Blogging and Privacy

{Drawing by Tu Gribouilles}

I am torn. I love blogging. I love to share snippets of my life, and products that I like and hope could be beneficial to you. I like telling stories and hope that people can relate. That is all fine and dandy for my food blog. I keep people anonymous when they want to be. But when it comes to my unborn child I am torn. I know everything she does is going to be adorable, and I will have a million pictures of her. But do I want to share them? Do I want digital copies of my kid’s face floating on the internet?

For the most part the internet has been good to me. I haven’t run into anything detrimental. I try to keep tabs of what I share and consider those in my lives when sharing. However, there are still times where I come across people stealing my pictures and using it as theirs, or even have my face as their face! I do not want that for my mini bun. I don’t even want to use her name in a public space. But can I really be an effective mommy blogger (MamaMiemo.com), if I won’t even share pictures of my kid? I honestly don’t even wanna put stuff up on my personal facebook!

I love looking at the cute kids when I’m reading through parental blogs. But the internet is a big scary place, for a tiny baby. How do you guys feel about it?

Kikki K Personal Planner

Ugh. I know. Miemo, ANOTHER planner? How many planners does one woman need, as my cousin Cece would say. Well at one point I had 3. Erin Condren for my life, Poppin for my blogs, and freelance clients, and a Sugar Paper LA one for my office and work tasks. As I get bigger and more off balance, I’ve decided that I need just ONE planner to put everything in (except work/office, that stays there).

After making a list of what I want I want to schedule in this planner, and what I want it to do, I then made a list of places that sells them. I knew for sure that I wanted something that I could reuse from years to come, and not have to order one every year. I wanted ample note pages and pockets and customize able.

After scouring blogs, watching youtube reviews, and pinterest, I finally decided. I bit the bullet and went with the one recommended by Michelle from Hey Love Designs. I got the Kikki Large Personal Planner.

Pros:

  • Big enough for me to fold papers and stick in there until I can deal with them
  • Has a clasp
  • Soft leather, looks so cute, love the colors
  • Refillable, just buy a new set of weekly calendar every year or use perpetual that comes with it (I prefer predated pages)
  • Compatible with filofax A5 stuff so I’m not limited to Kikki K stuff
  • Tabs to organize all the things I need to manage, social, personal, projects, blogs etc.
  • Week starts on a Monday, and the weekend days are kept together at the end
  • Being a hole punched system it’s easy for me to move sheets and notes around

Cons:

  • Big. I carry a big purse but I can see how this could be an issue when I don’t
  • The preprinted calendars are based on the Australian calendar, so I have to write in American holidays
  • Paper is thinner than I’d like
  • No notes section for weekly tasks at each week for the planner section (I just added lined post its)
  • There’s no monthly outlook prior to the weekly pages starting. They are in the beginning,  but I feel I could probably find a refill that’s more my style

…also, yes I know its in the middle of the year, but guess what, their planners start in JUNE so just in time for me!

Blue Apron

The hardest thing to think about during my work week is always, what’s for dinner. You spend all day at work, sometimes you don’t pre-plan your meals and you just want to eat. Then you go down the hole of eating out always. I think that is where 20-30 year olds spend their money.

Well, as someone who is 8 months pregnant and has no energy after a full work day, let alone enough strength to stand in the kitchen, I fall into that hole. Lucky for me, my husband cooks as well. He mentioned that his coworker who is also a new parent uses Blue Apron, and thought we should give it a try. This eliminates: 1. food waste because they give you just enough to make your dishes, 2. grocery shopping because they send you the main ingredients and 3. figuring out what to eat because they send you 3 meals, you just pick what day you want to cook what.

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They send you a box with ingredients and recipe cards for 3 meals. They’ve got like 3 ice packs in there and it should be good until you get home. But refrigerate right away! Our first week’s subscription landed on Cinco de Mayo, so they sent Mexican food for that week. Fish Tacos, Mole Chicken Quesadillas, and Pozole.

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I loved how everything was packaged. I felt like we were getting a Chopped basket…except without the challenge! The fish tacos were sooo delicious and full of flavor. I was definitely impressed.

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If you aren’t that great of a chef, fret not. The recipes are simple enough, and it will help you sharpen your skills. The challenge for me, is forcing myself to eat what is there and try new things. Surprisingly enough, I’m a picky eater. Well maybe not picky, but particular. I never had a raw golden beat before.  Nor do I like raw onions and shallots. But I went ahead and ate everything in front of me.

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I like that they only offer 3 meals. I think it is the perfect amount, because maybe you have leftovers Monday, and want to go out Friday! The produce that comes in looks fresh and healthy, which is more than I can say about produce found in our local grocery stores. Overall I am happy with this service. This will come in handy when we’ve got a new born in the house as well!

Crabby Cravings

xhdKHnaLJFw3YZQ5.jpgI am addicted. Maybe because I haven’t had crawfish ALL year. It’s just a lot of effort to do at home when you live in a condo. But every week, literally, every week, I’ve gone to Captain Pell’s and engorged myself on blue crabs. I always eat at least six. I know that sounds a little bit much. Especially because I’m pregnant. Mercury and all that jazz. But I looked it up. Crabs only live a couple of years anyway, that doesn’t give them enough time to build up mercury. So they are low on that scale.

So of the 4 times I’ve gone this last month, the price did go up. I guess because market price went up. But here’s the skinny. You can get a dozen medium steamed (male) crabs for $45 or ALL YOU CAN EAT for $45. I can’t really eat more than a dozen (if that, I usually share with whoever I end up going with) so the dozen is good for me. The husband is allergic to blue crab (poor guy) so he gets snow crab leg platter which he really enjoys. Their other dishes have been good too. Though I don’t usually have much room for them. The hush puppies are yummy and I love their fries.

We usually get the same server and HE’S GREAT. Even when they are busy, he tries his best to take care of you. But if you are going in for crabs, you plan to stay awhile so no worries if its busy. Crabs come out really fast!

Captain Pell’s
10195 Fairfax Blvd
Fairfax, VA 22030