Fess Up

So, it's January 31st, and this means that I must evaluate how I did on my goals for the month. Let's start with the good stuff:

The Living Room
MAJOR success. I am currently sitting on my new living room furniture as I type this post. A full set (couch, loveseat, chair, ottoman) was gifted to us by Jer's parents, and a group of fabulous friends helped us move it up here. I cooked and baked while they worked, and yesterday we all celebrated by sitting on the comfy furniture and eating soup and bread and cinnamon rolls and cookies and veggies and...yes, it was good.

Incidentally, another success realized yesterday was the bread. I have been trying to get my sourdough starter to turn into an actual loaf of good sourdough bread, with no yeast, a nice crispy sourdough crust, and a good tangy flavor. It took several failed attempts, but using this method, I made an excellent loaf that was quickly devoured by the hungry visitors. More importantly, the husband (who requested the sourdough project many weeks ago) pronounced it a delicious win. Yay!

The new project is now to clean and sort through all the stuff that ended up in my office without a home. We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff and organize a ton, but there is still more to do.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge
Well, I would call this a success. The amount of pasta and canned goods present in our pantry has been reduced by at least half. Even with all the recipe experiments and the friend hosting I was still able to be very frugal with my food purchases as I used things up and portioned things out for lunches. I didn't throw away a lot of food but instead got creative with our CSA. We've eaten a lot of veggies this month, including salads. Salads are not my usual go-to item, but when you make your own dressing and toss in fruit and cooked chicken, it's a lot easier to enjoy!

I'm also getting a lot better at planning my menu and shopping. I can estimate how much my shopping list is going to cost, and decide if I can splurge or need to rethink my list, which keeps me within budget. Which leads us to...

Budgeting
We made a significant amount of progress here. We completed the refi on our house thanks to an awesome mortgage broker and moved some funds around to make good headway on debt paydown. We did some figuring this morning and are very excited about where we are going to be financially in a couple of years, and the freedom that will give us to dream about what God might call us to in the future.

While I did have my budgeting breakdown, we made a lot of progress getting details down and changing some of our habits. The whole process is really helping us make our money work for us instead of rule us.

So those are the successes. Now, there were a few items on my goals list that met with mixed results:

Writing
Okay, I wrote 5 posts for this blog and 3 for the family blog (with another in process), so I think I had a win there. An average of two posts a week is definitely an improvement for me. The personal writing was less successful though-I think I had one good journal entry and no fiction. And I certainly didn't spend time writing on a daily basis. That part of the schedule didn't happen. Speaking of which...

Scheduling and Working Out
These kind of go hand in hand, because when we are following our schedule, we both get good workout time. While in general I would say we did better sticking to our schedule, and I certainly worked out more this month than the previous three months (maybe combined) it was not a total success. Between coming down with a cold (me) and reinjuring old areas of debilitation (Jer) neither of us got the amount of working out we wanted. The first half of the month was pretty good-I worked out 3-5 times a week-the second half of the month was not. So we need a reset there.

Both of these areas saw progress, so I would not call them complete fails. What I would call a complete fail:

Thank You Cards
Cumulative number of cards mailed Dec 31st: zero. Cumulative number of cards mailed Jan 31st: zero. I think I might have addressed a couple more, and I started writing a few. No completions. Sigh. Well, I know what I am doing in February.

Speaking of February, here are my goals for the upcoming month:

1. The aforementioned thank you cards. No more talking, just doing.
2. Continue working out 3-5 times a week. Barring serious illness, this is a completely doable goal
3. Hangout with a girlfriend at least once a week. I find that I am missing my gals, spending good one on one time. Some of the highlights of January were the couple of coffee dates I had with friends, and I want to continue to have those.
4. Double dates. We had an awesome double date with one of my best friends and his fabulous new girlfriend last Sunday, and Jer and I both enjoyed ourselves immensely. We've got a list of friends that we want to hang out with and want to be intentional about making those dates happen, at least twice a month.
5. Clean out office. Yeah, now that I have a big stack of homeless items in my office, I need to find homes for it all.


Above and beyond these to-dos, Jer and I are really seeking to be in prayer more, whether that be individually, as a couple, or with friends and family. We've started tossing around the idea of hosting prayer nights at our house or something of that nature. Having a good place to host means that we can be more creative and intentional about reaching out and creating good fellowship. So that is a goal in process-a desire that needs to be given actions.

So there we are. I think that despite having to fess up to not getting some things done, I can look at my list of goals and call the month a successful one. And that is the benefit of having defined goals: you can celebrate the achievements.

Here's to a good month, and more to come!

Budgeting

One of our goals for the beginning of the year was to complete our budgeting project, or at least get a good draft completed that we can tweak as we go along. My wonderful husband devoted several hours to this project over the weekend, combing statements to estimate bills and watching Dave Ramsey videos. He also figured out all those funky excel formulas to create a huge master spreadsheet of awesome accuracy.

I, on the other hand, had a minor meltdown. After three hours of staring at the computer as he input numbers and we discussed potential costs for this month and next, I was on the verge of an anxiety attack.

I realized that, even though I may be a banker, I am not a numbers person. I don't like sitting and poring over spreadsheets. I am a get-it-done person. Efficiency. Easy solutions. Check it off the list. Smile and have a nice day.

My husband, however, is an engineer. Details. Accuracy. Calculations. Exact plans. Figure it all out before moving forward.

What's funny about this is that in Dave Ramsey terms, I am the free-spirited saver and Jer is the nerdy spender. I can work off a very general budget (with nice round numbers) and be quite fiscally responsible. Jer will research and diagram and cost-analyze until he finds the very best deal, then go haggle for a better deal, and plunk down a lot of money for exactly what he wants. I'll look at it, decide it's too much money and/or hassle, and go without. But hey, if that great sale happens on those shoes I want, well that's justified, right?

We balance each other well, and this is good. But we learned that the details side of the budgeting needs to be done in small doses so I don't lose my mind. Of course, once we have the template in place, following it and revising it will be a lot easier than the initial creation. I think I will be able to handle that.

So it's still a work in progress, but thanks to my wonderful nerd, the budget is closer to being reality, as is being debt-free.

The Family Blog

So Jer has started us a joint blog. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to blog over there and what I'm going to keep over here at the Daydreams blog, but in the meantime you can check out the new posts at Ruminations From Earth-That-Was.

And yes, that is a Firefly reference, and yes, we are nerds.

One Week In

One week in on the resolutions. Part of the problem with resolutions is that we don't hold ourselves accountable to them, don't monitor our progress and recommit ourself each week. Taking time to chastise or praise ourselves is good in pursuing goals. We also don't acknowledge when a resolution is too much or too little, and so we either fail miserably because we overreach or we fail to make any meaningful change because we undercommit. Reviewing our progress helps us analyze and revamp as needed.

So, allow me to be accountable to my goals discussion from last week:

• New Schedule/working out: We weren't perfect, but we're starting to get into the rhythm of the new schedule. We both missed a couple of workouts and didn't always get to sleep on time, but in general I feel good about the progress we made. And this week looks like it will be better.
• Literary Hour/Thank You Cards: I did some blogging and reading, but not too much in the way of creative writing or journaling. Better adherence to the schedule would probably help this, although the main issue was that I had a couple of appointments last week that threw things off. I made no progress on thank you cards, beyond looking at them once and promptly finding something else to do.
• Budgeting/Eat From the Pantry Challenge: We had a couple of good conversations about goals and things we want to do but still haven't figured out details. Work to do there. The eating from the pantry challenge has gone well though-I have only been to the store once for just a few dollars' worth of flour, butter, and produce. Additionally, I have made some really good bread and tried out new bran muffin recipes that make me very happy. I think this week will require going to the store for more ingredients, however, as we are quickly burning through things and getting to where we eat pasta every day, which, while cheap, is not very good for us.
• The Living Room: Um. Nope. No progress there. Oops.

So, I guess this week I need to focus on working out, cleaning the living room, and writing thank you cards. No surprise there. All in all, though, I feel positive. The schedule is not too crazy to work, I've got over two weeks to finish my January goals, and I'm finding time to hang out with people again. So life is good.

Kitchen Successes and Failures

Last night was a kitchen win for Becca. I marinated shrimp and created homemade teriyaki sauce, then pulled out the wok and successfully stir-fried broccoli, mushrooms and shrimp to perfect doneness with yummy flavor (with water chestnuts thrown in at the end to make the husband smile). Also tossed together an impromptu pear crisp with a couple of ripe pears from our CSA. Served warm with just a drizzle of cream. Mmm....

Stir fry might not be the most earth-shattering new recipe, but hey, when you get it right it is definitely comfort food, and it is simple, healthy, and can be fairly inexpensive depending on ingredients (I bought a big bag of frozen uncooked shrimp on sale so they are really cheap for us) which all supports my January goals of being healthy and not spending a lot of money on groceries. So I am putting this one in the success column for sure.

This win was especially satisfying after a serious fail on Monday. We have been watching Emeril Green on the DVR and the recipes always look awesome. I tried his Roasted Veggies with Heritage Grains because it looked healthy and yummy and I have been wanting to learn how to cook quinoa and millet. Well, it might have come together fine on the show but the directions online were less than helpful. The veggies have different cooking times-I know this, but trusted the recipe-and so the parsnips and potatoes were still crunchy although the zucchini was falling apart. The grains had good flavor but also turned out terribly in regards to texture, as the millet and quinoa need different amounts of liquid and cooking times. The recipes says 20-25 mins, and it took about 35 mins to soak up the liquid and the millet was still not done. The grains were a waste and the veggies were eaten under protest covered in a lot of pepperjack cheese.

Next time I review a recipe I am going to trust my instincts when the instructions look suspicious and do more research beforehand. In the meantime, I give you last night's dinner, FTW!

Pear Crisp

This is the simplest thing ever. Start this before dinner-it will bake while you cook and then cool while you eat dinner and be perfect for dessert.

Preheat oven to 375. Peel and slice 2-3 pears that are just ripe but still firm. Toss with 1 Tbsp. each of flour and sugar and 1 tsp. of cinnamon. Place in a small buttered baking dish (I used my pie plate).

For crumb topping:

1/2 c. old fashioned oats
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. butter

Mix together dry ingredients, then cut in butter. Mix until butter pieces are no bigger than a pea and mixture resembles granola. Spread over pears. Bake for half an hour at 375. Topping will be crunchy on the edges and pears should be soft. Let cool slightly and then serve with just a drizzle of heavy cream on top.

While that's baking, make dinner:

Easy Teriyaki Stir Fry

The instructions I give are long, but this is super simple and comes together in half an hour start to finish. Best to serve over perfectly cooked rice.

For teriyaki sauce (adapted from Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat):
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 c. mirin
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili garlic sauce (more if you want it super spicy)
1 tsp. ginger juice

Mix ingredients together and let sit while you chop your veggies. This is a very easy sauce to change up according to your tastes-just start with the soy sauce and mirin and add from there.

For stir fry:

Marinate large uncooked peeled shrimp, 6-8 per person, in 2 Tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 c. sake or white wine for 5-10 minutes while you prepare your veggies.

Pick two veggies to go with your shrimp. I used broccoli and mushrooms, you could use bell peppers, bok choy, snow peas, anything that strikes your fancy. Try to stick to only two or three veggies though so you can focus on perfectly cooking each element. If using broccoli, peel and chop the thick stems and get the florets to a mostly uniform size.

Heat up a tablespoon or two of cooking oil in your large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. We use sesame oil whenever we cook asian food for the flavor and good cooking results. Using tongs, place your shrimp in the pan with just a little of the marinade. Cook quickly-2 mins per side at the most-if you overcook they will get tough and rubbery. Remove from pan.

Add mushrooms and broccoli stems and half of the teriyaki sauce to the same pan. Saute for a few minutes until the mushrooms start to soften and release some of their water. Add broccoli florets and the other half of the teriyaki sauce. Cover for just a minute to slightly steam the broccoli, then remove the lid and saute for 3-4 mins more. You can add a can of water chestnuts at this point if you'd like-make sure they are well drained. When veggies are tender-crisp, add back in the shrimp and toss to coat with the sauce.

The key is the order of cooking-you do it all in one pan, but each one is at the right point of doneness because of the timing.

Obligatory 2010 Goals Discussion

So it's that time of year when resolutions are made and new ventures are begun.

I've never been a big fan of new year's resolutions-I prefer to make the change when it needs to be made, not save up all your changes for some big push that will fizzle sometime in February. However, this year the timing is perfect for making resolutions, as Jer and I are working on establishing a new schedule and budget now that I am feeling better and we've worked through wedding and holiday craziness. Therefore, I give you some of my short and long term goals:

For the year:

1. Implement new schedule. Jer and I worked on this to incorporate some of our individual and mutual goals, such as getting in daily exercise and giving each other good personal de-stress time. Jer needs his techie creative time and I need my literary creative time or we both go a little nutso. Things might need tweaking as we go along, but I think we can find a good rhythm that works for both of us.

2. Regarding literary creative time, I will have an hour every night that I want to spend reading and writing. Getting into a regular practice of writing, whether it be blogging, journaling, story creation or freewriting, is definitely one of my goals this year. Hopefully the practice will get me ready to try out National Novel Writing Month in November.

3. Budgeting. We've got a few things figured out but still need to cement a final structure on this. Depending on bonuses and raises, I'm hoping that we can have all the debt outside of the mortgage paid off by the end of the year, March 2011 at the latest. This will be slowed down by our plans for house projects, furniture, and travel.

4. Take one fabulous trip. October will be a great month to take a wonderful overseas vacation for our anniversary. I have already reserved the last half of the month off, and we are talking about places like Australia or Spain or somewhere equally wonderful. We both love international travel and experiencing new places, and it will be awesome to do that together.


So breaking it down to this month's goals:

1. Eat from the Pantry Challenge. I did a lot of grocery shopping in November and December, what with stocking a new kitchen and experimenting with holiday recipes. I probably bought way more food than I needed-we are only two people after all. So I am going to do my best to not go to the grocery store except for perishable items like dairy and produce, and basic ingredients as they run out, like flour and sugar. I'm making bread, experimenting with soup recipes (a lot of pasta and beans in my pantry!) and cutting down portion sizes to stretch leftovers. We also signed up for a CSA so we would get fresh organic produce every week that would force some creativity into our diet (which worked wonderfully last week as I found the most delicious way to eat chard).

2. Workout 3 hours a week. The new schedule gives me about 45 min every afternoon for working out. I plan to alternate cardio and strength training and start getting myself back in shape. Three months of medications that make you gain weight and an extended illness that leaves you too exhausted to do much more than collapse when you get home from work have led to a change in my body shape that I do not enjoy. I'm hoping to lose 20 pounds in the next three months.

3. Finish the living room. We almost had the living room done and then decided to rearrange some other rooms, and the living room again became a receptacle for random stuff. By the end of the month I want to have it DONE. No more stacks of boxes, find a place for everything and put it there, put up shelves and pictures on the wall and get our couch and loveseat moved in. That way we could actually start having people over!

4. Mail Thank You cards. I know that technically I have a year after the wedding to get cards out, but I really wanted to get them out in November. Illness ended up foiling my plan, and prevented getting any Christmas cards out as well. So by the end of the month I want to get all my thank yous mailed. Oh, and all the gift cards used!

I think that's enough for now. I tend to overcommit myself at times, so I think I will save the rest for next month. Being well again has given me both physical and emotional energy now so I look forward to getting into a good rhythm and checking things off my list. Here's to 2010!