Monday, May 31, 2021

The Mins Game: join me in June!

 I was introduced to the Mins Game by The Minimal Mom, but according to her, the concept came from The Minimalists.  The idea is to start at the beginning of a month.  Day 1, declutter one item; day 2, declutter two, all the way up to decluttering 30 items on day 30 (here's the explanation from The Minimalists).  By the end of the month, if the player has been doing it right, they will have decluttered 465 items.  

Sounds like a lot, right?  It is a lot.  I've heard that the average home in the U.S. contains around 300,000 items, so surely you can find 465 you'd be willing to part with over the course of a month, yes?  Maybe?

The reason it's a game is because one is supposed to be competing with others, and whoever gets the farthest without skipping a day wins.  And if everyone gets to the end?  Everyone wins!  Ever since I saw a video where Dawn mentioned the Mins Game, I have wanted to try it, and I hope you'll do it with me.  

If you've been with me for a while (and I think you probably have, since no one reads my blog except family and close friends), you know that I don't tolerate clutter well.  I get rid of so much stuff that it's a wonder I have anything left.  So, you have a good chance of beating me, since I'm not sure I'll be able to find 465 items to get rid of.

I'll do my best each day, and I'll update about once a week to let you know how I'm doing--watch for my posts.

What do you think?  Are you up for a challenge?  Are you willing to play?

We start tomorrow.


Thursday, May 27, 2021

So. About those goals.

 I set some goals for this year.  And then I almost immediately regretted it.  And since then I've been ignoring them entirely.  

It's a bit flummoxing.  I mean, I absolutely rocked my goals last year, finishing 20 goals by the end of June.  And if ever there was a year with a good excuse to give up on goals, it was 2020.  But I didn't give up last year.  And I did give up this year.  Or actually, I didn't give up, I just avoided, which is probably worse.  I am not willing to admit to myself that I made a mistake, so I'm just not.  Not anything.

It is actually not at all confusing or perplexing, y'all.  I am spent.  All of the emotionally energy required to make it through the past 15 months, supporting and loving my family well, has emptied me, and I got nothing left*.  There is no more emotional energy to care about completing goals that I don't actually want to complete.

Anyway, it's not all bad news.  Or even any bad news.  Just news, I guess.  I may or may not complete any or all of my original 2021 goals, and that's ok.  I have given myself permission to not stress about it (which does not mean that I am, in fact, not stressing about it, but whatever.  Baby steps).

Well.  I'm glad I've got that off my chest and out there into the universe.  So how about an update**?

You guys.  I am so close to achieving a Superstar or better rating on all of the Extreme versions in Just Dance 2019 and 2020.  I am one song away.  What?  Who am I?  A superstar, that's who. (That was ironic.  There is no way on this earth that I would actually call myself a superstar.  Ha.  The very thought is preposterous.) 

I'll keep you posted.

Or not.

*****

* Are you as annoyed as I am by how dramatic I'm making it sound?  I mean, it feels dramatic, but also the human system tends toward homeostasis, which means we can become accustomed to anything, so it's not actually all that dramatic.  It just is.

** I believe what you just experienced is known colloquially as whiplash.

Monday, May 24, 2021

Menu plan for the week of May 24

 It feels like a busy week.  That's probably because it is?  Not sure.

One thing you can be sure of: regardless of how busy we become, we will continue to want to eat food.  Here's what's on the menu this week.


Supper:

Other:

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Mediocrely inefficient and unproductive

 I am being spectacularly inefficient and unproductive today.  And before you tell me, oh, everyone needs a rest day every now and then, let me make it clear that I do not need a rest day today.  Not physically, anyway.  Possibly mentally and/or emotionally, based on my inability thus far to do anything other than check email, scroll Instagram, and watch YouTube.  

I take that back.  I did shower today, so there's that.  Oooh.  And I made the bed.  And started and switched a load of laundry (which will now spend approximately 3.8 days in the dryer until I need the dryer again to actually dry clothes, at which time it will be dumped into a laundry basket to wait another 2 to 5 days to be put away.  Wouldn't want to overexert myself).

So ok.  Maybe I'm just being mediocrely inefficient and unproductive today.  Can't even do that right.

It's raining today, which is what I'm blaming my inertia on.  Also the laws of physics.  It is all the fault of the laws of physics.  There was a break in the rain from the time I woke up (probably before then, too, but I wasn't awake, so it doesn't really matter in this context) until around 8 a.m.  I should have gone for a walk this morning after Bubby boarded the bus--I would have been able to get 3+ miles in before the rain started, and I would have set up my day to be a little more ... worthy*?  

Anyway.  If I had actually done something that early in the day, I probably would have continued to do somethings throughout the day.

But no.  I did no such thing, and now I am still doing no such thing, hours later.  And blogging about it.

Well.  I did tell you that blogging is my favorite housework avoidance technique.  And now, I'm off, to continue being mediocrely inefficient and unproductive.

* * * * *

* Where did that come from?  Why does my brain think I'm any less worthy of taking up space in the world on days when I sit around doing nothing than on days when I do countless tasks that I will have to do again within hours, days, or weeks?  Oh, right.  Because in the US, only people who are productive are valued and those who are not, are not.  

Monday, May 17, 2021

Menu plan for the week of May 17

 I found pickles.

Turns out, all I had to do was buy pickles of an alternate variety, and pickles of my preferred variety appeared the next week.  And there were lots of them, too.

So, you know, you're welcome for solving the national pickle crisis.

Here's what's on the menu this week, plus pickles at every meal:

Supper:

Other:

Monday, May 10, 2021

Menu plan for the week of May 10

 We're going through a rough patch for menu planning around here.  The people who live here have stuff going on every evening, some of which takes some of them away at suppertime, and some of which takes me away at supper prep time.  It's ... challenging.  I'm trying to think back to other times when menu planning was a challenge*, and all I can't remember much.  I must have blocked it out because it was so traumatizing. 

So for now, I'm plodding through.  There's only about 3 more weeks of there being an issue every week night.  I think I can hold on until then.  Maybe.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Supper:
Other:

*I'm referring to times when menu planning was a challenge from an external circumstances standpoint, rather than a brain-power or motivation standpoint (which is pretty much all the time).

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Thoughts on today, May 5th

 It's Cinco de Mayo today.  And we're having Italian beef sandwiches for supper.  Whose poor planning is at fault for this travesty?  I mean, come onEveryone knows we're supposed to eat Mexican food, or at least a poor American imitation of Mexican food, on Cinco de Mayo.  We don't even have guacamole here, friends.

I just don't know if I'm going to be able to go on today, y'all.  Might as well go back to bed and try again tomorrow.

Also, I missed out on an opportunity--the opportunity to have a no-brainer dinner this week.  Instead, I expended precious mental energy planning a not-no-brainer meal for today.  Can I get a do-over?  Please?

Anyway ... AKD is home from school for the summer.  That means we currently have four licensed drivers and three working motor vehicles at our house.  So that's ... if I'm doing the math correctly ... one more driver than vehicle, or, in other words, one fewer vehicle than driver.

We (mostly me? I'm not sure if any of the other drivers thought about it at all) thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal, since one of the drivers works mostly at home, and one of the other drivers strives to stay home as much as possible, but we're already, after just three days, having an issue. Today.

Oh, bother.

Yeah.  We'll figure it out; it's a little inconvenient at the moment, but it's not insurmountable.  

For today, we (the driver who has an appointment and the other driver who has an appointment in the other direction at around the same time) told the driver who was planning on going in to work that he had to work from home today, which he prefers anyway, so all is well.

Oh look.  A baby cabbage.

In other news, I've got baby radishes and cabbages emerging, and maybe baby beets, too?  The sweet melons and watermelons have not yet emerged, and I haven't planted anything else yet because we're not yet past our average last frost date.  But it is good to have a start in the garden...even if the start isn't actually in the garden.

Monday, May 3, 2021

In a pickle ~ and menu plan for the week of May 3

 We ran out of pickles.  We actually ran out of pickles a few months ago, but I didn't put pickles on my grocery list when we ran out.  As a general rule, we don't go through all that many pickles, and also, I believed us to not be out of pickles, because we had two jars of pickles sitting on the shelf that houses our home canned food.

About three weeks ago, I decided I wanted pickles, so I opened one of the jars.  And that's when I discovered that we were, in fact, out of pickles.  They tasted bad.  The tasted so bad, in fact, that I fed them to the compost--not even to the chickens.  Just, you know, for future reference, do not substitute dry herbs when the pickle recipe calls for fresh.  You can thank me later.

So about three weeks ago, I wrote pickles on my grocery list.  And when I went to the grocery store, there were no pickles*.  I didn't think much of it, just made a mental note to carry pickles over to my next grocery list.  And the next time I went to the grocery store, there were also no pickles.  The next week, there were still no pickles.

Three weeks without pickles, y'all.  I mean, I've definitely gone more than three weeks without eating a pickle, but always I have known that I could eat a pickle if I wanted to eat a pickle.  And it seemed strange that every** store would be out of pickles. So I asked the universe (aka the google), "why can I not find pickles?"

And it turns out, there is an actual pickle shortage that people of the universe (aka people on the internet, which is, technically, a part of the universe) have been talking and writing about.  In fact, one of the national fast burger joints delayed the release of a new sandwich because of the pickle shortage.  

Of all the things I thought would never be in short supply, pickles is, well, not at the top of the list, because it's not on the list of all.  Who thinks pickles*** are going to be in short supply?  Anyway, I just thought I should let you know, so that if you do happen to spot pickles, you can stock up.

And I'm crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that I'll be able to find some pickles tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's what's on the menu this week:


Supper:
  • Cheese, crackers, and summer sausage, raw veggies
  • Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli
  • Italian beef sandwiches, buns, green beans
  • Leftovers
  • Hamburgers, buns, green stuff, raw veggies, chips
  • Hot dogs and brats, buns, green stuff, raw veggies, chips
  • Cilantro lime chicken with avocado salsa, salad


Other:


* Of the variety which I wanted to purchase, which was dill slices.  There were bread and butter slices, and dill spears and whole pickles, but no dill slices.  
** Every store that I went to, which included 2 different locations of one grocery store, one other store, and as many local stores as I could think of that would tell me online whether or not they had any pickles.
*** It sounds like it's not actually pickles that are in short supply, but glass jars, which is affecting pickle storage and transport, although why that would affect a fast food chain?  I do not know.  I feel like national restaurant chains do not buy their pickles in glass jars.
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