Week 9: best laid plans of mice and men

Last week I laid forth a plan, and it got thrown out the window the very next day.  My supposed free Saturday isn't so free any more, my mildly industrious Monday was less so, my best intentions shot by familial commitments and plain laziness on my part.  Perhaps I will find sudden inspiration to inspire industry, perhaps I wont.  At some point in time the mess in my craft room will tickle my last nerve.  In the meantime I am putting this blog on (permanent?) hiatus.

Week 8: Reality Check

I got nothing done in the craft room this week.  Technically Lent is over along with it my Lenten resolution to accomplish something every week, but honestly I made the resolution with the intention of it sticking past Lent.  It is not sticking.

I thought of making this the last post to this blog (public accountability obviously isn't working) but two things happened to make me change my mind.  One I realized that stopping the blog won't make me any more likely to finish the project.  Two I attended an in-service for work about managing time.

The presenter had a lot of tips and tricks to organize ones time in the work place and in ones personal life.  Three of these tricks were to plan the week in advance, create blocks of time for tasks that need to be completed (not just events), and to be specific in those tasks.

When I got home I created a simple spreadsheet with the days of the week across the top and the hours in the day across the side and then started filling it in.  The cells during my work hours were colored black.  When I can, I like to walk to work so I designated the hour before and after work for that.  Then dinner was marked off and a rather optimistic command to "go to bed" around 11:00 pm.  Reoccurring commitments like church and yoga made it onto the spreadsheet next, followed by plans I had made with friends.  The week filled up surprisingly fast.  The one day that didn't fill up quickly got designated for completing chores (I tend to cook one day a week and then eat left overs the rest, and my laundry has to be done sometime).  The craft room did not make it on the spreadsheet for next week.

There will be no progress to report for week 9.  This is not falling off the band wagon.  I'm not even going to try and catch it.  That does not mean I am abandoning project craft room.  In fact extending my spread sheet ahead another week shows that a week from Saturday I will have a free day that I have already marked off a chunk of to devote to my craft room.  I am also taking into account the third tip and devoting the day to cleaning up the piles of junk lying on the floor in the craft room (remnants from week 3).

What will be reported next week is a plan of action!  I am going to think up some specific tasks to complete when time is available in the coming weeks.  Instead of "work on craft room" my spread sheet will say....well next week I'll have an answer for that.

Random thoughts Monday: Ramen

Today my brother and I ventured into the world of ramen (not the .25 cent ramen, actual non-fried ramen noodles) and found it surprisingly easy and fast (we over cooked the noodles because we expected them to take longer).

I picked up the noodles at a two for one sale over the holidays for something new to play with in the kitchen.  My brother and I randomly remembered the noodles while strolling through the mall and decided to make a trip to the grocery store to get supplies.  Neither of us own smart phones, so we could only guess on what actually goes into ramen.  Generally we looked for ingredients that I could easily use in another dish if it didn't make it into the ramen.

When we got to my place I looked up a bunch of recipes to get an idea of order and cook times and what not.  Then I discarded them and we went at it.  We purchased chicken broth as a base and boiled it on the stove along with some green onions, thinly sliced carrots, and mushrooms.  We added the noodles to this and then I decided to brown some fresh ginger and garlic to add (in hindsight this should have been done first and the broth should have been added to it.  Next time).  I also found a lonely container of Chinease 5 Spice at the back of my spice cabinet which got added to the mix. All together it looked pretty, but I wasn't sure how it would taste.  I had siracha and soy sauce on the table ready to be added and neither were needed.  Definitely something I would try again.

Week 7: Fallen off the band wagon (again)

Once again I have fallen off the band wagon, and achieved nothing in relation to the craft room.  I could say it was a busy week (which is true), but in reality there was time to complete something I just didn't utilize it.  What is worse my laziness has filtered into the rest of my housework.  I haven't done laundry in weeks, my sink is full of dishes, my counters are cluttered, my fridge is empty.  I have little hope of accomplishing anything this weekend, but there is still hope.  I will strive to do something in the craft room this week.

Also, I will stop with this updating on Friday thing.  Thursday is when these are supposed to be posted.