My family moved around a lot, and thanks to this I am reasonably skilled in the art of purging your space of things that have become unused, unwanted, old, broken, etc. It’s still a painful process for me, however, because I become overwhelmed with a sense of failure and of wastefulness. Sometimes, months after I’ve rid the apartment of a certain item, I’ll forget I’ve done so and tear the place apart looking for it until I’ve realized it’s gone, and then my heart falls into my stomach.
About three years ago, Andrew and I went home to Virginia for Easter. When we stepped into the house, I immediately noticed that our deacon’s bench was no longer in the front foyer. In its place was an ornate, wrought iron table with a marble top. A large, equally ornate mirror was hung on the wall just behind it. This new scene was an upgrade from the simple wooden bench that used to occupy the space.
This bench was the last remnant of the furniture my mom and dad brought back from the Philippines. Everything else I had grown up with was long since sold or given away, the unfortunate result of a divorce and regular moves around the country. The deacon’s bench stayed, however, and trekked with us from New Hampshire to California and Texas before making its way back to the East Coast and settling in Virginia.
I had never realized how much I depended on that little piece of furniture being there until it was missing.
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There’s that old mantra “Fail to plan, plan to fail” (which I’m pretty sure I first heard from a friend who was doing the Body for Life program in college). Meal planning is supposed to help you stay within a budget, but sometimes I get so excited about the possibilities for the week that I end up with an over-detailed list of what to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks based on how I feel the day I’m making my list.
Two pit-falls for me:
1. I lose interest in the meals I’ve planned as the week goes on.
2. I buy too many ingredients (and usually too much of each).
Cooking for two is tricky business. I don’t want to get bored with the same meals week after week, but I also don’t want all the perishables I’ve purchased to go bad either.
Two solutions:
1. Plan for only a few days. While I take more trips to the grocery store, there is a lot less waste.
2. Plan around a theme. Mexican Everyday has served me well here, because the recipes tend to call for the same ingredients: onions, garlic, dried peppers, tortillas, poblanos, fire-roasted tomatoes, etc. And I don’t need a recipe to get creative with tacos, enchiladas, or whatever. Sometimes I pick a cookbook, sometimes I pick a country, and sometimes I pick an ingredient. With this method, I run the risk of getting bored, but I’m also pushed to get more creative.
This popped up in my Google alerts today.
Every day, thousands of items are listed on Ebay with spelling mistakes! Many of them don’t sell or if they do, they go for a fraction of their real value because people cannot find them.
Now I can spend even more time perusing the Internets for cool furniture and home décor items thanks to more search results on Ebay.