Ruthi is Becoming My Jillian

OK, so Ruthi definitely isn't a "bully," but she is quickly becoming "my Jillian!"

She was in my room this morning before 7:30, encouraging me to get out of bed so we "can go exercise!"

I started a new routine this week. I'm trying (again) to get back into exercising and eating better. I am determined, once and for all, to get myself healthy, and to teach my daughter good habits so she won't be in the same shoes I'm in when she gets my age. I want this to be a natural lifestyle for her.

When school starts back in a couple of weeks, she will have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. And this year, those are the only two days I'm teaching. So I decided to go ahead and start now to try to get in the habit of exercising on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sure, we can do it on other days if time permits, but those three days are the minimum.

Ruthi loves to ride her bike. And for the first time last weekend, I rode mine with her. Her Daddy has done it that way, but I still wasn't sure I could watch her well enough while I was riding. That's not the case! We rode five miles on Sunday and she did fantastic! She is an ol' pro now! Granted, I am riding a good bit slower than I would be if she wasn't riding...BUT, it got me back on my bike, and now I have no excuse not to ride! And if we do that more often, she'll be riding faster and for longer distances in no time!

I was really wanting to get back into running, but find it difficult to be able to get out there. I won't go run by myself (I just don't feel very safe), so that means either Chip or CJ must be home to watch Ruthi while the other goes to run with me. Well, with our schedules, that is rare, so I just wasn't running.

However, I now no longer have an excuse not to run either! Now, Ruthi rides her bike while I run! We go to the park down the road from us, which is my favorite place to run. If we go early, it's not crowded. Well, unless it is Saturday morning...there were quite a few people out there at 8:30 this morning - I think we need to go earlier on Saturdays!

Ruthi does great staying on the right, and I no longer have to worry about her running anyone over or her stopping short in front of someone. She rides a little bit ahead of me then turns around and comes back to me before she gets out of my sight. Even if I only do one lap (which is somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half...still can't get that confirmed for sure), she rides more than that because of the going back and forth.

I'm building myself back up, so I can't run the entire thing without stopping just yet, but I find that I'm pushing myself a teeny bit harder to try to keep up with Ruthi! It really works out for both of us...she's doing what she loves, and I'm doing what I need to do...in hopes of loving it again soon!

We went Tuesday morning, and I had no trouble getting up and going. Thursday morning came around, and honestly, had she not "made" me get up out of bed, I probably wouldn't have gone. And this morning...ugh....I did NOT want to get out of bed. But I wasn't going to let my little girl (or myself) down. And I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and went. I'm glad I did. And I'm thankful for my little encourager.

One day, in the not so distant future, my wonderful daughter is going to be able to say she had a big part in getting her mommy healthy!

All it took was me telling her my plan for this schedule, and she is making sure I stick to it! She marks days off her calendar everyday, so there's no fooling her about what day it is either!

Hmmm....maybe I should come up with a blogging schedule and tell her so she can keep me on track for that too! :)

Saturday Surfing

Here are a few things I found 'round the 'net this week. I wasn't really feeling the title "surfin' finds" after all, so I will call this Saturday Surfing now. So, I'll attempt to get these posts up on Saturdays...this, however doesn't mean I'll do it every week, but we'll see how often I do manage it!

And this week, I managed to only include two recipes instead of ONLY recipes!

This post, Cultivating is Key was very thought provoking. Made me think!

I love the idea of making soap dispensers out of tin cans!  I think I'd like to make a few of these and decorate the cans for different seasons/holidays.

I love this candy arrangement - so fun!

This orange lemonade looks delicious and refreshing!

This is a super adorable teacher gift to make!

I love this 4th of July wreath - so easy and inexpensive!

I'm always looking for new cupcake recipes, and these look sooo good!

That Girl

That girl of mine...she cracks me up. Always has. We are always entertained around here.

I love the things she says...you never know what is going to come out of her mouth next. It may be super funny, or super sweet, or a combination of both.

Back when I was better at blogging fairly regularly, I recorded many of the things she said, and I'm so glad I did. Yesterday, I had a "walk down memory lane" reading some of my old posts and remembering the conversations and other things she had said.

Then I started feeling sad that I haven't recorded anything she has said for the past year. So, I'm going to try to be better at getting these things documented so I will have all of them to look back on in the future.

She has this little wooden tic-tac-toe game that she loves to play. Last evening, she was playing it with her daddy for a while, then asked CJ if he would play with her. When he agreed, she asked him, "Do you want to be hugs or kisses?" He was confused for a second having no idea what she meant. But we got a good giggle out of it. I don't think I've ever thought of the x's and o's in tic-tac-toe as hugs and kisses!

Another thing I want to remember is her prayer at meal time. It's never the same, she prays about whatever is on her mind at the time. But she always says, "Bless this food and nourish up our bodies." I LOVE this! She has heard it said, "For the nourishment of our bodies", or, "And nourish it to our bodies." But I think her version is simply precious.

Now, if I can just remember to jot things down before I forget, until I can get them typed up, I'll have much more cuteness to look back on and enjoy when she's older.

Oh, and she actually loves for me to read these things to her too. Or rather, read them herself. She's at the stage that she would rather read to me than be read to. Either way, she gets a kick out of finding out things she said when she was "little."

Surfin' Finds - 6-10

I have been a long time reader of Amy over at The Motherload. She does a weekly post called Amy's Notebook in which she links to many things she's seen around the blogosphere that she likes. I love reading her posts and have found many recipes and ideas thanks to her links.

I see many things when I'm blog-browsing as well and thought I'd do something similar and share things I like. I most likely won't be doing it weekly, but whenever I have a few links to share. It will also help me remember where I found the things I want to try! I was trying to come up with a cute name - I don't want to call it Jennifer's Notebook - don't want to look like a total copycat! So, since these are links I find while I'm surfin' the blogosphere, I'll go with Surfin' Finds.

The four links I'm sharing today happen to be recipes...not sure why I'm thinking about food so much...maybe because I haven't cooked in a week! I've been dealing with a terrible sinus infection which has taken everything out of me, and cooking is one of the last things I've wanted to do. But I'm ready to kick this infection, feel great again, and get back in the kitchen!

I haven't used my breadmaker in quite some time. I think I'll try this recipe this weekend - Denise's Bread Machine Cheesy Herb Bread at $5 Dinners.

When I saw Jo-Lynne's recipe for Tilapia Parmesan the other day, I decided to make it for dinner. But, I wasn't feeling good and haven't felt good since then, so it got temporarily scrapped. But I will be making it soon...maybe tonight! It looks so yummy!

And when I make the Tilapia, I think I'll make Ree's pasta to go along with it - Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce. My basil plants are looking beautiful and I think I have plenty of fresh basil to pull this off!

After all that, I feel like I need I need to post a dessert. This Chocolate Malt Cake at The Tasty Kitchen looks so delicious. If I can find malted milk powder when I go to store (I've never even looked for it before), I may have to try it!

Hey...Don't You Have a Blog?

Who me?

Oh...I suppose I do. Have I forgotten about it? Not completely...there simply hasn't been time for blogging in the last, um, YEAR? Is that right? OMGoodness...wow! I'm almost three weeks shy of having not blogged for an ENTIRE YEAR!! That's crazy.

So...dare I? Dare I attempt this again?

I'm thinking maybe so.

As always, I don't make any promises whatsoever to be a regular or even semi-regular blogger, but we'll see what happens! Right now I have a little bit of the blogging bug, which I haven't had for quite some time. So, while it's biting, I'll at least give it a shot.

Life has taken over...the new season I spoke about has completely consumed my life for the past year...but I've loved it! Now that summer is here, I have a little more down time, so I thought why not give the blog thing a chance again!

I've made a few tweaks here and there on the ol' blog. One of the biggest things I did was switch to a dot com! So, if you landed here via a feed reader, or other link, please make sure you change the address to http://www.chroniclesofanightowl.com/. If you are reading it through the blogspot address, some things will not show up properly.

I'm not going to make this first post "back" into a novel by filling you in one goings on of the past year as I'm known to do. Shocking, I know! So, if I manage to pull off some blogging time again, maybe I'll share more of what I've been up to...which has mostly been school!

But that's all for now.

Until next time...

Fit & Fabulous Friday

Accountability is a beautiful thing.

It really is helping me get my house back on track and get my routines in place again. Just posting stuff knowing someone might read it (even if it's only a couple of people) goes a long way in accountability.

So...I need to be held accountable for something else. My life.
Well, getting/staying healthy which hopefully means I live a better and longer life!

You see, I was doing very well last spring/summer/fall. I was running and biking regularly and I was eating well and drinking lots of water.

Then the holidays rolled around. And I lost focus a bit. It was too cold or wet to run or bike. And I wasn't motivated enough to do any indoor exercise. And I simply haven't gotten completely back on track since then.

I've found that exercise and eating well go hand in hand. When I got lax on the exercise, I got careless with my eating.

The result of this, or results actually, are:
I'm not as happy.
I don't feel as well in general.
I have many more aches and pains.
I'm not sleeping as well.
I don't like the way my clothes are beginning to fit again. (As in, they are getting tighter!)
I feel tired and drained.
I'm having a hard time being motivated to do other things.

I KNOW that when I'm exercising regularly, I automatically eat healthier, and that resolves most of the issues above.

So...I'm ready to feel good again!

My goal, as it's been for a while is to be healthy! My primary goal is not weight loss, but I see that as an added benefit.

I just want to feel good and be healthy so I can live life to the fullest. I want to be FIT so I can feel FABULOUS!

So, I'm starting "Fit & Fabulous Friday" on my little ol' blog.

On Fridays, I will post what I've done the prior week to work on my goal to get healthy. And I may post what my goals are for the upcoming week as well.

I need to do this for myself. Posting it here will hopefully be a major reminder to just do it! And knowing that someone MIGHT check in to see how I'm doing goes a long way as far as accountability goes!

If anyone reading (all 5 of you!) wants to join me in this quest to get healthy, let me know! If you are a blogger, it would be fun to have someone else posting their results/goals on Fridays with me! That would be even more accountability and some extra motivation as well!

So...what did I do this week? Not much. I did buy the Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred on Wednesday. I did it yesterday. And boy oh boy, am I feeling it today! My arms and abs had a rude awakening! I had full intentions of doing it today, but I'm way too sore. I will try again tomorrow, but I know it's gonna hurt much more since my muscles are already screaming!

Next week, I hope to be able to do it at LEAST 5 days. And I plan to increase my water intake. I did pretty good yesterday, but not so much today.

I'll be back next Friday with a report!

Menu Plan Monday

We had a couple of changes in our menu last week - on Wednesday, time got away from me and the kids and I ended up grabbing fast food on the way to church. Then we decided to grill ribs on Saturday. So we never got to two of the meals, and they are back on the menu for this week. Not a ton of cooking going on this week, we still have lots of leftovers in the fridge! And we'll end up having more...so we can't let those go to waste!

Monday: Chicken Squash Bake, Couscous, Bread

Tuesday: Leftovers (I have an open house I need to be at, so I'm not cooking.)

Wednesday: Sandwiches or more leftovers (Church night - not cooking!)

Thursday: Quesadillas, Black Beans, Chips & Homemade Salsa

Friday: Homemade Calzones

Saturday: Probably leftovers again - It will be just me and the kiddos

Sunday: TBD

To see more menus or add your own, be sure to visit Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! And especially to three of the greatest Dads I know!

Happy Father's Day to MY Dad. I am so incredibly thankful for my Dad. I couldn't have hand-picked a better Dad. He's always been there for me and my family. He's supportive and encouraging and very loving. I've always been a Daddy's Girl and always will be. I love my Daddy! He's helped to make me the person I am today. And he's an amazing Poppy to my kids! We all love you Daddy!

Happy Father's Day to my Father-in-Law. Again, I couldn't have hand-picked a better FIL! He's an  incredible Dad who was the greatest example, and raised an amazing son. I'm so thankful he taught his son how to be an amazing husband and father. He has always been wonderful to me and is an amazing Papaw to my kids! We love you Jr.!

And Happy Father's Day to the greatest husband on earth! And the most amazing father our kids could have! I love you more than I ever imagined I could. I'm so thankful you've put up with me for over 18 years! And I couldn't have asked for a better father to our children. You love them with all your heart, and are never afraid to show it. You are an incredible example to our son and are teaching him how to be an amazing husband and father. He will be well equipped when the time comes! Thank you for teaching our daughter through your example, how a wife should be loved and treated. Thank you for always putting us first. We love you so very much!

A New Season

Yes...Summer is upon us. But that is not the season I want to talk about.

I am entering a new season in my life. And I am very excited.
I love that seasons in our lives change. If they didn't, I'd probably get bored. It's funny to me though, when I'm in a season that I absolutely love, I can't imagine the possibility of leaving it and moving into another season.

For the past year I've been volunteering at my local thrift store that a good friend of mine owns. I have LOVED every minute of it. I've loved the flexibility I've had with it as far as scheduling and being able to take Ruthi along with me. I've loved the way it has made me feel important outside my home. I've loved getting to know and talk often to our regular customers. I've loved working with a variety of people. I've loved that it's even allowed me to connect with people I haven't seen in years who have come in there to shop. And I've loved the perks of seeing lots of stuff come in and getting first pick of stuff! I'm so thankful that Ruthi has an entire wardrobe of adorable clothes thanks to this season.

But that season is coming to an end. It is bittersweet, because I truly do love working there. But the change came out of necessity, and now that the change is in place, I could not be more excited!

CJ has been attending a local homeschooling tutoring program for his 9th grade year. He "goes to school" two days a week where he receives all his instruction and homework assignments that will carry him through the other three days a week at home. It is fully accredited, so other than logging his hours, I don't have to stress about him getting his credits for college.

It has worked beautifully for us and he absolutely loves it. The downside is the cost involved. Unfortunately it has become difficult for us to pay his tuition without hurting our budget elsewhere. So, I decided I must do something to make it possible for him to continue there.

So, I prayed about what to do. I knew of a possible solution and just prayed it would work out the way I had hoped. The first year this program was open, I actually taught a couple of classes there and loved it. But I couldn't continue because Ruthi was little, child care was no longer going to be available and I needed to be home with her.

But now...she is ready for kindergarten. So I approached the director and co-director of the school about teaching again. GOD ANSWERS PRAYER! Beginning in August, I will be teaching 5 classes. Most of them will be K/1st grade classes, and Ruthi will be able to attend those classes. The one, possibly two, other classes will be second grade, but Ruthi will still be able to attend the class(es) in her grade level.

The classes I will be teaching will more than cover CJ's tuition, and anything above that will go toward the extra gas I'll be using, lunches and clothing if necessary. With the bonus of Ruthi getting to go too! And let me tell you - she is EXTREMELY EXCITED!!!

I'll be spending MANY hours the rest of the summer getting lessons planned and getting everything ready for the first day of school on August 9th! I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. I've always had a passion for teaching, and it's been a while since I've gotten to actually do it. I'm very thankful God has given me the talent and ability to do this. And I'm very thankful for this solution for my family.

I'm very excited to begin this new season!!!

Maybe I Have a Green Thumb After All!

I don't have a good history of keeping things alive. And by things, I mean things that grow in the ground. Obviously I can keep SOME things alive...I mean, I do have two kids after all who are very much alive.

But I've never been able to keep any kind of plant alive for very long. And my luck with flowers in the yard hasn't been so great either.

But despite that, I decided this year I wanted to try to grow something. Several somethings, actually. I decided I wanted to grow food!

My neighbor's sister (Denise is my neighbor, Cindy is her sister) moved here last fall to stay with Denise while her husband is in Afghanistan. Cindy had a garden last year. We got to talking and decided we could do a garden here, and since she had experience, she could teach me!

So we decided to plant a garden and split it. It's not a huge one, but a good starter garden. She has 5 rows and I have 5. We started working on it in April, getting the ground ready and then getting everything planted. And today, it doesn't even resemble the way it looked 3 months ago. It's growing like crazy! And I'm eating food from it already!!!

I have to say, I never knew how much satisfaction would come from growing my own veggies! My husband laughs at me a little bit over how excited I get about it. But I can't help it! Even I'M surprised at how much fun I'm having!

I planted tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, green onions, 2 kinds of lettuces, spinach and sweet potatoes. I also planted basil, oregano, parsley, cilantro, dill, chives and mint.

I've already had plenty of squash, zucchini and cucumbers to pick. I've had more lettuce than I know what to do with. I picked my first 3 jalapeno peppers the other day, and I couldn't wait any longer, so I picked 3 green tomatoes for frying. I've been using my herbs and need to use more of them up. Yesterday I used some basil and spinach and made a wonderful pesto.

For someone who never could keep a houseplant alive, things are going quite well in the garden! Apparently Cindy is teaching me well! She has given me lots of tips, but I've done all the planting (of my side) and tending myself, with the exception of her watering for me a few times when I wasn't at home. Maybe my thumb is at least a little green after all!

I'm already trying to figure out how to make this garden bigger next year. And we learned that our rows need to be a bit further apart - it's getting very difficult to walk between them!

I thought I'd share a few pictures. I have a TON of them, so I'm not going to try to post them all, but here are a few several!

CJ getting the ground ready:

Ruthi's helping too!

Rows are ready and planted.

First watering.

Squash are growing!

Cucumbers are growing!

Tomatoes too!

So much lettuce, and some spinach too.

First squash ready to eat!

Sweet Potatoes are doing well.

Bell Peppers growing!

More veggies to eat - squash, cucumbers and a big zucchini!

Sink packed full of lettuce!

More goodies - basil, peppers and a bit of oregano.

Menu Plan Monday

So, if I'm going to attempt to try blogging again, I might as well get back on the menu plan posting as well. Here's what this week is looking like:

Monday: Something quick - probably sandwiches. (I'll be at the hospital most of the day, and it's just me and the kids for dinner, so I'm not cooking!)

Tuesday: Sausage Zucchini Bake

Wednesday: Baked Spinach Pasta

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Chicken Squash Bake, Couscous, Bread

Saturday: Homemade Calzones

Sunday: TBD

To see more menus or add your own, be sure to visit Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

What Happened to the Night Owl?

Seriously...has another 4 months gone by? Good grief. I just don't know if I'll EVER be a regular blogger again. I think about it a LOT, but thinking about and sitting down to write a post are two different things. If only just thinking about it would actually make it happen! I suppose it's a good thing it doesn't happen that way. If all I had to do was think about it, I'd be posting all day every day and everyone would get sick of it!

But you'd think I could get back to at least semi-regular posting. Apparently that's not so easily done for me!

One thing that makes it difficult is the fact that I used to post late at night. It wasn't at all unusual for me to be writing a post at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. I was, after all, a TRUE night owl!

But, that seems to have changed in the past few months. I don't know why really, but it has. And I don't feel so much like a night owl anymore. Now days, it's more unusual for me to be up past 11 o'clock at night. Yes, it is past 11 now...I'm not always asleep by then, but it is more often than not these days.

So you'd think that maybe I was an early bird now. Um...not so much. Most mornings I do get up earlier than I used to...I rarely sleep past 9 anymore (yes...I realize that is LATE for some, but I used to sleep until at LEAST 11 am!) but I'm still SO NOT a morning person. Who knows...maybe one day I will be though.

Doubtful.

I still have a night here and there where my natural night-owl kicks in and I can't sleep. But I think the days (nights) of that being a regular thing might just be behind me. Maybe I'm getting old!

So...since I don't stay up super late anymore, it's even harder to find the time in my day to blog. I've always struggled with time management, and I find myself feeling guilty doing things that are fun when other things need to be done.

Funny though...I still manage to spend way too much time on Facebook!

My neighbor just started a blog yesterday, and it's inspired me to try to get back into it again. Maybe she can give me an extra little nudge!

I'll try, but I'm not making any promises!!! I have lots to share, hopefully I can make the time to do it.

But for now, I'm signing off and getting some sleep. I have a long day ahead of me sitting at the hospital. Anyone who might read this...say a prayer for my cousin who will be going through surgery tomorrow at 1:00. She is having a double mastectomy. Please pray everything goes smoothly and her recovery will be quick and as pain-free as possible!

Good night!

Multi-Purpose

This morning I was in the kitchen scrambling some eggs. I was using a wooden spoon.

Ruthi walks in and says, "You use a wooden spoon for stirring too?"

Me - "Yes."

Ruthi - "Oh! I thought you just use wooden spoons for spanking!"

The odd thing is, she has seen me use a wooden spoon for cooking LOTS of times, and she has used it herself for stirring while helping me in the kitchen as well.

Not sure why she is just now asking that!

Especially since spankings have been a lot more rare lately. Thankfully!

Recipe Swap - Chicken and Black Pepper Dumplings

I am participating in the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap today.

One of my favorite go-to, comfort foods in the winter time is Chicken and Dumplings. I grew up eating them and have always loved them. I have discovered there are many different ways to go about making them. I grew up with the chicken-broth type and love them. But I discovered a creamier and thicker version I love even more.

I'm going to include the "original" recipe that I began with. I don't remember where it came from, but I fell in love the first time I make them.

However, it doesn't make enough for my family, and is a bit thicker than I like. So I just add stuff as I see fit and make it to suit me. So following the recipe, I'll include some changes I make.

Chicken and Black Pepper Dumplings

Soup:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup cut up cooked chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

Dumplings:

1 cup Bisquick

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Heat milk, chicken and soup to boiling.

Mix Bisquick, milk and pepper until soft dough forms.

Drop by spoonfuls onto chicken mixture. 

Cook, uncovered over low heat 10 minutes.

Cover and cook 10 minutes longer.

Sprinkle with parsly if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

Ok, I'm not big on exact measurements, so I just add additional ingredients as I like. I at least double the milk, and add an extra can of cream of chicken soup. I don't measure my chicken, but put quite a bit more in than it calls for. If I feel it's still too thick, I add more milk or a little chicken broth. If it needs it, I add salt as well.
For the dumplings - I double the mixture. We like lots of pepper in ours, but it ends up being too peppery for our daughter. So I stick pretty close to the measurement there, but we add extra pepper to our bowls. I've found that the dumplings do better if I do them in smaller amounts, so I use about a half of a spoon for a dumpling. We like lots of dumplings in ours; you may like less, so experiment with it.
I have also found that the dumplings taste better if they cook a little longer, so I do about 15 minutes uncovered and then 15 minutes covered. The longer they cook, the better the texture. If you don't cook them long enough, the dumplings are more biscuit-y. I don't care for them as much that way.

I could eat these all winter long, they are so wonderful and creamy. I make a big pot so I'm sure to have enough for lunch or dinner the next day!

Wordless Wednesday

My little angel playing dress up.

To see more participants, visit Wordless Wednesday.