Daily Photo Journal -- May 30

Today was filled with family fun. We spent the afternoon at our niece's High School Graduation Open House. She's a sweetie!

And a wonderful bonus of the day was being able to see our daughter and son-in-law!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 29

We had supper out with my parents tonight. We had a wonderful time. My dad turns 80 on Wednesday and the next day they are jetting off to France, believe it or not.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 28

I know, I know. I didn't post a picture yesterday in my quest to post a picture every day in the month of May. Sorry. I went to a quilt shop in a tiny, tiny town about 20 miles away and on the way home I realized I should have taken a picture. Phooey!

Anyway...

This afternoon my hubby and I worked on some things in the basement. I know we moved almost a year ago, but we each had one room that still had a lot of stuff that needed to be sorted through. Hubby worked on his shop and I worked on my sewing room.

I have a chest of drawers that my parents gave to us when we got married. They bought it over 50 years ago to fit in a spot in their house trailer. I used it growing up. After we got some of our own bedroom furniture it became a place to stuff my sewing things. The other day I was looking for some interfacing and realized that I really needed to clean that thing out. I swear I have been shoving things in those drawers for 20-plus years and don't know if I have ever purged it.

Here's a shot of some of the open drawers:

This one is causing me the most fits:

First waste basket full:

(Any comments about the Panda Bear Waste Basket can be directed to my hubby. I hold no responsibility for it. It's a left over relic of his childhood.) 

(My niece was afraid of it when she was tiny.)

Now we are pooped from sorting and thinking and wondering what-in-the-world some of the things we came across were and are going to pick-up some supper from the grocery store deli and watch a movie. Sounds like a great Saturday night to me!

Oh, and neither of us finished our jobs. I see another exciting Saturday afternoon ahead! :)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 26 (Pioneer Woman - Migas)

My next recipe to tackle in The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook was something called Migas. Ree says that they are known in the Southwest and describes them as "an exceedingly flavorful scrambled egg dish."  Since I'm a Midwest girl, it's no wonder I've never heard of them.

These "exceedingly flavorful scrambled eggs" have onion, red and green pepper, tomatoes, and jalapenos in them. A quite unique ingredient is corn tortillas that are fried until almost crispy.

I actually think I'd like the corn tortillas more crispy. They were hard to cut up (Hubby to the rescue!), and they seemed kinda mushy in the mix with everything else.

Here's a shot of everything cooking:

The finished product on my plate with Monterrey Jack cheese and cilantro added. (Oh, I love cilantro!) I also added an avocado to my plate.

The verdict? It tasted okay. 

When I make something new, I ask two questions: 

1) Do you like it? 2) Should I make it again? 

The answers to this dish are 1) Yes and 2) No.

(Sorry, Ree)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 25

I guess it's good for the garden...(this 1.25" plus the 2" last weekend)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 24

Today I received my first year on blogging in book form! I ordered it from this site:

http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html

Now I will order the remaining years so I can have hard copies of this fun hobby!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 23

Can you smell the Lilacs?

Mmmm!

(I am trying to pretend I didn't see the thousands of tiny, tiny bugs on the counter as I was putting these in a vase.... 

and trying to pretend that I don't feel them crawling all over me....)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 22

  Tonight I photographed the sun as it was setting. I just love the view from this house. A beautiful ending to a wonderful weekend.

 

 

 

Daily Photo Journal -- May 21

The Praising was wonderful! I just love Travis Cottrell and band. Such God centered music. And it was loud so I could belt it out at the top of my lungs. :)

It was hard to get a picture of Beth Moore when she wasn't moving. She very dramatic and spirited Beth taught from Psalm 116 and Hebrews 12 (and a whole slew of other verses in typical Beth style). (But backing up scripture with scripture? The Best.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference. I don't think I mentioned one of my favorite things. The friend who came with me....??? MY HUBBY! He's the best!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 20

 Today's treat? Praising God with Travis Cottrell and Learning from the Word with Beth Moore.

Oh yes, it was a good night. And I look forward to more in the morning!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 19

Today's treat? 

A pedicure!

Ahhhhh... Happy Feet!
The color? Pompeii Purple.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 18

Supper was on the grill. Pork Chops (using this recipe) Green Beans, and Garlic Bread sticks.

Another Shot At The Hodgepodge

It's been quite a while since I joined in on the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions that Joyce hosts every week at her blog From This Side of the Pond. Click on over there to join in and read other blogger's answers.

1. What reveals more about a woman-her refrigerator or her purse? 

The refrigerator is for the whole family, right? So a purse would tell more about a woman, right?
Oh, who am I kidding? A mom's purse ends up carrying things for everyone in her family. :) I learned that on our honeymoon when I ended up putting several things in my purse for my Brand-New Hubby. I've varied in my philosophy of purse sizes over the years. After I stopped dragging around a diaper bag, I made sure my purse was big enough for a little fold-up potty seat and some extra training pants. :) Then there were the years of wanting a purse as tiny as I could get it with just the bare essentials. Now? Now I like a big purse so I can throw in a book or a magazine for those I Never Know When I Might Want To Have Something To Read moments.

2. When was the last time you went to the zoo? Where? What's your favorite zoo animal? 

I think it was when we lived in Singapore. We went several times with the kids. I was fascinated with the cooling huts throughout the zoo. They were little buildings that had air-conditioning in them. A necessary item when you are 80 or so miles north of the equator, in my opinion. The zoo had a neat thing called a Night Safari. We'd take company to see that since it was a pretty unique thing and it wasn't as hot at night. You got to see the animals that were more active at night.
I remember going with my daughter's 3rd grade class on a field trip to the zoo. I had a group of  3 or 4 kids I was supervising, only one of whom was a boy. When we came to the Reptile House I took a vote to see who want to go in. Only the boy raised his hand so we passed on that one, of course! That little boy wasn't very happy with me. (...and was a little annoyed when he ended up in my group again on a different field trip.)
I found a place I liked to takes walks along a reservoir that was near the Singapore Zoo. I could sometimes hear the lions roar. That was pretty awesome.
I don't know if I have one specific favorite zoo animal. I love seeing how incredibly creative The Creator is. God is amazing.
You know, now that I think a bit more, (and to make this possibly the longest answer ever) I think the last zoo I went to was in San Diego 6 years ago. And hands down, my favorite animal there was the Panda Bear.
(Wow. That would have been such a short answer and just not as interesting.)

3. What social issue fires you up?

When the Church tries to fit into the World's viewpoint and make the social issues of the World acceptable in the church. Makes me sad and sick to my stomach. I cannot imagine how it grieves God.

4. Are you a coupon clipper? If so, are you extreme? 

I used to. My mother-in-law would even give me the coupons from her newspaper. Then we moved to Singapore and coupons did not exist and I quit paying attention to prices. When we moved back to the US, I tried the whole coupon thing again. But then, there were years we didn't get a newspaper. Recently, I've tried to used them a bit more. But frankly, I don't use a lot of the items there are coupons for. I know there are more sources for coupons than the newspaper (yes, Jenny, I know...), but I guess I'm not willing to put the work into it. 

Wow. That was a long answer for what I could have said in one: Kinda.

5. What is one of your favorite souvenirs brought back from your travels? 

Really? Only ONE? I could photograph most of the things in our house as things brought back from our travels. One thing I did well when we lived in Singapore and traveled in that part of the world was shop. These elephants were bought in Singapore at a place we lovingly called The Pottery Jungle. It wasn't the actual name of the place, but seeing as it sold lots of ceramic pottery and was kinda in the jungle, us Expats chose to call it that.

If you click here, here, here and here you can look around the house and there is something in every room we bought in our travels.

6. Lemon meringue or key lime? 

Yes, please! I love both! Lemon is a really close second to chocolate for me.

7. What is the most beautiful word you know in any language?

Forgiven.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Time for a really, really random video. Since I've talked about living in Singapore several times in this post, I thought I would include a video from one of the local-flavored sit-coms that we enjoyed while we lived there. I will admit when we first lived there we didn't understand the jokes or the accents very well, but eventually we got to where we couldn't wait for our weekly viewing, and laughed at the jokes. Sorry for the people who will watch this and don't understand. (I know the hubby and my kids will get a kick out of it...)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 17

I was excited to discover one of my all time favorite TV shows on in the afternoon.

Any body else just love The Waltons?

Daily Photo Journal -- May 16

No photo from today.

It's not that I didn't do anything today, I just didn't document it with a photo. I spent most of the day helping my Dear Hubby out. He had to go through that recommended procedure that one does when one turns 50.
I did video him being a bit loopy afterwards just so I could send it to our son so he could have a chuckle, but I would not dream of posting it here.
No, I never entertained the thought.
Never.

Since it just doesn't seem right to not put a picture up, I'll post one of me and my grandma. I was in high school and am wearing a choir robe and have my hair pulled back. I had hair almost to my waist when I was a teenager. Grandma was very stylish with her color coordination and jewelry.

I miss my grandma.  She's been with Jesus almost 16 years now. She was great at writing me letters and phone calls.  She would always start a phone call with "What do you know?"

Daily Photo Journal -- May 15

A momentous thing happened today. I finished reading this book:

I had set a goal to finish it by the end of January. Yeah. That. Well. Ahem.

I finished it today! This isn't my normal genre of books. But my daughter challenged me to read it and I finally did.

I have an impression of C.S. Lewis as being a serious, non-humorous British man. Here's paragraph from the chapter titled "Hope" that had me giggling:

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of "Heaven" ridiculous by saying they do not want "to spend eternity playing harps." The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally night as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

The last two sentences of the book:

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 14 (Pioneer Woman Breakfast Bowls)

Today's Daily Photo Journal is about my next entry in our cooking adventure through Pioneer Woman Cooks. If you forgot, because, really, it has been an eternity since I posted about this, my daughter, daughter-in-law and I are cooking our way through Pioneer Woman's cookbook and writing about it here. I have no excuse for slacking off because I'm not the one who is in Pharmacy School or Medical School. I haven't been studying my brains out so I can someday help with the health with their fellow human beings like Megan and Amanda. 

Maybe that's it, my brain isn't near as active as those two amazing young women... anyway...

Today for lunch I made Breakfast Bowls. I would say that I doubt seriously I would ever make these for breakfast, because it took me quite a while to do all the chopping and assembly and, hello??? Breakfast? That comes quite early in the day, you know! (Mornings and I don't get along very well.) (But, if you know me or have read this blog for very long, you are well aware of that.) (I'm not quite as energetic as my sweet, newlywed daughter.)

So I spent the late morning chopping onions, baking a potato, chopping tomatoes, slicing up leftover breakfast sausage links we had in the freezer, crumbling bacon, breaking open eggs, grating cheese (which honestly took about 10 seconds in my oh-so-cool food processor), slicing basil, and chopping mushrooms (Ree doesn't call for these in her recipe, but they were in the fridge. This is the kind of recipe you can add almost anything you want to it.)

After all that hard work is done (I suppose if you really wanted this for breakfast you could spare yourself all this intensive morning labor and do all this work the night before. At night. Like a sane person would do.)

The ingredients are layered in an oven-safe bowl. I used a Grab-It bowl. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the all and top off with cheese and throw it in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

It turned out quite yummy! (I think I could have baked them a little longer.) Hubby says it was the perfect dish to have after working in the yard this morning on this cold and rainy spring (?) day.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 13

Tonight I made roasted chicken. And mashed potatoes. And gravy. I believe it was the first time I have ever made gravy. And it was good.

I have one of these nifty vertical roasters for chicken.

My poor chicken had a little lean to it.

But it still tasted amazing.

And so did the gravy.

Hubby liked it too!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 12

(I am technically posting this on Friday, but am dating it for Thursday. Blogger wasn't working last night and I went to bed before it was back up.)


We've had tickets this year to a concert series that are at the high school in town. Last night was the last one. It was a band with four brothers. I only had my phone with me, but the picture turned out okay. Not great, but okay. (Which is the same thing I would say about the concert....we left at intermission.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 11

There was excitement out the window today. I've been hoping to catch the farmer planting the field next to our house and today was the day! (Yes, I am hard up for entertainment.) An old college friend asked me if the planter thingy on the back was a mechanical or vacuum system. Like this city girl would have any idea... Do any of my readers know?

God gave me an extra bonus this morning! A Double Rainbow! Wasn't that sweet and generous of The Creator?

(***Sadly, Blogger had issues this day and lost the comments.***)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 10

Tonight the hubby and I went shopping for some new chairs for the living room.

We narrowed the fabric choices down to these: (The smaller piece is a piece of leather for an ottoman.)

Decisions. Decisions. Sigh.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 9

Have any of my readers ever had a project they've intended to do, but have put it off because you fear it's more involved than you want?

Well, I have. Several times.

Today's project was to re-stuff some pillows that go with our couch because what was inside just wasn't enough. They sagged. My first plan was to buy pre-made pillow forms. When I was shopping for them, I decided it would be a lot cheaper to make my own pillow forms. So I bought two bags of stuffing and found some fabric in my stash at home that would work for the covers. This afternoon I tackled the job.

Thankfully, there is a zipper on the back of the pillows, so it was easy to get in to. I thought there would be a pillow form inside, but I found that there was a cover with stuffing inside. Just not enough. So I cut off one end, and added stuffing, sewed it back up and stuffed it back in and Poof! It was perfect!

The before is on the left with the improved pillow on the right.

Much, much better. It only took me three years to do a 30 minute job. Sigh.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 8

I got to spend Mother's Day with my mom. Did I remember to take a picture of my mom? No. Ugh.

We all went to the church my dad preaches at. I hope he didn't notice me taking a picture... :)

I also was blessed with wonderful phone calls from my amazing children. I feel so privileged to be their mom. When we got home, I found some flowers on the front porch that my boy sent. They sat there for a day because they were gone, but they seem to be okay.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 7

We went to my parents' house today. My mom, my sisters and I got to sort through a bunch of old family photos. It was a lot of fun seeing some photos I don't remember very well, and some old favorites. Here's a couple of samples:

I'm the little one front and center. 
Oh I was cute. 
(And, yes, I still fight that lovely cowlick.)

My box of photos.

My parents took us all out to eat tonight at a very nice restaurant. This was my yummy, yummy meal. (I ate every speck of it...)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 6

Today's incredibly exciting Daily Photo Journal is all about signs.

While I was out and about today a couple of signs caught my eye. Before I show the first one, I want to define a word.

The word is:

Kinship: Connection by blood, marriage, or adoption; family relationship.

The Sign:

I totally should have gone in there so I could see who was selling their family members. :)


Later today my sweet hubby took me out for dinner and this sign was on the table:

(Sorry for the lousy phone photo...)

 Do you see at the top of the sign it says the Popover costs $1.99? Then at the bottom it says 99 cents? Puzzling....

Daily Photo Journal -- May 5

I made dessert tonight! It's a big deal for me because for lots and lots of years I made dessert every week for our Small Group Bible Study. I have really missed doing that.

Tonight we had a lovely elderly couple over for dessert. He is the pastor (interim) of the church we have recently found to attend. I made a Berry Crisp:

And served it warm with a really good vanilla ice cream.

 Hubby and I finished it off after our company left. Yes, it was amazing. Hubby asked me why I never made it for our Small Group. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 4

I bought these today to make the table look more cheery. I like them. I think they worked.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 3

What we had for supper tonight. (Hubby's was minus the avocado and blue cheese.) 

(I never said I had an incredibly fascinating life.)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 2

People I meet tell me I don't look like I'm 50. (What does 50 look like anyway??)

I have a confession to make. Here's the reason I don't:

 (Shocking, I know.) My hairdresser, Debbie, is amazing!