City Life.

Heading into the big city later today. Hoping to get some shots. I've been such a slacker!! In the meantime, here are a few more that I played with the other day.

Just another...

 

M

Hipster in the Snow

Family Portraits.

Found a few pictures from Mardi Gras that I decided to play with today.

(Comments/critiques are fully welcome. I have a long way to go with finding my photographic "voice", so to speak, and a really long way to go technically, so any input is welcome.)

Daddy Whistling

Grandma Waiting for the Throws

Always Waiting

Lost.

Not really me. I'm doing pretty good at the moment. But I keep feeling that this blogs needs to be something, that I need to be putting something of myself out there, but not... ugh. I don't know.

So, hodgepodge. Scattered focus. ADD.

Yeah. I'll work on that. Right about...

Shiny! Yeah, not like anyone sees any of this but me. Lalala.

Have a lot of projects in the works. Eldest is starting at the local community college for her junior year of high school, so all of a sudden our laid back, unschooly house feels, well, schooly. I'm not sure how I feel about that. But it has me focusing on math, for the twins, the eldest, and myself.

I've been playing on khanacademy.org. It's fun. Even Bug Boy seems happy on it. We'll see how long that lasts.

I've been wanting to get back to taking pictures, but I'm not seeing things through that eye at the moment. This particularly sucks because I have these awesome film cameras just no inspiration at the moment.

We've been working on rehabbing Michael. He's getting stronger, rebuilding muscle, all is well.

Been right about a year since I quit smoking and started vapeing. I still love it. Haven't touched a tobacco cigarette since July of last year. Also lost some weight. Nothing much. Can't really see it. But hey, I quit smoking and didn't gain weight. At all. Whooohoo!

Speaking about photos (I was, wasn't I?), I've been going back through some older pictures and looking at them with new eyes. I seldom get the picture I see in my head, and I need to work on that. But compositionally (is that a word?) I like a lot of what I take. The colors and focus and such may not be where I want them to be, but I'm guessing (hoping?) that just comes with practice. So I've been playing in post-processing with some photos I originally considered marginal, or were flat out mad about taking. Play with the color, crop a little from the edges, add some effects then remove them just to see the picture from a different point of view. And I'm liking what I'm seeing, for the most part. So that's something.

Projects, projects, projects:

• Math taker
• Math teacher
• Everything else teacher
• Physical therapist
• Photographer (or post-processer, or wannabe, or something)
• Organizer
• Researcher of stuff for congregational anniversary
• Planner of family things
• Sanity keeper
• Wife

Yeah, guess which of those don't happen?

So, that's what's on my mind tonight. I'll leave you (me) with a couple-few redone pictures from 2013.

Allium

Bird in a Field

Random Guy in Park at St. Louis Arch

Getting Ready for Bugs

Prep work, part 2

I am incredibly lazy. I just couldn't get the "umph" today to do much of anything. I blame the permeating smell of chicken stock making me weak and hungry all day.

So, meal prep. Doing these things will hopefully help on the way to achieve my goals as far as food are concerned. It's not meal planning. It's not OAMC. It's some bastard child of them. (Estimating $110 on meat, not counting the chuck roasts. Estimating 150 servings of protein, not counting the bone broth or chuck roasts).

1. Cooked 17# of chicken thighs. I basically threw them in roasting pans and cooked them at 350 for an hour or so. Once cool, we picked the meat off and packaged it for the freezer. About 1 cup servings went into cheap sandwich zipper bags, and then those were squeezed together in larger freezer bags. Meat will be used by hubby and kids for adding to pasta, salad, quesadillas, etc. Ended up with about 5 quart bags of meat.

2. Broth from the bones, skin, and bits is cooking as I type. Before bed I'll strain it and place with ice in a cooler to separate. Part will go to family soup. The rest will go into mason jars for me to use for myself as small soup portions or just drinking.

3. Browned 15# ground chuck. About half in quart bags will be set aside for chili, spaghetti sauce, dirty rice and such. Some will be seasoned as taco meat and put in probably 2/3 cup portions using same procedure as chicken meat. These are for nachos, tacos, just plain eating with cheese when I need a grain-free protein hit.

4. Two meatloafs (loaves? That sounds funky) are in the oven right now. We'll eat on them, and freeze what's left after a few days.

5. Pork butt will be cooked in oven overnight as meat for carnitas. I'll chunk it tomorrow and reduce the sauce, toss it together, then freeze portioned (we may have some for dinner). They're ready to be tossed in toaster oven to broil, then eaten as is, on tacos, on salads, etc.

6. Half pork loin will be cut into chops and bagged by 2, for Alan to make his pork concoction (pan seared or chopped and stir fried, with broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, peppers, or any combo. Served with rice usually. Mood driven 20 minute meal, with leftovers for lunch.

7. Three 3# chuck roasts were just freezer bagged and frozen. They'll become - wait for it - roast.

8. Miscellany: chopping onions and peppers for freezer. Have lots of chicken breasts in the freezer. I need to clean and chop my jalapeños before they go bad yet again. Need to buy-chop-freeze green onion and celery.

Prep work

We have an insane few weeks leading up to Easter, which will also include my inlaws visiting for a week or more. So apparently the culmination of several goals of mine have forced the rubber to hit the road as far as kitchen preparation is concerned.

More bone broth: I love slow cooked (as in a couple of days) chicken broth. It makes me feel good. It makes my belly feel good.

Cleaner eating: less processed crap in my belly, and eventually the rest of the family's as well.

Saving money on food: buying in bulk during sales, not letting bought food go bad before it is used, maximizing nutrients per dollar value.

Cooking more: self explanatory.

Accessibility: having good food available, given our tendencies to eat junk when it's "too hard" to eat well.

Time management: I'd like to not spend my life in the kitchen, both in general and especially when we have company.

Weekly meal plans don't work for us long term for a variety of reasons. But we have meals that are regular here, and being able to do things to capitalize on that is a goal as well. I'll spell it all out tomorrow after I make a few final decisions and actions.

But I'm feeling really, really good about how I'm getting a handle on this. Like, really, I feel like I'm rocking the world.

That's Incredible!!

Observation:

Fruit placed in a wire basket on the dining table gets eaten much quicker than fruit which remains in bags in the kitchen to rot.

#themoreyouknow

Lessons

Every trip back home brings some kind of lesson. This year?

Crap.

Lots of crap.

I have too much crap, but not enough of the right crap. Lots of junk, not enough things I love or actually need.

But I'm working on it. I've been better lately about not buying stuff just for the sake of having stuff. But I also need to not be scared of stuff.

For instance: encyclopedia. I have a big classic World Book encyclopedia set. I've tried to not bring it back up to Illinois with us because really, everything you want to know is online, and we have single CDs that supposedly have the entirety of that huge selection of books. So it's stupid to have them, right?

But paper is different. The tactile nature of real books makes me process the information differently. You can argue that it's superior or inferior, but I think we do our kids a disservice by shifting to electronic sources exclusively. Oh, sorry. Rant pause.

So yeah, I'm bringing home the paper books. And I'll find a place for them. And we'll love them.

And they will not be crap.



(Note: this crap is crap. But it's Mardi Gras memory crap, so some of it will come home, and we'll love it, and it will become not-crap.)

Analog geekery

My husband, for Christmas, gave me an empty fountain pen box with a note that when I was ready to pick one that was right for me, we'd get it. So when I recently realized that digital planning and I don't work so well together, I figured now was as good a time as any to start looking at pens.

I started my research at Neil Gaiman's blog. He's a pen geek. He writes his novels longhand. I love him. Anyway, a post of his pointed me toward a Lamy 2000. Researching it led me to something I'd not yet encountered online:

Consensus.

Apparently, the Lamy Safari is regarded as a great starter pen by, oh, everyone. It was freakish in the genuinely good reviews that did NOT accompany freakish cult properties. Sure there were debates about nib sizes, heated exchanges about inks, but as a pen, the Lamy Safari was pretty well received by everyone from students to pen geeks. It can be found for under $30 as well, which makes the universal support even stranger.

So, what to write in? I'll spare the long process of elimination and tell you I chose a daily page 5x7 journal from Paperblanks. It's gorgeous. The paper is quality. Did I mention it's beautiful? I went with that format because I was never so organized in the midst of insanity as when a previous boss forced me to use an At-a-Glance red hardback "Standard Diary". It's almost exactly the same, except sadly, Paperblanks uses one page for Saturday/Sunday.

But that's okay. It's pretty. See?

MEAT!

So, I've been in conversations a lot lately about protein. To preface this whole thing: I don't currently buy grass fed, pastured, blah blah. But I've been finding that there is a difference in what I've been buying as far as conventionally raised meat goes. And I find the better quality I seek out, the less I spend. I don't know if it's psychological, or because it's more filling, or nutritious or what. I just know that our grocery bills have overall decreased.

I can't eat Tyson or Kroger store brand chicken. I get sick every time. Not E. coli sick. Just blah. Listless. A touch of tummy problems. Sometimes headaches, moodiness, and sometimes it even sets off my rosacea.

Other meats are like that as well. Generally I keep the buying of my proteins to Costco or Schnucks, or Kroger (for beef and pork). I avoid Aldi or Walmart or other chain stores. The quality is seldom as good. The taste often seems off. And the sales at Schnucks beats just about everywhere else's meat prices. It just takes planning to buy when it's on sale. If something I like isn't on sale for a while, I'll stock up on a trip to Costco.

I have prices in my head that I'll pay for things, and even if I can afford more at the time, I don't usually buy it. I know I'm the only person who reads this, but here are my protein buying price guidelines:

Whole chickens: 1.19 is my max. 99c is my buy price these days.

Bone-in breasts: seldom buy anymore, but $1.29 is my max.

Thighs: 99c max. I don't like dark meat. I use them for broth and save the meat for family members who like it and use it for quesadillas, adding to pasta, etc.

Boneless skinless breasts: $2.99, which hurts. But $1.99 breasts are often the ones that make me feel icky. The frozen (cheaper) ones often have a LOT of broth added and so the real value is lower, and they often make me sick (possible gluten in the broth, I think).

Ground pork: $1.69

Boneless Pork Loin: 2.19 max, but I try to buy up when at $1.89, which happens every 4-6 weeks. We make chops from this cut on our own, as the center cut chops at the store are $3.60 and up.

Boston Butt/ pork shoulder: 1.29, but try not to buy unless 99c.

Chuck roast: $3.69 is my happy price. I've paid $4.19 when needed for company, etc.

Other beef roasts (bottom/top rounds, etc): $3.69 max. Not my fave, but when $2.99 I'll pick something up usually.

Ground beef: Breaks. My. Heart. I've been buying it at Costco for 2.99, but it's gone up to $3.19. Locally we have an Amish store which sells it for $4.49, which makes me choke. But it tastes amazing - like a roast, even though it's lean, not random ground - and I use it in chili. Our ground meat consumption has decreased greatly.

Steak: I'm a steak snob. I grew up on ribeye like other families eat meatloaf. It's seldom of good quality AND on sale, so we buy it only a couple of times a year. My exception is every now and then, the local Kroger sells super thin (4-5 oz) "breakfast ribeye" for $7.99. I buy a pound or two, rewarap individually, and so have a freezer to plate in less than 10 minutes hearty meal for myself. Yes, I buy them only for me.

A goal for the next couple of months is to check out local butchers. Butcher shops scare me. But I'm getting comfortable enough, I think, to make the plunge.

Peek-a-Boo!

So, MIA for months. That's okay. Here's the latest skinny:

Still vapeing. I love it. I also love that I'm spending less than a quarter than I did on cigarettes. I've stepped down the nicotine, and I'm about to do so again. I think.

My house is still a wreck, but some things have improved and I'm getting up some gumption.

Working hard on money things. Trying to save, mostly. It's not going to be too easy this year, as we have a lot of places to go.

It's still lonely here. I'm riding a bit high from a trip this week to Fort Wayne, where I got to see friends for a whole 48 hours (and a "little sister" came with us, so we had extra time to visit with her as well). Sadly tomorrow is back to the daily grind. So here are some daily grind goals:

~~~~~~~~~~

Continue to attempt to eat better, including trying some new things.

Stay on top of money stuff - bills, paying things off, finding better ways to save.

Stay in better touch with people I care about, both because I love them, and it helps me stay out of a funk.

Try to find more ways to help others. It's too easy for me to get wrapped up in our own issues.

Try to be more domestic.

Try to be more active.

Carve out more time to read.

~~~~~

No pretty picture today. I'm posting from the phone. Maybe next time... You know, months from now. :)