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Thoughtful Thursday: Taking Inventory

Posted in My Thoughts, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2012| 2 Comments »

It’s funny…when I started doing the Thoughtful Thursday posts a while ago, I was worried that when I sat down to write it nothing would come out.  It has never failed though that some idea or “thought” would cross my mind and I would write about it.  Sometimes it’s projects around our house or a trip somewhere that ends up here, but more often than not, this post is about MY thoughts.

Last Sunday morning, we attended church for the first time in a while.  Why, you ask?  Pure laziness, but that is changing right now.  C & I sat down with our kitchen calendar where I do my menu planning and wrote down the church’s name on every Sunday as a reminder that that is where we need to be that one morning per week.  The fact that we had slacked off majorly in our attendance had been eating at me for awhile.  I felt like that I wasn’t doing my part for God.  That I was asking Him to do things for me, sometimes little things but sometimes BIG things, and I couldn’t muster up enough time and energy to dedicate this time to worship He and Jesus.  Shame on me!!

Anyway, the subject of the sermon was “Taking Inventory” and it really made me think.  The pastor talked about how the new year is a great time to take inventory of our lives and see if we are where we want to be and also to take stock of the blessings in our lives that we sometimes look over or take for granted.  I have a wonderful life with a wonderful husband and family.  There are still things that I want to accomplish and, hopefully, I will, but by and large, my life is pretty darn good. 

There are a few things that I want to improve on this year.  Firstly is church attendance and tithing.  C & I got off to a good start and plan to continue with both. I always feel so much better after going so I don’t know why we slacked off so bad.  

Secondly, I want to improve my diet and exercise routine.  Overall it’s not too bad, but I eat way too many sweets so one of my goals is to cut back drastically on sweet stuff, especially the premade artificial junk food.  Starting this past Tuesday, when I went back to my regular work schedule, I stopped all soft drinks and candy bars.  Hard?  You betcha, but I know it will be best for me in the long run.  I will probably still make one or two desserts a month, but I am saving my “sugar” for those good homemade treats and not waste it on junk that’s not that tasty anyway.  Ellie makes sure I get plenty of walking in everyday, but I used to do yoga a few days a week and it made a huge difference in my flexibility and strength.  I hope to be able to do yoga or some kind of stretching exercises about three days a week.

Thirdly, I need to improve my attitude at work.  Sometimes when you work with the public day in and day out, it can really get under your skin and when you work in the court system, it can REALLY get under your skin when you see the same people over and over and over again.  I have a great job that has good hours and is close to home so I need to focus on the positive and not the negative.  I could be working night shift an hour or two away, but I don’t have to do that, thank the good Lord.

These are some of my goals for 2012.  I will update you all about them every once in a while to see if I am sticking with them.  I hope everyone has a blessed and prosperous new year!  Holler at me and let me know what your goals for this year are.  I would love to know!

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Thoughtful Thursday: Ho-Ho-Oh No! Edition

Posted in My Thoughts, tagged on December 22, 2011| 4 Comments »

Let me start this rather personal post by saying that I am no Scrooge, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed this time of year by everything that is happening around me that I almost can’t stand it.  It hasn’t always been this way, but since my mom passed away a year and a half ago, the holidays just aren’t the same.

For those that don’t know, my mom was my closest female friend in the world, so not only did I lose my mom, I lost my best friend.  Mom and I loved Thanksgiving and Christmas and loved planning things together.  We would trade gift lists and go shopping at least once or twice.  She and I planned the menu and decorated together.  To say the least, there is now a big hole in my holiday cheer.

I have had to make myself get in the “spirit” both last year and this year and my husband has helped with that a lot.  If it weren’t for him, I would probably just hide in our house from the middle of November until the first of January to escape it all. 

Now, to look at me, you wouldn’t think this.  Our tree has been up since the last of November.  The gifts are wrapped and the Christmas cards have been mailed.  We have already had one big Christmas gathering and have a couple more to attend, but there are days that my heart just isn’t in it. 

Sorry for this downer post, but I just had to get it out.  I love and worship the “reason for the season”, but sometimes “The Holidays” are more than I can deal with.  Thankfully, the Son and the Father get me through this today and everyday.  Even when I am sad and missing my mom so much it hurts, I know she is in a better place and, one day, (hopefully many many many years from now) we will be together again!

Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful readers and blog friends!  I hope you and your family are blessed beyond measure!

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Thoughtful Thursday-How To Edition

Posted in Home, My Thoughts, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2011| 3 Comments »

C & I built our house about 6 years ago and it has a basement and two floors.  We knew we weren’t going to finish the basement as we were building, but had (and still have) grand plans for it in the near future.  The first floor is finished, but I hesitate to say that because there are always little things that I would like to do to it, but this is the space we live in everyday.

The upstairs is in between these two levels.  It is “finished”, but not completely furnished and decorated yet.  That is slowly changing though.  Late last summer, I got a burst of creativity and decided it was time to paint.  Builder’s beige, be gone!  One bedroom is now Lettuce green, the other is Mythical purple (my fave), and the bathroom is Cucumber green all by Sherwin-Williams Duration Home.  We left the hall Aesthetic white which was the original color because is goes down into the foyer which is also that color.

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4Green Bedroom After

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I got busy last fall and during the holiday season, so I didn’t get much done during that time.  Ok, I got nothing done during that time.  Winter was going to be my work time, but a little car accident got in the way of that, too.  Well, enough is enough.  It is time for this to be complete so we can start on the basement.  I had a look in my head that I wanted for the bedrooms, especially the purple one.  It all starts with a silver metal bed, but they are sooo expensive.  The good Lord was looking out for me because my wonderful MIL, J, said that I could have the metal bed she used as a child and paint it any color I wanted.  Oh. My. Goodness. 

So that’s where this how-to post begins.  Here is the bed before I did anything to it:

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I sanded it and then scrubbed it down with dishwashing liquid and warm water.  Next, I sprayed 2 coats of metal primer on it and let it dry thoroughly.  Then I got to the fun part: Krylon Brushed Metallic Satin Nickel spray paint.  It turned out just like I wanted it to!

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Next stop: more furniture!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in My Thoughts on November 24, 2011|

Thanksgiving

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Thoughtful Thursday

Posted in Entertainment, Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged , , on November 10, 2011|

Today’s thoughts are a continuation of the last post about C & my weekend trip to Nashville.  Let’s see…we covered our reason for going (to see the awesome Broadway show, Wicked) and we covered the local restaurant we tried and LOVED, 417 Union.  Today, I wanted to show you some of the local “flavor” of Nash-vegas, the nightlife!

On our way to the show, we drove down Broadway in search of dinner.  We had allowed ourselves 2 hours to eat before showtime, but it wasn’t enough.  I guess I just wasn’t thinking clearly…downtown Nashville + beautiful autumn Saturday night = HUGE CROWDS!  The restaurant we had planned on going to called The Big River Grille had lines down the street and most of the other eateries had the same kind of crowds.  We ended up grabbing a snack at TPAC’s café before the show instead.  It was a giant brownie and a bottle of water.  It was good and I am glad of it since that was our dinner.  The photos below show some of the early evening scenes on Broadway.

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When Wicked was over, we made our way back to Broadway heading to our hotel.  It was around 11:00pm and it was a different scene then.  The nightlife crowd was out and about and people were cruising the streets looking for fun or, like us, cruising the streets just to see what we could see!

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The next morning we made our way to the Opryland Hotel.  Now, if you have never been there and you are ever in Nashville, it is a must-see!  C & I stayed there on our honeymoon with a garden view room which has a little balcony attached.  It was beautiful.  The hotel suffered major damage last year due to flooding and re-opened last Thanksgiving weekend.  I wanted to go see if there were a lot of changes.  There really wasn’t.  The builders just restored it back to its previous opulence, but most of the gardens still looked the same.  Still beautiful, and still well worth the time to go through them.

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We really enjoyed our weekend and can’t wait to go back!

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Thoughtful Thursday-Travel Edition

Posted in My Thoughts, Travel, tagged , , , , , on October 27, 2011|

I mentioned in my Menu Plan Monday post that C & I took a weekend trip to Nashville so I just had to give you all the gory details.  We had a wonderful time in a beautiful city.  Nashville, to me, is one of those places where I just can’t seem to see everything there is to see.  We stayed downtown for the first time and were able to do a little sight-seeing that we hadn’t done before.

Before we get to that, I have to mention the little reason we actually went there for…WICKED: THE MUSICAL!!!  I have the most wonderful husband ever!  I told him he must love me a lot since he doesn’t seem to mind dressing up and going to Broadway musicals with me!  The tickets were a birthday present, also from my wonderful hubby and we had enough hotel rewards points from our summer vacation to get a free night.  Score!! We saw the show at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center which is a fabulous venue.

If you have a chance to see this show, DO NOT HESITATE!!  It was incredible!  I know I am using a lot of exclamation points, but they are well deserved in this case.  The songs, the sets, the characters…there’s just too much detail to describe here. Go see it!  There is one scene where Elphaba (future Wicked Witch of the West) is singing “Defying Gravity” and it looks like she is being lifted up on something but the theater is mostly dark except from her torso up.  When she hits that last long note, all of the stage lights come on and she is hanging there like she is flying.  Awesome, all I can say is, AWESOME!  The actress in this touring company filled the theater with her voice and it literally brought me to tears and there wasn’t anything sad about it.  It was just that good!  By the way, you also need to read the book by Gregory Maguire.  It makes the show that much more enjoyable to know a little more detail.

Anyway, I searched online for a local restaurant to try out while we were there and found 417 Union.  It is located, not surprisingly, at 417 Union Street.  It is a pretty little diner decorated 1940’s style.

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They seem to be most know for their breakfast so I ordered the pancake platter with maple vanilla syrup and it did not disappoint.  These pancakes had a delightful crunchy exterior and the fluffiest interior I have ever seen.  So very good!

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C had the burger and fries.  He said he thought it was the best burger he had ever had and believe me, that is saying something because C loves his burgers!  It was made out of ground sirloin so that might have something to do with it.  C says that he is going to get me the grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer so I can make them, too.

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This is the only new restaurant we had the chance to try, but it was a huge success.  We would definitely go back to 417 Union again.  This is just part of our little trip though.  Check back for the next edition of Thoughtful Thursday where some of the local ambience of Nashville will be featured.

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Thoughtful Thursday: How-to Edition

Posted in Home, My Thoughts, tagged , on October 13, 2011|

For this edition of Thoughtful Thursday, I am going to show how to make another “homemade” version of a household product that I usually buy.  If you read the last TT post, you will see that I am trying to reduce C & my exposure to chemicals and fragrances at home. 

I like using liquid hand soap instead of a bar for just hand-washing because the bars always seem to get gooey and nasty.  Even when I buy the plainest liquid soap I can find, it always has a long list of ingredients that don’t really seem necessary.  Guess what?  They are not!!  This recipe has all of three ingredients and that is all it takes.  The basis for this is from the website Tipnut, and the only thing I changed was to leave out the honey, but I may add some next time to try it.

1 bar of soap (I used Dove Unscented for Sensitive Skin, but I need to find an all natural organic soap to use.)

1 tsp. vegetable glycerin

water

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Grate the bar of soap into small flakes.  Pour into a blender.  Add 1 cup of boiling water and blend until smooth.  Add the glycerin and stir to combine.

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Allow the mix to cool for about 15 minutes and whip again.  Add about 3 cups of water to this and pour into a container.  Allow this to cool with the top off of the container.  The soap should thicken when it cools.  I really like this recipe, but I used a too much water in mine so it was little thin.

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I will definitely try this again!

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Thoughtful Thursday: How-to Edition

Posted in Home, My Thoughts, tagged , on September 29, 2011| 5 Comments »

C and I are both sensitive to fragrances and chemicals so in an effort to reduce our exposure to these, I have been researching non-toxic and natural cleaning methods for our home and clothing.  Also, I switched our bathroom cleaners to non-toxic brands and started using a steam mop on the hardwood floors (which is an awesome piece of equipment).  If you have hardwood floors, go get yourself a steam mop.  You won’t be disappointed.

Tide has always been my favorite clothes detergent, but it is expensive even with coupons.  I used to use the powder, but since we have really hard water that does not dissolve the powder very well, I switched to liquid.  In reading about alternative cleaning methods, I found that there were many people making their own laundry detergent, either to save money or to lessen chemical exposure to I decided to give it a try. 

Since I didn’t know if C would be allergic to one of the three ingredients, I only used it to wash towels this week to test it.  So far so good!  The towels were also pretty clean, but I did notice that it did not remove some tomato sauce stains from one dishtowel, but I left out the bleach I usually use for that, also.  This “recipe” came from the website Our Greener Acres, which is full of ideas on healthier and more natural living.

(Note: This recipe is for a full batch of detergent, but I just made a half a batch to test it so the pictures won’t quite correspond with the text.)

1 bar laundry soap (I used Fels Naptha)

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

Water

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Start by bringing 4 cups of water to a simmer on the stove.  While the water is warming, grate the bar of soap.

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Once the water is simmering, add the soap in small batches.  Don’t put it in all at once or it will take a very long time to melt.  Once the soap is melted and the mixture is smooth, add the washing soda and borax.  Cook until dissolved.

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I saved an old Tide jug to use.  Pour this mixture into the jug and fill it up the rest of the way with warm water.  Leave a little room because you will have to shake it up to use it.  Let is set for several hours with the top off to cool.

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When I washed the towels with it, I almost couldn’t get it to pour out of the container because it was so thick but I may not have let it cool long enough before I tried it.  This detergent smelled nice but it wasn’t overpowering so I hope that it gets our clothes nice and clean because it was easy and cheap to make.  I will keep you updated on the results.

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Thoughtful Thursday-Bookworm Edition

Posted in Books, My Thoughts, tagged , , on September 15, 2011|

Did you all, my readers, think I have stopped reading since I haven’t had a bookworm post in so, so long?  Never fear, I have had a book in my hand all spring and summer long and have read some really good books and some not so good ones, too.  Let’s take a look, shall we??

I guess I had better say something first…I read for pure pleasure.  Unless it is the Bible (the perfect instruction manual for life) or a cookbook/gardening/how-to book, I read to get lost in another world or another life.  Books are an escape for me and I love them!  Sometimes I think I should have been a librarian in some big old library full of rare and precious books, but maybe that is because of the book I am reading right now.

I am in the middle of “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova, and it is so good.  If you recall, I wrote a short post about another book by the same author called “The Swan Thieves”, and I think I like “The Historian” better than that one. 

I have also read the first two books by Stieg Larrson: “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played With Fire”.  My co-worker, K, has the third book, “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest”, and I can’t wait to get a hold of that one, too.  I highly recommend these, but with one caveat.  The first book starts out a little slow, but don’t give up on it.  If you can make it through the first 50 pages or so of story background information, you will be rewarded.  The plot takes off from there and doesn’t stop until the very end.  The second book, not weighed down by history, takes off at a run and keeps going.  It is great!  These will be the only three books by the author because he passed away shortly after the third books was completed.  So sad!

Two other books that I have read this summer and enjoyed were food-related.  Yay!  One of my favorite topics!  The first was “The Hundred Foot Journey” by Richard Morais and “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle.  My local library was having a summer reading program for adults and these two books were on the reading list.  I didn’t get signed up in time to complete enough books before the deadline, but it was fun to read some different authors that I have never heard of before.

My favorite of the two was “A Year in Provence”.  I think I finished it in three days and wished it was much, much longer.  It is about the author and his wife’s first year of living in the Provence region of France, and it is a true story, which makes it even more entertaining.  “The Hundred Food Journey” is fiction, but good as well.  An Indian family decide to move from India to England and then France after the death of a special family member.  The interactions between the Indian family and the locals of France is especially entertaining.

I also read “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert since I had heard a lot about it, but had not yet seen the movie.  I don’t think I will bother with the movie.  I finished the book, but it was a struggle.  This is also a true store of one woman’s journey to put her life back together after a difficult marriage and divorce.  She travels to Italy (to eat), India (to pray), and Indonesia (she finds love) to recover from her sadness.  I guess the best way to say it is that I was very uncomfortable with her religious decisions.  It seemed like she wanted to take the “best” parts of every religion and put them together to make some sort of hybrid.  That just doesn’t fly in my book.  If you want the easy, happy, and loving parts of God, you must also take his rules along with them. 

I hope you enjoyed my little book review list.  I hope to start on the Harry Potter series soon.  I like the movies and want to try the books, too.  Happy reading!!

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Thoughtful Thursday-Garden Edition

Posted in Gardening, My Thoughts, tagged , , on September 1, 2011| 2 Comments »

Looking back over this summer’s blog posts, I realized that there were very few garden updates and I know why.  The HEAT!!!  I started out with grand plan for my little raised bed this year and most of them worked out to some extent.  Early on, my lettuce and carrots did great, and the cucumber plants were taking off.  That was before The HEAT, though, and, yes, I believe it deserves all caps!

The first generation of cucumber plants produced a few veggies, but not nearly as many as I would have liked.  You can see that second generation in the first photo below.  Again, there have been a few harvested but not many.  The third generation is coming along nicely, and there should be enough time before frost to get a few cucumbers.  I don’t know if I just don’t have enough plants or if I am doing something wrong.  I thought I would have so many that I could share them with family, but there are barely enough for C & I.  I think I need another bed so I can plant more.  Or maybe 2 beds?!!??

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One veggie that has produced like gangbusters is the sweet peppers.  I only planted 3 little plants, but they have done great and are still hanging full!  That means lots of diced frozen sweet pepper for soups, chili, and sloppy Joes this fall and winter.  Yay!

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I hope to add at least one more raised bed before next spring because I want to can my own tomato sauce and juice, so therefore I need room for tomato plants!  And maybe some herbs and cabbage and…well, you get the picture.  Heirloom seeds are something that interests me, too so I have started a pinboard over on Pinterest to save seed ideas for next year.  If you like what I have pinned, please follow me!!

I hope to have better luck next year. There are a few things that I should have done differently this summer and maybe I can correct those then.  I should have added fresh compost to the bed to enrich it and I should have mulched with straw so the ground would not dry out so bad.  Live and learn, people, live and learn!!

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