I stumbled across Jackie's blog Canton Village Quilt Works while lurking on another blog. Jackie has about a kajillion photos of quilt market on her blog as well as great info about her trip. It looks like she had a wonderful time!! So slide on over to Canton Village and take a gander at what is up in the world of quilting....and sign up for not one but FIVE chances to win her fabulous blog candy....some yummy moda packs and other goodies.!!!
Cause fall break is coming this week!! I need the rain to stop so that I can actually get my kids outside....We'll have to see how the week goes until they get out of school on Wednesday for break.
So this week I am re-using a meal that didn't get made last week for whatever reason...and throwing in a few new ones...
Monday: Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers and Potatoes
Tuesday: Chicken Yogurt Enchilada Bake
Wednesday: Country Fried Steak and Roasted Ranch Potatoes
Thursday: Skillet Tomato Beef Pasta
Friday: Salsa Chicken Fiesta
It is the cutest pinks and greens and lavenders...so soft and cuddly looking. They look like they would make the perfect baby quilt...or bedding set. And if you want to get your hands on them...simply check her out HERE for your chance to get your hands on a jelly roll and a layer cake!!!! Maybe even a few extras thrown in...you never know!!
It's that time again....and I"m going to stay on the ball. I have planned out the week's menu, but still have to come up with the food that I am providing for book club on friday night....that will eventually come to me...
If you are arriving to my blog through the Org Junkie please leave me a little note so that I know!
Monday: Baked Chicken Tenders and veggies
Tuesday: Gremolata Steak and Potatoes
Wednesday: Tex Mex Chicken and Rice
Thursday: Cornbread Chicken
Friday: Chicken Yogurt Enchilada Bake
I started menu planning last spring as a way to save money. We eat out entirely too much, as was proven by our end of the year statement from our Visa. To cut down on that expense, I started scouring my cookbooks, the internet, and friends family recipes to find things that were easy to make and that my family would eat.
Over the summer I lapsed into the processed foods/eating out again. Bad mommy. But fall is here. School is in full swing. I am ready to get back on the wagon....the chuck wagon that is!!
I've never blogged about my meal plans before...but there is a wonderful site that has Menu Plan Mondays so I think I"ll start posting and link it up there for all my blogging friends who want to try out meal plans themselves.
Our plans are always M-F since we run around too much on weekends and that is when leftovers get eaten or we go out. I feel like if I plan meals for these days it will probably just throw my whole schedule off since we rarely see the inside of our house on weekends.I also have meals on Tuesday and Wednesday that require less work and/or cooktime since those are days that I teach *and* we have afterschool activities (soccer and choir) so we don't have as much time on those days for cooking.
My kids are very basic eaters - beef, chicken, pork. One eats shrimp, the other eats fish - but not both of them. They do like vegetables and fruits, so I have good luck and a large selection of which of those to make, so not using seafood and fish really isn't that big of a deal to me.
So....here is the menu for this week:
Monday: Roasted Chicken and veggies
Tuesday: BLT (Bacon, Leek, Tomato) Mac & Cheese
Wednesday: Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken and broccoli
Thursday: Skillet Beef & Potatoes
Friday: 1-2-3 Chicken
I have been frequenting a website for quilters and L*O*V*I*N*G it!! I know this is a total departure from my scrapbooking roots...but I'm smitten. I started quilting last spring and have really gotten into it. I'm learning a ton of new things and feel like I'm accomplishing something that will really be treasured by the people who I give them to.
The website is Missouri Star Quilt Company. They have forum, a blog, tutorials...and most importantly - a store!!! On the site every day there is a deal. It can be anything from a pattern to a jelly roll (this week is jelly roll week), to a layer cake....to anything really - but for a discounted price.!!
You should check it out....we love newbies....and say hi when you stop by!!!
Fellow Americans,
Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul’s name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America.
I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival – all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America. Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn’t look like them. I would have to be wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration – political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.
Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead – and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.
So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States, the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over – and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to – Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine – what little there is left – for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.
November 6, 2008
Anne Wortham [send her mail] is an individualist liberal who happens to be black and American.
If you would like to read more from Dr. Wortham, you can check out her paper on personal responsibility HERE.
Got this in an email...you know the ones....they've been forwarded and forwarded...true author unkown (or Bill Gates)...forward on or you will surely lose all your hair and gain 20 pounds by 4pm today....
But reading it the words rang true. We are a society that has so much, yet we have so little. We do too much with to little of a result or meaning. Let this be a call to do more, mean more, live more, BE MORE.
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much , and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life . We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
Anyone who has seen Up! by Disney/Pixar knows that the single most hilarious line in the entire movie is
Squirrel!
Every time the TTs get stuck on something BD and I just look at each other and say it and we chuckle.
Yes we are lame and old. Don't rub it in.
Well tonight we decided to do dessert for dinner (why should cake for breaksfast get all the fun?) and headed out for ice cream. While we were walking from the car to get in line the conversation went like this:
TT1 "Fireworks!"
Me " Yes some people are setting them off tonight"
TT1 "Maybe they don't know it's not the right night"
Me " Yep. They probably didn't look at the calendar and think today's the 4th"
TT1 "Fireworks!"
Me " Yep. What kind of ice cream do you want?"
TT1 "Strawberry with sprinkles. Fireworks"
You get the idea.
So BD and I as we sat at the table eating our wonderful Bruster's ice cream (check it out if you have one in the area), decide to tell the kids that each time they see fireworks, they should just say squirrel. So they do.
Yes we believe that our children exist soley for our own enjoyment.
Happy Independence Day.
I can't beleive that it's been over a year since m last post. Life just kind of gets away from you sometimes. I was able to move out of a few volunteer positions that I have held for a while, give someone else a chance to shine I say!! But don't fret...I'm back and better than ever!!
I've picked up a new hobby...I am quilting. It is really amazing to me that you can take a pile of random fabrics and create something totally stunning.
VBS (Vacation Bible School) has been this week....it ends tomorrow. The TTs have had a great time and are now looking forward to scout camp next week. Summers are run run run around here.
TTFN~
