So You're A Stay @ Home Man

Time Management

2009-10-09T11:13:00.002-04:00

As a stay at home man it is sometimes difficult to maintain a regular schedule. I find myself going from one area of focus to another devoting my time exclusively to one subject at a time. This conflicts with my ability to create the sort of atmosphere that keeps everything humming on the home front. I find it incredible that some people think they would be too bored as a stay at home to be able to pull it off themselves. This kind of attitude only illustrates a lack of creativity as far as I can tell. I never seem to have enough hours or energy in a day to do all the things I would like to. Much less time to be bored.

I have recently taken up fishing as a way to contribute to the income of the household. I have some experience as a fly fisherman from when I spent some time in the trout streams of Vermont but I have little in the way of experience line fishing in the salt water environment I currently find myself in. I don't sell my catch at this point, I just try to keep fresh fish on the table. The time I spend out there learning what I need to know to be a successful fisherman is, in my opinion, more valuable then what I would be getting paid to punch a clock. I can use whatever information I gain from the experience, to help me be more capable of providing for the people I care for. After all “To teach a man to fish...”

I hope to one day be able to create a little income from my activities on the water. At some future point I intend to create a web page for kayak fishing on the Gulf Coast that will attract the attention of a growing number of anglers who are switching to the yack as an alternative to motor boat fishing, in the face of ever increasing petroleum costs and perhaps guide the occasional outing. Kayak fishing is a much more sustainable activity then using a big boat. I have no fuel costs to either get my boat to the water (I rig it up to my bicycle) or be out on the water chasing the fish (unless you count the sandwich I eat). I also have much better odds of actually hooking into a few with a more stealthy approach.

Admittedly though my efforts to become a better fisherman have detracted from my ability as a home maker. If I am not spending time with a line in the water, I am recovering from the stress of doing so. I still maintain a certain amount of my chores but my partner has been very patient with me as well. She sees the value in what I am doing so she is very supportive and understanding. We hope to one day support ourselves through our online activities and other alternative methods. This way we can spend our time working together, and with others in the community to satisfy our needs. We operate as a kind of two person co-op, she pays the rent (which is minimal) and I do my best to supply the other stuff.

I am on the up swing of the energy pit that was keeping me in the hole now. I am starting to be able to complete more of the tasks in the house that keep things going for us again. That's why I am posting here after so long a pause. I have had trouble mustering the energy to do my daily stuff in addition to the other blogs I have going. Now that my energy levels are at a point I can maintain I will put more effort into finding a balance that allows me to complete my household duties and work on the blogs.

Keeping the balance is critical to a happy life. They say all things in moderation; even moderation. Sometimes it seems necessary to focus all your energy in a specific direction to find success, but we must remember the other things in life we are working on to create the big picture. We have to seek the balance again as soon as possible.

Happy journeys...

Family Diet

2009-08-27T15:52:00.002-04:00

As I have mentioned before in my blog, proper nutrition is important to me. I think what we eat and how its prepared is important, may be more important, than we think. What we eat makes who and what we are, diet effects metabolism, brain chemistry, and a host of other things. If your brain chemistry is out of whack how can you even be competent to know it. It's a bit troubling to think about really. If I feel depressed because of the food I am eating I will most likely be uninterested in improving my diet, or doing the research to find out how to, leading to further depression and an even worse diet. People that are depressed aren't as likely to feel like cooking up a nutritionally complete meal, more often it's back to the box or T.V. dinners, causing a further downward spiral.
Diet is a four letter word to a lot of folks, but all it really means is the food you eat. It shouldn't represent the shackles manifested in the mind at the mere thought. It would most likely serve us well to avoid the word all together if we can't separate it from our preconceived notions of its implications. Extracted from its much boasted, feared, and commercialized hype I use it here out of convenience.
If we pay a little attention to our diet we can, in a lot of cases, eat as much as we like, instead of making ourselves suffer what we perceive as a form of torture, or martyrdom. In fact I will go so far as to say, by making ourselves suffer we only heap more problems on ourselves. What I mean here is, the human body still "remembers" its primal roots, it responds to hunger by storing up fat, eating muscle, and slowing metabolism. Several of us fight courageously day in and day out to do what we think are the "right" things only to be discouraged time and again with the results. (roller coaster diet anyone) For some reason we seem incapable of seeing the insanity of doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. We operate out of what we believe to be true without proper evidence to support it. Freedom is knowing why you believe what you do because it's your choice. Not something everyone else is doing or programmed into your mind by clever marketing hooks.;)

Continue educating myself

Using what I learn I can provide a better standard of living, and health to my loved ones, those whom I live with, and others. I find the unique advantage of being a stay at home is, I can control my time. If I had a regular job I would have to focus my time and mental effort there instead of here. I enjoy the ability to concentrate on the things I think of as important instead of following some arbitrary (to me at least) company policy. As long as I do things that contribute to the life of myself and others not having a regular jobby-job is justified. It all comes down to whether or not I am making myself and those around me happy.

Life is a journey not a destination

Eating healthy can taste good too

2009-08-22T14:18:00.001-04:00

I know we all hear the same things about diet, nutrition, and taking care of ourselves. Few of us really do though, and I am no exception. There are ways to eat better without being a food scientist or a homeopathic Dr.
One of the things we do is drink a lot of smoothies, I personally have a hard time eating as much fruit as I should, so I blend frozen fruit up with a little juice and yogurt till it resembles a milkshake. I think you would be surprised how sweet a little mango juice can be when mixed with frosty strawberries, banana,yogurt, and blueberries. The yogurt just gives it a little creaminess. Its pretty easy to chug down your daily intake of fruit this way. I have more trouble with the brain freeze than anything else.
We don't use a full size blender, instead I found one of those single serving blenders like on TV but the one we got was at a local drug store for $20 and it came with several glasses/blending containers with the little rings to put over the threads to make it more like a regular cup(we never use them though),and a bunch of other stuff. It's nice to be able to make smaller portions to suit different tastes. I like mine heavy on the strawberry while my g-friend is more into blue berries. The cleanup is pretty painless and you don't have the problem of trying to shake the last bit out of the blender like you do with the bigger ones.

I can even satisfy my sweet tooth with a real strawberry milkshake. Forget being able to read the ingredient label I decide what the ingredients should be. The frozen strawberries are enough to make the milk component of the shake as thick as you like so there is no need to reach for the box of ice cream in the fridge. One trick I'll fill you in on though is to put a little salt in it, not much, a small pinch will do. It helps communicate the flavor of the berries. Try it both ways and you'll see.

For a serving you need
-5-6 frozen strawberries
-a small handful of blueberries
-half a banana if you like
-abut 2 tbl yogurt (may work a little better if you put yogurt in after juice)
-then fill most of the remaining space with juice
then blend to a smoothie like thing

For a milkshake
-6-7 strawberries
-fill space with milk or half&half
-small pinch of salt
-half a tsp of vanilla
then blend

You may think all this sounds pretty expensive but my costs are:
-one time blender cost $20
-frozen fruit (strawberries,blueberries,peaches) $12 week
-fresh fruit (bananas, mangoes) $2-$5 week
-juice {I go to the ethnic food section and get 1 liter box juice for $1.15ea) $2.30 week
So for $16.30 a week after the blender I get all my fruit in a form that seems more like a dessert, that was flash frozen at its peak of freshness.
I would prefer it to be fresh fruit that I freeze but its hard to find the same quality fresh as frozen and I live in Florida. You would think I could find a good strawberry.

What do you do with your day

2009-08-09T15:53:00.001-04:00

I just thought in this day and age it can't be that uncommon for there to be stay at home men. I know I'm one. I had trouble with the whole idea of it at first; I had a period of adjustment to cope with that at times was less than pleasurable. But at some point I started thinking about it as more of an advantage than a handicap. For one, I cook most of the meals my girlfriend and I consume anyway, so to take on the "going to the grocer" thing just let me have more control over what I had to work with. I like cooking anyway; I have worked as a cook in the past, and know what kind of stuff goes on behind the scenes in commercial kitchens, not to mention the fact that my counterpart could burn water. So all in all we eat a lot better when I am doing the preparations. My grandfather was a holistic doctor of sorts, so I got a bit of nutritional education through him. I also use any "free time" to learn about things in several categories, such as computers (I never touched one till a couple years ago), primitive skills, and I also have started learning HTML. I try to make the time I have, not at a job, as valuable as possible. I figure if I am getting some form of education in the process of keeping the house up I am saving the cost of paying someone else to teach me. They say education "ain't cheap" and as long as you keep yourself motivated you can learn more through independent study than instruction anyway, although you may not have a piece of paper to say so. I guess the trick is to stay interested.
I think our standard of living increases with a stay at home person, whether they are male or female. You have time to do the stuff that makes yours and your partner's life more enjoyable and healthier. I take time to study things I would have, in the past, just thrown money at, and as a result I can build on my knowledge base and improve our lives. Don't get me wrong; I am behind the curve on a lot of things, but that can be overcome by effort. I spend my days growing stuff, fishing, cooking, cleaning, studying, and having fun with my girl. I offset the loss in income I would be generating by doing a lot of the stuff you would normally pay more for. By shopping around I get better deals and higher quality than you could get in any one place; I try to be an educated consumer and find the best value for the money whenever possible.
This post is just kind of an intro to who I am and what I intend to focus on here.
Anyone who would like to can leave their comments and tips for other stay at home folks.