Yummy Pork Salad

I love when things come together, especially after a day of the opposite happening. So I was tickled pink when last night I could pull of a truly successful dinner that was literally last minute. I’m not kidding about last and minute. It was 6:40, I’d just finished a project on the computer and no dinner started. I pulled out paper plates and threw the following together:

Baby spring salad mix
Baby spinach salad
Grated chedder cheese
Sliced mushrooms
Cooked, shredded pork
Cranberries
Fat free sun dried tomato dressing

It was splendid! It’s also very easy to customize with your favorite toppings or dressings. The key was already having the ingredients, especially the meat. Which brings me to the real purpose for this post.

Busy moms don’t have time to dilly dally in the kitchen or slave over Martha Stewart style dinners. This busy mom is always multitasking and thus needs all the help and tricks she can find to keep things moving smoothly. As a result, I’m a vigil simplifier. If there’s a way something can be simplified, I’ll find it. One of my favorite cooking and “mom chef” simplifications is using my slow cooker. Now before you go thinking I’ve put an entire recipe of multiple ingredients together for a scrumptious dinner, remember I’m a vigil simplifier and multitasker. We’re talking throw in a frozen roast before checking morning e-mail here. One of my favorites is pork loin roast with a small can of green chilies. After several hours it will start to break apart. This is the point when you can easily start shredding and pulling it apart with two forks. The meat can easily stretch through multiple meals all week long for my family of four. It seems that there’s always leftovers for quick lunches too. Here’s a few of my family’s favorite ways to make meals with the cooked meat:

Pork Tacos with corn salsa
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
Cheesy tomato sauce with egg noodles and pork
Pork salad
Pork enchiladas
Pork and avocado sandwiches

All this comes from one pork roast thrown in a slow cooker with a small can of green chilies. There’s no prep time, no babysitting or slaving over a stove. Yet the results yield several “instant” meals later just by mixing and matching ingredients. A little BBQ sauce and you have a whole new venue, same with spaghetti sauce, and of course you can always leave it totally plain like in the tacos or on a salad.

Other things I’ve tried with success is throwing in a seasoning packet with a roast, like Lipton’s onion soup mix, etc. For a Sunday roast I’ll take the time to cut some veggies to cook with the roast, but during the week it’s a simple soup mix or more often a can of chilies, etc. The point is that once the meat is cooked you can stretch it so many ways with success and less stress.

This morning I sat down at my computer a little later than normal. Sometimes I dread Monday mornings because I know I have an entire weekend of computer catch-up; not that it’s all a bad thing I actually enjoy the reminder that the weekend was family time, free time away from the contraption. But I digress. The point is that this morning I found myself a little reflective on the whole process. I updated my Facebook status with a line about how it could already be Monday again which summed up pretty simply how I was feeling.

I caught up on a few news headlines, friends and family updates and my inbox just in time for lunch. Now I’m sitting back here contemplating the same feeling about the way time slips through fingers like sand, how you can’t contain it. I found myself trying to pinpoint thoughts to record today and ended up wondering what I’d written in the past. I went to the first November when I began blogging and this entry struck me like a gong; it described exactly what I needed to hear today. THIS is the reason and wisdom to me in recording your thoughts, you never know what you can learn from yourself if you take the time to record those thoughts and experiences. Today I am the beneficiary of my own advice three years ago:

Staying on top of it all: This is a game I play with myself. I know better, but I still catch myself thinking this way.

So here’s today’s tip: Such control is an illusion.

There is no such thing as staying on top of it all. First of all, the “all” changes constantly, especially during the holidays. Nothing will ever be done forever. Sure, we may get a few projects finished and we may even have moments when we feel a breath of relief over how quiet the moment is with multiple things caught up…but they are just that, moments. Because the ball is always turning, and we’re not super heroes (darn!), that can stay in one place on the moving sphere all the time, we will find ourselves in various positions of the moving beast. Some days I’m on top, other days I’m being chased in front, still others I find myself being flattened underneath and a few choice days I’m on the backside rolling with the momentum in harmony. Of course, then I realize I’m just getting ready to go through a few more positions again! LOL The beauty of this realization is that balance can be achieved simply by recognizing it.

I’m actually writing this for me because here I sit, kicking myself for being four families behind on business cards for our adoption website, thinking about getting those Christmas cards started, wishing I’d hopped in the shower FIRST thing this morning,….oh and bills, I was suppose to remember bills last week???

So I take a deep breath. I write down the things I know to be true, and a short list of things that, if I don’t get done today, will make me feel squashed under the ball tomorrow. I look around and give myself credit for the things that are done, and I pause for a just a moment longer while looking at that pretty Christmas Tree in the living room. It reminds me to slow down and enjoy the process of creating the beauty. I always get caught up in the finish line and consequently I can put insane expectations on myself and find myself missing the enjoyment of doing something for the goal of having it done.

And this alone makes me slow down and reflect on what’s been done. My breathing slows, my anxiety disappears and I smile remembering the fun holiday time I’ve already spent with family - a beautiful Thanksgiving, night time Christmas light displays, putting up some decorations and going to a movie together. I begin to look forward to some other fun things like decorating Gingerbread houses with my kids and watching old Christmas Cartoons together. December will quickly fill up with extra events, parties, programs, etc. If I find myself feeling like I’m running just to check something off the list, then it’s time for me to reduce the list.

So put on some Christmas tunes while you decorate. Listen to them while you blog (when your TV isn’t set to Tom & Jerry or some other great kid show that is), drink in the beauty of the season. And if you need an extra nudge here’s one: Today is only the 28th of November, it’s not even December yet!! *wink* Ahhhhh, that’s a beautiful thing!

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Family Homemaker Sharing Organizing Emotions Balance Success Holidays

Over the years, I’ve learned the value of blogging a few things - things that I think I’ll remember but find the details got hazy. Some of my best recipe creations have been lost to the haze, but as soon as I started blogging some of my successes I’ve been able to go back and find them. Technology can be a helpful and beautiful thing. Another benefit for me personally is the way it helps me track progress on goals. I love seeing posts and pictures from big projects from beginnings to end. They say a target to be hit must first be seen, well for me the motivation to keep working on those targets comes from visually being able to view and comprehend my progress. It is literally my fuel for success. So this post starts the first of many on recording my progress toward my goal of true self reliance through the principles of Family Home Storage.

First a little history to understand my perspective. I grew up hearing the importance of self-reliance and preparedness. The wise counsel of preparation has been ever present in my life, although I readily admit that I’ve been only partially vigilant in following the counsel. Instead of a full year’s supply of emergency food storage, I had a couple month’s worth. Instead of financial freedom I convinced myself I was doing great because we were always paying more than minimum on our debts as well as putting money away in several different savings and investment plans. If anyone had asked me how I felt about things at that time my story would have been laced with illusions of grandeur through rose colored glasses. My wake up call came when disaster struck in 2001 and I learned the valuable lesson of direct correlation between our level of vigilance and our survival/recovery. The good news is that we survived a serious blow of six months with no income without declaring bankruptcy. The bad news is that we only barely survived and our recovery was monumental. I seriously underestimated how quickly all those reserves would go when used. We incurred increased consumer debt used to float us through the gap of my husband securing employment. There are not words to express the feelings of helplessness, frustration and entrapment which followed the many months later as we struggled under a mountain of debt and limited resources. Looking back, I see how our partial attention to self reliance played a critical role in our surviving our own emergency, but I can also see how full attention would have provided full benefit. Things would have been different. Things would have been better.

In September I helped organize and present an evening of instruction on the very topic of Family Home Storage. Through the process, I was able to identify several things I still haven’t and should be doing for my own success in this area. The first was moving my knowledge of what I had from my cluttered head to an easier and more tangible system. So this week I took my own advice and went through all my food storage to make an inventory. I pulled things off the shelves, wrote down what I had, reorganized my supplies and then moved all that wonderful information into a spreadsheet.

While I haven’t perfected my system, I now have a start. I organized my list into a column for checking when the item has met my 100% goal, a column for the item description followed by two columns one for “have” and the other for “need.” My goal was to quickly identify in the first column how complete my goal is, the purpose of the last column was to help me quickly determine items needing to be added to a shopping list. I broke the list out into sections that included my pantry, freezer, long term food storage and non perishable items. The goal for food is to get three months worth of usable storage and one year of long term/emergency basic food storage.

Yesterday I put my list on the door of my pantry. I added a checklist for myself and family members to write down when items are pulled and used so I know what needs replaced. I just used a large white mailing envelope to hold my list and attached a checklist on the front and a pencil.

I’ve got a good start to my three month supply and a decent beginning to my long term storage, but I am totally lacking in drinking water and a few other non-perishables. It is recommended to have two weeks worth of drinking water for each family member. The suggestion is 3 cases of individual drinking water bottles per person for that time. That means I should have 12 cases of water bottles, I have one. So my immediate goal is to add one case of water and one package of toilet paper to each shopping trip. In our last home, I’d get caught with my pants down several times when the complex had to turn our water off for repairs. Sometimes it would last a good half to full day. I was so grateful for the inspiration to fill my empty canning bottles with water. The number of times I had to run down to my storage room to get a pint of water was many! I know the value of having usable water available.

My next immediate goal is to start tracking how quickly I use the items in my pantry. That way I’ll know what a three month supply means for me and my family. Right now it would be pure guesswork. I will also start adding that step by step application of one extra can of something here, a few pennies in the jar there, etc. I look forward to sharing photo updates of my progress on my goal. I wonder if it will look anything like the picture in my head?

Well I mentioned before that this week was nuts. I’m coming up for air now that Friday is closing in fast. I’m happy to report that all is well and many things have been successfully marked off the “list.”

Monday was the craziest day for me. It included nearly 133 miles of driving for two errands. It went something like this:

Drive from the east valley to downtown Mesa to drop off hubby at the Light Rail.
Drive back from downtown Mesa to the east valley to pick up daughter from school.
Drive from the east valley to north Scottsdale for a doctor’s appointment.
Drive back from Scottsdale to the east valley to pick up son from his friend’s house.
Drive from the east valley back to downtown Mesa to retrieve husband at the Light Rail.
Get dinner.
Drive back home to the east valley from Tempe.

The good news is we enjoyed a nice dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. *wink* Actually, the best news was the result of the light rail journey. My husband endured an afternoon of interviewing and grilling in downtown Phoenix for jury duty to be dismissed. Big sigh of relief for me as this daily drive to the light rail for 2.5 months would have totally sucked, not to mention the hit on our schedule for his work with four day a week jury duty. He said while he was relieved he felt like he’d failed a big test. Apparently, our previous experiences with psychiatrists and psychologists didn’t set well with the defense attorney, or at least my husband’s opinions on them didn’t. I’m looking at that as a blessing in disguise. Who knew all those tortured experiences to adopt our children could be such an added benefit in a completely unrelated area?

So Monday was a complete bust, but ended well.

Tuesday was a big day for me with a big meeting that night. The preparation for the food storage basics class and activities has been going for several weeks, but this was show time. It was wonderful! I’m so grateful for such amazing friends that help and lighten the load. I’ve compiled ALL the information here for anyone interested. The overview and details of the event are in the first section, all the handouts and shared information are in the section just below it. *wipes brow*

And finally, tomorrow my hubby is taking our daughter to the Miley Cyrus concert. She is BEYOND excited. It’s funny how quick she is to correct anyone who says “Hannah Montana” that no, it’s Miley Cyrus - clearly they really are two different people. *snort* I’ll be sending my hubby with earplugs and her with a camera. They have a VIP parking pass, which I think Cidnie is magically praying could be doubled as a back stage VIP pass. I told her not to hold her breath, but dream away kid, dream away.

Lately my husband and I have been having a great deal of conversation on the importance and learning curve of finding one’s balance with regards to the many options for using our time in today’s world. Many of our friends are venturing into online activities for the first time and they’re in the spiral of recognizing for themselves the need to establish balance. We’ve been involved for so long that we’ve almost forgot what it was like when everything was new and how easy it is to become unbalanced. And we’re not perfect at it, we’ve just had a lot of practice. *wink*

One thing I keep hearing in conversations and discussions is the extreme view that recent technologies are either evil or good. It’s a silly case because as with all things they’re both because the potential lies with the user and their agency. Some will use it for good, others for evil. In my humble opinion, I think it’s supremely important to remain an active force for good. Which is why I smile inside knowing how many of my younger friends on Facebook may be thinking twice before they post or share something just knowing that I may see it. *giggle*

My first learning curve came in 1999. I was the mother of a beautiful little toddler and an active advocate for adoption. Online activities were starting a real upswing then and I became involved in many boards and forum discussions on the topic of adoption. I entered my first chat room on an adoption website and met a wonderful group of friends, some of whom I remain in contact with today. We were exposed to extreme anti-adoption personalities on the site that would come to stir up a great storm of mud and ugly. I didn’t like it at all, and sometimes it made me sick to my stomach - made me want to run away and hide from it all. But then that rebellious spirit kicked in and I knew I wanted to fight back for good. I started posting more actively on some of the discussions, especially those that were trying to undermine the potential positives of adoption. It was here that I began to cultivate a necessary and wonderful skill of really thinking through what I shared, of being extremely careful of my wording and my shares so they could not be misconstrued. This is doubly important because with text communication there is no body language, facial expression or voice inflection to get your point across or clarify your intent. It was also during this time that I recognized the dangers of being involved in something so interactive. While a TV can keep you entertained for a while, a chat room could get you addicted with a need and desire to come back often and to put off other things because it was interactive; in this relationship you were getting something back for your time making it far too easy to spend too much of it online. I believe it was the day my toddler buttered our Yorkie pup that I realized other duties might be slipping for my time spend visiting online with other adoptive and hopeful adoptive moms. (I fully expect a comment on this from Pookie’s mom!) But it was the day I caught myself telling her “Just one more Elmo” for the 3rd time in a row that I recognized I needed to fix something. I had to step back and begin to limit my time spent interacting with all these wonderful people who shared interests from adoption to religious beliefs and more so I could balance my time spent in the “real” world with my family, neighbors and friends. It was a fantastic and eye-opening learning curve for me and a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

So when blogging hit the scene, I found it much easier to enjoy it without letting it take over my time. I’d already had the learning curve on website forums and chat rooms as well as e-mail groups to help prepare me. Although, it still took some adjusting as it was too easy to spend hours reading other people’s blogs and getting caught up in how many would come read my own. For a while in the beginning it was delightful to see a Technorati rating run up and blogging awards find their way to you. It was easy to lose focus on both my purpose and my time spent there. Again, I met many wonderful friends, many of whom I remain in contact with on a regular basis. My learning curve expanded. So when Facebook exploded I had the advantage of all this learning behind me. It wasn’t a temptation to get involved in quizzes and games that seems to suck away the sands of time from my daily hourglass. I’d already done that with all the blogging memes when they first surfaced. It was a fun way to reconnect with people I grew up with and I dearly love that ability. While some people complain about not caring about what someone is doing, I find it an easy and fast way to interact with them. People who I would not normally run up to and have a conversation because of geographic or time gaps get a simple thumbs up from me or a comment that I hope they’re feeling better if they shared they’ve got a headache - both things that I was unable to do a few years ago. It doesn’t take as much time as e-mail or reading a blog and I like that ability. It is also a great way to develop and extend new friendships with others. Just this past weekend I was able to easily strike up a conversation with someone I’ve never spoken to face to face before simply because I’ve commented and interacted with her on some status updates on Facebook. It melted that first and awkward barrier and the result was wonderful.

All this said, I know many who are currently struggling with their own learning curves. For many of my friends tools like Facebook are their first venture into the online world. It has all the elements of everything I’ve experienced slowly to this point in one place. It is chatting, gaming, socializing and sharing and consequently I hear many friends express shame or worry over how much time they spend there. Each time I tell them the same thing. I tell them of my own experience and how natural it is to have to find your own balance with these modern technologies, but if they are diligent it will come. The first and most important step is simply realizing you’re out of balance because a problem to be fixed must first be seen.

I do worry for our youth who are growing up with all these tools and digital technologies as part of every day life. Their adjustments will be different because there’s no “new” element for them, it’s just life as they know it. I worry that they will sacrifice the blessings that come from personal interaction and service because it’s more comfortable to sit and text or visit online. I worry that they seem to be missing important lessons such as not sharing or posting information that doesn’t belong to you be it news or photos. I worry that they won’t be able to see the long term impact of sharing something silly when they’re mad or just feeling silly. I worry that they don’t understand what it means to “share” in today’s world; that they are providing proof for anyone to use for or against them. And I worry most because I see their parents struggling to learn these same lessons. My husband keeps telling me it’s time to expand my charm school training into an e-etiquette course! Maybe he’s right. *smirk*

So for all the positive, there is equal negative. It was ever thus. I just feel a need to share that it is what we make it. A private family blog can be the most wonderful and easy way to retain valuable communication and record family histories. It’s the best of both worlds because journaling and scrapbooking can be combined. Now you can even click on an option to have your entire blog published into a beautiful hardback book. These tools can make important things easier and within the reach of everyone. That same blog can also be a source of hurt and exclusion if what is shared is not done with care.

Although there are times when many of us would love nothing more than to be separated from this crazy world we live in, we are not here to be excluded. We are here to learn how to live in this world and grow, how to develop self control and positive traits, in short to learn how to become better people. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Balance can be found if it is sought after. Life is rich when it is obtained. Our ancestors have all experienced it. I’m sure the radio was an addiction in its day the same as TV and every other enhancement and advancement that’s come along. In so many ways striking balance is at the heart of our feeling successful and satisfied. As long as we don’t lose sight of that every tool that comes down the pike will be an advantage for us.

I’m constantly amazed at the satisfaction and boost it is to get simple things done. I tend to think about the things that need done so often that I’ve done them at least a hundred times in my head before I actually get the job that only takes once to be done. What a waste of energy.

I’ve been learning how much easier it is to tell my kids yes instead of no and the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience. For example, a few weeks ago I was doing something when my son came to me and asked if I’d please make him his favorite cookies. My first thought was no, I’m doing something right now. But I’ve been working on retraining myself to that initial reaction by asking why not and how long will it really take, so instead I said yes. I dropped what I was working on and spent the next 15-20 minutes making him his favorite no bake, chocolate oatmeal cookies. Not only did I have a very happy boy, it saved me hours of nagging and interruptions. I went back to my previous task and completed it with a smile on my face knowing I’d taken time to do something that really mattered. If there were any doubt, my son confirmed this simple act with multiple verbal thanks that night and at bed time told me how he loved me with a hundred hearts and I was the best mom he ever had. Those moments are beyond price and they cost me only 15 minutes of readjusting my expectations. It takes so little to move mountains in the home.

Inspired with such simple successes in the kitchen I tried on a few things I’ve been putting off like baking bread from scratch and juicing fruit. I threw a new twist on my banana bread by cooking a large batch in a bunt cake pan. I’ve made several batches of homemade bread now and look forward to exploring new and different recipes. A little success goes a long way!

I grew up with a mother who did a lot of home canning and preservation of foods. I burned her homemade bread when left on watch. I learned how to do things with her tools and I’ve put off doing similar things in my own home for the excuse that I don’t have all the same tools like her steamer juicer. But last week I picked up all those guava that fell of the tree and juiced them. It’s not hard to cook the fruit until tender and create a makeshift drainer. I used my strainer over a bowl and one of my old flour sack dish towels to strain and squeeze the cooked fruit.

I have fruit in bottles in my fridge for immediate use and ice cubes for future use. I can’t tell you how this simple thing lifted my spirits compared to last year’s efforts of picking them up, keeping them on the counter for a few days and eventually throwing the spoiled fruit away.

Other tasks are easier to see and therefore procrastinate, like my floors. With a little unplanned motivation last week I steam cleaned my family room carpet which led to finishing the job on the tile. Have I mentioned how much I love my steamers? Or how much I love seeing the ‘after’ clean from the ‘before’ dirt?

This Saturday, I’ll drop off what feels like a garage full of bags and boxes from the deep clean of forbidden closets and corners of my home. It’s so nice to feel the space and organization when all the clutter is gone.

Little by little things are getting done and that’s my whole point. It doesn’t have to be a marathon event or everything done at one time. Just taking the few minutes here and there to do one thing that’s needing done or bugging you can do so much for your self esteem and motivation. I’ve only recently been let in on the great secret that it’s never done. So I’m not worrying anymore about getting everything ‘done’, I’m focusing instead on completing a few tasks when they come up. There’s much to be said for obtaining balance with this mentality from making cookies to playing a game or reading a story with your kids to clearing out that one junk drawer that’s taking over to preserving instead of throwing out the fruit you didn’t get to before it over ripened. I no longer look at my calendar to see everything I have to get done this week or this month. The lists are taking a much needed sabbatical and I’m retraining myself to keep the little things little, but important enough to get done. I wish I could put into words how amazed I constantly am at how much more I get done and how little time it takes to do most things. At the end of the day I’m learning the value of the lesson to just do it!

How do you buy some quiet time? You simply set up an art project!

There’s a fine line between influence and force in this world. Case in point, look at the watermelon:

This is how we think of them, how they were created to look right?

But add this little gem during the growth process:

And you get an entirely different result. You get an altered watermelon that takes on the shape of its case:

That’s right, now you can have a square melon, the same fruit just a different shape. It’s a cool concept to be sure, I mean the thought of not having the bugger roll around your fridge is noteworthy indeed. Yet something about this feels wrong. Perhaps I’m just not enough of a visionary or maybe I just think there’s a line to our influence becoming something of force. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should rings in my mind when I see stuff like this.

Right now I don’t know what I relate with more, the old watermelon or the new. I’ve been in a bit of a funk with my motivation lately. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m trying to make myself and my expectations fit inside a container like the square melon case, or if I just need more nourishment - aka motivation. It’s a quandary.

I wonder how often in this busy world today we find ourselves fighting back against the case; the impression that there’s a better, faster way to do everything. Food for thought.

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Organizing Potential Balance Blogging

I woke up to this fun note in my mailbox, which I really needed after spending a day in bed yesterday!

“Thank you so much! We have incorporated many of your wonderful ideas and are very excited to have our program on the 31st. This is being done on a Stake Level and will be very exciting for the girls. We have received many props from a teacher that had trees made and I will be sure to forward you a few pictures of our evening and let you know how it went. Thanks again. We love your site! Keep up the good work!”

Monique

It’s such a small thing, but it’s what keeps me going on the giant task of getting my many files digitalized and shared on my blog. On the upside of this task, I did get a lot of computer organization done this week. So here’s hoping that I’ll be able to keep up the pace and get more stuff shared.

Today I’m making a mental note to myself to send a simple word of thanks to someone who may not know how much what they share or do means to me.

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Sharing Organizing Positive Impact Inspiration Blogging

Earlier this week I took the plunge to clean. Normally this would be in reference to some home related task, but this time I’m talking about cleaning up digital clutter.

One thing is certain, clutter builds and it comes in many forms. Although I was only using 30% of my available space on my Gmail account, the folders I had filled with e-mails were old, generally useless and adding to clutter. So I forced myself to go through them and delete all the old stuff that didn’t have a place or purpose in my archives in preparation for a new year. I kept the family e-mails, a few important ones for reference but by in large I deleted folder after folder of e-mails. Some from e-mail groups I take part in, others that just seemed to build over time. It was like an invisible weight was lifted! Which, come to think of it, shouldn’t be a surprise given how many thousands of e-mails went into the great deletion void.

The reason I share this is because it’s been a progressive battle for me to let go of little things. I’m an organizer by nature. Years past you’d find a neat little (okay make that big) stash of perfectly labeled and filed old bills, photos, etc., etc., etc. I would never in a million years have considered clearing old e-mails because with the typical pack rat attitude I’d have countered that you just never know when you’ll need one! *giggle* Over the years I’ve had no problem moving to a thrifty storage mentality of all things physical. I go through closets, toy bins and cupboards on a regular basis removing items and clutter not used, keeping only what is needed and current. But I had some sort of block when it came to digital clutter. Three computer moves have helped me with it a little but this year was a giant leap for me. This year instead of having a dozen or so folders for organizing e-mails, I’ve got ONE titled “Misc. to keep” and only a few more for things like school and family. Instead of keeping and sorting e-mails as they come in, I’m reading and then deleting most of them. Sounds simple, but for me this is a big step forward.

I’m learning to let go, be more practical and get more done. I heard it said once that if you want new and good things to come to you there is a need to make room for them. So I’m starting 2009 with a bang of making room.

Anyone else got big plans for the coming year?

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Sharing Organizing Positive Impact Blogging