I seem to have too much time to think. I guess that's what happens when you're not working much. Anyway, lately I've been feeling more like a child and less like an adult. Maybe when I go back to my insane schedule I'll feel like a grown-up again, or at the very least I won't have as much time to think about it! :)
Signs I haven't grown up yet:
- I can sleep in until noon on a Saturday.
- I need my parents' financial support to help pay my bills.
- I still own some of my clothes from high school and can still fit into them.
- If I'm "cooking" for myself chances are I'm eating spaghetti and meatballs.
- If I don't feel like "cooking" chances are I'm eating Chef Boyadee from a can, mac and cheese, soup, or
some sort of frozen dinner.
- I can eat chocolate whenever I want and not have to share.
- I can come home whenever I want to, although if it's after 10pm I usually feel the need to sneak in so that
I don't wake up my landlady.
- Some days I don't make the bed until the middle of the afternoon.
- I'm still not confident in my curling iron skills or makeup application. Honestly, if I'm not attending a
wedding, chances are I'm not bothering with makeup.
- I still hear the phrases "Can I call you back? I need to pay the babysitter." and "Are you going to get your
degree so you can be a teacher?"
- I'm still scared of the dark, although I've made progress in this area. I'm not terrified of it anymore :).
Monday, August 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The Cooking Miracle
I will be the first one to admit that I don't cook. While I have been known to actually follow a cooking recipe, the process of cooking is highly stressful. For example, the first time I made lasagna I remember having to turn the oven off at one point and go back to the store because I realized that I hadn't brought enough of the ingredients that I needed. When I did cook dinner for myself it usually revolved around chicken....sometimes it was overcooked and sometimes (like the night I invited a friend over for dinner ) it wasn't quite done enough. Yeah, it's rather embarrassing to have your meal on the plate and start cutting your chicken only to find it still very pink. Thank goodness for side dishes to start on while you wait for the main dish to be edible!
I also have this need to have to follow the recipe when cooking. Now I realize that to people who actually enjoy cooking that following a recipe is cheating. Perhaps this is why I'm such a good baker. Afterall, you absolutely need to follow those recipes. It always amazes me to watch Ray cook because he rarely knows what he's going to cook beforehand. He just buys some meat (he doesn't really care for chicken), throws some spices on it (always a different combo, mind you) and uses whatever other food is around to come up with a creative side dish. It always tastes amazing!
For some inexplicable reason I found myself buying chicken this week. I hadn't a clue what I was going to do with it. Last night, though, I decided that I would break out of my mold of following a recipe. Ok, in reality any recipe that I had required ingredients not in my apartment and I didn't feel like going to the store to get them. This predicament forced me to use my creative powers. I had some Italian breading and a variety of spices. I decided to throw some breading in a ziplock bag along with oregano, basil, and adobo. Notice the word throw....I resisted the urge to use some sort of measuring device. I coated the chicken with egg and then put the chicken in the bag, shook it up, and baked it.
The end result? I actually managed to cook the chicken, mashed potatoes (from a box), and frozen broccoli all at the same time without having one completely done a half hour before the others. The chicken was cooked perfectly - white and moist - and tasted delicious! It was a sheer cooking miracle!
Yep, I still get excited about the little things in life :).
I also have this need to have to follow the recipe when cooking. Now I realize that to people who actually enjoy cooking that following a recipe is cheating. Perhaps this is why I'm such a good baker. Afterall, you absolutely need to follow those recipes. It always amazes me to watch Ray cook because he rarely knows what he's going to cook beforehand. He just buys some meat (he doesn't really care for chicken), throws some spices on it (always a different combo, mind you) and uses whatever other food is around to come up with a creative side dish. It always tastes amazing!
For some inexplicable reason I found myself buying chicken this week. I hadn't a clue what I was going to do with it. Last night, though, I decided that I would break out of my mold of following a recipe. Ok, in reality any recipe that I had required ingredients not in my apartment and I didn't feel like going to the store to get them. This predicament forced me to use my creative powers. I had some Italian breading and a variety of spices. I decided to throw some breading in a ziplock bag along with oregano, basil, and adobo. Notice the word throw....I resisted the urge to use some sort of measuring device. I coated the chicken with egg and then put the chicken in the bag, shook it up, and baked it.
The end result? I actually managed to cook the chicken, mashed potatoes (from a box), and frozen broccoli all at the same time without having one completely done a half hour before the others. The chicken was cooked perfectly - white and moist - and tasted delicious! It was a sheer cooking miracle!
Yep, I still get excited about the little things in life :).
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Thoughts on Being Perfect
I had one of those days last week. You know - the kind of day where everything from getting gas to cooking dinner seems to take forever and you're late for everything and you feel like nothing you do is right? That kind of day. There is nothing quite like driving down the road and seeing the bus (which had arrived at least 10 minutes earlier than usual) start pulling away while you realize that you have no idea where the boys you are supposed to be picking up are. Thankfully a very caring mom of one of the other campers had them and everyone was waiting anxiously for me to arrive. SIGH. And that was the way the rest of the afternoon and evening went.
Days like this usually send my mind spiraling down with thoughts of what a horrible, messed up person I am. Not that those thoughts ever help the situation. Usually all they do is stress me out even more. Last week was a little different though. Yes, those thoughts still entered my mind and I did beat myself up a little, however, later that night I read a book - a children's book, mind you - about being perfect. I don't know if you've ever read How to be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! by Steven Manes, but Ray had recommended it to me and it would be fitting that I would be getting around to reading it on this particular night.
Spoiler alert: In case you really, really, want to read the book for yourself first, it's probably best not to continue reading this post until you're done reading the book.
We meet the main character at the beginning of the story in a library. He's tired of always messing things up and disappointing his parents. As luck would have it, a book practically jumps out at him boasting about how reading it will make one a perfect person in only 3 days. On the first day, the reader is instructed to wear a crown of broccoli around their necks for an entire day. On the second day the reader is instructed to not eat or drink anything (except water or weak tea) for the entire day. Finally, on the last day, the reader is instructed to sit perfectly still and do absolutely nothing.
In case you're wondering, the point of wearing the broccoli was to get the reader over the fear of being publically ridiculed for their actions and the point of not eating, drinking, or doing anything over the next two days was to make the reader understand that in order to be absolutely perfect, you couldn't possibly live any sort of meaningful life. The conclusion? A perfect person is boring and no one wants to be around a boring person.
No, I'm not a perfect person. I often joke that I wear mostly black clothes so that you don't see the coffee and/or chocolate stains, but seriously....it's true! :D I'm sometimes late for appointments; sometimes I forget things altogether. I'm sure my posts contain some sort of grammatical/spelling errors and I often don't have the nicest thoughts or words. I could probably go on...but you get the drift.
That's why it's so important to me that on the days in which my imperfection is more noticeable than others that I remember God's amazing and awesome grace, repent, forgive myself, and move on.
In the words of Anne of Green Gables "Tomorrow is fresh, with no mistakes in it." And in the words of Paul
"....He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;..."
Philippians 1:6
"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:20
Days like this usually send my mind spiraling down with thoughts of what a horrible, messed up person I am. Not that those thoughts ever help the situation. Usually all they do is stress me out even more. Last week was a little different though. Yes, those thoughts still entered my mind and I did beat myself up a little, however, later that night I read a book - a children's book, mind you - about being perfect. I don't know if you've ever read How to be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! by Steven Manes, but Ray had recommended it to me and it would be fitting that I would be getting around to reading it on this particular night.
Spoiler alert: In case you really, really, want to read the book for yourself first, it's probably best not to continue reading this post until you're done reading the book.
We meet the main character at the beginning of the story in a library. He's tired of always messing things up and disappointing his parents. As luck would have it, a book practically jumps out at him boasting about how reading it will make one a perfect person in only 3 days. On the first day, the reader is instructed to wear a crown of broccoli around their necks for an entire day. On the second day the reader is instructed to not eat or drink anything (except water or weak tea) for the entire day. Finally, on the last day, the reader is instructed to sit perfectly still and do absolutely nothing.
In case you're wondering, the point of wearing the broccoli was to get the reader over the fear of being publically ridiculed for their actions and the point of not eating, drinking, or doing anything over the next two days was to make the reader understand that in order to be absolutely perfect, you couldn't possibly live any sort of meaningful life. The conclusion? A perfect person is boring and no one wants to be around a boring person.
No, I'm not a perfect person. I often joke that I wear mostly black clothes so that you don't see the coffee and/or chocolate stains, but seriously....it's true! :D I'm sometimes late for appointments; sometimes I forget things altogether. I'm sure my posts contain some sort of grammatical/spelling errors and I often don't have the nicest thoughts or words. I could probably go on...but you get the drift.
That's why it's so important to me that on the days in which my imperfection is more noticeable than others that I remember God's amazing and awesome grace, repent, forgive myself, and move on.
In the words of Anne of Green Gables "Tomorrow is fresh, with no mistakes in it." And in the words of Paul
"....He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;..."
Philippians 1:6
"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:20
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Bathroom Renovations
Last July I moved into my current apartment. Two days before I started moving my possessions in I had a conversation with my landlady about the bathroom. It seems there had been a leak in the bathroom sink and the plumber had come to fix it. I thought this was good until I realized that the cold water would barely come out when I turned on the sink. Simple tasks like washing my hands and face became challenging as burning hot water would start coming out of the sink after a couple of minutes.
Last December the plumber came again because there was a leak in my landlady's bathroom which apparently came from my shower. It seems that the shower needs to be caulked (actually ALOT more needs to be done with it, but that'll be another story I'm sure). While the plumber was there I asked if he could take a look at the sink. His suggestion was to get a new faucet. Now I haven't seen the plumber since, but my landlady did buy a new faucet, which she kept in her house until I asked on June 30th if she'd allow Ray to install it. By this time Ray and I were both very tired of getting our hands burnt.
Last December the plumber came again because there was a leak in my landlady's bathroom which apparently came from my shower. It seems that the shower needs to be caulked (actually ALOT more needs to be done with it, but that'll be another story I'm sure). While the plumber was there I asked if he could take a look at the sink. His suggestion was to get a new faucet. Now I haven't seen the plumber since, but my landlady did buy a new faucet, which she kept in her house until I asked on June 30th if she'd allow Ray to install it. By this time Ray and I were both very tired of getting our hands burnt.
Beginning the process. The bolts on the sink were so rusted over that Ray had to cut them off. The sink stayed this way for a day or two.
The workspace that Ray had. Now, to give you some perspective, the door opens inwards and Ray is over 6 feet tall. He had to crawl under the sink cabinets and the floor space is probably only 3-4 feet long. This was definitely an act of love.
Finally the bolts are off! Guess what....when Ray was cleaning a bunch of gunk out of the cold water pipe it turned out that a screw (probably from the plumber that came to fix the sink last year) fell into the pipe and was keeping the cold water from coming out.
Yay for a new faucet and drain!
Oh, did I mention that the pipe underneath the sink was so old that when Ray went to remove the sink the pipe actually started crumbling in his hand?!? Yep, so he ended up replacing the piping too....with the help of some very good friends who have lots of plumbing experience.
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