7 quick takes: take 9

Long week, hopefully not so long takes. Joining Jen and the ladies ova here!

1. My aforementioned funky mood was remedied on Wednesday by a husband who replicated this recipe. Delish. 

1 lb boneless top sirloin steak
1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 fat cloves garlic
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons medium dry Sherry
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar (regular or brown)
1 ½ lbs broccoli
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Accompaniment: steamed rice (we used brown rice)

Freeze steak until solid and partially frozen, 3 to 4 hours. (I left ours in the freezer until we needed it;)

Combine ginger, garlic, soy sauce, Sherry (or sparkling wine you may have won on your honeymoon...), sesame oil, and sugar in a bowl until sugar dissolves.

Cut steak into thin (about 1/16” thick) slices. Transfer to bowl with marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 and up to 8 hours.

Cut broccoli into (2” long, about 1”  wide) spears. If you have stems, trim off outer fibrous layer. Halve lengthwise and cut into 1” pieces. Cook broccoli in a 4 to 5 quart of boiling water seasoned with 1 ½ teaspoons salt. Cook broccoli until crisp tender, 2 minutes, then drain well.

Heat oil in a wok or large heavy skillet over medium high heat until it shimmers. Stir fry beef (scraped of excess marinade; in 2 batches if using a skillet) until it’s just no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add broccoli and stir fry until just heated through, 2 minutes more. Whisk cornstarch into marinade, add to wok along with beef and continue to stir fry until liquid boils and just thickens, about 1 minute more.

2. I may have had an I'm-not-clinically-insane-but-after-this-incident-you-may-want-to-have-me-checked moment last night...I had an event at school until about 7:30pm and then went by a friend's apartment for a few minutes. When I got home I was overwhelmed with I-must-clean-or-the-world-WILL-end crazy. The kitchen is clean, now just to tackle every other room. I'm ready to not be living in mess, post-wedded, boxes, bags, mess. It's. gettin. real. clean.

3. So Grace... is super awesome and always seems to make something much more fantastic with her magical sewing abilities. Now that I have a desk maybe I should take the initiative to actually use my brain for something semi-creative. 

4. Joanna's trip to San Francisco did not help with my sudden/not so sudden itch to get away. I have been thinking about camping and other semi-close adventures that could be had lately. Especially this week when things were feeling kinda down in the dumps, all I could think about was taking a trip no matter how long or how short. I feel like sometimes a short weekend getaway can be just the thing to revive a tired and worn out soul. 

5. Sister date this weekend! Pumped.  

6. I am reeeeeeeeeeally wanting to bake these lil' yummies this weekend:

7. The State Fair of Texas opens this weekend! Ahh... the state fair. Filled with semi-deathly safe rides and all the fattening food your personal heaven is probably filled with. I am about to admit the blasphemy of all blasphemes for a Texan... I've never been. I always say I want to go, that I should go, that I NEED to go...yet never do. We get a day off of school (cue choir of angels) for the fair but going to the fair on a day when all of my students may be there does not sound like the best...for me or them. If I adventure out that sounds like a fat-drenched blog post that would need to be shared to the masses (hah or the two people that read my blog). 

Happy weekend!

(photo creds: here, here, & here)

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

-Robert Louis Stevenson 

I've been in somewhat of a funk this week. Just feeling rather blah, overwhelmed, and tired. Nothing bad is necessarily happening but regardless I have just been feeling kind of down. Not sure what it is. I need to keep reminding myself that even though I may not roll around in the riches of wonderful new excitement every day; that good things are happening all around me... I just need to open my eyes to see the the little things, the good little seeds being planted.

(photo cred: found here, by photographer Steve Roche) 

weekend wrap-up: midnight at the nasher, holy matrimony, & oktoberfest!

This weekend was...busy and awesome. So many wonderful things going on and people to spend time with, celebrate with, and laugh with. I am completely exhausted this morning, but it's a worthwhile and wonderful feeling.

Here are some pictures from the adventures that were had this weekend:

Friday night we took the train downtown and went to 'til Midnight at the Nasher. It was such a nice relaxing way to end the crazy that was last week. It was also nice to see so many different people in one spot. Young adults, college kids, families of all ages... it was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Telegraph Canyon was the band of the night. Good, good music - you should definitely check them out if you are in the Dallas area.

my train date

Saturday we celebrated the marriage of a former college ministry friend! What an awesome, awesome wedding. It was also our first wedding to attend at a married couple. Long mushy story short: I like being married. Sosososo good. It was such a great time and we couldn't be happier for the newly weds! I'm sure they are to accomplish many great and wonderful tasks in their lifetime together.

That afternoon we ventured out to Addison's Oktoberfest! This was my first time at this event and it was a pretty good (albeit slightly overwhelming;) time! We went with my former college roommate and a new friend/usher from the wedding! Nothing makes me happier than meeting good, solid people and making new friends. (Sorry for the high res. cell phone pics, don't be hatin')

 

Yesterday was spent catching up on grading (I say that like I'm on top of things and I'm caught up...I'm not, promises), spending time together, and practicing with the band and Mass.

This should be our last crazy weekend for a while...I'm really looking forward to a looser schedule and more flexibility in the hopes that this might mean more sleep.

Monday, monday!

seven quick takes: take 8

Another week, another set of (probably boring, but for some reason I think they are worth sharing) takes!
Joining Jen and other blog ladies (bladies?) and a few gents over here. 

1. I got some serious enjoyment reading Bridget's post about TGIF. It made me think about TV and making an event out of it rather than turning it on for noise. When I was living alone I did that a lot. I would come home from work, turn the TV on to a random channel and wait until I had something to do or go to. Looking back I feel bad wasting the time and money and not cherishing the silence more. We have yet to decide on cable yet but if we do I really want to make an event out of shows and made a big deal out of it. I remember being a kid, watching TGIF and looking forward to that time all week. I remember it being a great time for family too to just sit, unwind, and have a calm evening...not to mention I may have had a huge crush on Uncle Jesse from Full House...

2. It's that time of the year. I started feeling not so great this week... but I suppose that's just a part of the job! I remember getting colds and sickies in elementary school all the time and it's pretty much the same for teachers. However, as a kid I was always up in that water fountain and being an adult I know better than to drink out of the germtastic sess pool. 

3. Apartment progress: yup. I keep telling myself that this is the week we will get it together and really organize and find a place for everything. This wasn't the week. Maybe next week...or the next... or never. 

4. Friend's wedding this weekend! I'm so excited to join in the celebration of a dear friend's yes to holy matrimony tomorrow! It's so weird that this will be the first wedding we get to go to as a married couple! Exciting, weird, and awesome all at the same time.

 5. Nasher tonight. We will be heading downtown this evening to hang out with another couple at this lovely event! I've never been before and I'm sure it is to be a good time. Deets next week. Also check out all of the awesome things happening in Dallas this week? Fun! Free! Fabulous! Fou should be there! (I wanted to keep it alliterative.)

6. Fitness goals. Now that I am starting to find the groove that is to be had this school year I am starting to think about fitness goals that I want to achieve this school year. I lost a significant amount of weight in college (for me at least) and have kept it off since I hit my goal weight. I have been focusing on building up muscle and hitting other fitness goals. I have never been a lover of running but I feel like the more I do it the more I may be able to tolerate it somewhatmaybe. I am thinking of registering for a fun 5k this year after I get over the dying feel I get every time I start a jog. 

7. As I said before, I haven't been feeling well...but I have a really great bearded guy that lives with me that came home the other night and made this delicious soup for me! So wonderful and it has been super yum to bring to school for lunch the past few days. I'm sure you could also put it in the slow cooker and have it getting yummy all day. Try it, your welcome: 

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage - we used turkey

• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers

• 1 large diced white onion

• 4 Tbsp bacon pieces

• 2 tsp garlic puree

• 10 cups water

• 5 cubes of chicken bouillon

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes

• ¼ of a bunch of kale

1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3. Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. 



I hope fantastic weekends are had by all! 

esty love: DressGreen

I have fallen in love with this etsy shop. Thanks to the hub-beardy-bub for finding this wonderful place!

I was gifted by a friend last year for my birthday with this amazingwonderfulheavenly scrub. I love the scent, the way it feels after I wash it off...the only thing I don't like is the price. My penny pinching pockets cannot justify the regular $70 habit this product entails. Because of this fact, I am always on the search for yummy scrubs and soaps made with ingredients that won't bother my super sensitive overly emotional irritable skin (constant source of frustration) AND fit my budget.

Cue amazing etsy shop: we first ordered over the summer and tried the Your Morning Cup of Coffee scrub and the Mint & Vanilla Snow Day scrub. I am not ashamed to admit that if it were socially acceptable to eat that mint scrub out of the container with a spoon, I would have. It. smells. delicious. and leaves me feeling similarly to the fresh: Brown Sugar Body Polish but without the guilt of spending over half of our grocery budget. The shop owner send little slices of sample soaps to you when you place an order and with our first we received a little sliver of the Clarifying Activated Charcoal Facial Soap. Gift from God I tell you. I have never found a bar soap that agrees with my skin and I have tried pretty much every magical acne, sensitive skin soap under the sun. This soap is the perfect blend of harsh/gentle. I always feel clean and wonderful afterwards.

We just received our second order yesterday and once again went with the Mint & Vanilla Snow Day scrub and the Sweet Orange & Vanilla Bean body scrub. I also got a full size of the Charcoal Facial Soap. I am super excited to make good use of all of our new goodies and try the samples we received! I think our next order will consist of getting their Golden Pumpkin scrub. Delish.

This is not a sponsored post in any way. I just really love the products from this shop and thought I would share. I love supporting small businesses especially when they sell awesome things for great prices.

Have a splendid Thursday! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


(photo cred: all pictures are from DressGreen's etsy shop)

The Dallas Flea

What a weekend! I celebrated a friends birthday on Friday night by jumping on trampolines, I adventured to The Dallas Flea on Saturday morning, joined some friends for a fancy dinner at The Melting Pot on Saturday night, graded a tremendous amount of papers on Sunday morning, and then praised and worshipped my way through another wonderful teen Mass on Sunday night. Full. Full. Full of weekend.

However, I wanted to share a little bit about my experience on Saturday morning at The Dallas Flea. What a fantastic time! I went with some friends from work and we had a BLAST! They all have wonderful blogs as well and I may or may not have stolen pictures from them so be sure to check out their posts as well here, here, and here!

The Flea was located at Southside on Lamar and played host to so many wonderful Dallas vendors! I ended up walking out with a few things, but honestly I wish I could have walked out with EVERYTHING. I could have found something to love on at every single booth. I'm so lucky to live in a city with such talent and creativity everywhere!

Some of my favorite vendors were...

f. is for frank - a jewelry company that specializes in pewter cast jewelry. I loved every single piece they were offering on Saturday and ended up getting this beautiful 'loved' necklace. They also had others that said 'hitched' and 'survivor' not to mention their gorgeous knot rings... can someone say Christmas present? Please?

gemelli - another handmade jewelry vendor that has the motto, "Beautiful things inspired by nature." I loved every single piece she had on her table. I especially loved her little Dia de los Muertos inspired skulls on her bracelets and itty bitty peace signs. One of the ladies I ventured out with that day ended up getting one of these pretty things. Totes Jeal.

Random - This was by far my favorite find of the day. I saw a few people walking around with vintage metal letters from old store signs and once I saw someone wander by with a gigantic M I knew I had to have one. They had such an assortment and I fell in love with my big-a green M. It is soon to find a perfect little homey home in our apartment. I'm pretty sure I shocked the bearded man I live with when I walked through the door with a letter the size of the door way... oh well! Being design-y. They also had an abundance of awesome books that were cut in the shape of letters. Way cool.

the urban cottage - Cue the totes adorbs Airstream, totes adorbs shop owner, and totes adorbs furniture. I loved walking through their little trailer and looking at all of the revamped furniture. There was a vintage filing cabinet that I would have loved for a nightstand, had I had the spare $250 on me.

Dowdy Studio - our last shopping stop of the day was the Dowdy wagon outside of Southside. We picked up a few things for my friend's husby and got the chance to chit chat with the owners. This is a husband + wife team who have created their own little studio. The husband silk screens his own original designs on to their shirts and the wife designs their jewelry. Seirously, all of their stuff is so great. I had a hard time saying no to all of their awesome guitar and beard inspired designs. We may just have to stop by their studio party this Saturday!

Lunch was eaten outside of the building from one of our local Dallas food trucks, Ruthie's. Holymygoshamazing. I have never had such a delicious grilled cheese sammy in my LIFE. Pure gold. Next time I come across this gem of an eatery I plan on getting their Turkey Trot sandwich. Which is their classic grilled cheese but with turkey and BACON. Done.

It was such a wonderful time. I can't wait to go back in December and this time I plan on taking my mom and sister with me for the holiday adventure. Now here's to an even more adventurous week in teaching in the wonderful world of 3rd grade and newly wedded blissyfullness (don't throw up at that...just kidding, you can.)

Happy day!

place holder

I promise I have a wonderfully long post about my adventure to the Dallas Flea and all of the money I should not have spent there. Things have been a bit busy cray the past day or four so the post is coming, but not ready yet.

Here's a little vid for your musical enjoyment and to make me feel better about my lateness:

You're welcome.

seven quick takes: take 7

Another week! Another squeakety squakey squake of a post. Joining one of my favorite bloggers Grace (if you haven't read this woman's blog you are doing yourself a real disservice in the funnies department, read her posts and thank me later for the ab workout you will get from all the laughs) standing in for Jen and some other lovely blogger-type ladies to share seven quick takes from the week. So let's get to it.

1. This week was long. Like real long. I think full work weeks after a short week tend to be that way though. I am exhausted and in need of a few (million) naps. I love my job. I really do and honestly cannot imagine myself in any other profession at the moment. But this job does take every ounce of my energy. Even though I taught summer school for a month I feel as though I am having to reacquaint myself with the constant tired that takes over my body this time of year. 

2. I have been meaning to post pictures of my classroom. I've been meaning to post pictures of a lot of things but the whole new marriage, new school year, readtheabovetake thing has been a wee bit life consuming. Sorry for the busy, I will get pictures up here soon and sweet posts about things in my classroom and all of the posts I have been meaning to write about our honeymoon that was forever and a month ago.For now I will leave you with the gem of a picture that is my door decor for the moment/probably the year. Nothing says third grade like glittery peace signs and big-a border!

3. I want to get on a regular blogging/posting schedule. I started this blog as an outlet. Just a space to write and express and be. I always feel better after I post. I enjoy doing this thing I just want to get on a regular posting schedule. However, I don't want this to become another task to add to the list. I feel like that can lead to a quick burn out and thus leave me blogless and all sorts of sads. So I want a scheduled-not-schedule. I also want to put a little more effort into this thing. Maybe learn how to make a header or something super fancepants. You know, instead of the whole generic, "I slapped a kind of cute background on here so you would think I put a wee bit of effort but really just wanted to get this thing up and running." type thing.

4. I love weekends. I forgot how much I really, really appreciate this time. While I am feeling all sorts of overwhelmed at the moment it is nice to realize on a Friday afternoon that I will not be getting up at 5am the next morning. 

5. News on the apartment front: I am wanting to badly to have everything settled into. I feel like we do a great job of cleaning messes up at various points of the week and then somehow clothessplosions happen or my desk gets more stuff on it... things that need to be and will be taken care of in time. Trying to remind myself that time is hard to find right now and that it will get done and we will be able to have people over eventumaybe so I don't feel like we are hobbits hidden away anymore.

6. Brace yourselves. I'm about to be extremely redundant and say... I love fall. I feel as though these thoughts are all over the place right now. But in all seriousness, real joy was brought to my soul this morning when I walked to my car with a cool breeze wafting in the air rather than humid hot hitting me in the face like car exhaust. Nothing is better than fall after an toasty I-feel-like-I'm-being-cooked-in-an-oven Texas summer. Bring on the boots. 

7. Going to this little shinny shindig tomorrow morning with my dear teaching partner and a couple other ladies from work. It should be good creatively vintagey fun times in the big D. I will (hopfumaybe) write a post about this adventure in the nearish future!


Happy weekend!

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." 

-Helen Keller

While blog browsing the other day I stumbled upon this quote. I have written before about how I know that one of my many purposes in this lifetime is to make a difference in someone's life, no matter how great or how small.

I forget about the small part though. I forget that I can create change in small ways to satisfy this life changing craving. That maybe my purpose is to relish in small things and not focus on the great. I feel like in my profession and volunteer activities I tend to get all dreamy eyed, only thinking about those who need help in big ways. When honestly, I should also be considering those who need help in small ways. Seeing this quote really struck a chord with me. I've been trying to making positive little changes. I am trying to so small things with great love and love these moments just as much as the big ones. 

Another blog that is inspiring me lately is this one. Good good stuff. 

Happy Thursday!

(photo cred: me, a sweet gift from one of mys students who asked me yesterday what my favorite candy was. Sweetest thing I have ever gotten!)

thankful

Lately, I have been feeling more than overwhelmed. With the start of so many new things in life right now I have been running high speed on little sleep. I'm happy that things seem to be slowing down at least a little bit. I am starting to find a routine that fits this new school year and things at home are starting to sort themselves out. We are getting rid of boxes little by little and making our new apartment into our first home.

I'm so thankful.

I'm thankful for the opportunities I have been given and the challenges this year is bringing. I am especially thankful for the growth I am seeing in myself already. I wish I could remind myself of that more often. That this life is about growth. That we are all meant to be challenged and grow in certain ways that we ourselves are not capable of doing on our own. My husband, my family, my students, my friends, my coworkers...these are all constant source of challenge and growth in my life. Without these people I would be stunted and with little inspiration in my life. 

Today marks the eleventh year since 9/11. How our nation has grown. This unexpected challenge brought changes in a lot of areas and I feel (and hope) that it has made us all realize how much this life is worth. Thinking of those who were impacted by those events eleven years ago. Here's to living a life with purpose and growth. 

(photo cred)