Flower Child

Big Girl had “Poetry Café” day today at school.

Apparently, it was some throwback to the 60’s and they were all supposed to dress like hippies and read poetry that they’d written.

When I was growing up, we dressed as Colonials and celebrated Georgia Day.

Not hippies.

My, how the times have changed.

She IS adorable, though, isn’t she?

My little Flower Child.

sigh.

(and the wrist is wrapped, for those of you who will want to know, because she tumbled off of her(my) bike on Saturday and sprained it. we’re in the klutzy stage, I think)

I’ll be back… soon.

Hi, gang,

So sorry I haven’t been around here much the past week. Work is crazy busy and it is the end of the kids’ school year. Add to that some unexpected challenges that we’ve had in the past week and you have one overloaded girl.

Blogging just hasn’t fit into my schedule.

But I will be back. Soon.

I promise.

Right now, though, I need to focus on some other things and on getting my girls through the last weeks of school. Hopefully, I will be back to blogging next week.

Thank you for understanding!

Brave Girls

I subscribe to mailings from the Brave Girls Club – have you heard of them?

Love, love, love their mailings. Such a great reminder on a daily basis to keep focused on what is most important and on nourishing my own soul.

Here’s what was in my inbox today:

Dear Becoming Girl,
It might feel kind of scary when you start to realize who you really are, because that person is so much more magnificent than who you have let yourself believe she is, and it’s scary to look that potential in the face and truly believe in the bright light that she is. It’s frightening to think about how life might change if we embrace our real, authentic, fantastic self; relationships might change, our job might change, the way we live each moment often changes when we stop living on auto-pilot, when we stop settling for what showed up somewhere along the way.
Please be reminded, radiant girl, that there is nothing on this earth so beautiful, so comforting, so warm and inviting and loving as a girl who knows who she is. A girl who knows who she is has nothing to prove, nothing to worry about and nothing to take. A girl who knows who she is shows up with so much light, confidence and love for everyone and everything around her that the room. The world is never the same after she is there.
Please embrace the soul-deep goodness that is you. The world needs you to see it. The world needs you to live it. We don’t want to miss out on your color, your light and your glittery sparkle dust anymore.
It will be ok. Come on out of that cocoon and show the world your wings. Ohhhh, they are so beautiful!
You are so very very very loved.
xoxo

A message from your friends at the Brave Girls Club – www.bravegirlsclub.com

Brave Girls Club - A Little Butterfuly Told Me They also have mailings for young women. I subscribe to these, also, and forward to my girls’ email accounts. Big Girl loves them although she admits she doesn’t always “get” them – but I know the wisdom is seeping into her consciousness and that one day the nuggets will prove helpful (or I hope so anyway)

It’s uncanny to me how BOTH sets of messages seem to be exactly applicable with whatever is going on in our lives that day – for example, when Big Girl was having some challenges with some “mean girls” at school, the young Brave Girl emails were talking about having confidence in yourself and not valuing yourself based on how others treated you. Amazing.

Here’s a sample of the Young Girls’ email:

Dear Wonderful Girl,
You are a mighty little force of goodness. Did you know that?
Don’t ever forget the power that one person has, one pure hearted girl has, to make GIANT differences in the world. Light will always always always overpower the darkness, no matter what.
Keep shining that sparkly light of yours, beautiful girl.
You are so very very very loved.
xoxo

If you’ve never checked them out – hop over to the website and browse around. If you have a young woman in your life (or even an “old woman” like me) consider subscribing or passing the link on.

Totally Random Wednesday

Happy Hump Day, y’all.

Sooo happy the week is almost over! It’s “Thursday” for me as I’m taking the day off on Friday and the girls and I are headed to see Mom for a long weekend of fun and sun.

Because I’m trying to get the work week wrapped up and get ready for the weekend at the same time, my thoughts are all over the place today. I thought I’d share some of this randomness with you.

Here are a few blog posts I’ve read recently that I really liked:

What I want my daughter to know about the mean girls, from The Gypsy Mama
Road Trip Wedding Vows, from Stuff Christians Like
Dear Target, from And Then She Snapped
Skillrex wants you to put down your smartphone from Jon Acuff

And one of my current favorite new recipes I’ve discovered:

Butter Dip Biscuits from the Country Cook – seriously, if you haven’t tried these yet, you need to. So good.

So, that’s all from me for now…

I’ll be back to whirling and twirling (virtually) as I swap between the many hats I’m wearing today. (and hope I don’t get TOO dizzy doing so)

Hope you have a great day!

Project Life Tuesday ~ 24 April 12

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

If you are stopping by from The Mom Creative, welcome & thanks for clicking over! If you are not, you might want to click over there when you’re done here for some more great Project Life inspiration!

I’m using the Clementine Edition of the Project Life kit offered by Becky Higgins, supplemented by some digital extras and using up the random bits I have from twelve-plus years of scrapbooking. Some weeks are more digital than others and some weeks are full of frills and furbelows. It just depends on my mood.

This week is a little more digital – with the exception of some old Creative Memories’ Black & White paper and some red ribbon for a punch of color. Since it was a rainy, gloomy week last week, I went with black & white for the major color scheme.

(remember to click on any image to see it larger)

Here are a few close ups:

This was the back of the page from last week and it had six 6×4 pockets. I realized this only after I’d cut my 3×4 pictures and rounded the corners, but I think it looks OK. It matches the other page, at least.

I thought the red ribbon tied in nicely to the red on the radar and the red tail lights from the rainy day picture.

a close-up of the journaling. Loving the Cathy Zielske journaling cards. I made the border dark grey to go with my color scheme.

Right side page: (sorry for the glare)

My favorite cookies – SuperMan brought some home for me. Love to nibble on some with some green tea at night while we watch TV.

And the cat has moved back in the house because the doggies have taken over her garage – at least until the back yard is de-flea-ed and the rain lets up.

and then there is my dismay over gas prices. I figured it was worthy of documenting –

and my current magazine loves & Big Girl’s multi-tasking…

Moving on to Saturday when the pups tried (vainly) to get into the house for a visit.

That’s it from around here. I’m not participating in the Week in the Life project (maybe one day) but I have been taking lots of pictures and it’s only Tuesday! Yay, me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life Tuesday ~ 10 April 12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project Life Tuesday: 1.24.12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project Life Tuesday 3.27.12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

Black Bean Soup on a chilly Monday

It’s chilly here today – almost like Spring and Summer got mixed up. It was warm in February/March and now that we’re knocking on the door of May it decides to be cool and windy. Go figure.

Because it was in the 40’s this morning and my little toes were frozen, I decided soup would be a good bet for lunch today. And because I have been craving black bean soup from my favorite restaurant and they only make it on Wednesdays (and I never seem to get out on Wednesdays for lunch) I decided that I’d make some here at home.

Traditionally, I make black bean soup from dried beans. It’s a labor-intensive, time-consuming process which is really not worth it because I’m the only one in my house who really likes black bean soup. SuperMan will eat it, but it probably isn’t his first choice of things to eat. The girls are grossed out by it and won’t even give it a try (hoping one day that changes)

So, because of this, I rarely make black bean soup at home – and eat it out almost as rarely because, as I said earlier, my favorite place to eat it only makes it once a week and I am not usually there on that day to eat it.

I decided today to do a little experiment and try making some using canned black beans. I keep these on hand all the time as I love them in chili and in my quesadillas, etc. So, why not, I thought?

The result was yummy goodness.

I thoroughly enjoyed my little bowl of goodness and have enough for lunch all week, unless SuperMan decides to sample some himself one day.

Super easy and super quick to make. I think I made it from beginning to end in less than 20 minutes. It would make a great meatless meal one night.

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes (you can substitute a jar of salsa or can of diced tomatoes with chilies if you don’t have these)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup minced onion (about 1/4 of a small onion)
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cilantro (dried)
~ 1 cup chicken broth
olive oil
salt/pepper

In a small stock pot, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion & garlic until onions begin to become translucent. Be careful not to burn the garlic. (use medium heat)
While this is sautéing, rinse your beans and dump them, along with the tomatoes, in a food processor. Pulse a few times until the beans are slightly creamy. You can determine how “chunky” or creamy you want this to be.
Add the tomato/bean mixture to the stock pot.
Add chicken broth until soup is desired consistency.
Add cumin, chili powder, cilantro & salt/pepper. Simmer 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is hot & flavors combine.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some tortilla chips.

I also added about 3-4 tsp of my favorite tomatillo salsa to my soup when I ate it.

Printable copy available on AllRecipes.com

Springtime Sunshine Cake

Revisiting one of my all-time favorite recipes today. If you haven’t tried it before, you should!

Springtime makes most of us instinctively want to clear things out – out with the old, in with the new. Out with the clutter, out with the dark tones of winter, out with the heavier foods and in with the light. Lighter colors, lighter clothes, lighter foods.

This is one of my favorite things to make in the springtime.

Mom stumbled across this recipe years ago. It’s been one of our standbys ever since. It is so easy and quick to make, yet it is from scratch and feels wholesome to prepare.

I love the light texture of the cake – it’s technically a pound cake, but it is in no way heavy like some pound cakes are. This cake bakes up light and airy.

The flavor is light as well – it sings of springtime, with its hints of orange, lemon, and apricot.

There is a glaze in the recipe, although I never make it. My kids are anti-glaze, anti-icing, and prefer their cakes and cookies au naturel.

Works for me. Less sugar to consume.

Anyway, I hope you will give this a try. The first time I made it, I thought, “Apricot? Really? Huh.”

But, I am so glad I tried it. It is one of the family favorites – and one that is requested often by our friends as well.

I would imagine you could substitute the apricot juice with some orange juice or even lemon juice, but I love it just as it is and have never felt the need to swap it out. I buy the six pack of the little bitty apricot juice cans in the grocery store, so I always have one on hand for the cake. It takes about half of one of those cans in the cake and I use the rest in the glaze if I make the cake for friends.

Sunshine Cake

3 cups sugar (I use 1 1/2 cups splenda sugar blend)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup apricot juice/nectar (or you can use apricot brandy)
1 cup sour cream (do not use low fat sour cream, it won’t work here)
1 cup butter, softened
6 eggs
1 tsp orange extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c (apprx) apricot nectar

*if you have them on hand, you can zest a lemon and/or orange into the batter and glaze. It just amps up the flavor.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease and flour Bundt pan or tube pan.
In large mixing bowl, cream butter & sugar.
Add in the apricot juice.
Add the sour cream, extracts and eggs, making sure they are incorporated thoroughly.
Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt)
Pour into baking pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool for 20 minutes before inverting onto cake plate.
Continue to cool for approx. 30 minutes more or until cake is completely cool.
Drizzle with glaze, if desired.

Some days are just hard…

I’m sure we’ve all had days when the simplest things seem oh, so difficult…

Poor, poor baby girl!

It’s TOO HEAVY!

Hee hee…

Totally Random Thoughts on a Rainy Wednesday

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

I wish I was snoring…

Or, rather, I could very easily be snoring…

Rain makes me sleepy. Oh, so sleepy.

But it makes my flowers oh, so pretty.

In other totally random thoughts…

There’s been a fly in my house since I had all the doors/windows open on Saturday. He is driving me crazy because I’m starting to wonder if he is smarter than me since I can’t seem to kill him. I feel like he is taunting me…
My house is full of hormones and angst. It is beginning to be a little challenging to remain calm and balanced. It makes me want to run and hide in my closet.
Nancy Grace makes me crazy. She is just a little bit too over-the-top for me, especially at 7 in the morning. I like Good Morning America but she makes me want to change the channel every time she comes on the air.
I had some oatmeal for breakfast this morning (exciting, I know) – and it wasn’t until after I’d fixed it that I realized I’d put cinnamon sugar on top of “reduced sugar” oatmeal. Don’t think the irony escaped me. Oh well. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
I’m totally hooked on The Voice. It’s the first one of these type shows that has captured my attention for more than 30 seconds. I love watching those guys – especially to see what CeeLo and Christina’s outfits will be for the night. And let’s not forget looking at the eye candy on the end of the row… yes, we’ve had some interesting conversations, SuperMan and I, while watching that show. hee hee
Who really cares about Pippa Middleton and her antics? Is this what the newscasters have to occupy their time with because the Royals are behaving themselves? I mean, really. She’s a young girl who is having a good time and enjoying life. Let it be, people. I’m sure you never did anything stupid in your youth, either…

Okay… I think I’ll stop here before I scare you all away. I’ve got a recipe for you later this week – an amalgamation of two of my favorite Pinterest recipes. Stay tuned for some goodness.

Project Life Tuesday ~ 17 April 12

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

Back to the grindstone last week – the girls were back to school and we had all sorts of unplanned doctor visits and other challenges throughout the week. I didn’t have a lot of pictures except for Little Bit’s visitor’s day at her dance class, but the pages turned out pretty well, I think.

I used some rub-ons and clear stickers for embellishments and Cathy Z’s tutorial to capture my FB post on my work laptop crashing. I like how that turned out. Will be doing it again. “Wednesday” and “Friday” I pulled from the Ali Edwards digital kit like I did last week. I like how it shows up so I did it again. Sticker on the group shot is one of those Martha Stewart labels cut in half.

Also played around with Hipstamatic – that is the picture of Big Girl in the doctor’s office – and still trying to figure when to use that little app on my phone. I’m quite spoiled with Camera+ these days.

It was a really, really stressful week for me – I finished the week with a well-deserved margarita…