Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Distraction At It's Finest

The older and more self aware I have gotten the more I have learned how much my ADHD runs my life and always has. It was such a relief once I got a diagnosis because so much made since about growing up and why I didn't always fit the mold that I felt like I should. I don't take medication. I have before and they caused me severe anxiety so it is what it is. I look for tools that hopefully will help but usually don't. My mind jumps from subject to subject which leaves my life in chaos most the time. For the most part I try to embrace it. There are really things I love about it. I love that I face each project with the eyes of a child. Nothing will stop me and I don't care how crazy of an idea it is. It use to really bother me and I use to worry about what others would think. Again with self awareness comes the knowledge that it doesn't matter what someone else thinks. At the end of the day most peoples opinions of me really don't matter as long as I am happy.

I like telling my story about getting into surrogacy. The story explains a lot about how I am once I get an idea in my head. I had thought about being a surrogate years before but my ex-husband was totally against the idea. I didn't really think much about it again until my husband (boyfriend then) and I were talking. We were complaining about money and not having enough. He said something about donating plasma. In my crazy brain that triggered that old idea of being a surrogate. Over the next 4 hours I obsessively researched, if you know a person with ADHD you know all about this focus that all of a sudden comes from nowhere.  DH had no idea that what he had said had sparked something and by the time he got home I had made up my mind that I was going to have a baby for someone else and nothing was going to stop me. My grandmother always said "Emily is going to do what Emily is going to do". How right she is. Two surrogacies later and another on the horizon all it took was a joke about donating plasma. If anyone decides to read about my boring life you will find that my fun and crazy ideas often spark from something so simple.

What I haven't finished today or even started....

  • My policies & procedures for my daycare. Really should have made an effort to take care of this.
  • I really planned on getting some cleaning done in my room today. 


What I have done today...

  • I wrote this blog entry
  • I decluttered the bar area and found the key to my child care payment box (it has been missing since I bought it).
  • I started dinner at 10:30am in the crock pot. This is huge for me. I very rarely ever remember to start a crockpot meal. Usually I forget and forget aaaannnnnd forget and what every I planned to make ends up turning into a science project in the fridge.
  • I picked up some pizzeria chairs I found on WAX (an Asheville facebook group that puts all the crazy things I love about Asheville into one place). Got them for $4 a piece. Granted they need to be recovered but they will be perfect when they are finished.
  • I took 3 kids to the indoor playground at the mall for two hours to get some energy out. 







Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Back to Blogging

So it has been a couple year since I have posted anything but I think it is time to start back up. I am not the best writer or speller, and my grammar is lacking so I occasionally get frustrated and quit. I also have severe ADHD so sometimes it is hard to stay focused but I have so many projects and ideas; I would love to keep up with them somewhere. Even if it is just for me.

So what did I do today???
Today I worked on my website and policies manual for my in home daycare, Emmy's House. I have found some software to keep me on track while I work. I only have a couple of hours during nap time to work so I have to make good use of my time and stay off facebook. Yesterday I was much more productive; today not so much. I never have less than ten tabs open in chrome at a time. I flip from project to project so I never seem to get one thing done. It is what it is. I will get it all done eventually. The two programs I tried were Focus Booster and a chrome extension, StayFocused. They did seem to help me at least be aware of the time that I was spending on each thing. Especially the clock that stays on top with Focus Booster.

This evening I cooked dinner. I know not that great of a feat but I hate making dinner. Even more then the hating to cook, I hate having to come up with what we are having for dinner. I would much rather be crafting or working on a new project. I think that is what got me thinking about blogging again. I figured maybe if kept track of what I was cooking and how much I paid for each meal I would be more interested in cooking.

On the menu for the night was Vegetable Tamale Pie. We have had this for dinner before and we loved it; well as usual some of us did. I thought it would be great because my middle daughter has been a vegetarian for about a year. Of course once I told her what it was she reminded me that it had sweet potatoes in it and she hates sweet potatoes. Who in their right mind hates sweet potatoes? Anywho this recipe comes from BudgetBytes. One of my favorite websites to get recipes from. I doubled the receipe because there are 5 of us and I like to have leftovers for hubby's lunch. I am going to copy the ingredients so I can compare what I spent to what she spent. For the rest of the recipe see the link above.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32 (.60)
  • 1 small yellow onion $0.48 (.25)
  • 2 cloves garlic $0.16 (.32)
  • 1 small sweet potato $0.69 (1.07 for 3)
  • 2 cups (or 1 can) black beans $0.56 (1.08 for 2 cans)
  • ½ bunch green onions $0.25 left off
  • 1 medium poblano pepper $0.84 (.22)
  • 1 medium jalapeno pepper $0.12 left off
  • 1 (10 oz.) can red enchilada sauce $1.53 (1.25)
  • ½ Tbsp chili powder $0.07 (.14)
  • ½ tsp cumin $0.03 (.06)
  • ½ tsp salt $0.02 (.02)

CORNBREAD TOPPING

  • 1 cup yellow cornmeal $0.24 (.58 for 2 cups)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour $0.15 (.30)
  • ¼ cup sugar $0.04
  • 4 tsp baking powder $0.12 (.24)
  • ½ tsp salt $0.02 (.02)
  • 1 cup milk $0.62 (.42 for 2 cups, Thanks Aldi!)
  • 1 large egg $0.25 (.26 for 2)
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil $0.21 (.40)
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar (optional) $1.00 (1.30)
  • ½ bunch cilantro (optional) $0.43

If it is marked out I left it out. I made almost a double batch for $9.18. If I get 15 servings out of it, it comes out to .61 cents a serving. Pretty impressive. Thanks budget bytes!

Upcoming Meals this Week
Sloppy Janes (Vegetarian Sloppy Joes)
Breakfast for Dinner
Creamy Vegetarian Enchilada Pasta
Broccoli Cheese Casserole with Chicken Added
White Chicken Chili
Moroccan Chicken with Cous Cous