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Keeping it All Together (more or less)

I was going through some old information this morning on the GTD system (Getting Things Done if you are not familiar with this). This is an interesting system and I like and use parts of it and dislike and eschew other parts of it but like all things organizing it does interest me. It struck me in reading this material how much things have changed in just the past 5 years (the material was from a conference I went to when I was pregnant with Tabby). The systems and tools I used “way back” then are so different from what I use now. Anyhow, like I said, this sort of stuff always intrigues me and I thought I’d share some of my organizational tools, rules and resources and see what you all use.

  • GOOGLE CALENDAR Pictured above, Google Calendar is my favorite org tool. I use it all the time. I have a calendar for the kids, one for the whole family, Matt keeps his own, the menu is on there as well as my training calendar, my freelance hours for billing and a separate schedule for my work commitments (that don’t directly affect the family). The fact that it syncs with my Android phone is perhaps its greatest advantage and I use it daily … hourly some days!
  • ANDROID 5 years ago, I was rocking a state of the art HTC with Windows Mobile. It got my email but since it wasn’t corporately sanctioned it didn’t connect to our Exchange server and I entered all my appointments, contacts, etc. manually which was a huge pain in the butt. Switching to an Android has been incredible! Having all my data in Google Calendar and Contacts is such a time saver and the synchronization is flawless.
  • OUR GROCERIES APP This is another of my favorite tools. It holds all of our lists. Everything from grocery lists (one for Target, one for our organic market, one for Costco) to family to-do lists to packing lists and it syncs together Matt’s phone and mine so if he adds something to the list in the morning and I go by the store on my way home, I know what to get.
  • PHOTOS As far as photos go, I’m pretty strict with myself. I won’t let a week elapse before downloading photos off the camera. I delete the duds (immediately), edit what I want (keeping the originals) and upload the best to Flickr. At some point in time, some munificent being (Matt) backs them up to our file server. If I ever get behind, it is so hard to get on top of it again that I dread it. Keeping on top of things is vitally important to my organization.
  • BACKUP Speaking of backup, I LOVE Carbonite. For $55/yr you get your computer backed up to the cloud in your network down time. No fuss no muss nothing to remember. It is as easy as backup gets.
  • SCAN SNAP I hate paper, so we have all of our personal files on our fileserver scanned via a system called Scan Snap. It’s just a nice little desktop scanner that digitizes what you still get in paper and sends it straight to PDF.
  • PAPER When I do have to use paper, I’m pretty particular about it. At the office, I file everything in 3-ring notebooks as opposed to file folders. Those things drive me NUTS. Notebooks = tidy. Tidy=happy. And I also scan anything I don’t need to keep a hard copy of (meeting notes, invoices, etc.)
  • TO DO LIST The other paper thing I won’t get rid of (at least not yet) is my work to-do list. I have a narrow notebook where I keep the to-dos going on a daily basis, copying over what remains for tomorrow (or Monday). I would probably keep this on my computer, but the computer I have at work is so slow that it is just more efficient to keep paper. Plus, I do like to doodle in the margins.
  • PINTEREST More and more, Pinterest is one of my go-to sources for organizing. I keep lots of recipes there, clipped from all over the web as well as project boards and crafts I want to attempt. Sometimes this probably creates more distractions for me, but they’re distractions I love.

For the many things I’m good at with organization like menu planning and making it to appointments and getting things done at home and work, I’m terrible with many others. I find myself constantly fighting clutter within our home. Too many toys, clothes, DVDs (though we’ve started rectifying this with Amazon Instant Video and Netflix), pieces of kiddo artwork, books (Kindle is helping here again), craft supplies, holiday decorations, kitchen what-nots. I always have a Goodwill basket going and we make regular trips, but it’s hard at the best of times. I currently need to make clean sweeps on just about every room in the house. We talk frequently about buying/building a bigger home. And while certain aspects of that greatly appeal to me, I don’t want to have space for more STUFF. Bigger closets are not likely to be on the agenda.

I am very curious to know what your favorite organizational tricks are!

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Tabby on the Run

Today, I ran my slowest 5K ever, clocking in at right around 50 minutes. And I couldn’t be more proud. Today marks Tabby’s racing debut. She successfully completed the Rockie’s Homerun for the Homeless 5K. It wasn’t easy and we had to give lots of encouragement, water breaks and walk breaks along the way, but she started what she finished and completed all 3.1 miles under her own power. I’m so so proud of her!!

We got the whole family involved. Matt pushed Ben in the stroller and we all ran in a little pack with our friend and her son. It was a pretty hilly course and there was a fair bit of whining now and again, but she didn’t show signs of fatigue during or after the race and it seems to me that it’s mostly a mental fortitude thing right now – a lot to ask of a five year old, I know, but also a great skill to cultivate as she gets older. I’m sure it didn’t help that it wasn’t a fine sunny Colorado day like I ordered, but chilly and misty.

The race was really fun and really went by pretty fast. By the end Tabby was happy she completed it and chowed down on all the after-party offerings: bananas, granola bars, hotdogs and a rarely-allowed Sprite.

Ben got in on the action too. We signed him up for the kids fun-run (a 1K around the stadium) so he could have his very own bib like Tabby. When we asked him minutes before it started if he wanted to run, the answer was an enthusiastic YES!!! Matt took him over and he ran with the 5 and under crowd and had a great time.

When he came around the last curve, a bunch of little boys were up in the stands holding out their hand to him and he ran over to them, wanting to give them 5, but way too short to do so. So Matt picked him up and he was able to high-five the little boys – he told me all about it in great nonsensical detail later.

The race was a real winner and I’m so glad we did it. And we’ll get to go see a Rockies game later this summer as part of our race fee!

After showers, we joined some friends for brunch (my own mom is in Boston – we celebrated last week) and had a nice calm and quiet rest of our day. Hope you and all of yours had a wonderful Mothers’ Day!

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Lemonade Layer Cake

Matt’s birthday always seems to get lost in the shuffle. It’s not because he’s not incredibly important to me and the kids, but because things are always going on, it seems. Graduations, Mother’s Day, etc. He also doesn’t like to make a big deal about birthdays and generally buys himself whatever he wants during the year and so he’s a pretty hard guy to find a present for.

But I always like to do SOMETHING to mark the day, even if it ends up just being a promise to spend time together in a couple of days. This year, we had a nice steak dinner planned and I thought he might like a birthday cake for dessert. Matt is very big into lemon desserts, so I found a recipe I’d pinned a while back called lemonade cake. It was lemony, light and sounded fairly doable for a weeknight. It’s also a cooking light recipe, coming in at 322 calories for 1 of 16 slices.

I grabbed the couple ingredients I lacked (a lemon, some lemonade concentrate, cream cheese and buttermilk) on the way home for work and whipped it up in pretty good time. The hardest part was getting the butter, cream cheese and lemonade concentrate softened. My west-facing front porch in the afternoon was the perfect spot to leave everything for 5 minutes and they were quite well softened.

Lemonade Cake

adapted from Cooking Light

cake:

  • 1 1/3 C sugar
  • 6 T butter, softened
  • 1 T grated lemon rind
  • 3 T thawed lemonade concentrate
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • 1 1/4 C fat-free buttermilk
  • Cooking spray

frosting:

  • 2 T butter, softened
  • 2 t grated lemon rind
  • 2 t thawed lemonade concentrate
  • 1/2 t vanilla extract
  • 8 oz low fat cream cheese
  • 3 1/2 C powdered sugar

To make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Pam two 9-inch round cake pans. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place sugar, butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture and beat well after each addition.

Divide batter between prepared pans and sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, place 2 T butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate, vanilla extract and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, up to 3 1/2 C until desired sweetness and beat at low speed just until blended. Chill 1 hour. Frost cake as desired and serve immediately. Happy b’day to Matty!

Nannersp
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Balsamic Marinated Flank Steak

I’ve been pretty sluggish about May’s cookbook, which is Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill. It has some tasty looking recipes in it, but it also leans more towards harder to find and more expensive ingredients, which I’m not against, of course, but it is harder to fit into my weekly cooking scheme. Flank steak, though, is always a good affordable treat and this recipe did NOT disappoint. The only hard part about it is that you will have to plan ahead since it takes 4-8 hours to marinate. It’s worth it though!

Balsamic Marinated Flank Steak with Spring Green Salad

adapted from Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill

  • 1/2 C balsamic vinegar  + 2 T
  • 3/4 C olive oil + 3 T
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 T rosemary leaves, chopped
  • 1 1/2  to 1 3/4 lb beef flank steak
  • Salt and pepper
  • 6 C spring greens
  • 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/4 red onion very thinly sliced
  • parmesan cheese to top

Whisk together the half cup vinegar, the 3/4 C oil, the garlic and rosemary in a large dish. Add the steak and turn to coat. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours, turning every 2 hours or whenever you happen to think about it.

Heat your grill to high. While it’s heating, prepare the salad. Whisk together the remaining 2 T vinegar and 3 T olive oil (I usually use much more balsamic than oil though – I like it better that way) and season with salt and pepper. Add the spring greens, tomatoes and onions and toss to coat. Top with shaved parmesan (vegetable peeler works great for shaving parmesan).

Remove the steak from the marinade and season with salt and pepper. Grill until lightly charred and kinda crusty, 4 to 5 minutes. Do not close the lid on your grill unless it is cold and/or windy. Turn steak over, reduce the heat to medium or move to a cooler part of the grill, and grill until medium-rare, 3 to 4 minutes more. If cooking a bigger steak, grill for an extra 1 to 2 minutes per side – take care  not to overcook!! Remove the steak to a cutting board and let rest for five minutes. Cut into half-inch thick slices against the grain of the meat. Serve meat alongside the salad.

 

The whole family loved this recipe, particularly our resident carnivore, Tabby. The salad was a nice light accompaniment.

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Happy B’day Matty

Today my is my Matty’s birthday. I try my hardest to let him know each and everyday how awesome he is and how much he means to me, but today I will stop, make a special effort and write it down.

I had no idea how lucky I was when I met him 14 years ago at the cafeteria in Rand Hall at Vanderbilt. He is my very best friend in the world and the person I share virtually everything with. We make an awesome team and compliment each others’ strengths very well. He is an amazing husband and father and we are so so lucky to have him.

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Big Boy

A few weeks before Ben’s 3rd Birthday, we got down to the potty training thing in earnest. With Tabby, we essentially laid down the law and she said okay and we have rarely had an accident since (3+ years). Ben was an entirely different proposition. He fought the whole process like you would not believe, particularly going #2. On the first real day of training, we had a 30 minute stand-off in which all I wanted him to do was TRY and he wouldn’t. He finally got sent to bed … it pretty much went against every instinct I had, but I was sick and tired of waiting for him to decide it was time to do this and decided I had to force the issue.

Happily, I think it was the right decision. Shortly after that, he finally went and it’s just gotten easier from there. I also found out the most effective method for training Ben: bribes (and I make no apologies on this account). He hasn’t been the same as Tabby, but who should expect that? We’ve had accidents and we’ve also had to remind him more that it’s time to go and force the issue when he doesn’t think it’s yet time. It’s been much slower and we’ve had fits and starts. Finally he is asking on his own to go pee. I wouldn’t say we’re 100% yet with #2 though and while it’s a bit frustrating, the fact that we can take him out of the house without a pull-up on is very very worthwhile. He is still wearing a pull-up at night though I think it’s more for our peace-of-mind (read: sleep!) than because it’s necessary and I do not plan to buy more pull-ups when these are gone. We won’t travel without extra pants for a while yet, but it’s so much an improvement that I’m delighted.

Though it’s been a bit more drawn out and frustrating, he’s doing really well and he’s as proud of himself as we are of him. He was very upset yesterday when he accidentally peed on his shorts and underwear (not an accident – overshot while on the toilet). He’s very excited that he will get to go to daycamp with Sissy and we can now register him for preschool in the fall with no reservations. He’s a real big boy now and it still feels kind of strange to pick him up and realize he doesn’t have a padded bottom anymore. Strange good though.

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The Dunes

We have made 3 trips to Great Sand Dunes in the past 5 years and man … it NEVER disappoints. The awe of a giant pile of sand in the middle of the Colorado mountains? Always breathtaking. Always incredible and always SO SO fun! This go-around we went with some great friends for our first camping trip together and had a wonderful time.

We left Thursday after work. We got going late. Our progress was slow. VERY slow. Stops, delays, whining. And then we got there finally at 2 AM and the loop we were expecting to be open, expecting to be able to camp in was CLOSED. Seriously??? So we went to another loop which was for groups only and had no pop ups or RVs allowed and it was clear that we weren’t the only ones flummoxed by the turn of events. Tons of people were camping here there and everywhere, so we joined the fun, parked the 4 Runner and the popup across a few parking spots and half-popped the camper. We didn’t unhitch it and just got it up enough to pop out one bed and stuck everyone in that one bed and passed out. Really it wasn’t half bad. The next morning we found out that it was all a mistake and our loop was supposed to be opened. Continue reading “The Dunes”

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5 Spot Pancakes

Since we’re camping this weekend I thought I’d FINALLY share my favorite pancake recipe with you. This came up in a search last year when I was looking for camping recipes. We made it on our first camping trip in our pop-up and it was an instant hit. And we’ve been making it ever since. We’ve made it times other than camping as well, but I cannot imagine a camping trip without it and I’m pretty sure it will make an appearance each time we go.

When we go camping, I take the dry ingredients and measure them out and mix them up (and store them in a plastic container. I pre-measure the buttermilk into a jar and keep that in the cooler or camper fridge until ready to use. An egg and a little butter and some bananas is all that’s left – and of course some syrup. These come out super light and fluffy and amazingly tasty!

One recipe should do well for a family of four if two of the four are light eaters or small children, but any more than that and you’ll probably want a double recipe. Worst case scenario you can feed your fellow campers. I have also found it unnecessary to oil the griddle when I make these (presumably because of the butter in the batter) but if you find them sticking, obviously Pam it up.

5 Spot Pancakes (with Bananas)

adapted from Sunset Magazine

Ingredients

  • 3/4 C all-purpose flour
  • 6 T whole-wheat flour
  • 1 1/4 t baking powder
  • 3/4 t baking soda
  • 1 1/2 t sugar
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 C buttermilk
  • About 3 T melted butter or margarine
  • 2 ripe bananas, peeled and thinly sliced or other toppings of your choice (blueberries!)

In a bowl, mix all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk to blend eggs, buttermilk, and 3 tablespoons butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until batter is evenly moistened.

Ladle batter, 1/4 cup at a time, onto a medium-hot (350°) griddle or 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Put 3 to 5 banana slices onto each pancake and cook until edges of the cake look dry, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn with a wide spatula and cook until browned on the bottom, 3 or 4 minutes longer. Serve pancakes immediately!

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Gone Camping

Before I say anything else, I just want to point out the amazing image on the right. I bought it from a very talented artist on Etsy and it now hangs in my powder room along with the print my mom got me on my last b’day – there’s a theme, in case you were wondering.

Anyhoo, we are heading off on our first camping trip of the year so I have been going all manic on my packing list and Matt’s been getting our pop-up ready. Our water pump is busted and we (Matt) have to replace it. The first camping trip is all about getting things ready and the last is all about putting them away. The ones in the middle are the easiest, but I will consider us lucky if we get four (five?) trips in this year so it’s a kind of labor-intensive proposition. Totally worth it though!!

Tonight we are doing the final packing (a bag per person, all the food, etc.) and then tomorrow after ballet, we are heading out. SQUEE!! We are going back to the Sand Dunes with some good friends and I cannot wait. We are hoping the little river in front of the dunes will be running. It turns the dunes into a fun beachy sort of experience. And we’re also hoping some of the back-country 4×4 trails will be open. They had a big forest fire last year and were filled with impassable ashes. But they are supposed to be amazing and scenic and I’d love to check them out.

Best of all, we found out last year that Loki is welcome at the park, so he will be joining us. That is going to be one happy dog.