Yum!

Today I am thankful for an amazing breakfast on the go. Let me tell you, this one was all about being prepared the night before. I started by pulling a bag of banana chocolate chip muffins out of the freezer - I know, super hard. But they were ready for me this morning, and I needed that!

I also tried a new iced coffee idea, and it is amazing, probably my favorite homemade version yet, and I finally got to use the adorable travel cup that I got for Christmas from a very crafty friend! It definitely made my day!

So here's the easiest iced coffee recipe ever, thanks to my Keurig; I made two mugs of vanilla cafe expressions and poured them in a pitcher, I topped that off with a cup of coffee, stirred it all up and let it sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning I stirred it again and it was ready to go! Love it!

Just a book

Amazon just had a great clearance on their kindle books (which is a bit weird to me because clearance is usually what you do when you wan to move product off your shelves, and these books are clearly not taking up space on anyone's shelves...), I LOVE cheap kindle books because I have such a hard time picking out a new book. When the book only costs a couple of bucks I don't mind if I don't end up loving it. Anyway, long story short I picked out a couple, and yesterday I completely indulged.

I slept in and then stayed in bed for another hour reading, I ran errands and grabbed lunch, and read while I ate, and when I got home I stole a couple of hours on the couch reading. We went to our favorite annual fundraiser last night, and got home late, but I wasn't tired, so I stayed up reading, until 2:30 in the morning!

I haven't done that since I was in college, and I loved every minute of it. The book was great, but the best part f the entire experience was having to time to really enjoy a book, in a way that I haven't done in year. Yes, I still read often, but not like that, where I lose entire hours to the story, I love it, and if that makes me a complete nerd, then I guess I don't care, but I also know that there are more than a few people out there who know what I'm talking about!

How I unwind

Some people gripe about having to cook dinner every night, I don't understand this, because personally I need that time to unwind. Making dinner is my transition from work to home, and it's something that I get to do all alone, in silence. When I cook I don't think about work, and I don't think about everything I have to get done after dinner, I just focus on what I'm doing.

So here's a picture of my space. It's not big, and it's not fancy, and at some point, down the road, when I find an extra million dollars, I might be able to have a kitchen that belongs in a magazine, but for now this is my space, and I love it because its comfortable. That is what I'm thankful for today!

A novel idea

The last couple of days have been just a bit stressful, so tonight I'm thankful for me time. Not that I've actually had any me time, but I'm definitely seeing how important it is, and therefore resolving to make more of it. I'm trying to remind myself that I don't need to respond to every text message and email as soon as I get it, I can put the paperwork down for the evening and just relax, because goodness knows that if I don't my brain will never wind down.

So right now I am sitting on the couch, watching tv, and doing my nails. I love me time.

Loving old memories

When I was little hockey was a big thing. My home town was home to one of the best college hockey teams in the nation and one of the best high school hockey teams in the state, so ice skating was just something we did, and we loved to go to hockey games.

Tonight I got to go to a hockey game, our local minor league team, and I am so glad that my sister went with me because the game wasn't very exciting, but we had a lot of fun reliving those memories! We talked about going to the games with our cousins, mooching candy from the college mascots, loving the action and the fights. It was like being back there!

Thank God for Girlfriends!

Today I am thankful for friends, specifically the wonderful ladies that I work with, who not only have my back, always, but who also seem to know just what I need.

I left early yesterday with an awful migraine and woke up this morning to a text from one of these awesome girls offering to bring chocolate to get me through the day. When I got to work another handed me a bag of kryptonite, otherwise known as Starburst Jellybeans - just the red ones :) so while I may have had a red tongue and a sugar high all day, my girls got me through. Thank you ladies!!!!

A bit ironic

Today I decided that I am super thankful for the quick drive that I have to and from work, it's less than 10 minutes and I love that I can go home on my lunch break, today I managed to get a ton of random tasks done during lunch - cleaned my tennis shoes AND dusted the blinds - I told you, random.

Bu at the moment I'm finding ironic that I'm thankful for my super short commute because, today of all days, I'm waiting on a train!

Lazy weekend

Saturday I did a whole lot of nothing, and the. I felt the need to carry that right into Sunday :) Sometimes we all just need that, so I don't feel bad a out my lazy weekend in the least.

Last night we had dinner with my family, and that is what I was grateful for on Sunday - the fact that my family is so close that we can see each other once a week and still feel close. It's like a party when all of us get together, we all have something to talk about and there is always plenty of food!

It was a great weekend, now I'm looking forward to the next one!

Easy muffins!

I'm giving a presentation at a teaching conference in April with some of my favorite ladies, so we got together this morning to get down to business and finish up our presentation. Of course I couldn't pass up an occasion for some baked goods, so I through together some very, very easy Banana chocolate chip muffins. Here's my recipe for your next brunch - they got rave reviews this morning (I may have eaten two...).

Banana chocolate chip muffins
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix together sugar, oil, and eggs until well blended, add bananas. When all wet ingredients are mixed together add salt, baking soda, and flour until moistened. Finally add chocolate chips and spoon into muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until tops are golden.

See, I told you it was easy. After all of the hard work that we got done this morning, today I am especially grateful for lazy Saturday afternoons. Usually my Saturdays are crazy, with all kinds of errands to run, places to be, things to get ready for. So today I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to just sit and do nothing!

Whew...

Every time that I clean my house I say that I am so thankful that we have a tiny little house. So that is what I'm thankful for tonight. Especially since I had to vacuum. The vacuum cleaner is my nemesis. When we got married I told him that sweeping is the one domestic chore that I refuse to do (I blame this in my mother for making me do it for so many years), and he fully understands that is it his job, but he was busy tonight and the dust bunnies were taking over.

Ugh. I hate to sweep. But it's done, thank goodness!