Tuesday

I didn't have time to run down and get the milk, and I forgot to make my molasses cookies I was planning on making. But the deviled eggs were yummy!

Monday

Forgot to buy milk....was running all over the place during lunch. But otherwise everything was yummy. Lunch was about 600 cal. Breakfast 400 I'm not sure how much dinner was, but I just had a bowl of soup so I think I'm good for today. I got home late tonight and I left my awesome lunch box at school....sad day.

Nourishing Lunches

So there is a list in this book for September that lists a whole week of school lunches. Normally I am accustomed to eating the frozen lunch with grapes and pudding, but I'm game to try a full week of Vintage packed lunches in my fabulous metal lunchbox.

I'm kind of curious to add up the calories...the last time I did this I consumed SOO many calories and gained like 5 lbs.

Monday: Chocolate Milk
Cottage Cheese and Nuts
Egg Salad Sandwich
Apple

Tuesday
Milk
Lunch Meat Sandwich
Orange
Deviled Egg
Cookie

Weds
Milk
Orange
Raisin Bread and Butter Sandwich

Thursday
Milk
Tomato
Salmon Sandwich
Sponge Cake

Friday
Apple
Chocolate Bar
Cream of Celery Soup

Shopping List:
Milk
2 Apples
2 Oranges
Chocolate
Smoked Salmon
Tomato
Raisin Bread
Cookies
"Sponge Cake"
Lunch Meat
Cottage Cheese
Egg Salad

Trip to Trader Joes: Here I come.

P.S New Favorite Food Website www.eatingwell.com

September Assignments (mostly) Accomplished

So I've been diligently working on Septembers assignments while having a frenzy of information go through my mind (maybe "bevy" is a better word?)
First, I would like to share my new door dec. I made for my front door today. I think it's super cute it says "Blessings Fall" OR "Fall Blessings" Whichever way you look at it. I love sparkleys for the holidays, but my tastes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and I'm not using Orange in my home decor anymore....until Halloween anyway. I also am becoming more convicted that the word of the Lord should be written all over your house. Some of my friends from church write scriptures and frame them. I'm working on incorporating Gods word into my home decor.  Deuteronomy 6 4 “Hear, O Israel: dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.2 5 You eshall love theLord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.6 And fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 gYou shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 iYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

Anyways...so Hobby Lobby was having a sale and I found the acorns and Leaf for 40% off and the ribbon was on super clearance. I bought a paint pen and wrote Blessings Fall, I thought that was rather clever since everything in the store said "Fall Blessings" What the heck IS a fall blessing? and how is it different from any other kind of blessing? I had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to attach it to my door. so I ended up sewing a loop to the back of the bow that allowed for the back end of the wreath holder to loop into it. 

The other "crafty" thing I did in the same regard was a vase I found at peir 1 imports for super clearance as well. I keep it in my bedroom. I wrote Psalm 4:8 on it.


In peace I will both slie down and sleep;

for you alone, O Lord, make me tdwell in safety.

 It doesn't look as great in photo as it does in person...and the surface was kind of difficult to write nice font in...but I like it. 

Anyways on to Sept. assignments. 

"Cultivate a sense of appreciation. Love your work, trust your work, keep in touch with today. Teach yourself to be practical, up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail." ~Henry Van Dyke

" Appreciation is the key to knowledge, the key to art, to literature, to good work. Without it, beauty is not seen nor understood and perfection is never acquired...We women hurry all too rapidly through the days, forgetting how big they are and how many times we could touch hands with real happiness if we would but appreciate the opportunity." -Mary Brooks Picken

One of my complaints from last year was that I didn't feel like there was enough time in my days. But I am beginning to realize there wasn't enough day in my time, and not enough relationship in my day.  When I spend time with other people, or spend time alone with God, or doing something I really truly love, my days seem like the last forever, in an incredibly good way. However, when I am totally unproductive, checking facebook, watching movies/television shows playing dumb computer games, my days go back SO fast and I wonder where my day has gone to. Sometimes I am SO tired at the end of the work day that I don't WANT to do anything else. But this semester I've booked myself solid, with spending time with friends, taking classes, auditioning for shows, and church related activities. While work still leaves me exhausted and rather grumpy, I enjoy my life a little more now. 

I came across an article by Fredrica Mathewes-Green. I heard it referenced in a sermon I was listening to, and I went to look it up. The article is entitled "Three Bad Ideas for Women"  She makes this statement: 

Though I use the term “careerism” to identify this value, I don’t mean that women shouldn’t have careers. I mean rather a half-conscious ideology which holds that the most important thing in life is the rank conferred by a place of employment. It’s as bad for men as it is for women.

Careerism is a foolish idea on many levels, not least because only the most fortunate, and elite, people get to have careers. Most people just have jobs. When I was a young feminist mouthing off about how I was going to be out in the workplace and not stuck at home, my dad gave me a few wise words that, improbably, sunk in even then. He pointed out that most of the people in the world don’t get their fulfillment from the thing that gives them a paycheck. They get their fulfillment from other facets of life: faith, family, hobbies, literature, music. For most people, a job represents only the hours they must spend each week to earn the free hours in which they can do the things they really care about. Careerism is the misguided notion that work trumps everything else.

Which I think is so true! I have been living, and I believe have been aught to live like work trumps everything else. Which sucks!!!  A) Essentially we're trying to search for fulfillment in our jobs, which really isn't there, or if it is, its there temporarily. Only Christ can fully and eternally satisfy. At some point our jobs are going to let us down and B)  When our jobs trump everything else, it trumps family and relationships. I know I've lived like this for...well the majority of my life. When really, I COULD have a job that paid the bills, was less than 30 hours a week and gave me time to spend with friends and family. I just...didn't. I didn't make that choice before. I thought my "career" was the most important factor in my life; I had to prove that I could support myself, be responsible and independent.

I've been keeping kind of an ongoing "goal" collage and one of the sentences I clipped out was "The thrill of choosing which way to go." As opposed to "knowing" which way to go, "knowing" isn't very thrilling...I don't think. Knowing doesn't cause me to step out in faith, or change, or do bigger and better things. Knowing isn't a choice, it's a duty. 

We were made to help each other out and part of helping out is taking care of the home, and passing down the word off God to our children. Journeying together through life to ultimately come to the fullness of Christ. You can't "Journey" in stagnation. You can't cease to stagnate when your days consist of waking up: going to work: cleaning the house: cooking dinner: going to sleep.  But quite frankly, when your career becomes who and what you are, that's really all there is. The same phenomenon would happen to someone who was barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. I have met more and more intelligent, incredibly capable amazing women who have chosen to stay home and take care of their children, and its truly a shame that the majority of american society looks down on them. 


I was reading this other article I heard referenced about why men don't grow up, or the Peter Pan syndrome.  Can I survive on my own? Yeah. I can, I can make enough money to support myself, and I'm responsible enough to get the trash out before it starts smelling. Do I WANT to? No. No I don't want to do it by myself, and more than that, I believe that God called us to help each other out, as iron sharpens iron. (Prov 27:17) 

Assignment #1 Orange and Peach Jam

I've made Jam before: Strawberry Jam...I don't think I was patient enough with it, because it turned out a bit too fluid. This is my canned version. I'm afraid to open it. I can't remember when I made it, and I'm afraid it is probably nasty inside.

 but today I made Orange and Peach Jam....which is why I'm up so late. It took me longer than I expected it would. I put it in a jar marked "not for use in canning" so I'm not "canning" it...I'm "Jarring" it and it's going directly in the refrigerator when it cools off, so I'm pretty sure it should be okay. The recipe in the book was a little vague and complicated all at the same time. So I followed another recipe and kind of combined the too. That seems to be a pattern in my cooking lately. 

Peaches/Oranges and Peels/Water and Sugar Boiling

Finished product cooling off  (jam all over the stove)

Jam on Beer Bread I made yesterday.

Assignment #2 Cross Stitch

I almost completed a cross stitch. I'm out of string of one color, but after that I'm finished. I haven't done a cross stitch since I was like 9. I think most cross stitch patterns are stupid. But I found this cute one for an apron. It goes with my kitchen perfectly!!!

Cute Cute!!!

My next project is to make an apron, I'll have to get some fabric for, and to make a week of "nourishing" lunches. 5 more days until the month is out...I've been pretty productive this month....do you think I can make it? 

I kind of thought this was funny....