Rut-Busting

I have been in a food-rut. I think we all do it at some point-life gets busy, cooking drops to the bottom of the priority list and we resort to making whatever is fastest and requires the least thought and effort. On days when I stay late at school to tutor it falls to my husband to make dinner. This means we will have one of two selections-Papa John's Pizza or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those are the two recipes in his cooking repertoire. Uh-huh. Both of which are fine in a pinch but as a staple of our diet, not quite doin' it for me. And, frankly I was getting really bored of eggs and bacon, crock pot roast and jambalaya that can be served in 18-20 minutes.

Here are my cookbooks. I collect them like I collect Halloween scrapbooking supplies. I may never use them but they are fun to look at. 

Which is a shame, on both counts.
It's got to change.
Change starts with me since I am the only one in the house that can read the mysterious language that these books are written in. Words like "saute," "deglaze," (no, honey that is not a fancy word for a plain donut) "simmer" and " boullion" might as well be French as far as my husband is concerned. Actually, boullion may really be French but that is beside the point.
I decided that this week I was going to pick five new recipes to try and I was going to come home every night and make them, come hell or high water. 
This week I selected recipes from a couple of my Pioneer Women cookbooks. Ree has never steered me wrong and I was confident that this would make my week a success thus pushing me to continue this tasty journey.
I did my online grocery shopping-which if you haven't tried you absolutely should- and made sure that I had all the ingredients so there would be no excuses or last minute pizza ordering.
Every night I do a quick check to see what proteins I may need to thaw or if I can chop something in advance.
You know what? I have loved cooking this week! My husband and daughter are excited about dinner. We are sitting at the table and enjoying our food and each other's company. My house smells amazing. Dinner has become a treat and not just a boring nightly routine like doing homework and taking a bath. My husband clears the table and loads the dishes. An added bonus has been that hubby and I both have yummy leftovers for lunch the next day which are so much better tasting than frozen microwave food.
Here's what I have made thus far. They all have been great. The chicken with mustard cream sauce was AMAZING. 
Chicken with Mustard-Cream Sauce

Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple

Beef Stroganoff

On the menu tomorrow night-PIZZA.
THIS pizza-
Steakhouse Pizza

I hope you will give these recipes a try! I have already found some new favorites. Definitely domestic bliss! :)

Pocket Letters

I have fallen in love with pocket letters! These nifty little things were created by Janette Lane and I think the idea was sheer genius! You create nine little Artist Trading Cards (ATC's), place them into a baseball trading card sleeve, add a few little crafty goodies in them along with a letter about yourself to your swap partner and send them off through snail mail to the recipient. It is a fabulous way to meet some new friends, use up your stash, and get some artistic inspiration. On a side note, for crafters that suffer with ADD like I do, it is wonderful because it can be done in very small bites-it is much easier than tackling a 12 by 12 layout or an entire scrapbook. Here are a few that I have created and sent off!

Craftiness

How can it be 2016 already, let alone APRIL of 2016? Time has flown by! Since my last blog post, we have moved AGAIN. We loved our previous house but let me tell you, all it takes it one rotten neighbor to take the shine off of a new house. Fortunately we were able to recoup everything we had put into it plus enough for a nice down payment on the house we are in. It all worked out for the better-we have a bigger house on a much, much bigger lot in a nicer neighborhood. In a weird way, I have to thank my rotten neighbors for all of that. :) Now, it looks like my husband may be transferred to Tampa,Florida or San Antonio, Texas and we could be making another move in the very near future. I am becoming a professional at this moving stuff, I tell ya!
In the middle of the last move, I finished my degree and passed my state exams! YAY! The best thing about that, aside from a job I love, is that I no longer have to spend my evenings doing homework-I get to CRAFT again and I am so very excited. Hubby bought me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas and I have been craft crazy since then. I LOVE that machine. Here are a few of the things I have been working on!

And I couldn't quit there...

Fall Tags

I am so ready for fall! It is my favorite season and it's just around the corner. I decided to do a little crafting while Miss Makenna was off to her first day of school and this is what I came up with! The owl tags are made with the current August stamp of the month from Close to My Heart. It is a really versatile stamp set and I just love the images on it. The Halloween tags are a mish-mash of various things I had in my stash. Thanks for checking them out!

First day of school!

Today was the first day of school for Makenna. I cannot believe my beautiful baby is already in 3rd grade! She was very excited this morning and couldn't wait to get there. I am praying that she has a wonderful school year. I always look forward to the first day of school-the new crayons and shoes, the fresh smell of a new ream of paper, sharp yellow pencils with the eraser still attached-they all take me back to when I was a child. At the same time, I also look at this day with a small sense of regret. Did I take full advantage of the extra time I had with her or did I spend the last three weeks of summer vacation wishing the clock would go faster so I could get five minutes to myself? Actually, I did both. Today I have had a whole day full of peace and quiet. And I am a little lonely. I miss her. Hurry up and get here Saturday!

What a difference a coat of paint makes!

Here is the before picture of my new living room. This mess was driving me C-R-A-Z-Y! I can close the door to all the other rooms that aren't put together yet and kinda forget about them, but this is part of the great room and no one can possibly enter from the front or back without being confronted with whatever this room looks like. First impressions are important to me, so this had to be painted and decorated ASAP!

Very, uh, un-inviting. To say the least.

So, I headed out to Lowe's to shop for paint. And of course, I forget to take my pillow to color-match the paint with. So I guess. I have had successful guessing episodes in the past when selecting paint, and I have had some not-so-successful ones. Like the one I just had for the spa room. The initial paint I picked out for my spa room was called "aloe", a very soothing, mellow citrus-y green. The name itself evoked soothing, nature-like connotations. I laid that puppy on the wall, and instant "neon, light up glow stick"! It was really awful. BUT, I digress. The color I picked for my living room was DEAD ON PERFECT. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It is called "Royal Palm" and it is everything I wanted. Striking, but not overbearing. Colorful. Modern. Soothing. Peaceful.
Here is the picture. I don't think my little Galaxy 3 photo is the greatest, but my other camera is probably in a box labeled "cook books" or "bathroom knick knacks" and has yet to make an appearance.

Da-da- da!

Moving-Another Love/Hate Relationship

Well, it happened! With only a minor hiccup and one unplanned night in a hotel, we closed on our new home and are now the proud owners of a 5 bedroom, 3 bath mortgage! Woot woot! Only two plates suffered fatalities, which in my book is a pretty darn good moving job. Our movers (Mayflower) did an excellent job of packing our belongings one day and getting them in the new house the next. This is the first time I have ever had the pleasure of having professional movers and it definitely spoiled me. We will have to use them the next time we move, which will hopefully be NEVER!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new home. It is big and beautiful and represents everything I was sure I wasn't going to be able to have for a long time.
I absolutely hate the digging out. The disorientation. The sheets hung on the windows so you don't scar the neighbors by flashing them. The inability to locate things-like the title of a car that you have had for sale for six weeks and the week that you move and the movers pack the title in a box labeled "kitchen utensils" is the week that someone decides to buy it.
My house is a disaster zone at the moment. Surveying the never ending mountains of boxes and living with the chaos and disorganization is hard for me. I want everything done NOW. But of course, we had to have a few exciting bumps in the road just to keep things interesting. I have finals-this week. Makenna starts school-this week. Brad is on his last week of furlough (Thank you, God!) and he wants to use his final day off to take baby girl to the mountains-this week. And I wanted to get my house put together-this week. Alas, I will have to be patient. For now, here are some pics of the wonderful mess that I am so very grateful to be living in.