I will start this post with a small disclaimer.
Yes, I am aware that my life is very blessed. Yes I am aware that people have harder situations than mine and go through them without a fuss. Yes I am forever and eternally grateful I have an incredible daughter who causes me to be sleep deprived making all things 100x more dramatic.
Now just let me whine a bit k?
I'm stressed right now. Like, really stressed. Like,- my dentist asked me if I grind my teeth because I'm having some nerve sensitivity issues and that's the most common culprit- stressed.I work 40 hours a week, commute for a total of 10 hours a week (aka 1 hour each way, not including when I get stuck in traffic), take care of the baby, take care of the dog, take care of the cat, take care of the chinchilla, take care of the house, do laundry, clean, do our finances, do more laundry, vacuum, clean bottles, do more laundry, you get the gist. My usual day starts at 5am and doesn't end until I collapse into bed at 10:30pm. Then we have 2 night feedings, normally around 1am and 4am. Why on earth am I tired/stressed?
Here is my schedule, because I am a masochist and want to torture myself by looking at how insane it is. We'll start with my official start time of the day.
5am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze
5:15am: Wake up for real, trip over dog on the way to the bathroom
5:30 - 6:15 am : (no I don't spend 15 minutes in there actively peeing, but it's amazing how comfy the toilet is when you are half asleep) Go into the nursery and pump, silently thinking "sleep baby, please stay asleep, please stay asleep" the whole time
6:15-6:30 am : Prepare milk in bottles for transfer to daycare or for Scott (if he's closing) and throw ice pack in pump cooler.
6:30- 6:45 : Throw ice pack into already packed lunch, throw lunch bag into giant purse for work and put bags in the car
6:45- 6:50 : get ready for work with already layed out clothes, throw on makeup, put hair in pony tail
6:50 -7 : Take out dog, feed dog, feed cat. Wake up kid, change diaper, put her into car to go to daycare
7:03 : Get to day care. I feel like I've put in a full day already
7: 15 -8:30 Commute to work. Weeee I love traffic, oh wait, no I don't. Why are all these people on the road? Don't they have sick days they need to use?
4:00pm - 5:15pm : Commute home from work. See above
5:15-5:30 : Talk with dcp (aka my mom) about Kaylee. Drive home, deal with dog
5:30- 6:0: Nurse Kaylee, she falls asleep and I do some finances on my computer
6:00 : Kaylee is up. Half the time I now get to eat dinner that husband cooked. Sometimes I eat chips for dinner if he's not home yet. Try to squeeze in a load of laundry.
7:30 - 8:30 : Clean bottles/pump pieces from the day. Pack pump bag. Pack lunch. Lay out clothes for next day. Attempt to clean kitchen. All while entertaining the kiddo. Sometimes we squeeze in a bath for her (ok, she's not that dirty I promise)
8:30-9:30 : bedtime routine for Kaylee. Read, nurse, sing, etc.
9:30-10 : pump while catching up on Facebook
10:10 - wash pump parts for AM, place pump bag in nursery. Feed chinchilla, take out dog, feed cat. Pass out
But it's ok, because at least I rarely have to worry about dinner, and my husband is able to help me out with stuff around the house. If Kaylee wakes up while I'm pumping he can give her a bottle and keep her entertained. I'm only late to work 80% of the time. We are surviving. Nevermind that many a time when I am enjoying my precious and rare me time in the shower it's not necessarily water running down my face and I feel like curling up in the fetal position, but we're surviving.
And now you're telling me that my husband has to transfer locations, and now he has an hour commute each way instead of 20 minutes? And I'm going to be on my own from 6am until 8pm most of my work days?
@$Y&&#^%$#@%#$@$%!!!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Saving money makes me happy
We have been in a bad cycle of money out going over money in lately with the water heater acting up, the fridge dying (and us not realizing it until the food was bad, thank goodness Scott's mom bought us the chest fridge or I would have lost milk too!) and the other glories of home ownership. So I did my weekly internal thought of "how can we save money?" and came up short.
Then it hit me, the cell phone! We were paying $100 per month (plus some change) for our two cell phones. Sprints unlimited texting with 1400 minutes. Except we didn't use 1400 minutes. I think between us we maybe used 200 minutes a month, maybe, if I was feeling chatty and calling people randomly. The problem was that all of the less expensive plans cut down on the texts which was difficult because Scott relies on those for work.
Enter our new phones. Scott now has an Android powered Samsung Interceptor from Virgin Mobile for a total of $35 a month for unlimited text, data, pictures and then 300 talking minutes. Score! He also gets a smart phone now which he has been wanting forever.
I went the other route and decided to try Tracfone. I purchased a little $10 Samsung something or other with texting and picture capabilities and bought 260 minutes for $39.99. I have 240 minutes left and it's been over a month.
That means that we are now spending about $45 a month on our phones, sweet!
Then it hit me, the cell phone! We were paying $100 per month (plus some change) for our two cell phones. Sprints unlimited texting with 1400 minutes. Except we didn't use 1400 minutes. I think between us we maybe used 200 minutes a month, maybe, if I was feeling chatty and calling people randomly. The problem was that all of the less expensive plans cut down on the texts which was difficult because Scott relies on those for work.
Enter our new phones. Scott now has an Android powered Samsung Interceptor from Virgin Mobile for a total of $35 a month for unlimited text, data, pictures and then 300 talking minutes. Score! He also gets a smart phone now which he has been wanting forever.
I went the other route and decided to try Tracfone. I purchased a little $10 Samsung something or other with texting and picture capabilities and bought 260 minutes for $39.99. I have 240 minutes left and it's been over a month.
That means that we are now spending about $45 a month on our phones, sweet!
Cooking dinner, take 1!
Having a child has presented me with a new opportunity, a new chance at growth one might say, the chance to expand upon my cooking! The only problem? I hate cooking.
I know, I know. This comes as a huge shock to many of my culinarily driven friends. How on earth could someone hate making something tasty and delightful? See, I'm not that great at it to begin with and I have a husband who is a trained chef, so once we moved in together I said "Sweeeet! No more cooking." I am a survivalist cook you see. When I make something and taste it I have two options. 1) Is it edible? Yes? Then eat on! 2) Is it edible? No? Call for pizza. These options do not fly in my household for the obvious above mentioned reason that why should we settle on merely edible when my husband can whip up something delicious! But I digress.
This has been a great thing for me. Husband cooks food, I clean up kitchen...mumble mumble most of the time, and we both have full bellies of delicious food. There is a basic problem with my husband doing the cooking now, namely, bedtime. I get home from work around 5pm and pick up Kaylee from my mom. Scott usually gets home between 6:30 and 7pm (unless he has to close the store in which case I have dinner at my parents' house and mom cooks!) and then we start Kaylee's bedtime routine around 8.
This leads to hectic nights (for me) when Scott makes dinner. He gets home at 7 so even if he starts dinner right away it's usually not ready to eat until 7:30/7:45, which gives us 15 minutes to shovel in the food before the Bug starts getting tired and cranky. If it's bath night forget about it.
Soooo...I now try to cook dinner as often as possible. I'm also trying to do at least one new recipe a week since my basic cooking repetoire is mac and cheese, mac and cheese, oh and mac and cheese.
Last night was Spanish Style Rice and Beef ala Rachel Ray. Well, that was the plan at least. Except after I started cooking I realized that I did not have the following ingredients : peppers, cumin, garlic, jalopeno, tortilla chips, cloves, olives, or cilantro. You know, half the recipe? So I modified a bit. Here is what I did.
Mix together 3C water with 2 tbs beef boillion paste and 1 tsp evoo. Add to rice cooker. Add 1 1/2 C Jasmine Rice (you should probably use white but that's all I had). Turn on rice cooker (LOVE my rice cooker btw. Rival brand in bright red like all of our Target kitchen stuff)
Whisk together (in a separate bowl, NOT the rice cooker) 2 cups Hunt's Tomato Sauce, 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp evoo, 1/8 c dried parsley, 1/8 c oregano, 3 dashes of chili powder, 3 dashed garlic powder. Set aside (for now)
Dice 2 small onions and sauce in evoo. Add ground beef and brown.
Dump sauce bowl contents into pan with onion and beef and heat.
Make a pretty little rice mound (after it's cooked of course) on the plate and add the saucey beef on top.
It was actually fairly delicious and I was quite pleased with myself. My husband also added a little grated Parmesan cheese to his because everything tastes well with Parmesan cheese.
I know, I know. This comes as a huge shock to many of my culinarily driven friends. How on earth could someone hate making something tasty and delightful? See, I'm not that great at it to begin with and I have a husband who is a trained chef, so once we moved in together I said "Sweeeet! No more cooking." I am a survivalist cook you see. When I make something and taste it I have two options. 1) Is it edible? Yes? Then eat on! 2) Is it edible? No? Call for pizza. These options do not fly in my household for the obvious above mentioned reason that why should we settle on merely edible when my husband can whip up something delicious! But I digress.
This has been a great thing for me. Husband cooks food, I clean up kitchen...mumble mumble most of the time, and we both have full bellies of delicious food. There is a basic problem with my husband doing the cooking now, namely, bedtime. I get home from work around 5pm and pick up Kaylee from my mom. Scott usually gets home between 6:30 and 7pm (unless he has to close the store in which case I have dinner at my parents' house and mom cooks!) and then we start Kaylee's bedtime routine around 8.
This leads to hectic nights (for me) when Scott makes dinner. He gets home at 7 so even if he starts dinner right away it's usually not ready to eat until 7:30/7:45, which gives us 15 minutes to shovel in the food before the Bug starts getting tired and cranky. If it's bath night forget about it.
Soooo...I now try to cook dinner as often as possible. I'm also trying to do at least one new recipe a week since my basic cooking repetoire is mac and cheese, mac and cheese, oh and mac and cheese.
Last night was Spanish Style Rice and Beef ala Rachel Ray. Well, that was the plan at least. Except after I started cooking I realized that I did not have the following ingredients : peppers, cumin, garlic, jalopeno, tortilla chips, cloves, olives, or cilantro. You know, half the recipe? So I modified a bit. Here is what I did.
Mix together 3C water with 2 tbs beef boillion paste and 1 tsp evoo. Add to rice cooker. Add 1 1/2 C Jasmine Rice (you should probably use white but that's all I had). Turn on rice cooker (LOVE my rice cooker btw. Rival brand in bright red like all of our Target kitchen stuff)
Whisk together (in a separate bowl, NOT the rice cooker) 2 cups Hunt's Tomato Sauce, 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp evoo, 1/8 c dried parsley, 1/8 c oregano, 3 dashes of chili powder, 3 dashed garlic powder. Set aside (for now)
Dice 2 small onions and sauce in evoo. Add ground beef and brown.
Dump sauce bowl contents into pan with onion and beef and heat.
Make a pretty little rice mound (after it's cooked of course) on the plate and add the saucey beef on top.
It was actually fairly delicious and I was quite pleased with myself. My husband also added a little grated Parmesan cheese to his because everything tastes well with Parmesan cheese.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Holy crap I have a 7 month old!
Well, almost a 7 month old that is. It's hard to believe that it's been over 6 months since Kaylee entered our lives. She has definitely stolen our hearts and wrapped everyone around her (very little) finger. She is definitely not a little peanut anymore either! At her last checkup (last week) she weighed in at 17 pounds and was 26" tall. Yikes! She is having a blast learning to crawl and thinks it is quite entertaining (albeight frustrating) to get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. Crawling is overrated though, as our little Bug can just roll and scootch wherever she wants to go.
Holidays!
Yay Bug's first halloween, and what could be more perfect than a little ladybug? She did such a great job "greeting" the trick or treaters and was adorable as always. We did a quick walk to the neighbors' house and I even got a kit kat for her cuteness ;) I will admit though, at 3 months she mostly napped through the festivities.
Christmas resulted in quit a bit of sleeping as well. Opening presents is hard work! She conked out during present opening as well as during dinner. Luckily I have become quite adept at doing regular household chores/eating/opening presents one handed so the festivities weren't interrupted.
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