CAUTION: Woman In Progress

It's been a while since I shared a project here. If you want the truth, it's because it's been a while since I worked on any projects. I did some stuff at Christmas but since then? Nothing. I bought the materials for this particular project in January, including ordering the prints for it and then everything sat on my dining room table until the Saturday before Mother's Day. Cleaning up to host Mother's Day lunch was just the push I needed to see my inspiration become reality.   This little patch of wall used to host a big round clock that I had half-arsed "re-done" with some wrapping paper. But we're coming up on 7 years in this house so I wanted something different. I also hate that I have all these cute pics just sitting on my hard drive (or on my phone) and if I want to look at them I have to hunt them down and scroll through with my arthritic thumb. (Anybody else with a smart phone develop arthritis in their "scrolling thumb"? Just ...

~Weird dreams abound last night. The one I remember the most clearly is the one that I woke up sad about. I was living at home with my parents again and apparently had gained a ton of weight and my mom was oblivious to it and kept buying me clothes that were way too small and I was all, "You can't even see how fat I've gotten and you're my biggest enabler!" and my mom was all, "What are you even talking about. Here,  I bought you some new nightgowns," and I couldn't even get the things over my head. I woke up all sad and junk. ~For the past few months I've been regularly attending the church where Sis2 and her family are members. Just so happens that a few of the people I work with in the Library also attend that church. The weird and somewhat disappointing/disturbing part of that  is that the people I actually know are the ones who thoroughly ignore me at church. Total strangers will come shake my hand and speak but the people I know from work...

Fifteen years ago today... Today... Time is crazy fast and life is crazy. 

Baby girl had her fourth year recital Saturday. She did really, really well.   So proud of her!

What is so objectionable about the word "moist" on a food blog? We're all adults here. Cake is supposed to be moist. No need to apologize or explain your word choice. Anyone objecting to it needs to grow the heck up. And I say this because there is one food blog that I read fairly regularly and every ding dang time she bakes a cake and describes it she goes through this lengthy apology/explanation of why she uses the word moist and how much she hates it but it's the only word to truly describe it and omigosh please don't yell at her. And every time, I want to take her by the shoulders and explain to her that "moist" is only icky when used in romance novels. And only icky then if the characters are describing something other than a food item. Amiright? I didn't sleep worth a spit last night and this morning I asked for an extra shot of espresso in my iced coffee and paid nearly $2 for it and I still feel like I got run over by a bus. I wish I knew w...

So, I'm slowly working my way back into the groove of reading. I don't know why it's so hard for me to settle down with a book anymore. I used to find such solace in reading. And it didn't even have to be a particularly good book, so long as I could escape into it. These days, however--and I know I've said this here before--these days I have really tough time settling my brain enough to read. I'm so antsy and can't quiet my mind enough to focus. And if a book doesn't draw me in on the first page it's just absolute torture to even consider continuing reading. But once I start a book, I just can't make myself let it go and move on to something else. And so I'm stuck with a barely started book and no desire to finish it an then nothing gets read. I have read three books in the past three or four weeks, though. The first on was by a formerly favorite author and had all "exterior" elements that her other books had that I really enjoy...

In a couple more months, my baby girl is going to be ten. TEN, y'all. I don't really think about her age all that much. She does, after all, still behave much like she did as a puppy. Still sportin' a ton of attitude and sass. Still bossing me around. Still bouncing around like a dork outside. The only place she's really showing any age is the white around her eyes. I was reading a post from a humane society on the evil Facebook, though, and they were talking about this Chihuahua that had been surrendered. He is ten years old and they made it sound like him being ten meant he is on his last legs. All I could think about was, what if in June when my Libs officially turns ten she suddenly and abruptly goes down hill? How would I ever deal with her declining in health or God forbid--Lose her! I get anxious and upset enough when she has a tummy ache! It doesn't bear thinking about. It's in that far away place of "someday." ...

Recipes I tried that weren't total fails but probably won't make again: Trisha Yearwood's Zucchini Cakes  from her cookbook Trisha's Table . I made these one day last week. They're not hard to make...the hardest part was shredding two zucchini. They are pretty good but I don't know if I'd make them again. The recipe made a TON of fritters and I still have a lot left over in my fridge that I should have frozen, I guess. I wasn't in love with them, though, so I guess that's why I didn't think to freeze the leftovers. To be fair, though, I didn't make the herbed sour cream because, well, who can afford herbs? Instead, I used a little smear of jalapeno ranch dressing to zing these up a bit. Andie Mitchell's Breakfast Egg Salad from her cookbook Eating in the Middle . I haven't eaten egg salad in a really REALLY long time and this one looked good. In theory it should have been but...It was rather bland. I liked the addition of bacon ...

The advantages of being a freshman dating a senior? PROM!! Ain't she beautiful?  Pretty sure those shoes likely stayed in her hand most of the night. Haha

Recipe I've made recently and loved: Toffee Cookies I've made these a few times and it makes a HUGE batch of cookies and They. Are. Delicious. The last time I used this recipe (at Easter) before adding in the toffee bits, I split the cookie dough in thirds and made three types of cookies from it. One third with chocolate chips, one third with white chips and macadamia nuts and one third with the chocolate toffee bits. They were a big hit with the family at Easter lunch. It's the perfect base dough for all sorts of add-ins and I look forward to trying it with other things. One of my favorite things about it is that instead of having softened butter, you melt the butter and then let it cool. I like this technique better because certain times of the year it's too cold in my house for butter to ever truly soften and softening in the microwave can be a disaster. If you don't need a HUGE batch of dough, I have cut the recipe in half which involves some creative ma...

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Sis2 and the kids baked me cupcakes. They were DEEEEE-lish. Also for my birthday, Daddy took me to breakfast at our favorite diner. It too was Deeeeeee-lish. that there is a bacon omelet, hash browns and toast. I don't really know what's going on with my face here, though, except that Daddy is a terrible photographer. haha We hunted eggs the Saturday before Easter and Libby totally found one. My last day of Birthday Stay-cation was the Monday after Easter and Libs and I spent some serious quality time together. I wish I were independently wealthy so we could have QT days all the time. Last week was the library's annual Ragtime and Jazz Festival which was preceded by the Gatsby Gala. Thankfully I had nothing to do with this costume display. The costume history class across campus was in charge of this. My favorite part of the Ragtime and Jazz Festival is always the silent film....

Couldn't resist sharing this. I'm so glad Mama caught this moment Sunday of Daddy explaining something to me. It's a regular occurrence. Haha

It's officially official. I am one of those bloggers. You know the type. The ones who rarely ever post? That's me now. And I never thought I'd be that way. I loved blogging for the longest time. Even when I didn't really have much to say, I had a deep urge to share a thought or two every single day. Now, even when I have time--which I rarely do--I just don't have a whole lot I want to share. I no longer have the heart for it. I can't really talk about work problems because, duh. I'd like to keep my job. And work problems seem to take up so much head space. And I've decided to stop posting photos of the kids due to a minor freak out I had last week when I checked my stats and one of the referral links was from a BDSM website. I've since discovered that it wasn't an actual link referral but more of a scam type referral. I researched the hell out of it to make sure nobody on a porn site was actually linking to my blog where all my precious babies...

Do people even say that anymore? 411? As in, "Give me the 411?" As in, "What's going on?/What's happening?/etc. And also, the other day I asked a co-worker if anyone had given her the "down low" on a situation and as soon as it was out of my mouth I internally cringed because a) nobody says "down low" anymore and b) that was a totally incorrect usage. (Down low=quiet/secret) I basically asked my coworker had anyone given her the "quiet" or "secret" on the situation when what I meant to ask was had anyone filled her in on the situation. Awkward! Party of me! But because she's the bomb-diggity she didn't even correct me. Anyway, so the 411 is this: Yesterday was so crazy that I didn't even have a moment to log into my computer at work until about 15 minutes before I left and only then to check my email. Today I didn't get to sit down at my desk until after lunch. Then I just kinda had a brain melt in...

So you may recall back in November I had to have my septic tank pumped. He mentioned then that I appeared to have field line issues. Two weeks later, shtuff started backing up in my yard at the tank.  It took me two and a half months to get someone out to fix things. But I finally have a properly functioning septic system!!     My field lines had to be entirely replaced. And it was not cheap. Thankfully, I had just gotten my tax return money in...of which it used the entire lot. Mildly depressing but also a blessing. Because I had enough money without having to take out a loan. The Lord supplies!! At some point I'll need to haul some dirt in to better cover the water logged area but that's another problem for another day. 

So, today I woke up with a killer headache. All from stress, frustration, and exhaustion, I know. It woke me up at 2am and I had a complete breakdown. Tears. Prayers. Sobbing. Not because of the headache but because of all that caused the headache.  I am overwhelmed. Still. But yesterday...yesterday was just a boiling point situation and I guess I just had a complete breakdown of my spirit and mental and emotional health. I cried and prayed until my alarm went off and then I emailed work and took the day off. If I had gone to work I wouldn't have been good for anyone and would have only exacerbated the problems I am having.  I napped on the couch for a bit, watched crappy daytime tv and then dragged myself up to take Libs to get her nails clipped and then we on to town for lunch. Is it sad that Libs is so used to the drive thru that she no longer barks at the people in the window? Anyway, by the time we got back home I felt energized in a way I haven't in a loooong time. Which...

Libby and I love you!!!