Still cleaning
In my effort to reduce the amount of clutter and stuff around the house as well as become more organized, I have begun a new project. Organizing my meals/recipes. There's always the "what's for dinner" quandary most nights, especially the busy ones. That can lead us to eat out instead of making dinner at home. So, I've devised our meals into categories for each night of the week, ex: breakfast, casserole, pizza, beef, soup & sandwich, etc. I have a total of 14 categories, so there's plenty of diversity (the comlaint has been too much chicken and turkey as of late). Then I've listed different family favorite meals under each category. Now I can just plug a category onto my weekly menu and then pick recipes depending on what we have on hand. Now I just need to stick to the system and see if this will save time, money and nerves.
I went through all of those Wegmans magazines that they send me monthly as well as the Martha Steward Food magazine I had been getting (I've done away with all subscriptions as they just add to my clutter and it's always the same stuff over and over anyway). I pulled all of the recipes that I've tried or may try. Those that we've tried and enjoyed were put into the recipe file and those waiting to be tried are put in a folder. I'll try one or two a week and if we like it, it goes in the file and added to the category menu, if not, in the circular file it goes. I've managed to toss quite a hefty stack of magazines into the recycling bin. I also found I was disappointed with Wegmans magazine due to their waste. The same few recipies were repeated over and over throughout the same magazine and I'm guessing this is done to make it seem more substantial as well as provide more advertising space for their products. Made me wonder how many trees were downed to create their rag.
Tonight's menu is beef pinwheels, homemade mac & cheese and some type of frozen veggie or a salad. I got the beef pinwheels recipe from the recipe card display in Price Chopper. Basically it's ground beef with peppers, onions and garlic. I added in some pureed butternut squash and tomato juice. That's been sauteed while I'm waiting for the mac & cheese to cook in the oven (a lot of hidden pureed veggies in that as well). When I'm done here, I'll put the ground beef mixture in the premade pie crusts and roll them up and bake them.
We had school last night, the first time in weeks. It's taken 2 months to get through the respiratory system due to our schedule and we finally took our final on it last night. I was disappointed in the final as I've been gradually disappointed in the entire course. It was too easy but there was still so much we don't know. I'm getting the feeling this teacher is dumbing down the course so that a certain segment of the population can pass to meet NYS requirements. The ratio of blacks to whites has gradually reduced from being almost 80% black to being almost equal with the white segment. She keeps telling us not to worry about test grades as we will all pass and we're making too much of an issue out of our grades. I also get the feeling, along with most of the other white women in the class, that she distinctly doesn't like us and favors the black population. She's got the guilty white person complex. The black girls can act up, be as loud as they want and she just jokes around with them, calls them lovie, and caters to their cell phone usage in class and their tardiness. Let one of us white women ask a question and we get a curt answer. She never jokes around with us and rarely talks to us - everything centers around the black students. Even a few of the black women have noticed this and have spoken up about it, but it hasn't changed anything. They don't like her changes to make things easier since the system that's in place has worked well for so many years. They're feeling as cheated as I'm feeling.
The kittens are doing well and we're all in love with them. They're still being good kitties. Scratching on the furniture and getting up on the kitchen table have really been the only problems we've had with them and they're gradually learning to correct their ways. They immediately stop the bad behavior when they receive a sharp NO. Whitie is still not fond of them and she has secluded herself in the basement for the past few days. She just went upstairs today and I'll have to see how she's doing with them now that she's had a little "me time".
Work is work but I think I'm having a problem with one of the women that I work with. "M" trained me and has always liked me and been very friendly towards me. Not everyone likes her, but that's their own personal problem. I just go into work, try my best to get along with everyone, get the work done to the best of my ability, help others and leave. I hate getting involved in the middle of their petty squabbles. I rarely see "M" now as we work opposite shifts - she's on the opposite nights that I work. Over the past few weeks, we've worked together about 3 or 4 times and I've noticed she's very curt with me and tries to ignore me at all costs. She can be a moody person, so I've just been chalking it up to her being tired and a single mom with a lot on her plate. However, the other night it was quite obvious that she has an issue with me. She rode up to our floor in the elevator with me and another woman. She got on the elevator, said Hi to the other woman and completely ignored me. She struck up a conversation with the other woman but turned her back to me to make it obvious that I was not included in the conversation. I normally work with the other woman when we have 4 on, so I went down to our wing and began to stock our supply cart for the night. Then the other woman and I went down and grabbed all of the linen carts from laundry. When I was pushing the north wing cart up the wing, "M" very sharply told me I was working with "R" and walked away, and so it went for the rest of the night. Her attitude towards me did not go unnoticed by "R" and the other woman and they both told me she has treated them the same way in the past. "R" said I should ask her what her problem is, but frankly, I just don't care. I've never done anything to this woman except to be nice to her and I"ve always enjoyed working with her. I've never spoken badly about her, so I don't know what her issue is, but it is her issue and hers alone. If someone has an issue with me, I expect them to address the issue with me, not pout about it, not be angry and expect me to chase them down to see what is wrong. I think I'm working with her tonight, so we'll see if she still has an attitude towards me.
Off to finish dinner.
I went through all of those Wegmans magazines that they send me monthly as well as the Martha Steward Food magazine I had been getting (I've done away with all subscriptions as they just add to my clutter and it's always the same stuff over and over anyway). I pulled all of the recipes that I've tried or may try. Those that we've tried and enjoyed were put into the recipe file and those waiting to be tried are put in a folder. I'll try one or two a week and if we like it, it goes in the file and added to the category menu, if not, in the circular file it goes. I've managed to toss quite a hefty stack of magazines into the recycling bin. I also found I was disappointed with Wegmans magazine due to their waste. The same few recipies were repeated over and over throughout the same magazine and I'm guessing this is done to make it seem more substantial as well as provide more advertising space for their products. Made me wonder how many trees were downed to create their rag.
Tonight's menu is beef pinwheels, homemade mac & cheese and some type of frozen veggie or a salad. I got the beef pinwheels recipe from the recipe card display in Price Chopper. Basically it's ground beef with peppers, onions and garlic. I added in some pureed butternut squash and tomato juice. That's been sauteed while I'm waiting for the mac & cheese to cook in the oven (a lot of hidden pureed veggies in that as well). When I'm done here, I'll put the ground beef mixture in the premade pie crusts and roll them up and bake them.
We had school last night, the first time in weeks. It's taken 2 months to get through the respiratory system due to our schedule and we finally took our final on it last night. I was disappointed in the final as I've been gradually disappointed in the entire course. It was too easy but there was still so much we don't know. I'm getting the feeling this teacher is dumbing down the course so that a certain segment of the population can pass to meet NYS requirements. The ratio of blacks to whites has gradually reduced from being almost 80% black to being almost equal with the white segment. She keeps telling us not to worry about test grades as we will all pass and we're making too much of an issue out of our grades. I also get the feeling, along with most of the other white women in the class, that she distinctly doesn't like us and favors the black population. She's got the guilty white person complex. The black girls can act up, be as loud as they want and she just jokes around with them, calls them lovie, and caters to their cell phone usage in class and their tardiness. Let one of us white women ask a question and we get a curt answer. She never jokes around with us and rarely talks to us - everything centers around the black students. Even a few of the black women have noticed this and have spoken up about it, but it hasn't changed anything. They don't like her changes to make things easier since the system that's in place has worked well for so many years. They're feeling as cheated as I'm feeling.
The kittens are doing well and we're all in love with them. They're still being good kitties. Scratching on the furniture and getting up on the kitchen table have really been the only problems we've had with them and they're gradually learning to correct their ways. They immediately stop the bad behavior when they receive a sharp NO. Whitie is still not fond of them and she has secluded herself in the basement for the past few days. She just went upstairs today and I'll have to see how she's doing with them now that she's had a little "me time".
Work is work but I think I'm having a problem with one of the women that I work with. "M" trained me and has always liked me and been very friendly towards me. Not everyone likes her, but that's their own personal problem. I just go into work, try my best to get along with everyone, get the work done to the best of my ability, help others and leave. I hate getting involved in the middle of their petty squabbles. I rarely see "M" now as we work opposite shifts - she's on the opposite nights that I work. Over the past few weeks, we've worked together about 3 or 4 times and I've noticed she's very curt with me and tries to ignore me at all costs. She can be a moody person, so I've just been chalking it up to her being tired and a single mom with a lot on her plate. However, the other night it was quite obvious that she has an issue with me. She rode up to our floor in the elevator with me and another woman. She got on the elevator, said Hi to the other woman and completely ignored me. She struck up a conversation with the other woman but turned her back to me to make it obvious that I was not included in the conversation. I normally work with the other woman when we have 4 on, so I went down to our wing and began to stock our supply cart for the night. Then the other woman and I went down and grabbed all of the linen carts from laundry. When I was pushing the north wing cart up the wing, "M" very sharply told me I was working with "R" and walked away, and so it went for the rest of the night. Her attitude towards me did not go unnoticed by "R" and the other woman and they both told me she has treated them the same way in the past. "R" said I should ask her what her problem is, but frankly, I just don't care. I've never done anything to this woman except to be nice to her and I"ve always enjoyed working with her. I've never spoken badly about her, so I don't know what her issue is, but it is her issue and hers alone. If someone has an issue with me, I expect them to address the issue with me, not pout about it, not be angry and expect me to chase them down to see what is wrong. I think I'm working with her tonight, so we'll see if she still has an attitude towards me.
Off to finish dinner.