School, Seafood and Sisters

It's been a busy few days.  I returned to school on Wednesday to some very excited students.  This week we were learning the letter "O" and on Thursday we made these adorable owls.  On Friday we had a "Snow Day".  Hey.  When you live in South Georgia you have to get creative.  We had a snowball fight, ice skated and made snowmen.  A couple of days ahead of time we made snowballs with crumpled paper and cotton balls glued to the outside.  The students could toss them at each other without getting hurt.  After giving each child a snowball we stood across from them and declared war.  They had so much fun chasing us around the room. We used card stock that was cut in half and threw them on the floor.  Each child stepped onto the paper and "skated" around the room.  My assistant and I even joined them for a couple of spins around the room. During art time we used a shaving cream/glue mixture to make "puffy" snowmen.  It was a fun and exhausting day.

At home, things are always busy.  I'm not always great at getting a decent supper on the table but I was feeling a bit proud of my accomplishments at the beginning of the week so on Wednesday I tried another pinterest recipe.  I pinned this recipe a while back and have been eager to try it but just never seem to get around to it.  It was incredibly easy (peeling the shrimp was a little time consuming) and delicious. I also made some zucchini by drizzling a little olive oil on the pan and seasoning the sliced zucchini with a little salt/pepper and paprika.  The rest of the meal I took the super easy way out with some Pasta Roni and frozen garlic bread.

 Before baking......

 Doesn't it look delish?

Fast, easy and yummy meal.  My favorite kind.

Well, we've discussed seafood and school but my favorite thing is sisters!  I love my sister.  As children we pretty much tolerated each other but as adults we are each other's best friend.  I'm very thankful for my sister and she is a blessing to me all the time.  

I have two daughters that, just as my sister and I did, fight pretty much non-stop. I keep telling them I hope they will have a friendship like their aunt and I do and they need to remember that sisterhood is a special bond.  Now my sister has 2 girls of her own!  In December we were all blessed with the arrival of her twin girls that I will refer to as ladybugs.  We are enjoying these new blessings more than I can express.  This week I couldn't resist buying these onesies for them.  After all, they had 2 "uncle" outfits and as much as I love my brother I can't be outdone.  Ha!  My sister sent a text this morning with this picture attached:

Raise your hands if you think Aunt 'Nisie is the best!

2 Days in a Row!

Yep. Two days in a row I have tackled things I pinned on Pinterest.  Yesterday was crafts and today recipes.  I've discovered these are a HUGE stress relief for me.  Today I had a job interview that I was just a tad bit stressed out about.  Okay.  I was maybe a bit more stressed out than a tad.  I spent much time praying about it and have a lot of peace about the job itself but the nerves come in when wondering do they think I'm right for this job.  Oh well.  I followed my hubby's advice, along with a few others, and I was just myself.  Hopefully, I'm what they're looking for.

Now.  Back to my experiments today.  This morning before my interview I baked a loaf of banana nut bread using this recipe.  I took it out of the oven right before I ran out the door to my interview so I didn't get a picture before my husband dove in.  By the time I got a pic. everyone had tried it.  Needless to say, it was a huge hit.  The only thing I did differently from the recipe was add about 1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips.  The husband did request I eliminate them next time, though and cut a bit of the sweetness.

Tonight I decided to try a recipe that I've tried once before - sweet and sour chicken with fried rice.  It was such a hit the last time I couldn't wait to make it again.  I did try a different recipe for shrimp sauce but I'm not sure it is a keeper, yet.  I'm going to try it again because I think I may have done something wrong.  You can find the links to the recipes here:  sweet and sour chicken, fried rice and shrimp sauce.

 I took a picture of the rice before I added the soy sauce and forgot to take another one.  Oops!

All in all, not a bad day for me.  I work Wednesdays through Fridays so tomorrow is back to work for me.  I love my job and the people I work with. Now you're wondering why I interviewed for a different job.  More on that later, though.  For now I get to spend my mornings with the cutest little 2 year olds!  

Welcome!

Thank you for taking the time to join me as I begin chronicling my journey.  My life is not a field of poppies but who's is and if it were I probably wouldn't appreciate them as much as I should.

My husband encouraged me to start this blog several months ago.  He thought it would be good for me to keep up with projects and maybe even sharing experiences would be somewhat therapeutic for me.  I decided that a new year was the perfect time to begin so here we are.

With Christmas decorations put away the house seems somewhat bare.  I wasn't happy with the emptiness and the feeling it gave me so I turned to Pinterest.   The next big holiday is Valentine's Day so I decided to get a head start.  Generally, I'm very good at pinning things on Pinterest but I usually don't get around to actually doing them, especially the crafts.  In fact, decorating is something that is just not my gift at all.  My sister usually has to help me out in this area.

I'm actually pretty proud of the decorations I've completed so far.  I started with a decoration using wooden hearts.  You can find it here.  It leads to a link where you can actually purchase it but to be honest, I never got that far and thinking it was just a craft idea, I made it myself.  I purchased the hearts from A.C. Moore for about $1.79 each, I think.  I bought some red acrylic paint and used white paint I already had at home.  I bought the red with white polka dot ribbon at Walmart for $1.99. I painted the hearts and once they dried I used this technique to write our names on them. Instead of paint I used a black sharpie.  I hot glued the hearts onto the ribbon and my fabulous hubby placed hooks on the first and third hearts to anchor them to the wall.

My next attempt took a bit longer to complete.  I loved these tissue roses so I went out and purchased styrofoam balls and red, white and pink crepe paper.  I followed the tutorial here and got started.  My roses turned out a bit tighter and not as full as the ones in the video but I still like them.  I'm going to show you a picture of the two I've done so far but this is not how I plan to set them out so no judging my poor decorating skills.

So there it is.  My first post on my new blog.  I'm looking forward to sharing many more times with you.  Thank you for visiting and please come again.  I love feedback but please keep it clean and positive.