meal plan...thursday? nov 1.

hello november!

wow, another new month has snuck up on me...creeping in behind all the dramatics of hurricanes and halloween and messing up my sense of time and space. how is it thursday already? where has this week gone? have we really been surviving on nothing but leftovers and protein shakes since saturday? whoops. i guess meal planning kind of slipped my mind, 'cause we had more important things to do, like hurricane-surviving, jack-o-lantern carving, and hot-pants-wearing!

surprisingly, our pumpkins got several compliments from trick-or-treaters this year, and a couple people even took pictures of their kids next to them! 

 surprisingly, my hot pants didnt get any compliments from trick or treaters.

i think life around here has finally calmed down enough this week to be just about back to normal, and i'm thinking i should probably venture out to the grocery store, unless i want to see just how long we can live on a dozen eggs and two heels of a loaf of bread. here's my best guess at a plan-ish for the rest of the week.

Monday: zuchinni, black bean, rice skillet. (didnt eat it last week)
Tuesday: leftover pulled pork for me, egg sandwich for mark.
Wednesday: omelettes.
Thursday: soup from a can.
Friday: turkey burgers.
Saturday: citrus herb chicken with roasted potatoes.
Sunday: community group football party!

happy halloween!

i know i told you all that i wasn't really decorating for halloween this year, and i honestly wasnt planning to. but then i went and threw together a halloween party over the weekend, and the occasion just begged for the addition of a few holiday-specific decorations. nothing really over the top, just some spooky towels in the kitchen, a few strobe lights in the dining room, and my halloween lights that mark lovingly strung in the front window for me.

as part of our party festivities, we told everyone to bring a pumpkin so that we could carve jack-o-lanterns! PS those pumpkin carving kits with the little pumpkin carving tools are my new favorite thing. SO much easier than trying to carve with big ole kitchen knives.  

of course, our party was a costume party. Mark dressed as Nick Markakis this year, (the Orioles right fielder) because the costume was easy and free. he already owned the jersey and hat, and when paired with his softball pants it all started to look really official. his distinguishing feature that proved he put at least a little thought into his costume was the ace bandage on his left hand, since it was a broken left thumb that put Nick on the disabled list at the end of the season. it's all about the details.

i went as a rock star this year, with the idea and costume stemming from my purchase of a pair of $4 sequined hot pants. i added some black tights, and then made my shirt using a cut up black t-shirt and some orange sequined fabric, all held together with some iron-on hem tape and a few safety pins. i accessorized with some bangle bracelets, giant earrings, the most blingy necklace i own, and a guitar-hero guitar. by far, my favorite part of this costume was my hair. sure, it wasnt quite the mohawk that i was going for, but it still came out pretty awesome. 

unfortunately, i dont have a good picture of my whole costume, or any pictures of anyone who came to the party, since my camera decided to die right after i took this picture and right before everyone started showing up. we partied the night away with Lady Gaga, Bane (the bad guy from Batman), a "cereal killer", a chick magnet, and Marty McFly. i really wish i had been able to get pictures of everybody, because we were a pretty good looking group. (i'm thinking of dressing up tonight to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters, so maybe i still have a chance to capture a pic of my whole costume.)

 hope you all have a happy halloween!

my hurricane hero.

so. that was some crazy weather huh?

we are all ok here. our power stayed on, our basement stayed dry, and our trees stayed firmly planted in the ground. (well, there is that one that is now bent somewhat menacingly over the neighbors driveway...) the roads in our neighborhood are covered in leaves and twigs and pinecones, which is very much preferable to them being covered in water. we are extremely lucky and feel so so so blessed to have come out the other side of this storm with such a boring account of it.

the only little bit of Sandy-related excitement around here (which is still so so minor comparatively) happened last night when we noticed that something wasnt quite right with one of our basement windows.

we figured that its generally not ideal to have several inches of water accumulating in your window wells, so Mark decided to brave the storm outside to remedy the situation.

i, of course, remained inside the warm, dry house while Mark and his bucket bailed the water out of the window and checked on the state of all of the outside things like trees and shingles and whatnot.

Mark's only real comment about his up close and personal experience with Sandy was that it was really cold and wet out there. i'm just really glad i wasnt the one who had to do that. he was quickly recuperated from his misery with a hot shower, a glass of wine, and a good book.

my husband: a homeowner, my hero, and hurricane-wrastler extraordinaire.

**UPDATE**
my coworker snapped this picture of our regular route to work this morning, just to give you all a little bit of perspective as to what all we were so blessed to be missing out on through this storm:

operation knock-down drag-out: week 8.

this week will go down in the history of this bathroom project as the week where a lot of things all got half-finished. its not that we didnt work hard, or work as much as possible, because we did both of those things. its just that some projects ended up taking longer than we initially anticipated, which meant that in order to keep moving forward, we had to cut a few corners and leave some parts temporarily unfinished.

we fully intend to go back and play catch up with all of the little pieces-parts, but they are each so little on their own, we knew it was a better use of our time this weekend to knock out some of the bigger items (like the fan installation!) that required a larger chunk of a time commitment, and therefore would be more difficult to do on a weeknight.

things like: climbing into the attic...

...cutting holes in the soffet...

...and cutting holes in the ceiling.

the hole from the old fan might be patched with cardboard and duck tape

so let's take a little inventory of the current state of our bathroom project:
- here we have the tub/shower surround, which is all tiled, but not grouted.

- here we have the exhaust fan that is physically installed, but not wired to power.

- here we have all of the things that are getting painted white. the to-paint-white list includes the door, the ceiling, and the shelves. 87.5% of the things on that list are still unfinished. the to-paint-blue list includes putting a second coat on the walls of the bathroom.

- and here we have my towel hooks project. just barely started.

with a great big un-done list like that, you might think we would be discouraged. but you would be wrong. we are still moving forward with the bathroom, and that makes us happy. and if you compare our un-done list to our already-done list, i think the results are pretty impressive. but that's just my personal and totally unbiased opinion...

trips to Home Depot: this week - 3. total - 13.
trips to Ace: this week - 0. total - 2.
trips to Lowes: this week - 1. total - 3.

times Amanda has cried over this project: this week - 0. total - 1.
times Amanda has cried in Home Depot: this week - 0*. total - 0.
*i came close once, but i held it together.

days until Thanksgiving: 37.

meal plan monday: oct 22.

weekends are never long enough.

how i generally feel about mondays.

source

zero motivation to prepare or eat anything this week except double chocolate chunk brownies washed down with an extra-giant pumpkin spice latte. unfortunately, i dont think the hubs would be down with that plan. so here's my alternative:

Monday: spaghetti squash we didnt eat last week. (recipe)
Tuesday: {Mark's Birthday} crockpot minestrone soup. (recipe)
Wednesday: grilled chicken on salad.
Thursday: breaded fish and a veggie.
Friday: {Jane Austen Movie Night} probably omelettes.
Saturday: {Halloween Party} (note to self, plan this sometime)
Sunday: zuchinni, black bean, and rice skillet. (recipe)

the heavens declare.

its been a little while since i posted a sunrise picture. i just thought this one was especially gorgeous.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world."

Psalm 19:1-4

finally ready for fall.

over the weekend, instead of painting the bathroom door or the bathroom shelves or the bathroom ceiling or the bathroom walls, i decided to spend a couple hours getting myself and my house ready for fall, since it i can no longer live in denial that summer is long gone. and even though the bathroom is a huge project that does have a definite deadline, there is no need for it to completely consume every aspect of our lives... just most of them.

it all started in the dollar spot at target, one of my favorite places to spend surprisingly large amounts of money one dollar at a time. on this particular trip, i limited my purchases to a brown foam wreath form and 2 yards of assorted ribbon. once i got home, i added some twine, hot glue, and a few sprigs of some branchy beady twigs that my mom got me as part of a gift a few years ago. somewhat shockingly, it turned out pretty fantastical, so i went ahead and hung it on the front door with a creative combination of ribbon, hot glue, fishing line, and sticky tack.

just inside the front door on the not-a-credenza, we have this lovely little vignette. (please to be ignoring the construction materials) everything here was something i already owned, i just had to put it all together. the basket was part of a present from Mark's aunt. the yellow bottle was an impulse buy from Michaels earlier this year. i wrapped that letter S in twine one day because i was bored. the owl was one of those sneaky pieces that hang out in the target dollar spot but arent really a dollar, but he was too good to pass up. and the little wormy welcome guy was a birthday present. its so festive, and it makes me smile. 

after i took this picture, i also added a little green bird in the branches

i found these lamps a few weeks ago at Goodwill for $8 a piece. i didnt share them until now, because for the majority of the time they have graced the end tables in the fireplace room they were without shades or bulbs. not exactly a good look for a lamp. but that changed this weekend, when i bought some shades at target and filled the lamp bases with the rest of the yellow beady branchy stuff that i didnt use on the wreath or in the owl vase. and then i went a little wild and "styled" the endtable with a stack of goodwill books i picked up for $5. because apparently stacks of hardcover books are SO in right now in the decorating world. and also i really do want to make time to read them at some point.

the last place in the house that got a little fall-ification over the weekend was the fireplace mantel. and i know, i know, based on all of the design and decor blogs out there i'm supposed to put the most time and effort into making the mantel make a real statement, but the truth is that i dont really care what i'm supposed to do. all i did was set this little scarecrow couple up on the mantle in amongst all the other assorted randomness that has lived on the mantle all year. and i think it looks just fine.

i spent a grand total of $2 to decorate my house for fall this year. (i'm not counting the books or lamps, because they're not just for fall) i pretty much just used what i found in my box of seasonal decorations, which led me to stick with more general autumnal theme rather than do anything overly spooky or halloween-ish (full disclosure, i do have a silver light-up jack-o-lantern on the other end of the mantel, but thats it) this way, i can leave these decorations sit out until i'm ready to decorate for Christmas, instead of having to un-decorate at the end of the month. low maintenance decorations for the win.