Holiday Zoolights

A few pictures from last night's Holiday Zoolights for you all to enjoy! Definitely not something I'll need to go to each year, but was a great experience overall. It's so incredible to see what people can come up with and it was GREAT to spend some much needed quality time with my brother and sister-in-law!

A Standard Saturday

A run in the morning, followed by some time in the yard raking up more leaves and putting the final raised bed to "rest."

 The chickens are well-guarded when they're out pecking around.

 If you look very closely up at the top of this picture, you can see the first bunch of geese heading south for the winter.

And the morning of physical work, followed by a meal of my mixed squash stew made yesterday, and then a couple hours of prep work.....and a nap time for Major (you can tell he's male based on his desire to lay right next to the remotes.....). ;)

This evening I'm joining my brother and sister-in-law for dinner and then to see the Zoo Lights---so stoked! I've been looking into going since I heard it advertised on the radio a few weeks ago---here's hoping it's as grand as I imagine! :)

Hope you all are having a wonderful productive, yet fulfilling Saturday yourselves!

A Simple, Lovely Friday

Whew! What a day! I stayed up last night getting lists made for this weekend and finishing prep work for one of my courses. Once finally in bed, I just couldn't fall asleep. Thus at 7am, I fed and let the dogs out, then crawled back in for some more shut eye. Next thing I knew it was 10:20 and Roxi was barking outside---she must have known I wanted to see if the Freddie's sock sale was really something to talk about.....Somehow I still made it cutely dressed, face-on, and checked out of Freddies with wool socks (at $4 a pair) and a Christmas candle (for $5) by 11:05am. 

On the way home I stopped at the local feed store to buy a 25lb bag of chicken feed and yummy chicken "scratch" for them. The ladies sure clucked in approval as I filled up their feeder and spread some scratch on the floor of their home!

After brewing up morning espresso, I thought about getting started on some work, but instead took care of a few financial to-dos and then pulled down our crock pot recipe books as I have been wanting to make a pot of soup for weeks. I started out with the intent to make some veggie chili based off a recipe I'd made before, but once I chopped and added half an onion, some celery, carrots, and sweet potato to my chicken broth.....I just kept chopping and peeling through half the squashes I'd used as fall decorations.......threw in some dry white beans and added a variety of good smelling spices from the cupboard....I'm calling it mixed squash soup and it's been simmering in the crock for a few hours now---yum!

The rest of those squash halves got chopped in larger chunks and thrown with some baby carrots, chopped turnips, rosemary, olive oil, garlic salt, and ground peper into a greased pan. I slid the mixture into the fridge til I got home this evening and then I roasted them in the oven at 375 for about an hour---delish dinner!

The chickens gladly gobbled up some of the squash peelings and the rest got added to the compost, as well as one of the bags of shavings and chicken droppings. Next the box of old bras to donate to The Bra Recyclers finally got wrapped and then mailed.  And I picked up one of my cousins to go check out boots at Penney's and to chat for a bit. From there I decided to look for a wreath and some other Christmas decor---and I came home with two poinsettas and hung a wreath on the front of our house.

This evening hub texted to say they didn't see any sign of elk today, but hopefully he's having a good hunting trip with his buddy all the same. I've missed having him around and will look forward to us putting up our tree and adding our LED Christmas lights to some part of house once he's returned. Two pairs of boots ordered from Penney's online (my suede boots that I already own are not going to survive all this rain---time for slick leather boots since we're not in Louisiana anymore), and I've vegged out to a DVR'd episode of What Not to Wear (with a great explanation of the concept of CPU--Cost Per Usage! :)).

Now it's time to shower, make some tea, and do some lecture prep/other work for the rest of the evening! Unless of course a few of those magazines from the stack call my name---sometimes I enjoy too much a simple day of rest.

Hope you all had a wonderful Friday too!

Fill In the Blank Friday

Today I'm linking up again with fellow Portlander Lauren over at The Little Things We Do for her Fill-In-The-Blank-Friday.

1. Waking up at the break of dawn to go shopping is a) not worth it b) a continual demonstration of our nation's overconsumption and c) something I try to avoid .

2. If I were to go shopping today I would be on the hunt for groceries, warm socks, a zip-close work appropriate tote bag, and non-suede knee high boots.

3. The best thing I ate yesterday was Granny's sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, and my cousin's pumpkin roll.

4. Something I've been learning lately is that following one's passion is amazingly fulfilling and sometimes other distractions need to be recognized and released....

5. I cannot start my day without coffee, clothes, and my face put-on .

6. My nighttime attire consists of a cami w/ built-in bra and leggings currently....and sometimes thick socks and a thin sweatshirt.

7. I am looking forward to a) Decorating for Christmas and b) the end of one of two chapters, while still hoping that finances and life will play out how it should, all the while hoping for and exploring new opportunities.
 
A few other blog posts and online links that I loved within the last two weeks:
1) I have the perfect acorn squash to test this Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe on from A Couple Cook's.
2) I've recently fallen in love with SortaCrunchy again, and loved her post on The Carefully Curated Closet.
3) Hub saw and shared Are You Totally Improbable or Totally Inevitable from NPR, which I then shared with my Stress class this last week to encourage them to realize how each one of them is incredibly special and here for a real purpose.
4) Care about What's In Your Make-Up Bag?! Take a look at the newest evidence presented by Oregon Environmental Council.
5) Read about the push to pass the Safe Chemicals Act.
 
ENJOY!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

 This year I made cranberry sauce using a recipe from one of my best high school gals---it turned out fab and will definitely be contributed again.

 Hub was kind enough to hook up our DVD player last evening so I also got to huddle down under my new super soft & comfy winter blanket and watch one of my favorite Christmas movies: The Family Stone. While hub and I are unsure if we'll have kids, this movie always makes me wish for a big house of crazy functional dysfunction someday!

 Hub contributed pumpkin cheesecakes and a deep-fried turkey. In this photo he's prepping the turkey and the dogs are oh so hopeful that he'll accidently drop it on the floor!

 Hub's joke this morning was whether or not it'd be cruel to take the turkey out to show the chickens.....

 One of the three beautiful tables decorated at my aunts. Always a wonderful time together with immediate and extended family! Life has been so crazy that I haven't even seen much of my aunts/cousins that live less than a mile away, so it was so great to have time to catch up with many of the family.

And I also got to spend some focused time with one of my nephews---don't get to see them as frequently as I'd like....and most the time I love my job as "aunt." :)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and it always passes so quick! Here's hoping each of you had a wonderful holiday surrounded by family, friends, gratitude, and lots of love!!

Some Moments & Things of Late

I absolutely adore my comfy sweater dresses and a pair of knee-high boots. Sweater dresses are so easy to throw on allowing me steal a few extra minutes of shut eye in the morning AND they seriously feel like I'm wearing pjs to work!

Our high school football team was up here playing last weekend. CHILLY game, but it was a lot of fun watching them play and sitting with some of our hometown friends closer to our own turf. They lost in the last 6 seconds of the play off game which was a bummer, but it was a great experience over all. I even agreed to snuggle down to an additional evening of watching football with hub over the weekend---I'm pretty sure he marked the day on the calendar.

The chickies are incredibly gorgeous ladies--they never really had an awkward ugly stage and instead developed straight into the beautiful feather pattern that currently bear. They also have a beautiful "coo" and a pretty funny warbling noise that sounds a little like a turkey! :)

Poor lil Roxi had her annual shots on Saturday. We took her to Luv My Pet at Petco just like we did with Anna this summer and it went great. Roxi has a tendency to get a tough gal complex when she's on leash, but she actually behaved really well. Looks like she has a bad tooth though that we'll probably have to have extracted soon....

Hub spent an afternoon raking up the entire backyard of leaves.....we woke up the next day to what you see in the above picture covering the back corner of the yard. I'm pretty sure the cherry tree was laughing at him....

Other things of late:

Hub has developed a new found passion for all things flavored pumpkin----we officially have local Umpqua pumpkin pie ice cream in the freezer and then pumpkin spice creamer in the fridge.

I let the cat out of the bag to my gal Heather, but if you're looking for cute cardigans for this fall or as a layering piece anytime of year....look no farther than Target. I have historically had a love affair with the cardigan (which hub despises) and Target has been one of my go-to resources for years. They run large though, so buy smaller.

Hub and I made a Costco run yesterday, which we continue to love. This run was primarily for juice and dog food (although we will probably be switching to large 50 pound bags of "farm dog feed" from our local feed store, as we like the idea of supporting small business and the bag here is paper aka recyclable), but I also snagged the coziest, softest blanket to curl up in during this cold winter......and I finally purchased organic chicken stock so I can hopefully get on to soup and/or chili making....although I've been having hankerings for homemade mac & cheese lately too. You read that right...I actually am wanting to make something again!

I just agreed to switch my teaching schedule slightly in the spring, which gives me one additional credit but also will include lecturing for four straight hours. I'm excited at the idea of moving my twice a week class to once a week, but will be interested to see how that format works for the subject. I'm really enjoying teaching however....

I've been throwing around the idea of studying to become a massage therapist, although I can't decide if I am intrigued for real reasons or if I'm just ready for a completely new direction and challenge. It's a lot of money and a decent amount of time for a potential whim.....must investigate more indepth where these thoughts are coming from, but so far the pros are that it's also part-time, potentially flexible, involves touch & healing, and further connects to my interests in health care.

What have each of you been up to or thinking about lately?!