Women and Tools

September 12, 2013 By 4 Comments

So this blog is mostly about my DIY projects with a secondary purpose of documenting my life, and very rarely will I share a rant or a whole post about my feelings… that’s just not my purpose in starting a blog, but yesterday I was reading my Glamour magazine over lunch.  It is a magazine I have subscribed to for several years and I like the balance it strikes in covering both real women who are strong and independent as well as the fashion, makeup and ‘girly’ side of our lives.  This is a balance I try (sometimes more successfully than others) in my life.

I am a woman who loves power tools and manicures. I like when my husband buys me flowers, and when I can fix a running toilet.  I wear both stilettos and work boots; make up and safety glasses.  These things are all me, and in my life one doesn’t contradict the other.  I am unbelievably proud of myself for figuring out how to build a table from scratch, and equally proud of myself when I learned how to untangle the thread from my sewing machine.

But yesterday I read one of their normal monthly ‘columns’ entitled ‘Hey, It’s Okay’.  Its a column I traditionally love, and regularly laugh at and agree with.  Most of they entries finish the Hey, Its Okay… with things like…

  • …to decide that if wearing Uggs is wrong, you don’t want to be right
  • …to shove it in the closet and consider your place cleaned. (all courtesy of Glamour here)

But the first one listed in the October 2013 Magazine was: “… if the only tools you know how to use are an Ikea allen wrench and a flat iron”.  And this got me a little bothered.  That’s really not okay.  Now I know that every woman is different and I definitely don’t expect every woman to own a saw and be able to make their own table from scratch, but I do think every woman (and man for that matter!!) should have a basic understanding of how to use a few tools.  Everyone should be able to change their own tire, hammer a nail in the wall, and other minor home repair. Although I almost NEVER write a letter to the editor (in fact I think this is my first) I wrote a short note to the Glamour editors:

 

Dear editors,

One of the reason’s I love Glamour and am a subscriber is because it is a magazine that is pushing the boundaries of the stereotypical woman.  I love that you feature women who fight against the glass ceiling and aren’t afraid to venture out of their comfort zone.  So you can imagine my shock when I read the first thing on the list of October’s Hey it’s okay… which read: “if the only tools you know how to use are an Ikea allen wrench and a flatiron.” I’m one of only a few women in the construction industry (we build highways and bridges) and in my personal life I own all the tools, not my husband.  It is MY miter saw and drill in the garage that my husband and brother borrow when they need one, and some of my expertise that helps them accomplish projects.  The virtual world is flooded with talented women who do it themselves and aren’t afraid to wield a power tool or two, even while maintaining their femininity and love of good fashion.  I believe Glamour (and you aren’t the only ones!) does a disservice to young women to tell them that It’s Okay if you don’t know how to hammer a nail into the wall or learn how to tighten a loose screw.  This world desperately needs more women trained in ‘tool-wielding’, male-dominated roles, specifically in engineering and math and science oriented positions.  But even more than that, it is powerful (and way more frugal) to be able to handle the simple tasks of owning a home or apartment on your own… which you most decidedly are not able to do with an Ikea allen wrench and a flatiron.

Sincerely,

MJ

When my brother moved into his house, we had a housewarming party for him.  At the party we were discussing the possibility of building a treehouse in his massive backyard tree. One of the boys quipped… yeah and we can post a sign… no girls allowed.  My brother quickly remarked… well except we would need MJ’s tools to build it. And another added in… Let’s be honest… you’d need MJ to build it.

If you are unable to use any tools, it makes you helpless, constantly relying on others to come bail you out (and if you are constantly calling in the pros, it gets expensive!) Being able to wield a tool or two will get you pretty far in this world (and feels pretty good on your self confidence too!).  If I could teach a lesson to the younger generations it is that you do not have to be helpless. There is power in knowing how, or being willing to try.

I love when my husband does things around the house for me or fixes things, but I also know (from years of being single) that if he isn’t there, I can do it myself.  And if I don’t know how… Google does.

 

Filed Under: Life, Uncategorized

Craft Night

September 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

One of my ‘extra-curricular’ activities involves leading a group of senior high school girls in a weekly covenant group.  I’ve been with these four girls meeting (mostly) weekly for the last year and a half.  Although at first I was hesitant about adding another hours worth of activity to my weekly schedule, these girls have been such a HUGE blessing to me.  They are a constant reminder to be grateful for the path I have taken and to take life a little less seriously.  I love hanging out with them and participating in each other’s lives.  Since they are all headed off to school next year they decided that we should spend some of our covenant group times doing crafts for their dorm rooms.  Since I love any opportunity to craft, I was game!

Our first night, one of the projects was a fabric/ribbon covered bulletin board.  Here are the supplies:

  • a quarter sheet of mdf or plywood (or whatever size you want your bulletin board to be)
  • cork (I bought a roll of it at Micheal’s)
  • spray adhesive
  • quilt batting
  • fabric of your choice
  • coordinating ribbon
  • thumbtacks

First cut your cork to the same size as your board and use the spray adhesive to secure it to the board.  It helps if you have old MBA textbooks lying around uselessly (and a modern art book for good measure) … they make great weights to make sure the cork sticks.

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Next take your quilt batting and fabric and cut both to be about an inch or inch and a half wider than your board.  If you have a pattern be sure that your pattern is facing the right direction and centered on the front before you cut it! Now lay your board (with cork attached) cork side down on your upside down fabric and quilt batting like this:

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Now use a staple gun to pull your fabric taught on the front.  I find it easiest to staple the two long sides first moving from the center out to the edges, alternating sides.  For the corners, I take the corner of the fabric and fold it in towards the center and then fold each side on top of that and staple.  (sorry there isn’t a picture, it took all our hands!)

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Now you can flip it over and lay out your ribbon how you want it to be (we created about 4″ squares on ours).  Then at the intersection push a thumbtack into both pieces of ribbon and the fabric and into the cork.  On the back, secure the ends of the ribbon down with a dab of hot glue, and you are done!  We didn’t put anything on the back to hang it, but you could easily drill some D-rings on the back, or since it is for a dorm room just pick up some double sided Command picture hanging strips.

Look how cute Megan is with her new craft project!

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 And you’ve seen what this room looks like when its clean, but here’s what it looks like when I get my fabric stash and 4 girls all doing craft projects at the same time!!

craftnight1

 

Filed Under: DIY, Dorm Life

My Whole 30 Week 1 Recap

September 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I was feeling very frustrated about how I felt.  I felt like I hadn’t changed much about my diet and exercise routine, but felt like the number on the scale kept going up and none of my  clothes fit right.  About that same time I read a blog post from Chelsea at www.twotwentyone.net about her experience with doing a Whole 30.  I had heard about the Whole 30 when my good friend (and superfit too) Lauren had done one.  She and her husband eat Paleo a majority of the time, and she is always telling me how good she feels on it.  So that perfect storm lead me to buy the book on it.  I read most of it and decided it was something I wanted to try.  Here’s the thing… ITS CRAZY.  Especially for me.  I’m a Dr. Pepper addict, sugar junkie, and I travel for work two weeks out of the month.  But I definitely wanted something to jumpstart my healthy eating, and a shock to the system sounded like just the ticket. And since getting down to my goal weight is on my 30 Before 30 List… this sounded like the right move!   The #221whole30 challenge actually started yesterday, but that timing didn’t work out quite as well for me, so I started 6 days earlier.  And my husband isn’t participating, but agreed to eat the dinners I eat so that I wouldn’t be tempted to cheat at dinnertime.  (My self control does not extend to eating paleo while he’s chowing down on a hamburger and fries from Whataburger.) Since this blog is mostly for documenting my crafting and DIY things I wasn’t sure I was going to blog about it, but reading other people’s experiences was one of the things that got me through this week… so I thought I’d post a weekly journal of how I felt during the previous week.  If this isn’t your thing… come back tomorrow and I have a craft project to share with you!

Week One:

Day 0: I went grocery shopping on Labor Day when everyone one else was shopping for parties… I can’t tell you how many people were buying chips and dips and party supplies… I felt healthier just by buying the groceries for this thing!

 

Day 1 (Tuesday): I feel great! I already feel healthier (definitely just mental) but I have a ton of energy, I’m surprised at how delicious my meals are and impressed with myself for actually doing this.  I feel like 30 days is going to fly by and I’m going to be so proud of myself when I’m done.   I made mayo last night, but didn’t have light flavored olive oil, so I decided to just try it with extra virgin… BIG mistake… it was very overpowering… I guess I should start following directions.  So tonight I decided to stop by Target on my way home and pick up some light flavored olive oil.  Did you know Target keeps their olive oil on the same aisle as baking goods… it was TORTURE walking past all those pictures of cakes and brownies while going to get the olive oil… but I stayed strong! When I got home I realized I had forgotten to leave my eggs out to be room temp, I decided to follow The Healthy Foodie’s recipe for the mayo with my immersion blender.  SOOOO easy. I have perfectly white fluffy mayo that is whole 30 compliant!

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Meals today:

Breakfast: Egg muffins (eggs, peppers, spinach, sausage baked in muffin tins)

Snack: (I know you aren’t really supposed to snack on the whole 30, but I won’t survive without it) grapes, almonds and carrots

Lunch: shredded chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic salt and a sweet potato

Dinner: Smashed Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo’s IPad App.

 

Day 2 (Wednesday): I woke up this morning with major head congestion and feeling like a got run over with a truck. And that has been the highlight of my day… my mother and I got in a fight, my dog ate a dead bird in the backyard, and every little thing that could go wrong did.  I want a Dr. Pepper and a chocolate chip cookie so badly.  But I know I’m not pathetic enough to give up on this on day 2… so I’ll persevere.  Although the thought of eating eggs for breakfast for 28 more days is enough to make me want to quit right now.  I’m gonna have to find some other solutions.  But by dinner I was feeling better and was so proud of myself, after my workout class I came home, ate dinner and then went to go meet friends at one of my favorite restaurants.  But since I had just eaten my meal I wasn’t hungry and just sat and chatted with them while they ate their hamburgers and kettle chips.  EVEN when they ordered the famous Whiskey Cake, I sat and enjoyed my water… I was so proud of myself!!

Breakfast: Egg muffins (eggs, peppers, spinach, sausage baked in muffin tins)

Snack: grapes and almonds… I’m trying to cut this out!

Lunch: Leftover smashed chicken, broccoli, and an apple

Dinner: crock pot roast, ½ sweet potato and carrots

Workout: Cardio Combat at Krav- 60 minute circuit class.

 

Day 3 (Thursday): I’m feeling much better, my head congestion is going away (thanks to some zyrtec and nasal spray!) and as far as food goes, I’m feeling pretty good! I made scrambled eggs for breakfast and they were good, but I’m having a hard time eating enough to stay full until lunch.  I’m going to have to work on this.  I had a few grapes after I finished with my scrambled eggs.  I need to come up with more vegetables for breakfast.  This evening I went to my BFFs house to spend some quality time with her and her son, and I had also committed to making 4 pies for an event at church Sunday. Since she is an EXCELLENT baker, we decided to make them together… and by together I mean: she made the 4 pies while I played with her son Super Cooper.  Her making the pies had the added benefit of me not being at all tempted to steal a chocolate chip or two.  After my medicine wore off my head congestion is back with a vengeance, because of that, I’m having a hard time sleeping.

 

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and a handful of grapes

Snack: the rest of my small bag of grapes—by next week no more snacking!

Lunch: Leftover Pot Roast

Dinner: Leftover Pot Roast

 

Day 4 (Friday): I woke up on Day Four feeling pretty miserable.  I’d set chicken in the crock pot to make chicken salad before work for lunch.  After I’d overslept my alarm, I set about making these, pretty grumpy because my head congestion is still pretty rockin’.  And I realized I’d eaten all my grapes the day before, which I was saving for my chicken salad (grapes in chicken salad=awesome).  And went to go grab the lettuce I bought to put the chicken salad on and it wasn’t good anymore… womp womp.  So the day started out pretty rough and I was feeling very discouraged, so I decided to look up other people’s whole 30s and their first weeks. And I found this whole 30 timeline I guess I should have done my research completely before starting this whole shebang. And since last weekend was vacation and the husband and I splurged most of the weekend, probably my little day 2-3 hangover (lets me honest it’s still rockin day 4) has a lot to do with my decision to have 2 things of ice cream on Sunday night. Ice cream sandwich at the restaurant? Check… Late night run to the DQ by our hotel? Check.  Winner Winner. This research paired with more Zyrtec D and I’m feeling like maybe I’ll survive this whole thing.  I’ll feel better in a week right? That and I am very aware that I need to do better food prep next week so that not having an ingredient won’t derail me.  On a positive note, I went all morning without a snack and am not starving by lunchtime.  After running to the grocery store to get more grapes, I had the chicken salad and it was delicious (short recipe below).  The afternoon was pretty rough and I was feeling pretty run down and tired of this whole 30 thing by evening. We were set to go to a friend’s birthday party at a hibachi place that night, and I decided I was going to forget it and go ahead and eat… after all… it was just the butter and soy sauce that wasn’t ‘whole 30 approved’ I’d still be eating just meat and veggies.  So I ordered the chicken, and set about enjoying the night with friends (or mostly enjoying it… after all everyone else had a cocktail and my water was not fulfilling my want to have a glass of wine). After watching the MASSIVE slice of butter the chef used and him dousing the chicken and veggies several times with tons of soy sauce, I was second guessing my willingness to cheat.  So when they served it up on my plate I ate a couple pieces of the broccoli, but decided to pack the rest of it up for the husband to have as leftovers later, and ate more of my delicious chicken salad when I got home that evening.  I was proud of myself for not really cheating, but still feeling very deprived by the Whole 30.

Meals Today:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and half an avocado.

Lunch: Paleo Chicken Salad: 1 Cup paleo mayo, handful of almonds chopped, 3 stalks of celery chopped, two chicken breasts cooked in the crockpot overnight, and a handful of grapes chopped into smaller pieces. FREAKING DELICIOUS.  One of the best chicken salad’s I’ve ever had, and its healthier to boot! I will DEF be making this again. And I had an apple.

Dinner: Leftover Chicken Salad

  whole30-4

Day 5 (Saturday):

Saturday the husband and I were planning on spending the whole day at our church building a stage for the youth room with some of our friends and youth parents.  According to the Whole 30 Timeline (link above) I think my 2 days of angry was really just one afternoon and evening (Friday).  Saturday I was well into the: I JUST WANT A NAP phase.  And I was more keenly aware of the things I couldn’t have.  Normally with a day long project like this, I’d have swung by early to get a large Dr Pepper to enjoy and take the edge of the physical labor.  And when everyone else stopped to take a break and enjoy Jimmy John’s, I drove home to have chicken salad in my kitchen alone. I think the strain on being social that inherently comes with a Whole 30 has been the hardest part for me. But the good news is, my husband is being hugely supportive, which definitely helps. AND I have the best friends a girl could ask for.  A close friend had invited Reese and I to dinner Saturday night at her place.  At first I’d told her we couldn’t since I was doing this crazy Whole 30 thing and wouldn’t be able to do dinner, but she amazingly offered to make a Whole 30 compliant dinner.  And man, she outdid herself.  IT WAS DELICIOUS. I tasted her sweet potatoes and my first though was… oh… these taste too good, they are DEFINITELY not Whole 30 compliant.  I wasn’t too worried because I wasn’t so happy to be on this thing Saturday night, but  after she told us everything that was in it… they totally were! WOOO HOOO!! So a big shout out to Ashley for helping me keep this whole thing up (and being willing to eat a Whole 30 meal even though she isn’t participating!) and even sending me home with leftovers.

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs

Lunch: Chicken Salad and an Apple

Dinner: Pork, Chicken, mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon, brussel sprouts and onions

 

Day 6 (Sunday): I’m definitely still in the tired phase, and so many of my weekend activities are programmed around food that I can’t have… somehow Sunday morning doesn’t feel like Sunday morning without donuts.  But being compliant is becoming a bit more second nature to me.  I’m still majorly craving Dr Pepper and some sweets, and somehow can’t quite quit telling Reese about it.  But I can definitely feel the difference in my body from a week ago and I know I’m doing my body a favor by doing this.  I talked our smaller group for building on Sunday to go to Chipotle for lunch so I could have a salad with Carnitas and guac.  Although guac without chips?? It turned out to be delicious and a nice way to be social and follow the Whole 30. I made my food plan for the week and went to Whole Foods to stock up for the week.  But remind me next time not to shop at Whole Foods on a Sunday afternoon… that place was a MADHOUSE. Foodwise, I’m glad the weekend is over and I won’t be quite as tempted to cheat and suck down a Route 44 Vanilla Dr. Pepper.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and some grapes

Lunch: Carnitas Salad with Guac from Chipotle

Dinner: Leftovers from Sat night’s dinner, with an appetizer of a cup (pint?) of watermelon at Whole Foods (I was HUNGRY shopping for groceries)

  whole30-3

Day 7 (Monday): I woke up this morning before my alarm, feeling pretty great and full of energy.  I have a good food plan for the week and I’m even kinda excited about some of it.  My allergy stuff from last week is mostly gone, and I’m feeling pretty good about being able to do this for the next little while.  I’m still not sick of scrambled eggs in a little coconut oil, so that’s a plus! Now that my allergy stuff is gone and I’m feeling better I’m going to start back to my full workout routine.  And I start training for a half marathon this week! Here goes nothing!

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and grapes

Lunch: Spinach Salad with grilled chicken, pear, fig and walnut dressing, an apple and some grapes

Dinner: Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash- my dad’s homemade sauce recipe that is Whole 30 compliant! (except for the butter which I switched out with coconut oil.

Workout: Combat Cardio

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Overall I feel great, I can tell there has been a change in my body for the better.  I do have more energy most of the time, but eating Whole 30 is HARD.  The people who wrote the book say it isn’t… and it might not be for someone who eats paleo most of the time, but going from a completely NOT paleo diet to a Whole 30… is very hard.  I’m going to stick with it and see how it goes, but I’m guessing I’m not going to eat paleo for life.  I’m seven days in and I still want a cookie and a Dr. Pepper. If you follow along, follow me on Instagram or Twitter- my username for both is amusingmj! (you can click the circular icons over on the right in the sidebar to do it easily!)

Filed Under: Life, Whole 30
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