Chalk It Up

After experiencing temperatures in the 20's just two weeks ago (in Louisiana, I know!), it's been really beautiful this week. It was in the 70's yesterday. I had to dig out my flip flops. Because the weather has been so nice and we're trying to ward off cabin fever, we've spent a good deal of time outside - finally taking down Christmas lights (sorry, Papa! Aidan was concerned that you'd be upset about our ruining your hard work.), playing at one of the three playgrounds within walking distance of our house, and in our very own driveway. Here are a few photos of Neely's first sidewalk chalk adventure.

Is this what I do?

Who needs chalk? This lid is pretty awesome.

Little Miss Happy and Mr. Serious

Sorry I cut off your head, Neely, but your sneaks are cute.

Hellooooo, blogland! I don't know why I did that. I guess I'm feeling silly.

Anyway, since I don't have a lot to say for myself lately (there have been way too many disgusting bodily functions going on around here for me to share), I thought I'd send you somewhere light-hearted and fun. Do you like to laugh? Look at pretty pictures? Go check out The Pioneer Woman and click around if you haven't before. I'm a latecomer to the PW craze, but I love her! Just read her Italian Meatball Soup recipe. I never thought I could laugh reading a recipe, but I have been proven wrong.

Now click, click, click away from here to a happier place!

Etsy

This is just a quick FYI for anyone interested. I have some new things for sale in my Etsy shop, and I should be adding more over the weekend. You can click here to travel over and check it out, or you can look at a few of the preview pictures on the right hand side of this page underneath my bio. Thanks!

Split Pea Centerpiece

After much procrastination, I finally un-decorated my house. From Christmas, that is. I know some people are really eager to do this practically as soon as the gifts are unwrapped, but not I. It's such a chore - getting down the boxes, gathering up all the decorations scattered throughout the house, trying to channel Mary Poppins and fit everything back into those tiny boxes. I put it off as long as possible. I wait for Epiphany and then some.

In this house, once I put Christmas away, I had no idea what to do. We moved right in and decorated for Christmas, so I've had a hard time visualizing what it should look like the other eleven months of the year. I have a big painting that is mostly yellow and green that I've decided will hang in the living room (when I get around to it), so I'm focusing on those colors for now. My curtain rod hardware is still MIA, so I'm having trouble totally pulling it off without curtains.

But I digress. The whole point of this post is to show you my fancy shmancy new centerpiece for the table. Okay, fine. So it's not fancy. It's super simple, and super cheap. I spent less than $10, and if you already had a vase that would work, you could spend less than $5. That's one $4 Wally World vase, a $2.88 white candle, and two $0.72 bags of split peas. Ta-da! I love it. It's green and white. It matches everything else. And it was el cheapo.

Yummy Sweet Potato Hash

It's DIY Day over at Kimba's, and for once, my contribution does not include sewing, hot glue, or spray paint. (Shock!) A few weeks ago, my friend Tori put a link to Eating Well in a blog post. I clicked around, found some recipes that intrigued me, and saved them for a time when John would be out of town. I have to try things with lots of veggies when he isn't around, because he won't eat them.

Anywho, last week, the time came, and I decided to try this Sweet Potato, Corn, and Black Bean Hash. I'll link to the recipe...here! I'm a linkin' fool today.

After 15 minutes of chopping and measuring, I was ready to go. It really wasn't as bad as the ingredient list led me to believe. I managed this recipe much better than any 30-Minute Meal I've ever tried to do. (Remember the two-hour rellenos, Stef? Aah!) The end result was beautiful and delicious. Neely even liked it.

Okay, fine. That's not much of a surprise, I know. Neely likes everything. But it was easy, I did it, and I should probably start searching the recipe pages of Eating Well more often.

Feeding the Dog

Neely is apparently under the impression that Hank doesn't get enough to

eat. I caught her doing this with what she didn't eat of her lunch yesterday.

Round Two

We have now concluded Christmas round two and celebrated New Year's with my family. A good time was had by all (I think).

Neely helped Aidan open his gifts.

Neely finally got into opening her own gifts.

We dressed the dog up as Santa Claus...

...and Neely as Mary.

The kids played with Play-doh.

The boys played video games.

We wore our Christmas crowns and shared corny jokes.

Aidan passed out from the sheer excitement of it all.

And this is just a great picture.