For those that know me, it is a well-established fact that I do not cook. Not that I'm necessarily terrible at it, I just don't do it. Don't get me wrong...my mom, grandmother, grandfather, and my dad and his family are all wonderful cooks. I just never seemed to find pleasure in the act of cooking. Being all-knowing as He is, God blessed me by providing a husband who is very gifted in the kitchen. If this were not the case, I would be even more over-weight than I am currently because we'd have been eating out for every single meal of our eleven year marriage.
So, what's my point? Drum Roll PLEASE...
I have cooked five meals this week!
Okay, now you can pick your chin up off the floor. They have by no means been "meals" of the multi-course variety, but meals none-the-less. Two were for dinner and three have been breakfast. Yea, yea...I know... But please remember this is a life-changing habit for me, so I am taking BABY STEPS!
The overall themes of my New Year's Resolutions are "TIME,HOUSE, and WEIGHT MANAGEMENT". For nearly six months, I have totally squandered the available time I have had to make my home a better place to live. I only work half of the day (afternoon) and I began with lofty dreams of using the other half of the day (the morning) to keep my house clean, to plan for dinner, and to exercise. Like I said - I totally wasted that precious time.
So this week I started life over again. I decided the only way to make it work is to wake up with Patrick at 5:30 am and go to the gym. When we get home, I make breakfast (which this week has been eggs and sausage and breakfast burritos). The next step crucial and most important step is to spend personal time with God in prayer and Bible study. After that step, my goal is to clean the house and keep it clean with small steps and projects throughout the week. And I do mean small steps. It's not that our house is terrible filthy, it's just that I need to develop some important easy routines to keep the ship running in top shape. I've enlisted some ideas from Valerie, as well as FLYLADY.
As far as the cooking goes, I have enlisted some help as well! Through HomeLife Magazine I found a wonderful website called E-Mealz. For a few dollars a month, they give you menus for dinner each week and even make a shopping list for you. I just did my first E-Mealz shopping last night and it was great. I haven't made any of the recipes yet, but I am ready to. The dinners I've made this week were one-pot kind of meals for which I already had recipes.
Well, all I can do is pray that the Lord will help me continue developing good and healthy habits. I'm already past my newly assigned computer/internet time limit, so I better say by for now!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
OOPS! We missed a TOLL!
Okay, several tolls!
Talk about a huge oversight on our part. While driving in Illinois last week we blatantly ignored the toll plazas. We were under the assumption that we'd just be billed from our license plate...(I know...WE WERE STUPID!). There are a few toll roads in our area of Texas that will do that. So, having done just a bit of research, we were under the assumption (yes, I know what assuming means) that we could go on-line and pay our missed tolls. This is one of those times when it would have paid to read the fine print (or at least all of the print).
Much to our huge disappointment, upon our return home, we failed to remember to promptly pay our tolls (had to be done within 7 calendar days). Now, upon deeper digging, we have just been made aware that we are in VIOLATION and will receive a NOTICE in 3 months to a year. When I asked if we could pay the tolls now, before we receive violation notices, I was told NO! I mean, come on... Our trip North happened on Monday the 24th, and our trip South happened on Thursday the 27th. Because they are both now more than 7 days ago, we must wait a few months, possibly a year before we get slapped with a possible $160.00 bill. Not only will we owe the piddly $.80 cent toll per plaza, but we will also owe a $20 fine per plaza. Which, by our research comes to 4 toll plazas on each direction of the trip. You do the math.
Man, if we'd have just taken the few minutes of headache by stopping at each toll plaza and paying the minor toll, we wouldn't be in this mess!
Okay...Let the lessons on obeying the law commence... Just be gentle, we are already bruised from beating ourselves up over it!
Talk about a huge oversight on our part. While driving in Illinois last week we blatantly ignored the toll plazas. We were under the assumption that we'd just be billed from our license plate...(I know...WE WERE STUPID!). There are a few toll roads in our area of Texas that will do that. So, having done just a bit of research, we were under the assumption (yes, I know what assuming means) that we could go on-line and pay our missed tolls. This is one of those times when it would have paid to read the fine print (or at least all of the print).
Much to our huge disappointment, upon our return home, we failed to remember to promptly pay our tolls (had to be done within 7 calendar days). Now, upon deeper digging, we have just been made aware that we are in VIOLATION and will receive a NOTICE in 3 months to a year. When I asked if we could pay the tolls now, before we receive violation notices, I was told NO! I mean, come on... Our trip North happened on Monday the 24th, and our trip South happened on Thursday the 27th. Because they are both now more than 7 days ago, we must wait a few months, possibly a year before we get slapped with a possible $160.00 bill. Not only will we owe the piddly $.80 cent toll per plaza, but we will also owe a $20 fine per plaza. Which, by our research comes to 4 toll plazas on each direction of the trip. You do the math.
Man, if we'd have just taken the few minutes of headache by stopping at each toll plaza and paying the minor toll, we wouldn't be in this mess!
Okay...Let the lessons on obeying the law commence... Just be gentle, we are already bruised from beating ourselves up over it!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
At Home, At Last!
We are finally home from our mammoth trip. Not too adventurous, just lots of travel and wonderful visits with our families...
The holiday travel extravaganza closed with a quick but great trip to Oklahoma. It was a joy to spend time with our nephews, Clayton and Carter, as well as their parents Brandon and Jennifer, and Patrick's parents.
It's back to work today and we will probably be totally lazy the next few days when we aren't at work. I personally have postponed the start of any New Year's resolutions to next Monday. More about the resolutions later. I will say this, my resolutions are very similar to some of the bloggers I have linked to my blog. I will be taking some of their advice, as well as some great advice from my sister Valerie about blessing my home.
Stay tuned...and Happy NEW YEAR! Here's to something great in 2008!
The holiday travel extravaganza closed with a quick but great trip to Oklahoma. It was a joy to spend time with our nephews, Clayton and Carter, as well as their parents Brandon and Jennifer, and Patrick's parents.
It's back to work today and we will probably be totally lazy the next few days when we aren't at work. I personally have postponed the start of any New Year's resolutions to next Monday. More about the resolutions later. I will say this, my resolutions are very similar to some of the bloggers I have linked to my blog. I will be taking some of their advice, as well as some great advice from my sister Valerie about blessing my home.
Stay tuned...and Happy NEW YEAR! Here's to something great in 2008!
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