Hello October!! {october goals list.}

Wow October already!!
so i have a confession to make. i have sort of been slaking in the areas of me. of this blog. of my life really. i took the morning today to feel sorry for myself and list all the reason why i am not really worth anything, said them aloud, put them in a box and am moving on. because i am worth something. i am smart, intelligent, funny, kind, caring.....well i could keep going but how much time do you really have? ha! my main goal is to make a shinier happier me at 36 and by Jove I 'm a gonna do it!! {cue fist pump.}

anyways the point is i have been going over this space, my connection with all you out there, the content i want to be in here and personally i think i can do better. that's why i am declaring this a re-dedication to this space. but then i got to thinking - what is this space? it's not like i get paid to do this...i just do it. personally when this all started it was merely a scrapbook for my kids and a way to keep in touch with family out west. then it became a place to put my recipes, to have my favorites at my fingertips. then it became a competition - i never realized how competitive i was till i saw someone doing something better over there and i had to top it. {anything you can do i can do better....} i need more recipes - better recipes! i need more of a theme!! why can't mine look as good as her's over there!! why didn't i think of that first! i need to show more tutorials...but on what?! i used to work in film and manage offices. oh think, jennifer, think!!!!

then it spiraled into a wee - very wee - bout of depression {that actually might be too strong a word....} about it because i was putting in all this time and energy and really getting not much out of it. it all boiled down to $$ and the fact that i could not do this to support my family. but then without this who am i? this went on for a bit and i felt like i had lost touch. so i stepped back. found myself posting now and again about this and that - still in the competition but playing more from the third string then the starting line-up. hey, that's a good way to describe it - i have always felt like third string - never good enough for a staring position but not terrible enough that i am out of the game completely.

i have come to a decision though - i have decided that i don't care about what everyone else is doing {well i do care because you are all wonderful but what you do isn't going to define me anymore. i'm going to be me - whoever that is!} i created this space for my kids. so they can look back and maybe see {after they exit their teens and stop hating me} that they actually did have a cool mom who moved mountains for them and that their childhood was actually pretty awesome.
it may not have been filled with luxury cruises but it was filled with boat loads of love.

okay now that we are done with all the emotional mushy stuff, down to the task at hand: i can't believe it's been so long since i posted a goals list! oh mon dieu! so here we go....this is more of a have to do than a want to do list but again it's for the purpose to hold me accountable. also i have always wanted to do a list with a monster motif!

so there you go!
thanks for the shoulder and for letting me get all that out.
yes i can hear the tiny violins playing and i know that most of my problems are not real problems but for right now they are mine.
and i have to own them.


***also i have decided to launch a small business taking outdoor photo's of families such as yours. if you are interested please drop me a email for info and pricing. thanks!

may goals.

here we are. another month. another list.
yes i know we are half way done the month. better late then never i always say! {and those of you who just received a christmas card from me know that's the truth! the rest of you don't worry - it's on it's way!!}
my list is a little different from when the month started as we are now not in a panic to sell our house so i have removed a few key items that will be peppered in as we go along {paint the bathroom and the hall, change out some doors, paint the bedroom, some new light fixtures etc...}.
to me this months list is now more fun than to-do.
i am feeling in a fun mood this month!

big plans for march.

when am i ever going to learn? i can't seem to pair down my to-do's, my wants, my projects and this month is no exception. look at what i have laid out of myself? and i even took a couple of things off! as you will notice there are some repeat offenders up there plus some new ones that are in-accordance with the season. busy. busy. busy.

i always think of that quote from empire records "there are twenty-four usable hours in everyday...". well she was on speed and i am clearly not. so i have to adhere to the 6 or so hours i have to possibly get done what i WANT. and i am not talking a 6 hour stretch of time..no...this is broken up over the 18 hours i am awake doing everything for everyone else.
here's hoping i carve out some time and get my "on top of everything else" tasks done.

finger's crossed.
*exhale* 

february re-cap.

so here we go...the big february re-cap. the moment i get to see how big i failed! ha!
seriously though i did not get as much done this month but i did feel terribly busy and i got lots done separate from the list so i do feel good about the month.

the no-spend month: my plan was to spend as little as possible and save up for the extra heating charges that we were going to incur. we have a set monthly budget that i like to adhere to without dipping into other resources. this was sort off stuck too. there were a couple of other expenses that HAD to happen - tony lost is glasses, aydan went to winter camp and i bought some fabric {i know i didn't have to buy that but...}. anyways we won and lost. and now we are moving on.....

{the difference in the photo is subtle but i real life it's major. look down to the baseboards - that's where you can notice it. gorgeous!}

the last in the list is take kids skiing. that is happening today. since this is a short month i am going to consider this weekend a hybrid weekend and therefore it is still technically february but it's also march. ;)
it will be crossed off on sunday!

so there it is...not too bad but not too great.
here's hoping things are better in march!!!

catching up.

i was going through the blog here, looking at it in the way someone new here would look, and i noticed it been a while since we have had a bit of a chat.
it's time to do a little catching up.

do you feel like me in that you are burning the candle at both ends? i feel like that so much lately. maybe it's because i have a fire in me that i want to get so many things done in 2013 and i am finding that the days don't hold as many hours as i need and as well my schedule does not yield itself to my wants but whatever it is i feel like i am rushing. rushing through everything. even right now - i am rushing to get THIS done to tell you everything we have been up to so i can move on to the next task. to get the next thing done. I AM EXHAUSTED. i had a friend tell me last night that it's okay to let things go, to say "so what." man, i wish i could do that. i have worried about things for way too long to change my stripes now. i used to agonize over grocery bills at 24. that's me! i just have to learn to manage my time better. but somedays i wish i didn't. some days i just wished it was easy.

i read this article this morning and thought it to be hilarious...and completely true. i have on one or more occasion heard tony say to me that he would love to live in my blog. that it seems such a happy and shiny place. i see it as presenting our best foot forward. who doesn't want to be shiny and happy ALL THE TIME? my theory is is if we project that maybe it will come true....or maybe i am just delusional.....

i do in all this have one person to apologize to. last night, while talking to someone i consider a friend, i offhandedly commented that i really don't have any friends. i have friends but not that many friends. seriously. it's been a year since i have done something socially with a friend that doesn't involve kids. it's okay. i am okay with it. i am not asking for your sympathy vote on dancing with the stars or anything - just trying to keep it real. tony has some theory about this - the fact that i put tim bits on cake stands or something.... ;)
anyways i just want to apologize to her because - even though we have not done much socially - i do consider her a friend and i didn't want to give the wrong impression. there.

i just found out that my clever niece, who graduated high school last year and moved to the big city to become a choreographer, just launched her website! it's pretty cool. she's pretty cool. so exciting to hear of someone following their dreams and getting somewhere with it! she was recently featured in a dance showcase for choreographers and now has this going. good for you jamie!!!

i was going over my list for february and noticing all the holes in there. things i have set out to do this month but have yet to accomplish. goals set by no one but me - goals which i am choosing to ignore.....
want to know something funny? i have had "make living room curtains" on my list for seven months now - never finding the time to cut down my bolt to 4 panels etc. etc. - so this month i finally took it off the list to give it a rest and....I CUT MY FOUR PANELS AND ONE IS COMPLETED! {that's the fabric below which i purchased exactly a year ago!} geez...is that all i had to do?
the goals i have left are the simplest ones and because of that were put off. now the month is coming to an end and they are not done. boo. but i still do have four days......

some exciting news around here is that i have entered in to a small agreement with one of my favorite companies! their product is available in canada; it was for this reason i wanted to join up with them to bring it to you - nothing cool is ever available in canada! it always seems we have to pay ridiculous shipping costs - well not for this. but you have to wait, i'm going to announce it later this week....



also have you seen these videos by everyday food? they are brilliant! i made this one last night for dinner and it was rad. a definite must keep. i totally could have changed it and took credit but i did it as is so i am handing it off....just trying to keep it real here! i have decided to adopt one of my goals from last month {but paired down a little} and cook one new dinner a week.
after just saying that i am attempting this on thursday so i have just shot that out of the water......

today is wacky hair day at school. i am covered in gel, hairspray and spray glitter. you want to know something? i really didn't have to do anything to aydan's hair - it's the craziest when she wakes up that she would have fit right in...i did though cause that wasn't good enough for her - she wanted the transformation!

also the scale told me that i have put on ten pounds this week!! how is that even possible?
that does it - only oatmeal, apples and water for the rest of the week!!
okay, all caught up.
talk soon! {and i promise this time sooner rather than later!}

xx

watching. learning.

i saw this today.
THIS is my new philosophy.
i am embracing this.
i hope my kids and husband can too. this would make for an amazing life, no?

big plans for february.

here we are...february - already??!! what?!
my goodness this life has been going fast and furious lately.

off topic here but i had a run in with a little thing called a minute yesterday and it really got me to thinking. our lives are regulated by the concept of a minute. almost everything is recorded in them. out lives are all determined by minutes. how on one hand a minute could pass in the blink of an eye and yet on the other hand if you really embrace the minute you would be surprised at how much you can actually get accomplished in that time frame. take the superbowl last night - how they huddle, talk it out, get in to formation and if you watch the clock the whole time you will notice that only about 30 seconds went by {sometimes not even that long!} and then run the play - all in the span of a minute! then you could be driving and you may think it would take you 5 minutes to get somewhere and when you see it took you 10, you are shocked.

this came to me last night as i was doing cooper's ears {we have such ear wax problems around here!} and he has to have to cotton in for 2 minutes. i went to my room, changed, was watching the clock and actually found myself standing there WATCHING the clock amazed it hadn't turned yet. is a minute really that long? i thought to myself. wow.

anyways back to the matter at hand....
february.
goals.
get to it.

here we go. i mapped out more goals for this month. i paired my list down somewhat after trying to keep up with the ambitious list i set out for myself in january. now there is something you have to remember about these goals...these are things i WANT to do, not things i HAVE to do. not having these done does not effect our day to day life. these are the gravy after all my life to-do's are done. this is the fun stuff. some of these might not seem fun to you but i am quite excited about them.

as you might notice some goals that appeared last month that did not get done are not on the list this month and there is a very good reason for that. we are having a no-spend month. this month i am not going to spend any extra above our basic needs and for gas. am an anticipating some high heating bills and since i like to stay in our monthly budget some projects have to be put off till next month or the one after. now it's not like i am putting off things that are going to make us suffer - that would not fit into this category. i took off buy aydan a new dresser because even though her's is a little small for the clothes she has now...8 year old clothes are larger than 5 year old clothes...her's does work. and i took off living room drapes because even though i have the material for the drapes i don't have the rods and there are blinds on the windows so we are not suffering.  and i can still make the drapes i just took off the pressure for it. catch my drift?
so that's why there are some things missing - not carried over.
plus i have supplies for so many projects around here already...let's face it, shopping for the project is the fun part!...so this will force me to use what we already have and get those out of the way. see? thinking ahead here.

i did notice i forgot one thing that i would LIKE to have done my month's end just for peace of mind...get our taxes ready. this is always a thorn in my side and i started doing them weekly at the beginning of 2012 so they wouldn't pile up and then...i let them pile up.
bummer.

but i am going to be one happy mama if they do get done. if all the list get's done.
finger's crossed.

ps: two off the list are already done!! yipee!!! bang-a-rang start to february! and i dropped the weekend budget in half the first weekend out, not bad, but i bet i can do better next weekend!
and check out my valentines themed list. pretty snazzy, eh?? 

 all the goal lists can be found here.

january re-cap.

i can't believe it's february 1st already!!
where did january go? holy smokes!! {that's my saying of choice right now...much better than what it could be!}

so i took a peak at my january goals list and noticed that although i seemed to be super busy i really didn't get much done off it. it was a little ambitious though.....

here's how we did:

 #5 - new to me movie...i had never seen the first 3/4 of this movie! check! but i failed on a second one - bummer.

#12 - my scrapbooking projects. well i didn't finish my december daily 2012 and i didn't finish project life 2012 but i did do the start of my project life for 2013. this year i am using seafoam and i am also learning to make some cards for myself. it's looking great!!

so there is it. january in a nut shell. i have done my list for february and will post that one on monday. hoping to knock a few things off this weekend.
i had this whole plan of documenting as i went but a) the month went by way too fast! and b) i have been so frozen i actually took a break from the computer as i had no motivation. {i also slipped and fell and jarred my back muscles so that week was not much fun and not much extra was done.}

but we are back at it! hopefully we will be singing a new tune for february and update a little more often.

also i use instagram to document - do you? you can follow along with me there as well - i am @jengronick.

see ya around the block...i'll be the one, hopefully, covered in paint! ha!

two new dinners this week.

so i keeping with the these of my goal list - side note: i have actually liked this project! i have referenced the list many a time when i find a moment and re-focus on the tasks i have laid out..although we are tackling a task that was marked down for next month but oh well, starting off february with a red line through something will be good for moral! and today i am doing number 4 on the list so that is refreshing!

anyways, one of our goals was to try two new dinners a week. i have been noticing a trend on this in the last couple of weeks. dinner:a love story conducted her own experiment - 7 new dinners over 14 days - and donuts, dresses and dirt are starting a mealtime bootcamp.
this here is my contribution.

last week we were successful in trying two new dinners and this week we did not fall short.

i made a crock pot chicken teriyaki and tonight we are having stromboli. also we had a new-ingredient-to-us side dish of soba noodles. i was hoping to share the recipe on that one with you but the recipe site i had pinned was momentarily down, so...no recipe. i ended up just sauteing the cooked noodles with green onion and thinly shaved celery with dashes of soy sauce and rice vinegar. sesame oil would have been brilliant drizzled over top but we were out. bummer. i paired it with our asian pork - perfect match.

two out of four enjoyed the chicken - i thought maybe it was a bit salty and i would have liked the sauce to be thicker but tony loved it and cooper said he did like it he just wasn't in the mood for it, aydan no way. tonight as it is friday and we all know what that means..PIZZA NIGHT!!...i am going to put a twist on mine and tony's a whip up a stromboli. cooper might have some of ours - who knows, he is a funny egg sometimes that one. i tried to convince aydan to let me do it to her cheese one but she said no thanks. maybe if this turns out well i will just do it for her next week...shhh!!!

so there you go - another week, another two dinners. for sunday i am going to do a twist on chicken and stuffing via everyday food. it's not really a "new" dinner to us but...it's a new cooking method.
would that count? hhmmm.....

did you do any new dinners this week? i would love to hear.
happy cooking!


picture #1 via lake lure cottage kitchen, picture #2 via dinner: a love story

meal planning, goal #7 or the week the heavens decided to shine down on us.

so as in every week with this life of mine meal planning is huge part.
i make a list at some point before i do the weekend shop and make sure that those ingredients are in there somewhere as to not exude stress on myself for completing said meals to the hungry hippos that nip at my feet nightly.
in theory this is a great idea.
i am ALWAYS stressed out at dinner time. always.

the main reason for this...living with a picky dinner and the fact that i would like to eat something more complex than mac and cheese. the fact there is two to sometimes three different dinners happening nightly doesn't help. or when the question, upon inspecting the ingredients laid out, "what i am I having for dinner?" is posed...nails on a chalkboard for me. this is why i am stressed out.
wouldn't you be?
this has to stop - now!

this also ties in with goal #7 - make 2 new-to-us dinners each week.

as a lover of cooking, baking and all things extraordinary to do with food, this goal is one of my favorites. but also my scariest. i sat down, scanned the internet and books and found two i wanted to try. they seemed simple enough and maybe just maybe 3 out of four would agree. and maybe, just maybe, four out of four. wouldn't that be nice.
now i understand this is not going to happen overnight and rome was not built in a day but we can't carry on like this. we just can't. i can't.

so the task was to find something that could be tweeked for grownups and maybe i just have to make one extra elements for kids but the fact is WE WOULD ALL HAVE THE SAME DINNER.
down on paper this sure looked good...would it work in real life though?

over the christmas break we made some major headway in this department that i was confident we might have a breakthrough pretty soon. that we were headed down a new road. that there was light at the end of the tunnel that sometimes resembles something straight out of the hunger games. although no vegetable or fruit was consumed {other than motts purple apple sauce and pumpkin muffins}; spaghetti with tomato sauce was given the thumbs up, ham dinner was enjoyed with yummy sounds and prime rib {recipe soon!} was devoured - of course after being convinced & finally believing us that this was just a hamburger in it's original state.
this was caused for celebration and we actually did high five and yell yahoo. this was AMAZING!

but it doesn't stop there.
this is were is gets exciting.

this week i went for it and added two new dinners. one for everyone and...IT WAS A HIT!!!!! chicken parmesan! from scratch! not chicken strips out of a box!!!! yummy sounds were heard and the plate was cleared - linguini with tomato sauce and all. and it was asked for again!!!
i wanted to start crying. i was loaded down with "this is the best ever!" and "wow this is so yummy." i did seriously take a moment and almost shed a tear - my heart was bursting.

the second dinner was enjoyed by three out of four critics and thankfully i had some chicken leftover from the other night for the fourth judge. it was jamie oliver's one-tray bake - chicken + bread + some veg. a strange host of ingredients which went together perfectly and again reminded us as to why he has such a dynasty. this was gobbled up and voted to be kept into rotation. two hits in one week. and one with the picky girl that i live with.

to me this spells success.
walls are coming down people. doors are being opened.
i feel like singing loud for all to hear a whole new world from Aladdin. that's how monumental this is.
this deserved a pat on the back. and i gave myself one.

you can find the recipe for chicken parmesan here. i coated the chicken with the olive oil option and used seasoned italian bread crumbs - i couldn't find whole wheat and was lazy & didn't want to make any.
jamie oliver's chicken can be found here. my one tip with this is that i would have cooked the chicken for at least twenty minutes more at this temp OR raised the temp to 400 for the allotted time. we like our chicken cooked just a little bit more.

these, plus more delicious recipes we enjoy, can be found here and here.

thanks for stopping by! xo

photo one - me. photo #2 -jamie oliver magazine. photo #3 - skinny taste.

down on paper. official.

as i mentioned before this is a year of goals for me.
i am going to set out 12 goals per month to tackle and hopefully by creating an "official" list i will adhear to the program.
this is NOT a to-do list.
i have one of those for everyday. this is more of a month list. a list to get me motivated to FINALLY check things off and get things done.
i am quite excited.

{i am also quite proud of myself for figuring out how to do the above collage. very worthy of a pat on the back!}

back to the list.
now, of course, i don't think i am going to get to everything on the list but by having the list in front of me i will see what it is I WANT to have done and will stop monkeying off and doing other things.
like this morning when i was clearing out the basement storage room and rather ruthlessly throwing things away...i don't see that ANYWHERE on the list.
you get my point...except that that had to be done and maybe it not being on the list was a slight oversight. oops.

also i want to point out that the list you see is not entirely accurate as during the first few days of january TWO things were crossed off the list already and when i went to make this list from the master list {you should see that one! ha!} my eye passed over them as they were crossed off. but...i did want to put them on here and have to ability to already cross some red through them to show off just a little. yep i did. oh well.
by the way...they were: that tony {with a little help from me} installed the TWO new light fixtures i had ordered about 4 months ago that were a little slow coming to our house but have both been here for about two months - they look so good and we love the living room one so much that we are going to get the same for the dining room...to tie the space together...our main floor is basically one giant room.
and the other was that i ordered the book i want...but more about that one later.

i also want to point out that this list has many layers. many stinky oniony layers. some months are going to be more do this, do that. some are going to be feel this, watch that, be that. some months more sappy and life-planning than others. some more tim-the-tool-man than the one before. the point is it's for me. for what i want to do that month. {there's that word again - great word!}

so there you have it. a big list. a big list to keep me on track for what i want accomplished month to month. that is after the daily to-do list is done.

*there are not enough hours in the day.
yikes......