For the first time since I can remember I find myself at a crossroad in life. In the Fall I felt God was calling me to retire from my position of leadership with the company I work with. It made no sense to walk away from a business I had spent the last 2 decades building. Regardless over the last 3 months and the events of my life led me to retire from my position as a director. So as of March 1st my life is now heading in a new direction. What that direction is, I am not sure. However, as I look out the window I see blue skies and green leaves on trees and am remind of God's greatness that surrounds us. I wonder how often I have taken that for granted, more than I care to admit. I have to be honest it was weird to wake up the last couple days with no plan, goal or task I needed to get done. I hope that I will cherish and not take for granted this season of rest that God is gifting me with. That each day I will wake up and revel in the beauty that surrounds us that was created by a loving God. His glory is all around. I think of the verse Ps. 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God.....I will be exalted in the earth!"
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Or better yet, do you have a bucket list? I think everyone should have a bucket list of some sort. I recently got to check one off my bucket list. For whatever reason I have always wanted to learn how to play the drums. I think it stems from as a kid watching the Mupphets and loving Animal, you know the crazy red headed one. Also, my dad was a drummer. I have a picture of him when he was about 18 behind a kit. Either way, I've wanted to learn how to drum and it's on my bucket list. As fortune would have it my husband works with a guy that's a pretty famous drummer and he was willing to teach me. I've only been at it for about a month, but the exhileration that I have when I sit behind my kit and bang away is just plain fun. Although I joke with my instructor, who by the way is always encouraging even when I'm off beat, about going on tour the fact of the matter is I'm doing something I have always wanted to learn how to do. The other perk is it's a healthy way to get your aggression out all in the name of music and art. Don't give up on your dreams, go after them. Check off those things on your bucket list, or better yet get one started.
I have to say usually when I travel I like to dress cute. I mean, you never know who you might meet and first impressions do matter. I recently was flying to DC for a business conference, so I was in work attire which included wearing a pair of heeled booties. They were easy to get on and off through the security checkpoint and caused no problems getting on my first flight at 5:25am. We landed in Charlotte on time but by the time my girlfriend picked up her curbside baggage our short layover was getting shorter. In desperate need for some coffee and food by this point, since I had been up since 3:30am, we stopped to grab a bite. Mind you it was to go, but not realizing how far our connecting gate was it quickly began an issue. We picked up our tempo as we raced to get to our gate. Eventually my long-legged tall girlfriend, who was in flats decided it would be best for her to forge on ahead to get to the gate to hold the plane, if that was possible. My gut told me, you just gotta take off your heels and book it. Which is exactly what I did. With 7 seconds to spare we made it through the gate and didn't miss our connection. My thoughts on this experience, if you have a tight connection you may want to opt for a cute pair of flats instead of 4 inch heels. You just never know when you are going to have to make a run for it.
You really start doing some thinking when you realize you are closer to 50 than 40. I have been thinking a lot about my bucket list. What are those things that I have wanted to do but have not yet done, some of mine…being fluent in Spanish, playing the drums proficiently and taking an African safari. Most recently my girlfriend Cindy, you know the one who challenged me to start this blog, and I were at a conference and complaining about that extra 5 pounds we were carrying around. Well, we decided to do something about it and challenge each other to get it off and when we achieved our goal we were going to treat ourselves to a bikini shopping trip/girlfriend getaway in Orlando. Well, I am excited to say we are both almost to our goal and in two weeks we will be doing our girlfriend getaway. So excited! I knew it wasn't going to be easy because honestly I love good food and wine, I don't diet and I didn't want to feel deprived. However, I am a believer in the saying you will not change until the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of change. I had to figure out a way to make this happen, the two main things I did was start running. Oh yeah that was one of my new challenges, 5K, 10K then half marathon. And I knew I needed to count my calories, so I started using a fantastic Free App called Lose It. It tracks everything. The key is being disciplined to track.
So what does this have to do with Zucchini and Chicken? Well, my dinner was inspired tonight by a few new dishes that I have added to my repertoire. One being a pan fried panko encrusted chicken breast, which tonight I seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic and then some parmesan mixed in with the panko. Then one of my new favorites baked Zucchini fries, a Giada recipe you can find on the Food Network, delicious! So if you have a craving for something crispy and crunchy, try these out. Tonight I ate a very satisfying, healthy dinner and didn't feel deprived. What's on your bucket list? Ok, so I took a little break from blogging, but now I am back since I feel I have something new to talk about. I'm sitting in the Hartford, CT airport right. Let first say it is by the easiest airport to move through security. I was thinking about my fashion dilemma I had this morning as I was getting ready in my hotel. I decided to travel light this trip and just take a carry on so I had to pack smart. I had picked out my couple of outfits I needed for my business trip and was good to go. I recently purchased an adorable magenta sweater to wear with one of my outfits I had planned to wear. When I bought my top I didn't take the time to try it on, first mistake. When I put it on this morning I immediately started to itch. Now don't get me wrong it was very soft to the touch, but I didn't bother trying the fabric on my skin. You see I have an issue with wool, it makes me itch something fierce and all though the sweater was only 8% wool, my skin new different as soon as I put it on. What to do, I knew there was no way I could wear that sweater all day let alone for a few hours. Lucky for me I had a black basic shell that I had worn the night before with my business. Perfect, on went the black shell and I was good to go. My fashion advice for you today, always travel with a black top it could be your life saver. Black is a basic staple and you can pair it with just about anything. Plus, black is great at disguising stains, just in case that happens. Happy travels
Doesn't mean it's going to be cute on you. I recently was on a quest to find myself a pair of white skinny jeans because I love the look, especially paired with a bright colored top. My girlfriend Heather was recently rockin' a pair and looking so cute. She told me she picked up her pair at JCP in their Joe Fresh department for not that much money. I had been looking on line and had not yet made it to JCP. I had a chance to sneak out this weekend for a couple of minutes and decided to pop into Old Navy. I had bought a pair of skinny jeans from there in the past that fit well, so I thought I might be in luck. I took two sizes into the dressing room and quickly realized maybe white skinny jeans on me were not such a good idea. You see Heather is taller with long thin legs. I am a short Italian chic with strong thighs. Let's just say the white color brought unnecessary attention to my "strong thighs". I decided that I should probably stick to the darker colored skinny jea So girlfriends although something may look hot on your girlfriend take a look in the mirror and find out what looks cute on you.
Ok, I have to admit I have definitely been in Summer mode with my attire and makeup. It's a challenge having kids at home for Summer and still maintaining your cuteness. Today I decided since I had been slacking in that area I would make more of an effort today. So even though I was still donning a cute pair of shorts and top, I made the effort of putting on earrings and makeup. When I came out to the kitchen to make lunch for the kids my 6 year old asked me "Mama do you have a meeting?" I said no and asked why? He said because I looked pretty. Now although I loved the fact that he said that it made me realize I had been slipping in my personal care. My take away was that not only does it make me feel better when I make the effort to look presentable, others notice too and you make even get a sweet comment out of it in the process.
I've always wanted to make some of my own roasted red peppers and today was the day. I was whipping up some of my homemade salsa, recipe courtesy of my friend Frank, and it calls for red peppers. I had extras in my bag so I thought why not make some roasted red peppers. I looked up cooking instructions on foodnetwork.com. They took 30 minutes in the oven, 30 minutes resting and then the time to peel, deseed them and put them in a jar with olive They were incredibly easy. Whenever we make an anti-pasta platter we always have roasted red peppers...hmmm haven't made one of those plates in a while that might be on the menu in the near future. Anyway if you haven't ever made these you should give it a try. My husband and I have been doing weight training on Mondays at our gym. Today we decided to mix it up and after lifting added in going to the gym's swim clinic. I like to swim so I thought this would be a good way to work in some cardio. We decided to go for a twenty minute swim segment. Ed our trusty dusty swim instructor gave me pointers during the laps. Besides having to keep my head down, use my legs more, quite arching my back and flicking the water behind me I kept focused on the blue cheese burger with avocado spread I was going to have for dinner after my workout. I tell you what besides sucking wind and realizing how out of shape my cardio is my yummy dinner is what I had to keep me going. You got to have a goal and keep your eyes on the prize
What could be better than bacon, beer and maple syrup with pancakes. I got this idea off of Pinterest and decided to go for it. The candied bacon I think really help to make this a home run. I don't like drinking beer but I do love cooking with it. If you like these flavors I think you are going to like these pancakes. They were super easy to make and and delicious to eat. |
AuthorMother of 5 kids, happily married for 22 years, business owner. Lover of stretching myself, hence this blog. Archives
March 2015
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