What I Learned about House Hunting from Say Yes to the Dress

While on bed rest, my main addiction for several weeks was watching back to back episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. This followed my Dick Van Dyke show addiction and preceded that if Pinterest.

It was mostly mindless entertainment, which I needed at the time. But I also learned a couple thongs about decision making. This has become applicable as we search for a new house.

1) Never try on a dress (or tour a house) that’s outside the budget. Invariably, you fall in love and leave disappointed. Then, for weeks nothing measures up.

2) Just as brides want to be princesses, home buyers want castles. Neither is practical, or much fun for that matter. A princess isn’t complete without a prince (and how often do you see both at a wedding? I mean a fun, hospitality focused wedding? It’s all about the bride and the dress), and a castles isn’t complete without a moat containing alligators. We’re a little low on alligators in Minnesota. Plus, moats are ugly. 

3) The first one is often the one you fall in love with.

4) What your fiancé (spouse) is attracted to matters. If he loves shiny things, buy a dress with some bling! If modesty is important to him, choose a dress that flatters you without showing too much. Just so with making the big step of putting an offer on a house: I learned that the one that made Erik’s eyes glitter and dance was the one we should pursue most aggressively. (We lost the bid, as I hadn’t yet applied this lesson to our home search.)

 

 

Here’s our baby. The bed rest inducing one. Her ‘jammies are huge. I didn’t learn this from Say Yes to the Dress. But the photo was inadvertently uploaded here, and I don’t have the heart to remove it. Enjoy!

MMC

Frugal (to the Point of Recklessness) Tip

Today’s great accomplishment: saving ~2/3 a teaspoon of jarred pesto from loneliness, isolation, and parched-ness. (Yes, I realize that “parched-ness” may not be a real word. But if Shakespeare can make up words, can’t I? Oh it’s because his genius is a ticket to our leniency and acceptance of HIS new words. Ok. That’s fair. But I’m going to use my new word anyways. No one else has to, unless it perfectly describes the thing you are trying to describe. In which case, I recommend it!)

But, anyways, my marvelously creative friend  once exclaimed “you are frugal to the point of recklessness”. We laughed because it’s so true. It’s now a permanent part of my mental resume.

I really am delighted to bring to you, today, just a small example of the wisdom and savings that, you, too may enjoy.

See the distressing waste of pesto pasted onto the upper inside of this jar? I will become parched and lonely and un-usable if refrigerated way up there, away from it’s brethren.

I tried tapping the jar on the counter to force it down. Don’t do this if you have a sleeping baby in the next room. I did, so I stopped. Even saving 2/3 a teaspoon pesto isn’t worth waking a baby.

I then violated a key rule of Frugality to the Point of Recklessness (Use the Absolute Minimum of Dishes when Cooking Because Who Wants the Work of Cleaning Them). But the corollary to this rule is: If One Must Dirty another Dish by All Means Use the Smallest Possible Dish. Hence, the appetizer spoon that we use as a baby spoon (also a frugal use!). It’s tiny, so it will hardly take room in the dishwasher. So I’m still frugal.

And the party in someone’s mouth when they taste that 2/3 teaspoon extra pesto will be all the greater. What a good deal!

Doing My Part,
Miss Mary Clare

The Horrific Menu Planning Escapade: Update

Good evening,

I feel it only right and proper to follow-up on my Meal Planning tirade of a few days back.

Here’s what it looked like. Prepare to be impressed.

That’s right. Two and a half DPSs (double page spreads. Is this term still used in publishing? I’m a late 90’s year book geek.) from my calendar with main dinner dishes scrawled into the inner margins for each week/dps. There are a maximum of two per week. Nothing more. But nothing less either! And you know what? It helped my life and sanity level, but only once I remembered that I had written my Menu Plan in to my calendar. Never mind that for several days I haphazardly wondered 6.3 times per day what the heck to serve for dinner. Eventually, the horror of my Menu Planning Escapade of a few days back re-surfaced, and I actually used the Plan! And I had already shopped for the items needed! Win win!

Despite the major mental whiplash caused by me, of all people, menu planning, I am pleased and peaceful with a couple things:

1) For one menu, I planned an actual menu! “Chix and chocolate cake.” There it is, in writing, for all of history. What more does one need in a meal than chix (ie chicken) and chocolate cake?
2) I gave myself lots of freedom within the structure. Having learned that over planning can produce stress just as often as under planning, I didn’t assign certain dishes to certain days. I just knew, given our schedule for the next couple of weeks, that cooking twice a week would be reasonable.
3) I didn’t matter much what meal went on which day. If I remember correctly, I simply put the dish with veggies that would go bad most quickly on the first page of the first week. And chocolate cake with chix, naturally, went on the day when we were having friends for dinner.

That’s it. That’s all I have to say about Menu Planning.

Love,
Miss Mary Clare

I think it’s cool that ”cool” is still cool.

How many other words have remained cool for generations?

Wait, ”cool” is still cool, right? Teenagers and adults alike still use the word to describe that intangible thing it’s always described, right? Or am I so stuck in the 80’s that I’m blind to pop culture around me today? I mean, I do know that ”rad” and ”totally tubular” are not cool this decade. But are we cool with cool? Still?

Someone (preferably under the age of 20) help me please.

Thank you,

Miss Mary Clare

 

 

Tired Zombie, Sad Zombie. Bed Rest Journal Entry

Find below in italics actual journaling I did once during bed rest. It is unedited, except for editor’s notes, which aren’t in italics.

12-3-12 Monday

Normal morning prayer comes 1st. But I was almost like a zombie in terms of being awake. A sad zombie. Haven’t been out of the house since Friday evening [for a doctor’s appointment, if I remember correctly]. Stir crazy. The night before, planned to call Mom in the morn 2 if she could take me out on a jail break: out for coffee! But it was a ”night” like I hadn’t had in a while: toss and turn until 3 am-ish (after 1 sleep cycle) , get up, putter around/fold some baby stuff and put it in better stacks.) go back to bed. Can’t sleep (my rear hurts! Sciatic stuff. & hands swollen.) Back up: make 1 centerpiece [a seated activity for a friend’s wedding] & organize materials for, using Baby’s stroller to keep things corralled yet accessible, ‘ cus I’m creative like that. More puttering. Finally add books to baby registry (The Very Hungry Catapiller!)  Finally, finally laid back down & this time it felt compfy. Grogily realized around 7am, & 8 am, & 8:45 am that Carribou Coffee was just a vain dream. & I want so many things for Erik 2 get ready for me befor he leaves. And what I need 2 do is sleep. So I’m sad. Sad Zombie. Finally finally finally crawl out around 10am and all I want is cereal. & coffee. We have scads of milk (great planning!) but no cereal (how’d we miss that?!). Sad zombie. I decide I only want coffee. Nothing else measures up to cereal. Stop 1/2 way 2 prayer corner w/ my loaded tray [how could my tray have been “loaded” if it only contained coffee? I don’t 1remember. I’ve tried for months. It’s an eternal mystery.] b/c I don’t have energy to go further. @least coffee is @ hand. Will have 2 pray from here. Tell the Lord that “well, this is me. This is what we have. Might as well lay it out the way it is instead of disguising w/ prayers, songs, books. Btw the ipod was going this whole time – loud – w/ non-Christian

 

 

[Entry abruptly ends.]

I guess we’ll see you later,

Miss Mary Clare

PS: Please forgive spelling, grammar, punctuation, and logic errors. I was pregnant. I’d been on bed rest for the better part of 4 months. I like that the errors convey better the reality of the situation.

 

Chocolate Volcanic Cake

This is a cake. It is also a kitchen malfunction. And a marvelous example of a kitchen malfunction, if I do say so myself. It’s not supposed to be sunken into itself. I need to work on helping my cakes with self esteem and posture.

This is me puzzling over a) how to work the camera (I had it pointed in the wrong direction), and b) how to morph the malfunction into something lovely and fun that would honor our guests.

Marketing geek that I am, I gave it a name – Chocolate Volcanic Cake – to make it at home with it’s sunken-ness. It is not a mistake. It’s an opportunity for creativity.  I would make a fantastic Marine. Assess, adapt, overcome! We inhaled this cake within 24 hours. By we, I mean I did. I had a little help from my family and our good friends, Rose and Chris who brought their toddler.  It tasted delicious, and I think it looked pretty darn good, too.

This volcano has some awesome lava flows.

This is proof that I’m attempting to learn from my mistakes. I mean kitchen malfunctions. I wrote in the cookbook margins the pan size, temperature, and cooking time. Next time, if I need a flat (boring!) cake, I have ideas for what to do. In the mean time, this happy accident provided lots of culinary and creative pleasure.

Love,

MMC

 

Shall I Clarify?

In my last post on MENU PLANNING, I included a list of things I enjoy. It’s been bugging me ever since I drafted it. This is mostly because a couple of the top items (ex: mocha) are completely frivolous. More important things (such as time with people and being of use to the world), are underneath them. It’s as if my priorities are all screwed up, and selfish.

Please understand – I’m saying this to myself as much as anyone – the list of what I enjoy in life is not the same as my list of priorities. There are two lists: Things I Enjoy in Life, and Priorities.  I do, I hope and pray, have acceptable items at the top of my priorities list. However, when I think of the transitory things of this world that I truly enjoy, mocha really is near number one. I need to be honest about that.

Now, regarding a priorities list. As soon as I am perfectly stable and figure it all out for keeps, I’ll post it. In other words, I may never post this list. I feel that a priorities list is too important to post on the fly. And our lives are too dynamic for most of us, most of the time, to be able to nail down a comprehensive list that can be accessed anywhere in the world, by anyone, at any time, for as long as the Internet shall live. I just don’t want to be nailed down in that way, or to nail myself down, for that matter. I prefer to inject a healthy dose of growth and mystery into the creation of such a list. So, ”dynamic”, I feel, is a good term to describe it. And blog posts, while possessing many positive characteristics, are not in themselves particularly dynamic.

Thank you for listening,

Miss Mary Clare

MENU PLANING. Do you?

I’ve been missing you while I MENU PLAN. I think I’d rather clean bathrooms than MENU PLAN. In rough order of preference, here’s what I enjoy in life:
Freedom
Mocha
Creativity
Being useful
Time with people
Blogging
Baking
…insert here approximately 1,000 values…
…insert here approximately 1,000 ideals…
…insert here approximately 1,000 items…
Owning a slow cooker (Crockpot)
Cleaning bathrooms
MENU PLANNING

Notice that MENU PLANNING is at the bottom of the list? Clever you. Notice that freedom is at the top? That’s why MENU PLANNING is at the bottom. Polar opposites must be separated. It’s a rule of the universe (but don’t quote me on this to a physicist). In my ideal world, the garden, refrigerator, and pantry are all fully stocked, babe is napping, it’s 3pm (give or take), and I’m throwing something together for dinner. What’s for dinner? I have no idea. And that’s just fine with me. It will turn out delicious. After a nice family dinner, someone else does the dishes. Perfect! Notice: there is no MENU PLANNING in my ideal world.

Why, then, you ask, have you been doing what you so passionately dislike? Good question. I’ve been struggling to find an answer my entire adult life, and particularly the last 24 hours, since I began MENU PLANNING.

I submit to you that it’s my German side. Dad was primarily German. Mom is primarily Irish. The Irish in me loves (among other things) freedom, fun, and red hair. And angst. Ever noticed how many Irish poets and writers are filled with angst? And the humor? Dark and ironic, (with another side being light and sweet (I.e.: “when Irish eyes are smiling”, etc). We’ll discuss this another time.)

Now, the German side. I love order. Planning ahead is important to me, and I’ve been told I’m slightly neurotic when it comes to caring about miniscule detail. These qualities don’t always play nicely with freedom. Hence, the angst. They conflict and collide, and angst is the natural outcome. Therefor, I submit to you that I MENU PLAN because I’m Irish. Wait, I thought it was because I’m German. Confusion abounds! Welcome to my world.

Hey, at least I’m inconsistent.

Love to you, going now to execute the meal PLAN, feeling edgy,
Miss Mary Clare

P.S. Do you MENU PLAN? Why? And if you do, are you still in one piece? Or, do you feel, as I do, that you are living two lives? Help!