Monday Meal Planning

My weekly cleaning schedule has been going so well (for the past week, anyway...) that I decided to try a meal planning schedule as well. Now, I know meal planning works GREAT for a lot of people. For us, it's a bit difficult because the Mr. typically has one or two work dinners a week, and we often have plans to go out once a week. So that leaves maybe two or three nights when I can cook, so I need to buy things that are will still be okay if I don't end up making them til Thursday, or even the week after. So here's what I'm thinking for this week
Monday: Autumn Penne Pasta with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts (also I had no idea that Brussels was spelled with an "S" on the end. So they're Brussels as in, they came from Brussels, Belgium?)--From Gina's Skinny Recipes

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I'm excited about this one--I LOVE Brussels Sprouts and it also has some ground turkey in it to give it some protein and make it a little more filling. But shh, don't tell the Mr.--he claims to hate ground chicken/turkey.

Tuesday: I'm assuming we will have leftovers...and maybe I'll throw together a garden salad.

Wednesday: Crabcakes and Spicy Mustard Sauce with an Arugula Salad

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This one is courtesy of Cooking Light; I have a subscription and it's definitely worth it. I find at least 10 recipes I'm dying to make in every issue!

Thursday: Two Bean Soup with Kale

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Another CL recipes. I find that soups are good to make toward the end of the week, because then we can eat them throughout the weekend. And yum, kale! I would be hard pressed to find a leafy green I don't like, but kale is especially yummy.

Friday, I never really plan for because I assume we'll go out or order it (can't be the convenience of 5 million restaurants within a 5 block radius!).

I'll try to write at the end of the week and let everyone know how I actually did with sticking to this plan. I'm optimisitic! Maybe this will become a regular thing :)

Brrr!

Well, it's a nippy 48 degrees here in NYC, and was an even chillier 37 when I left the house this morning for the gym. I got to pull out my winter coat for the first time this season (felt a bit premature, considering it's only October, but 37 degrees?!). Before I know it, it'll look like this outside:

                                                               (snowstorm of 2010)

In other news, I am gearing up for what I'm sure will be an EPIC game of Catan tonight. Now, you might be asking, "What is this catan of which you speak?" Well, dear friends, Catan is short for Settlers of Catan, which is short for THE BEST BOARD GAME EVER. And now I have officially outed myself as a nerd. 

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I was introduced to this game by a dear friend of mine, and she and her fiance have since converted the Mr. as well. It might look kind of old fashioned and uninteresting, being that there are no gadgets, whistles, or electronic devices. It's a simple game that combines strategy with a desire to RULE THE WORLD (caps lock is necessary when speaking about Catan). The main idea is that you are a settler in the world of Catan, and you need to use the resources that are available to you in order to build cities, settlements, and roads. All of these are worth points, and the first person to get to either 8 or 10 points (depending on how many people) wins. It is straightforward and incredibly addicting. The Mr. and I have come close to screaming matches because of behavior that has gone on during Catan. It brings out the worst in people--any sort of manipulative, scheming qualities you might have will come out. But that's okay; in fact, it's kind of necessary if you want to RULE THE WORLD. 

So this will be our evening activity. Hope everyone out there has a fabulous Friday! And go me--I got dressed today! It might not have happened until 2pm, but I did make it into real clothes :) 

Apparently I'm not THAT desperate

For the last few months, I have been going around whining and complaining about how I just want a job, "any job". Well, folks, that's apparently not true--I interview for a job today which I have NO desire to actually do.

On paper, it looked great. I'd be working with kids and families! I'd have a ton of independence/a flexible schedule! I'd get a laptop and phone! Buuuut then I started to find out more nitty gritty details. Like those kids and families---the kids are all delinquents (their word, not mine!) who have major conduct disorder, and are involved in the juvenile justice system. This isn't a case of "Johnny is hyperactive".This is a case of "Johnny slapped his mother across the face and then stole money from his baby sister". And that independence/flexible schedule? Yes, I'd be able to do most of my paperwork from home and start my day at noon, but I'd also have to be doing home visits to these kids and families in the afternoons/evenings. And we're not talking about strolling over to the Upper East Side. We're talking about the projects in the South Bronx, to name one lovely area. And that laptop and phone that I would get? That would be used to contact me 24 hours a day/7 days a week, if one of my families needs something.

So I think this job gets a "No, but thanks!" from me.

In other news, this is what we had for dinner last night:


I know it doesn't look like much (and actually looks kind of disgusting) but it was GOOD! It's a mixture of roasted spaghetti squash, sauteed swiss chard, and roasted (purple!) cauliflower. All farmer's market goodness. Even the Mr. ate it up, which I wasn't sure would happen. But it was a success!

Mondays are always a good time to start

Today begins my new schedule.

One of the things that has become my responsibility now that I'm not working is cleaning the house. When I was working, we had a cleaning woman come every other week. I miss her, desperately. She had magic in her fingers and in her buckets and various cleaning instruments. But once I was home all day, I didn't really feel like I could justify paying someone to come clean when I can just as easily (okay, definitely not JUST as easily, but I can manage) do it myself.

That being said, the most difficult thing for me to do is set a schedule and stick to it. I read about these women who juggle multiple children and work at home and blog all the time and still manage to stick to a daily/weekly cleaning schedule. Mine is more like this
Days 1-10: do nothing
Day 11: notice that the dust bunnies are starting to take over the corners of the apartment and the sink appears to be growing a beard.
Day 15: go into frantic mode and spend a good three hours cleaning the entire apartment. At the end, feel very satisfied with myself
Day 16: HOW the **** is there soap scum in our bathroom already?!? Wipe it down.
Day 18: The soap scum is back, as is that black ring on the toilet. And is that a dust bunny I see?
Day 19-28: Give up. Have some wine. Try to ignore the fuzz balls on the carpet.

And repeat. As you can see, this doesn't result in a regularly clean apartment (although I do give it a once over if I know we're having guests). But the thing is, I really like living in a clean house. It makes me feel calmer and happier. So I need to figure out a way to make sure that I keep up with all this cleaning, instead of leaving it for once or twice a month.

We have five rooms--living room, kitchen, bathroom, dining room area, and bedroom. There are five days of the week (don't think I need to list those out...). So my tentative plan is to match them up. Easy, right? Well, this simple plan seemed like the MOST GENIUS IDEA to me when it popped into my head this morning. Today, Monday, I cleaned the living room. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I'll do the kitchen. And so on. I'm hopeful that the simplicity of this will make it easy for me to follow. We shall see.

On another note, I posted twice in one day, y'all!!! I can almost guarantee this won't happen again, but for now, yay me!

Long (long) time, no blog...

Well, it's been over 9 months since my last (and first) post. I guess getting into the whole blogging thing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Since I wrote that post, a lot has changed! We did go to Beaver Creek--and had a great time.

We then went on another mini ski trip with another couple, J and J (who just got engaged--congrats to them!!).

As you can tell, the weather was not quite as nice in Southern VT as it was in Colorado. I was almost in tears because it was so cold and windy (and maybe also because I'm a big baby in extreme temperatures). But this ski trip over President's Day weekend is somewhat of a tradition (we've gone away with our friend Jerry three years in a row now), and I hope we keep it up!

We also rented a house up in Woodstock for a few weeks this summer and went up there on the weekends. It gave us a taste of what it would be like to have a vacation home--or a home in general, as we've never had to deal with anything related to home ownership. Mr. V loved it--so much so that he now wants to move upstate, become yuppie hippies (yippies? huppies?) and grow our own food. My feelings on this change by the day, depending on how annoyed I am with NYC at any given moment. But our weekends there were really wonderful and we had an amazing time.

And finally, in August, we went to California and drove down PCH 1, which is something we've been talking about doing for years.

The biggest event, however, is that I am now fun-employed. Although I don't know how much fun it actually is. I left my job in June, after getting my LMHC. I thought (as I'm sure many people do) that with a BA and an MA AND a license, I would have no trouble getting another job. Aaaand here we are, 4 months later.

SO. While I spent the first three months complaining, whining, and basically making my poor husband miserable, this month I'm feeling a bit better about my situation. I'm trying to look at it as a blessing--I get to sleep late! I have plenty of time to cook and bake! I never have to get dressed if I don't want to! Oh wait, no--that's a sure-fire way for me to feel even worse about myself. I NEED to get dressed, slap on some makeup, and make it out of the house at least once a day so I feel at least somewhat productive with my life. Hence the  name of this blog--I need to get out of my pajamas and into real clothes; into the real world. Job or no job, I refuse to become one with my couch cushions!

To begin at the beginning...

I've always fancied myself a writer of sorts, but unfortunately have never had the time to properly devote myself to writing anything of substance. Well, that's not going to change--I don't see myself penning the next great American novel any time soon. Instead, I'm hoping that this will be an outlet for me to share ideas, photographs, recipes, and my rather mundane newlywed life. 


And, because everyone likes pictures, here's one from a ski trip the mr. and I took in December of 2008. Lake Tahoe--this was the closest we got to the lake. We're making another trip out west at the end of this month to Beaver Creek and I can't wait to get my ski on.