{ Right now }

 

 

Feeling -  Sore, my sciatica has been really good for years and now suddenly it is starting to act up.  The past two days I have been struggling.

Drinking - Water with ice, it's far too hot.

Writing -  This post, also starting the new meal plan and budget for the month of August.

Thinking - That I can't wait for summer to be over, I am already dreaming of cooler temperatures and pumpkins. 

 
Contemplating - Doing my 15 minute workout today or just skipping it because of the sciatica.  Thing is, the workout actually helps but I am just not feeling it today. 

Knowing - That this heat will come to an end, even if it feels like it's overwhelming right now.

Listening - to the window air conditioner working, and the roosters crowing outside. 

Jumping - for joy knowing that this September my stepmom will be visiting again.  I can't wait. 

Savoring - I just made two chicken strips for my lunch.  I don't eat much during the summer, just don't feel hungry and some days I will go with just breakfast and then dinner.  

Resisting - The temptation to have some Lindor truffles.  They are staring at me though so I may need to sneak in one or two. 

 
Eating - Nothing right now

Hiding - Nothing at the moment although later Curt will be bringing me some diet coke because I'm craving some, and Nick loves diet coke so I will have to hide a can from him or he will drink it all hahaha

Feeling - impatient for the fall weather to finally arrive. 

{ Spend the day with me }

Good morning sweet ladies.  

 

It is a beautiful rainy morning here in Texas.  It has been raining since 4 am, and it's been absolutely glorious, the temperatures have dropped the lower 70s and for that I am so grateful.  I know summer is practically just halfway through but the triple digits and high humidity are not fun at all.

 

 

♥ RAIN ♥

It started early morning and has remained constant, slowly coming down, the pitter patter a familiar comforting sound on the roof.  I love the feeling that rain brings up in me, this feeling of warmth and cozy.  I much prefer a dark, cloudy, rainy day, to a bright hot sunny day. (don't judge me haha) 

♥ GROCERY SHOPPING ♥

I don't mind the actual shopping, however, putting it all away makes me want to run for the hills.  It's one of the chores of homemaking that I really dislike, that and putting clean laundry away.  I guess I can't love every chore that comes with being a homemaker right?

 

 

 

♥ BREAD BAKING♥

I got my sandwich bread made for the week.  I decided to use my recipe for french bread baguettes and just make two loaves.  I've mentioned before how I will usually make about 8 baguettes or sub buns from this recipe, but didn't need those right now and do need some fresh bread.

 

 

 

♥ READING♥

I said earlier this week that I had read 30 books, but that is not true, I forgot to add some that were already on my bookshelf and while looking for another to read, I saw them and realized that I read them in the beginning of the year, so that brings my books read total to 36.

 

Good grief!  

 

I wanted to show you my cute bookmarks that my daughter Jasmine got me from the farmer's market this past weekend.  How sweet are these? 

 

 

 

♥ QUICK LUNCH AND STARTING DINNER ♥

When it's hot outside I find that I don't want to eat meals, like full meals or proper food, if that even makes sense.  I sometimes will just have a bowl of cereal or will actually skip that meal which I shouldn't do, but I just can't bring myself to eat a hot meal.

 

For lunch I didn't feel like having leftovers, so I had one of my favorite summer quick lunches.  A bowl of greek yogurt with honey and peanut butter and some granola.  It is so good and so refreshing.

 

 

♥ AFTERNOON COFFEE AND RELAX ♥ 

Every day, I try to take an afternoon break to enjoy a cup of coffee and a cookie, while sitting down and either crocheting or reading a book.  With the rain coming down, I decided to do this at my chair right by the big living room window.  Nothing like listening to the thunder and watching the rain coming down, while sipping on a hot cup of coffee and nibbling on a shortbread cookie.

 

 

♥ WINDING DOWN ♥

After my break, I sliced the two loaves up and placed them in ziploc bags in the fridge. I got 3 bags and one will go to Jasmine tomorrow.  Then I got dinner finished, I had already placed it in the crockpot earlier in the day and all I had to was make the sides, which were rice and a spicy cucumber salad which is a favorite around here.  

 

By the time dinner was done and dishes put in the washer and the kitchen tidied up, I was so tired and just ready for bed.  But the sense of a clean home and a productive well lived day, always makes it rewarding.

♥ MEALS ENJOYED THIS WEEK ♥ 

Just two of the meals that enjoyed this past week.

 

Fish fillets with tomato and onion in the oven, bean salad and quinoa 

 

 

Ground beef and eggplant with rice and spicy cucumber salad

 

I hope you enjoyed spending this day with me.  I know it's nothing extraordinary or super fun, but it is my life and it's basically what most of my days look like, except for the bread baking which happens once a week only.  Either way, you get the idea.

 

I hope you've all had a blessed week and I wish you all a very blessed weekend ahead.

xoxoxo 

Friday Snippets

 

A full day of busyness.  I couldn't even take a break to snap more pictures of what I was doing.  But here are just a few little shots of my Friday.

{ Friday Catch-up }

 

It is a beautiful day here in North Texas.  The sun is shining, it is 60 degrees, the birds are all chirping and happily flying around and my chickens are playing in the run.

 

We have had the best winter in years, it's been very mild, only a few days of ice, no snow (at least yet, fingers crossed), and what seems to be an early spring.  You know I love snow, but I am not about to complain about this because my fingers are itching to get in the dirt, to plant, to start our garden, and work on the chicken area and fix my yard and create a wonderful space for outside dining and a little nook to just sit, with a cup of coffee and a book.

 

So, it's Friday morning, I have already been busy.  I seem to have been bit by the organizing and renovating bug, and for the past month I've worked on different projects around the house.  It keeps me busy, which has also really helped in my health journey because while I'm concentrated on projects, I am not thinking about snacks and food, or just sitting watching something on TV.

 

With that in mind, and because I've been working on so many things around here, I thought that I would bring back the Tackle it Tuesday posts.  If you're one of the old bloggers, like early 2000's bloggers, you may remember participating or seeing it around blogland.

 

I have to say, I feel that bloggers nowadays are not what they used to be.  That's not meant as an insult, in any way, shape or form.  They are just a different breed of bloggers that I don't quite relate to, whereas, when blogging first took off, we were a community of like minded moms, with little ones, homemaking and cooking, sharing tips, sharing advice, motivating each other, and all the blog posts seemed to be directed at just that.

 

Menu Plan Monday

Happy Homemaker Monday

Slow Cooking Thursday

Tackle it Tuesday

Show and Tell Friday

Works for me Wednesday

 

Just to name a few?  Do you remember those?   

Anyway, Tackle it Tuesday was a weekly feature (obviously lol), that focused on getting something done and sharing it to hopefully motivate others.  It was started by 5 Minutes for Mom, and in the beginning it was a huge hit, so many participants.  

 

 

So, starting next week I'm going to bring it back here on my blog.  I have been taking pictures of the areas I've been working on, so I will have a few to share, and as I go, I'll just continue taking pictures and sharing. 

 

You are more than welcome to join in, if you have a specific area in your home or a project you've been putting off, now is the time.

 

I've also been working on my new blanket.  I've mentioned it a few times here but I can't help showing you because it is the most beautiful thing ever.  I'm using colors that I don't typically go for, I tend to use pastels and very much Cath Kidston inspired colors, but since this is a Winter Blanket, I wanted to keep it a bit more darker and warmer, so I went with charcoal and cream.

I wasn't sure if I would like it, because again, very different to my usual colors, but I'm so happy with the way it is forming.  Next one however, I will be making in white and red to keep it typical Nordic and Scandinavian.  

 

In my health journey, I have also been trying out different recipes to enjoy my cravings, without going for the usual breads and carbs.  It's been very enlightening and educational for me.  Some I haven't liked, but most I have really enjoyed, like the Keto Avocado Bread which was just insanely good, and these egg muffins which are also really good.

I'll be sharing those recipes on the food blog soon.

My home has once again become my shelter, my haven and my pride and joy.  Not to say that it ever stopped, but if I must be honest with myself and with all of you, I did go through a few years where other things took priority.  Yes the home was here, and yes we lived in it, but I wasn't taking pride in it, I wasn't paying attention to detail or adding little touches here and there.

It's those little touches that make your home your own, you know what I mean?  When someone walks in and says "oh it's so cozy and so you".  That is such a compliment to me and brings me such joy that I can't even begin to describe.

I've also reached a point in my day to day, that I don't have so many chores to tackle and so many things to do.  The key is being organized and not letting things accumulate, and when we do this, it frees up time for the fun things we enjoy.

For me it's crochet, watching a period drama, and lately, getting my exercise in.  I have only been doing between 10 and 20 minutes each day, and that right now is enough for me.  Perimenopause, hormonal symptoms, some knee pain and getting older, has definitely showed me that I can't be doing the usual 45 minutes to an hour exercise that I used to be able to handle 10 years ago.

And that's ok, because I have also learned that you can get the same results in doing short, even 4 minute HIIT exercises a day, as if you were killing yourself for 30 minutes at the gym.  The point is to move, to keep moving, to do some sort of workout, no matter what it is.  Walking is amazing, and there are ton of videos on Youtube for Walking Workouts which are amazing for older ladies, and for those that have knee pain or joint pain or whatever pain you may have.  

 

So that's it, that's been the past few weeks, I wanted to come in and chat and get you all caught up on my life.  I am slowly (again) getting back into blogging and trying to post more, and I think as we go into Spring, I have more to show you and take pictures of.

 

Before I leave, just wanted to show you my bird seed wreath.  I first made one back when we were stationed at Luke AFB in Arizona.  The birds loved them, and the kids and I loved making them.  It's a great project to make with the kids.

 

I do have the recipe and how to already here on the blog, you can go to this post to read, if you want to give these a try.

 

Now I need to get off here and get ready for my doctor's appointment.  It's just a follow up on the Triglycerides results that showed up on my routine blood, work that my Gynecologist had me do.  Since she's not the family doctor, she obviously asked me to make a follow up appointment with the family care clinic on base to discuss the results and nutrition etc.  To be honest, I think it's a bit pointless going a month later, since I already know what to do and have been doing it for the past few weeks, but if they ask me to do something I do it.

Have a blessed day and if I don't see you before Monday, have a blessed weekend!

{ A cozy rainy day in the kitchen }

 

The morning started like any other.  Bright blue skies, and the most gorgeous of yellow and orange leaves on the trees.

I always step out back, and while Kaia does her business, I just look up and admire God's handiwork.  Is there anything more beautiful?  The detail, and the vivid colors that I certainly could never imagine.

 

 

 

I had a home day, which meant, no need to leave the house at all, and for that I was grateful as we had some severe storms coming in, in the afternoon.

Looking at the bright blue sky, you wouldn't know it, but believe me they showed up in force.

I got busy with cleaning the house real quick, then got into the kitchen and continued my baking.  I made Cinnamon bread and Pumpkin Spice bread the day before, and yesterday, I concentrated on making french bread loaves for subs and pizza.  We love french bread pizza and it's even tastier when you make the bread yourself.

 

Some people say they don't have a bread maker, and those that do say they hardly ever use it.  I use mine at least once a week.  I couldn't do without it.

 

 

The recipe I use is supposed to make two loaves, but I split mine into 8, and make smaller ones which are just right for the pizza.  I slice them in half, and that's 16 pizzas for the freezer.  Or, if we want subs then I take 4 of those out and make pizza from the remaining 4 loaves.

Either way, it's delicious bread and so easy to make, especially since the bread maker does all the work, and all I have to do is shape it, let it rise and bake it.  Saves me a lot of time in the kitchen.

As I was busy with the bread, the sky started turning a dark purple, the wind moved in, gorgeous fall leaves started dancing down from the trees, and the pitter patter of rain drops began.

 

I immediately lit candles, opened the back patio door and found a spot on the couch near the big living room windows, to watch the rain.  At one point, it was me, Kaia and Elliott, all watching.  I do love my furry babies.

 

 

We sat for a bit, then I decided to head straight back into the kitchen, to make some Bolinhos de Chuva.  If you're Portuguese you understand what that means, but if you're not, they translate to Rain Cakes.  Basically little donuts, rolled in sugar and cinnamon.  We always make them when it rains.  

 

Just picture a few of these with a hot cup of coffee, on a rainy day.  Yum!!! 

 

The rest of the day was spent on the couch, under the blankets, with my babies, reading, listening to the rain and just enjoying a cozy day at home.

For dinner, I made a delicious pizza.  It was supposed to be a deep dish, but I divided the dough into 2 pizzas, so ended up with not a deep dish, but a delicious pizza nonetheless.  

The recipe was a new one to us, I love copycat recipes, and this was the Uno Pizzeria Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  I know, I created a faux pas by dividing the dough, but I won't do it next time.  I am going to try the actual deep dish and I'm sure it will be just as delicious as the one I made yesterday.

I do have another deep dish pizza recipe on my food blog, which is equally delicious.  Give it a look.

 

 

I think it was the perfect ending to a rainy Friday.

How did you spend yours?