Don't let this photo from Monday fool you...

We are expecting snow today! Crazy, right?! And "they" keep talking about what a cray winter we should be prepared for. We shall see!

It's been awhile, so here's what we're into these days:

* Jett is into building things with Duplos (and promptly knocking them down). And cars. Lots of cars! He's more or less a professional conversationalist these days, too, so that's quite fun. One of our hot topics currently os his birthday party, which will be here before we know it!

* Ryan is into makin' jamz with his new MacBook Pro (IKR).

* I'm into trying to prepare for holiday fun! Oh, and I'm also into looking forward to seeing Ryan Adams on December 6th. And I'm obsessed with that new podcast Serial.

Holla!

Summer on a Skewer

I'll admit - It's been SUPER hard to figure out my schedule/life-balance with my new work schedule. But I have faith that as it becomes more familiar, I'll be able to figure out the best time to blog, respond to emails in a more timely manner, etc.!

J and I are preparing to go to a friend's brunch this morning, and after I made my dish, I couldn't NOT take a picture - it was just too pretty! And then I realized that I must share this dish on my blog, for anyone trying to think of a yummy (and oh so seasonal) dish to bring to a party/cookout/whatever...

Here's a pic of the lovely Caprese Skewers:

I'm obviously not the first to post a Caprese Skewers recipe online, and I'm definitely not saying this is the BEST Caprese Skewers recipe out there... I just wanted to share what I did, and hopefully inspire!

Here's how I made mine:

First, I prepared my ingredients... I rinsed the fresh basil and grape tomatoes, grabbed the fresh mozzarella (it was already shaped into the perfect size for the skewers, so that was a time-saver!) and gathered my skewers. Then I simply added the ingredients to the skewers - I opted to do a tomato-basil-mozzarella-tomato-basil-mozzarella-tomato pattern, which worked very well, especially since the tomato on the end cleans up any of the mozzarella that likes to stick to the skewer. After the skewers were ready, I placed them on a foil-lined platter (just so the Italian dressing would stay contained), drizzled with a little Italian dressing and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. 

Voila! It's really that easy.

It's such a fun recipe, since you can really change up the ingredients...  I've made them in the past with prosciutto (which was delicious!), and I've also used a variety of dressings/oil-and-vinegar combos for the drizzle. Also, you could change up the seasonings that are sprinkled on top, add more veggies, or anything, really. You could also make mini skewers using toothpicks.

So fun! And so seasonal! Enjoy!

XO

Favorites 3/28/14

A few of Jett's favorites (subject to change in 5 minutes):

- Franklin's Tower by The Grateful Dead... This one has been a favorite for a while, actually... But now he's actually asking to listen to it, which is terribly cute. Every morning during breakfast a teeny tiny voice says demands "Play roll away! Play roll away!"

- Strawberries or strawbrys, as he says. He could eat a million a day! For breakfast, we usually have a variation of the above photo. It's blueberry granola, plain Greek yogurt (we LOVE our plain Greek yogurt around here), dried cranberries and blueberries. Jett prefers his deconstructed, however, and always with an addition of strawbrys.

- Cars (the movie)... Just like his requests for Franklin's Tower, every day he requests "Watch Cars?! Watch Caaaaaaaaaaars?!" And of course, he still loves playing with his Hot Wheels, or any other cars/trucks for that matter.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. 

XO

Transitions, y'all

Such a beautiful little poem, huh? I'm really trying (hard) to keep that in mind lately...

Moving and starting a new job are always included in the "most stressful life events" lists, and this past year has been full of both of those things. First, before moving to Oklahoma, our house was on the market for eight months - stressful! Then we moved far, far away from our comfy little East Nashville neighborhood to Tulsa, which was where my husband grew up, so anything he knew about the place was circa 1997ish. Then, right away, my husband started a new job (which was in a new industry, even), and I tried to settle into stay-at-home (or stay-at-my-inlaws?) mommyhood. Fast forward 11 weeks and we were closing on our new Oklahoma home, realizing that if we wanted to pay our mortgage payments, I should probably work part-time. So then I started a few (yes, a few) part-time jobs, some I've actually loved...

And now, I'm jumping back into the full-time workforce. But I'm going to work from home. Which is awesome and scary and exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. I wasn't really looking for something full-time... It kinda just worked out that way. But I'm ready for this new adventure.

Which brings me back to the poem...

Sometimes it's hard to wear that smile all the time (especially on days like yesterday, when at&t had me in frustration-tears), but we gotta keep on keeping' on, huh? And I have a bright-eyed 2-year-old keeping watch on me 24/7, helping me to be accountable for every action/reaction throughout the day. :)

Oh, and just in case my moving/getting new jobs rant in paragraph 2 sounded a little too negative, I just want to mention that we LOVE our house, LOVE our new city and love (lowercase-love, haha) all of our new jobs. The only thing I'd like to go back and tell myself a year ago is to ENJOY my stay-at-home mommy time, because that precious year went by fast and I spent way to much time dwelling on financial stress. Ugh.

It's been a year of stretching, a year of growth. And boy, have we grown. So excited for what's in store! 

XO

The February Funk

So, apparently there is a thing called Seasonal Affective Disorder (or S.A.D.), which, according to the National Library of Medicine is "a type of depression that occurs at a certain time of the year, usually in the winter."

And I'm guessing that S.A.D. is most common in the lovely month of February. This month is just the pits. It feels like it's been winter FOREVER, and yet Spring seems SO far away. 

I, just like many people, I'm guessing, tend to feel a little "blah" in February. January is fun, fresh and new, with all of its resolutions and promise of a bright, shiny year ahead, so we deal with the snow and the cold. And when February hits, we're just plain O-V-E-R it, huh?

However, I had a revelation this week... I know that most of the resolution-makers see January as the best place to begin. And, yes, I've been brainstorming a list the things I'd like to change in my life since 1/1/14, but I've realized that when I typically put my plan to action is actually in February.

I blame S.A.D. (or the "February Funk", if you will) for not only pulling me down this time of year, but also for helping me to get my rear into motion. There have been quite a few Februarys in the past decade that I can remember making drastic changes. I've trained for two half marathons, and went on a two-week vegan kick (which eventually led to becoming a vegetarian), and I started all of these things in - yes - February.

And today I started training for yet another half marathon. I half believe I'm crazy, since after the Country Music Half in Nashville last year, I claimed that I wouldn't be training for another long distance race for awhile. But what can I say? The S.A.D. has gotten to me once again, forcing (helping?) me to M-O-V-E.

Plus, I need to get a little dirt on my new running shoes. :)

Anyway, I hope all of you are having the loveliest of lovely Februarys, and hopefully you don't have to train for a half marathon to alleviate the winter blues. 

Happy Saturday! XO 

uh, YUM!

Hay, y'all!

I just wanted to give a shout-out to a Tulsa restaurant we enjoyed on New Year's Day...

Dilly Deli is awesome! If you live here and haven't tried it, you're missing out. We've been on the hunt for yummy local spots since we moved here last March, and we decided (unanimously) that Dilly Deli should be placed on the list of places we'd be proud to take our out-of-town guests. 

I had the delish Green Eggs and Ham, which is crispy hashbrowns with spinach, prociutto, pesto, parmesan cheese, sundried tomatoes and 2 fried eggs. Basically YUM on a plate. Those joining me (Ryan, Jett & Linny) loved what they had, too, but my memory can't be bothered to recall the details of what they ate.

Here are a few pics from our first of many trips to Dilly Deli:

Oh, and check their website for the menu, as well as their fun weekly happenings (kids eat free on Thursdays!). And don't let the fact that they're downtown scare you away... Parking is way easy. Much different than the Nashvegas Downtown craziness we're used to.

XO

Goal writing

I start every year with my "staple" resolutions of exercising more, eating better, reading/writing more, and being an all-around better mother/person/wife/friend/sister/daughter/etc.

This year, though, I've been thinking beyond simple resolutions... I've been thinking about the act of setting goals and actually achieving them. Big, serious stuff!

One thing I've heard a lot about lately is the fact that writing your goals down makes you much more likely to achieve them. Why? Maybe it's because we feel more committed when we've put pen to paper? Or maybe it's just because we have a physical reminder once those goals can be seen daily on a piece of paper? I'm not sure why this is, but it definitely deserves a chance. If nothing else, it'll help me to conceptualize some of the goals floating around my head.

Any other goal-setting/achieving tips i shoould be aware of? Do you write down your goals?

XO