40 Shades of Pink

My week

2012-01-28T11:24:00.000-06:00

I see this guy almost every morning and evening.
I'm pretty impressed with his entrepreneurial skills.
He drops off guard dogs at business locations and then
picks them up in the morning.

I can not resist a king cake. I hope I can make it
to Fat Tuesday without slipping into a sugar coma.

Happy Birthday, Amber.

Weighing options for the high school girls Sunday school class

I pass this very old house on 19th and America Street all the time.
This morning, it was gone.

Another friend. Another good news.
Another early morning flower delivery.

You'll never guess where I've been or
why my shoulder is bruised.

The morning after all the fun

Loving others through the gift of food (and 'through the tyranny of the urgent')

2012-01-27T17:34:00.000-06:00

"I don't think I'm a very good friend. There have been times I should have written someone a note or taken someone a meal, and then the thought is gone among all the other things I have to do. There have been plenty of moments when I could have encouraged someone, but the tyranny of the urgent clamored louder." Journey magazine daily devotion

Like others, I'm paralyzed by my busy-ness and I can so relate to the Journey devotion. Where does my good thoughts go? Life gives me so many opportunities to love others (and opportunities to be on the receiving end of love), and I really want to. When I sit quietly (usually in church), I can make some grand plans in my head. But the thoughts are slippery, they disappear fast along with my good intentions.

Its impossible for me to love on others unless I have made a committment to myself to do so when asked and I have intentionally planed ahead to actually put the plans into action (and it helps to make dinner for my own house too):

Trick number one: fastest dinner ever, made possible by cooking ahead and freezing.

Trick number two: my own slice and bake version of dessert.

The hard part of spageheti, coked and waiting in the freezer ready to spring into action

What I Wore- Thursday- with my new doo'

2012-01-26T19:56:00.000-06:00

Khaki shirt from Dillards
Brown cardi from Steinmart (or Dillards cant recall....)
Brown woven belt from JC Pennys
Cream ruffled top from NY and Company

What I Wore

2012-01-25T20:51:00.001-06:00

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

~Mark Twain

Black wide leg pants from NY and Company
White Ruffled shirt from NY and Company
Hunter green quilted jacket from Isaac Mizrahi via QVC

Ready?

2012-01-23T19:12:00.000-06:00

This study starts January 24. Are you ready?

I've read Chapter one but only finished 3 of the 5 days homework.

Update Week #3

2012-01-21T19:46:00.002-06:00

Week #3. Also known as the week I slightly cheated. Cheated in the middle of the week by getting milk, coffee, and peanut butter outside the budget. Cheating will continue into next week when I'm cooking and bringing dinner to someone recovering from an operation. Overall, I still call January grocery challenge a wild success.

Breakfast: Oatmeal (from pantry) and once from McDonald's, banana, yogurt, grits (from pantry), hash browns and eggs

Lunch: Leftovers, tuna fish (from pantry), and Subway

Dinner: BBQ chicken, potatoes, veggies (from pantry), cornbread (from pantry), and black eye peas with ham (from freezer), leftovers, peanut butter and jelly (in fridge) sandwich and pecan waffles

My one shopping trip this week

Amount spent:
Lunch: $9.84
Groceries: $34.16 (supplemented with left over lunch money)

Did I mention I got a waffle iron? and how much I love it? and it was FREE?

I saved stamps from Albertsons for three months. I shook down everyone at work for their stamps. I announced to the people in line I would take any they weren't gonna use. I asked the cashiers if they had any someone left. I looked in the parking lot every time I was there. I was shameless. 160 stamps later, free waffle iron.

just hanging out...

2012-01-17T20:27:00.001-06:00

.... and if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper...

2012-01-16T21:54:00.000-06:00

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.

Dr. Martin Luther King
October 26, 1967
Barrett Jr. High School in Philidelphia

Week #2 update

2012-01-15T17:40:00.001-06:00

This is what $15.67 looks like on a Tuesday evening. A pitiful small amount.

Breakfast: Cereal, (from pantry) yogurt, fruit, oatmeal and eggs with cheese, met Katherine for an early morning coffee date ($3.00 Cafe Au Lait)

Lunch: leftovers, lean cuisine (already in freezer); tuna fish (already in pantry), lunch out with my financial advisor ($12), more leftovers, soup (from can in pantry)

Dinner: baked chicken (in freezer) with potatoes and veggies (from pantry), waffles, ham (left over from Christmas in freezer), and beef stew

$14.02 spent on Saturday trip.

Total Spent for week #2:
Lunch out: $15
Groceries: $29.69 (supplemented the $25 budget with the $5 left over from lunch)

WiW

2012-01-12T18:11:00.000-06:00

What I Wore:

Where: Office, lunch at Serops (Greek) with Joy, work late, Walmart, visit neighbors, Home Owner Association meeting

What:
brown tweed wide leg pants from Dillards (65% off sale)
cream layered sleeveless blouse from Ann Taylor ( Black Friday last year)
dark brown suede jacket from Banana Republic (Black Friday this year)
dark brown suede shoes from Dr. Scholls (these- so comfortable)
gold ball necklace and gold hoop earrings
large rust colored flower pin ( from Broadmore Craft Show)

one of my life goals.... (it involves flour)

2012-01-10T19:07:00.000-06:00

I've been having ~~delusions~~ daydream for quite some time that I live on a 3000 acre cattle farm in Oklahoma, and I am required to get up every morning at 4:30 to start cooking for my cowboy husband and our large crew of ranch hands and I am the only way they will get fed three meals a day because we are so far removed from civilization, and they all converge in my kitchen before the sun comes up, sit around the table, saying things like, "golly Ms. Bobbie but this breakfasts' dern near the best thing I ever did eat." Basically, I think I'm cooking for the Ponderosa , King's Ranch or I'm the Pioneer Woman.

My reality is just a little different. No ranch hands. No cattle. No reason to get up at 4:30 and make anything ... much less homemade Cinnamon rolls.

In my real life, I'm only required to cook for one other person on a daily basis and usually its only one meal a day (and sometimes less) and my love story would only take about two sentences, not a whole book (and it wouldn't be named "black heels and tractor wheels"... or even anything close to that).

When I told hubs I was feeling ambitious and hope to make homemade Cinnamon rolls he actually said, "Why?"

He was serious.

"Why? you have to admit, you can just go buy this. And they're delicious."

So I felt deflated and not so ambitious and kind of shelved the project.....

Until I remembered the ranch daydreams and I had to tell him about the ranch hands.

Which was probably a mistake.

He looked at me like I had lost my mind.

Then he reminded me that when his friends occasionally meet at our house before a big fishing trip, how irritable I am when they wake me up at 4:30 and I am not in the mood to cook for anyone Then he offered to make my dreams come true by getting up to make these Cinnamon rolls for him and his fishing buddies one morning.

Which I declined.

This is The Pioneer Woman's famous Cinnamon rolls recipe and in all honestly it looks so complex its taken me a long time to even attempt it and I wondered if I should even attempt it at all. But then Julie & Julia has inspired me anew to go put on pearls and get in the kitchen.

but.... my inspiration has frizzled.

I thinks its because I've ~~entangled~~ involved myself in so many January Challenges, I don't have the time, energy (or money) ~~to change the world~~ for this daydream... this month. (this month is the key)

This is as far as I've gotten:

but... I've got a 12 month plan.

Actually. Other people have a 12 month plan that I have now stolen and call my own.

My 12 month plan now looks like this:

January: self imposed creative grocery shopping challenge; start this Bible study, read the Bible every day in 2012 and witness the weekday clock hit 7:00 a.m. from my desk.

February: Cinnamon Roll Challenge

What to join me with a monthly challenge of your own?

January Challenge(s)

2012-01-08T18:35:00.002-06:00

What:
A challenge to radically spend less in January. Alot of other people seem to be doing a variation of the same thing this month.

When:
Staring each week on Sunday

Why:
I've been on a non-stop eating, spending and socializing tour since Thanksgiving. It's exhausting and we (me and the checkbook) need some time apart.

How:
I have a $25 weekly grocery budget (for household) and a $20 weekly lunch budget (for me only). I know....radical.

This week groceries:
Shouldn't really count because I went shopping last week without restrictions, but...
Breakfast: Waffles (from mix in pantry), bagel (already in fridge) and fruit, cereal (from pantry), scrambled eggs and cheese (already in fridge)
Lunch: leftovers from dinner with small supplication of lunch budget
Dinner: Blackeye peas (already in the pantry) and ham (Christmas leftovers) in crockpot, cornbread, meatloaf, baked potatoes, spaghetti, big salad (already in the fridge), meatballs (from the freezer) with sweet and sour sauce, cereal and soup (from a can in the pantry).

Lunch budget:
Monday: Mexican restaurant with Julie (a surprise treat from her, and she doesn't know about this challenge) Thursday, Roly Poly with Barbara ($5.37); Friday afternoon salted caramel latte ($.3 and a gift card)

Bought $24.83 in groceries on Friday afternoon. Its a pathetically small amount. These next few weeks will be... interesting. (but I am starting this week with a big pot of stew...)

.....and because I'm ~~crazy a glutton for punishment, off in the head, don't know when to stop,~~ overly-ambitious (and I got up at 4:00a when the hubs woke me up going fishing last week), I am also doing this challenge.

and this one.

and this one.

My week in cell pictures

2012-01-06T20:51:00.001-06:00

I cant believe it! King cakes are in the bakeries already! I'm resisting as long as possible. Please, no one tell my husband. We'll have one (or three) in the house at all times until the end of February. I want to wait as long as possible before the king cake every night schedule starts at my house.

A Christmas gift from the housekeeper. I thought it was cute. The Mr. thought it might be a hint....

I have fell in deep love with this end table. I've gone to visit it twice now. It was the marble top that did me in, that and the fact it is the perfect size (Extra large) for my size of the bed. I'm debating if my budget can stretch in February and bring it home. I'm currently on a self-imposed no spending money restriction for the month of January. (more on that later...)

View from my office at 7:00 a.m. (more on that later, too....)

Don't he just look pathetic? He's begging for some bacon treats the little boy next door gave him for Christmas. Its like doggie cocaine. He is hooked.

Downtown Baton Rouge. I've passed her for years. We're old friends.

and that is exactly what I did.

Its not everyday you run into a NYC bus in Baton Rouge..... Well, actually its getting to where it is an everyday thing. Another movie/TV show being filmed downtown.

This is a pretend traffic jam on Third Street in Baton Rouge. I bet its going to be a real traffic jam in New York City in the breakout kings.

Look who arrived, a little late for Christmas (and New Years)

2012-01-05T19:33:00.000-06:00

Note to self: Next year, plant at Thanksgiving.

I'm still pretty proud of my first attempt.

Next year, they'll be in a punch bowl (like this) and in the middle of my dining room table.

Maybe I'll look for some on clearance and try now?

WiW Monday

2012-01-03T19:16:00.000-06:00

When: Monday, January 2. My last day of a long non-working and restful break.

Where: ATM machine, Home Depot, furniture store (this building was a skating rink where I spent a lot of time as a teenager. They still have the wood floor(!) and still play the loud 80's music (!!) I could have stayed all day and reminisced....), lunch with Julie, nap in recliner.

What: What will forever be known as my skinny outfit: Levi very low rise, long cream cami from Ann Taylor, dark blue cardi from JC Penny

What I made on Christmas Eve when a last minute call from the funeral ministry came

2012-01-02T09:32:00.000-06:00

The phone call started with.... I know it's Christmas Eve and I know its a bad time, and I know you're busy, and I know this is a lot to ask but...We've had a death in the church and the funeral is on Christmas Eve....

I've committed to myself that when anyone asks for food I will not say no. And in the past 10 years, I've only declined one time (when I had pneumonia). I quickly offered my usual, fried chicken. Then added dessert too, after hearing what an effort it was to round up people willing to cook and deliver on Christmas Eve.

The perfect reason just presented itself to make disappearing peanut butter balls (from Sheila).

Mix 3 cups of crushed rice krispies (I didn't bother crushing mine) with 1 pound powered sugar, 2 cups peanut butter and 1/2 cup melted butter.

Roll into balls. (mine were way too big- next time they will be about a third this size.) Park them in the fridge for a little while to harden.

Mix one bag of semi-sweet chips with 6 bricks of vanilla Almond Bark (Sheila said use Candi Quick but I couldn't find it.)

Microwave until melted and smooth and let the little balls take a dip in the warm chocolate spa.

After their swim, let them rest on parchment paper and dry. Keep in airtight container.

This recipe makes A LOT. I had plenty to deliver, plenty for my own Christmas day dinner and still more to take to work and share (they made me a very popular person).

New Years Day 2012- around my house

2012-01-01T13:41:00.001-06:00

I had a long talk with Butch. I explained this is my chair only and threatened him within an inch of his little life that he is not allowed to even day dream about getting his fat little bottom in this chair. So far, he hasn't acted the least bit interested in it, which is good news for both of us.

Welcoming the clean slate with a New Year's Day daisy bouquet. Makes my whole kitchen feel fresh and happy.

Forcing paper whites. Original plan was to have them open by Christmas day. Plan B was to have them open by New Years Day. Now, plan C is to watch and wait.

This week, I...

2011-12-30T17:23:00.001-06:00

...fell in deep love with this chair at Lay-Z-Boy store, until I found out it was not made in the USA. It was hard to let go. It really was the best chair for me. (sniffle...)

... considered the same chair in fabric (which is made in America), but really want leather.

...took someone along with me to run errands.

...don't think someone really likes the backseat.

...battled intense feelings of jealousy and then depression when my friend (who I teach high school girls SS class with) sent me this picture from her vacation.

... celebrated long awaited good news with a early morning suprise bouquet for another friend.

...kept looking at chairs. This would fit perfectly in the "second upstairs" room that I've only decorated in my head.

... settled on this one, very happily I might add. Made in the USA, in stock, and the last day of a major sale.

... left the grocery store after work and struck speechless in the parking lot at the beautiful sunset.

... sent the husband to the grocery store. Its always interesting what he brings home.

... continued to search for a can opener. Rejected this one.

mini pecan pies- cute and tasty

2011-12-29T20:04:00.000-06:00

Grab some mini fillo shells

and 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips

Lay it out together on parchment paper

toast 1/2 cup of pecans

like so....

Add one egg, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons butter

mix all together and add in the little shells. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so.

Why do I keep forgetting to take a picture of the finished product?!!

Recipe from one of my wedding presents. (Thank you, Judge Joseph).

Reading. Panning. Browsing.

2011-12-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

How to make mice Christmas tags for next year's packages. (I really want her Pottery Barn Christmas wrapping station too.....)

Hello Mornings Challenge

Impressive. They paid off $125k in debt.

December 24, 1969. The first woman in Congress to wear pants. Reported in the Washington Post here.

Online Bible studies. This one, or this one, or this one or that one. ( But I'm leaning heavy toward this one) (want to do one together?! Pick one out and tell me which one your doing!)

Planting Camellias

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2011-12-26T19:41:00.000-06:00

Outside my window....
It was a raining, cold and grey day that is turning into a cold, raining and grey night.

I am thinking...
It is perfect weather for staying in. Although I didn't stay in. I ventured out to Target for the necessary, (milk, cereal, eggs) and the unnecessary (Starbucks and browsing the Christmas clearance aisles), and then to two furniture stores looking for a (made in the USA) recliner.

I am thankful for....
Days off.

In the kitchen...
Leftovers of course. Stuffing, turkey and brocoli caserole

I am wearing....
New pearl cross necklace from Santa

I am creating....
A yearly Christmas journal of what I cooked, what I gifted, who came to dinner and what I should do different next year (make sure you have extra saran wrap).

I am wondering.....
How can I be so tired? I slept until 9:00 a.m.

I am going....
To take a hot bath and to bed early.
I am reading...
This and this.

I am looking forward to....
Using the new cleaning products from Fly Lady shop.

I am hearing....
Monday night football. (Go Saints)

Around the house...
Looking forward to putting my feet up in the new recliner after work.

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Another day off, visiting more furniture stores and a short work week.

Here is a picture....
The recently completed upstairs bathroom backsplash

Our 2012 challenge- Buying products made in America-

2011-12-26T14:17:00.002-06:00

If everyone in America spent $3.33 more each year on made in America products, it would create 10,000 American jobs. If everyone spent $64.00 more each year, 200,000 American jobs would be created.

(You have to watch a one minute commerical first...)

My first challenges:

Can opener: Target has 5 and all are made in China.
Leather recliner: Lay-z-boy store has impressive selection of mostly made in the USA. The one I picked though, was not. My search continued...
7 foot round rug for under the kitchen table. Last rug I bought for living room table was Made in the USA from JC Penny's.

What I cooked today

2011-12-25T16:05:00.000-06:00

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

Recipe from Annie here.

This week

2011-12-23T19:13:00.000-06:00

Early morning hot happiness in a cup

Searching for Christmas presents...

office Christmas tree

Meet a camel

and a sheep (I think it was a goat)

entertained

lunch spot

more possible Christmas gifts....

took advantage of the happy hour specials for Christmas dinner with a friend

Merry Christmas from South Louisiana

2011-12-22T20:25:00.000-06:00