Because I'm just a bit crazy

I discovered this great challenge. I need some motivation to get some things in my life done. Some are things that need to be done. Some are things I'd like to do, because, hey, they're fun or interesting.

So.

I'm challenging myself to do these 101 things in 1001 days.

Today it starts because today I made the list. And because today's the start, well, June 11, 2013 is the end. That seems like a long way away. We'll see how I do.

Things in italics are in progress and things that have a strike through them are complete. I will try to date them and have the date link to the post where I blog about what I did to complete that number. Ha. Because I'm compulsive like that. And unless it's a big thing to cross off or update, I'm going to try to only update once a week. We'll see how THAT goes. I feel like I'll either update way more than that or I'll let it all pile up (HELLO, procrastinator) and do it in a big lump when it feels overwhelming. Maybe one of the 101 should have been about procrastinating less.

You can find the list up there at the top - it has its own page. You'll see item 73 says I'll blog about each item. I'm not going to keep it to 101 posts...some of these challenges might need more than one post to do them justice!

I borrowed this from the Day Zero Project website:

The Challenge:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple challenges such as New Year's resolutions or a 'Bucket List'. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips, study semesters, or outdoor activities.

Want to play too? I like having company when I decide to do nutty things!

Carrot Muffins

My parents came to drop J off ten days ago and brought us some farm fresh produce from Papa Billy's garden. But, we had an over abundance of carrots AND they're coming back later today with promises of more vegetables. The people at my house will only eat so many steamed carrots and carrot soup...So, what to do?


All of the carrots were small like these ones - ranging in size from a small "normal" carrot to the size of a large paperclip. My good friend Martha has a recipe that I decided to try - I figure muffins are good freezing food...I did pull out the food processor though. There was NO WAY I was going to hand grate those dinky (but oh so tasty) little carrots.


The batter came out very thick and I actually added a splash or two of milk because it was just too thick and too dense to manipulate with the spoon. And as I made the first batch, I made lots of mental notes in my head.

The first batch came out of the oven and were yummy, so it was time to make a second batch (seriously, I could probably make four more batches tonight and still have carrots left and that's not taking into account the new carrots I will likely acquire tonight!). I'm a big believer of following a recipe the first time you make it and then tweaking it later (small tweaks are okay - I'm not a huge walnut fan, so I often sub in some pecans and in this recipe I opted for canola oil over butter. Because I'm too lazy to measure and melt butter).


The second time I made my changes - I doubled the spices, added close to 1/4 cup of milk, swapped out 3/4 cup of all purpose flour for whole wheat (which is why the milk is more than the splash I used the first time).

Can you tell which is the first batch and which is the second batch?

OH...if the first batch were yummy, the second batch were heaven! The only other modification I'd make would be to grate the carrots by hand - I think they'd be finer and juicier and better, but these were awesome. They passed the test of my two year old, who asked for more muffins ALL evening, my eight year old nephew, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law (who had a batch #1 muffin and still thought they were super!). Oh, and of course it passed the Alex test...which can be tricky when the food is "snack" food trying to be healthier!

If I didn't have yogurt, I'd probably use 3/4 cup of milk but sour it first with some fresh orange juice and add some zest to the muffins. That would be yummy!

Cashew Chicken - take two

Friday night we had Martha's cashew chicken again.


Mmmmm....so good! I made my little modification - I added some celery and it was so good. We even had it on brown rice this time and mmmm. This has earned its way onto our list of regular menu items. Quick, tasty and yummy. What could be better than that? And, if I chop everything (except maybe the chicken - I'm all about not handling chicken multiple times if it can be avoided) the night before, it probably takes about 20 minutes to make. I just have to remember to take some out of the pan before adding the nuts if J is going to take leftovers in her lunch.

If you like cashew chicken, this is a recipe I highly recommend!

Part Two: Up – A tale of 3 pregnancies and weightloss…err…gain.

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

More from Melynda:

Mike is 7 years older than me and because I want lots of kids, we decided to have our kids close together. We started trying in January and got pregnant with Zoe in March. It was funny, I took at test on Ally’s birthday. I was determined to not gain 70 lbs during the pregnancy because I didn’t want to keep 35 lbs on each time – that would be disastrous. I realized that pregnancy is not a free for all and that the weight didn’t just magically disappear after birth. I also knew that if I had a hard time fitting exercise in with one kid that it probably wouldn’t happen with two.

With Zoe’s pregnancy I was fairly sick for the first 8 weeks and that helped with my weight efforts. But after that I found that if I didn’t eat regularly that I would feel sick. I found that it really helped to focus on protein and vegetables and to try and stay away from my favourite carbs. I really focused on eating well and minimizing unnecessary calories. I also incorporated what I had learned from my diets. I think I was pretty lucky because I didn’t gain weight until about 12 weeks. I vaguely remember from my first pregnancy that by the end of the first trimester I was up about 10 – 15 lbs.

I didn’t starve myself or do anything crazy, I still wanted to grow a healthy baby. I just really cut down on Starbucks and hot cross buns….haha…those were my main indulgences from my first pregnancy. I also became wrapped up in having a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) and fixing my supply problems – I had a herb regimen that I followed. As my pregnancy progressed I relaxed about food a lot because I was getting tired and trying to parent my toddler. Oh! That reminds me of what I was doing that really helped my weight gain! I was still nursing Ally. I also would step on the scale every day and if I was up I would try and eat better that day. All in all I ended up gaining about 30 lbs…I am horrible and near the end I just stop weighing myself and I lie a bit to my midwife about the numbers on the scale.

Zoe was born December 1, 2008 and she was born at home in a birth pool. It was everything I wanted and more.

Serendipity Designworks

I have a friend who has a business doing something I can only dream about - she designs and sells greeting cards (okay, so I don't really want to design greeting cards, but I would love to have a stationery store. One day when I win the lottery, that's what I want to do...) And her business has the most lovely name - Serendipity Designworks. I love the word serendipity!

Anyway, I ordered a few cards from her a few weeks ago and I was so excited when they arrived in the mail:


They are awesome! I am very particular about my stationery. It has to be the right weight and the right finish and have the right feel and I could go on and on and on about my requirements. Theses cards totally fit. I can use my favourite pens and they work perfectly and they don't smudge or bleed or anything...I love it! The cards are awesome - some are printed, some have awesome little embellishments attached. And, everyone I've shown them to (or given them to) has commented on how cute they are! I've already sent a few of these away and I'm sure the rest will be on their way shortly...

I really love the Christmas cards too...I'd be putting in my order for those RIGHT NOW if we hadn't gone to England last fall and I hadn't maybe, possibly, bought a bazillion Christmas cards then.

Anyway, I recommend checking out Ann-Marie's goodies and her blog, even if you don't have a paper addiction like me!

Serendipity Designworks is not paying me to write this...it's all me...just because I love paper and I want to share!

They're here!

Okay, so they've been here for a few days, I'm just slow...

I came back from my little "vacation" to find this box waiting for me on my desk.

Lovely, lovely, lovely little box of cupcake decorations...

Pretty little birdies

Awesome cupcake cups...

Maggie over at Flour Child (formerly Foodie Comes Clean) had a giveaway a few weeks ago, and I was one of the lucky ones! What a great surprise to find on my desk (because I have mommy-brain still and have no short term memory...or mid-term memory...or memory at all...)

So, thank you, thank you, thank you very much Maggie for a wonderful day brightener! I will be sure to post pictures when we use them...which probably won't be until next month...but they will get used. They are just too cute!

Getting locked in J's room...

It's done. But I was just too exhausted to post. My ankles, knees, and wrists have now recovered and I think my back is getting there. Like I said before, next time, we're hiring a painter!

This is J's room and it's not quite done. There are still some things to be put on the walls, but I need my creative genius sister to come over and help me do that. That's not something I pretend to be good at. Oh, and I haven't taken any after pictures of J's bathroom yet, so that will have to be another post.

These are all rollovers...


The change table (or soon to be dresser) is going to be painted white some time when I don't have a helper around...who knows when that will be! I'd like to eventually replace the only sort of comfortable wicker rocking chair with a glider...or maybe just remove it completely...we'll see...




The bookcase is from Ikea. We were going to get another lower module for the right side, but J has more than enough storage like this (and her closet is still full of STUFF, stuff that doesn't belong to J and really just needs to be sorted and tossed, so one day there will be all that space too) so we're looking for a nice, sturdy table and chairs for her instead.




Oh and we replaced the door knobs. I like the look of the pull down handle-type door knob, but they're a bit too easy for J to open and being "brass" the colour has come off of these ones. Plus, I am constantly getting my pockets snagged on these, so we decided to go with round knobs.

So, part of the reason there was a delay in posting these was because I got locked IN J's room while installing the new door knob. I stuck the closing mechanism thing in and then the door closed behind me. And I was stuck. We tried a whole bunch of things including trying to put the door knob together on two sides of the door. It didn't work. I called for back up, because conveniently, I locked the phone in with me. I also locked some tools in. And finally managed to work the trigger thing just as the back up arrived, equipped with tools.

Not an experience I want to repeat. And even though I know the trick to getting out, I made very sure when I finished J's door and did the bathroom door that the door wasn't going to close on me. I have two more handles to install - our bedroom and bathroom - and I'll do them soon so that at least SOMETHING in our house matches!

Ready...Set...DONE

No pictures yet, the last coat of paint is drying and then I'll put the rooms back together and THEN I'll take some pictures.

Two rooms done.

And that's it.

I'm not doing anymore.

We're hiring a painter for the rest of the house (I haven't talked to Alex about this yet, but we are. Even if it means we have to wait six or nine or twelve months). We had a painter do the ceiling in the living room and dining room. It took him a grand total of three hours, maybe four, including lunch. It looked awesome when he was done. It was clean. There was no mess (at least no mess for me to deal with) and he was reasonably priced.

So, I think we'll get someone to come and do our bedroom and bathroom and the kitchen and the walls in the living room and dining room. Because I'm not taking two weeks off work and shipping J off somewhere to do it. Just not.

If you know of a good painter who doesn't charge an arm and a leg and your first born child, please let me know!

Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty...

I thought J's ceiling was thirsty...then I met her bathroom door.

UGH.

It's going to take at least three coats if not four....and I haven't started on her bedroom door yet.

Tomorrow's to do list is soooooo long:

Spot paint J's ceiling
Second coat on J's walls
Second coat on J's bathroom door and baseboards
First and second coat on J's bedroom door and baseboards
Replace contents of J's bedroom (currently residing in our living room and dining room)
Do some "real" work
Hang out with Heddy

The more of it I get done, the better. Because it means I won't have to do it on Saturday morning when J comes back.

Two more sleeps and J's coming back! I'm sooooooo looking forward to Saturday.

Slow going

It's coming along...slowly but surely. But I'm pooped.

This gave me a heart attack last night:


The pink/peach was about three shades darker than the rest of the house, but I'd never noticed...and it was such a thirsty wall that I thought I might need three coats of the blue (which is hard to make out in this picture) but everything evened out nicely after coat number two. Thank goodness. Bathrooms are horrid rooms to paint.

Though, this bedroom is giving the bathroom a run for its money.


The blinds are up. They're not coming down. So, I had to figure out how to keep them paint free. Solution: LOTS of tape and plastic. And thank goodness most of them lift and drop so they're easy to get around! But it took almost an hour to do. The prep on this room has taken FOREVER. But it will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it...that is my mantra.


I removed some stupid stuff that was on the walls from the previous owners. Who had not bothered to tape or remove the stuff when they painted the room pinkish, so it was all painted down (including the light plates, power plates etc. grrrr...). Underneath was the colour this room was two colours ago...we had an inkling...there were specks of paint on the carpet and the ceiling...ugh. This would have been a horrible room! Our bedroom (which faces north) was navy blue before they painted it the same inoffensive boring almost pink that the entire house (except J's bathroom) is. Someone had questionable taste in colours.


J's bedroom is giving me grief. I'd almost rather do another bathroom. The ceiling hates me and I can't figure out why. I'm hoping coat number two will be as miraculous as the bathroom's second coat. Anyone have any suggestions or solutions for this yuckiness? (in the top right corner)


Here's a sneak peek at J's bathroom. I still need to finish up the edges (there's supposed to be no pink there!) and I haven't painted the trim or the door yet. There's no natural light in that bathroom so it's hard to see the colours. The ceiling is Lighter Mint and the walls are Lauren's Surprise (huh? what colour is that!?!?!) and the trim and door will be Westhighland White. The bedroom just has a plain white ceiling, the same trim and the walls will be Bonsai Tint. And the rest of the house can wait.

I had hoped to get our room done as well, but that will have to wait for another time. J is back sometime on Saturday and I'd like our house back to sort of normal by Friday. Painting makes for tons of junk in the living room and dining room that belongs somewhere else!