Finish This… Week #4

Wednesday, January 29, 2014 by Nicole 19 Comments

Welcome to another week of FINISH THIS… , a link-up hosted by LISA (COASTLINED), JEN (The Arizona Russums), BECKY (The Java Mama) and I.  If you joined us last week, thank you for coming back! If this is your first time, welcome! Be sure you include your blog post in the link-up and invite others to join the fun too. Feel free to share, Pin, tweet, and post to Instagram in order to spread the word. Use the hashtag #finishthislinkup so others can see what you’ve posted.

Don’t have a blog? NO WORRIES! Just answer the prompts in a comment.

1. I use my “green thumb” to …
hail a cab? I have no green thumb related to growing live things, unless growing a baby in my belly for nine months counts. I did not inherit the strand of DNA responsible for keeping plants alive. That’s not to say I don’t work my ass off in my parent’s garden every summer, but having one of my own is out of the question. Three years ago, during a typical Texas summer, record-breaking heat wave no doubt, I got the bright idea to plant flowers and herbs in decorative pots. I got another bright idea: spent two weeks in Kentucky. Then I went to Oklahoma City for a mission trip with the church’s youth. A few weeks later, I went to Haiti on a 10-day mission trip. Did I leave instructions for Husband to water the plant life while I was gone? Of course not. By the time I returned home, what remained looked like it had been cremated. The following spring, Husband installed new landscape material: ROCK. Let’s hope I can keep these stones alive.

2. The secrets to life are…
accept your flaws (and those of everyone else). Nurture healthy, vibrant, and meaningful relationships. Enjoy a thorough sex life with someone who’s worth the time and energy. And always — ALWAYS!!!! — lick the batter bowl. I may have prepared a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday just to eat the dough.

3. I get my money’s worth by…
purchasing quality, even if it means spending a little more, and calculating price per unit on items (i.e. ‘bulk’ is not always cheapest). If you’ve been around my blog long enough, you know I thoroughly enjoy my Le Creuset cookware. I have every kind of material available: stainless, cast iron, and coated porcelain. The cookware is expensive, but it’s excellent quality and I use it every single day.

I’m not a math genius, and I know it’s dumb to get upset at trivial things such as this, but it infuriates me when grocery shoppers don’t pay attention to the unit price or choose ‘convenience’ items. For example, I buy the whole pork loin at Sam’s for about $28.00 then slice it myself into chops. I usually get between 28-40 boneless pork chops, depending on the thickness. I put 6-8 chops in plastic freezer bags, label each bag, and store in the big freezer in the garage. I do the same with boneless chicken breasts. I rarely, if ever, purchase retail beef because we raise our own steers.

Convenience items, to me, are the containers of food already washed and chopped or a whole chicken already butchered. If you spend any time in the kitchen, you should know how to quarter a chicken, slice a pineapple, and dice an onion. The same is true for fruit and vegetable trays. Buy the ingredients, wash and prep them yourself, then arrange on a nice platter … easy-peasy! Plus, you save a LOT of money by doing the (brief) work yourself. I would make one hell of a sous chef because I have mad knife skills and love slicing and dicing!

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, my level of organization is…
seven. My mom would disagree, and I admit my house has areas of clutter, especially the utility room, closets, and the dining room table is covered in mail, stationery, two sweatshirts, and Kamden’s car seat, but I know where 99% of my stuff is stashed and the other one percent is Husband’s crap!

5. A gentleman always…
stands by his woman (Tammy Wynette had it backwards), uses his manners, has a firm handshake, and proves chivalry is not dead. Here are more RULES for being a gentleman. I agree with all of them except the cursing one. If Rhett Butler doesn’t give a damn, then, frankly my dear, neither do I!!!!!!!

6. Handwritten notes are…
absolutely, positively, without a doubt, a must. There is no exception. I support the United States Postal Service by purchasing stamps a roll at a time and spend more at Hallmark than I care to admit. I love sending funny cards for no other reason than to make someone laugh. I’ve done a terrible job at it lately, but I also enjoy sending birthday, anniversary, and Christmas cards to friends and family. For Kamden’s baby shower gifts, I mailed more than 200 handwritten thank-you cards. Yes, they were handwritten on custom, personalized stationery too!

Now it’s your turn! Simply answer these six prompts in a post on your blog *OR* comment below. Join us next Wednesday for another round!!!!

Bloggers, add your post’s URL to the link up!
CHALLENGE: Visit three other blogs and comment on their “Finish This…” post.

Prompts for WEEK FIVE, February 5:

1. I will never outgrow
2. I splurge on
3. My worst habit is
4. My passport represents
5. My most ridiculous fear is
6. My favorite thing to give is