When you live in a three bedroom house with six people, it can be hard to find space that is just for you. As the mom in the house, this seems to be especially difficult. This summer, after several very stressful events, I decided that I needed my own space. My sewing machines had been in storage for years while I waited for the craft room that I dreamed of. I missed my hobbies. I missed the peace and beauty of creating with fabric. So, I took over an old dining room that was being used for storage.
I created my own happy place.
Just looking at this picture gives me peace. I adore having a space where I can sit and create. This is what feeds my soul.
Where is your happy place? Comment, Follow, Share! We all need a happy place.
I started quilting about fifteen years ago. None of my projects are precise enough to belong on a magazine cover. But I just love the process of cutting a simple piece of fabric or old clothing item into pieces, then sewing it all back together to produce a piece of art.
I have had so many people tell me they want to learn how to quilt. I always respond that it is easy to start. Learn to sew a straight line and you have enough skill to start. The biggest piece of advice I would give to a beginner quilter would be to embrace the crooked blocks. Those are the ones that show you were learning and that is a beautiful thing.
We have a local chinese restaraunt that is the most fantastic place. It has been around in our community since my mother was a little girl. Four generations of my family have eaten at this lovely little place. It is not fancy, but the owners know the customers and often visit while you wait for your food. There have been several families come in to run this business in our community.
When my husband and I started dating many years ago, this was one our favorite restaurants. We watched the children of the owners grow up in the restaurant. In fact, a few years ago the owners announced they would be leaving our community to join their youngest child at college so they could still live as a family.
The last few times we went there I lamented how much I was going to miss them and their food. I finally asked once what was in my favorite dish, Kung Pao Chicken. The owner laughed and rattled off all the ingredients so fast I could hardly understand. The next time, I went in with a pen and paper! She never had measurements and her instructions were always so fast. I wished I could just go in and watch them for a day!
Each time we went in, I asked for another recipe. Then I would go home and experiment with it. When we went back again, I ask her how I need to change it to get the flavor right. I went home and played with the ingredients and measurements for the Kung Pao Chicken. This is pretty darn close to the Eastern Garden.
My family has missed The Eastern Garden. Every time I make this recipe, I think of the owners and how much they were a part of our community and our hearts.
Kung Pao Chicken
5 carrots
5 stalks celery
2 small zucchini
½ cup peanuts (or 1 tsp peanut butter)
2 chicken breast halves
3 cloves minced garlic
½ chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
½ tablespoon red pepper flakes (more if you want it spicier)
3 tablespoons Soy sauce
2 teaspoons Cornstarch
1 cup water
2 cups cooked rice
Mince and chop onion and garlic. Cut remaining vegetables into bite size pieces.
Cut chicken into small bite size pieces.
Fry chicken pieces in large frying pan with butter, garlic, and onion until chicken is cooked through.
Stir in red pepper flakes, peanuts, carrots, and celery. Cook this, stirring occasionally, for approximately 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the zuchini is softened a bit.
Stir together soy sauce, cold water, and cornstarch for sauce. Add into hot mixture and stir until sauce thickens.
November is known around the world for NaNoWriMo. This month long challenge has an amazing amount of people starting and attempting to finish an entire novel in just 30 days. I don’t have a novel in mind, but I sure would like to get some more posts up here! My goal is to write a new post every morning.
Will all all the posts be brilliant and amazing works of literature? Probably not.
Will I still be working on my first cup of coffee while I write them before going to work for the day? Yes, most likely.
Will I possibly lose my mind trying to create posts on an out of date/glitchy IPAD? Based on this post alone, this is likely.
Will there be recipes, life management tips, and funny stories about camping with teenagers? Most definitely!
I sure hope you stick with me for the month. Click, Peruse, and Comment!
For my family, summer means camping and road trips. There is nothing like taking all six members of my family and enough stuff to supply a small country, out on the road. We pack the Suburban right up to the gills and head out on the open road to find adventure.
We usually try to do at least one longer distance road trip as a family each year. This year, we managed two! Our first trip we went down to Arizona to visit family. On our way back we stopped off in the California Redwoods. Jedediah Smith park was lovely. I especially enjoyed relaxing next to the river. I’m sure we made quite the spectacle trying to air up our failing air mattress in the bathroom.
Our second road trip was Yellowstone National Park. This is our third time camping in Yellowstone. Each time we see new things. This time was especially nice because we took a friend who was once an employee in the park. He had lots of wonderful suggestions for spots to see. I would love to stay and camp for an extended time someday.
We also did a few local camping weekends this summer. I would love to be able to get out and explore more of our local parks. Rainbow Falls state park, Cape Disappointment, and Bruceport county park were all fantastic.
Rainbow Falls has a beautiful river to walk along. There were some areas that you could get down into the water. We chose a poor weekend to camp though. It seems a local farmer has been throwing an epic party for their local graduation weekend for the last few years. The music and partying went on all night long and we could hear them clearly even with ear plugs. I would like to try again another weekend to see if it is quieter.
Bruceport offers stunning views of the bay. I really enjoyed both the sunrise and sunset over the water. The camp spot we had was nice and big. Plenty enough room for all of our tents and people. I really enjoyed drinking my coffee with the cool bay breeze in the morning.
Cape Disappointment was a wonderful beach camping area. Plenty of rocks to climb for the boys, and a beach to walk in the evening for me. It was nice and quiet, just the way I like it.
I’ll be back to give more details on all of our camping trips this summer with links, photos, and lots of great stories of camping and road tripping with three teenagers.
For the last four months I have been having a smoothie for breakfast every single morning. Wonderful for my health, great for my weight, not so great when I like to have variety in my diet. I started out with milk and my protein shake. BORING. Nasty tasting. Blech.
Thankfully, in our time we have the wide world of the interwebs to turn to in our time of need. I headed to the wonderful world of Pinterest to look for ideas. So many ideas! Everything from Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie all the way to Fruity Raspberry Lime. Every one that I have tried was fantastic.
Once I got into the swing of every morning smoothies, I found myself using the same main ingredients over and over. I now have a drawer in our freezer set aside just for smoothie ingredients. I stock it with all sorts of frozen fruit, spinach, and cucumbers. In the cupboard I stock cocoa powder, coconut milk, and instant pudding mix.
Today’s post is all about making the use of only a few ingredients for as many smoothie combinations as possible. All the recipes today will use only the following ingredients: milk, Thrive Lifestyle Mix, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen peach slices, and frozen cucumbers.
I thought I would take you along for my smoothie experience this week. Every day I used only these five ingredients to make a different smoothie for breakfast. You can have a great variety of smoothies with only a few ingredients.
On Monday I made Blueberry Peach.
1 cup milk
1/2 cup blueberries
4 peach slices
2 Tablespoons of Thrive
All blended together this makes a lovely blueberry flavored smoothie with light peach undertones. If you want a stronger peach flavor, add less blueberries and more peaches.
On Tuesday I made Peach Cucumber. I really like adding cucumber to my smoothies. It adds a nice summery flavor that I really enjoy.
1 cup milk
7 peach slices
10 cucumber slices
2 Tablespoons of Thrive
All blended together I love the cucumber flavor! The peaches add a sweetness to the smoothie, but the cucumber is the star.
On Wednesday I had simple strawberry. This is my go to smoothie recipe. Some days I’ll add in a spoonful of cocoa powder for a chocolate covered strawberry flavor. Today was just nice and easy plain strawberry.
1 cup milk
8 frozen strawberries
2 Tablespoons of Thrive
All blended together this is simple strawberry. So easy and satisfying. This is the comfort food of smoothies for me.
On Thursday I had simple blueberry. Another wonderful, busy morning go to smoothie. Simple perfection.
1 cup milk
1 cup blueberries
2 Tablespoons of Thrive
This one blends into a lovely purple smoothie, perfect for a morning when we are leaving for the first of two field trips in one week.
Friday morning started super early. My class was set to leave at 6:30am for our second field trip of the week. For what it is worth, I am not a morning person. Seriously, my brain doesn’t turn on before 8am. For this reason, I do not have a picture of the smoothie for Friday. Friday I had strawberry peach for my smoothie.
1 cup milk
5 strawberries
3 peach slices
2 Tablespoons of Thrive
This blends into a sweet start for my morning, even at 6:30am with 48 students on a bus for two and a half hours.
All in all, six ingredients, five different smoothies, five ways to start my day with a healthy breakfast. I’m still exploring different recipes and hope to share them with you all as I pick my favorites. I’d love to hear your favorite smoothie recipes too! Drop me a comment to share your favorites. If you are interested in getting started with Thrive, leave me a comment and I’ll get you set up with a customer log in!
We spent January learning all about how I use planners and calendars to help keep my ducks all in a row. I really wanted to start this blog off with something that was near and dear to my heart and how I live my life.
February is my birthday month, so we will be looking at some of my favorite ways I spend my time. I really enjoy cooking, Valentine’s day means I get to gush about my hubby, and I love that winter is finally starting to give way to spring in our area which means my winter knitting projects are starting to look like finished works of art.
I do hope you will continue to come and check in here at modernbygone to learn more about me!
Sorry friends. I know I planned on writing a post all about different types of planners. A rare uninterrupted weekend home inspired me to do a bit of pre-spring cleaning instead of writing a post. I’m sure you can all understand the need for a clean start this time of year.
I’ll be back to my previously scheduled post next weekend. Hope you are all having a great day!
I have had many different planners over the last twenty years. While their format, color, and size may have changed, one thing has always remained the same. My weekly planning time. Every weekend I carve a little time out just for me to plan the upcoming week. My weekly planning has happened while we were out and about in the car, in the stands of a sporting event, while waiting for the teen to finish their job, or even on a friend’s dining table while we visit. Most often my planning happens at the dining table while I cook dinner on Saturday or Sunday night.
I start with my blank week in the planner. I have a few stickers that I use to track things each week. First I add in my meal plan stickers, blog tracker stickers, and a few pretty background stickers. I like to leave plenty of blank space for adding in appointments, lists, and inspirational quotes throughout the week.
Once I have those put in, I start to fill in the appointments and reoccuring items for the week. Anytime I make an appointment I write it on the monthly view of my planner. This week, I only had a couple of appointments that needed to be filled in. I love easy weeks! Then I look at my meal plan and choose meals that fit with our schedule. If the day is full of appointments and things to do, I choose a crockpot meal. If I know I’ll have plenty of time for cooking, I’ll choose a more involved dinner to cook. Then I look at my blog plans for the week. I like to have a reminder for well thought out instagram photos and facebook posts. I don’t want to be obnoxious, but I do want to get my blog out there!
This week, I had plenty of white space left. Throughout the week I will add in inspirational quotes that I see, funny memories, and lists of things to do. I also love to draw zentangles and mandalas. I use my planner to draw and sketch in. I often use my planner as my journal. I love going back to previous years planners and read what was happening in our lives.
By the end of the week, I will have filled in most of that white space. Some weeks will be completely filled. Others will be like this one, with some blank space still available. A planner is a personal thing. Each one is going to look different and that is how it should be!
As a final thought, I’d like to talk about the expense of a weekly planner. You don’t need a fancy desk with glorious pens, stickers, and washi tape. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on Etsy for custom stickers. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy planner. My current planner cost me only $25. I have had more expensive planners. I enjoyed them greatly. However, I want to be clear that this is not just a hobby that I spend money on. I really do enjoy my weekly planner time, and I do view it as a hobby. For this week’s layout, I used all free downloadable stickers that I printed and cut myself. I admit, I like a pretty planner. Just remember your planner is for keeping your life organized, not just displaying pretty stickers and layouts.
Come back next weekend when I’ll be talking about different types of planners. Finding the right planner for you is really important! If you don’t like it, or it isn’t formatted for your needs, you won’t use it. That would be sad.
I have a busy family. Two teen boys that are always starving, one teen daughter that is super picky, two full grown men with appetites to match, and one busy mom trying to keep it all together. I don’t meal plan for breakfast or lunch. For breakfast, I just keep stocked with cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and snacks I know my family likes. Lunch is always leftovers. After school snacks for the teens are easy to prepare box pasta, rice, and more cereal.
Dinner requires a bit more time to plan…..
If my husband had his way, we would eat “grilled steak three times a week, followed by grilled salmon and sausages for the remaining days”.
If my daughter had her way, we would eat nothing but pasta and cheese.
If my boys had their way, we would eat enough food to feed a small African country for a month, every week.
If my brother-in-law had his way, we would eat out every night.
I just want to be able to make dinner in an hour so I’m not spending my entire weekday evening in the kitchen.
Spending just a bit of time before I go grocery shopping really does save me time, stress, and confusion when it comes to what is for dinner every day. Once you have your lists made, the rest comes easy!
The first thing you need is a list of meals that your family likes to eat. I want everyone to be involved in this part so that I know I’m not forgetting someone’s favorite. I asked each member of my family for their top five favorite meals and their favorite dessert.
L – steak, steak, steak, steak, fish. Favorite dessert: cheesecake
C – chicken alfredo, burritos, country fried steak, mac n cheese, french dips. Favorite dessert: lemon bars
K – willapa whoppers, steak, steak, steak, green enchiladas. Favorite dessert: cookies (any kind)
E – burritos, hamburgers, potato boats, spaghetti, steak. Favorite dessert: apple crisp
H – potato soup, roast with vegetables, brats and sauerkraut, pancakes and eggs, kung pao chicken. Favorite dessert: cheesecake
At the end of this list, I added a few meals that I know are well received when I make them and a few that I know are super easy to put together for those busy nights. This gives me enough meals for three two-week lists. I go grocery shopping every two weeks. I am able to rotate through my lists so that we aren’t eating the same thing all the time.
Once I have my meals broken down into two week lists, I start making the grocery lists to match. I list every ingredient that is needed to make those meals. This will be my master list for that set.
Full meal plan
It does take a bit of time to put the meal lists and grocery lists together. Once they are done, I use the same lists for about a year. At the beginning of the new year, I poll my family again and get some new lists.
When it is time to go grocery shopping, I grab my meal plan for that two weeks and check the kitchen to see what I need. I make my shopping list based on that. My menu plan may say that I need 2 cans of enchilada sauce to prepare all of the meals. If I already have 1 can in the cupboard, I’ll only put 1 can on my shopping list. I do try to make a dessert once a week, so I’ll check my baking cupboard to see if we are low on anything. Once I have my meal plan ingredients on the list, I check our stock of breakfast and snack items to add onto the shopping list. Then I move to looking at household supplies like laundry soap and toilet paper.
When I go shopping, if there is a good deal or I have a coupon for an ingredient I know we use a lot, I’ll stock up at that time. Otherwise, I stick pretty close to my list.
Come back next weekend to see how I work this meal plan into my weekly planner so that I always know what is for dinner before I go to work in the morning!
I started quilting about fifteen years ago. None of my projects are precise enough to belong on a magazine cover. But I just love the process of cutting a simple piece of fabric or old clothing item into pieces, then sewing it all back together to produce a piece of art.
We have a local chinese restaraunt that is the most fantastic place. It has been around in our community since my mother was a little girl. Four generations of my family have eaten at this lovely little place. It is not fancy, but the owners know the customers and often visit while you wait for your food. There have been several families come in to run this business in our community.
November is known around the world for NaNoWriMo. This month long challenge has an amazing amount of people starting and attempting to finish an entire novel in just 30 days. I don’t have a novel in mind, but I sure would like to get some more posts up here! My goal is to write a new post every morning.
modernbygone 