Why is this year’s word Positive?

Well, I think I have my path for Authenticity well established and I know this will be a lifelong pursuit, but I am ready to take the next step.

I highly doubt I’ll ever lose my snark or sarcasm, yet I think I need to round some edges. While pursuing my education, I’ve found quite a few friends (okay read most) have fallen away. Sure time constraints, life changes (on all sides) and so forth will naturally happen and I can live with that, but I have been feeling rather isolated lately besides work and school; school and work; little league, school and work…

Someone I thought was a “good through thick and thin” friend has gone poof. I have a couple of friends that cycle and I see that we are on the quiet side of the cycle; I can live with that…

But I need to stop complaining.

- I complain about work
- I complain at work
- I complain about my weight
- I complain about my health
- I complain about my housekeeping

So my first attempts as I work on Positive?

Stop complaining.
If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.

Now I am a manager / director, so it’s not like I won’t be correcting, admonishing, pushing, etc. but I can do it positively, consciously, insightfully and with intention.

After fiddling I have come up with a recipe I want to be able to recreate. I’ve decided to share it here.

(Inspired by Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet)

Apples:

4 to 5 Apples – peeled, cored, and cut into six equal pieces. (I used a combination of Granny Smith & Honeycrisp)
2 sticks Butter
¾ cups Sugar
_____

Cake:

1/2 cup oil
⅔ cups Sugar
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla
2 whole Large Eggs
½ cups Sour Cream
1 cup Apple Juice or Cider
2 cups Bob’s Mill GF Biscuit Mix
½ teaspoon Cinnamon
1 apple – peeled, cored, and chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a 9 to 10-inch skillet, melt 2 sticks butter over low heat. Add 3/4 cup sugar to the pan and stir around, then place apple slices, wedge side down, in the pan. Don’t pack them too tightly, but try not to leave overly large gaps. Allow this to cook over low/medium-low heat while you make the cake batter.

In the bowl whisk wet ingredients: oil, juice, sour cream, vanilla & eggs. Whisk in sugar. Gradually add biscuit mix until just combined. Gently stir in chopped apple.

Spoon batter over the top, then spread gently so batter is evenly distributed. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake is golden brown and bubbly. Allow cake to sit in skillet for five minutes, then invert onto a serving plate.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

5 pounds Pork Ribs – cut into serving sizes (3-4 ribs)
Weber’s Chicago Steak Seasoning
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
Favorite Barbecue Sauce

Season ribs with spices, rubbing in to make sure it gets in all the nooks and crannies.

Place in crock pot. There is no need to add liquid. Cooked on high for 2 hours and then turned to low for another 4.

Preheat oven to 400°

Carefully remove ribs from crock (I usually lose one or two for pulled pork), place meat side up in a baking dish. Slather with favorite BBQ sauce and bake for 30 mins or until the ribs are sticky.

Zesty Sour Cream Coleslaw

1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoon vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
2-3 teaspoons hot prepared horseradish
1 1/2 teaspoons dill weed

Combine ingredients and add to 2-3 cups of shredded cabbage and carrots. Mix well. Refrigerate a couple hours before serving.

(We eat this on our fish tacos, as well.)

Ever look at a list of stuff you need to do and just feel tired?  Yep, that is absolutely where I am at. 

On the awesome side, we have begun our urban farm.  LOL.  My brother & sister in law (who live with us) have been building a flock of chicken, quail & pheasant in our back yard.  And apparently, a neighbor is cool with us getting a couple small goats to help deal with out of control yard issues.  I’d like to get more involved in the day to day care of the critters… but remember that list.  I’ll jump in once I am back in the groove.

Ry is happy to be back in school.  He’s a fourth grader.  Where the heck did the time go?  There is an open house tomorrow night that I might be able to pop into because I don’t have class…  hmm.  He’s doing Karate and we are trying to see if swimming lessons will fit into the budget / schedule.  I can read while he’s swimming, just need to see if it’s too late to sign up.

Rob is hip deep in Fall Ball, which is just as bad as the regular Little League season.  I will have to tie him down for a date night soon so we can just hang out, gasp, together.  LOL  He is so good with the kids and it’s a passion for him.  It makes him happy and as I adore baseball I don’t resent it nearly as much as I could.

I am sticking to only one knitting project at the moment, Traveling Woman (the free version).  It’s been modified, because when can I not tweak, well unless I am test knitting.  I have started a sweater for my nephew, Link, which I hope to get done by Christmas but I am not going to pressure myself on it. 

Maybe I’ll get some pictures posted sooner than later.

Have been to the gym in far too long, but keeping my lost weight off and have probably lost a couple more pounds probably thanks to all the on campus walking.  I have to batteries for my pedometer and see what I walk on an average day. 

I am happy, busy and inspired.  Now I just need to learn how to get by on 4 – 6 hours of sleep like I used to in my late teens / early twenties. 

Ry is getting so independent that we could pop out for a few minutes and let him do his own thing.  He went to the local playground program so he didn’t sit in front of the TV all day.  Alas, with Irene coming up the coast, he may have to start school on Wednesday with a couple of last year’s shirts and the two pair of uniform pants we’ve been able to find so far.  I am pretty sure, I don’t want to go anywhere near any shopping outlet tomorrow.  I have friends posting empty shelves even though we still have a couple days before she is supposed to hit.

I start on Monday, maybe…  One of the local colleges has delayed the new student arrivals to next weekend.  So if we lose power I might have a couple more days off.  I finally added my cell phone to my student profile in case they close the school. 

I plan in getting my last big load of library books for the year, tomorrow, so I will have plenty to read if we lose internet & cable.  LOL  And I will be playing with the iPad dictation program to start transcribing my stories, for as long as I have battery life or power to keep it charged.  Poor kid will be pissy that I will hog the device, but it’s mine so he’ll live without YouTube. 

I also plan to take advantage of this weekend and next to get pictures taken of knitting projects and get other pictures uploaded. So look for new pictures here and on Flickr. 

All in all, I am ready for the madness of the school year.  I am very much looking forward to all my classes and am giving Grad school more and more thought. 

Next semester, starting Aug 29, I’ll be leaving my house at 7:30 in the morning and getting home between 7:30 & 10 PM, Monday through Wednesday.  Yikes, 4 classes in 3 days after work (only leaving work an hour early on Tuesdays).  But it also means I have an extra weeknight to do homework, unlike last semester where I took 3 classes over 4 days. 

So what am I contemplating?  Besides my sanity?

Well, first do I get my Bachelors and say I am done?

Or do I go for my Masters/PhD.?

If, I choose option B: 

Do I do stay at UCONN or move to Tempe AZ and go to ASU?

Then the question would be, If we stay here:

Stay put and commute an hour for school?

Or move to Danielson/Brooklyn and commute 35 minutes? (Which would make Rob’s commute to work also about 35 minutes.)

So there you  have it, the things that are running, running, running, through my head.

To stay calm, I am knitting or reading urban fantasy.  LOL  It’s all good.

I am tired.

I am tired of not sleeping enough.

I am tired of the weather, because it makes my body hurt.

I am tired of the weather, because it makes my basement (and thus clean laundry) damp.

I am tired of turning off lights when I get home from work.

I am tired of people doing things last minute at work, then I have to clean up after them.

I am tired of holding the office together with limited support.

I am tired of irresponsible adults. I had asked two people to write notes in class for me while I was away.  Neither came through, not even an apology.  Just shrugged and moved on.  Whatever.

***

Up shot…

Today is my last exam @ 7:00 PM, but I have to work 10 hours.  In the mean time, I’d like to figure out how to study for said exam (just making sure I have a dozen definitions set in my head).  Then I get to go home and rewrite a paper that my professor sent back to me because I didn’t get it right.  Must be back to her today.  I have a feeling I’ll be emailing at 11:58 PM since I need to reread an article and book chapter.

I am tired. 

Will build new workout habits from May to late August. In hopes they are stuck when I start college up again in the fall. The gym is open from 4:30AM to 10PM, very doable, unlike my college gym (M-F 9-6). So fitness regeared and revved.

Membership includes 4 trainer sessions, which I definitely plan to use.

Shorter Term Goals:

1. Consistent Workouts
2. Daily Yoga/Meditation Practice

Long Term Goals:

1. Pass Adult Fitness Test
2. Complete Couch to 5K program
3. Complete a Triathlon
4. Fit into size 10/12 by age 40 (just over 2 years)
5. Waist = 36 inches or smaller

Now to find flip flips, create a dedicated gym bag and get new work out sneakers before the 5th.

Resource Links:

Beginner Cycling Training Program

How to Go From Fat To Fit For Good

Fitness Goop

School is going well.  Three classes this semester.  Barring missing a bunch of classes and missing important notes… I should get high B’s all the way across.  I am hoping for an A or two if I can ace my finals.  Which means the end of this semester is in sight.  May 4th is the day of my last final.  Political Science, Anthropology & History.

No classes this summer. I plan to reconnect with my friends and my body.  Joining a gym is on the agenda, along with lots hangout time with old friends and new.  Backyard is getting prepped for entertaining and I have plans for my bucket garden.

Other news, we are on an aggressive savings plan to start looking to buy a house in the Summer 2012.  Had a great meeting with a local loan officer and a real estate agent this past Friday.  We know what we need to do.  w00t!  We would like to get into one of the less urban local towns with a good school system.

Little League season is about to start.  Which means hubby is neck deep in schedules, coaches, equipment and plans.  It’s all good, opening day is after my finals and I get to spend lots of time outside (and maybe get more knitting done during practices, LOL).

Rob and I went to Atlantic City for the weekend, a week ago.  The first time we left Ry home.  Fun.  Barely any gambling because it’s just not our thing, but we dropped a bit of money at the outlet shops (got new sneakers and a hoodie) and combed the beach for shells.  I will have pictures up on Flickr soon.  They are downloaded to laptop, just need to get them captioned and uploaded.  Maybe after class tomorrow.

Heading to Phoenix on the 15th to visit SIL and have a family vacation. Going to do Route 66, visit the zoo, hit a ball game, that sort of thing.

In other words, busy busy.  But I like it.

I’ve decided to drop one class, Communications.  I was not thrilled with the book and am hoping that I can get into the other professor’s class next year. 

So back to my “usual” three-quarter time, instead of the insanity of full time college student who happens to work full time too. 

It’s all good. 

We are still without a working computer in the house (besides iPad), but hoping to change that very shortly when I can buy Windows 7 which will solve issues with both computers – replacing hard drive on laptop with a reformatted one and dumping Vista on the desktop which blew it up. Like I said, it’s all good.

Once the computers are up and running, I have something like 500 pictures to sort. 

You can click on image to embiggen.

The first half of the year will potentially be insane.  Let’s be frank – I will be working 40 hours, taking four classes and commuting between hither and yon.  There are three  (3) days when I leave the house at 7:30 AM and don’t return until 10 PM.  For the other two “work” days, for one I get home at 7:30 PM and only have a "normal" 7:30 – 5:30 on Fridays.

Saturdays are our run around as a family, get everything done day, this includes: weekly swimming lessons, weekly knitting group, monthly writer’s group, grocery shopping, general shopping, dropping something off for someone, etc. A mad kind of day that usually starts at 8 – 8:30 in the morning and doesn’t end until well it ends sometime in the evening.

Sundays are the kiddo’s and my unplugged, decompression day.  Hubby works and we usually have the day to chillax with video games, books or a tub to scrub.

So as I thought of my words I wanted to make sure they weren’t all organized and motivated.  I needed to make sure I remembered the fun & whimsy.