Respawned!

So I've been away for a little while -- somewhat due to the rather temperamental weather we're having -- and I'm looking forward to getting all caught up.

Spring is honestly right around the corner and we've caught little tastes of it here and there, especially this past Saturday. I've spent a lot of time these past two months trying to get my act together for the warmer weather because it inevitably brings warmer outlooks. As enamored as I am with the romance of winter it tends to lose excitement on the other side of the holidays. That being said, let's get down to business.

First things first, I've been asked a lot recently for the recipe for my kale soup. I'm not saying it's like the best thing ever, but I will say that it is better than a lot of other things. While my idea of cooking doesn't fit in with what we would consider well organized cuisine, I can probably corral the chaos into something vaguely resembling instructions. For those of you that care and/or like to scan recipes for fun, please read on. For those of you that think kale is weird and inedible, continue on to the part that no longer looks like a recipe.

Holly's Bangin' Kale and Chicken Soup

Prep Time: ???
Cook Time: ???
Servings: ??? (Like, four maybe? I don't know, I like to eat kale a lot.)

Ingredients (in no particular order):

48 oz chicken broth
lots. of. kale. like, several large handfuls
1/2 med onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms (portabella recommended)
extra virgin olive oil
McCormick's Roasted Garlic & Herb seasoning to taste
1 med chicken breast

Okay, so, first things first is to get that chicken cooking. Coat in olive oil and season both sides with the Garlic & Herb seasoning. Cook over medium heat (or whatever you prefer -- I like using my George). While that's going, mix mushrooms and onions together. Coat in olive oil and add Garlic & Herb seasoning liberally. Add to medium soup pot over med-high heat. Stir occasionally and cook until onions are beginning to become translucent. Add water/oil as needed. Cut up cooked chicken into whatever sized pieces you like and add to vegetable mix. Add chicken broth. Turn on high and wait for it to boil, stirring occasionally. Once boiling, add as much kale as you can figure out how to fit into the pot. Or, well, as much as a reasonable person would want or whatever. Cook fifteen minutes, still on high. Then...serve!

I realize that this isn't really a recipe as much as it is an amalgamation of ingredients and their contexts in relation to consumption but if I can clear anything up, let me know. I mostly eyeball these kinds of things. If you're looking for a healthier alternative, cut down on the amount of seasoning you use or change seasonings entirely. This can be pretty heavy on the sodium when I prepare it -- otherwise, it's honestly very healthy already.

----- End Vague Recipe ----



My new planner, from Emily Ley -- in it's regular spot, on top of my laptop while I try to figure out what exactly I'm doing in the foreseeable future. Artfully taken late at night in bad lighting by my iPhone's camera. You're welcome.

I received my Emily Ley planner in the mail just a little while ago and I'm very pleased with it as a whole. It lacks the frivolity and popping colors of the Pulitzer planner but is functional and elegant and looks really, really awesome. I've mostly converted over to using it due to the relatively more compact size and the hardiness of the cover (complete with reinforced corners and adorable multicolored stripes). My penchant for color coding everything I ever write down is also a little less lost on the austere pages as opposed to the rainbow explosion that is Lily, not that I ever really complain about anything being colorful.

I'm also here to 'fess up.

I hopped on the resolution bandwagon at the beginning of the year with promises galore and I have all but disregarded most of them. So I'm hoping that the internet's way of bonding everyone together via harsh criticism and judgment will help me turn a new leaf. As I've said before, the start of a new year is hardly more of a cause to change your life than any other day of the year but I'd like to stick to at least one of the ones I made so far. And no, I don't really condone harsh criticism or judgment, but if you could all shake your heads sadly and look wistfully at my forgotten ambitions it would suffice to motivate.

Some things to look forward to:

1) I'll find out in the next week or so if my ankle is still functional regarding exercise
2) Titanfall will be gracing my computer sometime soon and I'll be happy to talk about it.
3) Warmer weather!

Have a great week and hopefully I'll check in next weekend!

Resolutions, Y'all

So I think I'm finally over this cold mess. It was unfortunate that the little respite that was New Year's Eve/Day and my subsequent day off had to be spent keeping Kleenex in business.

On to less depressing items!

You Need A Budget

In my last post I mentioned picking up YNAB. Now that I've had a little time to mess with the features I'm still rather impressed. Features include tracking multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit cards and the like), recording transactions (get rid of that awful paper ledger), creating multiple categories and subcategories to budget within, and importing bank statements for accuracy -- among many, many other things.  Overall it's a solid addition to anyone's financial management arsenal. The company bases the structure of the software on four principles:

1) Give every dollar a job.
2) Save for a rainy day.
3) Roll with the punches.
4) Live on last month's income.

I won't elaborate on the ideas there, but the (free!) courses that YNAB offers on their website go into great detail. If you have the time to join one of the live ones you even have the opportunity to ask an instructor questions and once the class is complete you're entered into a drawing to win a free copy of YNAB. I will say, even playing with the program for just a few days I find myself a bit more aware of the way I spend money -- namely because I'm now looking at how I've divvied up my money among categories.

YNAB isn't so strict, though, and, as aforementioned, they like you to "roll with the punches." For those of you who may be fearful of committing to other plans or programs because of perceived rigidity or restrictiveness, I highly suggest picking up the 30-day demo and giving it a whirl. I'm still fairly excited to continue playing with it and I'll update you here and there as I come across new things.

 More New Year Nonsense

I'm sure many of you, much like myself, have been simply inundated by the New Years resolution making since, well, New Years Day. I like to tell myself that improvements in one's life need no special day or occasion to start but I too have fallen prey to the hype. Here are a few of mine:

 

 

• Play More Games -- Wait, is this a resolution or my philosophy on life? A little bit of both, I suppose. This past year I spent a whole lot of time lecturing myself about how my time could be better spent on something productive as opposed to picking up my Xbox controller. While I do need to up the production values of my life at times it does not need to be at the expense of fun. It is also not necessarily productive to spend thirty minutes debating on whether or not it is productive to play a game. D : Check out the link above to The Novelist, a new game available for download on Steam, that is definitely worth a peek.




 



• Drink More Water -- I'm sure you've seen this gem on many other lists floating around. I sometimes forget that my morning coffee and creamer explosion isn't an adequate replacement for water -- because there is no adequate replacement. Ever. There are a few different hydration calculators online that will give you a good estimate of the ounces of water you should be taking in daily but the old 8x8 rule is a decent starting point. The idea is, though, to be cognizant of your water intake and try to increase it, not to overthink it. Not to mention the difference in how I feel when I swap out those dreadful Diet Cokes for San Pellegrino!

• Recommit to Exercise -- Where have I heard that one before? Maybe around this time of year for the last ten years? Last year I had a really steady exercise program which was based around running that held up for about eight months. This year I want it to hold up for twelve. I can't stress enough how much of a difference I felt when I was working out regularly -- and not just physically. There was a definite difference in my attitude and energy levels and I was sleeping really, really well. Lucky for me, we're starting a Get Fit program at work tomorrow and it's going to be competitive -- motivation, anyone?

Nikon COOLPIX S3500

• Take More Pictures -- Another year has gone by where I felt like I didn't do enough to capture the moment. While my smartphone is equipped with a decent enough camera I feel like investing in a digital camera might be worthwhile and helpful in sticking to this resolution. The model I'm currently looking at is pictured above -- any suggestions or comments?

• Stay Organized -- I think I may have touched on this briefly in my last post but organization is something I really enjoy. I tend to get discouraged in my organization if everything isn't perfect (there's irony in there somewhere...), but hopefully my new Lilly planner will help me stay on track. It's a really neat addition to the plethora of organizational material I already own. I've compared it recently to the Vera Bradley student agenda and I'll be comparing it soon to the adorable Simplified Planner by Emily Ley. The Vera agenda was absolutely darling in a lot of different ways; it came with several pages dedicated to schedules for various semesters (which Lilly's did not), was dotted throughout the months with special days (like Sea Monkey Day!!), and came with a page for notes after each month. They both came with cute sticker sets and are laid out in a monthly/weekly fashion. Vera's color palette was a tad bit disappointing in that while you could choose the color pattern of the cover, the inside pages were laid out in a collection of three of their signature patterns, which may bother you if you're not a fan of one or the other. I think, however, what set Lilly aside for me was the quality hardcover, lined weekdays, and simply wonderful illustrations that heralded each month.

Those are just a few of the personal resolutions that I made for this new year and I hope that by the time that 2015 rolls around I can say that I stuck to them all and made a real effort into becoming a happier, healthier person.

And on that note, I am going to go play a video game.

xxo

Greetings, 2014

Last night I decided that 2014 would be a different sort of year for me. It started off with the new Lilly Pulitzer planner I bought to aid me in those resolutions and whatnot. I filled in light notes here and there, like:

• Assess your finances!
• Get up and run M-W-F
• Focus on organization
• Start a blog!

Etc. So promising.

Today, my planner said that I was going to get up decently early and run before taking down the fire hazard that is my dead Christmas tree. I did wake up early. Roughly 3:00 AM, I believe, to the sensation that I had somehow swallowed a pine cone in my sleep in a slow and painful fashion. At 8:30 AM, when I awoke again, my throat was no better. So I am writing this while wrapped in three blankets like some sort of human burrito, squinting blearily at the computer screen and vaguely wondering what this will mean for the newly birthed year.

Probably nothing. I don't set much by superstition.

Even sick and bedridden by my melodrama and Nyquil cocktail I haven't given up so thoroughly as to not start this blog. I'm not sure what it will be, or even what I intend for it to be. I like to talk and elaborate on my interests. I like to become enamored with so many terribly odd things and share them with the world. I'd also like to have things shared with me. If I had to assign a purpose to this blog forcibly I would say that it's to assimilate lots of things I enjoy, namely the cute, the pink, and the geek.

So let me share real quick.


Two things I think will help me start off in a good direction this year:





Poppin Monogrammed Notebook






You Need A Budget (YNAB)





 

Let's start off with the Poppin Notebook. Do you see the snazzy little monogram? In silver? And pink? Poppin offers other notebook colors with corresponding monogram colors and they all look fairly adorable. The site itself is worth a look, especially if you're an office supplies person like myself. Organization is something that I struggle with often enough -- I am either organized to a fault or vastly unprepared and vacillating like that isn't really healthy or helpful. Something as simple as a cute, elegant notebook and lots of accessories can help make a difference. Or, well, at least I think.

The last item here has a bit more practicality. You Need a Budget 4, or YNAB, is a piece of personal finance software that I grabbed from Steam for around 75% off today. It's a nice budgeting application that lets you track multiple accounts, make transfers, budget money, and track goals. It keeps spending flexible and more importantly gives you a more palpable representation of your money. Their philosophy of giving every dollar a job makes the application feel more like a simulation game than an actual integral management software. Or...that may just be me. Probably just me. I like games. :)

So here's to a new year, some new goals, and maybe some new templates for this blog instead of this garish Victoria's Secret formation once I actually can figure out a nice way to fix it.