Lent 2014

Lent 2014 starts tomorrow with Ash Wednesday....so today, being Shrove Tuesday, I am eating and drinking all. the. things. in addition to laying out my final 'plan' for Lent.

I am not a fan of giving things up...for me at least, it doesn't always bring about a lasting change. It is more my style to set a goal, or choose something to focus on.....giving things up may come as part of that...but it is more likely to be a lasting change--which is the goal of Lent anyway, right?

So, for Lent 2014:

• Declutter/Organize the Stuff--I do a great job of sifting through stuff and getting rid of the bulk of the papers/mail here and there, but then it ends up with a pile to be filed, to be put away, to be something-ed.  But those piles is really as far as it gets.  Now, the piles are neat and they are all consolidated into one place, but just having all the "stuff" staring at me makes my mind just as cluttered as the piles, just knowing they are there.  Spring cleaning is going to get wrapped up into this as well.  I have a gazillion ideas pinned on my organizing board on Pinterest, now I need to actually put them into action.  
• Family Faith Formation:  We can't seem to get ourselves scheduled so that either of us could attend one of the small groups this Lent, so we will be participating in the Living the Eucharist program at home as a family, using the family reflection guide. 
• Personal Spiritual Formation:  I am going to focus on my personal formation by doing Fr. Robert Barron's daily reflections.  It really couldn't be easier, I signed up online and they will be delivered to my inbox first thing in the morning.  We'll see where it takes me.  

So, not giving anything up, but some goals that will hopefully set me up for some growth and change.  We'll see how it goes on the other side of the 40 days.  

Cold Weather Eats!

The snow is falling here in southeast Virginia (gasp, shock and awe!) so for dinner we knew we wanted something hot and delicious to keep us warm as we watch the snow fall.  [True story, T-rex is under the weather-ish and Olivia is always clingy after travel, so I needed a plan that didn't involve me being in the kitchen all evening making dinner]

SO, for dinner we had this:

(imagine with a lot more spinach, that i couldn't help eating before getting a photo)

It was inspired by a Pinterest recipe found here.  I used chicken sausage that I cut up and browned as the recipe suggested.  I added a TON more spinach than the recipe suggested (probably about 5 ounces) and wish I had added the whole 9 ounce bag because it wilted down so much.  Because my crockpot is large and burns hotter than most I think, I reduced the chicken broth to 1.5 cups.

It was delicious.

You're welcome.  :)

a few days late and my pinterest attempts...

So, my post for the beginning of the week is a little late (hello Friday!) because on Monday I snagged myself a MacBook.....and have slowly (and mostly unsuccessfully) been learning how to use it.  I think [keyword think] that I have figured out how to at least get on here so I can throw a post up pretty fast, but we'll see how that works for the long haul.

Last weekend, I spent a bunch of time playing on Pinterest and then pulling together some Pinterest-inspired crafts and kitchen creations for the catechist brunch that we throw at work every Epiphany.  

My one Pinterest Success:  Instead of purchasing gifts this year, I made outdoor seed ornaments for everyone, and packaged them up all pretty.  Trevor was all about helping until he realized that it meant he had to get his hands covered in a gelatin/flour/birdseed mess.  Child does not like to get his hands dirty, so that lasted about five minutes.  Wait, I mean, child does not like to get his hands, or anything else on his person, dirty unless he isn't supposed to be dirty.  Then we may as well call him Pigpen.  I digress....Our ornaments were inspired by this and came out looking like this:

I like it.

For the brunch portion of the event, I decided I wanted to contribute a DIY waffle bar to the morning.  Great in theory, not so much when you want to feed 15 people with one waffle iron.  Inspiration came from here.

Lessons learned, have multiple irons, as pre-cooking waffles for many does not ensure the best waffle in the world.
Red Velvet waffles are amazing.
Don't run out of time, because then the brown paper only serves the purpose of protecting your table linens from red velvet batter spills (helloooooo stains).  Cute-ness and genius factor is not fully achieved unless you have written on the brown paper.

A good time was had by all.  Except for Amy who had to cook all the waffles solo while I was in Mass, without setting off a fire alarm.  Mea culpa.


.....off to transform myself from cardigan loving mom of two, to cocktail attired classy lady ready for a night out.  We'll see how that goes.