International Students vs us – two different worlds

One day I was lying in bed with my toddler and I remember those good old days in college. I remember I used to work part-time and went to school full-time. I had no time for dating. Then there were students who always have so much time for fun and didn’t have to work.

Those were students that came from family that give them everything. They didn’t have to work part-time like I did. They always seem to have so much fun. They shop and dressed nice. They date and always have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Oh those good old days!

They were international students whom have parents own hotels or businesses overseas and wrote them checks to pay for their rent, school, food and clothing. And on spring break or summer vacation, they always have plans to go somewhere.

Boy, what a different world we lived in.

So my friend and I was talking one day over the phone about one of her co-worker or ex-co-worker who didn’t have to worry about how much rent they are paying because her parents bought a place for her. My friend and I just working to make ends meet.

What a different world we live in.

After realizing we are living in two different worlds, we both sighed and move on with life!

Balancing Life Update

Back on 2/5/2010, I posted on my blog about balancing life and with 10 different categories which I took note of from the body and soul magazine. I haven’t really practice it until I notice tax date is due and a quarter of the year is gone and my life is not balance.

Everyday I wake up and seems to run around doing everyday chore feeding baby, entertain baby, cooking, cleaning, food shopping, pediatrician, paying bills, more feeding, cooking, food shopping etc…

So I decided to check off the month (rather weekly) of April for the 10 categories that is listed on balancing life. So far, I have done 8 out of the 10 categories and leaving community, dreams and goals not done anything at all. And this makes it clear that I am not living my life by my values.

There are a few very important items on my to-do list (in spreadsheet as I mentioned on my 8/30/2009) that have been lingering for the longest time. I have been ignoring them because I have been putting a lot of time into my everyday chores. Since checking off the categories on balancing life, I started taking action on those items. I do my everyday chores but I make sure I get started on those important to-do items. I finished one of them yesterday in one day. I started another one today but I got stuck. I am intent to finish this within the next 2 weeks.

This seems to work for me. Do my everyday chores; get started on a very important to-do item each day. And if I can’t finish it, I make sure I finish it within a time frame before going to the next one. I make sure I don’t start too many projects/to-do items. Otherwise, time and energy is wasted and nothing gets done.

Tax Date

Have your done your personal income tax yet? It’s due today. Your tax return must be postmarked by midnight today.

Have you heard of the term “tax freedom date”? If not, it was April 9 this year. You should check it out online and educate yourself.

Clutter and Depression

Recently I’ve been feeling depressed. I notice part of it is because of the clutter from incoming mails. I found myself doing too much with the incoming mails – especially the bills…I pay them, sort them, scan them, file them and then shred them and only keep the last three months in filing cabinet. All in all it’s a lot of steps. When I was ready to shred them, I have to take time to go to the filing cabinet to pull them out for shredding.

My husband and I finally come to an agreement to just keep important documents such as tax returns, insurance documents (life, auto, disability) and only keep the most recent bills that come in in one folder. So when bills arrive, I would pay them, scan them and then shred the previous month and only keep the current bill (in case we need the information when our computer is down or power is out). All of this saves me a lot of time looking into the filing cabinet and only keep the last 3 months of bills.

It’s been a little over a month and it is working very well.

Recipes

I have been collecting recipes from TV shows, magazines, books and newspaper. The recipe binder is getting dense. However, I have not been able to try any of the recipes that I have collected. Here I am struggling with the role of being a mother, wife, and a homemaker. I can’t cook one thing well from all of the recipes that I have collected.

One day, I remember the quote “a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. So I decided to just try 1 or 2 recipes and make sure I know them well and cook them without looking at the recipe (able to recite the ingredients). Almost every cook has a favorite dish or a specialty…and so I should have one to call it my own as well. This mentality began my cooking journey.

One of my husband’s favorite food is pizza and one of mine is noodle soup. So, it was no-brainer to start with those two recipes. I have not collected them from tv shows, magazines, books or newspaper so I went to youtube.com and found them.

I got to learn to make dough from scratch and make with wheat flour and put our favorite toppings. I even made pizza sauce from scratch which is something I normally buy in the supermarket for my pasta.

In my chicken noodle soup, the flavor was wonderful but I added vegetables to make it even tastier the second time around.

Overall, I tried the two recipes twice so far and my second time was better than my first. There is still room for improvements. And we are having these two dishes every weekend. I make sure I have the ingredients at home for these two dishes before the weekend comes. My husband loves the virtue that I am creating.

When I perfect these two recipes to my liking, I will add on 1 or 2 more recipes to my brain. In the mean time, I have two other dishes that I have been making for my husband for lunch (to take to work) and our dinner.

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.