What a beautiful Monday!! Unfortunately it has only reached 21 degrees here, but the sun has been shining and with Keith’s help the housework was taken care of, laundry has been going, and I found the energy to straighten out my art studio. I made a card weeks ago and made a huge amount of messes in there! Amazing how one card can cause so much chaos! Very pleased that today has been a productive day.

I’ve been collecting antique state souvenir plates to represent each state that my children were born in, with the plan of hanging them in my kitchen. Sounds like an easy task, but it wasn’t. You know how it is…when you are looking for something in particular it never fails that that item does not want to be found. So, finally, I found Maine, New Hampshire, and Texas, to represent the kids birth states, and this morning Keith hung them in the kitchen. I LOVE that each plate is so different.

Opening up an old cookbook that I haven’t opened in forever [over 11 years to be exact] I was surprised to find a few recipes that I had clipped out in and stuck inside that made me smile! And speaking of recipes….the Garlic Mashed Potatoes were absolutely delicious!!

Meatloaf with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients: 1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes [we used Red potatoes]. 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream. 1/4 cup chopped parsley. 1/4 teaspoon salt. 2 cloves garlic, minced.

Preparation: Put potatoes in medium pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to pot. Add sour cream, parsley, salt, and garlic. Mash until smooth.

Well friends, time is ticking, and I have a few more things I want/need to do before supper. Here’s to a beautiful week filled with good stuff ahead of us. Until next time…

-Jenny

As the remainder of the kitchen is being pulled together I’ve been searching out new recipes, and came across Shrimp Scampi Linguine in one of my magazines. It was absolutely delicious, quick to prepare, and an inexpensive meal.

Ingredients: 9 0z linguine. 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil. 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled. 4 cloves garlic, minced. 1/2 tsp red-pepper flakes. 1 pt cherry tomatoes, halved. 1/2 cups dry white wine [we chose to use cooking wine]. Juice of 1 lemon. 1/2 tsp salt. 3 cups packed baby spinach leaves. 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley. 1/2 cup grated Parmesan [we used asiago].

Preparation: Prepare pasta. Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat while pasta cooks. Add shrimp, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook until shrimp start to turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, lemon juice, and salt. Cook until tomatoes start to soften, about 1 minute. Add spinach and parsley and cook until spinach wilts, about 1 minute. Drain pasta and add to pan. Toss to coat and serve with sprinkled cheese. We served with fresh homemade garlic bread. [Total time: 15 minutes, Servings: 4]

School: The countdown is on. 8 days remaining of this Nursing Research course, and one final research paper for responsibilities.

Work: Continuing to keep  me exhausted. Some time ago one of my personal mentors told me to recite these words and keep them close to my heart, and mind every shift: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. I believe these words are very appropriate, and my personal work-mantra!

Due to some feelings of burn-out, and work related stressors, in my ‘free time’ [insert googley/surprised face here] I have been doing some research and reading on nursing theorists and theories, and decided to reread Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing. Knowing that these words were written in 1859 and so much of the information is a basic of modern nursing today, tho there are parts of the book that make me laugh, it is very empowering, and inspiring. I would love to tour the Florence Nightingale Museum. Thinking I’ll need to add this dream to my bucket list.

Family/Life/Home: Our quiet-for-a-short-time-house, is no longer quiet as Matthew has moved back home. The sound of his whistling, and clomping around make me smile.

Etc: Hoping to get a few little projects completed before the end of the weekend. Other than that I could continue to ramble, but I need to find myself thinking about signing off the laptop for the night…

Have a great weekend friends. Until next time.

-Jenny

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. -Joseph Addison

A few rain showers today, but overall a beautiful Sunday. I was able to sleep in until 9a then a quick trip to the city to pick up a few essentials. Now kicked back waiting for my zucchini bread to finish baking. Scary thought that I was in the kitchen [again], I know.

Here’s another new recipe. Campbell’s Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings. It was delicious.

A few Sunday loves…found an awesome cross stitch pattern, bought the aida cloth today…problem-the aida cloth isn’t big enough for the project. ugh. Found these two great books at Goodwill. Root beer barrels candy. Amazing how a little candy can bring me back to so many wonderful memories with my nannie and grampa. Love, love, love netflix. Was so surprised to see that Dairy Queen came out with a mini blizzard!! So awesome for those of us who use ‘portion control’. This was my first blizzard in years!! No lie. And of course, love looking at this little creation in my front garden.

As usual time is flying by at full-steam ahead, and I have a few more things I need to do before I call it a night. Hope your Sunday has been a beautiful one! Until later…

-Jenny

I am beginning to realize that it is the sweet, simple things in life that are the real ones after all. -Laura Ingalls Wilder

In Terri’s words here’s a look at a few of my new ch-ch-ch-changes that are also meant to challenge myself.

• The look of my blog posts
• Weekly tried and true recipe
• Daily 15-minute project
• …more stuff in the next few days

A few more photos from our trip down to Rockland and the Farnsworth Art Museum yesterday. Such a charming town!

Today we’ve been kicked back relaxing, and being lazy. Playing around on my blog, writing down ideas, things to do, watching movies, and slowly reading thru these pages, and I have to say Jo’s studio simply rocks!!

Cooking up some new foods here [seriously need to put all of these cookbooks to use], Chicken Divan, delicious!

Loving this fast, and simple card that I created tonight. I am going to attempt to ‘create’ something everyday. 15 minutes of creating ART without worries of perfection, etc.

For here I am going to run along to enjoy the remainder of this beautiful Sunday. Here’s to a beautiful week full of good stuff for each of us.

-Jenny

and every once in a blue moon I go in there and cook! And every once in a while the recipe comes out delicious, like this Blueberry Buckle

Ingredients

Topping:

• ¾ sticks Butter
• ½ cups Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Cinnamon
• ½ cups Flour
• 1/4 teaspoons Salt

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, and a salt. Stir and set aside. Cream 1/2 stick plus 1-tablespoon butter with cinnamon and sugar. Add egg and mix until combined. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until totally incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stir in blueberries until evenly distributed. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Pour in batter. In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients and cut together using two knives or a pastry cutter. Sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into squares.

On another note, I head into work tonight and in the morning my week vacation begins [insert the sound of angels singing here]! We had made some plans, but it looks like we’ll resort to plan-B, which involves a few local day trips that I’ve already mapped out, and a handful of projects around the house.

Random Stuff

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you

 as by what you bring to life. -John Homer Miller

• Love Eminem.
• Just began listening to John Grishams, The Broker on audiobook.
• I’m on Season 2 of The Sopranos. Yeah, I am addicted!
• Working on a Summer 2010 playlist. Can’t believe the number of great songs this summer. I’ll share my playlist once completed.
• Saw this on Facebook: Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life. ONe word. Amen.
• The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have…and of course, this little guy makes my life that much more perfect!

 Well friends, it’s that time. Shower, throw those scrubs on, and hit the interstate to head South for the night. Talk to you tomorrow!

xO-Jenny

Happy Sunday friends! Coffee’s on, and the first load of laundry is in the wash machine. Washing my scrubs, bedding and in general getting prepared for another busy week ahead.

One of my girlfriends sent me this cute ..You know you’re a Nurse, and thought I would share…

Top Ten Reasons you Know You’re a Nurse

• 1. You wash your hands before you use the bathroom. Oh, the benefits of that microbiology class.
• 2. You know the smell of different diarrhea to identify it. C-diff. Enough said.
• 3. You check the caller ID on your day off to see if anyone fromwork is trying to call and ask you to work. <3 caller ID!
• 4. Discussing bodily fluids over a gourmet meal seems perfectly normal to you. Is this abnormal?
• 5. Every time someone asks you for a pen you can find at least 4 of them on you. But don’t think you can keep it!
• 6. Your bladder can expand to the size of a Winnebago’s water tank. Amen.
• 7. You find yourself checking out other customer’s veins in grocery waiting lines. A 16 is good!
• 8. Your finger has gone places you never thought possible. Yeah, that.
• 9. You think caffeine should be available in IV form. Oh, to dream.
• 10. You’ve used the word, ‘rationale’, ‘as evidenced by’, or quoted a nursing diagnosis in everyday life.  Love my ‘r/t’ personally.

Woman’s Day, March issue shares a few of the Pioneer Womans recipes from her new cookbook. I flipped thru it at Borders a few weeks back, but have no plans of purchasing it. Maybe it’s because I’m not a ‘cook’…who knows. But, I am going to use her recipe for ‘comfort meatballs’ next time I do cook… Here’s the recipe: Comfort Meatballs.

I picked up another dress form at an antique store. Isn’t she beautiful!

HOpe your Sunday has been a beautiful one. Here’s to a wonderful week ahead of us…Until later.

xo-Jenny