#1 song on your birthday.

Best way to start your birthday. The number one song on my birthday was Centerfold by The J. Geils Band.                          http://playback.fm/birthday-song
Wondering what the number one song was on the day your were born?
Well just check in with billboard and they will even play it for you

30 days of self portraits

This morning I took my last self portrait in my 30 day self portrait challenge. I have a few favorites and overall I really enjoyed this challenge. It felt really good to spend a few minutes everyday doing something that was out of the ordinary. A few of my favorites

                                                                   All 30 self portraits

    

 

on being selfish

 

This month I have been taking a self portrait everyday.  Inspired by the challenge put out by the lovely ladies at A Beautiful Mess. I started a little late and am not  quite done yet. I have been feeling somewhat disconnected from everything lately. Work has been very busy and things at home have been even busier. The last couple of years I have been spending a little more time trying to get back to doing more of what I love to do and less of what I don’t love to do. It was kind of hard to find a balance for myself after I had Lu and still worked my crazy schedule. I tended to feel like I had no time for myself because I would come home after working an opening shift and feel like a normal person having dinner at home and playing with Lu then I would have a closing shift the next day and spend the morning cooking dinner for everyone to eat while I was at work and trying to relax. I didn’t get both of those things done most days and more often than not it was the relaxing part that didn’t happen. One thing that I remember from growing up was always eating dinner together, so I have always tried to get up at the same time as Scott and Lu so that we can eat breakfast together everyday. Sometimes I can get up without a problem and other days it a little tougher but it’s still my favorite part of the day. I get to see everyone for at least a little bit before they go to work or school even if I don’t get home until they are asleep. I used to think that my irregular schedule was the worst thing in the world and that it was making things so stressful for us at home and that I was going to miss out on so much of the firsts for our new family. It wasn’t easy at all in the beginning but I came to realize that I was making things harder for myself. I was standing in my own way most of the time. I wasn’t making time for myself which was making things so much worse than it needed to be. Now I think my schedule is almost a benefit. Yes, I work a lot of weekends and nights but I also get time in the morning before a closing shift to do whatever I want to do and still make dinner for everyone. When I work at night on the weekend I still get to spend half the day with everyone. The weeks that I have days off in the middle of the week I can get errands done alone which takes half the time and then we get to spend more time together when I am not working. Things are not perfect and yes I wish that I didn’t have to come home to everyone in the house being asleep some nights and I wish that we could spend every Saturday and Sunday together at the beach or a the park. For right now we seem to have found a balance that is working and getting better everyday.

       At the beginning of this year I sat down to think about what my resolution would be for the year, I had no problem coming up with a huge list of things that I wanted to accomplish for the year, in fact I think my list was more than anyone could really get done in a year and still have any sanity or hair left. That list kind of just sat there for a few days and then I threw it away. I had this huge list of things to do but not something to be resolute about. That list was just a group of things not something that would actually make anything different. I wanted to come up with something that would actually meet the definition of  resolution, so I got out my dictionary and found out what it actually means… Resolution : firmness of purpose; the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute: She showed her resolution by not attending the meeting. So for this year I decided that my resolution would be to be selfish. Make time for things that are important to me, spend time when I have it with the people I want in my life, don’t worry about everyone else all the time, focus on what is best for my family and me, and most importantly make sure that I am doing things that make me happy because they make me happy not because they will make someone else happy or because I should do them.  So far its been going really well, I am more relaxed, we have been spending a lot more time relaxing together and not feeling like we have no time to spend together and I have gotten even more done so far  this year than I did last year or the year before when I set out the year with a huge list of things to do.

   So I am being selfish this year, but in the end It has really resulted in being more of a family and spending even more time together than we ever did before, with the same schedule. Hope you are having the same kind of year.

six word memoirs

I love this idea I read about over at Kirtsy  today. Now I cant wait to hear  more and try to come up with my own. What would yours be?

the chickens have come out to play

Last weekend I finally got to meet the newest additions to my parents petting zoo, the chickens! They have their own custom built chicken house, complete with egg gathering doors and a lovely backyard to run around in.

   They are still a bit young and slightly skittish.  All in all they seem to be very happy in their new house and I have been told that they might be getting some new friends in September.           They have several different kinds of chickens which all lay different kinds of eggs. They have a few Americauna chickens which lay pale blue and green eggs (think Easter) and some Bantam chickens which will have a smaller egg. These guys were inseparable all day long. Hopefully we will have some fresh eggs to cook with soon!

weekend round up

Our Internet has been a bit elusive lately so here’s a quick round up of the past week or so...

We had Scallops with Succotash the night our invitations arrived. Thank you so much Golden Rectangle Press, they are beautiful.

We spent Saturday going through what was left at my parents house and found some of my old Halloween costumes. Yes, that is a Hersey's kiss costume and a poodle skirt all made by my mom. There was also a Tinkerbelle costume, clown attire and a few other things that were a bit too snug.

And last but not least we celebrated the week with some homemade ravioli and crunchy parmesan crusted zucchini from our garden.

Weekend update….

This past Thursday Scott had 3 of his wisdom teeth removed. So he sat around with ice packs on his face all afternoon Thursday and all day Friday. He also began a study in what kinds of soft foods were ok for someone in his condition.  And the results were…

    Mac and Cheese, good. Scrambled eggs, good. Smoothie, good. Beef-a-roni, edible but unfit for consumption. Wedding cake samples, good. Carolina BBQ no bun, very very bad.

I’m not sure what inspired the last selection but vinegar based sauce and open wounds in the back of your mouth are not a good match. Saturday morning I got up early and went out to check on the garden and found  our first real harvest. Some beautiful baby squash and a few radishes.

Then Saturday Scott and I helped my parents pack up the house they are moving out of. We lived in the house for 22 years, and now my parents are finishing their dream house in the middle of nowhere complete with donkeys, goats, horses and the most recent addition…chickens! In the process we found a lot of things that we had all forgotten about, toys, books, kindergarten art, clothes ( the things parents let their kids wear in the 80’s, hot pink biker shorts with a checkerboard stripe and a white  t-shirt.) and various kitchen items including a fantastic old juicer. Sunday morning I had a wonderful glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

 

Sunday we headed back to my parents to pack up a little more and to have a few wedding related meetings. One to sign a contract with our photographer and the other to have a cake tasting at the bakery we want to make our cake. the cake was dreamy and sweet and moist. We were more than excited. We did manage to save a little bit to try the next day just to make sure we picked the best option.

best maple syrup ever

a week or two ago we received a curious package in the mail and opened it to find a lovely can of maple syrup from Scott’s good friend Jekin. The best part about this particular maple syrup was that we were provided with a detailed account of the life of our maple syrup on the can….

Even every dent had a description. I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed reading a can of maple syrup more than when I unwrapped with one. Thanks to Jekin we had a bright spot on a run of the mill weekday evening.

our saturday afternoon.

 

 

Our wonderfully lazy and relaxing saturday evening. We took a walk, sat in our back yard, and read books and listened to Prairie Home Companion.

filler flowers?

I have always loved carnations and after being buried in wedding pictures, magazines and choices the little carnation is still standing out against all the others.

They are so charming and create a lush, textured surface when they are packed tightly in a pomander or as a carpet or even as a wall surface . Best of all they come in just about any color you could possibly want. Sometimes they even throw on a costume and masquerade as peonies for an evening.  Carnations also carry a few very appropriate meanings with them including love, luck, and fascination.

 

We are engaged!!!!

Fresh Tapas and Tonics  is now officially my favorite restaurant! I met his parents there, we ate there when we had been dating for a year and now I can say that we got engaged there! The staff was all in on it from before we even walked in the door. We sat down ordered drinks and some starter tapas and then in what seemed to be the blink of an eye I had a ring on my finger and a fiance sitting beside me. (for all the girls out there... here it is)

As soon as I said yes there was a bucket of iced champagne and two glasses at the table and lots of congratulations. We couldn't be happier.

P.S. if you are a chocolate fan... you must try the molten lava cake.... order it 20 mins before you want it and then be prepared for the most chocolate you can handle!

Tonight Dinner Was.....

A big heaping vat of Brunswick stew. I have never been able to describe Brunswick stew it was always just something that we ate at home growing up. Silly me I just thought that everyone knew about those huge cast iron pots full of tasty and comforting goodness.  So to try and educate myself in order to educate others on the intricacies of Brunswick stew I began crawling websites..... Here is what I found.

As I learned from J.J.Wonders there is a fairly heated debate about where Brunswick Stew was created, Virginia, North Carolina or Georgia. All three states have a county or town whose name is Brunswick. I remember my dad helping out at fall school fundraisers stirring a huge pot of stew and doling it out in quart containers. No matter where it started I have to say that I am definitely grateful that the recipe no longer calls for squirrel as a main ingredient! In the end whether it comes from a can, Georgia or a little tiny church fundraiser on the side of the road, it still makes me feel like fall has arrived. Just for fun here is a recipe to try.

The store bought version that I remember the most is Mrs. Fearnows.  That yellow can was always near the bottom shelf but the best version to take home, empty out into a pot and doctor up on your own. Enjoy.

 

 

Pumpkin Day

Yesterday was my first full day at home and Scott and I went to get pumpkins at Hunt Club Farm. It was breezy and cool. Everyone was wearing sweatshirts, coats and bundling up in general. All in all I'd say it was the perfect pumpkin picking day minus the little bits of rain.

We were having a hard time choosing the perfect pumpkins for our porch until we had a little visitor stop by to help!

After a long hard search we found the best tall skinny pumpkin, the best round pumpkin and the best small sweet pumpkin along with a few little tiny pumpkins. And we were off on our merry little way to the pumpkin pick up.

I am proud to say that all of our pumpkins made it home safe a sound without any missing chunks and are taking up residence on the font porch. Although a few little pumpkins snuck in last night and I found them on top of the buffet this morning all huddled up together.