Happy Earth Day!

Here are a few things that I do to honor Earth Day every day.  Just a little bit helps a LOT!

I recycle plastic and cardboard and when I get my hands on a glass jar, I reuse it for storage, as a vase for fresh flowers, something!

I compost my veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, dryer lint, anything I can!

I use earth-friendly cleaning supplies or I make my own. You CAN have a clean home without chemicals!  I haven't sneezed cleaning my bathrooms in years.

I use my clothesline.  Oh, how I LOVE my clothesline!

I use cloth bags when I shop.

I BELIEVE in global warming.

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We celebrated Earth Day today at the office by doing some yoga on our lunch hour. Dr. P is a yoga instructor and she agreed to teach us a couple of times a week. It was so relaxing and made me feel so much better. I'm hoping the yoga will help tone up a few things that have begun to sag with my weight loss. I'm not as young as I used to be!! Stuff like that used to bounce back. Now it's just bouncy. Ha!

Okay, So Last Night...

...I was sound asleep and my phone rang at 2:10.  Scared me to death.  You know when your phone rings in the middle of the night, it's almost always NOT good.  I rolled over to look at the Caller ID and it says Toll-Free Service with an 866 number.  I hit the Talk button twice and hung up on them.  Rolled back over and got comfortable.  Three minutes later, the phone rings again. I said hello this time and it was the Houston County 911 telling me that some guy was missing in my neighborhood, black, 46 years old, with a mental disability.  He'd been missing "approximately one hour and 22 minutes".  I guess it was one hour and 19 minutes the first time they called.  Dang.  Anyway, so I'm half asleep listening to this lady tell me all the details and it was only after I said, "Okay, if I see him, I'll call y'all" that I realized it was a recording. Good LORD.  How am I gonna see him at 2:00 in the morning??  I'm in the damn BED, where ALL Y'ALL need to be. Gah!!!  So I hang up and go back to sleep.

Y'all.  Then I had the craziest dream!!

I dreamed that I was living in the house I grew up in, with my mama, daddy, brother and sister, and this missing guy shows up at our house and sets up a tent in the side yard next to the gas tank.  We all go out there and talk to him and he's a white guy but he has coal mine dust all over his face and his breath is smoke.  Not smells like smoke.  IS smoke.  Then the whole dream turns into a episode of The Waltons and they find him a place to live and the girls all make curtains for the windows.

I have GOT to get some rest this weekend.  :)

Anyway, thought I'd share.  

And Now Back To Me

Week two of school is going great. I am actually getting this!! Who knew, right?  It's a lot, I'm talkin' a LOT of math, but it's sticking to something in there.  Not like high school when I thought 4 to the second power was 8. Ha! I'm loving it so far. And we're getting out of class by 8:00 or 8:30 so that's not too bad.  We learned about resistors tonight and how to determine the amount of current they can stand before they blow up.  I have to blow one up.  I just have to.  :)

I'm so tired, though, too tired to cook healthy when I get home. I've been hitting Chick fil-A every night after class, getting the grilled chicken Cool Wrap.  Those things are SO good, 'specially when you're starving to death by 8:00!!

I've lost 34 pounds now.  I'm trying to drop six more super fast so I can hurry up and get to 40. Any suggestions??

No homework tonight.  I'm taking full advantage of that and hitting the hay early!

Bok Bok Meatballs

One of my coworkers and friends, Lisa, told me about these chicken meatballs she saw on Discovery Health. Since we're always trying new healthy recipes these days, I told her I'd make 'em this weekend and put 'em on my blog.  They turned out SO GREAT.  Y'all have to make them!!!

Look at that steam coming off 'em!!  Nom.

Here's how!

6 slices wheat sandwich bread (light and fluffy—not dense bread)

1/2 cup fat free milk

3 large egg whites

1-1/4 cups minced sweet onion

1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon salt

2 pounds ground chicken breast

olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, soak the bread in the milk. Let the milk absorb into the bread, then using a fork or your fingers, tear the bread apart. Add the egg whites and beat the mixture with a fork until the bread is torn into small pieces and the eggs are lightly beaten. Add the onion, parsley and salt and stir them into the mixture until they are combined. Then add the chicken, mixing until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Spray a medium, non-stick baking sheet or baking pan with olive oil spray. Using a meatball scoop or 2 tablespoons, shape the meat mixture into 2-inch diameter meatballs and place them side by side in a single layer on the prepared sheet or pan.

Transfer the sheet or pan on a lower oven rack and allow the meatballs to cook for approximately 12 minutes or until they are no longer pink inside. Remove the meatballs from the sheet or pan with a spatula, transferring them to a large serving bowl. Pour your favorite sauce over the top and serve.

Makes approximately 32 2-inch meatballs.

Each meatball has: 51 calories, 8 g protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, trace saturated fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 130 mg sodium

Schnoink, Schnoink

I went to Publix today after work to get a few groceries and looky what I found!  You know that bacon GOT to be good, don't you??  :)

If I Were A...

I took this from my friend, Kim's, blog. How fun!!  (The meme not the thievin'.)

If I were a month, I'd be...June.

If I were a day, I'd be...Sunday.

If I were a time of day, I'd be...9:00 pm

If I were a font, I'd be...Apple Chancery.

If I were a sea animal, I'd be a...baby sea turtle.

If I were a direction, I'd be...south.

If I were a piece of furniture, I'd be an...overstuffed sofa.

If I were a drink, I'd be...sweet tea.

If I were a gemstone, I'd be a...pearl.

If I were a tree, I'd be a...magnolia.

If I were a tool, I'd be a...trowel.

If I were a flower, I'd be a...daisy.

If I were an element of weather, I'd be...rain.

If I were a musical instrument, I'd be a...banjo.

If I were a color, I'd be...pink.

If I were an emotion, I'd be...joy.

If I were a fruit, I'd be a...strawberry.

If I were an element, I'd be...iron.

If I were a car, I'd be a...hybrid.

If I were a food, I'd be...cereal.

If I were a movie, I'd be a...documentary.

If I were a place, I'd be a...beach.

If I were a material, I'd be...cotton.

If I were a taste, I'd be...sweet.

If I were a scent, I'd be...patchouli.

If I were a room in a house, I'd be the...kitchen.

If I were a dessert, I'd be...ice cream.

If I were a body part, I'd be...eyes.

If I were a song, I'd be sung by...Janis Joplin.

If I were a bird, I'd be a...flamingo.

If I were a gift, I'd be...wrapped in pretty paper.

If I were a city, I'd be...San Francisco.

If I were a door, I'd be...red.

If I were a pair of shoes, I'd be...flip flops.

If I were a season, I'd be...autumn.

If I were art, I'd be...on your refrigerator.

What would you be?

I Think I'm Gonna Like This Heah!

This school thing.  So far, so very good.

My online algebra class is going well.  It's a very good thing we have a whole week to get our homework assignments done.  Working full time, going to school full time and napping leaves very little time for math nonsense.

Last night was my first DC class.  It started at 6:00 and my instructor let us go at 7:40.  He was just not prepared for the massive size of the class, he said.  There are 22 in my class, 11 women and 11 men.  I was pretty happy about that.  Being in a predominately male field, I was worried that I'd be the only girl!  There are some older than me and some younger than me.  A really good mix.

I went to class tonight, got there early again, and there was a sign on the door that said class is cancelled for tonight, to sign the sheet at the bottom and go home.  I'd heard that this was normal for this class and I'm not worried.  I'm sure my instructor knows how many days he needs to teach us what we need to know.  I'm ready to learn something, though!!

We actually did discuss some things last night and found out the type of calculator we'll need. He told us we could get the $120 one or the $4 one, he didn't care.  So I got one exactly like his. I'm a total suck up, I admit that openly and without shame.

Anyway, so far, this school thing has been pretty sweet. It's not really cutting into my nap time much at all.  :)

Easter Goodies!

Looky what I got today!

A beautiful spring wreath for my front door made by my mommy!

The absolute coolest peace pillow in town made by my sissy!

(Ami, look where I put it!!)

I love 'em both so much.  The gifts and the girls!!

Happy Easter!

What a beautiful day to celebrate Jesus' resurrection!

I was watching a special on The History Channel last night about the shroud of Turin.  They were talking about how this image that they believe is Jesus is literally burned into the cloth and how they believe that happened.  Oh, it was the COOLEST THING!!!  The only explanation they can give is at the moment His spirit reentered His lifeless body on that precious Sunday morning, a flash of light unlike any other occurred and that is what made the image.  Of course, that's only their speculation but I sure LOVED that depiction.  It was awesome!  Gave me goosebumps.  I woke up this morning singing "He Lives".  That was always my favorite Easter song growing up in my little Baptist church.  I miss those days so much sometimes.

I'm praising and thanking Jesus today for what He did for me, for STAYING THERE THROUGH IT ALL.  He could have saved Himself but instead, He stayed and saved ME. Wow. 

We have a pretty big day planned.  Easter dinner and the egg hunt at Mama and Daddy's with lots of friends and family around.  I need to go put my green bean casseroles in the oven but first, I wanted to wish everybody a happy Easter!!  

But I Don't Alphabetize The Stuff In My Pantry

Kelly's Show Us Your Life topic today is Organization Tips.  Most of her topics have to do with fancy weddings and honeymoons and children so I usually don't participate but today's topic, I can certainly DO!

I am super duper organized!  I keep my house clean and tidy.  Everything has a place and everything is always in its place.  I keep a running list of things that need to be done and I could not live without baskets and bins! They keep things neat and together.  I especially love baskets and boxes and bins (oh my!) from IKEA. Ami and I always get some kind of container every time we go, whether we can think of a use for it at the time or not!

They are great for the laundry room!  I love homemade laundry detergent and my Maggie's Soap Nuts.  I even have special recycled containers for them!  Ha!

They're great for holding lace garters, white satin shoes and old copies of The Great Speckled Bird!

I never have put things out on my bathroom counter. And once again, IKEA comes to my rescue.  These cute little baskets are perfect for holding toothpaste and contact lens stuff and moisturizers.

So those are my tips to stay organized. Get you some baskets and boxes and if you can get them from IKEA, rainbows and butterflies will come out of them.  Win win, right?