Playing the roles of a mother, wife and a homemaker

My parents used to work late till 7pm. They got home around 8pm and then they would start cooking for dinner for all (5) of us. We always have late dinners and after we eat, we stay up a little while and off to bed.

I don’t know how my mother used to do it. She worked 6 (sometimes 7) days a week and when she got home she still had to prepare food for us. I got spoiled that’s why I never learned to cook on my own.

Now that I have my own family, I am not working but I am not able to do half of what she used to do.

Right now, I stay home full time with my 1 year old toddler, I can’t seem to manage to take care of a toddler and cook some decent food for us (and maybe lunch for my husband to take to work).

An update on our usage of cloth napkins

It’s probably been a few weeks since we turn to use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. It has been working wonderfully. In the beginning, I washed them every meal but later I notice that sometimes we hardly use the napkin so we reuse for another meal before washing. It sounds gross but it’s not. Remember cloth napkins are generally 20x20 inches and they are fold up when we use them. If I wipe my month on just one of the many folds and it’s not dirty or greasy, it’s pointless to wash it.

I haven’t asked if my husband likes it better but he notice we are not using much of the paper napkin that we have. It is a wonderful change for the better.

Low budget napkins - going green

I’ve been reading 2 magazines and how they say to go green as much as you can in your own home.

We have decided to buy 100% cotton table napkins for us (when we have guests come over, we’ll use paper napkins/tissues).

Normally, we buy a whole pack of short size 3000 1-ply Kimberly-Clark dispenser napkins from Costco that costs $12.69. I have no idea of how long that lasts us (probably 2 packs per year) but we do use a lot of napkins.

We purchased 6 cotton table napkins (they cost $1.99 each at Century 21 department store – after checking all other napkins online and in this department store, this one seem to be thin (easy to dry), reasonably price and I prefer cotton over polyester) so that my husband and I can test them out and we intend to wash them after each meal. They are thin cotton napkins and they take about 2 hours to dry. It works pretty well so far. We will try for a week or two and if they are working well, we will get a few more napkins just in case we get too busy and unable to wash them right after dinner (after all dishes are done).

The Bachelor Show

I’ve been watch the bachelor show since the season where that guy didn’t pick anyone at the end. That was probably 2 years ago or so?

Whether the people go on the show for fame, for love or for both, they are exposing themselves to the world…hoping one way or the other can find some kind of fame or love.

This season, the bad experience these women experienced reminds me of those good old dating days. Only afterwards, one will learn if someone smells like someone they used to date, RUN!!! Don’t waste anytime and energy. Most of the time, when you are in the situation, you don’t see it and you hope that things will change if you give it a little more time. And then more time was given and nothing changed. Then you realized “oh my godsh, what am I doing? I need to snap out of it and get on with my life even though this is going to hurt really bad.”

Balancing Life

I come across an article (from the Martha Stewart's body+soul magazine Feb 2010) on balancing one’s life by writing down the categories and then check them on a weekly basis so that at the end of the year you wouldn’t wonder what have happened to you…that you didn’t spend anytime building your relationship with your friends or extended families etc…

Here are the categories one reader listed.

Exercise & nutrition:
Spouse & child(ren):
extended family:
friends:
community:
career:
dreams & goals:
home organization:
Learning:
exploring:

I also particularly like what a few other readers write:

A. instead of crashing in on Friday night, do all chores like laundry, food shopping and organizing so that you have the entire 2 days of the weekend to do what you please to do. I might do this once in a while and not every weekend.

B. take a day in the middle of the week off or take a long weekend once in a while to spend time with family or to catch up with other things in your life. I particularly like to take Wednesdays off so that I get a break in the middle of the week.

C. Learn to say no to plans that other people have.

New Year Resolutions

Another year is coming to an end, it’s time to look at my New Year resolutions list (in excel) and see what I have accomplished and if I have accomplish anything at all. This has been a habit of mine for the past few years. A few days before the New Year, I write down what I would like to accomplish for the New Year in spreadsheet and then work on it.

It looks like I have accomplished one of the six New Year resolutions for the year of 2009. As I recall, the more effective way of getting your new year resolution accomplish is to see the goals each and everyday so that you are not side track.

Looking back at my daily to do list, I have been spending a lot of time doing everyday stuff like cooking, cleaning/organizing, food shopping, food preparations, baby sitting, bill paying, and more bill paying.

For the New Year, I will look at my goals everyday so that I am on track of it. When I don’t keep track of my New Year resolutions, the everyday stuff gets done first because they have to be taken care of. I probably have to sleep a little less...maybe get up a little bit earlier or go to bed a little later to get some of things done so that I can accomplish my goals.

Wish you have a better year in 2010 than in 2009!

The costs and benefits of not owning a car

When I decided to give up my car, I know I was ready to give up

The bad things:
1) paying auto insurance
2) paying for tickets (parking mostly)
3) paying for high gas prices
4) giving up on having to move my car every other day because of alternate side street cleaning rules
5) most of all avoid people asking for favorites just because I have a car in the city where it’s consider a luxury if you own a car.
6) Paying for damages to the car because people break into my car
7) Find parking space


The Good things:
1) Giving up on how much time I can save by driving to a certain place vs taking pubic
transportation and wait for it’s schedule.
2) In case of emergency, I can use my car
3) Have a car to buy bulky heavy stuff
4) Don’t have to ask other car owner for favors
5) Lower my daily expenses
6) I don’t have to plow my car out of the snow storm like what we have today

I think one of the health benefits of giving up my car is to walk everywhere I need to go – that is my exercise.