Homemaker Motivator

Everyday my to-do list starts off like this:

5:30am: Get up for gym
9am: Work
5:30pm: Skip home from work
6pm: Make something for dinner that requires more than 2 ingredients
7pm-: Spend the rest of the evenings organizing house

In reality, it turns in to something like this:

5:30am: Get mad at alarm for disturbing sleep and reset to 7:30am
7:30am: Wake up, get mad at self for skipping the gym
9am: Drag self to work with my best friend caffeine
9:30am-2pm: Avoid eating tasty treats that co-workers bring in
2:30pm: Cave and eat the treats anyways
5:30pm: Skip home from work
6pm: Make some sort of plain protein with sides of simple veggie dishes (on a side note, I'm starting to get handy with the grill!)
7pm: Plop on couch, put off organizing until the weekend

Needless to say there is so much to be done that I can't get motivated to start small.  Combine that with a long work day and just pure laziness, nothing has seemed to be getting done.  I think a stay-cation is in order?  BUT this past weekend, a few of my boyfriend's friends helped put up the kitchen shelves/décor I've been dying to put into action (pictures soon!).  The kitchen, aka my favorite part of any house, is finally coming together.  Though I can't actually fit an IKEA trip until August, I've finally put together a project to do list.  One room at a time of course - sometimes plopping on the couch is a must.

Now if only I could get motivated for that 5:30am wake-up call...

DIY Gift for Mom

Just before Mother's Day I was on Pinterest looking for a thoughtful but low cost gift for mom.  I love my mamma and she deserves all the wonders of the world for Mother's Day but in reality, I was closing on a house in under 3 weeks so 16 cent tiles from Lowes sounded just peachy!  I found the idea for picture coasters here (step by step directions) and they were perfect and SO easy to make!  No really, I made them while catching up on an episode of Grey's Anatomy.  I picked out my favorite picture of each of my nieces and nephews and she loved them!  

 

 

 

 

I saw them set up on my mom's nightstands when I was home last week and I noticed the one of David was missing (the cutie in the bowtie).  Fearing it had already been broken by the toddlers in the house I asked where it went.  My mom said, "Oh, David keeps walking off with himself!" 

 

 

Not only a good gift for mom, but amusing for kids.  Enjoy.

MIA Excuses

Oops I haven’t posted since March… BUT I have a few very good excuses!  Here is what I’ve been up to:

1.      I finished up my first semester of grad school and just like everyone says, it was hard work!  Though I was only taking one class, combined with 2 jobs and an already crazy schedule, it was tough to fit in all the necessary hours of work.   I struggled through the last few weeks but made it out with an A!  The homework wasn’t too difficult to manage and neither were the presentations every student gave.  However, the toughest part of the course was the term paper on top of those assignments– at least 20 pages on ACCOUNTING FRAUD.  Talk about a snoozer.  In the end, the topic ended up being interesting but I did have to peel off my eyelids from my eyeballs a few times in order to do the necessary amounts of research and analysis.  Also I'm pretty sure I killed a few dozen trees in the process.  But seriously, go ahead and quiz me on the JPMorgan Accounting Fraud case from 2012 – I’m a pro.  Though I’m a total math geek and actually enjoyed taking accounting, I’m excited to move on to other courses in the fall.
2.      My weekends filled up so quickly between Easter, running the Monument 10k in Richmond and the Race for Hope 5k in DC, road tripping to my alma matter, and a surprise visit from my brother from Hawaii!

3.      Tis the season of graduations!  Including my boyfriend who just graduated from college!  Kudos to him.  He started his first big boy job this week and I couldn’t be more proud or excited for him!  The picture on the right is the least blurry picture from his ceremony (Tim is waving!) and the picture you see on the left is in fact a blown up picture of his head held up for all of graduation to see, compliments of a good friend.

4.      Drum roll please...I bought a house!  No, you didn’t read that incorrectly.  This 23-year-old is a homeowner!  I’ve been hesitant to share because honestly I’ve been waiting for someone to pinch me and it have all been a dream.  I go back and forth between being so excited out of my skull and wanting to vomit a little.  Between everything listed above, throw in daily document scavenger hunts followed by hours of scanning and sending, endless emails with my lender and program coordinators, running different scenarios through Excel to make sure I wasn’t completely ruining my life (spreadsheet dork here), working a ton of hours to make those closing costs not result in a negative account balance, packing boxes (though let's face it, the move out of mom's is probably the easiest move you'll ever make), and of course convincing myself I was doing the right thing.  Honestly I’m surprised this all happened without at least one panic attack.  But it has indeed and I’m in the middle of unpacking boxes as we speak.  To say I’ve been a busy bee is an understatement but everything was worth it!  I can’t wait to share all the deets, so stay tuned my friends. 

...I promise I won’t wait 3 months again.

Anyone have any first time homeowner tips?  I’d love to hear!

 

Going Green

Today's long overdue post is on my latest attempt to get nutrients into my body.  Yes, I am jumping on the green smoothie wagon.  Here's why.

Since last October, I have been sick for weeks at a time, with maybe 2 weeks of relief in-between.  Turns out I am recovering from mono and oh-what-fun-it-has-been.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near my death bed, I just get these little colds/viruses that I can’t seem to shake.  But now I drink GREEN SMOOTHIES, and I haven’t picked up anything in weeks!  I started in early February, and haven’t been sick since.  Inspired by a friend who found this site, I make a green smoothie almost every day and I feel almost 100% better!  I’m knocking on wood as we speak, but I think my mono days are over.  But seriously, now what excuse will I use when I don't want to go out on a Friday night??

This was a little difficult to work into my Dave Ramsey envelope system right away, but I’ve managed to stay within my parameters by buying fresh vegetables and frozen fruit.   The main things in my shopping cart are spinach, cilantro, and kale as well as bananas, mango, apples, oranges, and pineapple.  Bananas are basically free and the frozen pineapple and mango bags from Costco and Wegmans aren’t too devastating to my groceries envelope and go a long way.  Sometimes I splurge and go for the avocado and giant box of kiwis. 

The best part is, these nutrient filled smoothies are delicious!  By sticking to the appropriate veggie/fruit ratio, I haven’t had a smoothie I didn’t like yet (and I'm saying this as a kale hater).  And for all you parents out there, I even got my picky-eater-4-year-old-niece to drink a whole 8 ounces of a smoothie made with primarily spinach!  She had a sip, and then asked for more! Next challenge, my three year old nephew who vomits when he eats celery!

On a side note, what a coincidence that I happen to be writing about this on St. Patty's Day.  Does the fact that I drank a green smoothie today make up for me forgetting to wear green....I had to sweep 10 inches of snow off my car this morning, can you blame me?! (hash tag bitter East Coaster)

Little Things, Big Impact

Tis the season of New Years Resolutions.  In honor of January's end, I've made another list of goals. 

I was reminded earlier this month how beautiful life is.  My baby nephew was born January 16th and is named Alan, after my father.  Baby Alan was born exactly one year after we buried my dad.  Pretty incredible, huh? 

I think I've been so anxious waiting for this new year that I've lost track of those little things that make life truly breathtaking if you take a step back and let them.  So here are a few I'd like to focus on this year, and every year for that matter.

I'm going to stick this list in my textbook, to remind myself everyday of those little things that have a huge impact.

 

 

 

 

How I got ready for grad school

So I may or may not have used grad school as an excuse to buy a bunch of fun supplies...but is that really so wrong?  I did a lot of research (go ahead, call me a dork) and finally settled on the following items.  But first, here is a little on why I chose Marymount University.

Why I chose Marymount: I went to a grad school fair at George Mason last winter.  I was a little discouraged because most of the schools I wanted to apply to would not accept applicants with less than 2-5 years of post-grad experience.  I had literally only been out of college for 2 months.  Finally I landed at Marymount's table and was relieved to hear they accepted applicants right out of college.  My sister spent 6 years at Marymount getting her Doctorate in Physical Therapy and I had always loved visiting!  Marymount has a Reston campus, which conveniently is only 15 minutes away from my house and job.  They have small class sizes which I think is perfect for a graduate program.  Seriously, I am one of 5 students in my class.  Big fish in a small pond theory at it's finest.

Planner: This is probably what I spent the most time picking out.  I tried going electronic, I really did.  I'm sorry to disappoint you generation y, but I just can't leave the paper planner.  Since I am only taking one class at a time, it didn't have to be crazy big.  I mulled over the Day Designer and the Simplified Planner but I knew I wouldn't utilize all the space since we primarily use Outlook at work. One of my friends has a May Designs planner and I fell in love!  It has just enough space to keep track of my one class and shifts at my part-time job, but small enough to throw in my purse.  The best part is that it's customizable!  Who doesn't love customizing the way they organize?!

Laptop: So whether or not I absolutely had to make this purchase was questionable.  I have a laptop that I got from Freshman year of college but it has since slowed down and has little battery life.  Still manageable however.  Buying a new laptop was in the back of my mind though and I was even considering going tablet.  Black Friday pushed me over the edge.  I found this baby for a great deal and snatched up one of the last ones.  It is a touch screen, has the latest version of Windows (I'm still a little bitter about purchasing my laptop in 2008 just before Windows 7 was released), and it is nice and slim!  I heard once you go touchscreen you don't go back and I'd have to say that is probably true.  I still store all my music on my old laptop and I find myself trying to touch the screen and getting confused. My new laptop is small enough to fit in my bag but big enough to type comfortably for long periods of time (hellO research paper).  I had never had a Lenovo laptop before, but so far, so good.  My only complaint is that the battery doesn't last as long as I'd like it to but it will still get me through my 2 hour and 45 minute class.

Laptop Sleeve: I decided to go for the sleeve as opposed to case this time around.  Something snug to protect my laptop from the wear and tear of my purse.  I seriously spent hours on Etsy trying to decide which was my favorite.  I finally picked this one from Bertie's Closet, though I almost picked this one.  I ended up going with the darker of the two since this will spend a good amount of time in a bag.  It arrived at my house exactly one week from the day I ordered it and it was love at first sight.  It fits perfectly around my 11.6" laptop.

Tote: Conveniently enough my sister-in-law is a Thirty-One Rep and my sister and I hosted a party a couple weeks ago.  I order the Cindy Tote in the Black Tweed print for a stylish but professional bag to haul my things to class.  It is not too big to use as a purse but still fits everything I need for class (binder, textbook, laptop, wallet, etc.).  I am a huge fan of my Jansport backpack but figured it was time to select something a little more sophisticated.  I chose not to get it embroidered because I go by a variety of names depending on where I am and where I'm working and let's be real, hopefully my last name will change within a few years...(subtle?  probably not.).

Don't worry, I ordered my textbook before all of the above and was plenty prepared for the academic aspects of grad school.

So that's my fun school stuff!  I have a couple more things on my wish list including a tablet and a nice desk.  But I have tuition to pay for instead of a tablet and I'll use the dining room and kitchen tables as desks until I find more space or get my own place.  I'd even like to have a large desktop computer eventually in addition to my laptop.  Less squinting and I'm also a huge fan of the mouse.  I'm using my mom's printer for now but eventually I'll need to replace the one that I had in college.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and other blogs learning about how others got ready for grad school.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and how you prepared for your first class!  Did I miss anything good?

Study Snack: Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins

Stop what you are doing and make these, whether you need a study snack or something sweet to go with your coffee.  These were a great late night sweet treat (I may or may not have eaten 4) and they were even better with my coffee the next morning after they had sat all night (I pounded another three...whoops). 

I was searching for a recipe on Pinterest involving apples because that was basically the only baking material we had around the house last week.  I found this recipe from Our Best Bites and tweaked it a bit.  Halfway through combining the ingredients, I realized that I didn't have any sour cream (...oops) so I substituted 1 cup of sour cream with 1 cup of Greek yogurt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.  Fewer calories and no trip to the store was needed.  Win win.



Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins, recipe originally by Our Best Bites
Makes: 24 muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt (I used plain though I think vanilla would have been delicious!)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 medium apples, peel and chopped (I used Fuji only because it was what we had)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons of flour

Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter, softened

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line your muffin pans with liners.

Combine the cake mix, cinnamon, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.  Then add the oil, eggs, Greek yogurt, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix on low for 30 seconds so that the ingredients blend together, and then high for 3 minutes.

Fold in the peeled and chopped apples.  Scoop into the 24 liners.

Whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon for the muffin topping.  Then add the butter. Whisk until the mixture becomes crumbly (you may need to break apart some large clumps) and sprinkle that deliciousness onto your unbaked coffee cakes.

Pop those babies into the oven for 20-25 minutes (20 worked best for my oven) until the muffin tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Let them cool on a wire rack or eat them straight from the muffin pan.  Whatever your little heart desires. 

These CAN be eaten in bulk without getting a tummy ache.  You're welcome.