One Down, Eleven to Go!

Hello Blogging world! Sorry I'm a bit overdue (but so are my Library books, so I think it's a trend this week). That being said, here we go. This has been a busy week. I had my crazy big group paper and presentation due this past Monday and I am so incredibly thankful that it is over with! I stressed myself into a migraine over the whole thing, so I'm very happy that's we are done. Work was fine, but my wrist has been hurting from typing so much lately so that is a little on the stinky side.

Dinners were a little off this week. I think I only got 2 meals made. Athia and I were busier than originally planned so some last minute changes happened. However, I am making a taco pizza with cornbread crust tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about it. Thursday and Friday were amazing days and 2 firsts for me (so January is done which is good cuz it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting out for sushi this month!) Thursday night the quiz-team and I went to Feed My Starving Children. AMAZING time! We had a blast, we feed 74 kids for an entire year! (well us and the other helpers) Our team alone filled 20 boxes of food for Tanzania! This was our last big event with the wonderful Sophie as she is going with her family to Africa for 2 year for missions work. She will be missed and prayed for daily. If you want to follow the family on their adventures, Mom (Leah) has a blog that she keeps (although it wont be updated for a bit while they are in transit to Africa) but go ahead and click Leah's Beautiful Feet.

Before Packing

Headed back

After we prayed over the food

We had so much blast and I am so glad that we were able to do it together and bond as a team. I was impressed with their teamwork and their overall attitude, their servants hearts to help and think about someone other than themselves.


Friday night then our church held their 1st ever Father/Daughter banquet. I was not in attendance as a daughter but as the photographer. I had do much fun seeing all the girls dressed up and with their daddy's. The entertainment was priceless and the fellowship was amazing. An incredible team of ladies organized, prepared the food, decorated the church and served those in attendance. It truly was something these girls are going to remember for many years to come.

The Food

The Entertainment

The Flowers

It was touching to see these girls, young, teenaged, and grown celebrating in fellowship with their fathers.

Other than that it has been pretty same old around here. Saturday has been a busy and productive day. House cleaning and all that good stuff. We are going to Jim's grandma and grandpa's for dinner tonight, so Athia is taking a "rest" as she thinks she is too old for naps. ;) Jim and I are still reading through the Bible, although at this exact moment I am a day behind, so I'll need to catch up on that as well. I am loving reading through the Bible. And no that's not just because I'm supposed to say that. I am finding that there are so many stories that I "know" but that I have never actually read for myself. And it is great to read through them and to be able to interpret them for myself and not have someone telling me what I should be thinking about a certain passage or what I "should be" getting out of it. I am loving the time that I get to hang out in God's word, even if it is only 30-45 min a day. I am learning that my spiritual health is worth it.

So two new things this month, taking my quizzing team to Feed my Starving Children, and attending a Father/Daughter banquet, even if it was only as the photographer. Maybe Sushi can be a February thing.

If you want to learn more about FMSC then click on it. There are location around MN that you an go and fill Mana packs and help those in need.



LETS DO THIS!

I am not a Hoarder!

So two posts in two days, crazy I know. Jim just commented on that, called me an over-achiever. haha Any way, a lot happened today, so I thought I would post it. Skid-a-mir-ink was up all night (uuugghhhhhh) crying about an earache that the doctor says is not an infections (?!?!) and then an hour after Mom dropped her off at daycare, they called me because she had thrown up. (ew) So I left worked, picked up a sick kid and started churning out the Disney movies, because really, that's what sick days are all about. I however would have passed out cold if I had watched with her, so I started cleaning the rents kitchen.

Oh, the kitchen. Where to even start...the back story on all of it is too incredibly lengthy, so the shortest version I can think of is that when I moved home, my parents house was on it's way to being a hoarders house. I HATE clutter and when I can't get to things. So me and the house were not getting along for a long time. Fast forward almost three years (wow three years...I need to get out of here! I'm going to overstay my welcome!) and I have cleaned out the 3 bedrooms upstairs, the ENTIRE basement (I know most of you don't understand what that means, but trust me, it was epic). I also tackled the rents bathroom and walk-in closet, the kitchen, the entry way, the mud room, the other 2 bathrooms, and the garage. So almost the entire house. HOWEVER, I have never been happy with the kitchen.

Now as you probably already know, I love Love LOVE to cook! Cook, bake, eat, whatever, I love to do it! So an organized and accessible kitchen are important to me and when I grow up (haha ie have my own place) the Kitchen WILL be amazing :) So what else would I do today (since I'm waiting for my research paper to be edited so I can make changes as necessary) but clean the kitchen (again). So here it goes. . . over all it took about 3 hours I'd say, on and off with skid-a-mir-ink being sick and a 30min nap for me :)

I started with the island cubbard. It looked like this:

and with all of it pulled out of there it looked like this:

Bah! So I got to work and it ended up like this:

AAHHHHHH (that's an angel singing) How much better is that!?!!? Monkey has her own little section there on the bottom right where she can reach all of her bowls and cups and plates and her juice boxes, the coffee tumbles and water bottles are all in one spot, all the pitchers are together...ahhhhh harmony! AND the BEST part about it?! You can actually see everything that is in there! No digging and pulling out 15 things hoping what you're looking for is behind something else! Oh so zen. So with that done, I couldn't let it be, I had to keep going.

The Bakers Rack was next....amazing device if you use it right. My parents? ummm....it was a massive collection heap for them. (I know the photo is a titch dark, sorry, bear with me, I'm tired):

So basically, everything everywhere. I have been known on occasion to start throwing things from there and yelling and crying about how unorganized and annoying it is. So I fixed it. Everything that is rarely used, is in the basement kitchen and my life is better. The after shot:

Did you just breathe better? Because I sure did. Everything is organized and stacked, logical (as in all the pots and pans are together, the bakeware is together the vases are together etc.) They still had things in boxes on there! So gone are the boxes, and with it all their space hogging. There is even room for more stuff on there, if the need arises! They got a KURIG for Christmas, so on top of this thing was a giant box of coffees and then on the counter by the KURIG was a bung of coffees so that you wouldn't have to lug the box down everyday. Problem solved!!!

Since Mom has a thousand old vases, I simply filled one up and put it on the shelf by the coffee maker! No more bulky box, and no more wasted counter space. LOVE IT!!!

Next came the OTHER cabinent. Sigh....I was on such a roll I forgot the before shot (which was impressively crammed) but here is most of the stuff that came out, and most of which I threw out too.

AND

(keep in mind here I stacked and combined it all and this was ONLY the tupperware, there was so much crap there)  So I got to work on that and decided it would best be used as baking storage. So I got all the baking stuff together and ended up with this:

 Yay!!!

So now I don't have to run from cupboard to cupboard looking for baking ingredients! Here they ALL are! The old baking shelf was small and cramped and nothing fit, you literally ha to take EVERYTHING out find anything. So that shelf old shelf became the snack shelf which opened up a lot of pantry space (no pics of that sorry).

All that being said and done, I am soooooo happy and I got some of that done and off the list. My parents like it, they can see everything and it just is more aesthetically pleasing. I know there is more that can and should be done, and maybe some day, but for today, on this sick day, I am reinforcing the fact that I am not a hoarder! The kitchen cupboards prove it.

LETS DO THIS!

A Very Busy Time Indeed

So today is again Wednesday. This past week as been insane!! I stressed myself into a migraine on Saturday while at the school Library attempting to finish the research for my lit review that is due this coming Monday. That didn't go according as planned, as on hour 2 of my allotted 5 a massive migraine the likes of which I have not experienced in over 3 years sent me packing, in tears all the way home. Once there I went straight to bed for 3 hours. God Bless my parents for keeping skid-a-mir-ink (my daughter) out of hair! So the being over, I did get my paper done and finished my powerpoint this evening. yay! Now we have to edit this massive group beast and I would rather do. . . . just about anything actually. Group papers are not on the top 1million list of things I like to do. So here's hoping we all come out in one piece and with an A!

Dinners have been going well! We had a DELICIOUS and AMAZING cheesy beef corn chip casserole thing last night (and the pics are now uploaded!) it was so good! I got it off Kraft.com again, but added all kinds of deliciousness to it, like black beans, corn, and tomatoes! Yum-Yum! Tonight we had Arbey's. Wednesdays are hard for dinner, I may have to look into investing in a crockpot recipe book to help with the hecticness of Wednesday night dinners!

               So this was the cheese melting on top :) The hamburger was done, taco seasoning added, onions, black beans, corn, tomatos....so I want left overs!!!!

           This is simmering in the pan, added he lettuce and corn chips to heat through.

         And the end result! So delicious and topped with sour cream....aaahhhhhh-mazing!



Skid-a-mir-ink started daycare on Tuesday :( Tax season is upon us! Ugh. She is really excited though. She apparently wakes up really excited in the mornings to go to daycare and see the kids :) They fingerpainted today, and we discovered that, for as much as she likes to paint, she does not like to fingerpaint. Apparently she kept wanting to wash her hands because they were dirty (haha) so her solution? To use only one finger! hahaha I love that little monkey!

As far as I know Sushi is still a go! I'm getting rather excited for it. I am excited to try something new! Jim and I are still reading the Bible, we both fell behind this weekend, but I caught up this afternoon and he is working on it now. We will complete this! I'm really liking reading it everyday. It was really nice at youth group tonight, because the talk was on reading the Bible (daily as much as possible) to gain wisdom and to grow closer with God and all that good stuff. It was affirming to me. I know that NOTHING bad can come out of us reading the Bible, which is great, because there isn't a lot that we can say "there is not even a fraction of a chance that nothing bad will happen here" as something can always go wrong in the worldly things that we attempt, but in reading the Bible? Nothing! Only good can come from it. "All scripture is God breathed" and I'm liking getting my "text messages" from God!


So plans for the upcoming? Finishing that stinkin paper and making it A worthy.

We also have a birthday party for one of the most handsome two-year-olds I know!

 This class will officially be over on Monday, after our presentations and I have to admit I am ready to be done. This 6 week class has taken soooo long! Perhaps because it's been over 6 weeks as we got a Christmas Break in there, but it feels like its been forever. Next stop, Quantitate and Qualitative Research Methods, and I'm sure in 2 weeks I'll be begging for Advanced Media again!

So here's looking forward to an amazing week! Sorry for the lack of visual stimulation on this one!

LETS DO THIS!

For Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

The title of this post will be comical to those of you who KNOW me :) For those of you who don't so well, I'll let you in on a little known fact. I. Love. Bread. There I said it. I love bread. My daughter does too. We are a carb loving bunch! That being said, I am loving this reading the Bible in a year thing, BUT I fell behind!! ugh!! Not too far, only one day, but still. So my plan after this post is to catch up. THEN my plan of action is to bring an extra Bible to work so that I can read my passages when I get there, seeing as I get there early and it's better for my spiritual health than surfing the web waiting for my work day to begin. Okay, so I've got a plan. Good :)

Dinners are on track! Wahh-hooo!! Granted this is only week one (and only day two of cooking) but still! We might as well cerebrate the small accomplishments for without them there would be no great ones! So yesterday was Lasagna night! yum yum

 This was the making stage (notice the oh so yummy mozzarella in the background!). It was an easy recipe. I found it on kraft.com (it's my number one go to) and it only took about 35min to make (including cook time!) With it I made a salad which was my own concoction of spinach, shaves carrots, zucchini, hard boiled eggs, blueberries (trust me on this one, they made it delicious), croutons and shredded mozzarella cheese all tossed in a greek vinaigrette!

Dinner was served! Everyone liked it and I had it all again for lunch today :) Leftovers are my favorite.

So tonight was a Breaded Tilapia with black bean salsa (again from kraft.com). I added corn to the black bean salsa and make some basic white rice. It was soooo tasty! And again, only about 30min to make! The "sauce" is a lime mayonnaise (sounds iffy I know, but it's wonderful). I also omitted the jalapenos because spicy food makes me cry :( So with a few amendments we had another great dinner! Athia has an issue with black bean though, and has every time I serve them and I have not gotten around it until tonight. While "stabbing" a piece of fish for her to eat (we're still working on manipulating silverware in every situation) I inadvertently got a black bean on the fork as well. She told me that she didn't like beans and refused to eat it. Now instead of telling her that she in fact loves beans (which is my normal tactic, tricking her into thinking she eats it all the time (judge if you want at least my kid eats her veeggies)), I told her this time, that they were not beans but they were in fact fish eggs and that they came that way with the fish. She questioned me "fish eggs?" but I insisted. Oh yes, and they're delicious. Her response? "ok I will try them" she took a bite and ta-dah!!! Guess who's kid ate almost every bite of her dinner? That's right. Mine. She apparently loves "fish eggs" and gobbled them up! She still wouldn't eat the tomatoes, but we'll save that battle for another time. So without further delay, tonights dinner:

It was very tasty (and yes I'm sorry I forgot to document the process, I was so hungry when I got home that I just fried up the stove!) Again, I've got leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. Score! Tomorrow's dinner? Nothing crazy, Tacos.


All that being said, I've got two, count 'em, two offers for sushi! Yay! My sister and a friend offered to take me to try it and we have a date tentatively set for the last Sunday in January. If it falls through, I don't know what I'll do. I would hate to fail at a resolution in month one! I'm not going to lie, I'm excited about it, but nervous at the same time. Something about sushi freaks me out, but I think it may just be the idea of "raw fish" which I learned not ALL sushi is! So knowing I can eat something cooked is much more settling on my mind.

I think that I have decided that learning to shoot a gun will have to wait until the spring time. I'm not sure shooting a gun with numb/frozen fingers is a good idea. Jim and I do have several offers to go shooting with some people though, so I am hoping that I will be able to contain the tears, not shoot anyone, and get over this silly fear!

With that being said and 4 chapters of the Bible ahead of me, I bid thee adieu! I am looking forward to the upcoming months. There is so much that will be happening! God is good and God is God. Amen. Keep it up 2012, I'm diggin' this so far!

LETS DO THIS!

One step at a time

So this is my last and final procrastination before I do my paper that is due tomorrow night. 5-7 pages on Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death." I choosing to address his discussion of how TV and commercials are effecting our political system. Interesting enough, but my issue tends to be on how to narrow things down, so here's hoping, because I REALLY want to go to the church MOCHA tonight!!

  So Athia is feeling better, PRAISE THE LORD!!! She's back to her mischievous self and only has a cough left over. Jim is going out of town this upcoming weekend :( but hopefully that allows me plenty of time to focus on my next school assignment. Oh yeah, I'm going back to school for a Masters in Communications. A pretty big undertaking I'm learning and I'm not entirely sure why God has brought me here, but I know He has a plan, so I'll stick it out.

  I struggled with cooking last week. I think because I had been so tired and because I was ill prepared for it. So I completed a project on Thursday and will allow me to be better organized in the cooking department.

   Meet my Dinner Calendar! I have all the dinners planned out for the whole month! That way there will never be that moment of 4:00 panic wondering "what do I make tonight!?" Now all I have to do on Sundays (because that's when we go grocery shopping) is look at the week ahead and make a list! I'm a little excited about it to be honest, even if it does make me look a little neurotic about dinner. :) Anything to simplify my life at this point is going to be embraced and at least attempted.

  I also got a new exercise machine (?) from my sister. I have to idea what to call it, it's like a cross between an elliptical and a stair stepper but it is only the foot pedal part. My sister ordered it thinking it was different, hated it and so now I have it. I just got it last night, but hopefully it will help me to start getting in some more exercise! I have been walking at work still. I usually get about 45 min a day in walking (not counting to and from the bus stops). Although it is not a run or even a speed walk (we don't want to be all sweaty and stinky at work!!) it is activity that breaks up my 8+ hour day of sitting on my dupa!

  I still have not heard about sushi eating this month. I am waiting on a friend to get back to me. I would put out a "cry for help" here, but seeing as only one person reads this regularly (and he's my love) it would seem pretty pointless to use this as an avenue to get someone to teach me about sushi.  :)

  On a side note, something to think about. We are going over "The Case for Christ" in sunday school and at one point in the movie the guy was talking about how not EVERYTHING that Jesus did was in the bible. That the authors of the Gospels would have picked the best and most relevent miriclaes and stories to share, the ones that would have impacted the most people at that time in history. That being noted, I started thinking: then how much more wonderful and amazing things did Jesus do?! How many miriclas and signs and wonders were not written down in the interest of time and conciseness?! The thought struck me as amazing! I think too often we look at the Bible as being the TOTAL account! And while it is in fact true and God breathed, it is not EVERYTHING that Jesus said and did. There is so much more to the story! And I'm a little more excited about Heaven, so that I can hear about and learn these other stories of the awesomeness of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. :)


LETS DO THIS!

Stretched

This has been a long Wednesday! My dear and precious baby girl kept me up most of the night coughing and crying, by the time 5am came I had no energy and was pretty sure I was going to fall asleep at me desk. I arrive at home only to find out that she is in fact ill. Fever of 101.7 and coughing, she was in her Thomas the Train jammies all day (thats Auntie Cassie!) and she slept a good part of they day away (a very strange thing, if know my daughter). My mother (God love her) was taking care of her all day and had to watch her again tonight as I had 12:2 Youth Group to attend.
  Let me just say, that 12:2 has been such a huge blessing in my life. It is amazing the things that you can learn from teenagers if you just pay attention. I work with the Sr High girls and let me tell you, these girls are amazing, Godly women of whom I am honored and proud to know. Tonight's message from PN fight right in with me starting this blog, as his message was about new years resolutions (the whole reason this adventure started). He did however put a spin on it, and was talking about being a new creation in Christ and how amazing it is, that we get to "start again" as born again Christians. The past is the past and that's where it stays with God when we begin to believe. And what is the point of New Years (for most) other than letting go of the past and changing? What a better to change to make than to become a beloved child of God.
 

All that being said, there is not much to report on the resolution progress front. I have not cooked dinner this week, although I did make a wonderful brunch on Sunday and my mom cooked last night (which I'm counting because we did not eat fast food or mac and cheese). The most handsome man in the world has agreed to teach me how to shoot a gun, and all about gun safety and what not (although I am not sure when I will accomplish this since I need to build up the courage first). Speaking of the most handsome man

This is him :) Speaking of the most handsome man, we have agreed that we will read the Bible this year as well. Thats right, the whole thing. 365 days, just over 31,100 verses, in 1,189 chapters. We are on day 4 (obviously) and I'm ahead of him so far (in fact I'm a day ahead, because I had extra time today and tomorrow is a titch hectic), in fact he's reading his as I type. I am very excited to take this on. I have read a lot of the Bible in my years but I have never read all of it, in fact I know there are entire books that I have never touched on! I am incredibly excited to see what I will learn through this, to see what my eyes are opened up, and what God will teach me through this. In fact, I learned something today (that I'm sure a lot of people know, but I some how have managed to overlook it) and that is that Jesus actually came from Adam's son Seth. Now don't get me wrong, I know Cain killed Able, and was banished so that eliminates one brother, but I guess I never made the mental note that Jesus descended from the line of Seth (who in my opinion has a very small roll in the Bible, unless I missed something). Something about that was beautiful to me though. This man, who is hardly recognized in the Bible ends up being the line that brings about some of the greatest men in the Bible: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Jesus! This man, who is recognized as a seeming blip in Genesis, goes on to really be a major player in history. I like it because it shows that God really can use anyone. It shows that even if we think we are a blip on the page of history, that God could be setting up something great, to occur in the future, through our bloodlines! I servers a good reminder to pray, not only for our children, but our children's children's children, that they may work things out for the Glory of God and keep to the faith we are instructing in our young ones. God is good! 

On that note, I am still in need of something new to try in January. I was going to try to count this blog as a "new thing" but I feel as though that would be cheating, as I wanted to start the blog AND do something new every month, so the blog would be more like an out and an option. I was thinking about trying sushi, but I wouldn't know where to begin. Then I thought about trying a new sport, but I have neither the time nor the cash flow right now to take that on. Sushi looks like my best option at this point, but I'm going to need to find someone to go with me that loves the stuff and can walk me through it, because the thought of it makes me wiggle a little! bleah! BUT i committed to stepping out of my comfort zone once a month and really that's not too much to as to broaden my horizons. So on the off chance that anyone is (still) reading this and knows me and loves sushi, let me know. Or if you can recommend a stellar place in the Twin Cities to dine on raw fish (bleah) let me know! 

Tomorrow will likely be a half day at work, with a sick little monkey. I'm hoping the cold medicine and VICKS will be enough to get her through the night and that we will both be able to get some sleep. 2012 is steaming ahead, and although I feel incredible ill prepared right now....

LETS DO THIS! 

 

2012 Lets Do This

As my first official blog I have no idea what to say or what I am doing. It is 11:14pm, definitely past my bedtime. My baby girl (baby, ha! she just turned three!) is asleep in her room and I have said goodbye to the my love as he is on his way home. So what is this to be about? This is to be about self-growth, self-reflection, and having a place to store it all. This is about being the best person that God my Savior has made me to be.

But first, an introduction. My name is Paula. I am in my mid-twenties and currently working, being a single mom and attending graduate school for my Masters in Communications. I have a beautiful little girl who is the world to me. God has blessed my life more than I ever could have hoped for and continues to bless me everyday. His Grace and Mercy abound.

With that said, I decided I needed to write down my New Years Resolutions. I am not 100% sure that I still have them all figured out, but this is what I know I want to do

1- "take notes" in church on Sunday. Listen to God and focus! I tend to drift and I know that I can get more out of it, if I focus. This will help me pay attention and will give me something to go back to for reference throughout the week.

2- Work out (30min) 3 times a week. Be it Yoga, Pilates, walking or dancing. This will help me maintain my weight but increase my overall health.

3-Cook at home at least 3 days a week (not mac and cheese either!) This will help me eat and chose better and help with an overall goal of a healthier life.

4-Learn to shoot a gun. This will help me in the zombie apocalypse (just kidding! ) This will truly help me (I hope) conquer my fear of guns and help me should I ever need to protect myself at that level (God forbid)

5-Maintain this blog at least once a week. This will help me in my writing progress and to see how I am doing on those resolutions!

6-Try something new at least once a month. This will help me expand and grow as a person and will broaden my horizons as they say.

I am sure that there are more things that I want to accomplish this year, but I'll start with those and see where it takes me.

Lets do this!