On the other hand, it occurred to me today that I still have never seen a firefly or other biolumenescent insect and I went online to look up where to find them.  Apparently not often West of the Mississippi.  I missed my chance while we were in Arkansas!  Also, I found out that fireflies are carnivores, or at least omnivores.  That’s okay with me, as I like ladybugs and they eat other bugs, but for some reason I think it’s a little more gross in a firefly.  A lot of grossness in this post.

Speaking of bugs, one of my favorite bits of literature on the subject is a piece about spiders that exactly describes my feelings about spider webs.  It’s in Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which I have read and re-read and I consider it a treasure in humorous reading.  When I lived in my own place I kept it near my bed for reading when I had a bad day.  Definitely recommended reading.

Falafel balls from Costco

Updating my blog

Trying new recipes

Painting shows (Bob Ross’ happy trees…)

Checking on the garden every day…some of those plants grow fast, and some of those pests eat my veggies fast!

Listening to Colin practice the piano

Planning for the next family get-together

What about the rest of the description?  Well, the same cut of meat can be called a bunch of things.  In Googling how to cook my roast, I discovered a lovely site that may prove to solve my meat-labeling issues: The Cook’s Thesaurus.  Google took me to a page within this site that provided a reasonable explanation to this (and other) food jargon issue.  Here’s what it had to say about my roast:

The chuck section comes from the shoulder and neck of the beef, and it yields some of the most flavorful and economical cuts of meat.  The downside is that these cuts tend to be tough and fatty, and they have more than their fair share of bone and gristle.  It’s usually best to cook them slowly in a liquid.

shoulder roast = shoulder pot roast = English roast   Notes: This boneless cut is located right behind the arm roast on the carcass.  It’s rather tough, so it’s usually cooked in a liquid.   Substitutes: arm roast OR bottom round OR cross rib roast

Isn’t that lovely?!  Now I know how to cook it and what other names could be used for it.  And if I ever want to cook it again and can’t find a store that sells it under the “English Roast” name, I’ll be able to ask a butcher for the equivalent or a substitute in an educated way.

Speaking of butchers, there’s nothing worse than talking to a butcher you don’t know about something neither of you may know anything about.  I admit, I don’t know my meat-mongers at all. But I always wonder as I pass the meat counter whether they really know anything about meat (or cooking meat) beyond how to cut it.   They seem to always be hiding out, nearly out of sight, behind the counter just hoping that no one will bug them.  They also seem to usually be really short, skinny people who may or may not speak English.  Probably my love for Fiddler on the Roof has tainted my ideal of “the great butcher” by making me think that a butcher has to be a big, muscular, dominant man with an impressive personal presence exuding expertise in the field of all things meaty.  Why can’t I have a Lazar Wolf butcher? If you’ve never seen the movie, you can see Lazar Wolf at work about 2 minutes into this video:

Silly side note: Isn’t “thesaurus” a funny word?  It’s like the name of a dinosaur.  Or THE dinosaur.  Hmmmm…

What about the rest of the description?  Well, the same cut of meat can be called a bunch of things.  In Googling how to cook my roast, I discovered a lovely site that may prove to solve my meat-labeling issues: The Cook’s Thesaurus.  Google took me to a page within this site that provided a reasonable explanation to this (and other) food jargon issue.  Here’s what it had to say about my roast:

The chuck section comes from the shoulder and neck of the beef, and it yields some of the most flavorful and economical cuts of meat.  The downside is that these cuts tend to be tough and fatty, and they have more than their fair share of bone and gristle.  It’s usually best to cook them slowly in a liquid.

shoulder roast = shoulder pot roast = English roast   Notes: This boneless cut is located right behind the arm roast on the carcass.  It’s rather tough, so it’s usually cooked in a liquid.   Substitutes: arm roast OR bottom round OR cross rib roast

Isn’t that lovely?!  Now I know how to cook it and what other names could be used for it.  And if I ever want to cook it again and can’t find a store that sells it under the “English Roast” name, I’ll be able to ask a butcher for the equivalent or a substitute in an educated way.

Speaking of butchers, there’s nothing worse than talking to a butcher you don’t know about something neither of you may know anything about.  I admit, I don’t know my meat-mongers at all. But I always wonder as I pass the meat counter whether they really know anything about meat (or cooking meat) beyond how to cut it.   They seem to always be hiding out, nearly out of sight, behind the counter just hoping that no one will bug them.  They also seem to usually be really short, skinny people who may or may not speak English.  Probably my love for Fiddler on the Roof has tainted my ideal of “the great butcher” by making me think that a butcher has to be a big, muscular, dominant man with an impressive personal presence exuding expertise in the field of all things meaty.  Why can’t I have a Lazar Wolf butcher? If you’ve never seen the movie, you can see Lazar Wolf at work about 2 minutes into this video:

Silly side note: Isn’t “thesaurus” a funny word?  It’s like the name of a dinosaur.  Or THE dinosaur.  Hmmmm…

It rains in the Spring.  I like rain because it smells good.  It makes everything feel clean and new.  It gives variety to my life.  I even like thunderstorms because it makes me humble and reminds me of the power of God.

Flowers!  The flowers start to come back and they smell good and help me to be cheerful.

Easter.  My birthday.  May parent’s birthdays.  Passover.

The sunshine comes back warm, but not too warm.  I always forget how much I missed the sunshine during the winter and it’s like a great surprise every year.

Green grass and leaves.

Strawberries!  I had strawberries for breakfast with a little whipped cream.  Who knew that two cups of strawberries has fewer grams of carbs than a cup of cereal?

Other spring fruits and veggies!  Asparagus, artichokes, apricots, avocados, and pineapple.  (I just found a list of fruits and vegetables by season–with pictures!!–here)

The farmer’s market starts up again and I can find good produce next month!

General Conference

Kites–I should bust out our kite and take the kids kite-flying with all the wind we’ve got right now.

Spring Cleaning.  I rarely actually do a whole huge Spring Cleaning, but I do get a little bug in my head helping me to get motivated to try to get things back in order.

Anticipation and planning of summer vacations.

Did I mention flowers and sunshine?  I really love those…

I’m cooking sans microwave for now, obviously.  I don’t know about you, but we use our microwave quite often.  I suppose I could go find the box in our storage room that holds our toaster oven and use that to decrease the awkwardness of heating up the entire oven for every little reheating activity.  It’s a convection oven, too, so it would make things heat up faster than our big oven.  Hmmm…I hadn’t thought of that until just now.

We’d never purchased nor priced a microwave before since we’d gotten one for our wedding, so the other night when we decided our microwave was unusable Colin and I were relieved to find out that there are many acceptable models under $100.  After reading through reviews and “most popular” lists on Amazon and Walmart and Sears and Target and Sam’s Club sites, Colin determined that if and when we buy another microwave, we should probably go for either a Sharp or a Panasonic 1100W 1 cubic footer.  So, when we get our tax return back (maybe this weekend!) we may take a little chunk of it and get a microwave.  Then again, I may see how we do with just the toaster oven and watch yard sales for a good microwave…

I like having time alone when I exercise.  I try to work out early in the morning, sometimes before even Colin gets up, and almost always before anyone else in our apartment complex is outside.  Walking the three minutes to our gym outside in the fresh air before dawn refreshes my soul.  I love sunrise–I’d forgotten how much.  And since it’s been about three years since I’ve even had the bathroom to myself on a regular basis, having a half-hour or more legitimately to myself gives me an emotional boost. I feel like God and I are the only ones awake and I find I can pray with more gratitude and focus.

Exercise is helping me lose weight!  I’ve lost 5 1/2 pounds and one fat percentage point since I started.

I have time to listen to music.  Right now it’s not great music, academically speaking, but I’m enjoying it and I’m sure I’ll discover more as I go along and get bored with the baby stuff.

I feel happy more of the day.  I find I don’t have to work so hard to be happy.  I don’t have to try so hard to be motivated to pick up the house because I’ve already done something good and feel great about it.  I don’t want to sit on the couch and watch TV so much of the time.

I have a reason to get up in the morning besides someone crying at me.  So much of the last couple of years I’ve woken up to crying babies, and it’s trained me to almost dread waking up.  Now I have an appointment with myself to do something for myself that makes me feel good.  I admit that I still defiantly stay in bed after the alarm rings, but I think that may gradually go away on its own.

I like to have a quantitative measure of what I’m doing.  Changing diapers and making dinner and folding laundry could be quantified, so maybe I should do it with those too.  But with a treadmill it calculates all the numbers for you and you can see as you work just how much work you’ve done and compare it to yesterday.  I like lifting weights, too, because I count as I lift and each time I finish a set it’s like I’ve made it to a goal.  I almost like weights better than cardio because I get to the “I successfully finished something!” point more often.

Since I wear my hair in a ponytail most days of any given month, I accepted the challenge and haven’t had a ponytail (except when working out!) for two days. I don’t think I’d actually “let myself go”–I’ve just never been un-gone. I have actually felt a little prettier with blow-dried hair than with dried-in-my-ponytail hair, so it’s a good thing in any case.

Did I mention that being part of the weekly+ challenges qualifies me for a drawing for “fabulous prizes?” This time it’s a gift card to Bath & Body Works so I probably wouldn’t be able to use it on myself if I were to win, but it does sound fabulous does it not?

January Ponytail
February Ponytail
March Ponytail

Yes, I have a couple of mini-charts for the kids (it’s helping Degen with his potty-training), but I primarily use incentive charts for me! I bought a pack of about 1500 tiny stickers for myself last year and give myself a sticker each time I achieve a goal. My vertical axis is a list of my goals, and the horizontal axis is a list of dates. Every day that I work out, I give myself a sticker. Every day that I read my scriptures, I get a sticker. Every day when I put away a load of freshly folded laundry, I put a sticker on my chart. You get the picture.

There’s something magical about a visual representation of my accomplishments, however small. When I see a bunch of little stickers on the chart, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction a little bit at a time. Somehow I feel motivated to do the dishes, and it doesn’t make me feel so bad to think about how there will be more to do again almost as soon as I finish because at least I have something (a little sticker) to show for it.

I keep my chart on a wall by my bed and check it for ideas of things to do regularly throughout the day. When we lived in a house, I kept it in the family room where I could check it while I was playing with the kids or watching TV or feeling lost or overwhelmed. It’s a great antidote for those moments when I can’t remember why I do what I do, or even what it is I do, really.

I mostly use the chart for goals I work on daily, and sometimes weekly goals, too. I make the goals simple and measurable so that I can’t waffle or loophole myself out of a feeling of accomplishment. It’s not just a to-do list–each goal is there for a specific reason that’s linked to my vision of how I want to be. That makes charting my progress meaningful and motivating.