Finding Your Passion

Returning to work after maternity leave has been very difficult for me. I find no enjoyment in my work anymore and I dread having to drop the baby off at daycare in the morning and go into work. While I'm at work, all I think about is getting to leave work and go and pick him up from daycare. I struggle to find motivation to do work while I'm at work, and I definitely have no motivation to do work while I'm at home. As a teacher, this is not a great situation as we are almost required to do work at home.

So what do I do? 

I have been having very strong feelings about being a stay at home parent. I feel compelled to find a way to make it work and be able to stay home with my baby (and any future babies). The feelings have been freaking me out a little bit, but then I realized something.

Do you know when people say they have a "calling" in life? Most of the time this is associated with a religious position (priest, etc), at least it has been in my life. The more I think about it, the more I feel like these thoughts and feelings that I am having are my calling. I do practice religion, and the more time that goes by, the more I think that a greater being is trying to tell me that I need to find a way to be a stay at home parent. 

I have no idea how I am going to make this happen. I don't know if it will have something to do with this blog, or my love of crafting, or my degrees in teaching. What I do know is that in 2019, living on one income is almost impossible, although we could make it work. The problem is health insurance. My school district provides AMAZING benefits with amazingly low premiums. I cannot just walk away from this without a way to make up for what we would be loosing with regard to insurance. 

What I do know, is that I feel more convicted every day, to find a way to make this calling my reality. 

Cookie Countdown - Day 2

"Day 2": 2-Ingredient Chocolate-Peanut Butter Truffles

It was a bit ambitious of me to think I could make a new recipe each day, so I will likely be doing an every other day challenge. As a result, here is the second recipe of the #PillsburyCookieCountdown

At first when this recipe appeared in my inbox, I thought "Truffles? That is way too complicated for me". Truffles seem so sophisticated, elegant, intricate, I figured that there was no way a home baker with my skill level would be able to make these. Boy was I wrong! These were extremely easy and created a dessert that I feel very proud of!

Cost

• 1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated peanut butter cookies -- $3.29
• 1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups) -- $0.00

Total Cost: $3.29

Due to a store promotion I was able to get the bag of semisweet chocolate chips for free by purchasing the bag of dark chocolate chips for the day one recipe.

Expectation vs. Reality

This recipe created 30 truffles, as opposed to the 24 called for by the recipe. However, unlike the ganache from the first recipe, the amount of melted chocolate was much more reasonable for coating the truffles. Although there was some extra, I do not think that making less would have been successful due to the nature of needing to cover the entire truffle.

Verdict

As I said at the beginning of the post, I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of this recipe and they taste pretty great as well! I am not a huge peanut butter and chocolate fan, but the two flavors are well balances in these truffles. Additionally, they are small enough to just pop in your mouth, making them easy and mess free to eat.

For "Day 3", the recipe is for a Holiday 7-Layer Bar, which has a fairly large number of ingredients but will hopefully not be too difficult to put together.

Happy baking!

Cookie Countdown - Day 1

A month or so ago, I saw on Facebook or Instagram, that Pillsbury was going to be doing a "Cookie Recipe a Day Countdown". I love to bake, but I always end up making the same thing so I figured I would sign up to receive the daily e-mails (plus a bunch of other ones along the way) and try and bake a new cookie each day.

I wanted to document my baking extravaganza here so I would be able to look back on the recipes I liked, or wasn't fond of, and remember a little bit more about each cookie, the cost of ingredients, time and difficulty, etc. I often feel like recipes say one thing, or call for specific amounts of ingredients, but then when I follow the recipe it is always just a little bit off from what they claim. So I want to document those things here as well.

If you'd like to join me on this adventure, click here, and sign up! I will mention that the e-mails don't come into my inbox until around 3:00pm, so I will be a day "behind" on the cookie making. I would love to hear and see your successes in the comments!

On to the cookies!

Day 1: Chocolate-Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

This is definitely not a recipe I would normally make, as I don't really know how I feel about maraschino cherries. However, it was the first recipe to come to my e-mail, so make them I did!

The first thing I will mention is that prior to beginning this adventure I did go out a buy a cookie dough scoop from Bed, Bath & Beyond (click here). I purchased both the small and medium sized scoops and I was amazed at how well they worked. I can't believe I have gone so long without having these in my life, but I would highly recommend making this purchase if you plan to make a lot of cookies.

As far as cost for this recipe, here was the breakdown I ended up paying for the ingredients. Ingredients with a price of $0.00 were ones that I already had at home.

• 1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookies -- $3.29
• unsweetened baking cocoa -- $0.00
• 4 oz cream cheese -- $0.00
• dark chocolate chips -- $2.49 (on sale from $2.91)
• heavy cream -- $2.85
• butter -- $0.00
• maraschino cherries -- $1.47

Total Cost: $10.10

Expectation vs. Reality

The recipe asks for balls of cookie dough that are 1.5" in diameter. For this I used the small cookie scoop and ended up with 36 cookies, instead of the 24 the recipe claimed to make. Mine turned out pretty identical to the picture on the website, so I am fairly sure I sized them correctly. I'm not too upset about this because otherwise I would have had half a jar of left over maraschino cherries. Instead I only had five extra.

The other major difference between the recipe and what I feel I actually needed is the chocolate ganache. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips. If I were to make this recipe again I would only use half a cup and adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I had WAY too much ganache for the number of cookies I made, and remember I even had a dozen more than the recipe originally intended!

This was a fairly easy recipe that didn't take much time, which was great given that I have a six and a half month old who requires much of my attention. To ensure even baking I rotated and switched the position of the pans in the oven half way through the baking time. 

Verdict

These are a great two bite cookie. The cherry is nice as it cuts through the otherwise intense chocolate flavor. They also turned out perfectly soft and chewy, which is the way I like my cookies! I would say the first day was a success!

The "Day 2" e-mail came in while I was baking and it looks like tomorrow will be 2-Ingredient Peanut Butter-Chocolate Truffles.

Happy baking!

Running out of Time

This has been one of the least relaxing summers of my life. And yes, I know I am very fortunate to have a job that gives me the summers off, and I could have been working the entire summer, but I am still allowed to feel as if my summer wasn't relaxing. Between graduate school, bathroom renovations, and simply the fact that it was the first summer of being a home owner, time just slipped away from me and now I am looking at a mere two weeks until I have students back in my classroom, papers to grade, and days without naps.

The current graduate school course I am taking is by far the most intensive course I have taken thus far in my program. The assignments are much more time consuming and there are far more of them than in any of the other courses. This is extremely frustrating because I am spending so much time working on my own school work, that I have been seriously neglecting the HUGE list of things I need to get done for actual school (which starts in two weeks remember).

My most recent frustration is the fact that this course has had two MAJOR projects. It feels like I just finished the first one and the second one is already due. Matters are more complicated because now I am having to go into school for training days before the year starts and so my time is becoming even more limited. Additionally, Eric and I are trying very hard to get the bathroom renovation completed (or nearly completed) before the school year starts because we have more time now. I know in a lot of ways my procrastination does not help matters, but I am still feeling frustrated and unable to find any motivation to get work done.

In good news, I did manage to get all of my syllabi written and sent to the copy center. So, at the very least I will have a syllabus to pass out when school starts. I have a training tomorrow at school and I am planning on going in just a bit early and planning out my bulletin board so I know what supplies I need to purchase. My plan is to go into school Friday this week for a few hours before my parents come into town and get that bulletin board completely set up. I will try and remember to take pictures and post them here for you to see.

I need to take Pippin out for his afternoon walk and then seriously buckle down and get some of this project done. I will be in trainings the next two days so I want to get a sizable chunk done today so I have less to stress about the rest of the week. Plus this weekend is shot because my parents will be in town so I really need to try and have everything done by Friday afternoon. Wish me luck!

Until next time,
C

Getting Back on Track

Overall, I was quite successful in accomplishing the items on my to-do list from my last post. I am writing this as a break from graduate school course work. I have found that taking a ten minute break when I feel I need it, often helps me be more successful than trying to push through the feeling and continuously work on the task. The only thing I did not get finished from my list was mowing the lawn. I was able to get it half way done, but then a large hail storm rolled through and with the ground being so wet, I was unable to get the second half mowed. Since then it has rained (down poured) every six to eight hours. I need to find time today to finish mowing, otherwise it will be too long and the portions I just mowed will need mowed again. Today the weather has been quite sunny and so hopefully the ground will dry out enough that I can try and finish mowing this afternoon (provided I finish my school work).

Getting my to-do list accomplished helped me to feel more like myself. It also helped that I baked a new recipe the other day, Lemon Shortbread Cookies. I struggled tremendously with getting the dough stiff enough to roll out, and I ended up baking the cookies in one large sheet and then cutting them at the end, but they taste yummy and that is was matters. I love to bake and be in my kitchen, and with Eric's new job and new work schedule, I have been thrown off and not spending as much time baking and cooking as I need to.

Next week, in addition to continuing with my course work, I NEED to start preparing for the school year. The first student day is three weeks from Monday, and although three weeks seems like a lot of time, I know it is going to fly by. Especially with all of the activities we have planned over the next three weeks, not to mention the summer training days I will be attending at school.

I know it will be hard for me to focus on school work next week though because my maid of honor is coming into town for a few days to see our house and visit/catch up. Hopefully she will be getting engaged soon and so this may be the last time I see her before that happens! We are both getting ready to go through some big life changes and it is always great to catch up. We are both high school math teachers, so we always have plenty to talk about!

The day she is slated to arrive I will be spending the morning visiting with my mentor from my first year of teaching. She has become one of my dearest friends and I do not do a good enough job keeping in touch as I need to. My heart will be full next week, so hopefully that will provide me with the necessary motivation to get myself in gear and start getting ready for this school year. I know a lot will be happening this school year and so I need to find my motivation early and hang on to it for dear life. I have set some professional goals for myself, but I might talk about them in a later post.

For now, it's back to school work. I forgot how time consuming being a student can be.

Until next time,
~C

Out of Sorts

I haven't been feeling myself lately. Usually the summertime is when I am able to get back to my passions. I am less stressed and feeling better than during the throws of the school year. Maybe it is the fact that I am working on course work for my Master's degree, or all of the construction Eric and I have been working on in the house, but this summer does not feel as rejuvenating as past summers have felt.

I often have this overwhelming heaviness that seems to be weighing me down and I can't seem to shake it. Eric is extremely stressed with work. He started a new position in February and is getting ready to open a new clinic for his new company and, in typical Eric fashion, is extremely stressed and constantly worrying about how everything will play out. In addition to worry about our bathroom remodel project, which has taken a turn for the worse over the past week.

Long story short, we tiled the floor, but may have to end up ripping it all out and hiring someone else to come in and re-lay the tile. Needless to say, we have already pour a significant amount of money into this project, and having to buy new tile and pay someone to come in and re-tile something we already tiled was not necessarily in the budget (nor the timeline).

I had actually been feeling more normal about a week ago. I made the decision to get back into meal planning, which I had seriously gotten away from. Trying new recipes in the kitchen was always something that provided me a stress release, and I truly enjoy the process. Just when I was starting to feel back to my normal self, the issue with the floor arose, and that has set me back.

I also feel like I am quickly running out of time. Today is the first of August, which means I got back to work this month, and the students will be back in my classroom in less than thirty days. I have been putting off lesson planning all summer (my graduate work has been keeping me plenty busy), but now that it is crunch time, I have so many activities planned, in addition to my graduate course work that I am beginning to panic about getting everything done in time.

I needed to get these thoughts and feelings out, in hopes that it will help me be more productive with my to-do list for today:

TO-DO: August 1st

• Module 2 & 3 Activity Logs
• Clean mortar off tile in bathroom
• Mow lawn
• Feed & Water outdoor plants
• Cut and bundle fallen branches

This list may not seem very long, it's only five items and I am home all day. However, my graduate work this week is very intensive, and after I finish Module 2 & 3, I still have Module 4 AND a 4-5 page paper to write. My negative attitude is not helping, but I am having a very difficult time shaking the weight off my heart. 

Perhaps I will take Pippin outside to play with him for a bit to try and lift my spirits. Regardless, I need to get my nose back to the grindstone. Before I go, I want to leave you with the recipe I made for dinner last night. It was delicious and a definite Pinterest win!

The recipe is for an Italian Sausage and Rice Casserole from Well Plated. I used Italian seasoned chicken sausage I had in the freezer, but I am sure any Italian seasoned sausage would work well. One of the other things I have been trying to do is use up the food we have in the house, rather than always buying all new ingredients. The meal also received Eric's vote of approval, which is rare, so it must be good!

Until next time,

~C

I Create ... the next step

The second day of Yoga Camp is the mantra of "I Create". I create a lot of things each day. I create worksheets, lessons, meals, laughter, etc. But this is obviously not the purpose of the "I Create" mantra.

The place that I took the mantra during my yoga practice was to create the vision for my future. Over the last five (plus) years, I have often struggled with knowing whether or not I had chosen the correct profession. The more time I spend in education, the more I know that it is the right profession, but I am still not sure if classroom teacher is where I am going to end up.

As I was working through the "I Create" practice, I decided to meditate on what I want to create for my future, and my families future. Through this meditation I was able to focus on what I really hope to be able to accomplish in education moving forward. I was also able to create a plan to reach some of these future goals.

And so comes the next step. I have applied and been accepted to a master degree program. This is absolutely terrifying for me. It has been six years since I was a college student, and it has been four years since I have taken a graduate level course. And now, I am diving in head first to two years of courses, papers, assignments and discussion posts. It's not that bad you may say, but I also know that I am getting ready to enter into what are panning out to be the two craziest years of my life. A new house. Starting a family. Life is not going to be slowing down, and now I'm adding another item to the list.

At times, the idea of accomplishing all of these goals I have set is overwhelming, but I have decided to create a space in my mind where I will be able to find peace and motivation to reach my goals. I know that in the end I will be better off and my family will be better off in the long run.

So I challenge you, if you are reading this, to create a plan to accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish. There is no wish to big, no idea to crazy, nothing to hold you back except for yourself. So create in whatever way to create means to you.

Until our next adventure,
C

30 (ish) Day Journey - I Accept

2016 is winding down, but the excitement in my life seems to be ramping up. 2017 is looking to be quite an eventful year and often when I think about everything that is coming our way, it can be overwhelming. Here are a few of the highlights of what's to come.

Buying a House

Eric and I are currently working with a realtor and looking at potential houses. We have been seriously looking for the past two months and I can feel that we are reaching a point where we will be making a decision soon.

Graduate School

Now is the time. That is what I have convinced myself. I have applied to a masters program to begin in January. With my new school district having a better reimbursement program, it is now feasible for me to earn my masters degree without going into debt, and then enjoy a healthy pay increase.

Moving (AGAIN)

Along with buying a house (very exciting) comes the fact that we have to move again (very unexciting). If you know anything about our journey, you know that Eric and I have moved SEVERAL times over the past five years, and we have just about had it. We are hoping that our next move is a permanent and long lasting one.

Starting a Family (?)

Although not in the immediate future, 2017 is the year that we would like to start a family. Due to our jobs there are ideal times to begin this journey, and fortunately we will be able to settle in a bit before we being this next major journey. 

With all of these exciting life events getting ready to take place sometimes it is too much to handle. Last year, I began subscribing to Yoga with Adriene on Youtube and followed along for about the first 12 days of her 30 days of yoga camp series. I had really enjoyed the videos and in even just the 12 short days I felt stronger, more flexible, and generally more at peace. These are all things that have seriously been lacking over the past two months and so I have decided to begin again. No need to wait until the new year, it's better to just start now, and build the habit while I have the motivation to do so.

The first video in the yoga camp series comes with the mantra "I Accept". I thought it was very bold of Adriene to begin with such a challenging mantra, but I suppose it will set the tone for the rest of camp. Accepting my place in life has always been something that I have struggled with and while focusing on that mantra during the video yesterday I was able to make peace with some struggles I have been going through. Namely, other people getting what I want before me. 

I know I'm 28, and I know I should be more mature, but it has on occasion been soul crushing when I log into Facebook and I see a pregnancy announcement, or a picture of my friends in front of their newly purchased homes. Eric and I have lived in limbo for the last five years and over that time is has been devastating to see others taking steps in their lives that I so badly wanted to be taking. This internal struggle has been something that I have really had to work on, and although I have improved, there is always room for improvement.

Now, please understand that I am extremely happy for my friends who are taking these next steps, but I just would love to be able to be walking along side them as they continue their journeys, rather than feeling like I am watching from the sidelines.

The mantra of "I Accept" is one that is very powerful for me, because it gives me permission to be happy with my stage of life. I am well known for saying to my friends "It will happen the way it is supposed to happen". But as always, this advice is easier to give than receive. 

I am excited about my 30 days of yoga journey, and I hope to grow physically and mentally, as well as stay grounded as the excitement in my life begins to pick up.

If you are interested in coming along on the journey with me, I encourage you to comment, or visit Adriene's channel. I may not do 30 days in a row, but I hope to move through all 30 days before the end of 2016 and begin the new year with a new perspective (and hopefully a new house!).

Until our next adventure,

~C

Laundry Routine

Thanks to my seventh grade FCS (Family and Consumer Sciences a.k.a. Home Economics) teacher (Mrs. Basstress) I have been doing my own laundry since the fateful assignment where we had to have our parents teach us how.

While I lived at home, and in the dorms at Penn State, laundry day was ALWAYS on Sunday. It made sense because we had the most time on those days. You were always back from traveling, and it gave you a fresh start to the week.

This habit of doing laundry on Sunday's stayed with me for a few years after college. In the first apartment my husband and I lived in, we did not have laundry machines in our apartment unit. They were in the building, but you had to carry the loads downstairs, pay by the load, and remember to go and rescue your clothes before someone came and snatched them. Because we were living in a complex that was primarily college students, I found that Sunday mornings were the best time to do laundry because no one else was awake yet.

After we moved when my husband graduated graduate school, we finally had our very own washer and dryer IN the apartment. I was over the moon (what an adult thing to be excited about). And the habit of laundry Sunday's remained. It actually stayed intact for a full five years after college, until I decided to change my habit this past summer.

We have moved (again) back to Pennsylvania and with the move my husband acquired a new work schedule that has him working late two nights per week. I decided that rather than "waste" the time that he was at work, I would try and be productive. And thus began a new laundry habit. When I would do laundry on Sundays I would do ALL the laundry on Sundays. This took HOURS because between my husband and I we typically had four loads of clothing, plus towels and/or sheets depending on the week.

When I first began my multi-day laundry system I would wash all of the clothes that were dirty on the days that I did laundry. It seemed easiest to just combine our piles together and wash them all at the same time. This worked for a while, until I started back to work in the fall, and then I had to start remembering which outfits I had worn as to not duplicate them within the same week (because unfortunately this is something that teenagers would notice).

I was beginning to become frustrated with this system, but with the low quality washer/dryer that we currently have, it was too much to do all of the laundry on one of Eric's long days. And thus resulted my current system, which for the past two months has been working quite nicely.

The first late night Eric works in the week I do my laundry. I produce two loads of clothing (we have a very small washer and a crappy dryer so they can't be huge loads) each week. Total these two loads take about four hours from start to finish. Eric produces a similar amount of clothing each week and so on his second late night, I do his laundry, again taking about four hours.

Not to worry, Sundays are still reserved for washing towels and sheets as needed, but by moving my laundry day(s) into the week, I have more time on the weekend to do things that I enjoy.

What is your families laundry schedule like? Have you ever tried something that failed miserably?

Until our next adventure (House Hunting!!)

~C

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?

It's the final week of the school year! Can I get an AMEN from all my fellow teachers?! The end of this school year is especially exciting for me as this summer is bringing another move and I will thankfully be reunited with Eric after three months of living apart. It has been a long three months and I am looking forward to it being over.

In the course of the past three months I have started watching a few different vlogers on YouTube to pass some of my down time. One of my favorites is Ellie + Jared and although I watch their daily vlogs as they are posted, I also have been watching some of their past vlogs randomly as they pop up in the "suggested feed". I watched their first daily vlog and Jared asked the question "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" For Ellie and Jared this meant starting daily vlogs for a week and then taking it from there. Now they have been vlogging every day for two years.

Jared's question really struck a nerve with me as I have been feeling somewhat adrift recently with all of the changes in my life, and looking toward the future. I am a teacher, and most days I like being a teacher. However, in the back of my mind I struggle with determining if this is what I actually am meant to be doing. I have a lot of passions in my life: cooking, baking, photography. I would love to drop everything and follow these passions, but the logical side of my brain is just too strong and I can't bring myself to do this. In an attempt to meet Jared's challenge of doing what I would do if I wasn't afraid, I am going to start small this summer and try to work on this blog regularly. I haven't quite decided what "regularly" looks like yet: daily, MWF, etc, but I am looking forward to this adventure.

I hope you will follow me on this journey. I plan to blog about a wide variety of topics: cooking, baking, crafting, moving, life, adventure, etc. I hope that it will be interesting and a little informational, but I know it will be a good representation of who I am as a person.

Today is day one of my self-challenge of doing something that I am afraid of, and I am nervous and excited.

Until our next adventure,
C

Here we go again!

Another summer is approaching and so is another move. Although I am significantly more excited about this move than most of the previous ones because we will be moving closer to family, back to our home state, and hopefully to the area where we will be buying a house in the next 12-18 months!!! Yay for the future!

Since graduating from college (5 years ago) we have lived in five different apartments in four different zip codes and three different counties/towns. We are basically professionals at moving. Or we should be. Every time though I always feel overwhelmed at the massive to do list, and actually remembering everything that I need to do. Because this move is bigger and farther than we have ever moved before, there are a lot more moving parts that are going into the move and I am going to do my best to make sure that I don't miss anything, and that every step of the moving process is as smooth as possible.

I hope to be able to share with you some moving tips, and also maybe a few things to avoid (five moves is enough times to realize that there are somethings that you just should not do).

Because we are still very early on in the process I don't have too many tips to share today, but I can share what I have set up for the future.

Eric technically doesn't even have a starting date yet for his new job. This means that we still don't really know when he has to be moved. Because I will be finishing out the school year at my current school Eric is moving on his own first, and then I will follow. Unfortunately this means a few more months of double rent, and we are trying to make this overlap period as small as possible. This means that we haven't signed a lease because we want to put it off for as long as we can until we know his start date.

This past weekend, because we knew we were not going to be signing a lease, we did some online research instead of driving the 2.5 hours to physically go to the places. We used Apartment Guide, as our primary search engine. One suggestion that I would strongly encourage anyone who is moving to do is to drive around the area that you are planning to move to so that you have a general understanding of the layout of the area. We are by no means experts on the city we are moving to, but because we took a whole day and drove around we have some general landmarks in our minds when we are looking at a map. We drove past high schools, malls, shopping centers, etc. This has been extremely helpful when we find and apartment and are wondering where is it in relation to other businesses in the city.

What also really help us is that I have a cousin who lives in the area and we were able to get some inside "scoop" from her on good vs. bad places to live, and she also came with us on our tour to provide a little more information. Obviously not everyone has this luxury, but if you already have been hired in the place you are planning to move, ask your company if there is someone who would be willing to at least talk to you about the area, even if they can't drive around with you (and then make sure to treat them to lunch!).

Even today, with all of the technology that is around, I am still a pencil and paper girl at heart. I am not sure what it is, but I keep myself much more organized if I have a physical copy of whatever I am working on rather than just electronic. I mention this because everyone's organization system is going to be different. For us, we are using a 5-Subject spiral bound notebook to keep all of the information and lists that we are starting to collect/create.

So far we have a section for all the apartment information, contact numbers, rent prices, square footage measurements, amenities, etc. I have also begun a section about my job search/change. Being a math teacher there are a lot of moving pieces that I need to make sure I have in order when I begin my job search/application process. I need clearances to work in the schools, I need medical tests/records to prove I don't have contagious diseases, I need my teaching certificate to transfer to a new state. The list is quite extensive. Then I have also created a section to hold the information about the various schools that I may be applying to. I have so far created a list of all school districts within driving distance of our anticipated location and have begun my initial research on those districts.

Later in the process I plan to have sections of the notebook dedicated to moving/packing lists, address change lists (this list really is endless), etc. For me that is what works. If you have an app or an electronic organization system that works for you, then that's what you should use. I have found that if it doesn't work for me, I'm not going to use it.

Once Eric has a start date I am sure that I will have many more tips to share.

Until next time,
~C

Same Recipe, Different Outcome

Have you ever had this happen? You find a recipe, you make it, you love it. Then you make the same recipe again at a later point in time and it just doesn't live up to the memory of the first time you made it.

I had this happen to me last night. I had found a recipe for Cincinnati Turkey Chili a while ago (like months) and I had made it, and Eric and I loved it. Then I had made it again for my parents when they were visiting, and we loved it then too. But I made the same recipe last night and I just did not think it was as good as I have made it in the past, and I want to know WHY!?!

So I have been thinking back over what I may have done differently. Here is what I have come up with:

1. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth 

2. I used 80/20 ground turkey instead of the 93/7 that I usually buy

3. I didn't measure the amount of chocolate I added at the end

Now, I am not a food expert. I typically struggle to understand the way that things work together and "flavor profiles" and fancy cooking terms (I have been watching a lot of Worst Cooks in America lately), but if I had to rank those in order of impact on the taste of my dish I would guess that the fat content of the meat probably had the biggest affect, followed by the broth.

Tonight I am planning on making baked ziti with Italian sausage. We need to get our meat fix in before Lent starts and then we can't eat meat on Friday's (or I guess this Wednesday). 

Anyway, if you have ever had the issue that I am having (making the same thing multiple times and having it taste different) let me know why, or what happened.

Until our next adventure,

C

Excitement and Fear: Two Sides of the Same Blade

One of the most exciting times in our lives began about a month ago and will be continuing for the next... unknown number of months. Something that I have been wanting so badly for the last five years is finally starting to become a reality. And although I am extremely excited and grateful at the way that our lives are headed, I am also terrified.

Eric and I have always wanted to move back to Pennsylvania (more specifically out of Delaware) and now it would seem that will be happening within the next six months. Eric has been applying to new clinics and going on very successful interviews. We have explored cities and towns where we could potentially be moving to, and every adventure has been filled with excitement and anticipation. 

This is what we want, this is what I want, this is what will move us on the path toward our future: a house, kids, being settled closer to family and friends. And yet in the quiet moments when I am by myself my excitement and anticipation is coupled with a near crippling fear. This is it. I have felt stuck in limbo for so long, an adult on my own, but not truly grown up. And now that the fog is lifting I'm afraid? How does that make any sense? 

Part of my fear stems from the daunting task of moving so far, to yet another new place. I have never been a fan of change (even when it is something that I have wanted). The uncertainty and uneasiness of it all is just uncomfortable for me to deal with. I do not enjoy having to learn new roads, new businesses, new rules about new places, and meeting new people. Beginning over again is not something that I was good at because it was not something that I ever really had to do before I moved to Delaware five years ago and got my first "big girl job". Even with transitioning between three school, five apartments, and three cities/towns it is still scary and uncomfortable for me.

But I am trying to look on the bright side, focus on the positives, and trust that this is the right move, the right path to follow, the last real transition. And that is exciting.

I will likely post more updates as this process continues and of course still try to continue my cooking/baking/crafting posts, but I am looking forward to this journey and I hope that it is quick, smooth, and as painless as can be.

On a Pinterest note, I tried making mug french toast this morning. FAIL. Well, not a total fail, but I would not ever make it again. Real french toast is the only way to be.

Work/Life Balance

Everyone says the 20's are the prime of your life... maybe I'm doing something wrong, but these past few years have been so stressful that I find it very difficult to believe that this is "as good as it gets".

One thing that I have really been struggling with is creating a work/life balance that actually works. I have not been able to really feel successful in both areas. What's more is that the more hobbies that I start experimenting with, the less I care about work. How horrible does that sound? I am training the future of our nation and I can't find the motivation. I want to explore my hobbies more and more and I would love to be able to turn those hobbies into work, but I don't know how.

Regardless, one of my new hobbies is photography. Here is my favorite picture from today (we had a snow day thanks to winter storm Jonas)

Eric and I are getting ready to potentially move again and so I hope to keep you updated on our next life steps. Hopefully they will also involve me pursuing my hobbies even more.

Until next time,
C

"Cookie Monday"

So this isn't a cookie recipe, and it's definitely not Monday, but work has been insane for the past four days because it is the last week before Christmas break and the kids are off the walls and I am going crazy trying to get everything done so that I can have an enjoyable Christmas break, but here it is anyway...

Cinnamon Sugar Pecans

(recipe and picture here)

These are so easy to make, and turn out soft and tender which is WAY better than the candied nuts that you buy at the fair or the boardwalk. You are not going to be in danger of cracking a tooth while enjoying these delightful treats!

The only problem you are going to have is stopping yourself before eating ALL of them. And an added benefit is that your house will smell amazing. I will tell you that it is a big time commitment because they bake for an hour, and you have to stir them every twenty minutes, but it is completely worth it.

I made a batch for Eric and I about a week ago, and we have been demonstrating a lot of self control and the small amount that we have left is still just as tender as when I took them out of the oven (although slightly less decadent because they aren't warm anymore).

Since baking that batch for us, I have made five additional pounds that other people have purchased, and I have to make another two pounds tonight for someone. They are very easy to make yourself, but if you'd like me to make them for you I sell them for $15 for one pound, and $25 for two pounds (plus shipping costs). 

Make sure that if you make these, you have someone to share them with so that you only have to feel guilty about eating half the batch instead of the whole thing!

Until next time,

~C

Preview: next Cookie Monday will be about my great-grandmothers lemon butter cookies which are a Christmas tradition in my household! I can't wait to make them with my Dad on Saturday.

A New Favorite - Cookie Monday

I wanted to take a short minute today (really short, I promise) to talk about one of my favorite new cookie recipes. They are called lemon crinkle cookies (recipe on Kitchen Meets Girl) and they are DELICIOUS. These cookies melt in your mouth and are the perfect amount of sweet and tart to satisfy any sweet tooth.

And the best part? They are fool proof! Really I mean it. If you can stir together ingredients, spoon balls of dough, and roll them in powdered sugar, these are the cookies for you! Here is a picture to get you excited about making them!

(Picture and Recipe here)

I will offer just two simple tips to make your cookie baking process easier. 

First, make them small. I mean, like actually small. They will look so strange on the cookie sheet, but here is my logic behind this suggestion. By making them smaller it is easier to ensure that they are cooked fully, and they are MUCH easier to eat. The first time I made these cookies I made them big. Like tablespoon sized dough balls, and while they were still amazing, you also looked like you had just been hit with a snowball from all the powdered sugar. Making them smaller allows you to just pop the whole cookie in your mouth with very little mess.

Second, make sure they cook fully. The recipe says to bake them for 8-10 minutes. Really push it to the 10 minute side (maybe even a minute or two longer). When they are not baked enough they are still yummy, but they are very difficult to get off of the cookie sheet (even when you use a silicon mat) and if you are serving them to guests, there is an egg in the batter, and that's just not a risk we should be willing to take.

I hope you enjoy this cookie Monday recipe and tips as much as I do (and more so my husband and everyone at his office - these are their favorite). If you try this recipe let me know how it works out for you!

Until next time,

~C

Christmas Cards

Do picture cards with no handwritten message from sites like Shutterfly and Snapfish count as what we used to consider Christmas cards? I am one of you! I send out picture cards just like the majority of the people, but I was thinking about how it used to be. You know, the "good old days".

Anyway, this year I am trying something new to make my Christmas cards more personalized (kind of). I wrote my first "Family Update" letter to mail out along with the picture card. Now, I know it's not truly personalized because everyone is getting the same message. But it did take more thought and effort than simply stuffing the pictures into envelopes. What kinds of things do you include in your family update letters?

I think this might be my response to all the negativity in the world. I am trying to grasp at traditions from Christmases of old, when the world wasn't so scary, and there were far fewer bad guys. I might be 27, but I still believe in the magic of Christmas.

As I sit here writing this, Eric is wrapping Christmas gifts and I can't go into our bedroom. I never really spend time in there during the day, but it was like the instant I couldn't go in, I thought of about five different reasons that I needed to get into the room. I'm trying to be a good girl and not bother him too much, but it is difficult. I think it is my turn to wrap gifts next.

As Christmas gets closer, what kind of family traditions (new or old) do you participate in? Let me know and I will share some of mine in my next post!

Until next time,
~C

...It's a Scary Thought

DISCLAIMER:
There will be quite a bit of negativity in this post. If you don't want to read it, stop now.

I am currently about one-third of the way through my fifth year of teaching. I remember being in the throws of my student teaching experience and the mentor teachers telling us that the first three years would be really challenging, but then in the fourth year you really hit your groove. I think in a lot of ways I have hit that groove. I am much more efficient at lesson planning (kind of) and grading. I also feel more confident with the decisions that I make in my classroom and when I'm planning. Where I do not feel "in the groove" is the overwhelming sense of dread and impending doom I feel nearly every morning as I drag myself out of bed before the sun.

I have often thought, as much as I believe that teaching is the right career choice for me, there are just as many reasons why I feel it is the last thing I should be doing with my life. Now, I understand that restarting at three different schools in the first five years (due to moving around to accommodate the start of Eric's career and his schooling) has not made this any easier. Nor has the simple fact that I have put myself into some pretty tough schools (student population). However, kids are kids, and I really believe that if this was my true calling I would be much happier than I am.

Eric and I are currently in the process of discussing another move (a big one). This move will take us closer to family, and hopefully allow us to purchase a home, and start a family of our own. With this discussion I have started to have the scary thought of changing careers. If I am moving and starting over in my personal life, maybe a parallel change in my professional life is also in order.

It seems that with my current career dissatisfaction, the chance to start again would be welcomed with joy and open arms. And it is... sort of. But I went to school to be a teacher, so trying to figure out what else I am qualified to do, or even what I am interested in is daunting. There are many career counseling programs, and Eric has even used Rockport Institute when he was questioning his career choice. But I cannot justify spending the money it would require to go through their program.

So, as a human living in the 21st century I naturally have turned to the internet for advice. So far I have read a few articles that made me feel ... better (?) about wanting to leave teaching. I also very much enjoyed "Leaving Teaching" from Word Press. But it is very challenging to decide what to do with the next step in my life, when I don't even really know the geographical location I am headed.

If you have ever gone through a career change, and you have any advice or wisdom to share, I am all ears. In the mean time, please enjoy these baby alpacas.

~C

Happy December!

It's my favorite time of the year, FINALLY! I love Christmas. There is something so magical about it that really helps to revive my soul. The music, the lights, the food, everything about the Christmas season brings me joy and makes me feel like a kid again (and we all need to feel that way sometimes).

In my house, Christmas cannot officially start until after Thanksgiving, and that is because turkey day is my husband's favorite day of the year. He also is part of the camp that feels each holiday should be celebrated before you move to the next. Unofficially, I have been listening to Christmas music since... sometime around Halloween. It is hard for me to keep track because Christmas music is what I use to help lift my spirits after a particularly challenging day at work. Currently I am listening to Christmas Radio on Pandora even though I have plenty of my own jolly tunes, it's nice to listen to all the different versions of the songs.

The weather here confuses me because it is December, and tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 60s for the high temperature. Of course, like in most places we have had our cold snaps and a few weeks ago on one of the chillier days we took Pippin on his first adventure to the beach. Eric and I go to the beach far more often during the colder months than we do in the summer. Traffic to the beach is more than Eric can handle. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures from Pippin's beach adventure.

<3 My two boys <3 

Pippin was very unsure about the waves. He wanted to go in the water, but when a wave would come he ran away!

Me and my fur baby.

Pippin didn't actually dig this hole, but we thought it was cute to make it look like he did.

Family portrait (this is the picture I used for our Christmas cards from Shutterfly)

For now it is lesson plans and grading for the next three weeks. Then we are very fortunate this year to get two whole weeks off for Christmas break, and I am very much looking forward to that needed time off from my students.

Until next time, Happy December and I hope the Christmas season brings you as much joy as it brings to me.

~C

Restarting for M-E

Summer is winding down (this is extremely upsetting, and if you are a teacher you will understand), and as the fall (and school year) approaches I have been doing some reflecting and realize that I need to start doing more stuff for ME.

This summer Eric and I expanded our family with a fur baby:

While Pippin has been a wonderful addition to our little family, he has certainly kept me busy during my break from school. Taking care of Pippin, and of course, making sure that I am also taking care of Eric has resulted in me having less time for my hobbies.

So... what I want to do is get back into this blog, get back into my hobbies (crafting, cooking, etc), and get back to myself.

I recently suffered through a bout of food poisoning (?). We really aren't sure what it was, but it wasn't nice, and it really did a number on my body. Over the course of about four days I lost seven pounds, and it really took me almost an entire week after finally being "better" to feel back to myself. I am not happy that I was sick, but I am going to try and turn the negative into a positive, and use this weight loss to really jump start my journey to get to my goal weight and be fit. I am sure I have talked before about my desire to loose weight before Eric and I start having kids, and I am hoping that this next step in our journey will start sometime in the next 18 months. :-D

Here is tonight's dinner recipe (I have fallen off the meal planning wagon - hopefully I will get back on soon) for a Teryaki Chicken Casserole. And I am off to do some crafting while Pippin is taking a nap after our lunch time walk!

I will leave you with these amazing pictures from the Paul McCartney concert that Eric and I were fortunate enough to see at Firefly back in June.

Until my next (food) adventure!
~C