Category: Life Posts

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Star Trek
Life Posts · Wordless Wednesdays

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Star Trek

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Of course we had to make matching outfits and the Husband wore his Starfleet shirt. No one said anything a out them, except the ticket taker who said “Our Star Trek exhibit is down the hallway to the left.” 🙂

Deep Space 9!

“You shall be assimilated!”

Janeway’s chair and uniform, just for my Dad! She’s his favorite Captain.

This was a really cool exhibit! I enjoyed seeing the history and thought behind the different evolutions of the show. I’m currently on Deep Space 9, so tried not to read any spoilers! Hope you see some things you recognize if you’re also a Star Trek fan!

Future Food- Garden Update
Gardening · Life Posts

Future Food- Garden Update

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We have had so much rain lately that the garden is growing pretty much every time you look away from it. I also haven’t had to water it very much at all, but finally remembered to today. We are using the herbs pretty regularly. Tomorrow for our Game Night, we are using some of the basil for lemonade. 🙂

I have massive amounts of all herbs that I think I will start freezing to encourage new herb growth. I’m always a little afraid to harvest them because I might run out, which is, of course, silly. Here are the latest pictures:

The basil box. My purple basil is coming back nicely.

Parsley, rosemary, lemon myrtle, and oregano. I used the rosemary on the lamb rack this week already.

The Sages are growing well. I have plans to use a bunch of the herbs in butter for a big chicken dinner on Sunday. You can see the thyme in the picture as well. The lemon thyme has tiny purple flowers on it that are also edible.

I want to try drying the lemon myrtle, lemon thyme, and pineapple sage for tea mixes. Maybe Sunday will be an herb drying day!

The tomatoes are growing very well. I’m pretty sure one of the second batch of seeds I planted is growing, which is nice. The poor little yellow tomato plant on the end isn’t growing very well. I think the bigger plants are stealing all the nutrients. I gave it some tomato food and some crunched up egg shells. Hopefully that will help. The bigger yellow tomato is doing very well.

My beans and pepper bed is looking well. I have radishes, bok choy, rainbow chard, and carrots coming up as well. It sorely needs a weeding though, but I’m not entirely sure what is a weed and what’s not.

I saved the best news for last! (Although I’m sure I’ll get a phone call from my Dad saying otherwise.) The zucchini plant has five baby zukes on it! I couldn’t get a picture of all of them, but I’m super excited. I’m going to be harvesting these as smaller ones so that I can maybe get some more production this year. It seems to really like the pot, so I will plan on continuing to grow them this way.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our garden! I’m very excited to see that even though I kill houseplants, I can keep a garden alive at least. Maybe there’s hope for the houseplants yet! On that note, I should probably go check the one I have managed to keep alive!

Have a lovely night!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Life Lessons from Fancy
Life Posts · Wordless Wednesdays

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Life Lessons from Fancy

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It’s important to stop and smell this tree.

And this blade of grass.

And this bush.

Maintain proper stretching techniques.

Hug your friends (although try not to chew his head off.)

Behave at parties so you get invited back.

Be aware of your surroundings.

Listen to others.

Never stop learning!

Be goofy.

But above all… Take good naps!

Gardening Update
Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Life Posts

Gardening Update

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Hello! It’s supposed to rain here all week, so I had to hurry up and get the rest of the garden planted yesterday. The Husband pulled a bunch of dead wood out of the backyard jungle and it looks like we did nothing once again. The three yard waste bags and 3 full yard waste cans belay that notion though.

We haven’t found any other morels in the yard, but we have pretty flowers popping up.

As usual, I have no idea what they are. 😁

I do, however, know what plants I actually planted! I’ll start with the herbs.

Flat Leaf Parsley- I need to chop this back so it grows more evenly.

Garden Sage and Pineapple Sage-

The pineapple sage can be used in teas and is sweeter than the regular sage.

Greek Oregano and Lemon Balm-

Lemon balm for tea and you can make a tea with oregano too, I think. We used the oregano last night to marinate rib eyes and it was delicious.

Three kinds of basil. I just couldn’t stop myself, so we have Purple Basil, Sweet Basil, and Cinnamon Basil.

I’m excited for pesto and for caprese salad. Also, Basil Lemonade!

We also have two kinds of thyme- German Thyme and Lemon Thyme.

Lemon thyme will go in my tea mixes and the German thyme will be for cooking.

We have three containers of strawberries. The ones that I planted in a stacking container haven’t sprouted yet, so no pictures of that. The other two were ones that survived the winter and I separated.

Eventually we would like to have berry bushes in big containers near the garage, but we have a few stumps to dig out first and we’re going to put gravel down too.

The tomato plants all have trellises now out of twine, but it was starting to sprinkle after I had finished them, so imagine them all with twine.

I couldn’t find Mr. Stripey or the Indigo Rose tomatoes this year, which was a bummer. I do have a Yellow Canary Cherry tomato, a Lemon Boy hybrid, a Mountain something or other, 2 Romas, a Cherokee Purple, a Juliet grape, and a Husky Red Cherry tomato. I did buy one of the super fancy tomatoes, the San Marzano tomato plant. I seem to be missing a few, but I think I might have duplicated the cherry tomatoes too. I’m hoping the twine will help keep them in check. A couple of the plants have flowers already!

The second garden bed doesn’t look super exciting yet.

I planted bush beans in the spot with the trellis, and replanted carrots along the back. There’s also Swiss chard and bok choy along the sides. Radishes along the other edge. For peppers I have a purple bell, poblano, serrano, and jalepenos. I’m thinking of trying more pepper seeds in the ground, ut if it keeps raining, I may just have to go with this. Even though there should be a good amount of stuff geowing soon, I still feel like I could be planting more. Next year, I’m starting the seeds later so they don’t die. Also, I will be using bigger plastic pots to help keep them stable longer.

I also have a zucchini and two rhubarb plants in pots. The rhubarb hasn’t grown yet, but the zucchini looks nice and healthy.

The hydrangeas in the front have blooms. I don’t know if I’m supposed to pluck them to make them grow more leaves or not, but they seem healthy.

My flamingo flock is also coming along nicely. 😂

I bought this one at a city garage sale yesterday. It was made out of pvc pipe and affixed to a paver stone. I still haven’t named it yet, but the artist made sure to tell me that I could name it whatever I wanted. He also said that because it moves a little in the wind, it might work as a pest deterrent in the garden. I’ll try anything cor the squirrels, so it might be my backyard flamingo.

This year a bunch of the local cities are holding rummage sales in parking garages or other city areas and it’s very convenient. It’s a weird mix of vendors and items, but worked out for us yesterday. We found two Wii games, the flamingo, and I got some Lego pieces for work. There’s a couple more coming up, so we might go see what we can find. 🙂

Fancy has been excited about the warmer weather. She likes it when our windows are open and she can smell all the things happening. She’s also helpful when we are messing with sticks. This is her, after the kids across the street went back inside.

I’ve started my canning prep list and am going to try to start having at least one canning/freezer prep day every couple of weeks. The mason jars are taking over the house again. I have a few recipes that I can make whenever; Jasmine Tea jelly for my FIL for Father’s Day, pickled red onions, and pomegranate jelly. I will probably try to do some of these this Friday. I don’t think I have much else planned.

For now though, I need to start getting ready for work. Have a great day!

Gardening, Here We Come
Gardening · Life Posts

Gardening, Here We Come

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The Husband said I had to write about our gardening adventures because “we did a lot and it still hurts, so everyone has to know!” He’s got a way with words, that one… We did honestly do a lot though and I’m excited to get such an early start. I just have to keep an eye out for frost advisories.

I experimented with starting from seeds this year. A few more of them need to go in the garden still, but it poured so hard today that I had to dry off Fancy when she had to go outside. We did put in some plants and the Husband told me about the bulb planter that we had that I didn’t know we had. It cuts a neat little hole out of the soil! It was very helpful. I was covered in dirt, so didn’t get a picture of it, but it’s a cool tool.

We had pepper, tomato, carrot, onion, cabbage, broccoli and watermelon seeds that sprouted. They were a little sad looking when I put them in the soil, so I’m hoping that they will perk back up. Otherwise, I will need to plant some more and try again.

The seeds we are using are from a seed vault that I convinced the Husband I needed back in our last appointment when my prepper anxiety was at it’s peak. (We also ended up with a 12 inch cast iron Dutch oven…) I hadn’t wanted to use them until I had a real garden and they were sealed up super tight. Apparently they will keep for a rather long time if I refrigerate them. They were from the Patriot Seed Company.

There are a lot more seeds than I can use and some that I know we won’t eat, so I’m trying to figure out what to do with them. If you want a packet of cauliflower seeds, let me know!

So the can itself was sealed with a piece of heavy duty electrical tape and then the seeds were double sealed in a resealable foil packet and vacuum packed in an even smaller foil pack. They included all the info you needed to plant them too.

We’ll see how they do. I planted only two of them. I wasn’t sure how much cabbage we would eat.

Another proactive thing I did this year was to cage the spots where I want the tomatoes to grow. I only have twine on one of them so far, due to the rain, but the plants are still pretty short, so I have a little bit of time. Here is a picture of the tomato spots ready to be caged. Hopefully that will help keep them in check this year.

I have a couple of pepper plants planted at the corner, I think. We have sprinklers in both middles, as last year our soaker hoses seemed to not be working well. Here is the pepper and other veggie bed.

All the places with sticks or stakes have something planted there. I’m just waiting to see what grows. The carrots are along the back, onions are along the side, and broccoli and cabbage are along the front. I’m planning on planting peas or beans where the little cage is and trying zucchini staked vertically in a pot. I also have rhubarb to grow in a large pot and a bunch of strawberries, some of which are from last year. They survived the winter and I bought another pack of the roots.

My herbs will go into a cinder block pyramid by the garage, but the space isn’t cleared yet. We’re also planning to have berry boxes by the garage, to keep them out of the yard, but those will be a multi-year project before they grow viable fruit. This Saturday we are planning on tackling those areas. Luckily, we have our massage the next day, so will be hopefully less stiff for Monday. I will also remember to put on sunscreen, so will hopefully not have weird sunburn marks again.

Speaking of general yard work, after our garden work on Saturday, we tackled the front of the house which had gotten to be a disaster. We do have birds nesting in one of our window boxes, so although we took down two of them, we couldn’t get that one down yet. The birds freak out if we get too close. The part we did work on was the part to the right of this picture.

We’ve also chopped down the wisteria (we think?) by the front door as it kept trying to trap us in the house and brought a ridiculous number of beetles with it. That thing was hideous. We tore out all the daisies, which look half dead for most of the year, the terrible asparagus plants (actually yuca?,) and the random big purple bush thing. It felt lovely to rip it all out and start again. We planted two hydrangeas to match the ones we already had. Here’s some in progress pictures:

Ugh! I hated those plants with a passion. There was a layer of landscape fabric and what looked like lava rocks and a plastic layer under all the dirt. The fabric stuck to the roots, but we left the plastic down. I may have done a happy dance when we finally got rid of those terrible plants. Now it looks a little pathetic, but hopefully the hydrangeas will grow quickly.

I don’t have a picture of the jungle we’re tackling next week, but will make sure to grab before pictures. I’m excited to get things cleaned up. Last year, we didn’t have time or energy enough to start on things. This year, we’re planning small, specific chunks of time and projects and that seems to be working better. Maybe in 5 or so years, the yard will be what we want it to be. 🙂

For now though, I should probably go to bed, so I have some energy left for my long day tomorrow. Wednesdays are not my favorite days. Have a lovely night!

Life Posts · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Dragon Hoard #3

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“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Roald Dahl

“The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.” – Benjamin Franklin

“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” – Lisa Kleypas

“Read. Read anything. Read the things they say are good for you, and the things they claim are junk. You’ll find what you need to find. Just read.” – Neil Gaiman

Book Sale Haul
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Book Sale Haul

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I thought you all might enjoy seeing the cool books I found at the book sale this past weekend. We went on one of the days when we got another 10 books for every 10 books we bought. 🙂 Side note, I need more bookshelves.

I also picked up a couple of new cookbooks lately, but couldn’t remember if I had shared them yet. I’ll start with those. I blame Eric for two of them. We were at this weird bargain store called Ollie’s which has everything you can think of piled haphazardly on shelves. Right as you walk in, there’s a huge section of discount books. You know I can’t walk by piles of books. There are a lot of cookbooks there. I found this one which I’m hoping will help with dinner prep. (I did not pay $12.88!)

The Husband found these two and decided we needed to add them to the collection. I didn’t need too much arm twisting, as you can imagine.

This one needed to be ours for an obvious reason. The dork factor is strong with this one. 🙂 I was excited to see that there were both indoor and outdoor recipes. Not that I think we’ll have time to camp this year, but it’s good to know for the future.

He also requested we get this one. We have a lot of Asian cookbooks now. He may be trying to hint to something…

At least we’ll be set for the Lunar New Year!

We also found this cookbook at the used book part of the library a few weeks ago. I may be able to replicate some of these decorations.

I tried a walrus cupcake from one of the other cookbooks from this series and it was a total failure. A hilarious failure, but failure none the less. These might be a little less complicated.

I haven’t used these cookbooks yet, but will try to use them soon. I’m also going through my cookbooks to try to figure out which ones we are done with and can pass along. I have a couple specific themed ones I will be on the lookout for and the other book sales. I need a gluten free/dairy free cookbook for my friends who need both.

Speaking of book sales, here is the Husband’s pile.

He found some good music potentially for his next play, a couple of Dilbert comic books, and some Asimov books.

It’s possible I’m addicted to collecting books. Reading them too, of course, but mostly just having them surrounding me. I get nervous if go to someone’s house and I don’t see books around.

This is the semi-trashy romance and fantasy pile.

Note the Redwall mixed in there. I did find a couple of new authors to try and some new books from my regular authors. The black one on the bottom right has all three of the “Queen’s Own” trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. I found two of the trilogy at one of last year’s book sales and I never ended up getting or reading the third one. So now I will be able to find out how it ends and can give away the other two.

These are the fiction books that aren’t trashy romance or fantasty.

The bottom one is “A Child Analysis with Anna Freud,” which I thought was pretty cool! It will probably come to work with me, but I should probably read it first. This sale had a lot of older child therapy books, but they were mostly texts and I didn’t know if they would still be relevant or not.

Kate Jacobs writes easy reads about women and relationships and this one is all about food. I’ve read her knitting series and it was lovely, so I thought I’d pick it up.

“The Lace Reader” is a book that I read a couple of years ago and it has haunted me ever since. I picked it up on a whim at the library and promptly forgot the author. I had to read it twice though, because it was such a good and twisty book. I’m excited to re-read it and see if it is as good as I remembered. The Herriot stories are always lovely and Carl Hiaasen is hilarious. Wacky, but hilarious. The “D is for Dahl” book is a Rolad Dahl alphabet. It looked really cute.

Of course, there were some crafty books too. The top one has a ton of resources from websites, to books, to places, techniques, and all sorts of other info. The Singer books are always good resources. I found “Sewing Specialty Fabrics” and “Sewing Activewear” this time. There’s also a Rit Dye book called “To Dye For” and a Log Cabin idea books. The bottom book is definitely the coolest book I found.

It’s actually a binder to organize a subscription magazine called “Stitch by Stitch” that has crocheting, knitting, sewing, and needlework lessons. It’s from the 70’s, I think. It has original, never used sewing patterns, plus instructions for all sorts of knitted and crocheted things! I’m super excited to play around with it.

Have a peek inside!

There’s a pattern for the pictured wrap skirt. I plan to try it with my drapey woven black fabric from the discount store.

There’s always a mini project on the back cover.

Sadly the pants pictured here are from a separate pattern pack that I don’t have.

Here’s one of the knitting lessons.

And crochet.

Heirloom sewing!

Needlepoint!

It’s the coolest set! I’m sure you’ll see more as I use it.

So far, I’m quite pleased with my new books! Fancy is cuddled next to me while I make plans for what to make next.

I can’t see how this is comfortable, but she has to be touching me. Have a nice night!

The Ladies’ Library Association
Life Posts

The Ladies’ Library Association

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I hope you’re ready for some swoon worthy pictures! I was lucky enough to attend Sparkle Motion, a bellydance event put on by Boheme Tribal Bellydance last weekend and it was held at the Ladies’ Library Association of Kalamazoo. This lovely space is breathtaking! The featured picture is the ceiling above the staircase.

Their website is here:

http://ladieslibrarykzoo.org/our-history/

I’ll give a brief history, but I encourage you to go poke around, as it has a fascinating history. The Ladies’ Library Association was formed in 1852. It was the first women’s’ club in Michigan and the third club in the nation. It was known as a “college for women” and guided partially by Lucinda Hinsdale Stone. Before buying the building in 1878, the Association met in private homes and (ladies after my own heart) acquired a large collection of books that could be borrowed. This collection became the first public library in Kalamazoo.

The Association also had the distinction of being the first women’s organization in the nation to be able to finance and own property.

It is housed in a glorious red brick house, built in the Venetian Gothic style. We were lucky enough to be able to use the auditorium, which is in the second story. The woodwork and stained glass had me in awe and I felt very privileged to be able to take the workshops and attend a performance here.

Photography was not permitted during the performance and I was too busy dancing my butt off to take pictures during the workshop, but I was able to roam around the building and take pictures before the event. The workshop was with Kami Liddle, by the way, who is a fabulous dancer and one of the first dancers I started watching. She’s extremely graceful and I admire her control and artistry.

Here is a Youtube link for you, if you want to see her style. I highly recommend watching it. https://youtu.be/1uGOmXGdRrw

The first workshop was focused on arms and we learned lots of new arm patterns and ways to think about incorporating them choreography, as well as some good stretches for wrists and arms. We also had a two hour workshop on Shimmies and oh my gosh… My brain may have been a little fried in the good kind of way at the end. It was a fantastic workshop though and I’m glad I went. Less glad that I fell and twisted my knee, luckily after the workshops, while attempting to get out of the hotel shower. It does feel better now, but I’ve been out of commission for a bit.

Anyway, the building was spectacular. I was spoiled growing up in a house with stained glass, but my jaw dropped when I walked up the staircase.

Glorious!

The upper transoms of most of the regular windows had stained glass depicting different books and authors. I’m too short to do them justice unfortunately.

There were also mural windows downstairs, one in memory of one of the members, and this one, which is a piece commissioned by a local artist.

Until one of the volunteers told me, I wouldn’t have guessed that this was newer. It blends so well! The top transoms are the older glass, for comparison.

This one is the memory windows. Are you swooning yet?!

Not to be outdone, the woodwork made my heart go pitter patter too. The newel post!

These are the window pulls! With original hardware!!

This beauty goes all the way down the staircase.

Speaking of staircase… The other side of this is where the stained glass windows are. I swooned!

Inside shutters! For when the sun is too magnificent coming through the very tall windows.

Carved arches!

The venue also had very elegant plush chairs and delicious antiques set up in little nooks for reading.

Of course, I found the commemorative quilt, but it was too big to get a very good picture of. The hallway was very narrow.

There were some gorgeous chandeliers too.

I was so excited to be a part of the history of this space and could definitely feel the granduer and the pride that the volunteers had in it. I really want to go prowl around all the antique buildings now and see what other treasures are there. For now though, I will be dreaming about it and leave you with this elegant way of saying “tornado area.”

There’s also the fact that between the two of us, the Husband and I walked away with 40 books/media from the first of three book sales we are attending. It was not my fault entirely… If you bought 10 books, you got 10 free! What were we supposed to do? Needless to say, I’ve got some reading to do!

Have a lovely, book filled, cozy night!

Life Posts · Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Monthly Review

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I’ve got something up my sleeve for Monday or Tuesday (heh, heh, sewing pun) but wanted to get back on track with my reviews. It helps me keep accountable and on track with my goals. February has been kind of a slower month. I have had a bit of trouble with some motivation and some of the ever present scheduling concerns. Also, sudden dental issues, which always complicate things. Fancy hasn’t been helping either. She’s been very snuggly.

Overall, I have been pretty good at trying to really think through my sewing projects. I have put a 6 month fabric buying ban on myself until June. Gifts obviously don’t count. 😉 The other caveat is that if I need a specific fabric to finish a specific project, I can buy the fabric for that project. Otherwise some things would just pile up more until June.

My organization adventures for the month have made me aware of just how much fabric I have. Most of it has a plan for it, but there is no reason I need that much! It was quite a sobering thing. I’ve been re-evaluating my wardrobe too and have decided to repurpose or remake some of the things that really don’t fit quite how I want them to. I have already taken apart a couple of skirts that don’t fit well and added the fabric back to my stash. I have also started a list of all the things in my project box, with notes about what is needed to finish them.

So far for sewing this month, I have mended a long sleeved sweater and added buttons to a bag and a 3/4 sleeved sweater. All of these have been in my UFO or mending box for quite some time. I also learned that my sewing machine will gather fabric for my if my bobbin and top thread are at different tensions. This made sewing some gathered doll clothes a bit easier.

There have been a lot of doll clothes made in the last two months, but as I have recently acquired two more dolls from a friend’s daughter, I will need to make some more.

Can’t have naked dolls sitting around my office! Speaking of my office, I switched offices with a colleague into a bit of a bigger office and it was amazing how much stuff I had ended up squeezing in my littler one. It took me about 4-5 hours to reorganize and I need a couple of small things, like a game storage unit and a little table for next to my chair. It will be fun to see the kid client reactions to it. The adults will take it in stride, I’m sure. So the next time I take a picture of doll wardrobe at work, it will be on a different chair. 🙂

I have made some more leggings for myself this month, because you can never have enough comfy pants! One of them, the polar bears didn’t quite work, due to the stretch, but I can fix the waistband and it should be fine.

I don’t remember if I mentioned this amazing cutting mat that the Husband got me for Christmas, but it’s making cutting things out so much easier when I’m upstairs. I love it!

I have also made a pair of black pants, but apparently this month, have a tendency to want to write about the pants I currently have on! These ones are soft, black, French Terry, and will pass for work pants, even though I feel like I’m wearing pjs. Instead, how about a picture of my bright pink joggers? I was wearing them the last time I wanted to write about them. They are quite obnoxious, but I love them. The Husband won’t give me his opinion, as he is a smart man.

They are made from my beloved Linen Lounger pattern for Patterns for Pirates and are cotton blend french terry from Girl Charlee. I’m not really enthused about trying new pants patterns, when I like the fit of this one so well. Since my blue jean leggings need to be mended though, I have plans to make a skinnier, actual pant pattern to replace them if needed. I also do need a couple of different pairs of nicer work type pants.

One other thing I needed was a couple of nicer sweaters to wear with my pants and pretty skirts. I went through my sweaters and gave a bunch away, but now needed replacements. I like to dress up a little for intakes and not wear the dino leggings until a couple sessions in. 🙂 Enter this pattern; the Fall In Love Sweater by Ellie and Mac.

I quite enjoy it and it makes me feel super pretty and polished. For future versions, I may size up about a half, as it occasionally feels a little tight. It doesn’t accentuate all my bumps and lumps too much though, so I may not if the fabric is stretchy.

I made this second version as a short sleeved version. It needs bands, as the fabric likes to misbehave and the bottom hem is a little short, but it looks lovely on me. At least I think it does. This pattern fits me better than my normal go to short sleeve pattern, so I will definitely be making more. It has set in sleeves, not raglan or baseball style, so it looks a little more professional.

I’ve also made a very long and cozy fleece sweater to work in the basement in, but it’s come in very handy for our recent cold snap. I think my sewing was more intentional this month. I tried to focus on the gaps in my wardrobe. My drawer is still very full, so I need to do another clear out soon. I have a horror of giving away the “perfect” shirt, but there are a bunch that I just don’t wear!

My Sewing goals for this month include a neutral grey Cocoon Cardigan to fill that gap and to try the fancier pants pattern. I also want to continue to organize and purge my stash, as well as work on some quilts and UFO’s. I have a pattern for a “Fairy Sweater” which is a cascade type sweater that I have a lighter watercolor print to try to use up, but that may wait until closer to summer.

Now to switch gears to food. We had a lot of new food this month, due to the party. I think that I missed a bunch of pictures of meals that were not party food. We did have a lot of Chinese food this month, so you may not see it for a little while. Not that we don’t like it, but there’s only so much stir fry type things I can eat. Here were some of our favorites:

Lion’s Head meatballs

West Lake Beef Soup

Chicken Marsala

Wonton Soup

Fried Dessert Wontons! They were from this website: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/03/cinnamon-sugar-cream-cheese-wonton-nutella-dulce-de-leche.html

They were so good! I didn’t make a dipping sauce for them. We never have Nutella in the house and I have both spoons and no will power.

The Husband had the play auditions and production meetings this week, so we had leftovers from last week, including a new recipe from The Wooden Spoon cookbook. It was not our favorite. Basically hamburger, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning with shell noodles. The Husband added a lot of cheese, but I still think it was a little bland.

One thing we did like this week was Nancy Fuller’s Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese from this month’s Food Network. I was hungry after work on Thursday and ended up making it at 10 pm. It was good late night snacking food though. I used a little of the dragon pepper hot sauce in it. Mmmm!

Misses for the month were the fried pork ribs and the clementine cakes. The ribs were just super annoying to fry and frustrating as I couldn’t taste them to adjust any seasoning. The cakes were a little dense for me, even remembering they were supposed to be a pound cake recipe. I need to practice cupcakes more. I’m sure no one will object to trying them. 🙂

Food goals this month are to use my spiralizer attachment and the Instant Pot at least once. Also, be more creative with lunches and get the Husband more involved in planning. His choices were very good ones this month.

Mental health related, I also want to get back to reading before bed this month. I’m having a lot of trouble shutting my brain down to sleep and I know that will help. I went through a rough patch of not wanting to actually do anything and I am working on not getting to that point again.

Of course, taking Fancy to interesting places is another goal. We went to an informational meeting on therapy dog training today and the information is good, but she definitely needs more training first. I’m sure she won’t mind.

These goals should be pretty manageable, I think. Hopefully once the play starts getting going, we can get somewhat of a schedule going. Wish us luck!