A "Love"ly Dinner

Dinner tonight was simple...chicken, baked potato and steamed lima beans.  I've been feeling a little under the weather today with a dry, scratchy throat and slightly stuffy nose.  Needless to say I wasn't that motivated when it came to planning or even cooking our meal, but look what I found when I opened the bag of potatoes:

A heart shaped potato! A grubby, looks-like-it's-been-through-a-war heart shaped potato, but a heart shape nonetheless.

Made me smile :)

It's Spring? Yeah, right.

We have had the most bizarre weather today.  It's been raining pretty much all day and the wind has been insane.  Then late afternoon we saw snow...on one of the last days of March.  What ever happened to "in like a lion, out like a lamb"?  The rain/sleet/snow is blowing sideways and it's coming down so hard and fast that we have a few leaks going on.   Nothing huge or serious, but the hubster definitely has some caulking to do once we dry out a bit.  Thankfully we have nicer weather in the forecast over the next few days and temps are to be in the 70's over the weekend :)

When it's gross and gloomy like this all I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch TV.  That's my plan for this evening.  Besides it's LOSTuesday!  My favorite day of the week! 

Until the magic 9 o'clock hour I'm checking email, facebook, my Google reader, etc. and listening to an old random music playlist I found on my laptop earlier today.  One of the songs I've listened to a few times so far is one we once considered for our "first dance" song at our wedding.  We ended up selecting a different song, but this one has always been one of my favorites.  The words, the music, the tone just make my heart swell...and usually my eyes swell too.  It conveys a lot of emotions to me.




By Your Side

You think I'd leave your side baby
You know me better than that
You think I'd leave you down when you're down on your knees
I wouldn't do that
I'll tell you you're right when you want
And if only you could see into me

Oh when you're cold
I'll be there
Hold you tight to me

When you're on the outside baby and you can't get in
I will show you you're so much better than you know
When you're lost and you're alone and you cant get back again
I will find you darling and I will bring you home

And if you want to cry
I am here to dry your eyes
And in no time
You'll be fine

You think I'd leave your side baby
You know me better than that
You think I'd leave you down when you're down on your knees
I wouldn't do that
I'll tell you you're right when you want
And if only you could see into me

Oh when you're cold
I'll be there
Hold you tight to me
When you're low
I'll be there
By your side baby

Oh when you're cold
I'll be there
Hold you tight to me
Oh when you're low
I'll be there
By your side baby

Rainy Days and Mondays...

...always get me down.  Do you hear that Carpenters' song playing in your head?  Ok, so it's not really a rainy day here in my neck of the woods, but it's still gloomy and gray out.  Not very motivating combined with the fact that it IS Monday and the beginning of what is shaping up to be a really long week.  Here's hoping it gets better!

I do want to take a moment to rave about a product I've been using for a while now and I just love, love, love it...definitely one of those "products I can't live without".  It's called True Lemon, crystallized lemon.

Supposedly there are lots of different ways to use this, but I use it one way and one way only, to flavor my water.  I was never a big water drinker until a few years ago, but even then I would hit a wall trying to meet my "quota" for the day and would often resort to those powders you could add to give it flavor.  Usually they were sugar-y and too sweet and honestly weren't very natural, which to me kind of defeated the purpose of drinking water.  I would at times pick up a few lemons at the grocery store to slice and use in my water, but throughout the year during certain seasons they can be pretty expensive, and overall it was a pain in the butt making sure I had fresh lemon wedges at the ready...they also weren't very convienient for "on the go".  I first saw this True Lemon advertised in a magazine and then found it at my local grocery store (usually found by the sugar/sweetners, but I've heard they can be found by the other powdered drink mixes as well) - I was instantly in love!  It truly does taste like real lemon (it is 100% natural), no yucky aftertaste at all, I promise.  So easy to toss a few packets in my purse to add to my bottled water while I'm out and about, or add it to my glass at restaurants.  One packet to a regular sized bottled water or tall glass at a restaurant is all you need to get a nice lemon flavor :)  The company also makes True Orange and True Lime, but I have yet to see either in person, nor do I think I'd even be interested, I much prefer lemon flavor over orange or lime.  The last time I went to stock up I had to search a bit more and ended up going to a grocery store I don't usually shop at just to get it.  No clue why my usual grocery store stopped carrying it...something I do need to ask about!  But you can do a little search on their website to find where it is available closest to you (and while you're there you can sign up for free samples and print out a coupon too).  I honestly reach for water more now because of this product, awesome!

 

Lazy Sundays

Sometimes I feel like I live for Sundays.  Why, you ask?  Because we can be as lazy as we want to be.  Of course, "lazy" is a relative term and probably means different things for different people.  While I consider Sunday our lazy day, I probably accomplish more in this day than I do any other day of the week. 

The day starts off with a cup of coffee, it's a must to get me moving.  I think I'll do a seperate post on our Keurig - the appliance "love of my life" -  in the future, it's a-ma-zing!  While I sip on my coffee I read the paper, watch some HGTV, and chat with the hubster before he heads off to the gym and then I really get started on my day.

For whatever reason I get the itch to clean on Sundays... I think because we usually spend the day at home, the house needs to at least look clean so that I can can relax.  That means I usually run the Dyson to rid our horrid, dark carpet of the neverending cat hair and other random fuzzies and dirt.  Clean carpet gives me the illusion of a clean house, instant gratification!  I like to declutter a bit too...the counters in the kitchen, the desk in our office, the ottoman in the living room, etc.  I trash or recycle what I can then organize the areas to again give the illusion of a clean and tidy house.  I'm all about the illusion, can you tell?  I'm going to admit that cleaning (actual dusting/windexing/soap and water cleaning) is not my most favorite task and I'll put it off as long as possible.  But I swear, anyone that walks in my house would never say it's dirty, so I guess I'm a pretty good illusionist.  Just call me David Copperfield ;)  I do get to the serious cleaning, I do, but certainly not on a regular or consistent basis.

Sunday is also usually laundry day, yay!  I love doing laundry, LOVE it.  I find it relaxing and rewarding.  Call me crazy, I don't care.  I'd do laundry 24/7/365 if it meant I never had to do another household chore again.  I love the sorting, the washing, the drying, the folding, the "putting away"...well, except putting away the husband's clothes, I leave that up to him.

My next favorite Sunday task is clipping coupons and browsing through the sales flyers.  Do you clip coupons?  I think I'm addicted.  Although I wouldn't exactly classify that as a bad thing, I'm doing it to save money - nothing wrong with that, right?  I do have a routine and a few rules with coupon clipping...a seperate post for that too, maybe :)  The sales flyers are fun for me to look through and it kind of feels like shopping without really spending money.  No room for excess or senseless spending these days, unfortunately.

Now comes the lazy part... once the small amount of cleaning is done, a few loads of laundry washed, dried and folded, coupons clipped and sorted... we lounge and watch crappy television or movies until dinner time.  Not sure what's playing on our TV today, I leave that up to the hubster.  I just hope it's something good that holds my attention.  A few weekends ago we watched Up In The Air with George Clooney and I liked it, I'd say it's worth a watch.  We also watched Precious and while I thought it was a great movie, it was definitely HARD to watch.  I had to turn it off a few times just to give myself a break.  I can see why it was nominated for so many awards this year, that's for sure.

Sunday nights are usually closed out with dinner and Desperate Housewives before hitting the hay.  Whew!  Sounds pretty busy for a lazy day, but I promise most of it is done at a snails pace while still in my pajamas, crazy hair and no make-up.  Any day I can stay in my pj's ALL day qualifies as a lazy day in my book!  Now if you'll excuse me, I have coupons to clip and laundry to fold...

Welcome!

Cheesy title, yes, I know!  So many possible titles passed through my head but every. single. one. was "not available".  Of course!  But the more I thought about what I wanted my blog to be about, the more I realized my working title wasn't so bad after all.  My initial thought was to just share things that I liked, things that made me happy...maybe a new recipe I tried out over the weekend, or a new eyeshadow I've started using that I just LOVE, a movie I watched the night before, or a book I'm currently reading.  And that's probably what this blog will be about, at least 90% of the time.  The other 10% could possibly get a bit whiny or depressing, but such is life...actually, such is MY life. 

Background: my husband is unemployed, and has been for about 13 months now (minus about 9 days of being gainfully employed, perhaps more on that at another time, the wounds are still too fresh).  It's a struggle for sure, but we are making it.  Some days are tough to get through when the reality of the situation sets in, however!, we're trying to keep our heads up, stay positive, and pray God knows what he's doing.  We're convinced there's a lesson in all this, right now though the only lessons we're learning are financial ones.  Live below your means, people!

So...welcome to my blog.  I hope you enjoy your visits :)