October Goal Review

Happy Halloween! I am out of town (actually out of the country) right now visiting my sister in law and her family and meeting the newest addition to our family, Baby C.

That is what my scheduled post was supposed to say. However, I am actually not out of the country visiting my new nephew. I started to get sick on Wednesday so I decided not to go. Then, I started to get better on Thursday, so I decided to go. Then, on Thursday evening I found out that someone close to me had been in close contact with H1N1 and was exhibiting symptoms herself so I felt that I should not go visit the new babe. I am still not really sick (although not feeling 100%), so I am hoping that I have been able to evade the illness. Either way, I didn't want to risk going there and being around young children ... especially a new born baby.

The FD was supposed to leave last night for a week of hunting but was sweet and decided to stay home until this morning so I didn't have to be by myself for quite so long. We had a nice little date last night.

So, I'm going to head home to visit my parents today and come back either Sunday or Monday. I don't really care for staying home by myself ... especially since FD took Nika with him. It gets a wee bit quiet and lonely.

On September first, I decided to start keeping track of monthly goals on my blog as a way of keeping myself motivated and accountable. At the end of the month, I did a review of how the goals went and I found that I did pretty good at keeping up with my goals.

We've now come to the end of October so it's time to see how I did with this month's list of goals. Unfortunately, October was not as productive as September.

1. Complete Christmas savings and get a good start on Christmas shopping. Christmas saving is done. Getting a good start on Christmas shopping is not done. I only bought two small gifts all month. I will be getting serious about the Christmas shopping in the coming weeks. I am NOT a last minute kind of gal.

2. Switch out summer clothes for fall/winter clothes. I got this done but it really wasn't a very hard job since most of my clothes stay out and all it is is a matter of unloading on rubbermaid bin into FD's closet and putting his shorts and t-shirts away.

3. Celebrate Thanksgiving with both of our families (remember, Canadian Thanksgiving is in October). Yup - we had a lovely weekend spent with our families.

4. Get ethics approval, secure participants and arrange focus group dates. This whole process is taking way longer than I ever anticipated and is causing some serious grief! I finally got approval last week and have now started to secure participants.

5. Tidy up lit review, complete introduction and theory chapters. Lit review is good. The intro is still weak. The theory chapter - well, let's just not go there.

6. Complete the Love Dare. Ha! In my September review I stated that I was on day 12 of 40 at the end of the month. I am now on day 15. Apparently I did not achieve this goal.

7. Make and can applesauce and apple butter. Yup - we did it.

8. Continue making soup each week. Yes - this month we had French Onion Soup, Minestrone Soup, Cabbage Soup, Chicken and Dumpling Soup and End of the Garden Vegetable Soup

9. Continue and improve cash grocery shopping budget. I did pretty good this month, although our party last week threw me off a little bit (i.e. I used my debit card at the grocery store a few times). I'm ready to start fresh and get back on track starting tomorrow.

10. Proctor and mark midterms. Blech - yes. Done and done.

How was your October?

The Ped Egg?

By nature, I am not usually a fan of "as seen on TV products" but while I was wandering the aisles of WalMart the other day, the "Ped Egg" caught my attention. I have always had really dry, calloused feet and have never found anything that really solves the problem - except for getting a weekly pedicure which just ain't gonna happen.

Apparently this cheese grater type thingy is supposed to remove the dry, dead skin and callous from your feet. But, it's not rough or abrasive - see, it doesn't even pop a balloon.

(source)

Okay, so I'm a little skeptical that it will work. But, I'm still intrigued by the possibility of finding something that might help with my foot issue. So ... I'm throwing this out there ...

Has anyone used the ped egg on their own gross feet?

Do you know someone else with gross fungsy feet that has used the ped egg?

Does it work?

Should I go ahead and give it a whirl?

Anyone? ... Anyone? ...

Monica Who?

Over the past week there have been three distinct and completely separate times that three distinct and completely separate people have referred to me as Monica Geller.

Hmm ... is this a compliment?

An Apple a Day

On Sunday, my sister in law, Logi, our friend, Briar, and I all set to work on doing some preserving with the bushel and a half of apples that I had waiting for us in my cold room.

We set out to make applesauce and apple butter.

We chopped.

We peeled.

We stirred.

We boiled.

We spiced.

We mashed.

We food-milled.

We made a mess.

We canned.

We enjoyed.

And then we sat down on the couch, ate pizza and wings and vowed to never move again.

In all, we ended up with 28 pints of unsweetened (or, I should say, just very very slightly sweetened) applesauce and 18 half pints of apple butter, which is actually more reminiscent of deliciously spiced applesauce because it didn't really thicken up the way apple butter is supposed to.

Either way, it was a successful and enjoyable day. More than once during the day, I realized how blessed I am to have other women in my life who enjoy doing these kinds of things with me. I don't get to see Briar very often, but there were so many times this weekend that I was reminded how similar we are and how much of an encouragement she is to me. And, Logi, well, I see her all the time but she continuously rocks my world!

Weekend Recap One Day Late

I know it's Tuesday and so my weekend recap is one day late but after a frightfully busy weekend, I hit the ground running yesterday and haven't really had a chance to get onto the computer until now. We had a busy, fun, exhausting weekend!

Friday
I went to my hometown to meet with my mom, sister and nephew for lunch. Then we spent the afternoon visiting and baking cupcakes and ghost cake balls for the party I was having on Saturday. I'll post more about the cake balls another day. We had dinner with my grandma and then went to visit my grandpa in the evening. Oh yeah, also on Friday, we welcomed our newest nephew to the world!

Saturday
On Saturday my sister and I went and got our hair done and then we loaded up my car and Little H, sister and I headed back to my place. I spent the afternoon getting the house and food ready for the party. I was lucky to have my BFF and one of my other dear friends, Bwebb, come over for most of the day and help out. Later in the evening, all of our friends started arriving. We had such a blast together! It was the first time we've all been together since we graduated high school but unfortunately, two of our key ingredients weren't able to be there because of a death in the family.

We all acted like we were still 17 and stayed up WAYYY too late, which resulted in me getting only two hours of sleep that night for a number of reasons. First, my husband was snoring louder than a freight train because he was pretezeled on the couch. And second, I was sleeping on the dog's bed... which isn't actually as comfortable as it might seem... no wonder she always sneaks onto the couch during the night. But, that's what you do for your friends. You sleep on the dog bed so they can have your bed, right?

Here are a few snapshots from the party:

Sunday
After very little sleep we all (me, FD, Evan, Logi, Bwebb and her hubby Devon) dragged our butts out of bed and got ready to head to church in the morning for a service at our high school. After that, a bunch of us headed to the complex to pick up a quick bite to eat. Then Logi, Bwebb and I hurried home to get started on the bushel and a half of apples that were waiting for us in my cold room. Despite the fact that none of us had slept much the night before, we powered through and made 28 pints of applesauce and 18 half pints of apple butter while our husbands slept away the afternoon and the football game. Then, we ordered kindly asked our husbands to order some pizza and wings. We ate dinner, they headed home and I crashed. I actually went to bed at 7:30 pm. I am not sure that I have ever done that before. But, apparently I needed it because I didn't wake up until 8 am the next morning. Here's a quick sneak peak at the applesauce/applebutter adventure ... but, it deserves it's own post so I'll write more tomorrow!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week we had...

Crockpot Pork Roast (sorry, no photo)

Western Frittata

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins

Minestrone Soup

The pumpkin muffins definitely topped the list for yumminess.

This week...

Sunday
We just grabbed a bite after church today and then spent the day making applesauce. We just finished the crazy weekend with pizza and wings ... more about the weekend to come later. Right now (at 7:15 pm) I am going to bed to make up for the TWO hours of sleep I got last night. Yes, that's right .... TWO hours.

Monday
Lazy Lucy's Cabbage Rolls (it's ready in the freezer for a quick and easy meal)**
Corn

Tuesday
Souvlaki**
Pitas
Tzaztiki

Wednesday
Cabbage Soup**
Breadsticks**

Thursday
Spinach and Black Bean Lasagna
Corn

Friday
Out of town

Saturday
Out of town

Breakfasts
yogurt
apples
granola

Lunches
Leftovers
Soup

Snacks
Curried chick peas (maybe)
Anything else I come up with

Head here for more menu planning ideas

A Monkey's Uncle

Just call me a Monkey's Uncle!!

The Fabulous Dude's oldest sister gave birth to her third child this morning!

This the first boy on his side of the family. After three wild little girls, his family was right ready for a little testosterone.

Welcome to the world, Baby C!

We can't wait to meet you.

Be careful what you wish for...

Remember yesterday, when I was complaining that nothing exciting had been happening in my life, so I had nothing to blog about?

Well, within an hour of writing that post I had managed to set my kitchen on fire and get my face sneezed on.

I was in a rush to get supper made so I could get back to marking exams. I had the veggies and chicken sauteing on one side of the stove and the water boiling for my pasta on the other side. Once the water boiled, I took this tall plastic canister that I store my pasta in and went to pour the fettuccine into the pot.

I missed.

About 1/4 of my pasta landed beside the pot ... mostly on the part of the burner that was exposed. It started shriveling up and smoking and in about 10 seconds, I had flames shooting up all over the stove. Apparently the best thing to do to the solve the problem is repeatedly hit the burner with a wooden spoon. Umm, because that's what I did. Over and over again. Eventually, I was resigned to just wait - and keep hitting the burner with a wooden spoon, of course - until all the pasta noodles had been burnt to smithereens and the flames died down. I was left with some toasty noodles, a blaring smoke detector and a stinky kitchen. At least the final product, after the fire was all taken care of, was delicious.

Then, a few minutes later, the FD came inside to mix up some spices for the venison sausage that he and his buddies were making. Because, well, what else would three Canadian hunting boys do on a Wednesday evening? He was mixing up his concoction while I was putting dishes away. I guess the spices started working their magic and gave the FD a little tickle in his nose. Apparently, he had very little warning and did not have time to cover his mouth so he just turned his face away from the counter, closed his eyes and Achooed ... at the very same moment that I walked over to the counter to put a baking dish away beside where he was working.

My face was 2 inches from his snot filled sneeze.

No joke. I cried.

So, be careful what you wish for.

As Nicole so eloquently put it in her comment on yesterday's post: "Life will no doubt knock you on your butt before long."

How true, how true.

Menu Plans and Memes

I'm just going to come right out and say it - my blogging has been sub par over the last few weeks. I am at this spot where I just have nothing of value to write about and so you have been stuck reading nothing but my weekly menu plans and blogland memes. I know it's lame. If I were you, I would have stopped reading my blog by now.

Life has been chaotic and mundane lately. How does that work? Well, it's been chaotic in that I have had a load of work to do but mundane in that none of it is blog worthy. I'm currently in the midst of marking a billion midterm exams, editing my own writing, and working out the details for data collection. My days look like this: marking, writing, editing, filling out forms, marking, writing, editing, filling out forms ... and so the cycle continues. Trust me, you don't want me to be writing blog posts about that.

The worst part is that my students are all quite bright, so I can't even tell you about stupid answers they write on their tests. Because there are none.

I have been going to a Beth Moore bible study at my church and have been enjoying that quite a bit. Perhaps one of these days I will get myself organized to sit down and actually articulate into words some of the great things I have been discovering through that.

My husband hasn't done anything super funny or crazy lately so I can't even tell you any fabulous dude stories. I'm secretly hoping he'll wet the bed again so I have something to tell you about. Yes, Rachel ... I brought up the bed wetting again. I'm pretty sure I'll casually mention that at every chance I get ... for the rest of my life.

Hopefully it will not be too long until we're back to regularly scheduled programming around here. Please stay with me!

Until then, you're stuck with menu plans and memes.

If we ever start a band...

...this will be our album cover.

I love my girls!

Just One Word

Apparently I have nothing to write about lately because this is the second time in less than a week that I've done one of these little quizzes. Holly did this today and so I copied.

The point is to answer each of the questions using only one word.

1.Where is your cell phone? Nope

2.Your hair? Messy

3. Your mother? Best

4. Your father? Corny

5. Your favorite food? Chocolate

6. Your dream last night? Hilarious

7. Your favorite drink? Pepsi

8. Your dream/goal? Mommy

9. What room are you in? Dining

10. Your hobby? Blogging

11. Your fear? Cancer

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home

13. Where were you last night? Couch

14.Something you aren’t? Male

15. Muffins? PumpkinCreamCheese

16. Wish list item? Mixer

17. Where did you grow up? Ontario

18. Last thing you did? Soup

19. What are you wearing? Jeans

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your pets? Voiceless

22. Your friends? Weekend!

23. Your life? Crazy

24. Your mood? Content

25. Missing someone? Grandma

27. Something you’re not wearing? Glasses

28. Your favorite store? Dynamite

29. Your favorite color? Green

30. When was the last time you laughed? Today

31. Last time you cried? Wednesday

32. Best Friend? Katie

33. One place that I go over and over again? Church

34. One person who emails me regularly? ShainaJenny

35. Favorite place to eat? Fresco's

Wow! That was harder than I expected. I kept finding myself wanting to explain all the answers. I ended up even having a few of the same answers as Holly. Maybe someday I'll start having something a little more interesting to post ... but until then, there you have my life in single words.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week...

Paula Deen's Old Fashioned Meatloaf

Tex-Mex Cornbread

French Onion Soup

Crusty French Bread

This week...

Sunday
Autumn Pork Roast
Carrots
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli
Squash
Crusty French Bread

Monday
Minestrone Soup**
Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Tuesday
Spanish Tortilla**

Wednesday
Shake and Bake-ish Chicken**
Broccoli
Boiled cabbage (call us crazy but we love eating cabbage)
Brown Rice

Thursday
Leftovers and/or grilled cheese

Friday
I'm out of town - FD will fend for himself

Saturday
We're having a party and you're all invited! Well, not really. But, we can pretend.
I haven't finalized all the foodstuffs yet, but I'm sure I'll let you know if anything extravagant occurs (which it probably won't)

Breakfasts
Fruit (apples and grapes)
English Muffins

Lunches
Minestrone Soup
Leftovers
Grilled Cheese

Snacks
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins**
Apples

Check out what everyone else is making this week!