What I Learned in October

First of all, it's podcast Tuesday, so here's your weekly dose of Shafferland storytelling. Enjoy, my friends!!

 Listen here

Secondly, it has somehow come to be the end of October - WHAT?!?!?!!? That is just crazy talk. But it is. It's Halloween (national candy day for me) and tomorrow is NOVEMBER. Nuts.

So in honor of the end of October, I bring to you the things I have learned throughout this fine month. They are quite random in content, and hopefully will enlighten and enrich your life in some way!

1. You can shop at the Goodwill online.

Did you know this? I had no idea! Or if I had an idea, it certainly left me. It seems kind of odd to me, on one hand, because I feel like I want to be able to see the stuff in real life for myself, but on the other hand, it's very intriguing! (Here's the link!)

2. Spaghetti squash is a pretty decent pasta replacement.

I cooked with spaghetti squash for the first time this month, and while I won't lie and say it tastes just like pasta, I will say it is a pretty remarkable replacement. And it certainly was better for my waistline!


3. I like using prepared meal plans.

Also this month, I started using the prepared meal plans from Dashing Dish, and I loved them. They forced me to try new things that I wouldn't have been brave enough to try if I didn't "have" to, and they saved me time in planning interesting menus on my own. I had burned out a bit on my own meal planning, so this was a blessing!

4. Some tiny homes are TOO tiny.

When Ryan and I went to the tiny home show earlier this month, we had the chance to tour three tiny homes, and one was just tooooooooooooooooo tiny for us. I'm okay with minimizing my stuff, but it took minimalism to levels I could never achieve.  

5. I really needed my high school self to know it would be OKAY.

I think this gem my mom uncovered in some cleaning says it all. This girl needed some reassurance. And tweezers.  

6. I retreat better at home.

Last year, I took a day for a "personal/business" retreat to reflect on the previous year and plan for the year to come. Trying to be all trendy and cool, I went to a coffee shop for my adventure, and it turned out to be a huge disaster. I was distracted by everything, I worried that I hadn't purchased enough to "pay" for my table, and I really got very little done. So this year I did the same retreat (for more than one day) but I stayed at home.  It made all the difference in productivity! (For me!)

7. We still can't do "just" a little project without much drama ensuing.

Remember when we lived in Marion, and we wanted to upgrade the bathroom and ended up having to cut into the wall and redo a bunch of pipes? Remember when we lived in Marion and wanted to fix a pipe under the house that had frozen and ended up having to replace all the plumbing in the entire house - clear out to the street? Remember when we lived in Marion and had the new heating installed and ended up having to reinforce the entire second floor ceiling after the installers caused it to sag? So we moved to Kokomo. Remember when we just wanted to paint our garage and the paint can dropped and splattered all over the open garage door, floor, a borrowed pressure washer, and Ryan's head? Remember when we wanted to install new appliances and had to entirely dismantle the fridge to get it in the house and the scratched dishwasher really wasn't scratched (after we installed and uninstalled it)? Well, this summer we planned to paint the railing and beams on our porch. Paint. Just paint. We discovered an area of rot on one of the beams, so this month, a guy came to help Ryan fix that. We discovered way more rot than we knew was there, had to order new beams, and the entire porch had to be dismantled, including the soffit. Yeah. It never ends. Also. I cried. Over all of them.

8. Parsnip French Fries: a surprising win.

In keeping with the aforementioned use of the Dashing Dish meal plans, I happened upon the day when she wanted me to make French Fries out of parsnips. To say I had low hopes would be putting it mildly. I actually had NO HOPE for this recipe. None at all. But I dutifully made them and was shocked out of my mind that they were actually delicious AND tasted like real fries. Even Ryan thought so. (I didn't tell him what they were until he had tried them.) Shut the front door.