An Author, Mayhaps?

My new, fun, temporary and unpaid vocation is the writing of fiction.  I've only gotten a few pages done, but I'm incredibly excited about it.  I've cleared off the piles from my desk to create my official workspace.  I emptied a desk shelf of educational and parenting books that I had handy, in high but futile hopes that I'd refer to them more often.  Instead, I replaced them with my old Webster's Dictionary, The Synonym Finder, and The Ultimate Baby Name Book (it's a devil to keep coming up with new names that I love and don't have surrounding me in my life!).  We'll see how long my new diversion holds my fascination!

---

Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. See how it works.

Organizing the pantry

Organization is so important.  I visited my good friend Veronica yesterday, and she showed me her new, large, immaculate house.  I admired how she kept everything so neat, and I laughed when she protested, "I have to!  I'm too airheaded to deal with anything out of place!"  I'm generally a disorganized mess, but I could relate to what she's saying.  It's so much easier to operate and not get sidetracked looking for things when everything's in order. 
I've slowly been getting little organizer products to help me with things such as the kitchen cabinets.  Today, Michael and I picked up 5 narrow shelves to mount on the back of the pantry door.  I had no idea how many boxes of sandwich bags were on those shelves!  Getting the little items off the shelves allowed me to organize them so that I can actually see exactly what we have.  I've honestly skipped using a small appliance because I couldn't find it in the pantry!  Hopefully those days are over...

---

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

A New Kitchen Toy

After seeing my neighbor make her daughter a grilled cheese sandwich that looked more like 2 hot pockets in a sandwich maker, I've been contemplating acquiring one, with the major hold-up being space issues!  In spite of those issues, I picked one up yesterday, and I'm quite excited about it! 
 
I rationalized, somehow, that this was actually a 'space-saver' because it has interchangeable grilling plates.  There's the 'Hot Pocket' or Turnover plates, the waffle iron, and, my favorite, the one with parallel compression lines somewhat like a traditional grill; it reminds me of the sandwiches at the Barnes & Noble Cafe.  We spray the plates with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is a big part of the taste.  Alex, with a mile-wide smile, kept spouting about the 'fatty goodness' of his millet bread sandwich last night.  I was happy to see that it worked for his dense bread!  Needless to say, I found the perfect warm temperature and light grilling of my sandwiches absolutely delicious!  
 
I made gluten-free waffles this morning for the kids, and they loved them... 
 
I'm delighted to have a new, novel kitchen toy.  This is the biggest kitchen excitement since my English muffin toaster/egg poacher!  I'm sure I've had over a hundred of those 'McMuffins' in the past year!  At least!
 
 

---

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

A Lovely Tea Cabinet

I am quite excited about our tea cabinet that Michael mounted in the kitchen yesterday. It's located over the spice rack. We've had that cabinet for over 5 years, and it's just been clutter in the garage. It's a handmade, simple cabinet and I could never figure out anywhere that I wanted to mount it. I ordered it from e-bay back in the days when I was so passionate about hand-constructed, nontoxic, unfinished wood products due to environmental concerns and all. Anyhow, it's not a big deal to anyone but me... The teas have been stuffed in a large cabinet that's chock-full of supplements and such, but now they are neatly arranged for friends to pick and choose what they want (hah...I'm the only one that's used it so far...3 times since last night!). I'm momentarily tickled over the cabinet. Isn't it lovely when we figure out ways to neatly organize our clutter? It makes everything so much nicer!