October is Vegetarian Awareness Month!!

Haha!! Oh dear – as much as I laugh about my people and their need to be heard, sometimes I think awareness months are a poor excuse for extra coupons and interesting lapel pins. That being said, my weekly ‘Fruits and Veggies’ article on the topic made me think about my dear vegetable friends and why I’ve maintained my relationship with them and not their mooing, oinking, meowing counterparts. For those of you that may not have had the veggie convo with me before, it’s probably because I don’t talk about it much until I know the people around me pretty well. For some reason, announcing vegetarianism has a sort of kinship to the ‘coming out’ of a bi or homosexual… all of a sudden people get a little squirmy and don’t know how to have a normal conversation with you anymore. Typically after it is mentioned the topic passes quickly, another conversation begins, then some sort of explosive question erupts from the recent discoverer, who has not taken much of a part in this secondary conversation. Normally the questions are, “WHAT DO YOU EVEN EAT!?” or the more polite, “Why did you become a vegetarian, if you don’t mind me asking?” and sometimes they jump straight to, “If you were stuck on a desert island with just yourself and a hamburger…”

I became a vegetarian when I was 12, so it has been 11 years now. I started eating this way because my grandmother, who had always had a profound effect on my sense of health, had been a vegetarian for years and I believed her example to be a good one. As the years went on I learned about amino acids, cholesterol, vitamin B12, iron, and all of the other main vegetarian pros and cons that I was choosing with my eating habits. A couple of answers: vegetarians hardly ever suffer from protein deficiencies or high cholesterol. We do often lack some iron and all of our necessary B12. Now that I know a bit more than my 12-year-old self I am so grateful that I made this big decision when I did! Not everybody supports vegetarianism but my body just LOVES it! I really enjoy the clean feeling I get when I eat well, and feel like fruits and veggies are the perfect way for my body to do that!

That all being said, my husband and entire immediate family all love meat and I love them all dearly. I even love them enough to toss some poultry or ground beef into their portion of the meal! I am not afraid of meat – raw or cooked. I don’t mind much when it touches my food or gets plopped on my plate at a BBQ. I embrace the wonderful bottomless-pit of a husband that I have and just ask him to switch me for his veggies and we both benefit  Someday I am going to find another vegetarian out there that will want to exchange regular emails full of recipes and snack-tactics but even then, I love my meat eating friends and I love how colorful my fridge looks after an afternoon at the grocery store where the checkout person always comments on how many produce bags I have lined up on her little conveyer belt. I love when life feels fresh and to me – this is as fresh as it comes!

Pie Charts

Just wanted to let you know that the pie charts are working. We were able to anticipate where our unexpected costs normally occurred (which was my biggest concern) and have come out pretty well so far. As of week two we have had $384 in unexpected costs - which we budgetted in - and are only $33 over budget! It is nice to know this so early on in the month because now I know how to structure our spending these next two weeks and can anticipate where it will be easiest to cut the $33 from. It is also a relief because week 2 is always our most expensive week of every month! Hooray for the Murdock's Money Tree! Still alive!

Getting Organized

I don't know what happened there friends! I loved looking at everyone else's blogs for like 6 months but didn't really have much to say here... Well - the times have changed. As an update, Tank was graciously taken in by my mother-in-law and family and is so happy running around their California ranch all day! Unfortunately he recently got a little bit too liberal with his boundaries and wound up with an appointment to get his you-know-whats removed... I guess we won't be having any baby Tanks in the future! He will be back with us as soon as our contract is up at this apartment and we move somewhere that allows dogs. I miss him dearly but I am so happy that he is so loved over in Porterville. Michael... still feels like he has lost his right arm... but this too shall pass :-)

As for life in general I am on an organization overhaul kick. First I spent a couple of hours at the beginning of the week fixing up our budget so that it is back in working order. I don't know if it will work because we've never done anything like this before but let me give you a little overview of my vision. I first looked at our online banking system to see what categories they naturally give us with their budgeting tool. I then looked through our recent months' expenses and figured out what was practical and doable for each category, making sub-lists of what actually fell into each category. This allowed me to pull up Excel and make a little pie chart of my own that has all of our ideal spending amounts by category. I was so excited! Until I realized that once a month is over there is nothing you can do to improve or stay within your budget... So I got a little bit more detailed and made little pie charts for our ideal spending each week. Now the real excitement! Sure it took me a couple of hours but we are all about simple here in the Murdock house and I think that printing off one pie chart a week and comparing it to our ideal chart shouldn't be too hard! And this will give us room to fix things before the end of the month comes! Is it going to work?? I seriously have no idea - but I see potential. I was so jazzed, in fact, that this led me to another planning sesh to organize a menu for the next two weeks, go spend my allotted grocery money and prepare homemade breakfast and lunch foods that we can grab on the go! For all of you wonderful homemakers that are waiting for the climax... you missed it. That was all. I'm SO EXCITED!

Tank

If you’re not a dog lover this may not be the post for you… In January we drove through Cedar City to follow up on an ad on Craigslist for a darling teacup Chihuahua… After 5 minutes of play time and a little money exchange we drove away with this:



As hard as my mother has tried to convince me that dogs are stinky, hairy, loud animals, I fell in love. How could you not with that face! Tank has been our little pride and joy. He is bright, curious, happy, and SO FUNNY! He thinks it is great to knock his toys under the oven when you play fetch with him because then he can jump on your back when you lay on your stomach to get them dislodged. He is a crazy little ball of energy that will calm down to: eat, snuggle, or stay up with Michael all night when he has work to do.

That being said, the other night I went grocery shopping and, as per Michael’s request, left most of the groceries in the trunk for him to bring up when he got home 5 minutes later. It was a gorgeous evening so in waiting for him I left the front door open with our little doggie gate blocking the doorway so that Tank couldn’t get out. As expected, 5 minutes later Tank heard Michael’s voice as he approached our apartment and started barking excitedly for Daddy to get home and play with him… Unfortunately Michael was talking to our landlord at the time and we are not allowed to have dogs in our apartment complex (we have been hiding him since January). The landlord looked at Michael with a confused expression and Michael hurried up the stairs. Last night we got a call letting us know that Tank had to be gone by Sunday. They could have evicted us so we are grateful that they didn’t… but we are heartbroken. Poor Michael is so worried about him. We will be able to have him once our contract is up in 9 months but until then… we’re not quite sure yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Sloppy Joes, Slop, Sloppy Joes

As far as food goes, this week has been wonderful so far! We had a successful Hamburger Monday, a fun makeshift Tuesday, and big plans for... Sloppy Joe Wednesday. I apologize to Michelle, who hates sloppy joes, and to all other naysayers that may doubt the class of the tomatoe and ground beef (even if it's fake) mixture that is tossed on a whole wheat bun with the pure intention of staining beautiful faces everywhere. I'm sure I have had a sloppy joe at some point in my life but because I just recently decided to succumb to trying fake ground beef it hasn't really been an option these past 10 years. So all day I pondered as to how my face would look with a little tomatoe-based sloppy joe smile, getting more excited by the hour.

When the time came to take the plunge, however, I just couldn't find it in me to strike up the oven and lead the kitchen in its nightly concerto (performed by a beginning orchestra). I stood there in the kitchen with my favorite vegetarian cook book in hand trying every mind game I've been taught and just couldn't make myself do it! And then... I just said it. "I don't feel like making dinner tonight Honey!" It wasn't whiny, it wasn't rude, it just was...

And to that, my dormant husband sprung to his feet, delicately plucked the cook book out of my hand, set me down on the couch, and tuned the coconut cooking oil. After a matter of minutes onions were dicing and fake meat was grinding (appropriately). I smiled and watched as my sweet hubby poured extra love into the pan of mush that was perfectly simmering on our stove top.

I don't know exactly why he decided that tonight was the night to make music in the kitchen but I think he was glad he did. Something in me just lit up like a light bulb! The meal was absolutely amazing, the tomato smile was perfect, and something about him got about 2 million times more attractive. The kind of thing that made me: eager to do the dishes, prompt him to flip to ESPN, talk about computers, and... end the night deservingly. Thank you Michael, thank you sloppy joes, thank you Adam Sandler.

It's the Honey...

I have had an over abundance of love, gifts and blessings throughout my lifetime that I will never be able to repay to those that have given them to me. The biggest one: it's the honey. He sometimes says to me "so what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" It always catches me off guard because I feel like I am talking all of the time and that I don't often postpone conversations if I decided to begin them... It is those moments that he knows I've got something to talk to him about. Whether I know it or not, there is always something and he just seems to know. Just one of the many reasons I can't get enough of the honey in my life.

Simple Pleasures

So sometimes you just have to give in to life’s simple pleasures. I love fresh flowers, and the smell of babies and all of those wonderful things but today… Glee. I have NEVER had a series of my own but today is Regionals and I can hardly wait. My living room will be adorned with everyone from Puck to Emma and topped with blue slushies… You just have to let it make you happy!

Watch This:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/153716/glee-finale-sneak-peek-faithfully