Tag: Morning Meanderings

GAH.  Day two and still feel pretty blah.  I am achy and coughie and tired.

This is so not me and it is sucking up all my weekend.

I have yet to Christmas shop.  It’s true!  I was out of the country December 1 – 10, arrived back in Minnesota a week ago today and tried to get organized last weekend, worked all week and now my big shopping plans consist of me once again in the recliner, with my blanket, laptop, and books.

Not cool….. not cool.

Brad (Navy Son) after a bit of turmoil yesterday that looked like he would not be able to come home for Christmas resulted in good news, with a little maneuvering and help on this end, we got him on a plane and he will be here for dinner tonight.  WOO HOO!!!  His birthday was the 16th so we are doing his birthday tonight.  He will be staying in Brainerd until the 30th.

*using all my strength I do a fist pump in the air*

My final chatter this morning is a recipe.  In early November my girlfriends and I had a girls baking and crafting weekend at our cabin.  It was a blast and many of the recipes I had shared with you, but have yet to complete the craft projects or this recipe here.

My friend Heidi brought this one for us and it was YUM!!!  Easy to make, no baking required, and tasty too.  What’s not to love?  SO today I leave you with this:

Almond Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies

A box of Townhouse crackers

Smooth Peanut Butter

Almond Bark (white or white and chocolate)

Optional:  sprinkles, chocolate chip drizzle

wax paper

Lay out a large sheet of wax paper where you will be working.

Take Ritz crackers and spread peanut butter on one, and top with another to make a sandwich.   Continue doing this until you have created as many cookies as you would like.

Melt almond bark (if doing them all white, melt enough white to cover all cookies…. is making them half white and half chocolate melt enough white to cover 1/2 the cookie (in this case you would dip one end in until half way up the cookie, let dry on wax paper and then dip other end with chocolate).

Dip all your cookies covering them completely and then set on wax paper to dry.  ** If you wish to add sprinkles do so while the bark is still wet.  If you are going to melted chocolate over the tops, wait until bark is dry.   (For faster drying put cookies on wax paper in refrigerator on a flat space.

These cookies are easy to make as a quick treat and freeze well.

That’s it for this morning…. off to read a bit and then decide if I can get it together enough to brave the stores!!!

Morning fellow readers 😀

I am home today – my first Friday off in about three months and I am THRILLED.  Not only because I just really want to sit at home snuggled in a blanket and surrounded by books, but because I have a nasty head cold and I really just want to sit at home snuggled in a blanket and surrounded by books.

😀

*cough cough*

The extent of my morning activities was getting up throwing on sweat pants, t-shirt, hat and coat and driving Chance to school.  Making my way back home, brewing a pot of coffee, and hauling laptop, blanket, cell phone, and a stack of books downstairs tot he recliner.  I am now all tucked in and blissfully reading and writing reviews.

I have so many things to share with you that I have to start capturing the ideas.  I still have recipes and craft ideas from my girls weekend in November to share.  I have Honduras thoughts and pictures, weekend cooking, and more…. but today – today I am focusing on a couple awesome bloggers that make up this community and have both made me smile in the last few days.

First of all if you did not participate in the Secret Santa (Book Blogger Holiday Swap) exchange, I highly recommend you add that to your calendar of things to do for next year.  It is such a blast!  My Secret Santa I sent to was Sarah at GreenBeanTeenQueen.  Here she talks about the gift she received.

I received mine as well this past week.  Mine came from Stephanie from Books For Nerds. 😀  Check out my gift:

I know, right?  TOTALLY SSSSQQQQQQUUUUUEEEEEE worthy.  Safe Haven looks so wonderful and Climbing The Stairs has been on my wish list for a long time!  😀  Thank you Stephanie!!!

… and then yesterday I got home from a long day at work where I wasn’t feeling very well.  I had cancelled dinner plans with a friend so I could just come home and die pass out on the couch.  I picked up the mail on my way in and smiled when I seen this card:

Thanks Trisha, you have no idea how nice that was to receive!  🙂

So, I am on recliner duty today and I am so prepared to invest in some great book time.  I hope to write a few reviews I am behind on so I can just pluck them into place this next week.

Have an awesome Friday everyone!!!!  Any fun plans for the weekend?

Good morning.

*yawns.  stretches.  Reaches for coffee cup.*

The craziness of life is back on.  I went from work to the gym to a meeting to dinner with Chance last night…. ending my day with my feet up in the recliner watching episodes from season 2 of LOST.  The more I watch the more Sawyer cracks me up…. he is the king (THE KING!) of nicknames.

Oh but don’t take my word for it….

These episodes have been fun to watch during a little down time in the evenings…. however I still need to get in my reading time.  😀

Today is my last day of work for the week and I am HAPPY about that!  After another full day here, tomorrow I have a day to myself….. uhhhh….. BLISS!!

Good morning! I am starting to get back into the norm of things around here now that I am back. This will be my second day back to work and I am looking forward to the tasks I have.

I have made it half way through the Monday What Are You Reading Posts as well as several of the book blogs I enjoy checking in on. In my travels thus far, here is what I have found that I am interested in knowing more about:

 

At Bookworm With A View this book is mentioned as part of a “Pay It Forward” plan and while Mari picked up this title from another blogger, I picked it up from her.  🙂

In her words, she describes the book like this:

Synopsis:  One day in 2005, shortly after her father’s death, an episode of Oprah changed everything. The show about women in the Congo depicted atrocities too horrible to comprehend: millions dead, women gang-raped and tortured, children starving and dying in shocking numbers. That day Lisa woke up to her dissatisfaction with the “good” life and to her role as an activist and a sister.

What started as a solo 30-mile run has now grown into a national organization in connection with Women for Women International. Run for Congo Women holds fundraising runs in four countries and ten states, and continues to raise money and awareness. In A Thousand Sisters, Lisa shares firsthand accounts of her experiences visiting the Congo, the women she’s helped, and the relationships she’s formed. With compelling stories of why she remains committed to this cause, Lisa inspires her audience to reach out and help as well, forming a sisterhood that transcends geographic boundaries.

That to me sounds like a must read and I have requested it at my Library.

 

Lydia over at The Lost Entwife had this one on her reading list this week.

In the third trimester of her pregnancy, Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan is under doctor’s orders to remain immobile. Bored and restless, reduced to watching the world go by outside her window, she takes small comfort in the mundane events she observes . . . like the young woman in a green raincoat who walks her dog at the same time every day. Then one day the dog is running free and its owner is nowhere to be seen. Certain that something is terribly wrong, and incapable of leaving well enough alone, Tess is determined to get to the bottom of the dog walker’s abrupt disappearance, even if she must do so from her own bedroom. But her inquisitiveness is about to fling open a dangerous Pandora’s box of past crimes and troubling deaths . . . and she’s not only putting her own life in jeopardy but also her unborn child’s.

I have become a fan of Laura Lippman just this past six months and this one sounds interesting to me too.  Another one I have requested from the library.

 

And last but certainly not least, At Coffee And A Book Chick I discovered this wonderful cause.  Click on the picture and go to her post which contains a list of books that troops from around the world have requested as books they would like to read.

 

Tonight is our Christmas Bookies Book Club meeting.  Last year in December we celebrated our 100th Bookies meeting.  This year we are at 112.  We do a gift exchange, have a potluck, and will be reviewing A Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck.  I am finding this book hard to come up with review questions for.  If you have read this, I would be interested in any discussion question ideas.  😀

Good morning!  Sipping the coffee this morning, writing a post, and heading out the door by 8 am….

ahhh….. it’s good to be back.

Yesterday I went up town one time… to pick up a few groceries and to the book store to pick up my book club read that is up for discussion on Tuesday, The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck.  The rest of the day I sat in the recliner downstairs with my laptop doing a little blog reading and watching LOST episodes one after another.

When LOST was on TV I never felt caught up.  If I missed an episode I would be wondering why someone who had previously died or been missing, was now walking around the show set like all was right with the world.  The flash forwards, flash backs, and the occasion flash sideways had me feeling….. well….. uhhhhhh……

lost.

So I stopped watching the shows and decided that I would take this winter to go through them all starting right from Season one episode one.  And that is what I am doing.

We had a moment in Honduras when as we trudged through some jungle like territory to view a water system that would bring water to people who previously did not have it, I thought that we were on the set of LOST.

See:

Anyway… today I hope to watch more LOST, do a little laundry and relax some more as tomorrow…. it is full steam ahead.  Later today I hope to share a recipe with you that will make your mouth water and possibly a review as well if I can get my act together.

Any fun Sunday plans?

Good morning.  This is my last morning in Honduras.  We are up and packed and head to the airport at 10 am.  Our flight leaves at 1 pm today and we will land in Minneapolis around 10 pm tonight. Then drive two and a half hours back to Brainerd after we have recaptured our luggage and caught a shuttle to the park and fly and pick up our cars.

Travel days really sucks….

As I look out my window this morning in Tegucigalpa, Honduras I am going to miss the warm weather. I will have to get home and put away the Capri’s and sleeveless shirts again!

On the flip side of that… it will nice to be home.

See you all soon in Minnesota!