The new year and my kitchen!

I've FINALLY reclaimed my kitchen back from our Yule tree yesterday.  Oh! What a glorious day!  Don't get me wrong.  I loved the Yule tree.  It was very pretty and covered with yummy-delicious candy-canes.  Also, it was the first tree we(Kana, Caleb, and I) bought as a family together.  We all took turns cutting it down and we all decorated it together.

That whole night is a story in itself.  But our apartment is small and my kitchen is small.  So, the tree went where my kitchen table was.

It was hard getting around the darned thing and it left me with even LESS working space than before.  I have virtually no counter space as it is, so all my work is usually done on the table and on a TV tray that I pull out when needed.  With no table, this made baking tough and during the holiday season, I bake a LOT!

My son didn't want the tree to go.  He has such a magical attachment to everything.  It's not like an annoying, obsessive attachment, but he makes friends with everything.  He can sense a spirit in all things, living or dead, and he didn't want his friend, the tree, to leave.

So, I made up a story about the tree wanting to go back home to the woods and he was going to wait outside for a truck to come and take him home.  That worked.  It made me sad, for a moment, though.  It's out of sight and out of mind now, so I'm allowed to enjoy my kitchen with little guilt.

It's all clean and organized- for the most part.  I still have a  few Yuletime stuff that needs to get put away after I go visit with my father next weekend, but I have my space back and am able to tidy again.  Also! For our anniversary, Kana bought me these wonderful cupcake rugs for my kitchen! I put one in front of the stove and one in front of my sink.  Maybe not the best places for things I want to keep clean, but that's were I want them! (I also got this really cute pink mouse for my laptop.) 

So, anyway, the kitchen is clean and I can cook and bake again! Have a tour!

This is the beginning and the end for most of my foodstuffs.  

Food usually starts on the left and meets it end on the right.

 This corner is always changing as I fight the unending battle of organizing

so much stuff into so little space.  Every time I turn around, this household ends up with

more and MORE candy to be shoved somewhere before I give it away to someone else. Also, I own

a lot of kitchen gadgetry that I'm forced to store in boxes and cabinets all over the apartment!

This is Matsumoto.  Kana and I bought him when we first
got our apartment.  He's been a constant in my ever-changing kitchen
as the centerpiece of our table.  It's good to have him back in his rightful place.

And this is that wonderful, itty-bitty kitchen
table that I never thought I would miss so much! Welcome back!

My next thing to bake, and recipe to put up, is checkerboard cookies!  I'll probably get to that today if I get the rest of my chores and errands done at a decent time. That's a big chunk of some of my new years resolutions.

Every other blog is putting up resolutions.  I think I'll do the same.

First and foremost:

I want to take better care of my health.  This includes getting back

into yoga, jogging, eating better, and simply getting out more.  I've 

become lazy(when it comes to working out) over the past year and

I want that trend to end. I'm not too too concerned about losing 

weight, I can't stay a size four forever, But I don't want to gain any

more than I already have.

I want a better job:

Really, this means going back to school, which may or may not happen

this year.  I went to school for a very long time and kept changing 

majors.  This put me in a lot of debt that I'm still fighting to get a handle

on.  So, when I do that, I want to go back to school and finish getting

my cosmetology license.  However, in the mean-time, I want a better job

than the one I have now.  Or, I want my job, that I have now, to get better.

The later may not happen if certain people don't either quit or get fired.

McDonald's isn't all that bad of a place to work.  I've been there

almost a year and am one of the top employees.  I like most of the

people I work with.  I'm good at what I do, and I have a great reputation

with my regular customers(I have a lot), but there is a certain person there,

who happens to be in an authoritorial(I made that word up) position, that

lives to make other people's lives a living hell.  The stress is getting

to me and I've almost had enough.  Maybe I'll go work in a bakery. I would

love that.

Get a handle on my debt:

This doesn't necessarily mean pay all of my debt off, but I want to be

able to be on a regular schedule of paying my bill.  What I'd really like

to do is consolidate all of my loans and make one payment a month.  I'm

not getting any further into debt now (aside from interest), which is good, 

but I'm not really digging my way out of the hole just yet.  This past year

has been all about stabilizing myself.  Now, it's time to climb back into

the black.

Quality time with my family:

I want to improve the quality of the time I spend with my

partner and son.  This  means going out and doing things that

will landmark our lives.  We need to escape from the norm and

defaults that we've fallen into and live like we did when our 

little family was just beginning.  With the past struggle to balance

our spiraling lives, time has been short and stress has been high,

so our time spent together involved board games, movies, and 

occasionally baking together.  But I want to improve on that

now and do more things. Different things that we can look back

on and tell a story about it.  I'm full of stories from previous

years, but last year's stories aren't about fun family times

(well, some are, but they usually carry a grim undertone).  Just like

my bit on debt, last year was about stabilization in not just

money, but in out lives.  Now, I want to build on to our memories

by going on trips, visiting local events, and doing one of a kind things.

Really, I want to have fun and to be able to tighten the bonds

that hold my family together.

Family also means my Father, Mother, Brother, Step-Mom,

Step-Dad, Step-Brother, and all those other people as well.

I don't see them much anymore, and it's been about two years

since I've seen my Mom.  I miss them all.  Last year, my father

was overseas for most of it.  Now that he's back, I want to see

him as often as I can.  I want to see all of my family more and have

bonding time with all the people I love. 

Make my blog something worth reading:

I've always wanted to have something that not just my

family and friends would have a reason to read, visit, or

whatever.  I wanted to have complete strangers come to

me or my webpage, or my e-mail, and comment, praise, 

or constructively criticize. I wanted something that people 

noticed.  I tried with art on a deviant art page.  I like to think

I'm a good artist.  I took art classes during one of my attempted majors.

But I gave up on that, just like a lot of other things.  I never

had the patience, I guess, to make it worth noticing.  I never

took the time to really put it out there.  Well, I want to

change that with this blog.  This means baking more!

When I started the blog, I really had no idea what

I wanted to do with it.  I tried a few things, then deleted

them, then tried something new, and deleted that as

well.  Now, I know what I want to do with it.  I like baking

and sharing and I've had fun making recipe cards and telling people

about them.  I know I've not done a lot of posts that I've kept, but

all of the ones I've done recently, I HAVE kept.  I've stayed

true to writing and I really like doing it.  Not like a 'job like' but

as a hobby(the blog will never take precidence over job and family), 

this is really fun!  So, my resolution for the blog is to get people 

to read it, to like what they read, and to keep up with it. 

So, those are my resolutions.  There are more goals I'd like to accomplish, like getting a new apartment, but they aren't resolutions.  If I make too many, I'll never accomplish anything.  So, the above mentioned, are my resolutions and goals for the year.  They are  my main focus.  If finding a new apartment means not having enough money to get control of my debt, then I will extend my lease on this horrible apartment I'm in right now.  Really, I think this year is going to be a good one.

I'd better start my chores now!