Summer Sign Off

Hi Everyone!

Today's post is just a short note to wish everyone a happy summer season. This will be my last blog entry for a couple of months. With the busy end of the year school and sports schedules for the kids and the upcoming move in June, my attentions and efforts are just better served in other areas right now. I plan to be back by August, though...so mark your calendars and don't go forgetting about me!! 

Enjoy your family and friends and have a safe and happy summer!!

Until next time....

Saturday Morning Coffee Thoughts

Hi Everyone!

I don't know about you; but this week seem to just fly right by me! It seems I was very busy with domestic things and mom things and school things and... today's a busy day too! Phew...I am definitely looking forward to a nice relaxing Mother's Day tomorrow!

Grab your morning beverages and let's see what's been happening this week!

There were so many yummy things people shared in the blogosphere this week that I had a hard time just choosing my normal three!


--These Homemade Churros brought back wonderful memories of my Spanish teacher making churros for our class on special Mexican and Spanish holidays.

-- For me, anything that has a crunchy outside and a warm soft inside is really hard to beat. There is just something about those different temperatures and textures in your mouth all at one time... yum yum!! This Crispy Ravioli recipe looks easy and delicious!

-- I know that eating one of  these Sweet and Salty Caramel Brownies would probably require that I spend about 52 hours at the gym...but OMG, it would TOTALLY be worth it!!

--This One Pot BBQ Chicken Pasta intrigued me on many levels; but most of all...ONE POT, people...ONE POT!!

In the news this week, the big story, of course, was the arrival of Princess Charlotte in all her little pink glory! What a wonderful Mother's Day present for Kate!  Election in the UK, and continued relief efforts for the earthquake in Nepal.  As always, I dug a little deeper in the back pages to find a few more interesting stories for you:

-- The lesson from this Florida couple arrested for having Sex on the Beach? Next time you get an urge like this, order the drink instead and then take them back to your hotel....house...room, close the door and drink them....or don't!!!

-- Whatever you do, don't get on the wrong side of this 95 year old WWII Veteran who proved himself more than capable of some awesome self defense when he fought off an attacker with his cane! Age is only a number, kids...remember that!!

--The beautiful weather outside should provide you the perfect backdrop for you to Instagram your bare feet in support of Tom's Shoes #WithoutShoes campaign to give shoes those in need. I took my picture...with the help of Toby!

The more I blog, the more I have the chance to see and read the other great stories people are sharing. I love when people come and read what I've shared, so I try to get around to as many people as I can during the week as well.

-- Lisa over at "Fun Money Mom" shared a unique perspective on the  Truth About High Heels and Wine that will have you shopping for both in no time!

-- Kate from "Organized Dream" shared a great list of advice about Make up habits to break. Phew...I was so happy I wasn't guilty of any of them!

That's about all for this week. A little shorter than my normal "Coffee Thoughts" posts; but, as I said, it's been a busy week! I leave you with a personal picture for your photo of the week of my Mother and I in honor of Mother's Day.

I look at this photo and I think, "Wow...what a journey we were starting together!" A journey that would take us through laughter and joy; through fun and simple times shared together as well as hard conversations and tears about life and growing up. A journey of learning and navigating the waters together of this vast sea known as "motherhood and childhood"  There were a few storms along the way for sure; but I know with every thing inside of me that the lessons I needed to become the mother I am today began with this picture.


Until next time...

10 Reasons I May Not Do My "To Do" List Today

I am a "To Do" list kind of person...I even bought a brand new Erin Condren life planner to help organize my list of "To Dos" However, it seems that as of late, I am not accomplishing very much on my list; and yet somehow I manage to be busy ALL DAY! This is amazing to me, since I'm up usually by 6:30 on the weekends and even earlier during the week. WHERE IS MY TIME GOING??!? It seems as though I just keep pushing my list down the "weekly row" of my planner. I decided it was time for deep analysis of why that is.

1. Today...maybe I'll go to the gym. Yes, yes I will. I will leave by 8:30 and go, so there's really no point in me starting something if I just have to leave, right?! Wait...what?! It's 11:00am already. Huh?!

2. Lattes Rule. For the record, given the choice between doing something domestic such as laundry, dishes or vacuuming and going to Starbucks for my Grande Non-Fat Latte....guess which one I'll choose?!
Trust me, my gold card status is in NO danger of expiring!

3.  Mom Duties: Even when I have carefully planned my day to accomplish a list of objectives, it never seems to fail that it is on these days that one of my children forgets something and I am  in the vehicle running a pair of shoes to a school for PE, or a forgotten laptop or a permission slip that wasn't signed. And then well, we're almost out of milk and I should go by and get the dry cleaning....Oh wait...there's Starbucks!  Before you know it, my 15 minute trip to a school has turned into a two hour trip around town!

4. The Life of a Wife: My husband has a freer schedule than normal at the moment, which means we end up spending a lot of time making unexpected trips out for lunch and shopping. Sigh, the pressures of being a well-loved wife of a pretty awesome man...it's REALLY hard work, y'all!! (Insert big smiling face emoji, right here!!)  To do list be damned....

5. Little League Baseball: 2 boys playing on 2 different teams with 2 different schedules of games and practices. No explanation required!

Sometimes, I don't even have to leave the house to fail my "to do" list:

6. Total TV Junkie: I realize I have about 15 TV shows and episodes from this past week that I want to catch up on; and well, with coffee in hand, it's so much easier to sit on the couch after the school bus leaves. I swear I'm only going to watch one show; but you know Hulu just rolls to the next show. Clearly, therefore...it is NOT my fault!

7. My "Four Legged" Son: I'm pretty sure the dog is lonely...I really should lay on the floor and cuddle with him. These are the things that truly matter, after all.

8. Vitamin D, Wine and Books: The weather is beautiful, I should really take advantage of the chance to get some Vitamin D by sitting outside....with a glass of wine and my book...which I'm really behind in reading.

9. Baking Mom Extraordinaire: We have nothing sweet in the house for treats after supper...clearly I NEED to bake some cookies, or maybe brownies... oooh...maybe cupcakes!

10. Another Game...Another Turn: I really should catch up on my Words with Friends games, after all there are people depending upon me! And surely it's been a while since I've checked in with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram?!

So much to do...oh well...tomorrow is another day, after all!

Linky Parties:

1. Under the Big Top Act 13

2. Manic Monday

3. Let's Be Friends Blog Hop

Enchilada Crescent Roll Cups

Hi Everyone!

So sorry I missed posting this yesterday as I usually do. You know...sometimes, life just happens, right?! Anyhow, I have a super simple recipe to share with you today. In fact, it is so simple, that I'm not even going to link you to another page for the recipe. I'm just going to put it here on the page for you!

Once again, the crescent roll takes center stage here. The trickiest part of this recipe is getting the crescent rolls into the muffin cups. I mean you thought putting something round into a square peg was difficult, wait until you try to put something triangular into a circle! For me, the easiest thing to do was to take a 2" biscuit cutter and cut a circle out of the wide part of the "crescent triangle" and put that in the bottom of the muffin cup (sprayed lightly) and then I used the rest of the dough to kinda build a wall around the edges and then used my fingers to seal it all together. It's a bit tricky so you may just have to experiment until you find a technique that works for you!

The easy part however, is the filling! Just put it all together and viola...a light and easy dinner ready in under 30 minutes. When I made this, I only used one package of crescent rolls. I could have easily used two packages because I had plenty of filling leftover.

To make this recipe:

1. Simply prepare your favorite enchilada filling.

2. Heat your oven to 375 and pre-bake your prepared crescent roll cups for 8 minutes. If they puff up, which they more than likely will...take a fork and just "poke" them down a little.

3. Fill each cup with a spoonful of your meat mixture, top with shredded cheese

4. Put them back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until crescent cups are golden brown and the cheese on top has melted.

I am sharing this recipe with the following linky parties:

1. Mix it up Mondays

2. Marvelous Monday Linky Party 52

Have a great day, everyone! 

Saturday Morning Coffee Thoughts

Hi Everyone!

Well, it has been a fabulous week for me; and I hope yours has been as well. Of course my big news is taking the dot com leap for the blog here. You can read more about that here...in this post.. the one with the Carlton Banks GIF at the end. The post itself will probably bore you to tears, so I tried to make up for it by adding a GIF at the end!
Did you go watch it? You kinda snorted when you laughed, didn't you?! It's ok...I won't judge you.

OK kids, grab your warm beverages and let's see what's been happening this week

-- You know sometimes you see a picture of a recipe online and you think, "that looks great!" and then you read the recipe and you're left thinking, "WTF?!?" Well...I am here to tell  you that I read this recipe for Buffalo Style Chicken Tenders and thought, "I may actually be able to make these!" You should try them too!

-- Any doubts you ever had about making a kick ass dessert can be put to rest with this recipe for Mexican "Fried Ice Cream" Blondies

-- And you can totally make yourself feel better for eating those chicken tenders and that ice cream by making yourself this Smoked Turkey, Cherry and Feta Salad the next day for lunch! Balance...kids...it's all about balance!

It has been another hectic week in the news world once again. Don't you just sometimes wish the world would slow down so you could catch your breath?! The earthquake in Nepal and rioting in Baltimore obviously dominated the news, along with everyone being on Royal Baby #2 watch. Me...I'm still recovering from the McDreamy death on Grey's Anatomy. Here are the other stories buried in the back pages that caught my attention as well:

-- This story about the body of a newborn girl found in a garbage can in an Ohio sorority house just made me sad...so very sad...

-- Pit bulls already have (often unfairly) bad reputation, so I'm sure this story about one spreading Plague (yes...you read that correctly...Plague) to four people isn't helping their cause, AT ALL!

-- If I was a mom in this Tennessee County School District that was discovered to be serving YEARS old meat in lunch rooms,  I'd be packing my kids' lunches until they went to college.


I love to blog...I love to share my stories, recipes and creations with you. I realize it may only be 10 of you reading this on a regular basis; and I'm OK with that. I am here for ALL. TEN of you! Blogging is hard work though...harder than I thought it would be.

--When I read this post about starting a blog from Sunshine Dad, I nearly raised my hands and yelled "Hallelujah" in the candy aisle in Target---which is where I was at the time when I read it, cause you know I CAN totally multitask by shopping and reading blogs at the same time; but I digress---
Really though, you should just go spend some time over at the Sunshine Dad blog. He's got a great page with lots of funny stories and great ideas!

-- If you have kids, Melissa's post: Laundry in 22 steps will speak to you in SO. MANY. WAYS!!!

-- Once again, I chose two gorgeous cards from talented crafters to share with you this week:

"Mother's Day Blessings" by Lesley
at Always Playing with Paper

"Welcome Baby" by Caryn Davies at Glitter Me Silly

As always we end with a few random thoughts:

-- The news as of late would have you believe that all of humanity is going to the proverbial "Hell in a handbasket" and then you read a story about a homeless man donating to a church and you realize, there may be a glimmer of hope out there after all...

--This Ultimate Food Guide list  is pretty much anything and everything you could ever possibly want to know about anything related to food. So, click it and save it...tweet it, pin it...whatever you do with your "I hope I never forget I found this on the internet" stuff! 

--I'm not sure I could actually give up $95,000 to scoop ice cream; but I have to admit, I totally get where Noelle is coming from. 

Finally, your picture of the week, cause tulips are forever beautiful! 

Magic Tulips by Alexander Schmeibe
at 500pix.com

Until next time...

Taking the (Dot Com) Leap

Hi Everyone!!

Sooooo....did you notice the new name up there?! After a lot of thinking and researching and should I or shouldn't I? conversations with myself and my family, I decided to take the dot com leap and register my own domain.
I have been feeling less than happy with blogger owning my content and also with my blog title. I felt like it just didn't reflect me or my blog and what I wanted to share with everyone.
I also felt like the "blogspot.com" address wasn't getting me the traffic I really want, so I'm hoping that this will help me drive some more visitors to my page.

There were many pieces of paper sacrificed in the name of brainstorming a new name, so I'll  take a moment here and say a silent thank you to the trees that contributed to this new endeavor.  As I was standing in my kitchen the other evening, surrounded by the chaos of dinner and watching my boys play baseball in the back yard; and my daughter sitting and helping me come up with a new web name, I realized this is my life: It is chaos...and it is perfect!

Ok... so everything is new; and yet it is also the same. I'm still in the process of changing a few other things behind the scenes; but it should not affect your interaction and redirects to the website from the web address. This means that if you click a previous posted link found in a linky party, or something on Pinterest, it should redirect you to the new web address automatically.

Are you bored yet with the technical mumbo jumbo?! Yeah...me too! So, I shall leave you for now with a little "Happy Dance"  from the Happy Dance King! Take it away, Carlton!

Enjoy your Friday, I'll be back tomorrow morning with this week's "Saturday Morning Coffee Thoughts"