Etsy

My friend, Bethany (who has two of the cutest little boys on the planet) just started an Etsy shop! She's got a great sense of style (she managed to always look cute in Malawi, and that really means something) and I love the jewelery she put in her shop. You should all check it out by clicking right HERE.

These are two of my favorites:

I think this is so sweet! I love the off center rose and the matching earrings!

Fun! I love that it's basic. It would dress up all my plane-jane tshirts for sure. Love it.

Warning: Etsy can be really addicting. There are a lot of people who are very talented and creative. While I was browsing, I came across this:

It goes inside your purse to organize! Isn't that a great idea? My mom gave me a super cute purse for Christmas, but it is one big pocket. I am forever digging around to get things out. This would solve my problems. Now, why couldn't I think of that?

7 things

My friend Marley, who lives in Vermont, gave me a blog award. I'm not really sure what that means, but I know I'm supposed to post seven things about myself. Usually I kind of construct a blog post in my head before I sit down to write it. I have not done that for this post, so consider yourself warned. Here goes nothing.

1. I hate exercise. Always have, probably always will. The only exception to this was in Malawi when I used to power walk up and down the the 1 km hill with some ladies on campus. I liked that. Now, I force myself the gym at our apartment complex and I'm lucky to get 20 minutes in on the Elliptical before I'm bored to death, and tired and sweaty. Three things I hate: bored, tired and sweaty.

2. I had fruit salad and yogurt for dinner tonight. And goat cheese. My favorite combination of foods lately is grapes and goat cheese. I'm not sure why I haven't discovered this until now. But it's really delicious.

3. I have a degree in teaching, but have not really been using that degree for the past two years. Not that I'm in a completely unrelated field, I'm just doing a job I could have done without my degree. This makes me sad on occasion. Then I remind myself to be thankful that I have a job.

4. I love Africa. I miss living there and working there. I plan ways that we can get there as fast as possible, only to remember that I'm not in charge of things like that, God is.

5. I waste a lot of time on the internet. Sad, but true.

6. I could eat Mexican food for every meal and not get tired of it. I can't wait to try a new restaurant up the street that I bought a Groupon for a while back.

7. I love hymns. I love the melodies, the harmonies, and the theology in the words. We sang Holy, Holy, Holy in church on Sunday and it gave me goosebumps.

It took me far too long to thing of seven things about myself!

Now to pass this award on:

Bethany @ Still in St. Louis

Rachel @ Life of Lily

Kristy and Gideon @ Go Forth

My Valentine

Victoria and Albert Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

Zanzibar, Tanzania

 

New Orleans, LA

Wallowa River, OR

1300 feet above Baldwin County (Foley-ish?), AL

Engaged.

Honeymoon. Lincoln City, OR

What? We got married and moved to Austin, TX??

Where ever we go, what ever we do, I know that I'll always have the world's best Valentine.

I love you, Andy!

Roasted Chicken Experiment

I read a few cooking blogs like this one and this one. The second one featured this post about how to eat for a whole week on a roasted chicken. In the interest of trimming our food budget (which I am failing miserably at so far) I decided to try it. I was terrified. The scene from Christmas Vacation just kept running through my head (you know, where he cuts into the beautiful turkey and it deflates with a puff of smoke).

Here are my thoughts on the roasted chicken experiment:

1. It is SO worth it! I don't know if I'll ever just buy chicken breasts again. They cost twice as much and only make 1 meal. The chicken I bought was less than $5.00 and it made 4 dinner meals plus left overs for lunch.

2. Why was I scared? What could be easier than spending a few minutes preparing the bird and then sticking it in the over for a couple of hours?

3. I would say that it did not significantly decrease our food budget for the week. Either we already spend too frugally for it to make a difference, or the food we buy for lunches is way to expensive.

Here's what we ate for the week (I guess that's presumptuous of me to assume that you care, but I'm going to tell you anyway because I was very proud of my developing home-maker skills):
1. Roasted chicken and veggies (using the lemon recipe in the blog post above)- DELICIOUS
2. White Chicken Chili (also featured in the blog post above and very tasty, especially the next day)
3. Homemade Pesto Chicken Pizza (probably my favorite of the "leftover" meals...spinach, artichokes, tomatoes, yum)
4. Chicken Enchiladas (I followed this recipe but I used canned sauce and was not overly impressed. I also did not realize how much work they are, no wonder my mom hardly ever made them!)

And, because I know what's really important- the pictures:

Who wouldn't want a bite of that?!

Even Andy was excited, putting his photography skills to work. Mmm!

Week in Weather

Last Sunday (Jan. 30): 78 degrees and sunny

Wednesday ( Feb. 2): Highs in the 30s and lows in the teens, rolling blackouts (Malawi-style...well, not really because the power was out for a few mintues, not a few hours/days)

Thursday (Feb. 3): High of about 29, low of 17ish, two hour delay due to previously mentioned blackouts (which only happened on Wednesday)

Friday morning (Feb. 4): 20s and SNOWY, no school

Friday afternoon (still Feb. 4): 50s and sunny, no more snow

Sunday (Feb. 6): 65 and sunny

I guess that 78 degrees and snow in the same week are par for the course in the South, but it's still pretty crazy to me! We took some pictures in the snow:

Our new truck. It looks like a lot of snow. I think it's because the neighbor kids immediately began stealing snow from our truck and knocked it all down there.