Tuesday, May 17: Upon Daddy's Return from the Hinterland

(How could I have missed the 15th, the Ides of May?)

What a weekend with my husband gone for the weekend. It was ok, single-momming it, but also hard work. There was no backup. I had to think of everything! As a result, for example, we got to church with the potluck food, both if us dressed (Baby a little casual but still more fancified than for a weekday), I remembered the snugli...but I forgot my Bible (!). And my friend's casserole dish (that I had washed up the night before and set out so I wouldn't forget it). But...the diaper bag was restocked, we were both clean and dressed, and we were there. So there.

Yesterday we (Baby and I) spent 6 hours in the car. We ran an errand to a department store to buy a fitted sheet to replace the old one. It was so threadbare that my toe ripped a hole in it while I was turning over. (Goodbye, wedding-gift-sheet. Six years is no mean feat.) then we loaded up to go get Daddy at the Atlanta airport but had to take the garbage to the dumpster first (which is, inefficiently enough, in the smack other direction, but it had to be done.) Baby and I went straight from there to the airport, with a stop on the way for a feed and cuddle. We made it to the airport, but Baby was crying and Mommy was frazzled. Still, we loaded Baby into the snugli and headed in for the big reunion.

We (all three of us!) loaded into the car and drove northwards; Baby fell asleep (finally) but Mommy was hungry, so we stopped for food and a feed, waking Baby up in the process. He never settled in again, but once we got home I changed his diaper and fed him and cuddled him and laid him in his little bed for leg kicking and freedom of movement... and he fell asleep. So tired was he that he put himself to sleep!

Whew. After all that, Baby and I slept in this morning. Now he is napping. Instead of being tough-as-nails mommY that makes him fall asleep on his own for his fielder nap, today I rocked him to sleep and am still holding him as he sleeps. Why? Because I want to, because we spent 6 hours in the car yesterday, because he's so peaceful after a busybusy hardworking day yesterday. We both need some down-time and together time.

Baby's starting to rouse, so I'll close this blog entry. Thank you for reading.

Ham Loaf

I'm inspired to write about my evening's cooking...at least the Ham Loaf part of my cooking.
Here's a photo of the recipe.* Actually, it's a photo of an email of the recipe. If you care, you can read some of my commentary when I emailed the recipe to my mom.



Start with 1-3/4 cups of milk. Notice the measuring cup. My sister gave it to me for Christmas a while ago. See how the cup looks like it's got stairsteps? Those are the 1/2 and 1/4 measurements...I love those measuring cups!

Next, add two eggs and 2 tablespoons brown sugar:

After the eggs and brown sugar, it's time for the dry mustard. 1 tablespoon. Isn't that a cute mustard tin?

Be sure to add the salt.

Next, I mixed what was in my bowl. That giant fork? We called it a granny fork at Mia Cucina, one of my previous employers. I use it a lot for whipping and mixing things like this.

Then, add 6 slices soft bread, cubed.

Since I used up all my bread, I had to put another loaf in to bake.

Add 1-1/2 pound ground pre-cooked ham. This is my food processor, grinding my ham. Janis and Christine gave us that food processor for a wedding gift. Thanks, Janis and Christine! I like it a lot!

You should also add 1 pound ground beef. I didn't take a picture because my hands were all beefy and gross, so feast your eyes on this instead:

Put it in a casserole to bake. Doesn't that look like Alice's meatloaf in The Brady Bunch Movie? Hah! It looks a little gross, I admit. But believe me, it tastes great when it comes out.


Just for kicks, here is a photo of the unbaked ham loaf looking mighty pink, like it's out of a 1960s cookbook with full-color photos!

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Ham Loaf
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine in large mixing bowl:
1 3/4 c milk
2 large eggs
2 T brown sugar
1 T dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 slices soft bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1-1/2 lbs ground ham (pre-cooked)
1 lb. ground beef

Shape into a loaf in an oven-proof dish.

Bake until firm and lightly browned, about 90 minutes. Meat should reach an internal temperature of 175-180 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Some thoughts and links, Part 2

I'm going to make this breakfast casserole the next time I make a breakfast casserole.

Why not buy inexpensive crates and personalize them instead of buying expensive stuff-to-hold-stuff?

I need to organize my crochet hooks.

Here are some cute placemats.

Organizing crayons? Not necessary for me, but you never know if some young friends or relatives might want to!

Even better than organized crayons is a kit for colored pencils and notebook.

Binging

I just binged on apple slices. At least it wasn't a package of freakin' Oreos...but I still have that uncomfortable full feeling. It is roughage, at least.

In related news, I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND cutting your apples in halves, and then using a melon baller to scoop out the core. It was speedy, neat, easy, and attractive.

Writing Writing Unit Plan

I haven't written a Unit Plan in over three years, and I'm pretty rusty! As much as my heart and my mind miss teaching, and as much as I've wanted to get back into it, I'm finding myself surprised that it's this hard to write a simple writing Unit Plan.

I'm trying to keep in mind that Writing was never something I enjoyed teaching (it's time-consuming! hard! confusing! hard to systematize!), so that's part of the challenge at this time. BUT on top of that layer of challenge is a layer of dust...or rust...or just plain stiffness...in my Unit-Writing muscles.

The only way out is through. So off I go.

(Hopefully) Meal Planning Success

After 3+ years of working and trying and getting frustrated over a (darn!) meal planning system, I believe I've finally hit upon a system that (hopefully) will work:

Google Calendar.

I've got this week planned, shopped for, and scheduled. I've got next week planned and scheduled. Woo hoo.

First Room on Checklist? Done!

So that's done. It's not the best mopping job I've ever done, but at least it's done, right? Next room:

Bathroom:
-shower
-mirrors
-counter/sink
-toilet

But I'm not starting it for another 10 minutes, due to my 30 minutes on, 10 minutes off housework policy. (That is, it's the policy today.)

Back to Reality to do List

We got home (from that mysterious place called "away") just 7 days ago. I was tired, my body had had too much changing and fast pace and rich food and lake/boat/dock time. I got a cold for the first time in 5 weeks (if you have to have a cold when you're traveling, be sure to get one on the very last day).

I'm finally feeling better, and so I'm going to hit my house hard and whip it into shape. Here's my clean-but-not-deep-clean-because-I'm-trying-to-do-the-entire-house-today house to do list:

Kitchen
-stovetop
-sweep
-mop
Bathroom
-shower
-mirrors
-counter/sink
-toilet
Bedroom
-make bed
-pick up floor
Dining Room
-clean off table
-dust
Living Room
-clear clutter away
-dust
-water plants

Wish me luck! I'm going to play my housecleaning music, too. That will help, I'm sure.

Saturday Chores: 5:17pm

Accomplished:
~vacuumed all the moldings (eeew)
~vacuumed behind the dryer, while I had the vacuum out
~mixed two cake mixes, and made 2 doz. chocolate/vanilla marble cupcakes
~2 layers of a chocolate/vanilla marble cake ready to be baked

Saturday Chores: 3:06pm

Accomplished:

~Both beds made up
~All sheets organized
~Load of whites in dryer
~Curtains and tablecloth out of dryer
~Tablecloth back on table
~Curtains to be put up after I vacuum the cobwebs from the moldings
~Nearly all dishes washed
~Lunch eaten (with Ian)

To do:
~Iron
~Vacuum Cobwebs
~Put curtains back
~Fold laundry (several loads!)
~and more

It's getting to be a habit. This is my 3rd post with nothing but linkage.

This Modesty Heart Check will be useful to me when 1) I start teaching middle schoolers again or 2) I ever have daughters.

So will this three-part series on modesty. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I can't get out of bed in the mornings, and this list might help!

I'm going to browse through this list of organizers.

Motivation to do those chores I hate (I hate all chores, so this ought to be good).

I like this take on the marking of time.

Here's an organizer's take on setting goals.

The same organizer writes about evening routines.

Aaaand for fun: here's a dude who travels around correcting typos in public places. Hooray!

How Do You Roll?

I'm having dinner tonight with my friend G who's growing into a deeper friendship with me. (That's a story for another time.) Anyway, we were talking on Sunday and revealed our secret inner insecurities.

I wish I were more task-oriented like G is. A doer. You know The Doers: the ones who maintain deliciously beautiful homes at all times. Mundane Housekeeping Tasks seems to come naturally to them, and they never sit still and just think, or sit still and just read, because the To Do list looms over their heads.

She wishes she were more analytic-oriented like I am. I'm a thinker, and I know us. We read the dictionary to find new words we don't know. (Saturday evening I spent an hour with a fellow thinker. We each read our own dictionary*, sharing new and exciting words aloud to each other...) We sit and think and analyze for hours. We sometimes do kooky things just to see what would happen. (In the college dining hall, I once ate my entire meal of chili-mac off my tray, not off a plate. Just to see what would happen.)

Here are some implications:

• Why do the both of us assume there's something wrong with the way we were created?
• Why does each of us assume we are lazy because we don't operate the way the other does? I feel the pain of my innate laziness because I don't Do as much as she does; I daresay she feels the same sort of insecurity when compared to my Constant Thinking and Analyzing.
• Why can't I accept her help in making me a better Doer, a better Housekeeper? More accurately, why am I hesitant to accept her help?
• Which type of acumen is assumed to be more usable? (You can get tutoring anywhere...I'm tutoring a girl in my Linguistics class on the finer points of grammar, and I could tutor my friend G in doctrine and theology if she wanted...but honoring your innate talent for Do-ing and Housekeeping by tutoring people like me who just aren't Doers? That's a bold idea.) To rephrase and clarify my question: who is considered to be more important: white-collar workers or blue-collar workers? And why is that?

Sigh. Here I am ruminating over the Thinker/Doer dichotomy (and using words like dichotomy, too) when I should be (1) planning my weekend meals and (2) compiling my grocery list so I can (3) get home and (4) cook food and (5) clean my house.

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*Yes, we own two dictionaries. When we married, we purged multiple copies of the same books, especially duplicate college textbooks, but we decided not to fight over whose dictionary to keep. Other issues are more important...like which of the double sinks do you want? and how will we squeeze our toothpaste tube now that we share one? and the ever-popular how much does it annoy you when I correct your grammar? Oh, the delights of being married to a Thinker.

Staying Organized

Here's a post about staying organized. It's another good idea, and a habit I should start building.

Grocery List Organizing

While I'm reading other blogs and linking to great ideas, here's another one:

Organizing your grocery list. I love the idea about the highlighters in particular, and I'll try out all the other facets of this woman's plan--keeping what I'll actually do and discarding what doesn't work in my life.

Kitchen Counter Organizing

I don't have kids to make organizing on-the-fly even harder, but I hope to some day. To that end, I collect tidbits from in-the-trenches organizers and try to enact them now.

This tip about organizing your kitchen counters is great. I'll start working towards it now.

Monday Update 2 (Written on Tuesday)

• Hours of class attended: only 1
• Cups of coffee: 2 (+1 decaf)
• Conversations with friends (old and new): 2
• Conversations via email with SIL A: 1 (extended over the whole day, though)
• Conversations with a publishing house confirming the cancelling of my Free Trial Account (and that my credit card will not be charged): 1 (it was very civil)
• Conversations with a passport official (he must have been in New York or somewhere because it was not civil at all): 1
• Applications collated, stuffed into envelopes, and mailed (with well-written cover letters!) : 7
• Reference request forms stuffed into envelopes (with corresponding cover letters and stamped, addressed envelopes): 3
• Number of times I annoyed the Covenant Mailroom people while copying, collating, buying stamps, etc.: 4 or 5
• Meals eaten yesterday: 2
• Time we arrived home after a long day: 9:00pm.
• Time we got into bed and turned the lights off: 10:30pm.

Weeked Update and Monday to-do list

Wow! Everyone is busy on a Monday morning updating their blogs. Let me join the flow.

Weekend events:
*Cleaned house
*Cooked food for Saturday night party
*Cooked food for Sunday lunch
*Hosted Saturday night party (I got some girls together and we watched the pre-recorded Miss America I had on hand. It was fun!)
*Attended morning church
*Hosted Sunday lunch (SIL A and her two former roommates came over)
*Cleaned up from Sunday lunch--including the fine china (thanks to Mom and Tanta for the two extra place settings I have now!)
*Attended evening church
*Found crochet project (it was in a project bag) and resumed work on a baby blanket for Heather of Troy

Menus for meals:
Saturday party:
Macaroni and Cheese (I'll share this recipe later--it is sooo good!)
"Taco Night"
Dessert: fruit (grapes and strawberries)

Sunday lunch:
Quiche Lorraine + cheese -- will share this recipe when I am at home
Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche -- will share this recipe too
Salad
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (Love the doughboy--these are always sooo yummy!)
Dessert--Easy Cherry Cobbler provided by J and A, SIL A's two roommates. (will share this recipe too)

To do list for today (compiled last night by my dear friend and husband...he wrote it onto a large *Post-it and stuck it onto the front of my planner):
*Get transcripts for schools
*Make decision about Tuesday Night activity
*Copy/Scan teacher's license
*Print resume for C-County School District
*Get and fill out application
*Send/email applications to W- and C-County Schools

So...off I go!