February Goal Recap

1.      Budget – Stick to my spending limits.  I did okay on this.  I’m over budget on gas and books, but I wasn’t expecting gas to skyrocket like it did otherwise I would have upped my budget amount.  I also went out of town which accounted for a little bit more gas than I usually would have spent. I’m over by $30, which is a lot when I only budgeted for $60.  I’ll have to watch my driving over the next couple of weeks and see if I can’t keep this under better control.  And books…well, I can’t say anything other than I do love me some Barnes and Noble. :) I’m under budget in all my other categories (including groceries – mostly because I doubled my budget), so I’m pretty proud of myself.  I really like that Mint.com sends me an email letting me know when I’m over budget.  Overall, I really like Mint.com as it is giving me a great idea of where my money is going.

2.      Food – Try at least one new recipe a week.  I thought I was really off base with this until I went back through and checked my menu plans.  I have, in fact, tried more than four new recipes this month including (but not limited to) these awesome rolls, the frittata I blogged about, and the poppy seed chicken casserole Mom and I made for our family dinner last night.  I also busted out one of my favorite cookbooks for a quick chicken recipe that turned out to be delicious.  

3.      Blogging – Move to my own domain name! This is a big, fat fail, which I’m sure you noticed.  Blogging sort of slide by the wayside this month since work was so busy.

4.      Social – Make plans with friends and stick to them.  I smashed this goal to smithereens.  I don’t think I’ve been as social this month as I’ve been in a very long time.  I made plans, I stuck to them, I made new friends, I had social plans more than once a week, I had a date, the list keeps on going.  Next month also looks to be very busy as I have invitations to a wedding, an engagement party, friends coming in from out of town, and a trip to the beach planned. 

5.      Personal – Get back to doing my quiet times.  Another failure, mostly because I keep falling asleep.  I think maybe I need to change up the time.  I’ve tried mornings (I’m so not a morning person) and before bed isn’t working either, so maybe sometime right after work?

How did you do on your February goals?

Menu Plan Monday

This week is dedicated to eating what I already have on hand.  I needed a lot of staples at the store this week (stuff for breakfast, flour, chips, etc) so I decided, in order to meet my grocery budget (which I still didn't - oops), I would make my menu based on what I already had in the house and aim for a no-waste week.  

Sunday: Dinner with my parents - Poppy seed chicken casserole, rice, sauteed veggies

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Leftover spinach cream sauce with pasta

Wednesday: TBD - it's my mom's birthday and I want to make her something special

Thursday: Leftovers or Sweet Potato and Vegetable Tian (bumped from last week)

Is anyone else cooking from the freezer/pantry this week?

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

And The Winner Is...

The winner of my "blog-a-versary" giveaway, according to a random number selected by RANDOM.ORG, is...

Allie!!

Congratulations Allie! Please email me at lizy1285 (at) gmail (dot) com so I can send you your $25 Barnes and Noble gift card!

Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate one year of blogging.  Here's to another fabulous year!

Weekly Wanderings

Weekly Wanderings: What I've Found While Wandering Around the Blogosphere

Food:

Capturing butter heaven: making baker’s croissants – I’ve always wanted to make croissants and this post makes it seem doable.  But I’m still terrified.  Plus it seems really time consuming.  Has anyone attempted croissants from scratch?

Basil Garlic Chicken – Basil. Garlic. Chicken.  Enough said.  What could be better?  Oh yeah, if you make a pan sauce with some wine and cream.  Yum.

Jam-Filled Cupcakes – I’m thinking this would be super simple to do with a boxed mix to dress up an ordinary cupcake.  Plus I love me some yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil – Spring…I need it now.  We may be having spring-like weather here in Alabama, but what I’m really craving are spring foods.  Fresh veggies, grilled meat, and lemon.  Lots and lots of lemon.  Maybe this dish will help me make it through until April when the farm stands start up again.

Everything else:

Flying the Romance Flag with Pride – Some praise for the fabulousness that is the romance genre.  If you aren’t reading romance, really you are missing out.

The Blind Teaching the Reader: An Interview - Many librarians (especially public librarians) are familiar with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), but for those of you who aren't aware of the problems blind and physically handicapped persons face when try to read or access information, you should read this interview from Sarah Wendell with an actual blind reader.  It's rare that you come across this sort of thing, and it brings to light a whole new set of issues that I never considered.  

Babysitter Bag + Note Sheet Printable - if you have a child who is old enough to start babysitting, you should check out this post.  I wish I had had something like this when I first started babysitting; it would have helped tremendously, I think.

Handwriting Meme – I posted my Handwriting Meme on Sunday night and tagged a few people, but I thought I should link up to everyone I tagged who’s participated and few others.  It’s really cool to see how this is spreading around the blogosphere and to see everyone’s handwriting!  Here are the posts from Cate, Christine, Ashley, Reese, and Amy.  And I didn’t tag her in my post, but I would really like to see Megg from The Not-So Desperate Housewife do this as well!

This post is linked to Friday Favorites. 

Don't forget to enter my “blog-a-versary” giveaway for your chance to win a $25 Barnes and Noble giftcard!! The giveaway ends today at 11:59 PM!

Food Waste Friday

Have you entered my “blog-a-versary” giveaway for your chance to win a $25 Barnes and Noble giftcard?  The giveaway ends today at 11:59 PM!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a food waste post.  This is due to several reasons; one, I’ve been hugely swamped at work (thank goodness it should be calming down soon!), two, I haven’t been cooking as much due to being lazy, being too busy, or having too many leftovers, and three, I’ve been a little embarrassed.   

Over the past two weeks I’ve thrown away more food that I ever thought possible.  It was absolutely terrible last week and included me throwing out bread.  BREAD!  I was horrified that I allowed bread to grow moldy.  I guess that’s what you get for thinking one person (who doesn’t eat sandwiches all that often) could go through an entire loaf of bread alone.  Oh well.  Live and learn, I guess.

This week isn’t so bad.  

On the top are some canned artichokes I used in a pasta dish weeks ago and sort of forgot about.  I had planned to make a pizza and then I never got around to it.  They smell a little funny, so it’s time to toss them.  In the bottom container is some leftover dip from a party I threw on Valentine’s Day.  It’s probably still okay, but it’s got sour cream and mayo in it and it’s been in there almost two weeks.  Better to be safe than sorry.  Plus, I’m not going to eat it, so why wait until it starts to smell?

I also have some pizza that I ordered on Sunday night in the fridge.  It still looks and smells okay, but I’m a little unsure.  Does anyone know how long pizza will last in the fridge?  Can I eat it tomorrow or should I throw it out?

What did you waste this week?

This post is linked to The Frugal Girl.

A Thursday Library Rant

Have you entered my “blog-a-versary” giveaway yet?  It ends on Friday!!

Note: I started this rant on today’s open thread at Agnostic, Maybe and I’m finishing it up here. 

There has been SO. MUCH. TALK. about technology training in library school, and while that is so great and wonderful and necessary for some jobs, it is not necessary for mine.

I'm a solo hospital librarian working at a not-for-profit, community-based, teaching hospital.  My main users are residents and attending physicians, but I also work with nurses, pharmacists, and administration.  I spend my days doing literature searches, finding and sending articles, maintaining my collection, helping out with research and grant writing, and teaching instruction classes.  I do classic library work.  My job description and my actual duties (as they sometimes - er, always - differ) have nothing to do with programming, web design (in fact I'm not even allowed to touch the website), or anything tech related past putting paper in the copier and turning on and off my computer. 

If I had been required to take a lot of technology classes for my MLIS, I would have of course done so and probably been a more well-rounded librarian, but at this point in my career it would have been a complete waste of time.  I may need it for a future job, but let's face it, by the time I move on, things will have already changed so much that what I learned in school would be useless.

The skills I need for my job are good reference skills, cataloging/indexing (although most of what I do is copy cataloging, knowing how NLM indexes articles for PubMed is so helpful), and customer service skills. 

Which actually brings me a really great point.  Customer service skills and how incredibly important they are. 

I’ve said before that my job is 1/3 library skills and 2/3 people skills.  I can teach anyone (well, anyone with a good head on their shoulders and a desire to learn) how to do library work.  But I can’t teach anyone how to be a librarian.  Because being a librarian isn’t about doing library work.  Being a librarian is about being a service professional.  You are providing a service to your users/patrons/customers/whatever you call them.  And your users/patrons/customers/whatever are people.  And if you don’t like people then why do you want to be a librarian?

People use libraries and librarians help these people.  So it would make sense that librarians should actually like and be good with people, right? 

Apparently that's not always the case.

I was reading a blog post the other day (now I can’t remember where so if you know, please put the link in the comments) about how shocked someone was when people were sharing, on that first day of library school (you know where you have to stand up and say why you’re there), that they went to library school because they like to read and/or because they like books. 

Getting back to my original point (I had one someone), these are the kind of people we should be concerned about going to library school.  Not people who are technologically-illiterate, but people who don’t know what it means to be a librarian.  (Side note: read this comment for a great idea on how to fix this problem.) Because being a librarian is not about liking books or programming or being great at twitter.  Those are all great qualities, but what makes a good librarian is someone who is helpful, who is genuinely interesting in assisting and teaching users how best to access their information, and who actually likes working with people.   

Unless you are a cataloger or in IT; then you can sit in your office and do whatever you want to do, however you want to do it, because, let’s face it, we need you desperately.

That’s the end of my rant.  Thoughts?

Tasty Tuesday: A Year in Review

Don’t forget to enter my “blog-a-versary” giveaway for your chance to win a $25 Barnes and Nobel giftcard! 

When I started blogging, I knew I wanted to share recipes, but I never thought it would turn into one of my favorite things to do.  I love sharing new and old family favorite recipes and I especially love hearing what you thought about it.  

I thought that, in the spirit of my “blog-a-versary”, I would share the five most viewed recipes on my blog.  

The Best Macaroni and Cheese on Earth

Mushroom and Spinach Pasta

(I keep forgetting to take a picture of this! I eat it too fast because it's so yummy!)

Pumpkin Cobbler

Buttermilk Banana Bread

Mario’s Baked Ziti

It doesn’t surprise that these are the most viewed recipes; they are most definitely some of my favorites.  Personally, I’m super fond of the M&M cookies! The Mushroom and Spinach Pasta is the number one recipe that brings people to my blog and the second most popular post I’ve ever written.  It’s really good and very simple, so if you haven’t checked it out, you should do so immediately! 

Do you have a favorite recipe, mine or otherwise?  I would love to hear about it!