SMART Habits Saturday

Lara's computer is on the fritz, but I think I'll participate anyway. This week has been a tough one at work, and I'm actually feeling dejected, not much in my control though, but I don't like having to give unwelcome news, or basically tell someone to shape-up. So on to this week, I think I should concentrate on what I can control and let go of the rest. As the prayer goes "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference".

Previous SMARTs
15 Minute Walkabout really bad this week (1/7)
15 Minutes with God also not good this week
2 days/week extra curricular activities 1 of 2, went to work out at the gym on the treadmill, fun but hard to get up the energy to do it. I guess I did 2, if reading counts, I did it as a second...

15 Minute Friday - July 27

So this week I had 2 ideas, the first is related to the book of John. In chapter 2, the wedding at Cana, Jesus turns water into wine. The one thing in this description of Jesus' first recorded miracle in John is how Jesus responds to his mother, here's the passage:

John 2:3-5 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine". "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

I've tried to imagine Jesus saying this to his mom, and it just seems rude to me. Maybe it's the "dear woman" translation, it seems very formal and distant to me. I decided to look up the words as I am likely adding my own tone based on my own time and culture. Dear refers to something of value, precious and near to your heart, at least this is the interpretation I wish to allocate. So that would then mean dear woman is an endearment of a son for his mother. I wonder at why Jesus' mother involves him and why he thinks his time has not yet come. Maybe his mom sees something he doesn't. There's not mention of Jesus having disciples previously in his life, and in 3 days time he now has 5. Maybe people had wanted to learn from him before, but he discouraged them from following and now he was accepting them. I think this needs more pondering.

The second thing I was thinking about is the Lord's Prayer, have you ever really thought about it? It really blows my mind. For instance, it begins 'Our Father'. I tried to fathom that, so I tried to calculate the volume of space that 6 billion pennies would occupy, so I guesses at the width and diameter of a pennie and figured out how many would fit in house I grew up in. (The house is 1800+ sqft and I just used a volume of 100ft x 50ft x20ft. Anyway, if my calculations were correct, 6 billion pennies would fill that volume 33 times, that just astounded me. And to think of knowing and being able to identify each penny uniquely, and we're a lot more complex than a penny.

The second line "Who art in heaven" I tried to conceptualize heaven. I used to think of heaven as somewhere further out in the universe, and I still default to this. But heaven isn't within our universe, it's outside it, because the universe is God's creation not His living space, just as I don't exist within something that I might create. I don't think I spend enough time thinking about heaven, I wonder how my attitudes and values might change if I did spend more time thinking about heaven.

I'm still working on the third line "Hallowed be thy name". What it means for God's name to be holy, what does holy mean? I turned to my dictionary again for this and looked up hallowed, which has 2 definitions: to make hold or set appart for holy use; and to respect greatly. Holy means: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness; devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity; having a divine quality. Holiness is a difficult concept for me, the dedication, reverence, respect I see in the old and new testament of the Lord's prophets is foreign to me.

So what have you done this week with God? How do interpret the exchange between Jesus and his mother before his first miracle? What does the Lord's prayer mean to you? Should you think about heaven more?

SMART Habits Saturday - week 3

So last week's habit of spending 15 minutes with prayer and/or bible study every day worked out well, and I've decided to have a regular feature on my own blog of 15 minute Friday's. This past week I've come to realize that if I organized myself into having commited things to do evenings and weekends, I might just work less overtime and feel less stressed and have a healthier work/life balance. Therefore, this week, I will find 2 things I want to commit to for myself during the week.

Visit The Lazy Organizer for more SMART Habits

15 minute walk about not so good 2 days only

15 minutes with God great 6 days

15 Minute Friday

This past week as part of my SMART Habits Saturday I've been working on spending 15 minutes with God every day. That being said and by Jenny V's request I'm going to start 15 minute Fridays.

Every Friday I will post on my week's journey with God and faith. So a travellin I shall go.

For the last few weeks I've been studying the gospel of John. Now a little background on this gospel, it's different from the other 3 in that it's very much about who Jesus is, John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus as Messiah and Godly love and redemption. It's quite often given to people seeking more information about Jesus and Christianity. Now to be quite frank with you, had it been given to me, I might not be a Christian, because I just don't get it, I find it really frustrating so far. I have read this gospel all the way through for an overview, and I'm currently concentrating on Chapter 1. Here's an example of something that frustrates me. One of the questions in my study guide, What did eah of the first 5 disciples find out about Jesus and how did they find out. Now, let's take Philip, Jesus finds Philip in his [Philip's] home town and says to him "Follow me". [John 1:43]. Philip, presumably spends some time with Jesus, although the next couple versus explain where it happened, not what occurred to make Philip a believer and then has Philip running off to find Nathaniel to tell Nate that they have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote [John 1:45]. Nathaniel didn't believe a Messiah could come from Nazareth, but comes to meet Jesus anyway. Jesus says Nate is a true son of Israel and when Nate questions the comment, Jesus says he 'saw' Nate praying under a fig tree before Philip found him. To this Nate replies "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel [John 1: 46-49].

Now I try to put myself in their place. If someone asked me to follow them, I'm not sure I would without an explanation, or at least some knowledge gained from my own acquitances of who the person is. So let's say I followed, chances are I'm not going to running off to my friends to tell them the Messiah has been found. And if someone told me they had seen where I was and what I was doing before I came before them, Son of God is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind. I should likely have gotten along much better with the Pharisees.

Now seeing the experience of the first 5 disciples and how they came to believe in Jesus as Messiah, this gospel doesn't explain how seeds were planted or the thought processes of the disciples or what transpired in the intervening hours. I have to wonder, if I were to write out the beginning of my own story, what would it be, what made me cross that line from seeking to believing. If I told you my defining moment of belief, it would probably seem to you, like the first 5 disciples seems to me. So here it is:

Standing in my friend Jon's living room, he playing piano and a few of us singing a new worship song we had learned recently, Shi.ne Je.sus Shi.ne (by Graham Kendrik). Over the piano is a framed poem called Footprints. By the time I reached the end of the poem, I was well aware of how much God loved me and wanted me and that this is what I had spent all these years looking for. So what might have John written about my conversion? Jesus found Kim singing praises and said "Trust me" and is that really so different from the "follow me" that John overheard Jesus say to Philip?

Take the next 15 minutes and think about your experiences with a higher power, whatever form that may take. Although it's always a journey, is there a defining moment? Would you share?







Take what you like and leave the rest.
Kim

SMART Habits Saturday - week 2

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by Lara @ The Lazy Organizer.

This is my second week and I think I'd like to alternate habits I want to make versus ones I should make. So this week's habit will be to spend 15 minutes with God every morning.

Here's the list:

15 Minute Walkabout 2 days last week, not so good

SMART Habits Saturday - July 7

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by The Lazy Organizer being inspired by Lara's blog I've decided to participate this week in a smarter habit, but oh which one shall I do, I don't want to overdo things, just one habit a week is all I need as soon there will be lots and lots of good habits.

Cleaning: Do a walk-about every day. I can't find Laura's posts on walk-abouts although I know she's posted at least twice, plus her own daily 15 minute tidy up. Actually I guess I want to do a 15 minute tidy up, since I haven't taught the dog to put away his toys yet :)

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Tilapia Fish with ginger and green onions, brushed with soya sauce and sherry. Veggie black bean stir fry on the side

Tuesday: Vegetable Enchildas

Wednesday: Pork and green beans stir fried in Olive and garlic sauce, tomatoes and tofu in oyster sauce

Thursday: Lemon Chicken side unknown

Friday: Salmon marinated in lemonpeppercorn sauce, side unknown.

Vegetable Enchiladas

Nutritional Information (based on actual recipe, not the jambalaya leftovers):
Calories: 309
Protein: 12g
Carbohydrate: 23g
Sugars: 14g
Fat: 19g
Saturates: 8g

Ingredients:
I use leftovers from the Vegetable Jambalaya, but these are the actual ingredients.
4 large four tortillas (I used 9 small whole wheat tortillas)
3/4 cup grated hard cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar)

Filling:
2 1/4 oz spinach
2 tbsp olive oil
8 baby corn on the cobs, sliced
1 tbsp frozen peas, thawed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili, chopped
salt and pepper

Sauce: (I used the leftover canned chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, some vegetable stock and garlic salt for the sauce)
1 1/4 seived tomatoes
2 shallots, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp super fine sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. To make filling, blanche the spinach in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain well, pressing out as much excess moisture as possible and chop (oK, I use chopped frozen spinach and thaw it)
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the baby corn, peas, bell pepper, carrot, leek, garlic and chili, saute, stirring briskly, for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the spinach and season well with salt and pepper.
3. Put all the sauce ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 20 minutes until thickened and reduced by a third (I mixed my version in a bowl and stirred well, no cooking).
4. Spoon the filling into the tortillas, spinkle a little cheese inside, roll, place in baking dish.
5. Once all enchiladas are rolled, spoon sauce on top making sure to cover everything then sprinkle with cheese (I spinkled with cheese and more garlic salt).
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F.

Vegetable Jambalaya

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 181
Protein 6g
Carbohydrates: 25g
Sugars: 8g
Fat: 7g
Saturates: 1g

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red onion, cut into 8
1 eggplant, diced (I used 2 more bell peppers, zucchini is good too)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 3/4 oz baby corn on the cob, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup frozen peas
3 1/2 oz small broccoli florets
2/3 cup vegetable stock
8 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp creole seasoning
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the rice according to directions on bag/box
2. Heat oil in heavy bottom skillet and cook garlic and onion stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes
3. Add eggplant, bell pepper, corn, peas, and broccoli to the pan and cook, stirring occassionally for 2-3 minutes
4. Stir in the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes, tomato paste, creole seasoning and chili flakes
5. Season to taste, cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender
6. Stir in cooked rice, mixing well, for 3-4 minutes. Serve immediately.

If too spice add butter or cheese to the jambalaya. I use the leftovers for Vegetable Enchildas.

Menu Planning Monday

Here's my nutritional menu for the week, low cal and low fat. For more participants see Org Junkie's list.

Sunday: Vegetable Jambalaya

Monday: Vegetable Enchiladas (using leftovers from Sunday)

Tuesday: Late Father's Day dinner out

Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff (from Dr. B recipes)

Thursday: Lemon Chicken

Friday: Tilapia fish in black bean sauce

Saturday: Tofu and veggies, pork and green beans - chinese style

Sunday: Kraft Foods Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Recipes to follow, I forgot the cookbooks, where I have it available I'll include nutritional information

Happy Mother's Day

Today is mother's day, and I really owe my mom a lot. I realize as I grow older just how lucky I am, and I owe that to 2 main things. God's grace, and mom's teaching.

I'm happily married because I had a good mom who loved us, cherished us which taught us to love ourselves and cherish ourselves, so that we would be able to give the same of ourselves to others. She taught us compromise and sacrifice as marriage is about that too. I'm lucky that my husband was also raised by a mom who taught him these things and that God gave us these wonderful mom's and each other. She taught us to be individuals and self sufficient, so even unmarried we would be happy.

We're not struggling financially because my mom taught me always to do my very best, to educate myself to strive to do things that I thought I might not be capable of, not to settle for good enough, when I know I can do better, but to also have compassion for myself and to give myself a chance to learn new things, they don't have to be done perfectly right away. She taught me to get an education and finish that education and not waste my intelligence. Because of this, I'm gainfully employed, even if I work too hard and I'm hard on myself if I don't complete things to my satisfaction in the timeline I set myself, I do set my expectations of myself very high.

I'm healthy because my mom taught me the importance of regular medical checkups. I see my dentist and doctor regularly, I could eat better, but I could also be worse, at least I know when I'm not eating well.

When things feel bad I learned that the world would not stop moving right along, because honestly if it did whenever someone felt bad, the world wouldn't ever move. So I learned that this too shall pass, it applies to the good and the bad though :)

I learned a lot about life from my mother, and hopefully one day I'll realize all the important things she's taught me about motherhood and I'll be able to pass them on to children of my own.

Happy mother's day mom and to all the mommies out there, may you all realize the impacts you have in the lives of those around you.

7 random things (since I was tagged....)

by Jenn!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. When I interlace my fingers, my left thumb is on top, although I'm right handed.
2. For all of my adult career life I've always had to explain what I do (even though I've already had 2 careers). I enjoy explaining it more than doing it.
3. Used to run my hand along the wall when I walked down a hallway, I also sometimes try not to step on lines or cracks in the tiling.
4. When trying to figure something out I would have a conversation with myself, I can do this in my head now without moving my hands. I used to walk down hallways at university mouthing words and waving my hands.
5. I make funny little noises with notes sort of when I'm very happy. I discovered this when dating my husband. He smiles so widely that tears come and his jaw aches.
6. My brother does #5 too, but very loudly.
7. I notice little things about myself that remind me of my mother more and more. (Like this week I realized I don't like the windows down in the car anymore, I don't like the wind moving my hair around my scalp, my mom doesn't like it either).

Tagging: Chrissa, Hope, JennyV, Beck, Michelle (Scribbit), Antique Mommy, Laura (Org Junkie)

Wedding Day

Today is the day my little brother gets married. It's funny saying that... little brother... not getting married. I still think of him as about 15, probably because I don't feel very old myself (18-21 ish rather than the 34 that I am).

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day, a surprising 23 degrees Celsius, considering that on Monday it was about 5 degrees. I've been hoping for the last 2 weeks it would be warm and sunny for them, no flowers, but at least it will be warm taking pics down by the beach. Most of us are wearing suits, the Bride will probably be fine, we'll all be sweating.

I wrote my speech early this morning, I hope it's OK, I haven't practiced it a lot. Anyway, off to make myself pretty for the family photos.

Home coming

Thank you all for praying, Ron is coming home today. He's not healed yet, and still has 5 rounds of chemo, and still blind, but praise God he's able to come home, please keep praying.

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle?

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle? Or better yet participate in one? Over the last few months I've been praying along with many many others for Annie and Ron, you can read the details of their story here. Today though I feel compelled to invite as many people as I can to pray too, because the timeline of Ron's story matches that of a miraculous season in the Christian calendar.

Here is a synopsis of Ron's story:
Dec 22 2006: Diagnosed with a brain tumour
Dec 23 3006 moved 1300kms from home to get the care he needed
Dec 27 2006: Biopsied the tumour, its inoperable and malignant
Jan 10 2007: Arrive at the cancer centre for treat of a grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, treatment won't erradicate the tomour, only try to control it
Jan 23 2007: Radiation and chemotherapy treatment starts
Feb 21 2007: Ron has declined very rapidly and the doctors estimate he has 5 days left
March 6 2007: Ron is moved to a palliative care centre and his life expectancy is extended to 3 weeks.
March 21 2007: Ron continues to improve and is getting stronger each day although he is unable to see and begins the chemo portion of his treatments on the 26th.
March 26 2007: Ron begins chemotherapy

Those of us that have been praying for Ron already know God has done so much for him and his family and blessed those that have been praying for them. There is no denying the glorification of God when you participate in His miracles.

Today I have felt called to share Annie and Ron's story with more people, to encourage more people to pray during this week, especially this week, known as Holy Week to Christians.

So if you've been praying keep it up, if you haven't start, and if you wouldn't then I challenge you to challenge yourself, I dare you to move out of your comfort zone and see what we see, experience what we have experienced. God is moving very powerfully in this direction join the flow.

Change of Face

For a few years now I've been thinking of changing my handle. A handle for those of you that don't know is your online nick. So no more warpie (originally a derivative of mindwarp) now it's odat (or odat_kim), its the acronym of the new title for my main blog (One Day At a Time). It was between odat and C2C and serenity (C2C = courage to change). So anyway, odat it is for now, it may change again (although it may take 10 years like the last change). Anyway, new handle, new face, new perspective.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday, so in honour of the occassion, this post is dedicated to her.

Moms
Moms are incredible people, and my mom is no different than any other. It astounds me how moms can accomplish so many things, things that I bet none of them ever thought they could before that fist tiny helpless bundle arrived in their lives to change everything. I was that bundle for my mom. Moms sacrifice a lot for their families and from what I can see from my own mother, rather than bringing resentment it brought pleasure and I think that's one wonderful thing about my mom. I'm also astounded by all the things moms can accomplish in a 24 hour period or a 7 day week, or a 52 week year, bet you never did that pre-kids and you don't give yourselves credit for it now... give yourself a pat on the back for all those years of taking care of the family and managing all the to do lists, and still raising great, well adjusted, healthy kids, that's a major accomplishment!

My Mom

• My mom raised 2 kids, cared for a sister and husband.
• She single handedly took care of all the chores and day to day needs of so many of us, even when we could bloody well do it ourselves, and should have, lazy unappreciating buggers that we were. I dont ever remember my mom losing her temper or cool about it though. I appreciate it and recognize it now mom, I have no idea how you managed to do it all, and your deserve being recognized, however late, that it is appreciated, and your amazing.
• Mom taught us values in knowing what matters to ourselves and not being influenced by others to abandon our core beliefs
• Mom taught us honesty, she rarely got mad if we made a mistake, only if we hid it from her. Maliciousness of course was not tolerated.
• Mom taught us respect, for ourselves, for family, for others, for things. By teaching us this, we can take care of ourseves and don't fall into what the crowd might be doing, we acknowledge when we've done wrong and stick around to accept the punishment. We respect others and their things so that we get along with others, the world does not revolve around our needs, wants and desires and we take care of those without infringing on the right of another to meet their needs, wants and desires. We also know the value of a sincere apology.
• Mom taught us cooperation, because we can't do it all alone, and it lifts each of us up and builds relationship to cooperate, no man is an island.
• Mom taughts us independence, which came from respect and values, we don't ask for things we can do ourselves, it is not another's responsibility to meet our needs.

Go Green for March

In honour of Going Green for March I will endeavour to do the following:

1. Turn down the thermostat 1 degree (day) 2 degrees (night)
2. Replace as many lights as I can with high efficency bulbs, (save the still working floursecents for where I can't do replacements)
3. Buy more organic food
4. Buy food with less wrapping
5. Have a box in the upstairs washroom and basement for compostables
6. Unplug unused electronics
7. Buy a houseplant
8. Make the toilets into lower water use ones
9. Wash large pots and bowls by hand so I can fit more into the dishwasher
10. Use dishwasher and laundry/dryer in off peak hours
11. Weather strip the cold cellar door
12. Only boil as much water as I need for tea/coffee
13. Look into wrapping the water heater and checking the temp on it (can I turn it down a degree or two)
14. Walk more often (i.e. to the buss when I take it rather than getting a ride)
15. Evaluate my water and electricity usage for waste of resources
16. Eat more fruit and vegetables (less packaging)
17. Buy things in bulk (if there is less packaging)
18. Look for fewer disposable items that I use regularly
19. Look into reusable feminine products
20. Look for items I need in reusable/refillable containers
21. Look for biodegradable cleansers
22. Consider manual rather than electric replacements for items that might need replacing this year
23. Find local battery recycling (cell phones too if possible)
24. Freecycle
25. Buy items used or reconditioned
26. Rechargeable batteries for our devices
27. Borrow instead of buy low usage items (i.e. hedge trimmer)
28. Take more public transit
29. Make shopping lists and take them with me when I leave the house so I can just make one trip, or do it after work and then take the bus home
30. Re-learn riding a bike (yes you do have to relearn to balance well after 20 years! And it takes awhile because those seats are *not* comfortable)
31. Use a dust rag for dusting rather than paper towels

Lent

Ash Wednesday I believe is this week. I don't often observe lent, or at least not in any major way. However, letely I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with God and His Holiness (see my 15 minutes with G blog).

A number of years ago my pastor said that if we want to do something for Lent to examine our lives and see if there is anything that stands in our way of our relationship with God or spending time with him, then for Lent endeavour to remove (or insert) that objective.

This year, I'm going to leave my laptop at work, over the last 18 months that I've had a laptop I've spent fairly regular time on it at home, so I'm going to leave it at work so that I can put other relationships before work. I do have to make a few exceptions. Firstly for the next release, I'll probably have to bring my laptop home that weekend. I may also bring it home if a snowstorm is predicted so I can work from home the next day, lastly if I'm on call I need the computer. Other than that it stays at work, I'll even endeavour not to work late as whatever it is can wait for the next day.

Funny puppy

I think I have mentioned before that I think it's very funny how Drake sleeps on his back. Although he does it very often as soon as you bring out the camera to snap a photo he stretches and rolls over, losing the shot. Well we finally got 2 shots, yes he woke up and started stretching. As you can see sleeping against this particular wall in the basement is where we spends about half his sleep time, and he sleeps on his back with his paws on the wall as you can see from the chipped paint and scratch marks (I painted this wall in late September, and the marks have been there for awhile now, I wonder if the chipping was him eating it or not).

Anyway on to the pics.

Works For Me Wednesday

Well I was going to post this last week, but since that was a themed WFMW, I'll post it this week.

I redid my filing cabinet one night when I couldn't sleep because it was taking me too long to file.

First I put all the files I likely wouldn't need again at the back of the cabinet behind the divider (i.e. non current tax years, I have to keep them in case I'm audited).

Then in front of the tax year folders I put folders that I need rarely, like insurance (I only get one letter a year), car repair bills (4 times a year). Investment files from previous years etc.




In the front on the drawer I have the following 6 hanging files:
Household Bills (hanging file) with folders for: water, gas, telephone, electric, property tax (shred old bills)
Credit Card - Each card in it's own folder (shred old bills)
Banking - Each bank in it's own folder by year (i.e. CIBC - 2007 moves to the back of the cabinet at the end of the year)
Investments - each company with year in it's own folder i.e. "Fidelity - 2007" then that file moves into the Fidelity folder at the back at the end of the year
Pay Stubs - usually moves into the tax folder for the year
Taxes - 2007 - folders for me and hubby


This makes my filing easy for me, it took me about 2 hours to rearrange things and complete a few months of filing (not much, since it's bills and paystubs). Now it takes only 2 minutes to do a month of filing, whoppee!

For more Works For Me Wednesday solutions head on over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots, salad (OK so I mofied this by cooking on low for 8 hours and adding the cut up potatoes and baby carrots, peas too)

Tuesday: Steak Fajitas

Wednesday: Ground Beef Stew

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Dinner with the girls

Saturday: Chicken Cordon Bleu in slow cooker

Sunday: Irish Stew in slow cooker

Head over to Laura's blog to participate. By request I've added all the slow cooker recipes, which by the way I get from Sandra's blog on Thursdays, I also haven't tried any of these! :)

Green Earth

Reading over Chrissa's and Julie's posts, I too think I should do something for the environment on a regular basis, especially considering that's what my degree is in (Environmental Science and Biology). Actually I'd like to encourage everyone to do something for the environment in 2007. Here are some ideas:

1. Take public transit on a regular basis if you don't already (i.e. if you drive everyday, try once a month on the bus)
2. Walk to the store on a nice day, if you normally drive it
3. Eat fewer convenience foods, good for you, less processing and less waste
4. Volunteer on a rehabilitation project (like plantings in a marsh that's being rehabilitated)
5. Take a daily walk and pick up one piece of litter that you see on the ground, even better if you can recycle that litter.
6. Turn off/unplug appliances you don't need regularly (do you really need to see the time on your microwave if you're not using it several times a day? Stereo?)
7. Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth
8. If you have a large tank toilet put a full bottle of water on the side of the tank to help reduce the water consumption 500ml or 16oz bottle (provided this doesn't start to mean you have to flush twice).
9. Wash your pots in the sink rather than the dishwasher, means you can fit more in your dishwasher and you use less water and electricity
10. Let your dishwasher air dry rather than heat dry your dishes (if you can)
11. Choose an energy star appliance the next time you have to replace one.
12. If you have a radio alarm clock change to one you have to wind up
13. Get rechargeable batteries
14. Don't fall asleep in front on the TV with the lights on at night, go to bed
15. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (next time you change one and if they fit in your light fixture).
16. When doing the laundry hang hard to dry clothing for awhile so it doesn't take your dryer as long to dry them (i.e. towels, jeans). Choose a quicker cycle on the washer, you're clothes are likely not that dirty, if they are, pre-soak in a bucket of hot water, then wash. Also wash in cold water.
    
    If you have more ideas let me know!

Tzatziki recipe

For Chrissa. I don't actually make my own dip, but if you want to try this recipe is from About.com Home Cooking.

Ingredients
1 container (16 ounces) plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 English (seedless) cucumber, not peeled, seeded and finely chopped plus a few thin slices
1/1-2 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or dill plus additional sprigs (use dill preferred)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


Instructions
Spoon yogurt into sieve lined with cheesecloth or coffee filter set over bowl; cover and refrigerate overnight. Transfer drained yogurt to medium bowl and discard liquid.

Meanwhile, in colander set over bowl, toss chopped cucumber with 1 teaspoon salt. Let drain at least 1 hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours. In batches, wrap chopped cucumber in kitchen towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Pat dry with paper towels, then add to bowl with yogurt.

With flat side of chef's knife, mash garlic to a paste with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add garlic, chopped mint, oil, vinegar, and pepper to yogurt and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 or up to 4 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature, topped with cucumber slices and mint sprigs.

Yield: about 1-1/2 cups

Per tablespoon: about 17 calories, 1 gram protein, 1 gram carbohydrate, 1 gram total fat (0 gram saturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 182 mg sodium.

A to Z(ed) Meme and other things

A - Available/Single? Married
B - Best Friend? Hubby
C- Cake or Pie? Pie, apple please
D - Drink Of Choice? Coke
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Touthbrush, if you don't ... ewww!
F - Favorite Color? Red
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Neither, but bears if I have to choose, the sour ones preferrbaly
H - Hometown? Thornhill (borders Toronto on the north side)
I - Indulgence? Poutine
J - January Or February? February, it's short and then it's March.
K - Kids & Their Names? None yet, but I have a high fever
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Hubby
M - Marriage date? October 23 2004
N- Number Of Siblings? 1 younger brother
O - Oranges Or Apples? Apples, baked please :)
P - Phobias/Fears? I don't like spiders, a baby sitter told me that they could bite me, lay eggs, and a red welt would appear and get bigger over time and the doctor would cut it open and baby spiders would come out. Now I imagine baby spiders that some of those baby spiders would get into your veins, how gross!
Q - Favorite Quote? I love you - anyone
R - Reason to Smile? Hubby and puppy cuddling
S - Season? Autumn
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? Chrissa, Val, Jenn, Karen
U - Unknown Fact About Me - How about a little known fact - I have 3 moles I want to remove because they get pulled by my clothing sometimes.
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Mushrooms (They usually make me throw up)
W - Worst Habit? Not flossing every single day (getting better though)
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Teeth, once a year. Feet, once when I broke one, twice for orthodics. Abdomen, gave me x-rays instead of an ultrasound for the gall bladder, stupid med centre.
Y - Your Favorite Food? Currently Dante's pizza
Z - Zodiac Sign? Virgo accurate for me, I'm also a Rat in the Chinese zodiac, similar to Virgo, so I'm doubly blessed with being detail oriented.

Well to end off my vacation I have a cold, I don't feel too awful right now, just under the weather and weak.

Personality Traits

Hmmm, mine sounds a lot like Laura's

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness.Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.Most things in your life are organized and planned well.But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness.You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism.You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high.In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas.You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits.A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Eight Things Meme

These are eight things about me:

1. I've never been passed out drunk, came close to falling down once, I had to hold the walls, it only lasted about 15 minutes, but I found it very funny. No hangover the next morning, felt like I hadn't had a drink 2 hours later. Don't you wish you were me? Until I tell you it took 1/2 a mickey in an hour to get there, and another 2 hours from consumption to process it enough to have to hang onto the wall.
2. I've never smoked a cigarette, and I'm still not sure what MJ smells like, although I know I have smelled it on more than 1 occasion.
3. I don't drink coffee for the caffeine or the taste, I drink it for the sugar hit and cream, take that away (as I have over the last month) and I only drink it to ward off the withdrawal headache. Really should get myself off coffee, maybe on my next vacation.
4. My favourite colour is dark red
5. I love animals and wish I had a cat.
6. I need to get a library card to a decent pleasure reading library, I've been reading a lot lately, and it's becoming an expensive habit.
7. I would love to try more home improvements, but 2 things hold me back - one, the time, I'm afraid I'll take on something too big and it will take too long, two, that I won't do it perfectly enough that it will bug me to no end :)
8. I miss my mother's backyard garden, it's very lush and green. I never appreciated it while I lived there, but it really lifts my spirits to spend a few minutes back there with the dog when we visit.

I tag Jenn, Hope, Laura, Karen and anyone else who wants to that hasn't already done this meme.

Tackle it Tuesday

By request, my tackle today shall be something for me, I'm not really sure what yet, but here's where my thinking is right now:
Relax
Do not take the laptop home and think about doing work
Watch Doctor Who (taped it last night)
Either go to the gym and workout and/or take the dog for a walk

No cleaning, no fixing, no organizing :)

Back to 5 minutes for mom for more tackles!

Menu Planning Monday

So didn't get through all the meals I planned for last week, and I still have to do a grocery shopping.

Meal 1
Salmon with mustard sauce (mustard, mayonaisse, vinegar, sugar, I think I might throw in a few capers). Rice and veggies

Meal 2
Honey mustard chicken, rice and veggies

Meal 3
I think I'll make another spinach and ground beef dish, but this time I think I'll use ground tofu. (Heat tofu in large pot, add spinach, cooked rice, pasta sauce of choice and pine nuts, stir until well blended, serve as a hearty stew).

Meal 4
Tofu tomato and pork with rice and veggies (a little olive oil in the skillet, cook meat of choice, season as desired, add soft tofu cut up and tomatoes cubed 5 minutes towards the end, sorry there's not much more detail than that, I usually make it lightly flavoured with garlic salt and paprika).

Meal 5
Cajun chicken stew (Cajun chicken, or regular but then add paprika and chili powder, 2 cans of cream of anything and the corresponding water, frozen veggies and egg noodles).

Menu Planning Monday

For more recipes, head on over to Laura's blog.

Monday: Ground Beef and Spinach stew (Ground beef, frozen spinach, rice, pine nuts, something tomato based and garlic salt - basically a clean the fridge of leftovers recipe, everything can be substistuted for something else).

Tuesday: Tofu tomato and beef (cook beef strips add tomatoes and tofu at the end)

Wednesday: Honey mustard Chicken and snow peas (honey mustard is 1 part old style dijon, 1 part honey, 2 parts regular dijon, spread over chicken before baking, reserve some for meal)

Thursday: Salmon with mustard sauce and veggies (bake salmon sauce is equal parts dijon mustard and Miracle Whip, white vinegar about 1/4 cup, sugar to taste).

Friday: Pizza or leftovers

Saturday: Anti-Hestivus (Girls whole day out, while the boys do Hestivus - eat junk and watch Charleston Heston movies).

Sunday: Chicken Rouge (in a casserole dish combine chicken fillets, canned, diced tomatoes, green pepper, onions, spices of choice, cover bake I think it's about 50 minutes at 350F - Dr Bernstein recipe). Serve over rice if desired.

House Keeping

An hour ago I was telling hubby that I appreciate that he swept and dusted the dining room yesterday and I'm sorry I didn't tell him then. Also how I wish I could keep the house as clean as my mother did, but I'm not that kind of woman (yet) and perhaps my eyes are now more critical than they were as a child to young adult, it's not until I had my own home that I started noticing. Although my apartments were cleaner than this, although I think in part I kept my mess and disorganization confined to my personal living space and not the common areas which helped alot. Anyway, I've been feeling lately not only do I eat like a pig, I live like one, so I've decided to add a daily cleaning challenge to my kick the pig blog. Today's shall be cleaning the master bedroom and bath, which will include doing the laundry, although since hubby's downstairs I'll take it down, he can do the switching.

Promised Before & After Pictures

Ahh, ladies here they are the promised pics, bigger if you click on them:

The Basement Bedroom

Before

After (yes it's a slightly lighter colour, I was going to do it the same colour as the living room, but it ended up problematic around the door frames for the closets, so I tried to match the original colour)

The closet in the basement bedroom with the gift area for Laura (left side only, right side is Laura's wonderful odds and ends solution, I have tape, lightbulbs, pest control, power bars, and child safety electrical outlet plug covers in mine. Looking for more items to fill it).

The living room for Chrissa (so she can see the Ikea rug) , you can see where I'm in the process of finishing this blog on the left there :) well not me obviously, I'm taking the photo, but the laptop and water bottle.

Today I've actually been hanging a lot of pictures, like our wedding pic you see in the living room above. Most of them are gifts we gave each other for various anniversaries (dating and wedding). Monday is our second wedding anniversary, we'll be going out to dinner tomorrow, but seeing, framing and finally hanging a lot of these beautiful momentos (2 of which hubby drew himself) has made me feel rather sentimental and romantic today.

Sunday Funday

(Updated with rug pic below for Mrs. Happy)

So this morning hubby and I went to Ikea for breakfast, and we picked up a rug for the living room. Drake, like a lot of little ones, wanted to explore the new item before hubby and I had finished placing it down, so imagine us moving the rug around with an 80lb golden retriever on the rug. Eventually I did put him outside for 5 minutes where he barked to let me know hoe thought it was unfair that I tricked him into going outside by going out first myself. Hey, whatever works, and I didn't pretent to say hi to Soup, the neighbours dog who sticks his head under the fence to say "hi". They are digging holes under the fence to one another, but I think they've reached some roots or hard earth, because they haven't dug any deeper for about 6 months, and it would need to be pretty deep to get Drake or Soup under there. Soup is about 10 pounds less than Drake, but a better digger, he's husky and black lab.

Anyway, have about half the room in the basement back together. It's painted and the bed, side table, lamp and phone are back in. I do have to empty out the closets and hang some shelves and decide what else is going back in there before I take a picture. Hopefully later today I'll update this post with pics. In the mean time to avoid doing the work, I think I'll start the story board with the old pic :)

Hahaha, Drake's doing the baby thing with his rope toy where he lies on his back and holds the rope in the air over his mouth and chews on it. That's one of my favourite things he does. :)

It's beige (seisel like) rimmed with dark brown. When I take a pic of the basement bedroom, I'll also take a pic of the living room so you can see the carpet there.

Inspiration

So many inspiring and heart felt posts today, I feel the need to share them.
Hope in frustration
Julie in Beauty and Prayer
Laura in recognizing your limits

I feel so much love, hope and peace flowing through me and from me. Have you felt the empowerment? What can I say? I often have the heart to reach out and to stand with the others, but not always the written word. So this is me, taking to you, something wonderful, so that you can participate too and have your day uplifted, and feel united with people across the world. If only we could all feel so united across the miles, maybe there would be more peace and love and understanding in the world. If we could remember that everyone has a story, a hurt, something to share, value. We are all equal, may we put principles above personalities and love each other in a very special way, even if we can't love ourselves yet.

Reach out to someone today that maybe you wouldn't have reached out to before, let your heart and soul move you, not your head. Commiserate with your fellow traveler whom you might overhear speaking of a hurt they've experienced, because we are all responsible for those hurts, even if we didn't directly commit them, the survivor may need to hear, an apology or that not every person that fits an archetype is like their experience, to break down barriers that separate us. There is more that unites us, than separates us despite what our natures may say.

Update on my Tackle

So yesterday what I did for my Tackle it Tuesday (I was going to use the acronym and then decided against it). In the first picture, see the white Beaumark box in the lower right and the brown cardboard box beside it? I went through those 2 boxes and tossed stuff. The white box actually contains all of our manuals for things. The manuals and warranty cards were filling up my fling cabinet, and I wasn't good about filing them, so now we just throw them in here, works for me (i.e. my Works for me Wednesday - unofficially of course). The other thing I did was to quickly look into every drawer and cabinet and box and if I saw something that I didn't want, need, or recognize, it was chucked out (don't worry hubby I can at least recognize it as being mine, if I wasn't sure it was mine I kept it). I also finally took the clothing donation to the local pickup station and dropped it off as well as doing the grocery shopping.

Tackle it Tuesday

My Tackle it Tuesday will be organizing one dresser, box or bag in this room:



It actually looks worse now because I brought all my sewing, crafting, candles and Bible Studies into the room, the rest is to go out. That little bit of floor space you see in the middle of the second picture, that is now stacked with my stuff and the only remaining space is maybe a discontinuous strip of 8 inches width on each side of the bed. This room will be many Tackle it Tuesdays and weekends. I'll take pics of exactly what I tackled when I do it tonight.

P.S. Yes that is a life size Darth Maul to the right of the first picture. His light sabre is somewhere else in the house, I think probably the room next door to this one known as "the office" that room is another week long project.

Cleaning Day

Today is cleaning day, and hubby is going to help me clean at the same time that I am cleaning. We've never done cleaning at the same time (or at least the same amount at the same time), so I'm wondering how we'll do it. Often I tend to break it out using Julie's 10 minute regime. i.e. I'll do something for 10 minutes. Here's what I have:

Tidy every room (bedroom, master bath, kitchen, dining room, living room, TV room
Sweep (kitchen, dining room, living room)
Wash Floors (3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room)
Vacuum (2 stairs, 2 halls, TV room, bedroom)
Clean 3 washrooms
Clean kitchen counters and stove
Dust (living room, dining room, TV room)
Vacuum furniture in living room and TV room
Wash laundry
Wash walk out window (muddy paw marks)
Wash front door (muddy paw marks)

I'm tempted to get started with the bathrooms and washing the 2 doors while hubby sleeps, but maybe I'll go ask him how he wants to clean first (by floor or by task), then I can get started on mine. Well hubby's too sleepy to respond, so I guess I'll just pick. I think I'll go by task. Usually when he helps he sweeps and mops, I hate vacuuming, and it's kind of like sweeping and mopping, so I'll leave him those three things and get started on the rest.

I shall begin with tidying.
Tidied kitchen, cleaned kitchen, cleaned bathroom, cleaned front and back doors, dusted dining room. THis took me 2 hours, and hubby actually did the dusting part. Now I'm taking Drake for a long walk while hubby does the washing of the floors.

So the main floor is clean, I might do the bedroom and bathroom while getting ready to go see my in-laws. Then that will be all for today most likely, but it will just leave vacuuming, the basement and laundry to do.

A meme from Ravenbajan via Mrs. Happy

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd fill out this meme. Why is it called a meme anyway?

I am thinking about: This meme, and why I can't get to sleep, my to do list for tomorrow and the one I came up with for my whole vacation (wishful thinking).

I just said: Nothing, in the last 10 minutes, although I did ask the dog if he wanted to come curl up with mummy. He doesn't, he's not the cuddly sort. Good thing I suppose because he weighs 80 pounds.

I want to: go to sleep and organize the guest room by pulling every paper, book, box and empty all the drawers into the hallway, hubby would freak :)

I wish: the filing would do itself and the dog could be trained to do chores. I know I can teach him to put away his toys and sort laundry. I'd love to teach him to vacuum, I hate vacuuming, I think he likes it though, he tries to jump on the vacuum and then when it goes near him he barks and jumps away. He also tries to chase the broom and mop and eat them and with the broom he'll grab his piles of hair that come off the floor.

I regret: That I'm not asleep because mom's coming over to help me paint tomorrow and I'll be too tired. That I didn't do better in university, but I think I would now because I know better how to apply myself for longer periods and what to apply myself to.

I sing: When I'm very happy, I make these silly little la la, da bum bump sounds when I'm happy. Hubby laughs at me, I only noticed that I did that when we started dating, I guess I wasn't really really happy before that :). My brother does it too, only much much much louder than I do :)

I hear: the dog sighing and the laptop humming and my keyboard clicking, and huuby just burped.

I am: mindwarp or warpie or war pie. I think I need a new nick, my mind isn't as warped as it used to be.

I dance: in my living room

I'm behind: on cleaning, as usual, I hate cleaning, domestic goddess I am not.

I cry: at movies and books. I cry cery easily at these things, so if a movie doesn't elicit tears from me, it must have really sucked (unless it wasn't supposed to, but most have the hero go through a down part)

I am not: a guy. One of my male friends in university thought I was just one of the guys, made me choose whether I wanted to be one of the guys or a girl. I choose girl, since I know all about that.

I forgot: What day of the week it is, a good vacation should be like that :)

I confuse: the dog I think. He still doesn't get excited at the words, "walk" or "car ride", and he's just started responding to treat in the last few months. I think it's because I take so darn long to get ready that until I get the leash he doesn't respond, and then, he usually actually jumps away like a game when I try to hook up the leash, or he rolls over and shows me his belly if he was napping on the floor.

I write: when I'm confused about something, or it's on my mind. I'll write out my thoughts in a journal.

I need: Food, tummy is growling still.

Today's Goals

I figured I'd better blog about my daily goals or I'll never get it all done. So today's goals are:
Eat healthy
Walk Drake (the dog)
Sand Basement hallway
Replaster where needed
Resand the newly plastered areas
Prime the basement hallway
Clean up the TV room
Take a picture and post the TV room for Chrissa
Empty the basement bedroom so it can be painted too
Empty the laundry room of stuff from the TV room and get it organized
Move the one dresser from the master bedroom to the basement and use for storage.

Here are before pictures of the hall and basement bedroom:




Progress Update
Walked Drake
Finished first round of sanding and vacuumed
Took pics of the TV Room, which is in the basement and I painted last week, you can also see the new desk we bought last month.

View from the back of the room (standing beside the desk)



View from the front of the room (standing in front of the TV)



View from the doorway (so you can see the desk better)

DIY: Painting

You know, I like painting, I like the sense of accomplishment, however, what I don't like is the rest of it. For instance, to actually get started painting you have to move furniture, prep the walls by filling holes and dents you made while moving the furniture, sand it, prime it, lay the drop clothes, tape off things you don't want to paint, get the painting gear out (cans of paint, brushes, roller, cloth for wiping up mistakes quickly) change clothes. Then you can get down to painting. Afterwards, there are the washing the brushes, pickup the drop clothes, move out the painting gear. Once dry there are touch ups to bare spots, fixing where you might have laid the ladder for a second and it left a black mark on the wall, touch up the trim and ceilings where you got a little careless (i.e. tired from painting), dust tables, vacuum behind that furniture you haven't moved since the last time you painted/moved/rearranged the furniture. Might as well organize while doing this and not put back stuff that doesn't belong there.

I'm currently at this second round, where you do touch ups and paint the trim (yes I do that last, many people do it first, makes no difference to me because I end up having to redo, even if taped once I've painted the wall). So I suppose I should get down to it, although first I'm going to walk the dog again and pick up those pina coladas :)

Tagged by Hope

OK, Hope tagged me here is the first thing that comes to mind about the 4 words she gave:

Stinkbomb - Actor Jack Black letting one rip.
Pie - American Pie (the first movie)
First Base - kissing
Favorite - colour red :)

I tag Jenn (Tales of a mom of boys), Julie (The World according to Julie), Helen (What lies beneath)and Laura (org Junkie).

Your words are:
Telescope (because I couldn't spell kaliedescope)
Flower
Dune buggy
Sherway

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Roman Pan Fried Lamb
Italian Chicken Packages
Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
Chicken Couscous
Chicken Pepperonta
Salmon with Caper Sauce
Wine and Herb Salmon
Pasta in creamy tomato vodka sauce.

We won't necessarily eat them in this order, it depends on what I feel like cooking, today is the lamb though as it's already on the stove. Hubby's home today and he likes lamb, I've never cooked or eaten it before, so we'll see.

Oh the Joy of it

It's so nice to be able to share the joy of the Lord. Today's sharing is like a soft glow, peace welling up inside making you smile and cry a few tears of joy too.

Works for me Wednesday

This is actually a tip from Jenny the Milker. Shopping only the perimeter of the grocery store. It means I get healthier food and it takes less time. Fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, juice, milk are all around the edge, not in the middle aisles. Have a great Day.

Mommies

Julie's post about mommies inspired me to write mine. My mommy is finally retiring this month. She actually officially retired 8 years ago, but has been working part time in her field because of the level of knowledge and expertise she has. In my field we would call her a knowledge expert, or subject matter expert, and I think she's fully deserving of that title.

My mom taught me a lot about work ethic. She works in pay & benefits for the government, which has a lot fo rules around pensions, pay and benefits. Mom has always been a conscientious worker in that she digs deeper into the rules, and the rules effective at certain times that would apply to a person so that she can help them get all that they deserve. It irks me a little bit about what some people say about government workers, because I know how hard my mom worked, and the pay for the most part was less than fair. I also used to work in the government as a research assistant and I know how the researchers worked diligently for often only a third of what they could have gotten in the states. The next time you see that government worker taking a break when there's a huge lineup. It's not true of all the workers behind the scenes that you don't see. I thank my mom for what she taught me about work ethic, maybe at times I learned it too well and put work first, rather than where it belongs, somewhere down around 5th in my books.

Happy Retirement Mom, you totally deserve it!

Drake's first picture

For Chrissa: Drake, age 4 months



He's a golden retriever

My favourite picture:



Hubby sent me the above as an email subject line "Hello from Home" and just the attachment. I call it my window to home and it's my favourite. I have it as my desktop on my laptop.

Works for me Wednesday

This works for me. I'm putting together a box of mementos I've gotten over the years, ones I've purchased and don't want anymore, or have gotten from secret santas, or just don't work in my home. Then when I need a little gift for something I have one, so I'm not running out last minute, because I often forget. Works well for those neighbours that give you something for the holidays and you're caught off guard. I plan to keep little gift bags and homemade cards in another drawer right next to the mementos.

Point to note, if you're going to re-gift, tape a note to the gift to remind you whom you received it from in the first place.

Woohoo, it's finally happened

Yes ladies, after almost 2 years of marriage, it has finally happened. Congratulate me! I finally have my china and crystal put away in a dresser :) It's safe and accessible :)

Today I received another partial delivery of my bedroom furniture. Now let me explain how my china got put away in my bedroom furniture. The dresser doesn't fit in the bedroom, but I wanted it for the day when we lived somewhere that it would, so we bought it. Well it just happens to match my dining room table, so it's in the dining room and now filled with my china, crystal, and soon linens :) Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

Tomorrow's organization goal is to tidy up the room downstairs prepping it for it's final organization when I get the last of the bedroom furniture.

100 things about me

This is my 100th post, so in tradition of the 100th, here are 100 things about me. Hubby might not even know some of these.

100 I'm between 5'9" and 5'10"
99 I have brown hair
98 I have green eyes
97 I once got blue contacts, after about 6 months sitting in an English class I realized everyone had either blue eyes or brown eyes. I was the only one with green, and I was hiding them, thinking I would be prettier with blue, within a couple of weeks of that I accidentally ripped one of those contacts, the other had a small nick from my nails that had become larger. Coincident, I doubt it, subconscious though.
96 I have long skinny feet, makes it really hard to find shoes, size 11AAAA (or 11 AAA, depends on the shoe)
95 I have a lot of birth marks, I wasn't born with them all, I was born with only 2 one on each side of my torso at the waist.
94 I was 8 pounds at birth and 24 inches. 2 feet tall already :)
93 My favourite colour is red
92 I was raised to be proud to be Canadian.
91 I love learning and experiencing traditions from other cultures
90 I love languages, but I'm not very good at them
89 I like crafts, latest ones are needlepoint and quilting
88 I used to have a navel piercing
87 My motorcycle license expired last month, never did upgrade it from a learners to a full fledged rider
86 I'm almost 34
85 I feel the biological clock ticking and after this weekend, it's even louder (sorry honey)
84 I don't like my birthmarks and wonder why they are called that because I didn't have so many at birth, or even in early childhood.
83 My favourite body part is my fingers
82 I think my toes are neat because they remind me of my fingers (length & dexterity), but they are not very attractive due to the shoe problems I have (they get squished).
81 My joints in my legs pop
80 I get a lot of headaches, but I'm trying to control them non-medically now
79 I'm a business systems analyst (don't ask)
78 I'm not thrilled with my job, it's tolerable though
77 I have a strong work ethic, which is why I want to be happy with what I do to earn money
76 I have a degree in biology
75 I also have one in environmental science
74 I can program, but not well
73 I like cooking new things
72 I like learning new things
71 I wish I was a better wife to my hubby
70 I wish I could fly
69 I wish sometimes I could see the future, but then I would have to follow it and how boring would that be to know every word and movement before they happened.
68 I wish I was more of a risk taker and adventurer
67 I wish I'd win the lottery, just 2-5 million up front please (although I would take the "win for life" too)
66 I like to swim
65 I like to walk
64 I wish I could run long distances
63 I want to get back on my bicycle, but I've never been a good rider
62 I never appreciated my mother's garden until I had a lawn of my own (it's amazingly beautiful and lush in it's simplicity)
61 If you know Meyers-Briggs I'm INFJ (Introvert, iNuitive, Feeling, Judging), but I'm also really close on sensing & thinking because I was taught that way.
60 I've been married almost 2 years, to a wonderful man that I've known for 15 years (we were friends for 9 before we realized we were meant for each other)
59 My hubby completes me
58 I like to travel
57 I want to go to Italy
56 I want to go to Greece
55 I want to go to France
54 I want to go to Mexico
53 I'm into historical ruins and architecture
52 I like visiting model homes
51 The coolest model home I ever saw had a kids playhouse built into the adjoining wall between 2 of the kids bedrooms (I was a pre-teen when I saw it)
50 I would describe my homes decor as modern but not minimalist.
49 My puppy is sleeping on his back with his feet in the air. He plays with his toys like this, like a baby holding a bottle
48 My puppy has also learned how to entertain himself by playing soccer. He holds one ball in his mouth and the other he passes from paw to paw as he walks around the living room/dining room
47 The chore I hate the most is vacuuming
46 The chore I like the best is cleaning the bathroom
45 I've worn glasses since Grade 7 (age 12)
44 I think about my breasts a lot
43 I'd like to be more comfortable with my breasts, I do think they are nice
42 I've never smoked
41 I have no desire to smoke
40 I'd like to run my own business but can't decide what I would like to do
39 I though I would be grown up by now, and it annoys me that I don't behave that way sometimes. Not that I have to be responsible and an adult all the time, but there is a time and place, and I forget myself at times.
38 I like my coffee "white" (lots of sugar and milk)
37 I prefer Coke to Pepsi
36 I prefer Crest to Colgate
35 I prefer Tide to all others
34 I prefer Second Cup to Starbucks
33 I love the Chai Latte at Second Cup (it totally sucks at Starbucks)
32 I need to take more time for myself, and recognize it as such when I do
31 I like blogging, and when I was away I missed my blogger buddies
30 I try to be honest with people
29 I try to be honest with myself
28 My favourite restaurant is One of a Kind Pasta and Grill (the salmon leaves me speechless)
27 Ruth Chris has the best steak
26 Dante's has the best pizza, Riveria comes a close second
25 My favourite alcoholic drinks are mixed drinks, both drinks and shots (like chocolate monkeys)
24 Warpie is a derivative of an earlier handle called mindwarp, I don't think my thinking is as warped as it used to be. It's time for a change
23 I like doing creative things
22 I'm glad I'm getting close to the end of this because I can't think of much more and it's taken me about an hour to write this much
21 I actually have 3 blogs :) but I've barely used the live journal one
20 Today's mood is relaxed
19 Current reading material is "Children of Dune"
18 Tomorrow I'm trying a new recipe - lentil stir fry
17 Get more new furniture tomorrow, which means more organizing!!!!!!!
16 I love animals (maybe I should find a job with animals)
15 I'd rather live in the country than the city
14 I prefer tea to coffee, but still like coffee for the sugar hit :)
13 Favourite breakfast place is Cora's (followed by Dim sum at Ruby's)
12 I don't currently have a favourite TV show since Friends ended
11 I like CSI and House
10 I don't like reality TV shows unless they are helping people. Extreme MakeOver: Home Edition makes me cry each and every time I watch it. I also like the cool things they do in the homes.
9 I cry at TV shows and movies
8 Books will make me cry too
7 Hopefully my brother is getting married this spring (destination wedding)
6 I gave the engagement rings I inherited to my bro so that he can give his intended a ring (though she has never asked for one).
5 I have a small family
4 I wish I was closer to my family at times, even though I'm not a quality time person, so perhaps that's not a wise wish ;)
3 I love my family
2 I love my dog (but would still like a cat)
1 I love my honey bunny very very much

Well past my bedtime, time to go to bed!

Cool org ideas

I like this site: http://www.getorganizednow.com/

In fact I'm trying to follow their calendar, I forgot until today that I was going to do August, so I'm 3 days behind :(

http://www.getorganizednow.com/cl-month.html

Tackle it Tuesday

Well I actually wasn't going to tackle anything today because it's so hot, and hanging shelves is hard work. Then I realized that tomorrow someone is coming over to quote a window replacement and Thursday the furnace ducts are being cleaned. So basically I want to tidy the whole house. So I cleaned up the kitchen, or at least put the bulk of the disorder where it can't easily be seen. I sanded and primed the walls where I made mistakes trying to hang the shelves. I've brought the paint colours upstairs (3 different ones), I'll see if the primer is dry in an hour. In the mean time I have the basement to tidy up, and I really really hope they won't be going into each room to vacuum out the vents. I called mom to find out and apparently they don't vacuum out each vent. Whew!

So the primer was dry so I painted the spots in question, now I'm waiting for it to dry, then I'll hang the shelves, but that will probably be tomorrow since it's almost time for bed now.

Well so much for a quiet Tuesday night relaxing at home.

Organizing

So I didn't quite get everything done I wanted to, because I forgot I still had things on my list from earlier in the week, and I got distracted.

So for this week, I have to complete the things I started last week:
Finish the kitchen handles
Finish hanging the shelves
Finish reorg of the laundry room
Finish cleaning the 2 storage cupboards in the basement
Find something for the bathroom storage, because the other one didn't fit.
Cleanup

Menu planning Monday

Here's my menu plan for the week:

Monday: 2 mustard chicken, zucchini, broccoli
Tuesday: Veggie Dahl
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Not my problem, going away for the weekend!

Today's Challenge

My OCD (Organizational challenge of the Day) is:
* Go to Canadian Tire and get baskets for the miscellaneous stuff, and for the makeup and hair accessories in my dresser for under the sink.
* Fill said under sink baskets.
* Start filling the miscellaneous baskets
* Clean out the old end table into the new end table so I can take the old one downstairs and put my sewing and quilting into it.
* Do the laundry

But before I do all this, I need to finish up some documentation from work, so I will do that until noon.

More on the household front

I love the furniture, I absolutely love it. To me, bedroom furniture and dining room furniture are things you will probably never change. So when hubby and I were looking there were items we liked, but when I asked myself the question: "Will you like it in 30 years?" More often than not the answer was no. So needless to say it took a long time to find the furniture we could both live with, and I hope hubby just didn't decide to agree so that we'd be done with it, but I am very very happy, and glad we kept looking rather than just buying something.

Last night I did something that I've been putting off for the better part of a year. I finally changed the handles on the cupboards in the kitchen. Well almost, I still have one pair of cupboards and 4 drawers to do. It actually only took me about 3 hours to drill new holes and hang the new handles. I still have to fill the old holes and repaint the cupboards, but that's a weekend job as the paint takes 24 hours to dry and I need to do both sides of the doors and all the shelves and inside and outside all the cupboards. I'm going to wait and see how long it takes hubby to notice, it might be only until he has to pull a spoon fork or knife out of the drawer, because he'll probably do that before I get the new handles on the drawers. I also found out, that using a drill is A LOT of fun, I really enjoyed it. I was a little concerned at first about getting the drill in the right spot and accidentally splitting the melamine, but hey, it was great! (Update: it took hubby on 10 minutes to notice).

I have to say though I did clean all the cupboards before putting the new handles on, and diluted liquid TSP is a wonder cleaner. You see I've painted my kitchen -- twice. And where I put the painters tape along the top of the hanging cupboards there was a little residual glue and it got quite sticky and dirty. Well that TSP removed that gunk in no time flat. I swiped the top of each door once with the sponge, then went back to the start and wiped it again and off it came. FABULOUS! Mr Clean wasn't nearly so fast. Mind you, TSP works great on that kind of stuff, but it does leave residue, so you have to wash it again with a typical non streaking cleaner (I wrote no steaking, I must be hungry, it was hard work). I also only hurt myself twice, not bad for me because I'm such a klutz. I drilled my left thigh, and stab/scraped my thumb with the screwdriver when it slipped. I like Ikea, but they never make their holes into metal big enough, just this little hole and a big screw. So annoying, but now I can fix that with the drill rather than killing my poor hands and arms trying to turn the screw.

Here are my organizational challenges for today:
In my dresser I have 2 drawers taken up by non-clothing items, I would like to be able to put clothing in there, but first I need some way to organize these things so that it's neat and not visible.

Drawer number one contains makeup, I have a small container for my everyday makeup, but my moisturizer and foundation don't fit, also I have a few more eyeshadows and eyeliners than the case can hold. There is also the nail polish. I'd like to organize this with the items I use to remove makeup and nail polist, so how can I get this neatly into my bathroom (I only have a vanity in there, so it's all below the sink storage at this point).

The other drawer contains my hair dryer, curling iron and rollers.

Actually now I'm thinking perhaps under the sink I install 3 stacked bins that can be pulled out like drawers and put it all in there. Just need to leave enough room for toilet paper and cleaning products. Anyone have better ideas?

Then Organizing Junkie says I should make a list of things I want to organize and break it out into small pieces, so here's my list:

My underwear and sock drawer
My makeup
My beauty routine accessories
My cleaning products
My clothes
My keepsakes
The filing cabinet
The pleasure reading bookcase
The technical reading bookcase
The comic books
The computer accessories
The computers
The computer storage disks
The guest bedroom (it's currently a storage area)
The kichen pantry
The kitchen pots and pans
The kitchen baking accessories
The plates and cups
The leftover food containers (for lunches)
The first aid kits and bandaids
The china and crystal
The serving dishes
The cookbooks and other recipes
The laundry room
The electrical/storage room
The under the stairs storage
The CDs, DVDs and tapes and games
The sewing and quilting

Garage sale?

Well we finally received some of our bedroom furniture, and it is sooo beautiful (to me anyway). So I took the old furniture to the basement and started using it for storage, like CDs. I also purged about 25% of our CD collection. Fortunately hubby and I haven't been married for so long that I can't remember which CDs I came into the marriage with, so it's those CDs I purged. I mean I haven't listened to Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, Weeping Tile, Seven Mary Three or James in 10 years. So hence the garage sale, I'm going to wait until fall so it's cooler, and I'll hopefully have purged more, in the mean time I can box these up and put them into the rafters in the garage. I'm sure I'll have lots and lots of goodies to sell once I'm done cleaning.

Here's pics of the furniture from the manufacturer. The chest will be the same dark espresso colour as the night stands and table. The manufacturer is "Lane" and the line is called "Regency".

The nightstand




The Dresser




The Chest

Jump on the bandwagon

Well with Julie's comment, I now know 3 of us keen on getting organized. Organizing Junkie, you're rubbing off on us. Perhaps we can encourage each other with what we accomplish from time to time. I know I need it because I have a long haul ahead of me :)

Org tidbit

Here's my org tidbit for the day, admitted I saw this on "Neat" on the Home and Garden network, but I liked it.

This is for organizing your papers that you need in immediate reach (for an average household, not a business). Get a small hanging file holder, insert 15 hanging files.

The last 12 in the hanging file are the months of the year, put into these folders things you need to do each month, i.e. showers, weddings, property taxes. Move each month to the back of the group as it passes.

The first 5 folders are "Pay", "Read", "File", "Mail", "Shred". This is for your incoming mail so that you don't lose anything, and you're up to date, you just have to remember to review daily and file regularly.

Mine is actually not hanging files, it's just the first 5 and it in a magnetic holder attached to the fridge (because the kitchen is the first room as you come in the front door, and the fridge is the closest thing). OK OK, it was attached to the fridge, it's now on the filing cabinet in the office and we don't use it, I should repurpose this and start using it. Works pretty well if you have a desk and file cabinet in the kitchen... or your office is accessible (mine's not, it's on the eventual org list).

New furniture yippee

So we're supposed to get about half of our new furniture tomorrow, I'm excited, but it means I need to do more tidying up tonight, I don't want our house to look like a pig sty when they come to deliver the furniture. So tonight I want to drop some clothes off at the donation box near the grocery store. I just need to find some bags that are big enough so that I don't have to make five trips to load it all in the trunk. Sure running up and down the stairs all those times would be good for me, but, well, I don't feel like it :)

I did go through the cabinets in the 2 bathrooms, and cleaned them out. Mostly it was moving all the first aid stuff into one place, into the powder room. Then I "organized" by putting cleaning stuff on the right and first aid or beauty products on the left. Not great organization I admit it, but it works and it's easy to maintain. Also I put a set of cleaning products into each bathroom, so now I don't have to carry all the stuff from floor to floor, it's there where I need it, and I can use it when I'm in there.

Next organisation projects

I've been inspired by Mom of 2 (Mrs. Happy) and Organizing Junkie. I really do have to get my stuff collected, I'm soooo tired of not finding things, and having a hard time walking around some rooms (OK, 4 rooms to be exact, and it's only an 8 room house, I'm in big trouble). Half the problem is not enough storage, and some of that should be relieved for 2 of the rooms by the end of August. In the mean time, here are my goals by next Monday:
* Upstairs bathroom
* main floor bathroom
* basement storage closets
* laundry room

Wish me luck, I may just become a domestic diva yet.

Closet cleanliness

No the title doesn't mean that I keep my cleanliness under wraps, it means I cleaned out my closet. Well, I now know to be true what my mom has been saying for a few years now, I have trouble remember things. I figured it was just remembering things she wanted from me, or maybe that there was too much stress at work, and things I needed to remember there that left no short term memory for other things. But recently I've lost my books, and it only took me a week to lose them.

Long story short, I found the books in hubby's closet, I blame 'The Bay' for losing them, and Mrs. Happy inspiring me for finding them. OK OK, I lost them. On Tuesday the aforementioned Bay phoned me to tell me my bedroom furniture was going to be delivered the next day (you have a scheduled day, so they only give you a day's warning). In my excitement and haste to get the main and top floors clutter free so the new furniture could me moved in, I was busy shoving things into closets and drawers. So I shoved my new books into my workout bag, and that bag into hubby's closet. The furniture never came, apparently, it's on back order, but also on the truck delivery manifest for that day *shrug*. I now have a new date of Aug 12, and believe me if it doesn't come the 12th we're requesting our money back and starting again looking elsewhere for furniture.

Well on the upside, I have a lovely organized closet, pens where pens go, receipts where receipts go, jewelry where jewelry goes, makeup where makeup goes. A spot for cleansers, hair accessories and various rechargers. I'm very happy, and I have a new book to read tonight, woohoo! I did take before and after pics of the closet, but the batteries were running low on the camera and the pics didn't save. That or I don't know how to use the camera properly (never had problems before, so I don't think that's it).

Date night

Tonight was date night, I almost forgot! Every fourth Friday night I take my little love out on a date. We go to the pet store where Drake plays with any dogs that might be there, flirts with every cashier, and usually gets a Milk Bone from all of them, and he flirts with the customers too. I usually buy him a treat too.

I almost forgot tonight though, hubby works nights every fourth Friday, so the pup and I go to PetSmart. We had only 15 minutes in the store, but he got to greet another golden retriever, and 2 cashiers (only 1 milk bone) and every customer in the store (4 families or couples). We picked up some liver treats, his favs. I had coupons, so we got 3 packages of them!

Drake is passed out in the foyer now, because the ceramic tiles are nice and cool with the AC on. It's good going to PetSmart, it tires him out and that leaves me free to "chat" with his daddy online :)