It's all about the process

I'm almost finished with the closet.  Painting trim is hard.  I am down to dabbing the corners with paint-filled qtips.  I keep seeing little fixes that only I will know about, but while I have everything out of the closet and I've burned this much time on the thing, I might as well do it right.  I've been impaled on this project so it has to be perfect. 

Pictures tomorrow.  I promise.

I also wanted to give a little update on my resolution to improve my cooking.  It has been just over a month since I decided to change my modus operandi in the kitchen.  I tackled the problem like I would a business problem.  I set my goal, then created a process to achieve the goal.  I got advice from a few trusted sources, then set my plan to action.

It goes like this:
1.  Take a piece of some kind of meat out of the freezer when I make my coffee in the morning.
2.  Plan to be home to start cooking at 2 pm.
3.  Cook enough so that I have one day worth of leftovers.
4.  Collect grocery sale papers on Monday and Tuesday.
5.  Make a menu and list according to sale papers and shop on Wednesday.

The plan has been pretty effective so far.  We have only eaten out three times this month!  Considering we were eating out about 4 times per week, I would say we've seen a 75% improvement.

Not too shabby. 

The good part.....the part that scared me the most.....is that I don't feel like I have to think about food all the time.  I'm not thinking about food.  I'm thinking about the process to get the shopping and cooking done.  I'm measuring the effectiveness of my process.

Have I fallen short a few times?  Yes.  There have been freezer pizzas and taquitos.  But that's okay, because I had pizza in the freezer instead of calling for delivery.  Let's just call that a design-to-fail stopgap.  I know myself.  I can't just quit TJMaxx cold turkey.  There have been a couple of days when I was racing to get home by 4 pm to meet the bus, while my 2 pm deadline passed without a second thought. 

Today is Wednesday.  I have my sale papers in hand.  After I finish dabbing with my qtips, I'm going to the grocery store.