Monday Minutia - Where I Babble On About the Trivial Details of My Weekend.

Yesterday afternoon the kids had their first track practice of the season.  I am the coach's administrative assistant which is far different than being the assistant coach.  Basically I keep up with a spreadsheet and walk around the track with a clipboard.

I told Dan I felt very official and just needed a whistle and then I'd be all set.

We painted our bedroom this weekend and of course, by "we" I really mean Dan.  We also rearranged the furniture and now our already fairly big bedroom seems even bigger.  Makes me wish I could simply rearrange my kitchen but alas, short of a renovation, nothing will ever help the size of that small space.

If I get off my rear end, perhaps I might be able to post pictures of my new wall color and new bedspread.  But don't count on it because I'm pretty comfortable sitting right where I am.

Besides, the cat is on my lap and she hates it when I move.  I think she's even lazier than I am.

And speaking of cats, I saw this and had to laugh. These cats resemble my two cats in both size and color. Perhaps that's what the little cat is always on my lap.  She's afraid she's going to be eaten by the bigger one!

Alright, that's enough minitea for one day.

Oh!  Perhaps I'll start a new blog meme!

MONDAY MINUTIA

We call all babble on about the trivial details of our weekend. I'm game!  Who's in?

WIWS - Another Copy Cat!

Some of my best outfits have come when I have stolen ideas borrowed inspiration from other WIWS participants.  And this week is no different.

I was in Target recently wandering around their clothing department when a magenta dress caught my eye.  Maybe it's fuchsia, I'm not sure because it's been a long time since I've played with the 48 box of Crayolas.  Anyway, it was a bright pink dress and it caught my eye.

"Didn't Dwija recently wear a bright pink dress from Target with her boots and look awesome?" I thought to myself.

I quickly tried on the dress and the angels sang and all felt right with the world and I bought it.

A dress!  A fuchsia dress!  What was I thinking?

I think this dress has lots of potential - especially now that spring seems to be ready to spring so I'm sure you'll see this again with different accessories.

I wish I had realized the jacket was flipped wrong on one side but my stylist didn't notice and neither did my photographer so we're gonna have to go with this:

I even copied Dwija's lime green accents.  I'm such a follower but when something works, it works.

Everything came from Target except the jean jacket which came from Kohl's.

Check out the other awesome outfits on WIWS and maybe you can steal a look find some inspiration for next week!

Also linking up to Lily Among Thorns for the first time.

Because I want everyone to be able to read the hilariousness that is this blog!

I got an email from dcdonaghue who writes at Katie Jean Cooks.  She said she loved my blog and thinks I'm hilarious.  Hilarious?  Well, I think so, but probably only mildly humorous to the rest of the population. (I appreciate the compliment though!)

Anyway, she wondered if anyone else had complained about my font size since I changed up the blog a few weeks back.  She said it was really small when she read it on her iPad.

No one else has complained, but  just yesterday as I was reading my blog on my laptop, I thought to myself, "Geez, this font is hard to read.  It's so tiny."

It looks fine on my desktop where I have a nice big monitor but on my laptop - hard to read.

Since I'm a woman of action and a huge people pleaser, I immediately got to changing the blog font this morning.  It looks much easier to read on my laptop so I hope it works for everyone else.

If not, let me know.  Like I said, I'm a people pleaser and surely, I can find a font to make all 32 of my regular readers happy!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.  Last fall, Peter got glasses.  He looks so handsome in them.  See? 

I was going to insert a picture of him wearing his glasses here but I searched my computer and realized I don't have any.  And the reason?

I packed them in his book bag right after he got them and sent him off to school.  He was only going to wear them in class and as needed.  For a while, I would ask him if he was wearing his glasses at school and he always replied, "Nope.  I don't need them."

Due to excessive talking (ahem), he was always stationed at the front of the class and could see the board jus fine.  He never complained of headaches so I just let it go.

On Tuesday, he got in the car and I noticed he was wearing his glasses. He said he had them on all day at school and he "could see really well with them on."  I figured his eyes had worsened a little and he really needed them.

He wore them again all day on Wednesday and then yesterday, as I was waiting for the car rider line to move up, I noticed Peter standing next to a classmate who was...you guessed it...wearing glasses!

This boy has always worn glasses but Peter has just recently started playing with him.  I guess he decided if they were good enough for his friend, they were good enough for him.

2.  I broke down and got Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD.  In this DVD, she uses the same principals as the 30 Day Shred which I loved and used for a long time (until I got totally annoyed by every. single. word. out of her mouth). My friend Jennifer said this was a good DVD and I really need to do something other than run.  The running just isn't cutting it.  I think my body is expecting me to run so it yawns through the whole thing.

Today was my third day on level 1.  And by yesterday, I could barely move.  But I'm not complaining because that means muscles are being worked and fat is being burned!  This morning I thought about not doing it because I was so sore but I did it any way and just a few minutes into it, the muscles stopped complaining and started doing their job.  I'm quite certain they will rebel this afternoon though.

3.  Next weekend, Jennifer and I are running in the Color Run!  We are super excited!  If you don't know, the Color Run is a 5k where they throw paint bombs at you at different points during the course.  And I think the paint bombs are really just pods of colored corn starch, but still! How fun does that sound?  And it's not a timed race so we can just enjoy running together without the pressure of getting a good time (which we normally don't get anyway but when it's timed you still want to go as fast as you can).

The kids are bummed out that I'm not letting them run it.  But at $40 a pop, there's no way.  Plus, there was no 1k fun run which is what they normally do. I'm not sure they could even do the whole 5k anyway.  You can buy extra paint pods at the race so I told them I would get them some paint to throw at me.  That seemed to appease them.

4.Last night was Sarah's final basketball game of the season.  It was a snow day make up.  She was excited to see her team one last time and to attempt to make another basket.  The game started at 7:00 so we arrived at 6:45 just like we were supposed to.

Only when we looked into the gym, I saw the two teams lining up and I got a sinking feeling. Uh oh!  The game started at 6:00 and not 7:00 so we got there at the beginning at the 4th period.  Sarah was mortified.  She wanted to go home but her dad said she was going to at least sit with her team.  He walked her to the bench and they put her in.  She played her little heart out and took several shots but missed them all. 

She wasn't mad at me but I felt like a horrible mom.  Oh well!  I guess we can't all be perfect all of the time! 

5.  And speaking of perfect, I'm not going to make 7 Takes but that's okay because I figure these 5 are long enough!

Head over to Conversion Diary where the rest of the ladies always make it to number 7!

Tastes Just Like Carrabba's Chicken Bryan. I promise!

The other day, I mentioned my husband was giving me a hard time for photographing our dinner.

May I present to you delicious Carrabba's Chicken Bryan:

 Isn't this plate so pretty?  And you know what?  It was delicious!

Whenever we go to Carrabba's, I always get the Chicken Bryan.  Always.  Every single time.

I was excited when I found this recipe at Food.com that claimed to be the original recipe and not just a copy cat version.

I made it once as written on Food.com and then I made it again adjusting the wine and lemon juice and it is just perfect!

I served it with the Pioneer Woman's Crashed Potatoes (which we love and I make all the time!) and sauteed green beans.

Sorry the photos aren't any better but I was in  a hurry to eat up this goodness. (Plus, I added the cheese first, then the sauce.  Next time, I will add the sauce first then the cheese.)

Enjoy!

Tastes-Just-Like-Carrabba's Chicken Bryan

Ingredients   

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 1/2 to taste kosher salt, to taste
• 1 1/2 to taste fresh ground pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 to taste olive oil
• 6 ounces goat cheese, divided into 2 ounce slices
• 9 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (I used about 3/4 bottle of sun-dried tomatoes in liquid)
• 3 -6 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Brush chicken on both sides with olive oil, season to taste with Kosher salt and cracked pepper.
2. Grill chicken until done (internal temp of 165F) - prepare lemon butter sauce while chicken is grilling. (I just sauteed mine in a pan with olive oil).
3. Sautee onion and garlic in 2 Tbps butter until soft.
4. Add white wine and lemon juice, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes to reduce.
5. Add remaining 10 Tbsp butter, a little at a time, until it melts and mixture is emulsified.
6. Add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and basil, heat until hot (but do not overheat or sauce may break).
7. Top nearly-done chicken breasts with 2 oz each of the goat cheese until cheese warms and softens.

 

Linking up with Cooking Thursday!

This is hard.

I have a little confession to make.  This is way harder than I thought it was going to be.

I mean, I knew it was going to be hard.  I haven't memorized anything of any substance or length since the 11th grade when I was in the school play. (Being in that play must have traumatized me a little because to this day, whenever I'm stressed or nervous or worried about something, I will dream that I have the leading role in a play and that it's opening night and I haven't even cracked open the script, much less memorized it. That's the stuff nightmares are made of!)

So when I decided to use Lent as the starting point of my journey to learn 3 chapters of Romans in a year, I knew it would be hard but I am really struggling.  I have successfully learned 3 weeks worth (6 lines of scriptures) but I am starting to fall behind.

I should have started the next two verses on Friday but I just started them today.  That makes me 4 days behind.  I was hoping they were going to be easy, quick-to-learn versus but alas, no, they aren't going to be.

Not sure why I thought these two verses might be easy and quick-to-learn because the other six sure haven't been. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble memorizing them.  Advancing Age?  Preoccupation with other things?  Laziness?  The Devil doesn't want me to do it? (Which is the exact opposite of the Devil made me do it!)

I have realized in order to memorize these verses, I have to really concentrate on them and try to understand what they mean as opposed to just repeating them a few times.

 

In doing this last week, Romans 1:6 really spoke to me:

And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 

At first, this verse may not seem like that big of a deal.  Paul is speaking to the Romans.  He has told them that it is through God's grace he has been called to be an evangelist to the Gentiles and the Romans are included in this call.

That doesn't mean that much when you are just reading through the Bible.  (Or at least it never meant that much when I've come across these verses before.)

But as I was trying to memorize verse 6, and as I kept thinking about the words and pondering the meaning, the verse suddenly became personal.

God whispered to me that morning while I was standing in the bathroom drying my hair and trying to memorize this verse.

You belong to Me.

And that's what makes this struggle worth it.  God was speaking to me.  And I heard Him.

I've always joked that I'd like my own personal burning bush so I could hear God and know when he's speaking to me.

But standing there in my bathroom blow drying my hair, I discovered that sometimes whispers heard through His word can be just as loud as burning bushes.

I belong to Him.

Just go elsewhere if you're looking for cute, colorful, well-labeled bins.

I used to read a lot of organizing blogs.  I thought the more of those I read, the better organized I would be.

Wrong.

Apparently you have to actually get of your rear end and sort, throw away, move, and reorganize a bunch of junk to actually have an organized home.  Just looking at pictures of other people's organized cabinets won't help you straighten yours.

And then there were the cute colored bins and all the color coordinated labels made in cute fonts and printed on cute scrapbook paper that just made me want to gag.  If that's what it takes to be organized, then I'll just be junky.

But I have found that a closet, a drawer, or a cabinet will get so unorganized that it becomes unusuable and I have no choice left but to do something about it.

Such was the case for one of my kitchen cabinets.  My kitchen is tiny.  I have a lot of kitchen items that I use occasionally that don't fit into my tiny kitchen and have to be located in the garage or in the basement.  It's a pain but I consider myself lucky to have a garage and a basement and if you are only using something once or twice a month then it's really not that big of a deal to go get it.  (Although I do a lot of mental griping and complaining the whole time I'm getting said item out of the basement.  And then I realize what I'm doing and thank God for all the good things I DO have and tell my selfish self to shut up and stop complaining.)

Where were we?  I think I got off track.

Oh, yes!  My cabinet.  The unorganized offender is one I open frequently, probably more than any other cabinet in my tiny kitchen.  It's the cabinet that houses our K-cups and my spices.

And I know what you are probably thinking, What's wrong with that? That looks pretty good to me.
Or you may be thinking, How does she live like that? Call Hoarders!

Look at all the items I had shoved into that cabinet...

That's a lot of stuff.  And my main problem was the spices.  See my cute little Spice Stack up there?  Well, it works great (thanks Cathy!) but I have accumulated way more spices than just one Spice Stack will hold.  So I purchased another one.

And after lots of tossing and reshoving in other places, this is what I now have:

Isn't she a beauty to behold?  I just have to put the labels on the Spice Stack so I know where each spice is located.  I'm just afraid of comittment at this point because I know the minute after I get the labels on this bad boy, I'm going to need another spice, purchase it, and realize ugh, now my labels aren't alphabetized any longer!

I left some blank spots in case this happened so I do have room to expand and I guess I'll just have to deal with the fact that if that occurs the labels won't be perfectly alphabetized.

And one other thing I'm just going to have to deal with...

When I was relocating the other items that had been previously stored in this cabinet I realized that the basement, the garage and all the kitchen drawers needed to be reorganized.

So what did I do?  I grabbed a K-Cup, brewed a cup of coffee, and decided to read an organizing blog...

What I Wore Sunday - The Too Casual for Church but Too Dressy for the Bowling Alley Edition

So it's Sunday.  The day of the week where I drag my husband outside in the 34 degree breezy, but thankfully sunny,  weather to take a picture of me in a less than stellar outfit.

I guess I need to dig out the tripod because he was less than pleased with having to take my picture this morning.  Much like I was less than pleased with how this outfit looks. It really looked so much better in the mirror.

I needed an oufit that was cute enough for church but that I could also wear to the bowling alley, which is where I will be taking Sarah right after church for a birthday party.

I think it's a little too casual for church and a little too dressy for the bowling alley but it's what I'm wearing and it's too late to change now.

Jacket: Kohl's
Shirt: Lands' End
Jeans: Kohl's
Boots: Target
Necklace: Kohl's

 I do love this little necklace! 

Hope you have a great Sunday and don't forget to hop on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else is wearing today!

What I...

Tonight as we were sitting down for dinner, I grabbed my camera to snap a few shots of my plate.

I want to share a recipe later on this week and every good blogger knows you need a picture with your recipes.

As I was quickly taking shots of the plate, my husband said, "What I Wore Sunday, What I Ate For Dinner Saturday. Next it's going to be What I Dropped Off At the Toilet Tuesday!"

And that sent the kids erupted into laughter. Needless to say, our dinner conversation literally went down the toilet after that.

But we were laughing and happy and the dinner was delicious.

So stay tuned for What I Had For Dinner Saturday one day next week and hopefully What I Dropped Off at the Toilet NEVER!