OBXMAS 2011

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL

This is what greeted me this morning.

Soft waves.

Blue sky.

Peace.

Quiet.

Okay - maybe the quiet is occasionally broken by the sound of the hot tub on the deck cycling on and off but who am I to complain!?

When life overwhelms you with lemons and the lemonade you try to create starts upsetting your tummy, sometimes the only option is to escape to wherever your 'happy place' is and try to find the center again.  The phrase: "enough is enough" comes to mind.

This afternoon we will head to the National Seashore ( listed in my personal FAQ's as a sacred spot ) where I will be squishing my toes in the sand and dancing along the edge of the ocean.  Meditate and celebrate.  Send the dreck of 2011 out to the ocean and let waves of hope and change roll back to me.  Heavy sigh.

On a different note ..... NEVER have I so joyfully said and accepted the MERRY CHRISTMAS wishes of so many strangers and passers by.  Guaranteed that would not have happened in my own little neck of the woods.  'Nuff said.

Onward .....

Freedom

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.”

Rollo May – The Courage to Create

Kitchen Witch On the Fly

Well, after yesterday's beautiful full moon and eclipse it was probably best to be prepared for anything! Alas, sometimes I do not heed my own inner radar and got caught out with a bad case of Hubbard's Bare Cupboard when the g-kids popped up for a quick overnight.

Supper was an easy call - literally!  Cue a family vote which led to a phone order/quick pick-up from our fav local Chinese Food Emporium and after dinner snacks were no problem.  Our summer love affair with all things couponing meant we still have a modest stash of chips and dip makings.

Breakfast on Sunday morning though was when I realized the cupboard was pretty sad.

It's my mommom thing to make a real breakfast for these fast food world kids.  Sometimes it's a hearty CBB (country boy breakfast) with bacon, eggs, all the usual suspects.  Other times call for fruit bowls, organic granola and yogurt but my usual default is pancakes.  Big fluffy pancakes.  Chocolate Chip.  Blueberry.  Butterscotch.  Peanut Butter.  You name it and I've probably made it.

Uh oh.  No baking mix like a handy Bisquick.  No flour (already started making holiday cookies).  Not a whole lot of syrup.  Frozen butter quarters.  Hmmmmm.  Think mommom, think.

Hang on a minute! What's that big red box in the cabinet above the pull-out pantry shelves? Why it's a holiday Panettone.  Unusual?  Yes.  Adaptable to many, many uses?  Completely.

And oh look! In the refrig there's also a quart of YUMMY egg nog from a local dairy and a dozen eggs.  I sense a treat coming on.

Before too long, the griddle was plugged in, an egg bath with a sprinkling of allspice and some of that gooey, thick egg nog thrown in for good measure was set up in a  deep bowl and my Panettone was sliced in big, thick hunks.

You see where this is going, right?  Here's a picture of the last slices on the griddle as I earned my mommom points with a delish spur-of-the-moment Egg Nog Panettone French Toast.

As an added bonus - and to stretch the syrup - stirred in a few tablespoons of egg nog and made a creamy, thick, flavored maple syrup to top it all off.  The four year old asked for a swirl of whipped cream on top.  Why not?!

Whew!! Mommom success.  All is right with the world <g> Now who's going to clean up the mess I made? 

What's on YOUR desk?

I sit behind an old, large wood executive desk (totally a hand-me-down) with a left return which at times is so cluttered and piled with work that a space will need to be cleared to get anything done!

Besides the desktop computer with extravagantly huge flat screen monitor [a present to myself] and a wifi all-in-one printer, my work area sports containers for hi-lighters, magic markers, felt tip pens, clips and tape easily within reach.  Yep, I get to create J

Right this minute, here’s a quick list of shtuff spread across my desk workspace:

·         A bottle of Lysine supplement

·         St. Ives Intensive Healing Hand cream

·         A half-filled bottle (20 fl. oz) of Diet Coke

·         A glue stick and a tape runner

·         A small wood plaque which reads Childhood Should Be A Journey Not A Race

·         A battered Texas Instruments calculator (at LEAST 5 years old!)

·         Several Oops! Correction Tape pens

·         My Blackberry (blinking away with messages and mail to be read)

·         Two wooden clothes pins to be used in an art project

·         A wood back scratcher

·         Three quarters and a dime for my vending machine coin stash

·         On top of the computer tower: two speakers, a ceramic smiling Buddha, a plastic Scooby Doo figure, two 16” princess wands with ribbons and glitter (don’t ask!), an origami crane, a small (McDonalds Toy) Madame Alexander Doll, three pencils with Statue of Liberty, Mickey Mouse and a glitter star toppers and a smattering of dust

·         A pile of post-it notes in various colors, sizes

·         Photoshop for Dummies

·         A pencil style pouch full of tools for my Silhouette Cutter

·         A ridiculous stack of catalogs

·         An equally ridiculous stack of notebooks, folders and files

·         And last but not least, a small bottle of Advil.