And even more progress

More decluttering and cleaning today. I decided my work areas needed some organizing.

Here's the before of my office area

And here's how it looks now. I'm actually kind of thinking this corner might be a better area for some pantry shelves. Maybe some open, industrial-look shelving. Hmmm.... (ETA: Maybe something like this. It'd be awesome if they had a corner piece).

I also cleared off my mail sorting table in the living room. No before picture, but trust me, it looked a lot worse than this.
And while I was at it in the breakfast nook area, I kept on going. Remember this corner?

Here's how it looks now. I should've given the floors a good scrubbing, but that can happen another day. Buster will probably be surprised when he comes back inside (now that the scary vacuum cleaner isn't growling).
And this?

Well, it still looks the same. Maybe next weekend I'll tackle that.

Progress!

Earlier this month, I wrote about signing up for the Clutterfat Challenge.

Confession: I haven't done that well.

But today, I did make some headway. While doing the usual catch-up cleaning in the kitchen, I grabbed a clean, empty box from the garage and another left over from Christmas and started going through my utensil drawer. There were probably a couple dozen steak knives in there. That's in addition to the six steak knives I have in my knife block on the counter next to the stove.

I also cleaned out the drawer of all the crumbs and stuff!

I also went through the utensil crock next to stove and dumped a few things in there. Why do I need four spatulas?
I also started weeding out the mugs and a few other things. I have no idea what that lid goes to, because it fits none of the pots I have. So it's going, too.
I even cleaned out the storage area under the stove! Yay, me!

Getting creative again

So I switched to Facebook's timeline this week, and wondered what to do with the "cover photo, a large, wide space for a photo at the top of the page. I wanted to do more than just use one of my photos, though. I wanted to use that space to express myself.

There are some really creative ones out there (I like the E.T. and shark ones). I might have to try something like that sometime, with integrating the profile file into the whole design, but that takes some planning.

But I did put something together that I really like. I think it shows at least part of who I am. Plus, I got to learn some cool new Photoshop techniques and get my creative juices flowing. I hope I'll be able to use them sometime in my job.

Clutterfat Challenge

I've been thinking for quite awhile I need to not just declutter but to simplify my life. Get rid of a lot of stuff that I just no longer feel the need to have but is still taking up space in my house and in my mind. I've worked at it some, but the problem is if you don't keep at it, the clutter just grows.

So yesterday in my blog reading, I came across the Clutterfat Challenge through Zen Habits. So I signed up. The challenge is to declutter your home in 30 days. Even if I don't get the whole house decluttered in that time, at least I've got a plan, or at least that's my idea. (Jan. 7 was the last day to sign up for the challenge, but really, I see no reason why someone couldn't do it without registering. Just print off the inventory and go "like" the Facebook page if you want to join in).

So this weekend, I've started on the inventory list. I've gotten through the kitchen so far (I'm counting kitchen/dining as one room because that's just how my house is), and one thing became clear pretty quick: I have way too many mugs for one person. And utensils. I didn't even count all the utensils, really, but I'll certainly be taking a look at everything and if I haven't used it on a regular basis in the last few months or don't even know what it is, in a box for the thrift store it goes.

The inventory is a before and after, and part of it is to take pictures. So, without shame, here's my before pictures of the kitchen/dining area of my home. It WILL look better 30 days from now.

Draw of utensils I don't use very often. The BBQ ones are about all I use.
More utensils. Some of these I do use fairly regularly. But there's some knives and stuff in there I didn't even realize were there. Mom, if you want any of this stuff, you better come get it!
Countertop to left of sink. Some used, some not.
Countertop to right of sink. I do use these pretty regularly.
Cupboard above right of the sink. Most of the mugs are in the dishwasher (no, I'm not showing you that!)
I have an office area in a breakfast nook addition to the house. This area is in desperate need of decluttering.
This is probably the worst. Boxes of old documents that are destined for the next "free shred" day in our area. I can probably add to them before that.
Yeah.

I need to decide what to do here. I'd like to put in a tall cabinet for a pantry ideally.

If I can get just these rooms totally decluttered in 30 days, that will satisfy me, really. Then I can just use the same method to tackle each room. If that's the case, then within 5 months the house would be done. Of course, that's not counting the garage. Sigh.

Not any more special

Thinking this morning about a friend. In 2003, on my drive to work as I neared the bluff overlooking Yocemento, a little collection of homes and a grain elevator about halfway between Ellis and Hays, I saw a big buck silhouetted at the top. I thought that was a pretty cool thing to see on my birthday.

I got to work a few minutes later and sat at my computer getting started on my day. Just a short time later, though, our photo editor took a call that was not good news. One of our former photographers had died in an accident near his hometown, discovered right about the time I was passing Yocemento.

I felt like the world dropped out from under me. I wouldn't say Mark and I were buddies, but we worked together and he always made me laugh. He was often bringing me gifts — a big Snoopy mug with candy at Valentine's Day, breakfast burritos from McDonald's — as a thank-you, he said, for reading over his photo cutlines before he submitted his photos for the paper. I appreciated the gestures, but I thought it was funny he would do that, since it was just part of my job.

But when a group of us from work went to his hometown for a viewing and to visit with his family a few days later, I learned that Mark had had a learning disability. His parents were told he probably wouldn't graduate high school because of it. He not only graduated, he went on to get both an associate's and a bachelor's degree and work in journalism.

I like to think the buck was actually Mark's spirit, if only for that moment, saying goodbye and maybe happy birthday. I miss him and wish I'd gotten to know him better.

People treat me as if I'm something special for surviving cancer. But I think Mark was a pretty special person, and he doesn't get to celebrate birthdays anymore. His loved ones and friends don't get to hear his laugh or hear his voice or tell him about their day. And it's the same for a handful of wonderful women I got to know through my breast cancer support group, for a good number of my high school classmates and for co-workers Matt and Martin. I think about them all very often and sometimes wonder why I am here and they are not.

I am lucky that I am still here to celebrate another birthday. But it is, really, another day that is no more special than the rest, and I am no more special than anyone else.

Looking for ideas

So I tried making these mason jar corndogs. They're actually pretty good — convenient for lunches, takes only about a minute and a half in the microwave to heat up, slides right out of the jar just fine.

The only problem I have with them is the cornbread-to-hotdog ratio is out of proportion! Way too much corn for the dog, in other words. So I need something more narrow than the 8-oz mason jars I used to make them in. Doesn't have to be taller, just narrower so there's not so much cornbread around the dog. Needs to be able to go from oven to freezer to microwave. Dishwasher safe a plus but not required.

If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments. Links would be appreciated!

Cooking weekend

I've had a rare full weekend off (on a holiday weekend, no less!) and have been spending a lot of time cooking ahead. Not too much, though, because I've overdone it before and worn myself out. I wanted just enough to have plenty of meals for lunches and dinners ready and still get to enjoy my time ("Horrible Bosses" was very funny, and "Win Win" was great. Recommend them both).

So what have I been cooking? I tried some of the mason jar meals I posted about earlier: the sliders, corn dogs and creamy chicken curry with cilantro lime rice. I also made more chili and cornbread muffins (because CORNBREAD is what you serve with chili, dammit), and chicken enchilada soup. And I had already made some sloppy joe mix about a week ago.

Chili & cornbread muffins.

Chicken enchilada soup.

Here's notes on the others:

Corn dogs

I halved the recipe listed because I wanted to see how they turned out, plus by the time I got to this recipe on Sunday, I was down to just 6 mason jars. I ended up with batter to make only five, though (so that means Buster got half a frankfurter — he was happy!) They didn't quite look done at 20 minutes, so I put them in for another three and probably could have done another couple of minutes, really. I also forgot to grease the jar before pouring in the batter, but I just ran a knife sprayed with Pam around the edge as soon as I took them out of the oven, and they didn't stick too bad.

Sliders

These were pretty good right out of the oven. We'll see how they do after being frozen and reheated. I did forget to pat down the meat to get rid of the excess grease, but they turned out pretty good. I also had trouble getting them in jars, even the 16-ounce ones I have. Maybe it's because I used King's Hawaiian rolls for the buns? I bagged them in pairs in sandwich bags instead. Kinda defeats part of the purpose of using the jars, I know, but it's all I had.

Creamy chicken curry with cilantro lime rice

This was pretty good, but I'll have to do some tweaking. I made the rice a bit differently. First of all, I used brown rice, since that's what I had. And I made it more like the rice dishes at Something Edible, adding the cilantro & lime zest to the butter, browning the rice, then adding the water with the lime juice and salt in the water. It does give the rice a lot more flavor, but in this dish, it might have added too much lime flavor. Or maybe I needed more curry to balance out the lime? Haven't had a lot of curry dishes, so I'm not sure how spicy it should be.

So the final tally of my cooking weekend:
Sliders — 5 pairs
Chicken enchilada soup — 10 8 oz jars
Chili — 8 8 oz jars
Corn dogs — 4
Chicken curry & rice — 5
Sloppy joes — 7

So that's a total of 39 meals. Maybe along with the occasional turkey sandwich, and if I make some lasagna again later, I'll have enough variety to keep me from getting too bored and caving to a desire for going out to lunch or raiding the vending machine too often. It'll be interesting to see how my bank account shapes up later.