My brother-in-law was in a fatal motorcycle accident over the weekend. I’ll be taking time this week to be with my family. I hope to be back next week.
I am not going to share all the details on the blog for now. If you know my family personally, though, please feel free to email me for information.
Thanks to all of you for understanding.
Remember how I complained about having too many unread posts in my Google Reader a couple weeks ago? Well, you’ll be happy to know that I a) cleared all those posts out of my reader, may they rest in peace and b) I unsubscribed from several blogs that either didn’t interest me anymore or simply posted too much content for me to keep up with.
Also, a side note. I just realized that I titled that links post “Weekend Links, 4.21.11.” Clearly I need to spend more time with a calendar.
Now that I’ve de-cluttered and re-organized my blog reading, I’m not overwhelmed anymore. (Well, I’m overwhelmed by some other things right now. But reading blogs is, thankfully, not one of them.) Here are my favorite posts from the past couple of weeks:
So, who has festive plans for Cinco de Mayo? (That’s today, if you are also calendar-challenged.) Nothing exciting going on at our house, other than a meeting for church, a possible shopping trip for a baby pool, and a marathon viewing of the last four episodes of Missing. (Are you watching that? We love it.) I’m sure we’ll eat Mexican food at some point this weekend, but that’s no different than any other weekend in my life.
In case you decide to be a little more festive than that and need ideas for Mexican dishes to make, here’s a list of several that I’ve made and here’s a super easy recipe for homemade salsa. As the most-annoying-high-pitched-voice-ever Dora would say, delicioso!
What are the best posts you’ve read and written lately? Please share it with us in the comments!
This post will be linked to Saturday Stumbles at Vanderbilt Wife.
When I started my low-carb adventure last month, I had high hopes of dropping huge amounts of weight in a short amount of time. I should know better, but I really envisioned a much slimmer me shopping for a brand-new swimsuit – and even wearing it in public – this summer.
Instead, as of Monday morning, I’ve lost 10 whole pounds.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m really excited about this! It’s a fraction – a small one, at that – of my overall goal. But it’s a step. And there’s no way I can get to that end goal without losing the first 10 pounds.
And, as my friend Jill pointed out, that is 40 sticks of butter. FORTY STICKS OF BUTTER!
Several years ago, I joined Weight Watchers with two girls I worked with. One of my co-workers had lost weight with the program before, and she told me that when she lost a certain amount of weight, she and her friend celebrated by going to the grocery store, putting the number of pounds of ground beef that they had lost in their cart – and then pushing it around the aisles like little kids playing hooky.
As I lost weight that time, I just made a chain of paper clips in my cubicle. I’m not really a “make a scene in the grocery store” kind of girl, I guess.
This time, though? I have even more to lose, and I’ve been trying – and failing – for even longer. So a few pounds seems to deserve great celebration at this point!
In the middle of writing this post, I followed a link to a blog post called, “The Crumbs We Haven’t Been Looking For.” [Thanks, Leigh, for the recommendation!] I love the entire post, but this part really spoke to me:
“I am victory, and I am much smaller than people think. So unless you develop eyes for the puny, you’ll spend your life believing that you’re going nowhere, that I’m distant from you, that you have no reason to celebrate.”
That’s good stuff, right? And besides, forty sticks of butter? That is not puny!
I can’t guarantee that I’ll lose another stick of butter, much less hundreds of them. To be honest, I’ve had at least one leg off the wagon this week [and, again, there were those pesky M&Ms from last week]. But I’m not giving up. I’m choosing my hard.
And I’m celebrating this first 10 pounds.
What small victory are you celebrating today? Share in the comments, so we can celebrate with you!
Inviting people to a party (especially from the comfort of my computer) wasn’t hard. Baking cupcakes and making centerpieces that don’t look like something my 4-year-old made at preschool was a bit harder, but still not that difficult.
What’s hard is getting past the “hi, how are you,” taking off our shoes and our masks, and really getting to know one another. That part? It’s HARD. It’s hard because intentionally gathering women into community (and joining them there) is choosing to reach out, to connect, to love even though you might get hurt.
It’s possible – no, probable – that one of your friends is going to let you down. She’ll ignore too many phone calls, she’ll ditch your weekly happy hour for dinner with her new boyfriend, she’ll believe a lie she hears about you, she’ll roll her eyes at your story, she’ll invite all the other girls but you, she’ll hurt you. She may not mean to – or maybe she will – but your friend will probably hurt you at some point.
So what is the point? Why should we let people in, when they’re just going to hurt us like those other people did? And, to be fair, why should they let us in, when we might end up hurting them?
For my answer to those questions (and the rest of this post), visit (in)courage.
Even though I’ve been a part of (in)courage for more than two years and have visited the actual beach house (and have been hearing about (in)RL for months now), it only occurred to me a few weeks ago that my (in)RL meetup should have a beach theme.
[And yes, even though I wrote a book about planning parties, I didn't start my actual planning until two weeks ago. Like I said, it's been a rough month.]
So when I decided to get my act together and plan this thing, I was looking for simple, cute ideas to go with the beach theme. I knew I didn’t have time or patience to do anything elaborate. Mark actually suggested making snickerdoodle cupcakes (with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top to look like sand), and I figured a bowl of Goldfish crackers would be a good salty companion to cupcakes and the requisite M&Ms.
But then I went to Annalyn’s preschool family day, where kids and grown-ups alike were served tiny paper cups of Goldfish. They seemed more seasoned than normal and I started wondering what I could add to the crackers to fancy them up just a tad. I thought garlic salt or perhaps grated Parmesan cheese, but after a quick search, I found this great recipe on Taste of Home.
3 packages (6.6 oz each) Goldfish
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
3 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2/3 cup canola oil
Put the crackers into a large ziploc. Mix together remaining ingredients, then pour over crackers. Zip the bag, and shake until crackers are coated. Pour crackers onto two large baking sheets. Bake at 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
I think they turned out pretty well. Well enough that I had to give away the leftovers so I wouldn’t eat them all – and I don’t even really like “normal” Goldfish!
What’s your favorite salty party snack?
This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Made by You Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Works for Me Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, I’m Lovin’ It, Foodie Friday and Show and Tell Saturday.
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