Divine Mercy Novena! :)

Welcome to Good Friday!

Today starts one of my favorite devotions - The Divine Mercy Novena (Info HERE. It consists of prayers said for 9 days and concludes on Divine Mercy Sunday, one of my favorite Holy Days of the year.

This is from St. Faustina's Diary - which is an insanely LONG book, but really amazing if you can take the time to read it (I honestly think it took me 9 months - it's LONG!).

Middle Bedroom project!

Erik's putting together this super shelving unit for the middle bedroom! The photo shows a pretty accurate color of what it is. :)

The arrival of this shelf was a big deal. I ordered it from IKEA. Well, I didn't really order it b/c their shipping rates are staggering. But my brother picked it up for me in Chicago and carted it back here. Thanks to Paul! :)

There will certainly be more on this later!

Currently, there is construction material in this room from our flooring install ... which is SO CLOSE to being complete! :) Once we get all of the floor stuff finished and the middle room free of it, I'll be able to finish up things in there - and I can hardly wait!

Recipe: Bacon-and-Egg Muffins

Ooooh, goodness.

I'm going on year 3 of my 'no sugar' existence. I'll confess: The last year I've been more lax. I may or may not eat some breakfast cereal containing sugar (note: the only one I've found sans sugar = shredded wheat, which gets OLD. Fast.).

Overall, though, I don't consume nearly the quantity that the 'average' American does. I do try to keep my consumption down. I just feel SO much better.

Awhile ago, a friend was asking if it's rough to find recipes/things to eat. Honestly, no. I'm not sure if the recipes were always this way, but it seems since I've been looking, in my home decor/cooking magazines, there have been a LOT of recipes I can eat. Or ones with 1-2 Tbsp of sugar, which I don't mind or just eliminate.

Just yesterday, I found another recipe I cannot wait to try! Bacon-and-Egg Muffins! It's essentially a corn muffin w/ eggs in it and topped with a piece of bacon. Sounds great! And I've found a bacon that is not cured in sugar, so this recipe will work perfectly. :)

I can think of SO many ways/reasons this would be a great breakfast: quickly getting kids out the door to school, leaving early and grabbing something on the go, a good before-skiing breakfast. Seriously - I think I'm going to love this one!

(I would have made this yesterday morning, except we were out of milk!)

Easter Eats - Ham-Asparagus Strata

Last year, we hosted Easter. It was chaos. Mostly b/c I had to lead song at Mass at the same time I needed to be cooking. I left a list of notes for our moms and let them go to it. They did a smash-bang job.

This year, we're not hosting. In fact, we'll probably go to Mass, come home, put our PJs back on, and take a nap. :)

If I were hosting, however, let me tell you about what I'd serve. I'd serve Ham-Asparagus Strata - Recipe HERE. Yum, yum, YUMMIE!!!!!

Let me tell you what I love about it: It's really easy to make.

The one potential down side is that you have to refrigerate it for a minimum of 2 hours, but you can assemble it the night before, stick it in the fridge, then put it in the oven when you're ready. So on that side, it's a plus.

I've made it with asparagus and with broccoli. Erik says he prefers it w/ broccoli. I think it's great either way!

I made a few substitutions.

• Instead of sour cream, I used Greek Yogurt.

• On the cheese, I generally use whatever I have around. Often it's colby-jack.

• In place of the English muffins, I used my homemade Irish Soda Bread. TIP: I've taken to making 2-3 batches of bread at a time (yielding 4-6 loaves). Some with raisins, some plain. Then I cut it and put it in big bags in the freezer. When a recipe calls for bread/bread crumbs, I'll pull out what I need and let it warm on the counter prior to cooking/baking. It's worked extremely well for me!

Salad, revised

Erik loves to eat salad. His idea of a good dinner is a big salad.

I don't dislike salad, but after eating a 'salad for a meal' I am generally not full. Or, if I feel satisfied, I'm hungry an hour later. They just don't stick with me.

Recently, however, I decided to give it another try. I came across THIS recipe for chicken/squash/chickpea salad w/ tahini dressing and figured I'd give it a try. Go check out the recipe, but let me tell you what I did differently.

• Instead of squash, I used a sweet potato.

• I forgot to add the chickpeas (didn't have any on hand).

• Instead of pita chips, I took plain flour tortillas, cut them up and thew them in the oven after the chicken was done roasting. I let them stay there until they were crisp. Then added them to the salad.

• I added slivers of a red pepper. And also very thin onion slivers.

• For the dressing, I added extra lemon juice.

How was it? Smashing success! I was honestly surprised how much the salad filled me up. Even without the chickpeas. I bet with chickpeas, it would have been even MORE filling!

One of my favorite parts was the dressing ... oh how good it is! I am often scared of recipes with ingredients (like tahini) that I'm like 'what am I going to do with the rest of the jar?' .... but don't be. If you get tahini to make this dressing, you can also make hummus using tahini.

Seriously - give it a try!

Chore chart/meal planning revisited

About 4 months ago, I started a chore chart to help me stay on top of house cleaning. I have also been attempting to do a better job of meal planning.

There were pros and cons to each system, and I've made a revision I hope I will love.

Last week, I was reading a photographer's blog and the post was about being organized in your work space. About half way down the post, it showed a few photos of 'workflow' charts .... which I have several of in my own office. It had the charts behind glass, however, and utilized dry erase markers to show progress. GENIUS!

Here's what I've done ....


I printed a new copy of my cleaning/chore chart. And put it in one of those certificate frames (which perfectly fit a piece of computer paper!). I'll just use a dry erase marker to cross things off when I'm done.

The frames beneath? Remember my meal planning? Well, I left a teensy bit extra room beneath each day/chore for a meal sticker.

I picked up new Post It notes .... they have ones that are sticky on the ENTIRE back. So I wrote some of our favorite meals on them and cut them up into small pieces. I grabbed 2-4x6 frames I previously displayed photos in and grabbed some wrapping paper to spruce it up some. I actually will probably snag a little scrapbooking paper from my sis to use, but this stuff is just filler. It's red b/c while the walls are pretty tan, we will probably bring in some red touches elsewhere in the kitchen. SO, I put the extra meals on these frames when not in use.

The frames before:


So there you have it ... I'm going to give this awhile and see how I like it. I have high hopes. :)

Dining room progress!

I took more photos with my other camera, but this is just a few quick grabs from today!


We tore the carpet up, and some of the floor was almost perfect. The rest ... as you can see, looks like there was an adhesive of some sort on it? Or maybe a bad carpet cleaning job? Who really knows?


More of the floor. It's actually very pretty. We REALLY wanted to save it ... but it doesn't seem possible. Which makes us both sad, sad, sad.


Here is why we don't think we can save the floor: The tile in the kitchen. Fortunately, we know the person Erik bought the house from ... and I asked him how he put the tile in. He said he used 'thinset' to adhere 1/4 inch backerboard to the floor. And also used 1 1/4 inch roofing nails to secure it. Then installed the tiles.

Those who I have talked with seem to think the nails would damage the floor terribly, and not be extremely repairable. Not to mention if the thinset would come up easily.

Just makes my heart SO SAD because the floors aren't in bad shape at all. Sort of makes me want to shake the fella who covered them up.

We're limiting our new flooring to the kitchen/dining rooms. Maybe there's a big plywood hole in the living room floor? But we wouldn't even see it.

Regardless, we can REALLY see how this will look with a new floor ... and are seriously excited!!!! :) :) :)

Being married to an editor

Erik is an editor. He edits words. Everyday. On occasion, he's been known to edit school papers for my siblings. :)

Yet he also chooses photos routinely for the paper. Which one best fits/tells the story or goes with the words? Often when we're watching a movie, I'll comment when there's fantastic light. Erik has started to pick up on it, and has occasionally made comments. It makes my heart swell with pride.

At the same time, Erik is also a 'civilian' so to speak. When I'm editing photos, he's a great person to pull in and say 'which one do you like better' when I simply can't decide.


Here's a great example. Mike and I shot a wedding on Saturday and I have two very similar images. I like them both, but couldn't quite decide. So I pulled Erik in.

Honestly, I was a bit more drawn to the left image. Yet immediately, Erik said "OH NO, the right one is SO much better." He explained how much nicer he thought the bride looked when she was smiling. I tend to like somber images, but Erik is a 'civilian' in the photo world, and it's true, many people like pix of themselves smiley. It's good to have him here to remind me of that. :)

Let this serve as a reminder to me: Smiley photos have their place in the world.

Here's the lesson for you: Not ALL photos have to be smiley. Especially if/when you're dealing w/ kids.

Kitchen/Dining room in progress

Oh how close we're coming! Well, most of our part of the kitchen/dining project is over. The big part. We've painted the walls!


The trim you see in the background is the original color everything was ... but once I'm done w/ it, the trim will be white.

Yet seeing the dining room now, with no photos on the walls ... it feels so empty/naked! (see our dining room wall w/ photos on it HERE).

Part of me really wanted to choose a more bold color for the dining room/kitchen room. Yet because we have a variety of photos/art that we hang on our walls with a variety of colors, going with a tan/khaki color seemed to be the smartest/most versatile option.

Yes, there is no baseboard (we tore it out), and yes, there is dust ALL OVER the table. It's been a bit of a disaster zone around here lately. Yet we now are (almost) ready for the laminate floors to be installed.

No, we will not be installing the floors. I am convinced it is a home project that our marriage could not survive. After interviewing a few people, we've settled on one I feel very confident in working with.


This is how our sample looks in the dining room. A friend will come over Saturday to help me tear the carpet out. Yes, I realize the walls aren't perfect, but it's something I have decided I am willing to live with. Seriously. Sanding and mudding and sanding is a disaster (see above dust-covered dining room table). I decided "good enough" and moved on. Besides, I consulted this super-handy guide to selecting a paint finish and selected a flat/matte finish. Seriously, even though there are imperfections in the walls, it's not overly visible.


Here's how it will look in our kitchen, with our cabinets. The tile will stay in place. The installer will just 'float' it in over the tile. Then he'll put baseboards in everywhere. So the strip of unpainted wall at the bottom won't be visible.

Speaking of painting ... I finally got hip and realized there is the option to buy combined paint/primer. I was a little skeptical, but we decided to give it a try. So far, so good. We have 2 coats of paint on the walls and it seems to do the trick. The one 'down' side is I couldn't purchase this in a 5-gallon bucket. I really wanted to because we intend to paint the living room the same color. Yet you can't get the combo paint/primer in the 5-gallon buckets. I would guess it has to do with not being able to use this effectively on NEW drywall. And I'd guess mostly contractors are buying paint by the 5-gallons. So it makes sense.

Ok, so that's what's up around here. Just trim painting for me .... and carpet removing. But then I am DONE with my part of the project. Then it will be in our installer's hand! :)

In the dog house / patio/fence debacle

We installed a gate to our patio/backyard to contain the dog. Right? Right.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

She's contained, see?

Well, she WAS contained.

One day, she squeezed through the neighbor's wabbly fence. We took care of that and patted ourselves on the back. All done!

Not quite.

About a week later, she was out. I couldn't figure out how. Until I saw ... THIS ....



STINKIN' DOG broke through the lattice and wiggled out.

THIS IS WAR, I declared.


I went and selected this from the home improvement store. Our buddy had to help get rid of the loops/attachments on the side, but once he did, it fit into the space PERFECTLY.

I, in my typical (Polish) fashion came up with all sorts of complex ways to affix the fence piece to the post. We were walking down the aisle and Erik said 'what about a zip tie?' .... and holy cow, they make zip ties in 2-foot lengths! Genius. I love it when Erik has fabulous yet simple solutions to the issue I'm trying to solve.


Notice how the 'tails/ends' of the zip ties are pointing into the backyard area? This will be important later.

So I put the fence length in and put on just 2 of the ties to see how I liked it. I'd show Erik when he awoke from his nap.

I put the dog outside, and patted myself on the back. I HAD WON.

Then, there was the most awful noise from outside. I'm not sure what exactly was going on, but I go out and someone must have taken the tails/ends and started pulling on them. That or pulling on the fence. AND BROKE THEM. :( :( :(

Let's not talk about how livid I was.


I readjusted and did the zip ties again ... but left the extra on the OUTSIDE of the fence, so the do had nothing to pull on. And I secured it with a tie on the top/bottom of each side. This thing was FAR more stable.


Plus, it covers the hole.

Since the zip-tie mishap, things have been better. Sure, she cries/whines some, but it's actually decreased significantly. I suspect one of the neighbor dogs made fun of her for crying like a baby in the backyard. She will still occasionally whine, but sometimes, she will just sit by the back door and stare at me until I let her out, and then not want to come back in. So I shut the gate and let her roam around.

Everyone *seems* happy with this arrangement.