Downtime

Downtime. What's that? That's how I feel at times. And this is coming from someone who doesn't have my own little ones at home. Even still - spare time is hard to find.

I'm linking up with Amy Lemons at Step into Second Grade to share my downtime resolutions for 2013!

My main resolution for 2013 is to try and make a hobby out of cooking. In anticipation of this post today I piloted this new goal last night.

Let me give you some background. My wonderful husband usually does all the cooking (and most of the cleaning too). He loves it (the cooking part at least) - so it's perfect... no need for me to get in the way, right? Well, he is currently a full time grad student and so this means he is buried in books all the time. Occasionally he would try to cook something fast, while I am on the couch watching Modern Family. Something is wrong with this picture! Soooo I want to try to take this on myself. He loves it (and so do so many others) so why not me?

My husband watches me in the kitchen and often says, "How did you survive before we met?" Um, it's called take out!

So last night I made chili with quinoa. I thought that
A. This would be hard to mess up
B. Seemed like a good idea on a rainy day

My husband whips out the camera... because yes, this is a rare event he hasn't seen. He doesn't know it is my 2013 resolution!

Here are some pictures of this evening's pilot adventure. Spoiler alert: the chili was edible...not amazing, but not horrible.

My other resolution is to use my downtime to organize my photos! It's a hot mess right now. Traveling is my thing... Love it! Do it a lot! Although right now I'm at home and not on a fabulous trip as I had hoped. So with finances forcing me to stay home a bit more I need to use the time to organize past trips.

#1 I was married over 3 years ago and most of my pictures are on disks (given to me by others) or on my computer. I made a scrap book, BUT it was supposed to be the temporary one until I had time to make the "real one." That needs to happen in 2013!

#2 My honeymoon.... these are sitting on my computer. Never dealt with them at all :(

#3 Random photos. Like the one below... where are we? What year is it? Sad! (My detective skills say it's post-wedding because I see a wedding ring and probably Europe because of the red Coca-Cola napkin holder. My hair color and length are also used in my detective skills, but hard to process in this one!) But it is sad, sad, sad that I don't know! I need to label as many photos with place and date NOW before more times passes and they are all a mystery.

#4 My State Signs Book! I started a tradition with a friend of mine about 10 years ago where we would take pictures of ourselves at every state sign and put them in a scrapbook that has a page ready for all 50 states! I haven't updated this in SEVERAL years, but have many signs to add. Plus, my hubby has started to join in this fun and I haven't even gotten him a book yet. I really want to do this, as one of my goals is to visit all 50 states (AND to drive into the state in order to take the picture with the sign! And yes, I have been to Hawaii and took a picture in the airport... and Alaska will be the only other place an airport photo will be allowed)
 Here's a newer east coast sample and an older west coast one:

I'm tired just thinking about how I plan to spend my downtime. Wish me luck...not sure which will be more of a challenge? Cooking or photo organizing! Hmmm don't think the word "challenging" was supposed to feature in a post about downtime.

Stop by Amy's blog so you can link up and share too!