Month: September 2015

Discoveries

/ thoughtsofmymadlife / Leave a comment

I just found my list of “Goals for 2015”, and it’s interesting to see how many I’ve already been doing, even without actually looking at the list (heck, I forgot it even existed!). I originally posted these on the blog back in January as part of the “New Year New Life” series (Day 6 is where I have my goal list).

For each of the categories, here’s how I’ve done this year:

Relationships – have still been a bit slack with the “writing to grandparents” thing, but I’ve done better with the other two items (setting aside time for Hubby & not feeling guilty about saying “no”).

Organisation & Management – I’ve gotten MUCH better at keeping up-to-date with the housework, and I think that is partly because our house is half the size of our old one.
I’ve culled my wardrobe, and now it’s only got the style of things I wear and like (except for the dresses. I didn’t get rid of many of those because I only really wear dresses in summer. If I don’t wear them this summer I’ll get rid of them). I also bought a few new items that are in keeping with my style.
I haven’t done quite so well with the “fix it immediately or chuck it” thing – my mending pile is still a reasonable size, because there are a few items I can’t bring myself to get rid of. This sort of comes under the “stop holding onto things that are not useful/required” thing too.
I’ve been mostly planning out my days in the morning and following that plan – it doesn’t always go how I want it too, I’m still consistently putting too many things on my to-do list for a particular day.

Health & Beauty – I have been quite good at eating proper meals at proper times, as well as making packed lunches for uni. I started out making Hubby’s lunch for him the night before, but that fell off during exam time last semester and now he just makes his own. I’ve also managed to significantly reduce the amount of pre-packaged/pre-mixed foods we buy, and I have gotten to the point where 90% of our food is made from scratch. I still buy a few things that I can’t replicate at home (like a particular brand of chic-chip cookies that are SO ADDICTIVE and tinned fruits).
I’ve been driving far less since we moved to this new house. I’ll generally ride my bike to & from uni or get Hubby to drop me off and walk home, and I walk to the shops. Just recently, I’ve taken to driving to do the shopping, because I’ve discovered a really good & cheap fruit&veg shop in the big shopping centre that’s about 15mins drive away.
I’ve been very good at making sure I get at least 7hrs of sleep per night, but I haven’t really done much yoga this year. I’ve been doing more pretty stuff with my hair now it’s longer though – I can finally put it up in a proper ponytail, and even use one of those bun donut things! I’ve recently bought a whole heap of new earrings and pretty hair clips too, because for prac we’re supposed to have our hair all up and no dangly earrings (I bought a whole heap of pretty studs).

Creativity – I haven’t set up a reading corner, mainly because we don’t really have the furniture to do it and we can’t afford to buy it atm. I’ve been reading recreationally still though, and I’ve been trying new recipes regularly. I was doing fairly well with the “blogging regularly” thing until I got out of the habit over the June-July break. I’m going to try and do better from now on.

University – so far, I’m maintaining a GPA of 6.25 (WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!), I generally stick to my designated “study hours” (except for assignments), and I THINK I’ve been able to improve my study practices.
I’ve been wasting less time online, mainly because I’ve stayed off of Facebook. That thing is a complete blackhole! I don’t seem have replaced the time I would have spent on Facebook with other websites though, I still use them about the same amount that I did when I was using Facebook.
I still procrastinate, BADLY. Particularly procrasti-baking and procrasti-cleaning.

So, I think I’ve made reasonable progress. We’ll see how things go for the rest of the year!

~K

I have started running!

/ thoughtsofmymadlife / 4 Comments

Well, attempting to anyway.

I did Parkrun yesterday (this is their website if you want to find one in your local area) and OUCH.

My legs are absolutely KILLING me  today. But I did the 5k run in 48 minutes! Most of that was walking, I think I ran for less than 1km out the whole thing, but I figure it’s a good start.

 

I’m aiming to do it in less than 30 minutes eventually, but I think it’s going to take a while to get there.

~K

Awesome Scrambled Eggs

/ thoughtsofmymadlife / 5 Comments


My scrambled eggs are legend. Literally – whenever we go camping with friends or have someone stay over, if I offer the option of “my scrambled eggs”, just about everyone jumps at them (except Hubby, who just doesn’t like scrambled anything. I will convert him haha).

They’re really easy to make, and taste AWESOME.

The recipe below is for 1 person, but it’s easy to scale up.

For the record, I always use the whole egg. None of this “egg whites only” business for me, the best part of the egg is the yolk! (In my opinion). If you only use whites, you may need a little extra white.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 2tbsp milk
  • 2 cubes frozen spinach
  • 3 slices ham, thinly sliced
  • 1tbsp spring onion, finely sliced
  • 2tbsp grated cheese (I generally use pizza mix cheese, because it melts nicely)

Method

  1. Put eggs & milk into a bowl and mix up. Season with pepper, if desired (don’t add salt, the other ingredients are a bit salty in flavour so add the salt at the end)
  2. Preheat a small nonstick pan over med-high heat, then add ham and spinach (I defrost the cubes in the microwave first, but that step is not strictly necessary. They will defrost in the pan, I’m just too impatient to wait).
  3. Once the ham and spinach are heated through, add spring onions. Stir through, then add egg mix.
  4. Keep an eye on the eggs, stirring a bit to scramble the eggs. Once the eggs are about 3/4 cooked, add the cheese and stir through.
  5. Serve 🙂

Variations

Add whatever veges you want – this is the base recipe, the things that ALWAYS go into this. Sometimes I’ll add mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum, whatever I’ve got in the fridge.

You can swap out the ham for bacon if that’s what you have – in our house, we always have ham because that’s what Hubby has on his sandwiches, but we only have bacon if I can buy it on special.

Experiment with seasonings – add some hot sauce or chilly flakes if you like spice, or a bit of curry powder for something different.

~K

My “process” has been disrupted

/ thoughtsofmymadlife / Leave a comment

Hubby broke his finger last Saturday at work.

He wouldn’t even let me strap it until Sunday evening (after I called in the “big guns” – our doctor friend), and then he avoided going to the doctor to get an X-ray until Wednesday.

The tip of his right ring finger is crushed, and he is now off work for the week.

This is annoying for me, because I have a process, and now he’s in the middle of it and not helping :S

Case in point – Friday morning is when I wash the sheets and towels, but because Hubby is home, he’s still in bed asleep. So I can’t wash the sheets. There’s no point putting the towels through on their own, the load would be too small to be worth it in our machine.

I’ll get back to doing my essay now I’ve had that rant. We are at t-10hrs until it is due.

~K