Fall Frenzy

October 5, 2017 nk3302 Comments

I grew up in the Midwest. When fall weather arrived, it was a little bittersweet. Summers just aren’t that long in Wisconsin! But I loved sweater weather. I loved hot cider, scarves, boots, snuggling up with a blanket… ahhh… fall.

Now let’s talk fall in Texas. The temperatures dropped into the 70s the last week of September, and it felt almost like fall. I was so excited!! But I didn’t feel the urge to snuggle up and be lazy. Oh no… I finally had the energy to get stuff done! I feel like the heat of summer sucked up every drop of motivation in me. As soon as that hit-me-like-I-opened-the-oven feeling outside was gone, I was ready to do all the things. I wanted to clean, decorate, blog, crochet, organize… I just had such a burst of energy and oomph to be productive! I feel like fall in the South is like spring in the North… you have that glimmer of better things to come, be it cooler weather after a brutal summer or warmer weather after a frigid winter, and you feel human again.

Obviously, you can see that I’ve been blogging again. Ah, I really had missed it. I had so many ideas for blog posts to write, and I just never made time to sit down and type them up! Part of it was not wanting to finish drafts that had been collecting cobwebs for months. So I deleted the ones I wasn’t interested in and moved on. I don’t know why I don’t do that more often. Purging and starting fresh does wonders for me in almost every aspect of my life that feels cluttered.

I’ve been thinking of ways to pare down on holiday decor as well. I think when we moved to North Carolina after being overseas for a few years, I had this need to go decoration crazy any time I went to a craft store! I definitely accumulated more”stuff” in my holiday decor bins, and it was honestly driving me a little crazy. So after I changed out my summer mantel for my fall one, I decided to just get rid of everything I didn’t use. And again… the sigh of relief. It’s like spring cleaning… in fall!

I’ve also decided to only use one wreath for our front door year round. I think it will be a work in progress, but I’m planning to just use a plain grapevine wreath and rotate things to attach to it. My fall wreath above is just a fall garland that I tied to the wreath with bits of yarn. It’s a little tedious, I suppose, to have to re-make a wreath every holiday/season, but it will save space! I mean, if I had unlimited space and resources, I’d have a wreath for Christmas, winter, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, spring, summer, 4th of July, Halloween, and Thanksgiving/fall. That’s 10 wreaths!! So over the next year, I’m going to experiment with my rotating wreath idea. If you have done anything similar, please share your tips!

Daily living · Parenting · Recipes

And Then I Became a Mom

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017 nk330Leave a comment

I’ve been going through my blog posts from the beginning to organize and delete some. I love reading through those early posts about moving to and settling in England — it seems like so long ago! I also have to laugh at a few posts… mostly about things I said. It’s interesting to see yourself grow and change through old musings.

I had written a few posts with thoughts on being a parent, and I just laughed and laughed at my naive ideas. I think I had some good intentions with my hopes for parenthood, but wow, actually becoming a parent is such a shock to the system! I know when I was pregnant, I kind of avoided reading books about caring for infants, because I didn’t want to become obsessive about doing things the “right” way. But having a challenging baby meant I had so many questions and concerns about things. I scoured the baby websites. I asked so many questions on Facebook pages. I bought ALL the books I could get my hands on for ideas, suggestions, and information. I’m sure I went overboard, but I just needed answers!

I think one reason parenting is so different now is social media. Social media is so helpful in some ways: you can quickly connect with people to get advice about things, you can read through other peoples’ questions and concerns, and you can vent and commiserate with people you don’t have to see every day! But social media and the internet in general can be so anxiety-provoking too. You can Google things and get worst case scenario answers. You can ask a question on a breastfeeding Facebook group and be told everything from “your baby is normal” to “you need to get checked for a lip/tongue tie immediately.” Other people are well-meaning, I’m sure, but treating the internet like a medical professional can definitely be a bad idea. Not that I think medical professionals always have it right either, but that’s a whole separate topic!

Distance, I believe, plays another big role in parenting. I’m not sure if this is a global thing or more of an American thing, but people just don’t live near their extended families anymore. Not having family nearby means no built in support network for raising children. I think this changed fairly quickly too. It wasn’t that long ago that families generally stayed in one area, with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins only a street or a town away. Having family ready and happy to help makes a huge difference in the parenting experience. And being far from family? Well, it might just drive you to buy every book out there on baby sleep, breastfeeding, and early learning!

So what am I getting at? Nothing really, haha. I was just having a laugh at my pre-parenthood self and pondering parenthood in general. And I thought that, on the subject of parenthood and kids, I’d share one of my son’s favorite recipes: homemade chicken nuggets!

Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4-6, depending how hungry your toddler is

2 eggs
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a shallow bowl, lightly beat the eggs. In another shallow bowl, combine the panko and plain bread crumbs, Parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, and salt.
Working in batches, dip the chicken pieces in the eggs followed by the Parmesan mixture. Make sure to coat the pieces evenly.
Arrange the coated chicken pieces in a single layer on the baking sheet.
Bake until the chicken is cooked through 15-18 minutes, turning the chicken at least once.
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

The sides shown above are Pepper Jack Cheesy Mac & Honey Garlic Green Beans. The only things I skip with the macaroni and cheese recipe are the tortilla chips on top and the crushed red pepper (too spicy for Gerrit), although it’s yummy with those ingredients as well!

Daily living · Recipes

Recipe Binder Revamp

September 29, 2017 nk3303 Comments

I know I’ve mentioned here and there that I have been trying to cook/eat healthier and lose weight. I tried making healthier foods. I tried working out every day. No weight loss! I was so frustrated and disappointed that my efforts were just not giving me any results. About a year ago, I decided to try The 21 Day Fix through Beachbody. It was honestly the best thing I’ve done for my health in a long time. And no, I’m not trying to sell you anything! I just want to share WHY it worked for me.

Although I had been eating healthier, I wasn’t eating well. And by that I mean that I was not being mindful of my portion sizes, and I was still eating way too many carbs and dairy products. I felt silly using these little colored cups to measure out my food, but it worked! I am such a visual person, and using this color-coded system was right up my alley. I also started drinking Shakeology every day. It really helped me in several ways: it curbed my sweet tooth, it gave me a boost in the afternoon (so I could cut out my Dr. Pepper habit), and it was filling enough to prevent me from snacking before dinner!

The workouts were great, although I didn’t always do them. I don’t like working out. Period. But I liked the trainer, Autumn, and I liked that the workouts were only 30 minutes. And I lost weight even without working out religiously. I had read so many times that losing weight is 80% nutrition and only 20% exercise, and it proved to be true! Just being more conscious of what I was eating, how much I was eating, and choosing to eat healthy foods was a game changer for me.

Like I said, this was not a sales pitch! I wrote all of that leading up to this: my recipe binder has changed tremendously since I last regularly posted recipes on here! I want to start sharing some of my new favorite meals, because eating healthy can still be very yummy. I will slowly be deleting recipes from here that I just never make anymore and adding ones that have become some of my new favorites. Many of them are “21 Day Fix approved,” meaning that they are compatible with the program that I did, but I’ll be adding other ones that are fairly healthy too.

Not to leave you hanging, I will share one of my new favorite side dishes: Honey Garlic Green Beans. And here’s a little secret: I make mine with frozen green beans! My husband couldn’t even tell that they were frozen. I just rinsed them with some warm water in a colander before tossing them in the pan with the olive oil. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s healthy!

I will share the recipes for the homemade chicken nuggets and the macaroni and cheese from the photo soon, but this mama needs to get to bed. I blog in the wee hours now…