A bit of a touchy subject

I took a long break from blogging this fall. I have an excellent reason for it. I fell into a depression. Why? Because I had a miscarriage.

I was never planning on saying anything about my miscarriage, for me, it was very personal and I wanted to keep it to myself.

But miscarriage is a funny thing. No one knows what to say to a woman who has had a miscarriage. "I'm sorry for your loss" is always acceptable. "At least you know you can get pregnant" is not. I could go on and on for hours about what was said, not said, what hurt and what didn't hurt.

People don't know what to say because as a rule, awareness about miscarriage (and related, infertility) is incredibly low, because people don't talk about it.

But we need to talk about it. We don't need to go into details, (I don't anyway) but people need to know that miscarriages hurt.

It is estimated that 10-25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.

That's a big percentage that is generally ignored.

And if we don't talk about it, we can't get upset that others don't talk about it.

Facts from American Pregnancy

Recipe: make-your own taco seasoning

1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tespoon pepper

sprinkle over browned ground turkey, (or beef) pour 3/4 water over it and simmer, ensuring all the turkey is covered with seasoning.

Bringing it down

I have not posted much lately. I randomly posted a recipe last week because I needed to share the recipe with some people and a blog link was the easiest way to do so.

In October, I went into a fairly substantial depression. I had a good reason for it, but when November came around, the last thing on my mind was writing blog posts. I'm not really sure how I made so many posts in October to tell you the truth.

When December showed up, I started to recover. It became a little easier to get up off the couch and re-join life. Work got easier. My puppy got a little better trained and behaved.

N was, and is, fantastic. He propped me up, dragged me out, supported me in every decision I made. He never once complained about my inability to help out around the house, or even the fact that I came home from school  everyday and ensconced myself on the couch.

I'm doing better now. Life is looking up, and I'm considering turning the heat up in my house so my fingers don't fall off from the cold. And maybe starting a nice fire to counteract the snow falling outside.

I'm ensconced on the couch today as well, though it's because N gave me a nasty cold.

Bottom line? I'm going to try to re-commit to my blog here. Once a week.

Recipe: Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork

3-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika

Combine and rub into pork. (If you're picky about your meat, trim as much fat off as you can before cooking. Much easier than trying to do it later.) Place meat in slow cooker along with the following:

1 sliced bell pepper
1 sliced medium onion
18oz jar BBQ sauce (I recommend Jim Daddy's BBQ Sauce)
1/4 - ½ cup brown sugar (depending on the spicy vs. sweet you prefer)

Cook 10 hours on low. Should fall apart.

Whoops!

More than a month since a post! I suck!

Not really, my job has been crazy hectic, which is dumb, since this year I'm part-time. Some crap has happened in our personal lives lately that has really made blogging a low, low priority.

So,  in the interest of appeasing Bill, who sometimes asks for gratuitous dog pictures. Here.

And, because we have no kids, our dogs have their own blog: YoshiMoMcSnuggles.

Tumblr is easier to upload to from the phone :)

In less than 3 hours.

What kind of awesome, pride-inducing DIY project can you undertake and finish in less than 3 hours?

A very pretty, very organized coat closet.

In the interest of full disclosure, it's not completely finished. I still need to decide what is going to be stored on the top shelf, and what is going to live in the drawers on the bottom, but the labor part is done. It took less than one episode of Brothers and Sisters to finish the painting, another episode to paint the shelves and the supports painted. It did take a couple of episodes for everything to dry, but I don't count that since I wasn't working, I was just laying around, chilling.


A refresher of what I started with:

I emptied the closet out and was left with a clean, empty space:

Then I slapped on a coat of bright, bright, bright green. This paint was free from Glidden's promotion earlier this year, originally intended for the master bedroom, but I went (or will go) another direction in there, so it was available for the painting. I posted a quick poll about color choices and went with the winning choice.

While that was drying, I laid out my 1X12 boards I'd had cut at Home Depot the day before, as well as the original shelf and hanging bar that was in the closet. A quick coat of paint later, I had a passel of white shelves and supports drying on my office floor.

Once they were dry, I put the original shelf back in place. I grabbed my BFF, the drill, and my trusty level and put the first shelf up.

 Made sure it was level.

Yay! It's level! I put the rest of the shelves in. They're spaced 10 inches apart, except for the upper two shelves, which I spaced at 16 inches, to allow for some larger long-term storage.

 See, they're farther apart. And pretty.

You may be wondering why we left the hanging bar in with all the shelving. Well, since this isn't our forever house, we wanted to leave this as a potential clothes closet so we can keep up the 4 bedroom label, even though we use this room as an office. It doesn't get in the way of anything, and was already there, so it's no skin off our nose. 

I found a set of wire drawers at IKEA, on my way out the door, and I instantly knew they'd be perfect for the bottom of this closet. Because of the panel on the bottom right allowing access to the bathroom plumbing, I couldn't put shelves up on this part. Since they were a whopping $14, I picked them up. I put them together, and set them into place.

This is where I noticed that the first shelf, right above the drawers, looked a little off. Because I'd spaced the upper shelves out more, I had a spare shelf and set of supports. I put them up, and noticed it made all the difference.

It also made it big enough for some storage baskets I already had on hand, and they look lovely as well.

The end result? Awesomeness.

The top shelf is for sheets, I've long stored them by size, putting the folded sheets inside one of the pillowcases, a tip I read in BHG years ago. It's the only thing that makes sense. The brightly colored towels are the ones for our lower guestroom and bathroom, and the muted, earthy colored towels are the ones for our main bathroom. Easy sorting, and easy organization.

I still have some things to put in here, but in the interest of not filling the closet up immediately, I'm taking it slow and making sure I find the perfect home for everything.

What do you think? Too bright? Just right? Whatever your opinion, tell me!

I love long weekends.

If you live in Minnesota, if you grew up here, there's a special weekend in October that every child looks forward too. It's called MEA*.

The only people who look forward to it more than the children, are the teachers.

MEA is our professional conference weekend. The union hosts a professional conference downtown St. Paul and we get two days off of school to attend.

However, it is completely voluntary, and I've never gone. I think about it every year, but I never go. This year is no exception. Maybe next year. (Hey, Heather, let's go to the conference to get free stuff next year).

My plans for this long weekend are better, I think. Tomorrow we head to Rochester for an annual Rock Band Road Trip. But today, I'm getting started on my newest project.

The new linen closet.

Wait, we don't have a linen closet. You're right, we don't. But we do have a bedroom that doubles as an office, and we don't have a need for the hanging in there, so I'm turning it into a linen closet. As seen here, I am planning to paint the inside, and load it up with bright white shelves.

I've decided to go with the green paint, because I have 3 quarts of it, that I got free from Glidden's promotion a while back (my mother and BFF also sent me quarts, originally, it was going to be the bedroom wall color, but we've got other plans now). Also, because I think it's a nice, bright color to put in a small space.

So that is my plan for today. To get the closet cleaned out, and potentially get a coat of paint down. (Depending on availability of paint brushes, I don't know if we have any, we tossed a bunch awhile back).

Here's what I'm starting with:

Yoshi was thrilled when I opened the closet, as it's where we keep the puppy food, and he jumped right in. Please, please don't judge the state of the shelves on the right, we have big plans for this room, and those shelves, but they've become a bit of a dumping ground lately.

And yes, there are two wedding dresses hanging in that closet, I should really get around to donating or selling those babies. I won't even go into why I have two. I also have actually no idea what is in the boxes on the upper shelf, though I know we don't even have the computer that came in that Dell box anymore. . .

This project is full of challenges, a small space, and two dogs who will be very interested in what Mama is doing hanging out in a closet...

*It's no longer called MEA, it's "Education Minnesota", but no one calls it that. Just like we still call it "Dayton's".