Things I'm Doing

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You may or may not have received this in the mail. If you did not receive it, I assure you, it was not an intentional slight!

But Happy News! 

I'm graduating!

Actually, I already graduated, but this weekend I'm participating in the commencement ceremony at my school. 

The disheartening part of it is that my tassel says "2011," But I totally graduated in December of 2010. Oh well. I will remember I'm sure, and no one else really cares.

In other news, my baby and I are doing well. She's a very active little worm. 

And though I may not look 6 months pregnant, my doctor says that I am a classic text book pregnancy. So hah! My weight and size gain are right on track.

And if I don't get a phone call from the office today, I don't have gestational diabetes either.

Speaking of which, I took the glucose test yesterday.

They didn't give me a choice of flavors, but I got lemon-lime. At first it tasted like cold, flat, thick Sprite. Then the last 2 or 3 ounces were just--eww. Consider that this cold syrup is the first food-like substance I had eaten/drank in over 12 hours. I managed to get it all down though. (I also throw fits when Peter tries to make me drink cough syrup. He doesn't do that any more.) I made it through 2 hours of waiting and blood draws without fainting or becoming too nauseous.

The worst part about it was getting to the clinic. It's not that far away. Maybe a 10 minute drive if traffic is good. But traffic is never good. Especially at 8 am on a weekday. So it took me 20 minutes to get to the clinic--a few patches of 30 mph driving on 65 mph freeways, not to mention the metered on-ramps--only to realize that I had left the Oh-So-Important form requesting my blood work on the fridge at home.

BEAUTIFUL!

The ride home was fairly quick though because it was going into San Jose--the other direction goes towards San Francisco (commuters)--and I exit the freeway before the heavy traffic into town begins, literally right before.

So home again and then through another 20 minutes of slow traffic to the clinic. I started the test almost an hour after I had initially wanted to. That's another hour without food. 

OH well. It's not like I wanted to eat yesterday or anything!

I felt much better after crying to Peter about it on the phone. It's very easy to get overly upset about things when you're pregnant. Such things as remembering that you've forgotten a piece of paper that is 20 minutes away, and that getting that paper means postponing a long-awaited breakfast another hour.

So when I got home I made Sweet & Sour Meatballs and this delectable beauty. 

Yes, we shared a bit of it with the people taking us to the airport, but Peter and I also had some for dessert and possibly breakfast. :-) It's got fresh strawberries! It's mostly healthy!

Our house is almost entirely clean. Our laundry is done. And I'm almost packed. And when I say our house is clean, that excludes the fact that there are trains and legos strewn about the living room and office. He says he's organizing :-D

The office:

The living room: (can you tell where he sits?)

It's important to have them sorted

And all that's left to do:

Hope you had a great Easter!

Peter's Musings

Is there another color of milk I am not aware of?

Resolve

Disclosure: This is potentially incredibly boring.

Yesterday, or maybe the day before, I decided that I need more structure in my life. I am free to do whatever I want each day which usually ends up with me wondering what exactly happened with all of the time. I do one or two scheduled tasks and then suddenly it's time to make dinner. It doesn't take all day every day to do one or two things--really. So...

The things that usually hold me up? 

Blogs

and

Planning 

I read a few blogs, ok, maybe a lot. Some are about crafts, a lot are about families, food, and meal planning.

I'm constantly searching for ways to get food on the table each night and save money on groceries.These experienced mamas say that one of the first steps to meal planning  is creating a list of the top 15 or 20 recipes your family likes to eat.  So therein lies my problem. I've been married for almost 3 years and don't have 15 reliable recipes to draw from. 

Peter and I are no longer students--well, Peter still is, but that's a totally different story!

Because we were busy students and only 2 people, Peter and I tended to eat like college students. I cooked once, sometimes twice a week, and then we had leftovers, cereal, and sandwiches until I cooked again. While in school, I assured myself that as soon as school was over, I'd be the perfect housewife: we would always have dinner, our house would be sparkling, and I'd make cookies for neighbors and friends pretty much every week. Obviously, this isn't so. There's not really a good reason as to why this little dream of mine can't be a reality.

My problem with meal planning is that I usually end up with rotting meat or produce in my fridge that was used once and then forgotten--but not really forgotten, I probably just didn't have any other ideas as to how to use the stuff. Because we are only two people, I can't really cook every night without expecting some things to go bad.

But no more excuses.

This is my public proclamation of resolve. I've read enough recipes and tips that I should be capable of actually accomplishing something worthwhile in the kitchen. Now it's time to put those things into action and start developing my own list of delicious and easy meals. One day, hopefully in the not so distant future, I will be able to plan my meals so that they coordinate with each other and actually use those random ingredients.

Goodbye blogs; you will be missed.

Plan of action:
Don't go online
Make meals

Haha, that's all I've got so far. I figure that if I stay away from the blogs, I won't get lost in them as I usually do. And hopefully that will leave me more time to actually work on making meals--not thinking about or planning them, but actually doing them.

We'll see how it turns out.