Been neglecting this blog to work on a new one. That one is much more specific as it’s about me schooling my girls at home, so if you want the link, just hit me up. I’m trying to remain anonymous on that one, though, so if you hop on over, just dont address me or the girls by name, kplzthnx! 😀
I think that between the FlyLady, reading all the homeschooling mom blogs and reading organizing junkie blogs, things are finally beginning to sink in. I decided I have to stop thinking and talking about what I want to do and JUST DO IT. (Wow, what a concept. :P)
To that end, I put together my list of 2012 resolutions, and I started using a daily To-Do List to dump my brain and check off what I’m actually accomplishing.
The Daily Docket (pic is linked) is great,
but I’ve been using The Pocket Docket:
Either one works if you’re a list person. But, then I realized that even with my lovely Home Management Binder (still a work-in-progress), I’d have to keep printing multiple copies of these dockets and shoving them into my binder only to throw them away by the end of the yr.
I didnt want to do that.
So, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a planner! =O I just havent done that in yrs. Not since I was in college and definitely not after discovering Google Calendar! 😛 But, even though I put all of my appointments on Google Calendar, I dont use the Task function for my To-Do’s. Plus, I dont want to have to always access my phone or computer for the next item on the list. So I put my foot down (against myself) and decided to purchase this:
I’m hoping it’ll be worth it. Even if for just the daily to-do lists and the stickers. 😛 But, honestly, I hope I love it because then I’ll get one every yr and not have to print off list after list or even use notepad after notepad, post-it after post-it (though post-its work wonderfully for my husband and I’m not knocking them!), you get the idea. And I can use my Home Management Notebook for other things, like menu planning. I’m going to get very serious about that this yr. If for no other reason than to practice for the day when we wont be living with my inlaws (really crossing my fingers here), and I cant rely on my MIL for dinner every night. Anyways, I should be taking care of breakfast and lunch, so I’ll start there. I want to provide my husband a nutritious meal to take with him to work. Actually, a few meals. He doesnt eat breakfast at home, and he works 12 hr shifts most days, so he really needs breakfast, lunch and a satiating snack. Once I get that down, I can focus on dinners and eventually meals with both my kids. To that end, aside from the numerous cookbooks and foodie sites I peruse, I went with the FlyLady’s recommendation and bought this:
I had had a sample on my Nook, but again decided to bite the bullet and just BUY IT! I need to start somewhere and it might as well be there. Luckily I have a wonderful Mother’s Helper with me these first few months with Baby Ruth here and she is a great cook who can help me learn some good Chines cooking as well as assist me in trying Western Recipes. (Thanks, T!) I am trying to take advantage of this time to learn to cook, and also to eat better and stay healthy as I breastfeed and attempt to get down to a healthier weight. My husband needs to get healthier, too. And we need to save money so I’d rather we stop buying when I can make stuff. Cant wait to bake bread! 😀
Ok, on to my goals for this yr. Here’s my list:
1. SPIRITUAL GOALS:
a) Word – Finish last yr’s BSF study on Isaiah by March and finish the Acts/Epistles study from several yrs ago (get notes from friends)
b) Worship – Minimum 10mins/day
c) Prayer – Minimum 10mins/day (May start keeping a journal again – I have a moleskin.)
2. FAMILY GOALS:
a) Homeschool Jelly Bean starting in March (17mths old) and keep new blog on it
b) Meal Plan and cook
c) Learn how to encourage/support my husband better (Love Dare Journal & Date Nights)
3. WORK/CAREER GOALS:
a) Find a way to make money from home
b) Work on BIG PROJECT following the Timeline
c) Become Debt-Free – read Dave Ramsey’s Money Makeover
4. MINISTRY GOALS:
a) IGNITE! development
b) Future steps for my English congregation
5. PHYSICAL/HEALTH GOALS:
a) Water, vitamins and enough sleep each day
b) Weight Watchers – join in March
c) Join a YMCA or other family gym for me and Jelly Bean
6. SOCIAL GOALS:
a) Play dates for Jelly Bean with other moms
b) Intentional follow-up with my English congregation (hm, they need a new name)
7. PERSONAL GOALS:
a) Read as many books/magazines as I can (too many lying around here)
b) Get and STAY organized (Home Management Binder and Mom Planner)
c) Stick to goals and commitments
Now that I have everything clearly laid out, including some of the time-frames for each, I feel a lot better. I’m hoping to check everything off this list by Dec 30, 2012. Wish me luck! 😀
I know I love the language and I’m surrounded by the ppl, and I may as well be Chinese… but. Yea, there’s a ‘but’ remaining. Sometimes I put too much of a burden on myself and it isnt fun anymore. :(]
So back to the lessons thing. Yea. It’s great to have the basic structure, and to know how my textbook was set up so I can get the most out of it. But, it does complicate things because I need to think through every single aspect of the lesson and map out how to get from one point to the next. This is called Backward Design in education lingo. I love it; it’s just not a cake-walk. I am putting all my lessons on powerpoint so that I can have my materials already set when I walk in the classroom. I am also using flashcards to reinforce the lessons. Most of them I have from the curriculum, but some I have to make. The powerpoints are the hard part b/c they have to contain the content in an engaging way. I think powerpoints are already engaging, but sometimes kids need to see fun stuff, too. For one of my reviews at the end of a lesson, I have pictures of cartoon characters like Harry Potter and Bart Simpson, as well as celebrities like Michael Jackson, and superheroes like Superman for them to identify using the new verb structure. My husband thinks one day when I have them all done, I’ll be able to sell them. Interesting thought. I’ll connect with my prof on that and see what she thinks. 😉 Anyway, I have an avg of 32 kids per class now and 8 classes total trying to fit in a half-sized classroom… Yea. It’s tight… and smelly. 😛
Seminary – Need a separate post on this one actually so I can really talk about how it’s been. (And it’s been GREAT!) Only attending part-time is still a lot of work, esp in light of what I said before about how I’m working extra hard on my lessons this yr. I’m keeping up with my work, though, and that’s all that matters. Weekends are my friend. 😀
Cooking – ah, yes! Finally, learning to cook. And not just cook, but cook healthily. The great thing is that my husband already knows how to cook a lot of stuff, so he’s been taking care of that for us! (Love you, hunny!!) I feel I’ve really been gypped in this dept. Aside from not learning to cook at home as a kid, growing up in America really lends itself to lazy eating. I’ve been amazed to discover more and more how much I’ve been duped by the system. (So, that explains my obesity! >_<) Today, I made my own meatballs (first time and slightly tasteless, but I MADE THEM!), and my own pasta sauce (yay, diced tomatoes!! This one I liked. 🙂 ), and penne from a box. Ok, not so healthy there, but when I learn to bake my own bread (gonna go there soon!) then I’ll learn to make my own noodles. Seriously, the more I see stuff in the supermarket, the more I’m like, “dude, I can totally make this!! Why am I wasting my money?! o_O” That’s how I feel now. I’m gonna make it my business to learn the art that is cooking. In the process I’m hoping to get healthier and unload this extra baggage called WEIGHT that I’ve carried for so long. And how can I not mention BENTOS??! I’ve posted on my attempts before. They’ve been pretty lame of late – just leftovers and nothing fancy. But, soon and very soon. Dont worry. You’ll see. 😉 I’m actually thinking of teaching my 6th graders (Asian Studies SHOP class) about them. Maybe we can make them! Should be uber-fun!
I think I did well this past wk in the bento dept. I decided to try my hand at making onigiris – over 10 yrs after seeing my Japanese international students make some with a rice cooker out in the hall of our dorm. They came out all right. And mainly b/c I didnt really use my hands except for the ones pictured on the plate. I actually mixed the rice with the tuna + canola mayo I’d prepped and with furikake. Then, I shaped them and put the seaweed on them.
For these others, I used my bento molds, which I mentioned in my last post. I tried them all just to practice, and it was a bit confusing at first. The instructions being all in Japanese did not help. 😛 I realized the little flexible plastic was to make the indentation so you could put your filling inside. Aha! And then I sorta had to shake them out. 😛 I have pictured here a heart, a star, a triangle and a flower-ish-type thing.
I made two bigger ones with the triangle molds. They are actually two different sizes – the one on the left being the smaller one. I actually filled all of the ones I shaped in the molds with tuna and then just poured some furikake over them. Otherwise the rice would’ve been totally plain.
In the end, I thought: “I cant just have rice for lunch! Even if it does have tuna in it… >_>” So, I decided to use the empty blue compartment for some fruit (apricots and cranberries that I never finished eating), and I added a package of instant miso flavoring so I could have soup with it. It was mm-mm-good! 😀
First of all, you have to understand, my new bento box has two layers. The bottom (which is featured on top is actually white, but these two dividers: blue and red sit on top. The blue is actually a container and the red just goes over what’s underneath. It serves as a secondary tray. Both are removable, but you need to replace them in order to properly close the box again. The white part on the bottom actually fits on top and is split into two container areas.
I had made halibut with potatoes, green peppers, asparagus, onion and spinich baked in tomato/garlic/olive oil the night before for dinner. Yum yum! My first try and I think it came out pretty well. I made enough to take some with me the next day. That was the main part of my meal, so I put it on the bottom. I needed something to go in the small blue container, so
I cut the sandwich in half and put one half on top of the other so it would fit. In the compartment next to it, I added what no sandwich would be complete without: pickles and olives! At the last moment, I decided to use the olives to make a face. I cut a slice of pickle for the smile. 😀 The whole point of making bentos is to make them so cute you’ll enjoy eating your food. Enjoying food is a lost art in the West. We just gobble whatever the media tells us looks good and seems to taste good. But, we dont actually know what we’re eating and how much damage it does to our systems. I’m trying to recover 30 yrs of damage done to my body. 😛 I’m 31 now. Let the re-programming begin!
I was quite pleased! 🙂
My attempt at some sort of cooking (baking, really) and trying to be more health-conscious.
Kupercaya 
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