rachel's continued ramblings

so i have a few friends who did this sort of thing last year and i like the idea. so i’ve been thinking about doing one of my own. it’s different from new years’ resolutions in that it’s not stuff like, “work out 3 times a week” or “clean out the garage”… not that those are bad things to be doing. this is more like a bucket list. stuff i want to do before the year ‘dies’. i don’t have a lot so far, but i figure i’ll keep adding to it as i think of things and hopefully have something by the time this year dies. spin my own yarn spend more time in nature. read all of jane austen’s books. can my own veggies/fruits acquire a sewing machine re-learn to play the piano

two weeks in a row and here we go! monday: beef-barley soup; sourdough tuesday: chicken; beans and rice; salad wednesday: tater tot casserole thursday: thanksgiving!!! friday: pizza; green beans (duh) saturday: leftovers sunday: scrambles; toast there you have it. i’m using the left-over yummy pot roast from last week for my soup tonight. OMG, it was SO good. i made the best gravy EVER with it too. some of that might find it’s way into the soup as well… okay, i’ll stop. i know everyone (myself included) is gaining weight just reading this! i mentioned last week about husbands being super helpful in the inspiration department… well, mine came through for me this week. NOT. when i asked him if there was anything in particular he was craving this week, he responded with, “turkey.” yeah… what a turkey.

we all have habits. some good, some bad, some indifferent. a lot of the time i will be frustrated with myself, blaming the things i am displeased about on ‘personality traits’, but really, it’s just bad habits. i am not naturally a ‘clean freak’ kind of person, and it takes a LOT of motivation to cause me to WANT to clean. this is not to say that i enjoy living in a mess! i guess you could say that i’m a clean freak trapped in a slob’s body. this is an endless source of frustration for me. over the years i’ve tried several ways to ‘fix’ this problem, some with great success, others with minimal, but nothing seems to stick. i’ve read countless books, subscribed to websites, made to-do lists, bought or created tools with which to organize my cleaning… as if somehow that process would cause the house to be clean. my best effort came from a system described in the book sidetracked home executives by pam young and peggy jones, aka the ‘slob sisters’. these were women like me, homemakers ...

yup! it’s back. i have no idea why i quit doing these, but i think it was a bad idea. i like getting ideas from other people about what their families eat for dinner, so i guess i figure they might enjoy seeing what we eat. so, without further ado, here we go this week! monday: meatloaf; peas; mashed potatoes tuesday: loaded baked potatoes; salad wednesday: chicken noodle soup; cheese & crackers thursday: pot roast; potatoes; carrots friday: pizza; green beans (duh) saturday: leftovers sunday: waffles; sausages so there you go. sadly, i have yet to do my shopping. UGH! ::dislike dislike dislike:: i figure i’ll do it tomorrow afternoon when shane’s at his science class, since i have the stuff for dinner tonight (and he’s the catalyst for making a truly hellish shopping trip). i think i’ll get what i can at costco, since i have to go there to pick up a few things on the list anyway… may as well see if i can get as many things as i can there. ...

fyi: don’t mess with this little girl.

my mom actually complained the other day about my lack of posts lately. REALLY. i told her that i’d had nothing to write about. at any rate, here’s my update for now, in relation to recent things. we did decide to trick or treat. it was fun. shane’s mario costume actually came together pretty well, thanks to a little help from my friends. layla’s flower costume also happened, barely, also with a little help from my friends. (are you detecting a theme here?) micah’s monkey costume was borrowed from a friend. (for some reason, i have a beatles song wandering through my head right now, do you?) here they are:   as i’m writing this, it’s reminding me of just how blessed i am to be a part of this community, family, neighborhood, etc. let me expound that part about a little help from my friends: we’ll start with shane. he got the idea to dress up as mario after his friend, sean, mentioned that he was going to be luigi. so i chatted w/ trudy about what she’d gathered so far. she mentioned...