

In an attempt to be frugal, I shop at a very obscure grocery store that is dirt cheap and that we affectionately refer to as "the used food store". So as you can imagine, such a store is located in a rather run down part of town in a strip-mall with a few other obscure shops.

Well, yesterday as I was going there, one of the shops, "Campos Furniture" had printed up a huge banner of a sign that was hung on the side of big box-truck parked in the parking lot.

The sign read:

CAMPOS FURNITURE

Remodiling Sale

Our name says it all

There were two fabulously funny things about this sign. The first is that they misspelled "remodiling" on a huge printed banner (if you could see the area it is in, you would also appreciate the humor in them remodeling at all). And second, that the store's slogan is: our name says it all. Now maybe I am ignorant to the deeper meaning of the words "Campos Furniture" but to me, that name does not really say a whole lot, let alone, say it all.

Birthday Presents

I think I was 4 or 5 when my mom asked me if there was something special I wanted for my birthday that year. In fact there was. I had been eyeing the Mac'n Cheese sleeping bag offered on the back of specially marked boxes for sometime. My mom double and triple checked that a Mac'n Cheese sleeping bag was what I really wanted. She made sure that I knew that if she ordered it, that I couldn't change my mind and get a toy later on, etc. But I was positive - I really wanted that Mac'n Cheese sleeping bag. The sleeping bag looked just like the blue box with orange food on it.

She ordered it and I had to wait for the longest 6-8 weeks of my life in anticipation of its arrival. It finally came and I slept in it immediately and for the next few days, I would not sleep anywhere except in my new sleeping bag on the floor of my room. I remember some adult - probably my mom - commenting on how thin and flimsy it was, but to me it was heaven. I was sleeping inside a giant box of Kraft Mac'n Cheese. :)

Indigo Girls

The Indigo Girls are my favorite band. Now while my husband finds that as a convienient reason to tease me about having been a lesbian in a past life, I really just love their lyrics and their music. Oftentimes I disagree with some of their more political songs, but I still love their music because it feels very real and sometimes very raw.

Social Awkwardness

Ryan's Grandma died over the weekend. She was very old and had a great life. So we are headed out to the funeral this week.

I have only been to a couple of funerals in my life so far. The most recent was my grandfather's about 8 years ago. I felt a little uncomfortable at the funeral - which I think is normal. I must admit to feeling v. uncomfortable about this upcoming funeral - for more formal reasons. At my own grandfather's funeral any faux paus that I may have made in funeral ettiquete would have been dismissed as a grandchild greiving. At this one, I am hoping I don't just say something terribly strange or imprudent.

All or nothing

Life seems to be an all or nothing sort of game. You can be going along fine, maybe even feeling that life is a little monotonous and then all of a sudden, every big event in your life happens at once or everything that can go wrong does.

This week it has been the case of things going wrong. The weekend started off with Audrey having a fever, so we had to cancel our trip to Charlottesville to attend Ryan's bff's law school graduation dinner party. Then right as Audrey is feeling better, I lose my wallet, and her fever turns into a cold on the day the new babysitter started. Everyone knows when you are sick, you just want your mommy. Then Ryan's car has a flat tire and today it just plain won't start at all, so I had to drive him in to work at the last minute and then I am driving all the way to Baltimore and back to go to my BIL's medical school graduation and dinner party. Mind you, I still don't have a license and/or any money to even fill the car with gas and Audrey still has a cold. And to top it all off, we seem to have a leaking toilet that is pooling water in our master bath.

To be honest, at this point, it has become funny.

New Nanny

I have a new person working for me as Audrey's babysitter.

She is a home-schooled teenager, who can come over in the mornings. It seems to be working out pretty well so far. She is really nice and Audrey likes her a lot.

Plus I find that I am a little more comfortable bossing around people younger than me. So when Audrey takes a nap, I have no problem assigning little projects to her. I am hoping that having a helper on projects, is going to help me get some of the ever-present projects (like putting stuff up on free-cycle) moving along.

The bathroom project

All of my interior decorating for the whole house has started (and apparently stalled) with the entry bathroom.

We painted it a lovely light grey, replaced the towel rod with a towel ring, added some frameless glass-covered rose pictures and viola - we have a pretty bathroom.

I would still like to add a small white floor rug, paint the light fixture silver and put a couple of single flower vases on the main wall to put roses in.

Treasures

I was decluttering a couple of "treasure boxes" that I keep. Turns out most of my "treasures" were actually trash. Shells that I can't remember what beach I picked them up on, keychains saved for some strange reason, broken pieces of cheap jewelry, etc. Why in the world have I kept all of this stuff for so long?

Vacation

We just got back from a family vacation with my husband's family to Williamsburg, VA. It was actually a lot of fun. We went to Colonial Williamsburg for one day, the guys went golfing and the girls went shopping in the morning of another day, then we all just hung out and relaxed for the afternoon and on the last day we went to Busch Gardens all day and in the evening R and I took a lovely stroll around the market area of Colonial Williamsburg. And of course, we ate at really good restaurants every evening for dinner. And I think a good dinner really makes for a good vacation.

We absolutely loved the area. It was beautiful. I really liked Colonial Williamsburg. The revolutionary war period is my favorite part of American history, so I really enjoyed being in a restored city and seeing all of the houses and the little shops and hearing all the stories and such.

On our stroll we walked around the William and Mary campus. I am really hoping that R decides to go to law school there.

Discipline

Working from home takes a lot of self-discipline. I remember working at an office - (at some jobs) it was easy to putz around for a day (chatting with co-workers, volunteering to pick up lunch, and then afternoon snacks, checking my email, signing up for electronic bill-pay, etc.) if I wasn't feeling so great. It just doesn't work the same way anymore. When I check my personal email, it is now on my dime. Even so, the positives of working from home, especially when I have a little one, far out weigh the negatives. However, I definitely cannot do it without a babysitter. If you thought co-workers were a distraction, a cute little girl sitting on your feet, smiling and babbling, is just plain irresistible.