Joyful Simplicities 2 Days Late

So it’s not “Joyful Simplicities Sunday.” It’s “Joyful Simplicities Tuesday” instead for 2 reasons. One, I didn’t have time to write Sunday. Two, I didn’t feel like writing Sunday. Okay, so number 2 reason was the biggest reason. If I had truly wanted to write, I would have found the time to do it. But I didn’t. I wasn't in the mood, so I didn’t.

However, I have learned over the past year and a half that when I don’t feel like writing here…that is precisely the time when I need to be writing here. You know, dancing in the rain and all that. Some days, I want to say "Bah Humbug! to dancing in the rain. Some days, I’m kind of pissed off at myself for ever having the idea to keep a blog like this even though it seemed like such an excellent idea at the time. Other times, it does remind me to keep focused on things that I otherwise probably wouldn’t, even when I don’t particularly want to. I guess it serves it's purpose, even if I have a love/hate relationship with it.

So. Sunday, I didn’t feel like writing so I didn’t. And yesterday, I was mad at myself for not writing when I didn’t feel like it. Feeling guilty, I started writing late last night, when I was too tired, and I gave up and am writing now instead. Joyful Simplicities Sunday 2 days late.

Last week was a sucky week for lots of reasons. Every single day, it was something, or more than one thing. The week got off to a bad start on Monday, and really didn’t improve much. I’m not going to write about the sucky things that happened, but it was a crappy week (and an expensive week!) and I’m glad it’s a new one. I did however find a few things to find some joy in.

Homemade bread.

I wish I could make homemade bread every single day because really, is it possible to be in a bad mood, no matter what is going on, when you have a huge bowl of bread dough rising and baking and filling your house with a lovely aroma that puts an inch or two around your waist just from smelling it? I think not.



A gorgeous sunset.

The past two weeks have been full of gray, dreary, depressing days and the sun has been on vacation. On sabbatical is more like it. I think that is what I hate about winter more than snow and cold. (Although I do have a very passion-filled hate for both of those things!) I hate day after day of no sun. Well, this weekend, we finally had some sun. Last night, we all gathered on the porch to gaze in wonder at the beautiful sunset. Even the kids were impressed. The picture isn’t very good because my camera sucks, but the sky was swirled in stripey layers of every shade of orange and pink and purple. It reminded me of sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. Only my toes were in slippers instead of warm, powdery sand. (Oh, if only they were in sand instead...)



Onward…

Creative juices are flowin’ through my veins.

I’m not sure what has gotten into me lately, but I like it! Last Sunday, I wrote about how I pulled out some of my old scrapbooking supplies and started making a small scrapbook. Well, this past week I had the strangest urge to do something I haven’t done since I was a kid in Girl Scouts…embroidery. So off I went to Michaels to buy some thread and a hoop. Weird, I know. I think my little project is turning out pretty darn sweet, even if I don’t have embroidery skills that anyone would envy. Considering I haven’t embroidered since I was 6th grade, I’m kind of impressed with myself. The worst part is the eyes ain’t what they used to be, and it requires me sitting next to a window, with a lamp shining directly on the fabric, AND my old lady Walgreens special reading glasses. And I can only work for about 30 minutes at a time before my eyes start bugging out of my face. It’s not finished yet, so I’m not ready to show it off, but here’s a sneak peak.




I also made some jewelry this past week. I haven’t done that since summer, and again, it was fun, and relaxing, to pull out my boxes of beads, make a mess all over my dining room table, and create something. Two somethings actually…it’s getting close to Angel Ball time, and I decided I needed to get moving and make a bracelet. This is what I came up with and everyone loved it:




It’s only half a bracelet right now because I was hurriedly stringing beads less than an hour before I had to get to an Angel Ball meeting Thursday night and half was all I had time for.

I also made this fun necklace. When I was out Christmas shopping, I fell in love with a necklace I saw at a kiosk in the mall. I didn’t however fall in love with the $85 price tag dangling from it. I knew it was something I could make, and while it’s not exactly the same as the one I saw in the mall, I actually like this one better. The turquoise beads on the mall necklace were bigger and chunkier, and the silver chain was chunkier, and this suits my style a bit more. I also like it better because I spent nothing on it…I already had all the beads in my stash. Bonus!




Big weekend breakfasts.

I have been making the effort to make a big breakfast sometime on the weekend, and so far, I’ve made it 6 weeks in a row. I have a better track record at that than I do at writing every Sunday on my blog. Woo hoo. I’ve made a yummy breakfast casserole, overnight blueberry French toast, eggs Benedict, cinnamon rolls, omelets, banana pancakes, and this past Sunday, I made biscuits and gravy and a loaf of really yummy orange cranberry bread. It ends up being brunch more than breakfast since my children think that rising before noon is “early.” They are definitely enjoying the big breakfasts though, and they have decided that they get to take turns every week choosing what I will make. While they are arguing over what delicious feast I will make next weekend, I’m checking into how much it costs to join Curves cuz I sure am going to need it. Soon. Oh, heck…who I am fooling. I needed it 5 years ago.

Measuring cups.

Yes, I said measuring cups. A week or so ago, I came across this on the Anthropologie website, and HAD to have it. It was a frivolous purchase, I know. But I still have my $100 gift card that Share’s board of directors gave us as a Christmas gift because I haven’t really had time to go shopping and spend it. I have never bought anything from Anthropologie, and I felt like a kid on Christmas when my doorbell rang on Thursday afternoon, and I discovered the box sitting on my front porch. The really great thing about this, other than the fun factor, is that maybe just maybe when my kids put away dishes, the measuring cups will all get put away together instead of one in this cabinet, another in this drawer, another in still another cabinet.







Cookbooks.

I adore cookbooks. I can curl up with a good cookbook just as easily as I can curl up with a good novel. I have so many cookbooks that I don’t even have room to put them all out in the cabinet in my kitchen that is there solely for cookbook storage. I think it’s a sickness I have, although I have been good the past few years and haven’t bought any at all. On Sunday morning though, I found THE cookbook that has been missing from my life, even if I didn’t know it. And it was only 89 cents on my Kindle! Best 89 cents I’ve ever spent…it’s a Gooseberry Patch cookbook of nothing but homemade macaroni and cheese recipes. I think I may have drooled onto my Kindle screen when I saw it. I make mac and cheese on a weekly basis, and I am always looking for new ways to jazz it up. Which is part of the reason I am thinking of joining curves. I haven’t tried a new recipe yet, but it is on my “joyful simplicities plan” for some night this week.

Well, that is all. I guess I didn’t do too bad considering I wasn’t in the mood to write at all. And I didn’t write much about food either!

Life is Just a Bowl of Cookies...

And a pan of coconut cream cake…

And a plate of buttermilk banana pancakes…

Sheesh…I write about food wayyyyy too much! But, since cooking and baking is the one thing I know relaxes me and brings me joy, I have to write about it I guess. Especially since all I do anymore is cook and bake. And eat.

I do have more to write about than food, and I’m thrilled that I’ve made it two weeks in a row with my Joyful Simplicity Sunday post. I’m on a roll…woo hoo.
Big whoop, right? Two weeks in row? I should wait to pat myself on the back until I’ve made it two MONTHS in a row. Though that’s not likely to happen, so I have to pat myself on the back when I can.

So back to that bowl of cookies, and that pan of coconut cake and that plate of buttermilk pancakes. Alcoholics have Alcoholics Anonymous. Overeaters have Overeaters Anonymous. I wonder if there is a 12-step program for people like me who can NOT STOP BAKING. The only thing that keeps me from weighing 300 pounds is that most food around here is inhaled by my kids. My SKINNY kids I might add. Which prevents me from eating too much, although I do certainly eat my fair share. My waist line and my pants know that I speak the truth. I need to find a new less fattening hobby before all my kids leave the nest or I will weigh 300 pounds.

The weather doesn’t help. When it is dreary and cold like it has been lately, the first thing I want to do is break out the measuring cups and butter and sugar. Oh, if only butter and sugar were lowfat!

Pancakes...
This morning, I was in the mood for pancakes. I thought about making pumpkin pancakes, but I had no pumpkin, and I didn’t feel like going to the store…I had some ripe bananas in the freezer, so I searched the internet for a banana pancake recipe.
I drooled over my camera while taking this shot of my plate piled with Buttermilk Banana Pancakes dripping with maple syrup and topped with toasted pecans.




The good thing is that the pancakes didn’t taste nearly as good as that picture makes them look. Actually, they were kind of bleh, and I won’t be making that recipe again. The kids liked them…and devoured them. Tony did too, which is shocking because he doesn’t really like pancakes. Oh well. One less thing I have to eat. I didn’t even finish my plate. I could hear my body high fiving and thanking me.

Cookies…
I thought I was all burned out on cookie baking after the holidays were over and wouldn’t want to make cookies ever again. I made so many batches of cookies, I think I even made some in my sleep. But I didn’t make my favorite cookie recipe of all time…Cranberry Oatmeal Dreamsicle Cookies. I actually made up this recipe years ago by combining a couple of other recipes, and it has become a family favorite.
I have eaten way too many of those this afternoon. I’m not going to say how many.




I have discovered recently that everyone in my family loves coconut. I’m not a big fan of it. I like the flavor, and I like coconut if it is toasted, but raw…not so much. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a bag of coconut to make the one cookie recipe that I have that calls for it, put the bag in the pantry, and forgot all about it. Friday night, I walked into the family room to discover all of my kids and Tony eating a bowl of something. That something turned out to be coconut with melted chocolate on top. Ewwwwwww. Anyway, they all told me they LOVE coconut, asked me why I never make anything with coconut, said they would love it if I would make a coconut cake because that would be Heaven. So, I found a recipe, and made one for dessert tonight. I have to admit, it was pretty tasty. One piece was enough, though. Thank God. I was already feeling like I need to spend my night walking instead of sleeping. I don’t have a picture because my camera battery died just as I turned it on to take a picture. Take my word for it, it was delicious.

Enough about food!

Another joyful simplicity of my week is that I pulled out some of my ancient, dust-coated scrapbook supplies and started making a scrapbook. I used to spend hours each week making scrapbook pages in my stay at home mom days. When I started working at Share 8 years ago this month, that hobby was put aside, and I’ve not made a page since.
I’ve forgotten how much fun it is . And also how much of a mess it is!




I’m just making a small album. I will hopefully have it finished by next weekend, and I will share pictures of what that mess above turned into.

I only have one last joyful thing to write about the week. It’s been a tough week for several reasons, and this afternoon, I found out something that just warmed my heart to the point that I was in tears.
This week has been a bad one for my mom with her RA. My sister has called me several times in tears because Mom is doing so bad and is in so much pain, and she felt so helpless. I did too. The hardest thing is that the only treatment that is left to help her is so expensive that my parents can’t afford it. My sister has been trying diligently to find some assistance to help defray the cost, but unfortunately my parents make too much money, which is ridiculous. According to my sister, they make enough to just be above the poverty level, but it is too much. One person actually told my sister that if they didn’t work and were on welfare, she would have no trouble finding help with her medical costs. There is something very wrong with that, but that is not what this is about.
Since my sister lives next door, she sees my mom on a daily basis, and I know that it has to be heartbreaking for her to see her in such a state. My sister told me one day this week that Mom is already on a high dose of steroids and has been getting weekly shots, but they really are not working anymore, the doctor wants to increase her dosage, which will not be good for her body. My sister says that mom is virtually becoming crippled, pretty much unable to use her hands or even walk some days. She is in so much pain she can’t sleep at night and can barely function during the day.
So the only thing left to do is for her to have an infusion of a drug every other week that she can’t afford. As a last desperate attempt to for my mom to be able to have this infusion, she appealed to my brothers and I to commit to contributing money each month toward the treatment. She asked for us each to contribute $100-$200 a month. How do you turn that down when your mother is becoming crippled and is living in terrible pain?
You don’t. I told my sister that of course, I will contribute whatever I possibly can, and she is setting up a special bank account that we can all contribute money to whenever we have extra to contribute.

What happened today though that was so heartwarming is what my brother Rick said. My brother Rick was kicked out of our house right after he graduated from high school. He left home on foot with nothing but a suitcase. I can’t even imagine what his life has been like for these past years. None of us saw him until a few months ago when he was in St. Louis and wanted to get together with all of us. He and mom welcomed each other with open hearts and open arms, and they talk almost daily now by text.
Today, Rick told my sister that he will put his first check in the mail tomorrow, and that he will contribute even more if it is needed. He told Theresa that since he is not married and has no children, he will pick up the balance of whatever we can’t cover so that my mom has to pay nothing at all. To think that he has obviously put aside whatever bitterness for how he was treated years ago and is willing to do whatever it takes to help Mom now…that he has obviously forgiven and forgotten…I really can’t put my thoughts into words. I know though that I will be thinking on that for a good long time! LOL I can’t even say anything else about it now.
I thought this was going to be a short post tonight. Obviously, I was wrong about that.

Joyful Simplicities

A couple of months ago, I mentioned a book I bought many years ago called Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I wrote about how the author of that book challenges the reader to make a list of at least 5 things you are thankful for each day. I credit that book for being one reason why I tend to look on the bright side of things most of the time. That’s not what this post is about though. The book is set up by months, and at the end of each month, there is a list called “Joyful Simplicities for October” or whatever month. The idea is to pick a few things to think about or enjoy each month…things you may not have thought of. This post is inspired by that list. Since I am so bad at writing here on a regular basis, I thought it might be fun to sit down every Sunday and write about little things I enjoyed, things that made me smile, throughout the previous week. Well, I doubt I’ll do it every Sunday because it’s pretty clear that I suck at doing anything on a regular basis. In fact, just writing that I will do this every Sunday probably just ensured that I won’t. I guess I should say instead that on certain Sundays when the moon and stars align just the right way, giving me the time and the inspiration to write, THEN I will write about the joyful simple things in my life. How’s that?
To start this possible Sunday tradition off…I have oodles of simple and some not so simple things to be overjoyed by.
This is the big one…the big kahuna of joyful simplicities! Remember last January when I wrote about how 2011 was going to be the year I finished my living room, and it then I wrote this December that I didn’t? Well, gimme a drumroll here…

My living room is ALMOST finished!
The week between Christmas and New Years, which is a vacation week for me, I got my butt in gear and finally finished peeling off the old, yucky wallpaper. It was quite an undertaking, and even with a steamer, I said lots of bad words and almost destroyed the drywall. I thought Tony was going to die when he saw what I had done, but that stuff had become part of the drywall and there was no other way to remove it. I thought he would end up having to cut out the drywall on the top part of the room and start all over, but he said it could be repaired. He couldn’t get to it, and since I was on a roll and anxious to finish the room, I decided to do the mud repair work myself. I don’t like to brag, but I did a damn fine job. Tony said I even did a better job than HE would have done. I think the key to my success was this handy little professional tool I used to spread the mud…my Wilton frosting spreader. I’m not very good at decorating cakes, but that little spatula sure came in handy.

Here are a few pictures:
What my living room has looked like for the last 2 years and 8 months:




What the walls looked like when I was finished destroying them:



And what my room looks like now:



It’s still not put back together, but I am so happy with how it turned out. The white trim has been given a new pristine coat of enamel paint, the walls are a soothing gray, and now I am ready to take on the rest of the downstairs that also needs to be painted. Let’s hope this burst of painting energy lasts.

Onward…I have many more joyful simplicities to write about…and this is way too long already.

Homemade cinnamon rolls.
6 pans of them to be exact. This is before they were finished rising and baking. I didn't take a picture of the finished rolls...everyone ate them too fast.



I made them yesterday morning. All 6 pans are gone. Well, I gave one pan to a friend, but my family ate the rest. I only ate one. (Not one roll…one PAN). Yikes. I can’t believe I just said that, but yes. Over the past 2 days, I ate 8 cinnamon rolls. Smack some sense into me and sign me up for Weight Watchers.

A 60 degree day in the middle of January.
Really, what can be more joyful than that? Just when I was starting to think that maybe Al Gore is right…the weather turned and 12 hours later, it was 9 degrees and we had snow and ice on the ground. Yes, 12 hours. At 5:00 PM on Wednesday, it was 58. At 5 AM on Thursday, it was 9 and school was cancelled. Gotta love St. Louis. You certainly don’t get bored with the weather.

What is better than a good book?
NOTHING! Well, that’s not true…a beach vacation in the middle of winter is better than a good book. Winning the lottery would definitely be better than a good book. But, in MY world, a good book is one of life’s simplest pleasures. Last week, I downloaded a book onto the Kindle that I got for Christmas because it was a freebie, and it sounded interesting. It was MORE than interesting, it was an incredible book called The Secret Holocaust Diaries. I am a history buff anyway, and both historical fiction and non fiction about World War II is my favorite period to read about. I could not put this book down.

I made omelets for the first time ever.
I have always wanted to make omelets, but have always been a bit afraid of them. Funny, I can make homemade cinnamon rolls but omelets scared me. I got an omelet pan for Christmas, and just this morning made everyone omelets for breakfast. My first few attempts weren’t the best. Justin got one first because he was getting ready to leave to go work on a school project at a friend’s house. While he gave the omelet high praise for taste…actually, he said it was ‘amazing’ and better than a Denny’s omelet...it didn’t really LOOK like an omelet. I put too much of the filling in it then couldn’t flip it over, so it really ended up looking more like a big pile of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese mixed in. Each omelet after that looked better, and by the time I got to the last one, Tony’s, I think I had the technique perfected, and I made a perfectly flipped over omelet chock full of lots of yummy stuff. The only thing I haven’t perfected yet is keeping the bottom from browning while making sure the inside is fully cooked. Fortunately, Tony likes his eggs with a bit of browned parts, so he gave it 2 thumbs up. Lauren moaned while she was eating hers, so I guess my first experience at omelet making was a success.
Check it out:



A haircut.
Not much makes me feel better than an hour or so at the hair salon. Especially when it’s a good haircut. Today wasn’t one of those good haircut days. In fact, the hair cut is pretty crappy, perhaps the worst one I’ve had for a long time, and I hate it, but it was joyful anyway thanks to the gal who cut my hair. I couldn’t get in to my normal stylist, I was desperate for a cut, so I let someone else do it.
Big mistake. Big big big mistake. Colossal mistake.

The best thing about it? I was smart enough to tell someone who’d never cut my hair before that I wanted it “trimmed” and that I like the layers on top to be “on the longish side.”
Whew. It’s a good thing I didn’t say “I need a good CUT!”
She did way more than trim. It is SHORT. Very short. From the back, I’m not sure I will even be able to wrap the hair around a curling iron. So short that my husband, who rarely notices what I do to my hair, even when it goes from salt and pepper gray to shiny, highlighted blonde said 2 seconds after he saw me: “Wow. Your hair is really short.”
Yeah. It's really really short.

The layers on top that I clearly told her I like to be on the ‘longish’ side? Well, those particular layers are about 3 inches long. They were down to my ears before. She cut more off than the length they are now.
But. There is always a but, right?
The girl was delightful. And adorable. But not in the ways you are probably thinking.
To be honest, when she walked up to me in the waiting area while I was paging through a hairstyle magazine and said, “Are you Rose?” I came this >< close to saying, “NO!” and leaving.

My first impression was definitely not of a delightful, adorable girl. Oh no! My first thought was, “NO WAY in h-e-double hockey sticks is someone with spikey pink hair TOUCHING my hair!”
Yes. I said spikey, pink hair. Not just pink…but shocking, bright pink. With medium pink and pastel pink highlights. Actually as my time sitting in her chair went on, I couldn’t help but think that person who had transformed her hair into this spikey pink confection was actually quite talented to get all of those shades of pink that blended just right. I became fascinated by her hair. It was a pink work of art for sure.
The pink hair wasn’t all.
She was also tattooed all over her arms.
She had multiple piercings. And not just in her ears.
She had a 4 inch long cone-shaped piece of clear plastic, or clear something anyway, through one of her earlobes. I was fascinated by that as well. I couldn’t decide if I should look at her hair or that huge thing protruding from her earlobe. And I kept hoping I was being discreet and that she didn’t notice me staring at either of those things. I also couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to her earlobe if she got caught in a windstorm.
But, that all said, she was a lovely girl. She was sweet, and funny, and actually, she was really cute. I found myself wondering what she looked like before she tattooed and pierced herself and turned her hair into a style and color that Pink herself would be envious of.
I wondered what her mother thinks of her.
She brought me joy for another reason. I couldn’t help but be envious of her. Not because I want tattoos and giant holes in my ears and bright pink spikey hair. When I left the salon, I thought about how very nice it would be to have so much confidence in myself and the person that I am that I could go out in public every day looking like that. Not that I would want to mind you. I’m embarrassed when I go out in public wearing sweats and no makeup and run into someone I know who I haven’t seen for a very long time. Which also happened to me today, unfortunately, after I got the very bad haircut. That story will have to be for another time.

I don’t have a picture of the cute pink haired tattooed pierced girl who cut my hair. I also don’t have a picture of my horrible haircut. No one would want to see that, but unfortunately, I can’t hibernate. I am wishing that I could, though. I have stuck my head under the kitchen faucet twice already trying to find a way to style my new haircut so that it looks decent. I haven't found a way yet.

I need to wind this down because my family thinks they need to eat. I told them I already cooked once today, what more do they want??? Didn’t work.

One other joyful thing and then I will be done.
After I left pink hair tattoo girl, I went grocery shopping. I bought this cute little bottle to put dish soap in.


I thought looking at this fat chef sitting on my kitchen sink everyday might remind me to stop baking and eating so much so I don’t become a fat chef myself. Or at least a fatter one. We shall see if it works. I’m not very optimistic about that. He may end up suffering the same fate as my little Serenity angel...shoved in a drawer.