Three Things Thursday: Food!

It seems like over the last few weeks, I've said on multiple occasions, "This is the best thing I've ever eaten!"  I'm not sure if it was just because I was very hungry when I ate them or what, but I figured I would write about three of them before I discover even more recipes that are "the best" thing I've ever eaten.

None of the three that I'm going to write about were actually never-before-tried recipes--I've made them before. But for some reason, they were just so good recently that I called them the best. It's hard to narrow it down to three favorite recipes! So these will be three of the recent things I've made that I consider the best...

1) Sweet Korean Lentils

I never, ever would have guessed that I would love these lentils so much! I found this recipe in a cookbook I have from Sam Turnbull at It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. Her recipes are usually hit or miss for me--not much middle ground. But these lentils are SO good and perfect when I need to come up with something quick and easy to make--without a bunch of ingredients I don't happen to have on hand. When I have green onions, I add those as well.

I'm glad this recipe is also online, so that I can share the link here. I probably never would have tried this recipe if a reader hadn't suggested it (I cannot, for the life of me, remember who it was--but thank you!). This is made with red lentils which are softer and cook faster than brown lentils. I like the texture of them better, too. We eat this over brown basmati rice; if I have rice already cooked in the fridge, dinner can be ready in 15 minutes!

2) Tofu (or Chickpea) Tikka Masala

I don't have a picture of the tofu version I made, but it's the same as this chickpea version--only with tofu instead of chickpeas.

I had never heard of Tikka Masala until about five years ago when I tried this Chickpea Tikka Masala recipe from The Iron You--and I was immediately in love. I had never tried Indian food and when I made it, I was skeptical--I had never even tried garam masala before. (When I was growing up, we never really ate ethnic food.)

I really loved the chickpea version but a couple of weeks ago, I saw that we only had one can of chickpeas (it calls for three) and I decided to try to swap tofu instead. I pressed the tofu well so that it would soak up a lot of the sauce. I used one and a half blocks of tofu, but I think using just one would work out well, too. When you add the coconut milk, it looks VERY thin, but after adding the small amount of cornstarch slurry it's the perfect texture.

To make it with tofu, I followed the recipe as written, but instead of adding the chickpeas, I skipped over them. I cut the tofu into bite size pieces and added them to the sauce, stirring in gently so they didn't break apart, then let them cook over low heat in the sauce for about 15 minutes before adding the cornstarch. (I added about 1/4 cup of water with the tofu because the tofu made the mixture thicker than when using chickpeas.) I cannot even describe how good this is! It makes a very large amount (probably six servings) and the leftovers are just as good. We ate this with brown basmati rice.

3) Firecracker Tofu

I am absolutely sure this is one of the highest-calorie recipes I've ever made, but it's kind of a pain to make--so I won't be making it often. It is absolutely 100% worth making once in a while, though! If you like the fast food-type takeout (like Panda Express), you will love this. It definitely hits that craving for junk food takeout.

I actually posted a review of this on my blog, which you can find here. Reading it over just now, I saw that I didn't love it the first time as much as I currently do--I'm not sure if that was because I had only recently started eating tofu at the time or what, but in the recipe that I typed out, I wrote "adapted from" Vegan Travel Eats--so I probably made a few small changes to reflect what I wanted after trying it as-written. Unfortunately, the site that I got this recipe from is no longer online, so I will share the one I typed out here.

The only change I made most recently (which is reflected in the one I typed) was that I used maple syrup instead of brown sugar (my attempt at making it *slightly* healthier). I also tossed all of the tofu at once in the cornstarch, then added the soy milk + vegan mayo mixture and gently stirred (to batter the tofu pieces) before frying. The original recipe said to do one piece at a time, but that wasn't necessary.

I absolutely recommend using parchment paper when baking this because the sauce gets VERY sticky (which is part of what makes it so good!). It's not ridiculously spicy, so if you like things to be on the spicy side, you may want to add more red pepper flakes. Serve it over rice--I've been loving brown basmati for everything lately.

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 99

Usually I feel like the weeks go by so fast, but it seems like forever ago that I did last week's weigh-in. I've been getting used to the change in schedules for spring and being a "baseball mom" again, and this week was definitely less stressful. Like I wrote about in my "Problems and Solutions" post, I used the crockpot this week when I knew the evenings would be hectic. I haven't batch-cooked yet, but I did make extra sauce for a couple of tofu/rice meals that will be easy to throw together, as well as some extra homemade pizza crusts and cashew cheese for quickly assembling mini pizzas.

I can always tell when things are calming down around here because it's much easier to maintain a routine. And I definitely thrive on routine! I think writing out the "Problems and Solutions" was helpful for that. Aside from the crockpot to help with the cooking issue, I finished the cat shelves in the bedroom in one (long) evening and I am SO glad that the room no longer feels "under construction". I was able to move the tools and things lying around into the garage--it's nice to get rid of that clutter!

I still haven't gone for a run. It's tempting to blame the weather, because we've had some really crappy days, but--that would be an excuse ;)  We've also had some really gorgeous days!

Anyway, last week my weight was at 140.6, and I said that I was hoping to see the 130's today...

I barely made it, but I was at 139.8 this morning--I'm happy with that!

My weight has definitely been moving downward more slowly this time. I had a really great week with my eating habits--rather than eating what I could whenever I could, I made it a point to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and usually a little peanut butter for a snack before bed).

I really like the fact that I haven't counted calories in at least a year and I'm able eat what I know to be the "normal" portions. After having pretty much no appetite in the fall to doubling down in the winter, I feel good that I was able to regulate it without having to measure out my food. I'm willing to do it if needed, but in a perfect world, of course, I wouldn't have to. As long as I continue to see progress (even maintaining my weight will feel like progress) I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing.

One thing that I'd like to focus on this week is getting in more vegetables. I'm good with fruits, but I'm not a fan of raw vegetables so I usually have them with dinner (in a stir-fry, soup, pasta, or something like that). Ideally, I'd make a big batch of roasted veggies and keep it on hand to eat with whatever we have for dinner (I used to do this a couple of times a week). Now that I'm finding a routine again, I'd like to do that--I *love* roasted broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and peppers.

If all goes well, I'll get a little deeper in to the 130's next Wednesday. The top of my "happy range" is 135, so I'm approaching--slowly but surely :)

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Deep Thoughts With Jerry #12

I just realized it's been a while since Jerry last wrote for his "dad bod" series (which was on Tuesdays). He said unless he makes progress worth writing about, he'll just do a "deep thoughts" post or something like that. This morning, he mentioned possibly training for and running the Detroit Half-Marathon this fall.

We did it together in 2015 and we had so much fun! I kind of wish I had the desire to do it again, but I'm not going to pretend that I have the discipline right now to do the training. Anyway, I only mentioned that because if he does train, maybe he'll write updates about how that's going. Today, he answered some ice breaker questions (he loves answering these)...

Did you have a stuffed animal as a kid? What was its name?

Who didn't?! He was a beaver and his name was Bucky. I was probably about five years old and went everywhere with him. He was my "bestest friend". My dad was in the military and part of the job was moving locations once in a while. We started off in Marquette, Michigan for four years, then moved to Sacramento for four years, then back to Marquette.

On our first move, we were heading out to California and it took us a couple of days. Motel 6 was apparently our lodging of choice, probably because they "always leave the light on for you".  Anyways, my parents had gotten up early to drive another day across the country and put me in the car while I was still asleep. When I woke up I was without my friend and I was so upset.

So, my dad turned the car around to go back and get him. Usually he only threatened to turn the car around when I was being a little jerk, this time he just did it because he cared. I don't have Bucky any more but I wish I did. With that said, my nephew's first birthday is this weekend and I bought him a stuffed beaver so he can enjoy making some memories of his own.

What is one thing you can't cook?

Katie tells me it's pasta. I couldn't agree more. I under-salt the water and I cook it for way too long. I have a tendency to be cooking something else with it at the same time, trying to get everything else prepared for the meal, when the timer goes off. Instead of removing the pasta from the heat and draining it, I do one of two things: turn off the timer and forget about it for a couple more minutes or turn off the burner and let the pasta just sit in the water until I'm ready to drain it. Both of those equal pasta death.

Katie doesn't have any pictures of me cooking, but here is a picture of me baking. She leaves the baking to me.

What is your favorite sport?

Baseball has always been and always will be my favorite sport. It's one of my favorite things about the summer. I can sit and watch games all day long without even thinking about it. Most people say things like 'it's so boring' or 'I just like going to the park to watch'. I find that a lot of people who I see at the games are just there for the atmosphere or the entertainment of being at a ballpark.

In Detroit, we have Comerica Park which is a really nice field. But, everything surrounding the field is just distracting and totally takes away from the game. Bars everywhere in the park and rides for the kids. Everyone wants to go to a baseball game but they don't even watch it and do everything they can to avoid it. There... that's my soapbox moment. LOL

Have you ever met a celebrity?

Ha! I'll one up this question...  'Have you ever been married to a celebrity?'. LOL

I've met a few. I went to Star Wars Celebration in Chicago in 2019 and met John Boyega, Oscar Issac, Kathleen Kennedy (President of Lucasfilm), and Cameron Monaghan. I only took selfies with them in passing because they were being swarmed by fans.

The only one that wasn't surrounded by people was Cameron Monaghan. He just got off stage talking about a character he portrayed in the games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. He was just walking casually though the area and I just had to take a picture with him. At this time he was also playing Ian Gallagher on Shameless, which was Katie's favorite show at the time. He was super down to earth and really easy to talk to. Needless to say, she was super jelly and it made her happy. 

Have you ever won a contest?

I've won a couple. I won a scooter when I was a kid when my name was pulled in a drawing at a convenience store. Then I won concert tickets by being caller 89 on 89x radio. The last was a trivia contest, which was the best. I won Detroit Tigers tickets for it.

There was a talk radio station that had a show with a duo of guys named Dominski and Doyle. They liked playing the game 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon'. I'm a master of this game, totally love it. The premise is you would name an actor and through movies you would have to link that actor to Kevin Bacon in six moves or less.

So, in this game you would have to give them the name of an actor and if they couldn't link the actor to Kevin Bacon in six moves, you would win tickets to the game. They would just eviscerate people who tried to stump them and it was funny just listen to their banter. I would play along with them in my head and I decided to call in one day, give it a shot.

Blew them away with Richard Belzer. Richard Belzer was in Scarface with Al Pacino who was in Heat with Robert De Niro who was in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon. I love trivia, anyone who knows me will tell you that.

What show on Netflix did you binge watch embarrassingly fast?

Katie and I recently watched Love is Blind pretty quickly. Oh wait, the embarrassing part is supposed to be how fast we watched it, not the show itself? I'm not invested in the show, but it's just fun to see the drama unfold and to make fun of the situations on the show. Katie and I get a real kick out of it. Sometimes watching shows like this starts some interesting conversations and lighthearted 'if I was single' or 'when you die I don't think I want to date' jokes.

It's always easier to watch shows after the season or the series is complete. Long gone are the days of truly episodic television with 24 episodes a season and 3-6 months before the start of the new season. Nowadays shows will have 10 episodes and then you have to wait 10 months to start the next season and you've completely forgotten everything about the show.

---

Katie here. If any of you want to try to stump Jerry at the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, he would probably love that! (And he won't cheat by looking anything up. He's just really good at that stuff.)

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Special Days

I had such an unexpectedly great day today! When Noah woke up this morning, he said that his class was canceled because his teacher had something going on and he wasn't on the schedule to work today, so he had the whole day free. I asked him if he would want to do something together and he said sure.

When the kids were younger, I used to have what I called a "Special Day" with them each school year (individually, not both of them together). I let them play hooky from school and they could choose what we would do together--lunch and a movie or bowling or things like that. They mostly enjoyed going to lunch and/or getting frozen yogurt ;)

Dairy Queen with Noah--we both loved the Reese's Cup flurries!

They loved having the Special Day because it made them feel--well, special. They thought it was cool that they were allowed to skip school when they weren't sick or had an appointment.

The movies with Eli

When Noah started at the middle college (ninth grade), he stopped wanting to do the Special Days because he was so worried about missing school. He's always been the super responsible one between the two. And then the pandemic happened and the Special Days just stopped being a thing altogether--they were home from school for nearly the entire school year anyway.

Bowling with Noah

Mini golf with Eli

(Going through pictures was fun--I forgot about some of these days!)

I didn't say anything to Noah about it being a Special Day today, but as a mom, I was thinking of it that way. Noah bought a car in December and I hadn't ridden in it yet. He is *really* into cars and it was like he was speaking a foreign language to me when he talked about it. He's very proud of it, so I asked him if we could ride in his car and I think he was excited to show me that he can drive a manual transmission (and all the features he loves about his car).

We decided to go to Salvation Army. First, though, we stopped at my parents' house because their internet wasn't working and Noah had told my dad that he would fix it. My dad was working on a puzzle when we got there and it took Noah all of three minutes to fix the internet issue, so we stayed and worked on the puzzle for a little while with my dad.

Noah knows I like podcasts, so he asked me to pick one for us to listen to. The 'Stuff You Should Know' podcast is a good one for casual listening (and it's fascinating!) and we listened to an episode about skydiving. (Just thinking about skydiving is terrifying--even if someone offered me a million dollars to go skydiving, I would decline.)

Salvation Army was a huge disappointment today; usually I can spend a couple of hours there browsing through clothes, but we were there for all of ten minutes because their racks were so empty. There was a Goodwill just a couple of miles away so we tried that out as well. Their clothes have gotten so expensive that it would probably be cheaper to shop a clearance section of stores like Kohl's!

They had a TON of clothes and I definitely could have spent a long time browsing--but I wasn't about to spend $10 on a shirt that I couldn't even try on (the fitting rooms have been closed since the pandemic). I ended up getting a pair of jeans (thankfully, they fit) and a vegan cookbook, and Noah picked out a pair of pants and a sweatshirt.

We were driving right past our favorite Chinese restaurant (I say "favorite", but the last time we went there was probably six years ago) and I knew how much Noah loved their fried rice, so I asked if he wanted to get some to bring home. From there, we stopped at Kroger to grab a few things we needed, and then headed home. The day went by so fast!

Eli was supposed to have a double header baseball game today, but it was canceled and I couldn't be happier about that. Saturday, the temp was in the 80's and it was super sunny; today, we had sleet, then rain, then snow, and finally hail. The wind is ridiculous, too. The "real feel" for Eli's game would be in the 20's! I would have died sitting in that for five hours. Eli was relieved, too.

It has turned into a lazy family evening with Jerry off work and no baseball, work, or school for the kids. It feels so odd because it's rare that all of us are home at the same time. We're going to make homemade pizzas for dinner and maybe I can talk the kids into playing a game or watching a movie or something tonight.

It was so nice to be able to spend some one-on-one time with Noah today; he's grown up so much!

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Nostalgic Excitement

I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the movie theater. Okay, wait--I just looked back in my blog (one of the things that is helpful about writing daily) and it was in October 2019 when Jerry and I went to see Friends. They were showing four episodes of the TV show Friends on the big screen, and being huge Friends fans, of course we went!

Then the pandemic happened and the next thing I know, it's been almost four years since the last time I went to the movies. (Feel free to correct me if I'm remembering wrong.)

Anyway, I saw something on Facebook yesterday that made me so excited! I don't know why I was targeted for a particular sponsored post (maybe because I mentioned this book a couple of times 100 years ago on my blog) but I am so glad I happened to see it yesterday... one of my very very favorite childhood books is a movie that will be released in theaters this month!

Does anyone remember the book "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." by Judy Blume? I probably read that book at least 50 times between the ages of 11 and 13. 

It was published in 1970; I was born in 1982 and it was still a well-known, well-received book. I'm actually very surprised that the book wasn't made into a movie already.

Several years ago, I looked it up on Amazon and saw that it had been revised and updated, which bummed me out because I wanted to read the same edition I read as a pre-teen. And then it was like God *was* there, because at a garage sale, I happened to find the 1978 copy I knew and loved.

When I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2017(?) I got rid of almost all of the actual physical books I owned--it freed up so much space. However, I saved the ones that were special to me--books that had been signed, were gifted to me in a meaningful way, or good reference books for things like running--and, of course, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." That is how much I love this book.

Considering most of the people that read my blog are middle-aged women, I wouldn't be surprised if many have read it and loved it as well. It's a coming-of-age book (very much targeted to preteen girls) about all of the things that were going on my own life at the time--bras and periods and boys and general self-awkwardness.

I am super excited to see the movie, even though I'm guessing it's the "revised and updated" version of the copy I love. I really hope that it sticks to the original, taking place in the 1960s, but regardless--I want to see it. Jerry even said he would go with me, hahaha. (That is true love right there.)

I haven't read anything about the movie and I didn't watch the trailer or even look at the cast. I just read that it's being released in theaters on April 28th. I'm choosing not to learn anything about it because I want to stay hopeful that I will love it--if I do, it'll be a nice surprise.

I pulled out my 1978 copy of the book last night so that I can read it again before going to see the movie. The price listed on the book made me laugh--$1.25! (That is the original price, not what I paid at a garage sale--which was probably a quarter.)

Now, it's a rainy, windy Sunday evening, and it's the perfect weather to get cozy in my pajamas and curl up with some tea and read "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." I never expected that this would be my idea of a fun Saturday night, but there honestly isn't anything I'd rather be doing. I didn't read this copy after buying it at a garage sale, so I can't remember the last time I read the book. I'm sure once I start, the nostalgia will hit me ;) 

Anyone else excited about this movie? Or just love the book in general?

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Reader Mail

I received this email from a reader named Linda, and I thought it was amazing--I just had to share it! (With permission, of course.)

Katie, I am a long time reader of your blog, since about 2011. Had to show you this pic of my husband, Kirby, who just completed his 40,000th mile of running/walking today.

He began running in 1976. He's run four marathons, race-walked in one marathon and one half-marathon. He doesn't compete anymore, but at age 75 he does still walk 6-8 miles three days a week, then a longer walk of 8-10 miles on Saturdays. We live in Louisiana where it gets miserably hot in the summer & he still walks!

This makes me so happy--it reminds me of Floyd, the man that I've seen walking while I'm out running once in a while; he walks every single day, and he always has a kind greeting for me! A HUGE congrats to Kirby--that's such an amazing accomplishment and that smile says it all :)

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Friday Night Photos #111

It has been a crazy-busy week, and I wasn't even sure if I should do this post because all but one of the photos I took were at Eli's baseball games! I had a lot of fun taking pictures, though. Jerry's mom has a nice DSLR camera that she wants to learn how to use, and Noah borrowed it to learn and show her. Just for the heck of it, I brought it to one of Eli's games and did my best to get the hang of it.

I took literally 300 photos! (I deleted about 200--the ones that didn't turn out very good.) I played with different settings and went around the field for different angles and stuff like that--and I managed to get some really good pictures (for my lack of photography skills and knowledge, anyway). Eli said his teammates really liked them (I tried to get pictures of everybody) and he asked if I would take more pictures this season.

I won't bombard this post with those photos, but like I do every year, I have to share a few side-by-side comparison photos of Eli from when he was younger to now (he's been playing since he started t-ball at age three). I can't believe how grown-up he looks now.

I had to zoom in close to make sure that was Eli in all that big catchers' gear!

This is my favorite picture that I took at his game (it's not Eli, but I love the pic itself of this tag at home plate). I can't remember if he was safe or out! But it's crazy to me that it looks so close even though I was sitting on the ground waaaaay out in left field. 

This is going to be a short post, because the only other picture I have was from this morning when Duck woke me up. He's gotten in the habit of waking me up by plopping himself down on the right side of my face. Then he purrs and sleeps pressed up against me. The most comforting feeling ever is when Duck's warm belly is pressed against my cheek and I can hear him purring.

Hopefully I'll have a bigger variety to write about next week!

Have a great weekend. xo

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Three Things Thursday: Summer

Today is another gorgeous day and I spent all morning out in the garage with the all the doors open. I want to get the garage cleaned up for this nice weather, because we spend a lot of time out there during the summer. While I was out there, I started thinking about summer and what I'm looking forward to.

Summer has never been my favorite season. And I'm sure all the romantic ideas I have about summer right now will not feel the same when it's extremely hot and humid. (A lot of people think of Michigan's weather as tepid, but the humidity in the summer is killer.)

Anyway, right now I am very much looking forward to summer, so I thought I'd write three things that I'm looking forward to doing in just a couple of months...

1. Sitting on the deck in the evenings with Jerry.

In the colder weather, we get in the habit of watching TV in the evenings--not that there is anything wrong with that, but I like having conversations without distractions. When the weather is warm enough, we like to sit on the deck with a drink (non-alcoholic for me these days) and chat about nothing and everything.

I already wrote a whole post about bonfires, so I won't get into that again, but I'm definitely looking forward to those as well. When we have stuff to burn, we sit around the fire instead of on the deck. And the kids usually like to join in as well!

2. After-dinner walks.

The kids have kind of grown out of doing this with us now, but once in a while we can talk them into going for a family stroll after dinner (with Joey, of course). We don't walk far--about a mile--and it's just our neighborhood streets. But there is something about walking in the warm summer air at dusk with the fam that just makes my heart feel happy. Now, the kids are usually so busy and distracted at home that it's hard to get much out of them when I ask about their day, so I love it when they come with us.

I know I have better pictures (or at least more recent) somewhere but I can't figure out what to search for to find them on my computer!

3. Sitting outside and drinking my tea in the mornings while feeding the squirrels.

The squirrels that "know" me (that will eat from my hand) usually see me go outside and then they come looking for the "good stuff"--during the summer, I like to give them walnuts in the shell (or other nuts in the shell) because they can go bury it for later. And they LOVE them. In the winter, I give them shelled nuts that they can eat right away. It's so cute to watch their routine--I learned that they try to fake out the other squirrels by *pretending* to bury nuts somewhere and then actually taking them somewhere else.

It's usually in the early summer that we discover which squirrels are still around from last year and which ones are new. And I love to see the new babies! It takes them about a year before they'll take nuts from our hands, but they're so cute to watch. They chase each other all over the tree and I'm a nervous wreck watching them--I don't know how they manage not to fall--but it just makes me feel good to see them having so much fun. 

Anyway, these are my romantic ideas about summer--and I'm looking forward to it!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 98

It's so weird to me when I flip my photo in order to be able to read my shirt--I'm not used to seeing myself that way! But I wore this shirt deliberately because today is the nicest day we've had so far this year--sunny and warm enough to open all the windows in the house. I'm so glad that the weather is turning!

I'm at Week 98 since I started working hard at losing the weight I'd gained in 2018-2020-ish. It's hard to believe it's been that long--as I approach 100 weeks, of course my brain starts thinking of something special or significant to do for Week 100.

It's been a few weeks since I did an "official" weigh-in on my blog. Two weeks ago, I went to my sister's house in Illinois and didn't post a weigh-in that day. Then I didn't want to do a weigh-in last week because my weight had gone up SO much during the week I spent at my sister's.

I honestly did not eat very badly while I was there. Jerry and I only went out to dinner once; the rest of the time, we ate at the house. We'd gone grocery shopping and bought mostly healthy food. I think I just ate a lot more than I was used to at home. When I'm at home, I typically stick with a routine for meals (when things aren't hectic) but at Jeanie's, we did a lot of sitting around and eating. It was great to be able to have a lazy week, though!

Anyway, want to know how much I gained while at Jeanie's? TEN POUNDS. That's the most I've ever gained while on a trip--even when we went to Punta Cana. I knew it couldn't have been an accurate representation of my week, so I chose not to even bother with a weigh-in last week.

This past week still wasn't back to "normal" as far as meals go, but that's because baseball season started for Eli and I'm trying to get the hang of scheduling dinner around games and all that. Thankfully, though, my weight went back down. My last weigh-in, on March 22, I was at 141.8. Today, I was happy to see that I was even lower than that--even after the huge gain at my sister's.

I was at 140.6 this morning, so I'm down 1.2 pounds. It's definitely not a large loss considering it's been a few weeks, but I'm glad that it's still going in the right direction. I'm hoping to see the 130's next week.

While my diet hasn't been ideal--eating whatever I can grab whenever I have time--I've been doing really well in regards to snacking. A lot of times, I've not been able to eat dinner until 9:00 pm so I'm not hungry for a snack after that.

This week, I hope to start eating more regularly (at the very least for breakfast and lunch). I loved the suggestions on yesterday's post about batch cooking, and I'm going to try to spend a morning doing that this weekend; I think Sunday is the next non-baseball-game day, so if we don't have anything else going on, I'm going to hopefully get some meals in the freezer.

Overall, I feel positive about my weigh-in this week and I feel like I'm going to have a good upcoming week!

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Problems and Solutions

Lately, I've been feeling like there is ZERO time to get things done and I've been putting a ton of pressure on myself. I'm not going to turn this into a whiny post about having no time; we all have 24 hours in a day and we all have things to do in that amount of time. Rather than feel sorry for myself and complain about it here, I'd like to work on solutions to what I can. (Sometimes just writing things out like this helps me figure it all out.)

Here are issues (I don't know that "problems" is the right word to use here--I'm just referring to the things that have been stressing me out lately) and possible solutions...

Problem: Right now, my house is a disaster. I've been working on getting Jerry's and my bedroom done from the remodel. It's certainly livable, and I don't *have* to work on the cat shelves I'm making--I just feel like it's not finished until the shelves are done and everything is arranged how I want it. Jerry and I both really love how it's turning out (and the cats couldn't be happier to have shelves to run around on) but the mess is everywhere.

Solution(s): 1) Put it all aside in the garage and work on it later, maybe after baseball season.

2) Cram it all in and get it done in a couple of days so I can finally get all of the tools and stuff out of the house and back into the garage.

3) Work on it a little each day until it's done.

I don't like the third solution because that's what I've been doing and it's hard to have to stop what I'm in the middle of and clean up before each baseball game (or whatever else is going on). I like the idea of hammering it all out in a single weekend, so I will try to figure out a couple of days to do that soon. Otherwise, I'm going to have to go with the first option and put it all away until June-ish. There is no baseball tomorrow, so maybe I'll spend the day working on it.

Problem: Cooking dinner. I've mentioned baseball several times lately because it tends to take over the entire duration of spring. I love going to the games, but it takes a good chunk of time out of the day that I would normally have to work on (fill in the blank here). Especially the days when Eli has double headers (which are more often than not)--if you figure the driving time, each game with a break in between, and the drive home, half of the day is just gone. And it flies by!

The time of day that his games fall is right when I would normally cook dinner before Jerry leaves for work; consequently, I haven't made dinner at all this week. I feel terrible that the kids are eating convenience food and Jerry and I have just been eating what we can--bagels, seitan, cereal, tofu, stuff like that. (Not real "meals", in other words.)

Solution(s): 1) Utilize the slow cooker on game days. I always have intentions of doing this, but I haven't yet explored making vegan recipes in the slow cooker. So, I can spend some time in the evening before bed looking up some recipes that sound good and giving those a try. I have a lot of dried beans in my pantry that I've been wanting to use (I'm terrible at remembering to soak them the night before!) and beans are a staple in vegan cooking.

2) Batch cooking. I can pick a few recipes and spend a non-game day cooking up batches of meals to freeze. This would be ideal because it would be so nice to come home, throw something in the microwave, and eat dinner just a few minutes later. Again, I can spend some time in the evening looking at vegan recipes that would freeze well. (If you have suggestions, please share!)

Problem: Returning phone calls/emails/texts/messages/comments. This is something that I am really bad at, and I know I've mentioned it a hundred times. It's not that I'm trying to avoid doing these things--I enjoy it! But I always think to myself that I will work on it later, when I have more time (I like to give thoughtful responses, no matter who or what I'm replying to, rather than canned replies). I feel like my friends and family probably think I'm just being lazy about writing back, and that is honestly not the case.

Solution(s): 1) Set aside a particular time each day to reply to as much as I can. Even an hour, uninterrupted, would help a lot. I really wish I was good at using my phone to type (I use just my index finger and it takes forever) because I could use the time between baseball games for this.

2) I just recently started using the voice-to-text option and I'm trying very hard not to correct errors, hahaha. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to texting, so after I speak my reply, I read through it and make corrections--which takes just as long as typing with one finger! I need to let go of the minor errors (you know, like the word that always gets autocorrected to "ducking"?). As long as people get the gist of what I'm writing, I need to be cool with that.

3) Reply as soon as I get a message (whatever kind it may be). I really like this idea and I would feel great if I could be disciplined enough to do it. It would relieve a lot of anxiety (I have bad anxiety about replying to things so late because it makes me feel bad; I don't want people to take it personally when I don't reply in a timely manner). The hard part is that I tend to read everything from my phone and then tell myself that I need to remember to go back and reply later.

Problem: Personal stuff that I'm dealing with.

Solution(s): There really isn't a solution, but I can practice self-care and hope that will help emotionally. I haven't been running at all (I feel like there is no time, but in reality, I'm sure I can work a short run into my day). If I can't or don't want to run, then I can at least go for a walk. Exercise really does make me feel better once I do it. I think this is something I will have to schedule into my day and make it non-negotiable. I also think I'd feel better if I could get more sleep--I am always saying this, I know, and I do try. My psychiatrist suggested that I get a sleep study done, so I may end up doing that.

Problem: Anxiety over everything. I constantly feel like people are mad at me or that I did something wrong or that something bad is going to happen and it will be my fault.

Solution(s): This isn't something I can just stop feeling, of course, but I'm reading the book that my psychiatrist suggested ('When Panic Attacks' by David Burns) and I feel hopeful that it will help alleviate my generalized anxiety. Since reading usually makes me tired, I can make it a point to read before bed--then hopefully I'll learn some techniques for managing anxiety and I'll be tired enough to fall asleep.

Writing all of these out seems like it's all no big deal--like, what am I stressed about? But when I add it all together, it has me completely drained emotionally and physically. I think that rather than just writing out "problems", writing the possible solutions is actually pretty helpful. (You know I love lists.) Actually, writing out a to-do list would probably be helpful right now. It's so satisfying to cross things off.

Okay, I just got home from Eli's game and it's 9:00--I'm starving. I think I'll eat, read some of my book, and then hopefully my brain will feel tired enough to fall asleep!

(By the way, I've gotten a lot of great advice from you all lately and I appreciate all of it. Again, I have intentions of replying, and hopefully I will do that soon. But I do read everything and it gives me new perspectives on issues I may have going on. So thank you for that!)

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