Good Morning Wednesday!

So nice to see you! :)

How is everyone today?

Already looking forward to the weekend?

Yeah, me too.

I'm linking up with Alicia from La Famille today.

{I seriously LOVE this picture }

She inspires us to do something for ourselves and to stay happy.

Great idea right?!

Her last challenge was to come up with a summer plan. Her's was on the healthy side.

And I think mine will be too.

The past couple of weeks I have not been real concerned about healthy eating.
Here's a quick peak into some of our dining adventures.

1. Cheesecake- Check!

2. Chinese Food, TWICE- Check!

3. Gallons of coffee with a side of Nutella Crepes- Check!

4. Red Velvet Pancakes- Check!

5. Sweet Corn Tamala Cakes- Check!


And of course there was Chicago Pizza, Chicago Hot Dogs, chicken salad,gyros, burritos, bagels and cream cheese, cookies, cake, pie, pop.

Oh dear.

I think I feel my pants getting tighter as we speak.

So now that we are home and not in the land of anything.goes.restaraunts, we can get back to healthy eating.

So the very next morning when we arrived home we headed over to the Farmer's Market.
Not only were we greeted by friends and familiar faces saying they missed us but the selection of produce that was now available since the 2 weeks we had been gone was AWESOME!

Here's a peek at the bounty we brought home.

The tomatoes are my favorite.
But the squash provided me with so much too.
And the bread! So delish!
Crunch carrots to snack on or if your my husband you might boil them and add them to oatmeal. It was surprisingly good.
And then there was these little cookie pie things. Made by a woman who was also selling chickens and goat's milk soap. I made the hubby go back for more of the cookie pie things. They had a cookie/pie like crust with blackberry filling. OH MY WORD!

Attention:
If you are in any way squeamish towards anything bloody/gory/gross.
Just click away and we'll say goodbye for the day.
If not.....proceed.
Consider yourself warned. Ok?

The hubby brought home a rooster from the Farmer's Market.
At first he asked if he could. Knowing that I myself am a little uneasy with this sort of thing.
At first I said no.
Because we had just gotten home from being gone and the house was a mess and I didn't want to clean up chicken guts. I know that seems unrelated, but that's what my brain was saying at the time.
Long story short, he brought it home and within 30 minutes or so it was in the frying pan.
The flavor was unreal! I have never had fresh chicken like that before.
But I highly reccomend letting your hubby do the dirty work.
I think he had to do something outdoorsy/mountain man-ish after being in Chicago for 2 weeks.
That poor guy just couldn't wait to get home.


So back to the getting healthy.
I'm going to make better choices when it comes to food.
Fresh, local, organic.
Less processed and packaged.
We normally do this anyway.

Oh yea, and back to ZUMBA! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Day Project

Hello!

Last week Alicia prompted us to do a little task for her Happy Day Project.

Here's what she says :

"...write up a summer list just for you.

Here's my list from last summer if you need more ideas..."

I don't know where she got that cute little template for making a list, but remind me to ask her ok?

So here goes my Summer wish list:

Keep my little tootsies looking good, and toe nails painted.

Read books. Lots of them.

Make bible reading and excercising a daily habit.

Take advantage of the fresh, seasonal produce at our finger tips and from the Farmer's Market and cut out the processed junk.

Go camping.

See a movie at a drive in theater with my honey.

Fireworks.

Swimming in the lake.

Canoe trip down the river.

Bbq's and bonfires.



Have you made a summer list yet?

What are your plans?

Now go check out Alicia's Blog and see what all the other bloggers linked up with.

Have a Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day! It's Wednesday!

Good Morning!

I'm linking up with Alicia @ La Famille today.

To read more about her project and find about how you can join in, read here.

Her last week's prompt was to throw a little lipstick on. I was wondering if there was any dudes joining in and did this challenge???? :)

So this past weekend the hubby and I were in Oklahoma for a short trip, and I got a little dolled up for a date night.

See the glossy lipsstick?!

When we were dating and early married, I always did my hair and looked cute for my hubby. I'm sad to say I don't do that very often anymore. In fact more often than not I don't do my hair, don't get dolled up and think things like "When was the last time I shaved my legs?!"

This night, from the picture above, I felt pretty. You can't see in this picture, but I even braided my bands and straightened my hair! Wow!

Our king size hotel bed was SUPER comfy! I wanted to take it home with us but couldn't fit it in the Subaru. Bummer.

Anytime that I can get Starbucks is a good time.

This was a Venti iced Americano, light ice, with room, 3 sugars please.

So refreshing on a 90 degree something day in Tulsa. Whew!

Got to spend some time (and money) at Barnes and Noble. I could seriously browse at books forever.

Especially the gardening/homesteading/make our earth a better place kind of books.

Before we left, we picked these potatoes from the garden. I couldnt believe how big some of them were! Of course the teeny tiny ones were great too. Eaten raw they tasted like a really healthy potato chip!

There are a few radishes and turnips in the mix too.

This was a staged picture on his part. He would never pick his nose while driving for real. Ha!

He cracks me up!

Happy Wednesday!



Happy Day Challenge

Howdy!

It's Wednesday! Woohoo! My mom always used to say Happy H_ _ _ p Day. It weirded me out.
And even now that I'm an adult, I still filter it. But regardless, I'm always glad to see Wednesday because it's that much closer to Friday.

So, I'm pairing up with Alicia @ La Famille Today. She's early into a cool Wednesday project called The Happy Day Project. And while I'm not a mom, I am a gal who needs a break and to feel special every once in awhile.

The prompt for this week was to plant a garden. Holler!
I thought to myself,  "Alicia- I'm already on it girl".
And so here are some pictures, that I can't remember if I've shared or not, some old, some new.

Our garden is already thriving ya'll! Living in the South with early, warm Springs definitely has it's advantages.

We started with seeds. And LOTS of them. I have saved some of the seed packages and still like whipping them out. They are so pretty aren't they?

In no time our squash started looking like this. In the future I don't think we will waste time "starting" squash seeds. Those suckers can be planted directly and they go to town quickly. For real.

Pretty soon the garden looked like this.
We have a European mix of lettuces and spinach, onions and some turnips in this bed.
We have 5 garden beds total that the hubby built for me. He knows my love language.

Here's a closer look. And this is actually an older pic. Our lettuce is now 3-6 inches taller and the onions are starting to bloom, which I can't remember if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

These onions are not only beautiful but mild in flavor and great thrown in a salad, sauce or quiche. Perfect!

We've got so much salad that I bring it to work for lunch, we eat a side salad with almost every meal and we even delivered a garden fresh salad in a bag to the neighbors ( with a jar of strawberry jam of course!)

I never was a huge salad fan until it came right from the garden. The taste is like none other, especially when paired with a simple olive oil and vinagrette combo. A dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper can be enough too.

In addition to our salads we also have potatoes growing and in fact have already eaten one this morning in my quiche. We will have cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, corn and a variety of pepers and tomatoes.

My husband is the real green thumb, he grew up on a farm after all. And while we had a garden growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, it was nothing like what we've got going on now. We may even sell a few items at the Farmer's Market next weekend. Woohoo!

For all of you reading thinking I could never do this.....Yes you can!
Just start small, put a few plants in tubs on your deck or porch. Cherry tomatoes grow easily in planters. Lettuces don't need much room to grown and neither do onions. Herbs can easily be placed in planters as well. Just try it! You won't regret it! :)

So go check out Alicia's Blog and tell her that Rachel sent you. You will LOVE her decorating style and way with words. Promise! :)

Happy Wednesday!