Another day spent on the gym floor...

What do you do when you have just written 4 paragraphs, and they delete themselves.  Just like that.  This freaking tracker pad on my laptop...I want to kick something.  so hard.  And I liked what I wrote, but I'm not feeling it anymore.

Anyway.

My daughter plays softball, and has been participating in the NKU Winter Softball Academy.  I've spent the last 3 Sundays sitting on a gym floor, finding ways to occupy myself.  This campus tends to be cold, even when the weather is rather temperate, and I don't want to spend money.  This is pretty well par for the course for those of us with kids in sports, especially when they are really into their sport.  So you get a picture of the gym floor on which I have been sitting for the past 2 1/2 hours,

My butt hurts.  I've edited a few documents, I've played some Trivia Crack, and now I'm going to read Catch-22.

A Sunday Post on a Monday

I love starting the week with a day off, don't you?  An extra day off to get the laundry done, have lunch with my kids, read my book...I took a later class this morning, and it was kickboxing on the bags, which is my favorite.  I split one of my knuckles today, which always makes me feel kind of bad-ass, but the knuckle I split tells me I was hitting the bag in the wrong place - I'll have to practice hitting things more.  Watch out.

I was going to start the week with a Morning - Noon - Evening post, inspired by Beauty That Moves, but I had things to chat about tonight, so maybe I'll start tomorrow.  My work days are so rigidly scheduled, the idea of taking a minute to see the peace in a regular moment appeals to me.  

Sure, I'll share my average workday with you:

4:20AM - Wake up, dress, water bottle, out the door

5:00-6:00AM - Boot Camp class

6:15-7:00AM -make COFFEE, pack meals and snacks for the day, shower, ready for work

7:00-8:00AM - commute, eat breakfast, drink COFFEE

8:00AM-4:30AM - working like a dog

Here's where things open up a bit - the Girl has volleyball twice a week and pitching once a week, and she starts a 3rd volleyball practice the end of the month.  Softball games start in April. Sometimes I have a book club or something.  I generally take rest days from Boot Camp the day after those.  If there is nothing going on, I go home, make dinner, get stuff prepped for tomorrow, clean the kitchen, etc.  I try to be in bed by 8:30PM, if possible. Reading will often happen.  My kids call me an old woman, since I'm rarely awake when they go to bed.  This does not bother me, although I did stay up past midnight on Saturday night, binge watching Criminal Minds, and enjoyed it immensely.  Because that's what an exciting individual like myself does on a Saturday night.
Ooh, here's one of my cats:

This is Bug.  She is the most cat-like of our cats - the other two are really dogs, I think.  She is the one who will only give you time if she feels like it, and she really hates to be picked up, as you can see here.  She is also diabetic, but she has been doing very well.  She has the prettiest blue eyes, and she's actually quite sweet.  Especially at 4:20AM, on a morning I don't have to wake up, when she jumps up on my chest and purrs in my face.  Her favorite things are beef jerky, the green plastic glasses from a Mr. Potato Head, ponytail holders, and racing me to the bathroom.

I have some tea, some gingersnaps, and a darn spooky book to read (NOS4A2 by Joe Hill), so I am going to take advantage of an unusually quiet living room.

Mmm...lunch.

It is the end of a very busy weekend.  Not really a relaxing weekend, by any stretch of the imagination.  Boot camp yesterday morning, took my mom's Christmas stuff down, made a pot of soup for the week's lunches, did some laundry, went to a support group, spent 5 hours doing softball things, cleaned the kitchen, prepared for meals for the week...this is really the first time I've sat down to chill this weekend.  And I'm going to bed in an hour.  Not cool, weekend, not cool.

That's alright.  I'm feeling all productive and stuff.  And I didn't have to cook dinner at all - my husband made dinner all weekend.  Which is funny, since I still cooked.  

Ooh, speaking of cooking, I prepared dinner for tomorrow night tonight - preparation is a good thing.  And I have to share the link to the recipe here:  http://www.organizeyourselfskinny.com/2014/05/15/greek-spinach-and-feta-stuffed-chicken-breast/

I made the filling, stuffed and breaded the chicken, then stored and refrigerated to bake tomorrow.  The filling was so good, I wanted to eat it with a spoon.  Okay, I may have eaten a little with a spoon.  

Not the cleanest fridge ever, but here is the soup I made last night for this week's lunches.  It is, without a doubt, the best soup recipe I make, and one of the reasons I look forward to winters.  It is spicy and delightful.  I tweak it a bit - it has more veggies, no chicken, and black beans, which are my favorites.  I don't roast the peppers or the corn, although I know it adds an extra richness to the flavor, because it is easier, and still tastes so good.  It is a Rachael Ray recipe - the woman irritates me, but she has some very good recipes.

The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are hot - very hot.  I use 2 1/2 because I like it wicked spicy, and I love the smoky flavor.  You may want to cut down on the amount.  I do put sour cream on it, but not a ton, and I don't put the chips in.  All of the toppings are optional.

Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup

Source: www.foodnetwork.com

Course: Soup

Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 25 Min
Total Time: 35 Min

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• Vegetable or corn oil, for drizzling, plus 2 tablespoons -- 2 turns of the pot in a slow stream
• 3 ears corn on the cob or 2 ears fresh-frozen cobs, defrosted
• 1 red bell pepper split and seeded
• 1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning 1/3 palm full
• 1 teaspoon cumin 1/3 palm full
• Salt and pepper
• 1 small to medium zucchini small dice
• 1 medium yellow skinned onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1-2 chipotle in adobo peppers (medium to hot heat level) chopped -- available in small cans in Mexican and Spanish food section of
• 1 can stewed tomatoes 28 ounces
• 1 can tomato sauce 8 ounces
• 3 cups chicken stock available in re-sealable paper containers on soup aisle
• 4 cups blue corn tortilla chips broken up into large pieces
• 1 cup pepper Jack cheese or shredded cheddar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 red raw onion chopped
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley leaves
• 1 ripe avocado diced and dressed with the juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Heat a grill pan to high and a soup pot to medium high. Drizzle oil on corn and place on grill. Add red pepper to grill with corn. Char vegetables 10 minutes, total, turning occasionally. Remove to cool, 5 minutes. Remove charred skin from the pepper.
2. While vegetables cook, dice chicken. Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot soup pot. Add chicken to pot. Season with poultry seasoning, cumin, salt and pepper. Lightly brown chicken on each side. Add zucchini, onions and garlic and chipotle peppers. Cook vegetables with chicken 5 to 7 minutes to soften. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock. Bring soup to a bubble, reduce heat to medium low.
3. Scrape corn off cob and add to soup. Chop grilled red pepper and stir into soup. Add chips to soup in handfuls and fold in. Serve soup immediately with scatter of shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Top with any or all of the suggested garnishes.
4. Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

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So that's that for today - I am sleepy already, and I have a very early morning tomorrow.  A little reading, a little tea - ooh, reading anything good right now?  I am reading I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb, which has grown on me, as his books tend to do.  I have a bunch of books to read for my next few book clubs, and Into the Wild is next.  That's been on my list for awhile.  

Alrighty, g'nite.

Goodbye, old friend...

I have destroyed one of my most treasured companions.  I took it apart, ripped it to shreds, threw it away.  I spent hours cultivating this relationship, hours upon hours of careful creation.  It's amazing how easy it was to get rid of it.

Today I dismantled my Flylady Control Journal.

For those in the dark (and how do we even know each other?), the Flylady is a woman in North Carolina with, essentially, a housekeeping website.  She is very positive, with a lot of catchphrases: "Jump in where you are," "CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome", "SHE (Side-tracked Home Executives", "Babysteps", and other happy, cheerleader-like phrases.  I joined when the Girl was born, I was sucked into the pit of postpartum depression, and I just needed to get the underwear clean.  And it helped.  There was a whole community of people to talk to online, and I was so lonely.  I had never set up routines, and those really helped - not only getting the housework done, but anyone with depression knows, nothing helps you get through a bad bout like a set routine.  Not to mention, she started me on the decluttering, and that was a huge help.  Getting rid of stuff is cathartic.  Sometimes kind of addicting, as my family will likely find out after my most recent episode.  This morning.
Anyway, I sent up my control journal, which is a binder with all the routines and family information you need, right at your fingertips.  A lot of families have a binder like this, I'm sure.  I used Flylady's systems when we had to sell our condo in Bartlett, and when we moved down here.  Flylady's chat groups introduced me to my first friends in Kentucky, who I still cherish to this day.  I bought her products - the feather dusters (large and small), her calendar and stickers, her book, her timer, and her friend Leanne's cookbooks.

It's just not serving me anymore.

Don't get me wrong, Flylady is a great system.  It's helped thousands of people, and I was one of them for awhile.  But I like making my lists at night before bed, instead of having a book of routines. My health and fitness is definitely taking precedence over my housekeeping right now, so most of those routines weren't being completed, anyway (who says I don't know how to balance - I'll clean later.)  I've discovered some other ways to organize that are working for me.  And the pretty purple fairy lady is just not my motivating force right now.

Today I spent several hours working on my filing, getting rid of old papers, putting together a pile to shred.  I have cut my paper clutter down by a lot.  I have set up my calendars for the year, using a combination of wall calendar, Google calendar, and my phone (finally accepting the dawn of the digital age.)

I suppose this post is really more about growth than anything else.  I'm only 5 months away from my 40th birthday, and I'm trying to figure out what helps me streamline my life, and cull what isn't working anymore.   And, for those of you who are where I was, check out Flylady, she really is a lovely person with some great ideas that work.

And now I have an extra binder.