Hurry Up...and Wait...

 I've heard about it for years, I've joked about it for years, the mantra of the military is hurry up and wait...But OMG is the hurry up and wait getting to me this time.

We know what the orders are

We know the dates

We can't actually do anything because the actual orders themselves haven't dropped.   I need to get little dude on the CDC wait list, we need to find out if military housing is a viable option or if we need to secure civilian housing, we need to schedule movers and ship hubbys car...so many things to do and none of them can be done yet.  So many different pieces that all rely on each other.  

So I'm doing my best to channel my stress into productive actions.  We know regardless of all the other stuff that we will be selling our house, so I've moved into full scale get this place ready to list mode.  We have gone through our entire bedroom and purged our wardrobes down to what could probably be considered minimalist capsule wardrobes at this point.  I have thrown out/donated pretty much anything that doesn't bring me joy in every room except our master bathroom and office, and now we are preparing to move on to minor painting and landscaping work.  

Today we have a sitter for little dude so I'm hoping we can finish our master bathroom (I don't even want to think about the expired/old makeup I'm about to throw out), office, and hopefully go through the 2 giant totes of hand me downs for little dude that I haven't looked at yet (They all start at size 3T so he isn't ready for them but I honestly have no clue what people have given us) today.  It's an ambitious goal but one I'm willing to work towards.

One of the sailors at Hubby's command tested positive for the plague last week, he was technically exposed but they were both masked and more than 6 feet apart plus hubby is vaccinated so we aren't overly concerned about it being brought into the house, however out of an abundance of caution he will be staying home Monday so I'm hoping he can scoot our china cabinet and bar out from the wall in our dining room and tape around the edges for me so that I can get the trim work in there painted this week.  Things are starting to move into a bit slower season for me at work so I should be able to sneak in a few longer lunches this week to knock out some stuff.  Once we finish purging stuff really all that is left to do is paint the trim in our dining room and living room and put mulch in the flower beds.  I would also like to paint the master bathroom but at the same time I don't necessarily think that it will be a make or break item for selling the house. 

My real drop dead goal is to have my personal to-do list done by May 2 so that our realtor can come the first week of May and hopefully start helping me properly stage the house and take pictures to get things listed or at the very least give us her list of things we have missed.  

Wish me luck!

New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  I don't necessarily make resolutions but I do try to set goals each new year.  This year my goals all center around the health and wellness of my family.  I have even gotten hubby on board with the goals.  

Physical Health/Fitness goals--

Focus on eating at home

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables as a family

Introduce Little Dude to nutritious foods and avoid processed crap

Workout at least 3 times per week

Everyone to be a healthy BMI/BF%

Financial Health goals--

Payoff all"bad" debt (credit cards, miscellaneous loans, cars)

Stop buying "stuff" we don't need and get rid of the "Stuff" we already have

Hit a specific $ amount in our savings account

Emotional/Relationship goals--

One date night per month when hubby is home

No cell phones/computers/tv/electronics in bed

No TV on weeknights before Little Dude goes to bed

Read at least 1 book to Little Dude per day

Read 1 story from the Bible as a family at least 2 times per week

Purge excess junk from our house to help encourage a sense of calm/limit clutter

What are your goals for the new year?  How do you plan on accomplishing them?

So confusing

So I started doing some research last night trying to figure out the best place to start putting together a household binder.  I thought I would be able to find some cute fun printables that I would like that I could use but as many of the bloggers who had printables available for download stated...One size does not fit all...So instead I'm going to work on creating my own in the coming weeks I am by no means a design artist so I'm sure they won't be the cutest things in the world but for now I'm going for functionality over fun so wish me luck.

What are some things you think I should include in my binder?

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad. AKA FOOTBALL FOOD!!!!

Let me start by saying I am an Indianapolis Colts fan.  Because of this I have a lot of love for Peyton Manning and therefore am EXTREAMLY excited to see him win (power of positive thinking right) the Super Bowl with the Broncos in two weeks.  

Yesterday hubby and I had this salad as our football food and it totally hit the spot. 

I'm even going to use this as a dip for carrots and celery for an office dip-off party we are having for the super bowl.  It was really easy to make and the taste is perfect for a healthier version of the popular buffalo chicken dip.  

I don't think it can stand on it's own as a meal, you need a lettuce salad or something to go with it.  Personally I found it a little to spicy to eat by itself.  

Salad

·         1 cup quinoa

·         2 cups water

·         3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

·         1 cup broccoli florets

·         3/4 cup shredded carrots

·         3/4 cup shredded cabbage

·         1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles, plus more for garnish

·         4 green onions chopped, save half for garnish

Dressing

·         1/3 cup olive oil

·         1/2 cup hot sauce (I recommend Franks)

·         1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Instructions

1. In a fine-mesh strainer, rinse quinoa well and drain. In a medium pot, combine quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn heat to low. Cook until all the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, fluff the quinoa with a fork.
2. While the quinoa is cooking make the buffalo sauce dressing and cook the chicken and broccoli. In a measuring cup or small bowl combine the olive oil, hot sauce, and seasoned salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. Heat a medium size skillet over medium high heat Add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute the broccoli for about 5 minutes. You want it to just start to soften, but still be crisp. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the chicken to the same pan and cook the chicken for about 5 minutes or until cooked through. Add 1/4 cup or so of the buffalo sauce and cook until the chicken absorbs the sauce.
4. When the quinoa is ready add the chicken, broccoli, carrots, shredded cabbage and as much of the dressing as desired (I ended up using all of the dressing, but we like things extra saucy) toss well. Add the blue cheese and half of the green onions. Toss again and serve warm with extra blue cheese crumbles and green onions.

Balance your Checkbook

Am I the only person in America under 50 who still balances a checkbook?   I recently discovered that not only do my friends not carry their checkbooks, I knew this, everyone uses debit and credit cards.  No one writes checks any more that’s what online bill pay is for.   However I was shocked to discover that the majority of my friends don’t even BALANCE their checkbooks.  Despite, or perhaps because of, direct deposit, automatic bill pay, automatic savings transfers etc my friends have no clue what the actual balance in their checking accounts are, and these aren’t people like my husband who, admittedly has a different approach to personal finances than I do (he also spends less than me so…) but other accountants, people with CPA’s, MBA’s, CFA’s and other letters behind their names.

Perhaps working with money all day every day has made them not care?

What do you think? Do you balance your checkbook? Do you know your current bank balance?