Thoughts, Plans And Shenanigans
Although not intentional originally, I think I am going to take the summer off from blogging.
I’ll be back when the girls start school in August. I’m going to focus on enjoying my kids whenever I’m not at work! 🙂
Have a great summer y’all.
Illness has hit my house – beginning with me last weekend and now my baby girl has it. 😦
She’s been sniffling, sneezing and coughing all day. Poor thing.
I’m hoping she feels better tomorrow but right now I’m going to go snuggle with her rather than write a blog post.
I hope you understand.
Talk to you soon.
So, I took the day off of work on Friday and Monday was a holiday. And, apparently, I took a blogging holiday, too. I hadn’t really planned it, but I did plan to disconnect digitally and that sort of included blogging as well. It was a much-needed break and I really enjoyed having the time with the girls. I also got some major cleaning projects taken care 0f – my closet, my office and a good, thorough dusting/cleaning of most of the house. After the hectic work schedule of the past few months the house had really been neglected so it felt really good to make some progress there. My office is gleaming this morning and it’s reconfigured in a way that I hope will help with my back pain. Too many hours hunched over a computer and I’m paying the price.
On to other things…
It’s cold here! Like REALLY cold. Of course, I’m a wimpy southern girl. If it’s below 40 degrees I think I’m going to freeze to death. My friends in the northeast and northern midwest get a kick out of my whining about temperatures.
What’s your high temperature today? It’s supposed to be 42 here. It was 29 when I took the girls to school – and it’s STILL 29 outside! Brrrr. And poor SuperMan is working out in this cold. Of course, I think he layers up like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man when it is this cold. He comes home from work with his 47 layers of clothes and starts fussing about how hot the house is. We just tell him to take some clothes off 🙂
Since it is so chilly, I’m planning some good comfort food dinners this week. Last night I made a pot of spaghetti sauce. We had pasta with some homemade bread. (which I’ll be telling you more about later this week) The girls and SuperMan all had leftovers in their thermoses for lunch today. I’ve been on a tuna kick for lunch lately. It fills me up and the kitties are quite content to eat my leftovers.
So for the remainder of the week I will be cooking some other things that will go well in the thermoses so that everyone has a hot, hearty lunch the next day. Sandwiches are no fun when it’s cold. I’m going to try this new recipe I found on Pinterest – Pesto Ranch Crock Pot Chicken. It has rave reviews on the website and looks SO EASY. Probably serve with some pasta and some more of the homemade bread.
Are you planning anything special for your family this week? Any new recipes you’re trying?
Happy Monday, y’all.
It’s raining cats & dogs outside and my body is telling me that I need to curl up on the sofa with a good book and take a nap. Hibernate until the rain is gone. But, since it is supposed to rain for the next THREE DAYS I don’t think hibernating is a good idea. Especially since the girls would not be too happy when I didn’t pick them up at school this afternoon.
So, I’ll fight the urge to nap and instead focus on my ever-growing to-do list for work… right after I tell you about the fabulous meal we had last night. I’m bragging, just a little, because I made it, you see. But it truly was scrumptious.
We had friends over for dinner and I made Pasta Fagioli soup. I served it with a hearty salad and some whole grain rolls. We all pigged out. It was a yummy, filling, make-your-mouth-sing-and-your-tummy-happy kind of meal.
Have you ever had Pasta Fagioli? It’s super easy and super good. And a great way to get some veggies into your body (or your kids’ bodies) in a hearty soup. My grandpa used to call it “pasta fazool” (read with a heavy Italian accent) or he’d call it “pasta beans.”
Basically, pasta fagioli is a tomato and beef-broth based soup with beans, vegetables and ground beef. Only this time I also added a pound of mild Italian sausage. Oh.my.goodness. I’ll definitely be adding it to the recipe from now on.
For dessert, I made the cream cheese coffee cake I’d posted about on my Facebook page (you can follow me here) on Saturday. Little Bit was my assistant baker and we had a great time making it.
It’s a very mild cake that’s not too sweet and has a ribbon of cream cheese running through it. It’s topped with a drizzle of a powdered-sugar and milk glaze which adds just the right amount of sweetness to it.
It’s kind of like cheesecake and pound cake got together and had a baby and this is what the baby is. And since pound cake and cheesecake are two of my favorite desserts, I really like this one!!
It was perfect with a cup of coffee (or tea, in my case) and we all really enjoyed it for dessert last night.
As far as the rest of this week’s menu goes, I’m going to be cooking from my freezer for a few days – using up my stockpile of meats & veggies in there. Here are a few things I’m thinking about:
SuperMan is working a big “shut down” at work and is going to be gone most of the week – 14 hour days – so I don’t know if I’ll do too many more big meals than that. Cereal and/or pasta nights might creep in as they’re easy and quick to fix and the girls are quite happy with that.
And now I’m off to brew some Tazo AWAKE tea, because I think I’m gonna need that extra jolt to get me going today.
Well, hello there!
Sorry I’ve been away so long.
The last couple of months have been rather hectic and I made the conscious decision to take a step back from blogging for a while. I figured it was better to not post anything at all than to post “filler” things that didn’t really have my heart in them. I hope you understand and that you’re still around to read my ramblings on here.
The girls are back in school – even Big Girl! – and we’re getting back into our normal routines around here. Big Girl’s surgery went well and she is doing fantastic in her recovery. 
She spent the last 8 weeks doing exactly what the doctor told her to do and has seen tremendous improvements in her foot post-surgery. Hopefully, she will be out of the “boot” and in a walking brace in a few weeks. That’s the final step to her recovery, I think.
She spent the recovery time doing her schoolwork from home. I was so proud of her dedication and her time-management skills. She managed to stay up-to-date on all of her assignments and got everything done on time. 
We had a really nice Christmas and then spent a week at Mom’s with my brother and his family. The kids had such fun together and we all enjoyed being able to spend time together.
They’re all getting so big!!
Both big girls on crutches – one from surgery, the other from a mishap on the swing which resulted in a sprain.
Pile on Pop Pop! 
I got a new cookbook for Christmas from SuperMan. You will probably be hearing more of my exploits as I cook my way through it in the next few months. It’s all about baking artisan breads at home. Totally different way to make breads that I’ve ever done before. These have LOOONG rise times (like 12-14 hours) and are baked in dutch ovens. We made one at Mom’s and it was totally awesome. I actually have one rising on the counter now. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.
I’ve also been doing some crafting – I’ll share those projects with you over the next few weeks… lots of catching up to do!
So, I’m back – I hope you’re still there – and I have lots more to share with you soon!!
Twenty years ago I said “I do” to the love of my life –
to laughter and tears
to joy and sadness
to building and rebuilding
to learning and growing
to challenges and triumphs
and most importantly, to loving
I’d say we’ve done pretty good so far.
I can’t wait to see what the next twenty years bring.
Learn a little bit more about me, my habits and my favorite things. I’m five years out from having had gastric bypass surgery (you can read that story here) and loving my life as I’ve gotten healthy and made some major changes.
Our family consists of SuperMan, my soul mate and love for the last 25 years, our two girls – Big Girl, Little Bit (who is not so little anymore) and me. We live in the northern part of Georgia, although we’re southern through and through. We survive off of sweet tea, good cookin’ and lots of love and laughter.
Check out my favorite recipes, my crocheting, knitting and crafty adventures and even see a little bit of my scrapbooking adventures.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
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Where were you on that fateful day?
Where were you when the world changed?
Where were you on 9/11/01?
If you were above the age of about five, I am sure you remember.
I sure do.
It was the second day on a new job, Big Girl was barely six months old and at a new day care.
I remember.
I remember being in my office and seeing all these people talking in the hallways. I remember seeing people gathering in conference rooms. I remember someone stopping by my office door to see if I’d heard.
I remember trying to get on the news websites – and all of them being so jammed with other people trying to do the same thing that they wouldn’t load.
I remember calling my mom, over four hours away, to have her tell me what was happening as they watched it on television.
I remember the disbelief. I remember the fear. I remember making the decision to go and get my baby and go home – that if we were under attack I wanted to have her in my arms regardless of what happened.
I remember sitting in my living room and watching the news in disbelief, words not coming to express what I was feeling. I remember wanting to call my family and friends to make sure they were all okay.
And I remember the weeks and months after – the shock, the sadness, the mourning of people I never even knew. I remember wondering if there would be more…
I remember the day that our world changed.
And I can’t help but remember and then think about the people in other parts of the world who deal with terrorism and uncertainty as a part of their daily lives. I can’t help but think that, without diminishing the horror of that day, that we are so lucky where we live that we have relative peace and safety on a daily basis.
And, so, as I remember today and pray for those who were left behind, I also think about and pray for those for whom terror and fear and war and bloodshed are a part of their every day lives.
Where were you?
…when you don’t take your vitamins
…when you don’t get enough rest
…when you try to “do it all” even when you know you can’t
…when you neglect yourself and don’t listen to your body
What happens?
You get sick. That’s what happens.
I’m sitting here with a box of tissues, a water bottle dosed with EmergenC and lots of sniffling and sneezing.
Sigh.
So, if the blog is “light” this week, I wanted you to know why.
ACHOO!
I’ll be back.
Thoughts Along Life's Highway 