Archive for What I Learned This Week

The Disappointment of Happily Ever After

April 2, 2011 · Filed under All Posts, What I Learned This Week · Tagged , , , ,

Dear World,

It has been a long long while! I thought I could become a blogger, but clearly I thought wrong. However, I’m going to give it another go. Why? Part boredom, part loneliness, part desire to rant.  I’m not really sure why, but here goes…

So much has happened since 2009.  SO MUCH.  Almost too much.

Events in order: 1. we got a dog, 2. we bought a house in suburbia in another part of the state, 3. Yuppie Husband got a new job in the new city, 4. Yuppie Husband had to start the new job a month before we were set to move, 5. I found out I was pregnant, 6. we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary, 7. we moved, 8. we had a baby girl, 9. we celebrated our two-year anniversary, 10. our baby girl is now 5 months old.

And through all that, emotions in order: 1. giddy and exploding with love, 2. excited and looking forward to nesting, 3. happy for Yuppie Husband and new opportunities, 4. sad to be apart from Yuppie Husband but happy for some time to myself, 5. unsure and nervous, 6. tired and awful, 7. tired and stressed, 8. tired and empty, 9. tired and emotionless, 10. sad and happy.

If you look at the list of events, everything is trucking along just wonderfully.  In the Game of Life, we could win.  But if you look at the list of emotions, what happened??? Shouldn’t the whole list just be happy happy nauseous happy? That’s what I had thought…I was supposed to be happy. I AM supposed to be happy. But I wasn’t, and I’m not.

Nobody tells you what it’s really going to be like. The already sugar-coated truth is further fantasized, romanticized, dramatized – and we naive young women, not knowing any better, crave sugar, fantasy, romance and drama, and set up fairytale expectations for our lives. And many of us learn the hard way: nothing sets you up for disappointment better than dreams of happily ever after.

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How To: Peel Ginger

July 21, 2009 · Filed under All Posts, How To _____ Like a Yuppie Housewife: The Series, What I Learned This Week · Tagged , , ,

Just learned this from Bobby Flay: the easiest way to peel ginger is with a spoon!

I haven’t tried it yet, but he made it look so fast and simple!

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How To: Match and Fold Socks Quickly!

July 7, 2009 · Filed under All Posts, How To _____ Like a Yuppie Housewife: The Series, What I Learned This Week · Tagged , , ,

It  has been a looooong time!  Things have been busy in the Yuppie household!  I’ll try to do better =)

I just learned this method of matching and folding socks, and had to share with all you laundry doers out there!  I learned it by accident, and was amazed with the results.

When I do laundry, I usually throw Yuppie Husband’s socks into a pile and save them for last (or even another day…).  Sometimes if I’m in the middle of a big pile of clean laundry, I might match and fold sporadically throughout.  But today, I tried something new.

Instead of just tossing each sock I came across into a pile, I made sure the sock was turned right-side-out, and neatly laid each sock down, with all socks in the same direction (toe-to-toe).  After I was done folding all the other laundry, I came to my nice pile of socks.  Usually it is annoying and frustrating to find each sock’s match (makes me want to go out and replace all of Yuppie Husband’s socks with the exact same type!), but today, with all the socks laying neatly in a pile, it was SO EASY to identify pairs quickly and efficiently!  One after the other, I was able to spot matches, and before I knew it, I was done! 

So I know this is kind a silly How To, but it really saved me time and frustration so I wanted to share!

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An Anxious Heart

June 9, 2009 · Filed under All Posts, What I Learned This Week · Tagged , , , ,

An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. (Proverbs, 12:25)

I have the type of personality that dwells on things – everything – to the point where sometimes I can’t sleep at night, and I’m up late just…dwelling.  Small setbacks or issues make me anxious, and I’m frequently in a Chicken-Little-Sky-Is-Falling state of mind.  I constantly try to remind myself that worrying does not accomplish anything, that I need to let it go.  Usually, worrying and dwelling only ends up hurting myself, and keeps me from enjoying life to the fullest.  This week, I was taught this lesson. 

A close friend of mine just gave birth to her first child over the weekend.  She was on bed rest for a month, and I really wanted to make sure I called her often.  In this past week, I was extremely stressed out about an obstacle I’d hit, and although there wasn’t anything I could do about it, I just could not stop thinking about it.  Day and night.  I knew my friend was coming off bed rest and could give birth anytime, so I made a mental note to call her.  Each day passed, and at the end of the day, I would remember that I had forgotten to call her, again.   One day, I promised myself I would call her the next day, but when I got home that night, I saw an email that her water broke earlier that day.  I had missed the chance to talk to her one last time before her life would change forever.

Now, I know in the grand scheme of things, this really isn’t a big deal, but, I really feel like I was taught 2 big lessons from this small incident. 

  1. I cannot let my worrying, anxiousness, dwelling and overall negative “glass half empty” attitude keep me from doing the things that really matter.
  2. Do not put off friends and family until tomorrow!

25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:25-27)

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. (Psalm 55:22)

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What I Learned This Week

May 27, 2009 · Filed under All Posts, What I Learned This Week · Tagged , , , , ,

 

What a great idea from Musings of a Housewife!

1.  Employed or not, it is impractical to cook gourmet meals for dinner on a regular basis.  I started off with 4-course meals: soup/salad, entree, side, dessert.  Too many ingredients required, too much prep work, and way too much post-cooking cleaning!  There is a reason why chefs need sous chefs and station chefs and food prep assistants!  Maybe I’ll try again when I have a bigger and better kitchen… 

2.  Kitchen electrics are so much cheaper at Costco!  The same Cuisinart Popcorn Maker that sells at Williams-Sonoma for $69.95 and at Amazon for $64.99 sells at Costco for ~$40!  The KitchenAid 5-Quart Pro 5 Plus Stand Mixer sells for $279 at Costco (and Amazon), compared to the $419.99 (or even $319.99 on sale) at Macy’s.  I picked up a Cuisinart Griddler/Panini Press at Costco for $69.99 (Costco price plus a coupon!); same griddler being sold on Amazon for $108.99.   What a deal!

3. Superfoods are amazing!  According to Dr. Oz, anyway.  Did you know that eating tomatoes can help protect your skin from sun damage?  That if you have a high-calcium diet you can double your body’s fat loss?  Or that drinking water 8 cups of water a day does not improve the appearance of your skin?  Or that detox diets really aren’t able to cleanse your body in such a short time period, but can give you a kick start to a healthier lifestyle?  Eating raw fruits, vegetables and nuts can decrease your cholesterol, blood pressure and help you lose weight?  Fascinating!  Makes me want to eat healthier.  Reminds me of a fantastic diet/lifestyle book I followed once: The Raw Food Detox Diet (Natalia Rose).  Review on this to come!

4. Real estate disclosure packages are LONG and BORING.  Buying a house is a very daunting process!  Wish us luck!  Once its all over, I’ll think about posting a How To on buy a house…

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