Addition Update #4

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

We have doors and windows people!!!

That's all.  :)

Audio Books

I am just here to once again rave about my love of free audiobooks through our library system.  So if you have no interest in audio books, you might want to skip this one.

Even if I have a ‘real’ paper copy of a book on my shelf, sometimes I will see if the library has it free as an audiobook.  Why?  Many reasons.  I can listen to audiobooks at work.  I can also listen to them in my car.  And I love it.  I can get through a lot of books in a month if some are audiobooks.  This month I'm already up to 12 books read (a mix of audio books and 'real' books).  They range from usually about 6 hours in length to 22 hours in length.  But, I listen to them at double speed.  So a 6 hour audiobook will take me 3 hours to listen to.  I can easily get through one a day at work.

There are limits of course, and due dates.  But I typically never run out of audiobooks to read.   I have three different library apps on my phone.  Here’s how to do it.

Log onto your city library’s website.  Under ‘Downloads’ or ‘Ebooks’ or ‘Audiobooks’, there should be a list of apps that you can download and then link your library card with.  That’s how you check out and listen to free audiobooks.

My library has three:

Hoopla

Libby

RB  Digital

Hoopla allows 5 audiobooks per month, and they have GOOD ones.  And new ones come in all the time (like An American Marriage, which is still on the ‘New Release’ shelf as a hardback at Barnes & Noble.)

(FYI....on my 'shelf' above, I DNF'd Library at the Edge of the World, and I never started Somerset because I realized I should read the first book in the series before the second ha ha).

Libby I mostly use to place holds on newer books.  But I also currently have 5 audio books checked out now with them as well (all are books I have copies of at home, except the one right below):

RB Digital is the one I use the least.  They have loads of older stuff though, which is nice.  I currently have 1 Steinbeck checked out and 2 Hemingways.

I ONLY check out audiobooks from these sites, although they have an even greater selection of e-books.  But usually I hit my limit with audiobooks, so I kind of ignore the e-books.

Listening to audiobooks is a COMPLETELY different experience than reading the book.  Sometimes I think it’s better, especially if it’s a good narrator.  And yes, I ABSOLUTELY count them as ‘books read’.  

And best of all....it's FREE!

DNF (Did Not Finish)

The term ‘DNF’ is known widely to bookstagram, booktubers, book podcasters, and book bloggers.

It simply means ‘Did Not Finish’.

For the longest time, I ALWAYS finished books.  Always.  Even if I hated them.  My sister tried to convince me to STOP FINISHING BOOKS I DON’T LIKE (but in a nice way ha ha).

But I resisted….I felt like I had already invested so much time into these books, so I should just power through in the hopes that it would get better.

Well, a couple of things happened and something ‘flipped’ in my head and I decided to STOP FINISHING BOOKS I DON’T LIKE.

The first thing:  I was FORCED to ‘DNF’ two books on my shelf because of the content (zombies, ghosts).  Obviously, I did not know that these books contained zombies or ghosts because I never would have picked them up.  One of them I was more than halfway through before I found out!  But I found it shockingly easy to stop reading it and throw it out.  Like….REALLY easy.

The second thing:  My husband.  I had this discussion with him and asked him ‘how long do you give a book if you don’t like it’.  His answer?  One chapter.  ONE CHAPTER.  He said that he can tell within the FIRST chapter if he’s going to like the book or not. 

I think my sister gives a book 50 pages or so.

So here’s what I decided.  I’m going to give a book at least 30% - 50%.  If I don't like it after 30% - 50% of the way through, I'm going to DNF it.  This probably still seems like a lot, but hey, this is a HUGE step for me!

My reasoning is this.  If I don’t like a book after 30% - 50% into the content, it's not going to get more than 2 stars from me, no matter how great the 2nd half of the book is.  And my goal is to only read books that are 3, 4, and 5 star reads.  

Now, I realize this won’t always work because there are MANY books that start off soooo strong but then end terribly or fizzle out after the halfway point.  So I’m sure I will still have many 1 and 2 star reads.  But that’s okay.  At least I’m willing now to DNF books that just aren’t doing it for me.

(Amy, are you proud of me?)

Sundays

Sundays are sure busy around here, but it's also my favorite day of the week.  I love to see how much I can get done quickly.

Today I was out of the house by 8:30 and on my way to Wal-Mart to get groceries.  I had written out my list Saturday night (going off of my meal calendar).

Today was a somewhat easy meal plan/prep day.  I only made one thing in my Instant Pot.  The other dinners for the week weren't really the type that could be made ahead.

I made potato soup out of a new cookbook I found at Costco:

We had it for dinner tonight and it was really, really good.

That was the only dinner prep I did.  The rest of the week we are having hamburgers, chicken marsala, a chicken pasta freezer meal that I made a few weeks ago, and leftovers.  I almost made the chicken marsala, but I thought it would be best to be made fresh as chicken tends to dry out when you reheat it.

As you can see from my messy menu calendar....I make a lot of changes.  The highlighted stuff is what I actually made.  

It's messy.  But it works.  I spilled some water on it today too, but that's okay.  It still works.  So today I bought groceries for the current week, and wrote out the menu for next week.  Again...I'm sure there will be changes.

Then I did breakfast and lunch prep.  Since we did salads last week, this week I made freezer sandwiches.  I follow a handful of 'frugal' instagrammers, and they all do this.  So then I Googled, and apparently it's a thing.  You can do it with PB & J, and also meat sandwiches.  I made turkey and cheese sandwiches. The trick is to put the condiments in the middle of the cheese and meat so that the bread doesn't get soggy (from the condiments).  In the morning, (according to the online folks) you just pull one out, stick it in your lunch bag and it's thawed by the time you eat lunch.  So I made 10 sandwiches, 5 for him, 5 for me.  They're different though of course, so they are in separate bags.  Hopefully they work out!  Because, boy was it easy.

I also bought a bag of Cara Cara oranges and peeled them.  If I pack an orange in my lunch bag unpeeled there is NO WAY I will eat it at work.  I don't have time to peel an orange.  Well, I DO have time, but I don't want the mess and the sticky fingers.  But if they are pre-peeled?  It will definitely get eaten.

The last thing I did was prepare our eggs for breakfast.  Did you know eggs can be scrambled in the microwave?  I've been doing this for a while.  I crack two eggs each into little glass jars.  I add cheese, salt and pepper.  In the morning, I take my jar and stick it in my lunch bag.  I don't eat breakfast until I'm at work.

Hubby eats breakfast at home though.  He can just take the jar, dump it in a bowl (NEVER microwave it in the jar...it will overflow) and microwave it for about 90 seconds or so.  Stir it up and you have nice, cheesy scrambled eggs with no mess.

Again, ours are different because I use different cheese (stinking' Weight Watchers!).

All of this took maybe 2 hours after I got home?  I kind of lost track of time.  I was playing my music from my Iceland playlist in the kitchen (we have a bluetooth speaker in there).  I discovered a new Iceland artist that I LOVE....Ólafur Arnalds.

Laundry got done, sheets got changed, hockey got watched.....and now it's 7:38 and I am going to shower and go to bed so I can read.  

Sundays are busy in the morning/early afternoon, but I have such peace of mind knowing that we're ready for the week.  :)

Addition Update #3

Things continue to move right along!

Okay so once again, here's the front door and window (on the left, facing the street), and the sliding glass door opening facing our yard.  Eventually, there will be a cinder block wall or something closing off our yard again for privacy purposes.  But for now, we have a temporary gate up.

If you're standing at the front door, and look immediately to the left, this is what you see:

This will be the closet for the stackable washer/dryer.  There will also be room for brooms/mops, etc.

Here's another view:

This is also looking from the front door in the corner.  Her countertop, cabinets and appliances will all go along these two walls, for an 'L' shaped layout:

This is the view standing from the front door looking straight ahead:

They are building her a narrow pantry next to the hallway that will lead into her living room.

And I like this picture just because.  I couldn't believe how much bigger the room looked once the walls went up.  How is that possible?  Also, the big pile of bricks in the middle are the ones they removed from the walls that they are using to re-brick the outside (so it will match the existing house).

And finally....here's what the side of our house is looking like at the moment.  Pretty much the same except for the addition, but I added a few labels just for fun:

The picture is somewhat deceiving, because there is actually nothing on top of my mother-in-law's living room and kitchen (both are flat roofs).  Our library is actually on top of her bedroom.  And our bedroom is on top of the man cave in our part of the house.  But it's hard to see that in the picture.

I think the thing I'm most excited about is having that port-a-potty out of our front yard.  Ick.

But it's really coming along!  It's exciting to see all of the progress.

(I spy Abby in two of the pictures above.  Can you?)

Book Haul

On the 2nd Saturday of every month, our library system has a big sale at the main library downtown.  Most books are $2 or less.  

This past Saturday after service we decided to go.  It's only the second time I've been.  It can be.....dangerous.  It's very easy to go nuts.  It's mostly older books though (anything 4 years old or newer stays in the bookshop I think).  Anyways...it's fun.  It's fun to browse, and mostly fun because you NEVER know what you will find.

Here's my haul:

And now for a breakdown.  I don't actually think I ever read this one when I was younger.  I thought it was such a cute cover (with kind of an angry looking girl though).

Four Pulitzer prize winners that were on my list:

Two more that were on my list, Past Imperfect, and The Good House (and wow, Past Imperfect traveled a long way, check out that sticker!).  And the Chris Cleave one was a bonus.  He wrote one of my favorite reads last year, Everyone Brave is Forgiven.

And...a guilty pleasure.  Book 3 of a YA series.  I'm currently reading book 1.  I couldn't pass this up for a $1 though.

The book sale is arranged by genre.  And the books are spine-up on tables.  Loads of tables everywhere.  Anyways, I always hit up the fiction table first.  Then mystery.  Then travel.  And it is there that I found this book, that I had never heard of.  As soon as I saw the title 'Summer at Little Lava', I KNEW it had to be about Iceland.  And sure enough, it was.  It's a memoir (written in 1998 I think?) about a man who moved to Iceland and documents his summer there.  PLUS, the place where he lived is not far from where we are staying when we are there.  This is what I love about these sales...you just NEVER know what treasures you will find!

This one was on the Fiction table, but I'm pretty sure it's non-fiction.  It just looked interesting. 

They had a good selection of French books too.  I got an Agatha Christie mystery in French.

I also found a poetry book that is both in French and English:

And here's my husband's haul.  There are a few in his stack that I'm interested in reading too.  

It was fun.  We had fun browsing and I got to cross a few books off of my list!

Random

*I go back to work tomorrow.  I am READY!!  I'm actually kind of excited.  I like my routines, what can I say.  

*I got one of those letter boards that are everywhere.  I got a small one though and put it on our cork board in the kitchen below our family calendar.  Clearly, I'm having fun with it (and I might have too much time on my hands ha ha)

All quotes from TV shows ha ha.  Some of them won't make sense especially if you don't watch the TV shows (Bob's Burgers, Scrubs, Parks & Rec, Friends, etc.).  But it makes me smile. 

*Have you ever tried baked tacos?  If you haven't, please try baked tacos.  Basically, you put the meat (already cooked) and cheese in the shell, pop them in the oven for 10 minutes or so, then they come out and the meat and cheese stays put and is all melty and delicious.  Then you can top with your other cold toppings.  They are really good!

*A couple weeks ago, we went to a store here called 'Pen and Pad'.  My husband has been getting his fountain pens at this store for years.  Anyways, I noticed that the only journal type books they carried were Paperchase and Rhodia.  I asked the owner if they carried Leuchtturm journals and she said 'nope and I never will'.  So of course I asked why and she said out of Moleskins, Leuchtturms, and Rhodias, the Rhodias are by far the best when it comes to binding and paper.  So of course I had to try it out.  And then I promptly moved my bullet journal over to the Rhodia book.  The paper is great and the cover is super soft (although I put my bullet journal into another cover type thing).

I also tried out a couple of 'disposable' fountain pens.  I'm liking those too.  

*We booked a rental car in Iceland.  A Toyota something or other.  It was interesting.  We did a bunch of research on rental car companies and insurance. It is still up in the air whether or not we need to purchase 'sand and ash' insurance (from volcanoes of course).  Fun!

*I also emailed the hosts of our Air B&B about bedding (you bring your own sheets, or they charge you for use of linens).  Anyways, I was wondering about the size and she emailed me back in meters.  So I had to figure that out, but of course there was no real answers online (for real) so I'm just going to bring a set of King sheets and we'll tuck if we have to.  Then I can use them at home too.

That's all!

Addition Update #2

We're 6 weeks in to our addition.  The hope is to have it done by the end of April (hopefully).

I haven't been great about taking pictures, but I try to snap a few when I notice major progress.

Concrete!

Walls!

So I just snap these pictures from my car because I have social anxiety and I don't want the workers to see me taking pictures.  The struggle is real!

These next two I snapped yesterday.  We have a roof!!!

So far, so good!  I think it's looking great.  My mother-in-law's front door and window can be seen, and she'll also have sliding glass doors on the other side.

The original plan was to keep the existing brick along the two existing walls (seen in the first addition update I did last month) so she would have two brick walls IN her kitchen.  But then my husband thought it might be better to use that brick for the OUTSIDE of the addition, so that the brick would match our house completely (as opposed to having NEW brick that might not match great).  We had a family meeting and decided that we all loved that idea.  We want this addition to look like it was originally built with the house 50 years ago.  :)  So we want it to look like it's own little separate place, but like it was original to the house.  Does that make sense? 

So anyways, the contractors have removed all of the brick and will use it to brick the outside.  And my mother-in-law will have four regular drywall-walls (like my construction speak?? Ha ha) instead of two drywall-walls and two brick walls.  This will make her kitchen even lighter too (and warmer).

So that's the latest!  The workers come every day (sometimes even on Saturdays).  It's loud, but that's to be expected.  They want to get it done soon too!

Meal Planning

Let's talk meal planning!  I have discovered that meal planning--grocery shopping--budgeting--all while trying to eat healthy-- can almost be a full-time job.  I'm going to share what has been working for me.

Meal planning is kind of like laundry.  It never goes away.  It's ALWAYS something that will need to be done.  

Here is my process.

I plan meals 2 weeks at a time (I'm talking dinner here).  I plan 4-5 meals each week (we eat leftovers and usually go out once a week).  I first look at my 'Freezer Inventory' book to see what we have in our freezers.

I try to buy meat on sale and stock up.  And occasionally we will get large bags of meatballs or other things at Costco that take us a while to use up.

So first I see if there's anything in our freezer that I can use (and there always is).

Then I build the rest of the meal around it.  Tonight, for example, we are having spaghetti and meatballs, because we have a partial bag of frozen meatballs leftover from our Superbowl gathering.  

If I can't think of anything off the top of my head to make with what we have, then I use my cookbooks and the Internet.  This takes maybe 30 minutes IF you don't get distracted.

Once I have my two weeks planned, I write it all down on my monthly calendar (just a cheap one I found at Target):

On the far right hand side of the calendar, I write what I need to get at the store to complete the meals.

I shop on Friday for the week.  I meal plan for TWO weeks, but I shop just one week at a time.  And Sunday is my meal prep/batch cooking day.

For breakfast, I make either overnight oats or make sure to stick an oatmeal packet in my lunch box.  My husband usually eats instant grits (he eats breakfast at home).  Breakfast is easy.

For lunches, I try to do EVERYTHING I possibly can to make it as easy as possible to pack lunches in the morning.

This week, I made salads.  I chopped romaine hearts (the 3-pack from Trader Joe's), then added a veggie mix of kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage (also from Trader Joe's).  I cooked up a pound of ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning.  Then chopped some green peppers.  I then added dressing and shredded cheese.  And that was our 'main course' for lunches for the week.

Sometimes I'll do sandwiches.  Other times it's leftovers.  I try to do it all the night before though so that I'm not scrambling around in the morning.  

I also de-package all yogurts, cheese, etc. so they are easy to grab and add to our lunch boxes.

But that's just for lunch.

For dinners, it's a bit different.  I try to prep everything I can for each meal on Sunday, including chopping veggies, defrosting the appropriate meat, etc.  And anything that I can prep ahead of time (like a casserole or something), I will do that also.  I also will make some shredded chicken if we're out and usually some hard boiled eggs.  I make a huge mess and it takes anywhere from 1-3 hours, but I'm usually done by noon and have the rest of the day to relax and not have to worry about what we're going to eat for the week.

I write down what we're having for the week on our menu board:

Here's a few other tips:

*get some food prep containers.  I got the ones in the picture above from Wal-Mart.  They are decent in size, and are microwave and dishwasher safe.  They are lightweight.  And it's not a tragedy if they get lost or accidentally thrown out.  We use glass containers too, but I like to use those for leftovers that we are eating at home.

*After you make your grocery list, number it.  So anything that's refrigerated I put a '1' by.  All produce is '2'.  All frozen '3'.  Canned goods '4'.  Snacks '5'.  Etc.  It sounds crazy, but this saves SO MUCH TIME at the grocery store.  There's no more wondering way back to the frozen section because you've forgotten something.  I suppose you could write your list in order by category, but I never do that.  I scribble it all down as I'm deciding on recipes, then number it.

*If you use coupons, pull out the appropriate ones and put them in your wallet before you go to the store.  I also look at my Target Cartwheel and see if there's anything on my list that I can save on.  This also saves me time in the store.

*Go to the store as early as possible.  Sunday mornings at Target are wonderful.  :)  Sometimes I will also have to go to Smith's (which is only 5 blocks from us) to pick up something that Target doesn't have, and it is also super quiet in the mornings.  The aisles are clear and there's no lines.  It just makes it a more pleasant experience.

So that's how I do it.  It might sound complicated, but I prefer to do as much batch cooking/meal prepping as I can.  We eat out WAY less when I plan and prepare.  It saves money and time!