New Year's Resolutions

1. Stability.  Now you all know that I have been talking about becoming a Math teacher.  The problem with that statement is the word becoming.  In a different world where bills didn't exist, I could spend my time daydreaming about what I could become and then take my time getting there.  I had a great plan to get myself to teaching, but I've run into some snags.  I haven't received a call back from any of the three school districts to get hired as a substitute teacher.  I did have one interview that I thought went well, but still no call back.  I have been doing a little high school math tutoring to make some extra dough this month and one of the parent's of a student is currently substitute teaching and he is a retired elementary teacher.  It seems that is who I am up against in that job market.  Anyway..I'm babbling.

For now I am going to get a full-time job and wend my way.  I don't see Daniel and I being able to lose my income for a year to do student teaching, but I know that this is a good thing.  Stability.

2. Gratitude.  I'm not an ungrateful person, but I could spend some more conscious effort in this area.  I am so much of a planner that I sometimes neglect to look back or even right in front of me to give thanks for all the blessings I have.  Maybe before dinner, we could come up with something we are grateful for, or I could add it to my morning routine. Gratitude.

3. Routine.  This one goes along with gratitude, but I am mostly thinking about exercising and putting more effort into my appearance.  I am signed up for online barre videos that cost me only $15/month but I have probably only done three videos this month.  I love barre.  It makes me feel strong and healthy.  I want to get up earlier in the morning and do barre.  Daniel and I could add some walking in as well.  We live in a cute little neighborhood.  Plus, our complex backs up against a hiking trail where a beautiful view is just a short hike away.

I have been a little lazy about putting on makeup or even doing my hair since we moved.  I haven't had a lot of days where I have something to do, so I haven't bothered.  But I don't want to spend 2013 a hot mess that no one wants to be with.  This year I want to step it up. Routine.

I have been giving 2013 a lot of thought and I think three resolutions is plenty.  I will keep these three words close by and take time each month to check up and see how I'm doing.  Hope everyone'e New Year's is amazing!

Best of 2012!

I'm grateful I have the chance tonight to reflect on 2012.  It will always be an infamous year in everyone's memory with all the hype about the end of the world.  But it didn't end, by our hands or mother nature's, so it's time to ramp up for 2013.  But not before taking a moment to reminisce.

March - Go Cavs!  This was epic.  And although Daniel's bro's team didn't win the last game, watching them win night after night and climb to the finals was more than amazing.  Hopefully they'll get a chance at it again.

June - Graduation and my mom coming to Portland.  First, graduating is the real deal folks.  Whatever you can do to get to that moment, do it.  After I graduated, circumstances led me back to the same job that I had during college and a friend of mine said to me, "So this is what a Math degree gets you huh?"  But that person doesn't understand the pride that I feel from passing Advanced Multivariate Calculus or the feeling in my soul when I turned in my VERY LAST FINAL.  I'm free!!  My degree will always serve me and I am stoked to pay back every penny that I borrowed to get my education.

My mom took this photo.  It is so rad.  There was too much traffic leading up to the Rose Garden Arena so I got out of the car and walked.


My mom came to Portland!  It was like a staycation for me and we had such a great time.  I got to show her so many of the things that I had grown to love in Oregon and she was so enthusiastic to see it all.  One of my favorite things is that she helped me pick out an iron and we had a walk through my neighborhood.  I can't wait until you come to Palm Desert Mom!

August:  A Kahn family trip to Maine for Daniel's cousin's wedding.  The hotel that we stayed at was not even a mile from George Bush Sr.'s home.  That was honestly the best vacation that I have been on.   We all had such a good time and I would love to go back there someday.

September:  Marrying my man.  I could get all gushy on this part but I'll try to restrain myself!  I love everything about being married.  I love having the same last name because it reminds me that we belong to each other.  I love putting a home together and dreaming about the future.  I truly feel that I married my soul mate.  That September day was the most beautiful day of my whole life and I will remember it forever.

November: Becoming Californians.  I do not highly recommend trying to graduate, get married, and move out-of-state in the same year, but somehow we were up for the challenge.  We love it here.  It has a new set of challenges, but it seems to be a place where we can grow both professionally, personally and as a couple.  It is surprising chilly right now, but from what I hear, I'll be begging for this weather come July.  Hopefully a trip to Utah is in the works when it is 115 degrees this summer.

Here are some pictures that I've taken with my phone since we've been here:

Proud Furniture Owners

I have to say it is a pretty exciting day in a person's life when new furniture arrives.  We have had such aching behinds from watching t.v. on our dining room chairs.  But now they're here!!  We had to buy the whole set from the furniture store in order to get a great deal and I wasn't crazy about all the pieces at first.  But now that I see them altogether in our living room, I love them!

My next project is to get some art on the walls.  I'm going to put up a ledge shelf above the sofa and I have started putting together this collection of art to go up on it.  

As promised, here is a look inside of the wedding chest that we got in Hanford.  Isn't it adorable?!

 

Furnished...sort of

Here are some pictures of our "furnished" apartment.  We bought a couch, loveseat and coffee table, but the delivery date got pushed back until 12/28 so we are not quite feeling settled.  But I love the kitchen and it's nice to have our bedroom and bathroom put together.  Blogger is acting up on me so sorry the pictures are haphazard but there is a story behind our new furniture pieces.

There was a woman that lived in Hanford who was like a grandmother to Daniel's family.  She owned an antique store on her property.  She owned some land close to Daniel's family home where she had her house, antique store, guest house, and some farmland.  Daniel's parent's lived in the guest house when they were first married.  She passed away just a few months before I met Daniel but she was over 100 years old.  A lot of furniture was left to the Kahn family, and it floats around from home to home whenever it's needed.  When we went to pick up our things from Hanford, we also took with us a few extra treasures.

The dresser, mirror, and jewelry box above and the night table below all came from the antique store.  They just needed a little lemon oil and they look so beautiful in our bedroom.

Our "new" bed frame, though not an antique, was Daniel's bed in high school.  Kinda funny, but it was sitting in the barn and I love it.  It has space in the headboard for books and I want to stain it to match the dresser.  The other night table was an antique that we found.

This is one of three hall closets that we have in our apartment.  So much space!  Plus there is a second bedroom (not pictured because it's full of the stuff I don't know what to do with yet).  I am going to put a bed in there though in case anyone would rather stay with us.  Pretty sure everyone will opt for the resort, but you never know.

We got this TV stand for $70 at target.  Probably won't last long but we needed to get our TV off the floor.  We didn't bring ours from Portland because it was heavy and not that attractive.

Loving our dining space right now.  I put the table and chairs on the truck with the thought that they would be temporary but they've turned out to be perfect for us right now.  Plus we can always get bar stools.  I wish I had a better picture of the details of the chairs and of this little wedding chest.  The wedding chest is another new found treasure and I put kitchen linens in it.  I will have to have another post devoted just to that little piece of furniture.  It has little drawers when you open the top compartment.

Only one picture on the wall but we're getting there!  Since we won't have a couch before Christmas I don't feel up to decorating.  Oh well.  A girl can only do so much!!

But Anyway...

Here are pics of our new apartment.  Like I said, I'm a little less than enthusiastic today, but here they are.  As soon as our new furniture is delivered I'll post pics of the furnished version. :)

Have to post to help me move on

I really wanted to post pictures of my new apartment today, but I am feeling a little less enthusiastic in light of the traumatic events this week.  I am sitting in a public library, knowing that others have entered public spaces this week and didn't make it out.  I just feel awful, sick and disgusted.  My "Republican"-whatever-that-means background has taught me that gun control was evil, but this week was evil.  I hate that I can picture the shooting space at the Clackamas mall that I have been to so many times.  Unfathomable thoughts are going through my mind as I embark on a career as a teacher.  This HAS to stop happening.  We have to get guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Anna Karenina

I went to see my movie tonight.  I am claiming rights only because I spent several months and 850 pages reading it.  It was lovely.  Everything I could have hoped for, but watching it made me realize that it wasn't the "story" that held my attention during the months I spent reading the book.  It was the psychological and spiritual insights.

For example, the first line of the book is:

'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'

I could think on this one line for ages.  It is so insightful and so utterly true.

And then there is the psychology of Anna.  I think the movie treated it very well, but the most powerful part of her downward spiral has to be read, because somewhere in her thoughts, you start recognizing your own voice in her irrationality which makes her tragic ending all the more shocking.

Lastly, I love the transformation of Levin.  I wish I could carry his final insights around with me like a pocket Bible.  Below is just a small passage from the end of the book which I think is Tolstoy's main point.  This is part of Levin's epiphany:

Then, for the first time, grasping that for every man, and
himself too, there was nothing in store but suffering, death, and
forgetfulness, he had made up his mind that life was impossible
like that, and that he must either interpret life so that it
would not present itself to him as the evil jest of some devil,
or shoot himself.

But he had not done either, but had gone on living, thinking, and
feeling, and had even at that very time married, and had had many
joys and had been happy, when he was not thinking of the meaning
of his life.

What did this mean?  It meant that he had been living rightly,
but thinking wrongly.

He had lived (without being aware of it) on those spiritual
truths that he had sucked in with his mother's milk, but he had
thought, not merely without recognition of these truths, but
studiously ignoring them.

Now it was clear to him that he could only live by virtue of the
beliefs in which he had been brought up.

"What should I have been, and how should I have spent my life, if
I had not had these beliefs, if I had not known that I must live
for God and not for my own desires?  I should have robbed and
lied and killed.  Nothing of what makes the chief happiness of my
life would have existed for me."  And with the utmost stretch of
imagination he could not conceive the brutal creature he would
have been himself, if he had not known what he was living for.

"I looked for an answer to my question.  And thought could not
give an answer to my question--it is incommensurable with my
question.  The answer has been given me by life itself, in my
knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.  And that knowledge
I did not arrive at in any way, it was given to me as to all
men, _given_, because I could not have got it from anywhere.'

So much good stuff!  I got this from Project Gutenberg online.  Daniel went to see it with me and he was wishing he understood the story better.  They director was so creative with the scenes so they could fit all 850 pages into 2 hours, but if you haven't read the book, it's easy to get confused.  I suggest reading the cliffnotes or something before watching.  Also, the R rating is for a little gore that couldn't be avoided in the storyline.

Blossoming in the Desert

Thanksgiving was a few days ago, but I'm feeling a little leftover gratitude so I thought I would share it.  The opportunities abound for me in the desert and are bringing me closer and closer to spending every day with math.  I know that sounds like a nightmare for some, but I can't imagine spending my time any other way.  

I have been agonizing over the thought of having to spend a little time in the service industry, but I'm really hoping that I can find the income that I need through the school districts.  This week I'm going to find out more about what I need to do to get a job substituting or something else in the schools.  I'm hoping that my days spent in hotels and restaurants are over.  It's been a long time waiting on people.

I know this picture is lame, but it seems like when I see the really good views of the valley, I am driving and can't take a picture.  So this is the view from our balcony.  Daniel has the day off Monday so hopefully we can do some more sightseeing and I'll post some more pictures!

This Desert Life

This is attempt 3 on this blog post so I'm going to write very little and hope that the pics load...been having a rough time with internet connection.  But this is our temporary home!  Already having a tough time with housekeeping trying to get in to clean every day and the lack of our own stuff.  It's hard to cook when I'm lacking my cooking tools and we run out of dishes so quickly and have to run the dishwasher way too often.  Hopefully we'll be in our new place soon!

This is hilarious...

So within two days I have edited and then deleted femmedufoyer.  As I reflected back on what I was trying to accomplish, I realized that what I was doing was a symptom of a greater problem.  I am in a funk...not because I need to get a grocery budget down, or find a way to be a better this or that, but because I am in transition.

I still wish to be a better homemaker.  However, I am not going to save the world by posting my menu plans.  So much has already been said and there is so much information out there on the internet.  What I truly want is to laugh and be happy (and I already have this blog if I feel like documenting that!).

Homemaker

This is something I have been thinking about for a while now.  A few years ago, I read a book called the Feminine Mystique and I felt like many before me that it had something powerful to say.  It told me that women needed a life outside the home, goals and a career, something to achieve other than changing everyone's sheets once a week.  I could see the 'trapped' position that mid-20th-century women were clawing their way out of.  But now there is a new feeling of displacement.

I am a woman in my mid-twenties with a full time job and aspirations for the future, but despite my attempts, I still feel a little lost at homemaking and running a household.  This is not my parent's fault, but rather a generational epidemic.  We are poor time managers, and spend our time off watching hulu, eating out, or doing any other amusement that gets us to the next moment.  Planning?  Baking bread?  Making a weekly menu?  For many of us, those activities sound outdated, but we've also lost the wisdom behind them.

I am not inclined to call homemaking "women's work".  Man or woman, gay or straight, married or single...we all could use a little home time, and homemaking is an art that is disappearing.  The inability to run one's home and household budget is a real obstacle to my generation.  We want so badly to have it all, that we wind up with debt and poorly managed budgets because we never learned that it starts at home.

I was nervous about posting this goal, but now that I have been thinking about it for so long, I think that it is something I can stick with.  I talked earlier about slashing our grocery budget, but I am finding that it is going to involve some real know-how and planning.  So my goal is to take all of you on that journey with me.  Although I don't think I have that many readers today, I know there are many out there, close to me or not, that are struggling to make ends meet, even with college degrees and full-time jobs.  This is a back-to-basics culinary adventure.  This is Martha Stewart on a budget with the wisdom of Mireille Guiliano.

As this is a big undertaking, and I still want to have room on this blog for my family to see my life, I have created a new blog for my "home-making" endeavors.  I tried to come up with a good name for it and the word hearth kept coming to mind.  So I called my new blog "Woman of the Hearth" and because I am a francophile, you can find it at femmedufoyer.blogspot.com.  Right now I am starting with documenting my grocery budget only.  I will post my grocery list and menu for each week.  Eventually I will get into other parts of managing a household and a household budget, but this is a good start.

I don't mean to come across as a know-it-all, although I know sometimes I do.  Hopefully this project will nurture some feedback from family and friends and encourage discussion of that dirty of all dirty words: homemaking.

October's Reading List

I am halfway through Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and I am loving it!  It is such a beautiful book.  It has made me think a lot about commitment and forgiveness.  I tried reading War and Peace but couldn't make it through the whole thing but I am on track to finish Anna by Thanksgiving.  And that will be just in time for the MOVIE!!!  The makers of the most recent Pride and Prejudice made the new A.K. movie with Kiera Knightley in the lead role.  Let's just say I am more than a little excited...but I have 400 more pages to go!

Next up on my reading list is John Steinbeck's Cannery Row.  We made a pitstop on our honeymoon to the Monterey, CA aquarium and they had a small historic fish cannery exhibit.  This reminded me of how much I enjoyed Graped of Wrath so I need another Steinbeck read.

What's on the Menu?

It must be getting married and feeling the season's change that is making me feel settled.  After the wedding and honeymoon, reality has sunk back in and it's back to budgeting and grocery shopping.  But I am feeling excited and ready for this planning thing so why not share the wealth?

October makes me think of pumpkin season and fall apples.  I'm not quite ready for pumpkin flavors, but I am in the mood for soups.

I made this soup the other night: Moroccan Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup and it was so good.  Here are some other October soups that might go on the menu this week.

Creamy Wild Rice Soup with Smoked Turkey
All American Chili
All of these sound amazing!! ---  25 Best Soups

But one simply can't eat soup all week so here are some other ideas I had for this week's menu:

Pork Chops with Roasted Apples
Chicken and Root Vegetable Pot Pie
Beef Stroganoff with Sauteed Carrots

It feels so good to be getting back to some comfort foods but always lurking is the danger of overeating.   We are creeping up on the time of year for starches, carbs, and sweets so it's important to compensate.

Since we're on the subject, I should mention the queen of eating for pleasure Mireille Guiliano.  She is the reason for my 15 pound weight loss since I moved to Portland and I just picked up her cookbook to get me in the right mindset.  As my dinner fare is getting heavier, I will compensate by having lighter breakfasts and lunches.  That way when I get to dinner time, I can enjoy my meal without the guilt.  She has some great breakfast and lunch recipes on her site as well.

Rise

I have been in a funk.  Halfway through the honeymoon, I got sick and spent a good amount of time just wanting to be home in my own bed.  We got out and did stuff, but naps were much appreciated.  Since being home this past week, I have worked every other day and have been unable to find a rhythm.  I gained a little weight on the trip but thankfully it's gone now.

Today I am trying to rally and rise.  The only remedy I know of is to embrace the ordinary, so tonight I am going to make dinner and dessert and catch up on some TV shows with D.

I know things have their own way of sorting themselves out and I think I just need to let this mood pass.  Hopefully it doesn't stick around much longer!

Bedtime Thoughts

Today was my third day at the hotel and I am having one of those grateful moments...the kind that won't let go of you.  I'm so grateful to have a job.  I'm so grateful for purpose in my day.  I feel like time has stopped, meaning time has become a day instead of a five-year plan.  When you're in school, you constantly think about your future.  And then suddenly you're out, employed, and living your future.  I don't feel badly that it didn't turn out for me like it used to turn out for math majors before the economy turned.  I'm so fortunate to have the experience of pulling myself from the ground up.

We are so fortunate in this country, yet we love to whine.  The other night I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep when I heard my refrigerator kick in...you know that periodic noise that fridges make...and I realized how amazing it is to have a refrigerator!  I have a beautiful apartment that is not missing a single modern convenience (except a dishwasher, but it would be worse to be missing something else like a fridge or a toilet.)  I might be making the same amount of money as a high school grad, but the point is, who cares?  I am proud of my accomplishments, of the work I do, and the guests who I make happy.  There is nothing better then laying your head on the pillow knowing you have done an honest day's work.

New Old Budget

Ok people...here's the skinny.  I just got a new job.  Well, a new old job.  You see the baby-boomer super rats that make (are still making) horrible decisions about my life have created an environment where a college graduate of mathematics with a service-industry resume gets sucked back into the service industry to avoid starvation.  I don't have the bank account to wait for companies to tell me they are liquidating the job I applied for before I get an interview.  Yeah, that has happened more than once.

Sob story aside, I am really stoked on my new job.  However, it pays the same as the job I had pre-college degree only now I have post-college debt.  Bummer.

I have a plan though!  One that I can't fully test until October (due to the most amazing event of my life happening Sept 15) but I am excited to see how it goes.  The BIG PLAN is this: we have allowed for a $500 grocery budget each month in the past.  Food's expensive!  Plus, with keeping the budget big, I got to make whatever I wanted and we ate out less.  In theory...we still max out our eating out budget every month.  So I am going to try out a $200 monthly grocery budget.  It would mean some serious planning, knowing what's on sale and in season, and possibly turning into vegetarians at home.  I want to keep the eating out budget the same and it will seem like even more of a treat to go out.

Reality has hit and I am not the bigshot I thought I was...yet.  And I definitely don't have the bigshot budget I thought I would have.  But we're so happy and that's all that counts.  An extra $300 a month would go SO far.  I'll keep you posted on how we do and if I find any tips and tricks I'll pass them along!

Thoughts

So we're sticking around in Portland for a little while.  We still have our eye out on job listings for Daniel but there's no way of predicting what will come available and when.  It was very eye opening how long the process can take.  So I am looking for a job this week.  It's actually a big relief because I am getting a little sick of the waiting game.

I am so excited about my etsy shop though!  It will be a great source of additional income and I love doing it.  A few days ago, I was in my sparkling clean house (I tidy when I get bored these days) trying to come up with my next art project for my store.  I had five products ready to frame, but I couldn't bring myself to get out the saw.  Plus a few of them I envisioned having decorative frames but I didn't have any decorative moulding.  I really didn't want to put anymore money into this project.  3 of the projects I wanted to frame were size 16x20 and I remembered why I started making frames in the first place...I didn't want people to have to deal with finding size 6x6 frames.  But 16x20 is a standard size.  So I listed them unframed.  I can't get as much money for each unframed item, but I make them much faster.  By breaking with the saw once in awhile, I'm working smart instead of working hard.

I started with pianos and now I have made dogs, hot air balloons.  Sometimes I can't think of something to do, but a walk in ptown always gets my imagination going.  It's such a great outlet for me and I love how this project has evolved.  I'm sure I will get back to making frames, but I would like to se some sales first!

Wedding Rose

I learned how to make paper roses recently and it is now one of my favorite paper crafts.  Thinking of adding them to my store inventory someday.  Here is the rose I made for the jar of pens for the guest table.

Grand Opening!

Scissor and Saw is open!  You can find my store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/scissorandsaw.  Working on 3 pieces right now that I can't wait to put up!

Scissor and Saw

So I've changed the name of my future etsy store to scissor and saw.  I loved itty bitty witty but there were so many itty bitty's out there and I didn't want to get lost in the crowd.  I think scissor and saw is very organic and close to the work, and I think it's catchy.  What do you think?

Wedding "Guest Book"

So this post is for my mom since she is working on our wedding guest/heritage table, but y'all still might like it.

We got this idea for our wedding guests to write us a note in lieu of a guest book.  We looked all over for cute notecards but the stores out here were pretty unanimously charging $15 for 8 notecards.  What??  So we went to office max and got generic post cards and envelopes, and then to joanns for some stamps.  We found a cute flower that matches our invitations and some letter stamps to spell our names.  I glued the letters to some of the wood from my frame-making to make a "cheri and daniel" stamp.

And this is how they turned out!  We'll set them in front of the jar and I', working on a "Leave us a note" sign.  We also got a set of colored pens, and I'll make a cute cup to hold them.

The Waiting Game Sparks a New Project

There's big news a-brewing with us, but I feel like we are the boy who cried wolf!  We get our hopes up about a new job in a new city...but I think this time it's going to happen.  Daniel has applied for a job at a resort in Palm Springs and I am so ecstatic for him that he feels again like there is some movement in his career.  He sacrificed some opportunities to make sure that I finished my degree and I am so grateful!

So...if the interviewing process goes well, the job still wouldn't start until September, and although I was so excited about getting back into the workforce, we decided to hold off my job search until this interview plays out.

When the dust of this decision settled, Daniel went to work, and I sat in our meticulously clean apartment (turns out boredom ignites the housekeeper in me),  that same old can't-sit-still feeling started gnawing at my stomach, and I started to think about what I could do this summer to stay busy.

And the art project of the decade was born...

If you read my blog, you know I love to paper craft.  I've posted some of my projects before.  I especially like to work on canvas because I like the contrast of texture.  I mostly craft for my own home, but when I was bored over Christmas break, I started doing some kids/nursery art with the intention of giving them away as gifts.  But a few weeks ago, the idea came to me that they just might sell on etsy.  (This is still unproven...but I'm working on opening my shop.)

But selling meant I had to deliver a product that I could be proud of.  At first I thought I would sell the canvas panel on its own and allow the buyer to frame it.  I wanted to take pictures of the product in a frame for the listing so I headed out to buy three frames for the photo shoot.  But it's a nightmare and/or super expensive to find a 6x6 frame.  You basically have to have them custom made.  I could just see the negative feedback now and I don't want to open that kind of store.

I was about to give up on the project, when in the middle of the night the crazy idea came to me that maybe I could make the frames myself.  I have had so many snags and road blocks with this idea but I am proud to say that I have overcome them and I am now making high-quality custom frames in my apartment.  I have tried out different types of wood, different models and sizes, different saws, but now I think I have the process down and I would be so happy even if I just made one sale.  It has been such a fun project!

So now for some pictures...

I am going to finish the frames with stain or paint, but I just wanted you to see them.  Some are a little crooked because I just set the frame on top for now.

These are the two I did over Christmas break so you've probably seen them before.

These are my zoo animals...the blue gingham is hard to see so I'll have to photograph it in a different light.

And this little trio is my latest creation so I'm a little obsessed/attached to it.  

Right now I'm using a hand miter saw which makes frame making a little tedious.  First I bought a small power saw, but when I got it home, I realized I had nowhere safe to use it, but maybe in Palm Springs we'll rent a house or a place with a garage so I can set it up there.  

This is my saw.  I have some other wood-working tools as well, but the real magic is in the paper!

P.S.  My store's name is itty bitty witty.  Whitney gave me permission to use it. ;)