Cooler Weather

Now that it is almost October, I am SO GLAD that we finally have cooler weather! Today finally felt like fall, and I got to wear a sweater. :) Of course, I then decided that I really want lots more sweaters!!! Do I need them? Probably not, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to find some great sweater deals before too long. :)

Melinda's Baby Shower

Yesterday was Melinda's baby shower... it was successful!

The shower was well-attended (22 ladies!)...

There was lots of food - the goodies I mentioned in my previous post, plus a pan of lasagna and a loaf of garlic bread...




And Melinda got lots of good presents!!!

I am so glad for a friend like Melinda, and honored that I was able to help throw her a baby shower. It was a wonderful experience, and I'm grateful that it went so well. :)

Baby Shower Preparations

Tomorrow is my friend Melinda's baby shower, which I'm co-hosting. In preparation, I took today off of work and have made cookies and dips... I think I might have gone a bit overboard! I have Scottish Shortbread Cookies, Chocolate Crinkles, Coconut Washboard Cookies, Chocolate Pinwheels, and Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies. I've also prepared an Artichoke Parmesan Dip and a Three-Cheese Jalapeno Dip. I cheated a little and bought the bread... but I don't feel too badly about it. :)

I'll post pictures tomorrow after the shower. I'm so excited!

Being Prepared

This week I have to be out of town for a couple of days for a college fair; I also have a couple of other late nights due to financial aid presentations for parents at some of the schools... so I'm trying to be extra prepared for the week with meals and such for Josh. It's exhausting! I'm usually mostly prepared, but I don't always do all the preparation work on the weekend... today I made today's meal, prepped for both Monday and Tuesday's crockpot meals (before I leave), and made Wednesday's meal (so Josh can eat while I'm gone). Of course, it's also laundry day... I feel like I've been on my feet all day! Whatever happened to Sunday being a day of rest? I think I need a nap... no time - time to hit the road to take Donovan home...

Goals...

As many of you know, I have been gathering and creating recipes for a cookbook... for over a year. It has been my goal to actually put them together and print a cookbook for some time. When I finished my classes for my Bachelor's degree, I took two months off before starting my Master's so I could get actually get somewhere with this project. I've had a month, and have yet to get close to completing my project. In all honesty, I've barely spent any time on it at all in the last four weeks!

So, I'm posting this because if I write it down (and through doing so, tell someone else) then maybe I'll have a bit more incentive to complete it. My goal is simple:
1 - narrow down my recipes; choose a theme (easy meals, etc...), select my categories, and select recipes for each category.
2 - choose the format (perhaps a website?) to compile them.
3 - complete the data entry.
4 - print the cookbook.

I'm not certain I can actually complete this all within the next four weeks before I start my classes again, but I can certainly complete steps 1 and 2 and start step 3... I will have this complete by the end of this year. Wish me luck!

Country Breakfast

When I woke up this morning, I was starving! So, I decided to make a nice breakfast for the family. I got a little ambitious... when I got it on the table, I had prepared biscuits and sausage gravy, pancakes, sausage, bacon, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs. I was only feeding Josh, Donovan, and myself! I tried to keep the portions of things smaller; for example, there were only 8 pancakes, 8 biscuits, etc..., but it was still too much food. We have leftovers for another great country breakfast tomorrow morning before church!