Thursday, January 1, 2009 | 10:34 am | Reflection
Sometimes, when I ask people if they make new year’s resolutions, I get a sideways glance. Pfft, no. “I never keep them, so what’s the point?”
Well, for me, the point is to commit to a small number of tasks for an entire year. I don’t take on resolutions as a monumental life change, wherein if I bite off one fingernail, all is lost. My resolutions are more like yearlong challenges that I can attempt all the time. The resolution lasts for one year, and then I can try to keep going, modify the goal, or discard it.
I imagine that I’m more meticulous than the average resolve-er, and my resolutions always come with timelines. Two years ago, I failed miserably at reading four books every month. The first month that I didn’t accomplish it, I didn’t just throw in the towel; the next month was upon me! Time to step it up, self! I am not naturally an optimistic person, but I am also masochistic in my perseverance in painful experiences, so dividing the time helps trick my psyche into thinking, Hey, this isn’t so bad.
That’s not to say that keeping resolutions is all drudgery. Although I prefer having goals that I can measure and realistically attain (nothing like “be more relaxed” or “exercise every morning” resolutions for me), I want to challenge myself just enough to stretch, but not enough for looming failure the whole year long, if that makes sense. Ultimately, I aim to improve myself and elicit some enjoyment therein. As a result of making resolutions for the past two years, I’m reading more books, cooking more often, and drinking less soda, so what’s so bad about that?
For 2009, I’m instating three time-based challenges:
Every day, I will clean for 15 minutes.
I am not a good housekeeper, but I always waved it off by saying how I love a clean house, but it’s too bad I hate to clean it. Witty, huh? And yet, I always get annoyed when I hear people say how they really need to stick to a budget, but — whoops! — where is all the money at the end of the month? No more excuses for me. In an effort to become more aware of the clutter around me and make a habit of dealing with it, I’m setting a timer for 15 minutes every day to take care of tasks like dusting, filing, and stove-scrubbing. If I am away from the house for a whole day or more, I want to make up the time retrospectively or bank it up in advance. This resolution would probably be a breeze for other people, but I am most worried about it because it won’t let up.
Every week, I will write and send my grandmother a note.
One time, I sent my grandmother, my sole remaining grandparent, snapshots of a vacation JG and I took. She was so pleased that she called to thank me, and I realized that we see her very rarely, and I don’t do a good job with calling her just to say hi. So, as part of my grandmother’s Christmas present this year, I made a membership card to the “Letter of the Week Club.” I have a stockpile of blank cards, and writing a small note will take me a maximum of ten minutes. I figure that I can send her postcards when we’re away and pictures of whatever’s going on as I get prints. In my mind, I want to set aside little anecdotes to write, and that way, keep my grandmother on my mind.
Every month, I will take at least a few hours just for myself.
I know, I have no kids, a cushy 9-5 job, and enough leisure time to watch an inordinate amount of television, so what’s the problem? I’ve found that if I don’t set myself apart physically from the house, the dog, and yes, even JG, my mind finds new to-do lists to make and agendas to confirm. If I set aside an afternoon to walk around town or read by myself, I think I’ll be less likely to feel strained throughout the normal routine.
I also have a couple of short-term goals that I want to accomplish during this year:
- Train for and run in two 5Ks
- Use up the vast majority of the produce we receive from the CSA share we purchased (I am scared to commit to “all the produce” because we are CSA rookies)
At the end of 2009, I hope to have a cleaner house, a stronger relationship with my grandmother, less mental strain, consistent running motivation, and a greater knowledge of how to prepare vegetables. See, when I look at it that way, it seems all very unreachable, but when I slice it up into smaller pieces, I think I can manage it.
Onward and upward!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 | 7:08 pm | Reflection
At this time last year, I resolved to try two new recipes each month and give up soda for the year, with the exception of a root beer float at the end of each month as a reward. I’m proud to report that I totally did it!
(Please hold while I bust out a one-person version of The Dance of Joy.)
On the soda front, I found that my borderline sugar addiction abated once I no longer had a soda supply at my fingertips. Despite my blasted weak enamel, I developed fewer and less serious cavities, and my sweet tooth definitely lessened.
The hardest part of this resolution — really, get your hankies out — was that I was often at a loss at events where only soda was served; I learned to bring along a bottle of water just in case I was faced with a barricade of Diet Coke. In the same vein, I have had to become a little more adventurous in terms of my go-to drinks; rum and Coke was off limits, and I became acquainted with the vodka tonic, my new wedding pal.
I’m glad I put myself up to the task of semi-soda abstinence, because it showed me that I just needed to keep it out of the house to stay away from it. In the future, I’ll restrict my soda intake to weekends, but there is vanilla ice cream waiting in the freezer for my post-midnight root beer float. I deserve it, I think.
In the past year, I tried 38 new recipes, far exceeding my 24-recipe goal, with the following success rate:
- Failures: 2
- So-so: 9
- Winners: 27
Not bad, right? To be fair, Whip It Up certainly helped my output, but beyond sheer quantity, I’m pleased that I’ve become much more proactive in seeking out new recipes to try. I’m not nearly as nervous about cooking (as opposed to baking) as I was a year ago, and I have a healthy slate of dinners that I can produce consistently and with minimal drama. If nothing else, I can finally chop an onion, so I’m proud of my overall improvement. I don’t plan on having a specific recipe goal in the future, but I want to stay in the habit of expanding my cooking repertoire.
For any recipe foragers out there, the solid additions to our dinner rotation were:
These knock-it-out-of-the-park, I-can’t believe-I-made-that, we-must-have-that-again successes also received their own clear plastic sleeves in the recipe binder, but they are reserved for special occasions or weekends:
Not only did I keep my resolutions this year (yay!), but I’m excited to kick off January with a new set of self-imposed challenges, which I will share after our exciting night of eating ribs, watching Sports Night on DVD, and catching the end of the Peach Bowl. Oh, we are wild and crazy! I’d be shocked if we lasted long enough to watch the ball drop, but I’m sure that 2009 will commence nonetheless.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 | 12:34 pm | Minutia
For the first time ever, I disliked our Christmas Eve service.
I used store-bought whipped cream and ginger snaps to layer with my pumpkin mousse. Ina Garten would not approve.
JG gave me a 1.9-pound bag of Swedish fish as part of my stocking, and its chances of seeing 2009 are almost zero.
I have been on a sugar binge for the past five days, and I am simultaneously nervous and relieved about my appointment to get my teeth cleaned next week.
I’ve been trying not to wear red or green so as not to appear too full of holiday spirit, but my wardrobe is not allowing it; I wore red yesterday, and I’m wearing green today. Apparently, I can’t stop any time I want.
JG asked if he could eat the last mint swirl brownie, and I said it was okay, but only after it was gone did I realize that I didn’t ever get a brownie for myself! I would not have been nearly as flippant over the brownies if I had known.
This afternoon, JG is playing video games with a group of guys as part of their declared “man day,” but I am secretly looking forward to changing in pajamas when I get home and watching DVRed episodes of Barefoot Contessa.
I am wearing illegal jeans at work today, but I am justifying it with pointy flats and a blazer. It’s my “Friday,” right?
Monday, December 29, 2008 | 12:40 pm | Friends and Family
The bottom line is that we survived the Family Christmas Invasion — yes! — and that is me being overly dramatic because JG and I managed to relax a bit in between having a lovely Christmas morning of our own, making gobs of food, and running the dishwasher 24/7, or so it seemed, but let me just say that my micromanagement style of making lists all over the place was our saving grace because I don’t even know how I would have known what to do next if the white board of chores (turn on heat in guest rooms, iron tablecloth, set out Christmas presents) and checklist of food prep (bake cookies, chill mousse, grate cheese) were not staring at us from the fridge between Christmas Eve and Saturday (but now that I think about it, I guess my list mania may have turned me in somewhat of an automaton throughout that period — whatever, I was an efficient automaton), especially with the big old wrench in the plans that took the shape of my parents and grandmother arriving a couple of hours earlier in need of lunch when — oops — I had specifically asked them if they would need lunch when they arrived, and they said no, but hey, we threw together grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for them, and no one was the wiser except that my stress level was ratcheted up to three times the expected value for that time of the day, but that was really the only snafu from Christmas Day, thank goodness, since my sister and her boyfriend arrived with armfuls of yummy appetizers (oh, my word, the crab cakes!), and JG took charge of getting Christmas dinner pulled together on the condition that I kept everyone else out of the kitchen, and I did not mind at all being the bouncer, as long as I could keep a hard cider in my hand and my face stuffed with Camembert on slices of baguette, and so the dinner came to the table all at the same time with everything tasty, if not amazing, which was a nice precursor to present-opening, wherein I gave my grandma basket of Kennett Square goodies (mushroom soup mix, marinated mushrooms, fair trade soap, a mug from Longwood Gardens), and received, among other things, an apron from my sister preaching, “Eat Your Veggies!” which everyone agreed was so me, but as is the case with my family, presents only hold the attention for so long because, duh, dessert beckons, and I was relieved that my sloppy servings of pumpkin mousse went over well, and the men in the group even went in for seconds to finish off what I thought was a Very Large Dessert (that’s what men in the family are for, right?), and I guess that fired everyone up for a lively round of Mario Kart, during which I brought up the rear every single time, even when my mom fell off the course every twenty seconds, but I could not even beat her, and ultimately, we all went to bed nicely tired and replete with good eats of all kinds, not that that stopped us for the next day of breakfast casserole, lunch at a local Italian place (where I was mortified that there was no hostess to speak of, and we stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only two minutes), and a gigantic slow cooker of chili for dinner, interspersed with naps and Guitar Hero, until my parents and grandma left that evening and JG opened a bottle of Belgian beer and other such entertaining drinks so that my sister, her boyfriend, JG, and I could properly glaze over during whatever football game was on, and even though he and I spent almost all of Saturday alternating between sleeping and warming up leftovers, we pulled ourselves together in time to have drinks and nachos with Janet and Andrew at the Half Moon — the meeting of blog husbands is very interesting! — but the next day, JG and I hit the mall to buy him a black pea coat (yes!), and I used a gift card to buy two pairs of shoes on super sale at Ann Taylor Loft (both originally $50, but marked down to $10), and I was glad to mark my return to the workweek with shiny new shoes, so all in all, with the exceptions of my panic during appetizer prep, the soupy gratin, and the irreparable scratches on our rented copies of Elf and Iron Man, everything basically went according to plan, everyone seemed to have a good time, and we had enough food, but despite that, I am not in any hurry to play host again, and it’s sweet comfort knowing that tomorrow is my Friday — hello, five-day weekend!
