Boys' room - Finis!

I might get some blue and green ribbon to add color to the lamp (some day).





These canvases were straight brown and white, so I added blue and lime green.


Inspired by Roots and Rings' initial canvas, I painted these in the colors of the room. Ideally, I am on the hunt for a 30"-36" brushed metal floating shelf to go above the hat rack. Barring actually finding such an item, I am also on the hunt for the correct style and length that I can spray paint to look like brushed metal. The canvases will then go on that.

The sweetest thing

Henry has been a little cranky this morning, but he's still the cutest thing since, well, since his brother was this age. This morning he was all cozy in my blankets for half a minute before he started fussing again.

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My way of making fake Mexican

Not "a" fake Mexican, you understand. So I've been making enchiladas lately. I don't make them "the right way". I have done PW's enchilada recipe once, and while fabulous (aren't all her recipes?) it's definitely a Saturday meal. It took about 1 1/2 hours to make. My go-to? 5 minutes prep time, 20 minutes cook time. AND it uses up leftovers that would otherwise go to waste, since we are not a leftover-eating crowd over here.

So first:
Shred leftover pork roast or chicken or whatever floats your boat. Then add chili powder, chopped green chilis (don't drain), salt, garlic powder or salt, and cumin. You may also need a little water if your leftovers are a bit dry from sitting in your refrigerator for 5 days.
And then it should look like this:




Then I take flour tortillas and roll some of the mixture in each one, placing in a pan seam-side down until pan is full or filling is used up. Then pour a can of enchilada sauce on top (if you have a lot, you might need more than one, but I only had 5 enchiladas). You can use red or green, but I prefer the green.



Pop the pan in the oven or toaster oven (I'm addicted to toaster oven cooking) At 350 for 20 minutes. It should look like this:



And is delicious next to some sour cream and homemade guacamole.

10-for-Tuesdays

1. What keeps you up at night? (figuratively)
The fact that I'm going back to work in (checks calendar) five weeks and hardly anything that I want to get done is done, and my baby! I have to leave my baby! And it's taking me 12 weeks to decorate a room. Not completely re-do, just decorate.

2. What keeps you up at night? (literally)
My newborn son, my husband's snoring, my toddler's middle-of-the-night wakings. <-- directly lifted from MamaFuss, as we are one person living similar lives, like Sliding Doors without the drama of adultery and Irish men with sexy accents.

3. Where do you want to go in life? (figuratively)
I'd like to work part-time because I like it and not because I have to (although really I need to be working my full-time job), ideally owning a used bookstore which I don't have to make ends meet at. I'd like two well behaved children who adore me and do not scream "I don't love you anymore!" when I tell them they have to leave the playground.

4. Where do you want to go in life? (literally)
I'd like to see everything worth seeing that I haven't seen. Which is a lot. Ireland, Italy, Paris, Colorado ... and then I'd like to go back to Memphis and sit on Beale St with my beer and watch the street performers.

5. Have you ever bit off more than you could chew? (figuratively)
All the time

6. Have you ever bit off more than you could chew? (literally)
Yes.

7. Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? (figuratively)
I don't think so.

8. Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? (literally)
no, but there are a couple of patches that TruGreen has not held up their bargain in bringing back from the dead.

9. If you can’t stand the heat, do you get out of the kitchen? (figuratively)
If it's not my fight, I usually try to work on cooling it. If it is my fight, I usually started it so I'm amping up the temp.

10. If you can’t stand the heat, do you get out of the kitchen? (literally)
I'm always the one cooking.

Visit Roots and Rings for more 10 on Tuesdays.

Menu Monday

Last Week's Menu:

Monday: chicken mac & cheese
Tuesday: chicken tacos
Wednesday: spinach lasagna rolls
Thursday: Vallarta's ... god loves their mushroom quesadillas
Friday: re-imagined leftovers - I split up the last of the tortellini from Saturday, sauteed some shrimp and served it on a bed of sauteed spinach with garlic chips
Saturday: pulled pork sandwiches, guacamole, bacon-wrapped jalapenos, baked beans and lots and lots of wine!
Sunday: leftovers again! This time less re-imagining - I had the end of the mac & cheese and a slice of the beer bread from the previous week, and Hubby had the last lasagna roll with the last slice of beer bread with cheese and garlic on it.

This week I haven't done any shopping so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for meals, but I've gotten as far as this:

Monday: burgers w/ goat cheese and spinach, leftover baked beans
Tuesday: pork enchiladas or quesadillas (w/ leftover pulled pork), rice and beans
Wednesday: grilled chicken with fried okra
Thursday: dinner at the in-laws'
Friday: TBD
Saturday: TBD

10lbs of bananas weighs the same as 10lbs of dirty socks.

This is the longest I've been away from my blog since I started again, but I've had good reason!

My dear friend Becky, who is the only out-of-towner I ever met who I know directly through blogs (she blogged as NPRjunky for years), was in town with her fiance for four days and I spent most of my time with them! We went out for great Mexican (Vallarta's) and wings (Winghouse) and seafood (Frenchy's) and I brought them to Clearwater Beach (because aren't you obligated to take out-of-towners to the beach when they visit?). We hit up the biggest and best used bookstore in the area (Haslam's) and they were excited to see a Krispy Kreme since they don't have a location anymore. We also visited many a Target (for a certain item that they plan on using as favors for their wedding) and they checked out a few Goodwills (for fishbowl centerpieces for the wedding).

Saturday night I had a couple other friends over for dinner, drinks and board games and Becky and Chris smoked us at Trivial Pursuit with their (his) knowledge of pop culture and I made guacamole (seriously, the best guacamole ever), PW's bacon-wrapped jalapenos, baked beans and pulled pork from a roast that Hubby cooked on the spit all day. It was all delicious.

BUT all good things must come to an end and they flew back Sunday afternoon (after a second jaunt to Winghouse) and I was left to my normal life, which involves the older boy running out into a parking lot again, smearing poo all over the toilet and sink of my second bathroom and leaving a pile of it on my bathroom rug, and running around the house nekked with one hand attached to his penis at all times. And pardon me, but the younger one is crying and I think he wants (another) bottle.

Beach bound baby!