It's My Life

I like to think I am a fairly typical working mom. My mornings are very hectic. It is always a struggle for me to get up, get myself ready for work, get the dog out in the morning, the kids up, showered, fed, and out the door. In my rush, my own breakfast is often overlooked. I recently gave up eating food that is served in a paper bag. {Meaning fast food restaurants} In my attempt to be successful in my new endeavors, I realized I needed a plan. My solution is Egg Cups. The super good news: They are only 1 Weight Watchers Point Plus Points. So this breakfast will not derail any weight loss attempt! These are simple to make. You need some fresh vegetables {I used spinach, portabella mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes}, egg substitute, and a tiny bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese. I took my muffin tin and sprayed each tin with a nonstick cooking spray. In each tin, I added some torn up fresh spinach. There is no real right answer as to how much you use. I just kept adding...

This is the third weekend after nominations. And four weeks until The Oscars. How is your movie countdown coming along? I hate to admit it, I am way behind in reading for my bookclub but I have about tackled this year Oscar list. I have 9 movies left to see.                                                                 Best Picture: 8/9 Seen I added Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook to my "watched" list this weekend. I will admit to never finishing the book Life of Pi despite the wonderful things I had heard about it. So, I had no expectations of the movie. I thought it was wonderful. I have spend the day thinking about how powerful the mind is to protect us from things we can not handle. My Best Friend and I got together this afternoon to see Silver Linings Playbook together. We use to see numerous nominated m...

One of the things we try to do as a family is sit down and eat dinner together every night. As crazy and hectic as our lives get it is at least thirty minutes out of our day when we are all together. My favorite part of the meal is our family dinner conversations. Tonight, in our attempt to be healthier I made fish for dinner. No one really likes fish {except me}. The Short Chic: Dad, do we like fish? Me: If you are gonna be a pro-fisherman when you get big, you are gonna have to like eating fish. The Husband: crinkles up his nose and shakes his head yes. {That is probably as much support as he can muster when we are having fish for dinner.} The Short Chic: Well, I am going to be a librarian when I get big. The Short Chic: Or work at McDonald's. The Boy: McDonald's serves fish sandwiches. The Short Chic: Yep, I am going to be a librarian. According to The Short Chic, this is what a librarian looks like. She highly recommends Pinkalicious books! While The...

I am happy to report, I am down to 16 movies left to watch. Where are you at in your list? Best Picture/Actor in a Leading Role/Actress in a Leading Role: I have currently seen 5/9 Best Picture nominations. {I am seeing another today but I have not counted it yet!} Beast of the Southern Wild you can find at the local Red Box. I am totally smitten with that cute little girl who was only 5 at the time of making this movie. Djando Unchained . Okay, first let me say, I don't know how I feel about Quentin Tarantino movies. I liked Pulp Fiction . Not so much other things. Will admit to not watching Kill Bill . This movie is typical Quentin. Blood. Or at least fake blood. Lots and lots of it. Over the top moments that you just can't help but laugh at. I liked the story line. I really liked Christoph Waltz, if I had a mustache, I think I would be grabbing at it. Les Miserables  was wonderful! Having never seen it on Broadway or even off Broadway, I assume it is pretty ...

My coworker had a birthday last week. {It was one of those monumental birthday's that shouldn't be overlooked!} We had a celebration in her honor at work. I made a quiche and a salad.  The salad was a simple winter salad with homemade dressing. The dressing was probably the easiest thing to make and it was so yummy! I may never purchase salad dressing again. Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice 2 teaspoons diced onion 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup vegetable oil 1 Tablespoon Poppy Seeds In a blender, add the sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard, and salt. Process until well blended. While blender is on, slowly add the oil in a constant stream. Add the poppy seeds and process just a few seconds longer. I tossed this dressing with some romaine lettuce, Swiss cheese, a diced apple, diced pear, some dried cranberries, and a few cashews. It was the absolute yummiest! The dressing has just enough citrus to make it t...

One of my favorite days of the year happened this week. Oscar Nominations were made!                                The countdown to Oscar officially starts with the nominations. Once again, there are 9 movies nominated for Best Picture. {I went into it having only seen 1.} For the past 16 years my best friend and I have made it our goal to see as many of the movies nominated before Oscar night. With the exception of the shorts (animated and live action), the foreign films, and the documentaries we do really well and can at times hit over 90% seen. Excluding those categories mentioned above, we have 30 movies to see. {35 with Documentary Features or Foreign Language Films or 40 with both.}                                        I am so excited to start seeing movies. As the w...

A weekend without obligations. Totally unplanned, uneventful. All rest and relaxation. I NEVER have those! This weekend was close. Friday night I sat at home, wrapped in a blanket and talked to my friends; Dana and Rose. In the midst of talking to them my cousin, Phillip, called. Phillip pretty much never calls me. Then he wants to know what I am doing Saturday night and if he can come over. Really Phillip has been to my house once. But Phillip is my cousin and he is welcome here any time! So of course I told him we would be home Saturday night and we would love to have him come over. We made a trip to the bank Saturday morning. {The Boy drove us. I hardly even scolded his driving!} The Christmas Tree came down Saturday morning. We met a friend of ours at Eagle Days {We saw about 7 juvenile bald eagles}. The photo above is taken with my zoom lens about 1-1 1/2 miles away. Through the telescope the Park Rangers has set up we could see five juveniles in those ...

I learned about Project Life this past year from a blogger,  Marty's Musings . I loved the concept. And if any  of you have scrapbooked with me in the past you might also know that I am a huge fan of Becky Higgins. The fact that she is the creator of Project Life sealed the deal for me. I LOVE scrapbooking but I find that I am forever behind and never seem to make the time to get my albums complete. This year, I am going to give Project Life a shot.  According to Becky Higgins' promotional materials, Project Life is scrapbooking without the "scrapbooking".  There is no glue, no techniques, no layout design.  I am so optimistic about this I just can't wait to get started! Let me walk you through my Project Life: You start with a binder. Next, you get some divided sheet protectors. The basic premise is that there are spaces for title, journaling blocks, and photos. There are enough sheet protectors for 52 weeks; one per week. Besides the bin...