So its March now.

How am I doing on my resolutions, you may be asking yourself...daily, because you're obsessed with my life and cant get enough of me. truth be told.

1. move

So we've got our refund money, ready to replace a kitchen wall and our front window. Then we've got some touch up painting, minor repairs and the house will be on the market! (I have decided to go ahead and enroll Vi in Ritenour so she can "transfer" to the next school. I'm assuming this will be easier?)  We may be looking into private schools for 1st grade though because this common core bs is really bs.

2. try 1 new recipe a week.

I have been doing this, kind of. I have not been documenting it though.

3. Etsy store

So far I have about 7-8 things to list this year, hoping to have closer to 50.

4. write my knitting book

Henry has taken all my free time for this activity. so far I've only written about 6 patterns, which is really sad when you find out what the premise of my book is. haha.

5. hike

nope. not yet. too cold

6. bootcamp dvd

I haven't worked out once this year. I have stretched on my ball though. And I do massage about 10 hours a week...so ya know. I guess that counts

7. me

only time will tell.

8. friends

I've been a total hermit so far this year, due to the weather.

9. money

doing better. Picked up another shift at work

10. clean kitchen

uuuuuummm....soooooooo.... uh. yeaaaaaah about that..

11. $100 a week on groceries

been closer to $150+  my bad.

12. spend less time plugged in.

failing miserably at this..

13. meal planning

so far so good.

14. cloth diapering

doing good!

15. wean from breastfeeding

still going strong 17.5 months!

16. money jar challenge

so far so good! And I have exciting plans for this goal. I plan to keep going until August 2015 for a special 10 yr wedding anniversary.

17. book challenge.

:::hangs head in shame::: 

So I've read the first 3 chapters of 1 book.

2014 Resolutions

Its funny, I just read through my 2012 resolutions and some will be repeated here. Having Henry was a big factor in many of my 2012 resolutions not happening.

Here's the 2014 list, in no particular order!

1. Move!

This includes repairing the kitchen wall getting rid of a lot of the stuff we have. So anyone who got us stuff for Christmas or birthdays, dont be upset if you dont see that stuff this year. We'll use it at the next house. : )  If anyone is interested, we want to move to the Lindbergh school district. Or another state would be nice, not IL for those that may suggest it. Somewhere new.

2. Try 1 new recipe a week.

I did this a few years back and it was really fun!

3. Sew a ton of stuff for my Etsy store for next Christmas!

Had I been better prepared for Christmas this year I could have bought all our presents with Etsy money!  This year I was able to cover a third of the cost! : )

4. Write my knitting book.

This is actually going to happen. Whether it gets published this year or not I have no idea. But I've got a bunch of patterns written and a killer concept. So I'll just be knitting in secret all year. -- hooray for all my facebook friends who probably dont care to know I knit a scarf. lol. You're welcome.

5. Hike once a month, somewhere.

This doesn't sound like much I guess, but when you start from nothing, its not a bad idea to ease into it.

6. Bootcamp dvd

This only takes like 12 weeks or something.  So I want to do it at least once this year, to completion. I figure, I should tone up while I'm still small and before my 30's metabolism takes over. If I'm feeling really ambitious I may try for the p90X again in the Spring. But dont hold me to that!

7. Me

Turning 30 has really made me think about my personality, my friendships and how short life is. (yeah yeah. I know I'm only 30 and you're older than me. shush.) 

8. Friends

I would really like to start reconnecting with old friends, so if you're an old friend of mine and you want to hang out, and you're reading this, just let me know! We're available mon-fri, excluding Thurs. And if you're a relative and want to see the kids more, the same goes for you! We've got very good availability right now. I dont want to hear, "I never see the kids." Because we'd love to get together.

9. Money

We need more(who doesn't?!). Gonna fix that.

10. Work on keeping my kitchen clean all the time. 

The kitchen is by far the messiest room in our house. Mostly its because I dont do the dishes immediately after a meal and they pile up. We dont have a dishwasher. Right now there's a pile of dishes that would probably take 10 minutes to wash and put away, but I'm just like, "meh."


11. Spend $100 a week on groceries

I'm also going to try to limit my trips to Target to once a week, because that place has sucked my bank account dry. Granted, I usually only buy things we need, I'm going to take a harder look at what we actually need.

12. Spend less time plugged in

I would like to limit the time I spend online drastically. I dont need the computer. I dont need to know what people are doing and I'm sure everyone's getting sick of me, or has been for years now, on facebook.

13. Meal Planning

This can make a huge difference in your budget and your diet.

14. Cloth Diapering

We've gotten out of the habit, and now we're back in. Cloth Diapering during the day, huggies night diapers at night because Henry is a flipping fountain at night.

15. Wean from breastfeeding, if necessary.

I originally planned to wean at 12 months, and due to Henry's food allergies we just kept going, now we're at 15 months and I dont see an end in sight. As long as he wants to do it, we'll do it. That includes his college years. ; ) 

16. Money Jar Challenge

This challenge is going around the internet right now, you save $1 more per week of the year.

week 1: $1
week 2: $2
and so on. easy right? Its supposed to be almost $1400 by the end of the year.

17. Book Challenge 

Read one book per month of a different genre.

Sci Fi- Star Wars Heir to the Empire
Fiction, Adventure- Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch
Fiction- The Inheritance of Loss
Religion- Misquoting Jesus
Autobiography- I'm Still Standing
Fiction, Conspiracy- Angels and Demons
Fiction, Crime- The Lost Symbol
Romance- The Captive
Western/Frontier- Christy
Mythology- The Age of Fable
Biography- Benjamin Franklin
Autobiographical Memoir- Speak, Memory  (this one is my biggest challenge. I've been trying to read it for 10 years now)

Resolutions

So NYRs:

#1: Work on Me. and become as stress free as possible.  (this includes many steps, here are a few)

• make money
• relax more
• Get a massage more than once this year
• end my depression once and for all, wait, what depression... ;)

#2: Work out as often as necessary.
This could fit in the last one, but I wanted it to be its own thing. I want to get a couple Kinect games for this, but I need to find out which are best.

#3: sell this GOD DAMN HOUSE and buy a new one.
We’re thinking Crestwood so we can get Violet into Lindbergh schools.

#4: eat more healthy.
We actually eat pretty well, there is always room for improvement.

2011 NYR's and their progress

1. less soda/coffee/caffeine
Eh, not so much. In fact, I think I've increased the coffee by 3.

2. stop saying "like" so much

I'm pretty sure this one was a success.

3. start my flipping business already(which needs a new name)
Yeah, that didn't happen. The stress of possibly moving kept us up in the air and I couldn't do it.

4. write a new knitting pattern every week
This didn't happen. I did write a few though, which is better than none.

5. get a REAL website for my knitting stuff with adverts and all that jazz.
This didn't happen. I did set up an etsy shop though. I've made 1 sale.

6. start treating my body like I'm going to be getting pregnant (because when I was doing that last time I felt wonderful all the time!)
This didn't happen.I tried.

7. keep the kitchen table cleaned off
This got a lot better.

8. figure out where to move!
We have a pretty good idea about where we want to move, and where we should move. which are different places.

9. make millions of dollars by playing the lottery...pwahahaha. ok, jk.
ha. the lottery. lame.

10. potty train Vi!! (yikes, scary)
THIS DEFINITELY HAPPENED!!! WOOOOOO!

11. possibly join a running team (those cost money though...)
 Another one I couldn't do based on us possibly moving.

12. join a gym? I dunno. Still skeptical about those things...and they're dirty. yuck.
Even better, we just bought an Xbox Kinect! I started Lindsay Brin's bootcamp and did P90x a couple times. 

13. try not to be so sensitive.
 I'd have to say this one went pretty well. I'll always be sensitive though. I think the problem is other people realizing that I'm sensitive.

14. try to look for the good in people.
I'm definitely getting better at this. I think this is one I"ll learn with age. 

15. try not to over think peoples actions/comments
This one, which goes hand in hand with the last 2, was a problem. People suck. And I need to deal with that. 

16. keep up with the 5 new recipes a month(cuz that one rocked!)
 This one I didn't do for most of the year because of Violet's terrible food eating habits. But for the past few months I've been trying different things. I have a bunch of new spices in my cabinet as proof. 


All in all, I'd say I did fairly well. Considering there are 16 resolutions here and I completed a few of them. Its better than having a small list and not completing any! So this year I've learned to make my NYR list bigger than I could imagine, knowing that there's no way I could possibly finish it, and being content with finishing only a few. 

Time to make my 2012 NYR list.

Chinese Spaghetti and Meatballs

http://rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=4271
Here is Rachael Ray's recipe. I sort of used it. but not really. Here's what I did, following her steps basically the same...

IN A BOWL:
1lb ground chicken
salt and pepper
chinese five spice
grated: onion, ginger root & garlic
handful of breadcrumbs(I had Italian and couldn't tell)
1 egg yolk
sesame oil drizzle

Mix these ingredients and roll in to small balls.
Bake at 400F for 15-18 minutes (until center registers at 165F..because they will cook in the soup too)

IN A POT:
veg oil drizzle
1 leek
1 carrot
5 ginger slices (coins)
Chili Pepper flake

saute these up for a few minutes until soft

ADD IN POT:
3 C water
3 C chicken stock
1/4 C low sodium soy sauce
1/2lb wide lo mein noodles

cook until noodles are soft.
Add in chicken meatballs and serve. (maybe keep a kleenex near by, because you will cry when you taste how good this is...ok not really, but its pretty good!)

Twenty-Eleven Will Cost Us Thousands.

Justin and I are working on a plan to spend as much money as possible pay our credit card debt off, fix up our house so we can put it up for a sale within the next twelve months, eat MUCH more healthy (like when I was pregnant), join a gym and build muscle mass and get Violet involved in some activities with other children her age so she can get used to "mean" kids before school starts. (Because there are some MEAN kids out there. Thanks bad parenting)

Hopefully everything will fall into place, though I am expecting to have some rough patches. (like the summer when Justin doesn't get Webster money)

So, if we tell you we're going to stay home and all that..dont be offended, we're spending thousands of dollars that we usually leave for fun weekend stuff/eating dinner out.


Our goal is to move the hell out of this neighborhood/house within 1 year. I really wanted to move out at year 5, and we've just hit year 6 this month! :( I can wait another year if it means we'll make more on the house at the sale and so we can pay off more credit card debt.

A small list of things we need to do to fix the house, that we're willing to have help on if you want to:

Fix the stairs/top part of our back deck
Seal the outside basement walls of the house
Seal the inside basement walls
paint the basement floor

touch up (paint) the whole house
make-over the bathroom
fix the back door and frame
fix the broken front window
replace the fascia around the house
trim some big branches of the tree
remove the swing set
get our ducts cleaned
maybe replace carpet? (we're debating on this one)

haha, did I say SMALL list? Yeah, this is why its going to take us a year. And we're still talking about everything that needs to be done. Oh well, one small step for this house gets us into a better school district! :) and Violet's education is worth it!

So, once again, if anyone wants to help us out let me know! We plan on fixing up the bathroom first, which should be pretty easy/quick. (provided there isn't too much mold in the walls)

So, that's what's up. for now.

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Alfredo Bake

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Alfredo Bake

1 box noodles (macaroni or penne); cooked and drained

EVOO

Medium onion; chopped

A few cloves of garlic; chopped

2T flour

1C chicken stock

2C milk

1 box frozen spinach; thawed and drained

1box frozen artichoke hearts; thawed and drained

S&P

Nutmeg

3C cheese (whatever….I used Mozzarella feel free to use combinations!)

1lb Cooked & cubed chicken

1.  cook onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft

2. add 2T of olive oil and 2T flour (let cook for a minute)

3. whisk in  1C chicken stock

4. whisk in 2C milk

5. Add in spinach, artichokes, chicken cubes and S&P and nutmeg to taste.

6. Melt in 2 C Cheese

7. Add sauce to noodles in a 13x9 casserole (or slightly bigger, if you can)

8. sprinkle 1C cheese on top and bake at 350F until cheese is brown.

**this is based off of Rachael Ray's Spinach Artichoke Mac N Cheese. (its just a cheaper version...)