More Beautiful Things

What do you get when you combine one awesome photographer, an imaginative storyteller, and a serious strategizer?  Crazy fun!

Beautiful Things

This is a treasure of mine. A gift actually, from my dad, and it's been years in the making. It's  The Library of  Presidents by Easton Press. Leather and gold and ribbon bookmarks. Handsome. Very handsome. It is a complete set minus three volumes that somehow I missed getting during assorted moves and address changes over the years. I will be getting those volumes soon and then my set will be complete. Ah, contentment. I want to read them all (in chronological order of course) someday, but not today. Today I am just going to admire how nice they look on my bookshelf. It makes me feel smarter just having them there.

I almost forgot. Thank you dad!

A New Place To Call Home

I've been wanting to switch my blog for about a year now. I had it at Wordpress but there were some design things that I couldn't do over there so I finally found a new home. I'm actually going to be moving again (*big grin*) but am still working on the setup at Typepad. I hope to eventually have a few different writing themes going on and connect them all to my home blog. This would also include a fun group discussion on a most beloved subject; irony! Anyways, here I am, at Blogspot, for the time being. If you wanted to see older posts and family pictures, go over to http://www.livingtheshema.wordpress.com/  and see them there. TTFN.

Who Wants To Join Me?

So I've started off this joyous year with yoga exercising, will be adding strength training in February, and once the weather warms up a bit, will be out jogging around the neighborhood. Hopefully. Maybe. Perhaps. I'm only on step one right now. Baby steps. Gotta take baby steps. After sooo many years of pregnant, nursing, pregnant, nursing, pregnant, nursing, this young-old lady needs some serious body revamping! The finale is to join in on the Bloomsday fun this year. I remember running it as a kid, and it is one of my "new and improved me" goals. I think some of the kids might come along too. This looks to be a good year for quite a few personal ideas that have been on the back burner for longer than I care to think. Happy momma makes everyone happier!

"Take the first step in faith, you don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."

                                                                                       Martin Luther King Jr.

Challah Time

I have been using a challah recipe for the last few years that I generally like. It's sweet and makes awesome cinnamon rolls! But I have been wanting to find one that is a little bit lighter and has a smoother shape to it. My challah always tastes good, but it can look fairly ugly at times. I came across a recipe that a friend posted a link to on her blog and I have been wanting to try it for about a year now. I finally got around to making it last week and it is wonderful! I want to tweek it just a little with a bit more sugar but for the most part it is perfect. It makes two huge loaves and trust me, you will have plenty to share. This is one of the best challah recipes I have made. And as a bonus, she has a video showing you how to do the always mysterious 6 braided loaf! How much better can it get?

About Me

Hello to all who read this page. My name is Mandy, and welcome to my world. I am a child of the One who created life eternal and I am forever grateful to him for that. I am a wife of 18+ years to do-it-yourself wizard and political brainiac Brett. I am a mother to lots of littles (Joel, Lydia, Abigail, and Daniel), a couple of middles (Anna & Aaron), and a few oldies (Matthew, Melissa, and Megan). I am also a chef, teacher, bedtime story reader, tea & wine drinker and a lover of all things chocolate. I am endeavoring to organize and catalog my thoughts and life for myself and my family, thus why I have this little blog. I also hope to help family and friends keep track of us since I am so bad at staying in touch! If you are here hoping to find great theological thoughts with perfect grammar, I will sorely disappoint you. My weakness is being more pessimistic than full of hopeful grace, and I write as I speak which means lots of grammatical mistakes. On the other hand, I can be slightly amusing on ocassion and I strive to live a wysiwyg** kind of life which, depending on how you look at it, can be a strength or a weakness.

So here I am, in all my unglory, for better or worse, take it or leave it. But God granted me life and I'm going for it. Come along if you like, enjoy the ride if you can, but under no circumstances are you allowed to blame me if you don't like where we end up!

**wysiwyg= what you see is what you get

Chocolate Thoughts

Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

Chocolate is the answer, no matter what the question is.

I'd stop eating chocolate, but I'm no quitter.

God sends no stress that prayer and chocolate cannot handle.

Put "Eat Chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

Save our planet. It's the only one with chocolate.

"Your hand and mouth agreed many years ago that, as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no need to involve your brain." Dave Barry

I'm not overweight, I'm chocolate enriched.

"All I want is peace and quiet. And my hot chocolate." Donald Duck

If you can't eat all of your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all of your chocolate, what's wrong with you?