Today I had an off site meeting that put me about 15 miles or 30 minutes closer to home (rush hour is my daily nightmare), which meant I got home early. Yeah!!! Since I missed most to the madness on the highway I was in a great mood when I arrived in town (I live 30 miles outside of San Antonio) and even decided to swing by the grocery store.
I only stopped to pick up a few ingredients for a pot luck lunch I have going on tomorrow but I was pretty pleased when I found "calabazas" (Mexican squash) on sale. I immediately picked up a couple of pounds for dinner. It is very rare for me to arrive home from work before my husband and today despite my quick pit stop I beat him, but only by a few minutes!
I am cooking "calabazitas" with rice and can't believe we'll actually eat before 7 tonight.
Hope your Thursday is wrapping up nicely and are looking forward to the upcoming weekend!
Wedding Photos
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Spring cleaning / clothes swap
Spring cleaning isn't exactly one of my favorite things to do and now being married it has become a bigger challenge. I get a wild hair and run amok thru the house on short bursts, that are usually fueled by guilt of sitting in front of my laptop reading too many blogs, answering mail and without a doubt watching "estrogen T.V.".
I do my best not to fuss at my honey when I am on cleaning mode because I am smart enough to know my husband isn't synched in to my cleaning energy surges, but there are other times when I feel there is so much to do and I just want to scream at the fact that I zoom thru the house while he reads, blogs or other and doesn't even notice the commotion.
Let's face it, few are the men who are cleaners! Those are usually obsessive compulsive or germophobes, so I am more than happy to be the one in our marriage who leads the fight with grime!
There are times when I announce early in the day that there will be cleaning going on, and that his participation is required. I toss a few tasks needing attention and ask him to get to them sometime during the day or weekend. I am NOT his parent asking him to do his chores and don't believe I have to supervise him--though there have been times when on Sunday evening he has not gotten around to any of those tasks and I tend to get bitchy and it motivates him.
There is usually whining over some of the cleaning tasks that marvel him. Like wiping down all the doors in the house or de-calcifying the coffee maker on a regular basis. Perhaps he just was never involved in such tasks growing up, or perhaps learning how to clean from my grandmother has something to do with it...
Anyways, so far this year we have had only a little Spring cleaning and thanks to a wonderful invitation for a Swap (clothes and house goods) by a friend we were able to purge a few of the things that were just taking up space. A friend has been holding swaps twice a year for a while and this was the first I was able to attend. I had never gone to one. I associate a swap with rummage sales or flea markets. Far from that; the gathering I attended consisted of one host, several friends invited, wine, party food and gently used items one is willing to part with.
The spirit / point of the party is to de-clutter your home and allow someone else to enjoy things you might have loved at one point that no longer fit, do not go with your current decor, or gifted items that aren't really you but you have kept for sentimental reasons. At the end of the party, anything that is left over is bagged or boxed and donated to a local charity that picks up donations at your door. I had a blast and hear these girly parties are going on everywhere!
I took to the party a dress purchased on sale that never fit properly and was afraid to pay outrageous tailoring fees to fix or ruin it doing the alterations myself. Home decorations that sat boxed in the garage since our last move, custom jewelry I hadn't worn in years but spending good money on them made me hoard away, and an assortment of clothes I haven't fit in to in over a year! (Some too big, and some way too small)
I left home with three boxes full of items and came home with only a bag of a few items I absolutely loved! A couple of blue glass bowls that will go great as serving bowls with my current dishes. A set of tall coffee mugs, also blue, that hold enough liquid for my caffeine addiction and last a beautiful Isabella Fiore purse that I absolutely fell in love with. Can you say SCORE???
Hope you are finding order and beauty this Spring time ..
I do my best not to fuss at my honey when I am on cleaning mode because I am smart enough to know my husband isn't synched in to my cleaning energy surges, but there are other times when I feel there is so much to do and I just want to scream at the fact that I zoom thru the house while he reads, blogs or other and doesn't even notice the commotion.
Let's face it, few are the men who are cleaners! Those are usually obsessive compulsive or germophobes, so I am more than happy to be the one in our marriage who leads the fight with grime!
There are times when I announce early in the day that there will be cleaning going on, and that his participation is required. I toss a few tasks needing attention and ask him to get to them sometime during the day or weekend. I am NOT his parent asking him to do his chores and don't believe I have to supervise him--though there have been times when on Sunday evening he has not gotten around to any of those tasks and I tend to get bitchy and it motivates him.
There is usually whining over some of the cleaning tasks that marvel him. Like wiping down all the doors in the house or de-calcifying the coffee maker on a regular basis. Perhaps he just was never involved in such tasks growing up, or perhaps learning how to clean from my grandmother has something to do with it...
Anyways, so far this year we have had only a little Spring cleaning and thanks to a wonderful invitation for a Swap (clothes and house goods) by a friend we were able to purge a few of the things that were just taking up space. A friend has been holding swaps twice a year for a while and this was the first I was able to attend. I had never gone to one. I associate a swap with rummage sales or flea markets. Far from that; the gathering I attended consisted of one host, several friends invited, wine, party food and gently used items one is willing to part with.
The spirit / point of the party is to de-clutter your home and allow someone else to enjoy things you might have loved at one point that no longer fit, do not go with your current decor, or gifted items that aren't really you but you have kept for sentimental reasons. At the end of the party, anything that is left over is bagged or boxed and donated to a local charity that picks up donations at your door. I had a blast and hear these girly parties are going on everywhere!
I took to the party a dress purchased on sale that never fit properly and was afraid to pay outrageous tailoring fees to fix or ruin it doing the alterations myself. Home decorations that sat boxed in the garage since our last move, custom jewelry I hadn't worn in years but spending good money on them made me hoard away, and an assortment of clothes I haven't fit in to in over a year! (Some too big, and some way too small)
I left home with three boxes full of items and came home with only a bag of a few items I absolutely loved! A couple of blue glass bowls that will go great as serving bowls with my current dishes. A set of tall coffee mugs, also blue, that hold enough liquid for my caffeine addiction and last a beautiful Isabella Fiore purse that I absolutely fell in love with. Can you say SCORE???
Hope you are finding order and beauty this Spring time ..
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Second verse, same as the first..
It is with shame that I admit to another spring of barely keeping plants alive in a bucket! Yes, last year I spent good money buying flowers I intended to plant and they ended up living in plastic containers in my kitchen without me making time to actually put them on the ground.
This year I got some plants from my brother's garden and took them home to plant. What happened to them? Well, I haven't gotten around to them. Not that I haven't had the time, I just don't think about them until early in the morning when I am running out the door to work and only water them to keep them alive or late at night when I am going to bed and I don't have the energy to pot them. Poor little plants, my husband teases me but he should shame me in to action. (I am hoping I shame myself with this post)
Last weekend I was at Sam's Club looking around and found a great deal on some flower pots. I just couldn't buy them! They were the size and color I have been wanting for our front porch, but the shame of having other empty pots stored in the garage while plants sit waiting in a bucket needing to be re-potted wouldn't let me do it. Besides I didn't want to come home and have my honey say something to me about my purchase; ok, may be not actually say something but could not bear a disapproving look.
Anyways, I am hoping to I get motivated to work on the flower beds and take care of those other poor plants needing my attention this long weekend.
This year I got some plants from my brother's garden and took them home to plant. What happened to them? Well, I haven't gotten around to them. Not that I haven't had the time, I just don't think about them until early in the morning when I am running out the door to work and only water them to keep them alive or late at night when I am going to bed and I don't have the energy to pot them. Poor little plants, my husband teases me but he should shame me in to action. (I am hoping I shame myself with this post)
Last weekend I was at Sam's Club looking around and found a great deal on some flower pots. I just couldn't buy them! They were the size and color I have been wanting for our front porch, but the shame of having other empty pots stored in the garage while plants sit waiting in a bucket needing to be re-potted wouldn't let me do it. Besides I didn't want to come home and have my honey say something to me about my purchase; ok, may be not actually say something but could not bear a disapproving look.
Anyways, I am hoping to I get motivated to work on the flower beds and take care of those other poor plants needing my attention this long weekend.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Laundry,.. the never ending fight.
In our house I tend to do laundry the majority of the time. I don't mind too much, I am a pain in the ass about how clothes get washed and folded. Only a few occasions my husband has made the mistake of complaining over not having clean "something", to which I quickly pointed out that it was his own fault.
One- he should have mentioned that he was running out of clean "whatever" and I would have made it a point to wash a load that day. TWO- he knows how to do laundry. He was doing his own laundry before we met. THREE-he has been slacking and conveniently letting me do it all.
Oh I can get bitchy! He knows that despite my laid back attitude about things, few really get me worked up but I do have a temper. Recently we had a "episode" over relocating folded laundry from our bed to a chair when getting ready for bed. It wasn't the first time we have discussed this issue so I could not contain fussing at him (ok, more than fussing). Here is how it went..
Me: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??", followed by me hollering his name across the house (he HATES that!). "You actually just moved YOUR folded laundry (socks & underwear) to the chair instead of putting it up?"
Him: "I was just getting the bed ready (to sleep), and... I am tired".
Me: "You are too tired to walk a few feet in to the closet and put YOUR clothes in their place?"
Him: "Babe.." with a guilty look.
Me: "I washed , I folded, got side tracked with other chores before I could put them away and you conveniently relocate it (laundry) expecting me to finish the job?
Him: (nothing, no words coming out of him mouth)
Me: "You've been hearing me all around the house for the last few hours while you've been glued to your laptop and YOU ARE TIRED??
Him: Sad faced grabbing things off the chair, with a bit of a smirk because he knew what he was doing and got caught!
Me: Shaking my head angry, and not wanting to prolong things (or laugh at his pathetic look) had to walk out of the room.
I can put up with his blind eye at a basket (of clothes needing folding) as he walks thru the laundry room when he arrives from work. I myself have tunnel vision and can walk right by things needing attention, but consciously just relocating things??
I usually finish the whole job of doing laundry myself and only sometimes recruit him to help when I have other things going on. His teasing about my excessive compulsive ways of specific hangers, and organizing things by color in the closet is something I choose to do without! Yes, I am a pain about it; and NO our house isn't organized top to bottom! There can be chaos on our desk and book shelves, but our clothes (closet & drawers) must be organized.
It's been a couple of weeks since that little "episode" and I guess it weight heavy in his heart because he washed a couple of loads, or maybe it was my slacking last weekend. Anyways he washed and dried and over stuffed one laundry basket with two loads of clothes. As of last night the basket sat at the foot of the bed. I asked casually when he was going to finish the job and stated firmly I was not going to do it! His smart ass remark was "I can just pull things as I need them and wait until I go thru them and it's time to wash them again". NOT what I wanted to hear, so I just rolled my eyes as he smirked!
I tell you.. I prefer a smart ass than a dumb ass, but not when my husband is being a smart ass about something that drives me crazy! The only reason things didn't escalate last night was because the clothes in the basket are only his! I won't play the waiting game with him (you know, see who gives in first?), but will have to figure out a way to encourage him to finish the task tonight!
One- he should have mentioned that he was running out of clean "whatever" and I would have made it a point to wash a load that day. TWO- he knows how to do laundry. He was doing his own laundry before we met. THREE-he has been slacking and conveniently letting me do it all.
Oh I can get bitchy! He knows that despite my laid back attitude about things, few really get me worked up but I do have a temper. Recently we had a "episode" over relocating folded laundry from our bed to a chair when getting ready for bed. It wasn't the first time we have discussed this issue so I could not contain fussing at him (ok, more than fussing). Here is how it went..
Me: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??", followed by me hollering his name across the house (he HATES that!). "You actually just moved YOUR folded laundry (socks & underwear) to the chair instead of putting it up?"
Him: "I was just getting the bed ready (to sleep), and... I am tired".
Me: "You are too tired to walk a few feet in to the closet and put YOUR clothes in their place?"
Him: "Babe.." with a guilty look.
Me: "I washed , I folded, got side tracked with other chores before I could put them away and you conveniently relocate it (laundry) expecting me to finish the job?
Him: (nothing, no words coming out of him mouth)
Me: "You've been hearing me all around the house for the last few hours while you've been glued to your laptop and YOU ARE TIRED??
Him: Sad faced grabbing things off the chair, with a bit of a smirk because he knew what he was doing and got caught!
Me: Shaking my head angry, and not wanting to prolong things (or laugh at his pathetic look) had to walk out of the room.
I can put up with his blind eye at a basket (of clothes needing folding) as he walks thru the laundry room when he arrives from work. I myself have tunnel vision and can walk right by things needing attention, but consciously just relocating things??
I usually finish the whole job of doing laundry myself and only sometimes recruit him to help when I have other things going on. His teasing about my excessive compulsive ways of specific hangers, and organizing things by color in the closet is something I choose to do without! Yes, I am a pain about it; and NO our house isn't organized top to bottom! There can be chaos on our desk and book shelves, but our clothes (closet & drawers) must be organized.
It's been a couple of weeks since that little "episode" and I guess it weight heavy in his heart because he washed a couple of loads, or maybe it was my slacking last weekend. Anyways he washed and dried and over stuffed one laundry basket with two loads of clothes. As of last night the basket sat at the foot of the bed. I asked casually when he was going to finish the job and stated firmly I was not going to do it! His smart ass remark was "I can just pull things as I need them and wait until I go thru them and it's time to wash them again". NOT what I wanted to hear, so I just rolled my eyes as he smirked!
I tell you.. I prefer a smart ass than a dumb ass, but not when my husband is being a smart ass about something that drives me crazy! The only reason things didn't escalate last night was because the clothes in the basket are only his! I won't play the waiting game with him (you know, see who gives in first?), but will have to figure out a way to encourage him to finish the task tonight!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Intimate dinner party
Last Saturday we had friends over for dinner. We love to entertain. It is one of the things I have always loved about my husband, no.. wait! I love that he likes to entertain as much as I do and he is not the type of man who sits on his ass and expects everything to get done without his help (cleaning, cooking, serving, etc.).
I've watched some of my female family members (the older generations) work themselves to the bone when having parties. Exhausted over cooking and cleaning while their husbands sit around like guests expecting to be waited hand and foot. I don't know how many times I've wanted to smack some of these older gents on the head and tell them to get their asses moving!
This very nightmare was a big problem for me dating. Once they (the exes) got wind of my "traditional Latino upbringing" they thought they had it made and could just kick back and let me handle it all! NO CREO YO! (I don't think so!)
The first dinner party my husband (boyfriend then) and I ever gave he was right there with me cleaning, shopping at the grocery store, cooking, and taking turns with me working the kitchen while the other sat down and engaged with our friends. It was the type of entertaining I had always wanted to have at my place (with a mate). That was a big sign for me that he could be long term material...He has not only participated that first time, but every single time after thru our dating, moving in together and now marriage! It makes entertaining pleasant occasion rather than a chore! (One of the many reasons I married him!)
Anyways, dinner was nice! I dug up an old recipe (a chicken, bell pepper, prosciutto and capers dish) that I had never cooked in the years my husband and I have been together! It all turned out great and our guests were wonderful company. We will definitely be having more small gatherings as opposed to larger parties. Less preparation, more of a chance to practice my cooking skills with more elaborate dishes and definitely less clean up afterward!
Hope your weekend was perfect!
I've watched some of my female family members (the older generations) work themselves to the bone when having parties. Exhausted over cooking and cleaning while their husbands sit around like guests expecting to be waited hand and foot. I don't know how many times I've wanted to smack some of these older gents on the head and tell them to get their asses moving!
This very nightmare was a big problem for me dating. Once they (the exes) got wind of my "traditional Latino upbringing" they thought they had it made and could just kick back and let me handle it all! NO CREO YO! (I don't think so!)
The first dinner party my husband (boyfriend then) and I ever gave he was right there with me cleaning, shopping at the grocery store, cooking, and taking turns with me working the kitchen while the other sat down and engaged with our friends. It was the type of entertaining I had always wanted to have at my place (with a mate). That was a big sign for me that he could be long term material...He has not only participated that first time, but every single time after thru our dating, moving in together and now marriage! It makes entertaining pleasant occasion rather than a chore! (One of the many reasons I married him!)
Anyways, dinner was nice! I dug up an old recipe (a chicken, bell pepper, prosciutto and capers dish) that I had never cooked in the years my husband and I have been together! It all turned out great and our guests were wonderful company. We will definitely be having more small gatherings as opposed to larger parties. Less preparation, more of a chance to practice my cooking skills with more elaborate dishes and definitely less clean up afterward!
Hope your weekend was perfect!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Organizing the clutter of our hobbies
In our household art supplies are abundant. My husband paints miniatures for gaming (check out his blog) and I try different things for a while, until the next interest comes along. Between my husband and I we have more art supplies than the average preschool. Because of our different interests, we hoard a variety of empty containers, wires, bits and pieces of you name it, "just in case". Can you say pack rat??
My latest hobby has been fun; I've been beading for a bout a year. I mostly make jewelry for gifts, and can honestly say I have only kept few pieces for myself.
My mother (a true merchant) keeps trying to encourage me to sell my jewelery, but I bead for fun; HAVING TO make jewelry for profit would become a chore and no longer fun. I don't think I could do it anyway, I have a short attention span and usually end up putting things away for a month or two (or more) and come back to them when I have nothing better to entertain me.
I did just that with hand-painting flower pots. My husband is my witness that I haven't painted anything in over a year (may be more -- no concept of time) and I still owe him a pot for "Robert," an ivy he's had since before we met!
This year I have told myself we need to purge our home of some of the clutter. We need to stop accumulating and start disposing of things. I hate to say it, but I am the adult when it comes to these types of chores. It has been difficult taking on this role in our marriage! All my adult life I did as I saw was needed and the only obstacle was my procrastination. Now I have to negotiate with my husband and be patient of his explanations of why we must hold on to something. I've resorted to the logical argument of not being his parent and not wanting to be the "police" in our home, but it's very hard when your first impulse is to save things.
There has been one wonderful thing that has helped keep order in the house and the pack rat tendencies at bay. Since we moved out of our apartment in to an actual house we have a weekly recycling service and a huge bin that gets picked up like the trash does in our neighborhood. It is much easier to rid of things once we can agree we have too many "just in case" items. Our old apartment didn't have recycling on site and it was a pain in the ass to recycle since we had to drive out our recyclables to the nearest drop off site. If we saved something, getting rid of it was nearly impossible!
Anyways, I foresee the need of more de-cluttering and storage solutions. My mom and siblings gifted me a brand new sewing machine that I haven't even gotten out of the box. I am afraid once it's out it will reside on our kitchen table (our craft area) for weeks at a time. I've already been looking for material to sew aprons for Mother's Day gifts and I know once I get started the project will take up much of the nonexistent free time I have during the week (most of it is spent commuting to and from work).
Even with our decent sized "catch-all room" (office/honey's gaming storage/drum room), there is no space for my sewing machine in there. We seriously need to work on moving some of those things into the garage, but that would entail cleaning it out and going thru all the boxes we have yet to touch since our move a couple of years ago.
We are in desperate need of motivation or an adult to come and force us to get the job done!
My latest hobby has been fun; I've been beading for a bout a year. I mostly make jewelry for gifts, and can honestly say I have only kept few pieces for myself.
My mother (a true merchant) keeps trying to encourage me to sell my jewelery, but I bead for fun; HAVING TO make jewelry for profit would become a chore and no longer fun. I don't think I could do it anyway, I have a short attention span and usually end up putting things away for a month or two (or more) and come back to them when I have nothing better to entertain me.
I did just that with hand-painting flower pots. My husband is my witness that I haven't painted anything in over a year (may be more -- no concept of time) and I still owe him a pot for "Robert," an ivy he's had since before we met!
This year I have told myself we need to purge our home of some of the clutter. We need to stop accumulating and start disposing of things. I hate to say it, but I am the adult when it comes to these types of chores. It has been difficult taking on this role in our marriage! All my adult life I did as I saw was needed and the only obstacle was my procrastination. Now I have to negotiate with my husband and be patient of his explanations of why we must hold on to something. I've resorted to the logical argument of not being his parent and not wanting to be the "police" in our home, but it's very hard when your first impulse is to save things.
There has been one wonderful thing that has helped keep order in the house and the pack rat tendencies at bay. Since we moved out of our apartment in to an actual house we have a weekly recycling service and a huge bin that gets picked up like the trash does in our neighborhood. It is much easier to rid of things once we can agree we have too many "just in case" items. Our old apartment didn't have recycling on site and it was a pain in the ass to recycle since we had to drive out our recyclables to the nearest drop off site. If we saved something, getting rid of it was nearly impossible!
Anyways, I foresee the need of more de-cluttering and storage solutions. My mom and siblings gifted me a brand new sewing machine that I haven't even gotten out of the box. I am afraid once it's out it will reside on our kitchen table (our craft area) for weeks at a time. I've already been looking for material to sew aprons for Mother's Day gifts and I know once I get started the project will take up much of the nonexistent free time I have during the week (most of it is spent commuting to and from work).
Even with our decent sized "catch-all room" (office/honey's gaming storage/drum room), there is no space for my sewing machine in there. We seriously need to work on moving some of those things into the garage, but that would entail cleaning it out and going thru all the boxes we have yet to touch since our move a couple of years ago.
We are in desperate need of motivation or an adult to come and force us to get the job done!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Kitchen conversation & St Patrick's Day
Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day and last night my husband and I were busy in the kitchen preparing goodies for him to take to his office party this afternoon; nothing to do with the Irish holiday, just an excuse for them to munch out. I am very jealous because at my office there was no celebration of the upcoming holiday!!
What were our contributions to the party you say? Well, not Irish at all (our goodies) my husband made his famous salsa and at his request I baked some yummy cornbread muffins. Not wanting to hear that someone pinched the little muffins I added some green to them in the form of chopped jalapeno ( to the batter).
As for our kitchen conversation, well.. I asked why he volunteered to take cornbread muffins! Was someone taking a dish in which cornbread would be appropriate? He really couldn't remember what the sign-up sheet said, but I have a feeling it was an excuse to ask me to bake the muffins and enjoy them unsupervised (out of my sight).
The rest of our conversation while we cleaned up the kitchen stirred to me mentioning to my honey how much I had been enjoying the CD of Adele he gave me (which I asked) for Valentine's Day all the way up to the point where I noticed what big lungs the woman has. No off colored remarks please, what I meant is that the woman can suck up some air in between phrases! I had not noticed until after a few days of my blasting the music and singing along in my car. I began to inhale in the same places as she does and just as hard!! I thought I was going to hyperventilate on my daily commute!!
I still like her (Adele) but I would love to write her some fan mail to say "Thank you for enunciating (my choir teacher would be impressed), but would you please work on your breathing!!"
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
What were our contributions to the party you say? Well, not Irish at all (our goodies) my husband made his famous salsa and at his request I baked some yummy cornbread muffins. Not wanting to hear that someone pinched the little muffins I added some green to them in the form of chopped jalapeno ( to the batter).
As for our kitchen conversation, well.. I asked why he volunteered to take cornbread muffins! Was someone taking a dish in which cornbread would be appropriate? He really couldn't remember what the sign-up sheet said, but I have a feeling it was an excuse to ask me to bake the muffins and enjoy them unsupervised (out of my sight).
The rest of our conversation while we cleaned up the kitchen stirred to me mentioning to my honey how much I had been enjoying the CD of Adele he gave me (which I asked) for Valentine's Day all the way up to the point where I noticed what big lungs the woman has. No off colored remarks please, what I meant is that the woman can suck up some air in between phrases! I had not noticed until after a few days of my blasting the music and singing along in my car. I began to inhale in the same places as she does and just as hard!! I thought I was going to hyperventilate on my daily commute!!
I still like her (Adele) but I would love to write her some fan mail to say "Thank you for enunciating (my choir teacher would be impressed), but would you please work on your breathing!!"
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)