10 years?

I cannot believe I started this blog ten years ago!

I am sitting here reflecting on yet another big life change and I found myself searching out my old blog. Just to see the pics and read the stories. I haven't posted often and my posts are not earth-shattering or full of profound wisdom. However, it was pretty cool to read back through them and remember those very specific days-days I had forgotten about. I have a terrible memory and reading my thoughts about my everyday experiences brought me real joy and a bit of sadness because I wish I had written down more! I wanted to remember more. TEN YEARS have just slipped right on by! 

I found myself pining for those days in the pictures. 

Yet I know, as much as I'd like to sometimes, we can't turn back time.

I can choose to more fully embrace today and be present. I can choose to blog more, share more, appreciate more.

I cannot let another 10 years of memories go by. 

Refrigerator Makeover

I have settled into life in San Antonio. Still not LOVING it (I miss my older kids) but I do like it more than I expected to. There is always something going on in the city, we have found a church we enjoy, Makenna had a great school year, and the house is really coming together. I have tackled many of the bigger projects, so now I have moved on to smaller, one-day, type undertakings. We have had this old and ugly refrigerator that now lives in our laundry room for three years. We use it for storing extra milk, soda, beer, etc.When we first bought it, it lived in the garage and I never had to look at it. Since we moved to San Antonio, it's home is now in the laudry room/drop zone and I have to see it multiple times a day. It was definitely putting a big damper on the bright and light vibe that I was going for in there, so it had to get a makeover. My sweet husband was home sick one day (I bet he doesn't do that again anytime soon) so I figured it was a great time to ask him to haul it into the garage for me so I could paint it.

I used some handy dandy appliance epoxy to take it from blechy beige to bright white so it would match my washer and dryer. I also removed the handles and spray painted them with some silver metallic.

I ended up doing three coats to get as much coverage as I wanted. Then, because I just can't leave well enough alone, I had to break out the Cricut and vinyl to add some much needed pizzaz. I love how it turned out. It is cute and fun, lighter and brighter, and makes me happy when I see it now. I Googled images for hibiscus (my new favorite flower) silhouttes, uploaded the images to Design Center, and ta-dah, cute fridge! I had to add the Razorback per request of my hubby-I figured I should comply since I made him haul a major appliance with a fever, but the Razorback ended up with a hibiscus tattoo. 

Hobby Lobby Haul!

Remember the Alamo!

Well, folks it looks like I will soon be a resident of  San Antonio,Texas! Hubby got the job and they want him there in six weeks. This last week has been a flurry of organizing, cleaning and basically just freaking out. The house hit the market a few days ago. May I just say that trying to live in a house without messing anything up and keeping it show ready is beyond frustrating. I have lived in this house exactly a year this month. I love this house. Its big and beautiful and we will probably never get a location like the one we have again. However, I know God has great plans for us and this will be an exciting adventure.
I was born in Colorado and aside from 6 years in North Dakota with my first husband I have lived here my entire life.
I am scared, nervous and excited all at the same time.
My two adult children live here in Colorado Springs.
I will miss them terribly and am already planning to get them down to San Antonio as soon as possible.
I hope they fall in love with it and want to move down there :)
I did manage to get some crafting done right before he got the news and my craft room had to be put in order. Here is a pocket letter that I made for a private swap. This one is for the daughters of the gal I am swapping with. I love how it came out and will probably make a duplicate for my own collection. I they love it and I hope you do too!
Oh, and the meals worked out great! We found some new favorites and it was great to get out of routine. I will definitely be doing that again once my kitchen doesn't have to stay in pristine condition!

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...