Haircuts & Cinnamon Rolls

 

I am an extremely low maintenance kind of gal. I like to roll out of bed 10 minutes before I need to leave to maximize on my sleep and give me just enough time to throw some clothes on and be out the door. I intentionally keep my hair long for this very reason. Some people think long hair is a pain to take care of, but I disagree. What could be easier than tossing it up into a ponytail or better yet, fluffing it with my hands and knowing that's good enough?

The beauty of my natural laziness when it comes to things like war paint (aka, make-up) and hair is that I did not have to struggle with giving up my monthly trips to the salon. Its actually been about year since I've had my hair cut at all. For those of you who are hairstylists, feel free to cringe at this thought :) I feel for you ladies out there who are struggling to pay the bills and realize you needed to cut back on the cutting of your hairs. That's a tough thing for a woman! So I am certainly NOT saying you should give up your haircuts. But what I am saying is that a great way to save money is to find a style that requires haircuts less frequently.

If that doesn't work something even better would be finding a friend who is willing to cut your hair for you. For guys this is usually even easier. This was the case for Alexander. He likes his hair short, and that's easily done with a pair of clippers. We don't own any, but our friends do. Today we stopped by their house and our friend Aaron showed me how to use them. Alex nervously decided to trust his noggin unto my hands, and away we went.

Now in case you are wondering, I couldn't take any photos of the actual hair cutting because I was too busy cutting his hair. But I can happily say that everything turned out just fine. Afterwards Aaron broke out the vacuum to clean up the fluff and also to help clean up Alex :)

Not only did our little excursion save us $12, but we got to spend some time with friends. I have discovered something in the past few years that I think easily goes missing when you live in a land of plenty. When you have money you don't need people, or at least you don't think you do. You miss out on community and building relationships. When the cash is plentiful its normal for us to just think about going to the store and buying what we need or paying a stranger for a service. I think as Americans we really miss out a lot on the joy of the command Jesus gave to love and serve one another. To most of us, that command looks like going on missions trips to inner city ghettos and doing building projects or organizing Vacation Bible School for underprivileged kids or gallivanting off to a foreign land to feed the hungry. Don't get me wrong, that kind of thing is important and if God ever calls your heart to participate in such a thing I pray you will answer with a willing "Yes!" and be blessed by the experience. But serving and loving each other doesn't have to be so big. Or so organized. More often than not I think its as simple as helping someone with an everyday task. What a blessing to our hearts it was today to be invited into our friends' home to use their hair clippers.We did save money, and if you are able I encourage you to find a way to cut your hair at home, but the real benefit of today was spending time with friends... and enjoy some of Jennifer's most excellent Orange Cinnamon rolls!

Combining Forces

I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it pretty hard to work fitness into my day. I find it especially difficult sometimes because unfortunately my favorite things to do are group classes. Sadly, group classes cost money. We used to have a membership at a very nice health club that offered all kinds of fun group classes. I did everything from group weight training to Pilates to Zumba, and even a step aerobics class led by a lady who was old enough to be my grandmother (she totally kicked my butt).

Obviously those days are long gone. I do miss the hot tub in the locker room. It can be a bit discouraging, but thankfully I've been able to survive off of free DVDs from my local library (thank GOD for the library!) and being car-less.

Nope, you read that correctly. Go ahead and check again. See? I said being car-less has actually been enormously beneficial. One of the things we decided to do to save money when we realized things were quickly going down hill financially was to become a one car couple. My husband needs the car most days of the week so when I need to get some place I either take the bus, walk or ride my bike. Not only do I get the benefit of the extra activity in my life, but I also get to be all hip and trendy and claim to be "going green" by not using more gas and contributing to the collective carbon footprint of America (whatever that means).

Now that the weather is finally becoming nice I've been able to start running outside again. I'm not actually much of a runner. I top out at about 5.8 mph, 5.9 on a good day. But it's a fabulous way to torch major calories and great for getting to the grocery store. Last year when I realized that one of my favorite places to buy groceries is about 3 miles away from my apartment I knew I had stumbled upon an elusive pearl of penny pinching: being able to combine my exercise with my efforts to save cash. Whenever I want to pick up a few things and the weather is cooperating, I strap on a very light weight cotton backpack, cinch it up as close to my back as possible so it doesn't bounce around, and run to the store. I get what I need and hop on the bus to come home.

Now that's functional fitness if I have ever heard of it. If you've been trying to think of ways to save gas money and also trying to think of ways to get more activity and exercise into your day, why not combine forces? When you need to run errands ask yourself three questions:

1. Can I get there by bike or on foot?
2. Will what I need to buy fit into my backpack or into my bike basket/saddle bags?
3. Is the store close enough for me to get there and back without purchased food becoming too warm?

If number three is a concern an easy fix to that is packing a thin insulated lunch bag with an ice pack in your backpack.

I really encourage you to give this a try! If you have children, take them with you and make it a triple whammy: fitness, errands and family time all at once. What could be better? Give it a try this week, and let me know how it goes.

Personal Apple Pie

This week my husband lamented to me about how it seems I bake for everybody but him. At first I was a little irritated by this. I mean, its not my fault the guy doesn't like chocolate or really care for cookies or cupcakes. He's not even all that into bread!

But then I thought, hold on a minute... shouldn't  I use my baking powers not only for good, but for awesome? And how awesome would it be if I could figure out a way to bake for my beloved on a scale small enough so as to not have massive amounts of sweets tempting me for days on end (my hubby likes to take his time with desserts... a power I wish I had)?

And so I set out to create a mini fruit pie. I basically modified two recipes; one for savory pasties and one for apple dumplings. This recipe makes two individual apple pies. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'm willing to bet that you can use pretty much any kind of pie filling you like, as well as your own crust recipe if you have a favorite. You will need a jumbo muffin tin for these.

Personal Apple Pie
 For Crust:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 2 Tbs cold water

For Filling:

• 1 large granny smith apple, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 Tbp all purpose flour
• 1Tbp white sugar
• 1 Tbp brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

To make the crust mix the salt in with the flour. Cut the shortening into the flour using a fork until it resembles course crumbs.  Add the water and mix until the dough pulls together. Form it into a ball, wrap it up in plastic wrap and set it in the fridge to chill.

To make the fill combine the apples with the flour, sugars and spices until well mixed.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Take the dough and divide it into half. Divide each half into two chunks, one larger than the other. Take the larger piece of dough and either roll it out or just squish it between your hands like I did until it big enough to cover the bottom and sides of the jumbo muffin tin cup.

Mold the piece into the cups, then fill with the apple mixture, dividing it evenly between the two. Now take the remaining dough pieces and roll or squish them out, cover the tops of the two pies with them and pinch the sides to seal up the pie. Take a sharp knife and cut slits into the tops of the pies. If you wish you can dab on some egg white to the tops of the pies.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the tops are golden brown. Let cool completely before attempting to remove from the muffin tins.

The Streamlined Omelet

Omelets are a go to meal for me. I LOVE eggs. They are good for you and so tasty. Omelets are totally customizable and a great way to get more veggies into your day. Naturally it is easy to make them not so healthy, but by using lean meats like turkey or chicken and lowfat cheeses it's a great addition for a healthy lifestyle. You can put pretty much any kind of meat, cheese, bean and even rice in these fluffy pockets of breakfast delight (although really they are good any time of the day). They are a cinch to pull together, but if you're feeling intimidated don't worry! Here are my best omelet making tips for your enjoyment.

Before you even get your pan out gather and prepare your fixins. Scramble your eggs, chop veggies if you're using them and set out your cheeses and/or meats. Having them ready to go will make everything a little less crazy.

The next important thing is to use the right size pan. I like and 8" skillet for a 2 or 3 egg omelet. Give it a good coating of nonstick cooking spray and place over high heat on your stove to warm up.

If you are using onions or peppers, I recommend sauteing them for 3 or 4 minutes and then removing them from the pan. They taste fine raw too, so just go with your personal preference. If you do saute them, be sure to remove them from the pan and recoat the pan with cooking spray before adding your eggs.

You want your skillet to be nice and hot before adding the eggs. I mean, like just shy of burning the cooking spray. Once it's hot pour in your scrambled eggs. And turn the heat down to low.

Grab your spatula (small is best for this) and gently lift up one edge of the omelet. Tilt the pan and let some of the uncooked egg that's sitting on top run underneath. Repeat this process on different spots on the cooking omelet until you can't coax any more of the eggs to run underneath.

Add your fixins. I recommend putting your cheese down first, if using, and placing it just a few centimeters from the edge of the omelet. This way it acts as a seal for the edges when it melts.

Let the omelet cook for just a minute or two, then it's time to fold the edge over. I like to lift up the side of omelet and actually pinch the edge with my fingers, gently pulling it up and over like a bed sheet while using the spatula to help me. Once you got it folded over put it a bit on top to cement everything into place. Let it cook for just a minute more and your creation is ready!

Roasted Tomato Chicken Soup

It's officially early autumn now that Labor Day has come and gone, but you wouldn't know it by the local farmer's market. The apples, squash and pumpkins have started to arrive, but copious amounts of fresh stone fruits, berries, melons and tomatoes line the stalls. I decided to take advantage of the fruit before it disappears until next summer.

I've had this soup recipe for probably three years and just never got around to making it. You don't have to add chicken if you don't want to (if you'd prefer vegetarian use vegetable stock) and feel free to switch up the spinach with some other kind of leafy green. Fresh herbs work well in this recipe, too. Believe it or not, despite the tremendous amount of tomatoes at the Farmer's Market no one had any fresh basil. Go figure. As always, the longer you can let it simmer on the stove the better. Be sure to serve it with a grilled cheese sandwich or some crusty bread.

Roasted Tomato Chicken Soup

• 2 lbs Roma tomatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano 
• ½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups diced, cooked chicken
• 2 cups chopped baby spinach

 Preheat oven to 375 and quarter the tomatoes.

Place tomato halves, cut side up, on baking sheet with garlic cloves. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 1 hour.

Snip the ends off garlic and squeeze the insides into a blender. Carefully add the entire contents (juices, tomatoes and all) of the baking tray. Add stock, tomato paste, basil, oregano and vinegar. Blend until smooth.

Place soup mixture into a large pot. Add chicken and spinach and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until spinach is wilted. Cover and let simmer over low heat for at least 30 minutes. To serve, scoop it into bowels and sprinkle some parsley and Parmesan cheese on top.

Creativity Outside the Box

I understand that we've got one creative God. I mean, with something like a platypus, how could you think that God isn't creative? Personally I believe the reason humans are so driven to create is because we were made in the image of a creative God. It's us imitating our heavenly father.

One of the biggest reasons I felt so ok with leaving graphic design as a career behind and switching to nursing is because I knew it would be easy to integrate the desire to create into my regular life. Something I've come to understand well over the past year is that business and pleasure are two VERY separate things for me. That is not to say that I cannot enjoy a job. Far from it. But what it does mean is that I don't think I can do something I find "fun" as work, nor can I work for "fun". One of two things will happen: either the business will overtake the pleasure or the pleasure will overtake the business. Either way productivity will fall. I find it funny that my dad warned me once about going into art as a career. He said it might end up not being fun anymore. For my brother that was not true. But for me it most certainly was.

I've been out of the office for almost a year now. In a way you could say that I have been outside of the box (no more beige cube, yay!). I value what I learned while working as a layout designer, but I can honestly say that I don't miss it. I still get the urge to make things pretty frequently, however. And I can always tell when I'm overdue. I get cranky.

All work and no play makes me an unhappy gal! My husband gets cranky when he is hungry but I get cranky when I haven't been creative for a while. Usually I remedy this by baking something. Not only is it quite cathartic, it's tasty. But sometimes I need something more involved in that. That's usually when I pull out the sewing machine.

As finals approach their end the creativity bug bit again, and out came this cute little shoulder bag. Took about five hours total to put together, and I feel better now. Time to hit up the books for the last mile.

Shhh... just roll with it.

I have a penchant for randomness. I also get very easily distracted. Currently as I attempt to punch out this blog post that has been lingering in my head like the funk of deep fry lingers around my kitchen after I make battered fish, I am extremely tempted to look up recipes for vegetarian rice bowls. I've been trying to eat more vegetables lately and save some green on our grocery budget by buying less meat. Last week I slipped in a rice and black bean enchilada dinner under Alex's carnivorous nose without him completely realizing the meal was vegetarian until after he had already devoured the savory wrap in all of it's beefless glory.

But this post isn't about eating more rabbit food (rabbit trails, maybe). It's about yet another twist in the story of my pencil-written life plans.

I was accepted into Grand Valley State University (Yay! Go, me!) and met with an adviser last week to talk about what classes I needed before I can apply for the nursing program. I have been assuming, based on careful calculations, that I would be ready to apply this fall and if accepted I would start in the winter. However, during my session with the adviser the word "prerequisite" and then the words "not met" were quickly followed by "have to take". Little did I know that the laziness of my youth would come back to bite me over a decade later.

When I was 16 I took AP Biology in high school. For some strange reason that I cannot recall now I didn't take the AP test for college credit. Somehow I managed to get through my first stint of college without this biology credit, but I will not be so lucky this time around. It has come back to haunt me in the form of BIO 120: General Biology I.

I tried to weasel my way out of this class. I emailed a myriad of people, made some phone calls and even checked to see if I could test out. The result? Utter and complete fail. It seem I have a summer date with an introduction to cell structure and physiology, growth and development, and genetics.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this prospect. I passed Anatomy & Physiology with a perfect A: shouldn't that show my extreme prowess in the world of introductory biology classes? Apparently not. And this one, single little general biology class has thrown my carefully laid plans off track by one whole semester.

In addition I was informed that Grand Valley requires a semester gap between the time one is accepted into the nursing program and the semester that one begins the nursing program. Hence, I have now been pushed back TWO semesters. With this renewed schedule, assuming everything goes smoothly, I can expect to graduate from nursing school in the spring of 2013.

You should think that I would be used to this by now and that perhaps it wouldn't surprise me, having my plans derailed. But it's still rough when life forces you to readjust, especially when you are in a hurry. I was miffed. I was angry. And I was very, very unhappy.

It was time to have a what-the-frig-conversation with God.

I'm thankful God welcomes me into his presence no matter how I am feeling. He must be God if He can consistently do that. I know I am not that gracious, patient or loving with others. I prefer to deal with people who are happy, or at the very least are calm. I was neither of those things when I told God how I felt about His timing regarding me becoming a nurse.

The most wonderful thing I have discovered about unrestrained prayer like that, however, is that God does indeed meet with me. While I may not feel overly joyful after I have spent time spewing my frustration, 90% of the time I feel at peace. This occasion didn't fall into the 10% category.

Through the sheer grace of the Holy Spirit I was able say to myself, "Ok, there is nothing you can do about this. So instead of focusing on what you can't have you might as well focus on what you can do, instead." Quite suddenly the entire situation didn't seem to horrible. Basically being forced to be a part time student for the next year leaves me with a lot of time to focus on other things, or work part time should the need arise. I can take some other classes just for sheer interest if I choose, or I can increase my volunteer hours at the Pregnancy Resource Center.

I'd be completely lying if I said that I didn't mind the delay. But I also trust God. Lately I've been discovering how I can kinda wonder what God is doing but still feel at peace about it and trust that if He decided something is going to go down differently than I had planned or hoped, there is an amazingly good reason for it. More importantly than that I can trust that it is for my benefit.

I'm still flying by the seat of my pants. And in a way I guess you could say that I'm cool with it. I'm beginning to think that if I didn't delight in change as much as I do, things would be much harder. But God made me; He knows I prefer to do my best to just roll with the random things that come my way. And really, since He's the one who is in control, there is not a thing random about what happens in my life. I'll take my time getting into nursing school since that's what God wants. And I'll take my time finding just the right vegetarian rice bowl, too.