Better things ahead.

For me, 2013 was a year of maintaining.

Maintaining my house... but making no progress on any of the millions of DIY projects I have in mind.

Maintaining my family... but making no new traditions, no new vacation places, very few untried activities.

Maintaining my body, my weight... but making no progress in my constant struggle there.

Maintaining my blog, my writing... but not being happy with or proud of most of the stuff I typed incoherently at 5am.

Maintaining my marriage... but finding very little time for date nights, or time away, just the two of us.

Maintaining my relationships with other family and friends... but not really being as accessible or as helpful as I would like to have been.

I feel like I've been in a holding pattern.

This is pretty atypical for me.

I will be the first to tell you that I'm not the kind of person who is constantly craving excitement and new things to keep me occupied.  Quite the opposite is typically true.  I like patterns, stability, the familiar.  I LIKE boring.  I thrive on it, really.

But I'm ready.

Ready to make things happen in 2014 instead of just waiting for things to happen TO me.

Ready for changes.  Good ones.  Maybe even scary ones.

I'm ready.

Bring it, 2014.

Happy New Year! 

 

Valentine's Day Advent Mailboxes

And yes, I totally Googled "advent" to make sure it worked here.  And it does.  Mostly.

I used to ignore most holidays altogether, but over the last few years, a perfect storm of more free time plus Pinterest envy plus kids who are old enough to understand holidays plus my unnatural desire to WIN at parenting has led me down the dark, scary roads of holiday decor and festivities and whatnot.

Sometimes I tend to... overdo things, but I'm going to declare that these Valentine's mailboxes are nothing but win.

I saw these little cutie mailboxes in the dollar bins at Target, and quickly snatched up four.  My Target had the red and blue ones, but my friend Natalie found pink and white ones at her Target.  Wal-Mart also has some similar ones in with their Valentine's Day stuff, too.

I printed out some name labels (which would have been WAY fancier if I had this Silhouette Portraitcutting tool that I covet SO SO HARD), then found a quick free "I love you because" printable, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, my boys and I can leave each other cute little notes, plus I got a few cheap candies (like conversation hearts) to surprise them with along the way.  We have been doing this a total of ONE day, and they are already watching their flags like hawks, because they know a raised flag means a new note or treat. 

I found this note from Zachary in my mailbox this morning:

and while I'm not sure what it is I'm the best at, exactly (the best at yelling?  the best at making pancakes? the best at saying "uh-huh" when he talks at LENGTH about Beyblades?) I'll still take it, and take it happily.

Because he took the time to write it for me, and that means the world.




This post contains affiliate links. 

My mantra for 2013.

Happy New Year!

Thankful.

And so very, very blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade cornbread dressing.

My Mama was a really, really good cook.

She loved nothing more than to feed people.  Food was just the language she spoke, and she spoke it fluently.

One of her best dishes (in my opinion, of course), was her cornbread dressing.  Maybe it just seemed so special because we only had it a handful of times each year.  Or maybe it was really that good.

Either way, for the last couple of years I've been trying and trying and trying to re-create it and I've gotten so close.  Oh so close.  It's not exactly as good as Mama's.

Just almost.

And I'm ok with that.

[Printable Recipe]

WHAT YOU NEED:

One batch of biscuits, completely cooled*

One batch of cornbread, completely cooled**

1/2 stick of butter or margarine plus 1 tablespoon, divided

One small onion, finely diced

3-4 ribs of celery, finely diced

3 tablespoons poultry seasoning***

4 cups (approximately) chicken broth or stock

WHAT YOU DO:

Saute the onion and celery in one tablespoon butter until the onions are translucent but not browned.  In a large bowl crumble the biscuits and cornbread, a little at a time, until there are no large chunks left.  Add in the onions and celery and the poultry seasoning, then slowly add in the broth, a cup at a time, stirring as you go.  The dressing will seem wetter than you think it should.  This is a good thing.  Put the dressing mixture in a greased 9x13 pan.  Chop the 1/2 stick of butter into small cubes and place evenly across the top.

Cook at 400 degrees for approximately 1 hour, until the sides and top are browned and crunchy.

This dressing is definitely more the kind you cut, not the kind you scoop.  And that's just how I like it.

*I like White Lily self-rising flour, and I just follow the biscuit recipe that's on the back of the bag.  I don't bother with the whole "rolling out, cutting out" steps here.  Just plop the dough out in a pan, spread it out a little and bake it until the middle isn't doughy any more.

**Martha White self-rising white cornmeal is the way to go here, and for the love of God do not put eggs or sugar in your cornbread, because that's not cornbread, that's cake.

*** I prefer using poultry seasoning instead of just sage because it's got lots of other yummy spices in it, but if you want to use ground sage instead, be my guest.  Just reduce the amount to 2 tablespoons.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

In my previous life as a retail manager, the holidays were deemed largely something to get through, and not anything to enjoy.  At all.

It was pretty miserable, actually.

Non-stop work, very few days off, shopping for gifts in the few spare minutes I did have...  Yeah.  Most of my retail Christmas experiences have all melded into a blur of memories of crowded stores, upset customers who waited till the last minute to pick up the perfect gift because there was a whole stack of them RIGHT THERE sometime in November, and rushed family holiday celebrations because my one day off in the middle of all the chaos was too short to cram everything into.

Fast forward to today.

I'm coming up on my third Christmas season without a retail job.

I think the first year I was in some sort of post-retail PTSD and I frantically made all the cookies in the world and more candy than 12 sane families could consume and wore myself out with preparations and cooking and over the top decorations and basically when it was all over I felt pretty much the same way I did when I was working.

Last year was better, but I still swung wildly in the direction of trying to make up for all the years that I didn't really participate in holiday festivities.

But this year I think I've got it.

A little distance from my crazy retail days.

A little perspective about what's really important to me and to my family.

So yes, I will bake.  And yes, I will decorate.  And yes, I will entertain, and that will stress me out.  Some.

But I got an early start, and I've finished making and/or buying many of my gifts already, and my Christmas cards, which are usually a huge ordeal, are done.  Here's a sneak peek:

Anybody care to guess the theme?

I've been crafting up some special things for the boys, like these awesomely cool Christmas ornaments:

 

I found a tutorial on how to make them right here, and they were super easy - thank you Pinterest for once again making me look like a rock star.

And next up on my to-do list is sewing up some matching pajama pants for the boys to wear on Christmas Eve and morning.  I found some Grinch fabric on eBay for cheap that I think will do quite nicely:

I'm also in the process of looking for a service or giving project for me to do with the boys, maybe something like my friend Dianna is doing with her kids through Operation Christmas Child.

 So yeah, I feel saner this year, and less like I'm going to let Christmas consume me whole, as it has in years past.

Instead, I'm purposefully and deliberately picking and choosing what I will do based on what's important to my family.

And I'm not going to stress about it at all.

Well, not too much, anyway.

Happy Halloween, y'all!

On Jack O'Lanterns and Overachievers

Every year the boys and I carve jack o'lanterns, where by "the boys and I" I mean that I let them watch me while I work on some ridiculously complicated design that I've decided that we just MUST have in order to win at Halloween.

The last few years have been a little superhero heavy, with some Mickey Mouse thrown in for good measure.   These creations take hours and are not without considerable sacrifice on my part.  The Batman I carved last year reduced several of my fingers to bloody nubs but I just kept on going and saw it through.   I'm such a good Mama that way.

See what I mean?

When it was time to do our carving this year, I had a plan all mapped out in my head about how it should go.  "Hey guys!" I started gleefully, "Since we are all dressing up as The Avengers this year (oh yeah, it's going to be EPIC) wouldn't it be cool and awesome if we carved our jack o'lanterns to look like the Avengers, too?"  I fully expected them to just go on along with my plan, because HELLO! - it was an awesome plan.  

"Oh I know," Zachary said excitedly, "I know what kind I want!"

I smiled to myself, because I was sure he was drinking the kool-aid and was totally on board with with my plan at this point.

"I want mine to have triangles for eyes, and a triangle nose, and a jaggedy scary mouth!"

"Um, you mean like a REGULAR OLD JACK O'LANTERN?!?!?!" I asked incredulously.

"Oh yeah!" he said.  "That sounds PERFECT!"

"I WANNA CAT!" Cooper yelled.  Thanks for backing me up there, kid.

I may have negotiated longer and stronger than I'd care to admit to try to get them on board with my awesome plan, but they held firm and it did occur to me that really this was supposed to be fun for them so I should probably just let it go.

So finally I did.

When carving day came, Zack changed his mind and decided on a scary scull, and Cooper held on to his cat idea, and they had a blast helping me get the pumpkins cleaned out and ready.

When it came time to make the first cut, I sighed a little to myself then let my dreams of matching Avengers pumpkins go, once and for all.

And you know what?

I'm glad I did.

I'm getting crafty again.

As of today, there are about 90 days left until Christmas.

I say "about" because math? Not my thing.  But I feel like that's a pretty close guesstimate.

So anyway, a little less than three months till Christmas, the cooler weather that has arrived (FINALLY!), and the official start of fall all banned together to make me go crafting crazy once again.

It comes in fits and starts with me, this crafting business.

Anyway, I can't show you some of the things I'm crafting because the people they are for read this blog - SPOILER ALERT! - but I like to make things for myself a whole lot, too, so here are a couple  - ok, a bunch - of things I have made just for me.

This ruffled dish towel is totally impractical and matches NOTHING in my kitchen.  I love it anyway.

I stitched up this little tote bag (it's totally reversible!!) for the sole purpose of carrying my coupon organizer in when I go to the grocery.   Yes, I know that makes me sound like a little old lady.  I'm totally comfortable with that, by the way.  

I made this cute little sign from a drawer front I picked up at a flea market for a buck.  The letters I found in this AWESOME Flickr collection.  I am running out of wall space (really, it's getting ridiculous) so this is hanging in the stairway leading down to my basement. 

I made these silhouettes of the boys.  I made the ones on the left first, but I wasn't sure I loved them, so then I made the ones on the right.  Now I can't decide which ones I like more. 

This is probably my favorite thing I've made... ever.  It's a shadow box with an opening in the top.  All our ticket stubs and wrist bands from family outings are in there, and there is room for a ton more.   It's hanging in a prominent place in our basement rec room and it makes me smile every time I walk past it.

So that's what I've been crafting lately.

And I have a ton of other ideas, so I'd better get to it.

Happy 2012!

Merry Christmas to all.

It's a dying art form.

I'm a member of a dying breed.

I still send out - GASP! - paper Christmas cards.

In the mail.

With stamps.

On the Pony Express.

Ok, I guess saying I "still" do it is a little misleading.  I actually only started it a few years ago, after zj was born, in order to have an excuse to send out yet another pic of my cute kid to those relatives and friends who didn't have internet access.  Yes, they still exist in the world.  And my back woods redneck family boasts quite a few of them.

This is zj at almost two.

Pretty cute, huh?

Anyway, it used to be fairly easy.  When zj was a baby, and even a toddler, he was pretty willing to smile at the camera, baby!  Cheese for Mama!  and I could usually get a good shot or twelve.  He was Pavlovian in his response to the flash.  

However, once I added cj to the mix, it got decidedly less awesome and more like herding cats.  

But still, I soldiered on. 

Every year around November-something, I break out the Santa hats and the good camera, down a couple stiff drinks, and try to get a picture of both of them looking at the camera at the same time.

This year was my third attempt at such a feat, and it still hasn't happened quite like I would like it to.

Every year, I say never again.

But then come November, the urge to yell at my kids for 3 hours while they are wearing a Santa hat and I am wielding a camera hits and hits hard.

So I'm never gonna say never.

What about you?  Do you send out Christmas cards?  Or is it just me?