The waiting game

I am not very good at waiting.  In fact, I would consider myself a rather impatient person.  Probably about a 7.5/10 on the impatient person scale.  Waiting usually brings on an assortment of emotions for me that can vary from anxious, bored, or restless.  I really dislike waiting in supermarket lines.  I never turn off my laptop (only put it in standby) because the minute it takes to boot up is a minute too long.  If I am put on hold during a phone call it takes me about 11 seconds before I start picking up dog toys from the floor, watering plants, or some other neglected house chore that somehow feels like it needs to be done the second I am forced to sit and wait.  I have tried to just "enjoy the moment" in those instances, really I have.  Unfortunately I rarely succeed, although I think my house is a little cleaner because of it...

So this past week since I last checked in on here has been a mix of a whole bunch of excitement and a whole lot of nothing at the same time.  The past two weeks or so have been a "waiting game" to see if our baby-making attempts this month were a success or not.  As you just learned, I am not very good at waiting, so as you can imagine this has not exactly been a stress-free time for me.  Earlier in the week I had some signs (one in particular) that made me thing I could be pregnant.  In fact I convinced myself that I was.  Unfortunately that turned out not to be the case, and after the initial extreme disappointment subsided, I realized we begin the waiting game again...  sigh.

Likely you are thinking "just enjoy this time, you can't get it back."  And I know that.  I often try and tell myself that it's about the journey not the destination.  Then some little voice inside my head says "that's a bunch of crap.  In this case it's all about the destination and the time is now, damnit."  I know in the months to come I will look back and read this and think of it as no big deal.  I probably won't even remember how I felt.  But right now all I can think about is the impatient, baby-fever stricken girl inside me that is anxiously awaiting for that pregnancy test with two pink lines, and no amount of housecleaning is going to make that time pass any faster...

So far we have not really tried anything extraordinary to help us conceive.  We are only one month into the baby-making process so I have not broken out the basal body thermometer just yet.  However today on our weekly trip to Whole Foods, while perusing the tea isle for something new, I noticed a box of Raspberry Leaf tea.  I remembered reading somewhere that Red Raspberry Leaf tea can somehow help a womans cycle and does something beneficial to the uterus.  Figuring my uterus needs all the help she can get right now, I tossed it into the cart.  Does it really work?  I have no idea.  What I do know is that it is made by a company called Traditional Medicinals.  This company also makes a tea called "Smooth Move" which I can assure you, does do what it claims to do.  So if their poo-inducing tea is any testimonial to the effectiveness of the products they make well then bring on the baby-makin beverages!

I expected this tea to be pink in color with a fruity taste when steeped.  While it really was neither, it still was absolutely delicious!  I can see myself drinking so much of this stuff you may want to consider buying stock in it...  just sayin'...

I realize that I have included more personal information in this post than I usually do.  For that I am going to apologize and at the same time tell you to get used to it!  I may be quiet and reserved in person, but as it turns out I am somewhat of an over-sharer on the internet.  Who knew?!  Keep reading, it's likely to get even better...

Yarn Bomb!

So a yarn bomb went off in my town a couple weeks ago, and I finally had the time to actually walk around and admire it.  In case you have never heard of yarn bombing, Wikipedia provides a pretty good definition:  yarn bomb.  Some more really awesome work here if you are interested.

I saw my first yarn bombing last fall during the part of our honeymoon which we spent in Savannah, GA.  When I read that Carrboro was recently decorated in beautiful knitted objects, I was so excited!  Anything having to do with yarn puts a smile on my face.  Erik and I spent a little while walking around town admiring the work, and snapped some pictures as we did.  Here are some photos we took:

Yarn wrapped planters.  That is A LOT of knitting!

Green house, green landscape, green  pants...  An appropriate photo for St. Patrick's Day I must say

Yarn wrapped drinking fountain

Bike rack

Standing in front of Town Hall with one of the yarn-wrapped pillars.  I love this place!

I call this "art on art"  ;)

Me sitting on "I ♥ Yarn" bench.  Fitting?  I think so!  :D

Shamrock Shake

Yesterday was St.Patrick's Day, and luckily it was a beautiful, warm sunny day.  I went for a run in the morning with Lucy while Erik was on his usual 4+ hour Saturday morning bike ride.  When he got home, we had a nice lunch and then I made a super-yummy Shamrock Shake for dessert.  Knowing that I was not going to be drinking any alcoholic beverages to celebrate St. Pattys day this year (in the event that I am preggo, still too early to test) I decided I needed a fun "green drink" of my own!  I actually enjoyed this much more than I would have if it was an alcoholic beverage, but then again, I am not much of a drinker....  Recipe below!

Although I make smoothies in the Vitamix often, I don't think I have ever made a "green" shake.  I set out trying to make this recipe, but I actually had to modify it due to not having all the ingredients on hand that I thought I did.  Here is my version:

Minty Green Chocolate Chip Shamrock Shake

• 1 large ripe banana, frozen
• Mint chocolate bar
• 2 drops mint extract
• 1 cup non-dairy milk of choice, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/3 cup green peas
• Stevia, or sweetener of your choice

Add banana, almond milk, peas, mint extract, and sweetener to blender and blend until creamy.  It will turn a lovely green color due to the peas, and I promise you cannot taste them at all!  The original recipe called for frozen spinach, but I realized as I was making the shake that I didn't have any...  Fortunately peas worked just fine. 

Take the chocolate bar, and grate about 1/4 of it into fine pieces (save the rest for snacking later!)  Mix in about a tbsp of chocolate shavings, and use the rest to top the shake.  

This was the most delicious mint chocolate bar I have ever tasted...  Perfect for this recipe too!

Pour into a cute glass (green if you have one.)  So easy and delicious!

I bought a set of these sweet little vintage glasses from a church yard sale a few weeks ago.  10 cents each!  Score!  :D

 

Lastly, locate husband (who just might be caught sitting on the back deck in the sunshine eating peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon) and replace the PB with a Shamrock Shake.  Sit down with him and enjoy!

Nice cycling sunglasses babe  ;)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

DIY kitchen cabinet organizer

For some reason lately (maybe it's spring cleaning fever) I have decided that every cabinet, closet, and storage area in this house needs to be organized.  This past week I cleaned out my closet and dresser for a clothing swap at my friends house, and was able to find approximately 50 clothing items that I could bear to part with.  Still, it left me with an incredible about of clothing left over.  My closet still looks full, even after getting rid of a HUGE black trash bag stuffed full of clothes...  Well, small steps I guess.  I only brought home 3 or 4 items from the swap so I would say I did pretty good! 

After the closet my next task was the kitchen.  I just love everything about our kitchen, except the lack of storage space for pantry items.  We have a pretty small house, and that includes a small kitchen.  Not the ideal situation for a family who likes to cook and have a variety of beans/grains/dry goods on hand.  We currently use the largest cabinet in the corner for food storage.  It is quite annoying to organize though, and most of my jars and whatnot get shoved to the back over time and I lose track of what I have on hand and what I am out of.  We buy a almost all of our dry goods from the bulk bins at Whole Foods and store them in recycled glass jars.  They don't hold a lot, maybe 1-2 cups, but it is usually enough for a decent size meal, then I make sure to buy enough to refill them next time I shop.  I decided to utilize another cabinet that was formerly holding plastic storage containers that we rarely used (I try and store everything in glass.)  Unable to find a storage solution for the narrow cabinet I decided to use, I made my own!

Here is my custom-made, tiered, jar-holding, shelf-organizer thingy:

Here is how I did it:

Step #1:  Measure cabinet.  (Notice the unorganized jars stacked on top of each other!)

Step #2:  Go to Lowes and buy the wood and supplies that you need (paint, wood glue, etc.)  I bought a 1"x4"x4" (maybe 3 ft long?) and a 1"x3"x4" (same length.)  I had them cut the pieces to my desired length (I don't like using power saws!)  Sand the ends of the wood for a nice finish.

Step #4:  Glue wood pieces together.  The bottle said to clamp the wood together but I found that tight rubber bands worked fine.

Step #5:  Just before I glued the last two pieces together, I realized if I put it together completely it would be too large to fit inside the cabinet and position appropriately.  Erik recommended that I put a couple of pegs between the two big pieces so I could put them both in the cabinet individually, and then push them together once they were both in place.  I found two small metal pegs in the toolbox and realized they would work perfectly. 

First I marked where I wanted the holes to go.  Unable to find our drill bits to drill the holes I did the next best thing.  I used the power screwdriver and a screw to make a hole of the appropriate size.  Then I hammered in the pegs.  Tools I used:

(notice how my hammer has a cat face on the end, haha... meow!)

Step #6:  Admire finished work (assuming it all goes together when you put the pegs in!)

Step #7:  Paint desired color.  Our cabinets are white so I painted it to match.

Step #8:  Put in cabinet and add jars/spices/cans.  Use label maker for extra-organization.  ;)

In case you are curious: (Back to front, left to right): Popcorn, Quinoa, Oat Groats, Black Beans, Himalayan Pink Rice, Wild Ride, Chickpeas, Barley, Sushi Rice, Chia Seeds, Split Peas, and Lentils...  All organic whenever possible.

I am super happy with how it turned out.  It is very sturdy and fits in the cabinet exactly how I wanted it to.  It only holds 12 jars, but as it turns out that is nearly everything I keep on hand from the bulk isle.  We keep brown rice and rolled oats in larger containers since we use those so often, and those fit fine in our other cabinet.

Total project cost: $4 for the wood.  I used wood glue, white paint, and metal pegs we already had on hand.

After this project I am pretty much Bob Vila.  Minus the mustache.  Or Martha Stewart.  Minus the criminal record...  Haha, I think you get my point...

Now, what can I organize next??

;)

 

You're doing it wrong... and other random thoughts

So a few weeks ago I typed up a rather personal post, read it through a few days later, decided it was TMI, and deleted it.  That is the beauty of having a blog that is not yet visible to other people, I can easily "take back" information if I decide later that I don't want to share it.   Well hopefully soon that will not be an option anymore because I will finally be able to share all these posts with real, live people (who care to read them, maybe no one even will!)  All along I have known that this blog would not "go live" until we were pregnant, mostly to avoid all the unwanted questions people are likely to ask if they know you are trying to have a baby...  But now that we have started trying (yes, it's now official!) hopefully soon we will have some happy news to share (and I will be able to click "publish" at the end of each post without being saddened that no one is actually reading what I am writing, ha!)  The original post a few weeks back was around the time that we started trying, but ended up too long and detailed and you probably wouldn't have wanted to read it anyway...

Now here we are a few weeks later, realizing that in fact last month when we "thought" we were trying, was too late in my cycle to have actually conceived.  Darn my unpredictable body and irregular cycle!  When I realized that the timing was off about a week I told Erik our mission had failed.  He said something like "we were doing it wrong?"  Which of course he didn't mean like it came out, but it was still quite funny at the time!  Well this month we are getting a head start if you will, so there is actually a chance this time around.  I have done all the research and know that the odds of conceiving right away are not great (about 20% each month) but of course the idea that we are even trying right now is so exciting to us!

So yea, here I am getting way ahead of myself again...  This morning I went to a church yard sale down the street and they had the cutest little baby pj's for only $0.50 each!   I couldn't pass up that deal, even if a baby is still a ways away...  I bought mostly yellow gender-neutral stuff except for one little pink jumper and that was because it is organic.  If we have a boy (and that has always been my prediction for our first) then I am sure I will have no trouble finding someone to give the girl stuff to.  I can't wait for yard sale season to get into full swing this year.  Combine baby fever with the fact that I am a big yard-sale junkie and I will probably have everything for the nursery plus clothes for his or her first year of life before we even know we are pregnant.  Ha!

But really, how could I not buy something this cute?!

Ducks!  I love these so much!  If they were my size I think I would be wearing one right now  ;)

A new job and a side of sorbet

So far that little lucky dragon I made last week is turning out to be pretty lucky after all...  Erik recently applied for a new position within his company, somewhat of a promotion in the same department he currently works in...  We thought that he might find out this week if he had got it, and being Friday, we both had our fingers crossed that he would hear something today.  When he got home, he kept me in the dark for a few minutes while we chatted about some other things, before he finally gave me a big hug and said "so where do you want to go out for dinner tonight to celebrate?"  :D 

I am so proud of him, this is his third promotion in the two and a half years that we have been in NC (and he has been with his company.)  What matters the most of course is that he is happy in his job, which all along he has been.  With every step he has made he seems to enjoy his job that much more, but I think as long as he is working with bikes in some capacity (and getting to go for rides with his coworkers on his lunch break) he would be a happy boy!

So we decided to celebrate with a yummy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in town and follow it up with one of our favorite desserts from Weaver St. Market...

They were on a mega-sale, so we stocked up!  Standing in the frozen isle at the store we had to promise each other that if we bought four pints they would last more than just this weekend...  Still, I have a feeling tonight is going to involve a lot of sorbet  ;)

The dark chocolate is sooooo yummy, by far our favorite of the flavors we have had so far...

Thank you Loki, keep the good luck coming!