One of the things I must do to function is meal plan. It is just too easy to pick up the phone and order pizza, italian, diner, indian, sushi, chinese, burgers, peruvian…you get the idea. I usually spend some time over the weekend making lists and figuring out which nights Matthew will be here and go from there.

Its very hit or miss. I know it seems like I cook a lot and I do, but its completely out of necessity. Besides finding new recipes to try there is not one thing I enjoy about the cooking process. When Matthew is home he is the default chef but even when he is home for dinner its usually not until after dinner has to be made, or at least prepped so I am rarely off the hook. Cooking dinner is very overwhelming for me whether I am working or not and figuring out what we are having ahead of time helps with the stress.

I still have failures. I forget that I needed one last crucial ingredient that they dont sell at the bodega, or I am stuck on a conference call way later than expected. Things happen and I am quick to use any excuse to pop something from the freezer into the microwave for Asher, order myself a greek salad with chicken and call it a night.

I recently read this awesome blog post by Helen Jane – its about HOW to plan your meals and I highly recommend it to anyone else struggling with balancing kids, a job, and a food budget.

In all of my planning I never actually thought to plot out how I would cook all of these meals I shopped for. Considering that I plan things all day long for work its kind of amazing.

Now only if I had a freezer to store a pot of soup made Sunday to eat on Friday. Our tiny dorm freezer doesn’t hold much more than a box of toaster waffles, a bag of peas and a chicken breast so I am trying to figure out how to make room for a small chest freezer in my gigantic 2×8 kitchen. Wish me luck!

Storing leftovers in flattened ziploc bags. That’s enough vegetable beef stew for a few dinners and lunches and it takes up barely any room. I can fit so much more in my microwave sized freezer now and I love it!

Its snowing! This is crazy. I read that it snowed only 18 days in October over the past 143 years. Its not just flurries, its really coming down.

Matthew left for some groceries about an hour ago and Asher insisted on staying home thank goodness, because no one was prepared for this to happen until tonight. Poor Ramona left early this morning in a fleece and sneakers.

We ran outside as soon as we saw it but after about 30 seconds without a jacket I was done, hence the blurry photos. Plus my poor sweatshirt was pulled over the camera to protect it and I am still in my pajamas. Brrr.

30 seconds was enough time to catch some snowflakes in our mouths.

Not even an hour later and look at the top of our garbage cans-

I think I’ll go put some soup on.

Here’s what we did

1: Purchase these, don’t forget the lids. Yes, the price is correct, they are $6.50 for 48 containers.

2: Once they arrive (or you get home from the store or whatever) Put all spices onto the table, sort out the old nasty ones.

3: Make a list of the good spices that you are keeping and another of the ones you need to replace. Have Asher smell and touch every single spice. Let him run away with a cinnamon stick if that’s what it takes to keep him quiet.

4: Find a template for the labels. If you want this to be quick and easy just use avery address labels in a small enough size. The template is on the package and you just peel off the sticker and slap it on. If you want a cuter label that’s a bit (tons) more labor intensive search for customizable labels, type up the spices, print out onto full sheet sticker paper and cut out each tiny rectangle (x2) while watching Wuthering Heights during Asher’s nap. Definitely more annoying but I needed that hint of orange to make the project worthwhile. Next time I’d probably just do pre-cut labels in a cute font or something.

5: Stick the stickers onto the lids and containers and make a pile of each in the same order.

6: Open the windows wide and dump each spice into its new home.

7: Wash your hands 500 times.

8: Arrange by usage. I put baking spices and the ones we use for Indian cooking on the top shelf because they are rarely used. The others I stacked in a way that made sense to me and left room on the shelf for some shifting.

9: Admire your handiwork.

10: OPTIONAL: On Jess’s advice I also ordered the larger 16oz containers and redid the pantry. Now the bread crumbs, oats, cous cous, coconut chips, dried cherries, etc all have a lovely new (orange labeled) home.

I have a few small and lots of large containers left but I have already found a place for some. They are great for things like art supplies, hair ties and even leftovers. Including shipping it came to about $30. If you have a restaurant supply store nearby you can save some cash, the supplies only cost about $20. If you use the avery labels this project can easily be done during a nap. Totally worth it, I keep walking by and opening the cabinet door to admire my handiwork!

I’ve been wanting to paint the living room a bright yellow since the sad doldrums of winter. I bought sample after sample and our walls were starting to look a little crazy then I found Benjamin Moore Amarillo 320. Its been about a month since then but haven’t really had much time to take it on.

We thought about painting when Matthew was off and Jackie was here but that’s not until maybe August. We thought about hiring someone to paint then laughed ourselves silly before even getting a quote.

Last week I decided next time Jackie was sitting for Asher I was going to go out and buy 2 gallons of paint and start taping. We sort of realized we can just start on 1 wall and if we do 1-2 walls a weekend it would be done already. We went out the day after we got back from Montreal and picked up the paint just like that. Just! Like! That!

On Saturday while I took Asher out for a walk Matthew started and by the time we got home there was paint on the walls. He skipped Sydney’s birthday party and when we got home at 6pm, 3 of the 4 walls were done and the furniture was back in place.

Yesterday when Asher napped he started again and finished the remaining wall about 3 hrs later.

Asher was all concerned with what was going on. ”Daddy, what are you DOING up ‘dere?” He waited patiently for his turn to get on the ladder, “the TOP!” and tape walls with the blue tape.

At one point he was on the top rung and trying hard to reach the ceiling. “Reach it! Reach it!” and Matthew said “Sorry Buddy, I think you are too short”

He said “Need more ladder”

Once we put things away I’ll get a proper after photo. We loooooove it. It sure has brightened up our tiny cave.

*if anyone is interested we used Benjamin Moore’s no-VOC option for the 2nd time. Its a little pricier but there is ZERO paint smell.

Now after:

Not entirely complete but close. I need to pick up a few small bins for the photos and we are extending the shelves outwards for a bit more space.

Oddly we didn’t throw all that much out. A REALLY stinky tin of candles, some smaller odds and ends like an old alarm clock and a few serving platters I don’t really need, but it was mostly just reorganizing and recycling boxes. 2 huge bags of recycling came from this closet. Did you know you could take stuff out of boxes and throw them away? We didn’t.

We moved the mops and broom to the other closet. (the ONLY other closet in our house besides the one in our bedroom) Its not even a closet, its really an alcove tucked behind the wall of the kitchen. Its where we keep the cleaning supplies, garbage bags, paper towels, tools, litter box, that kind of thing. Think of it as our garage. Except so small you cant even stand in it.

Nicole the organizer told us to order something like this – a mop and broom holder? That you can hang on the wall? Who invented this thing? A person who hates when you get hit in the head with a stick I bet.

So we are putting that mop holder in the al-closet and we were able to move the vacuum into this one, which is kind of amazing because its humongous. It previously lived kind of right in the middle of the dining area. Needless to say we think the session was worth it.

“Why?” Do you ask? Well you obviously have never been to my house.

and you DEFINITELY have never opened the door to our hallway closet.

HOLY SHIT!

Neither do I. Open that door, I mean.

What is even in there? Who knows? I know people thought I was exaggerating when I said I cannot get into my hallway closet and now you can see its all true.
Things we excavated
-my sewing machine
-my bread maker
-LOTS of wrapping paper
-17 empty boxes for various electronic equipment
-an old alarm clock
-more empty boxes
-candles, candles, candles
-party supplies for the next 10 yrs

We started on the closet and then moved onto parts of the dining room that drive me crazy.

She’s coming once a month until forever I think, maybe forever AND ever.

Oh did you want to see an after shot?

Stay tuned!