Recipe Link Love, Making It My Own!

I am linking to a couple of good recipes rather than typing them up here because they are new to me and I will be trying them for the first time this weekend so I don't have my own version yet. I like to try a recipe a couple of times and change a few things before I am willing to call it my own. So without further ado, here is our tentative menu for tonight:

Dinner:
Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Tossed Romaine and Orange Salad

Dessert:
Frozen Raspberry Dessert Cups

Can you tell that I love Recipe Zaar! I get a lot of recipes here. If any of you give these recipes a try please let me know and let me know any changes you made to the recipe.

Happy Saturday,
Love Jenn

A long day and A well recieved Award!

Yesterday was supposed to be a pretty much normal day. Go into the office till 5 then be a nanny for an hour, then come home. However things don't often work out the way you think they will and my Friday was no exception. When I go to my nanny job I found out that the kids dad was not picking them up that night so my one hour became a full shift. Mr. C was being a little difficult but nothing that I couldn't easily handle. The dog was driving my crazy but I can look past that too. I was tired but I just kept telling myself that we need the money and doing this is not a bad way to make ends meet. I did my best to be upbeat and cheerful throughout the night. Then I came home and crashed. I had been awake at that point for 21 hours so I was exhausted!



Now I would like to take a moment to mention a special blogger friend and the award that she so lovingly passed on to me. I look forward to reading Annette's words every day because I always learn something from her. She is an amazing mother and a dear person in general. I would like to quote something that she wrote yesterday in her blog:

"Staying on the "passing it on" subject, if you could pass on one quality about yourself to one of your children...........if you don't have children, pretend that you do ;)... what would it be?

I would pass on my heart---- The ability I have to look past race, circumstances, or attitude to just see a person for the beautiful soul that they are. Even the grumpiest of people have good qualities. I try to strip it all away and remember that once they were just an innocent child. What factors in their life set the grumpiness in motion? Why are they hiding their real self? What can I do or say to make a difference for them today? I pray that my children will learn to see past all the layers of those that they meet, and reach out with unconditional love for everyone."

What an amazingly powerful message. I would pass on my strength. Physically, mentally, and emotionally strong. That is something that my own mother passed on to me. I am so grateful that she did too because I have needed to tap into that strength from time to time in my life and it has gotten me through many things that could have taken me down. I want my kids to someday show that same strength of character that seems to run in my family.

Now I think I am supposed to give this award to 5 or 6 people who I think deserve it. So although I would have loved to give it to everyone I have whittled down my choices to the following people. In no particular order:

Laura-- Who encourages me to keep going by being crazy and running every single marathon she can get to. I love that about her!

Xenia -- Who encourages me to follow my dreams by following hers. She is living her dream in Rome right now.

Linda -- Who encourages me by just being. She tries hard to do the best she can for her boy and herself. She has committed to her goals and is working hard to achieve them.

Chantelle -- Who encourages me by stopping by and telling me that I can get through whatever issue I am working on. She always has a kind word which is so wonderfully refreshing!

Charlotte --Who encourages me to try something new through her fitness experiments. I love to read her blog.

POD --Who encourages me by keeping a positive attitude through adversity. She has obstacles to overcome and she is doing it with a smile and a laugh.

Alice --Who encourages me by staying active and fit even during pregnancy. She is proof that you can be fit, healthy, and pregnant. She is funny and caring and has a great family.

So that is my list but I am also going to give it to anyone else who wants it. You all deserve this award too!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

A quick, fast, fun Post!

I gotta get to work but I wanted to make my contribution to bloggerville so here is a fun link for all of you who don't have anything else to do this weekend (unlike myself, but I digress).

Discover A Hobby has some amazing and fun ideas for things that you can learn to do, most of them in a weekend. I have actually done a few of them already and there are a few that I am looking forward to learning. I hope you all enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

TGIF,
Love Jenn

Random Acts Of Busy!

Well some of you asked if I was able to get everything on my list done. So I will go through each item and let you know how it went!

1. Fill out the paperwork for the nanny job.
--Got that one done fairly quickly.
2. Go to the office store to fax it in.
--Didn't get this one done because I had to get the bosses signatures on a few of them.
3. Go to michigan works to ask about uniform assistance.
--Apparently they don't do that unless you are on welfare. (I have so many things I could say about this but I won't)
4. Purchase uniforms for biller/office worker job.
--I bought exactly one full uniform that I will have to wash every day until I get some extra money for another.
5. Pick up crickets for the leopard gecko at the pet store.
--Got her a dozen of the nasty little things...
6. Feed the Gecko
--... which she promptly gobbled up.
7. Laundry at the Laundry Mat.
--Done
8. Put away Laundry upon returning home.
--Not quite done. I ran out of time.
9. Change cloths and go use the trial gym membership I have been holding onto for weeks.
--Ran out of time for this one too.
10. Cook a fantabulous dinner for myself and my man.
--Ended up with pizza, but hey at least I did have to cook it.
11. Clean up the house and do the dishes.
--Picked up a bit but the dishes are still not done.
12. Get to bed early so that I will be well rested for my first day of my externship.
--Went to bed at 9:30 which is very early for me.

So that was my day yesterday.

This morning I woke up way too early, exercised, had a healthy breakfast, packed a healthy lunch, then sat around for an hour waiting till it was time to go to work and wishing that I could just go back to bed. Like I said, Way Too Early!

My day went pretty well. Everyone at my office is really nice and they where all very helpful. I spent most of my day alphabetizing faxes and files, then filing, then a little more alphabetizing, then lunch, followed by more alphabetizing and filing. So basically it was a good day because I didn't make any huge mistakes. How could I? A monkey could have done what I did today. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more challenging. I am working front desk! Hopefully that won't require me to alphabetize or file. (I am not going to hold my breath though)

Well that is all for me tonight. I have an early morning wake up call and when I get done at the office I have to go be a nanny for a couple of hours. WooHoo! Thank God I have this weekend off.

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

Today's Plan

It's going to be a busy day in which I will be transitioning from being a student to being a full time nanny and a full time biller/office worker! I have a lot to get done today and since I was celebrating way into the night last night I am a little behind on my to do list! So here it is in all of it's glory!





1. Fill out the paperwork for the nanny job.
2. Go to the office store to fax it in.
3. Go to michigan works to ask about uniform assistance.
4. Purchase uniforms for biller/office worker job.
5. Pick up crickets for the leopard gecko at the pet store.
6. Feed the gecko.
7. Laundry at the Laundry Mat.
8. Put away Laundry upon returning home.
9. Change cloths and go use the trial gym membership I have been holding onto for weeks.
10. Cook a fantabulous dinner for myself and my man.
11. Clean up the house and do the dishes.
12. Get to bed early so that I will be well rested for my first day of my externship.

Boy is that list ever long. Sheesh! I think I had better get started already! I will try to post my workout before I crash into bed tonight, but if not then I will add it to tomorrows summary of my first day on the job.

Wish me luck!


Happy Training,
Love Jenn

Cookbook's

I have lots of them. I collect them from everywhere, book stores, garage sales, gifts, etc. I love to cook so it's a natural obsession for me really. However with my declutter theme this month I wanted to share with you a way to clear up that shelf full of cookbooks.

Be honest you have a tone of them and you only use one or two recipes from each one right? I know I have the same problem. And don't get me started on the recipes I have saved online. So I came up with a cheap, easy, solution for the problem. First, I took a trip to my local super center for some basic supplies.

One 3 ring binder.

A package of clear plastic page protectors.

Some divider tabs.

Some pretty fabric.

Heavy poster board.

Batting.

Glue sticks.

Then I was ready to start. I went through all of my recipe books and typed up the recipes I actually used. Then printed them and sorted them into categories.



Next it was time to make the binder pretty. Glue the batting to the outside of the binder with the ends wrapped around the edges of the binder. Then wrap the pretty fabric of your choice around the binder and glue on the inside. Then cut out pieces of the poster board, big enough to cover the edges of the fabric on the inside of the binder and glue a contrasting fabric on one side before gluing it into place. You can even add a little ribbon around the edges if you want to. There are so many ways to customize this. ( and so many uses as you can see from the pic above) Let this dry as you put the printed recipes into the plastic page protectors. Once the binder is dry you can add your recipes and voila. You have one attractive cookbook that you will actually use instead of 10 or 20 that rarely get touched.

The best part of this is that if you should get something on the pages while you are cooking (or am I the only one who does this?) it can be easily wiped clean without damaging the recipes! Another bonus is that once you have all of the recipes that you want from the cookbooks you can pass them on to someone else.

My challenge for you this week dear readers is to find something in your house that can be crafted into a special feature. You can even use my cookbook idea if you would like. I love mine!

Happy Wednesday Challenge,
Love Jenn

Editor's Note: I am not the only one that posted about cookbooks this week. Yesterday I read a great post from Mrs. Jelly Belly about the exact same idea! Isn't it crazy how great minds think alike?

A New Routine For Core Performance.

Well I warned you all that I was going to change my routine. I bought Core Performance Essentials several months ago because I wanted to work on core strength, flexibility, and movement. I love pilates and these exercises are based on pilates but reworked for athletes. I watched the dvd and figured I was not going to have a problem with this at all. The moves are simple and looked easy enough.





I thought that I was pretty good already so I tried to start on 1B instead of 1A! Boy was I ever wrong. I was struggling to make it through the first set and B requires two sets. Yikes! I was feeling these exercises! I can see how this would condition your body, as long as you do the exercises correctly and with good form. Now I understand why stage one gives you 30 minutes for the 8 moves. They want you to concentrate on your form first. Then you can start to build more sets and reps into your routine.





One really neat thing about this workout is that it comes with a laminated card with all of the moves on it so that once you have the idea and have done it a couple of times you can just take the card and go anywhere. No dvd player required! I love this because it means that if I am traveling I can take my core performance with me. I can do it at my nanny job once the kids are in bed. I can do it on my lunch hour at the office. It works with my current need for versatility and flexibility.

I am really excited to see how this progresses so I am going to stage my own little Great Fitness Experiment. (Shout out to Charlotte! I love you girl) I will see how I am progressing each week and let you know how my body is responding to this routine. I have high hopes that it will improve my athletic ability at least a little and may help me hit the bikepath running in the spring.

Wish me luck!

Happy Training,
Love Jenn