Plan for the Week....

Oh, running.

So glorious.

To recap last week...
Wednesday: 2 miles!
Friday: 4 miles!!
Sunday: 6 miles!!!

All of it pain free.

Like magic.

For this week...
Monday: Rest (and dinner plans with my favorite OC bloggers)
Tuesday: 5 miles easy
Wednesday: yoga? (<--I keep saying, so one day it might come true...) Thursday: 5 miles easy Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7 miles easy

I have to say, I am SHOCKED that I was able to run those miles last week with no trouble. Of COURSE it was a bit slower than I was in October, but... I definitely could have kept going. I was sure I lost all endurance, but apparently not.
*******************************

I was sent these Celliant socks a few months ago, before Jerk Shin, but didn't have a chance to really test them out before now.

And I pretty much love them. I'm not sure about the technology they profess to have, because I'm not super sciency, but from their website...

Celliant is a revolutionary technology that harnesses the body's natural energy through the use of minerals and fibers. Products containing Celliant have been clinically proven to increase blood flow and blood oxygen levels in the tissue and help balance temperature.

They FEEL great. I've never noticed how my feet felt before, so I can't compare these to regular socks, but my feet didn't feel tired, or hot. They are SUPER comfortable, too, which is unusual for me, because I am stupid picky about my socks.

Bottom line: Highly recommended!
**********************************

Um. Did you see there's ANOTHER RunDisney announcement? Bah. At least it isn't preceded by ridiculous clues, I guess..... (but, seriously, RD, please stop. You know I can't resist you....)
**********************************

Weekend photo dump!

Christmas shopping is OFFICIALLY done! Wrapping, less than done. Oh, and stockings. Also not done. But so close.

Next year, I swear it, we are taking a vacation instead of this presents business. It is SUCH a hassle, and we are powerless to cute things we see while shopping for paper towels at Target (and hence how we wind up with too many things for #3, and scrambling to up the ante for 1 & 2). It's just not how I want to spend my holidays.

Or maybe I just need to be more organized, and stick to a damn list.

You know. Either one.

Anyway, after months and months of scheduling conflict (aka, laziness), I made it down to the Irvine farmer's market (if you're local, it's on Campus, in the Trader Joe's parking lot, every Saturday).

Gosh it's glorious. I love shopping here.

We ended up walking out with

• purple cauliflower
• heirloom tomatoes
• parsley
• satsumas
• golden beets
• green onions
• radishes
• lemons
• purple potatoes

....and some other stuff I can't remember off hand.

All under around $20. Shall we discuss again the expense of eating healthy? If you're in SoCal, at least, there's no good excuse why you can't.

Somehow, I've missed this, but Gabby's been decorating our Christmas tree with...

Leaves. In the ornaments. Of course.

She spent the first half of Sunday just about like this...

the last few weeks have been not so great for her. For the most part, she's had very minimal side-effects from her chemo - occasional sleepiness, nausea, general blahness. But man, since her last lumbar treatment, she's been pukier than normal. One of the chemo meds we give her at night has to be given on an empty stomach, but before she sleeps, because it makes her nauseous; but now she's waking up in the mornings puking. We have an anti-nausea med that we can give her, but she hates it... so I guess it's like picking the least awful option for her - meds at night that she hates, or puking in the morning.

Stupid choices that a five year old shouldn't have to make.

Man, it pisses me off.

/rant

Three Things Thursday

1. Running update: I'm currently stalking the Disney Princess Half, and warily eyeballing this declaration of being 65% full. I can't commit until I successfully finish the 10K in December, so I'm really hoping this number doesn't go bonkers in the next 5 weeks! Additionally, I've got my eyes on this baby:

Coast to Coast Challenge! I need that medal.

Additionally, 1a., tonight is a 2 miler, per my training plan, and I actually said, this morning, "Two miles... that's it?" I never would have imagined those words coming out of my mouth.

2. I was really hyped this morning about this great Bento that I packed for Baby. She's decided she doesn't like sandwiches anymore, and has been incessantly asking for Lunchables. Gross. So, I made her a Lunchable:

And drove her all the way to her school, which is by my office (30 miles from home). Except, today is Veteran's Day. School is closed. Oops?

3. I'm still CO washing, and I think it's getting better? Hard saying, honestly, 'cause I've been braiding it and setting it loose in the morning, so it's tough to tell where the unruly ends and the creepy begins.

I am a fail at meal planning.

Let's just get right down to it, because really, there's no good way to do this.

Success: Bourbon chicken, quesadillas.

That's it. Two days.

Now, with that said, I did manage to NOT eat out any days, at all. We just scavenged for random stuff because I didn't feel like or was too tired to or was to busy to cook.

I did make quinoa yesterday, but it was part of a fab dinner party with the Snork's. Which, somehow, didn't get photographed with the rest of dinner...

See those little puff balls, up on the top of the picture? These?

So awesome. I want to make them and eat them all day every day, forever. Mmmm.

Anyway. I mean, I'll keep making these "Meal Plans", but... it's not looking good, y'know? Maybe this just isn't something I'm good at. In my favor, it's a short week... Just Monday and Wednesday.

Monday (today): Chicken breast, rice pilaf, steamed brocolli.

Tuesday: Ordering pizza (it's planned, so it doesn't count as a fail!)

Wednesday: Chicken stir fry... must prep veggies Tuesday night.

Thursday-Sunday: We head out for weekend of camping!

Since 2 seems to be my maximum commitment level, I'll just leave it here.

And, I am linking up to Org Junkie, who has really good ideas, which probably work better on someone who sucks less.

“My only hobby is laziness, which naturally rules out all others”

Wow.

So, last week's menu plan was... challenged.

Successes were: hamburgers, lemon pasta.

Yep. That'd be it.

Bourbon chicken was attempted last night, but... somehow... I had no soy sauce.

I ordered pizza one night instead of making pizza.

We did a mish-mash of miscellaneous foods found in my fridge a couple nights, as well.

Sigh.

So, let's pretend we'll try this again.

Monday: Bourbon chicken (for real, this time)
Tuesday: Chicken, quinoa salad
Wednesday: Quesadillas
Thursday: No plan, we have a graduation dinner to attend!
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Lasagna?! (Maybe!?)
Sunday: leftovers

Phew.

Anyway, I DO get to scratch some things off my goal list, which is exciting!
We went hiking at O'Neill Regional Park yesterday. It was not my favorite, but... it was done, and now we know we don't care for it! (#19 and #4 - efficient!)
I have The H putting our snow gear in a tote in our storage closet today (#27)
I paid my library fines! (#7)

I bought bread flour, and hope to work on that breadmaking later this week. I have all summer to get it right, I suppose!

"I see a land bright and clear, and the time's comin' near"

Someone on the interwebs asked me a few days ago, what my goals are?

I mean, I spend lots of time doing weird stuff - like not shampooing my hair, and not eating meat, and not having cable. But why? Why would I? I mean, I'm not anti-establishment. I like clean things. I am (mostly) fine with eating stuff with a face. I still watch TV. Why am I bothering?

The truth is, I'm not sure I can articulate it. It just seems... I don't know. It feels RIGHT.

When we moved to SoCal, I picked what seemed to be a great area - super safe, great schools, walkable. What more does a parent look for?

Turns out, we're the land of the PTA mom. Where you are "asked" to contribute funds to a myriad of events. Where the room mom asks you to submit your cash donations in an envelope with your kids name on it so she knows who to include in the card.

What I've found, living here for a year, is that I'm not... one of Them. And I don't want my kids to be, either.

I'm not comfortable eating chemicals or modified foods, and if it's not good enough for ME, why would I do it to my kids?

I love to cook. I cook for people I love. Why would I half-ass it, and pour a bunch of weirdness from a box with an ingredient list a mile long and call it dinner, when I can take the extra 10 minutes (which I really love anyway) and chop, and dice, and COOK, with ingredients that I can buy at the farmers market, and more importantly, pronounce?

I want my kids to be self-sufficient. I want them to be able to take care of business should weirdness happen (TEOTWAWKI). So, I take them outdoors. I make them hike with me. We're starting to get into camping. I talk to them about geology, and the local plants, and what is edible, and what's not.

I like that my kids will sit with me and watch NatGeo all.day.long. (which, by the way, will continue streaming for EVER until you actually stop it). I dig that they'll watch a documentary about the Romanov's, and then Challenger, and Chernobyl, and ask questions about it.

So I guess what I'm trying to get at, is I'm trying to lead by example. I'm trying to lead the life that I want my kids to thrive in.

I don't want them to be slaves to advertising, or eating products with ingredient lists that are impossible to pronounce.

I want them to understand where our food comes from. I want them to be cognizant of their surroundings. To know that LIFE is about more than a tea party at school to discuss Becoming a Woman (curse you, IUSD!!), or who made your jeans. I'm proud that they can name almost every fruit, vegetable, or other weird thing that I can pick up at the Farmers Market.

I want them to understand that they have a responsibility to themselves, to the world, to be a contributing partner.

Jen at SimplyComplexJen has in her blog description, "Just trying to do the right thing in life for my daughter and the world around us."

Yep. What she said.

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

My quote title really has nothing - at all - to do with my post. I just liked it, and it was relevant to some stuff I was thinking about earlier today.

I wanted to update on The Plan, and it's success so far. I started on Sunday, so that puts me at day... 5. And I'm doing pretty well. I say pretty well, because as I type this, I'm eating pizza from Pizza Hut. I mean, its veggie pizza, but I kind of started all of this because of my Idea that I'd eat local, fresh foods exclusively. So... win by the letter of the law, fail by the spirit of the law.

I skipped yesterday, so on the menu Wednesday was...
Breakfast - whole wheat toast with pb&j (shocking, I know), ftons of coffee
Lunch - fried rice, 1/2 pita with hummus, baby heirloom tomatoes, and blackberries
Dinner - tortilla pizza
snacks - 1 chocolate chip cookie, and a honey tangerine

Today was:
Breakfast - I'm not even going to. Just assume it's the same as yesterday. I'm not really a breakfast person, y'know?
Lunch - spinach salad with beets, radishes, broccoli, black olives, and green onion, and half of an egg salad sandwich on wheat (made without mayo)
Dinner - my veggie pizza fail

My sister told me my menu looks bland. I think she's just wrong.

Evidence?
Giant salad from Monday

Pizza with fresh red sauce and fresh basil...

And my beloved bento...
My bento I'm especially pleased with, because (1) it was packed well, and (2) I used up leftovers that I would have otherwise tossed out. Win!

Tomorrow, I'll be repeating the same breakfast and lunch menu. Maybe that's boring, but it works for me. I am not super picky about daytime food... I save all my pickiness for dinner. And dinner, tomorrow? Homemade spinach ravioli. I expect great things to be happening.


Edit.... I just finished my Pizza Hut pizza. Vile. I'm not sure why I did that. Gross.

"Vegetarianism -- You are what you eat, and who wants to be a lettuce?"

I am two days into The Plan, and it's going so well. I'm pretty pleased.

Saturday, I hit the magical Farmers Market with Snork, and stocked up - kind of. We got there kinda late, and Baby had a potty emergency, then by the time we got back, isht was closing down, so I missed out on some things that I wanted to get. Bummer.

Anyway, what I ended up with at the Farmers Market was:
Beets (shared with Snork)
Green Onions
Basil
Rosemary (for The Hair)
Rainbow chard
Pita and hummus
Blood oranges
Lemons (for food and The Hair)
Mushrooms (shared with Snork)
Purple potatoes
Salsa Verde
Zucchini
Asparagus

That's all I can remember off hand.. I'm sure there was more. All told, I was in for $35 at the FM.

I picked up the balance of what I needed at Sprouts and Trader Joes.... onions (which I missed at the FM, darn you late start!), apples, tortillas, milk, eggs (could have been gotten at FM, but I can't stop balking at the price. Sigh.), crushed tomatoes, lentils, quinoa, wonton wrappers... That was another $40 between the two stores.

So, should I STICK to my meal planning, I'm in for $75 for the week.

My menu for the week:

• grilled veg quesadillas
  
• stuffed peppers
  
• lentil sloppy joes
  
• stir fry
  
• spaghetti
  
• spinach ravioli
  
• pizza

We've done a lemon pasta and the pizzas already. The lemon pasta caused 1 & 2 to freak out... which is odd, because I purposely started with that because I've made it before and it was familiar. Weirdos. Pizza is always a win. I'm concerned about the slippy joes, so I'll be waiting to try those on a night I'll be home with them and can prepare a second choice should it be a complete flop.

My intake the last two days....
Sunday
Breakfast - blueberry pancakes
Lunch - egg salad sandwich, fries, vanilla coke (Johnny Rockets... yum!)
Dinner - rotini pasta, green beans, lemon butter sauce, garlic bread

Monday
Breakfast - pumpkin loaf and coffee (Starbucks will be the end of me one day)
Lunch - GINORMOUS, never-ending greek salad (seriously)... red and green leaf lettuce, purple potatoes, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, green onion, beets, peppers... no dressing. Naked salad FTW!
Dinner - Individual pizzas.. on tortillas... black olives, sundried tomatoes, and basil.

Tuesday
Breakfast - whole wheat toast, 1 tsp peanut butter, 1 tsp strawberry jelly (Hello, HFCS)
Lunch - veggie wrap - tortilla with hummus, spinach, sundried tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and a hard boiled egg. I am unimpressed with this lunch. It was 4 hours ago, and I'm starving. And, I had a yogurt in between.

I need to figure out something more filling than what I had today. Maybe add a salad or soup to it. Hm.

"The most radical political act there is, is to believe that if I change, other people will follow suit."

I'm working steadily on inching my way towards an all-natural lifestyle. It's slow going, beacuse... frankly, it's not just me, it's me plus an H and 3 kids. The 3 kids are easy, but the H? He keeps looking at me all side-eyed. Like I'm gonna attack him with a baking soda hair situation sometime in his sleep.

There are a few reasons for this change... it's one part frugality, one part a personal challenge, one part a sense of responsibility. I'd like to think we can be self-sufficient in the (unlikely, and yet still real) event of some catastrophy. I mean, obviously these are teeny, tiny, microscopic baby steps towards that, but... I'm just saying. It's part of a giant, umbrealla-like, overall life change.

I'm on "No 'Poo" day... 20? I think? And so far, it's all going swimmingly. My routine so far is to rinse with just water most days. I "wash" with a honey/baking soda paste every 5-6 days... those days, I also rinse with an apple cider vinegar rinse as well.

My magic recipe... 2 Tbs baking soda, 1/2 tsp water, and just dump in some honey.

Until it looks like this.

Then, I massage it into my roots for a minute. Rinse out. Done!

Snork was skeptical of my honey/baking soda funk, but... I think she's just jealous. So far, my hair has not revolted like I've heard some other peoples' did... In fact, my ONLY complaint is that yesterday, and today, it might feel a little dry.
Overall, I am pleased. I was fully prepared to quit at the first signs of some Hair Revolt, but it's cooperating well. I've read that it's easier for wavy/curly hair to adapt, so... finally! Something good has come from this mess on my head! Sweet!

I'm going to be rolling this out to kidlets as soon as their shampoo and conditioner have run dry. So far, they're on board... I think anything that will get them out of the tub faster will be a win in their books.

I've also planned a "cleansing" week next week. The Plan is to go vegetarian for one week, starting Sunday. We'll hit the Awesome Irvine Farmer's Market Saturday morning, and stock up on all types of local, fresh goodies, and eat all local, all veg, all week.

Okay, so that might be exaggerated. I will eat all veg. I only imposed the vegetarian rule on the rest of the family for dinner time. They were skeptical at first, until I told 1 & 2 they could help pick recipes, plan the meals, and prep/cook.

We had a practice run on Sunday night - I let them scour my cookbooks for something they could agree on, and they came up with Martha Stewart's chicken stir-fry lettuce wraps.

#2 chopped the peppers and grated the ginger (I did the onions for her), and washed the lettuce.

#1 did the cooking.

It was all so super cute, and successful - everybody enjoyed it, and even leftovers were eaten - win!

I'm not sure why the chopsticks were necessary... #1 is obsessed with them, she tries to eat cereal with them.

Anyway.... todays food consumption!

1. Half of a blueberry bagel, 1 Tbs cream cheese


2. I made a killer lunch in my bento box today... leftover chicken wraps, sauteed greenbeans and peppers (with rice wine vinegar/soy sauce vinaigrette), cucumbers, and blackberries
   


3. 1 tiny bag of M&M's


4. 10 animal crackers

Dinner... I'm unsure about. I'll update tomorrow.

"Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium."

I was pretty psyched to blog about my "homemade" and super simple Sloppy Joes.

I perfected my recipe, tested it out, and finally, finally documented the production of them last weekend.

In the meantime, I've also been becoming more conscious of what I'm feeding my kids, and the funk that has been invading our foods. I mean, I generally cook from fresh - meaning, no boxed meals in my home. Not generally, always, actually... I thought that was pretty impressive. I mean, working mom of 3, coming home and cooking meals from scratch nightly, and inexpensively. It doesn't have to be rough, y'know? A limited grocery budget DOES NOT have to mean you eat junk out of a brightly colored box every night.

In short, I was feeling pretty accomplished, and not a little self-righteous, particularly when watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

Imagine my annoyance (at myself) when I looked at the labels while I was photog'ing this Sloppy Joe magicalness, and the first component listed on one of my ingredients was HFCS.

Sigh.

So, the search for a replacement ketchup recipe is underway. If you've got one, pass it on.

Also, I'm not blogging my recipe. It seems wrong somehow now.

What HAS been successful for me lately: home-made laundry soap, and No 'Poo.

Someone on the internet made some laundry-soap, and said it was awesome (famous last words....). I had to wait until I ran out of mine, which I FINALLY did last weekend. So, I rushed off to Target to get some glycerine soap. I won't go into this, but... it was an adventure. Note to anyone who is interested: Just buy the giant pack at Target, it's the best deal you're gonna get, I promise. In fact, if you're close by, I've got a boatload that I can GIVE you.

Because, my friends, for this recipe, you only need a half of a bar.

So, the recipe is this:
1 bar glycerine soap (I used Dial White Tea), grated
2 c baking soda
2 gallons of water

It's recipe 8 from this link.

I don't want to blantantly rip off their rad recipe, so you can view the directions there. I actually halved the recipe, for storage reasons, and it was easy peasy. Done in less than 5 minutes!

We've been using it all week, and so far so good. It has virtually no scent at all, but that's fine with me - we already used free and clear stuff, so we're used to it.

My friend Snork has chronicled her No 'Poo experiments for a few months now, and... I dunno how all that is going for her. I know the second my hair started revolting the way hers had, I might be tempted to quit. I don't know if I'm hard enough to take waxy hair all the time.

I'm on day 9, and so far, so good. It's pretty pleasing, so far. I did a baking soda rinse one day, and it was okay. I was looking a bit greasy a day later....

So I read a lot (on the internet!) and concocted some paste out of baking soda and honey, followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse. To be quite honest, I have no idea where I came up with it, where I found that, or why I thought it would be a good idea. It seemed risky, as I was staring at this clumpy mess I was about to massage into my head....

....But it was fab. I massaged it into my scalp, for a minute or so, in a circluar motion, and rinsed it out. Dumped the ACV rinse on, let it sit for a bit (while I shaved - multitasking!), and rinsed that.

This was the result. Soft, non-frizzy, full of body hair. It is pretty quickly stripping my hair of color, I think, but over all....

WIN!

On the "suck-less" front, I seem to have acquired shin splints. Which happens when you lecture other folks about the necessity of making sure you have good running shoes and failing to acquire some for yourself. Sooooo.... we've been ellipticalling. Snork and I started jalking together last spring, which morphed into "ellipti" nights followed by hot tub frollicking while kidlets played in the pool all summer. We were pretty psyched when we did this....


Last night, I did this...


Followed by this, on the same machine, but it was stupid and cut me off at 35 minutes....

That'd be a total of 5 miles.

Because, we rock.

This weekend, I plan on attempting a container garden, inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, The Happy (Athiest) Homemaker. I have high hopes for this. If it works out, it'll be one step closer to a completely clean diet, plus, you know, prep for TEOTWAWKI.

Kidding. (not really).

"Best way to get rid of kitchen odors: Eat out."

Just kidding. I love to cook. Really.

My version of Touring Tuesday, minus filth and comatose children! Win!

My kitchen is pretty tiny, and... well... boring. I mean, it's an apartment kitchen. There's just only so much you can do with that, y'know? I do like that the cabinets are white, and there's a window in the attached dining room, so it gets pretty good light most of the day. But, it's teeny, and bland.

Looking right.... my fruit baskets, and... sink. Fascinating, eh? Right now, hanging out in there, I've got a gajillion tangerines, grapefruits (NINETEEN CENTS!!), kiwi, pears, bananas, apples, plantains, garlic, onions, potatoes.
And left.... knives, stove, my favorite Ikea frying pan, toaster deal, and messy fridge.

Yep. Mess. We've got pretty limited storage space, so... Yeah. Gatorade (which I don't normally have!), two bottles of Hansen's Apple Juice (99 cents?! Yes, please!), the family's bread (white... ick), and mine (Sprouts multi-grain!). Somehow, I also have two boxes of Cap'n Crunch. Not sure about that. Neither are empty? Huh. Oh, and. Half eaten bag of tortilla chips that I bought for my Trader Joes guac. Which ran out long before the chips.

Also evidencedhere, I have a little bit of a thing for Disney.

My freezer. Two boxes of waffles (gasp! Boxes!! I know, I know. But, really. 3 kids out the door in the morning? God bless Eggo.). Also hiding in there.... Trader Joes frozen corn, edemame, a LOT of chicken. That's about it. Quiet this week. I ought to go shopping.

Inside.... Um. OJ, Gatorade, Apple Juice, milk, leftover yellow rice in the little pot dealy, TONS of blueberries, TONS of asparagus, lettuce, eggs, cheeses, spinach, celery, peppers, miscellaneous other produce items. The majority of our grocery budget is probably spent on produce in some fashion.

Sigh. The door of shame. I'd like to say I'll cut out HFCS, but. Look.at.that.mess.of.stuff. Ketchup, all types of salad dressing, barbecue sauce, jelly, mayo... sigh. Butter for DAYS. I bake cookies like it's my job. Milk tea. Pickles. Sambal. And, my argyle sock holding the door open.

My pantry... Is a hot mess. I really ought to clean this mess out. Hm. Anyway. We've got tea, instant oatmeal (yikes... I don't even remember buying that.), tomato sauce, Trader Joes pancake mix, syrup (more HFCS!), peanut butter, breadcrumbs, chocolate milk stuff, pasta, rice... Down at the bottom are potatoes and onions.

So. There you have it. I just realized I ought to have pictured my spice cabinet as well, but in there I've got the staples - sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt/pepper blah etc.

Was it as good for you as it was for me?

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”

There's this store in Bellflower, the Holland American Store, that I love to go to. It's kind of in the ghetto, but it's only about 15 minutes away from my office... I should visit more often, but... since I usually skip lunch, I just don't get to.

I made a special trip there this week for my dad's birthday... I specifically was looking for spekkoek, but unfortunately, they were sold out until next month. Grrr. But I did find some other goodies, like....

...these super rad clog slippers. Don't you want some?
And my favorite thing to eat for breakfast, ever, chocolate sprinkles, for toast. How could you go wrong?!
They have sambal for days.... We are too wussy for the crazy spicy stuff, so we typically go with sambal bajak.
Krupuk? I think I will! Who knew shrimp flavored chips would be so good?

I don't know really what rum-flavored chocolate balls have to do with Dutch or Indonesian. I mean, the package even says "Jamaica Rummy's". But they are hella tasty.
These stupid things are dangerous. I will eat the package in its entirety, so it's really best that I just leave them on the shelf.
If you like licorice, which I don't, this is the place to go... literally, entire rows of shelves dedicated to different types of licorice. Ick.
They have some pretty random stuff, too, like this tamarind flavored balsamic glaze? I was skeptical about this stuff, maybe next time I'll give it a shot.
They've also got heaps of Dutch cheeses, which are super rad, and freezer cases of other Indonesian treats, like lemper (rice rolls, filled with a chickeny coconutty stuff), and other good stuff that I can't spell.

I love going there, it always reminds of how super psyched I was when Oma and Opa would have spekkoek to share, or brought home chocolate sprinkle things from Holland.... I think I'm out of chocolate sprinkles already, it might be time for another trip. Soon.

“Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything.”

I have this grand idea that I will someday, live frugally, eat cleanly, and be organized.

I am ridiculously UNorganized. It's sad, really. I routinely leave my daycare payment at home on Monday mornings. I am guaranteed to forget my thoughtfully-prepared lunches in my refrigerator at least 50% of the time. I live in blissful ignorance until it becomes a crisis. Sad.

Living frugally... is another sore spot with me. I just don't like it. I like pretty things. I like my hair to be pretty, and highlighty, and my toes to be colorful, and all of that. I like it. And, try as I might, I do NOT highlight as well as my girl did, or paint my toes as well as the nail place does. I just don't. And I like to buy pretty handbags, and lovely shoes. None of which are "frugal".

But, the ONE thing on this list that I am most interested in - and so far successful at! - is eating cleanly.

Mostly, at least.

I cook just about everything we eat from almost-scratch. I don't make my own pasta or anything like Emily, but. Cans and boxes have almost no place in my pantry. It helps that I really love cooking... all of it... the grocery shopping, meal planning, chopping, coming up with new recipes... and I'm getting more into doing this FRUGALLY. I love shopping in season, and I particularly love how affordable produce in Cali is.

My new favorite store is Sprouts. Awesome #5. I used to be a Trader Joes whore, and I certainly still love it for fun, affordable, funky foods. But when it comes to produce, Sprouts and it's affordability win out, hands down.

I walked out of Sprouts on Saturday, with sunburst tangerines, 6 grapefruit the size of my head (3 went to Snork), satsumas, blood oranges, 2 heads of red and green lettuce, kiwi, a fuckton of green bell peppers, mangos, organic broccoli, pears... all for under $10.

Many years ago, I lived with my cousin and her daughter. I was making dinner one time... french fries were involved. From scratch, like... potatoes. And the kidlet looks at me all crazy, and says, "What are you doing with those?" And I explained it, and she looked befuddled.

My kids are the opposite. Now, I pull out a frozen bag of fries, and they look at it funny.

Believe me, I'm far from a health nut. I could stand to lose a good 20 lbs (at least), I've got a can of Pepsi on my desk (opposite from my blood orange), and a bag of chocolate in my drawer. But it's a step, right?

UPDATE: Peppers? Gone. Finished by Sunday afternoon. I knew I should have bought more than 5.

UPDATE UPDATE.... Some mofo stole my blood orange at work. Bastards.