A Stream of Thought

Apparently this is one of those nights where I stay up instead of going to sleep. No, I won't make it to crew in the morning; 3 hours isn't enough sleep for me. Although at this rate I still might not get a full night.

I'm doing pretty well with my goal of at least one blog post per month. I know I don't have the most readers, but I still enjoy writing every once in a while, even if it's about nothing in particular. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have a couple of loyal readers that will read almost anything I write - my parents are dependable like that ;)

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we've been pretty busy the last couple of months. Work has been insanely busy. The good part is we've been having a lot more clients come in. The challenging part is simply getting everything done. We did bring someone new in a few months ago, and she's been working amazing. That definitely helps!

But besides work, December is just always busy with getting ready for vacation, visiting friends/family in California (we had a blast, by the way), and then returning from time off. I feel like I'm finally starting to get a handle on things again - more than a week after getting home. Is that normal?

The good news is I've realized my priorities have totally shifted in a good way. I'm giving God the credit for that one, by the way. While we were in California I started seriously consider if I'd be able to make it back to crew after about 3 months off this past fall. I decided I wanted to do it, and despite being swamped with playing catch up, I've been able to make it to practice twice so far! Yes, I'm skipping tomorrow to give myself a few more hours of sleep, but I'm confident I'll be back on Saturday.

With spending more time working, adding crew back in, and taking care of various other tasks (weekly events with church, writing newsletters for a couple of different organizations in my free time, etc), I started trying to figure out what I would let go. As it turns out, that's a decision God seemed to make for me. I've lost pretty much all motivation to keep up with TV shows. Don't get me wrong, I still like my shows, but I'm not driven to watch them the same way. I'm happy to just wait and get to it if I get to it. Instead I'd rather spend the time doing things around the apartment, reading a book, hanging out with Matt or going out with friends. I'm still me, though. I seem to find ways to keep myself busy that don't include doing the dishes, housework, etc. Go figure.

We'll see if this shift in priorities lasts. I'm enjoying it while it does, though. I recently found a cute new photo album and printed out pictures from when we moved to Washington in 2009 to this past trip to California, and I'm almost done putting it together. I've also been wanting to eat food at home that's more healthy, although I haven't wanted to cook anything for a long time. It's more convenient if the healthy eating goes with a cooking phase...

More News About Food...and Other Stuff

So far my new 'domestic system' is working out well! We've tried 5 of the 6 recipes (the Chicken Curry in a Hurry being planned for dinner tomorrow night). Our favorite so far? The Beef Teriyaki. It was delicious! The sauce tasted like the sauce used at our favorite Japanese restaurants around here. It was so good I'm planning to make it again next week. 

Second favorite was definitely the Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups, followed by the Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops. Neither of us liked the Chicken Schnitzel, and we agreed that the Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry was better the second night after sitting around in the sauce all day. Funny how that can help...

I'm really excited about this next week because Matt bought me a Slap Chop. It will definitely go to good use. After a week of chopping onions, ginger, parsley, cilantro...I'm ready for a nifty kitchen gadget. The menu this upcoming week includes the Beef Teriyaki in addition to Crispy Rosemary-Orange Chicken and Chipotle Chicken Rolls with Avocado Dipping Sauce. I'm also planning to make ice cream out of goat milk this weekend. I'm really excited about it - especially since I've been craving a milkshake for almost a month!


So my life in the last couple of weeks hasn't revolved around food completely. Other recent updates include (in reverse chronological order):

• Seis de Mayo party! Our life group (small group) had fun celebrating Seis de Mayo with a Mexican potluck today because it was more convenient with our schedules. Matt and I were bringing the beverages and we found a recipe for virgin sangrias which meant we needed something to put it in...so Matt bought one of those summer-y pitcher things I'd looked at several times we were at Fred Meyer but couldn't justify buying. It was on sale and we needed it, so the buying was justified :)
• Dollhouse & Bones - I recently got into these shows thanks to the Netflix Instant Queue. Dollhouse is slightly addictive...I went through almost the entire first season within a week. Sadly the last episode is available on disc only, but the good news is it arrived in the mail today! I also started watching Bones. Not nearly as addictive, but the first few episodes have been fun so far. It's nice to watch when I feel like watching TV for about an hour without committing to a full movie.
• Reuse Fair - Last weekend we helped out at the Community Garage Sale and Reuse Fair. With about 200 vendors, there were a lot of people selling stuff! After the fair ended, vendors had the option to donate their stuff to the Goodwill truck on-site. There was a LOT of stuff leftover. We stuck around to help load the two trucks and filled them completely. There was another truckload and a half leftover that we put aside for the Goodwill to pick up on Monday. As tired as I was from hauling boxes, bags and coffee tables the next day, I had fun helping out.
• Girls' Night - A couple of my friend's friends also came into town last weekend for a wedding, so she invited me to come hang out and watch girly movies with them. I forgot how much I like Ever After. It's just a really good story. I know it's Cinderella, but I like they way it's told and the various liberties they take. While there, I also learned how to play a new card game, and there were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies so I was a very happy camper. Mmmm....cookies.
• Dinner & Games - Last week we had another young couple from church come over for dinner and games. We had a lot of fun - they have tons of games that were quite entertaining, including the Newlywed Game and Scene It. Matt and I lost at the Newlywed Game, but in our defense they've been married about a year longer. That and Matt should have read my mind better...haha. Scene It was really fun, too. I was so close to beating Matt. I made it into the inner circle first, but he got the answers  correct first and therefore won :( We still had fun, though.

On that note, Dollhouse is calling my name...

My Newest System: Becoming More Domestic

It's 2am again and guess who's blogging...me! A lot of nights I fight sleep I really am tired, but once in a while I'm awake and productive. Tonight is one of the awake and productive nights.

I am my mother's daughter in so many ways. Yes, we have a lot of differences, but I love creating new systems and methods of organizing things. My most recent new system involves another one of our similarities: a love of food! Cooking dinner has become one of those chores I don't look forward to, and after thinking about why, I think it's because I want to be good at it without practicing (sounds like my years of playing piano and flute all over again...haha).

Anyway, numerous family and family friends that I consider talented in the kitchen have given me all sorts of cookbooks over the years. I should be using these resources! So, this past week I pulled a couple cookbooks out and thumbed through, writing down the entrees that I wanted to try (I intentionally skipped over the desserts). Then I did another one of my favorite things: created a spreadsheet! I organized the meals into two categories: "30 minutes or less" and "over 30 minutes." After the spreadsheet was complete, I had Matt pick out six meals for the next two weeks, created a list of groceries to buy and scheduled cooking into my calendar. I'm really excited about trying the following recipes:

• Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops
• Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry
• Beef Teriyaki
• Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups
• Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry-in-a-Hurry
• Chicken Schnitzel

On a related note, another fun tool I'm excited about is an application on my phone: OurGroceries. It allows me to create a shopping list on my phone that I don't have to worry about losing, but the coolest part: I can share it with Matt so either of us can add / take off anything. That means if either of us goes to the store, we just have to pull the application up to see what's on the list. Isn't that fun??