Time management - cooking, cleaning, and exercise

shaluu · Apr 29, 2013

4/28:

Kitchen cleaning is postponed as some repair work is scheduled

Instead decluttered, clean and help mom organize one of her cupboard (there is one more to be don yet). It was quite a task and at end mom is happy.

Washed 3 loads of laundry

Decluttered and cleaned few kitchen related utensils and accessories

AkilaMani · Apr 29, 2013

@abhigail
Same here dear... i too am very thankful to KK :bowdownfor having started this wonderful thread which has helped me greatly and realize i have time for so many things if i plan it out correctly. Planning a trip to mom's place sounds wonderful dear... enjoy yourself speaking of mom, my parents are here! yipeeeeee. Its been over 4 months since i saw them (this is relatively the shortest span, usually it is almost a year or more before i see my parents... so i am soooo happy

@KK
Vadai in more kuzhambu is one of my favorites.... you always make me drool over with your menu update... how i wish you lived nearby so i can drop in and have yummy lunches!!
Your Pantry organization is soooooo neat and wonderful!! You are a true inspiration to many like me. Thank you so much for the before and after pics.

@Sound
Seems like it was a good match though i did not get to watch it. Your routine of cleaning the cooktop at night is a wonderful way of having a pleasant cooking area in the morning. though i used to do it regularly earlier, of late i have been doing only 2-3 times a week. You have inspired me to do it more regularly dear. thanks

@Manju

He always says looking good, otherwise he had it.
Click to expand...

:rotfl:rotflilai vadam role sounds like a wonderful snack!! do give the link to the recipe in our thread also please

@Gae
So happy to know you have started a wonderful routine and your routine is great dear. working out twice a day!! great going

@Shaluu,
Great going with the pantry organizing. when u feel a little overwhelmed by the task ahead, always divide into small achievable goals.... if there are 10 shelves to tackle, aim for completing 2 per organizing session. so when you are done you feel good about finishing it and not down about not getting to the rest of the shelves like you would have if you had wanted to finish all in one go.

@Smiley,
Thanks dear for the appreciation and this appreciation actually belongs to KK, Manju, Shanvy and many others in our IL. Their detailed posts explaining every aspect of anything they are writing on, be it receipe, meal plans or any other topic, is what has inspired me to share what i know

______________________

My update:

Sat: Morning went to SPCA for my volunteer orientation.
Afternoon - came back, prepared lunch, dusted, swept and mopped. after lunch, made kiddos take a nap.
Evening - had my husbands friends and my friends at home and enjoyed chatting with all. DH took MIL to doctor as she had a painful thumbnail. turned out it was an ingrowth with infection. they took out a part of the nail and dressed it. She now has a bandage on her right thumb and feels bad that she is not able to help in kitchen. i told her to jus relax and have a good time with her SIL (my mom) when she arrives on sunday:thumbsup
Night - was tired from all the talking:hide: so ordered pizza for dinner and after getting the kids to bed, went to mustafa - shopping for MIL who is taking and break and going to india for a short while. we came back at 2 am sunday.

Sun: as i had gone to bed at 2.30, had a difficult time to wake up at 5.30 am. went to airport to pick up my dad and mom. came back and dds were all awake and super excited to see thatha and patti. made and served breakfast while dds had a wonderful time exploring the goodies brought by their grandparents. it was nice the hear them squeak in delight and my parents and MIL laughing at their exclamations :-D

Afternoon - after my parents went for a nap, finished preparation for lunch, did some studies with dds.

Evening - again long chat session and studies, had some office work, which also did on the side. prepared and served dinner and went to bed around 11.

nikkimom83 · Apr 29, 2013

Hi friends

@ kkrish - thanks for ur valuable tips kamala mam . ur morning recipes are more interesting and healty too . planning to giv them to my dd . also i bought sathu maavu to giv her sometimes ..

my updates

weekends was good . had good time with my dh and dd .. did very few household chores because i dont want to spend whole time in tht ..
today got up 6 am ( a big aplaud to me ).. and finish off both bfast and lunch ..maid came and finish off her works. so cleaned vessels, mopped floor and everything done in the morning itself .. took nice rest and now am in my fav IL. .
putting one load in w/m . planning to clean and arrange showcase and also clean all the mirrors and windows today ..
need to put idly/dosa batter in the eve .

hope all r doing well ....

cheers.

kkrish · Apr 29, 2013

Good Monday all

Smileysmile: thanks for taking my request well. No need to apologize. I just reminded of the forum policy, that's all.
Soundarya: Do take care of your health.
Shaalu: Good going girl!!
Akila: Thank you for the compliments. I noticed you did not give a link to your dressing table photos in thread II. Please do so. Enjoy your parents' company.
Nikkimom: You are welcome. You sounded worried that your child went to school without eating; I also noted your dd was "happy" to not eat.
Sathumaavu is a good option - think of presenting it that appeals to the child. Making it into chapathi rolls with a little jam smeared will have your dd eat it more readily than "kanji". If you like baking you can make sathumaavu muffins with fresh fruits. They can be made ahead too.
I am sure you will have even better ideas.
Manju: Your ilai vadam roll sounds yummy. Yes, do give a link to the recipe.
Shara (Chithirainilavu)- your day is a good post to give a link in thread II.
******
I enjoyed reading all your daily updates: Very interesting and very motivating too.

Please do not wait for me to ask you to give links in the sticky thread TM-II; not only photos, even your day-to-day activities - if you feel they will be of help to readers, please give the link. Use your best judgement and discretion.

**********
Yesterday my husband and I mowed the lawn and cleaned the front yard. It was solid two hour work and after that we both were moaning with muscle pain. Still lots of work pending. That's how out-of shape we both are despite our exercise routine.

Saturday we watched the movie "Settai" - starring Arya. Yucky!! In the name of humor the entire movie was talking dirty, with double entendres, on a very low level. We felt like throwing up our dinner after the movie. So we watched our recorded version "oru vaarthai, oru latcham" - a very well conducted program to calm our roiling tummies.

Ok folks...got to go..
Have a great day.

abhigail · Apr 29, 2013

Hi Everyone,
I see all of you'll had a great weekend. Mine was good too.
I am just going through the posts since I last saw, but will update mine so that I donot feel lazy and forget to post it.

Sorry that I am not able to "hello" you lovely ladies indiviually and also to my long post

My weekend was good and productive,
Saturday, I was working so it was a quite sat. Prepared breakfast n lunch by 9am to start work (work from home). My DS gotup by 8.30 so DH helped me is handling him till my baby sitter came at 10.30.

Suddenly my DH got a call from his friend - offer to meet up and have lunch outside. So I took a break from work for 45 mins and went to get fruits n veg for this week. Items were less as I will be off to my hometown for almost 10 - 12 days, so didnot want to buy and stuff my fridge.

DH left to meet his friend after that my babysitter and me had the rice and bottlegourd sambhar happily. DS was busy with his never ending activities, climbing sofaset, turning the TV on off. going out if the door is open and climbing stairs to the terrace. oh, writting these itself i get tired, but doing it he is never tired.
Evening DH was back had tea and went out bought a gift as Sun we had a house warming ceremony to attend and then visited Maruthi temple. Came back and made chappati and tomoto bhaji, had dinner, cleaned the kitchen and slept at 12(after my DS slept)

Sun: not much, gotup early made dosa, coconut chutney and packed food for DS and left for the house warming ceremony as it was a far away place. Had a good time there, pooja, good lunch chatting with friends and DS got to play with other kids. came back home by 5pm, Had tea took a nap for 2 hours (lucky me) prepared chappati for dinner with potato sabji, had dinner watched ending aprt of movie "Hugo", kitchen and slept.

Shocker Monday:
My Dir called me at 6am, when I had just given milk bottle to my DS to have for some issue. Got stuck over the phone from 6am till 10.30am. Prepared brunch after that (rice kadabu and chutney). DH n I had same, DH left to work at 12 noon and I am still working with loads of office issues to handle at home.

praying rest of the week goes on fine...............

manjukps · Apr 29, 2013

Dear Kamala,

Superb kitchen organisation. Nearly arranged according to usage. It has grown two pages since I saw last. Wow! More activity more fun. We should have a potluck with all of our specialties.

Dear Akhila, Enzzzzzoy. We become kids when we see parents, isn't it?

Dear abhi, wish you have a good week. Have a nice time with parents.

Dear nikkimom, take care.

Dear Shara, do they have school now?. When their vacation starts?

Hi Doors, Shaalu, soundarya, Smikeysmile, gae3 and others.

My updates: Saturday
Ds went to school. Did regular cooking in the morning itself. Didn't go for walk in the weekend. Wanted two loads of screens. Folded 2 loads of already washed clothes. Then had a nice sleep after lunch. In the evening there was some repair work going on, so was looking after that. DH while picking up my son bought evening tiffin from restaurant after theyhad there. Since I had it late, I skipped dinne. For others made rice only as I had leftovers of morning.

Sunday
Direct brunch. Till afternoon I was feeling lazy, dozed off while i was reading Shiva trilogy II. Since we are sleeping only after the IPL match ends and I had to get up early in the weekdays. So I just indulged in sleeping in the afternoon feeling secured as somebody is there to take care. Around 2 DH left to visit in-laws. I soaked for batter. In my sluggishness I messed up the quantities, then I had to make it up for the different batter. Idly batter, oothappam batter, kancheepuram idli batter. Asked my son to get butter to make came, he bought salted table butter since there was no plain butter in the nearby shop. Again made him but bread for evening snack so that made use of the butter. Made all the batter one by one. Also made paneer with accumulated milk of 2 litres.Saw the IPL match. Again rice for night.

Monday

Got really agitated because spotted two Lizards in the store room, though I hear their sound in the past week in the morning itself. Went for a walk. Came back cooked, packed lunch boxes for dh and ds. Made k.idli and onion and peanut chutney for breakfast. My DD's friend came to play with her.

Then determined to do a thorough clean up of the store room today and under counter tops tomorrow. So after my dh left emptied the store room. DD helped me to take smaller things to dining room, then she went off to play. I wiped the shelf with wet and the dry cloth. Sprayed nature guard in all the shelf hoping I can keep the lizards at bay. while cutting drumstick for sambhar, inflicted a slight slit in my thumb, which made my progress of rearrangement slow. I let the store room empty till evening for the smell to subside. While arranging back wiped all boxes clean, discarded some plastic bottles, replaced few glass bottles. I am not able to completely avoid plastics. Getting glass for more quantities is either difficult or very costly. So my store is mixture of steel, plastics and glasses. In the process found long lost booklet for microwave, broke a rose milk essence bottle, discarded expired items. Finishing touches tomorrow, then post the pics.

By afternoon my parents came with two loads of clothes to be washed since I had asked them not to suffer because of water scarcity. Put 2 loads and she took the wet cloth to be dried at their home . Started reading the 3rd book.
In the evening, Dropped dd's friend at her home, on the way back bought some mangoes and sappotta.
Also will post the recipe and give link here.

Regards
Manjukps

Gae3 · Apr 30, 2013

@Akila mam,
Happy to hear that your spending time with your parents.
your schedule seems to be so hectic.

@nikkimom,
Great finally you achieved it, got up ay 6am.I am still struggling dear.

@Manju mam,
take care of your thumb.Looking forward for the pics of store room inavation

@KK mam,
The store room looks amazing.I also like the storage for batter.
Should plan something similar when I get back to India.

@Sound,
Good that you visited your mom she would have felt better.

@shaluu,
your mom must be so happy to have such a helping daughter.

A big hai to Smilysmile, Abhigal,Shara,doors

My updates:

today was an utter waste for me.I dotn know why Mondays always are like this.Adding to the blues the climates was so gloomy.
Got up @ 8am and prepared breakfast for DH and packed lunch.
Prepared Dosa for myself.Since I dint get proper sleep previous day, slept for 1 hour after DH left to office.(so lazy of me)
Then was feeling so slothy. Planning to go out with a friend.
Hence wasting time simply waiting to get ready and get out
I hope I start doing something productive at least after this post.
See you all tomorrow beautiful Ladies

shaluu · Apr 30, 2013

Gae3, don't beat yourself up. You have to listen to your body when it needs rest

manjukps · Apr 30, 2013

Link to ilai vadaam recipe

Regards
Manjukps

SoundVijay · Apr 30, 2013

Hi,

My yesterdays update:

Got up in the morning and helped my MIL and went to office. Evening reached home and relaxed for sometime. Washed vessels and cleaned gas stove, cooktop and sink.

Today morning got up cleaned tiffen boxes and broomed the floor and started to office.

@Akila Mani: Thanks . I love to keep the cooktop clean always and it gives a sense of satisfaction and encouragement everyday morning when i look at it.

Hi abhigail, kkrish, manjukps, Gae3 and shaluu

Regards,
Sound