Oh my, has it really been six weeks since I last wrote a blog post? How is that possible? I was thinking that it had been about a month but nope, my last post was April 8th. In my defense, I was sick for most of April, and life has been crazy busy...
But when is life not busy? Seems like all the careful efforts I've made recently to make life less hectic has just meant I have more time for one of the 1,000 other things that are clamoring for my time. (Sound familiar, friends?)
At this very moment, I am sitting in a hotel conference room, very far away from home. I'm here for a week-long work conference. My mom came with me to see the sights and so that I could bring my daughter. (There's no way I could have left Darling at home for the week; I would have been miserable.) They are at the public library this morning, which is just one block down the road. Yesterday they did a bit of sight-seeing. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain so I think they will get trapped inside. Thankfully we have a whole bunch of toys and books with us because we needed a lot of things to keep Darling busy on the long airplane ride, so I think they will have plenty of things to do tomorrow.
Now let's see if I can remember all of the things I've been doing and working on during the last six weeks...
We had family in town, which is definitely the highlight among recent event. Nate's brother, who currently lives in southern California with his family, had some work-related meetings in a city near us. His wife (my SIL Amy) and their daughter Maddie came with him so they could visit us and Amy's family. We got to spend several days together.
It was great to spend time with them, talk, play, and cook. Darling and Maddie had a great time together. They played and read books, and even took a bath together. Darling spent the whole long weekend saying Cousin. We tried to get her to say Cousin Maddie but she didn't seem to get that Maddie is Maddie's name -- I think she thinks that Maddie's name is Cousin. Lol. She still asks for her cousin every couple of days. It's adorable. We loved their visit but did not get enough time with them. Hopefully we'll be able to go to southern California sometime soon and visit them.
That excitement happened during the first weekend in May.
The week before their visit, I took a little day trip to visit friends Kimmy, Nathan, and Little. That's the second-best thing to happen in the past six weeks. I got to see their newly fenced garden and recently built garden boxes. We attempted to make macarons, and had many other delicious things to eat. The babes played with each other. I temporarily lost my keys. I started to panic about the lost keys while I was there, but right now I can't think why I was so worried. I'd love an excuse to move in with my friends and never go home. :o)
Since I'm ordering recent events from most-to-least favorite, I guess the next thing on the list is Mother's Day. Nate was kind enough to make it a bit of a Mother's Weekend for me. I didn't get a complete break from the madness of life, but I did get extra time to rest and read, and I had to change fewer diapers. The Saturday right before mother's day, I actually spent most of the day running some errands while Nate was Super Dad. Some of the errands were fun, others were not. But it was nice to be out of the house and able to do things at my own pace, not at the will and speed of the Toddler.
My mom's day gift this year was an ice cream maker. I specifically requested it, and even went with Nate to get it from Costco. I also picked out the gift wrap that Nate used. (He was "allowed" to pick out the card on his own, ha ha.) Nate was a little bit upset that I picked and helped buy my own gift -- he prefers for gifts to be a total surprise. I'd rather have something I know I'll like. I told him the fun part was the beautiful wrapping he was required to do, and the unknown card.
Unbeknownst to me, Nate had decided to spice up the experience. He spent a couple of weeks writing a series of rhyming riddles, which together made a scavenger hunt. I had to hunt down my present! It was great. The riddles were so well done that I thought he'd found something on the internet that he copied. But no, it was completely original! I loved it, maybe even more than the ice cream maker. So thoughtful.
I think that's it for all of the big events. So in other news, we've been working on the garden. We had some uncharacteristically warm weather in April -- it was hot! The cool-weather plants were unhappy, but then I also couldn't seem to get the warm-weather plants to sprout because it was still cool at night. I finished all of my planting last week before I left on this trip; hopefully when I get home everything will have started growing.
I sold one of our Burleys. I can't remember if I ever blogged about the fact that I have three Burley bike trailers. If I haven't explained this, then don't worry about why I have three. Chalk it up to me being crazy. The good news is that we're down to two because someone came and bought one (the little Bee). I'm working on selling the Cub. I had a couple of people show interest -- one offered me a pathetically low price, the other one wants to come see it. Let's all cross our fingers!
I've also been doing a fair amount of writing. I started a new writing project a few months ago. It's a novel about angels and demons. I feel weird saying that because "supernatural" stories are not in my normal realm of writing, and not even the kind of thing I typically read. But an idea came to me one day, and I've been going for it. Between the outline and the sections I've written, I have more than 12,000 words down. (Generally novels are 50,000+ words.)
One of my goals with this project is to create a complete, detailed outline before I dive heavily into the writing. As of right now, I have a skeleton outline for the whole novel and have written detailed scene outlines for the first half of the story. I want to finish writing the actual story by the end of this year (2013), have it edited at the start of next year, and self-publish it in spring 2014. I think I'm going to re-join a writing challenge called ROW-80 in July, when the next (3Q) round begins. Right now my unofficial goal is to write 1,200 words a week.
My biggest cheerleader for this goal has been author-friend J.R. Pearse Nelson. It's good to know someone who has already jumped through the self-publishing hoops; she's an invaluable resource. She also has another novella coming out soon. I just got to Beta Read the story -- it's the third book in her Children of the Sidhe series, called Flight. It was great. It will be out sometime in July. She plans to publish another novella (book 4 of CotS) and a novel by the end of the year! Amazing. She's such an inspiration.
With that, I think I covered the major news. I hope everyone is doing well!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
A bunch of recipe recaps with links to printable recipes
I'm sick again. It has made for a long week -- a week which is mostly a blur in my mind. I did some work, I cooked some food, I cleaned the house and laundry; Nate was home sometimes; my toddler screamed at me a whole bunch. I guess it was really just like any other week, except for the part where I stopped to blow my nose every so often and had to take naps.
Because it was such an uneventful week, I thought I might take this opportunity to share some Recipe Recaps instead. But then I remembered how long it takes to write the recaps. So here's a list of some of our dinners from the last six weeks, with links to print-ready recipes where available (and a few notes... or... maybe a lot of notes, now that I'm done writing them! Ha.):
Broccoli Chicken Casserole on Penne: I actually made this with rotini noodles instead of penne, but it was still great. Nate says... more salt. I disagree. But that debate is eternal and applies to all of our meals.
Pesto-Stuffed Chicken Breasts: I've made this recipe twice so far and been disappointed both times. It sounds good and seems like it would be good, but the chicken comes out dry and you actually get very little of the pesto flavoring. I'm going to have to think about how to "fix" this recipe because I think it could be amazing, with a little help.
Chicken Biscuit Pot Pie (<<< title links to my printable version, but the original recipe comes from Kimmy's Bake Shop): This recipe is delicious and comforting. I love it. I've used 1% milk where it calls for milk. In the biscuit ingredients, I use 4 Tb butter (not six) and I've never added the scallions (green onions). If you're really in a hurry, you could get a bag of frozen mixed veggies instead -- that's the more modern approach to most pot-pie making.
Chicken Divan (on rice): From the Better Homes and Garden cookbook, 90s version. A classic dish in my family, although I make it with a few tweaks to my mom's recipe (because my (newer) copy of the BHG cookbook told me to). We call it Divine Divan.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup: Original recipe calls for turkey but I made it with shredded chicken. It's good.
Chicken and Rice Casserole: I think this recipe is perfect just the way it is.
Thai Peanut Chicken (with Broccoli and Quinoa): From "Quinoa 365", but use peanuts instead of cashews. An excellent dish.
Tofu Pad Thai: This is my own recipe, a mix of a Martha Stewart recipe I tried and the shrimp pad Thai recipe in the "Pasta Revolution" cookbook. Note that the recipe is written for me/us, so it has some funny and distinctive notes. If you don't like tofu, you could substitute chicken or shrimp, or maybe even pork.
Tofu Mushroom Stroganoff: This is my very own recipe, and it's good.
Stuffed Bell Peppers, Southwestern Style (stuffing pictured above; peppers pictured below): Good. I recommend. I don't like traditional stuffed bell pepper recipes -- it calls for too much pepper, in my opinion. So I cut the peppers in half, thoroughly pre-cook the halves, lay them in a glass baking dish, and pile the stuffing on top of them. I also hate to see the pepper tops go so completely to waste, so I cut out the edible bits and cook them up in the stuffing.
Loaded Baked Potatoes (black bean and corn): The salsa you choose will really define how the recipe tastes. I also recommend using more cheese than it calls for.
Mexican Lasagna: I felt like the tomatoes in this recipe made it very watery. Next time I'll try adding a can of tomato paste to thicken things up, and maybe let it cook down a bit more.
Veggie Quesadillas: My own original recipe. And very good.
Black Bean Enchiladas in Pumpkin Sauce: The sauce was too watery and too spicy, and didn't really taste anything like pumpkin (not that it needed to, per say). I'd say use half a jalapeno, and reduce the water to 1-1.5 cups. The tortillas are a pain to work with; if you heat them a little in the microwave they are more flexible. But for us, they just fell apart in the watery mess of the sauce. The resulting dinner was mushy and almost unpalatable. Conclusion: The recipe needs work.
Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers (<<< links to my printable recipe, but is originally from Kimmy's Bake Shop): Original recipe calls for rice. I used quinoa because it was handy and it cooks faster. I put beef bullion in the quinoa while it was cooking to add more flavor. The homemade buns are great. I baked mine until they were just done, then toasted them in the toaster oven. Perfect. I also used the bun recipe for the other version of the quinoa burgers, listed next...
Quinoa Burgers: The original recipe is for mini burgers, but I bumped them up to full size. It makes 10 burgers if you use 1/3 cup of the mix for each burger. The proportions are excellent. I used one carrot, and Monterrey Jack cheese on top. The avocado is a must. I recommend mixing in the quinoa when it's still hot, I think it made them stick together better.
Chickpea and Corn Burgers (on homemade buns): Okay, I confess, there was a two-week period when I got a bit obsessed with different ways to make burgers. And I'm not done experimenting, just giving my family a break. These burgers I threw together using themes I saw in the quinoa and black bean burger recipes. They were unfortunately a bit dry and didn't stay together well; I need to work on that.
Quinoa and Bean Chili: Instead of using 6 cups of white beans, I tried it with 3 cups of cooked quinoa, 1.5 cups of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and I added 1 cup of corn. It's mild a bit bland. It definitely needs the cheese and avocado. Nate says it needs the sour cream. (I don't like sour cream, so I couldn't say.) It's better with chips, too.
Quinoa "Mac" n Cheese: Good. Surprisingly good. I used 5oz of fresh spinach and it was a good balance. Could fry up some garlic with the spinach. Could reduce the cheese to 6oz. I used a couple teaspoons of chicken bullion while the quinoa was cooking and it definitely improved the overall flavor. Yes to the dash of salt. I don't know that I could taste the nutmeg.
Mulligatawny: This soup was okay. Good flavor, but lacking in substance. You could easily double the lentils, maybe even triple. I'd also suggest cutting up at least one more carrot, and adding it with the lentils, after you blend/puree the rest of the soup. Nate says this would be better as a side soup, not a main course. I might be inclined to agree with him, but I won't acquiesce until I've tried it again with tweaks.
Tikka Masala (pictured below; we ate it on rice): I didn't especially like this recipe. I thought the proportions were unbalanced; it had too much tomato. Next time I'd go with maybe half as much tomato...? And I'd try adding chickpeas.
Lasagna Bites: Don't believe the recipe -- rolling out your own "wonton" wrappers takes some muscle and is very difficult if a screaming toddler is yanking on your pant legs. I didn't use vegan ricotta, just the regular stuff. Actually, I can't even remember what all I put in these things. But they were yummy.
Beef and Mushroom Lasagna: This is based on the classic Campbell's recipe and requires a can of cream of mushroom. Yes, I know how we feel about that. I'm sorry. But it's delicious.
Goulash (with veggies): This makes a lot of food. I used 1.5lbs of beef and probably an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of noodles. The ratios still seemed fine to me.
Bachelor Beef Stew: From "Slow Cooker Revolution." Just a basic slow-cooked beef stew, nothing special or interesting to report. Throw some beef, baby carrots, chopped potatoes and diced onion in a slow cooker with beef broth and a bit of seasonings. Low heat. Eight hours later, nom.
Lentil Stew (with sausage): Hearty winter comfort food. Filling and tasty. Nate discovered this recipe.
Broccoli Beef: We've been asked for this recipe a few times. It's one of Nate's specialties. I think it's okay, but I don't ask him to make it very often.
Cabbage Soup: Gosh, isn't this one of those recipes that everyone just magically knows how to make? No seriously. Apparently it is. But I had to make Nate write it down for me because I don't ever remember having cabbage soup when we were growing up, even though it is some kind of American classic/staple.
Pork and Ramen Soup with Spinach (slow cooker): This recipe comes out of "Slow Cooker Revolution." It's good, not great. Always comes out a little watery and bland.
Tofu and Eggplant on Noodles (pictured below): I thought this recipe was horrible. Nate said it was fine. My mom said it was fine. But I will never, ever make it again. I think it's the eggplant -- we never get along in recipes -- and the hefty dose of lime. Yuck, lime.
Now for the SWEET TREATS...
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti (<<< links to my printable recipe, but originally comes from Kimmy's Bake Shop): Kimmy mailed me some of these in March, when I was sick. Bless her. They were amazing. As soon as I got better, I made them for myself. The result was delicious, but the instructions needed a little help because I had no idea what I was doing the first time around. I've made them twice now.
Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting: I hate it when recipes tell you to turn down the temperature because you're using a glass dish. Yes, the food is more likely to burn in glass at a high temp, but it also takes a bazillion years longer to cook if you turn down the temp. And this cake took a million billion gazillion years to cook all the way through, and it still burned. I had to cut off the crust. It was tasty, but it was a pain. I don't know what the answer is, except maybe that I should buy a metal dish or two.
Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies: I've made these a couple of times, using the "from scratch" instructions. You can't really taste the cream cheese flavor, but it adds richness to the cookies that make them heavenly. Milk vs. dark chips? The jury is still out. I tried it both ways. I like the dark because I like dark chips in cookies, but the milk weren't bad.
Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bars: Good but frustrating. The raspberry makes the bars mushy in the middle. You could pre-cook the crust even more to help prevent this, but then it will burn on the second round of cooking. I don't have a good solution yet. Maybe try mixing the raspberry mix with the topping? That's what I will try next time. Also, I didn't think one pound of raspberries was sufficient; I'd use at least 20oz, maybe even 24oz (1.5 lbs).
Because it was such an uneventful week, I thought I might take this opportunity to share some Recipe Recaps instead. But then I remembered how long it takes to write the recaps. So here's a list of some of our dinners from the last six weeks, with links to print-ready recipes where available (and a few notes... or... maybe a lot of notes, now that I'm done writing them! Ha.):
Broccoli Chicken Casserole on Penne: I actually made this with rotini noodles instead of penne, but it was still great. Nate says... more salt. I disagree. But that debate is eternal and applies to all of our meals.
Pesto-Stuffed Chicken Breasts: I've made this recipe twice so far and been disappointed both times. It sounds good and seems like it would be good, but the chicken comes out dry and you actually get very little of the pesto flavoring. I'm going to have to think about how to "fix" this recipe because I think it could be amazing, with a little help.
Chicken Biscuit Pot Pie (<<< title links to my printable version, but the original recipe comes from Kimmy's Bake Shop): This recipe is delicious and comforting. I love it. I've used 1% milk where it calls for milk. In the biscuit ingredients, I use 4 Tb butter (not six) and I've never added the scallions (green onions). If you're really in a hurry, you could get a bag of frozen mixed veggies instead -- that's the more modern approach to most pot-pie making.
Chicken Divan (on rice): From the Better Homes and Garden cookbook, 90s version. A classic dish in my family, although I make it with a few tweaks to my mom's recipe (because my (newer) copy of the BHG cookbook told me to). We call it Divine Divan.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup: Original recipe calls for turkey but I made it with shredded chicken. It's good.
Chicken and Rice Casserole: I think this recipe is perfect just the way it is.
Thai Peanut Chicken (with Broccoli and Quinoa): From "Quinoa 365", but use peanuts instead of cashews. An excellent dish.
Tofu Pad Thai: This is my own recipe, a mix of a Martha Stewart recipe I tried and the shrimp pad Thai recipe in the "Pasta Revolution" cookbook. Note that the recipe is written for me/us, so it has some funny and distinctive notes. If you don't like tofu, you could substitute chicken or shrimp, or maybe even pork.
Tofu Mushroom Stroganoff: This is my very own recipe, and it's good.
Stuffed Bell Peppers, Southwestern Style (stuffing pictured above; peppers pictured below): Good. I recommend. I don't like traditional stuffed bell pepper recipes -- it calls for too much pepper, in my opinion. So I cut the peppers in half, thoroughly pre-cook the halves, lay them in a glass baking dish, and pile the stuffing on top of them. I also hate to see the pepper tops go so completely to waste, so I cut out the edible bits and cook them up in the stuffing.
Loaded Baked Potatoes (black bean and corn): The salsa you choose will really define how the recipe tastes. I also recommend using more cheese than it calls for.
Mexican Lasagna: I felt like the tomatoes in this recipe made it very watery. Next time I'll try adding a can of tomato paste to thicken things up, and maybe let it cook down a bit more.
Veggie Quesadillas: My own original recipe. And very good.
Black Bean Enchiladas in Pumpkin Sauce: The sauce was too watery and too spicy, and didn't really taste anything like pumpkin (not that it needed to, per say). I'd say use half a jalapeno, and reduce the water to 1-1.5 cups. The tortillas are a pain to work with; if you heat them a little in the microwave they are more flexible. But for us, they just fell apart in the watery mess of the sauce. The resulting dinner was mushy and almost unpalatable. Conclusion: The recipe needs work.
Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers (<<< links to my printable recipe, but is originally from Kimmy's Bake Shop): Original recipe calls for rice. I used quinoa because it was handy and it cooks faster. I put beef bullion in the quinoa while it was cooking to add more flavor. The homemade buns are great. I baked mine until they were just done, then toasted them in the toaster oven. Perfect. I also used the bun recipe for the other version of the quinoa burgers, listed next...
Quinoa Burgers: The original recipe is for mini burgers, but I bumped them up to full size. It makes 10 burgers if you use 1/3 cup of the mix for each burger. The proportions are excellent. I used one carrot, and Monterrey Jack cheese on top. The avocado is a must. I recommend mixing in the quinoa when it's still hot, I think it made them stick together better.
Chickpea and Corn Burgers (on homemade buns): Okay, I confess, there was a two-week period when I got a bit obsessed with different ways to make burgers. And I'm not done experimenting, just giving my family a break. These burgers I threw together using themes I saw in the quinoa and black bean burger recipes. They were unfortunately a bit dry and didn't stay together well; I need to work on that.
Quinoa and Bean Chili: Instead of using 6 cups of white beans, I tried it with 3 cups of cooked quinoa, 1.5 cups of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and I added 1 cup of corn. It's mild a bit bland. It definitely needs the cheese and avocado. Nate says it needs the sour cream. (I don't like sour cream, so I couldn't say.) It's better with chips, too.
Quinoa "Mac" n Cheese: Good. Surprisingly good. I used 5oz of fresh spinach and it was a good balance. Could fry up some garlic with the spinach. Could reduce the cheese to 6oz. I used a couple teaspoons of chicken bullion while the quinoa was cooking and it definitely improved the overall flavor. Yes to the dash of salt. I don't know that I could taste the nutmeg.
Mulligatawny: This soup was okay. Good flavor, but lacking in substance. You could easily double the lentils, maybe even triple. I'd also suggest cutting up at least one more carrot, and adding it with the lentils, after you blend/puree the rest of the soup. Nate says this would be better as a side soup, not a main course. I might be inclined to agree with him, but I won't acquiesce until I've tried it again with tweaks.
Moroccan Tagine (pictured below): I used raisins instead of apricots, orange instead of lemon. I liked the carrots, but thought they could have been cooked more.
Lasagna Bites: Don't believe the recipe -- rolling out your own "wonton" wrappers takes some muscle and is very difficult if a screaming toddler is yanking on your pant legs. I didn't use vegan ricotta, just the regular stuff. Actually, I can't even remember what all I put in these things. But they were yummy.
Beef and Mushroom Lasagna: This is based on the classic Campbell's recipe and requires a can of cream of mushroom. Yes, I know how we feel about that. I'm sorry. But it's delicious.
Goulash (with veggies): This makes a lot of food. I used 1.5lbs of beef and probably an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of noodles. The ratios still seemed fine to me.
Bachelor Beef Stew: From "Slow Cooker Revolution." Just a basic slow-cooked beef stew, nothing special or interesting to report. Throw some beef, baby carrots, chopped potatoes and diced onion in a slow cooker with beef broth and a bit of seasonings. Low heat. Eight hours later, nom.
Lentil Stew (with sausage): Hearty winter comfort food. Filling and tasty. Nate discovered this recipe.
Broccoli Beef: We've been asked for this recipe a few times. It's one of Nate's specialties. I think it's okay, but I don't ask him to make it very often.
Cabbage Soup: Gosh, isn't this one of those recipes that everyone just magically knows how to make? No seriously. Apparently it is. But I had to make Nate write it down for me because I don't ever remember having cabbage soup when we were growing up, even though it is some kind of American classic/staple.
Pork and Ramen Soup with Spinach (slow cooker): This recipe comes out of "Slow Cooker Revolution." It's good, not great. Always comes out a little watery and bland.
Tofu and Eggplant on Noodles (pictured below): I thought this recipe was horrible. Nate said it was fine. My mom said it was fine. But I will never, ever make it again. I think it's the eggplant -- we never get along in recipes -- and the hefty dose of lime. Yuck, lime.
Now for the SWEET TREATS...
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti (<<< links to my printable recipe, but originally comes from Kimmy's Bake Shop): Kimmy mailed me some of these in March, when I was sick. Bless her. They were amazing. As soon as I got better, I made them for myself. The result was delicious, but the instructions needed a little help because I had no idea what I was doing the first time around. I've made them twice now.
Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting: I hate it when recipes tell you to turn down the temperature because you're using a glass dish. Yes, the food is more likely to burn in glass at a high temp, but it also takes a bazillion years longer to cook if you turn down the temp. And this cake took a million billion gazillion years to cook all the way through, and it still burned. I had to cut off the crust. It was tasty, but it was a pain. I don't know what the answer is, except maybe that I should buy a metal dish or two.
Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies: I've made these a couple of times, using the "from scratch" instructions. You can't really taste the cream cheese flavor, but it adds richness to the cookies that make them heavenly. Milk vs. dark chips? The jury is still out. I tried it both ways. I like the dark because I like dark chips in cookies, but the milk weren't bad.
Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bars: Good but frustrating. The raspberry makes the bars mushy in the middle. You could pre-cook the crust even more to help prevent this, but then it will burn on the second round of cooking. I don't have a good solution yet. Maybe try mixing the raspberry mix with the topping? That's what I will try next time. Also, I didn't think one pound of raspberries was sufficient; I'd use at least 20oz, maybe even 24oz (1.5 lbs).
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The last couple of weeks: Gardening and visiting family
Sorry I missed last week's post. We've still been getting back to normal around here after the rounds of illness and Nate's busyness with school. And, honestly... things have been pretty normal, so I don't feel like there's been much to say. Here goes the hum-drum post...
Our garden is growing. The pea plants popped up and look happy. Most of my boxed seeds are fully sprouted (kale, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, bok choy and carrots). The carrots were the last to come up, but now they have sprouted in abundance. I have a ton of them -- they will need a lot of thinning. My onions did not come up. I mean, like, nothing at all. I think the seed packet was a dud. Last year I got three seed packets of Walla Walla sweet onions, planted two of them, and got nothing. I assumed it was because I planted the seeds too late (aka it was too hot) and they didn't want to come up. Now that I've used the third packet but at the right time (in the cold weather) I feel more confident that I can declare the whole package of seeds to be the cause of the failure, and not something on my end. Whew.
On the downside, this means I have to replant my onion seeds, and just pray that they will be mature before the summer heat comes. (Onions don't like it hot.)
In the greenhouse, cilantro and basil have sprouted. The cabbage starts did nothing. I'm a little disappointed, but since Nate got the garden mostly ready this week, I can now just direct-sow a little row of cabbage. Here's a picture of Nate taking a break from tilling the garden to chat with grandma and Darling:
Tilling was his big project last Monday, on his first day of spring break. He did great -- the garden is pretty much ready to go! Now to figure out how we can keep the weeds down until it's time to actually plant most of the garden (which is not until early June). It would have been nice to wait and till the ground a little closer to the actual planting season, but this was the time Nate had available and so we used it.
Nate also spent some time this week working on building a new "pantry shelf" for the kitchen. We have a little shelf in the corner of our kitchen for foodstuffs...
The design is odd. The original shelf doesn't really fill the space. We happened to have a cheap little homemade bookshelf thing that sorta fit underneath, so we stuck it in the corner. But really, the whole system doesn't make the best use of the space. So we came up with a new design that uses up the whole corner, giving us deeper shelves that are sufficiently tall/short for our needs. (This corner is essentially our pantry space, and it's a bunch of shelves, so we call it the "pantry shelf.") I hoped he would get most of it done this week, but it just didn't work out. We'll keep plugging away in our free time.
Yesterday we went to go see my parents and run some errands. I loaned Nate to my parents for slave labor in the morning (he cut down three trees) while I ran to the church cannery, then in the afternoon after we put the Toddler down for a nap, we went to the temple. My mom made us a pot roast for dinner when we got back. (Yum.) I enjoyed the arrangement; hopefully we can do it again at the end of April and this time go to Ikea in the afternoon. I've been yearning for an Ikea trip. And it's nice to feel like we are helping my parents, who do so much for us!
Today was Easter. Darling wore a lovely white dress with blue flowers. (Yikes, I just realized that I forgot to take a picture and one of my co-workers specifically requested an Easter dress photo -- will have to dress her up and take it tomorrow.) My mom joined us for church, which was really great. She addressed the fun-but-exhausting task of playing with the toddler during the hour of worship service (aka sacrament meeting). My kid was a lot nicer to grandma than she is to me during that hour, even though she was still no picnic today!
After church and Darling's naptime, Nana came to see us. She had an Easter present for our girl: some hand puppets! She made four sets of hand puppets -- four different animals/creatures, with one mommy-sized puppet and one toddler-sized puppet of each. I wish I could take a picture but they are with Darling's toys in her room (and she is asleep). Will have to do that tomorrow, too.
I need to write a post about my goal progress in March, so that will cover some some other recent updates, whenever I get time to write it. I also have several pictures and recipes to share, should I find some time to writing a cooking blog post! I hope everyone had a nice Easter and that all of my local friends were able to enjoy this lovely stretch of spring weather!
Our garden is growing. The pea plants popped up and look happy. Most of my boxed seeds are fully sprouted (kale, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, bok choy and carrots). The carrots were the last to come up, but now they have sprouted in abundance. I have a ton of them -- they will need a lot of thinning. My onions did not come up. I mean, like, nothing at all. I think the seed packet was a dud. Last year I got three seed packets of Walla Walla sweet onions, planted two of them, and got nothing. I assumed it was because I planted the seeds too late (aka it was too hot) and they didn't want to come up. Now that I've used the third packet but at the right time (in the cold weather) I feel more confident that I can declare the whole package of seeds to be the cause of the failure, and not something on my end. Whew.
On the downside, this means I have to replant my onion seeds, and just pray that they will be mature before the summer heat comes. (Onions don't like it hot.)
In the greenhouse, cilantro and basil have sprouted. The cabbage starts did nothing. I'm a little disappointed, but since Nate got the garden mostly ready this week, I can now just direct-sow a little row of cabbage. Here's a picture of Nate taking a break from tilling the garden to chat with grandma and Darling:
Tilling was his big project last Monday, on his first day of spring break. He did great -- the garden is pretty much ready to go! Now to figure out how we can keep the weeds down until it's time to actually plant most of the garden (which is not until early June). It would have been nice to wait and till the ground a little closer to the actual planting season, but this was the time Nate had available and so we used it.
Nate also spent some time this week working on building a new "pantry shelf" for the kitchen. We have a little shelf in the corner of our kitchen for foodstuffs...
The design is odd. The original shelf doesn't really fill the space. We happened to have a cheap little homemade bookshelf thing that sorta fit underneath, so we stuck it in the corner. But really, the whole system doesn't make the best use of the space. So we came up with a new design that uses up the whole corner, giving us deeper shelves that are sufficiently tall/short for our needs. (This corner is essentially our pantry space, and it's a bunch of shelves, so we call it the "pantry shelf.") I hoped he would get most of it done this week, but it just didn't work out. We'll keep plugging away in our free time.
Yesterday we went to go see my parents and run some errands. I loaned Nate to my parents for slave labor in the morning (he cut down three trees) while I ran to the church cannery, then in the afternoon after we put the Toddler down for a nap, we went to the temple. My mom made us a pot roast for dinner when we got back. (Yum.) I enjoyed the arrangement; hopefully we can do it again at the end of April and this time go to Ikea in the afternoon. I've been yearning for an Ikea trip. And it's nice to feel like we are helping my parents, who do so much for us!
Today was Easter. Darling wore a lovely white dress with blue flowers. (Yikes, I just realized that I forgot to take a picture and one of my co-workers specifically requested an Easter dress photo -- will have to dress her up and take it tomorrow.) My mom joined us for church, which was really great. She addressed the fun-but-exhausting task of playing with the toddler during the hour of worship service (aka sacrament meeting). My kid was a lot nicer to grandma than she is to me during that hour, even though she was still no picnic today!
After church and Darling's naptime, Nana came to see us. She had an Easter present for our girl: some hand puppets! She made four sets of hand puppets -- four different animals/creatures, with one mommy-sized puppet and one toddler-sized puppet of each. I wish I could take a picture but they are with Darling's toys in her room (and she is asleep). Will have to do that tomorrow, too.
I need to write a post about my goal progress in March, so that will cover some some other recent updates, whenever I get time to write it. I also have several pictures and recipes to share, should I find some time to writing a cooking blog post! I hope everyone had a nice Easter and that all of my local friends were able to enjoy this lovely stretch of spring weather!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
No more MIM for him
Nate had his last MIM class yesterday (Saturday). It was the last class of the school term, but more importantly for us, it was his last class for the program. Nate has decided that he is not going to continue pursuing this particular Master's degree. It was a difficult decision for him to reach because he has wanted to get a Master's degree for such a long time, but now that he's gotten a feel for the nature of this program, and with it a better sense of his own strengths/weaknesses and desires, he doesn't feel it's the right program for him.
I'm delighted. While I fully support his desire to get more education, I was also feeling like this program wasn't a good fit for him or for us. It was supposed to be designed for people who work full time -- it was supposed to have a well-paced, manageable course load. Unfortunately it did not live up to the advertisement.
Pile on all the challenges of these last six weeks, and you can see why I would prefer he didn't sign up for another term. Granted, I probably won't get sick THREE TIMES in the next couple of months, so it probably would be a bit more bearable. Still. We like having the man around the house once in awhile, and work and church already take him away from us quite a lot. Maybe this summer, when Nate starts working part time, I will feel differently. For now though.... HOORAY!
While Nate was at class yesterday, I took our daughter to visit his parents. Darling enjoyed reading books, coloring, and chasing after their hoard of chickens. She also got to pick up some of the chicken eggs and look at the baby chicks.
Back on our own farm, we've got some sprouts popping up in the planter's boxes. My bok choy, lettuce, kale, and spinach are all up. The chard, carrots, and onions are still hiding under the dirt. As are the peas that I planted this week. My mom agreed to grow pumpkins for us this year, which will save a LOT of garden space. With all the extra space, I'm thinking I might grow even more corn (it's good chicken food) and maybe more tomatoes (so I can can stuff), and then maybe a bit of newer, experimental plants, like black beans and quinoa
Darling has been helping us out with gardening:
I am nearly recovered from the latest round of illness. Ditto Baby Girl. We both have a bit of a persistent runny nose but are otherwise cured. Err, except for the more sore diapered bottom in the world, poor kid. We've been battling the redness for weeks now, then finally about a week ago her skin just got raw and sore down around her bottom. It has been a horrible week in that regard -- every diaper change means screaming, crying, and getting kicked. I don't blame her (although I do try to dodge the kicks). Hopefully we can see the pediatrician tomorrow, maybe get some stronger medicine. This makes me grateful we haven't had any issues with diaper rash before -- such drama!
I'm delighted. While I fully support his desire to get more education, I was also feeling like this program wasn't a good fit for him or for us. It was supposed to be designed for people who work full time -- it was supposed to have a well-paced, manageable course load. Unfortunately it did not live up to the advertisement.
Pile on all the challenges of these last six weeks, and you can see why I would prefer he didn't sign up for another term. Granted, I probably won't get sick THREE TIMES in the next couple of months, so it probably would be a bit more bearable. Still. We like having the man around the house once in awhile, and work and church already take him away from us quite a lot. Maybe this summer, when Nate starts working part time, I will feel differently. For now though.... HOORAY!
While Nate was at class yesterday, I took our daughter to visit his parents. Darling enjoyed reading books, coloring, and chasing after their hoard of chickens. She also got to pick up some of the chicken eggs and look at the baby chicks.
Back on our own farm, we've got some sprouts popping up in the planter's boxes. My bok choy, lettuce, kale, and spinach are all up. The chard, carrots, and onions are still hiding under the dirt. As are the peas that I planted this week. My mom agreed to grow pumpkins for us this year, which will save a LOT of garden space. With all the extra space, I'm thinking I might grow even more corn (it's good chicken food) and maybe more tomatoes (so I can can stuff), and then maybe a bit of newer, experimental plants, like black beans and quinoa
Darling has been helping us out with gardening:
I am nearly recovered from the latest round of illness. Ditto Baby Girl. We both have a bit of a persistent runny nose but are otherwise cured. Err, except for the more sore diapered bottom in the world, poor kid. We've been battling the redness for weeks now, then finally about a week ago her skin just got raw and sore down around her bottom. It has been a horrible week in that regard -- every diaper change means screaming, crying, and getting kicked. I don't blame her (although I do try to dodge the kicks). Hopefully we can see the pediatrician tomorrow, maybe get some stronger medicine. This makes me grateful we haven't had any issues with diaper rash before -- such drama!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
2013 Goals: February Recap
I think it will help me make progress with my goals if I occasionally have to give an update. I originally promised to check in at least once each quarter, but more frequent (as often as monthly) updates would be better motivation. So I'll make some notes here and there as I have time, and then publish this post when it's ready!
(...It only took a week to get this written...)
Goal 1: Be Positive
January started out rocky with me falling into negative habits after only a couple of weeks. Then February gave me a bunch of challenges between everyone in the family getting sick illness and Nate being gone a lot for his MIM classes... and I did good! Not great, but better. Nate has been good at reminding me to be positive and vice versa. My mom is also kinda participating in this goal, which is great.
My one confession: I did kinda yell at a driver the other day when I was riding my bike. It wasn't the most uplifting thing to do. But she ran a red light in front of me while talking on her cell phone, and since her window was open I thought it an appropriate opportunity to remind her to HANG UP AND DRIVE. Wouldn't you like to have a bicyclist yell that in your face as you almost run her over? In my defense, she kinda deserved it.
I haven't made any progress on identifying places in the house where I could hang "be positive" reminders. I'll find them this month, since we're done being sick. (Ha, ha. I must have written that sentence before the baby and I came down with colds, again. We're both pretty sick right now.)
Goal 2: Scripture Study (15 mins every day)
I started out strong this year, continuing the full-steam-ahead progress I made in 2012. But then I dropped the ball for most of February because of the aforementioned illnesses and absence. I've been better the past couple of weeks, but still not totally consistent, and not studying for a full 15 minutes. Really, I've just been reading, and only for 5-10 minutes. But at least I'm back on track, if a little behind. I'm making progress on the D&C, still ambitiously hoping to finish it this month. (We'll see.)
Goals 3&4: Blog once a week. Write recipe recaps.
Goal 3 has gone quite well, if you look at the numbers. We're at the 10th week of the year and I have 13 posts done (not counting recipe recaps). I've missed a week or two -- during the "everyone's sick" time in February -- but I'm totally comfortable with the "write weekly" goal, and rockin' it.
Recipe recaps, not so much. I wrote three. I loved them, but they took a long time. And time has been scarce. I think I'll have more luck starting next month (in April) of making this a habit. I'm thinking about changing this goal just a bit. Instead of listing all my recipes each week and making notes, I could try to recap just one recipe each week. In my ideal world I'd still like to write a recap each night and then publish the week's worth at the end of the week, but that's just too ambitious for right now. My apologies to the handful of you who were loving the big, long cooking posts.
Goal 5: Turn my 2012 blog posts into a book (and order a printed copy).
I haven't even started, haven't really even thought about it. I have the whole year to get this done, and will worry about it later. Maybe... I don't know... next month?... I will get started. I would still prefer to get this done before the summer, but it's not a high priority.
Goal 6: Bike to work every day
There was one week in February when I drove to work a couple of days. It is very hard to bike when I am recovering from a cold because my nose is still runny, so I didn't even try. I think that's completely justified and so I'm going to claim 100% success on this goal so far.
Goal 7: Dessert after dinner, not after 8pm
Ha. I forgot this was a goal. Fail.
Goal 8: Technology off by 9pm, lights out by 9:30pm
Not so good. I started the year out doing good, turning off the tech by 9pm every night, but then when I got sick I reached for the comfort of Netflix and Hulu and cuddled my technology up to bedtime. (Then promptly had trouble getting to sleep, no surprise.) I've been pretty good about bedtime at 9:30, with a couple of misses when I was cleaning the house and one miss when I was watching a really engaging episode of I don't even remember what show. (It wasn't worth it.) There's room to improve.
Goal 9: Blitz journal (daily recap) each day
Success. Kinda. I haven't actually been doing it every single day, but I have one written for each day. In other words, I often do two days at once. It's not my ideal but it works okay. I also find myself sometimes writing notes throughout the day, rather than doing it all at the end of the day. Overall it's going well and I have a complete record, even if it's not been a smooth process.
Goal 10: Grow a garden.
Progress! There are four planter's boxes set up around the back yard. Just this afternoon I went out and filled them with "salad ingredient" seeds (lettuce, kale, carrots, onions, spinach, etc.). I also have a plan for starting some of my seeds in the greenhouse, and a plan for how to lay out the garden (although the plan needs to be updated). It's still too early to do more than these tasks, but I'm on track for a successful growing season.
Goal 11: Do some canning.
Too early to actually do this, but I've been preparing. I'm buying one set of jars each month, so I now have a dozen quart jars, a dozen pint jars, and a dozen half-pint jars. I have a few jars from my grandma, mom, and MIL. I have plastic lids for freezing jars. I have a list of supplies still to buy (water bath, Tattler lids... pressure canner?). I have a list of things I want to can. There's more planning and prep work to do; I'm loving it.
Goal 12: So some creative writing
I made some progress on this goal. I have a rough outline for a brand new novel. I have detailed outlines for three of the scenes. I have half of the opening scene written. There's nearly 9,000 words between all of those pieces, which is a great start. At the end of the month, I anticipate having more weekend time to write, so I will keep working. If I have two free hours and ideas in my head, I can bust out 2,000+ words in a sitting. After this term of Nate's classes, when I have free Saturday mornings to write, I think it would be reasonable to expect myself to put in 2,000 words each week. I want to do much, much more... but I'll start with that and see how it plays out.
###
There's my update for January and February. Overall I feel like I am making progress and I feel confident that I will be successful in accomplishing my goals this year. Thanks to all of you for your support!
(...It only took a week to get this written...)
Goal 1: Be Positive
January started out rocky with me falling into negative habits after only a couple of weeks. Then February gave me a bunch of challenges between everyone in the family getting sick illness and Nate being gone a lot for his MIM classes... and I did good! Not great, but better. Nate has been good at reminding me to be positive and vice versa. My mom is also kinda participating in this goal, which is great.
My one confession: I did kinda yell at a driver the other day when I was riding my bike. It wasn't the most uplifting thing to do. But she ran a red light in front of me while talking on her cell phone, and since her window was open I thought it an appropriate opportunity to remind her to HANG UP AND DRIVE. Wouldn't you like to have a bicyclist yell that in your face as you almost run her over? In my defense, she kinda deserved it.
I haven't made any progress on identifying places in the house where I could hang "be positive" reminders. I'll find them this month, since we're done being sick. (Ha, ha. I must have written that sentence before the baby and I came down with colds, again. We're both pretty sick right now.)
Goal 2: Scripture Study (15 mins every day)
I started out strong this year, continuing the full-steam-ahead progress I made in 2012. But then I dropped the ball for most of February because of the aforementioned illnesses and absence. I've been better the past couple of weeks, but still not totally consistent, and not studying for a full 15 minutes. Really, I've just been reading, and only for 5-10 minutes. But at least I'm back on track, if a little behind. I'm making progress on the D&C, still ambitiously hoping to finish it this month. (We'll see.)
Goals 3&4: Blog once a week. Write recipe recaps.
Goal 3 has gone quite well, if you look at the numbers. We're at the 10th week of the year and I have 13 posts done (not counting recipe recaps). I've missed a week or two -- during the "everyone's sick" time in February -- but I'm totally comfortable with the "write weekly" goal, and rockin' it.
Recipe recaps, not so much. I wrote three. I loved them, but they took a long time. And time has been scarce. I think I'll have more luck starting next month (in April) of making this a habit. I'm thinking about changing this goal just a bit. Instead of listing all my recipes each week and making notes, I could try to recap just one recipe each week. In my ideal world I'd still like to write a recap each night and then publish the week's worth at the end of the week, but that's just too ambitious for right now. My apologies to the handful of you who were loving the big, long cooking posts.
Goal 5: Turn my 2012 blog posts into a book (and order a printed copy).
I haven't even started, haven't really even thought about it. I have the whole year to get this done, and will worry about it later. Maybe... I don't know... next month?... I will get started. I would still prefer to get this done before the summer, but it's not a high priority.
Goal 6: Bike to work every day
There was one week in February when I drove to work a couple of days. It is very hard to bike when I am recovering from a cold because my nose is still runny, so I didn't even try. I think that's completely justified and so I'm going to claim 100% success on this goal so far.
Goal 7: Dessert after dinner, not after 8pm
Ha. I forgot this was a goal. Fail.
Goal 8: Technology off by 9pm, lights out by 9:30pm
Not so good. I started the year out doing good, turning off the tech by 9pm every night, but then when I got sick I reached for the comfort of Netflix and Hulu and cuddled my technology up to bedtime. (Then promptly had trouble getting to sleep, no surprise.) I've been pretty good about bedtime at 9:30, with a couple of misses when I was cleaning the house and one miss when I was watching a really engaging episode of I don't even remember what show. (It wasn't worth it.) There's room to improve.
Goal 9: Blitz journal (daily recap) each day
Success. Kinda. I haven't actually been doing it every single day, but I have one written for each day. In other words, I often do two days at once. It's not my ideal but it works okay. I also find myself sometimes writing notes throughout the day, rather than doing it all at the end of the day. Overall it's going well and I have a complete record, even if it's not been a smooth process.
Goal 10: Grow a garden.
Progress! There are four planter's boxes set up around the back yard. Just this afternoon I went out and filled them with "salad ingredient" seeds (lettuce, kale, carrots, onions, spinach, etc.). I also have a plan for starting some of my seeds in the greenhouse, and a plan for how to lay out the garden (although the plan needs to be updated). It's still too early to do more than these tasks, but I'm on track for a successful growing season.
Goal 11: Do some canning.
Too early to actually do this, but I've been preparing. I'm buying one set of jars each month, so I now have a dozen quart jars, a dozen pint jars, and a dozen half-pint jars. I have a few jars from my grandma, mom, and MIL. I have plastic lids for freezing jars. I have a list of supplies still to buy (water bath, Tattler lids... pressure canner?). I have a list of things I want to can. There's more planning and prep work to do; I'm loving it.
Goal 12: So some creative writing
I made some progress on this goal. I have a rough outline for a brand new novel. I have detailed outlines for three of the scenes. I have half of the opening scene written. There's nearly 9,000 words between all of those pieces, which is a great start. At the end of the month, I anticipate having more weekend time to write, so I will keep working. If I have two free hours and ideas in my head, I can bust out 2,000+ words in a sitting. After this term of Nate's classes, when I have free Saturday mornings to write, I think it would be reasonable to expect myself to put in 2,000 words each week. I want to do much, much more... but I'll start with that and see how it plays out.
###
There's my update for January and February. Overall I feel like I am making progress and I feel confident that I will be successful in accomplishing my goals this year. Thanks to all of you for your support!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Dig up the yard, y'all!
Yard work, yard work, yay yay yay!
We are really making progress on our yard. I'm exited. When we are all done with it, there will be a lot less weeding and maintenance to do. It will look beautiful and we won't have to slave in the yard. Oh! It's going to be sooooo nice!
The former owners of my parent's new house really loved to garden. A little bit too much, as it happens. Whenever they planted something, they seemed to have decided that more is better, and they planted 10 of them. This is true of plants and bushes and trees. It's a good thing my mom is retired because she spends hours every week just trying to trim and maintain the yard.
The benefit to us has been some new gardening supplies and plants, especially a pair of beautiful maple trees! One of them has green and yellow leaves with gorgeous, coral-colored bark. The other has rich, green bark and bright red leaves. We drove up to see my parents on Saturday (3/2) and dug up the two trees. By we I unfortunately mean Nate, who did all of the laborious digging. I helped him bag the roots and we threw the trees in the truck. We went home, where Nate promptly tilled up a long swath of weeds and we put our new beauties in the ground. The area is now covered in a thick layer of hazelnut shells to keep down the weeds.
Earlier in the week I set up and filled some planter's boxes by the location for the new trees. The boxes will hold "salad fixings" like lettuce, spinach, kale, and carrots. There's a big box for onions farther back on the lawn. (The main garden area will have everything else, like squash and pumpkins and tomatoes and corn and beans and... you get the idea.)
The one disappointment this weekend? I drove all the way out (30 minutes) to the place where we get our bags of hazelnut shells, picked up 15 bags, only to discover when I got home that we were about 5 bags short of covering the whole weeded/prepared area. So next weekend or at least some time this month, I again have to make that hour-long trek to buy more shells. Or else I have to look at the incomplete dirt and fight back the weeds -- that's not appealing! Hopefully Nate's parents will be available to watch my daughter for a little while so I can make a trip. They live about halfway between our house and the hazelnut place, which is convenient.
Here'a a picture (I wish I had a good "before" picture of the yard but I don't, sorry!):
This shows our lovely new trees and the hard work we accomplished. You can see on the right side of the picture where the shells stop and we need to add a few more bags. We also want to add more shells in the back of the yard, over on the right by the water barrel. On the left, behind the greenhouse, is the main garden area. We have to till up that section of grass this year -- that will not be fun -- so we can expand the garden. And we need to add grass seed in the main yard to fill in a few places. But it's really coming along!!!
This shows our lovely new trees and the hard work we accomplished. You can see on the right side of the picture where the shells stop and we need to add a few more bags. We also want to add more shells in the back of the yard, over on the right by the water barrel. On the left, behind the greenhouse, is the main garden area. We have to till up that section of grass this year -- that will not be fun -- so we can expand the garden. And we need to add grass seed in the main yard to fill in a few places. But it's really coming along!!!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Good news at work
I got good news at work this week. It came to me in such a way that I thought it was going to be bad news, or that maybe I was in trouble, but turns out the uber boss was just really excited to tell me the good news: My position and I are doing a little shuffle, moving to a different manager and changing my duties a little bit.
I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning, about five minutes before my official start time (as per usual). I bicycle to work, so I need to change my clothes as part of my morning routine. But I don't usually "get dressed" until after I've been in the office for about 15 minutes -- partly because the janitorial staff just happens to clean the bathrooms on my floor at exactly the same time I arrive for the day, and partly because it just takes that long to get the computer started, check emails, put my things away, etc.
So I arrived five minutes early and was in the process of doing my usual unpacking/starting computer/saying good mornings, when one of the managers came over....
"I know you don't know this, but you have a meeting with the uber boss right now."
I looked down at my cycling clothes. I had taken off the bulky outer rain-proof layer, which leaves me in skin-tight thermals from chin to wrist to ankles. It's not exactly the kind of thing one wears to a meeting with the uber boss. Nevermind the tousled (not attractively) hair and lack of face paint, or the twinge of sweat smell...
"Uhm, can I go change first?"
"Well... it's just going to be a really quick meeting?"
He said this very apologetically. I could tell he wanted to just say yes, I could go change. But instead he said, "We'll be in his office. See you in a minute."
I sighed, collected a notepad, fished out my glasses, and walked across our floor to his corner office. The uber boss made some joke about me being in trouble, then teased me that I don't keep a close enough eye on my meeting schedule, and basically put me on edge. As if I wasn't already outrageously uncomfortable.
But then he dropped the good news. The Big Change. I couldn't believe my ears, it was like I had won the lottery. Almost. I even get to move cubicles.
So now you're probably wondering, gosh, does Brooke hate her current boss that much? Are her cube neighbors that bad? The answers are no and no. You might know that my current boss and I got off to a bit of a rocky start two years ago, when I was promoted into my current position. But we smoothed that all out pretty quickly and it's been a great working relationship since then.
Really, the reason I'm so excited is that I'm going somewhere that makes me feel like I belong. I feel like I'm going home. In my current place (under my current boss), I am the odd man... er, woman... out. My immediate boss manages seven other people, all of whom are men, their average age is probably about 45, and they all work on various aspects of building and maintaining our website. They are great people, but me and what I do at work -- totally different from them. I do research and analyze data. I think at one point, back when my position was originally created, the person in my job actually did some computer programming and published data to the website. But me? I just make a list of changes and give it to one of the programmers.
Two years ago, before I was promoted into my current position, I did a wide variety of research and analysis. I worked with a team of people. It was a very collaborative, give-and-take environment. I really liked my boss, my (physical) location in the office, and what I was doing. And now I am RETURNING to that group. I get to be back with my old team, working under my old boss, and doing a slightly broader set of things compared with what I work on right now. In fact, one of the duties I don't like to do right now, I get to do less of it! The uber boss asked me to scale back on the thing that I don't even like doing so that I could make time to do some new things. How great is that?
But wait, it gets even better (is that possible?). You'll probably recall that I interviewed for a promotion a couple of months ago, and I was one of the top candidates. In my final interview, when the panel (including the uber boss) asked me why I was interested in the promotion, I said several things: I want to work with a team again, because currently I do a lot of stuff on my own; I want to do a greater variety/diversity of things; I want to do some new things; I want to travel a little more; I want to build up my skills and have more chances to learn new things.
A couple of days after I got This Good News, it hit me. Wham. Even though I didn't get that promotion a couple of months ago, the uber boss heard what I was saying in my interview. He heard it, and took it to heart, and he's doing something about it. How cool is that? This change might not come with a higher salary, but it does give me so many of those other benefits that I was seeking. Bonus for my business, the changes will make us more efficient and more productive, too. What a blessing all around.
So really, the best thing to come of this change is being reminded of how much the uber boss cares. He cares about us worker bees, as people, and when we have an idea or a complaint, he is really, truly listening. I'm not saying he's perfect or that we always get what we want, but he's not deaf and he's not blind, and he DOES want us to be happy. How cool is that? It seems so rare that people have a great boss, but I do. It really makes me feel blessed!
(Thanks Graham.)
I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning, about five minutes before my official start time (as per usual). I bicycle to work, so I need to change my clothes as part of my morning routine. But I don't usually "get dressed" until after I've been in the office for about 15 minutes -- partly because the janitorial staff just happens to clean the bathrooms on my floor at exactly the same time I arrive for the day, and partly because it just takes that long to get the computer started, check emails, put my things away, etc.
So I arrived five minutes early and was in the process of doing my usual unpacking/starting computer/saying good mornings, when one of the managers came over....
"I know you don't know this, but you have a meeting with the uber boss right now."
I looked down at my cycling clothes. I had taken off the bulky outer rain-proof layer, which leaves me in skin-tight thermals from chin to wrist to ankles. It's not exactly the kind of thing one wears to a meeting with the uber boss. Nevermind the tousled (not attractively) hair and lack of face paint, or the twinge of sweat smell...
"Uhm, can I go change first?"
"Well... it's just going to be a really quick meeting?"
He said this very apologetically. I could tell he wanted to just say yes, I could go change. But instead he said, "We'll be in his office. See you in a minute."
I sighed, collected a notepad, fished out my glasses, and walked across our floor to his corner office. The uber boss made some joke about me being in trouble, then teased me that I don't keep a close enough eye on my meeting schedule, and basically put me on edge. As if I wasn't already outrageously uncomfortable.
But then he dropped the good news. The Big Change. I couldn't believe my ears, it was like I had won the lottery. Almost. I even get to move cubicles.
So now you're probably wondering, gosh, does Brooke hate her current boss that much? Are her cube neighbors that bad? The answers are no and no. You might know that my current boss and I got off to a bit of a rocky start two years ago, when I was promoted into my current position. But we smoothed that all out pretty quickly and it's been a great working relationship since then.
Really, the reason I'm so excited is that I'm going somewhere that makes me feel like I belong. I feel like I'm going home. In my current place (under my current boss), I am the odd man... er, woman... out. My immediate boss manages seven other people, all of whom are men, their average age is probably about 45, and they all work on various aspects of building and maintaining our website. They are great people, but me and what I do at work -- totally different from them. I do research and analyze data. I think at one point, back when my position was originally created, the person in my job actually did some computer programming and published data to the website. But me? I just make a list of changes and give it to one of the programmers.
Two years ago, before I was promoted into my current position, I did a wide variety of research and analysis. I worked with a team of people. It was a very collaborative, give-and-take environment. I really liked my boss, my (physical) location in the office, and what I was doing. And now I am RETURNING to that group. I get to be back with my old team, working under my old boss, and doing a slightly broader set of things compared with what I work on right now. In fact, one of the duties I don't like to do right now, I get to do less of it! The uber boss asked me to scale back on the thing that I don't even like doing so that I could make time to do some new things. How great is that?
But wait, it gets even better (is that possible?). You'll probably recall that I interviewed for a promotion a couple of months ago, and I was one of the top candidates. In my final interview, when the panel (including the uber boss) asked me why I was interested in the promotion, I said several things: I want to work with a team again, because currently I do a lot of stuff on my own; I want to do a greater variety/diversity of things; I want to do some new things; I want to travel a little more; I want to build up my skills and have more chances to learn new things.
A couple of days after I got This Good News, it hit me. Wham. Even though I didn't get that promotion a couple of months ago, the uber boss heard what I was saying in my interview. He heard it, and took it to heart, and he's doing something about it. How cool is that? This change might not come with a higher salary, but it does give me so many of those other benefits that I was seeking. Bonus for my business, the changes will make us more efficient and more productive, too. What a blessing all around.
So really, the best thing to come of this change is being reminded of how much the uber boss cares. He cares about us worker bees, as people, and when we have an idea or a complaint, he is really, truly listening. I'm not saying he's perfect or that we always get what we want, but he's not deaf and he's not blind, and he DOES want us to be happy. How cool is that? It seems so rare that people have a great boss, but I do. It really makes me feel blessed!
(Thanks Graham.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)