Super Soul Sunday: A Return to Love – Marianne Williamson

I’ve been writing this post for a while now, four weeks to be exact, a MONTH . I’d sit down, start writing, but then I was overwhelmed at the amount of STUFF covered within this episode of SSS that I’d let something else grab my attention (I needed that glass of water, then Rock & Ru needed their cups filled, too – of course?), so I’d stop.

But enough is enough, and I just have to get all THIS out there. Last month, Oprah interviewed Marianne Williamson. The overarching theme discussed? Shifting perception from fear, to love. 

So what happened within the first 5 minutes of Super Soul Sunday, over four weeks ago? Are you ready?

*Warning* I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to organize this (hence the delay in posting), so bear with me as I serve it up buffet style, everything under one heat lamp kinda way…

Okay, here goes – some gems within the first five min:

“No organized religion has a monopoly on truth.” I love this quote because all religions attempt to speak the truth; truth being: love, letting go of fears, and standing in front of your heart. The differences shared between religions are merely the varying languages, stories, and Gods they use to express this truth.

“We are an idea in the mind of God, and an idea never leaves its source, which is why we’re not separate from God.”

“Often people obsess about becoming "stars," because in their mind, they are not yet starring in their own life. However, what needs to be understood: the cosmic spotlight isn’t pointed at you, rather it radiates from within.” I love this! I could go on & on about this one, break it down, and criticize how society seems to manipulate our culture's priorities, but I'm afraid I'd get too long winded, and I'd also like to leave voice for the other side, which I don't have enough energy to do right now. So in keeping this short & sweet, I hope this statement reminds everyone to look within for happiness, versus elsewhere for fulfillment.

There’s so much more to discuss, but I’m going to stop here, for now… Maybe part II will be next Sunday?

Pretty Pics

Freedom, relaxing, yellow....and now stripped, doh! Yea, yea - I'm [really] behind on this 30 day photo challenge & have ZERO excuses! Summer sessions are over & I'm not working OT... Looks like I have some catching up to do when I get home;)

In the meantime, while you're patiently waiting, enjoy some of these pretty pics to tide you over:-D

crafTuesday - Lisa's Headboard

I know you wanted to find out how to make a headboard out of a cheap ole door found at your local garage sale (wait, you didn't??? Psssh, come on! You know your room needs a little sprucing up to do!), so naturally, I'm directing you straight to Lisa's tutorial.

This girl breeds creativity. No, seriously. Give her...ANYTHING, and she'll turn it into something wonderful. Need proof? I'm glad you asked! Here's what she started with:

Now go here to see how it ends up!!!

Happy crafTuesday:)

 

Dish Delish Day - Brussels & Bacon

Happy Monday! Did you miss me? This past week I spent cramming for my last Astronomy exam to conclude my third, and final, summer session (if this were a musical, I'd bust out a tune right about now, "ceeeeeeelebrate good times, C'MON!") & I'm happy to say, I'm moving onto student teaching in two weeks (eeek, where in the world did the summer go???)!

But enough of the formalities(!), today is Dish Delish Day, featuring one of Sarah's creations: Brussels & Bacon:

What you'll need:

6 strips of bacon, chopped into small pieces

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 lb Brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed & cut in half

salt & pepper to taste

2 tbsps of sliced almonds

Here's how to put it all together:

Heat the skillet over medium heat. Add bacon & cook until crispy (about 5 minutes). Remove & place on a plate lined with paper towels. Discard all but 1 tbsp of bacon fat. Add garlic, pepper flakes, Brussels sprouts, and a pinch of salt in the skillet. Saute until the sprouts are lightly browned on the outside & tender, but still firm, through (about 10-12 min). Add almonds & saute for another 1-2 min. Toss in the cooked bacon & season with salt & pepper.

Looks good, right? Granted, I've never tried it, but it looks so darn tasty! & Sarah, you're going to make this for me soon, right? ;)

See ya next week!!

What a busy [& fun:)] weekend; we celebrated Nicki's grad/going away party & took a family trip to The Barn. I'd love to write a synopsis, including all the details, but to tell you the truth, I'm beat & need some R&R! I'd also like to say I'd fill you in later this week, but hear me loud & clear: This is my last week of class, EVER. Yes, I will officially conclude my college career, in regards to classes, and will be two weeks away from student teaching (about time). Consequently, if you need to find me, or wonder why I'm not posting any posts (I've been on such a roll lately!), I'll be on the couch studying from here until Friday morning (minus time spent at work:-P).

Take a peek of our weekend, find pics from Nicki's party here:)

- I will update the photo challenge after work on Monday, a little behind over here! -

See ya next week!!

Oh The Places She'll Go...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the [gal] who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
By Dr Seuss

Yesterday, we celebrated Nicki & all her accomplishments; graduating High School & moving onto Xavier - What a bright & promising future she has; Oh the places she'll go;)

We love you, Nicki!!!

 More pics to come;)

dish delish day

Staying true to creating formality with this blog, I introduce to you: dish delish day. While Shaun & I aren't avid cooks - yet - (OK, maybe never, lol!); cooking, baking, and preparing delectable delights from appetizers, meals, to sweet treats is always fun to do (assuming you have the ingredients readily available & don't have to make that dreaded trip to the store)!

While I'd love to debut this post with an original creation (& original pic for that matter), you'll have to settle with a copy from my recipe box at allrecipes.com

Allow me to introduce to you, the California Roll Salad:

If you love sushi, you'll LOVE this dish - I promise.

Helpful hint: While I'm sure many of you savvy cooks out there can easily eyeball ingredients, I HIGHLY recommend following the measurements with this one. Not enough wasabi powder, or too much rice wine vinegar - yuck, but with the perfect ratios, it'll surely be on your monthly (if not, weekly) rotation:)

*This recipe calls for soy sauce. I reeeeeally don't like soy sauce, so I omitted it from the recipe entirely, and so should you:-P

    What you'll need: 

• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 cup water
• 1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 1 English cucumber, cut into 1 inch strips
• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted, and cubed
• 2 cups shredded imitation crabmeat
•   2 teaspoons wasabi powder
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  
  Directions:
• Place rice and water in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until rice is tender. Set aside to cool.
• In a large serving bowl, toss together the lettuce, cucumber, avocado and imitation crabmeat. Stir in cooled rice. In a small bowl, stir together the wasabi powder, mayonnaise, rice vinegar, sugar and sesame oil. Toss salad with dressing (recommended), or serve with dressing on the side.

crafTuesday

In keeping true to my attempted structure & formality with this blog, I introduce to you: crafTuesday. Each Tuesday, I'll share with you recent crafts (including renovations!) around this way, or share creative ideas of others.

It just so happens, Shaun has been a weekend warrior of the sorts & I'm proud to showcase some of his recent accomplishments (with the help of this dad, brothers & brother-in-laws I might add!)! But first, some before pics:

- Before: Looking in from the garage:

- Before: Looking in from the garage:

- After (still in progress!!!)

Yes, there's a lot of work ahead of us (crown, hardware, painting, antiquing, baseboards, etc...), but thus far, pretty impressive!

I love that Rudy made an appearance;)


Before I leave you this fine Tuesday morning, are you finding it hard to contain your excitement? Did you forget already??? The photo challenge starts TOMORROW!

birthday beauty

As the sun struck her hair while I took several shots, I thought to myself, "this girl needs to star in the next Pantene commercial." No seriously, have you seen her hair? Absolutely gorgeous.

If it wasn't her hair stealing the shot, then it was her twinklin' eyes, or perfect smile. It was her birthday this past weekend, and what a birthday beauty she was!

I remember seeing Bri years ago as a little tot; diapers and all:-D She was a cutie then, and wow, such a beauty now! So here's to the fabulous birthday girl & all her beauty (both inside & out!):

Happy Birthday, Bri!!!

sneak peek

Sneak peek of tomorrow's post:

If I had to name this photo? Sunshine:)

super soul sunday

In attempt to create some structure/formality to this blog, I'm going to introduce several "themed" days if you will, starting with today's entry: Super Soooooul Sunday. Yes, every Sunday you'll get a slice of my favorite excepts from Oprah's airing of Super Soul Sunday:-D

So what is Super Soul Sunday? I'm glad you asked:)


Taken straight from O's website:
"Nourish your mind, body and spirit every Sunday... Awaken your best selves and discover a deeper connection to the world around you... Topics include spirituality, the afterlife, alternative health, happiness and personal fulfillment, "Super Soul Sunday" will present fresh and thoughtful insights into what it means to truly live your best life."

I can't get enough of this stuff:-D Stay tuned for future postings!

sneak peek

"I'll make you a deal; you let me have our fantasy football draft party at our house, and I'll have the entire kitchen/bath finished before then."

Deal.

Well, back-up - It's not as if Shaun had to ask me if he could really have people over; I think he was just trying to make the notion of having our house taken over for an extended period of time; AKA - I would have to reside elsewhere for half the day, LOL, a little more appealing!

The next logical step? Menards.

Last weekend we made our way over to everyone's favorite DIY store in search of a vanity for the small bath. The vanity we currently have is fine (aside from it's size, but more concerning, it's ugly finish!), thus, we were looking for something small & updated (although not too modern or Ikea-ish).

We found it, we found the PERFECT vanity! It was half the depth of our current base & soooo pretty. In the cart it went...along with an additional $300 worth of stuff? Whaaaaat?

No, stop; this wasn't supposed to happen! We JUST wanted the vanity! But then we needed to get this, that, and everything else to make it work.

With the brink of student teaching on the near horizon; translation for: we'll be poor; we decided it's only smart to save the $500 worth of materials we had in our cart (sigh - yes, this also means putting back the beloved vanity), and work with the leftover material we have at home.

So here's a look see at what we're workin' with:

 

Now picture it; painting the vanity a light brown (left over paint), the walls the same color as our adjoining room (a light teal), clean up the trim with a fresh coat of white paint, and heck, I might even leave the ceiling white, too;)

Sneak peek of progress so far:

A little bit better, right? I guess it would have been nice if I took the same angle, but come on, it was just a sneak peek!!!

In closing; TGIF!!!!

worth noting!

Just for the record - In reviewing several of these posts/pictures from another computer, all I have to say is, "EEEK!" The colors are soooo off (it's embarassing!). So, to set the record straight, when viewing these pictures; if they are too saturated or just OFF in color, I can assure you, that's not how they originally looked while I edited them on my computer! Either my laptop settings are off, or this other computer's settings are off?? Although, I'm banking it's not the latter... LOL

project what?

Project 365, you’ve heard of it, right; the almost daunting feat of committing to taking one photo for an entire YEAR (& uploading/posting/blogging about it & all that other good stuff that makes us feel warm & fuzzy inside)? 

Well I’m not doing it.

[insert laughter here:)]

But what I will embark on is a 30 day challenge. 

That’s right, after much perusing, I stumbled upon (although not through Stumble Upon:-P) a photo challenge for the month of August. Good ole Google will provide you with a handful of challenges, it just so happens this list originates from White Peach Photo:

 

But this challenge doesn't start until AUGUST ("& I ain't breakin' no rules!"). Yes, this means not until next Wednesday!

Stay tuned;)

let's feed the ducks

"Can we pleeeeease feed the ducks????" Wasn't this the same question you asked when visiting the Duck Pond? You remember the Duck Pond, right? The pretty little cementary that hosts a beautiful home for our fellow feathered friends, and of course boasts beautiful grounds for our loved ones? Well if you don't know, go visit. Go ahead, you can leave right now, this post will be here when you get back.

.....

.................

So how was the trip? The serenity and peace this place exudes is powerful & comforting; if you didn't make the drive over (like you should have!), here are some beautiful shots to hold you over before you go. 

Disclaimer:

A wide angle lens would have been best for this location, but unfortunately I only had my zoom on me (so I tried to make it work!).

 

When finding the last shot, a smile spread across my face; welcoming it was;)

water-works

A new text came through:

     "Leaving now" 

 My reply?

     "SAME:-D"

I was meeting up with one of my friends to catch her [irresistibly cute!!!] son in action at the Riverfront, in downtown Cuyahoga Falls, and what a day it was: scorcher. Good thing there was plenty of water for this kiddo to run around in & stay cool;)

 

Professional; this boy knew what to do. As soon as he saw the camera, he was all smiles:)

 

 hahahaha, I love this one! He always made a point to find me (I TOLD YOU...he knew what he was doing;)):

 It was a hot day, but a fun one:-D