Get Cooking to Start Saving

I recently read a really great blog about how to save money each month by "shrinking your bills and growing your pantry". If you're interested in learning more about this, then check out the Grocery Shrink. If you sign up for her online newsletter, you'll learn more about her strategies and get recipes to make your own cleaning supplies. Those stinking things cost so much money, and I'd rather spend money on food we need than cleaning supplies any day! Here's the catch to Grocery Shrink's money saving tricks, she only spends $50/person for a month on groceries. Wowzers! So if you have a family of 4, you would spend $200 a month on groceries for your whole family.

I don't know how she does it, but if any one's up for a challenge... it's me! She does say that stocking your pantry is extremely important, because then that leaves you to purchase meats and fresh foods each week. If you stock your pantry with goods you can find on sale, then you save money and have a ton of food on hand to create meals. I know that we spend way more than $100/month on groceries for just the two of us, and I would love to figure out how to stick to this $50 per person budget. It's going to be tough, but we might as well try.

We enjoyed some steaks from Mike's Meat Market in Sterling, CO.... we received a gift certificate for the meat market from Mike's mom! We've got more in the freezer where this came from :)

Cooking never used to be so enjoyable for me. It used to be more like a chore, but I now find it fulfilling because I can use my creativity and artistic skills to create meals that nourish others. There's also something sort of relaxing about cooking.... standing over a hot stove watching things change from raw and rough into something delicious and edible. It's almost like paint by numbers.... you fill in all these spaces each number at a time, and in the end you have a completed work of art to enjoy. Oh the joys of cooking!

I hope that cooking more often will help us reduce how much money we spend on food each month. By eating out less and cooking in more, I really hope to shrink our grocery bills! I'd much rather use the money we save on groceries to pay off debt so that some day we can have a house, because then we can have a garden with our own fresh food. I need to keep that image of our future garden as a mental note to motivate us to save, save, save.

Are You Ready?

It's almost time... are you ready...

... for some football!? Nate and I are extra excited for this fall, because we're Broncos season ticket holders this year. Heck yeah! Nate has been on the list for at least 7 years, and this year was his year. I don't get quite the same excitement about watching any other professional sport. There's just something great about watching dudes 3 times my size get on a field, face to face, and work together to win for their team. Aaaahhh, I can just hear the sound of pads and helmets crashing together now. Anyway.... sorry...

Before I moved to Colorado and met Nate, I didn't really watch much NFL football. Attending college at the University of Michigan, obviously I was a huge Michigan football fan, and college football was my thing. I do still cheer for my maize & blue! (Although it's been a tough few past years) I do still watch quite a lot of college football. However, since moving to Colorado and meeting Nate, I've become quite the NFL, and more specifically... Broncos fan. Never did I predict my future would consist of watching all rounds of the NFL draft, looking forward to attending pre-season training camp, sitting in the winter snow cheering for the Broncos, or actually being a season ticket holder for anything other than Michigan football. Wow! Maybe some day we'll also hold season tickets for Michigan football too. For now though, we are Broncos season ticket holders and will enjoy as many games as possible cheering for the Denver Broncos!

(Just pretend that cry baby #6 was never in this picture)

Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun by posting this so soon, but football season really isn't that far away... right? Anyway, training camp starts at Dove Valley in only about two weeks, so I don't really think I'm too early with the excitement. I was really excited after watching the draft... so at least we're a little closer to regular season now. Go Broncos and Go Blue! (not Big Red) hehehe... Honey, don't read that part.

Old Lessons Still Apply

From about 5th grade until today, I've had a few very favorite teachers, coaches, and employers. These people have taught me so many valuable lessons to carry throughout all of my life, and I appreciate and thank them for that! But just a few minutes ago, one of those teachers came to mind, and I always have fond memories of her. Mrs. Fuller was my art teacher all throughout high school. I make it sound like she was mine alone, but she taught many. One of her favorite sayings came to mind while I was thinking about my current situation today.

Mrs. Fuller often had a reputation of being strict and eccentric, two things that I loved dearly about her. You were often disciplined if you did not respect her and her assignments, and mostly she just wanted everyone to respect and love art. She has been known to stand atop her desk and belt out some opera-sounding (and extremely high pitched) notes to quiet an unruly classroom. I can still hear her calling out the name of one of my fellow classmates... "Richy!" (As far as I know, no one else called him that). I envied the fact that she owned more pairs of glasses than anyone, and she always matched them to her outfit that day. One thing Mrs. Fuller always repeated as her mantra was "quality over quantity". Oh how I love that saying.

Many teachers were happy if you completed their homework of copying paragraphs or definitions from a text book. Some teachers loved when you could spout off an entire history timeline from memory (that wasn't me). But Mrs. Fuller always said that she wanted "quality over quantity"! If you turned in one really great piece of work that you clearly put effort into... she was happier than if you handed her ten pieces of work into which you probably put little to no thought. She could always tell who was genuinely trying and who just took art to pass time. You didn't need the skills of Picasso or Dali to please her, but if you put effort into your work she was ecstatic. Some people really know how to see passion that's often invisible to others. I appreciated my art teacher, Mrs. Fuller, for her ability to see passion in her students.

Some of my past jobs have been great... and some... not so great. I definitely want a career working for someone who appreciates employees who want to learn and who ask a lot of questions. Some employers discourage too many questions, because they think you're not producing work quickly enough; I'd rather learn how to do something right the first time, instead of producing sloppy work quickly. (Not to mention, I probably still won't know how to do what you want me to do if I never learn it) If there's one thing I really dislike, it's not being proud of the work that I've done. Employers, please give your employees an opportunity to learn and grow and be proud of what they do. Wouldn't it be great if employers stressed the idea of "quality over quantity"? If I needed brain surgery, I would want a surgeon who operates carefully and precisely, not one who works the quickest and costs the least. Yikes!

It seems that bottom line often trumps the possibility of creating people who produce quality work they are proud of. I don't know many people who like to be treated as a factory. Many (not all) people start slowly at first, but given the chance to succeed they will. I have always learned the most from people in my life who demand quality over quantity! Put in your biggest and best effort, and out come great results.

Quality:

Inspiring: I hand painted many parts of this custom built house on Burt Lake.

Quantity:

Uninspiring: not so attractive... plus they all look the same

Mmmmm... I really, really enjoy quality.

From the Heart

At the time of our wedding, purchasing an album of our wedding photos was pretty much out of the question. Unfortunately it's still out of the question, so for now I put together a little something in place of a professional album. There's nothing like a little homemade wedding memento.

I love when creativity drives me, and the passion I have for creating is evident when I can't pull myself away from whatever it is I'm working on at the time. Not to mention, working on something that cost nothing to make is incredibly fulfilling. (It actually cost something at one point, but I put together the entire framed collage from things I had around the apartment) Nate called me a few times from work to ask what I was doing, and to his surprise I answered the same way each time... "I'm still working on that one thing". I'm sure he thought I was a little crazy working past midnight on something I had started so long ago. When the perfectionist in me comes out, each piece must go exactly where I think it should. Hand cutting everything takes time, but the result is priceless.

Thank you again, Alison, for our beautiful wedding photographs!

Maybe one day I'll get carried away and produce an entire album.

Improv Dinner

I've never been very good at making meals from memory, or better yet, just throwing some things together. Usually following recipes and staying within my comfort zone is the norm, but last night was a big step for this young chef. I was inspired after reading a blog about making healthy and affordable meals. The woman spoke a lot about using what's in your pantry or fridge to make meals that end up costing less than if you had to buy everything from the store.

I spent a couple of minutes warming up the inside of our refrigerator while looking for somewhere to start. Finally I decided to find a use for the jar of kalamata olives in the door. They were the ingredient we had at home, and I was afraid they might go bad before we ate them all. I also wanted to make a fairly healthy dinner, so I bought some tasty fresh vegetables,whole wheat pasta, and a few other things with a Greek theme in mind. On top of that, I purchased some cheap chicken cutlets, and some of them ended up in the freezer for another possible impromptu dinner. (Yay for saving money!) I also cooked enough chicken to use some in stir fry later this week. Double whammy. Now all I hoped was that dinner would turn out edible and filling. Sometimes I forget that Nate is twice my size and always eats more food than I plan. I was pretty sure this mix of vegetables and chicken served over pasta with a side of bread would do.

** I just love the color! **

After frying some chicken, throwing some things (I love how informal that sounds) in a saute pan, boiling some whole wheat pasta, and mixing it all up and topping with feta cheese... we had a pretty delicious meal! Cooking seems more fun when you're not following a recipe step by step. I think I may have channeled a little Julia Child minus the French food.

** sorry this is partially eaten... we dove in, and then I remembered to take a photo **

With that said, I'm glad that experimenting with food ended in an edible and enjoyable meal. We probably would have force fed ourselves anyways. Thank goodness we ended up with a healthy meal and a new favorite!

Recent Reads

Last night I finished Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Let me tell you, this is a book I will read probably at least once a year. Following her theme of change and adapting to change, it would make sense to read the book often because life is ever changing. The book is 50 years old, but it's still relevant and helpful when thinking about issues we face today.

Yesterday I wrote down, in my handy dandy notebook, a couple of things that Lindbergh wrote in Gift from the Sea. Some of her observations of the world are things I often wonder about today. 

Lindbergh wrote:

"The present is passed over in the race for the future; the here is neglected in favor of the there; and the individual is dwarfed by the enormity of the masses."

"America, which has the most glorious present still existing in the world today, hardly stops to enjoy it, in her insatiable appetite for the future."

I could not believe I had found the perfect explanation for some of the things that have been bothering me. The housing collapse, the "unstable" economy, the Gulf oil spill, and countless other issues seem to be telling us "Hey! What's the rush for?" These are things that happen when you skip today for the future! If you are worried about what your child will choose as a profession when they are 2 years old, then you're likely to miss them growing up along the way. Really, what is the rush? If we don't nurture and enjoy what we have now, then who's to say it will be around years down the road to enjoy later? That goes for family, friends, children, the earth, your favorite beach... you get the idea.

Life seems so busy these days. You have Twitter, Facebook, email, iPhones, satellite television, Internet, and countless other means of "keeping in touch". To me these are often devices that keep people from enjoying the here and now and most importantly from enjoying each other. Your children glue themselves to the television; husbands take work calls while at home with their families; people answer emails while driving their cars. When you watch television, people constantly speculate about the future. Stock owners follow their portfolios like it's their job. Why worry about what could happen? Anything could happen, but you might miss that anything if you're too busy wondering what might be. It's a shame that people put so much time into "keeping in touch" via technology; when each second you spend on your phone, or in front of the television, could be spent with a loved one "in the moment" instead! Instead of moving further apart, why don't people try moving closer to each other?

Sometimes it seems so difficult to enjoy the present, when we're constantly bombarded with people telling us it's so important to plan for the future. There are so many things you can't ever plan for, so why stress out over what you think your life should be? Each and every one of us are exactly where we're supposed to be at each moment. Love yourself each day, and love your loved ones each day.

Thank you Anne Morrow Lindbergh for shedding light on some timeless issues! :)