Aisle 11: Lists

Showing posts with label Lists. Show all posts

Sunday, September 20, 2015

What I've learned my first week working at Starbucks

1. Caramel Macchado Cream is really good. It's like a caramel version of hot chocolate but without the chocolate.

2. Starbucks is nice to their employees but not so nice to the environment. I get free drinks and a meal for each shift I work. I also get full benefits at part time and my manager is going out of his way to help me work only while Madeleine is in daycare. On the other hand, everything gets wrapped individually and we don't recycle anything including boxes and milk jugs.

3. Most of the customers at my store are regulars.

4. Not all of the employees like coffee. I'm the first to never drunk any before but I have several coworkers that admit that they don't drink coffee either.

5. Starbucks is amazingly efficient. Mixing drinks is complicated and their system continuously surprises me how idiot proof it is. Cups, containers, and machines are all designed to make things as simple as possible.

6. My training is going to take 2+ weeks. They have a schedule on the wall with what I am to learn each day. The first day surprised me the most. It started with the manager telling me why he hired me and what my first impression said about me. It was really flattering. I was also told that while I'll get feed back on my training, that I'll be giving my manger feedback on my trainers so that they can learn what they need to do to work toward their next goal.

7. Mixing drinks is hard and the science and history of coffee is pretty neat.

8. Most of my coworkers are married and my age or older.

9. Mocha syrup is just chocolate syrup. They call it mocha because it is used for primary mocha drinks and it makes the system more employee friendly.

10. The hot chocolate gets a shot of vanilla syrup and it tastes so much better without it.

11. They have a special setting for kid's drinks that is much cooler and can be drunk right away.

12. Most of the employees live pretty far from the location they are working at. Out of the 6 employees I have met, only one other one lives within 15 minute drive. My manger lives 30 minutes and another employee 45.

That's what I've learned so far. I've really enjoyed it, and I'm kind of surprised that I am. It's a pretty low stress job so far and people are nice.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Ways I make my life easier

It's only Tuesday and this week has already been crazy. Everyone in the house isn't feeling too well still, and I woke up this morning to my teeth feeling like they are on fire! Thank goodness I have a dentist appointment in a few hours. This morning as part of my morning routine, I was scrolling through pinterest and I came across this article.

I'm going to say straight up that her verision of easier is way different than mine. For example, even though we are all sick (Matt even stayed home from work yesterday) we still went grocery shopping. It's one of our favorite family activities. It would take something very drastic before we won't go to the store.

But this article got me thinking about what I do that I do in general makes my life easier.

1. I don't have a calender.

I keep my schedule really open. All appointments that we absolutely must do are on Monday or Friday usually first thing in the morning. I leave the rest of the week open so that we can whatever we feel like. I have a general rhythm for the week. Like Thursday is farmer's market day, and Tuesdays are playgroup days, but if I don't feel like doing those activities, it's not a big deal for us to skip.

2. I reduced the amount of stuff I have to the amount I'm willing to clean.

The second I don't feel like cleaning something up, I donate it. I'm not into spending a lot of time cleaning, so even when our house is at it's messiest (like it was all weekend) it only takes an hour to clean. It reduces the stress of cleaning drastically, and I'm not spending large chunks of my time to something I hate.

3. Everyone has chores.

I got into a small debate about this with a neighbor actually about this the other day. Her husband is also a graduate student, but she does all the housework and takes care of the kids. She sees it as a way she supports her husband. I was trying to be like her for the first year that we lived here in Princeton, but sometime this year, I sat down with Matt and asked him what he'd be willing to do for chores. After a lot of discussion, we decided that he is in charge of laundry and the dishes. Madeleine even has her own chores like picking up her bath toys after a bath and picking up her toys before bed and nap time.

4. I cook the next days meals the night before.

Cooking with both Baby X and Madeleine home does not work. I usually prepare the next days meal after she's in bed, so around 7:30. It not only makes sure there is something to eat, but I actually enjoy cooking more. I can get a bit more adventurous and take my time.

5. I give myself an hour of free time a day.

If it means getting up at 5 or going to bed at 2, I make sure no matter what I can get some time to myself. This takes priority over everything else. We will go out to eat before I will give up this time.

6. I make things into challenges.

I think one of the hardest parts for me about being a housewife is how boring the task are. I have set my own limits to make things less mindless and more intentional. For example, by trying to have a zero-waste lifestyle, we eat a bit healthier and I cook more from scratch. Another one would be biking. I enjoy biking, but it also is a form of family time, running errands, and exercise.

7. I blog.

I realized quickly after having Madeleine that blogging helped me feel more satisfied with my life. It's nice to force myself to mediate on what we have done recently, examine my feelings about it, and then write about it. It helps me keep track of goals and be more grateful.

What helps you to reduce stress? I was thinking that while my general stress is going down, there is still room for improvement.

Friday, May 30, 2014

3 Suggestions for Organizing with ADHD

I've had ADHD forever and organizing for me is really hard. I tend to lose everything if I don't keep things clean AND organized, and that can be a lot of work! Over the years though, I've found three things that help me function.

1. Get rid of as many things as possible. The less stuff there is, the less stuff there is to distract and stress. That's actually why I'm so drawn to minimalism. It is a way of life that helps me keep my life in control.

2. Define the space. For example, my bedroom currently is for sleeping, dressing, and reading. Anything else cannot be in my bedroom because it distracts from those objective. Now that I'm married there are a few more things in there, but for the most part we stick pretty closely to those things.

Another example is that when I was younger, I had a designated space for homework outside of my room. That space was specifically designed just for homework and had other distractions minimized. It was actually right by the laundry room, so that I had white noise and my siblings would usually leave that part of the house alone. In college, I did the same thing by finding a place that I can focus that had no other big distractions. Each room, closet, and drawer in our home has a very specific purpose. By defining the spaces and using them only for those purposes helps me a lot!

3. Walk through your routines. One of the worst experiences I had in college was having a roommate "help" pack my closet after I asked her not to. When I came home and found everything in boxes, I sat on my floor and cried. I felt so overwhelmed because I seriously didn't know what to do with everything out of place. I ended up pouring out all the boxes and redoing everything, so that when I moved to my new apartment (with a new roommate) that I could set up my routines.

 Every time I move to a new house I do this. It is that important.  

So what I mean by walk through a routine?

 Let's take walking into my house after going some where. (This is probably the most important one I have). 

So when I walk in, I open the closet closest to the door. I dump everything in my purse into my necessity baskets, hang up my purse and coat, and then put away my shoes. 

What this does...

a) keeps stuff from getting accidentally lost in my purse

b) gives my keys a designated spot

c) keeps me from buying duplicates of things that I lost

d) keeps my shoes and coats off the floor and together

e) helps getting out the door quickly

Necessity Basket

When I get ready to leave again, I can pick out what purse I want. Grab whatever I need, and put my shoes on. It's all there. If I need sunscreen or a full diaper bag, I have it all in my necessity basket. 

It's not how most people organize there coat closet, but even if I get distracted, tired or sick this routine is so solid that I never lose my keys or wallet. Everything has a place and it's easy and convenient for me to follow it. If your kid has ADHD, you can walk through it with them! The way I graduated college was I had a counselor at BYU who did this with me once a week with my homework and backpack. It saved my grades and my sanity.

So I hope this isn't too complicated and answers any questions about organizing with ADHD.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

6 Ideas for Cooking with a 1 year old

I spend hours of every day cooking. Yesterday my sweet Chinese neighbor saw me outside at 6:00PM. She looked at me really confused, "But don't you usually cook dinner inside now?" I laughed. It's true...every stay-at-home-mom seems to go inside at 5:30 to cook. It just happens that yesterday we got dinner at the chemistry building. :)

So what do I do with Madeleine during these hours that I spend cooking? Well, sometimes I let her scream at me the whole time. Sometimes I put on Curious George. Sometimes she'll "cook" at her kitchen, but frequently I have her cook with me. She started helping me right before she turned 1. From my own googling, I know that there isn't a lot of advice for cooking with a 1 year old, so here is mine.

1. When baking, substitute bananas for eggs if possible.
Madeleine is really good at smashing bananas with a pastry blender. When she gets sick of that she uses her hands.

*Bonus: Without eggs, the dough is safe to eat!*

2. Have your toddler hand you the produce out of the bags.

I prewash as much as possible when we get home from the store. She loves this, especially if there is a rubber band she has to get off.

3. They can peel off the skin of an onion and rip apart lettuce and celery.

Madeleine is awesome at ripping things up. She rips up mushrooms too.

4. Make a sample plate of as many ingredients as possible.

While I'm chopping, I put aside a few pieces of each thing and place it on her plate. While I'm on the stove, Madeleine sits on the counter or her stool and tries the different foods. I love this for several reasons. 1. It gets her out of the way when I really can't have her around. 2. It keeps her from screaming while I'm ignoring her. 3. It introduces and exposes her to foods more times. Isn't there some rumor that after you try something 20 times that you don't like, you'll learn to like it? Well, if that's true, there is two exposures to each food. Once while cooking, and again at dinner.

5. If you're really patient, you can let them wash the veggies.

I've only done this a few times, but you can put a big bowl on the floor and let them "wash" the fruits and veggies. It's a mess, but it keeps them quiet.

6. You can let them pour stuff in.

I don't usually let Madeleine do this yet, since she's only 16 months, but I do let her pour in less messy things like chocolate chips. (And if she misses the bowl a bit, I know she'll find the ones she drops and eat them.)

She helps me enough that we made her own apron.

I definitely don't have her help with every meal, but I do aim for one meal a day.

Do you have any tips or like any of these ideas?

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

10-12 month old activities

I've been working on this blog post forever.
I meant to do one for each month...but as you can tell it didn't happen.
:)

I've noticed my favorite blogs just do a blog post of things they did with their kids at each month.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon a bit late, but I figured it will be a great reference for me for future tiny offsprings. I mean Tiny is cute and all, but there are a lot of times that I have no clue what to do with her. The pictures are mostly from the last 3 months, since we just recycle many of the same things.

Playing in the snow