Project Life Delay....Week 4

So, obviously, if you are reader you realize I didn't post Project Life on Wednesday.  I actually have the pictures but due to my inability to stand on Tuesday, and other obligations such as Writing Night, Catechism, and family stuff I couldn't get it done.  I am home today.  I had to come home early because JoJo was throwing up all over the place.  He told me his stomach hurt this morning.  You know me, Mother of the Year, told him to hurry up and get dressed so I wouldn't be late for work.  Then I yelled at him when he wouldn't get out of the car.  About thirty minutes after arriving at school he threw up all over the computer keyboard.  I took him to the nurse's office where he vomited upon arrival.  I took that as a cue to go home.  So, I'm working on my homemade yogurt...cross your fingers.  I'm hoping to get my Project Life up this weekend.  Here is a picture of the soup I made JoJo with homemade chicken stock.  Click here for the recipe from 100 Days

Real Food Recommendations

So all is going well here.  I thought I would post a quick update and share some foods I love.  I stayed home from work today due to knee injury.  Mazzie crashed into me at full speed last night while chasing the stupid cat.  She hyperextended my knee and knocked me to the ground.  It was lovely crying like a baby while laying on the floor.  Thank God, she has not reached her full size of 140 pounds or I might be in the hospital.  Anyhow, since I was home today.  I decided to catch up on some cooking...bad idea.  My knee swelled up while I was making homemade whole wheat tortillas.  I did also crank out a batch of granola later in the day after resting my knee and taking some Ibuprofen.

Here is a little list of my favorite finds.  I use these products all of the time and they kids love them.  I am also thinking of making my own yogurt at home in the next few weeks, as well as trying some salad in a jar...I never heard of it until my friend Pam brought it up today.  She is a whiz in the kitchen.
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6.  Boars Head Products  Sorry no picture, but we eat their meat and cheeses all the time.  We especially love the Oven Gold Turkey Breast, Monterey Jack w/ Jalapeno cheese, Colby Jack, Honey Ham, Pepperoni.  

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Project Life Week 3

Here is Week Three. It is quite lackluster as I had no actual energy to throw it together.  I am so glad for Becky's Project Life Kit this week, because it made it super easy to put together in a few minutes.  I was not at all pleased with pictures.  I ordered them from Walgreens...I use the app on my phone so I can print 4x4 prints.  To say they look crappy would be an understatement.  I guess, beggars can't be choosers, however.  I ordered the prints on Sunday, and Erik picked them up today.  I attempted to go to school today, but had a minor setback of illness.  I ended up going home, and sleeping.  I was up all night coughing last night.  I'm so sick of being sick.  So, here is Week 3.

Book Recommendations...It's been a while

It has been a while since I made some recommendations on here.  It's not for my lack of reading.  I just haven't posted.  I've found a few online book groups that are AWESOME.  I've been sharing my wealth of knowledge there.  Anyhow, I thought I would share a few books that really got me.  All synopsis are from Amazon.

My life was perfectly mapped out for me since before I was born. I followed it, begrudgingly, because it was expected. And then one day, everything changed. 

I woke up. 

Different. Independent. Free from all the rules that had defined my life. 

Only I have no idea how I got to where I am. I have no memory of the last two years. I don’t remember graduating college, and I certainly don’t remember Adam – the boyfriend I live with. 

He loves me. And I love him. At least that’s what everyone says. But when my memories return to me as dreams, I see a different man than the one everyone claims is perfect for me. 
He terrifies me. He makes my heart race and he makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. 

Do I want to welcome the emotional chaos that his piercing brown eyes and messy black hair causes every time I get a glimpse of him? Or should I run back to the perfectly manicured life that used to be mine? 

Loved this one!!!  Broken, broken boy.

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Lost to You and When We Collide comes a New Adult novel of one woman’s obsession: a man who’s as passionate as he is elusive—and as tempting as he is trouble…

Aleena Moore is haunted by Jared Holt. It’s been six years since she’s seen her brother’s best friend, the self-destructive bad boy she secretly loved in high school. As the years pass, she knows it’s time to move on. Time to decide between a practical nursing degree and her true dream as an artist. Time to get over Jared and give another guy a chance…

Just when she opens her heart to her friend, Gabe, Aly returns home to find Jared sleeping on her couch. The teenage boy she loved has grown into a man she can’t resist. Covered in tattoos and lost in rage, he’s begging to be saved from his demons—the memories of the day he destroyed his family. As the two reconnect, their passion is hot enough to torch Aly’s judgment. But can she risk her future for a man who lives on the edge of destruction?

Project Life Week 2

Here it is...It's way late!  I know, but I almost died got a bug...flu or cold, I don't know.  I've had fever since Thursday.  I forced myself to work on Friday because it's just easier than writing up sub plans and finding someone to put papers out for students.  I also hadn't made copies for next week as Friday is my prep.  I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday in bed.  I really, really thought I was better, but my fever came back today around 11 am.  So, basically I am pretending not to be sick at this point.  I've had enough of it.  I hardly ever get sick, so I don't handle it well when it happens.  I know last week or so I promised to take better photos.  I'm sorry, I wanted to get this up so they are somewhat crapalicious.

 I really liked the quote under the "Life is an Adventure"  It's from the Silhouette online store.  It's supposed to look like this.  It was too damn tedious to pull all of the letters out.  I tried a 4x6 size and then an 8x10 size.  Then, I tried to use letter stickers.  None of it worked, so I wrote it out.  4th times a charm apparently.  I thought it was fitting considering this layout was mostly about the food this week.

So, there you have it.  I'm hoping to get the next week up in a timely manner.  Oh and Go Broncos!

Project Life Delay

There will be a slight delay with Project Life this week.  It's not because I'm a procrastinator, but because I'm waiting for my silhouette cutting mat to arrive.  My old mats are no longer working and I'm just ruining paper at this point.  The mats should arrive tomorrow.  So I'm hoping to post Thursday or Friday...I already have most of the layout done.  In the mean time, here is a picture of me with bangs.  I got a haircut last night.  I know seeing my beautiful face will brighten your day.  Ha!

Super Simple Homework Organizer

Santa is a wise man.  He must have known that my children fought all the time over homework supplies such as pencils, paper, crayons, etc.  He must also have known that finding pencils and a pencil sharpener were a challenge due to a certain individual, JoJo who steals misplaces aforementioned items.  Luckily, he brought each boy an organizer, which I found you can also purchase at Target.  He filled it with markers, crayons, a notebook, mechanical pencils, and an eraser for each boy.  I also might have threatened  warned my three children that if they remove any of the items for use other than homework they will be in big trouble. 

I was also lucky enough to have three shelves in the kitchen where I can keep these organizers.  

It's worked out very well.  The kids haven't touched the supplies unless it was for homework.  They like getting their box and bringing it to the table.  I also started putting important papers in the large slot with the notebooks (as you can see from the top photo).  That way the boys can put them in their backpacks and turn them in.  

There you have it. A super simple organization idea for homework!  Thanks, Santa.

Project Life Week 1

Here is Week One of Project Life.  I hope to take better photos of the layouts next week.  Remember, I purchased the Honey Edition of Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I figured its a good place to start.  I will try and add more of "me" into the project as I go along.  I did purchase some cuts from the Silhouette store for the "2014, and the "We were here"

Words (12x12 layout) Using Wordle

Please note, this layout is actually straight...I just couldn't get it to crop properly.  A lot of you may remember this letter to Maddox a few months back.  Well, I copy/pasted the letter to Wordle.  I repeated the words Maddox, love, and color a lot so that his name would stand out.  It took me several arrangements to get the look I wanted.   One pointer I would recommend is not putting the phrase "not boring" in.  Wordle separated those words and left boring on its own so I had to make adjustments.  The words, "words, beautiful child" are my handwriting that I converted over for my silhouette machine.  You can download those files here.  

Happy Scrapping!

Real Food Update

 Last night's dinner:  Homemade Pizza-Crust is from the 100 Days of Real Food Recipe Index

I haven't updated about our Real Food diet lately.  That doesn't mean we aren't still on it.  Of course it was  a little harder during the holidays, but we dealt with it.  You may remember this photo I took of Christmas Eve...

As you can see there is nothing real about that food except the Veggie Tray.  I ate a ton of the vegetables, and maybe a piece or two of the pumpkin roll (I made it with organic pumpkin.ha).  I ate several of the Crescent rolls I made with cream cheese, cheese, and shredded chicken, all processed goodness.

As we celebrate holidays or birthdays, or go about our lives in general, I refuse to limit my children's food choices outside of the home.  I don't want them to feel they are missing out on the cupcakes or sodas on special occasions.  I don't mean they should gorge themselves with sweets and sodas, because they don't.  I just don't want them to think eating healthy all of the time is a chore and boring and horrible overall.  I want them to have some choice in what they are eating while I continue to educate them at home about healthy foods.  I can already see a difference in their eating behaviors and food choices.  Maddie is pretty good about eating RF.  When we go out to eat, he orders tea instead of soda.  Wolfie has turned out to be quite the vegetable eater.  He likes broccoli, green beans, loves spinach, and tries other foods without gagging, or being rude.  That's a huge step.  All of the boys eat a ton of salad when I serve it with dinner.  They eat the homemade granola.  I had to change the recipe a bit and remove some of the nuts from it.  JoJo loves his smoothies and has to have one every morning.  Even Wolfie drinks smoothies for breakfast.

Since starting, I've only brought RF into our home with the exception of the holidays.  On Christmas Day, we did eat only RF.  People were a little upset about the green bean casserole, but I made some yummy greens beans instead.  I will post the recipe later this week for you.  Every New Years Eve, I make hot fudge sundaes using my grandmother's recipe.  I did buy some Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream because I was afraid the homemade ice cream would melt too quickly.  I also bought Cool Whip to top it.  Other than that, that's all that's come into our home.

So, there you have it.  I will post later this week with my recipe for green beans.  I'm such a chef.  Haha.  Just kidding.  Have a great Sunday.  I'm off to work tomorrow.  Sigh....

Call Me Crazy...Project Life

Call me crazy, but I've decided to do the full, entire Project Life.  That means 52 weeks of a project!  Yikes!!!

I purchased the Honey Addition Project Life Kit by Becky Higgins, and the big box of page protectors to get started.  I decided to do this for a few reasons.  One, last year, I did hardly anything in the Craft/Memory Keeping Realm.  Two, I didn't take very many pictures of my family last year.  It was very sad to go back this winter and put pictures into our annual photo book to see that I really skimped out.  Three, 2011 I did Project Life on a monthly scale.  I was so glad to go back and see those pictures in the album.  I'm focusing this year on really documenting, creating, and photographing.  Those things make me very happy inside.  When I don't do it, it just feels wrong.  I guess they are my stress outlet.  I'm keeping in mind my word "Change."  There will be a lot of change this year.  I want to document it.

How I will organize my Project Life.  

If you are going to do this, then I would suggest a schedule.  I'm scheduling a ton of things this year.  Master calendar, scheduler, me.  That's the new me.  Haha.  Anyhow, every Friday, I will upload all photos taken from my phone and personal photos from my camera.  I will have them printed and ready to pick up so that I can pick them up and have the weekend to work on Project Life.  I am hoping/praying/cross your fingers going to post the pictures each Wednesday.  That should give me enough time to finalize the layouts and photograph them.  If I make any silhouette cut files, I will have them ready for you to download either that day, or the next.

So, I guess that's it.  This year I am going to focus on this blog and my photography.  I really want to grow in my photography creatively.  If you are doing Project Life, by all means share your blog in the comments.  I will be happy to post it in one of my posts.  I'm also going to use Instagram to document my Project Life as well.  

Good Night!

Our Dam Walk Photos

Who doesn't love a play on words, especially since the word is dam?  I mean I could make a million dam references, regarding photos, walking, fishing, food, etc.  Anyhow, yesterday, we traveled to the lake to walk across the Elephant Butte Dam.  The Dam has been closed down since September 11, 2001 aka 9/11.  As kids, my parents would take us across the dam all of the time.  My dad would hold us on the wall, not like a Michael Jackson dangling or anything, so we could see.  As a kid, you never appreciate things until they are gone.  We have so many dam stories.  Hahaha.  So the dam was opened up for the second time since 9/11.  We decided to take the boys so they could see the dam.  So here are a few dam photos.  I have more, but I didn't feel like processing them all.  I was just dam tired and dam lazy.  Okay, I'll stop.  We all dam well know, I could keep going ;)

 I love how they rhymed this sign.  It's been up for at least 35 years.  It was up when I was a kid.

 Looking over the edge

 The whole Dam Family

 The spillway

 View of the Butte

 The people, and my two monkeys on the sides of the dam.

 Me...and Erik totally had me in focus.  This is an achievement for him!

One of the lights with sunflare...sigh...you know I love sunflare.

Happy New Year...and one little word.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

I hope you had a great New Year's Eve.  

I don't know if you all remember, but last year 2013, I chose the word "Balance."  I feel that I worked a little towards that with our family.  It was such a trying year last year.  It took some big adjustments on my part.  I had a really tough class, and it took time adjusting to Erik's schedule. 

This year, my word is:

Change 

Change, I'm not big on change.  In fact, I actually hate it.  I have been ordering the same food item from La Posta since I was two or three years old.  That means every time I step foot in the restaurant I order The Rolled Taco plate order of three, whole beans, with no coleslaw.  Really, I'm not going to be changing my order.  However, I am so ready for change.  

Erik and I always thought of our home and the town we live in as a stepping stone, something that would be temporary.  We never made our house now, or the town for that matter a real home.  We had plans to move back to our hometown.  We had plans to leave this house.  Ten years later, we are still here.  This year, we are going to sell our house.  A house we love, by the way, but its time for CHANGE.  Erik and I feel that we have been stuck in a rut.  We are in a financial rut, we are in a social rut, we are just in a damn rut all around.  

There have been a few events leading up to this conclusion.  First of all, Erik and I decided we were going to stay here at our house and make it what we wanted.  We kept the walls a neutral color for all of these years because we were going to sell it.  We never put a lot of us into it.  We had purchased a lot about 6 or so years ago that we were going to move to.  It was never the right time to move, so we just held on to the lot.  We finally decided that we would rather stay here and sell the lot.  Well, due to the horrible economy, that can't happen.  The lot prices have been drastically cut.  By drastic I mean, practically in half.  I'm not interested in losing that much money.  Call me crazy.  We also need to reset a few things financially.  Erik took a massive paycut a few years ago.  Paying so much on two properties is no longer feasible.  I would like to be able to take nice vacations with my kids, or even take them to the zoo for that matter.  I would like to buy some new shoes...since they have all been destroyed by our lovely dog, Mazzie.

While in the thought process of selling our house, Erik and I have had many discussions.  I've been purging a lot of things.  I don't want to take a lot to the new house.  Erik and I really just want to start over.  We are thirty plus years old.  I still have my parent's furniture in my bedroom and some for the boys.  Let's not count that Maddie is using my dresser from childhood that I inherited from my brother Kriss.  I am ready for a change so badly.  I don't care if we have bean bags or air mattresses.  I want our stuff to fill our house, not someone else's.  

The other thing that brought about CHANGE is that Erik and I stumbled upon this really amazing property.  The house is not amazing, but the property is.  Anyhow, while we were looking through the house something hit me.  I told Erik, "This house is for entertaining." That's when I realized we had no actual friends for entertaining.  I mean we have friends.  However, my most precious friends live out of town.  My really good friend just moved to Colorado.  So, we have no close friends that live in the same state.  I'm ready to embrace that side of things. We never made a huge effort to meet people and the like because we didn't plan on staying here.  For that matter, a lot of people are stuck up snobs in this town.  I'm willing to look for and change things to meet nice, new friends.

So, there it is in a nutshell.  I'm ready for change.  I'm ready to embrace something different.