Working mom

I have some news today that I’m so excited to share. For the past few months, Tony and I have been discussing the possibility of me finding a part-time job after Judah turns 1 at the end of this month. Now that we’ve bought a house, we really want to ramp up our efforts to pay down our remaining student loan debt, and the easiest way to do that is to increase our income.

However, the idea of me working even part-time was complicated for a number of reasons. It wouldn’t make sense to pay the high cost of daycare for me to work part-time, but I’m still not ready to look for full-time work at this point. Most part-time jobs also require late evening and weekend hours and hectic holiday schedules, which didn’t seem like it would work well for our family. Tony’s schedule is one of the things I love most about his job. He’s lucky to get a lot of paid time off and a schedule that has him home more than the average full-time worker. We didn’t want to give up that time together as a family.

But yesterday I was offered an amazing opportunity that will allow me to increase our income without dealing with all of those complications. Beginning in January, I’ll be an adjunct professor at the college where my husband teaches.

I’ll be teaching a personal finance course through the college’s life skills department. Usually they prefer to hire people with business or accounting degrees to teach this course, but they agreed to interview me despite my Journalism degree because of my experience writing this blog. I met with them yesterday for an interview and a brief teaching demonstration, and they seem to think I’ll be a good fit, because they offered me the job!

They’re scheduling my classes around Tony’s schedule so childcare won’t be an issue, and I’ll have all the same time off that he does. I’ll only be out of the house a few hours a week in the afternoons. I’ll also have the option to teach additional classes online in future semesters, which means I’d be able to work from home. And I’ll get to talk about one of my very favorite subjects — money. It’s perfect.

I started this blog three years ago as a way to share my experiences with other people and hopefully make a little money at the same time. I never knew it would lead to such an incredible opportunity. And there’s no way I would have stuck with it for this long without such an amazing community of readers cheering me on, so thank you. Your continued support means the world to me.

Chicken and broccoli stir fry

Every once in a while, I get a craving for Chinese food. What I do not crave, however, is the MSG and other generally yucky stuff in Chinese takeout. I’d also prefer not to spend a third of our weekly grocery budget on one meal.

We found this recipe one night when I was craving Chinese, and it’s since been added to our regular meal rotation. We modified it to cut out some of the pricier ingredients. It seems like a long list, but most of these ingredients are things we keep around the house anyway. Since it requires such a small amount of Hoisin, a single bottle (purchased from the international food aisle in the grocery store for around $3) can be used for several different meals.

This homemade version is healthier than Chinese takeout, and even more delicious. Enjoy!

Chicken and broccoli stir fry

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 bunch of broccoli
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1-inch of ginger, peeled and minced
  • 1 Tbsp. corn starch
  • 2 Tsp. hoisin sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce, plus more for marinating
  • ½ cup vegetable stock (or water)
  • ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flake (adjust for taste)
  • 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • Salt & freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 ½ tsp. brown sugar (optional)
  • Sesame seeds (optional)

Cut the chicken into cubes and marinate in a small portion of soy sauce (approximately 2 Tbsp). Set aside. Chop the broccoli into bite-sized florets, then peel the stems, cutting the stems into half-moons. Stir together the corn starch, vegetable stock, soy sauce, hoisin, red pepper flake, and brown sugar.

Heat 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil in the bottom of a wide skillet or wok. Put the chicken into the skillet, sprinkle with black pepper, and cook until entirely done. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add the other 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil if necessary and sauté the broccoli, stirring constantly. When the broccoli begins to turn bright green, add the garlic and ginger. Continue stirring until the broccoli is slightly softened, bon’t overcook the broccoli or allow the garlic to burn. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add the sauce to the skillet and allow it to come to a simmer. Once the sauce is thickened, stir in the broccoli and chicken and cover in the sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice.

Photo credit

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Broccoli and cauliflower mac and cheese

This is one of our favorite go-to comfort food recipes. Who doesn’t love homemade macaroni and cheese? While adding fresh vegetables to the dish doesn’t counteract the butter, cheese, and whole milk, it does add lots of nutrients and flavor, and it’s a great way to sneak some veggies into a picky kid’s diet.

This recipe was originally inspired by a very similar recipe for cauliflower mac and cheese from Real Simple. Tony simplified it a little, and fattened it up for flavor, but you could easily use reduced fat cheese and 1% milk to make it a little healthier.

Broccoli and cauliflower mac and cheese

  • 12 oz. macaroni (or another short tube pasta)
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 bunch of broccoli
  • 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • A pinch of grated nutmeg
  • 8 ounces of sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 1/4 cup bread crumbs or Panko
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

Bring a gallon of water to boil over high heat in a large pot as you cut the cauliflower and broccoli into florets. Generously salt the water once it has reached a boil.

In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted, pour in the flour and stir until it and the butter form a roux (a thick paste). Add the milk slowly, stirring regularly. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer. Sprinkle in the pinch of nutmeg. Once the liquid has become thick and creamy, lower the heat. Stir in the cheese one handful at a time.

Cook the pasta in the boiling water until it is close to al dente. Add the broccoli and cauliflower to the boiling pasta and stir them all together. Let the vegetables boil with the pasta for two to three minutes, or until the broccoli has turned bright green and the cauliflower has begun to soften. Strain everything into a colander.

Place the pasta and vegetables back into the pot, pour in the cheese sauce, and stir to combine. Add plenty of black pepper. Transfer to a large casserole or baking dish. Top with the bread crumbs, parsley, and Parmesan.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Photo credit

Quick and easy ways to feel less cluttered

It seems like I’m always battling clutter of some kind. Papers stacked up on the table and desks; boxes of stuff I’ve been meaning to sell or donate for months; junk mail; random things that don’t have a place, so they just sit out in the open driving me nuts. When my environment is cluttered, even simple tasks can feel overwhelming. With the holidays fast approaching, I’m craving some peace and tranquility. So I’ve been working on getting the worst of my clutter under control.

Here are a few problems I’m looking to solve. Some of them are easy — I just have to motivate myself to do it already. Some of them require some creativity, and I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Get paper clutter under control.

I think most of us struggle with paper clutter to some degree, but our problem is pretty extreme. At any given time, my English professor husband is buried under 50-200 student essays and papers. When they overrun his desk, they end up on the kitchen table, the coffee table, and even the living room floor.

Thankfully, he’s mindful of how crazy this drives me, so he only scatters essays when he’s in the process of grading them, and he puts them away when he takes a break. But with so much necessary paper around, I feel more sensitive about the unnecessary paper. Junk mail, old bills, coupons, magazines, and other junk stack up and make everything seem less tidy. Here are a few strategies I’m trying to employ to get it under control:

  • Deal with junk mail immediately. It’s easier said than done, but I need to start sorting mail immediately when it comes into the house and putting junk straight into the recycling bin. I have enough paper to sort without making things worse by keeping junk around.
  • Create a paper sorting station. As much as I hate it, there is a certain amount of paper I have to keep around at least for a while. I need some sort of solution for sorting and organizing it so I can keep it off my kitchen table. I’ve seen lots of options on Pinterest, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle it. If I keep things sorted, it will make it less complicated to organize it and keep it under control.
  • Go paperless when possible. I pay all of my bills online, and I don’t have any real use for paper bills. Just like the marketing emails, I need to be proactive about eliminating this paper clutter completely. In the coming weeks, I’m going to start signing up for paperless billing for every bill I possibly can.

Unsubscribe from marketing emails.

Judah is almost one year old, and I still receive annoying pregnancy-related newsletters in my email inbox. I also receive newsletters for stores where I have no interest in shopping. It’s overwhelming to wake up to 50 new email messages, and 45 of them are junk. Plus I’m always afraid I’m going to miss something important, because it’s buried in the junk. I’m resolving to hit “unsubscribe” on marketing mail that doesn’t interest me rather than just putting it off by deleting it.

Tidy up.

I’ve gotten a lot better about this in the past few weeks, and it’s done wonders for my sanity. I deep clean the house once a week, and I take a few minutes three times a day to keep it tidy. It’s simple enough to walk through the house and put things where they belong a few times a day, and it makes the house feel clean throughout the week even though I don’t have time to clean intensively. I also do the dishes three times a day instead of once in the evening, which seems to help me feel more organized.

Just do it.

We have things laying around the house that we’ve been planning to do something about for months or even years. There are items that we’ve moved three or four times that we never use. Every time I see them, I think, “I need to donate or sell that.” But then it gets shoved into a closet or under a bed, and I put off dealing with it for another 6 months. I need to suck it up and take care of that stuff already. All it does is take up space.

What strategies do you use for conquering clutter?

Photo credit

Shutterfly photo card contest winners

Thanks everyone for entering and making this one of the most popular contests I have hosted. Unfortunately, there can only be three winners. Selected randomly by comment number, here are the lucky readers:

Ida

Andra

Karen

I’ve contacted them by email, but if you’re one of the winners and you haven’t received an email from me, please get in touch with me so I can send you your promo code.

If you’d like another opportunity to win, head over to my friend Jes’s blog and enter there. If you’re a blogger, you can also register here for the opportunity to receive 25 photo cards for hosting your own contest.

Have a great weekend!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday – Apple Cider Pancakes

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then you know my husband is the cook in our house. It’s not that I can’t cook; I know my way around the kitchen. It’s just that my husband is a more inventive and more accomplished cook, and since it’s something he enjoys doing, he cooks dinner 95% of the time. It’s okay with me, because one less thing, right? I enjoy baking every now and then when I get an itch to do some mixing.

I recently decided that keeping all of his delicious concoctions to myself is a crime. So I’ve decided to share some of his recipes with all of you. I do the menu planning, so I usually find a recipe that looks good, and then Tony adapts it however he sees fit. Sometimes the end result doesn’t look a lot like the recipe that inspired it, but it’s always delicious. Sometimes he throws things together completely from his own imagination.

So I’m going to start sharing recipes on Wednesdays. I may not have something to share every week, though I’m going to try. I also promise to start working on my food photography so I can share my own photos instead of other people’s Flickr photos of similar meals. If you have any questions or comments to chime in, please do! In the future, I may figure out how to do a Mr. Linky thing, though I imagine the last thing the Internet needs is another recipe link-up.

Without further ado, here’s the first recipe. Pancakes are a long tradition in our house. Tony makes them almost every weekend. Sometimes he gets a little bored with his tried and true buttermilk pancake recipe, and he adds things to the batter to mix things up. Last weekend, he stumbled on a smash hit that’s perfect for a chilly fall morning. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Apple Cider Pancakes

  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • ¼ cup apple cider
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • Sweet apple, peeled and grated (1 large or 2 small)
  • 2 Tbsp. melted butter

Directions

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine milk, apple cider, egg, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Add grated apple, and mix everything until just combined, but don’t over-stir.

Melt butter in a non-stick skillet. Pour melted butter into batter, leaving a small amount in the pan. Cook pancakes until golden brown on both sides. Serve hot with warm maple syrup and a glass of apple cider.

Photo credit

Photo credit

Win 25 free holiday photo cards from Shutterfly!

Sorry! This contest is now closed.

I realize it’s not even Halloween yet, but yes, it’s already time to talk about holiday greeting cards.

I just love this promotion, and I’m so excited to be participating in it again this year. Only now there’s a twist: I have three promo codes for 25 free custom holiday cards to give away to my readers!

Last year, when Shutterfly offered me the opportunity to write about their new holiday cards in exchange for some free photo cards, I jumped at the offer. I had a baby on the way, and I planned to use our holiday cards as birth announcements. I loved the way they turned out, and the quality was outstanding. Here’s the design we chose last year:

I can’t believe he was ever that tiny.

I looked through their selection this year, and they have lots of options for holiday cards, greeting cards, and photo gifts. I can’t make any promises obviously, but I was impressed with their shipping last year. I ordered at the beginning of December — the height of holiday card season — and I still received my cards in plenty of time to send them out before Christmas.

So how can you get 25 free photo cards for yourself? Just leave a comment on this post telling me how you plan to use your free cards. You can use them as Christmas cards, holiday cards, birth announcements, everyday greeting cards, or something entirely different. The best part about customized photo cards is you can really make them your own.

I’ll randomly choose three winners who will receive promo codes for 25 free cards each. Winners will be selected Thursday night at 9 p.m. and announced Friday morning. Make sure you leave an email address in the space provided when you write your comment so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

In exchange for this blog post, I’m receiving 50 free holiday greeting cards from Shutterfly. Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here.

Borrow Kindle e-books from the public library for free

First things first, thank you so much for all the kind wishes for my birthday! I meant to post a thank you yesterday, but our power was out most of the day. I wasn’t about to type a blog post letter by letter on my phone’s screen. Anyway, those of you who left well wishes and kind words really helped make a wonderful day even better. Life as a stay-at-home mom can get a little lonely during the day, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have a support network in you, so I won’t even try. Just know I appreciate it so much.

Now before I write this post, I have to get something out of the way. I received no compensation whatsoever for this post. I’m just a Kindle enthusiast, and I want to share with you how much I’ve enjoyed it.

When we purchased our Kindle earlier this year, it was for my husband. He had a fancy new job, and we had some room in our budget for something like that for the first time in a while, so we splurged a little. He wasn’t planning to spend money on e-books. He’s an English professor, and he teaches and reads a lot of classics, which are often available for free once the copyright expires on them. He uses the Kindle mostly to read free books, and he occasionally buys a book if it goes on super sale.

I wasn’t really sold on the e-book thing at first. I really enjoy the feel of a book in my hands and the smell of the paper and blah blah blah I’m a nerd. Besides, I couldn’t stand the thought of paying $5-$10 for an e-book if I could easily borrow it from the library for free.

But about a month ago, there was a series of books that I really wanted to read, and the waiting list at the library was a mile long. All three e-books were available on Amazon for under $5, and I had some SwagBucks gift cards, so I figured I’d give the Kindle a try. I loved it. It was easier to read in bed without contorting myself into strange configurations or flipping back and forth from side to side so I could see the book without holding it up too high (bed readers, you know what I’m talking about).

I was officially converted,  but I still couldn’t bear to pay the high prices for Kindle books when my public library will let me borrow them for free. Less than a week after I finished that series of books, though, I found out that Kindle books are now available through public libraries throughout the country. We have an awesome library system in our area that gives us access to libraries in three different counties through a reciprocal borrowing agreement. They all have different collections of e-books, and while the selection is nowhere near as good as the paper book collection, I’ve already found quite a few books I’m interested in reading, and they’re adding new titles all the time.

With the drop in prices for the new Kindles (which my husband predicted, and now he’s mad that we bought ours months ago for $40 more. Pfft.), now really is a great time to invest in the device if your library offers e-book borrowing. The introductory-level model is only $79*.

So why Kindle? You can read Kindle books on your computer or smartphone without paying for the device. There are also several other e-readers on the market that have been participating in this library-loan program for a while now (the Nook and the Sony e-reader are two popular alternatives). For me, the e-ink screen really makes all the difference. I struggle with insomnia, and research shows that looking at a backlit screen before bed can interfere with sleeping patterns. I definitely notice a difference in the quality of my sleep when I put away my computer and phone and read a book at bedtime instead. The Kindle mimics a real book and has no backlighting on the screen, which means it won’t interfere with sleep.

Aside from the public library, there are a few places I go to look for cheap or free e-books.

Project Gutenberg offers free downloads of classic books for a variety of e-reader formats.

Open Library offers free classic books, too.

The Amazon store has a separate section for free books. They also offer a daily deal on one title every day at a significant discount.

Pixel of Ink publishes a daily newsletter with free or discount e-books.

You can loan Kindle books to friends simply by sending a book to their email address, and it’s automatically returned to you after 14 days — which is nice if you have deadbeat friends who don’t return borrowed books in a timely manner. (Let me know if you wanna swap! I don’t have many e-books to share, but I have a few I’ve bought with SwagBucks gift cards.)

You can also sign up for ebookfling to share books with strangers, but I’ll be honest and tell you I’m not really sure how that works. I don’t think it’s free, but it’s certainly cheaper than buying new books.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s relatively easy to rack up $5 Amazon gift cards with SwagBucks, and that can be a great way to keep yourself stocked with e-books without affecting your budget.

And, of course, don’t forget to check your public library to see if you can borrow Kindle or other e-books from them.

Do you have an e-reader? Where do you find cheap or free e-books?

Asterisks (*) denote referral links. While no one asked me to write this post or compensated me in any way, I earn a small amount of money for Amazon purchases made through my referral link, and I earn extra SwagBucks when people sign up using my referral link. The more you know!

You say it’s your birthday

Today I turn 27 years old. I do not lament aging, though I suppose it’s easy to say that when you’re only 27. But even at this age, I see friends post on Facebook on their birthdays about how “old” they feel at 27 or 28. I don’t feel that way at all.

My baby-making years have only just begin (don’t worry, I’m thinking three tops). I feel good, healthy, happy. I’m old enough to feel settled, but still young enough that most of my life lays ahead of me. My early 20s were fun, but I’ve always felt like I’ll hit my stride in my 30s. I’m looking forward to 30 in just a few short years, and I think the best is really still ahead.

I know there are many of you out there reading who have never left a comment (I see the hits, but don’t have the comments to show for it!). I wanted to ask you a favor for my birthday. Please say hi! I still don’t have many local mom friends, so I count you guys (not just moms, but all of you reading) in my support group. Tell me something about yourself or just say hi. Don’t be shy!

I’m off to get out of the house with my baby on this lovely day. Then I’ll enjoy a delicious dinner and an adult beverage after the baby is in bed. I hope all of you are feeling this good!