Jana Says

Friday Favorites, volume 2

May 9, 2014 by Jana 9 Comments

I love the idea for this linkup. Sharing my favorite things and finding out what others like is not only fun, but it’s a great way to learn about new stuff I need to try or buy. So when you’re done reading what I’m loving this week, share some of your favorite things in the comments or on Facebook.

My favorite stuff this week:

Favorite song: Let It Go. Nope, not the one from Frozen. I’m sick of that song. This one is by Cavo, is totally different than the Idina Menzel version (fun fact: she graduated from my high school about 7 years before I did), and was in one of the Transformer movies. Have a listen:

Favorite drink: Dogfish Head Tweasonale. It’s a gluten free, strawberry flavored beer and it is delicious. It doesn’t have that typical beer taste so if you’re not gluten free (like me) but don’t like the taste of beer, you should give it a try anyway. You won’t be able to stop drinking it. Which you probably should, though, because drink responsibly, friends.

Favorite procrastination technique: Napping. There is seriously nothing better than napping, particularly with a nice, soft polka dot blanket like the one that lives on my bed. It looks like this:

Favorite quick recipe: Crockpot BBQ Chicken. Here’s what you do:

Add roughly 3 chicken breasts, a bottle of your favorite flavor bbq sauce, some garlic powder, 1 tbsp brown sugar and a dash of red pepper flakes to a crockpot.
Cook for 4-6 hours on high (if breasts are frozen, can get away with 3 or so if thawed).
Shred chicken and eat.

Favorite day of the week: Thursday. I’m pretty sure this dates back to college and $.50 mug nights at the Stone Balloon (RIP) but for some reason, once I make it through Thursday, I feel like I’ve finished a marathon. I never feel more relaxed than I do on Thursday evenings after the child is in bed.

someecards.com - Thursday is Friday's hot older cousin.

Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend!

Hump Day Confessions: She’s got a lot of rage

May 7, 2014 by Jana 14 Comments

someecards.com - I don't have pet peeves, I have major psychotic fucking hatreds!

This is my first time participating in Kathy’s Humpday Confessions and I’m so excited because I’m using it as a chance to air a few grievances. So grab a drink, friends, because here we go:

I confess that people with bad grammar send me in to a blind rage. Seriously, it’s “our” not “are” and it’s “a lot” not “alot” and yes, the thing with the line and the dot is an exclamation point. It makes me sad that you don’t know that, it makes me sad that you choose to share your sheer ignorance and stupidity on Facebook, and I can’t help it that I see red every time you show up in my newsfeed which is perhaps why I no longer see what you have to say. G-d bless the “hide from timeline” feature. Am I ignoring you? Yes. Yes, I am. Because it’s better for humanity if I do that.

I confess that I become irrationally angry when someone says to me “I have something to tell you but you can’t tell anyone”. A) thanks for the trust and B) who am I going to tell? Do you really think I’m that gossipy? Also, I’ve probably forgotten what you’ve said 10 minutes after you told me. I’m getting old and my memory’s not that good and my brain is full of other information like “remember to pay the mortgage” and “feed the child today”. And just so we’re clear, if I do remember, I will tell my husband. Particularly if it’s something really, really good.
I confess that it makes me want to spit fire when someone who has never had kids dispenses parenting advice. Guess what? Babysitting is not the same as being a parent. Owning a dog is not the same as being a parent. Having a younger sibling is not the same as being a parent. You know how I know that? Because I’ve babysat, owned a dog, and have a sibling substantially younger than me. Absolutely none of that prepared me for being a mother. So unless you’ve been a parent, shut the fuck up and keep your advice to yourself. Or you will get face full of my fist. Metaphorically, of course. I’m not going to jail because you can’t shut your mouth.
While we’re talking about parenting, let’s address helicopter parents for a moment. I confess that want to body slam those assholes and while I have them pinned down, I want to shout loudly that hovering is not the same as advocating and you are doing absolutely nothing to help your child by smothering them, doing everything for them, and kissing ass with teachers and coaches to get your kids special favors. It’s one thing to be your kid’s champion and fight for them when they need it it. It’s another thing to swirl around every moment of their lives and never letting them do anything for themselves. They will not fall apart if they lose or get a bad grade on a test. I promise. Let them live and fail and win and make decisions and choices on their own.
I confess that sometimes I hate people so much that being a hermit sounds like a wonderful, viable option. Being a hermit means I don’t have to deal with entitled assholes on the road, in parking lots, in stores, at restaurants, or any other place where people might be. I can no longer hide my contempt for how rude and disgusting society has become. Manners are almost nonexistent, and forget about someone even extending common courtesy like saying “bless you” when you sneeze. It’s horrid and if the fact that I’m raising my child to be polite and have manners means I’m strict, then so be it. I can live with it. I’m not adding to the asshole parade if I can help it.

the+older+i+get+the+more+i+hate+people_c5476b_4118636

I confess that every time someone says “I forgot to eat today”, I want to take a sandwich and stuff it down their lying, underfed throat. You forget keys. You forget a birthday. You forget to call your grandmother. You do not forget to eat. And if you do, you’re fucking stupid. I am almost 37 years old. I have never once forgotten to eat. In fact, some days, I start thinking about lunch while I’m eating breakfast. Food is a basic necessity of life. You don’t “forget” it, asshole. We know you’re lying so just stop it. If you don’t want to eat, don’t. But don’t pretend like you forgot.
This is the last one and it’s a big one so I hope you’re sitting down and not too tired. I confess that the overuse of the word “Nazi” makes me spit nails, steam shoots out of my ears, and I go to red faster than Spaceball One goes to plaid. Let’s be clear–the Nazis were an army of murderous soldiers assembled by a psychopathic, homicidal dictator who committed genocide. When people flippantly attach the word “Nazi” to the end of something as trivial as “grammar” or “cleaning” or “homework” simply because a person happens to be a stickler about those things, it cheapens and demeans what happened to the Jews, Catholics, gays, and everyone else Hitler decided he didn’t like. Wanting a clean house or for people to use proper grammar does not make one a Nazi. Killing people for how they were born or what religion they practice does. It’s an extremely powerful and emotional word, and it should be because as long as that word stays in our lexicon, people will be forced to acknowledge that the Nazis did (and still do) exist. By using it in a cavalier manner, it strips away its power. And I don’t think we’re ready for that yet. Or maybe ever.

So there you have it. Just a few things that make me angry. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest (and I have a pretty big chest which explains why this was so much). Next time, we’ll talk about what makes me irrationally happy. Because it’s all about balance.

What about you? What makes you so angry you want to punch a baby dolphin?

Linking up with Kathy from Vodka and Soda

End of (wallet) watch

May 6, 2014 by Jana 8 Comments

It’s over. I did it. I survived.

Throughout the month of April, I participated in the Wallet Watch challenge. It was essentially a make your own rules no spend challenge but rather than a strict “no spend” rule, you could allow for certain purchases. Because I cheat at my own rules, I had to be strict with myself and set up parameters that I had to follow. Giving myself leeway is a gateway down the spending rabbit hole which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the challenge.

I set up 6 rules for myself that allowed for savings and spending on certain items but also made sure I paid attention to where my money was going.

Rule #1: Use coupons

I don’t really know how to analyze this one. I don’t really actively look for grocery coupons because I’m lazy but if they happen to fall in my lap, I use them. Throughout April, I don’t think I used any grocery coupons but I did use a whole bunch of Redbox codes and returned the movies on time to avoid paying for more than one day (we’ll talk about this rule, avoid stupid tax, next). We also had (and used) a coupon for a breakfast item at Chick Fil A, I found a LivingSocial deal for entry into Run or Dye, and I used my Walgreen’s discount card to save on a few things we needed.

Rule #2: No stupid tax

Stupid tax is basically the money you pay for being lazy. Library fines, late charges on bills, overdraft fees, stuff like that. I did incur a $.20 charge for my daughter’s library books but other than that, no stupid tax for the entire month. This was miraculous, particularly as the Redbox policy is confusing and I’m bad about returning movies and I almost always pay for an extra day when I don’t mean to.

Rule #3: No frivolous purchases without gift cards

I bought nothing extra during the entire month. Not a nail polish bottle, Starbucks drink, or song from iTunes. In fact, I suffered from gift card paralysis where I have them but am so afraid what I buy with them is going to suck so hard I can’t bring myself to buy anything and I put the cards away. Oh, wait. I lied. I bought one thing but it’s health related so it doesn’t count. I purchased a Couch 2 5K training app for my iPhone. Best money I spent all month, though.

Rule #4: No more craft supplies

I bought crochet hooks for $4. I figured the embarrassment I suffered at buying cat food, crochet hooks, and picking up my reading glasses all in 24 hours thereby making me question how old I actually am made up for breaking this rule.

Rule #5: Keep to my grocery budget

I don’t know if I did this or not. I’ve been pretty good about staying on a budget but honestly, I lost track. I need to start paying in cash for groceries again because using the debit card makes it too difficult to track. I did spend 3 hours on Sunday doing a ton of food prep in an attempt to keep things under control so we’ll see how it goes this month.

Rule #6: Keep up savings challenge

You might have seen the 52 week savings challenge floating around Pinterest. Basically, you put aside a certain amount of money each week and by the end of the year you’ll have either around $344 or $1100, depending on which one you do. We’re doing the smaller one and as of yesterday’s count, we are completely up to date and on pace to save $344 as a family for the year. It’s not much but it’ll certainly help towards our goal of getting back to Disney World!

What else? Well, I also wound up saving us money by: putting my gym membership on hold (saves both on the membership fee and the gas getting back and forth); registering the child for her football season cheerleading early, earning us a discount; celebrating our 10 year anniversary entirely with gifted money and free activities; and shopping for clothes with gift cards (clothes are not frivolous to me because I go shopping almost never so they’re a separate category).

I’m so glad I opted to participate in this challenge. It made me much more aware of where my money’s going which I really, really needed. I’m hoping to continue this mindfulness.

And now, a collage of shit I want to buy but don’t but might now that I’ve saved money:

Did you participate in the Wallet Watch or regularly do something like this? How does it work for you?

It’s goal time!

May 5, 2014 by Jana 11 Comments

Last month, I decided I would publicly announce some of my monthly goals as a way to hold myself accountable and increase my productivity (as long as it doesn’t interfere with my obsessive RubbiKub playing, of course). It worked too, because I actually finished 4 of the 5 goals I set. We’ll discuss the shame of the 5th as well.

As stating my goals wound up being a good thing for me, I’m trying it again for May. You’ll be able to find those underneath the April recap.

Let’s get to it:

April goal #1: Wallet Watch challenge with Life According to Steph and Luck Fupus. Done! I did well with that, and I’ll share all the hairy details tomorrow in its own post. Let’s just say for now that it felt good to be mindful of my money again and it’s something I really, really needed.

April goal #2: Crochet a potholder. I can’t even begin to describe the nightmare that crocheting is becoming. I have spent hours–literally–watching YouTube videos and practicing rows and stitches and each time, it just gets worse. I thought it was because I had the wrong size crochet hook so I went and bought the size recommended for when you’re beginning and it didn’t help. At all. Because apparently there comes a point when you have to turn the project and I don’t understand that concept. So I get lost after that. I’m beginning to think this is a hopeless endeavor. But I’m not quitting just yet. I’m seeing my mom this weekend and I’m forcing her to help me. If that in person tutorial doesn’t work, we might have to call it on me learning to crochet. For those who are curious, this is what I was able to do:

April goal #3: Make homemade butter. Done! I even wrote a post about it which you should check out in case you missed it. We’ve been using that butter and my daughter even said that she likes it better than the store bought stuff. Have I mentioned how much I love her?

April goal #4: Work on my business. I’m getting there. I spoke extensively with my mastermind group about some strategies for reorganizing some of the aspects of it, including offering more free stuff. I’ve been hard at work putting that together and can’t wait to make the announcement about it. I also realized at what point I’m okay with walking away from the business. That was a huge revelation and I feel much better.

April goal #5: Garden. Also done! I wrote about this one, too, and I’ve even taken a more active role in tending to it. And when I say active, I really mean “pointing out to my husband and daughter what needs to be done and also thankfully there’s been a lot of rain so I didn’t have to water any plants when my husband was away last week and also laughing when the cat thinks the garden is a litter box”.

I’m pleased with how I did on my goals in April. In fact, I felt like this on the last day of the month:

I’m pretty sure I can keep that momentum going for my May goals:

Mentoring stuff. Continue to work on my business, including launching the free content and tweaking the site.
Actually crochet a damn potholder. I don’t care if it’s for an EZ Bake Oven, I’m finishing one. Yarn will not defeat me.
Start brewing beer. In my pioneer project bible, The Modern-Day Pioneer, the author gives a recipe for making your own beer. If the pioneers can do it, I can at least attempt. Hopefully the beer will taste good and not like crap. If not, I’ll just drink my new love, Tweasonale, instead.
Finish a writing project. I have something planned for Townhouse Pioneer readers and it’s been sitting in draft form for about a month. I want to get it written and available for you to read, too. It’ll change your life. Or at least give you something good to read in the bathroom.
Sew a pillowcase. I came across a tutorial for sewing pillowcases and I can totally do this. I also found the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge and want to participate (inspired in part by Kerry’s Be The Change Challenge) and want to donate a few towards this so I definitely need to get practicing.

Bonus goal: Keep working on my 5K training. I loathe running. I really do. But I loathe wasting time and money even more, which is why I put my gym membership on hold for a few months (my gym is 30 minutes from my house without traffic. It’s exhausting). I decided that running is free (mostly) and I would give it a try because exercising keeps my issues at bay. My husband and I want to run the Run or Dye 5K in July at the Dover Speedway so my fat ass needs to be in some sort of training for that. I downloaded an app to help so I don’t even need to figure out how to train.

Do you set monthly goals? What are some of yours?

Little House Book Club: Little House in the Big Woods

April 30, 2014 by Jana 4 Comments

I’m so excited to bring you the inaugural post in the Little House book club series! Every month, on the last day of the month, we’ll discuss a book from the Little House on the Prairie series both on the blog and on Facebook. I hope that, even if you missed this month, you’ll join us for the next one!

Confession: I have never once, not ever been a part of a book club. This is a completely new experience for me so please bear with me as I muddle through this discussion of the first book in the Little House series, Little House in the Big Woods.

I’m not really sure where to start. For those who haven’t read the book, it essentially covers the Ingalls family during their time in the Big Woods (as they call it) in Wisconsin. The 5 of them–Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, and Baby Carrie–live, as you would expect, in a small cabin in the middle of the woods. For income, Pa traps furs and raises wheat. They have cows for milk, pigs for bacon and salt pork (a favorite of theirs), Pa hunts and fishes (but not in the spring and summer. His ethics, rather than the need to provide his family with fresh meat, kick in during those seasons), a garden, and pretty much everything a pioneer could ask for, including family and friends nearby. They work hard in the summer, spend quality time together as a family in the winter, and are generally happy.

Things are good for the Ingalls.

Throughout the book, Laura describes in sometimes painstaking detail (no joke. It’s painful and tedious to read at times), what it was like to be a pioneer during her childhood. Particularly as it relates to food. Laura spends an awful lot of time talking about food. How it’s killed, prepared, what they eat and when, how it tastes, and how it’s stored. There’s one part in the book where she talks about how there’s meat and dried fruits and vegetables hanging in the attic where she as Mary played. Literally. They played among deer carcasses and used pumpkins as chairs and tables. And I could not get that scene from Rocky out of my head and also, it’s just weird. I like to think that maybe there were some creative liberties taken with that part of the book but honestly, I don’t know. It was kind of interesting, though, and demonstrated that they really did use what they had on hand for everything possible. Talk about making do.

Another part of the book that I enjoyed were the stories Laura told about spending time with their friends and family. It must have been fun to go to a gathering back then and actually interacted with people, rather than everyone sitting around on their phones. They talked, danced, ate, played, and took turns hosting. Hospitality was something to be enjoyed rather than a big nuisance. It made their pioneer life seem full and fun, rather than lonely and miserable. But what it also highlighted, at least when they were getting ready for that sugar dance/party, is that even back then, they still cared, maybe more than they should, about their appearances. It was hard not to notice a) that Laura gave almost no detail regarding what Pa or the other men wore and b) that she made it a point to discuss the fact that the ladies wanted to have small waists tucked inside their fancy dresses. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that they cared how they looked when they were going to be in public but it’s interesting just how little has changed for women in that respect.

Just something to think about.

Three other parts of the book I enjoyed:

One, I liked how they pooled resources and labor with neighbors to work efficiently. Everyone got something out of it, and it made the work more efficient. They realized that if they worked together, they could get more accomplished and there was an understanding that helping was just something you did. You helped and got help in return. I think that’s something we can all do a little more of, realizing that not everything is a competition and we can be more successful if we work together.
The tone of optimism. Throughout the book, even when Laura was getting reprimanded or a family member was stung by bees from head to toe (anyone else think of My Girl when they read that?) or there were wolves, nothing ever seemed that bad. There was hope that it would all work out and that everything copacetic. They were snug and cozy (two words I have grown to loathe as a result of this book). They wanted for nothing. Which makes it kind of hard to figure out why exactly they left and, having read the rest of the books in the series, makes me realize they spent their time after they left the Big Woods trying to recapture everything they had while they were there. Makes you realize that honestly, the grass isn’t always greener.
When Laura slapped Mary across the face for picking on her for having brown hair. Nothing is wrong with brown hair, bitch, and you got what you deserved.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what I couldn’t stand about this book. Just a few quick items other than the ones I’ve mentioned (the overuse of the words “snug” and “cozy”, and the sometimes extraordinary detail Laura used to describe some of the most mundane things):

Pa. I’m going to say it. I don’t particularly care for Pa. I think he’s kind of an ass and his stories bugged me to no end. I thought they were mostly hyperbole and while I understand why she included them in the book, they kind of disrupted the flow of the main story for me. I also understand that Laura admires and respects her father, which is a good thing, but looking at things as an outsider, she seems to have put him on a pedestal that maybe he didn’t deserve. This opinion might also be influenced by having read the other books.
Using the cow organs as toys. I get not wanting to waste anything but that just made me sick.

Overall, I liked the book. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into their daily lives and their family dynamic. I also enjoy the fact that I can read this book with my 7 year old and we both get something out of it. Like the idea to make homemade butter.

Did you read the book? If you did an you posted about it, share your post below (and make sure to grab your official Little House Book Club Member badge from the sidebar):

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