Not Enough Day

I've been struggling lately. Struggling with the feeling that there's just too much to do, and not enough 'day' in which to cram it.

I know everybody over the age of 13 has probably had this thought at some point in their lives. Seriously. I know I'm not alone in this. My days, at the onset, just feel so long. I lay there in bed fantasizing about how much I can accomplish in the next 15-ish hours, and then the day starts, and it's over in a flash and I just lay in bed thinking "what just happened?".

Maybe I'm too ambitious. I just get these grandiose ideas in my head of the things I will do, and the things I will tackle in my day. I fantasize about baking fresh bread every week like my Aunt does (I know, we're eating low-carb, but there's just something so wife-y about baking fresh bread that I can't get out of my head). I imagine my house perfectly clean and entirely organized, with labels on everything. I imagine having meals planned out for the whole month so I don't have to think about it. I imagine having a whole category in the photo section of my phone that's just dedicated to pictures of me in my best outfits, so I can figure out what to wear for the day without changing four times before 7:30 in the morning. In my fantasy I have endless hours after work to do super-awesome wife things like bring my husband a cold beer, and listen attentively to how his day was, and what's going on in his world, and bring him his warm slippers, and have awesome and interesting topics of conversation to enthrall him. In this perfect world, our dog would be trained to not lose her mind whenever anybody comes over. In this perfect world, she would also learn to stop pooping in the house out of nervousness sometimes while we're gone during the day.

I started the year with 12 books that I was going to read over the course of 12 months. It's almost all the way through March and I've only finished one and a half. I have a nasty habit of throwing laundry in the washer and forgetting to switch it over to dry, which usually results in washing it again a few days later before finally drying it. I have a serving dish in the dishwasher that I've run through three four separate dish-washing cycles, for the only reason that the dish belongs in the cabinet over the fridge, and I haven't felt like crawling up there to put it away. The cute basket on the back of our toilet is supposed to hold new rolls of toilet paper is now just empty, with the exception of two empty cardboard rolls just sitting there. Don't even ask me about our closet. It used to be one side for my clothes, one side for Kevin's clothes, but it's turned into more of a 70/30 ratio, and my clothes seem to be constantly on the verge of a hostile takeover. Our backyard garden is full of sticks and leaves, and the almanac said we were supposed to plant our veggie plants last weekend. Yesterday wasn't a proud day for my low-carb lifestyle when I scarfed down a thick piece of vanilla-y pound cake that I swiped from the conference room at work.

I know it's just a phase. Sometimes, though, I feel like Liz Lemon at Airport Security stuffing her teamsters sandwich in her face while she wails "I can have it all!" through muffled mouthfuls.

Have an awesome Friday, everybody. I'm off to work on my Night Cheese. 

Currently...

Thinking about...

I always have a million things on my mind. Lately, though, I am finding myself thinking about my life with Kevin. Just being thankful for what we have together. Being thankful for a warm house to come home to, where we sit and laugh together. Thankful for our sweet Ruby, even if she is naughty and gets into the trash. Thankful for hitting the snooze button a couple times in the morning just to have a few more warm minutes in bed before getting up to face the day.

I've also been thinking a lot about how we've been eating healthier. Having a solid meal plan has been helping enormously, and I feel way better going through the day (particularly at work) when I have plenty of tea, water, snacks, and healthy food at hand for breakfast and lunch. I feel like my mentality with regards to food has changed a lot recently. I feel so much more determined to feel better and be better. There's a fridge at work that's almost constantly full of cold soda, leftover ice cream, cake from someone's birthday, candy from events. Lately, though, I haven't felt the desire to sneak in there and eat things that I know are bad for me.

Reading...

Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley. I've been trying to pay more attention to my heart lately, what I'm feeling, if I'm feeling angry or hurt or sad. Forgiveness is hard - it feels almost impossible at times - but I know it's something I need to do.

Listening to....

I've actually been listening to a lot of P!nk lately. We went to her concert with Kevin's company a few weeks back, and she was such a great performer. I wasn't a huge fan before, but I am now! I've also been listening to some of Justin Timberlake's newer stuff (he was on SNL last weekend, and I thought he sounded great). I'm still listening to a lot of Alabama Shakes, some Lumineers, and a little bit of The Shins thrown in for good measure. I have such weird eclectic musical taste....

Watching...

Kevin and I have been watching Archer lately on Netflix, which is pretty entertaining. Sometimes when I get home before Kevin, I'll get dinner started with an episode or two of 30 Rock in the background. I just love that show, I feel like Liz Lemon and I would be besties if she were a real person. I wish that show wasn't over....

Making me happy....

Simple things are making me happy lately. A big plate of delicious Asian Nachos at one of our favorite restaurants. A well timed song coming up on my Spotify while I'm working, my favorite cozy tshirt being fresh from the dryer right when I wanted to wear it. A cozy, quiet morning in the office catching up on emails, sipping a cup of vanilla Earl Gray tea with a little bowl of juicy blackberries.

Standing Up

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you know about the crazy-insane back problems I have been having over the course of the last year or so. I'm super thankful to have met a great chiropractor who has really helped me get my spine back in alignment, and I hardly ever experience pain any more. I hit a bit of a plateau in my treatment lately, though, and after a while I realized that the reason was the amount of time I sit at my desk during the day at work. It's hard to keep good posture when you get to work at 8, leave around 6, and are sitting almost the entire time.

So I hit the internet, and read a lot of articles about the health drawbacks of being in a culture that spends so much time sitting. Here's one that I particularly liked, and I thought this was a pretty good info-graphic that explains some of the risks more concisely.

My next step? I knew I wanted to change my setup at work, but I didn't really have the option of replacing my desk at work (even if I did, though, those desks are like $1000...no thanks). I have a little office with a big huge desk that I'm confident is made from the same material as black holes. It's that heavy. So what's a girl to do? Time to hack something together.....I hit the internet again, knowing that someone somewhere had the same issue I did. I was hoping that person was also as cheap as I am. I lucked out.

I came across Colin Nederkoorn's blog after a laughably quick Google search, and was immediately grabbed by the title. A standing desk for $22? And it's a modification for an existing desk? Sounds too good to be true. I read on and found out he had purchased all the materials from Ikea! Perfect! Needless to say, I made a list of what I needed, and made an insane Saturday trip to Ikea to get the things I needed. I should stop here and state that anybody who goes to Ikea voluntarily on a Saturday hates themselves at least a little. It was a total mad-house. I was on a mission, though, and was in and out in less than an hour. After some super-basic assembly and some measurements (my husband was a huge help, especially after I dropped the fully assembled LACK side-table squarely on the top of my foot and thought for sure I had broken bones) my new standing desk was complete! I brought it to work this morning, and it took me about 10 minutes to get my monitors situated along with my keyboard and mouse, but I'm pretty darn impressed with the result! I still have plenty of work space on top of the LACK table, and I already feel less pain in my neck and shoulders. I think a fatigue mat will be the next purchase, because I can see my legs getting tired after standing all day, but I think it's also a matter of adjusting. After spending that much time sitting, I'm sure it'll take time for my body to get used to standing more.

So there you have it! My fancy new standing desk! Want to make one yourself? Check out Colin's blog for the materials you'll need as well as the instructions. 

Monday Night Shrimp Pad Thai - Low Carb Style

Okay. Real talk. I love asian food. There's a fantastic restaurant near our house that does Asian/Mexican cuisine. They do wonton chip nachos with Korean barbecued beef. I could eat it forever. Squirt a little Sriracha on there and it's game over.

Anyway, back to Asian cuisine. Last night I attempted (quite successfully I might say...just a little humble-brag) Chinese fried rice and Korean short ribs, but for a low-carb option, I subbed out the rice for chopped up cauliflower. I decided to keep the Asian cuisine train going tonight, partially because it was so good last night, and partially because I've been up since 5am and I couldn't fathom cooking anything complicated. This dish came out SO TASTY that I super-highly recommend it. Ready? Okay let's do this....

You will need:

- 3-4 medium sized green zucchini, washed and "noodled" (I'll explain later)
- Store-bought Pad Thai sauce (don't judge me, I've been up since 5am, remember?)
- a small handfull of salted peanuts
- 1/2 pound of shrimp, de-veined
- small bunch of scallions (green onions) chopped
- olive oil (or oil of your choice)

Step 1: Use your fancy Kuhn Rikon veggie peeler to turn your zucchini into pretty little noodles. If you don't have a Kuhn Rikon peeler, I don't care. I'm not the Barefoot Contessa, I'm not going to give you a guilt trip about not hiking to the dark side of the Himilayas to harvest exotic vanilla. You could use a cheese grater, or use a kitchen knife to make long thin pappardelle like noodles. Go for it. I will say, though, the Kuhn Rikon is pretty fun to use. This gadget is awesome! I might need to try carrot noodles at some point. I can see it working with some kind of balsamic glaze, maybe some toasted sesame seeds and chopped red onions...hmmmm

Step 2: chop up those peanuts. I used one of those handy little slap-choppers. You don't want them too small, just small enough to sprinkle over your noodles before you devour them. 

Pretty ingredients on my pretty bamboo cutting board. This is art, my friends. 

Step 3 & 4: Toss those lovely little zucchini noodles, which I like to call Zoodles, into a frying pan and toss them on high heat for a couple of minutes, ONLY until they're slightly softer than raw. These will over-cook really fast, I pinky-swear. Once they're soft, take them out and throw them in a collander to drain the extra liquid. While those are draining, throw your peeled de-veined shrimp and a little drizzle of olive oil into the hot frying pan and make sure they're cooked on both sides. Once they're mostly cooked, throw in about 1/2 cup of your pre-made store-bought non-judgmental Pad Thai sauce. Once the noodles have drained, turn off the heat cooking the shrimp and toss the zucchini noodles back in to the pan and toss together. 

Step 5: throw a bunch of zucchini noodles and shrimp into a shallow bowl. Top with some peanuts, and a nice handful of scallions. Grab a fork (or a nice pair of lacquered chopsticks) and go to town on that bowl of zucchini noodle goodness. 

After all, it's Monday, and you've been up since 5am. And it was cold outside. Pour yourself a little glass of Pinot Noir to wash it down if you feel like you need it. No judgment. 

Kitchen Redux - Before, During, and After

OK. We love our house. It's the perfect little house for sort-of-newlyweds like us. Sure, it's a little tight on storage space, but it's become so cozy and home-y since I moved in just after I met Kevin over three years ago. The house was pretty much a blank slate when I moved in, all the walls where a rather uninspiring beige, and the kitchen was all white. And I do mean all white. White cabinets. White counter tops. Who looks at white counter tops and thinks "hm, now that seems like a good choice". Not so much. White counter tops show EVERY last little speck of everything. Did your blueberry smoothie get a little messy? Enjoy that purple stain for the next three weeks. Little dribble of red wine from the other night? Get out the gel bleach, or you'll be looking at it forever.

The cabinets, which had really been mostly functional for the last three years, were starting to make me nuts. They were a 'custom' job, to be generous, and they were all sorts of odd sizes and all at least a little lopsided. Drawers wouldn't stay on their tracks, my husband (knowing that I get a little depressed after New Year's) suggested that we tackle the kitchen in January to give us a project to work on. After shopping around a little, and weighing the benefits/drawbacks of doing fully-finished cabinets versus getting unfinished ones and painting/staining them ourselves, we decided to go with American Woodmwark cabinets through Home Depot.

These are the cabinets before. Forgive the pictures, they're terrible iPhone photos that I took once I realized that we were starting to take off cabinet doors, and then realized that we didn't have "before" shots.

It's not until I look at these pictures that I realize how cramped the old kitchen was. Check out how the stove is pressed right up against the corner cabinets. The whole cabinet space next to the stove was pretty much useless because the cabinet door to the right of the stove wouldn't open all the way with the oven door in the way. 

Check out the crooked-ness. It's almost scary how easily the old cabinets came down once we started tearing things out. They were made of pretty flimsy MDF and wood paneling. 

You get the idea though. Scary particle board cabinets with stark white counter tops. The deep teal on the walls is all me, though. That's the color I decided was the best possible color to paint the kitchen when I moved in. Hindsight is 20/20, and now my mom can say she told me so, because she did. Multiple times.

And here is our teeny tiny cramped little kitchen once all the old crappy cabinets had been ripped out, we removed that awkward header thing (what do you call that?) that used to be above half of the cabinets. I cannot even tell you how huge the room felt after we had finished that part. The not-so-fun part was basically not having a kitchen for about three weeks.

Aaaaaaand (drumroll, please!) here are our newly installed beautiful cabinets and our counter tops that look like fancy granite, but are in fact laminate purchased from Home Depot. I cannot overstate how much BIGGER our kitchen feels now. I feel like I could host a dance party in there or something. The extra few inches between the bottom cabinets and top cabinets makes the room feel so much more open.

Finally, the stove is more centered on that wall. We got so much more prep space. Or, as Kevin and I have been jokingly saying to each other all week "so much room for activities!". You may have to see Stepbrothers to fully appreciate the hilarity of that joke. But seriously, so much room for activities. 

Our beautiful granite double-sink. We chose it in a nice oatmeal color, which goes really nicely with the countertop. The faucet is one of my favorite things about the kitchen. It looks pretty industrial, I'll admit, but it's similar to the kind of faucet you'd see in a restaurant kitchen used for dishwashing. We got both the sink and faucet from Amazon, which I'm loving because I got a chance to check out all the user reviews prior to purchase. Plus, with our Amazon Prime account, we got free shipping. Winner winner!

The new corner of our kitchen. I cannot even tell you how much space we gained from a corner cabinet on top, and a large double lazy-susan cabinet on the bottom which serves as our pantry. Again, so much space for activities! 

The Kinnetts know how to party. That X-shaped cabinet is to hold wine, and at last count we figured we could store 13 bottles of wine in that thing. I'm also in love with our fancy new countertop. It has the look of granite, but it's actually laminate. We went with a sandy coral color that has a bull-nose finish on the front and the back piece. That pink album in my cookbook stand is the awesome recipe book that my mom made me. I love having all of our family recipes close at hand. 

I can hardly wait to pick out some b-e-a-utiful backsplash tile, and get to work picking out the wall color! Then comes the even MORE fun part of picking out cute fabric for the curtains, and fun prints for our brand new kitchen! Here are some of the things I've been considering:

Some pretty sea-glass colored subway tile

Martha Stewart's "Mushroom" would keep the feel of the kitchen warm, and I love the clean look of gray. 

Love this pretty ombre chevron fabric from Spoonflower, and I think it would make perfect kitchen curtains. They have such cute patterns, though, that it's hard to pick just one!

10 Things I Learned While Re-Doing Our Kitchen (So Far): 

10) People at Home Depot know what they're talking about for the most part

9) You will make twice as many trips to Home Depot than you are anticipating

8) Boxed cabinets take up a HUGE amount of space in your house

7) Even the most amazing cook will have a hard time coming up with meals if the only functioning appliance is a fridge

6) Paper plates are your friend, because they keep you from having to wash dishes in the bathroom sink

5) Washing dishes in your bathroom sink is weird and unpleasant. Also, the fact that our coffee maker took up residence in the bathroom during the renovation was less than awesome. Don't get me wrong, I like the convenience of having coffee nearby while I'm getting ready in the morning, but having to figure out whether to plug in my curling iron, blow dryer, or coffee maker into the two available bathroom sockets was the Sophie's Choice of my mornings

4) Silicon is a big part of installing kitchen sinks and counter tops. Silicon is super messy stuff, and you might ruin the sleeve of one of your comfiest t-shirts when you accidentally get a HUGE glob of it on yourself.

3) Dads know a lot. Between Kevin's dad and my dad (and our moms, too!) we got so much help figuring out how to do things. My mom was super sweet and helped me pack up our kitchen stuff pre-reno, and even came over yesterday with a box of fresh donuts and helped me put everything back in all the cabinets - I was totally overwhelmed with trying to find 'homes' for all of my kitchen stuff. Kevin's mom was super sweet and brought over lunch almost every day that we were working on the kitchen. Thanks to them, we didn't starve while we worked, we know what plumbers putty is, and what a pilot hole is, and how to mount cabinets that will actually stay on the wall. We also mostly avoided any panic/regret/"Oh my gosh why did we do this" moments. Good times.

2) Excedrin should make a special dosage for home renovations. Seriously. During this process, everything from our kitchen was in our bedroom and bathroom, and the office and dining area were pretty much full of our new kitchen cabinets. Having to step over boxes of canned goods and kitchen appliances when we got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night got old FAST.

1) You will make a mental list of how much you will get accomplished in one day. Take that list and cut it in half, because things take SO much longer than you'll anticipate!