Monday, August 29, 2011

Feeding Frenzy

I had just gotten home from a run with Holly, Malia was down for a nap and I had just gotten out of the shower. I noticed out of the bathroom window what seemed like a lot more bird action than normal.

Right away I thought of our new bird house! David got me one for my birthday! I have been wanting one for a while, just never got around to it. So, with that in mind, I grabbed the camera, switched lenses and headed outside. The feeder has only been up for a few days, so the word is just now getting around town I suppose. Here you can see the little bird sitting up on the gutters assessing the ground situation, I assume making sure its safe for him to continue...
And here you can see him (or her) almost posing for me while nibbling on a little seed! a little later I noticed there were 3 or so of the same bird on there. He (or she) must have went and told the flock! I'm excited to see all the different kinds of birds the feeder brings along!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Clean eating...

Ive been eating like crap lately. ugh. I was really doing very well before our beach trip, and now...not so much. So, I need to regroup, pull myself together and say goodbye to junk food and "way too much fat" dinners. It is time to re-read the eat clean diet book. I could never be a hardcore eat clean dieter...Life is too short not to enjoy all the wonderful flavors, I more or less use it as a guide line. The first week will be the worst. I crave everything bad. once I get past that, Ill be ok! heh, its like drugs really.
My BIG problem is, I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I never was really THAT bad, but after I had Malia, I just cant shake this sever craving for sweets. strange huh?
So, good luck to me! back the the path of healthy eating :)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Hurricane

All we felt of the storm was wind. I hope everyone down that way stayed safe! Looks like it did a lot of damage. Pretty scary. I hope our little vacation spot stood strong! I guess we will know more tomorrow on all the damage Irene caused! Good luck New York

Friday, August 26, 2011

Mommas helper


This here is my little Malia helping me in the kitchen. She has found that if she pushes the little green stool, kept in the dining room, into the kitchen, she is able to climb up to see what all the fuss is on the counter, in the sink etc...This is now her new thing she loves to do. whether I am doing to dishes, making lunch or dinner, she likes to try an help me! In this particular picture, she is picking at the egg salad I had made (from the eggs in a previous post). she is a true Anderson.

And here you can see her wearing my apron. Its just a few sizes too big so I adjusted it to fit her! its wrapped around a few times as you can see! Next is a chore list Malia! you better watch out!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Open sesame!

Its getting close to that time of year when you can open the windows and enjoy the fresh air! It is still summer yes, but with recent cooler weather, we gave the air conditioner a break and opened the windows. This reminds me of fall! Spring and Fall are my most favorite seasons. Spring because you start to thaw out, things turn green and bloom, and Fall because I love the smell of crisp cool air, crunchy leaves under my shoes, the color! apple cider and of course, football! Anyway, as we inch close to fall, we start to cool off down here (a little), and enjoy the open window and invite the breeze in!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Patience is a virtue

Boiled, unpeeled eggs, why must you test my patience?? all I want from you is a delicious egg salad, or maybe just you, plain. But you make it so difficult to get to that point. I try and try to peel you nicely, but you insist on grabbing onto your white, taking it with you. You are lucky it was not my husband trying to peel you or you'd be a fist full of mush. Maybe you are testing my patience, I don't know...but in the end, I will win. Slathering you with a bit of mayonnaise and spreading you onto lightly toasted bread, oh how delicious you will be, if you would just LET ME PEEL YOU!!!!!

Monday, August 22, 2011

neglect

Dear Water,
Im sorry that I have neglected you so...

All I really drink is water. But it seems lately I am having a hard time keeping up with it. Im not sure why. I have noticed myself feeling sluggish and have had slight headaches. I believe I may just be dehydrated. So, bottoms up! Time to rehydrate, and rejuvenate myself. no more neglect.
This pic looks so refreshing, I think I might go grab me a glass right now!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Mommas big girl

Well, yes it has been a few days...Ill admit I've already fallen off the ban waggon. oh well. I'm still trying. I figure I don't need to blog everyday anyway. the past week had been yet another busy one. the times I would actually be able to blog, I was too tired, hadn't taken any photos, or just plain didn't have anything to blog about.
Today's blog is about my beautiful baby girl :) today is my day off so we had the morning together. David has the most mornings with her do to work schedules.
For breakfast I made her scrambled eggs with jelly toast. shes becoming quite the big girl. I'm trying to focus on less bottles and more cups...less chunks of food and more "kid" size food. Shes growing up so fast its almost hard to keep up with all the changes. As she gets older, so do her wants and desires. Instead of cutting up her toast into little chunks like normal, i just halved the toast. She LOVED it. too funny how its so visual for her. You have to change up the norm some times to keep her interested. So she ate her toast and eggs and had a nice CUP of milk :) a very proud momma I was. The goal for today....1 bottle. we can do it!! 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Soups up!

       The other day I was on my way home from work and stopped in at the Bradford Farm to pick up some milk for Malia. We try to get her local, hormone free milk as long as we can afford it...anyway, when I was walking out the door I saw a sign that said "box of soup tomatoes $8". I thought this was a pretty good price, but maybe it was for a small box or something. As I drove home I was thinking that it would be nice to make some soup or tomato sauce with those tomatoes. We have a tun of tomato plants in our garden, but they are not making enough at once to do anything with other than small things...sandwiches, salads etc...
      So on my way home from work the next day I decided to swing in and get a box! boy was i wrong about it being a small box! it was  BIG and STUFFED with tomatoes! $8 was a steal of a deal for sure! I decided I wanted to make tomato basil soup. I wanted to make enough to freeze as the fall months are approaching us quickly! there is nothing like warm soup on a cool fall day!
    So, let the cooking begin. Ive never made this before so it was a learning experience. It was all in all very simple. wash, slice, brush, broil, saute, simmer. You get the idea! the final step is to puree until smooth. This soup is so good! I cant wait to eat it! YUM! I ended up using 21 tomatoes, and barely made a dent in the box. I think Ill make more soup and maybe some spaghetti sauce...



These pics are the process in a nutshell :) .........until fall......
     

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ahh, coffee


Today is my favorite kind of day. Work is over, Im off tomorrow, and its raining! The only thing that would make it any better is if David were home with me, but He is off at work. We just got home from a little shopping with Holly. Malia is down for a nap so I figured Id enjoy a nice cup of coffee and relax. Im tired, its been a long 8 days of 4am shifts. Thank God for days off!


Monday, August 8, 2011

Basil-Mania


Today while Malia was napping and David was off mowing lawns I had a decision to make...Take a much needed nap? or get out in the garden?.....well, after a lot of thought, i decided on the garden. With the rain these past few days it was a good time for a quick clean-up out there. as I was picking away, I noticed the large amount of basil we had...and boy was there a lot. what am I to do with ALL this basil?? well, Im sending half to Holly down the street, and putting the rest in a nice little vase.

Tonight we had Tomato Basil Melts with garden tomatoes :)


Simply and inexpensively delicious!


Sunday, August 7, 2011

theres no place like home

Nothing fun or exciting to report today. Just blogging to blog!
I had a very long busy day. Preparing for inventory at work is never fun, but now that they have changed how things are done, it takes twice as long. Needless to say, after 10 hrs. I was ready to go home. Don't get me wrong, Ive had much longer days, but its been a while! Tomorrow brings more of the same...YAY...But I thank God that I have a job no matter how long or short the days are.
Its always so nice to come home and brush off the day. Malia is down for the night, and David is relaxing on the couch....I think Ill Join him

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Classics

Remember when VHS was a big deal? When only the rich kids had VCRs? I know I do! Ill never forget when we got our VCR player. I was very young, living in Ohio with my mom and stepdad when on a whim, while shopping at walmart my stepdad said "why dont we splurge and get a VCR?" back then it was like saying "lets get an Ipad!". Along with the VCR my they let ME pick out a movie! what a job!! I was so excited i could hardly contain myself! It was at the time when Beauty and the Beast had hit the shelf, so naturally I chose IT!
For a few weeks straight thats all we watched! I could recite the movie from memory. Good memories!

  The other day the hubby and I (along with Malia, Holly and Rose) went to one of (mostly my husbands) favorite stores, Habitat. We dont go that often because the good one is a bit of a drive for us.
On this trip I ran across ALL these VHS tapes for .50! I couldnt believe it! I mean, I know DVDs are definitely the thing now a days, and VHS doesnt have near the quality, but to ME the movies are still the same! we got 12 movies for 6 bucks! cant beat that! I cant wait to watch them with my little one!

Friday, August 5, 2011

problem....solution

So, the other day as I was getting ready for work, I was looking all around for a pair of earing. I dont have a jewelry box, I have a BAG that I keep it all in. This short term solution was quickly becoming a headache! My necklaces were getting knots, my earings were saperated and hung up on something...you get the picture...

I went online the other day to look up a pattern for a jewlery holder. Since I love to sew, I thought Id throw something together. While i was searching, i came across this nifty little idea!
A jewlery holder made form a picture frame!

I thought since i dont have a lot of art on my walls, what a nice way to incorperate color, and  necessary storage!
So I got to it. We have a lot of old frams we dont use, so i got one, spray painted it black and waited for it to dry. in the meantime i stapeled some pretty fabric to the existing cardboard that was alreadyin the frame. Once the frame was dry, i added screen to hold the jewelry and had fun with gorilla glue (yuck, that stuff STICKS!!) and...

                                                                     Voila!
                                                               A jewelry holder!


Im now inspired to repurpose things!  Watchout David!! I know where your spray paint is!

JEEEEEEZ



Well, Here I am again. Lets just say setting this thing up wasnt all that easy. it kept telling me to do this do that. anyway, FINALLY!
Ive been thinking about blogging for a while. I do enjoy reading others. I always think to myself "what do I really have to talk about?" Then I thought it through and decided that I have plenty to talk about! So, here I am! attempting the blog once again. No real direction, just little (or maybe big, who knows) things here and there. My goal is to KEEP UP WITH IT! I might not be as good as my wonderful hubby who blogs almost everyday. but Ill do my best.

Until tomorrow....