Wishing for the warm weather

Things I’m looking forward to this spring and summer:

- Warm weather!
- Flowers blooming and green trees
- The Saturday Downtown Farmer’s Market – We go every week and get breakfast while wandering from stall to stall
- Fresh fruits and vegetables (see above)
- Spring Jubilee in Pendleton
- Easter egg hunts
- My birthday J
- My anniversary – 7 years! J
- The park
- The zoo
- Baseball games
- Fire flies
- The Shakespeare Festival at Falls Park
- The Greek Festival
- Ice cream at Bruster’s on Saturday nights
- Fireworks on the 4th of July
- Picnics

Speaking of Easter, what do you think of this outfit for Brady? I know it's not super dressy, but it's getting harder to find those sorts of outfits that don't look too babyish.

Happy Hump Day

This week is flying by. Yesterday I got a note to sign up to bring something for Brady’s Valentine party at school. It never fails that by the time I get to the sign-up sheet (which is usually the next day), someone else has already signed up for the cupcakes. This morning I got Brady in for breakfast and immediately went to his classroom to see the list. Guess what??? Austin is bringing the cupcakes. It’s so silly, but one of those things that drives me crazy. I just want to bring the cupcakes once!

Okay, enough with my crazy “I want to bring the cupcakes” breakdown. Before long I’ll be speaking with a British accent and people will be calling me Britney Spears. There are many years ahead to bring the cupcakes.

But speaking of baked goods, the Super Bowl is this weekend (in case you’re living under a rock and hadn’t heard) and Brady and I will be making cookies in the shapes of footballs and football helmets. They’ll be New England Patriots footballs and helmets, of course. Get it – Brady and New England Patriots. Yes, my son is named after a quarterback for a professional football team. I validate this by saying that I heard the name so much when I was pregnant and it just grew on me. It really is a cute name. My husband just likes to proclaim “MY SON IS NAMED AFTER THE GREATEST QUARTERBACK OF ALL TIME!” while beating his chest and making grunting noises. Ahhh, men.

Anyone doing any baking out there????

I've Officially Become My Mother and Other Assorted Thoughts

Yes, this morning I realized that I’ve become my mother. What brought me to this realization is the fact that I’ve started getting up around 5:30am, rather than my usual 6:30am. My mother is famous for getting up hours, and I do mean hours, before anyone else in the house just so she can have some quiet time.

My past routine was to sleep just as late as I could and still be out the door by 7:15am, 7;20am at the latest. I would jump out of bed, waking up Brady and rushing to get his milk and then run to get myself ready while he sat on the sofa and looked slightly dazed. Then I would get him dressed and we’d be out the door, usually forgetting something or leaving later than I had planned. This was a chink in my “Type A Personality” armor.

Getting up earlier happened by accident. A few evenings I was so tired that I went straight to bed and then had to shower in the morning. Then I realized “Wow, I have so much more time now.” I could get ready, not having to rush from one end of the house to another, get Brady’s clothes laid out before he was up, watch a little news and even work on my Bible study in the peace and quiet of the dark house. Brady gets up at 6:30am and I can spend time with him instead of whirling around like a tornado.

Sure, I still hit the snooze button a few times and pray that the clock is really wrong and I still have 3 or 4 hours left to sleep. But I love having all that extra time. This could become a habit.



Remember the recipe I posted yesterday? Well, I have quite a bit of the goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes left over. Does anyone have any suggestions on ways I could use them?

One other thing to address today: Conversation hearts







What do they put in those little candies and why are they so addictive? I swear, I honestly cannot stop eating them.

New Recipe Review

I made these yesterday evening. They look very gourmet, but were surprisingly easy. The only change I made was that I didn't make the sauce at the end. DH doesn't care for dijon mustard at all, so I just skipped it. Enjoy!


Pork Chops Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Show:
Everyday Italian
Episode:
Giada's Spa Weekend Brought Home

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1 (10-ounce) bag of frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup (2 ounces) goat cheese
1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
4 (4-ounce) center-cut pork chops
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 lemon, zested
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Warm the 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until combined, about 2 more minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Add the goat cheese and the cream cheese. Stir to combine and set aside.

Use a sharp knife to cut a pocket into the thickest portion of the pork chop. Stuff each pocket with 1/4 of the spinach and sun-dried tomato mixture and close the pork around the stuffing. Season the outside of the pork with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl combine the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mustard.

Warm the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add the pork. Cook until golden and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.
Transfer the pork to a side dish and tent with foil to keep warm.

Add the chicken broth mixture to the skillet over medium-high heat. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan as the chicken broth simmers. Reduce the broth by half to make a light sauce, about 8 minutes. Spoon some sauce over the pork before serving.

Thanks and Books, Books, Books

Thanks so much for the kind words from my last post. This is a difficult season we're in, but I know God's grace is more than sufficient. He is so faithful!



One of my goals this year is to read more. I’ve fallen into the habit of just picking up a magazine before bed or at lunch instead of a book. Don’t get me wrong – I love my magazines. Seriously, I should be in a 12-step program for magazine addicts. But I’ve always been a big reader and I want to rekindle that. I’ve come up with a list of books to tackle this year and I’ve already gotten two taken care of!

Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser – Done!
Home to Holly Springs Jan Karon – Done!
Flies in the Butter by Denise Hildreth
Wisteria by Denise Hildreth
Deep Dish - Mary Kay Andrews
Get Out of This Pit by Beth Moore
What Jackie Taught Us
Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten
Moving to Paris (not actual title) – This is a book I saw in Barnes and Noble about a writer who moved his family to Paris for work for a year and their life there. I just can’t remember the actual title!

I just got an email from the library and Flies in the Butter is ready for me to pick up. Yeah!

Have a great weekend!

Deep Thoughts

Hello there!

I’ve been conflicted about posting this week. We have some serious issues going on in my family (my parents and grandparents) and it’s been heavy on my spirit this week. There’s a lot of bitterness and anger and refusing to forgive. In the wake of everything, I haven’t really felt like doing some fluffy posts about spring fashion or my newest recipe. On the flip side, I don’t really feel like this is the place to air all of our dirty laundry and lay my feelings out for everyone, especially since some of my family do read this blog occasionally.

I did read something in my Bible study this week that has rung in my ears. Bitterness is spiritual cancer. Bitterness can take over your life and you can pass it on to your children. People may refuse to forgive because they feel like that makes whatever happened “okay.” Forgiving makes YOU okay. God will deal with the other person or persons

Thanks for understanding.

Happy Thoughts

Today I'm focusing on some happy thoughts!


- Brady in his pj’s, all cuddled up next to me on the sofa, watching cartoons and drinking milk
- Waking up and realizing you still have two hours to sleep
- Getting out of the shower and getting a towel fresh and warm from the dryer
- Finding that DH left me the last piece of pie
- Getting a card in the mail from a friend “just because”
- Seeing that Lowe’s has put out the first of their spring flowers
- Spring clothes!
- Glittery letters for scrapbooking at Target
- Target in general
- Baking cookies, cupcakes, pies, cakes, etc.
- A new magazine in the mailbox when you get home
- Your favorite perfume

Have a great weekend!

Vera Bradley

Vera Bradley’s spring colors are out and I’m loving them! Especially the Raspberry Fizz! I think I want these for my birthday:

A girlfriend of mine just got this Bible cover. The website says it will be available in the spring colors, too.

Ugh

Last night I finally realized why my mom never went to bed when she was sick – it wouldn’t have done one bit of good.

I’ve been fighting a cold for the past couple of days and yesterday it finally hit me. So I planned to go home and have dinner and then take some Tylenol Cold Nighttime medicine and go to bed around 8:30pm. It was a lovely plan. Too bad things didn’t work out that way.

Oh, I made it to bed by 8:30pm. Then Brady decided he wanted to sleep with me. That was fine until he started poking me in the face just to see what would happen. After a while of that, I sent him back to his bed. Then I heard the jumping. Then I heard Lennon come down the hallway and have a “deep conversation” with him about going to sleep. Then the little footsteps came into my room and he was back in my bed. More poking and pushing himself up on the pillow until his head hit the headboard. Back to his bed. More jumping and more “intense fellowship” with Daddy. Back in my bed. Do you see the trend? Let’s just say it was 10pm and I had gotten maybe 15 minutes of peaceful sleep.

Next time I’ll just prop myself up in the living room. Maybe they’ll ignore me if I do that.

Our First Trip to the Movies

Happy Monday! We had a fantastic weekend. It was busy, but fantastic. The biggest event was Brady’s first trip to the movie theater!

We, and apparently most of the preschool population of Greenville, saw the new Veggies Tales movie, “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.” Now I have a long history with the adorable little vegetables who sing and dance and put forth a good message at the same time. They came out when I was just leaving the era of children’s shows, but I still remember the hilarity of “Oh, Where Is My Hairbrush!.” So when I had a child of my own, I was very excited to introduce him to Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.

We arrived at the theater and got our tickets and headed to our seats (seeing as we had goldfish, mini M&M’s and gummi bears stashed in my purse, thus saving $25 on snacks). Brady was very excited and thought it was incredibly neat that they gave him a booster seat. He hauled the thing all the way up to the last few rows only to decide he wanted to sit in the seat without it. We got him up there and his feet promptly met his nose. Poor little guy wasn’t heavy enough to keep the seat down. So then he agreed to the booster seat.

He snacked and watched the previews and then the big moment – VEGGIE TALES! He didn’t know what to think with all the veggies being huge on the big screen. He really did a great job paying attention and it wasn’t until the last 20 minutes that he started to get restless, popping up and down from his seat to the floor. Truth be told, all the kids were getting restless at that point. You could hear a notable increase in the noise level by the end of the movie. The snacks held out until the very end, too, which helped.

So overall our first trip to the movies was a huge success. And since Brady is free until he turns 3, we decided we need to take him to as many movies as possible between now and June!

He won't have to go far to visit me

I shared this with some of my friends a few days ago, but I thought I’d share it here, too.

Last week DH and I were watching the repeat of Larry King Live where he was at Graceland. They were talking about how Elvis and his mother had such a close relationship and how much he loved her.

I was having a moment and said to DH “I hope one day that Brady and I have that sort of relationship.” DH’s response? “We can only hope that one day Brady will love you so much that he buries you in the front yard.”

The Tabernacle and Rainy Days

Happy Wednesday! Our Bible study last night went really well. I’m exciting to be studying this part of scripture, about the Tabernacle, because it’s a part that I’ve never really looked at in-depth before. From last night’s introduction, we’ll really be able to see Jesus in every part of the Old Testament. There’s a great group of girls in the Tuesday night session and our facilitator is a wonderful woman named Joyce. I’m looking forward to going through this journey with them.

It looks like we’re in for some rainy days ahead. Wouldn’t these be the cutest to wear around town?



Stay dry!

Book Review - "Marie Antoinette - The Journey"

Well, I finally got those thank you notes finished from Christmas. It’s amazing how hard it can be sometimes to just sit down and work on something like that. There always seems to be something (or someone!) else that distracts me or needs my attention.

I’m very excited because my new Bible study starts tonight. We’re doing the updated version of Beth Moore’s “A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place.” She has such a way of getting your attention and helping you understand even the most complicated things in Scripture. I can’t wait to see how it goes.

I did finish one of my Christmas books this past weekend. Marie Antoinette – The Journey by Antonia Fraser.

It takes you from before Marie Antoinette was born up until the very end of her life. It’s really a very tragic story. I feel like she was very misunderstood. Yes, they were very extravagant and excessive in their lifestyle, but that was all they had ever known. She didn’t come across as the cruel, heartless villain as she is so often portrayed. It’s a long book with lots of detail and you can sometimes get a little bogged down in the facts, but I’d definitely recommend it if you like history and particularly French history. Now I want to find a book about Versailles.

A Lazy Weekend and Two New Recipes

We had another nice, lazy weekend. We were able to get a lot done around the house, including taking a big load to Goodwill on Saturday. It feels so nice to get things cleaned out. We also took Brady to the zoo and the park thanks to the beautiful weather.

I tried out two new recipes this weekend. The first was a recipe for Honey White Bread from Barefoot Contessa at Home. I don’t usually have time to make homemade bread, so this was a treat. Actually, it’s probably been years since I’ve done it. This recipe was really easy and was made even simpler with my new mixer. J Unfortunately, I can’t find a copy of the recipe online and I don’t have time to type it out. But look in that cookbook and you’ll find it!


The next recipe is for Slow Cooker Veggie Chili from the January issue of Southern Living. DH was not thrilled when I originally mentioned this recipe, as he insists on having meat at every meal. I made him a baked chicken breast which he cut up and mixed into his chili. Whatever. This recipe is really good and very hearty. Perfect for winter, it fills you up but it’s super healthy at the same time. The prep work does take a while since you’re chopping up all the veggies. I actually cooked mine on HIGH for 4 hours and it was fine.

Slow-Cooker Veggie Chili
Prep: 25 min.; Cook: 8 hr., 18 min.
Add a dash of hot sauce to your bowl for extra heat. Use a variety of your favorite beans if you wish.

Ingredients
2 large carrots, diced (1 cup)
2 celery ribs, diced (1/2 cup)
1 medium-size sweet onion, diced
Vegetable cooking spray
2 (8-oz.) packages sliced fresh mushrooms
1 large zucchini, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
1 yellow squash, chopped (1 cup)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon seasoned pepper
1 (8-oz.) can tomato sauce
3 cups tomato juice
2 (14 1/2-oz.) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
4 (15-oz.) cans pinto, black, great Northern, or kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn

1. Sauté first 3 ingredients in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat 10 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and squash; sauté 3 more minutes. Add chili powder and next 2 ingredients, and sauté 5 more minutes.

2. Stir together tomato sauce and tomato juice in a 6-qt. slow cooker until smooth. Stir in diced tomatoes, next 2 ingredients, and carrot mixture. Cover and cook on LOW 8 hours.

Note: Cool leftovers, and freeze in plastic freezer containers or zip-top plastic freezer bags for up to 2 months. Yield: Makes 15 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)CALORIES 124 (0.0% from fat); FAT 0.8g (sat 0.1g,mono 0.1g,poly 0.2g); PROTEIN 7.4g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 63mg; SODIUM 566mg; FIBER 7g; IRON 2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 24.5g Southern Living, JANUARY 2008

Have a great week!

And Now for a Taste of Spring!

After my post yesterday about winter, I got a lovely taste of spring in the form of an email from www.Anthropology.com

I love this outfit!

Maybe Global Warming Isn't Such A Bad Thing

Let’s just be honest – IT’S COLD. When I turned on the tv this morning at 6:20am it was 21F. For this born and bred Southern girl, that’s just a little on the frigid side.

God knew that I wasn’t cut out for 10 months of winter, snow drifts higher than my head and long underwear. That’s why He put me in North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and now South Carolina. Sure, we get cold weather. One day of snow a year and the possible ice storm. The city shuts down, school is canceled and the grocery stores are ravaged of every loaf of bread when the threat of one inch of snow is announced. It’s exciting. Then the next day it’s over. By the next weekend we’re usually back in flip-flops or at the very least a long-sleeve tee shirt.

I love the catalog images of snowy winters and curling up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate. But I know I’d be totally over it after a week. It does have to be cold at Christmas, though. 75F and sunny on December 25th just isn’t my idea of fun. That’s why I could never live in Florida.

So I’ll be bundling up for the next day or so and putting an extra blanket on the beds. By Sunday it’s supposed to be in the 60F’s. Now where are those flip-flops?

The New Year

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great start to 2008. Our evening was quiet as I expected. We just aren’t the partiers we once were. Actually, we’ve never been big New Year’s Eve people.

I can honestly say that these last few days have been so relaxing and peaceful. For those of you who really know me, peaceful is not a word that enters my life often. I’m a little high-strung and rarely sit down. I’m always off to the next thing, working on my eternally long list of “to do’s.” It’s just my nature. But over this past long weekend I was able to sit and read and watch a little tv, play with Brady a lot, do some baking. All those things I want to do but never have the time. And I feel a huge sense of peace about this coming year. I can’t wait to see what happens and where we are at the start of 2009.

Speaking of tv, I Tivoed and watched a marathon of “Jon and Kate + Eight” yesterday. www.sixgosselins.com I’m really loving this show, although it isn’t filling me with the desire to have 8 kids. What I like so much is that they’re real people who really lose their temper and get tired and stressed out, but yet they love their kids so very much. And Kate and I stress out over all the same crazy things. What’s exciting is that they’re coming to speak to my MOPS group in April! I’ll get to meet them! I can’t wait!

While watching the marathon, I was introduced to Sara Snow, www.sarasnow.com, who has a show on Discovery Health called “Get Fresh with Sara Snow.” She’s young and hip and all about going green and healthy, organic eating. Since focusing on healthy eating and trying to help the environment a little is on my list for this year, I’m really excited to find out about her show. She has a great website, too.

I know this entry is a little all over the place, but I really am excited about this new year and all it holds. I’m so thankful for my family, my friends, my job, my church, everything. We’re so blessed!

Happy 2008!