In which I try to get my shit together so I can be healthy and organized all week. :-)

So, I did absolutely nothing yesterday. It was glorious. I had this plan that I should not wear pants all day because pants are evil and should not be worn! I made it until about 7pm and then I had to put on pants and go out because I promised some people I'd see a show with them. So. Close.

Today I have a goal of making lunch for the week like I did two weeks ago. It was great. I may just make the same thing. I had delicious lunch every day that I didn't have to think about and that I actually wanted to eat. It was healthy and clean and gluten and dairy free, even! My tummy was very thankful. I've already made some lemon blueberry muffins. I yoinked the recipe from Gimme Some Oven. I like this lady a lot. You should check her out. She also has a blog about being single over 30. Since I am, I'm really into it. If that kind of thing interests you, you should check her out. Here's the recipe. I omitted the streusel topping. The lunches I made the other week were a mexican bowl with rice, black beans, ground turkey, roasted tomatoes, onions, and spices. They were REALLY good. I didn't really follow a recipe or anything, I just cooked it all up, layered it in a bowl and brought them for lunch.

I have another goal of reading a bunch of The Mist-Filled Path by Frank MacEowen. I keep meaning to develop my spiritual self and getting distracted by the day to day mundane things. I feel as though I'd be able to handle the garbage that gets thrown at me daily at work if I had a little bit more going on at my core. I need to work on my zen. As I've mentioned before, I feel a calling to Earth religions, specifically Paganism. This particular book has been tugging at the back of my brain for awhile and I think it will be really useful in putting me back in touch with the earth.

And yet a third goal of REALLY working out on a regular basis. The fitness center at work is doing a promotion for the month of May in which for a one time added fee of $40 you can get a once weekly appointment with a trainer and a plan for the month on really getting yourself into shape. I feel like the only way I'll stick to a work out plan is if someone is waiting for me. So...I made an appointment with a fellow for Wednesday of next week. Hopefully I'll get somewhere with that and can update y'all on my progress instead of making one or two posts about it and then ditching the routine as I so often have done in the past. I have floppy chicken wing arms and I hate them.

I have this dream that one day I'll be "Together" Jill. I'll work out regularly, I'll eat only healthy foods, I'll have an immaculate home, I'll bake regularly, get A's in all my classes and be a super star at work. Does anyone actually ever do all these things? I mean, without adderall?

I've also quit all the subscription boxes (except for Julep because they allow me to skip), so do not expect any more of those posts. I have gotten some GREAT deals on things, but that shit is totally addicting and all my extra cash was getting absorbed by boxes. I think you also get to a point where you just don't need anymore beauty products for awhile. I have enough serums and lotions now to last me a few years. I WILL post product reviews if I really like or hate something, though. I have tried a lot of them out, so if you also wanted to ask me what I thought of any of them I'd be happy to elaborate on that as well.

Alrighty, I have to go. I need to make a trip to Target and my bed is soooo comfortable I know that if I don't yoink myself out of it, I'll be here all day.

I hope everyone has an amazing week!

XOXO
~J

In which I try to do something good.

Several weeks back a friend on Google Plus reposted a post by a fellow who needed a kidney. We had the same blood type. I realized that I was a good candidate for donation. No diseases, no infections, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, healthy BMI, two excellent kidneys. So, I sent in the preliminary information and heard nothing for weeks. I dismissed it. I thought perhaps he no longer needed one for whatever reason.

Today I got another email asking me if I was available to go to Tufts on May 14 to meet the surgeons and get the necessary blood work. I'm unavailable that day, but I took my Birthday off of work (The 20th) and can go to Boston on that day. So, it's a date.

The feelings that came over me after I confirmed the meeting were...overwhelming. I instantly felt some regret and a little voice inside me started screaming "Back out, back out, back out!!!!", but then the more rational side of me keeps thinking "If it were me, I would want someone to come forward and help me". I know what this entails. They give you all the information up front and my Uncle donated a kidney, so I have first hand knowledge of the donation and the recovery process. It would mean six weeks out of work (which, although not a reason to donate a kidney, is a real upside of the whole process at this point). I just keep seeing this guy's face and the faces of his kids and thinking, what if I'm his person? I'm scared. I'm scared to be his person. I can't cancel the appointment now because I'd never forgive myself. It's such an enormous undertaking. I hope I'm ready for this. I can honestly say that all these feelings are completely new to me. I can't ever recall a time in my life in which I felt so conflicted. I suppose I won't know until I get this blood drawn and find out if I'm a tissue match. I suppose it's no good worrying about it until then...

Things I cooked today. Yum.

Hey kids. I've been a smidgen absentee. We changed to a new computer system at work and it's been beyond awful. Try to picture the worst possible go-live you can think of and that's what its been. I volunteered to work for overtime monies yesterday and I sincerely wish I hadn't. Ugh. I also found out I was going to have to switch schools again. Joy of Joys. So, I've been a little fried as of late.

I did manage to pull it together today long enough to make lunches for the week, homemade lemonade, lemon bread and beer bread. I even cleaned up after myself. Don't pass out or anything. I wanted to share the recipes with you. I found a recipe on The Spark for mexican rice and bean bowls, that I altered somewhat. Basically, I rinsed two cans of black beans and cooked up some brown rice. Then I diced a small onion and sauteed it in olive oil for 5 minutes or so. I added minced garlic for the last two. Then I threw in some ground turkey and seasoned it with Penzey's taco spice. When the turkey was cooked, I threw in a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and cooked that until the liquid reduced to about half as much. Then you just layer rice, beans and meat in a little travel bowl to bring to work. I topped it with plain greek yogurt. It's pretty damn tasty, and paleo, and gluten free and clean and all that healthy stuff. One Perfect Bite provided the beer bread recipe, which was easy and SO GOOD. All crusty on the outside and soft and chewy inside. The beer I used was a bottle of Ten Penny Ale. The lemon bread recipe came from On Sutton Place. It was so good and super easy too. I didn't bother with the lemon extract. I just added a bit more zest. I'm sure you could de-glutenify these recipes if you got creative.

I ran out of energy. More later. I finally got the Popsugar Resort Box. It was kind of a let down. :-/

General Goings on

Ugh, so I haven't posted in a bit because of several reasons, one being that I got strep throat and was non-functional for several days. The second being that we launched a new computer system at work and it is mostly broken and terrible. Considering I work at a hospital, this is bad. It's taking forever to do anything because everything is a total shit show of terribleness. So, when I get out of work I mostly feel like alcohol and sleeping. And then finally, school. Grrrr....The University of Hartford doesn't believe that adult people should be able to hold down jobs and attend college, so they offer classes at asinine times in the middle of the day, several days a week, so you couldn't possibly work 8 straight hours at any job. They also don't return your emails about options or registration no matter how many times you attempt to contact your advisor. It just so happens that the college I was previously attending reopened their Respiratory Therapy program, so I made contact with them and will be returning there in the fall. They actually understand that people have to work and attend school at the same time, so they offer classes in the evenings. So, all that has gone down in the last two weeks along with all the schoolwork I have for the classes I'm currently enrolled in. To say I am a crispy burnt piece of toast would be an understatement.

For those of you that were reading this blog because of box reviews, I have some bad news. I have considerably cut back on the boxes I subscribed to because I'm trying to save money for my Ireland trip at the end of the summer. I quit Stitch Fix and I quit Birchbox and pretty much everything else. Not Julep because I signed up early enough to keep the skip option and I wouldn't want to lose that. I already paid $30 for 6 months of Bulu box, so there'll be 5 more of those. There are still some orders I made months ago trickling in, including the Popsugar Resort box, which I am REALLY excited for. I just checked out some spoilers and it looks to be SUPER AH-MAZING!!! I'll need all that stuff for my upcoming travels this summer, so it's totally worth it ;-). I *did* get a 50% off coupon for the April Popsugar box, so I grabbed that even though I had previously cancelled my account. $19.97 is a great deal for all that stuff. Can you argue with a 90% discount? I can't.

I'm home in MA visiting my homies this weekend, spending time with my favorite 4 year old and generally trying to catch up on school work in between visits. I should shower before it's time to go do things in public. I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do much, but somehow I seem to have written this. So there. Accomplishment. Bam.