What would Paula Deen do?

To continue with my Paula Deen posting:


Today I was supposed to go to the first birthday party of one of my friend's kids, but my own almost one year old was too sick to go (without me being officially labeled the Bad Mother Who Brings a Snotty Coughing Baby to Another Baby's Birthday Party) and my husband had to work. So I wasn't able to go and was bummed about that. I don't have too many things in my planner, and this was something that had been there for several weeks.

So...I was rattling around the house wondering what to do with myself with no money and a sick kid, when I thought:

What would Paula Deen do?!

My conclusion was that Paula Deen would make a bangin' dinner for herself. Not that an awesome dinner makes up for not going to the party that I was looking forward to, but the process of cooking was therapeutic and filled the day with something productive but creative (as opposed to say...cleaning).

So I put the kid in his exersaucer and he nommed on toast while I made apple/carrot/cranberry muffins, balsamic vinegar glazed portobello mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes, and sauteed green beans. The mushrooms are from Vegan with a Vengeance and from my post-preparation tasting I  can attest to the fact that...they taste AWESOME. Its all sitting in casserole dishes in the fridge, the dishes are in the dishwasher, and tonight dinner is all made!


Thanks for my inspiration on a bummer day, Paula Deen; I hope I did ya proud. :)

Best Dishes from Her Family Ta Yers

You know who I love? Paula Deen. I am a fan of the Food Network in general, but there are some people I don't watch at all and some who I watch all the time. Paula Deen is one of those that I watch all the time, but the thing that makes her different from the others is that I don't watch her for the food, because most of the stuff she makes, I never would. (I mean...you can't get too much further from aspiring vegan than Paula Deen) :) I watch her because doing so soothes me and she makes me smile.

She's on at 6pm, which is after I've gotten home, washed the bottles and lunch stuff brought home from the day, taken a shower, and am sitting on the couch playing with The Sweet Baboo. Right then, when I'm all clean and am trying to forget that I was at work all day, Paula Deen's great Southern accent (y'all) chatting about the preparation of yummy looking comfort food is just what the doctor ordered.

Although, perhaps not the cardiologist. :)

I wonder if she's on Twitter...

Lazy Sunday

I love Sundays. My husband works six days a week, so Sundays are the day when we all get to hang out together. I do all my house chores before Sunday so that on Sunday I don't have anything annoying to do. Like laundry.

Our only plan today is to go to Costco to exchange a box of diapers that are a size too small. Luckly I noticed before we opened the box, so it should be an easy exchange. Then we have an entire delicious day of NOTHING.

Sunday mornings are my favorite. I get to have a relaxed cup of coffee. Write a blog. Watch HGTV. Get caught up on my Google Reader.

Wow, I sound boring, but I'm ok with that, because boring makes me happy. :)

Progress!

Remember this?

I was able to work on it yesterday so that it looks a little better. Observe:

Better no?

I also removed the piles of leaves, so now the front "yard" is a blank slate ready for my perennial inspiration. :)

Holy Overdue Book Fees Batman!

I have recently renewed my relationship with the public libraries of my youth. My husband and I have instituted a regular read in bed time every night, and as a result I'm actually finishing books at a decent speed, and my budget can't keep up in terms of buying new books. I had kind of forgotten about libraries- when I was young I was a total library rat and whipped through piles of books from elementary school through high school, but after graduating from college and getting a job, the public library and I parted ways.

Until now.

I'm having so much fun going and getting as many books as I want- FOR FREE!- but unknown to me, my dear library system has changed a little since our relationship of old. I have always kind of sucked at getting books back on time (or doing anything on time for that matter), but in the past it didn't really matter THAT much because what would it cost...a buck or two? Not a problem.

So when my pile of books from last months trip to the library became a little overdue, I wasn't too concerned and didn't feel the necessary sense of urgency to get myself to the library to drop them off. But yesterday I had some time, so off I went. I entered the library, wandered around, chose a new pile of books to replace the ones I wanted to return. When I was finished, I took my little self and bag of readables up to the counter, smiling at the librarian and saying: "Hi, I need to check out this pile, and return this pile, and pay my fees." The librarian began doing whatever librarians do to return books, and then she turns to me and says:

"That will be $17.50."

SEVENTEEN WHAT?!

I tried not to look surprised, because I didn't want to reveal the fact that I hadn't been to the library regularly since the overdue fee was $.10, but inside I sobbed as I handed over a much cherished twenty dollar bill. And then sobbed even more when she handed me my TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS change from my TWENTY DOLLAR BILL.

Sigh.

So now the little receipt they give you that has the books you took out listed with their due dates is taped on the front of the refrigerator. Lest I pay more than the $17.50 that I've already paid for my privilege to read free books.

Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Well, yesterday after writing a blog in the morning, it set the tone for a really nice day. Even though I wasn't writing anything exciting, just the act of making time to write something made me feel like I was taking control of my creativity and drove out the feeling that I am being pushed along without having time to do things that nurture me. So even after just a small amount of writing, it made my whole day better- which is sort of weird to me, but I'm not going to argue with it, I'm going to try to learn my lesson and make time for creativity. Even five minutes.


Moving on.


Today is another beautiful day and since I don't really have anything plans, I think I'm going to take the opportunity to play in the dirt (or prepare things for future playing in the dirt.) I am really excited because this week the hostas I planted last year (which I got cheap off of craigslist- LOVE craigslist) are coming up again! My front "yard" is just a small plot of mulch that my landlord put down before we moved in. I wanted to do more with it last year, but because of the fact that for most of the spring/early summer I was either pregnant or recovering from a C-section, it didn't get done, which was disappointing. I did get the hostas thrown into the dirt, but that's about it. So I'm REALLY excited that they took, and I'm really excited to plant more things this year.

My current plan is to use an old blue sink basin that I saw in my dad's greenhouse last week to plant some impatiens or some other annual, and then plant perennials in the rest of the space. I like plants that come back every year. Less work (and money) for me.

I think the sink basin will look cool. Hopefully my neighbors across the street will think so too, they're the sort to call my landlord and complain if anything doesn't jive with their sense of lawn propriety. I think they all need other hobbies besides getting their panties in a wad over what everyone else is doing, but whatever. :)

So, to document my process...here is the "before". You can see the hostas peeking through and some unsightly piles of leaves from when I raked the other day. Flowers forthcoming.

Whee for spring!

Oh...and the porch. The porch will probably be my first project, because....

EW.

SPRING! :)

Spring is here! Its been a little hot for my liking this week, like we moved from blizzard to heat wave, but I'm definitely ready for the warmer weather and the flowers. It rained last night, so today is a more reasonable 60 degrees or so. I've been doing 'eh' since I last wrote. I added a day at work due to budget reasons and its really sapping my energy and creativity. I feel like if I'm not at work, I'm doing laundry, making dinner, washing bottles, and basically trying to keep my house from being condemned by the sanitation department. Which makes me tired and bummed because I feel like I don't have the time to do the things that nourish my being. Mostly because I feel like doing those things is a privilege and I shouldn't be doing them when the carpet needs vacuuming. That and being creative sometimes feels like work when I don't feel like I have anything to create. I'm basically tapped out of energy and ideas.

But...who needs ideas. Writing a blog doesn't require ideas- talk about nothing! :)

The good news is that it doesn't take much to lift my spirits, and even writing a blog post makes me feel like I did something creative and it has the added benefits of making me feel connected to a community of people doing the same thing. Even thought I haven't written my own blog lately, I have been religiously reading others thanks to my handy dandy Google reader. Its usually what I'm doing when I take a break from my seemingly mundane work existence.

So basically, I've still been here, but I just haven't felt like I have had anything to say so haven't been posting or even commenting much. I'm going to try to do that more (which I've said a THOUSAND TIMES), but since its an easy way for me to tap into my creative side and feel connected, I really need to make the effort- its a big payoff for a small time commitment.

I've tried a million times to make a "theme" to my writing so that I'll post more, but it never works. NEVER. So for my own mental health, I'm going to try to post more, but it might not be interesting. :) Mostly because I don't feel like life at the moment is very interesting. Not BAD at all, with the exception of my soul sucking place of employment, but just not what I feel like people would want to read about. So...fair warning to those still checking up on this blog over here.