Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a happy thanksgiving, enjoy your turkey, family, friends and pie! Even if you're not in the states, any day is a good day for pie. :-)

Some things I'm thankful for this year:

• My family being together & healthy to enjoy this holiday.
• Two pumpkin pies chilling in the fridge.
• Good friends to enjoy leftovers with.
• Watching the parade with my kids.
• Mashed potatoes & gravy I'll be enjoying later
• My family that I'll be visiting in less than one month.
• Loaded leftover turkey sandwich I'll have for lunch tomorrow

 And a surprise that no one in this house was expecting

• the bun in the oven {not talking turkey} that will make us a family of 5.
• the hope that 'morning' sickness will have an end in sight, hopefully sooner than later.
  

11 Tuesdays Until...

Random Thoughts on Tuesday

This meme is so 'me'. I'm very random. Especially in my thoughts so it works. These are actually random thoughts listed since Thursday. See? Random. But orderly because it's in a list. Best kind of random.

• I was still thinking more about this post that I rambled about a bunch of introspective stuff.
• But then this happened and now all of that introspective stuff is weighing more on my mind.
• I say that I put my family first...but how do I do that?
• How do I take care of them and not just care for them?
• And what am I teaching them?
• my music is random
• 80's Madonna & Cher
• Tupac & Papa Roach
• and more that I can't remember all in 20 min of driving
• ....just when you thought my playlist was random.
• some people just thrive on drama
• they are so loud about not liking it but seem to stir up a lot of it
• i enjoy drama....so long as its on tv ;)
• i just realized it is Wednesday
• and i don't remember where the rtt meme is
  
• so i guess it doesn't matter that it's not tuesday
• i've been sick for a couple of days, bad timing
• but then when would it really be good timing?
  

Menu Planning with ♥

I am a couple of days late on this one. Sometimes my meal planning doesn't fall on the weekends. We get paid twice a month and I try to keep my big shopping trips to twice a month as well. Since I've been meal planning more regularly I often don't have to go any more than that which is fantastic. Especially when you shop at the commiscary and usually around payday when everyone else is as well, along with the shelves being stocked. I totally earn my California Rolls that I buy each visit.

This weekend my planning delay was a little more serious. Well, a lot but it could have been a lot worse. We discovered my husband had a problem with his heart that made itself known in a very surprising and even more unexpected way. Good GREAT news is it was found in time and the doctors fixed the issue. He's home and recovering, life should be back to normal soon. We're still adjusting in many ways but my focus is on food right now. The food I buy and cook and how I cook it and what it contains to be more specific. I've never been one to read food labels but now I will be. We don't eat horribly but there is room for improvements.

Here is my menu for the week:

Southwest White Chili {didn't get to this one last time I planned}

Chicken & Dumplings {didn't get to this one last time I planned}

Turkey & Spinach Manicotti  {check out the comments for suggestions}


Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry {check out the comments for suggestions}


Feta & Spinach Turkey Burgers

Love your

♥

...

Ya know that feeling when you're being stretched too many directions and juggling too many things and you wonder how much you can hold and how far you can go before you just break? Yeah, I was there. Not only did I feel like it was just.too.much. but I wasn't doing any of it well. And if you're going to do something, what's the point if you don't give it your best?

I didn't completely fall apart but sorta fell...in. I imploded. I stopped just about everything for some moments and got analytical and emotional and well the whole thing was a little depressing so I won't go into it. But it was like I just stopped and kinda went into auto pilot doing the things I had to do because if I didn't who would? As I was just trying to function I realized there were more than several things I wasn't doing very well and I was a little surprised about which things I wasn't doing well actually bothered me.

I've been thinking more about my role as a housewife & mom, and a woman. It seems that something shifts when we get married and/or have babies. Just being a woman, being ourselves is somehow now it's own little thing set to the side for another day when we have more time because everyone else needs so much right.at.this.moment. Or maybe that's just me thinking too much again? I don't mean just taking time to get dressed, fix our hair or put on a little makeup {if you enjoy it} but time to do whatever we enjoy without feeling guilty about it. And again, maybe it's just me.

Tackle It Tuesday & Monthly Round Up

It's Tuesday! YAY!!! I really don't have anything to be extra excited about except that Monday is OVER. Which means I'm no longer in shock getting back to weekday routines. And I've been twice as productive on half the amount of coffee. :D

So this morning I decided to finally organize my scrappy storage space. My scrapbooking supplies share a space in my laundry room with of course the laundry, washer & dryer, cleaning supplies, plastic grocery bags, my sewing machine that I haven't tried out since buying it second hand over 6 months ago {eek!} and my Mary Kay products & class supplies. Needless to say it's a crowded space and without much vertical storage so it can get messy pretty quickly.

Lately when I've felt like starting a project I open the door, pry a drawer open and take one look before walking away. It was an overwhelming & frustrating mess that I've been putting off - and maybe hoping it would just take care of itself. A while back I started to organize it, got frustrated and stopped midway so it was difficult to maintain order when there wasn't order to start with.

So this is pretty much what it started out looking like. Lots of stuff crammed into drawers with no rhyme or reason, a rolling tote with random items and a tub {can't see it in photo} of who knows what and a box overflowing with paper. You see why I would leave now right?

So I sat down {very uncomfortably & got to work} emptied out the drawers one at a time, sorted like items and gave everything a home, put it in a garbage bag or in a box to donate. I love the purging process! The mess always looks worse before it gets better! At one point I was knee high in ribbons, tags, adhesive and sharp objects. Lydia was sitting close by helping me out.

I don't have baskets to put things in and they would give too easy access for little curious hands so I used gallon sized bags as my containers. Bottom drawer are my stamps, stencils & other stamp supplies. Middle drawer has ribbon, small embellishments (in black bag with tackle box type plastic containers) and flowers. These items were spread out everywhere they could have been but are now sorted like with like & I think we're all happy about it. :D The top drawer has supplies for projects to do {blank clipboard, mini albums, etc} and memorabilia {cards, tickets, etc} for me to put with photos when I scrap.

The rolling tote has stickers, cutting mats & large pieces of card stock. Also some idea books tucked in. I have several more idea books & magazines that I need to pare down and organize - another projects for another day!

And the mystery tub is now holding my paper. This works well because it won't collect dust, get wrinkled and I won't allow myself more than what will fit in here - which is waymorethanenough, trust me.

I realize this is still quite a bit of scrappy supplies and as I work on projects I'll certainly set things aside to pass along or find things to toss. I'm thrilled that I have an orderly starting point and something to maintain. Now I can see what supplies I have before shopping for Christmas gift projects and my goal really is to only purchase adhesive & cardstock as I run out - use what I have before buying more.

I hope YOU are enjoying your Tuesday! If you have a tackle to share click the top button and if you want to participate or find out more about the Monthly Organizing Round Up click the second button. :D

PS for those interested I will be sharing recipes from my MPM posts just as soon as I find a little time.

Menu Planning

And I really do LOVE menu planning. Last week I had my meals selected, shopping list written and headed to the store. Then my spirits were crushed when I realized I accidentally grabbed a note paper with 5 items written on it instead of my page and half shopping list. Oops! I was a little frazzled in the produce section. I don't seem to retain much info these days so trying to remember my meals let alone what went in them - no way! I can't even keep track of what is in my pantry & fridge. I live by my shopping list, it's my guide at the grocery store and keeps me on track and focused. So I grabbed a soup packet and used a recipe on the back for a pot roast and grabbed the essentials to hold us over for the weekend.

This morning I happily shopped, list in hand - keeping me focused on what I needed & what I didn't {NO ice-cream this week, we have enough sugar with all of the candy in the house}. Because I'm so list oriented I don't assign days to my meals. This gives me the freedom to be flexible. And by flexible I mean it's okay if I forget to thaw out some meat or start the crock pot because I can just choose another meal. Though I have several crock pot meals on the menu for this week. Whereas if I assigned days I would feel stuck to that day - even though that thought process makes.no.sense.

• Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Casserole {hit with the family}
• Beef w/ apples & sweet potatoes {new recipe in my crock pot cookbook}
• Creamy chicken & spinach lasagna {new recipe in my crock pot cookbook}
• Easy Parmesan Chicken {new recipe in my crock pot cookbook}
• Southwest white chili {crock pot}
• Chicken n Dumplings {a favorite that my mom used to make}
• Easy beef stew {new recipe in my crock pot cookbook}

So with six recipes in my pantry plus whatever I do with the chicken in my crock pot right now I'm hoping for easy dinners over the next two weeks {leftovers rock!}.

Menu planning + crock pot = kitchen bliss!

To share your menu for the week or see what others are cooking click the button above!

YAY Blogger!

Have ya'll checked out all of the new features on blogger? There are some changes that made me really happy. :D Last weekend while folding avoiding laundry I made some changes to my blog, switched up my labels and well just goofed around on here. It had been a while since I changed my layout around and after I did I realized I would lose all of that HTML code I spent so much time searching for & figuring out how to put it in - stuff that made my labels into a cloud & whatnot. After failing to find code again. I discovered that blogger now has all of it right there in the edit layout section!

• You can now change the "written by" section of your post
• along with "comments"
• and even give people a quick response option.
• {I didn't add that option so you'll have to write if you want to respond}
• lol
• This can all be done by clicking edit on Blog Post section in Layout

Some other things you can do

• Format your labels into a list or cloud form
• {I think they should make it easier to change labels so you don't have to go through 300+ posts to make changes}
• Or maybe I should just be a little less O about my CDO
• :P
• If you go to Settings, then Basic you can choose the updated post editor
• We can schedule posts!
• there are some other options that I don't understand so it doesn't matter.
• the BEST new function in here
• there's a strikethrough button.
• SO I no longer have to look up code because I can't remember it from 5 min ago.
• YAY!!

Just thought I'd share the super user friendly new features! Happy November!

OH & if you want to smile/laugh/bring back memories/just rock out - check out #20 on my play list. It makes me happy. I can't explain why. I fully acknowledge that probably makes me strange but I'm okay with that.

Sunday Scrap

Wow - I actually did something creative over the weekend & have a picture to share. It's been 2 months and I have missed my creative time. I need to start making more time, scheduling it in. Not only because I really enjoy it an have a list as long as my house of projects to finish/start but because Christmas is coming up and a majority of the gifts we give are homemade and by homemade I mean scrapped. I may try some sewing projects this time around but don't hold your breath folks.

Tada:

Yesterday I decided to make thank you cards for Lydia's party. I recently got a cute cupcake thank you stamp from my Stampin Up rep/friend and after looking for inspiration in the SCS gallery I was excited to use it. Of course mine didn't come out nearly so cute as many in the gallery but I'm happy with it. I used chalk & my blender pens to color the card in, though the light pink didn't show up well on the paper part of the cupcake and not all of the cards look the same since I was trying out different ideas. I think cupcakes are good anytime of year so I can change up the colors and use them for birthdays & other holidays.

{much}Tado:

• Organize scrappy supplies
• Determine what supplies I need for homemade gifts
• Get those supplies & GET TO WORK
• Maybe in the midst of that I'll sort through photos & get more work done on Lydia's 1 year album
• And maybe even get some journaling done
• But not all this week.

To see other scrappiness click the button above.