New Things: Week 11

The first new thing this week was the purchase of soap nuts. I've been meaning to try these as an alternative to regular laundry detergent, and these get extra points for being fair trade! I'm hoping they might also save us a bit of money.
New thing #2 was finally getting around to switching out almost all of my plastic storage containers and replacing them with glass ones. I've long avoided putting plastic in the microwave or exposing it to heat, and I've had some glass containers that I've used for a while, but I hadn't really gotten around to switching everything over to ensure that all of my food storage is BPA-free (some of my plastic storage was years old, cheap, and probably not of the BPA-free variety). Of course, reducing BPA exposure is a good thing for anyone to consider, but what finally got me into gear was an article I read recently about the connections between Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and BPA. . . apparently women with PCOS (like me) have over 1.5 times more BPA in their systems than women without it! The last thing my systems needs is any PCOS encouragement, so that definitely pushed buying glass higher up on my priority list. I'm also going to stop buying canned beans and make the switch to 100% dried ones (or, if I'm in a pitch, stick only with Eden canned beans, which are BPA free). It felt really good to say goodbye to all of that plastic (which I'm hoping to either recycle or repurpose as containers for organizing)!

The last new (old) thing for the week was that Dan and I resumed one of our favorite dates. . . an evening at home with a puzzle, a hot beverage, and a treat for dessert. I realize this makes us among the dorkiest people we know, but for us it turns into a quiet, inexpensive night at home and something fun to work on together. We haven't worked on a puzzle since we relocated to PA, so it was fun to reinstate an old tradition! We sipped coffee, ate cannolis, listed to some Jose Gonzales and Emiliana Torrini, and put together this puzzle Dan got me for Christmas in 2009. It was lovely.

New Things: Week 10

Most of my new things for this week are small, and most of them took place in the kitchen. For starters, I made another loaf of homemade bread this weekend (to accompany minestrone soup. . . yum). This is a good thing not only because the bread was delicious, but also because it means I've repeated one of my new things, hopefully slowly making it a new habit. It was also quite fun because I finally got to use the bread bag that Dan bought me on Etsy for Christmas!


Along the lines of making my own bread, this week I also finally (after intending to do so for years) made my own salad dressing. Again, I don't know why it took me so long to get around to this. . . you take a few ingredients and stir them up in a jar. . . but for some reason I just kept picking up bottles at the store. This now seems crazy because what we made at home was so much tastier, healthier, and cheaper! I can't say I'll never pick up a bottle of Garlic Expressions again (man, is that dressing good!) but I see few (if any) salad dressing bottles in my fridge's future.

I've also been hoping to create more healthy, homemade snacks. I love granola bars and Larabars, but the former always have some sort of sugar or dairy or other additive I don't want, and the latter are healthy and taste yummy but I sometimes feel bad about the waste from the package wrappers. Last week, I made my own version of Larabars using this recipe from Vegetarian Times with dates, chia seeds, almonds, and cocoa. I've read a lot about the health benefits of chia seeds and have been wanting to incorporate more into my diet, and these bars had the advantage of being somewhat like brownies in their richness (but without any sugar, dairy, or eggs). They were super easy and so good!

My last new thing for the week actually happened at work. Among other things, my department provides free income tax preparation to low and moderate-income individuals through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. I've always been really nervous about doing this because the thought of me helping someone with their taxes seemed almost laughable. But after passing the VITA test and becoming certified by the IRS to prepare taxes at both the beginner and intermediate levels, I prepared my first tax return on Friday! The preparation was for a nice couple with a new (2 week old and adorable!) baby, and their refund was over $1000, which I know will make a big difference to them, especially given their income level and growing family. It was nice to be a part of that, and also to gain the confidence boost that comes from doing something as complex as filing taxes! It was a good reminder to me that moving outside of our comfort zones is good, and also that we are capable of much more than we often believe ourselves to be.

New Things: Weeks 8 & 9

The past couple of weeks have been busy ones. We headed out of town to see friends over the weekend, and the week prior to that, Seester and Brother (her husband) were here for a visit, complete with a trip to see the always amazing "Les Miserables!" It was such a lovely visit. If only we could live closer. . . sigh.

In continuing the tradition of new things (or old things that I stopped doing and would like to do again), I continued my efforts to get crafty by picking up knitting for the first time in years. I never moved beyond scarves when I initially started knitting--and I'm working on a scarf now--but I figure I'll wait to get through that before I tackle something more complicated. I forgot how nice (and even meditative) it can be to complete those rhythmic motions.

The other new old thing for the last couple of weeks--and definitely the most time-consuming--has been reading a classic novel. A year or so ago, I bought a copy of Anna Karenina. Being that it is an 850+ page 19th-century Russian novel, it was hard to really get around to reading it. I have long since given up on reading books just because they are classics (life is too short to read something that you don't like or that bores you), but I do enjoy a good juicy classic now and then, and it seemed that Anna Karenina might fit the bill. The challenge was finding the time to read it without spending six months with it--luckily, the Christmas break gave me a good opportunity to get started, and I finished reading it last week.

I hoped that I would like Anna Karenina. I didn't expect to love it. Despite its length, I tore through it. I loved the humanness of the characters, the depiction of Russian life and society, the novel's philosophical bent, and the subtlety with which the characters change throughout the novel and lead up to the book's conclusion (one that literally left me with my jaw hanging open). It had a surprisingly contemporary feel to it, and it's been a long time since I've been that engrossed in a book. I'd actually love to reread it, but perhaps I'll save that for another time. For now, I'm definitely ready for some lighter fare--perhaps a rereading of the Twilight series?

I decided to start a new list (on the right) called "Bookshelf," just to share what I'm reading and to record what I've read this year. I won't be including any business or organizing books--which take up a lot of my reading time--but I'm hoping to put a nice dent in the never-ending list of books I'd like to get to. I'd love to know what any of you are reading, as well!

Slow and Steady

For the past couple of weeks, I've really struggled to get back into the swing of things. Over my holiday vacation, I took a break from business planning, from the gym, from healthy eating, from a regular bedtime, from avoiding too much caffeine. . . and now I'm trying to navigate the transition back into old habits like getting to the gym in the mornings, planning weekly meals, and devoting chunks of time (and brain energy) to my business plans. I find it ironic that, as most people are using the new year to kick-off new habits, I'm trying to get back to the old ones I'd cultivated up until Christmas. My eleven days off of work apparently became eleven days off from everything! The transition has been a little rough, to say the least. Once I get going on something, I'm pretty committed to it. . . but if my plans veer off course or I lose motivation, it always takes me a while to get back on track. This is apparently one old (bad) habit that I need to leave behind.

Having said that, taking a break was good. After entering every single food item I eat into an online program every day since May, getting up at 5:30 in the morning to make it to the gym, and giving up my weekends entirely to business planning, it was great to enjoy holiday treats without worrying about my waistline, to lounge in bed in the mornings, and to give my mind a rest from constant business brainstorming. I always think it's good to step back for a while from anything you're investing a lot of creative time or energy into, so I'm hoping that the break will help me revisit my business plans with fresh eyes. While taking a rest form my usual activities, I caught up on long-neglected projects around the house, started some new ones, and spent a lot of R&R with the hubs.

I am definitely a person who thrives on routine--perhaps too much so. Having a regular schedule helps me stay on track and jibes well with my goal-orientated nature, but transitions can really throw me off course. Sometimes even the transition from the weekdays to the weekend (or vice versa) can be a little rocky for me. I try to force myself to break up the routine sometimes, but it's not easy--and I worry that sometimes my need for routine is going to interfere with things like running a business or, eventually, being a parent. I'm not exactly the most adaptable person, thought it's something I try to work on (hence the spirit behind my plan of new things). I guess, though, that most of us have a tendency for the familiar.

On the upside, I tend to be pretty tenacious. And my goal-oriented self doesn't like to be off track for too long. Rather than beat myself up over the last year or so for not getting my business off the ground when I hoped, or not losing weight as quickly as I thought I should, or still working to gain traction in my exercise habits, my new motto has been "slow but steady." There's something to be said for taking a flying leap, but that's just not me. And perhaps knowing yourself is the biggest key to success. So, slowly but surely, here I go!

New Things: Week 7

I am pretty consistent about taking canvas shopping bags into stores--so much so that I sometimes have to purposefully leave them in the car because we are out of plastic bags for kitty litter. On my list of things to do has been to buy reusable produce bags. I try to avoid the clear plastic ones altogether and just throw loose items into my cart, but for some items, like greens, they seem necessary. I have had these reusable ones on my wish list for a while but hadn't gotten around to ordering them, and then I saw the ones below newly stocked in my local natural foods store! I love that they come with a cute little apple pouch that they can all be stored in. One more small step toward a greener life.

The next new thing for this week? Making oatmeal instead of buying it in smaller packets. As convenient as the latter are for mornings at work, they create so much waste, and I've known that making oatmeal at home would be healthier. I bought this bulk bag of oats several months ago--and instead of just making some freaking oatmeal with it, I kept buying packets and left the bag of oats sitting in my pantry (I think my new things are probably just succeeding in showing you all how lazy I can be).

Saturday morning, I cooked up some oatmeal with a cut-up apple and some lemon juice, topped it with maple syrup and toasted pecans, and had a healthy, hearty breakfast. I made extra to put in the fridge to take and reheat at work. Yum yum.

The last new thing of the week. . . salsa dancing! Some friends invited Dan and I to join them for salsa lessons after they put together an event and auctioned off spots for our church fundraiser. I never thought Dan would go, but he almost immediately took a "why not?" attitude. Yes, that's right, friends. . . DAN danced both the salsa and the merengue on Friday night! He did quite well, and it was a fun new thing for us to do together. Just the fact that he did it makes me love him even more (I swear he is just the cutest). On a side note, I have also now danced both the salsa and the merengue with my minister . . . now that definitely falls under the category of "something new!"

If You Have Cats, This is a Must Read!

In addition to finally pulling out the sewing machine, the other thing I finally did last week was get around to researching new options for my cats' food. This does not sound monumental, but I have discovered that determining what is healthy for a cat to eat is almost as confusing as determining the best diet for people. I am very fortunate to have a veterinary technician (my sis) on my side to help direct me to resources. She sent me to this website a while ago, and for some time I have been in denial about the fact that there is a good chance the food I was feeding my cats was the equivalent of giving them McDonald's every day (and I was giving them supposedly "good" stuff).

To all my friends with cats, take note: I've become convinced that cats should not be eating dry food and I'm switching mine to a high-quality, high-protein, low-carb wet food. I've decided to make the switch even though it's more expensive, and even though every time I smell wet food or see it or it accidentally touches me anywhere on my fingers I kind of want to vomit. My cats will still get dry food once a day because Dan and I don't sleep if we don't use the automatic cat feeder for their morning feedings (and dry is the only option there), but the other two feedings will be wet food only, and I'm going to switch their dry food to a high-protein, low-carb variety while adding a little extra water to their wet food to ensure they stay properly hydrated.

If you have kitties that you love (and I know many of you do), please, please take some time to read through the info here on this website. It's a lot to wade through, but it can't be surprising to anyone that pet food companies are out to make a profit and are not always looking out for the best interests of our furry friends, so we have to be educated. To me, the information presented here makes sense, and switching my cats' food seems to me to be the best thing I can to do to help them lead healthy lives.

My little girls

If you are interested in knowing which foods I've decided to switch to after doing hours of research, feel free to leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail!

New Thing: Week 6

On my list of Christmas break "to do"s was to pull out the sewing machine. The sad, lonely, neglected sewing machine that has been sitting in the bottom of my closet for some time now. I'm not sure how that happened.

I decided to start with something super basic, as it has been so long since I've sewed that I (very sadly) had to consult the sewing machine manual to remind me how to properly thread it. I hemmed two pairs of pants and put together this simple table runner, which was supposed to be an early December project but ended up happening the day after Christmas (oops). I figured I couldn't go wrong with straight lines and a non-committal holiday project to ease me back in. I was never a great sewer, but at least I know now that I can still stitch together a few pieces of fabric!