I've been thinking about something for a few days now. I want to talk about being who you are supposed to be/who God intended you to be. I know it has nothing to do with high heels, housework, or the 1950s but it's important.
I'm a follower.
That's just me. I'm not the leader type and I know that. The problem comes along when I try to be just like someone else, you know following exactly in their footsteps, or at least trying to.
I'll give you an example. I have a friend that is a fitness guru/healthy eating expert. She has four kids and is in the best shape of her life now. She's dedicated to working out, eating clean, and being the healthiest, most fit she can be.
I want to be like that.
She told me about this detox she's done and it sounded pretty easy. You eat fruits until lunch then fruits and veggies after that, all day, as long as they are raw, and you can eat all the fruits and veggies you want. BUT that's all you can eat. Do you know how much will power it takes to just eat fruits and raw veggies all day long? Especially when you have homemade brownies in the house?? I don't know how she does it! I managed to do one day; she's done like 7 days IN A ROW!
I'm weak, have little will power, whatever you want to call it because today I'm eating food, real food, probably not all that healthy food. And I'm going to love it. You know why? Because trying to be like her made me realize something.
I'm not her, I'm ME!
I need to stop trying to be like everyone else and just be the person God wants me to be.
My cousin is another perfect example. She's like a doctor, teacher, Martha Stewart and Martha White all rolled into one well organized, multi-tasking machine. I want to be just.like.that! She just graduated with her doctorate! She teaches nursing, works in the doctors office, bakes, crafts, volunteers and still has time for family and sleep. How does she fit all that in?! She's Super Woman, that's how. And I've tried to be Super Woman but I'm just not.
Who am I?
I am OCD. I believe things should be in the proper place with labels facing the same direction, organized by color, size, shape, and in neat rows. I procrastinate bad. I want to be better and do things early but I work best under the pressure and time crunch of a looming deadline. I get distracted easily (probably have ADD or ADHD, just not officially diagnosed). I can be lazy, okay, I am lazy. I kill plants, all plants, whether houseplants, outside flowers, or the fruits and veggies in my garden. I get an idea in my head and it must happen RIGHT.THIS.MINUTE! I don't like to plan and wait and work toward something. If I think it, I want to do it immediately. I jump in with both feet on projects, whether it's my desire to learn to sew or become an expert cake decorator. I like eating junk food like chips, brownies, and ice cream. I love painting and sewing.
That's me, not at all like the fitness guru friend or Super Woman, huh? Nope, but that's okay and I'm slowly learning that. It's okay to just be me as long as I'm being the best me I can be and being the me God wants not the me I think I should be.
Okay enough profound thoughts for the day, especially considering I'm writing all this at 6 a.m. before I've even had my coffee! WHEW! If this is the pace I'm setting for the day, I better go have that coffee now.
Tootles!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
New uses for old things
Hey everyone! It's been awhile, hasn't it? I've sure missed blogging to everyone. I finally finished English Comp II and my research paper (which was on the 1950s family and what we could learn from them). Still waiting for my grade to come in so keep your fingers crossed!
In my last post, I mentioned that I was planning to do a week of just thecrazy strict cleaning schedule and the beauty routine of the 50s housewife. My plan as of now is to do the cleaning one next week. This week I have something to do nearly every day and know I won't have the time I want to dedicate to it. I'll use this week to do more research and gather my cleaning supplies.
Today I want to talk about another important aspect of the 50s housewife's life. She was a recycling queen due partly to the recent Great Depression and World War II and due partly to that generations desire to reduce waste. People didn't throw many things away. They either found a new use for them or repaired them. I currently have a few clothing items waiting to be repaired (maybe I'll get to that the week I do the cleaning schedule as one day is set aside for mending/repairing). I found myself finding new uses for things today and wanted to share with you all so maybe you'll think about doing the same.
I was making Jim's breakfast burritos and I used all the flour tortillas. As I was about the throw away the bag the tortillas came in it dawned on me that I could put the burritos in there and just get out one each morning. Normally, I put each one in its own zipper bag. So, today I found a new use for the tortilla bag AND saved three zipper bags- SCORE!
Another thing I reuse and have for awhile are those zipper bags. If it has something like chips in it, I reuse it for food again. If it had a liquid or raw food (chicken, beef, etc) then I toss them. I also double bag foods that I'm freezing for future use. The inner bag is almost always trash but the outer bag didn't touch the food and is fine to reuse.
Aluminum foil is another thing that I reuse. Some dishes require being covered with foil while it bakes and the foil never touches the food so why throw it away?
Another item I found myself reusing today was my old liquid creamer bottles. I found an idea on Pinterest about reusing them to put dry snacks in or to put chocolate chips in once you've opened the bag so I kept a few. Then recently I found a pin for homemade coffee creamer using sweetened condensed milk, milk or heavy cream, and flavorings such as vanilla, chocolate, etc. I needed creamer this week anyway so I bought the ingredients to make my own. I used my old creamer bottles to put it in. And let me say, homemade creamer isn't as good as store bought but it's pretty close and much cheaper. Coffee-Mate in the smaller size is around $2. I spent maybe $1 on the sweetened condensed milk and already had regular milk and vanilla extract so I made almost 2 bottles for half of what the store bought kind costs. I plan to try it again when this runs out and I think I'll venture out and try another flavor.
One more, and yes, it also came from Pinterest! If we are all honest, don't most of our good ideas come from there? When Wyatt was younger and wore diapers all the time, I bought them by the box to be more economical but I ended up tossing a lot of the boxes (how economic is that?) until I saw this pin. Is this genius or what?? Too bad I didn't see this until I had stopped buying by the box and only had one box. I now use it to hold the kids books in their reading corner. (Note: a good blogger would put a photo here, wouldn't she? Guess I'm not that good! lol)
If any of my local readers have any diaper boxes and you won't be using them, I'd love them to make more of these cuties. So, there's a few of my reusing tips. I'd love to hear from y'all so please leave a comment with your tips and suggestions. Tootles for now!
In my last post, I mentioned that I was planning to do a week of just the
Today I want to talk about another important aspect of the 50s housewife's life. She was a recycling queen due partly to the recent Great Depression and World War II and due partly to that generations desire to reduce waste. People didn't throw many things away. They either found a new use for them or repaired them. I currently have a few clothing items waiting to be repaired (maybe I'll get to that the week I do the cleaning schedule as one day is set aside for mending/repairing). I found myself finding new uses for things today and wanted to share with you all so maybe you'll think about doing the same.
I was making Jim's breakfast burritos and I used all the flour tortillas. As I was about the throw away the bag the tortillas came in it dawned on me that I could put the burritos in there and just get out one each morning. Normally, I put each one in its own zipper bag. So, today I found a new use for the tortilla bag AND saved three zipper bags- SCORE!
Another thing I reuse and have for awhile are those zipper bags. If it has something like chips in it, I reuse it for food again. If it had a liquid or raw food (chicken, beef, etc) then I toss them. I also double bag foods that I'm freezing for future use. The inner bag is almost always trash but the outer bag didn't touch the food and is fine to reuse.
Aluminum foil is another thing that I reuse. Some dishes require being covered with foil while it bakes and the foil never touches the food so why throw it away?
Another item I found myself reusing today was my old liquid creamer bottles. I found an idea on Pinterest about reusing them to put dry snacks in or to put chocolate chips in once you've opened the bag so I kept a few. Then recently I found a pin for homemade coffee creamer using sweetened condensed milk, milk or heavy cream, and flavorings such as vanilla, chocolate, etc. I needed creamer this week anyway so I bought the ingredients to make my own. I used my old creamer bottles to put it in. And let me say, homemade creamer isn't as good as store bought but it's pretty close and much cheaper. Coffee-Mate in the smaller size is around $2. I spent maybe $1 on the sweetened condensed milk and already had regular milk and vanilla extract so I made almost 2 bottles for half of what the store bought kind costs. I plan to try it again when this runs out and I think I'll venture out and try another flavor.
One more, and yes, it also came from Pinterest! If we are all honest, don't most of our good ideas come from there? When Wyatt was younger and wore diapers all the time, I bought them by the box to be more economical but I ended up tossing a lot of the boxes (how economic is that?) until I saw this pin. Is this genius or what?? Too bad I didn't see this until I had stopped buying by the box and only had one box. I now use it to hold the kids books in their reading corner. (Note: a good blogger would put a photo here, wouldn't she? Guess I'm not that good! lol)
If any of my local readers have any diaper boxes and you won't be using them, I'd love them to make more of these cuties. So, there's a few of my reusing tips. I'd love to hear from y'all so please leave a comment with your tips and suggestions. Tootles for now!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)