Sunday, February 28, 2010

Here come yum yums!

For Christmas I received "A Homemade Life," written by Seattle's very own Molly Wizenberg. I have to admit to a bit of a girl crush, here, as Molly, at least what I know of her through her writing, is the type of person I thought I would end up becoming. At the very least, I know we would become fast friends were we to ever meet.

Anyway, I finished the book a few days ago (I don't get much time to read these days). I get most of the recipes I make and my ideas for meals from magazines and books. This book has already found it's way into heavy rotation in my kitchen.

In the last three days, I have made from this book the red cabbage salad with lemon and pepper, the tomato soup with two fennels and the mega-yummy custard-filled cornbread (hence, the photo of the half-empty pan).


The cabbage salad? Gone. The soup? We've had it for two meals and I see a revival for dinner tonight. The custard-filled cornbread? Well, we had it for breakfast this morning and it's already half gone, so I don't think it's long for this world, either.

Before the baby was born, we cooked and baked ALL. THE. TIME. We made our own bread all the time (like, for realsies - we did not buy bread at the store for anything, sandwiches, toast, whatever). When baby showed up, the cooking (and for that matter the regular meals) kind of went by the wayside. We'd dappled here and there in cooking, but once she turned six months old I had an epiphany/breakdown. The baby honeymoon time of screwing around, not cleaning the house and eating like garbage was over and it was time for us to start making meals that normal people would recognize. And that would go onto a plate before going into our mouths.

Although she'll never read this, I would like to send up a heartfelt thank you to Molly Wizenberg for the kick in the pants I needed to start looking forward to meal prep and grocery shopping again. For me, cooking and baking are where I feel creative and sane and I'm pleased to have both back in my life.

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Okay, so what is with me being all serious for an entire blog post?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

How I am

Any time in my life I have tried to keep a journal it goes fairly poorly. I won't write in it for months and months and then, when I get a hankerin' to jot down my thoughts, I open the journal, realize I've been negligent and attempt to write down everything of significance that's happened since I last wrote. Once I finish that, I'm overwhelmed and my hand hurts so I put the journal back down and don't pick it up again for a few more months...wash, rinse, repeat.

So I'm going to avoid the urge to cover the happenings of the past five and a half months in chronological order and just go forward from here.

In online, too pressed for time to type out the whole thing, soooo 2010 parlance, I am now a SAHM (stay at home mom). In fact, when we bought our new car recently and *I* was filling out the loan application, the car seller guy told me to list my husband first because I was a HOMEMAKER.

I almost became a dealership burn downer after that.

To be fair to myself, I am just starting out on my own as a "contract communications consultant" (I came up with that term in order to be prepared for all the cocktail parties I am going to these days). I have already completed a few jobs and am looking for more. So I will be making some money.

Just not as much as I used to.

Which means that we have a whole budget situation to rejigger.

When the bacon arrives in the bank account, do we each get a bit that we can spend on whatever? Does it all go toward shared expenses and we no longer get to do the whatevers? Does hubs only get to do the whatevers now that he is the one bringing home said bacon? How am I going to pay to get my hair cut?

What about when I buy stuff for the baby during the day, or go grocery shopping? Do those purchases need to have pre-approval because I am not the one who gets the paycheck?

How do people work this out? More importantly to me, how do smart, professional, forward-thinking, similar-minded women who are in my boat (because I know there are a lot of them, more than you would think) work this out?

I am used to having my own money that I can spend on my own things - if I buy new mascara because I read about it in a magazine and then it makes my eyes water, I don't want to feel bad about buying a different tube of mascara the next day. Nor do I want to suffer through and wear the eye-watering mascara.

So what do I do about the mascara now?