Weekends go by way, way, way too fast. 
The last two days were fairly productive and relaxing. I was mostly home, puttering around while listening to Christmas music and playing some on the piano. I love Christmas music!
As planned, today I prepared food for the week. For lunches, I made four salads (Thursday is a holiday lunch out at work) – lettuce, spinach, red cabbage, carrot, celery, baby bok choy, and shredded beet.
I will add a piece of roasted sweet potato and some chunks of feta cheese (had both on hand) to each salad and dress with a basic Italian that I bought Friday on sale.
For breakfasts, which I don’t always eat, I’ll chop up hard boiled egg and serve with steamed broccoli and carrots over cooked oats with olive oil, salt and pepper. I cooked the eggs and washed and chopped the veggies, so they are all ready to go. I also washed off grapes to use for snacks.
For dinners, I created some vegetarian pea soup. I cooked the split peas in water, but then dozed off and they scorched! Thankfully, I caught it in time and was able save most of the peas. I added more water to create a broth. I tried something different by roasting in the oven chopped onion, carrot and celery drizzled with olive oil and adding the mixture to the pea soup. It tastes great! I’ll eat this over sorghum that I also cooked today. I might sprinkle on some paprika for a smoky flavor. I was happy to use up celery and an onion that were almost past their prime. I also roasted some old Brussel sprouts and squash seeds that I’ll use for snacks.
After making the pea soup, I realized that I had some black beans in my fridge that needed to be used up soon. So, I sautéed chopped carrots and celery in coconut oil, added the black beans and their liquid and lots of cumin, thyme, salt and pepper. After heating, I spooned it over some of the sorghum and stirred in fresh spinach, chopped scallions and feta cheese. It was pretty good – I love cumin. I’ll eat the rest of that concoction tomorrow night and then the pea soup starting on Tuesday evening.
Since I brought home some free desserts from a holiday party last night, I decided to forgo making an apple crisp as originally planned. I don’t need more dessert options than I already have. I thought about making applesauce, but just didn’t want to spend the time.
So, I’m excited to have healthy food prepared which will save time and money this week and should last into the weekend. I need to work on shortening prep time, though. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today – prepping, cooking, and cleaning up. Ugh. I can see why people spend money to eat out. It’s so much easier! I recently bought an instantpot, but haven’t had the energy to break it out of the box and learn how to use it. That might help.
I imagine part of the problem is that my kitchen is very inefficient and so am I. I need to bite the bullet and start the process of renovation. I’m considering taking out a line of credit (not sure if that’s the correct term). I have money in savings that I could use, but I don’t want to lessen my liquidity. When I read other blogs, it seems like people with loans are super motivated to put all available money towards paying them off, which might be a better option for me than saving the full amount needed in advance. I’d probably end up using some savings to pay off the loan, but only if I felt ok about it. Having the goal of paying off a loan might help me to focus on my money management. I’ll have to ponder this.
While I’m thinking about healthy food prep, I’m making a note to myself here that I haven’t been sick yet this fall/early winter. I’ve seen a lot of colds and other illnesses going around, but so far I’ve been very lucky and haven’t caught anything.
I finally tackled Christmas tree decorating this weekend. I put up the tree right after Thanksgiving and did the lights, but have not had the motivation to hang the ornaments.
Oh my, I didn’t realize that this photo was so blurry!
I was hoping to do some decluttering this weekend, but I didn’t. I got rid of garbage and recycling from some sorting I did in the past few weeks, so that’s something! I also straightened up my office, which was a complete disaster (embarrassing photos below!). It’s much more functional now, but it’s kind of a false scenario. I have done this many times – organized my office, but without getting rid of anything. I shove items into boxes with the intention of sorting later, but never get around to it. I eventually revert back to messiness and the cycle starts again. Having the office tidy feels good and gives me a clear space to start sorting, but now I need to commit to starting the process – a little at a time. I struggle with letting go of stuff – I can always come up with a good reason to keep something.
office before
office before
office before
before
before
office after
office after
office after
reality - so many boxes of junk to be sorted!
It’s supposed to snow up to six inches tonight and tomorrow morning, which reminds me that I haven’t put my snow tires on yet. Darn. I was going to venture out into the shed this weekend to find them. I’ll have to remember to do that this week and to make an appointment. If the roads are dicey, I’ll work at home in the morning, which is fine with me. 
Yikes, it is really late and I should go to sleep!
How is the weekend already over?!
December 12th, 2016 at 05:28 am
December 12th, 2016 at 07:17 am 1481527060
December 12th, 2016 at 08:07 am 1481530033
I have shredding to do.
December 12th, 2016 at 12:18 pm 1481545091
I understand letting go of things can be hard, but it can also be so freeing! Your excuses not to let go are the cause of your clutter. It will continue if you don't decide to do things differently. Some questions to think about...when was the last time you opened some of those boxes? Do you know what is in them? If they are important and needed, why haven't you opened them? Could it be they are not important? Do you want to have clear space or clutter more. If you want the space, then you will decide to let go. It does help to know what your ultimate goal is for the space. Maybe spend some time thinking about your ideal office space. Write a letter listing those qualities. This is then what you refer back to when you are struggling to let go. I'm guessing a closet full of papers is not your ideal office space. And if those papers are not needed, then they need to go to in order to improve the space.
You might look at just one box at a time. And it doesn't have to be in one sitting. But one box a month. Touch each item inside and make a quick decision about stay or go. Generally we keep way more paper than we ever need. We simply never refer back to it. Recycle, shred, donate what you decide to let go of. Initially, just put the keep papers back in the box. Notate that these are keep papers. You don't have to organize them initially. Your first goal is to get rid of the stuff you don't need. And if you need to walk out the door in a fire, you know that box is the important papers.
Hope a little bit of that helps!
December 12th, 2016 at 12:20 pm 1481545229
I like your tree-- you have a great place to put it!
December 12th, 2016 at 01:07 pm 1481548051
As far as quicker food prep goes, do you cook your sweet potatoes in the microwave? It's so much faster than baking. The salads look good.
I have been wanting a new kitchen (cabinets, counters, back-splash) for a long time...years... but I've procrastinated because I'm not looking forward to the inconvenience and disruption to my privacy and my schedule when someone comes to do it. I found it easier to have my driveway repaved becus I didn't have to be there when they did it and they didn't impinge on my privacy.
I like to put sliced parsnip in the pea soup, which adds a very nice flavor, like a mild carrot. Celery root is great too.
December 13th, 2016 at 03:05 am 1481598312