Oh, Those Hot Summer Nights....

It is hot, hot, hot, here in central Kentucky.  We need rain terribly.  Yesterday, there was a decent shower that lasted less than 10 minutes, and didn't even leave the garden muddy.  We've been watering every morning and every evening, and are getting some produce.  I think the green beans are not going to make it, though.
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Last week, I raided my aunt's blackberry vines.  I made a cobbler, then froze 14 quarts for later use.  I've gotten about a half-gallon of blueberries from my own shrubs, and a handful of strawberries.  The farmer's market is getting a lot of business from us, we adore all the freshness of summer produce.
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Baby update:  It's a boy!  Xander will be here on November 2nd via C-section.  Everything is where it should be, and baby is growing like a weed.  I love feeling those sweet flutters and kicks.  I would enjoy it even more if this morning sickness would stop, and if I could sleep more than 4 hours at a time, though.

School's out, school's out!

Er, well, almost.  Classes officially ended last Friday, and this is Finals Week.  Profs love finals week.  It's the one week out of the semester when all students miraculously care about learning passing classes and turning in all assignments.  Who cares that the paper was due at mid-term, right?  It's finished now, so we profs should drop everything to grade that paper.  I joke, though.  I seriously love my job.  Graduation is Saturday morning, and that's my favorite part:  seeing those bright smiling faces with their newly minted degrees heading out to face the world head-on.  Some of them become friends, and some of them I will  really miss.

That explains a lot...

In my last post, many moons ago, I referred to my February blahs.  I could not understand why I was so run down and tired all the time.  My dad was diagnosed with cancer in early February, so I attributed most of the fatigue to stress.  In mid-March, my husband informs me that my "visitor" skipped in February, so we bought a test, and it was a big, fat POSITIVE.  We kept fairly quiet, because I've had two first trimester miscarriages in the last year and a half, but last week I went in for an ultrasound and saw the baby and heard the heartbeat! I'm currently 12 weeks, and  I'll be having a c-section on November 2nd, unless I go into labor on my own before then.
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On March 25, my dad lost his battle with cancer.  He was only 58, and it was not expected.  His first cancer diagnosis was is 1998, and he was given 6 months to live.  In February 2012, he was diagnosed with a different type of cancer, and lasted approximately 6 weeks.  He passed away in the hospital after surgery to remove the cancerous cells.  The doctor said there was no real explanation, but the surgery was just too much for him.  His heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver all shut down, and Dad had made it very clear that he did not want to live on life support.  My mom had made the decision to stop life support at 9 pm (to allow family time to get to the hospital), and his heart stopped around 8:30, with many family members in the room.  It's hard.  I miss him.

I'm a bad, bad blogger

So, I kinda sorta neglected my blog for the entire month of February.  I had the February blah's, and a complete lack of time to accomplish anything that wasn't totally necessary.  I completed another research course, so I have only 6 classes left until I'm officially Dr. Amanda.  I prepped students for a national sales competition, and traveled with them to Atlanta so they could compete.  We lost, but all three of them made some extremely valuable contacts, and one of them came back with a job offer!  The other 2 are still juniors, but next year they'll be ready. 
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This week is my Spring Break, and I'm on a deep cleaning and decluttering binge.  Unfortunately, this also turns into a "Let's rearrange all the furniture while we're at it" week-long event around here. So far, I've finished Jacob's room, started on decluttering the craft room, and moved a lot of stuff into the garage for a yard sale.  Today, I'm going to finish the craft room, and work on emptying out 2 large bookcases in the living room and consolidating to one small bookcase instead.  I'd also like to deep clean the living room while I'm at.  Tomorrow is bathroom and kitchen day.

Menu Plan Monday, January 9

Another Monday, another menu.

I've been reading about several bloggers who are doing pantry challenges this month, so I decided to limit my grocery shopping and see what we have that I can use up.  Everything this week is made from things I have on-hand.

Monday:  Porkchops, Fried Potatoes, Steamed snap peas, mac n cheese

Tuesday:  Tilapia, Twice Baked Potatoes, Steamed Carrots

Wednesday:  Fried Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Broccoli

Thursday:  Chicken pepperoni (from this recipe), green salad

Friday:  Steak with mushrooms and onions, baked potatoes, green beans

Saturday:  Homemade pizza

Sunday:  Leftover Love!!!

I'm linking up!

Busy as a Bee

The past two days, Steve and I have been working on cleaning out the basement, as part of my resolution to declutter this house from botton to top.  So far, we've hauled out 5 trashbags full of, well, trash, and taken one Equinox-sized load of stuff to Goodwill.  I have some things that are a bit nicer, and I'm setting those aside to take to consignment later this month.  I also have a few things I want to try to sell on Ebay. 
We managed to finish about a third of the basement, and I'm totally counting hauling all of that stuff up the stairs as a workout for today.
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I go back to work on Monday morning, so this weekend we're planning to take things fairly easy.  I have one paper to finish up, but other than that there are no plans. We'll probably hang out and possibly have a pj-Saturday with a movie marathon, or something else low-key.

Eliminating Time Wasters

For me, my biggest time waster is the Internet.  I'll go online to check just one thing, and before I know it, an hour (or two) has passed.  I've alloted myself three hours of internet time each day.  To some, this is a lot, and to others, not very much, but in addition to teaching several online classes, I am also finishing my DBA online.  I also like my social networking very much.  To keep myself from sitting and using all three hours at once, I divide my time into 6-30 minute increments, and set the timer on my microwave to keep me on track.
It generally goes something like this:
7 am:  email, online courses, FB, Twitter
11 am:  research for DBA
2:30 pm:  blogging, FB, email
5:00 pm:  online courses
7:00 pm:  email, research
9:00 pm:  FB, Twitter, DBA
Knowing what I'm doing when each time I'm online works for me!

Tuesday Tunes

Don't you just hate it when you get a song stuck in your head, and can't get rid of it?  I've been cleaning today, and I firmly believe the only way to effectively clean is to blast music and sing loudly off-key.  So here's what I've been listening to today, and the various lyrics that are running randomly through my mind.

• Taio Cruz, Dynamite.  "We gon' rock this club, we gon' go all night"
• Luke Bryan, Do I.  "Do I turn you on and on when I kiss you baby?  Does the sight of me wantin' you drive you crazy?"
• Alanis Morrissette, Ironic.  "It's like raaaaaiiiiiin on your wedding day."
• Skynard, Sweet Home Alabama.  Nuff said.
• Jason Aldean, Big Green Tractor.  "Climb up in my lap, and drive if ya want to."
• Backstreet Boys.  "Backstreet's back, alright!"
• Pussycat Dolls, Dontcha.  "Don'tcha wish your girlfried was hot like me?"
• Tim McGraw, Live Like You Were Dyin'.  "I went skyyyyyy divin, Rocky Mountain climin'"
• Poison, Unskinny Bob.  "Unskinny bop-bop-bop."

So, now you know my dirty little secret. I listen to country music and bad nineties music, and I LIKE it :)

What are you listening to right now?

Menu Plan Monday, January

Because one of my New Year's Resolutions is to only eat out three times each month, I decided to jump on the Menu Plan Monday bandwagon, graciously hosted each week by Org Junkie.  This week, I'm using up a lot of convenience foods, and not doing anything fancy, so no recipes this week.  Breakfasts are usually scrambled eggs and toast, freezer waffles, cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt with fruit.  Lunches are leftovers of sandwiches. 
Monday:  Homemade pepperoni pizza

Tuesday:  Baked Tilapia, Twice Baked Potatoes, Mixed Veggies

Wednesday:  Penne a la Vodka, breadsticks, steamed broccoli

Thursday:  Shake-n-Bake Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Applesauce, Green Beans

Friday:  Turkey Casserole (leftover mixed veggies from Tuesday night, frozen cooked turkey left from Christmas dinner, stovetop, and gravy)

Saturday:  Something with chicken.  Dunno what, just yet.

Sunday:  CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night).  Our trash pickup is on Monday morning, so this works out quite well.


For more great menu planning ideas, check out Org Junkie!

New Year's Resolutions

For 2011, my resolutions were to lose 43 lbs, spend more quality time with Steve and Jacob, and to finish my doctoral course work to the point of ABD (all but dissertation).  So, how did I do?  I lost 25 lbs, which was 10% of my body weight.  I increased the amount of family time, but there's definately room for improvement there.    And as of October 2011, I am ABD.  Overall, not too shabby!

For 2012, I have the following goals:

• Lose another 40 pounds.  This is less than one pound per week, and completely do-able.
• Spend at least 2 nights per month as family night, either watching movies together or playing games.
• Stop bickering with Steve about stupid things that don't even matter, and neither one of us can recall the next day.
• Pay off the remaining $2K debt, and save $5K this year.
• Continue to work on my dissertation.  The topic is "The impact of social media on the overall marketing efforts of non-profit organizations."
• Stop buying unneccessary crap.  We don't need it, and I have nowhere to store it.
• Declutter this entire house, top to bottom.  Our first home, in 2005, was less than 1000 square feet, and it was comfortable.  Our current house is greater than 3000 square feet, and I feel claustrophobic from all the stuff.
• Blog at least twice each week.
• Read at least one book per week, for pleasure only.  I have two shelves of real books, and several on my Nook, that are just itching to be read.  Non-pleasure reading comes in the form of articles that must be read for the elusive DBA.
• Sew one complete outfit for myself, and one quilt each for our bed and for Jacob's.
• Not buy anymore craft supplies (or makeup, or bath products) until I use what is already here.
• Work out for at least 15 minutes, 3 times per week.
• Only eat out 3 times each month.  Here lately, we've been busy and eating out 3 times each week.  Ugh, hard on the belly and the billfold.
• Manage my time more efficiently to get the most out of each day.

To hold myself accountable for this, I'll be posting goal updates each month.