Twilight

You know the book that has been made into a movie about Bella Swan and Edward the vampire.  This is the book that last summer my sister could not stop talking about and that she told me I had to read.   I would respond to her with things like, yeah I will read it sometime, or I am sure it is good.  I was in no hurry to read it, I don’t really know why but it was just not at the top of my list.  

 

This Christmas Meghan gave me the book and for two months it has sat next to my bed and every so often I would look at it and remind myself that I needed to read it.  Last night, I started it, today I am halfway through it and I cannot put it down.  I read for over two hours this morning in a coffee shop while Ewan was at school and then I read for another hour this afternoon while Anwen was napping and Ewan was playing, and tonight since I am still under the weather my plan is to read until I can stay awake no longer.

 

This book has really taken me by surprise, it was not that I did not believe people that told me it was good.  I just did not know it was one of those kinds of books that you don’t want to put down it is so good. It is an easy book to read, and I like the authors writing style.  I love that she has so successfully captured what it is like to be a high school girl and how vivdly I can picture this story in my mind About 100 pages into the book I went the Borders across from the coffee shop I was at and bought the second book in the series.  

 

 

I am shamelessly addicted to this book and I am sure I will be to the series, at least until I have read every last page!

3 cheers for the Neti pot!

That’s right I said Neti pot, what you may be asking yourself what is a Neti pot.  Well it is a little tea pot looking thing that you stick up your nose to clean out your sinuses.  Here is a picture to help you get an idea of what it looks like.

 

The first time I heard someone talk about a Neti pot I thought to myself, no thank you, I am not sticking something up my nose to wash out my sinuses.  I thought it would hurt, I thought it would feel like jumping into a pool and water shooting up into your nose.  I was not game for that, not what so ever.

 

Three years later, I have a sinus infection and my head feels like a vice is around it and I am desperate for something to help me feel better.  I am willing to try just about anything.  That is how I came to own a Neti pot.  

 

I have had friends that have used them before and recently my sister-in-law told me that she had started using one for her sinus infection.  She told me all of the things not to do, things that she had done that make her experience very unpleasent at first.

 

Things not to do;

– Do not use cold water, you will get a terrible brain freeze.

– Do not close your mouth while you are using the Neti pot or you will get a throat full of saline solution, yuk!!

 

Armed with Missy’s (my sister-in-law) advice I locked myself in the bathroom and gave it a try.  I used very warm water, about body temperature.  I started out with half a packet of the saline solution, and I went for it.  Here is what it looks like when someone used a Neti pot;

 

 As you can see the saline solution literally goes in one side and though your sinuses and comes out the other side.  That is how it cleanses your sinues and loosens things up in there.  If you use warm water you can hardly feel it going through your sinues.  What I “feel” is the stuff breaking up or moving around.  and I can’t really tell if I am feeling it or if I am hearing it.

 

Sometimes my sinues are so blockes that nothing comes out the other side.  I have to blow my nose several times and then try again.  Sometimes it starts as a trickle and ends in a steady stream.  It all depends on how blocked I am.  

 

Does the Neti pot help?  Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes!  Right away I start to feel relief, and things start flowing better so that I can get it out of my sinuses.  My head has less pressure and I can blow my nose more effectively.  

 

You can find Neti pots at drug stores, natural pharmacies, online, and probably lots of other places. 

 

So as I said before, 3 cheers for the Neti pot!!!!

It all seems to happen at once…

It all seems to happen at once, you know the feeling, all of your weekends are free and then all at once you have a million things come up.  Or how about when everyone in your household gets sick all at once. Well the last week has been that kind of week for me, and I am really over it and want my normal life and health back!

 

The Sunday before last I hurt my back doing something really simple, and on Monday and Tuesday I was layed up with Brian having to stay home to help with the kids.  Weds. my back was getting better but I was still in a lot of pain.  Weds. night I started feeling something in my throat, you know that sick throat feeling, I thought I was just getting a cold.  Thursday I was sick in a bad kind of way and I sleep for about 30 hours, again Brian had to be home.  Thursday night I missed my sister-in-laws rehersal and dinner, yup, did I mention there was a big family wedding this past weekend that my whole family was in.  Friday I was on the ment so I thought and Saturday with sinus meds in me I was able to attend the wedding and have a good time.  Sunday we recouperated and by Sunday night I was back feeling like crap.  It is Tuesday morning and I have been strugging with a sinus infection for the past several days as well as a chest cold, oh and I sound like a boy when I can talk at all.  I just want to feel better, it that too much to ask!

 

Brian has a cold and I have no idea what that is going to mean, hopefully he will not have to take more time off of work.  The kids are well enough, they both have a stubborn cough that comes up ever once and a while but otherwise they are acting like themselves.

 

So that is what has been going on.  Hopfully the next post will be a little more cheery!

Cookbooks I love!

As many of you know by now I really like to cook, and due to my love of cooking I also have a love of cookbooks.  I almost always have one or two cookbooks on my Amazon wishlist and a few in the back of my mind that I want to add.  

 

Here are some of my favorites and a little bit about why I love them;

 

 

This is my most used cookbook!

Extending the Table is a great cookbook that contains recipes from all over the globe.  Many of the recipes are from 2nd and 3rd world countries and there fore they are pretty simple recipes to make and with simple ingredients.  Making recipes from this cookbook will allow you and your family to travel to other parts of the world and get glimpses of what peoples are eating and the cookbook also gives you background on people and traditions.  I love using this cookbook because I love exploring food with my children, and helping them to get a taste of somewhere else in the world!  Several of the recipes in my What’s Cooking section are from this cookbook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you like using a slow cooker this cookbook is for you!

Are you tired of making the same old recipes in yor slowcooker?  This cookbook will take you to another place, where slow cooker recipes are exotic and exciting with some of the good ole favorites we all love.  I love this cookbook, for it’s diversity and new ideas about slowcooking.  I have several recipes that are favorites like; Moroccan Chicken Thighs with Chickpeas and Cumin, and Really Old Fashioned Chili with Salsa Cruda.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's Ina, what more can I say!

Ina Garten is a great cook and cookbook author.  I received my first Barefoot Contessa cookbook about 5 years ago (I have three now) and everytime I am having a party I consult one of them.  In fact here is a really great story about a party, friends and Ina;

 We were gather for an Easter dinner with friends a few years back and each person was going to bring a dish.  As we started getting ready for dinner and getting our dishes on the table we realized that three out of the four couples had brought a dish from an Ina Graten cookbook.  The funny thing is that no one had consulted anyone else about what they were bringing. It has turned into an Ina Easter dinner, and It was an amazing dinner.  

The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks are full of great recipes for dinner parties to kids birthday parties and you will start salivating just reading the cookbook and looking at the pictures.  

 

 

It's Ina again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some cook books that I am in the midst of trying out, with the hopes that I will soon love them;

 

 

I made the Navajo Stew in from this cookbook and it was really good, I will be making it again.

 

 

 

 

This is a part of the same series as the Extending The Table Cookbook, I am really looking forward to trying some recipes from here.

 

 

 

 

This is also from the same series as Simply In Season. This cookbook was recommended to me as a cookbook that will help you slim down your grocery bill. I say, anything is worth a try!

 

Don’t forget about the library if you want to try some recipes before making the investment in the book.

 

Happy cooking!

Ta-Da!!!

 

What a difference, right!  Now I actually know what I have, and it feels good!  I probably spend an hour or so on this project and made a bit of a mess, although the kitchen smelled great.  I purged spices that were old or that I never used, and stored my empty containers someplace other then my spice cabinet, I also consolidated spices that I had more then one of.  I think this project turned out really well and I feel inspired to cook!

My new favorite room

Every so often I organize, clean or rearrange a room in our condo and i like what I have done so much that it becomes my new favorite room.  Now a little back story before I reveal my new favorite room;  When Brian and I were seriously considering putting our condo on the market I went through every room, closets included and re-organized them, re-space planned them and purged what we did not need.

 

When I got to our bedroom I decided to take out my dresser because it was crowding the room.  My solution was to find a way to store all of my clothes in an organized fashion in my very small 2′-6″ x 3′ closet.    To my amazement I was able to do it and it even looked good.  I used several different kinds of organizational “tools”; 5 drawer plastic organizational chest, 2 door mount shoe hangers, 2 hanging sweater organizers, 3 crates, 1 storage box.

 

So having no dresser and a closet full of clothes was great for the space that we gained in our bedroom, I was happy with the decision.  6 months later, I am still happy but my cloest really needed to be reorganized, and yesterday I somehow made it happen.  This time my closet looks even better then the first time I reorganized it and it is my favorite room in the house.  Sometimes I want to just stand in there and bask in the glory of organization, everything in it’s place.  The rest of my house in organized but not like my closet, my closet rules, at least right not it does.

 

 

I don’t really feel that these pictures do justice to my closet but you at least get an idea of what I did and what it looks like. The shoe holder that is hanging on my wall is full of socks and underware, the shoe hanger on the door is full of shoes.  The other thing that you cannot see is that i can fit my hamper in my closet as well.  Yeah for an organized closet!

The great warm up

 

A few posts ago I was distraut over how cold it was and how much I wanted it to be warm again.  well guess what happened, it got warm and I am not talking in the thirties, I am talking 50’s and 60.  For the past several days we in chicago have been treated to beautiful spring like weather!  The snow is almost all gone, the birds are chirping and we have abandonded our house for the outside.  I do not expect that is the last of our winter weather, but I am enjoying this little break we are getting.  I think a lot of Chicagoans are.

Sprucing up the spice cabinet

This is my spice cabinet and as you can see it is in need of serious help.  Today while I was making vegetable stock a spice bottle actually fell into the stock pot full of stock.  That was when I decided that I needed to do something that would assure that I would spend the time needed to clean up my spice cabinet.  

 

So I am posting my to do project as a was to keep myself accountable to really doing it.  I will post a project completion picture in a few weeks at the most.  

 

If you have any gadgets or tricks you use to get your spices organized please let me know, I can use all of the help I can get.

Love these boots!!

 The last time I was in Arizona I went to a huge western wear shop to get Ewan some cowboy boots, and ended up getting myself a pair too.  The moment I saw these boots I was in love, I thought I have to have a pair and if they are my Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary gift then so be it.  Here are some of the boots that I love from the company Ariat.  

 

 

These are my boots. I love them but next time I am getting something with a little more color!

 

Now come the really cute boots, the kind that make you feel that cash burning in your pocketbook.

 

 

Oh yeah, I love these boots!

 

 

Yummy!

 

 

They come in Kiwi green too!!

 

 

Darling!

 

 

 

Similar to mine but cuter, where were they when I was shopping.

 

They come in red too, with pink trim!

 

Ok I will be done now:).  If you like what you see you can go to the Ariat or Zappos websites and take a look see or make a purchase.  There are oh so many more to look at in all different colors, who knew western wear could look so good!

Slumdog Millionaire

 

Two thumbs up!!!!!!  I had no expectation when I went to see this movie and left the theater understanding why this movie has been nominated for best picture!  Slumdog Millionaire takes you through the life of Jamal and his brother Salim as Jamal answers each of the Who Want’s To Be A Millionaire questions, I thought it was a very clever way to tell the story.  I thought the movie was a beautiful story of a very unbeautiful way to grow from a boy to a man or child to an adult.  A story that takes you through India to places most people might never see or known of.  And of course I love the little bit of Bollywood that’s in the movie.  I am not going to say that this movie was fun to watch but it is a good movie and a week later I am still thinking about it.

 

Hope you enjoy it!