First half of the month menu tiiiiime! I slaved over this thing, you guys, so bask in its glory.

1. Roasted spaghetti squash with mushrooms, with garlic bread on the side
2. Hot dogs and baked beans!
3. Thai curry, loosely following this recipe, but with frozen veggies
4. Burgers and Brussels sprouts
5. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
6. Fettucini with Balsalmic Delicata Squash & Bitter Greens
7. Italian bread pizza
   Take a loaf of Italian bread, cut it in half lengthwise, spread with sauce, add toppings and cheese, pop in a 350* oven for 10 minutes. PIZZA!
8. Grilled apple and cheese sandwiches and side salad
   One of our local restaurants (Red’s Alehouse) makes this with brie, mozzarella, slices of Granny Smith apples, caramelized onions, and arugula. I am determined to recreate it.
9. Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and garlic chips
10. Quinoa salad
11. Breakfast at dinner
    We usually do some variation on the egg+toast+breakfast potato theme
12. Tacos
    Tortillas, spiced black beans with diced chiles, avocado, sour cream, cheese, onions, tomatoes, PERFECT.
13. Ravioli and sauce with salad
    We’ve got some leftover refrigerated stuff from Costco that rocks my socks.
14. Jambalaya
    We’ll be making this dish vegetarian by using Soyrizo and some grilled chicken things, and using veggie stock. Yum!

We already ate Dish #13 last night, when we decided to wait until today to go to the grocery store. OOPS. Oh well, it was delicious.

Okay, yes. I know I owe you some big time updates on the house. We’ve done some huge, marvelous things! Hardwood floors! Garage! Baby! I’ve been away too long, and I’ve got a SERIOUS case of catch-up to do. I promise I will! But first, I want to tell you about what we’re doing here at Seven Ten Clark for the month of January.

We’re doing a food challenge! We will not be eating out (the food kind, not the dirty kind) for the entire month of January. No restaurant food*, no fast food, NO JUNK! Looking back over our finances (because I’m the money-watcher in our household), we spend wayyy too much money on food. Money that would be better spent elsewhere. Hello, daycare-that-costs-a-mortgage-payment! Hi there, giant-student-loan-debt! While we don’t usually spend our shared household account money on eating out, between the two of us, Kevin and I will definitely see a big leap up in our bank balances if we’re not going the easy route and grabbing what’s convenient.

It’s just not healthy, either. We’re vegetarian, so it’s not like we’re guzzling grease-encased fried chicken bits, or lardburgers. But still, our go-to delivered food is pizza, and that does not make us good vegetarians. We’re not honoring our bodies by filling it with cheese and bread 90% of the time, and we’re both coming to the conclusion that we want to be in a healthier place. Kevin has started riding his bike back and forth to work every day, and the trip will be easier when his body’s fuel is higher quality. Obviously, I could stand to get down to a healthier weight.

I’ll admit it, we’ve had a pretty good excuse up until now (her name is Clare). But we can’t milk that excuse forever! And now’s the time to make the change, especially before she starts eating solid foods. It’s time to meal plan, grocery shop, and have some fun in the kitchen!

So, I’ll be writing up our meal plans here, taking pictures of particularly delicious homemade foods, and showing you our progress! We’re already on Day 3 of January, and we’ve been eating up stuff from the pantry to prep for shopping tonight.

Wish us luck!

Last year, we did one of those home equity loan thingies, with a whole list of renovations planned out, including the garage teardown and rebuild (oops, still need to blog about that), getting our basement walls fixed, and hardwood floors on the main floor! We waited for a really awesome sale at Menards, and finally picked up enough for the house. I was at clinical the day that K finally started ripping up the carpeting, and he texted me in a frenzy. Hardwood under carpeting in all of the bedrooms, and in the hallway. It’s in good shape. He wants to cry. AIEEE! This is what I came home to that day:

Glorious, glorious hardwood floors

The only room on the main floor without that under the carpeting was the living room. So, back to Menards those prefinished packs of wood went, and we came home with enough unfinished wood for the living room and plans for Kevin to refinish the whole main floor himself.

Yeahhhh, about that? Apparently, it’s a lot of work, and kind of a highly-specialized type of work. I have no doubt as to Kevin’s abilities to get the job done, but he’s an auto-body man, and his propensity for picking apart his own work was sure to drive me crazy for the next 10 years of him complaining about whatever it was that he messed up as he was learning the process.  I’ll have NONE OF THAT. So, we’re hiring somebody local who comes to us with good recommendations, and the work is set to begin on June 28th! Less than a month before my due date! It’ll be okay!

It’ll be great.

We’ve got a whole passel of things that we need to get done, with a tentative deadline of July 23rd. Totally abandoning the “official list“, there a much more urgent roster of items that really needs to be done before we’re graced with Baby Smannon. Like to hear it? Here it go:

• Finish electricity in the garage
• Tear out house carpeting (gross and really old)
• Build a wall in the living room to close off the basement from the upstairs of the house
• Install wood floors
• Replace interior doors
• Insulate outer wall of basement
• Repair or replace basement exterior door
• Insulate floor of kitchen and bathroom
• Install smoke alarms
• Paint/decorate nursery

We also have a list of “things that would be nice to finish but aren’t as urgent”:

• Rebuild basement stairs
• Paint/prettify basement stairs
• Install ceiling fan in living room
• Paint office

There are a few items we want to buy, too, like a new dishwasher, but those will probably be at the mercy of the projects that actually need to be done ASAP. Meanwhile, we recently bought all of the flooring (goodbye, tax refund!) as well as a new couch and chaise lounge, which Kevin is modeling above, and which will probably become my nest during my maternity leave.

AAAAANNNNNNNDDD, GO!

That’s not what I want to tell you about this time, though. See, we’ve embarked on another household project:

This one will take a few more months to complete, and a few other projects are going to have to happen concurrently in preparation for the final reveal, but in the meantime, we’re going to try to spend as much time enjoying ourselves as possible.

XO

Before

Aaaaaand, that brings us roughly up to speed!

2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1100 square feet, $120k

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 square feet, $225k

3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1500 square feet, $225k

And here are a few more on neighboring streets:

3 bedroom, 2 baths, 1200 square feet, $205k

2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1000 square feet, $207k

2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1500 square feet, $189k

And if you’re looking for something a little more fancy, there’s a Summit Street mansion for sale!

4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3100 square feet, $465k and on its way down

So, who’s ready to move in?

By some miracle, I have an honest-to-goodness three-day weekend, starting today. Oh mah gah. Can I tell you how badly I’ve needed some time off? I know I just came home from vacation a month ago, but you should know that my life has been nonstop stress and busy work ever since then. Usually, I have clinic over the weekends, busting my ass for 9 hours at a stretch at the hospital, learning what I can and soaking up as much experience as I can grab. I was even supposed to have clinic this weekend as well, but by the grace of my poor instructor, I got out of it and will manage to enjoy my three-day weekend like a normal person. Hooray!

Unlike most normal people, though, I’m going to choose to spend my long weekend being as productive as fuck, because I can’t do it any other time. And because I am in love with making lists, here is the one I’ve made for this weekend:

FRIDAY

• Check out a possibly awesome antique garage sale
  (the pickings were slim, but Kevin snagged an old drive-in theater radio)
• Go to the bank
• Go out for vegetarian Indian food at Masala
  (we ended up eating at Exotic India in Coralville to avoid the Jazz Fest crowds, and we really missed Masala)
• Go to hardware store to schedule garage drop-off, price railroad ties for retaining wall, buy hole saw, price garden sheds, stare longingly at hardwood flooring
• Lie around watching Moon and drinking cocktails (hey, gotta start the weekend out right, am I right?)
  (Moon was delicious, and only partly because I want ravage Sam Rockwell)
• Write grocery shopping list/menu
• Organize linen closet
• Hem living room curtains (which have needed to be hemmed for over a year)

SATURDAY

• Workout at the gym
• Study session with clinic girls
  (didn’t get up in time, so I studied at the gym)
• Take stock of spice cabinet
• Trip to Kalona for cheese curds, doughnuts, and spices with Dawn
• Order some spice jars to get that shit organized and pretty
  (I ended up getting a case of 24 2oz jars)
• Take pictures of backyard and baby birds nesting on the side porch
• Write up backyard/garage update
• Barbeque for dinner
• Bake something
  (Can I pretend I baked something if I bought a Dutch apple pie in Amish-town instead?)
• Build shoe shelving in front closet
• Organize front closet

SUNDAY

• Workout at the gym
• Study/homework
• Laundry
• Organize basement
• Take pictures of basement
• Write up basement update blog post
• Help classmate with setting up her iPad
• Boating with friends
• Bake something
• Barbeque for dinner
• Go watch Iowa City’s fireworks from parking ramp rooftop
  (we watched from the Pentacrest instead)

MONDAY

• Workout at the gym
• Study/homework
• Friendship bracelet-making!
• Set up computer backups on new hard drive
• Bake something
• Pedicure
• Buy new cat food bowls
• Go watch Coralville’s fireworks in the park

Jesus, that’s an ambitious list. We’ll see how far we get.

Oh yeah, and this happened, too!

Yeah, it was a good vacation.