Birthday New Beginnings

I have been 35 for five days. Just five days into a brand new year for me.  I love birthdays because, well let's be honest, I just love a party especially if the party is focused on me. But even more important, or at least equally important, I love a chance for renewal. A chance to look back at what I have done so far and what I want to do in the future. I look forward to New Year's every year and I definitely set those goals. I write them down and look at them frequently to check them off.  I have never met all of them.  For example, I have yet to make a sugar free cheesecake but regardless of the things I have not accomplished there are things on my list every year that I do accomplish.  But I don't just have one list, I have two.  To me birthdays are my own personal New Year and I create my own to do list with both fun and serious items to accomplish before my next birthday.

This year is a big year. To me, 35 is a milestone because there are five years left in my 30s. I don't usually plan in five year increments because that is too overwhelming to consider but this year I gave it thought and there are some definite things that I want to accomplish before 40.  However, in order to accomplish big goals, you have to first create smaller chunks of them.  Therefore, I have my list of things I want to do during my 35th year that will take me several steps closer to the ones I wish to have accomplished by 40.

Like I said some are silly  and some are ambitious because a balanced life has both.  I will share a few with you for examples. Maybe you will be inclined to start your own.

1. Since life has been super busy lately with work commitments, I have let my hobbies go. I am tired when I get home and I over committed myself with other after hours projects. Now some of those projects are done and I am refocusing my priorities on revisiting my hobbies. I want to create again. I want to paint. I want to photograph more and actually frame some of those pictures. And yes, I am totally in the nesting phase so I want to decorate the house, make things to fill the house and cook all kinds of new recipes.

2.  I understand that this goal is somewhat superficial but nevertheless I still want to do it. I am proud of my age. My mom always was and I am not ashamed to admit what my age is....but that is a whole other blog topic. However, I still want to look as young as possible. So one goal this year is to "grow younger." Bring on the healthy eating and exercise. Time to shop for some new clothes.  And slather my body in all types of anti aging creams and treatments.  This focus is a nice release for me and it is fun to get pampered.  A pampered me makes for a happier me.

3. Write. Write. Write. I want to publish a book. I want to write a ten minute play. I want to have a really cool blog.  I let other things get in the way constantly. Time to make it a priority!

4. And the last one I will tell you about....travel to a new place. The Dalai Lama says to do this once a year. I am not Buddhist but I am smart enough to follow the advice of a very wise man.  I don't know where yet but I will figure out a place to travel before I turn 36.

Yes, there are more goals. I will tell you them as they are accomplished.  Until then...start your own list!

7 Months!

Today Ed and I have been married 7 months!  In honor of hitting number 7 in our newlywed year I give my top 7 favorite things about being married.

7. Cooking dinner at home on a regular work day evening. Eating and hanging out with our fur baby Lulu Belle while fighting over which tv show we watch (we have very different television viewing habits).

6. Dreaming about all the trips we want to take in the near future. Currently planning our first year anniversary trip!

5.  Planning our first holiday season together!  I am loving picking out our decorations and trying very hard to figure out a way to sneak in glittery decorations without him making too much of a fuss.

4. Grocery shopping together. It is a very simple task but it happily reminds me we are married and we have a home together.

3. Entertaining together.Our home is usually the venue for some social gathering about once a week.  I love having a full, busy home!

2. Encouraging each other to go after the big dreams. He is constantly pushing me to write and believes that I can finally write that great novel. On a side note, I am using November to get back into my writing routine and I am participating in National Novel Writing Month.

1. Seeing his wedding ring on his hand and getting feelings of love and comfort knowing he is my sweet husband who is totally committed to me. 

Bring On The Holiday Commericals (My soapbox for the day)

Getting dressed for work this morning, I heard Jingle Bells floating through the house but the words were slightly changed to advertise the local business.  I love this time of the year!  No, you will not catch me complaining about the onslaught of holiday commercials that start slowly peeking out around October 20th but become a regular occurrence by the beginning of November.  It is fun! And why complain about fun?  No, Christmas is not here yet. We still do have Thanksgiving to celebrate and of course my birthday as well!  But do the Christmas commercials take away from my ability to celebrate Thanksgiving or my birthday or the rest of football season? No!  It just reminds me of all the fun times coming up.  No one ever complains about a summer vacation commercial in February.  We still celebrate Valentine's and play in the snow but when we are freezing it reminds us that warm times will arrive again.  So to all the bah humbuggers out there, stop complaining and start enjoying all of the holidays. It is suppose to be fun and your yearly ritual of whining about the holiday commericals coming on to early won't stop it so keep your negative thoughts to yourself while the rest of us happily hum Jingle Bells!

Marry Me Monday: Back in September

School is starting and you can definitely feel the energy of all the college students coming back to our wonderful, little town of Oxford.  To accommodate all these students means a lot of work to keep the excitement from turning into chaos.  So I will be taking a short blogging break to give my focus to my work and I will return on September 16th with even more stories of life in the fabulous South!

Marry Me Monday: Crockpot Cooking!

When other friends got married, they did not get just one but received several crock pots.  The slow cooker item seemed to be the go-to gift for many so hubby and I were very excited about picking out the one we wanted and looked forward to receiving it.  Simple pleasures...I know.  Anyway, we received all kinds of wonderful gifts at our showers but no crock pot.  Until finally when we thought we were not going to get one, we received it! 

Now four months into our marriage and fully involved in a busy work life, social schedule and work out routines, we are committed users of the crock pot!  I absolutely loving coming home and dinner is done.  The only drawback with dinner being ready right after we get home there is no excuse not to work out except maybe the sweltering weather we have been experiencing lately. 

I will be sharing some of our crock pot creations in the near future but here is a very simple one to get you started. 

Shamefully Easy But Delicious BBQ Chicken
Package of Drumsticks
Bottle of Sweet and Spicy Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)
A pinch of salt and a touch of pepper (my touch is a little bit on the heavy side because I love pepper)

Put thawed drumsticks in crock pot and dump entire contents of BBQ sauce bottle on top. Throw some salt and pepper in there.  Turn the crock pot on low for about 6 or 7 hours.  The chicken is so moist and delicious you will definitely enjoy!

Married Mondays: Husband's First Married Birthday

We celebrated Ed's first married birthday this weekend.  I think I had as much fun as he did and unfortunately, I ate like it was my birthday as well!  We started off the weekend with an early before work breakfast of shrimp and grits at Big Bad Breakfast.  We continued eating through the rest of the weekend with a Saturday lunch of seafood at Pelican's Cove on the reservoir in Jackson and spent the afternoon floating in the cool water.  Thank God we could float after everything we ate! Although floaties did assist in the process.  We celebrated with both families with two huge southern style meals made by his mother on Saturday night and my mom on Sunday.  We are stuffed!  Ed feels the love of so many and thoroughly enjoyed his birthday! Cheers to many more birthdays to my sweet husband that I love so much!

My handsome husband on his big 39 with his cake and present from me!

Married Mondays: Birthday Week

This week is a busy one with my mother's birthday starting the week and my husband's birthday finishing the week.  I am thrilled because I absolutely love celebrating birthdays.  I don't believe in just a day either...I say get as many days to celebrate your birthday as you can. I have personally managed to celebrate mine in the past for about a week but a weekend is a definite must every year. 

This weekend, we packed as many fun activities and food in the two days as possible.  Mom and I had a girls day on Saturday that started with shrimp and grits at Big Bad Breakfast followed by a birthday pedicure.  A birthday pedicure is very similar to the traditional pedicure but when you say "birthday" before anything it just makes it that more special!  So we had birthday coffee, birthday pedicures, birthday shopping, birthday wine....then ended the Saturday with my husband joining us for a drink on the balcony of City Grocery followed by dinner at Ajax. 

Sunday, my mom's actual birthday was spent by the pool and then the day ended with a dinner my husband and I hosted at our house for my mom and a couple of friends. In our almost four months of marriage, Ed and I have hosted several dinner parties. We are a great team getting these parties together.  For my mom's birthday, Ed took care of all the balloon blowing up responsibilities. Yes, any activity where he can use a machine makes him happy so he happily used his air compressor (I hope that is the right name of the machine) to fill our house with balloons.

The evening was unseasonably cool so even after we spent the day decorating, we all congregated outside on our deck and enjoyed my husband's boiled shrimp accompanied by my green bean bundles and rosemary roasted potatoes.

It is a wonderful weekend celebrating my mother.  Now we are all way too full and trying to eat light the rest of the week just in time to gear up for my husband's birthday weekend!