Oh, boy! Are there a lot of things floating around in the old noggin. I’m seriously having a hard time settling my thoughts enough to share, but I will try it.
I’m going to do what I tell my students to do when they are struggling in class with a program: “just flush it out in the comments, don’t worry about the details”, but instead of comments, I’ll use headings:
A Week of Dinners
First, I decided last week to take more photos of what I’m cooking because I’ve gotten out of the habit, and I love sharing food ideas! Cooking has always been my creative outlet, and sharing makes me happy. So here goes…
Wednesday
We are on a fried rice kick lately. Mainly because The (now) 14-Year-Old loves it and it’s one of the few meals the whole family devours with no complaints. Plus, it’s an easy one-pot (well, one-wok!) meal I can usually whip up with whatever I have on hand.
If I remember correctly, this batch was made with ground pork, scallion, onion, ginger, garlic, egg, mirin, soy sauce, and white pepper. I don’t believe we had any leftovers!
Thursday
Thursday was steak, pierogies, and roasted carrots. Notice the raw carrots on the plate in the lower left-hand corner. Someone STILL prefers his veggies raw, and frankly, who am I to argue? They still get eaten.
We went with pierogies because I have no potatoes in the house, but I had pierogies in the freezer. We all thought they made a great side dish except for, yup, you guessed it, The 14-Year-Old. I’m still convinced he will come around. How do you grow up around all this food and not?
Friday
I honestly canNOT remember. I think I just had leftovers or something. The 19-Year-Old wasn’t home, and the 14-Year-Old got his precious fast food, which we limit to no more than once a week.
Saturday
Saturday was a feast! We met friends at an excellent small restaurant called The Vineyard Wine Bar, and it was the first time I drank alcohol all month.
The food was FANTASTIC!
Here are two sharable plates we ordered. Left: Wild Mushroom Tart. Right: Chicken Satay.
I went with venison for my main because I rarely see it on a menu. I was NOT disappointed! That green stuff on the side was a cilantro chimichurri, and it was amazeballs.
Then, the four of us shared three desserts (because we couldn’t decide!)
That’s creme brule cheesecake, a lemoncello cake, and some peanut butter dessert, I can’t remember the specifics.
All were out of this world!
Sunday
We stayed true to #SeafoodSunday, and I made Clams Casino Linguini, which I forgot to snap a picture of.
Now I’m mad because I love this dish! I will make it again soon and share more details. It’s fairly easy, and everyone (including you-know-who) actually enjoys it.
I adopted the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.
Monday
I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping this past weekend, so this (work) week we are living off fumes, so to speak.
I keep a pretty stocked pantry, and I like doing this occasionally to reduce our food budget and use up some stock items. Plus, I like the challenge of it. I play my own personal game of Chopped every night. 🙂
This is pork loin I roasted on the grill. I had a giant one in the freezer and decided to defrost it, hoping to get at least two meals out of it this week.
I brined it in brown sugar and salt, grilled it, and then made a brown sugar balsamic drizzle. On the side is risotto, because I had stock I needed to use and leftover carrots from Thursday. The boys all had corn, but I preferred the carrots, and there wasn’t enough for everyone anyway.
I should note, The Husband is the official risotto stirrer of the family since he’s the biggest risotto fan. Otherwise, I would have just made plain old rice. lol
Tuesday
Yesterday, I defrosted and marinated a London Broil, which I seared in my cast iron skillet.
We STILL don’t have potatoes, so I made egg noodles and a quick gravy out of some beef broth.
On the side, I had peas because I love them. The boys had corn, again, because they are not all the biggest pea fans, although the 14-year-Old will eat them frozen. Again, who am I to argue? lmao
Today!
I plan to use the leftover pork to make, well, fried rice… again! I guess we have gone full circle this week.
I will definitely be shopping this weekend. We have exhausted our pantry vegetable options, and I hate not having a veg with dinner. It just feels wrong at this point.
Hiking FTW!
This past Saturday, The 14-Year-Old and I went hiking with some friends.
We are “training” for our trip to Iceland this summer. I know I will be okay, but these boys need to build up some tolerance for longer hikes.
While hiking, we found these wild daffodils that looked like spring fighting their way through the fallen leaves of autumn.
Very inspirational and something I needed to see.
Saturday was beautiful, just a perfect day for a hike. I’m hoping to go to another trail this weekend.
Parenting Transitions
Without going into great detail, even though I believe I have mentioned this on the blog before, parenting a grown child is So HARD!
I thought I prepared myself, but I was wrong. I think it’s a combination of me figuring out how to let go and him not really wanting to grow up. I feel like we’re standing at the crossroads of a new type of relationship that no one prepares you for. It’s emotional, exhausting, and scary.
That’s all I have to say about that.
A Platform Change?
Okay, the last thing I want to mention is my newfound love of Substack. Amanda left a comment about it on my previous post, so I signed up to comment on her blog, and then I went down the rabbit hole, exploring all its features and options.
I LOVE IT!
When I decided to start blogging again, I just fell into my old habit of using this space. However, it feels old, outdated, and a little cumbersome to maintain.
So I am seriously considering moving over to that platform to continue blogging. It has totally inspired me! I love the potential of starting someplace fresh and organizing my content with a new perspective.
So stay tuned, I guess? I’m not sure yet, but when I find inspiration like this, I like to dive right in and see where it takes me.
2025 Goal Check-in
Phew! That was a lot, sorry. On to my goal check-in! I’ve been #wycwyc ‘ing this list pretty hard.
- Blog Weekly.
- so far… ✔️
- Paint More. Don’t overthink it.
- so far…✔️ (no painting AGAIN this week 🙁 I need to remedy this!!)
- Make a new handmade pasta monthly.
- Jan ✔️ ✔️
- Feb ✔️ ✔️
- March (not yet – I may take some inspiration from this!)
- Hike at least twice a month.
- Jan ✔️✔️
- Feb ✔️✔️
- March ✔️ (and one planned this weekend!!)
- Perform one unassisted dip.
- Worked on depth today again. Getting there!
- Perform five strict pull-ups.
- Training! Did some strict singles yesterday!
- Handstand walk.
- Training! Did a headstand yesterday as I’m working on my alignment.
- Take at least three yoga classes a month.
- Jan ✔️✔️✔️
- Feb ✔️✔️✔️
- March ✔️✔️✔️
- Make homemade sourdough bread.
- ✔️✔️✔️OMG I did it!✔️✔️✔️
- Take the kids to Iceland (planning is in the works!).
- Training for our hike!
- Fix the holes in my house (long story, lots of plumbing issues this year).
- Two holes down, two to go!
- Continue my Spanish Streak on Duolingo (I’m on day 1,231!!).
- so far…✔️ day 1314
- Take a Spanish class in person.
- My class was canceled. 🙁 Back on the hunt!
- Plan something special for The Husband’s 50th birthday!
- Research is underway.
- Snatch 125lbs.
- Training! Started my new training cycle.
- Compete in at least one weightlifting meet.
- Found one, coach can’t make it. Looking for another.
- Walk a minimum of a half-mile daily with Marsh and, preferably, with the Husband, but I can’t base my goal on him.
- 77/86 days so far this year.
- Track my movie-watching on Letterboxd.
- so far…✔️ Click here to see!
- Keep my citrus trees alive! (I have a lemon and a lime tree I named Laverne and Shirley. Laverne is not doing too well after a disastrous root rot issue this fall, but we are doing our best.)
- so far…✔️ Planning to move them back outside soon!
- Host an extended family dinner monthly.
- Jan ✔️
- Feb ✔️
- March ✔️
- Clean out and organize my closet and drawers.
- Thrift more and purchase no brand-new clothes.
- so far…✔️
- Take daily supplements more consistently.
- so far…❌ Lost sight of this one.
- Reduce alcohol consumption to once or twice a month.
- Jan ❌ 1/18, 1/23, 1/31 (close!)
- Feb 2/1, 2/15 ✔️
- March 3/22
- Cook one new recipe/dish a month.
3 replies on “Finding Inspiration (w12)”
I could write a book about parenting a “grown” child. In my case l use the word grown as in size and age but not in motivation and maturity. I feel I’ve failed miserably. I’ve finally excepted that I didn’t do anything different in raising my other four sons. They have launched into adulthood very well. It’s not you. But the frustration goes deep.
YES!! This is how I feel… the motivation to grow up is just not there and I don’t know how to instill that. I just had it. I couldn’t wait to be on my own. And I think that’s why I feel like a failure as well. Where did I go wrong?! I thought I did all the right things, giving him independence, doing chores, getting a job, respecting him as a person. SO MADDENING!!
Well, first of all at some point you have to “force” (strong word I know) them to become independent. That is having a job no matter what they choose, eventually living on their own and their own dime. It’s hard and causes worry.. believe me I know. Small steps I know.