Had To Share!

Staring at Daddy, waiting for him to finish his Jello...

so she can lick the bowl!    ;)

Window Shopping - On ETSY!!

On days that I decide to walk on the treadmill I usually goof off on the computer, and sometimes I manage to some get blogging done. You can actually tell how much exercising I get done by how often I post, and as you can see it's been a while...

Online window shopping is one of my favorite ways to kill time, especially on Etsy. I love sharing great finds, and below you'll find a quite a few recent favorites. I have to admit, I did not share everything because some things were added to my cart. :)

Just click on the photos and you will be taken to where you can purchase that item.

Vintage Crucifix 

Vintage 70's Oxford Pumps

Indian Sari Skirt

Mother Teresa Quote 

Cross Stitch Bookmark

Icon Bracelet 

The Practice of the Presence of God

Rosebud Belt

Our Lady of Grace

Gypsy Skirt

Immaculate Heart of Mary - wooden toy

 Thai Fishermen Pants

 Antique Sterling First Holy Communion Medal

Antique Virgin Mary Brooch

From the Missal

This spoke to me so much today at Mass, that I had to share it.

I can't even count how many times I've read over these lines, but for whatever reason they really jumped out at me today.

These words should be spoken daily.

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend!!

Spring Inspired!

A Quiet Week

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my blog, and I don't plan on disappearing for another 6 months, but it will remain quiet around here until after Easter.

I hope you can be patient with me.

A Happy & Blessed Easter to all!!

Holy Week - CONFESSION TIMES!!!

We received this Holy Week Schedule (pic below) in the mail yesterday, and I couldn't help but smile after reading it. 

Notice the list of CONFESSION times!!!

This schedule is from San Secondo d'Asti Catholic Church.  It is the Church where we were married, and attended frequently until the TLM was available close by (it's a 45 min drive for us), but I wish we were able to get there more often.

The Church itself is 150 years old and it has the ambiance you would expect from a Church that old. But that is not the main reason we wanted to be married there...

The Pastor, Fr. Marx (yes that's his last name, people actually call him by his last name), Is very Traditional in his teaching and administering the Sacraments (as you can tell). Now I'm sure some would think "if he's that traditional he must be rather stern", or something along those lines, but that's so far from the truth, Fr. Marx is the kindest, most soft-hearted man I know, during his sermons he refers to the congregation as "my dear ones". 

When I see something like this schedule for Confessions I know he "gets it", he gets what's really important. I know that because this schedule is not unexpected. His Parish offers Confession every day of the week, and before every Sunday Mass.

This post is not meant to say no other Priest takes the Sacraments seriously, especially one as important as Confession is, but this morning I went online to the websites of our near by parishes and most have already had their Penance services and will not have any other scheduled Confessions before Easter.

I hope you will join me in praying that in years to come (sooner would be great!!) we see more Holy Week schedules like the one from San Secondo d'Asti...

The perfect end to a great lunch...

Afternoon Walk

It rained really hard all day yesterday, but today it was beautiful, so this afternoon Cookie and I went for a walk. I took some pictures along the way, and some back at the house.

Love the colors of this tree. We walked by a few of them.

Blue skies!

Somebody needed to stop & rest a bit.

Roses in the front yard. I would show the whole plant, but it's still new so there's not much to it yet. But these sure are pretty.

Our whole front yard is lined with Geraniums.

We planted Snap Dragons all along the back wall & they're lookin' good.

Fresh flowers for Our Blessed Mother!!

Fried Ice Cream

I like to take pictures of food. In fact, I am one of those people that posts food pictures all the time on facebook, but since I gave up facebook for Lent, you get to see it. :)

This is from Saturday night at a Mexican restaurant we went to.

Paul ordered one for each of us since we didn't know how big the scoop of ice cream would be. I was amazed when they came, they were HUGE!! I only ate 1/4 of mine, but Paul ate the rest of it & all of his. He has the same metabolism he had at 18, it's amazing!

I just realized something while writing this. If I posted this picture on fb, all the post would be is the picture, with a caption like "yummmm", or "mmmmmm...good!".

LOL!

This way I could write a whole story about my Fried Ice Cream.

Blog Layout

For the last 2 or so weeks I have been playing with the layout of my blog. I wanted to keep it simple, but I wasn't liking how it was turning out.

As I was looking through the Holy Land pictures (more to come...lol) I knew I had to use the above picture on my header. Personally I think it turned out great! The picture was taken of the Sea of Galilee while standing in Capernaum.

Anyhow, I think I'm done making major changes to the blog for a while. I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

What do you think?

Monday Morning

This morning I took Cookie to the groomers, then headed back home to wait for someone to come fix the microwave. They just came out a couple months ago for the turn table, this time the microwave wont generate any heat. :/

I wanted to watch tv sooooo BAD while I was waiting. I just sat there thinking about the shows sitting on my DVR waiting for me. I decided it'd be better to just turn on the radio & clean the kitchen. Yes, a much better idea!

Microwave is back in service, YAY!! I missed it so much!

This weekend I had the WORST allergy attack I've had in years, so I spent most all of yesterday in bed. I guess it really helps to take meds, sleep, and repeat. I'm feeling great today as far as allergies go, a little sluggish though, so I think it's nap time, then pick up Cookie, once I bring her home I can go for a much needed run.

Happy Monday!!

Nice night. Excited about tomorrow.

Once the sun was nearly down I took Cookie out to play for a while, and since it's so nice out I decided to come sit at the patio table and do something I've been neglecting for quite some time... :)

It really is a beautiful evening, and it's especially nice after the extremely hot day we just had. I only wish we had eaten dinner outside. We had pan seared Red Snapper, and it was yummy! Perfect for al fresco eating.

Tomorrow is the day of our 5k, and even though I'm not as prepared as I would like, I'm super excited!!! My goal was to be able to run the whole thing, and I'm not sure I'll make it, especially if it's as hot as it's been the last few days. I'm still really looking forward to it. I'll just do what I can do!

My mom's birthday is Sunday, but we are going to take her out to lunch tomorrow as well (my brother too!). We were going to spend the day the OC Food Truck Fest, but it's just too hot and I think we'd all end up in a bad mood. We're going to try out a new burger place so Paul is really excited, it's really cute!!

BTW, my mom is going to be 65!! Wow!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

I hope that everyone has a happy and blessed weekend!

Inspiration!

Everyone has moments of inspiration, but how long is it before the inspiration fades?

I know that I've felt inspired quite often, in different ways, to do many things. But does the inspiration last? I usually find that less than a week goes by and I'm back to just living life, and forgetting about all the changes I wanted to make, tasks I wanted to complete, and goals I had planned on accomplishing.

Based on the date of my last post, you might say I lost the inspiration to keep my blog going...BIG TIME!!

I am going to give this some more thought, then post some ideas for daily exercises to prevent the spark of inspiration from fading away too quickly. I'll post on that later.

In the meantime, I would love to hear some ideas YOU may have. Anyone who leaves a comment with an idea will have it posted in my follow-up post, along with a link to their blog!!

Getting Into Shape

I started exercising again, mainly cardio but some lifting, and it feels great. Now, anyone who knows me also knows that this is a common theme with me--exercise for a couple of weeks feel really great, then stop completely and wonder why I'm not feeling so great anymore--LOL!! Part of me is back on the program because it's Christmas time, which means cookies, cake, and more treats really high in carbs. I just hope I can remember how I feel right now, and continue what it takes to make that happen.

I know weight isn't all that important & it really isn't about that, it's about mental clarity, and having a higher energy level. The higher energy level is my favorite part!!

Speaking of treats though, next week I'll be making a ton of Cake Balls & that excites me, 'Cos they're just sooo good. ;)

I hope everyone gets to eat tons of yummy treats in the next few weeks!!

Hi

I wish I had a good excuse for being away so long, but I don't. I wasn't too busy or on strike from the internet, etc...

I guess I just had a very long blank period. It's probably been just long enough that nobody will even see this.

Anyhow I don't feel blank any longer, and I am now back to blogging and sharing with my online friends, and I will spend this week catching up on all your blogs too.

Good Times

I hope that everyone has a fun, relaxing, happy, great, and blessed weekend!

I will be spending the entire day with my mom, which I haven't done in a while so I'm really looking forward to it. We don't really have any plans, I'm just gonna show up & we'll figure it out from there, that seems to work for us.

I don't think we have any plans for Sunday, just stay home and relax (except for Mass), maybe catch up on some reading.

Happy weekend to all!

Wednesday Catch-Up

Today is the day I get caught up on all my chores and errands that did not get done yesterday or Monday. I know the main thing I need to catch up on is laundry, but that's nothing new, I'm almost always behind on laundry. You'd think it wouldn't be that big of deal since it's just the two of us, but I guess it's always on the bottom of my priority list.

I've been really unorganized for quite a while now (my whole life, lol), but I did do one thing this week to help keep things simple in the evenings. I actually planned the dinner menu for the week, and I think I'm going to keep the same menu for a month to see if I can manage to keep one area of my day scheduled. The meals I chose can all be made in several different ways so there will always be variety (very important).

Monday: Take-out (both worked late)

Tuesday: Tacos/Tostadas

Wednesday: Turkey Meatloaf

Thursday: Homemade Pizza

Friday: Tuna Salad

Saturday: Chili

Sunday: Clean out the fridge night.

What are some of your favorite meals at dinner time?

Thoughts On Sarah

I'm spending the evening with my husband watching non-stop election coverage, mostly on Fox News, and Sarah Palin is all over the place. First let me tell you I haven't always been a fan of Palin. When she first came onto the scene I found her uncomfortable to listen to, not very confident, and yes, at times she came across as inarticulate. Now, I'm not saying she was any of these things, but that is how she came across.

But now...

OMGoodness!!

She is on fire! Her confidence level is unbelievably high, and she is handling herself very, very well. I've been watching Palin the last few days, and I'm just so impressed with her I had to say something about it.

California didn't turn out as I had hoped, but the conservatives nation-wide had some great wins tonight.

Congrats to Marco Rubio!!

I'm still waiting for them to call the Ohio race for governor...I'm prayin' for you Kasich (my boy)!!

It's Finally Here

I'm so excited about today and I just can' t wait to see the results!!

I really hope everyone makes it out to vote today.

We've been watching nothing but election coverage for a while (seems like forever), especially for the last week. I can't say I'm all that confident that things will turn out how I would like here in California, but I am hopeful about what is about to happen (God willing) nation wide.

Hope everyone has a great day. :)

I know...

"The souls of men are tried less by work than by the frustration that comes from too much attention to the trivial." ~Bishop Fulton Sheen

This quote is in a frame on my husband's desk, and since I'm using his computer it's staring me right in the face. I did not even get on the computer with the intention of posting something today, I just planned on taking some time to goof-off, and maybe do a little online window shopping. :)

But now I feel a bit guilty and I'm thinking I should force myself to get up and do something that needs to be done, but that I really don't want to do, like workout, laundry, clean the office, etc. I wish that when I read quotes such as this one, that it would stick with me for a long period of time, but they are often forgotten too quickly, and I end up right back where I started. I know I could write my favorite quotes down and stick them where I'll see them, but I've noticed that eventually that piece of paper just becomes another fixture in the house & I stop noticing it.

Is that normal? Am I the only one that does that? Any new tips?