Sitting at my kitchen table typing this blog post, I’m looking at our nearly ancient table. Justin bought it before we were married. It’s wood. It’s sturdy. It’s a bit scratched up. I’m thinking more modern dining room furniture. I did some online browsing at CSN stores since they cover over 200+ stores with a wide variety of items, from cute cookware to cute boots! Here’s some sampling of what I’m thinking about:
Pretty nice stuff. Probably just a dream for now! What do you think?
My husband leaves for his work home sometime on Sunday. Today, he left early because of an impending storm. While I hate that he travels far to go back to work, I also hate that he has to leave. See, I love my husband. It’s kind of corny to say, but I’m more me when I’m with him. I miss him when he’s gone… a lot.
I came home from church today and he had already gone, which made me sad. Sundays are rough that way. My soul was lifted when I went to put my shoes away and saw this note on my bathroom mirror:
It’s so small. It’s so simple. It made my heart sing. I know my husband loves me. We’ve been married for more than 10 years and he tells me daily, but this little note was just a little reminder that he stopped to think of me on his way out of town, knowing that I would be missing him.
I don’t need flowers. I don’t need jewelry (at least not all the time). I don’t need something showy. It’s the simple things…the small things. Thanks my love! Thanks for loving me and marrying me!
These ones are a little harder to watch. They make me smile at the memories, but they make me sad for what has changed in the past five years.
Came across this video clip from Christmas 2004 (Emma was 7 months old). I miss this!
Yesterday was crappy, to put it mildly. I was awoken at 2 a.m. by my youngest who had a 102.2 degree fever. He was ON FIRE! I pulled him in bed with me and went into mommy mode trying to make him comfortable. His fever didn’t break until almost 11 a.m. and was back again later yesterday and last night.
In addition to that, (I’m going to give this person some privacy to talk about this in their own time), someone I know and care about just got the official diagnosis of cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, yesterday. While it’s not at all a welcome diagnosis, it is reassuring that someone listened to him/her and there is something that can be done to treat this. This problem was far more significant than Austin’s fever, but it’s not really mine to discuss right now, so we’ll leave it at that.
I didn’t get any work done with a super sick kid and definitely didn’t get my normal “chores” done that I had intended, because he wouldn’t leave my bed and therefore, Mommy couldn’t leave her room for more than a few seconds.
In the midst of exhaustion and emotions, there was a knock at my door around 7 p.m. Since Tyson was at basketball practice, I thought maybe it was him home early. To my surprise, it wasn’t him, but my friend, Janae’s, daughters and husband, bringing me a VERY beautiful arrangement of daisies, red and white, as a belated birthday present.
Yes, I was embarrassed that I was in my jammies at that point when I opened the door, but that most unnecessary act of kindness by Janae made my day. For the record, even if my day had been wonderful, it STILL would have made my day! Thank you, Janae, for those beautiful flowers and your kind, generous spirit. Thanks for making my crappy day better. Thanks for being you!
Note: I wanted to take a photo of them, but they are on my kitchen counter and it is a real mess right now. I’m too tired and too embarrassed to do it, but they are beautiful.
For Christmas, my mom gave me a copy of a history of my Great-Grandma, Isadora Chadburn Price. It is a compilation of her autobiography, interviewed questions, diaries compilation, photos, and poems and such. I remember a lot of my Great-Grandma, but this is amazing to me.
I imagine that when my she sat down to write her autobiography, she didn’t feel like she had much to document. I feel that way at times. But she lived a life I know so little about. She writes about moving into house with my Great-Grandpa as a newly married couple and comments that their rent was $8 a month for half of a duplex that only had two rooms that had a roof over them. There was no running water and no toilets. Crazy.
I’m only a few pages into her autobiography and I’m learning so much about my Great-Grandma. For example, she wrote poems! I had no idea! She was a painter. I have a painting of hers hanging in my house that she gave Justin and me when we married. But, poetry? I didn’t know and apparently, neither did her son, my Grandpa. How crazy is that? I’m so thankful that she kept records…so thankful that she felt the urge to document her life…so thankful that I have this information about her now that she has passed.
I’ve come to realize in the last few years just how fragile life is and how quickly it goes. I enjoy going back and looking at photos and videos even from just a few years ago. It brings back memories I had forgotten. My kids love looking at them because they don’t remember a lot of that stuff at all. Tyson (who is currently 8) told me he wanted to go to Hawaii. I told him that he has been twice, but he was too young to remember. It was fun to go and show him things he did and places he went.
I keep memories for him:
I keep memories for her:
And I keep memories for him:
I also keep memories and document my life for a time when I’m no longer here. To have left my “mark” here for my kids…for future descendants. I also keep memories because it’s fun!
Justin has taken some amazing photos of Vernal at sunrise. No, not amazing photos of Vernal, but amazing sunrise photos. : ) Here are my favorites:
Almost makes me want to go…almost! My apologies to anyone from Vernal! : )
2010 is gone! Last January, I made the resolution to try at least one new recipe a week and to blog about it. So, how did I do? I made it to the end with a few weeks missing among them. You know what I learned? I learned to enjoy cooking and to not be afraid of my kitchen. No, I was never “afraid,” but if I didn’t have an ingredient, I didn’t cook that recipe. I have learned that recipes can be changed and altered and still have fabulous results.
While 2010 is over, my desire to try new things and continue on my journey isn’t over, so I’ll be blogging about good recipes I’ve found, just in case you want to try them too!
This was a Christmas Eve recipe. It was so yummy. If I could have gotten the zucchini any drier, it would have been crisper and better, but the addition of the fresh lemon at the end was really good.
Recipe adapted from Annie’s Eats (photo from there too)
5 medium zucchini (about 8 ounces each) ends trimmed
1-1/2 tsp. table salt
1 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1-2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper.
Shred the zucchini with the shredding disk of a food processor or a large box grater (I used my mandolin). Toss the zucchini with the salt in a colander set over a medium bowl; let drain for 5-10 minutes. Wrap the shredded zucchini in a kitchen towel, in batches if necessary, and wring out the excess moisture.
Add the zucchini to a medium bowl and toss to break up any clumps. Add 2 teaspoons of the olive oil and toss to thoroughly combine.
Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat. Add the zucchini mixture to the pan and distribute in an even layer. Cook without stirring until the bottom layer browns, about 2 minutes. Stir well, breaking up the clumps, and cook once more until the “new” bottom layer browns, about 2 minutes more. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
