February 2016

Guys, nothing funny is happening in my life.

I’m not having many “Did That Just Happen” moments right now.

And, (with a worried sigh), I’m afraid I might not have many more.

You see, Mr. T has picked a college.

It is all becoming very real that the little boy I JUST HAD is growing up.

I made him stop and take a picture with me at a college visit the other day.

“Mom, we don’t need to now, there will be time later.”

“Get your butt over here and take a picture with me! Don’t make me go all mom on you!”

And you know what – there wasn’t time later!

Time is not linear for me, when I say it happened the other day, I could mean yesterday, or 6 months ago.  I don’t waste space in my brain for things like “time”; however, there is a pressure in my chest that tells me – either I’m having a heart attack – or that time is currently paying very close attention to me!

Here is the super-duper good news, though.  My son is bound and determined to expedite his college time and leave with the least amount of debt as possible.  He has saved up to take classes at the community college during the summer, and he is filling out every scholarship form there is… and… he is applying for the housing waiver.  He will live close enough to the school he wants to attend that he can commute.

He won’t be moving into the dorm (fingers crossed) in the Spring.  He’ll be staying at home.  And, while he is never here now, and will probably be here less in the future, it still gives me some peace that I’ll have a little bit longer to yell at him to not leave dirty dishes in the sink or to pick up his shoes from the living room floor because I tripped over them and almost broke my neck!

I look forward to that.

OH! But wait!  The other day I bought a new washing machine!  And Mr. T had exactly 1 hour in between Job #1 and Job #2, so he met me at Lowe’s to load up the machine (it wouldn’t fit in my car) and drive it home – and he unloaded it and set it in place for me before taking off to head back into town for work.

So, I made him some homemade donuts! 

Double chocolate donuts with a plain glaze.

Yeah, that just happened!

(and if you follow me on Pinterest, you’ll find the inspiration for that recipe, which of course, I modified.  Almond milk instead of regular, greek yogurt instead of sour cream and truvia instead of sugar… and they still turned out divine!)

Oh! One last thing – one of my SMART goals is to hit 50 miles per month with my running.  

Not only did I meet my goal, I increased my mileage from January, so #DoubleWin.  This month also included a longer run, added in an extra half mile towards the end of the month – and it was scary but it went really well!  I think I’ll work in a few more long runs now and work on increasing my stamina.  It’s been feeling good, and I haven’t always been able to say that about running!

Maybe I have a few more moments left in me yet!

In The Kitchen with Kate: Wordless Wednesday Edition

I saw this recipe on Pinterest the other day and couldn’t wait to try it. Homemade Veggie Nuggets!

That looks neat, right? Vegetarian chicken nuggets! And the ingredient list really was simple: Carrots, parsnips, potato, broccoli – and then some oil, egg and breadcrumbs.

The reality:

So, mine is a different color… I can work with that… but it was also a totally different texture… well, let’s try it anyway, so what if the cookie cutter didn’t work and I pulled out the melon baller… It could still work!

Yeah.  No.

How to Scroll Through Pinterest

I try and ride my stationary bike 5 days a week.  I mix it up with intervals and steady work.  It is great cross-training and keeps me from stiffening up on run days.

It is also time I get to dedicate to social media! I don’t feel like I’m “wasting time on-line” when I am stuck on the bike for 30 minutes anyway!

And my favorite social media is Pinterest – and as y’all know – it doesn’t go to waste, you see me trying things all the time!

But, for every Pin I pin, and every Pin I try out, there are 1,000 more that I have nothing but a snarky comment for! That has actually made my Pinterest scrolling go by faster!

Isn’t Biscuit considered “from scratch”?

Apparently it is a thing to not wear pants with a sweater.  I’m pretty sure I’d get arrested if I tried that.

Seriously? Who is buying white leather furniture?

That is not real sweat.  Come on marketing team, you can do better than that to get my attention!!

Free the chocolate! Free the chocolate!!

That looks great, but there is no way you are rolling that burrito up with that much stuff in it…

“A dear friend introduced me to this lotion…” Really just natural skincare dot com… a dear friend introduced you to this lotion… that you pinned… from your website.

Does anyone actually throw away old make up?

Did your windows have a growth spurt?

And finally:

Pretty much put things on there.  Got it.

So, Pinterest helps me learn new skills, tips and tricks; it keeps me occupied when exercising and it also helps sharpen my snarkiness!

Despite my snarky, I did link to each and every web site that I pulled that pin from, because just because I won’t click through doesn’t mean it’s not a tip you can use! I had fun and giggled over all of these as I was picking them out… I’ve actually been collecting them for months now, waiting until I had amassed a large enough collection of sass to share with y’all!

Now it’s confession time… who else does this? Let me know some of the thoughts you have when scrolling through Pinterest.

And, if you are interested in growing your Pinterest followers, check out Penney Fox with Inner SocialMedianess, she has been a strong supporter of mine and I enjoy her tips and tricks.  I very seldom give them a snarky comment! 🙂  (Penney didn’t pay me for that… but now I’m thinking she probably should! ha!)

 

 

It’s All a Matter of Perspective

Recently I’ve been working on staying off social media.  It’s a killer time waster and being Type A, I like to be productive.  So, I’ve taken to checking Facebook and Pinterest when I’m on the stationary bike.  It gives me something to focus on, and frequently I’m on there past my scheduled 30 minute time because I just want to get caught up to my feed!

Part of the bonus is that it keeps my mind sharper and engaged, because seriously, I want to get caught up to my feed, and in order to do that, I have to be able to read and process in a short amount of time!

It also has helped me notice some flaws in my Ego.

Per Dictionary.com: In psychological terms, the ego is the part of the psyche that experiences the outside world and reacts to it.

Case in point.  I ran across this gem the other day.

My immediate reaction was more on the negative side, my Ego feeling the rejection that comes from life moving and friends moving on.  “Well, he doesn’t need me anymore, he has his new friends”  which translates to “I must be lacking”.

Fortunately, just as soon as I had that thought, my next reaction was, why? Why does this have to be negative?

It immediately reminded me of a girl, she’s not been my friend the longest, but it’s probably darn near close! In the past, her life has sometimes gone off track and she has needed me.  I’ve been beneficial to her life.  And the same is true the other direction, I’ve needed her, and she has been beneficial to my life.

But right now, we aren’t a benefit to each other.  Our lives are pretty good.

Yet, she still calls, and she still reaches out, and we still get together.

And that’s when it hit me.  Her true colors are showing.  I offer no benefit to her life, except my friendship.  She loves me for me and that is all she needs.  I don’t have to be useful to her, I just get to be.

I can’t tell you how amazing it was to have that revelation, that what I immediately saw as “lacking” was in fact a message exactly the opposite.  I just needed a new perspective on things!

And this happened a few days ago, but I just couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I had to come share it with y’all! What do you think? Do you have a perspective thought or revelation to share?

In the Kitchen with Kate: 5 Ingredient Paleo Chocolate Treats

I needed a treat the other night… and I don’t keep treats on hand, because treats on hand last about as long as it takes to type this sentence and then they are gone!

As such, I’m always on the lookout for some yummy treats that are fast and easy to make, and ones that don’t make 3 dozen at a time!  Because see above!

I found Primal Fudge by Practical Paleo on Pinterest and had to prepare it.

Okay, I’m done with the alliteration.  I just couldn’t resist once I got started!

How cute are those little guys? And while I am always looking for an excuse to use my muffin tins – she had me at 5 ingredients!

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup high quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1/4 cup raw honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

I was a little more flexible in my ingredient selection…

I’m currently obsessed with my PB2, and almond butter, peanut butter, same diff.  I’ll just mix up half a cup of my PB2 and it’s half the calories! I ended up mixing 1/2 cup dry and that shrunk as I was re-hydrating it, so I added in another 2 tablespoons.  This may or may not be important later on!

Once the peanut butter was mixed up, it was time to add the melted coconut oil.

Like how I did the whole Pioneer Woman snap-a-picture-while-you-are-pouring thing?  I was proud of myself!

Then I added in the rest of the ingredients and got to mixing.

It looks odd… but it’s starting to incorporate.  Oh, and the original blogger did mention that you could use either a blender or food processor.  I’m starting to wonder about now if my food processor would have been the better option.

Once everything is mixed, you are supposed to “pour” it into the muffin tins.  POUR.  Does that look like it will pour?

No.  No it doesn’t.

So, let’s improvise and add in a touch more honey and a splash of vanilla to moisten it up and make it pour-able.

Then, just for fun, splash some vanilla on your tablet cover.  At least it’ll smell good for a bit.  Sadly, even after adding more liquids, the mixture wasn’t able to be poured.

So I took my spoon and dropped and mushed the chocolate mixture into my silicone mini muffin pan and then popped those suckers in the freezer and set my timer for 15 minutes! Of course, once in the freezer, I saw a container of frozen blueberries…

And I grabbed a handful and popped the frozen blueberries on half of my chocolates.  And then reset my timer.

…..

15 minutes later

….

Mine look nothing like the original! They are pretty darn ugly, and you can see those white lines – where some coconut oil didn’t fully incorporate – so it’s a #PinterestFail, but you know what? They are pretty darn yummy! And at about 70 calories each, heck yeah I’m eating them!

I Heart Art

Way back in January, Holley at Chasing Destino and I thought it would be fun to do a long distance art project – and from this one project, so many other ideas were born… but let me stay on task!

Let’s be Pin-Pen-Pals introduced us to the inspiration.  Pinterest is a wonderful, magical place and we found this puzzle:

It didn’t take long before each number was assigned to a blogger.  We emailed out the puzzle and you mailed your art work back!

I’m just so excited!  So, without further ado….

Our Pin Pals Completed puzzle!!  I love how all of the different pieces came together and made a beautiful piece, even though it all is so different!  And a special thanks to Holley for compiling the pieces and taking the picture for us!

There were a few people that didn’t get their pieces in, and one of Holley’s kids came to the rescue, so I think that makes it just as special! And, I’m not going to lie, before I matched up the numbers to the people, I tried to guess which piece you had completed… and boy was I wrong!! And I had fun being wrong!  So, everyone needs to look at the puzzle, the art work that came from all over – Cornwall, Canada and California, and then a few places that don’t start with a “C”, and then go check out all of the bloggers that participated!

1. Holley Chasing Destino
2. Holley’s little one
3. Holley’s little one
4. The Crazy Crone 
5. Life Breath Present
6. Little Miss Doodle
7. My Year(s) of Sweat
8. Spirit Lights the Way
9. Little Steps
10. Life in the Wylde West

Thank you so much to everyone who participated, and who waited so long for me to get my act together!  This was fun and I love how we got to come together from all over to share a love of art!

Who I Want To Be – Giveaway

I mentioned in my post Double Standard that I’ve really been making a conscience effort in being who I want to be.  Last Thanksgiving my nephew just filled my heart when he acknowledged traits about me that the rest of the family scoffed over – but he could see past who I was and was embracing who I wanted to be – and y’all, I wish there was a class that could teach us that!  I’ve mentioned it, and so have many of the other bloggers I follow, but so often we bring our own assumptions to the table about the other person that we completely miss out on what is actually happening.  We’ve done it, and we’ve had it done to us.  I had an experience last year of others bringing their assumptions to the table about me and it was really eye opening, it did a lot to show that most peoples reactions are about them, and not you!  It also helped open my eyes, and as part of living in the Now, and being who I want to be, I’ve been working on seeing people as they are now, and not as they were when I met them, or last year, or even last week!

And, as awesome as that journey has been – it’s not why I’m here today!

Part of my “be who I want to be” journey started at the beginning of the year.  I declared I was a bracelet wearing person.  I was the type of person that wore bracelets.  And not dainty little things, no, I’m a bohemian! I want stacked bracelets.  I want color! I want jingles!

Now, disclaimer, I declared this about myself before I got my Jawbone Up.  Which is a bracelet type tracker.  And when making my declaration about being a bracelet person, I really did have a specific look in mind, and for a little bit I got to pull it off; however, as with all things in life, sometimes when you get what you asked for – it’s not at all what you expected – and that is the case here.

The really cool part? I love it! I giggle some mornings when I’m getting ready as I put on all my “bracelets”!

In Aliens, Pudding and Pink Socks I mentioned that my friend Erica and I were supposed to be working, but instead were obsessing over the great items on the Chinese web site – and one of the items I bought was the Harry Potter inspired stacked bracelet set below! It’s my love language right now.  It meets my need to be a bracelet person and it totally makes my fan girl heart beat!  The owl for Hedwig, the Golden Snitch, and then Deathly Hallows… swoon.  I’m wearing that with my Jawbone – and my new Pay It Forward bracelet!

(Okay, quick aside! You know I’m a fan of Random Acts of Kindness and I support the Pay it Forward Foundation – if you haven’t read The Long, Steep Path: Everyday Inspiration from The Author of Pay It Forward, I can’t recommend this book enough!  Also, PIF day is at the end of April!)

Any way, as much as I love my new HP bracelet, it was a different item that I bought that made me state “It’s totally not me, but it’s who I want to be”.  And I was so excited to get this bracelet!  I couldn’t wait to wear it!

Here is what I ordered, an awesome distressed leather wrap bracelet in brown:

Here is what I got, and awesome leather wrap bracelet, in black.  It’s not distressed and it’s not brown, but it’s still very pretty!

 

I was so excited to try it on!

Yeah… it doesn’t fit.

So, my loss is your gain! 

Look at that detail! And it still has the new leather scent!

But, because nothing worth having comes free, you have to work for it!

Go follow me on Pinterest and then report back, either here or on Pinterest that you’ve followed me, and I’ll pull a name from that pool on Friday! If you already follow me, then just remind me below!

I would suggest that you need a wrist smaller than 7″.  The bracelet states it is for up to 7″, but it was snug – so take that into consideration – it would make a great gift, too!

 

This is What Sad Looks Like

I have found the physical manifestation of “sad”.

Freezer meals.

For one.

Meals just for me.

Not to share with anyone.

That my friends is what “sad” looks like.

Mr. T is growing up, and he’s out of the house more than he is there – but, let me tell you before I forget, he’s so awesome!! He had signed up for some things and declined to sign up for others because he was “stretching too thin”  He said that he had certain priorities and wanted to be able to commit to them, and still needed to be able to balance everything else in his life.

I don’t know if he is the smartest teenager in the world – or if he was throwing my buzz words back at me so I wouldn’t question him, but either way, it was a win! 🙂

Back to being sad, now!  I’ve been keeping an eye open for small individual containers because I knew this day was coming, no matter how often I visited the river Nile!

I found these on sale at the grocery store.  5 for $1.

That is twenty cents each!  I had to grab a set – I figured for $1, if it failed, it was worth the experiment!  I took the left over quinoa, spinach and artichoke pasta from the day before, portioned it out and sealed those suckers up! Now they are stacked neatly in my freezer ready for a day when I’m all alone… all alone…

On the plus side, I learned how to make a frappuccino at home!

That my friends is the physical manifestation of Happy!

You can go here to watch Collin at Hip2Save teach you how, too! It’s not an endorsement, I’m just giving credit!

OHHH… here is a sneak peak of our Pin Pen Pals Project!! Thanks to every one who participated and mailed their pieces back!  I can’t wait to share the competed project with y’all!

And lastly, here is my final thought:

Let’s be Pin-Pen-Pals!

Are you of the age that you remember pen pals?

For those that don’t know what it is, I really don’t have time to explain to you how we used to write letters on paper. And then snail-mail them!

Shocking, I know!

Okay, I never really had a pen pal, but I wanted one – it looked so cool in the movies!

In today’s technology driven society, we’ve replace pen and paper with Pinterest.

And, not going to lie, I do love Pinterest!

Holley at chasingdestino.com and I were talking the other day about how fun it would be to do a Pinterest project together.  Sadly, we are separated by half a dozen States, so that presents a bit of a problem – but we decided not to let the distance stop up!

Holley found some great inspiration on Pinterest and we settled on a puzzle.

We have a blank puzzle that we will email you and assign you a number, and then you decorate your piece and mail it back!

Think about how amazing it will be when all of the pieces come back home and we put it together – I can’t wait to see how everyone decorates their piece!

This is the inspiration pin – how cool is that?!? Clicking on the picture should take you through to the original if you want to read more.

Let me know if you want to be a part of this – I know there are several artists out there that I would love to see participate, and there are some of you that have kids that could have a blast with this one! It’s due back February 14th and we’ll take lots of pictures and get those distributed to the participants before we publish the final piece!

Come on!! Let’s be Pen Pin Pals!

Email me, text me, let me a note, let me know that you want a piece! Join us!

1. Holley Chasing Destino
2. Not A Punk Rocker
3. Graced by Emilie 
4. The Crazy Crone
5. Life Breath Present
6. Little Miss Doodle
7. My Year(s) of Sweat
8. Spirit Lights the Way
9. Little Steps
10. Life in the Wylde West

Oh, yeah, there are only 10 pieces – so call now, operators are standing by! And because the response has been overwhelming, I’m willing to give up my piece in the puzzle – because I want to see what YOU create! And, I’ll get a copy of the picture and print it out for my new inspiration wall! 🙂

In the Kitchen with Kate: Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Alternate title: How Pinterest Saved my Life

Other Alternate Title: How I’m filling my time now that my son is really growing up and developing a life of his own and I’m not use to not being a taxi, I’m not sure what to do with myself and all of this free time I’ve developed and I’m darn sure not trying on-line dating again!!

Take your pick, but any of those titles would work for today’s post – I only selected to make this an In The Kitchen with Kate segment because then I could legitimately use this picture and show you what really happens in the kitchen with me:

Saturday morning I had finished my coffee and the news was over and I started flipping through the TV channels.

I don’t want to be a “flip through the TV channels because the house is so quite” type of person so I shut off the TV.

And sat there for a bit wondering what to do!

Then, my computer called me, it lovingly beckoned me, it all but commanded that I open it up… Pinterest was the lure and I was ripe for taking the bait!

But, I was smarter than the not-so-inanimate-object also known as my computer!

Side note:  Not related to the New Year, not a resolution at all, but Mr. T and I are moving towards becoming vegetarian.  So far, I’m loving it! But anyone who has tried to go out to eat with me won’t be surprised by this at all!

Mr. T was still asleep, having worked late the night before, and lunch was not too many hours away, so I was going to open Pinterest, but NOT get sucked in and actually create something!

I create things based on inspiration on Pinterest all of the time!  I really do agree, there needs to be a button to check “I did this!” each time we actually try something that we’ve pinned – and if it could applaud me and toss some confetti, well, I’d be fine with that, too!

I needed lunch, I wanted a treat, I baked a spaghetti squash the other day that I hadn’t turned into a meal yet and I have discovered that quinoa cooks up like 4x in volume!!

Let’s start with lunch.  I took shrimp stir-fry inspiration and made a vegetarian option.  I buy a lot of veggies, and at any given time will have chopped onion, celery, carrots and bell peppers in baggies in my freezer – so I just pulled out everything that looked good and sauteed it all together in some sesame oil. I had some Thai noodles, and I made a Korean soy sauce topper.  It was awesome.  I subbed quinoa for the shrimp for protein and I reduced the number of noodles and added in some spaghetti squash.

Vegetarian Stir-Fry.  It was Instagram worthy!

While that was coming together, I found Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Blender Muffins.  Please click through and visit Averie Cooks, I don’t know her, but she deserves a visit! My friend Erica had mentioned some cookies she made the other day that were flourless, so this recipe was calling my name.

These muffins really are made in a blender! The recipe says it makes 17 mini muffins, and looking at it in my blender, it sure didn’t look like it would make that many, but it really did!  And yes, I know that eventually I’ll need a grown up blender.  I had one, but someone in my life had a greater need for it, and no joke, the Magic Bullet has worked great so far!

Talk about Instagram worthy!!!

But wait – there’s more!

While those were baking, I went ahead and put together a spinach and spaghetti squash recipe, I haven’t eaten it yet – it’s in the freezer right now, but it’s a cheese rue with the squash and spinach, and you can’t go wrong with any of those ingredients!  Mr. T claims he doesn’t like spaghetti squash, so I think this meal will be the real test!

But wait – there’s more!

Pinterest had me collecting free printables, and this weekend I finally had several that really spoke to me, plus, I have ordered a piece of art from Crated, created by fellow blogger Life in the Wylde West, and I can’t wait to get that put up, but I didn’t want it looking lonely!

Now it’s Sunday night and the Cowboys won!!!  Yeah! Go #CowboysNation!!! That’s how you #FinishTheFight!!

Sorry, that just kinda came out of nowhere!

A quick trip to Target, a stop to visit Mr. T at work and I was back by the start of Downton Abby!

I have my pieces printed on matte photo paper, my little trimmer and the frames; I went to work and at the end of the hour, I turned my stack into the start of a collection!

The blank frame at the top is for the art piece I’m waiting on, but everything else got trimmed and framed!  Now it’ll take me days and a call to my grandmother to help me arrange them on the wall!

But, that’s okay, because Mr. T works again Thursday night, so I’ll have time to spare!

So, I utilized Pinterest to the fullest this weekend, and it really helped me fill up my spare time.  I think I can handle Mr. T growing up after all!