Productive Like A Rock Star!

I'm rocking this week so far! Seriously. I've been super productive every single day. The key to my success has been making and sticking to my TO-DO lists! Every night before bed I write out my list for the next day in my journal - I put it in my journal so that I'll have more accountability. If my posterity sees that I failed at my to-do list every day, how embarrassed I will be! In order to help maintain productivity and make sure I get everything done in a week that I want to, I made lists of chores and hobbies that I will work on each day of the week! Would you like to see them?

Monday
Hobby: Crochet, Family Blog, Study German
Clean: Kitchen, Bedrooms, Main Floor Halls, and Entryway

Tuesday
Hobby: Piano, Personal Blog, Sketch
Clean: Bathrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Great Room

Wednesday
Hobby: Crochet, Writing, Study German
Clean: Kitchen, Bedrooms, All Halls and Stairs

Thursday
Hobby: Piano, Sewing, Sketch
Clean: Bathrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Office

Friday
Hobby: Crochet, Personal Blog, Study German
Clean: Kitchen, Bedrooms, Great Room, Main Floor Halls

Saturday
Hobby: Piano, Sewing, Sketch
Clean: Bathrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Sewing Room, Gym

Sunday
Hobby: Crochet

So far, it's working out great! Of course, it will need to be updated from time to time, but since I've only been doing it for like a week, it's too early to tell what will need to be changed yet. Today I have hardly any cleaning to do because I just cleaned everything so recently - that's the plan, though! If I can stick to the schedule, then *theoretically* I shouldn't have to spend 3 hours cleaning my bedroom ever again! It'd be like a dream come true! Today I haven't practiced German, written anything, or got out my crocheting...and (obviously) I'm a day late with my blog. But at least my cleaning is on track, right?? And I have German class tonight anyway, so I'll be forced to practice! HA~!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of things I cook lately, but here are a couple of things.

Flounder in Lemon Butter Sauce

I got the recipe from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking! The fish totally fell apart in the frying pan and I have no idea why. I think that I'm just not that good at cooking fish - but I will improve! The sauce was really good, but I accidentally put too much lemon juice in it, so it was a little strong. My husband liked it that way, though, so it's all good! The sauce (which was the only thing I used a recipe for) was just butter, chicken stock, lemon juice, and a little flour. Very basic.

Herb Rubbed Pork

I got the recipe for this rub from, you guessed it, Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking! I really should branch out, huh? Anyway, it was just a mix of herbs and spices rubbed onto the pork - then I covered the pork and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 min. Then I put tin foil over a rack in my oven (since I don't have a roasting pan) and cooked it for about 30 min. I served it with my favorite side dish to make, garlic mashed potatoes! YUM! The pork came out really juicy and yummy!

As you may have noticed from my lists up there, on Tuesdays (and Thursdays) I have to sketch! I decided to add that because I just never draw anything anymore. I used to draw ALL the time! I was very active on DeviantArt and it was fun. For years I've just ignored that site and didn't draw anything. So yesterday I sat down and sketched something! It felt GREAT!! I'm really excited to keep sketching in the future - I really forgot how much fun it was. Here's the picture I drew:

It's a lovely Lolita! I decided to just pick a model out of one of my Gothic and Lolita Bibles (Volume 21) and try to sketch her. I ended up using about 4 pictures for reference, but the main picture was on page 50, if you're interested to know. I really liked the model's extra long hair! It made me want some extensions haha. Anyway, it took me about 3-3 1/2 hours to draw - I think that's one reason I haven't drawn anything in recent years! It just takes me so long. I was really happy with how her hair came out. Hair was always something I could pull off. I hate the sleeves. Originally I was going to do the skirt in plaid as well, but after the sleeves I decided that I didn't want to ruin the picture. In fact, as you can see, I just decided not to do much with the skirt at all. All in all, I'm pretty pleased. For a comeback piece, it's not half bad! If you're interested, here is a link to my DeviantArt page: http://cutecoil.deviantart.com/

Do you know what I love? I LOVE MY PEN PALS! I do. I love them all so much! I got a package from my German pen pal, Kristina, today! She and I have been pen pals for close to 8 years now, I believe. We have never met, but now that I live in Germany I'm sure we'll get the opportunity! She actually lives only about an hour from where I live now! Isn't that crazy? Of all the places in the whole world where my husband and I could end up, and we ended up so close to one of my oldest, dearest pen friends! Small world. Anyway, after I got her letter, I was feeling rather nostalgic, so I got out my 'pen pal box' - it's just a small file box where I keep every letter from my pen pals. I started looking through some letters from my oldest pen pal - Yayoi from Japan. We've been pen pals for close to 9 years now! I've known, and kept in contact, with her for longer than most any other person I know (outside of my family, obviously). She is an absolute sweetheart and I love her to death! I found one letter that she wrote to me back in 2005 that literally brought a tear to my eye. She said: "Do you know that I treasure your friendship? I consider myself lucky to know you. I hope that you know that you are special to me. I'll always be our loyal friend." AAAA~W!!!! I love my pen pals. Since moving to Germany, I've gained a few more - 3, to be exact. All of them are friends who I left behind in Ohio! Writing and receiving letters is so fun. I encourage all of you to go get a pen pal! Do it!

Ich bin an der Reihe!

No cuts!

Ich bin an der Reihe = It's my turn (in German, obviously)

Our German teacher told us that it's a very important phrase because people in Germany don't know how to wait in line. Her words, not mine haha. To be honest, I haven't had any bad line experiences yet - even at the Christmas Markets (where I hear it can get pretty bad). But I guess it never hurts to be prepared! Plus, we've only been here for 4 months. We have PLENTY of time to use that phrase before we head back to the states!

I finished the 2nd Warrior's book today. I didn't like it as much as the first, but it was still good. So far the 3rd one is better than the 2nd, but I'm only like 2 chapters in. This series is such easy reading it's hard to stop once I get going, but I'm going to try to make the 3rd book last until Regan and I officially start our book club next month! Lately, I just want to read all the time!! It's getting out of hand! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Well, there's no need to over-react. I've been doing other things, too. Lots of cooking, as usual

Mushroom Chicken Gravy Over Rice

I actually just made up this recipe - it's 2 chicken breasts, 1 small can mushrooms, and a pack of turkey gravy. Easy Easy Easy. I don't think it really helped me learn anything about cooking. At least it was good!

Turkey Veg Over Potatoes

I made this one up, too! It's a pound of ground turkey, 1 cup of frozen mixed veg, 1 pack of brown gravy mix (hrm...maybe I should lay off the gravy?) all on top of some garlic mashed potatoes! My husband pointed out, and he was quite right, that it was pretty much just shepherd's pie upside down. Oh well. This one was really tasty, though! I definitely want to make it again.

Italian Chicken Spinach Skillet

Finally! I used a recipe for this! And, you guessed it, the recipe came from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking. The only thing I changed were some of the portions since there are only 2 of us. First, I sauteed a small can of mushrooms with a crushed garlic clove. Then I added a can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1/3 cup of pasta sauce, 1/2 cup of frozen spinach, and 2 cooked chopped chicken breasts. To top it off, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese and some seasonings (Italian, pepper, etc). TA DA!!! I liked it a lot - very hearty, as my husband said. But next time I think I'll add a little more cheese (maybe 1/3 cup?) and more pepper. I love me some pepper!

I had some serious issues earlier this week on the job front. I've been trying to get a job on base FOREVER (well it FEELS like forever!), but stuff just keeps holding me back. About 2 months ago, I was offered a job and everyone was happy. But...that was 2 months ago! I'm STILL working on the pre-employment paperwork!! It's insane. Seriously. When I applied for the job, I had to fill out a mountain of paperwork. Then when they called to tell me I got the job, I had to make an appointment to go pick up MORE paperwork! And now, it's all filled out...but my shot records seem to have VANISHED! YAY!! So on Monday, I got 4 shots. Shots that I already got a long time ago, but I can't prove that. My left arm is still a little sore and both arms have bruising. AND (this is the best part) I have MORE shots to get as well as some blood work and a FULL physical!! Just like the one I got about 5 months ago...right before we moved here. I was so discouraged the other day because I just felt like I was NEVER going to actually start working. I even sat down and tried to figure out if it would be cost effective for me to just work 8 hours/day from home sewing and doing crafts and selling them on Etsy or something - well, honestly...that's still what I'd like to do. But at my current skill level and with how much supplies would cost here in Germany...it's just not a viable option right now. I don't want to be a lazy bum (hence this blog to track my non-lazyness), but I'm just so...not thrilled about this job anymore. I'm sure once I finally get in there it will all be ok...hopefully. But for now, I seriously day dream all the time about just sewing and crafting all day! Maybe when I'm older and more skilled....yeah.

Today I started to "unpack" and organize my sewing room! That was fun. I even went through and inventoried all of my sewing patterns. Is that something I should admit? Probably not haha. I don't know about you, but whenever patterns would go on sale at JoAnn's, I'd sit down and say to myself "ooh that one's cute! So is that one! But do I already have this?? I can't remember! WAA~H!" This will never happen to me again! I now have the brand and pattern number of every pattern I own in an easy to read Excel spreadsheet! Ok, that really does make me sound like a loser. The cool part? I found out that I have 137 sewing patterns! When I asked my husband over dinner to guess how many I had, he said 500. I hate it when people over-guess when you want them to be shocked at how HIGH a number is. Anyway, I decided that's a good goal to shoot for! Why not, right? I love patterns. I want to horde them and look at them and stroke them and keep them all to myself mwahahahahaha! I also found at least 5 (FIVE!!!) half-sewn projects, some of which have been that way for YEARS. I think I'm going to set a goal to finish all unfinished projects by the end of 2010. This will be hard since obviously I'm not really interested in any of those projects anymore. Wish me luck!

In other news, I'm about 85% sure that sometime next month I'll post a vlog onto youtube. Why? Because writing 2 blogs about my life just isn't enough, obviously. Plus...I like getting attention. Also I just want to hype up my 25th anime con this year.

I HATE JR Rockers

My husband and I go on a date every Friday night. Usually, we go to a German restaurant, but last night I suggested going somewhere on base for a change. We were going to go to Chili's - in the States, Chili's was never one of my favorite restaurants...but the choices for American dining over here are slim. Chili's had an hour wait, though...so we walked over to JR Rockers which is in the same building and there was no wait at all. We've been to JR Rockers a few other times and I was never really impressed, but the lack of wait was too tempting. It was seriously one of the worst dining experiences I've had. SO BAD! At the end of the meal, we got our check and we were charged seperately for our side items even though on the menu it said they were included, so we told the waitress. She sent the manager over and he started going on about how the menu was misprinted and he could see how it was confusing, and I was so annoyed at that point I just interuped him and said "It's not confusing, it's just wrong." hahaha. I know it was rude...but it felt good to say it anyway. He was trying to make it sound like it was our fault their menu had a misprint. And it kind of bugged me that he and his staff seemed ok ripping anyone off who didn't notice it. LAME! Anyway, we decided that next time we feel the need to eat a restaurant on base, we just won't haha!

Regan and I decided to start our own little book club this year! So for the first FHE of every month, we'll have our book club meeting and start a new book. For January, we decided to just finish up the books we were already reading, but starting in February, we start a new book together! I get to pick the first book, so I picked Sabriel by Garth Nix! It's my favorite book and Regan's never read it. We've both been reading a lot lately, too! On Thursday night, I sat down and read a book called Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter - yeah, I read the whole thing. It took about 6 hours, I think? I really liked it! It's about cats fighting and hunting! I've seen these books around forever and was always interested because of the subject matter, but it wasn't until I saw the first 3 books in a set for 15$ at the bookstore on Thursday that I finally picked them up. I've got the 2nd one ready to go, but I'm actually kind of scared to start it because I'm worried I'll just read it straight through! I'm glad to be reading so much lately! Now if only I could get a few minutes together to write more...

My Favorite Food is Cake

At least, that's what I told my German class on Monday night. It's true. I love cake. Yesterday morning I went to a German baking class. It was so fun! I didn't actually bake anything, though. The class was set up more like a TV show, with a cook and a host. But I still felt like I learned a lot! They made three different things:

Aprikosen-Eierlikor-Torte (Apricot-Egg Liquor-Torte) - AMAZING!!! I definitely want to try to make this myself. It looked very easy to make, tasted heavenly, and looked so beautiful when it was finished! I don't have a torte pan, though, and that seems like something I would definitely need to make this.

Basically, it was a short chocolate/hazelnut cake with about 4 inches of whipped cream mixed with gelatin (for stability) on top. The whipped cream was surrounded with chocolate dipped waffle cookies. Seriously, it was amazing.

Mohn-Kasekuchen mit Apfeln (Poppy seed cheesecake with Apples) - This one was ok. I wasn't really blown away by it or anything. It used something called Mohn-Back, which is basically poppy seed pie filling. I guess it's popular here in Germany (that's what the host said), but I wasn't really impressed by it. Maybe if I tried it in something else?

This cake was a German style cheese cake with sliced apples and poppy seed filling on top. Pretty simple with an interesting taste, but probably not something I'll be rushing off to make anytime soon.

Nektarinen-Quark-Taschen (Nectarine Quark pastries) - I really liked this recipe, too! It was simple and delicious. I think they'd make a really good breakfast! Quark is a German dairy product that the USA doesn't have - it's basically like a mix between sour cream and cream cheese. I guess it's super popular here, with the average German eating close to 17 lbs of it a year!

These things were fluffy, flaky pastry dough filled with fruit and cream. They were light and sweet, but not too sweet (as is the case with most German pastry I've had).

This is a picture of the finished Nektarinen-Quark-Taschen. They don't look that great in this shot, unfortunately.

After taking that class, I am definitely more interested in learning about German baking and cooking. I live in Germany, for crying out loud! I should learn all that I can about their food while I'm here. It only makes sense. The base offers 1 baking and 2 cooking classes a month. As money doesn't grow on trees, I most likely won't be doing more than 1 class a month. In March, they're having a Schnitzel class and I cannot wait! Schnitzel is definitely my favorite thing to eat in Germany and if I could make it at home...well, it won't be good for my waistline, that's for sure!

Right now, to help improve my cooking, I have a goal to cook at least 1 thing a week that I've never made before. Now I'm thinking that I should change that to 1 German thing a week that I've never made before! I think that would be a bit more of a challenge, don't you? Anyway. since I posted last, I've made a few things for the first time:

Black Bean Taco Pizza

Kind of a hot mess, huh? At least it tasted good!

The recipe came from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking October/November 2009. I LOVE the Taste of Home magazine series. They always have great stuff! I ususally change the recipe in some way or another, though. This is a vegetarian pizza, because I decided that my husband and I need at least one meatless dinner a week.

I used a pizza crust mix (because I'm lazy! Shame on me!) and just made that according to the package directions. For the toppings, I mixed 1 can black beans (rinsed), 1/2 cup frozen corn, 1 chopped tomato, 1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chilies, and 1/4 of an onion (chopped). I coated the pizza crust with cholula hot sauce (my absolute favorite) and then topped that with the veggie mixture. Then I sprinkled a little cheese over the whole thing and TA DA!!! Black bean taco pizza. It was really good, but I had to eat mine with a fork. I will make this one again for sure!

Southwest Chicken Corn Chowder

mm mm good!

Another recipe from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking, but this is from the April/May 2009 issue. Even though the recipe said it made 9 servings, I made the whole thing anyway thinking if there were leftovers, they'd be good for lunch over the next few days. This recipe made a TON of soup! I love corn chowder, though, so it's all good. I have used a different recipe in the past to make corn chowder, but I'm not sure which one I like better. To be honest, this one turned out more like corn soup. It just wasn't that thick. The flavor was so good, though!

The first thing I did was saute 1/4 chopped onion with 1 minced garlic clove. In a separate pot, I mixed 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, one can of evaporated milk, and 1 can of cooked chicken breast over medium heat. When the onion was tender, I mixed two cans of cream style corn and a bunch of spices (to taste) in with it and the garlic. when both pans were mixed well and simmering, I combined them and TA DA!! Chicken and Corn Soup, since it was too thin to be chowder. I will definitely make this again, though. I loved the flavor.

That's all on the cooking front. In other self improvement news, I've started crocheting! I'm pretty horrible at it so far. All of my chains are lumpy and gross looking, even though they're made with pretty pink yarn! The only way to improve is to practice, though. I know I know. So I will do just that! When I've completed my first project, I'll post it on here! But that might be a while haha - I'm really horrible.

The German class I mentioned earlier is great! It's a USO class that my husband and I signed up for. It's very basic, but I already feel more confident in my pronunciation and I can count to 10! Class is canceled tonight because it's snowing like crazy, but I am trying to practice on my own every-other day anyway. Unfortunately, I let my free Rosetta stone thing go inactive (shame on me), so I'll have to go to the library and sign up again. It might be a few weeks before I'm able to use it. I think if I use the Rosetta Stone along with this class, it will help me learn a lot faster!

I really want to sew something, but I'm nervous to use my sewing machine. I've heard that even with a transformer, the gears can strip! I am going to look into getting a duel voltage machine, that way it wouldn't be useless when we move back to the states. But I don't know how long it will be before I can get one. I guess I should pick up some hand-sewing projects, huh? Maybe some cute little crafts or something. I'll go through some of my J-mags and see what I can come up with.

This update is pretty huge, huh? I guess that's all I'll write for now! I'm hoping that I can keep up the productivity I've been feeling today! *BREAK*

Start from scratch

Willcomen!

I'm an American living in Germany in serious need of some life improvements. According to Calvin (or rather, Bill Waterson), when you take up a new hobby, you should keep a log.

This blog is going to be my 'self-improvement' log.

I want to improve my skills in sewing, cooking, sketching, and playing the piano.

I want to learn how to crochet, garden, and speak German.

In this blog, I will detail my endeavors and hopefully accomplish something. I doubt anyone will ever read this, but it's mostly for personal edification anyway. Plus, it gives me some level of accountability.

So, here we go!