47.52 motivational monday

Always remember to fall asleep with a dream and wake with a purpose.

- Unknown

Or should it be the other way around?
Jari was out playing at the sand dunes this weekend.
Probably with quite a purpose.
Keeping up with the young bucks was the purpose.

To be fair, this could have happened to anyone ... it just happened to be him.
He's fine.
He'll be one aching unit this week, but his spine is intact.
The helmet not so much.

I think he was probably dreaming about more riding,
because he woke up with a purpose.
He was discharged from the hospital less than six hours ago.
The guys are sitting here planning the next trips.
Did you catch that?
Trips.

 Off to Gloria who has a houseful of boys ....
wonder what they're dreaming about over there.

smaller portions

Our family size at home has dwindled. We are down to only three of us that really live here. Sure, we have others that are often here for dinner, but not every evening. Then there is the problem of Monday thru Thursday. Especially Monday and Tuesday. Monday I am exhausted when I come home. Weekends in my world aren't usually relaxing experiences. They are getting caught up on everything else around the house and running like a hooligan ... then trying to hear an alarm at 4:00ish a.m. isn't conducive to a I would love to make dinner! attitude after work. While there are days when I come home and dinner is ready for me ... that just isn't always a reality. Tuesdays ... I am never home early. Period.

 

Not only is the time of home coming challenging, so is making food for 3 people. A 9x13 pan of enchiladas or lasagne doesn't get eaten here. Sometimes the leftovers make their way into the freezer, sometimes it might be eaten several days in a row ... sometimes, it ends up nearly being a science project and thrown away.

 

So, in an attempt to come up with a different solution, I went to the dollar store. I found a set of 3 pans that measure about 6x8.5" at the top, narrower at the bottom, and come with little cardboard lids. Let's hope the lid comes off before the food hits the oven in the heating up stage!

 

Rather than filling a 9x13 pan, I filled 3 smaller pans. I actually prepared 3 more lasagne noodles than I normally would and ended up with a few more enchiladas than I would normally fit in a pan.

 

All food prepped and ready for the oven ....

 

Baked together and out together.

Lids in place and dated with the wrong date.

Then plunked in the freezer. Except for 2 pans of enchiladas that got eaten that same evening. The rest went into the freezer. Now ... if this works the way I plan on it working ... we have meals for more than one Monday and Tuesday. I should be able to pop it in the refrigerator in the morning and have someone pop it in the oven before I get home.

There is enough for 3 of us with leftovers of lasagne for lunch the next day, but not enough where we will be sick of it before it is gone.

I've meant to try some of those freeze a meal in a bag then pop it in the crockpot recipes off Pinterest but haven't gotten around to that yet. Will start with this. Swedish meatballs would be good too. Cook some pasta and have a good quick meal when you get home.

If you have any ideas for meals ... I'll gladly take suggestions!

46.52 motivational monday

The most important things in life aren't things.

- Quoted in bulletin of the First Christian Church in Fairfield, Illinois

One of the bestest things ever.
In the whole wide world.
This little guy gives important things a whole new meaning.
He loves to get a serious hold on the person he's hugging!

Gloria is next in our circle of important things



 

pepper cutting

This post could go all over the place.
You've been warned.

First of all.
I haven't shared one wedding picture with you because I probably don't have many more than that.

Second.
I haven't been back ... as promised ... with our impressions of Williston, North Dakota several weeks ago because I just haven't.
I could use just a few more minutes in a week.

Third.
Christmas is around the corner and I am starting to freak out.
Just a little bit.

Fourth.
During our drive to Williston, my companion (other than dear hubby and Travel & Leisure magazine) was Dave Ramsey. I read nearly this entire book during our jaunt.

Which leads me to the title of this post.
If you're scratching your head ... can't say as I blame you.

Going with the Dave Ramsey plan, I started my little cash envelopes. Note the word little. Actually, I drove myself over to Target, swiped the plastic and bought a cute little coupon organizer. It really works just as well as envelopes floating around. Then I labeled each little pocket with my hopes and dreams. I hope your hopes and dreams look a sight better than mine. Mine look like clothing, car repairs, grocery, personal care items. Oh, yeah. There is that vacation pocket as well. Have several of those coming up in the next year.

I'm getting to the peppers.

So, I am carrying cold hard cash to the grocery store. I am not back to couponing yet, but keep threatenting to do that. I am back to shopping what is on the sales ad. The last several weeks have been a little ridiculous. What is a gal suppose to do when vegies are 38 cents a can?!

This week, red and yellow peppers were 77 cents/pound and so I scarfed some up. What I could give for a halibut fajita ... you just don't know.

This afternoon I was spending some quality time in the kitchen, handy knife at the ready (which, incidentally, you might note is a serated bread knife?!), when I realized that I have never shared pepper cutting with you! It was this past fall at Kamp Kipa that we stumbled upon this little miracle. If you've been cutting your peppers this way forever ... then you should have shared it with the rest of us. I use to end up with a mess of seeds that I was rinsing out of my pepprs. Not any more!

Ready? Here goes!
Not the best looking pepper. Maybe that's why they were 77 cents a pound.

First, turn your pepper upside down and insert knife into the fold of the pepper starting at the bottom.

 

Do the same on the other side of that bump.

Excuse the lovely photo here.

This is what getting older hands look like!

If you look closely, you can see on the left side of the pepper, both indents have been sliced but the everything remains intact at the top of the pepper.

Now you can separate that portion from the rest of the pepper by slicing across the top.

Don't but the entire top of the pepper ... whatever you do!

Just that one little section.

 





Repeat the same with each section of pepper.

Even if the pepper is mishapen like this red one,

it still works.

Once each section has been removed, you are left with the stem and all seeds attached.

I did have a few stray seeds floating in my removed sections,

but nothing like before.

Go forth and cut some peppers without the seeds ending up everywhere!

I'll be back Wednesday with another foodie idea for you ... if you're in my stage of life!

45.52 motivational monday

There is nothing worse than being a doer with nothing to do.

- Elizabeth Layton

Tia is a doer.
Stillness is not a word in her vocabulary.
She's on fast forward or stop.
There is rarely an in between speed with her.
At least around here.
It is probably a whole different story when she's out with friends.
This day she needed something to do,
other than clean her nearly impassable room,
and someone else needed something done.
The doer became the human high chair.

 

Personally, I don't really remember a time where there was a lack of things to do.

The books to read are piled high.

The laundry keeps returning.

The craft projects are piling up higher these days.

I cherish my busy existence.

My list of wants far exceed my list of needs,

even in the category of something to do.

 I have a deep sorrow for those who nothing to do.

Is the nothing to do in this quote because they choose to do nothing?

Is it because lifes circumstances have forced them into inactivity?

Is it because they haven't the courage to reach out to do something?

What is it that keeps one from being a doer?

 

I hope the answer to that question is something I never have to learn.

 

The talented Gloria

 

eye candy

Did I get you?!

Many folks might have varied definitions of those two words.

But this, my friends, is my kind of eye candy.

The kind where you can't blink lest you miss it.

At 70 mph or thereabouts  ....  it doesn't take much of a blink.
There might be an added bonus to hubby's preferred driving speeds of late.
I've got more time to fiddle with the camera.

 

 I'll bring you a few more pictures, along with our impressions of Williston,

but for now ... our most special people who now call it their home.

 

I was half joking when I suggested that the person doing our blood work for life insurance come by at 6 in the morning.

Apparently that isn't a strange request.

He has been here and is gone.

We are off galavanting to the dentist for 8 a.m. and then off to school for Tia and work for me.

 

Maybe I can manage to get back on the 'puter this afternoon.

No promises there.

44.52 motivational monday

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

This little man is discovering things very quickly.
It won't be long and I'll be adding locks on my cupboard doors and drawers.
Between those moments where his brain is absorbing big things,
a little toe chewing is usually the order of the day.

Gloria