My April inspiration...

And the winner is (drum roll, please)...

MAKE PIEROGI!

Yay!  I can't wait to try this one!

Last month's goal was "make moussaka" ...which I later learned that I had misspelled.  I mean to write musaka, which is the version that my fiance grew up on.  Moussaka is the Greek variety, which is pretty different.  Since my fiance's birthday was April 1st, I ended up completing my March goal a day late.  Oh, well.  If you want to know how I made it, you can find my recipe here.

Even though I was late with that specific goal, I did an extra one last month that should make up for my tardiness, right?  ::wink, wink::

Yum.

I poached an egg!  Well, about 7 of them actually.  For some strange reason, the idea of poached eggs always weirded me out.  Making them and eating them.  This is part of why I set that goal for myself.  and the result?  Ah-friggin-mazing!  I *love* them!  Check out this video if you want to learn how to do something that's so insanely easy and delicious that I have no idea why I had such an odd aversion:

its all about the small joys in life...

...like coffee.  I like coffee - a lot.  Especially good coffee.  I've heard talk of cold-brewed coffee over the last couple of years, but I never realized just how insanely easy it is to make...  that is, until I watched this video last night!  Needless to say, I RAN (quite literally, actually) to my kitchen, dumped some coffee grounds and water into a glass, stirred it, covered it and left it on the counter over night.  This morning, while the kids were getting ready for school, I popped a coffee filter into a funnel and strained my coffee-mud into a glass.  I am now enjoying a vanilla "iced" latte.......  this is one of those moments when I wish that we had ice on hand, but our freezer is too full of food to be able to run the ice maker.  Eh, next time...?

As soon as I made my coffee this morning,

I prepped a jar of coffee for tonight...

Good stuff, I tell ya.

On a completely different note, I pulled my monthly goal from my inspiration jar a few days ago...  and this month's winner is, (drum roll, please)  "MAKE MOUSSAKA!"  

I'm really excited about this one!  I mean, it's really nothing special for me to try a new recipe, even if its something totally new to me (i.e. seitan, which I now *love*)...  but this one should be special for my fiance, given that he's mentioned (more than once) that he'd like for me to make it.  Plus, I hear that its kind of lasagna-esque and he swears up and down that he doesn't like lasagna...  this could help to bring him over to the dark side.  ::evil laughter::

Let's see...  what else did I want to say...?

Oh!  I finished the first of the series of embroideries that I have planned...  and I'm onto the second.  I think I'm going to wait until I've finished a few more before I start sharing pictures of them...  or maybe not, we'll see.

I went to the country this past weekend for the craft show...  which was cancelled due to bad weather.  Blech.  That was totally disappointing.  But, since I was already in the area before I found out that it was cancelled, I got to spend the day with one of my very best friends and her kiddo, which was awesome.  And lunch and the little diner down the street from her was pretty great, too.  

I'm getting the feeling that there was more that I wanted to write about today, but I can always come back and post again, right?

If you try the cold-brewed coffee, let me know what you think!

February's inspiration...

...from my inspiration jar is "Exercise/get moving 3x a week."  Not a bad one.  I'm not sure if I put this on the list of things I was going to put in the jar, but it's one that I need to make a point of following through with.  I'm going to start today by lengthening the walk home from Rye's bus stop this afternoon- instead of the two blocks home, we'll walk a few extra blocks.  I'll make it at least twenty minutes and get the kids involved, too.

I'm also working on changing my eating habits, adding LOTS more veggies and upping my proteins with lots of good, organic, cage-free eggs (they're TWO DOZEN for $5.99 at Costco!  Cheap!) and Greek yogurt.

Another change I'm making this month is omitting the use of grocery bags...  this one is going to take teamwork with my fiance, but it was kind of his idea so it shouldn't take too much prodding, right?  We already have a whole bunch of reusable shopping bags, and I'm making some that are smaller and lighter weight produce bags (with these patterns).  Now to remember to bring them IN the store!  I remembered to bring them with me the other day, but then forgot them in the car...  if I had been alone, or even had another adult with me, I would have gone out and gotten them, but I wasn't going to with the kids with me.  Next time.

Some of this month's inspiration...

(yeah, I know I misspelled "exercise")

February is going to be a good month.  Garden planning, seed starting and hopefully starting to compost (depending on the weather), lots more changes!

...remember when I mentioned changes?

...I didn't forget!  I swear!  This year, rather than having a New Year's resolution, which I surely would have broken by now, I decided to make some life changes and set realistic goals for myself.  Some of these changes are definitely much bigger than others...

The first one was changing my eating habits and, in turn, my family's as well.  We are now "flexitarian," so to speak....  not in the fancy "the only meat we eat is free range, organic, no antibiotic, etc." sort of way (I wish we could, but with a family of five living on one income, we just plain can't afford it).  We are simply limiting our meat-based meals to every-other dinner or less.  That was an easy enough change, given that we're all pretty open to trying new foods.  :o)

My next change is challenging myself to drink more water.  I want my eight cups a day.  I feel better when I drink it, and I start to lose weight, which boosts my self-esteem.

Another change was having my no-more-babies surgery.  Done and recovering.  No more worries, yay!

Other changes include being more active, playing more (especially with my kids), starting to compost come springtime, and completing at least one challenge from my inspiration jar each month.

....which brings us to the inspiration jar itself...

Things it's filled with are:

• poach an egg
• make croissants
• make pot stickers
• make pirogi
• make myself a skirt
• make myself an apron
• finish Rye's doll (I started crocheting a doll for her a year ago and *need* to finish it!)
• make moussaka
• finish O's painting (same deal as Rye's doll)
• finish my zebra painting (yeah, this is something I started in high school -it's about time I finish it)

...I'm sure I'll keep adding to this list as time goes on, too.

Oh, and I have to plan our September wedding.

Looking at all of it here, it looks like a lot...  but I know that if I break it all down I can totally do it.  And I'll do it all well, goshdarnit.