Pups, Pirouettes, and a Pecan: March 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Sweet Lady K says...

0 comments Posted by Megan Elizabeth at 12:25 PM

It's time for a change!

My very sweet, almost 3 year old is moving into a 'Big Girl' room and she couldn't be more excited. She has specifically asked for a blue room.

Tuesday night I frantically went to LOWES and purchased some VERY blue paint. Mom and I finally got around to painting the room on Sunday.

It is not anywhere near complete, but I wanted to at least keep you all up to date with our renovations.

BEFORE

AFTER PRIMER

(Lowes guy tinted the primer blue for me, to 'make the job easier'... It definitely helped out!)

Little miss thang came to sneak a peak and couldn't resist touching the blue!

And finally....

KAMI'S BLUE ROOM

I love, love, love the blue! As does sweet lady K! And, luckily, so does daddy!

Whoo-hoo!

Sadly, my mom will be moving to the Philippines here in a few short weeks. (We are going to miss you and Eric so very much!) But thankfully, Bella (my mom) has agreed to paint Kami's new room before her big move... You can see her art work here.

If you know me in real life (not that blog life is fake life...) you know that I have an insanely wild imagination and you know that I love all colors. When designing Kami's room, I knew I wanted the theme of her room to include 'movies'. Not all movies... I wanted to focus on movies that she loves and those all tend to have vivid colors, imaginative characters, and good messages.

Movie's we chose:

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

From this one we're pulling most of the toys, the street lamp, and the stars. The stars will be carried throughout the top portion of the room (like a border) to connect the different scenes.

Meet the Robinsons

Probably going to use a quote from this one and these frogs...

Because they are awesome.

Harry Potter, of course...

Mom will be painting this image of Hogwarts school (see below) in one corner of the room and Hedwig will be to the right of the castle.

Ramona and Beezus

See the hand-prints on Beezus's shirt? We're going to use our (me, Kev, and Kami) hands (and maybe even our feet!) to connect the scenes alone the bottom of the walls. (Stars on top, hands on bottom!)

So there it is...

My crazy dream room for Kami that only my mom can make come true...

Thanks Bella.

We love you.

A lot.

Peace my lovelies

- Meg

Monday, March 28, 2011

Muffins and a little Laundry 101

0 comments Posted by Megan Elizabeth at 11:44 AM

Hello! Hello! Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did... Well hopefully a little more than I did!

We were diagnosed with the dreaded ‘strep throat’ on Friday afternoon, so our weekend has been spent primarily at home. Being home most of the weekend allowed me to put together this juicy blog, so I suppose I can’t complain much.

Saturday morning I taught dance classes as usual, minus my little partner in crime, (She had to stay home sick.), and of course by the time I arrived home I was running a fever and daddy was off to doggy jobs.

Nice... I desperately wanted to lay down in my bed, put on a movie, and go to sleep, but I knew my sweet pecan would have none of that.

Luckily, mommy was prepared! Friday afternoon I came across a GREAT blog, Hungry Meets Healthy and found what claimed to be a delicious recipe for muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Sweet Potato muffins, to be exact.

(You can find her recipe here.)

Friday evening, while picking up Kami’s prescription to heal her new illness of the week, we also picked up the ingredients we needed to make these bad boys.

So Saturday morning we gathered all our ingredients and went to work.

Well first we took pictures of the chefs!

After our photo shoot, we separated our stuff into 2 groups, the wet group and the dry group.

The Wet Group:

- 1 15oz can of sweet potato puree

- 1 large egg

- 2 large egg whites

- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

- 2/3 cup plain greek yogurt

The Dry Group:

- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 3/4 cup quick cooking oats

- 2/3 cup sugar

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/8 tsp salt

- ½ cup apples, finely chopped

We preheated the oven to 350 degrees and combined the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients into another.

The Wet

The Dry (before we mixed it up)

Little Chef mixing up 'The Dry'

The Dry (all mixed up!)

We then incorporated the dry mixture into the wet until smooth.

Both groups mixed together!

Next we poured the new combination of wet and dry mixtures into a greased muffin pan and baked for 20 minutes. This recipe made 24 fabulous little muffins

(Secret side note: Kami snuck a few chocolate covered raisins into a some of the muffins... and what a tasty surprise that ended up being!)

These muffins are to die for!! They are all natural and insanely delicious. So yummy, in fact, I made more the very next day. (No, we didn’t eat all 24 I brought a few to my dad and sent some home with Erin that night.)

Second batch!

The second time I made these I changed the sugar to brown sugar, increased the cinnamon to 2 ½ tsp, and added more apple. Yum, yum, yum! Kami and I sent 2 of these to work with daddy (one for him and one for me-ma!), then brought the rest up to Get Fit for this reason...

This is a simply delicious recipe that I already plan on making again very soon Let me know what you think, if you try this one out!

While being home most of the weekend, of course I ended up doing some... drum roll please...

LAUNDRY

Call me crazy, but I don’t mind laundry. To be honest, I actually enjoy doing laundry.

I’ve recently realized that I am a rare find... Most people loath laundry and find it stressful to even think about, which totally baffles me.

If I ever come to your house and find your couch in this state:

Exhibit A.

Or your bed looking like this:

Exhibit B.

I will, automatically, begin to fold and sort your laundry.

Most people I have encountered don’t mind the actual ‘doing’ of the laundry. It’s the folding and putting away that causes most individual’s to have the desire to become nudists and do without clothing for good.

Have no fear, my secret is here!

Honestly, it really isn’t a secret at all... I'm here to help you stop making unnecessary, time-wasting laundry moves.

In a nutshell, I organize my laundry.

Now I’m positive you are thinking, ‘This chick must be nuts! She enjoys organizing her laundry... What a weirdo.’ And I’m totally cool with that, guess why?

Answer: Because ALL the laundry in my house is complete (washed, dried, folded, and put away).

So like I said, most people are cool with the washing and drying. The folding and putting away part is where I’ve noticed most people make more work for themselves.

Yes, I said more work!

By folding everything into one pile and tossing it all in one basket, you end up running around like a chicken with your head cut off from the girls’ room, to your room, to the bathroom trying to put things away in singles and probably trying to cook dinner at the same time... It’s a vicious, time-wasting cycle.)

My simple method is as follows, as you fold your laundry, place it in piles according to the drawer in which it belongs. Easy as that.

By organizing everything into piles, you decrease the time it takes to put said piles away.

Before

After

Before

After

Total time to complete folding, sorting, and putting away of laundry: 15 minutes.

Another secret to keep your time down on laundry is to do one load every other day. For larger families this might need to change to one load a day, but the best blessing you have as a larger family is more helpers. Kids enjoy jobs! My almost 3 year old LOVES to put her laundry away. (Obviously she still needs help, but I believe in training young.) : )

Make some muffins and enjoy your laundry this week my lovelies!

Peace - Meg

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Grassy ass!

0 comments Posted by Megan Elizabeth at 12:59 PM

To be honest...

Today I'm feeling

Irritated and just plain grumpy.

I am 100% positive that my not-enjoyable mood today can be attributed to the fact that I skipped kick boxing AND didn't eat great this week.

Again, more honesty...

I use kick boxing almost as my personal 'anger management' class. Don't get me wrong, obviously I use it as a form of exercise, but I tend to picture ~~people~~ objects whenever I throw out a good punch or a swift kick. (Will, this should explain the 'angry faces' I often make throughout the duration of your classes.)

So the fact that I wasn't able to get 'that' (whatever 'that' may be; irritation, frustration, starvation, stress, etc) out of my system by pretending to knock invisible people out, makes me even more irritated.

Such a vicious cycle!

Shame on me.

So while thinking and thinking and hoping to shake (I literally will SHAKE it all away from 5:30-6 during my Shake Fit class... Come join me and BE READY TO MOVE!) this grumpiness off I realized that I have not once stopped and prayed.

I haven't asked God for guidance.

I haven't acknowledged God's presence.

I mean I haven't even read my Bible today! (Sheesh, super fail.)

Even Simon Cowell can recognize this is failure...

So... Instead of tricking myself into feeling even more guilty thus fueling more irritation; I looked around, saw three healthy toddlers running all around me, I laughed and said, "Thanks God. I'm sorry I was being a whiny pansy earlier, I'll do better starting now."

Ahh... Instant relief. My heart no longer feels heavy. My chest no longer feels hot. I am blessed and enjoying peace in God's presence.

Amazing.

Simply amazing that God is...

Thank you.

Moving forward...

Here are just a few (very few!) things/people I am thankful for...