Cooking Blunders...

What was the first thing that your mom taught you when teaching you about cooking and using recipes?

Well my mom always told me to pull out the recipe and all the ingredients before starting to cook.

I have FAILED at this lesson. Repeatedly. Sigh.

I don't know what it is lately but James has started to pointing out to me how I am always POSITIVE I have everything for a certain recipe I want to make. Be it on the shelves downstairs or somewhere in the fridge or cupboard, I know I have it. Only to find out, I don't.

I denied this fact. A few times to be honest. I claimed forgetfulness. I claimed that I can't remember everything in the cupboards. I claimed I forgot that was needed in the recipe. But honestly, I should have just listened to my mom and read the recipe before starting.

This weekend I did this TWICE.

The second time I was driving to the store I started to laugh. I can't believe how bad I'm getting! Someone tell me Baby Brain lasts for years, because this is my only viable excuse! I used to be so good at knowing what I had and where it was. It seems these days I'm forgetting more and more things, especially when it comes to cooking and ingredients.

James says this may be my new legacy.

So I tell you friends. Check your recipe BEFORE you start to cook. Days before if possible!! It will save you a trip or two to the grocery store!

I'm so Lucky!

'm so lucky and fortunate to be able to work where I do. The sun has finally started shining (I think we've had two and a half weeks of grey!) and the weather has been fairly warm (they are calling for 6°C and rain on Monday people... it's January!!)

While I love the spring like weather, the lack of snow has made for less than ideal skiing conditions, so I still hope for another good dumping of snow to finish out the ski season. Yes, I will shovel my driveway if it means good ski trails!

Yesterday I had a group of students who were absolutely amazing. They were ever so patient while trying to feed the Chickadees, and had great questions. I love it when I have a cooperative group, especially on a day where I've only had 3 hours sleep (another story alltogether!)

Here are a few wintery pictures for you to enjoy. It would have been better if the sun had been shining like it is right now, but c'est la vie!

Random Ramblings

I haven't felt very motivated to blog these past couple days.

Little Miss always wants "me turn" as soon as mommy grabs the computer, but never when daddy has it. SO FRUSTRATING!

Last night when I was volunteering at the gym I get a phone call from someone on speaker phone. Turns out it was James and the Little Miss. I didn't recognize his voice - cell phone speaker phone totally distorts voices :( but as soon as she started talking I knew who it was, because she was saying her name! Her full name! (well first and last so far!) It was sooooo cute and I had tears in my eyes! He teaches her so many little things like that and it always makes me cry happy tears!

I finally get to teach today. January is such a low time in Outdoor Ed and it will finally start to pick up next week. Hopefully the conditions won't be too icy after the thaw we had this past weekend. I'm just excited to not be in the office all week again. The only good things about office time is that I have time to update my blogs (ahem... on my breaks.... thats it), and read lots. I've been reading a book called Nature's Outcasts about living things we love to hate.

I worked out after the gym last night. Added another 3.7 miles to my total. I won't tell you what I'm at yet as I don't feel it's respectable enough to report for 2 weeks of the challenge! I will report back on the weekend when the results go up on the 500 in 2010 blog!

Have a great week. Hopefully I'll have more blogworthy news soon!

6 is not enough...

6 minutes snooze is not enough for me in the morning.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE the snooze button. Just not on my alarm clock. Don't get me wrong, I love my Panasonic RC-CD300. Hubby got it from a Panasonic Ideas for Life conference he went to (and I joined him) a few years ago. I was still in school but it was a great retreat for us as it was in Huntsville at Deerhurst Resort! So beautiful and a great time, and good timing as I needed a new clock radio.

It has great sound for it's size, it has two alarms which can be handy (but hey, why do I need two alarms? if you hit snooze long enough it stops bringing the radio on, it just beeps at you!!). I don't like it if I wake up before the alarm though. When you try to turn off the alarm, it beeps really loud and wakes up the hubby anyways. Otherwise it's a great little alarm clock and cd player.

Except for the snooze.

I've had radios that had 9 minutes of snooze. 9 minutes was so perfect. I could actually fall back to sleep and get 5 minutes more rest! With this one I barely get to sleep when I'm woken up again, so I push it about 4 times before I want to get up!

Hubby never used to snooze before he met me. Now, he snoozes as long or sometimes longer than me, like this morning when I was up first and got into the shower. He waits until I'm almost done to get up so he can have his shower.

I think it is just the luxury of snooze that I appreciate now. We finally get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep ourselves, and I want to get up gradually. Mostly gone (for now at least) are the days of being woken every 3 hours, or being up for the day at 5am (I Loathe 5am).

So all I'm saying is - let me sleep please! And let me have a longer snooze... I've earned it!

500 in 2010

Alright People, I've done it! I've signed up for the 500 in 2010 Challenge. That is 500 miles of physical activity. For those of us that don't think in Miles, that is about 804 Kilometres! Wow... now that number sounds a bit scary!! I hope that I will be able to meet my mark, and since I get to walk so much as work, I hope to be able to do it!

You can check out what is going on by clicking on their button, or the link above.




So there we have it... my two challenges for the year!

Now excuse me while I contemplate going for a ski :)

Challenging Myself

I think 2010 is going to be the year of challenging myself to do more for myself. The last two years have been all about the Little Miss, and it's time for some ME time! I just stumbled across a 500 in 2010 Challenge and am considering joining. It is to challenge yourself to complete 500 miles of exercise in 2010. I think I may look for a Canadian Kilometre challenge, but so far I'm loving the idea of something to keep me accountable!

So far for my reading challenge I have completed 2 books!! I am going to look for a way to easily keep track of my progress, but so far here it is:

1. Hell is Other Parents - Deborah C. Kogan
2. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I have 3 books on the go right now (4 if you count the one I am reading for work, which does count!). I forgot how much I love to read and how relaxing it can be for me.

My last Goal (aka Challenge) for 2010 (so far!) is to become more Organized. ahem... yes I'll admit it, I'm not as organized as I appear to be! I want order in my life. Boxes from the move 2 years ago gone. Everything in A place. So far I've worked on Little Miss' closet, the two closets on the main level, and I've started on the spare room "storage" closet. Seems I've a theme going on here with closets, but that is where all the STUFF ends up! I also want to tackle my clothing (Ahhhhhhh!!!!) as well as my Kitchen (sigh). I have a lot to do, but so far I'm motivated to get things done and not just sit in front of the TV. If I am on the couch, at least I'm reading now!

Here is to a beautiful sunshiney winter day, and new ways to Challenge myself in 2010!

Blog Layout

Well since this is still a relatively new blog, and I'm still new-ish to blogging, I figure I would enter a contest to try to get a nice Blog Layout!!! Jamie over at The Kubeczka Family Blog is giving away a Blog Layout in a contest, so maybe I will have a new look.... maybe... just maybe :)

Head on over to check it out for your own chance to win!

100 Books in 2010?

Well I just stumbled across a site that has a 100+ book challenge. The Challenge? Read 100 or more books in 2010. Sooo... I decided to join. Am I crazy? Insane? Ambitious? All of the Above I would like to think! I really want to try to take more time for myself, and now that Little Miss is almost 2, I think this MIGHT be possible!

Check out the Challenge Here:
http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-2010-reading-challenge-100-reading.html

If only I could count all the times I read books over and over with the Little Miss, but somehow I think that would be cheating!!

Cheer me on people! Join in and have some fun and some YOU Time in 2010 (that would have rhymed if it was still 2009 - Oh well!!)