Thoughts Along Life's Highway

Valentine's Goodies

Valentine’s day is less than a week away!

I am one of those people who loves to decorate for the holidays throughout the year – no matter how small they are. I love changing out the decor of my home in small ways. I think it freshens things up and gives me an excuse to do something new and different. (my blog, too, can you tell?)

I’ll never be a Martha Stewart (who will be?) and with kids, my house is never going to be pristine enough for the decorating I’d like to do – but it makes me happy so I do it.

I have been decorating this way ever since we got our first house. I can remember loving to get the new Lillian Vernon catalog so I could see what the latest decorations are that I could order and hang.

I used to have a different wreath for the front door for every single month of the year.

Seriously.

Now? I’m a little more laid back in my decorating.

I take more of the do-it-yourself approach.

And what helps me is the internet -

There are all kinds of adorable Valentine’s freebies out there on the web right now.

I keep finding more and more.

And what a great, affordable way to decorate your home for Valentine’s day!

I keep a few 4x6 and 5x7 frames (silver and black ones) that I rotate out seasonal printables. That way, I always have something that is in keeping with the season and it only costs me a few pennies for printer ink and paper.

This is a Creative Memories frame that I absolutely LOVE. I swap it out all the time with scrapbook pages, pictures and printables – however the mood strikes me. It’s funny – my friends love looking to see what is new every time they come to visit.

I took the easy way out for February and just printed some of these freebies and put them up there. I have intentions of mounting that big one on some scrapbook paper, but that hasn’t been high on the priority list lately.

This is one of  Becky Higgins’ printables and I love it. I put it in a silver frame in my living room. I will probably leave it up way past Valentine’s because I think it is a very appropriate sentiment to remember every single day. 

Of course, you can always create your own, especially if you are a digital scrapbooker.

Here are a few I’ve found online, just in case you want to print your own:

• Becky Higgins’ Love One Another printables. She always has such crisp, clean designs.
• Crafting Chicks’ Valentine’s Subway Art (hanging on the board up there)
• DIY Felt Valentine Envelopes – so cute!
• Here’s a digi kit to make your own (and it’s free!)
• I absolutely LOVE this one that is on Design House Digital’s site.
  I love Robyn Meierotto’s designs. (it's the big one on the board up there)
• This one is a dollar for the download, but I like the ideas.
• Katie the Scrapbook Lady has a great guide to scrapbook ideas for Valentine's
• This one is not really Valentine’s related, but I love the concept.
• This is an absolutely adorable craft to do with dollar aisle finds from Target.
• Write.Click.Scrapbook is having a week-long Valentine's fest with a very cute printable to start the week off!

And here is a great tutorial on making your own printables & subway art, even if you are not a digi scrapper!

I also add some cutsie towels, pink and red candles throughout the house - in the kitchen and in the guest bathroom.

How about you? Are you a seasonal decorator?

Menu Plan Monday ~ 7 Feb (Sort of)

Ugh.

I am overwhelmed today. My brain is swirling with all the things I need to do, should do, and want to do.  Things like pay bills, do laundry, meetings for work and taxes. Plus the creative side is looking for a little outlet and my book is calling to be finished.

I hate it when I feel this way. 

In computer terms, it’s called “thrashing.” When your CPU has so many requests for activities that it slices up tiny little bits of time to allocate to each request, but the slices of time are so small that nothing ever really gets accomplished. And so, the programs keep requesting time and the computer just kind of “hangs” because of all the requests.

Yeah, that’s how my brain feels.

I am almost stuck – which is the most important? where do I start?

THAT is the question.

I think, for me, I’m going to start with some tea and breakfast.

Maybe write everything down so that it is not swirling in my brain but is approachable as a checklist.

From there, well, we’ll see.

I really need two of me. But I am not sure I could stand another one of me running around, either. (and I’m pretty sure my family couldn’t either)

Dinner this week?  Goodness, that is somewhere on that list… not totally sure yet.

I know we will have leftover spaghetti (left over from our new Sunday dinner tradition) and steak is on the menu tonight.  Maybe some chicken fettuccine alfredo one night. Beyond that? I don’t know yet.  We have a lot of leftovers to finish off, so I am thinking that may round out the week.

Honestly?

Food is the least of my concerns today.

Ode to Yoga Pants

Dear my lovely yoga pants -

Oh how I love you so.

I love your comfy looseness

the way you let my tummy go.

 

Dear my lovely yoga pants -

You make my life so easy

I slip you on in the mornings,

And nothing gets all squeezy.

 

Dear my lovely yoga pants -

Although you haven’t yet

fulfilled your true purpose -

We’ll get there soon, I bet.

 

Dear my lovely yoga pants -

How can I do without you?

Even if we don’t do yoga (yet)

My love for you is true.

 

Do you Super Bowl?

I will admit it.

We are not a big sports family.

SuperMan doesn’t really follow or care about sports (thank goodness)

And I have girly-girls who aren’t really into sports, either (again, thank goodness)

And I am as sports-challenged as they come.

I can’t throw a ball to save my life, and God help me if I have to run somewhere.
I’m sure to pull a muscle or twist my ankle.

It’s just not gonna happen.

BUT

Once a year, there is a glimmer of sports-related interest in my house.

Yes, for the Super Bowl.

But, let’s be honest here.

It’s not really about the game.

It’s about two things: (well, maybe three)

• The commercials
• The socializing
• The food

But, if you know me (as I am sure you do by now) this is probably not a big surprise to you.

SuperMan usually DVRs the game so that he can go back and watch the commercials.  I usually just find them on YouTube the next day (much faster).

And, if we’re really lucky, someone will have a Super Bowl party and we can cook new goodies and join in the fun.

Not that we even care about the game.

Or who is winning.

But we’ll go and pretend anyway.  We’re generous that way.

This year, we’re getting together for a pre-Super Bowl party with a group of friends. This is ideal for me. 

All the fun without all the football.

I mean, what more could you ask for?

We’ll be bringing “heavy” hors d’oeuvres  - each family – and sharing in an early dinnertime so that we can be home before our kids’ bedtimes.

What are we bringing?

SuperMan is whipping up some wings – he has decided to do three flavors (the excess runs in our family) He will be doing Teriyaki Wings, Hot Wings, and some “Naked” Wings for the little people.

I’m fixing a crudités plate (it’ll be a stretch for me, I know) and I’ve stumbled across a dip I want to try (Buffalo Chicken Dip) If it turns out well, I’ll share the final recipe I use (‘cause you know I’ll fiddle with it a little)

I’m also thinking I’ll do something sweet. Maybe my Brown Sugar Cake or some brownies or cookies.

So, that’s it for our weekend plans.  We’re not fired up about the game.

We’re fired up about the food!

But, that’s what we’re all about… you know that!

Pasta Fagioli

This is a hard recipe to give you.  It’s hard because it’s one of those that I make with a pinch of this, a dash of that, and I just keep stirring, tasting and adjusting until I know it tastes right.

But, I’ve paid attention the last couple times I’ve made it, trying to get the portions down so that I can share this recipe with you.

I hope you will try it. I think you will like it.  I absolutely love it.  If you have ever had the Pasta Fagioli at Olive Garden, it’s a lot like that. Of course, mine is better because it’s homemade!

Pasta Fagioli

1 1/2 lb ground sirloin
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced bell peppers
1/2 cup diced celery
1-2 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup shredded (or julienned) carrots
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 can pinto beans (or great northern beans) (I use one of each)
~ 2 cups water
Italian Seasoning
Houston House Seasoning
Grated parmesan/romano cheese blend
Ditalini pasta (about 1/2 lb)

1. Brown ground beef, seasoning lightly with Houston House Seasoning.
2. In a large Dutch oven, lightly sauté the onion, celery and peppers until the onions are transparent. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute – you don’t want the garlic to burn, so watch it carefully.
3. Add to the Dutch oven your carrots, tomatoes, beans, beef and enough water to get your soup to the consistency you like. I prefer mine more stew-y, but SuperMan likes his more broth-y.
4. Add about 2 Tbsp of Italian seasoning.  You may need to add some salt/pepper, depending on how heavily you seasoned your meat when you browned it.
5. Bring the soup to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover, and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.
6. Taste occasionally – you may need to add more salt, pepper or seasoning – depending on how strongly seasoned you like your soup. 
7. About 10 minutes before serving, add about 2 Tbsp parmesan/romano blend to the soup and stir.
8. At the same time, boil your Ditalini pasta (you can also use small elbows or small shells) al dente.  You don’t want it too soft because it will absorb more liquid in the soup.
9. Keep your pasta and soup separate until just before serving. I usually just put a few tablespoons of pasta in the bowl and ladle my soup on top of it. That way my pasta stays firm and doesn’t soak up all of the broth in the soup.
10. To store, keep your pasta separate – I usually store it in a zip top bag with a little olive oil drizzled on it – to keep them from sticking together.

The ultimate Italian comfort food!

Enjoy!!

My first doodle

I mentioned a while back I was taking a doodling class.

Well, I’m still working on it.

Thank goodness it’s a self-paced thing and I can work on it when I have the time and inspiration to do so. I am finding that I am not naturally a doodler – or, rather, I am, but that I am a perfectionist with my doodles and to do them the way I want to, I need some quiet and uninterrupted time.  Not something I can do with monkeys running around in the background in the afternoons.

So, for the most part, I have stuck to coloring existing drawings, enhancing them and just getting my brain wrapped around the whole process.

And then I decided it was time to do something of my own.  I mean, really, how hard could it be?

So, I picked that quote I shared with you guys and decided to make my own doodle of it.

 

Not a very good scan, but what do you think?
I know I have a lot of practicing to do…

but it was fun (and relaxing) regardless.

New Community for You & Me!

Because we’ve struck up an ongoing conversation over here in blog-land (and thank you again for your kind comments on my posts!) I thought I’d spice things up a bit and create a new community for us to share.

The idea behind this is to share thoughts/topics that may not be enough for a blog post all on its own, or that you may want to share with other readers of the blog.

There are topics similar to the categories here on the blog:

• Recipes
• Cooking/Baking
• Parenting
• Silliness (of course)
• Random Thoughts
• Books/Reading

I hope that you will join us on the community forums and share your thoughts and ideas!

You can find the community from the menu at the top of the blog. If you’re not already a member of Blog Frog, I encourage you to join in. There are lots of terrific people there.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

What I'm Reading Right Now

I’ve been tossing back and forth between books since finishing Juliet. It was such a good book and I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to read next. There were quite a few books I wanted to read, but my budget wasn’t allowing me to go nuts and buy them all right now. And they are on “wait” at the library, so I had to decide to either read a “real” book that I already had on the bookshelf at home, or an existing book already on Beatrice.

I got lucky and Barnes & Noble had a Free Friday book that looked promising. I’m hooked now. Big Girl is reading a library copy of the same book, which is fun because we can talk about the story as we go. 

There are six (or seven?) books in the series, so I am sure B&N will get their tithe at some point, unless we get lucky and find them either at a used bookstore or the library. I may just go ahead and purchase the “real” book so that Big Girl and I can share them more easily. She likes to take her books to school and read them when she has free time and I’m not too keen on letting Beatrice take a trip to school.

So, now I am reading Septimus Heap, Book One, Magyk which, although, I think, a children’s book, is really very entertaining.  It’s about a family of wizards who adopt what they think is an abandoned baby girl but who turns out to be a princess who was rescued just as her mother, the queen, was killed.  It’s all twists and turns and lots of fantasy and magic, but it’s a nice escape from reality right now.  The story is engaging and the characters are interesting, if not too deeply developed (so far).

Big Girl is really enjoying it, which I love, and hates to put it down at night when it is time for lights out. I think it will be fun to read together and have something to share, especially if she makes it past the first book and on into the others in the story.

 

Who knows, maybe some Harry Potter will be in our future one day?

What are you reading right now?