Thursday, March 3, 2011

What I’m Up To

1. Today I am fervently and feverishly (not to mention futilely) attempting to create beauty and order out of the remodeling induced clutter and chaos that are currently pervading the second floor our house.

And why would I want to that? Well, I want to do that so that our soon arriving guests (Nathan, Meagan and Steve’s parents) will all have a place to sleep. And sit. And put their sundry and assorted suitcases and toiletries.

(Yes, I know that sundry and assorted are redundant. But they sound so nice together.)

2. I’m hard at work on a major blog makeover—and have been for a couple weeks now. This task consists of endless e-mailing back and forth with my designer and having long discussions about fonts, designs, backgrounds, tabs, side bar items, nav bars, and headers. And each one of those seemingly simple topics takes endless thought.

3. I’m working with another company on putting together a website for our church. That includes yet more thinking and design-related ponderments. It also requires me to take a crash course in learning technical things I have no clue about. (I mean, “About which I have no clue.” ) My apologies to those of you who may be allergic to ending a sentence with a preposition.

(Or as Churchill is reputed to have said, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.”)

4. I have been tasked by my boss, er, husband, to design and reproduce an official visitor brochure for our church with assorted helpful information about service days and times, kids, teen, and adult activities, staff info, etc. Which sounds simple until one actually does it. And then it turns out to be relatively unsimple. Like most of life.

5. I also need to redo and update our church directory which involves a lot of detail-oriented thinking and double checking of names, addresses, phone numbers, as well as other nonconsequential details such as making sure that I place the right family members into the right families.

6. My glasses have fallen apart and my contact lenses are on their last leg so at some point today I need to drive 45 minutes round trip and pick out glasses and pick up contact lenses.

7. My cupboards are bare. My brain is devoid of any fabulous menu ideas. Without menu ideas, I cannot shop for the groceries to populate the hitherto bare cupboards. Unfortunately, my brain has become so sodden with blog, website, brochure and directory-related thoughts that there is no longer room for any menu-related thinking. So therefore my forthcoming guests may very well have to resign themselves to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And ramen noodles. Served on paper goods. Eaten at the kitchen counter.

8. My 49th birthday is on Tuesday. I am not ready to turn 49. I will never be ready to turn 49. I may stay 48 for a while longer until I get up the wherewithal to turn 49. I’ll let you know how that goes.

9. I need to ride my bike today. And go to the gym tomorrow. And swear off anything containing fat or calories for all the days to come. I’ll let you know how that goes, too.

10. I just went through my summer clothes so that I can start the process of switching out winter stuff for summer stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how storing clothes in a closet for four months can cause them to shrink. (See point 9.)

11. I continue to be in a happy tizzy over the upcoming marriage of my son and his fab fiancée. And although being in a tizzy does take up a certain amount of energy, it’s a good energy taker.

And while I’m on the subject of Nathan and Meagan’s wedding, I’m just wondering if they might possibly like me to help them plan their reception.

I’ve got a great recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

On paper plates.

12. And just because I try not to have too many blog posts without pictures, I shall close out with a few photos to make my photo loving blog readers happy.

And then I will go clean something.

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15 Had Something To Say (Just click here!):

Guerrina said...

You are bizeeeeeeeeeeeee! Wish I was there - love to do info brochures, etc. One dsy (step) at a time, sweet Jesus....! Love ya & excited for you all!

Guerrina said...

Oops...that would be "day"!

Kristy said...

When you get to the grocery, add the following three non-perishable items to your list: 1 jar of light alfredo sauce; 1 can of diced tomatos (with or without chilis); and one box of whole wheat or whole grain pasta. Prepare pasta per directions. Blend tomatos with sauce and pour over pasta. Add, or not, leftover chicken, shrimp, salmon, cubed ham, sausage, parmesean cheese. I always keep these things around, just in case. Add a salad and bread and guests think you planned it!

Anonymous said...

Hey Becky, check your inbox for a super yummy, incredibly easy, one pain chicken reciple. It's adapted by my friend Jen and is YUMMY! You can make a few pans if you need too for more people but the clean-up is easy. If others want it I will post it here (with Becky's okay) but it will be a bit long, but concise. It looks FAB! Give me an hour or so Becky (it's 12:00 CST) time. Love, Jodi

Anonymous said...

Quick crockpot recipes. I hope you own one!

Chicken Tacos
3-4 frozen chicken breasts
2 cans rotel
2 cans black beans drained and rinsed
2 cans corn drained
2 packages taco seasoning
Put in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours. Shred Chicken. Serve as tacos or put over chips and top with cheese and put in oven for 20 minutes at 350 to bake. Great nachos and easy.

Make spaghetti sauce in the crockpot
2 jars of a base sauce like Prego
3 jars canned diced tomatoes with seasoning or use fresh tomatoes
2 onions diced
2 green peppers diced
2 cans black olives
1 lb ground beef cooked and drained
1 package spicy sausage cooked
2 packages of spaghetti seasoning
Some garlic
Cook on low for 6-8 hours

Then all you need to do is boil noodles, make garlic bread and have a quick salad kit. Plus you can freeze the extra sauce for another meal.

Here is a great crockpot blog for me easy ideas: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Click on the index for a full listing of all her recipes.

Rachel
North Dakota

Sue M said...

Thanks for your hilarious post - I was feeling sorry for myself as I had so many to dos on my list and then I read it and had a good laugh! I can identify with that list!!

Sue M, St Albans, UK

Anonymous said...

hi becky,

just wanted to say hi to you and to wish you all the very best for the time with nathan & meagan. i still smile every time i think about them & the excitement and joy (and tizziness!!!!) that you all must be feeling. At the moment smiles are very welcome as the dreaded skin cancer has once again reared it's ugly head (or rather apepared on mine!!!!) and so am about to have yet more treatment - it's not the best news ever but not the worst and as always my "superhero sarah" is inspiring me to fight on and to stay positive. I can't believe how grown-up she looks with her new hairstyle & I was so glad to hear that she's feeling better.

All the very best wishes for your birthday Becky - something just tells me it's going to be one of the best ever for you (numbers mean nothing next to the smiles and love that will be with your family that day and somehow knowing that makes me feel a little less alone and anxious - the smith magic i guess......).

Lots of love to all of you as always,

Nicky (Lake District, England)

Jodi said...

You need: chicken breasts, vegetable oil (olive oil or canola is fine), cooking sherry, sugar, onion powder, soy sauce and scallions to garnish if you want (amounts of each below).

***********************************
In a glass baking dish pour three tablespoons of cooking sherry.

Add two tablespoons of oil.

Now, add two tablespoons of sugar

Next, add 1/4th of a cup of soy sauce

Sprinkle the dish with onion powder.

Stir until your sugar is mostly dissolved.

Dump all of it into a pan and cook in oven for about half an hour at 350 degrees.

***********************************
Cook in the oven for about half an hour at 350 degrees. Flip the chickens over a couple of times so that they get lots of time in the sauce.

Erin said...

I don't know if you've heard of Publix Apron's recipes (I don't think Publix is in NC?), but they are simple to make and use common ingredients. Here is a link to a recipe I tried recently and really liked:

http://www.publix.com/aprons/meals/MainDish/SimpleMeal.do?mealId=4289&mealGroupId=1003

This is another recipe that has become a staple at our house:

http://www.publix.com/aprons/meals/MainDish/SimpleMeal.do?mealId=358&mealGroupId=1020

Erin

Danette said...

I always find my best recipes on the net. Love it!

Anonymous said...

Here's a super easy dessert idea:

Candy Bar Pizza

1 bag of chocolate chip cookie dough(you can also use the
refrigerated cookie dough) prepare according to pkg.

Spread onto pizza pan allowing room around the edges to expand.
Bake on 350 as you would smaller cookies(turning brown).

When you take out of oven sprinkle 1 cup of chocolate chips
& drop 1/2 cup of peanut butter(you can add more if you want
more of a peanut butter taste) on top, allow to melt.

When it has melted use a spatula to "swirl"-mix the peanut butter
& choc. chips together. Then as if this isn't sweet enough, I cut up my favorite candy bars & sprinkle on top.

M & M's add great color.The great thing about this dessert
you can cut into small pieces because it's pretty sweet.

Sorry my recipe translating skill are not the best.I don't
even have a recipe card for this recipe. It is one recipe
that once you make it you don't really need to look at a
card! My kids ask for this for all occasions, they love it.

A friend

The Pennington Point said...

Good grief girlfriend, you have too much going on!

Stay 48, just stay there and in a couple of years I will catch up to you. I don't even want to think about your birthday next year. Let's have some calorie filled foods and forget about it. We'll be like Scarlett O'Hara.

I know you'll have a great time with your guests and your new recipes. How sweet. Much love sent your way from over here in Texas. Lisa~

Anonymous said...

all the great recipes i know. have to do with rotel (diced tomatoes and green chiles). it is a magicial substance.

black bean soup in 20 minutes:

3 cans black beans
1 can rotel v8 juice
vigo yellow spanish rice

1. drain black bean cans
2. mix black beans and tomatoes
3.pour v8 juice over this mixture until the pot is full and the color is bright.
4. simmer uncovered on medium
5. prepare rice to package
6.serve over rice with cheese on top.

A TOTAL FAMILY FAVORITE

-katie

Anonymous said...

rotel and v8juice are separate.

Anonymous said...

I often wish I was a stay at home mom......then i could have your problems.... dinner is a crop pot meal every day. menu plans each weekend....grocery shopping every saturday... do we clean the house or spend evening time with the kids...no brainer decision. No time for housecleaning during the week. But, our kids are awesome about doing"2 hours of hard labor" on weekends. Hubby loves tinkering around and doing jobs around the house...but, time and job constraints limit his hobbies. .but, it works for us and our family. Relax...count your blessings.