Shelly’s Journal

The Fridge….

I’m actually pretty good about keeping the fridge clean. I have a tendency to wipe it out when it’s empty - like on the day before I go grocery shopping - or even the morning before I go. But I’m absolutely Type A about the organization of it. It helps me keep a feel for what’s there so we can use it before it goes bad. Even my husband isn’t quite sure where stuff goes….

Since we’ve gotten back from the trip, I haven’t really got it to the place I wanted it to be, mostly because of all the fresh produce we’ve been getting via farm stands (Note: Our CSA has closed its doors this year due to some pretty catastrophic stuff happening there.) I took everything out, wiped down all the shelves, and threw out a few things that needed to go. And then I put everything in the Shelly way.

What’s the Shelly Way:

Top Shelf: Drinks - Milk, water filter pitcher, juice and other; Bigger sized leftover container - usually salad
Middle Shelf: Left side is dairy - yogurt, sour cream, ricotta cheese, extra butter and shredded cheese. Right side is usually grapes, strawberries, and other left overs.
Bottom Shelf: Left side is extra produce these days. Right side is leftovers.
Vegetable Crisper
Fruit Crisper
Door - Top shelf has eggs on one side with deli meats and cheese and the opened bags of shredded cheese, also hot dogs. Other side has butter and yeast. I have stick butter and garlic in the little bin up top.
Middle Shelf has mayo, salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, syrups, lemon/lime juice
Bottom Shelf has salsa, pickles, jellies and jams, soy sauce, other randoms stuff that gets less use but has long shelf life.

And that’s my fridge.

I also took a few minutes to shore up the freezer. I recently wiped it out, so I just did a little touch up on the door shelves that have coffee and rice in them. And I was done.

I’m still doing all my regular stuff, too and today that includes: 2-3 loads of laundry, vacuuming of downstairs, picking up toys, cleaning up kitchen, making hummus, making meals for the kids, making a big meal for dinner, reading books and exploring with boys, baths and bedtime for little boys, walking the dog and other random stuff that pops up.

Oh, my glamorous life!

Here’s what I’m making tomorrow:

I’ll be toasting up some pita chips in the oven to go along with it…yum, yum.

Back to the bathrooms….I hit the kids bathroom and our master bath today. Both are old and the enamel has worn some from the tubs - most noticeably in ours where it’s impossible to make that tub look clean. It is one of the reasons that I find myself “skipping the tub” in our bathroom. Our little 4×4 floor is a quick scrub even with the added toilet. Our vanity is in the bedroom and should be replaced, but cleans up okay. Actually, I think a new caulking up there would make it look a little better.

The boys bathroom has similar issues with older fixtures that just won’t come clean. I think my biggest inhibitor was the 4-year-old commentator giving the play by play on cleaning and asking a million questions. I finally kicked him out to finish up.

And now I’m done. Two more days this week…hmmmmmm.

It’s funny that I’m back posting on Turbo Jam again. But, it’s the biggest - and I do mean biggest - traffic generator on my little blog. Since the first of the year more than 7,000 folks have stopped by to read one or both of my two posts on the subject:

Turbo Jam Review
Turbo Jam vs. Cathe Freidrich

A few weeks ago, a faithful turboite left a comment about her amazing success with TJ, and attributed my bias of the product to bonus features on the DVD. Surprisingly, I have not yet divested myself of the video set. It has been sitting in a padded envelope next to the computer for the better part of the last 6 months with a destination of ebay. (I’ve actually toyed with doing a giveaway on my fitness blog, but I feel a little funny giving away a product that I do not endorse.)

One Tuesday morning, I planned to do one of my cardio DVDs. Most often I am running or lifting weights, but every once and a while, I just want something simple that raises my heart rate. I thought that maybe TJ really wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. After all, it was a brand new year and I had new and different fitness goals. It couldn’t hurt to try it.

My workout area is on our screen porch. I cleared the center of the porch of all toys, shoes, weights and other paraphernalia that ultimately gets dragged around out there. My kids were enjoying their morning hour of PBS just on the other side of the open French door. I grabbed my water bottle and loaded up the DVD.

I decided to go for the 45 minute Cardio Party. I got through all the warning and copyright screens to the video introduction. The hair on the back of my neck stood up with the “party” song that plays during this segment. Next, I watched the intro clips of all of the perky turboites having a blast during TJ. Where’s the FFWD button on my remote?

Okay, let’s get down to the serious workout.

I got through the warm up without much of a hitch. Then the instructor said those words that almost sent me to the “off button” - “Get your groove on.” I’m sorry, but I’m not here to groove, I’m here to sweat, work my tail off, push my limits. I never recovered. 15 minutes into the thing, I turned it off and went to a Tae Bo DVD that I’d won online a year ago. It wasn’t a particularly tough workout, but I like Billy Blanks, and I really felt like I was working out. Things were more controlled. He gave me all the information I needed to do my moves correctly and reinforced it. I could feel the muscles actually getting a workout with certain exercises. The difference - I felt like TJ is just like dancing and kicking around the living room (or in my case, the back porch). Maybe like, Turbo Pajama Party or something goofy. With the Tae Bo workout, I was focused on working various muscles through the routine.

No, I’m not crazy. I really don’t like TJ. It doesn’t represent anything that I want in a workout, and I am ashamed that I actually spent money on this thing. And to Meredith, who lost bou coup weight using it - good for you. You go girl. But just remember, there are other fish (or workouts) in the sea. What works for you, might now work for me. (And vice versa.)

One little note. Since I’ve been doing some more Tae Bo after I looked at TJ again, I noticed something. The way that Billy Blanks teaches punches and kicks is WAY different than what you see on TJ. It’s like night and day. The one area that popped for me was the speedbag routine he worked through. All through the routine, he is urging you not to bounce, but to focus and concentrate on the movements. In TJ, we are bouncing and grooving doing the speed bag… So who do you believe? The TJ chick, or Billy Blanks - member of the Karate Hall of Fame with 32 martial arts titles? Hmmmm. And as a 41 year old with a few aches and pains - form is everything to me. I’ve got to do it right.

Let’s just say this isn’t the only discrepancy I noticed….

So, nope, nothing’s changed. It’s still crap in my book.

By the way, I am writing this because I have struggled with finding fun exercises to do at home, and I don’t want people to get caught up in the hype of things or even take my opinion on what the best workout DVDs are. TJ is hype. A great way to preview exercise DVDs is to check them out from your local library - or Netflix. I previewed a couple of DVDs on Netflix before deciding to buy. And the thing I love about Cathe Freidrich is that she shows you EVERY single exercise on her website of any of her DVDs. So you can see what you’re getting into. No testimony or sales pitches - just workouts.

I hope this at least helps someone who is confused in the world of workouts.

I’m hard pressed to believed that I’m still in it. Really, cleaning is the thing I hate most. My philosophy is, if it doesn’t have mold on it, it’s fine. Other than vacuuming, cooking, laundry and occasional bathroom wipe down, I’m totally not a cleaner. Too many better things to do.

So while I had the upstairs bathrooms in my sites for today, I made a shift this morning in the midst of a pile of ants on the counter. What the heck are they after? (No, we haven’t bug bombed yet. I’m told this weekend, maybe.) Maybe I just need to wipe down everything in the kitchen area.

I did. I also cleaned the window over the kitchen sink, which to my recollection has never been thoroughly wiped down. Then I did the counters, backsplash and cabinets along with a few big wall spots and switchplates. This took more than an hour, which is okay.

Doing the kitchen in stages will definitely help me get through it and concentrate on one thing at a time.

I have one question for my readers. Would you keep a toaster that has crumbs thickly stuck to the bottom inside of the toaster? I slide out the tray, turned it upside down, but the bottom part of the toaster is still caked thick with crumbs. I’m thinking about opening it up to try and clean it. Would you? We really don’t use it much, but I’m just worried that it’s too much of a fire hazard.

Now I have all my ingredients set out for tonight’s dinner - ziti bake. But first, we have a thunderstorm moving through and I have a dog in a panic that needs to be dealt with and a little boy who needs to come out of his crib.

I don’t know how some mom’s make their day seem so exciting - not that looking at my semi-sparkling kitchen isn’t exciting….

I am challenging myself to clean something for a minimum 30 minutes every day beyond my usual cleaning cycle. I will delve to every nook and cranny. I will scrub, dust and remove dirt. I will do this M-F for the next 4 weeks during Little E’s naptime.

Today, I cleaned the downstairs bathroom. It was a start.

Tomorrow, I hope to clean my two upstairs bathrooms - which may take a little longer than 30 minutes.

I also have a fitness challenge going on this month. Read about it on my other blog.

I always wanted to leave my hometown when I was growing up. My actual hometown was tucked in among a string of various sized small towns ranging in populations from 300 to 7,000. All of these towns popped up along the iron range - the length of the largest iron vein in the world (I believe - that’s what the signs say.)

From the late 1800s until the 1960s, mining was money in the area. The hills on the south side of the highway are not hills, but iron ore slag piles now long overgrown with trees and bushes that cover their rust red rocky faces. You’ll still get red on your shoes in some locations. I kind of chuckled this weekend when I pulled on my running shoes and noticed a light red ring around the edge of my soles.

After the mines closed, the towns died. Slowly, one by one the businesses that once dotted these places have disappeared and become more centralized in the largest town. As I ran the streets of residential areas, I saw buildings that looked like they had store fronts at one time. I wondered what they could be - a grocery store, gas station, shoe store or other business. I knew one had to have been a garage of some kind with it’s big overhead doors. Funny to think that people live there now.

On one back street I discovered a church that I had never seen before. It wasn’t new at all, but old. There it stood tucked away among the houses - still open and functioning. Yet there were other buildings churches and schools that now housed other things. My old public grade school and jr. high are now apartments. It’s quite funny to see the vehicles parked on the front lawns and playground. I wonder what it’s like inside?

I walked the streets of the downtown in the largest of the cities there. As a teenager we walked up and down those streets day in and out. Yet, I struggled to remember what was where - the shoe store, the card shop, the old Montgomery Wards and Sears Catalog centers. JcPenneys is now a gym/car dealership. The old Carlson’s Grocery store houses a carpet center. But so many other things are gone - the jewelry shops and pharmacies, the little department store on the corner where I often bought my mother necklaces and jewelry for special occasions, the Woolworth-type dime store with the lunch counter and the town’s biggest candy selection. They were all victims of progress and a changing culture.

I still see a few things that make me smile. They still have some of the old-fashioned bakeries there with to-die-for baked goods. I had the most fabulous cannoli when I was there. Also, there are two pasty shops on the main street. Some things will never change. (I had 4 pasties during my 9 days there.) The old pool hall is still there and of course, a wide variety of bars and taverns to choose from. Some of the names have changed, but you can still belly up there.

And there’s the Big Indian, as we call him.

Limited employment opportunities drive the young folks away. The economy is bad. While schools are bursting at the seams here in Virginia, up there, they are closing or consolidating students into centralized location. I ran by the old Norrie grade school that just shut it doors in June. Students will find space in a section of the high school no longer needed due to dwindling numbers.

It’s no surprise I left. But in a way, it hurts to see the place that way. It saddens me. Progress has come, but in it’s wake the entire face of the town has changed.

So while I ran the streets on my vacation, I let the nostalgia eat me up in some ways. I let the memories weigh thick on my mind and my heart. I showed my sons the best parts of what is left and the things that progress will not take away - the lakes and rivers, the forests, the beauty of the place.

We’ll be back. I’ve gone, but I’ll be back.

Bump ran his first race on our vacation. Read all about it over at my fitness blog.

The last day of a big trip is usually a downer of sorts. I always seem to find myself “waiting” to go. It’s a little like Sunday afternoons - the fun and adventure is over and now the hard work looms before you. That’s how my day started on June 30, our last day of vacation. On July 1, I would began the previously mentioned long and exhausting day of air travel with small children. But I was itching, itching to get started. Yet sometimes, it’s at these moments that the most remarkable things happen.

I wanted to take the boys out to the shores Lake Superior. No trip to my hometown is really complete without seeing the vistas of the big lake. It’s an incredible place, and I have many fond memories of it from my youth. We’d postponed a trip several times during the previous week, and this was our last chance.

There are three access points there - S Harbor(the boating place), LG Point (the rock collecting place) and BR Harbor (the pretty place). Each is a little different, having a charm all its own. I really wanted Bump to see the boats, yet they might like rock picking at the Point or the big beautiful bridge at BRH. I hemmed and hawed, finally deciding S Harbor, simply because it was the closest as well.

I had some ghosts at S Harbor. A boy, the boy’s family, a fishing boat, fun times. The End. My fault. Mean Shelly. A weight I’ve carried these many years.

I knew the family still fished there. I knew the name of the boat. While we didn’t really try to find them. The words, “Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom,” sent us their way. As we pulled up to the restroom, in front of the car was “the boat” and the captain (the father of my former boyfriend).

And in a moment, I took a chance.

The weight I had been carrying around was lifted that day, in many ways. I wrote earlier that you can’t go home again. But I did. I went back to that time and reclaimed the good things from it. I learned a lot about grace, love and forgiveness.

And my last day was in many ways the most amazing day of my trip.

I’m back in Virginia - have been for nearly 24 hours. It’s good to be home, but lots to do. I went to bed at 6:30 last night. What an easy way to adjust back to the time change. But truthfully, I was exhausted from a day that started with a 2+ hour car ride to the airport and was followed by 2 flights with 2 small children, and one near miss on the connection. We finished off our journey with an hour drive from the Richmond airport. Not to mention that I didn’t sleep well the night before.

Now I’m back and trying to get organized. I’ve sorted through the mail and unpacked the bags. I got a load of laundry done and a little grocery shopping. It feels strange to be back in a way. I guess I most enjoyed the absence of day-to-day household responsibilities.

I see my sewing machine sitting there. She doesn’t know that I have 11 yards of fabric needing to be turned into beautiful things. She’ll find out soon.

Meanwhile, Gil has the rest of the week off, so we’ll be family communing some. I’ll be posting some stories and trip inspired ramblings over the next week or so as I have time.

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I had a wonderful day!