Satisfaction

We have had several days off work for the holidays. It's been really nice! There is also a 2 page list of things to do before the baby arrives, most of which has taken up Cary's time. I have been really surprised that it only takes 2 days for me to get bored and begin to feel unproductive. Sleeping in late isn't so much fun any more. I actually thought last night, "I need to wake up at my normal work time tomorrow morning." What?

So this morning I made a decision to get up (no, not the normal time...it was much later but we got to bed much later last night) and make a list of things I was going to accomplish today. Most of which required me to be out of the house. I am proud to say I shopped for about 7 hours! I made 2 trips home to unload the car and take a break. Surprisingly the breaks were perfectly timed because my stomach needed food and my feet were about to fall off.

Now, before you get all excited about the 7 hours of shopping...don't. The outing included a trip to Baby's R Us for registry items and purchasing our car seat travel system. I had grocery shopping to do. Then there were the light fixtures I needed to select for the new master bath and let's not forget the bedding for the new master bedroom. Yes, these are all exciting things but necessities and things I could not ignor any longer. Besides, it was exhausting!

Most importantly I feel satisfied with my productivity. And Cary is happy that I got things checked off the 2 page list. Now he has tools to keep working on the renovations!

Sorry, no pictures...too tired. :)

Ready for some homemade pizza and a movie tonight. Aaahhh....this feels good!

Holiday Preparation

I was just reading my friend Jessica's blog and she was talking about cleaning her floors. This got me thinking. How many times this holiday season have I stressed myself out trying to prepare for parties, family visits, presents, etc.? The holidays are a time of an emotional roller coaster of stress to get the house ready for a party then there is the excitement of the anticipated event. Next is the relief that the party is over, but now you have to clean up! By the time it's all over, we are exhausted and have a short recovery period before the next event.

What is your favorite holiday preparation?

What is your least favorite chore or holiday preparation?

My favorite holiday preparation would be planning and preparing a meal. I love creating a menu, taking my time at the grocery store and putting it all together. I somehow find it relaxing to turn on the music, sip a glass of wine (that was pre-pregnancy of course) and just cook. That's probably why whenever anyone comes to my house for dinner I take pictures of the meal before we eat it!

My least favorite would be mopping & ironing. I know ironing doesn't necessarily have to be done before a holiday party or family visit, but it helps to NOT have it around and it's one of my least favorite chores.

Cary and I have an agreement, I vacuum & he mops. Otherwise, our house would never get mopped. I can handle just about anything else (actually I prefer to clean the bathrooms over anything else) but not the mopping.

Apple Pie Sunday

While doing some much needed cleaning and organizing today I noticed these apples. For some reason during the past few trips to the grocery store I've picked up apples to snack on. They haven't been eaten and I could tell I needed to use them or they would go bad.

So I decided that this afternoon I was going to make homemade apple pie. This is something I've never tempted before, mostly because I'm a bigger fan of chocolate than fruit for sweet treats. Recently I've dabbled in a couple of fruit crumbles but that's about it.

So to my trusty collection of recipe books and I saw a recipe from my dear and trusted cook, Ina Garten (a.k.a. The Barefoot Contessa).

One of the first steps is making the crust. All ingredients MUST be very cold. Even after putting it all together the dough must rest in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hr.

While waiting for the dough to set I turned up some Christmas music and began peeling, coring & chopping apples.

To be frank, at this point my feet began to hurt and I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Was this really necessary? Too late now. I'm almost 1/2 way done!

So I rolled out the bottom crust and got very excited to wrap the dough around my rolling pin, like the chefs do on the Food Network.

The top crust was a bit testy with me and after I applied it I realized I didn't read the directions thoroughly and had to remove it. After reforming it and rolling it out again, the second try turned out much better.

Okay, it cooked for an hour and I cleaned some more! What do you think?

I'm pretty proud of myself! Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks!!

A FEW HOURS LATER.....

Hmm..maybe not so good after all.

Cary cut into it and when he tried to serve it I asked "why is it so soupy?" It doesn't taste that great. I would even go so far as to say it's inedible; at least in my book (and I'm pretty sure Cary would agree). Maybe I didn't cook it long enough? Now what do I do with it? Hey, can't win them all!! Bummer...

Boundaries

Several days of the work week I get to a point where I look forward to lunch time simply to "escape" the grind of work. I might not actually leave the office building but I find ways to take my mind off of the immediate work at hand and let myself wonder through a conversation with a co-worker or surf friends blogs.

Today is that sort of day.

The only problem is, my brother doesn't understand the need for escape. He works in the company with me and just today relocated his office. His new work space happens to be across the hall from the conference room. The conference room is where I like to eat lunch "in."

Michelle, my lovely co-worker, and I were enjoying a delicious lunch of Chick-fil-a and frozen meals, chatting away and before I knew it my brother started asking us random work questions. None of which we could possibly have the answers for.

I lost my patience. My the Lord forgive me and my nasty tone of voice and sharp responses but I had almost had it. When he left the room I closed the conference room door. No one was going to break through my boundry of a work-less lunch.

Sometimes you just have to stick up for yourself and your own needs and others will just have to get over it. I think Daniel got the hint when I closed the door because he hasn't approached me with any more questions.