The end of November and the Semester

The last nine weeks were overwhelming.  I finished up my internship (and got hired there!  YEA!), had three classes a week, and seemed to work my tail off at the job that pays the bills.  The semester actually ended a week ago, but I had three papers to finish and turn in, then the holiday to prepare for (and enjoy a great deal), and finally some down time yesterday.  I actually took Thursday through Sunday off of everything!

I was so sore the day after Thanksgiving that I spent the majority of my time in bed on the computer.  It hurt to lift my arms, my back was so sore I was hunched over, and the headache...  wow.  Not a migraine, it's been a few weeks since I had one, but it was a killer.  It must be all the wine I drank at Thanksgiving... and the mojito, or two.  We all got to talk to Matt over in Japan while we were at dinner on Thursday.  I called him and then we both got on Google Hangouts.  I can't run Skype on my Chromebook, but Google Hangouts seems to have fewer problems so it was great.  We were on the computer with him, passing it around to everyone who wanted to talk, for three hours.  It was a great day.

So yesterday started out slow, with all those aches, Rob having to get up to leave for work early, and nothing good on television.  By the afternoon, I realized we hadn't done the dishes, taken out the trash, or cleaned up any of the mess that had accumulated while I was too busy to do anything but survive.  

(One of my half written posts that are finding their way to being published, finished or not.)

Week of October 7 Meal Plan

I could totally be on a roll here. (Yeah, right) I made another meal plan - I wrote it down and everything!  I thought I wasn't buying much, but it cost me $131.  Yeesh!  And I shopped my freezer and put in meals we didn't eat last week.  I suppose it was the extras.  Frozen fish was on sale by one, get one and I've been craving it but it's just for lunches and "on your own" nights since Lindsay doesn't like fish.  I had to buy coffee - Starbucks, Medium House Blend (yum) and we were out of hot chocolate, juice, and other random stuff.

Anyway...

• Pot Roast (again) with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes
• Grilled cheese and tomato soup
• Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes and salad
• Lasagna roll-ups, salad, garlic cheese bread
• Breakfast (love breakfast for dinner - so easy)
• Chili and baked potatoes
• Mac and Cheese casserole - I bought the blue box stuff.  Comfort food.  Mmmmmm

New classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays now.  And I still have a final paper to put together and turn in by Friday midnight.  Not looking forward to it - not that it'll be hard, I just have a lazy streak right now.

Another Meal Plan

My meal plan isn't spectacular, it's just basic food that we like.  I like to make easy food, if it's good for us, well, that's an accident these days.  I just need something filling at the end of the day.  If I don't have something easy to make, sometimes I don't eat.  Lindsay and Rob tend to fin for themselves on those days but I get so overwhelmed that I'll just climb in bed and go to sleep.  Rob and I were talking and we realized that the only day, besides weekends, that we are actually home and eating at a reasonable hour is Friday.  Rob is home late on Monday and Wednesday, I have class on Tuesday and Thursday.  As a matter of fact, I have to take my food for the entire day on Tuesday, and have about 45 minutes at home on Thursday to put together my dinner, which for me is generally leftovers.

This week, Italian food (or something similar) seems to be on the menu a couple of times.  I had to shop my pantry a little because my grocery budget is smaller than usual.

So here's what the week looks like for us.  I think we're having mac and cheese tonight.

• Rotini with Italian sausage, Classico sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese (a kind of lazy/laid back lasagna pasta), garlic bread and salad
• Roast with veggies (crock pot), mashed potatoes, gravy.
• Macaroni and cheese with ground beef, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, etc.  (taco mac?)  This was going to be the blue box but they were all expired, weird.  I ended up making it from scratch, which is almost as easy as the box.  Rotel tomatoes, purred because Rob and Lindsay don't like chunks of tomato, with Velveeta and shredded cheese melted in it. 
• Rice, black beans, fajita chicken, calico corn, cheese, sour cream, avocado, salsa (a burrito bowl)
• Lasagna rollups, pasta sauce, salad, garlic bread
• Breakfast for dinner - waffles, eggs, sausage or biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs
• Leftovers

Rob and I take leftovers or sandwiches to work most days.  I think Rob is a little better than I am about actually packing and eating his lunch.  I find myself getting busy or distracted and won't eat, sometimes I skip my breakfast too.  I'm not very good to myself in that way right now.  

Lazy Meal Plan

I actually wrote my meal plan in my planner for the coming week and decided to post it here too.  I like being able to search the Meal Plan label and find out what I haven't made in awhile, what recipes I've ignored forever, and what stands the test of time.  I rarely ever decide what to make for a particular day, I just try to plan for something on the list the night before.

• Chili and grilled cheese
• Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with green beans - prepping and freezing the meatloaf today.
• BBQ shredded chicken sandwiches - cooking away in the crock pot right now.
• Mac N Cheese - the lazy blue box kind because I need at least three easy dinners this week.
• Mexican something with black beans, rice and green chili enchilada sauce.
• Breakfast - eggs, biscuits or hashed browns, bacon
• Tuesday - Leftovers/on-your-own/whatever.  I'm in class so they'll find something.

I'm also making bean dip for lunches this week.  Rob and Lindsay take their lunches every day and I try to as well.  On Tuesdays, I have to take a whole day's worth of meals with me to work since I don't make it home before heading to class from 4 - 10pm.  This week I've planned to take bagel sandwiches, salads, fried rice and egg rolls, and sandwiches.  

The Planner Struggle

I love planners, organizers, blank and lined notebooks, and all kinds of paper, pens, markers, and pencils.  My favorite color these days is purple and I nearly always write in purple ink.  It's just a quirk and it makes me happy.  I have a traditional planner, use a Google calendar, and have an app on my phone as well.

Sometimes work, school, and life require me to find and stick with some sort of planning system.  I've learned that I can't rely on an electronic calendar on my phone because I don't enter everything, I get frustrated, it doesn't sync, or some other technical blunder.   A Google calendar is great, but it's not always available, or the app on my phone frustrates me.  That being said, I've been searching for a planner that I can live with, that has sections I'll use, that helps me track useful information, has just enough room for appointments, and isn't too big.

Enter Pinterest and Google images.  I think I might like Pinterest a little too much.  I pin everything.  I have lots of boards that help me organize information...  food, counseling, girls group, journaling, stuff for the kids, things I want, lunch ideas and adult beverages.  I have 33 boards, one of which is organization and paperwork which doesn't actually help me organize at all - until this last week.  I found a link for a blog post on making your own planner.  Well, I think the idea was to show what she'd done and offer up her pdf to others who might like to print it, but why use someone else's template when she very clearly talks about why she wanted to customize her own.  So that's just what I did.  I jumped on Excel and built my very own planner, except mine is weekly and I accidentally printed so many pages that I have a planner that will last two years.

I'm having a blast with this planner.  I'm compelled to track self care, hours I slept, and my mood as well as things I really enjoy tracking like grocery lists, meal ideas, ideas for working with clients, and things I want to see more/less of in my life.

Here's the link to the planner if you aren't Excel-inclined or like the layout of mine.  The pages are formatted for legal paper and if you print them both sides, you just have to cut down the center.  You can even create your own cover by using whatever images you want, printing on legal paper, then cutting and laminating it.  Don't forget to take it to your local office store and have them spiral bind it for you.  Have fun!

July 4th Excitement

I guess that's a little misleading.  We went to breakfast at noon, stopped at Home Depot for a few items to make repairs suffered by our house in a recent storm, ran a couple of other errands including a Sonic run for limeades and slushies, and then came home to be lazy.  Some friends of ours stopped by to chat before they headed over to City Park to watch fireworks.  That was the second most exciting part of the day.

The most exciting, or maybe it was the best, was dinner.  We had flat iron steaks and scallops for dinner.  I grilled perfect flat iron steaks, which is kind of a feat for me.  I was going to marinate them in worstershire but I didn't have any.  I did have a generic steak and chop marinade with garlic and black pepper, which worked great.  I guess the key is to put them on the grill at room temperature.  I have a new favorite cut of meat - and they're cheap!  This site has great directions for grilling flat iron steaks.

Other excitement includes a little mini vacation.  Both Rob and I had today off but I also took tomorrow off work.  The only thing I have to do between now and Monday at noon is lead a group on Saturday morning, which is comfortable and fun for me.  The rest of the time is mine.  There are a few things I'd like to get done and maybe a couple of errands I should do but without a crazy-busy schedule to keep up with, I should be rested by Monday.

(Another of the "I found it unfinished but I'm publishing it anyway" series.)

Ski Pasta

This is a recipe from some family friends.  Matt made this in Japan and gave me the recipe and I've never tried it before but he says it's great.  

Ski Pasta
(No, I have no idea why it's called that - maybe they liked to make it after a day of skiing?)

1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
16 ounces bow-tie pasta (or whatever you like best)
2/3 cups dry white wine
14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup whipping cream
6 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
8 ounces Parmesan cheese

Saute onion and garlic in butter until onion is translucent.  Add Italian sausage, brown.  Drain if necessary.  Add wine, simmer about 2 minutes, add tomatoes, simmer about 3 minutes.  Add cream, simmer another 5 minutes.  Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, mix with meat mixture.  Add Parmesan and parsley, mix well and serve.

I might change this a little - puree the tomatoes before adding them and cook a little longer to evaporate most of its juice.  The recipe calls for bottled Parmesan but I might use freshly grated because it makes everything better.  This would go well with a salad and small bread sticks.

Matt was here for about 12 days at the end of May.  He surprised me for my birthday and there were lots of tears.  It was so comfortable having him home, a closeness I had forgotten we had. We didn't have a lot of time together when he was home over New Years', but this time was a lot more family time, talking and hanging out, and I am so grateful for the gift.  He actually emailed me this recipe when he got back to Japan, having forgotten to send it to me while he was here.  

He's doing well, and I'm content to wait another seven months to see him.  Or a year, however long it takes.

Meal Plan... Yes

It's going to be insanely busy this coming week.  Lindsay is back to school after over three weeks off for Winter Break and Matt's visit home from Japan.  I start school after six weeks off, and Rob has darts this week.  I knew the craziness was coming so I prepared when I stopped at the grocery store on Friday.  The meat counter had pre-made black and bleu burgers and bacon cheeseburgers, mini meatloaves, and chicken fried steaks, all ready to cook and all on sale.  I figured it was a good start.

• Sunday - Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, country gravy, veggies, dun-buttered muffins.
• Monday - Spaghetti with meatballs and vodka sauce, garlic bread, salad
• Tuesday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, veggies
• Wednesday - Hamburgers and fries
• Thursday - leftovers/breakfast/ramen...  whatever
• Friday - Mac & Cheese from the box and leftover spiral sliced ham from the freezer
• Saturday - Breakfast for dinner

I'm a huge fan of the Dinner Doctor cookbook, Desperation Dinners, and Cheap. Fast. Good! but since it's been forever since I had time to sit down with my cookbooks, I have no idea where they've gone to.  I knew there was a recipe for the dun-buttered muffins in the Dinner Doctor so I just looked it up online and shared it with you.  I've made them before and the only change I'll make tonight is to add some roasted garlic to them, or maybe sprinkle granulated garlic over the top, though I'd better get on it since it's getting close to dinner-time.

Next week I want to try some sort of black bean and rice dish, probably with ground beef in it, and Japanese Curry and rice.  A friend on Facebook posted a picture of her curry dinner yesterday and I went looking for the recipe - again, online - turns out it's so easy to make, though I'll have to hit the Asian market here in town to find the curry.  Beef, potato, carrot, onion, curry powder, rice - that's it!

Airport Surprises and New Year's Intentions

The craziness of the past several months has culminated in a visit from our Sailor Son, Matt.  I'm pretty sure there's nothing more exciting/heart wrenching/amazing than seeing your military son/daughter/wife/husband/brother/sister (well, you get the point) after they've been gone for awhile, and our son was gone for 14 months.

We met him at the gate when he flew into DIA, which was a total surprise for him.  We hit the ticket counter at a run, asked for - and RECEIVED - gate passes, breezed through security, and then stalled when we made it on the train.  For some reason those trains don't move any faster just because you're in a hurry.  When we got to Concourse B, we speed-walked/ran to the farthest gate - of course.  And then it hit us...  the passengers were already deplaning.  We thought we'd missed him when two pilots walked off the jetway and I was verbal about my disappointment.  We were holding a six-foot long by three-foot tall welcome home banner that had an almost life size picture of our son on it.  A few of the passengers heard us, saw the banner - how could they miss it - and told us he had been behind them on the plane, while another said her daughter sat with him and that he would be off any minute.  I was so excited that I was bouncing on my toes and I started to cry before I even saw him.  It was a great moment full of laughing (he didn't recognize his sister) hugs and tears, one that will live in my memory for a long time...  and it had better, because we didn't take any pictures!

Though my world seems to have ground to a halt while my Sailor is home on leave, the new year came, people are making resolutions, tax season is on the verge of exploding, and life marches on.

I hate resolutions, though I've made, and kept, a few in the past couple of years.  This year I have decided that I will have intentions for the upcoming year rather than resolutions.  My intentions for 2013 are pretty simple: Survive, Thrive.  Yeah, that's about it.  First I'll survive - January tax season at work, three classes a week with a teacher who drives me nuts, fitting routine back into my life after three weeks of holiday preparations.  After that has been accomplished, I will thrive.  I will become a better counselor, enjoy school, and be grateful for those things in my life that have been difficult because of my attitude.

I have a few hopes too...  I hope we can see our Sailor again before next Christmas; that we'll be able to travel to San Diego or Pensacola when he comes back to the States for training.  I hope Rob gets a job so that the pressure I've been living under for the past four months will be relieved.  I also hope that I will continue to do work I consider worthy of a B, though for some reason my professors continue to give me A's for that work.